of a worldly corporal felicity and not principally for God and his service and servants and our salvation And indeed as Sensualists love them they should be hated § 4. Worldliness is either predominant and so a certain sign of death or else mortified and in a subduâ—d Worldliness 〈…〉 â—â—â—â— 14. 26 33. degree consistent with some saving grace Worldliness predominant as in the Ungodly 〈…〉 s When men that have not â— lively belief of the everlaâ—sting happiness noâ— have not laid up their treasure and hopes in Heaven do take the pleasure and prosperity of this life for that felicity which is highest in their esteem and dearest to their hearts and therefore love the Riches of the world or full provisions as ☞ the matter and means of this their temporal felicity Worldliness in a mortified person is When â—e Matth. â— 19 20 21 33. Iohn 6 27. Luke 12 19 20. Luke 18 22 23 he that hath laid up his treasure in Heaven and practically esteemeth his everlasting hâ—pes above all the pleasure and prosperity of the flesh and seeketh first the Kingdom of God and his righteâ—usness and useth his estate principally for God and his salvation hâ—th yet sâ—me remnants of iâ—ordinate desire to the pâ—â—sperity and pleasure of the flesh and some inordinate desire of Riches for that end which yet he â—â—â—â—eth lameâ—teth reâ—uteth and so far subdâ—â—th that it is not predominant against the interest of God and his salvation Yet this is a great sin though it be forgiven § 5. III. The Malignity or Greatness of this sin consisteth in these points especially when it The Malignity of it is predominant 1. The love of the World or of Riches is a sin of Deliberation and not of meer temerity or sudden passion Worldlings contrive the attaining of their ends 2. It is a sin of Interest â—ove and Choice set up against our chiefest Interest It is the setting up of a false end and seeking that and not only a sin of error in the means or a seeking the right end in a mistaken way 3. It Ephes. 5. 5. Col. 3. 5. Jam. 4. 4. is Idolatry or a denying God and deposing him in our hearts and setting up his creatures in his sâ—â—ad in that measure as it prevaileth The worldling giveth that Love and that Trust unto the creature which is due to God alone He delighteth in it instead of God and seeketh and holdeth it as his felicity instead of God And therefore so far as any man loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joâ—n 2. 15. And the friendship of the world is enmity to God 4. It is a contempt of Heaven when it must be neglected and a miserable world preferred 5. It sheweth that unbelief prevaileth at the heart so far as worldliness prevaileth For if men did practically believe the Heavenly Glory and the promise thereof they would be carried above these present things 6. It is a debasing of the soul of man and using it like the Brutes while it is principally set upon the serving of the flesh and on a temporal felicity and neglecteth its eternal happiness and concernments 7. It is a perverting of the very drift of a mans life as employed in seeking a wrong end and not only of some one faculty or act It is a habitual sin of the state and course of mind and life and not only a particular actual sin 8. It is a perverting of Gods creatures to an End and Use clean contrary to that which they were made and given for and an abusing God by his own gifts by which he should be served and honoured And a destroying our souls with those mercies which were given us for their help and benefit This is the true character of this heinous sin In a word it is the forsaking God and turning the heart from him and alienating the Life from his service to this present world and the service of the flesh Fornication drunkenness murder swearing perjury lying stealing c. are very heinous sins But a single act of one of these committed rashly in the violence of passion or temptation speaketh not such a malignant turning away of the heart habitually from God as to say a man is Covetous or a Worldling § 6. IV. The signs of Covetousness are these 1. Not preferring God and our everlasting Happiness Signs of Worldliness before the Prosperity and Pleasure of the flesh but valuing and loving fleshly prosperity above its worth 2. Esteeming and loving the creatures of God as provision for the flesh and not to further Rom. 13. 14. Matth. 6. 19. 1 Tim. 3. 8. Phil. 3. 18. Ezek. 3â— 31. Jer. 9. 23. us in the service of God 3. Desiring more than is needful or useful to further us in our duty 4. An inordinate eagerness in our desires after earthly things 5. Distrustfulness and carking cares and câ—ntrivances for time to come 6. Discontent and trouble and repining at a poor condition when we have no more than our daily bread 7. When the world taketh up our thoughts inordinately when our thoughts will easilier run out upon the world than upon better things And when our thoughts of worldly plenty are more pleasant and sweet to us than our thoughts of Christ and Grace and Heaven And our thoughts of want and poverty are more bitter and grievous to us than our thoughts of sin and Gods displeasure 8. When our speech is freer and sweeter about prosperity in the world than about the concernments of God and our souls 9. When the world beareth sway Mark 7. 22. in our families and converse and shutteth out all serious eadeâ—vours in the service of God and for our own and others souls Or at least doth out short Religious duties and is preferred before them and thrusteth them into a corner and maketh us slightly huddle them over 10. When we are dejected over much and impatient under losses and crosses and worldly injuries from mâ—n 11 When worldly matters seem sufficient to engage us in contentions and to make us break peace and we will by Law-suits seek our right when greater hurt is liker to follow to our brothers soul or greater wrong to the cause of Religion or the honour of God than our Right is worth 12. When in our trouble and distress we fetch our comfort more from the thoughts of our provisions in the world or our hopes of supply than from our trust in God and our hopes of Heaven 13. When we are more Job 1. 21. thankful to God or man for outward riches or any gift for the provision of the flesh than for hopes or helps in order to salvation for a powerful Ministry good Books or seasonable instructions for the sâ—â—l 14. When we are quiet and pleased if we do but prosper and have plenty in the world though the soul be miserable unsanctified and unpardoned 15. When we are more careful to provide a worldly
flesh and sinful shifts and stretching conscience It deludeth our judgements and maketh every thing seem Lawful which seems necessary to our safety and welfare and every thing seem necessary without which man cannot accomplish it All sinful complyances and temporizings and man-pleasing and believing sinful means to be no sin proceed from this Distrust of God § 19. Direct 12. Suffer not distrustful thoughts and reasonings in thy mind but cast them out and Direct 12. command them to be gone Cogitations are the instruments of good and evil in the mind of man They cannot be acted but by Thoughts And the will hath more command of the Thoughts than it hath immediately of the passions themselves If you cannot Trust God so quietly as you would noâ— keep under every fearful apprehension yet keep out or cast out the Thoughts which exercise your sin and turn your thoughts to something else If thoughts do not actuate it your distrustful fears and cares will vanish What are your cares but the turmoiling of your thoughts continually feeding upon difficulties and trouble and tiring themselves with hunting about for help Cast away the thoughts and the cares are gone You may do much in this if you will though it be difficult Matth. 6. 25. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your bâ—dies what ye shall put on 27 28. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature And why take ye thought for raiment § 20. Direct 13. When commands will not prevail rebuke and chide thy unbelieving heart and reason Direct 13. it out of its distrustful cares and fears and sorrows Say to it as David oft Psal. 42. 43. Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thâ—u so disquieted within me Trust in God for I shall yet give him thanks who is the health of my counâ—enance and my God O foolish soul Hast thou yet learned no better to know thy God Doth he support the Heavens and the Earth and the whole Creation and yet canst not thou rely upon him Is he not wise enough to be trusted with the conduct and disposal of thee Is he not good and gracious enough to be trusted with thy life estate and name and welfare Is he not great and powerful enough to be trusted against the greatest danger or difficulties or opposition that ever can befall thee Is â—e not true and faithful enough to be trusted whatever improbabilities may arise before thee Where dwelt the man and what was his name that ever trusted him in vain or was ever failed or deceived by him Are not his Son and Spirit and Covenant and Oath sufficient pledges of his love for thy security How oft hath he performed his promises to thee and heard thy cryes and helpt and saved thee in thy distress How oft hath he confuted thine unbelief and shamed thy distrustful fears and cares And then thou couldst resolve to trust him better in the next distress And shall all his wonders of mercy be forgotten and all thy contessions thanksgivings and promises be now repented of contradicted or recanted by thy renewed distrust and unbelief Is he not the same God that hath so frequently and abundantly had mercy on thee Is he not the same God that hath saved all that trusted in him and wrought such wonders for his servants in the earth and brought so many safe to Heaven Our Fathers trusted in him they trusted and he delivered them they cryed to him and were delivered they trusted in him and were not confounded Psal. 22. 4 5. And is he not sufficient for thee that is sufficient for all the world Who ever sped ill that trusted in him or who hath prospered by trusting in themselves or any other without him or against him Unworthy soul Wilt thou Atheistically deny the sufficiency or truth or goodness of thy God Shall thy distrust deny him or blaspheme him Wilt thou Idolatrously set up a Worm above him Is there more in man or any thing else to hurt or ruine thee than in God to save thee Whom wilt thou trust if thou trust not God Darest thou think that any other is fitter for thy confidence Thou wouldst be quiet and confident if thy dearest friend had thy life or welfare in his hands and art thou troubled now it is in the hands of God Is he enough to be our endless happiness in Heaven and not to be thy confidence on earth Canst thou trust him to raise thy body from the dust and not raise thy state or name or troubled mind Either take him for thy Rock and hope or never pretend to take him for thy God If thou trust not in him thou must despair or trust against him And who wilt thou trust to save thee from him Hadst thou no more encouragement to trust him but this that he hath bid thee trust him thou mightst be sure he never would deceive thee Lament therefore thy disquietment and self-tormenting fears Lament thy injurious distrust of thy most dear All-mighty Father Choose not vexation when the harbour of his Love is open to secure thee If men or Devils are against thee say as those believers Dan. 3. 16 17. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter our God whom we serve is able to deliver us Go on with Daniel 6. in praying to thy God and trust him with the Lions Jaws Commit thy way unto the Lord Trust in him and he shall bring it to pass Psal. 37. 5. Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but I will remember the name of the Lord our God Psal. 20. 7. Trust in him for he is thy Help and Shield Psal. 115. 9 10 11. § 21. Direct 14. Take not the sayings of the Tempter or thy own distrustful heart for the sayings of Direct 14. God or for any reason against thy confidence in him Some take all the malicious suggestions of the Devil for reasons of their disquietness and fears as if it were the Spirit of God that raised all the terrors and molestations in them which are raised by the enemy of God and them And they fear when Satan bids them thinking it is the Spirit of God and they dare not Trust God when he commandeth them for fear leâ—t it be the will of Satan Some are so strongly affected with their own conceits and fancies that they think God saith all that their hearts or fancies say and make one fear the reason of another Thy Heart is not so wise or good as that thou shouldst take all its words for the words of God Thy flesh and thy heart may fail thee when God who is the Rock of thy heart and thy portion will never fail Psal. 73. 26. Thy heart may say I have no grace no help no hope when God never said so Psal. 77. 7 8 9 10. Thy heart may say I am a reprobate forsaken of God he will not hear
of all the mercies of God Gen. 32. 10. The humble soul is the thankful soul and therefore so greatly valued by the Lord. § 6. Direct 4. Understand what Misery you were delivered from and estimate the greatness of the Direct 4. mercy by the greatness of the punishment which you had deserved Misery as well as sin must tell us the greatness of our mercies This is before opened Chap. 1. Dir. 9. pag. 21. § 7. Direct 5. Suppose you saw the damned souls or suppose you had been one day in Hell your selves Direct 5. bethink you then how thankful you would have been for Christ and Mercy And you were condemned to it by the Law of God and if death had brought you to execution you had been there and then Mercy would have been more esteemed If a Preacher were sent to those miserable souls to offer them a pardon and eternal life on the terms as they are offered to us do you think they would make as light of it as we do § 8. Direct 6. Neglect not to keep clear the Evidences of thy title to those special Mercies for Direct 6. which thou shouldst be most thankful And hearken not to Satan when he would tempt thee to think that they are none of thine that so he might make thee deny God the Thanks for them which he expecteth Of this I have spoken in the Directions for Love § 9. Direct 7. Think much of those personal mercies which God hath shewed thee from thy youth up Direct 7. untill now by which he hath manifested his care of thee and particular kindness to thee Though the common mercies of Gods servants be the greatest which all other Christians share in with each one yet personal favours peculiar to our selves are apt much to affect us as being near our apprehension and expressing a peculiar care and love of us Therefore Christians should mark Gods dealings with them and write down the great and notable mercies of their lives which are not unfit for others to know if they should see it § 10. Direct 8. Compare thy proportion of Mercies with the rest of the peoples in the world And Direct 8. thou wilt find that it is not one of many thousands that hath thy proportion It is so small a part of the world that are Christians and of those so few that are Orthodox Reformed Christians and of those so few that are seriously godly as devoted to God and of those so few that fall not into some perplexities errors scandals or great afflictions and distress that those few that are in none of these ranks have cause of wonderous thankfulness to God Yea the most afflicted Christians in the world Suppose God had divided his mercies equally to all men in the world as health and wealth and honour and grace and the Gospel c. How little of them would have come to thy share in comparison of what thou now possessest How many have less wealth or honour than thou How many thousands have less of the Gospel and of Grace In reason therefore thy thankfulness should be proportionable and extraordinary § 11. Direct 9. Compare the Mercies which thou wantest with those which thou possessest and observe how Direct 9. much thy receivings are greater than thy sufferings Thou hast many meals plenty for one day of scarcity or pinching hunger Thou hast many dayes Health for one dayes sickness and if one part be ill there are more that are not If one Cross befall thee thou escapest many more that might befall thee and which thou deservest § 12. Direct 10. Bethink thee how thou wouldst value thy mercies if thou wert deprived of them Direct 10. The want of them usually teacheth us most effectually to esteem them Think how thou shouldst value Christ and hope if thou wert in Despair And how thou wouldst value the mercies of Earth if thou wert in Hell And the Mercies of England if thou were among bloody Inquisitors and persecutors and wicked cruell Heathens or Mahometans or bruitish savage Americans Think how good sleep would seem to thee if thou couldst not sleep for pains Or how good thy meat or drink or cloaths or house or maintenance or friends would all seem to thee if they were taken from thee And how great a mercy health would seem if thou were under some tormenting sickness and what a mercy Time would seem if Death were at hand and Time were ending And what a mercy thy least sincere desires or measure of grace is in comparison of their case that are the haters despisers and persecutors of holiness These thoughts if followed home may shame thee into thankfulness § 13. Direct 11. Let Heaven be ever in thine eye and still think of the endless joy which thou Direct 11. shalt have with Christ. For that is the mercy of all mercies and he that hath not that in hope to be thankful for will never be thankful aright for any thing and he that hath Heaven in prâ—â—isâ— to be thankful for hath still reason for the highest joyful Thanks whatever worldly thing he want or though he were sure never more to have comfort in any creature upon earth He is unthankful indeed that will not be thankful for Heaven But that is a mercy which will constrain to Thankfulness so far as our title is discerned The more believing and heavenly the mind is the more thankful § 14. Direct 12. Look on earthly and present Mercies in connexion with Heaven which is their End and Direct 12. as sweetned by our interest in God that giveth them You leave out all the life and sweetness which must cause your thankfulness if you leave out God and overlook him A dead carkâ—ss hath not the Loveliness or Usefulness as a living man You mortifie your mercies when you separate them from God and Heaven and then their beauty and sweetness and excellercy is gone And how can you be thankful for the husks and shells when you foolishly neglect the kernel Take every bit as from thy Fathers hands Remember that he feedeth and clotheth and protecteth thee as his Child It is to Our Father which is in Heaven that we must go every day for our daily bread Taste his Love in it and thou wilt say that It is sweet Remember whither all his Mercies tend and where they will leave thee even in the bosome of Eternal Love Think with thy self How good is this with the Love of God This and Heaven are full enough for me Course fare and course clothing and course usage in the world and hard labour and a poor habitation with Heaven after all is Mercy beyond all humane estimation or conceiving Nothing can be little which is a token of the love of God and leadeth to Eternal Glory The Relation to Heaven is the life and glory of every mercy § 15. Direct 13. Think oft how great a mercy it is that Thankfulness for mercy is made so
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 Eâ—ds 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. 3â—â— Vix remansit aliquis Episcopatus sive dignitas Ecclesiastica vel etâ—am Parochialis Ecclesiae quae ron fieâ—et litigâ—osa Romam deduceretur ipsa causa sed non manu vacua Gaude mater nostra Roma quonâ—am aperiuntur cataractae thesaurorum in teâ—ra ut ad te consâ—uant rivi aggeres nummoâ—um in magna copia Laetare super iniquitate filiorum hominum quonâ—am in recompensationem tantorum malorum datur tibi precâ—um Jocundare super adjutrice tua discordia quia erupit de puteo infernalis abyssi ut accumulentur tibi multa pecuniaâ—um praemia Habes quod semper sitisti decanta Canticum quia per malitiam hominum non pâ—â— tuam Religionem orbem vicistâ— Ad te trahit homines non ipsorum devotio aut pura Conscientia sed sâ—â—lerum multiplicium perpetratio litium decisio precio comparata Foâ—tun 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. Iâ—struct secret de Iesuitarum pâ—axi Et Ioh. Sarisbur l. 7. c. 21. de Monach. Potentiores ditiores favore vel mercede recepta facilius absolutione exâ—nerant peccatis alienis humeros supponentes jubent abire in tunicas vestes pullas quicquid illi se commisisse deplorant Si eis obloquetâ—s 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 caâ—es 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 Iâ—m â— 1. 2 3 4 5. 1 Iohn â— â—â— 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 proâ—aneth 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 liâ—e to come because their hearts are taken up with the world and they have no relâ—sh 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 tempâ—eth mâ—n 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 Dâ—vil gives for souls With this he bought the soul of Iudas who went to the Pharisâ—es 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 thâ—u wilt fall down and worship me It is the cause of Apâ—â—â—â—acy 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 â—im 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 〈◊〉 on the Sheep that are shorâ— When the Hâ—ece 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.
you of such a crazed wit If you say Yea Then believe and trust that person and resolve to follow his Direction And I would ask you were you not once of another judgement concerning your self If so then were you not as sound and able to judge and liker to be in the right than you are now § 25. Direct 21. My last advise is to look out for the cure of your disease and commit your Direct 21. self to the care of your Physicion and obey him And do not as most melancholy persons do that will not believe that Physick will do them good but that it is only their soul that is afflicted For it is the spirits imagination and passions that are diseased and so the soul is like an eye that looketh through a coloured glass and thinks all things are of the same colour as the glass is I have seen abundance cured by Physick and till the body be cured the mind will hardly ever be cured but the clearest Reasons will be all in vain Tit. 6. Directions for young Students for the most profitable ordering of their studying Thoughts § 1. Direct 1. LET it be your first and most serious study to make sure that you are Regenerate Direct 1. and sanctified by the Holy Ghost and justified by faith in Christ and Love God above all as your reconciled Father and so have right to the Heavenly inheritance § 2. For 1. You are nearest to your selves and your everlasting happiness is your nearest and your highest interest what will it profit you to know all the world and to lose your own souls To know as much as Devils and be for ever miserable with Devils § 3. 2. It is a most doleful employment to be all day at work in Satans Chains To sit studying God and the Holy Scriptures while you are in the power of the Devil and have hearts that are at enmity to the Holiness of that God and that Scripture which you are studying It is a most preposterous and incongruous course of study if you first study not your own deliverance And if you knew your case and saw your chains your trembling would disturb your studies § 4. 3. Till you are renewed you study in the dark and without that internal sight and sense Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18 19. Col. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. by which the life and spirit and kernel of all that you study must be known All that the Scripture saith of the darkness of a state of sin and of the illumination of the spirit and of the marvellous light of regenerate souls and of the natural man 's not receiving the things of the spirit and of the carnal mind that is enmity against God and is not subject to his Law nor can be all these and such other passages are not insignificant but most considerable truths from the spirit of truth You have only that Light that will shew you the shell and the dead letter but not the soul and quickening sense of any practical holy truth As the eye knoweth meat which we never tasted or as a meer Grammarian or Logician readeth a Law book or Physick book who gather nothing out of them that will save a mans estate or life so will you prosecute all your studies § 5. 4. You are like to have but ill success in your studies when the Devil is your Master who hateth both you and the holy things which you are studying He will blind you and pervert you and possess your minds with false conceits and put diverting sensual thoughts into you and will keep your own souls from being ever the better for it all § 6. 5. You will want the true end of all right studies and set up wrong ends and therefore whatever be the matter of your studies you are still out of your way and know nothing rightly because you know it not as a Means to the true end But of this anon § 7. Direct 2. When you have first laid this foundation and have the true Principle and End of Direct 2. all right Studies be sure that you intend this End in all even the Everlasting Sight and Love of God and the promoting his Glory and pleasing his holy will And that you never meddle with any studies seperated from this end but as a means thereto and as animated thereby § 8. If every step in your journey is but loss of time and labour which is not directed to your journeys end and if all that you have to mind or do in the world be only about your End or the Means and all creatures and actions can have no other moral Goodness than to be the means to God your ultimate end then you may easily see that when ever you leave out God as the End of any of your studies your are but sinning or doting for in those Studies there can be no Moral Good though they may tend to your knowledge of Natural Good and Evil. And when you think you grow wise and learned men and can dispute and talk of many things which make to your renown while your wills consent not to the wholsom words of our Lord Iesus Christ and the doctrine which is according 1 Tim. 6 3 4 5 6. to Godliness you are proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railing evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds supposing that gain is Godliness from such turn away As there is no knowledge but from God so it is not knowledge but dotage if it lead not unto God § 9. Direct 3. See therefore that you choose all your studies according to their tendency to God Direct 3. your end and use them still under the notion of means and that you estimate your knowledge by this End and judge your selves to know no more indeed than you know of God and for God And so let practical Divinity be the soul of all your Studies Therefore when Life is too short for the Studies of all things which we desire to know make sure of the chief things and prefer those studies which make most to your End spend not your time on things unprofitable to this end And spend not your first and chiefest time on things unnecessary to it Noâ— aâ—â—em nec subâ—to câ—â—imus philosoâ—hari nec mediocrem a primo tempore aetatis in co studio operam curamque consumpsimus cum minime videbamur tum maxime philosophebamur Cicero 〈…〉 r. pag. 5. For the near connexion to God the end is it that enobleth the matter of your studies All true knowledge leads to God but not all alike the nearest to him is the best § 10. Direct 4. Remember that the chief part of your growth in knowledge is not in knowing Direct 4. many smaller things of no necessity but in a growing downwards in a clearer insight into the foundation of
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 Nâ—â—b 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
life and consequently rejected Christ as a Saviour and the Holy Ghost as a sanctifier and all the mercy which he offered you on these terms Quest. 8. If this hath been your case are you now unfeignedly grieved for it Not only because it hath brought you so near to Hell but also because it hath displeased God and deprived you of that Holy and comfortable life which you might all this while have lived and endangered all your hopes of Heaven Do you so far Repent as that your very Heart and Love is changed so that now you had rather have a Holy life on earth and the sight and enjoyment of God in the Heavenly Joyes for ever than to have all the pleasure and prosperity of this world Do you hate your sins and loath your self for them and truly desire to be made Holy Are you firmly Resolved that if God do recover you to health you will live a new and Holy life that you will forsake your fleshly worldly life and all your wilful sins and will set your self to learn the will of God and call upon him and live in the holy Communion of Saints and make it your chief care to please God and to be saved Quest. 9. Are you willing to these ends to Give up your self absolutely now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as your Reconciled Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier to be sanctified and Iustified and saved from your sins and from the wrath of God and live to God in Love and Holiness And are you willing to bind your self to this by entring into this Covenant with God renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil Either your Heart is willing and sincere in this Resolution and Covenant or it is not If it be not there is no hope that your sin should be pardoned and your soul be saved upon any other or easier terms And for all that God is merciful and Christ died for sinners it was never his intent to save one impenitent unsanctified soul But if your Heart unfeignedly consent to this I Matth. 28. 19 â—0 2 Cor. 6. 10 17 18. have the commission of Christ himself to tell you that God will be your Reconciled God and Father and Christ will be your Saviour and the Holy Spirit will be your Sanctifier and Comforter and your sins are pardoned and your soul shall be saved and you shall dwell in Heaven with God for ever God did consent before you consented He shewed his Consent in purchasing and making and offering you this Covenant Shew your unfeigned Consent now by accepting it and giving up your self unreservedly to him and you have Christs Blood and Spirit and Sacrament to seal it to you The flesh and the world have deceived you but Trust in Christ upon his Covenant terms and he will never deceive you And now alas what pity is it that a soul that is in so miserable a case and is lost for ever if it have not help and speedy help should be deprived of all this Grace and Glory and only for want of Repenting and Consenting What pity is it that a soul that is ready to go into another world where mercy shall never more be offered it should rather go stupidly on to hell than Return to God and Accept his mercy Do but truly Repent and Consent to this Covenant and all the mercies of it are certainly yours God will be your God and Christ and the Spirit and pardon and Heaven and all are yours The Lord open and perswade your heart that you may not be undone and lost for ever for want of accepting the mercy that is offered you And now I know it would be comfortable to you if you could be fully assured that you are forgiven and shall be saved In a matter of such unspeakable moment how jâ—yful would a well-grounded certainty be to any man that hath the right use of his understanding I tell you therefore from God that there is no cause of your doubting on his part but only on your own There is no doubt to be made whether God be merciful nor whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour and sacrifice for your sins nor whether the Covenant be sure and promise of pardon and salvation to all true penitent believers be true All the doubt is whether your faith and Repentance be sincere or not And for that I can but tell you how you may know it and I shall open the Truth to you that I may neither Deceive you nor causlâ—sly Discomfort you If this Repentance and Change which you now profess and this Covenant which you have made Matth. 13. 19 20 21 22 23. Rom. 8. 7 8 9. Heb. 12. 14. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. Matth. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 6. 24. 1 Cor. 16. 22. Luk. 14. 26 27. with God 1. Do come only from a present fear and not from a changed renewed heart 2. And if your Resolutions be such as would not hold you to a holy life if you should recover but would die and fade away and leave you as were before when the fear is past then is it but a forced hypocritical Repentance and will not save you if you so die Though a Minister of Christ should Absolve you of all your sins and seal it by giving you the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for all this you are lost for ever if you have no more For Absolution and the Sacrament are given you but on supposition that yâ—ur faith and Repentance be sincere And if this Condition fail in you the Action of the holiest Minister in the world will never save you But 1. If your Repentance and Covenant come not only from a present fear but from a Renewed Heart which now Loveth God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness better than all the Honours and Riches and Pleasures of the flesh and world and had rather have them even on Gods terms 2. And if this change be such as if you should recover would hold you to a Holy Life and not die or dwindle into hypocritical formality when the fright is over then I can assure you from the word of God that if you die in this Repentance you shall certainly be saved And though Late Repentance have so many difficulties that it too seldom proveth true and sound and it is an unspeakable madness to cast our salvation on so great a hazard and to defer that till such a day as this which should be the principal work of all our lives and for which the greatest care and diligence is not too much Yet for all that when Conversion is indeed sincere it is alwayes acceptable how late soever And a returning prodigal shall find Luk. 15. 19 20 21 22. Joh. 6. 37. better entertainment with God than he could possibly expect And never will Christ cast out one soul that cometh to him in sincerity of heart The Lord give you such a Heart and all is yours Amen
enim quippe sâ—mpitâ—râ—um per iâ—sam matâ—riam omnem siâ—gulaâ—â—râ—are Mundum quoque râ—gi administrari secundum menteâ— providentiam mente per omnes illius partes pertiâ—gente Laert. in Zenone bold to take all this for granted And I hope in all this I do not wrong thee § 7. 4. I suppose thee to be one that knowest that thou didst not make thy self nor give thy self that Power or Wisdom which thou hast and that he that made thee and all the world must needs be before all the world and that he is Eternal having no Beginning for if ever there had been a time when there was nothing there never would have been any thing because Nothing can make nothing And I suppose thou dost confess that all the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the whole Creation set together is less than the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator Because nothing can give more than it hath to give I suppose therefore that thou dost confess that there is a God For to be The Eternal Infinite Being and the most Powerful Wise and Good and the first Cause of all Created Being and Power and Wisdom and Goodness this with the subsequent Relations to the Creature is to be GOD. If thou wilt deny that there is a God thou must deny that thou art a man and that there is any man or any Being § 8. 5. I suppose thou knowest that GOD who gave a Being unto all things is by this title of 5. That the Creator of all is the Lord or Owner of all the Ruler of the Rational Creature and the Benefactor and End of all Creation the Absolute Owner or Lord of All And that he that made the Reasonable Creatures with Natures to be Governed in order to a further End is by that title their Supream Governour and therefore hath his Laws commanding Duty and promising Reward and threatning punishment and therefore will Iudge men according to these Laws and will be Iust in judgement and in his Rewards and Punishments And that he that freely gave the Creature it's Being and all the Good it hath and must give it all that ever it shall have is the Father or most Bountiful Benefactor to his Creatures Surely I screw thee not too high in supposing thee to know all this For all this is no more than that there is a God For he is not God if he be not the Creator and therefore our Owner our Ruler and Benefactor our Absolute Lord our most Righteous Governour and our most Loving Father or Benefactor § 9. 6. I suppose therefore that thou art convinced that GOD must be absolutely submitted to and obeyed before all others in the world and Loved above all friends or pleasures or creatures whatsoever 6. That this God must be obeyed and loved For to say He is my Owner is to say I must yield my self to him as his Own To say I take him for my supream Governour is to say that I will absolutely be ruled by him and to say I take him as my dearest Father or chief Benefactor is to say that I am obliged to give him my dearest Love and highest thanks Otherwise you do but jeast or say you know not what or contradict your selves while you say He is your God § 10. 7. I suppose thou art easily convinced that in all the world there is no Creature that can 7. That nothing is to be preferred before him shew so full a title to thee as God or that hath so great Authority to Govern thee or that can be so Good to thee or do so much for thee as God can do or hath done and will do if thou do thy part And therefore that there is nothing to be preferred before him or compared with him in our obedience or Love Nor is there any that can save us from his Justice if we stand out against him 8. That he that ruleth the world by the Hopes and fears of another life doth not rule them by deceit and lies and that he hath Rewards and punishments hereafter Mundus â—uâ—ine regitur estque quasi commuâ—is urbs civitas hominum Cicero 2. de finib Impiis apud inferos sunt poenae praeparatae Cicero 1. de Inâ—enâ— Impii apâ—d iâ—â—eâ—os pâ—nas luunt Idem Phil. 1. de Legib. Iovem dominatorem rerum omâ—ia nutu regentâ—m praeâ—entem praeâ—otentâ—m qui dâ—bitat â—aud saâ—e intelligâ— our noâ—â—dem sol sit an nullus sit dubitari possit Cicer. de Nat. Deor. 2. p. 48. § 11. 8. I suppose that as thou knowest God is just in his Laws and Iudgements so that he is so faithful that he will not and so All-sufficient that he need not deceive mankind and Govern them by meer deceit This better beseems the Devil than God And therefore that as he governeth man on earth by the Hopes and fears of another life he doth not delude them into such Hopes or fears and as he doth not procure obedience by any Rewards or Punishments in this life as the principal means the wicked prospering and the best being persecuted and afflicted here therefore his Rewards and Punishments must needs be principally hereafter in the life to come For if he have no Rewards or Punishments he hath no Iudgement and if he have no judgement he hath no Laws or else no Iustice and if he have no Laws or no Iustice he is no Governour of Man or not a righteous Governour and if he be not our Governour and just he is not our God and if he were not our God we had never been his Creatures nor had a being or been men § 12. 9. I suppose thou knowest that if God had not discovered what he would do with us in the 9. That man being bound to love and obey God above all is bound to do nothing in vain and that we cannot be losers by his service life to come yet man is highliest bound to Obey and Love his Maker because he is Our Absolute Lord Our highest Ruler and our chief Benefactor and all that we are or have is from him And that if man be bound to spend his life in the service of his God it is certain that he shall be no loser by him no not by the costliest Obedience that we can perform For God cannot appoint us any thing that is Vain nor can he be worse to us than an honest man that will see that we lose not by his service Therefore that God for whom we must spend and forsake this life and all those pleasures which sensualists enjoy hath certainly some greater thing to give us in another life § 13. 10. I may take it for granted at the worst that neither thy self nor any Infidel in the world 10 That no Infidel can say He is sure there is no life to come can say that you are sure that there is not another life for man in which his present
As the Athenians that condemned Socrates to death and then lamented it and erected a Braâ—en Statue for his Memorial Acosta saith that he that will be a Pastor to the Indians must not only resist the Devil and the flesh but must resist the custome of men which is grown powerful by time and multitude and must oppose his breast to receive the darts of the envious and malevolent who if they see any thing contrary to their prophane fashion they cry out A Traytor an Hypocrite an Enemy Li. 4. c. 15. p. 404. It seems among Papists and Barbarians the Serpents seed do hiss in the same manner against the good among themselves as they do against us dye Or think whether they will not change their minds when death hath sent them into that world where there is none of these deceits And think whether thou shouldst be moved with that mans words that will shortly change his mind himself and wish he had never spoke such words § 7. 3. Observe well whether their own Profession do not condemn them and whether the very thing that they hate the godly for be not that they are serious in Practising that which these malignants themselves profess as their Religion And are they not then notorious Hypocrites To profess to believe in God and yet scorn at those that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. To profess faith in Christ and hate those that obey him To profess to believe in the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier and yet hate and scorn his sanctifying work To profess to believe the day of Judgement and everlasting torment of the ungodly and yet to deride those that endeavour to escape it To profess to believe that Heaven is prepared for the Godly and yet scorn at those that make it the chief business of their lives to attain it To profess to take the holy Scriptures for Gods Word and Law and yet to scorn those that obey it To pray after each of the Ten Commandments Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law and yet to hate all those that desire and endeavour to keep them What impudent hypocrisie is joyned with this malignity Mark whether the greatest diligence of the most godly be not justified by the formal profession of those very men that hate and scorn them The difference between them is that the Godly Profess Christianity in good earnest and when they say what they believe they believe as they say But the ungodly customarily and for company take on them to be Christians when they are not and by their own mouths condemn themselves and hate and oppose the serious Practice of that which they say they do themselves believe PART II. The Temptations whereby the Devil hindereth mens Conversion with the proper Remedies against them § 1. THE Most Holy and Righteous Governour of the world hath so restrained Satan and all our enemies and so far given us Free-will that no man can be forced to sin against his will It is not sin if it be not positively or privatively voluntary All our enemies in Hell or Earth cannot make us miserable without our selves nor keep a sinner from true Conversion and Salvation if he do it not himself no nor compell him to one sinful thought or word or deed or omission but by tempting and entising him to be willing All that are Graceless are wilfully Graceless None go to Hell but those that chose the way to Hell and would not be perswaded out of it None miss of Heaven but those that did set so light by it as to prefer the world and sin before it and refused the holy way that leadeth to it And surely man that naturally loveth himself would never take so mad a course if his reason were not laid asleep and his understanding were not wofully deluded And this is the business of the Tempter who doth not drag men to sin by violence but draw and entice them by Temptations I shall therefore take it for the next part of my work to open these Temptations and tell you the Remedies § 2. Tempt 1. The first endeavour of the Tempter is in General to keep the sinner asleep in sin so that Tâ—â—pt 1. â—e shall be as a dead man that hath no use of any of his faculties that hath eyes and seeth not and ears but heareth not and a heart that understandeth not nor feeleth any thing that concerneth his peace The light Ephes 2. 1. Col 2 13. 1 Coâ— 15. 35. 1 Tim. 5. 6. Joeâ— 1. 5. that shineth upon a man asleep is of no use to him His work lyeth undone His friends and wealth and greatest concernments are all forgotten by him as if there were no such things or persons in the world You may say what you will against him or do what you will against him and he can do nothing in his own defence This is the case that the Devil most laboureth to keep the world in even in so dead a sleep that their Reason and their Wills their fear and hope and all their powers shall be of no use to them That when they hear a Preacher or read the Scripture or good Books or see the holy examples of the godly yea when they see the Grave and know where they must shortly lie and know that their souls must stay here but a little while yet they shall hear and see and know all this as men asleep that mind it not as if it concerned not them at all never once soberly Considering and laying it to heart § 3. Direct 1. For the Remedy against this deadly sin 1. Take heed of sleepy opinions or Doctrines Direct 1. and conceits which tend to the Lethargie of Security 2. Sit not still but be up and doing Stirring tends to shake off drowziness 3. Come into the light Live under an awakening Minister and in wakening company that will not sleep with you nor easily let you sleep Agree with them to deal faithfully with you and promise them to take it thankfully 4. And meditate oft on wakening considerations Think whether a sleepy soul beseem one in thy dangerous condition Canst thou sleep with such a load of sin upon thy soul Canst thou sleep under the thundering threatnings of God and the Curse of his Law with so many wounds in thy Conscience and Ulcers in thy soul If thy body were sick or in the case of Iob yea if thou hadst but an aking Tooth it would not let thee sleep And is not the guilt of sin a thing more grievous If Thorns or Toads and Adders were in thy Bed they would keep the waking And how much more odious and dangerous a thing is sin If thy body want but meat or drink or covering it will break 2 Tim. 2. 26. thy sleep And is it nothing for thy soul to be destitute of Christ and Grace A condemned man will be easily kept awake And if thou be unregenerate thou art already condemned
to do evil Eccles. 8. 11. § 31. Direct 15. But alas how short is the prosperity of the wicked Read Psal. 73. 37. Delay Direct 15. is no forgiveness They stay but till the Assize And will that tempt you to do as they How unthankfully do sinners deal with with God! If he should kill you and plague you that would not please you And yet if he forbear you you are emboldened by it in your sin Thus his patience is turned against him But the stroke will be the heavier when it falls Dost thou think those men will alwayes flourish Will they alway domineer and revell Will they alwayes dwell in the houses where they now dwell and possess those Lands and be honoured and served as now they are O how quickly and how dreadfully will the case be changed with them O could you but foresee now what faces they will have and what heavy hearts and with what bitter exclamations they will at last cry out against themselves for all their folly and wish that they had never been deceived by prosperity but rather had the portion of a Lozarus If you saw how they are but fatted for the slaughter and in what a dolorous misery their wealth and sport and honours will leave them you would lament their case and think so great a destruction were soon enough and not desire to be partners in their lot § 32. Tempt 16. Another temptation is their own prosperity They think God when he prospereth Tempt 16. them is not so angry with them as Preachers tell them And it is a very hard thing in health and prosperity to lay to heart either sin or threatnings and to have such serious lively thoughts of the life to come as men that are wakened by adversity have and specially men that are familiar with death Prosperity is the greatest temptation to security and delaying repentance and putting off preparation for eternity Overcome prosperity and you overcome your greatest snare § 33. Direct 16. Go into the Sanctuary yea go into the Church-yard and see the End And Direct 1◠〈…〉 judge by those Skulls and Bones and dust if you cannot judge by the fore-â—â—â—â—ings of God what prosperity is Judge by the experience of all the world Doth it not leave them â—â—â—â— in sorrow at last Wo to the man that hath his portion in this life O miserable health and wealth and honour which procureth the death and shame and utter destruction of the soul Was not he in as prosperous a case as you Luke 16. that quickly cryed out in vain for a drop of water to cool his Tongue There is none of you so sensless as not to know that you must dye And must you dye Must you certainly dye and shall that day be no better prepared for Shall present prosperity make you forget it and live as if you must live here for ever Do you make so great difference between that which is and that which will be as to make as great a matter of it as others when it comes and to make no more of it when it is but coming O man what is an inch of hasty time How quickly is it gone Thou art going hence apace and almost gone Doth God give thee the mercy of a few dayes or years of health to make all thy preparations in for eternity and doth this mercy turn to thy deceit and dost thou turn it so much contrary to the ends for which it was given thee Wilt thou surfeit on Mercy and destroy thy soul with it Sense feeleth and perceiveth what now is but thou hast Reason to foresee what will be Wilt thou play in Harvest and forget the Winter § 34. Tempt 17. Another great Temptation to hinder Conversion is the example and countenance of Tempt 17. Great Ones that are ungodly when Landlords and men in power are sensual and enemies to a holy life and speak reproachfully of it their inferiours by the reverence which they bear to worldly wealth and greatness are easily drawn to say as they Also when men reputed Learned and Wise are of another mind and especially when subtile enemies speak that reproach against it which they cannot answer § 35. Direct 17. To this I spake in the end of the first Part of this Chapter No man is so great Direct 17. and wise as God See whether he say as they do in his word The greatest that provoke him can no more save themselves from his vengeance than the poorest beggars What work made he with a Pharaâ—h and got himself a name by his hard heartedness and impenitency He can send Worms to eat an arrogant Herod when the people cry him up as a God! Where are now the Caesars and Alexanders of the world The Rulers and Pharisees believed not in Christ Iohn 7. 48. Wilt not thou therefore believe in him The Governour of the Countrey condemned him to dye and wilt thou condemn him The Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed saying let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us Psal. 2. 2 3. Wilt thou therefore joyn in the Conspiracy When he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision He will break them with an iron rod and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel unless they be wise and kiss the Son and serve the Lord with fear before his wrath be kindled and they perish Psal. 2. 4 9 10 11 12. If thy Landlord or Great ones shall be thy God and be honoured and obeyed before God and against him trust to them and call on them in the hour of thy distress and take such a salvation as they can give thee Teach not God what choice to make and whom to reveal his mysteries to He chooseth not alwayes the Learned Scribe nor the mighty man Christ himself saith Matth. 11. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Read Mr. 〈…〉 sermon â—n 1 â—â—â—â— 1. 2â— Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight If this reason satisfie you not follow them and speed as they If they are Greater and Wiser than God let them be your Gods 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen and things that are not to bring to nought things that are It is another kind of Greatness Honour and Wisdom which God bestoweth on the poorest Saints than the world can give Worldlings will shortly be aweary of their portion
as you have no need § 5. As for Play books and Romances and idle Tales I have already shewed in my Book of Self-dâ—nyal how pernicious they are especially to youth and to frothy empty idle wits that know not what a man is nor what he hath to do in the world They are powerful baits of the Devil to keep more necessary things out of their minds and better Books out of their hands and to poyson the mind so much the more dangerously as they are read with more delight and pleasure and to fill the minds of sensual people with such idle fumes and intoxicating fancies as may divert them from the serious thoughts of their salvation And which is no small loss to rob them of abundance of that precious time which was given them for more important business and which they will wish and wish again at last that they had spent more wisely I know the fantasticks will say that these things are innocent and may teach men much good like him that must go to a Whore-house to learn to hate uncleanness and him that would go out with Robbers to learn to hate Theevery But I shall now only ask them as in the presence of God 1. Whether they could spend that time no better 2. Whether better Books and practices would not edifie them more 3. Whether the greatest Lovers of Romances and Playes be the greatest Lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life 4. Whether they feel in themselves that the Love of these vanities doth increase their love to the Word of God and kill their sin and prepare them for the life to come or clean contrary And I would desire men not to prate against their own experience and reason nor to dispute themselves into damnable impenitency nor to befool their souls by a few silly words which any but a sensualist may perceive to be meer deceit and falshood If this will not serve they shall be shortly convinced and answered in another manner Direct 17. TAke heed that you receive not a Doctrine of Libertinism as from the Gospel nor conceive Direct 17. of Christ as an encourager of sin nor pretend free grace for your carnal security or sloth For this is but to set up another Gospel and another Christ or rather the Doctrine and works of the Devil against Christ and the Gospel and to turn the Grace of God into wantonness § 1. Because the Devil knoweth that you will not receive his doctrine in his own Name his usual Siquis est hoc robore aniâ—â—t atque hoc indole virtuâ—s aâ— continentiâ— ut respâ—at omnes vo 〈…〉 omnemâ—â—â— vitae â—uae â—â—rsâ—m â—aâ—â—â—â— co 〈…〉 aequalium fludia non â—udi non convivia delectant nihil in vita expeâ—endum putet nisi quod est cum laude honore conjunâ—tum hunc mea sententia divinis quibusdam bonis instructum atque ornatum puto Ciâ— pâ—o Cal. method is to propound and preach it in the name of Christ which he knoweth you reverence and regard For if Satan concealed not his own Name and Hand in every temptation it would spoil his game And the more excellent and splendid is his pretence the more powerful the temptation is They that gave heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils no doubt thought better of the Spirits and the Doctrines especially seeming strict for the Devil hath his strictnesses as forbidding to marry and abstinence from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving 1 Tim. 4. 1 3. But the strictnesses of the Devil are alwayes intended to make men loose They shall be strict as the Pharisees in Traditions and vain Ceremonies and building the Tombs of the Prophets and garnishing the Sepulchres of the Righteous that they may hate and murder the living Saints that worship God in Spirit and in truth Licentiousness is the proper Doctrine of the Devil which all his strictness tendeth to promote To receive such principles is pernicious but to father them upon Christ and the Gospel is blasphemous § 2. The Libertines Antinomians and Autonomians of this age have gathered you too many instances The Libertine saith The Heart is the man therefore you may deny the truth with your tongue you may be present at false Worship as at the Mass you need not suffer to avoid the speaking of a word or subscribing to an untruth or error or doing some little thing but as long as you keep your hearts to God and mean well or have an honest mental reservation and are forced to it by therâ— rather than suffer you may say or subscribe or swear any thing which you can your selves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds or comply with any outward actions or customs to avoid â—ffence and save your selves The Antinomians tell you that The Moral Law is abrogated and that the Gospel is no Law and if there be no Law there is no Governour nor Government no duty no sin no judgement nâ— punishment no before they are born or repent or believe that their sin is pardoned 〈…〉 that God tâ—â—k them as suffering and fulfilling all the Law in Christ as if it had been they that diâ— iâ— in â—iâ— that we are justified by faith only in our consciences that justifying faith iâ— but t 〈…〉 we are justified that every man must believe that he is pardoned that he may 〈…〉 ed in â—is câ—â—science and this he is to do by a Divine faith and that this is the sense of the Aâ—tiâ—le I beliâ—â—â—â— the forgiveness of sins that is that my sâ—ns are forgiven and that all are forgi 〈…〉 it that it is legal and sinful to work or do any thing for salvation that sin once pa 〈…〉 ssed and lamented or at least we need not ask pardon of sin daily or of one 〈…〉 t that 〈◊〉 are no punishments and yet no other punishment is threatned to believers for their sins and consequently that Christ hath not procured them a pardon of any sin after believing but prevented all necessity of pardon and therefore they must not ask the pardon of them nor do any thing to obtain it that fear of Hell must have no hand in our obedience or restraint from sin And some add that he that cannot repent or believe must comfort himself that Christ repented and believed for him 〈…〉 a contradiction Many such Doctrines of Licentiousness the abusers of Grace have brought forth And the Sect which imitateth the Father of Pride in affecting to be from under the Government of God and to be the Law-givers and Rulers of themselves and all others which I therefore call the Antonomians are Licentious and much more They equally contend against Christs Government and for their own They fill the world with Wars and bloodshed oppression and cruelty and the ears of God with the cryes of the Martyrs and oppressed ones and all that the spiritual and holy Discipline of Christ may be suppressed and
thus you must do The eye maketh an easier and deeper impression on the imagination and mind than the ear doth Therefore Christs example should be much preached and studied It will be a very great help to us to have still upon our minds the Image of the Holy Life of Christ that we be affected as if we always saw him doing the holy actions which once he did Paul calls the Galathians foolish and bewitched that obeyed not the truth when Christ had been set forth as crucified among them evidently before their eyes Gal. 3. 1. Papists think that Images serve well for this turn But the Records of Scripture and the living Images of Christ whom they persecute and kill are farr more useful How much example is more operative than doctrine alone you may perceive by the enemies of Christ who can bear his holy doctrine when they cannot bear his holy Servants that practise that doctrine before their eyes And that which most stirs up their enmity hath the advantage for exciting the believers piety Let the Image of Christ in all his holy examples be allways lively written upon your minds 1. Let the great ones of the world remember that their Lord was not born of such as bore rule or were in worldly pomp and dignity but of persons that lived but meanly in the world however they were of the royal line How he was not born in a pallace but a stable and laid in a manger without the attendance or accommodations of the rich 2. Remember how he subjected himself unto his reputed Father and his Mother to teach all Children Luke â— 51. subjection and obedience 3. And how he condescended to labour at a Trade and mean imployment in the world to teach us that our Bodies as well as our Minds must express their obedience and have their ordinary imployment and to teach men to labour and live in a calling and to comfort poor labourers with assurance that God accepteth them in the meanest work and that Christ himself lived so before them and chose their kind of life and not the life of Princes and Nobles that live in Pomp and Ease and Pleasure 4. Remember how he refused not to submit to all the ordinances of God and to fullfil all righteousness and to be initiated into the solemn administration of his office by the Baptism of Iohn Mat. 3. 15 1â— 17. which God appoved by sending down upon him the Holy Ghost To teach us all to expect his Spirit in the use of his ordinances 5. Remember how he voluntarily begun his work with an encounter with the Tempter in the Wilderness upon his fasting and suffered the Tempter to proceed till he moved him to the most odious sin even to worship the Devil himself To teach us that God loveth tryed Servants and expecteth that we be not turned from him by temptations especially those that enter upon a publick ministry must be tryed men that have overcome the Tempter and to comfort tempted Christians who may remember that their Saviour himself was most blasphemously tempted to as odious sins as ever they were and that to be greatly tempted without consenting or yielding to the sin is so farr from being a sin in it self that it is the greatest honour of our obedience and that the Devil who molesteth and haunteth us with his temptations is a conquered enemy whom our Lord in person hath overcome 6. Remember how earnestly and constantly he preached not stories or jingles or subtile controversies but Repentance and faith and self-denial and obedience So great was his Love to souls that when he had auditors he preached not only in the Temple and Synagogues but in mountains and in a ship and any other convenient place and no fury of the Rulers or Pharises could silence him till his hour was come having his Fathers Commission And even to particular persons he vouchsafed by conference to open the Mysteries of Salvation To teach us to love and attend to John 3. 4. the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel and not to forbear any necessary means for the honour of God and the saving of souls because of the enmity or opposition of malitious men but to work while it is day seeing the night is coming when none can work John 9. 4. 7. Remember how compassionate he was to mens bodys as well as to their souls going up and down with unwearied diligence doing good healing the blind and lame and deaf and sick and possessed and how all his miracles were done in charity to do good and none of them to do hurt So that he was but living walking LOVE and MERCY To teach us to know God in his Love and Mercy and to abound in Love and Mercy to our brethren and to hate the spirit of hurtfulness persecution and uncharitableness and to lay out our selves in doing good and to exercise our compassion to the bodys of men as well as to their souls according to our power 8. Remember how his Zeal and Love endured the reproach and resisted the opposition of his friends who went to lay hold on him as if he had been besides himself And â—ow he bid Peter Get Mat 3. 20 21 Mat. 16. 22 23. behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things of God but those of men when in caâ—nal Love and wisdom he rebuked him for resolving to lay down his life saying Be it farr from thee this shall not be unto thee To teach us to expect that carnal Love and Wisdom in our nearest friends will rise up against us in the work of God to discourage us both from duty and from sufferings and that all are to be shaken off and counted as the instruments of Satan that would tempt us to be unfaithful to our trust and duty and to savour our selves by a sinâ—ul avoiding of the sufferings which God doth call us to undergo 9. Remember how through all his life he despised the Riches of the world and chose a life of poverty and was a companion of the meanest neither possessing nor seeking sumptuous houses or great attendance or spacious lands or a large estate He lived in a visible contempt of all the wealth and splendor and greatness of the world To teach us how little these little things are to be esteemed â—nd that they are none of the treasure and portion of a Saint and what a folly it is to be fond of â—â—â—â—h snares and diversions and temptations which make the way to Heaven to be to us as a needlâ—â—s â—yâ— 10. Observe how little he regarded the honour and applause of men how he made himself of no 〈…〉 6. 15 refutation 〈◊〉 took upon him the form of a Servant refusing to be made a King or to have a Kingdom of this â—â—â—â—ld Though he told malignant Blasphemers how greatly they sinned in dishonouring him yet did he not seek the honour of the world To teach
zeal and delight remembring that you are engaged to God as servants to their Lord and Master and are entrusted with his talents of the improvement whereof you must give account § 1. THe next Relation between Christ and us which we are to speak of subordinate to that of King and Subjects is this of MASTER and SERVANTS Though Christ saith to the Apostles John 15. 5. Henceforth I call you not servants but friends the meaning is not that he calleth them not servants at all hut not meer servants they being more than servants having such acquaintance with his counsels as his friends For he presently verse 20. bids them Remember that the servant is not greater than the Lord. And John 13. 13. Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am And Matth. 23. 8. One is your Master Christ and all ye are brethren So Ver. 10. And the Apostles called themselves the servants of Iesus Christ Rom. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 4. 1. Phil. 1. 1. and of God Tit. 1. 1 c. § 2. He is called our Master and we his servants because he is our Rector ex pleno dominio with What it is to be Christâ— Servants absolute propriety and doth not give us Laws to Obey while we do our own work but giveth us his work to do and Laws for the right doing of it And it is a service under his eye and in dependance on him for our daily provisions as servants on their Lord. God hath WORK for us to do in the world and the performance of it he will require God biddeth his Sons Go work to day in my Vineyard Matth. 21. 28. and expecteth that they do it Ver. 31. His Servants are as Husbandmen to whom he entruâ—â—â—â—th his Vineyard that he may receive the fruit Ver. 33 34 41 43. Faithful servants shall be made Rulers over his houshold Matth. 24. 45 46. Christ delivereth to his servants his talents to improve and will require an account of the improvement at his coming Mat. 25. 14. GOOD WORKS in the proper comprehensive sense are all actions internal and external that are morally good But in the narrâ—weâ— acception they are Works not only formally good as acts of Obedience in general but also materially good such as a servant doth for his Master that tend to his advantage or the proâ—it of some other whose welfare he regardeth Because the doctrine of GOOD WORKS is controverted in these times I shall first open it briefly and then give you the Directions § 3. 1. Nothing is more certain than that God doth not need the service of any creature and that he receiveth no addition to his perfection or felicity from it and consequently that on terms of commutative Iustice which giveth one thing for another as in selling and buying no creature is capable of meriting at his hands 2. It is certain that on the terms of the Law of Works which required perfect obedience as the condition of life no sinner can do any work so good as in point of distributive governing Iustice shall merit at his hands 3. It is certain that Christ hath so fulfilled the Law of Works as to Merit for us 4. The Redeemed are not Masterless but have still a Lord who hath now a double Right to govern them And this Governour giveth them a Law And this Law requireth us to do good works as much as we are able though not so terribly yet as obligingly as the Law of Works And by this Law of Christ we must be Iudged And thus we must be judged according to our works and to be judged ☜ is nothing else but to be Iustified or Condemned Such works therefore are Rewardable according to the Distributive Iustice of the Law of Grace by which we must be Iudged And the antient Fathers who without any opposition spoke of Good works as Meritorious with God meant no more but that they were such as the Righteous Iudge of the world will Reward according to the Law of Grace by which he judgeth us And this doctrine being agreed on as certain truth there is no controversie left with them but whether the word Merit was properly or improperly used And that both Scripture and our common speech alloweth the Fathers use of the word I have shewed at large in my Confession 5. Christ is so far from Redeeming us from a necessity of good works that he dyed to restore us to a capacity and ability to perform them and hath new-made us for that end Tit. 2. 14. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them 6. Good works opposed to Christ or his satisfaction merit righteousness mercy or free-grace in the matter of Justification or Salvation are not good works but proud self-confidence and sin But good works in their due subordination to Gods mercy and Christs merits and grace are necessary and Rewardable 7. Though God need none of our works yet that which is good materially pleaseth him as it tendeth to his glory and to our own and others benefit which he delighteth in 8. It is the communicating of his goodness and excellencies to the creature by which God doth glorifie himself in the world and in Heaven where is the fullest Communication he is most glorified Therefore the praise which is given to the creature who receiveth all from him is his own praise And it is no dishonour to God that his creature be honoured by being good and being esteemed good Otherwise God would never have created any thing lest it should derogate from himself Or he would have made them bad lest their goodness were his dishonour and he would be most pleased with the wicked and least pleased with the best as most dishonouring him But madness it self abhorreth these conceits 9. Therefore as an act of Mercy to us and for his own Glory as at first he made all things very good so he will make the new creature according to his Image which is Holy and Iust and Good and will use us in good works and it is our honour and gain and happiness to be so used by him As he will not communicate Light to the world without the Sun whose glory derogateth not from his honour So will he not do good works in the world immediately by himself only but by Vir bonus est qui prodest quibus potest nocet autem nemiâ—â— P. Scalig. Ne pigeat Evangelicum Ministrum aegâ—otum visitare xenio aliquo recreare famelicum cibario saltem pane pascere nuâ—um operire paupâ—râ—m cuâ— non est adjutor a divitum calumniis potentia eripere pro afflictis principem magistratumve convenire râ—m familiaâ—em câ—nsili augegere morientibus sedulo benigne astare lites dissidia
Answ. tween the Being of a duty and the Knowledge of a duty and remember that the first Question is whether this be my duty and the next How I may discern it to be my duty And that God giveth it the Being by his Law and Conscience is but to know and use it And that God changeth not his Law and our duty as oft as our opinions change about it The obligation of the Law is still the same though our Consciences err in apprehending it otherwise Therefore if God command you a duty and your opinion be that he doth not command it or that he forbids it and so that it is no duty or that it is a sin it doth not follow that indeed God commands it not because you think so Else it were no error in you nor could it be possible to err if the thing become true because you think it to be true God commandeth you to Love him and to worship him and to nourish your children and to obey the higher powers c. And do you think you shall be discharged from all these duties and allowed to be prophane or sensual or to resist authority or to famish your children if you can but be blind enough to think that God would have it so 2. Your error is a sin it self And do you think that one sin must warrant another or that sin can discharge you from your duty and disannull the Law 3. You are a subject to God and not a King to your self and therefore you must obey his Laws and not make new ones § 33. Quest. 2. But is it not every mans duty to obey his Conscience Quest. Answ. Answ. No It is no mans duty to obey his Conscience in an error when it contradicteth the command of God Conscience is but a Discerner of Gods command and not at all to be obeyed strictly as a Commander but it is to be obeyed in a larger sense that is to be followed where ever it truly discerneth the command of God It is our duty to lay by our error and seek the cure of it till we attain it and not to obey it § 34. Quest. 3. But is it not a sin for a man to go against his Conscience Quest. Answ. Answ. Yes Not because Conscience hath any authority to make Laws for you but because interpretatively you go against God For you are bound to obey God in all things and when you think that God commandeth you a thing and yet you will not do it you disobey formally though not materially The Matter of Obedience is the thing commanded The form of obedience is our doing the thing because it is commanded when the Authority of the Commander causeth us to do it Now you reject the Authority of God when you reject that which you think he commandeth though he did not Quest. § 35. Quest. 4. Seeing the form of obedience is the being of it and denominateth which the Matter doth not without the form and there can be no sin which is not against the authority of God which is the formal cause of obedience is it not then my duty to follow my Conscience Answ. Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes or concurrence of all necessaries to make up Obedience though the want of any one will make a sin If you will be called Obedient you must have the matter and form because the true form is found in no other matter You must do the thing commanded because of his Authority that commandeth it If it may be called really and formally Obedience when you err yet it is not that obedience which is acceptable For it is not any kind of obedience but obedience in the thing commanded that God requireth 2. But indeed as long as you err sinfully you are also wanting in the form as well as the matter of your obedience though you intend Obedience in the particular act It is not only a willful opposing and positive rejecting the Authority of the Commander which is formal disobedience but it is any Privation of due subjection to it when his Authority is not so regarded as it ought to be and doth not so powerfully and effectually move us to our duty as it ought Now this formal disobedience is found in your erroneous Conscience For if Gods Authority had moved you as it should have done to diligent enquiry and use of all appointed means and to the avoiding of all the causes of error you had never erred about your duty For if the error had been perfectly involuntary and blameless the thing could not have been your particular duty which you could not possibly come to know Quest. § 36. Quest. 5. But if it be a sin to go against my Conscience must I not avoid that sin by obeying it Would you have me sin Answ. Answ. You must avoid the sin by changing your judgement and not by obeying it For that is but to avoid one sin by committing another An erring judgement is neither obeyed nor disobeyed without sin It can make you sin though it cannot make you duty It doth ensnare though not oblige If you follow it you break the Law of God in doing that which he forbids you If you forsake it and go against it you reject the authority of God in doing that which you think he forbids you So that there is no attaining to innocence any other way but by coming first to Know your duty and then to do it If you command your servant to weed your corn and he mistake you and verily think that you bid him pull up the corn and not the weeds what now should he do Shall he follow his judgement or go against it Neither but change it and then follow it and to that end enquire further of your mind till he be better informed and no way else will serve the turn § 37. Quest. 6. Seeing no man that erreth doth know or think that he erreth for that 's a contradiction Quest. how can I lay by that opinion or strive against it which I take to be the truth Answ. It is your sin that you take a falshood to be a truth God hath appointed means for the Answ. cure of blindness and error as well as other sins or else the world were in a miserable case Come into the light with due self-suspicion and impartiallity and diligently use all Gods means and avoid the causes of deceit and error and the Light of Truth will at once shew you the Truth and shew you that before you erred In the mean time sin will be sin though you take it to be duty or no sin § 38. Quest. 7. But seeing he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with Quest. 〈…〉 â—e that knoweth it not with few is it not my duty chiefly to avoid the many 〈…〉 against my Conscience or Knâ—wledge Answ. 1. Your duty is to avoid both and if
more desirous to be obeyed by his inferiors than himself to obey his absolute Lord He expecteth that his commands be obeyed though God command the contrary and is more offended at the neglect of his Laws and Honour than at the contempt of the Honour and Laws of God § 55. Sign 4. If there be any place of office honour or preferment void a proud man thinks Sign 4. that he is the fittest for it and if he seek it he taketh it for an injury if another be preferred before him as more deserving And though they that had a hand in putting him by and preferring another did it never so judiciously and impartially and for the common good without any respect to any friend or interest of their own yet all this will not satisfie the Proud who knoweth no Reason or Law but selfishness but he will bear a grudge to men for the most righteous necessary action What ignorant men and impious have we known displeased because they were not thought worthy to be Teachers in the Church or because a people that knew the worth of their souls had the wit and conscience to prefer a worthier man before them What worthless men in Corporations and elsewhere have we seen displeased because they were not chosen to be Governours So unreasonable a sin is Pride § 56. Sign 5. A proud man thinks when he looks at the works of his Superiours that he could Sign 5. do them better himself if he had the doing of them There is not one of them of an hundred but think that they could rule better than the King doth and judge better than the Judge doth and perhaps preach better than the Preacher doth unless his ignorance be so palpable as that he cannot question it Absolom would do the people Justice better than his Father David if he were King If all the matters of Church and Common-wealth were at his dispose how confident is he that they should be well ordered and all faults mended and O how happy a world should we have § 57. Sign 6. A proud man is apt to over-value his own knowledge and to be much unacquainted Sign 6. with his Ignorance He is much more sinsible of what he knoweth than how much he is wanting of See 1 Tim. 3. 6 1 Tim. 6. 4. A â—urning fla â—â—â—â—â— will follow the Arch-slatterer which is a mans â—elâ— And wherein a man thinketh best of himself herein the flatterer will uphold him most Bâ—â— if he be an impudent flatterer he will entitle him by force to that which he is conscious that he is most defective in Lâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—oâ—â—ssay 52. what he ought to know He thinks himself fit to contradict the ablest Divine when he hath scarce so much knowledge as will save his soul. If he have but some smattering to enable him to talk confidently of what he understandeth not he thinks himself fittest for the Chair and is elevated to a pugnacious courage and thinks he is able to dispute with any man and constantly gives himself the victory If it be a woman that hath gathered up a few Receipts she thinketh her self fit to be a Physicion and venture the lives of dearest friends upon her ignorant skilfulness when seven years study more is necessary to make such Novices know how little they know and how much is utterly unknown to them and seven years more to give them an encouraging taste of knowledge yet Pride makes them Doctors in Divinity and Physick by its Mandamus without so much ado And as they commenced so they practise in the dark and to save the labour of so long studies can spare and gravely deride that knowledge which they cannot get at cheaper rates And no wonder when it is the nature of Pride and Ignorance to cause the birth and encrease of each other It were a wonder for an Ignorant person to be Humble and when he knoweth not what abundance of excellent truths are still unknown to him nor what difficulties there are in every controversie which he never saw How many studious learned holy Divines would go many thousand miles if that would serve to be well resolved of many doubts in the Mysteries of Providence Decrees Redemption Grace Free-will and many the like and that after twenty or forty years study when I can take them a Boy or a Woman in the Streets that can confidently determine them all in a few words and pitty the ignorance or error of such Divines and shake the head at their blindness and say God hath revealed them to themselves that are Babes yea and perhaps their confidence taketh dissenters for such heretical erroneous intolerâ—â—â—â—e persons that they look upon them as Heathens and Publicans and either with the Papists reproach and persecute them or with the lesser Sects divide from them as from men that receive not the the truth and thus Pride makes as many Churches as there are different Opinions § 58. Sign 7. Pride maketh men wonderful Partial in judging of their own Vertues and Vices in Sign 7. comparison of other mens When the humble are complaining of their weaknesses and sinfulness and have much ado to believe that they are any thing or to discern the sincerity of their grace and think their prayers are as no prayers and their duties so bad that God will not regard them the Proud think well of all they do and are little troubled at their greater wants They easily see another mans failings but the very same or worse they justifie in themselves Their own passions their own over-reachings or injurious dealings their own ill words are smoothed over as harmless things when other mens are aggravated as intolerable crimes Another is judged by them unfit for humane societies for less than that which they cannot endure to be themselves reproved for and will hardly be convinced that it is any fault So blind is Pride about themselves § 59. Sign 8. Pride makes men hear their Teachers as Iudges when they should hear them as Sign 8. Learners and Disciples of Christ They come not to be taught what they knew not but to censure what they hear and as confidently pass their judgement on it as if their Teachers wanted nothing but their instructions to Teach them aright I know that no poyson is to be taken into the soul upon pretence of any mans authority and that we must prove all things and hold fast that which is good But yet I know that you must be Taught even to do this and that the Pastors office is appointed by Christ as necessary to your good and that the Scholars that are still quarrelling with their Teachers and readier to Teach their Masters than to learn of them and boldly contradicting what they never understood are too proud to become wise And that Humility and Reason teacheth men to learn with a sense of their ignorance and the necessity of a Teacher § 60. Sign 9. A proud man is alwayes hard
than a heavenly portion for children and friends and rejoyce more in their bodily than their spiritual prosperity and are troubled more for their poverty than their ungodliness or sin 16. When we can see our brother have need and shut up the bowels of our compassion or can part with no more than meer superfluities for his relief when we cannot spare that which 1 Tim 6. 17 18. Mal. 3. 8 9. Judg. 7. 21. makes but for our better being when it is necessary to preserve his Being it self or when we give unwillingly or spâ—â—ingly 17. When we will venture upon sinful means for gain as lying over-reaching deceiving flattering or going against our Consciences or the Commands of God 18. When we are too much in expecting liberality from others and think that all we buy of should sell cheaper Duâ— râ—s maxime homines ad maleficium impellunt Luxuries avaritia 〈◊〉 1. ad Heâ—en Corrupti sunt depravatique mores admiratione divitiarum Idem 2. Offâ—â— Nihil est tam sanctum quod non violaâ—i nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit Cicero 2. in Verreâ— When Alexander sent Phocion an hundred tâ—lents â—e asked why he rather sent it to him than all the rest of the Atâ—enians He answered Because he took him to be the only honâ—st man in Aâ—â—eas whereupon Pâ—ocion returned it to him again intreating him to give him leave to be honest still to us than they can afford and consider not their loss or want so that we have the gain nor are contented if they be never so bountiful to others if they be not so to us 19. When we make too much ado in the world for riches taking too much upon us or striving for preferment and flattering great ones and envying any that are preferred before us or get that which we expected 20. When we hold our money faster than our innocency and cannot part with it for the sake of Christ when he requireth it but will stretch our consciences and sin against him or forsake his cause to save our estates Or will not part with it for the service of his Church or of our country when we are called to it 21. When the Riches which we have are used but for the pampering of our flesh and superfluous provision for our posterity and nothing but some inconsiderable crums or driblets are imployed for God and his servants nor used to further us in his service and towards the laying up of a treasure in Heaven These are the signs of a worldly covetous wretch § 7. V. The counterfeits of liberality or freedom from covetousness which deceive the worldling are such as these 1. He thinks he is not Covetous because he hath a necessity of doing what he doth for more Either he is in debt or he is poor and scarcely hath whereon to live And the poor think that none are worldlings and covetous but the Rich. But he may love riches that wanteth them as much as he that hath them If you have a necessity of labouring in your callings you have no necessity of loving the world or of caring inordinately or of being discontented with your estate Impatience under your wants shews a love of the world and flesh as much as other mens bravery that possess it § 8. 2. Another thinks he is not a worldling because if he could but have necessaries even food and rayment and conveniencies for himself and family he would be content and it is not riches or great matters that he desireth But if your hearts are more set upon the getting of these necessaries or little It was one of â—hiâ—ons sayings Lapideis cotibus aurum examinari aâ—ro autem bonorum malorumque hominum mentem cujusmodi sit comprobaâ—â— i. e. As the touchstone trveth Gold so Gold tryeth mens minds whether they be good or bad Laâ—â—â—â—us iâ—â—â—â—â— p. 43. things than upon the preparing for death and making sure of the Heavenly treasure you are miserable worldlings still And the poor man that will set his heart more upon a poor and miserable life than upon heaven is more unexcusable than he that setteth his heart more upon Lordships and Honours than upon Heaven Though both of them are but the slaves of the world and have as yet no treasure in Heaven Math. 6. 19 20 21. And moreover you that are now so covetous for a little more if you had that would be as covetous for a little more still and when you had that for a little more yet You would next wear better cloathing and have better fare and next you would have your house repaired and then you would have your land enlarged and then you would have something more for your children and you would never be satisfied You think otherwise now but your hearts deceive you You do not know them If you believe me not judge by the case of other men that have been as confident as you that if they had but so much or so much they would be content but when they have it they would still have more And this which is your pretense is the common pretence of allmost all the covetous For Lords and Princes think themselves still in as great necessity as you think your selves As they have more so they have more to do with it and usually are still wanting as much as the poor The question is not How much you desire but to what use And to what end and in what order § 9. 3. Another thinks he is not covetous because he coveteth not any thing that is his neighbours They think that covetousness is only a desiring that which is not our own But if you love the world and worldly plenty inordinately and covet more you are covetous worldlings though you wish it not from another It is the worldly mind and love of wealth that is the sin at the root The ways of getting it are but the branches § 10. 4. Another thinks he is no worldling because he useth no unlawful means but the labour of his calling to grow rich The same answer serves to this The love of wealth for the satisfying of the flesh is unlawful whatever the means be And is it not also an unlawful means of getting to neglect God and your souls and the poor and shut out other duties for the world as you often do § 11. 5. Another thinks he is no worldling because he is contented with what he hath and coveteth no more When that which he hath is a full provision for his fleshly desires But if you over-love the world and delight more in it than God you are worldlings though you desire no more He is described by Christ as a miserable worldly fool Luke 12. 19 20. that saith Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry thou hast much goods laid up for many years To overlove what you have is worldliness as well as to desire more § 12. 6. Another thinks he is no worldling
to quicken them which should be used when your minds grow dull or barren When your minds 19. All Ordinances and Means of Grace are empty and you cannot pump up plentiful matter for holy thoughts the reading of a seasonable book or conference with a full experienced Christian will furnish you with matter so will the hearing of a profitable Sermon and sometime prayer will do more than meditation And weak-headed persons of small knowledge and shallow memories must fetch the matter of their meditations thus more frequently from reading and conference than others need to do As they can hold but a little at a time so they must go the ofter As he that goeth to the Water with a Spoon or a Dish must go ofter than they that go with a more capacious vessel Others can carry a store-house of meditation still about them but persons of very small knowledge and memory must have their meditations fed by others as infants by the spoon Therefore a little and often is the best way both for their Reading or hearing and for their holy thoughts How great a mercy is it that weak Christians have such store of helps that when their heads are empty they have books and friends that are not empty from whence they may fetch help as they want it and that their hearts are not empty of the Love of God which enclineth them to do more than their parts enable them to do § 20. Direct 20. If all these do not sufficiently furnish your meditations look through the world Direct 20. and see what a multitude of miserable souls do call for your compassion and daily prayers for their relief 20. The miserable sinful world Think on the many nations that lie in the darkness of Idolatry and Infidelity It is not past the sixth part of the world that are Christians of any sort The other five parts are Heathens and Mahometans and some few Jews And of this sixth part it s but a small part that are Reformed from Popery and such corruptions as the Eastern and Southern Christians also are too much defiled with And in the Reformed Churches how common is profaneness and worldliness and how few are acquainted with the power of Godliness What abundance of ignorant and ungodly persons be there who hate the power and practice of that Religion which they profess themselves they hope to be saved by as if they hoped to be saved for hating persecuting and disobeying it And among those that seem more serious and obedient how many are hypocrites And how many are possest with pride and self-conceitedness which breaketh forth into unruliness contentions and uncharitableness factions and divisions in the Church How many Christians are ignorant passionate weak unprofitable and too many scandalous And how few are judicious prudent heavenly charitable peaceable humble meek laborious and fruitful who set themselves wholly to be good and to do good And of these few how few are there that are not exercised under heavy afflictions from God or cruel persecutions from ungodly men What tyranny is exercised by the Turk without and the Pope within upon the sincerest followers of Christ. Set all this together and tell me whether thy compassionate Thoughts or thy Prayers do need to go out for want of fewel or matter to feed upon from day to day Tit. 3. Directions how to make good Thoughts effectual or General Directions for Meditation HEre some Directions are preparatory and some about the Work it self § 1. Direct 1. Be sure that Reason maintain its authority in the command and government of Direct 1. your thoughts and that they be not left masterless to fancy and passion and objects to carry them which way they please Diseased melancholy and crazed persons have almost no power over their own Thoughts They cannot command them to what they would have them exercised about nor call them off from any thing that they run out upon but they are like an unruly horse that hath a weak rider or hath cast the rider or like a masterless dog that will not go or come at your command Whereas our Thoughts should be at the direction of our Reason and the command of the will to go and come off as soon as they are bid As you see a student can rule his Thoughts all day he can appoint them what they shall meditate on and in what order and how long So can a Lawyer a Physicion and all sorts of men about the matters of their arts and callings And so it should be with a Christian about the matters of his soul All Rules of Direction are to little purpose with them whose Reason hath lost its power in governing their thoughts If I tell a man that is deeply melancholy Thus and thus you must order your thoughts He will tell me that he cannot His thoughts are not in his power If you would give never so much he is not able to forbear thinking of that which is his disturbance nor to command his thoughts to that which you direct him nor to think but as he doth even as his disease and trouble moveth him And what good will precepts do to such Grace and doctrine and exhortation work by Reason and the commanding will If a holy person could manage his practical heart-raising meditations but as orderly and constantly and easily as a carnal covetous Preacher can manage his thoughts in studying the same things for carnal ends to make a gain of them or to win applause how happily would our work go on And is it not sad to think that carnal ends should do so much more than spiritual about the same things § 2. Direct 2. Carefully avoid the disease of melancholy for that dethroneth Reason and disableth it Direct 2. to rule the thoughts Distraction wholly disableth but melancholy disableth only in part according to the measure of its prevalencie and therefore leaveth some room for advice § 3. Direct 3. Take heed of sloth and negligence of the will whereby the directions of Reason will be Direct 3. unexecuted for want of Resolution and command and so every temptation will carry away the thoughts A lazy coachman will let the horses go which way they list because he will not strive with them and will break his neck to save his labour If when you feel unclean or worldly thoughts invade your minds you will not give your wills the allarm and rise up against them and Resolutely command them out you will be like a lazy person that lieth in bed while he seeth Thieves robbing his house and will let all go rather than he will rise and make resistance A sign that he hath no great riches to lose or else he would stir for it And if you see your duty on what your Thoughts should be employed and will not resolutely call them up and command them to their work you will be like a sluggard that will let all his servants lie in bed as
eternity This is the Apostles method 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. But this I say brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have Wives â—e as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they pâ—ssessed not and they that use the world as not abusing it or as if they used it not for the fashion of this world passeth away So you will Desire as if you desired not when you perceive well how quickly the thing desired will pass away § 16. Direct 14. In all your Desires remember the account as well as the thing desired Think Direct 14. not only what it is now at hand but what account you must make to God of it For to whom men give or commit much of them they require the more Luk. 12. 48. will you thirst after more power more honour more wealth when you remember that you have the more to give account of Matth. 25. Have you not enough to reckon for already unless you had hearts to use it better § 17. Direct 15. Keep your selves close to the holy use of all your mercies and let not the flâ—sh Direct 15. devour them nor any inordinate appetite fare ever the better for them when you have them and this will powerfully extinguish the inordinate desire it self We are in little danger of being over eager after things spiritual and holy for the honour of God Resolve therefore that all you have shall be thus sanctified to God and used for him and not at all to satisfie any inordinate desire of the flâ—sh and then the flâ—sh will cease its suit when it finds it fares never the better for it You are able to do much in this way if you will If you cannot presently suppress the Desire you may presently resolve to deny the flesh the thing desired As David would not drink the water though he longed for it 2 Sam. 23. 15 17. and you may presently deny it the more of that you have If you cannot forbear your thirst you can forbear to drink If you cannot forbear to be hungry you can forbear to eat whatever is forbidden or unfit If Eve must needs have an appetite to the forbidden fruit yet she might have commanded her hand and teeth and not have eaten it If you cannot otherwise cool your Desire of curious Apparel wear that which is somewhat homelyer than else you would have worn on purpose to rebuke and controul that desire If you cannot otherwise quench your Covetous desires give so much the more to the poor to cross that desire You cannot say that the outward act is out of your power if you be but willing § 18. Direct 16. When your Desires are over-eager bethink you of the mercies which you have Direct 16. received already and do possess Hath God done so much for you and are you still calling for more even of that which is unnecessary when you should be giving thanks for what you have This unthankful greediness is an odious sin Think what you have already for soul and body estate and friends and will not all this quiet you even this with Christ and Heaven unless you have the other lust or fansie satisfied and unless God humour you in your sick desires § 19. Direct 17. Understand how little it will satisfie you if God should give you all that you Direct 17. carnally desire When you have it it will not quiet you nor answer your expectations You think it will make you happy and be exceeding sweet to you but it deceiveth you and you promise your selves you know not what And therefore desire you know not what It would be to you but Isa. 29. 8. like a dreaming feast which would leave you hungry in the morning § 20. Direct 18. Remember still that the greatest hurt that the Creature can do thee is in being Direct 18. overloved and desired and it is never so dangerous to thee as when it seemeth most desirable If you remembred this aright you would be cast into the greatest fear and caution when any thing below is presented very pleasing and desirable to you § 21. Direct 19. Consider that your desires do but make those wants a burden and misery to you Direct 19. which otherwise would be none Thirst makes the want of drink a torment which to another is no pain or trouble at all The lustful wanton is ready to die for love of the desired mate which no body else cares for nor is ever the worse for being without A proud ambitious Haman thinks himself undone if he be not honoured and is vexed if he be but cast down into the mean condition of a farmer When many thousand honest contented men live merrily and quietly in as low a condition It is mens own Desires and not their real wants which do torment them § 22. Direct 20. Remember that when you have done all if God love you he will be the chooser Direct 20. and will not grant your sick desires but will correct you for them till they are cured If your child cry for a knife or for unwholesom meat or any thing that would hurt him you will quiet him with the rod if he give not over And it is a sign some rod of God is near you when you are sick for this or that or the other thing and will not be quiet and content unless your fansie and concupiscence be humoured Tit. 4. Directions against sinful Mirth and Pleasure § 1. MIrth is sinful 1. When men rejoyce in that which is evil as in the hurt of others or in mens Stoici dicunâ— severos esse â—apâ—entes quod neque ipsi â—oquantur ad voluptatem nâ—que ab aliis ad voluptatem dicta admittant Esse autem alios severos qui ad rationem acris vini severi dicantur quo ad medicamenta potius quam ad propinationeÌ„ utuntur Laert. in Zenone sin or in the sufferings of Gods servants or the afflictions of the Church or the success or prosperity of the enemies of Christ or of any evil cause This is one of the greatest sins in the world and one of the greatest signs of wickedness when wickedness is it that they rejoyce in 2. When it is unseasonable or in an unmeet subject As to be merry in the time and place of mourning to feast when we should fast or for an unsanctisied miserable soul to be taken up in mirth that is in the power of sin and satan and near to Hell 3. Mirth is sinful when it tendeth to the committing of sin or is managed by sin as to make merry with lies and fables and tempting unnecessary time-wasting dances plays or recreations or with the slander or abuse of others or with drunkenness gluttony or excess 4. Mirth is sinful when it is a hinderance to our duty and unfitteth
Idolatry of the Israelites it is as they feared their Idols of Wood and Stone To fear them shewed that they took them for their Gods 2 Kings 17. 38 39. Dan. 6. 26. § 7. Direct 7. Consider that it is a folly to be inordinately fearful of that which never did befall Direct 7. thee and never befalleth one of many hundred thousand men I mean any terrible appearance of the Devil Thou never sawest him nor hearest credibly but of very few in an age that see him besides Witches This fear therefore is irrational the danger being utterly improbable § 8. Direct 8. Consider that if the Devil should appear to thee yea and carry thee to the top of Direct 8. a Mountain or the pinnacle of the Temple and talk to thee with blasphemous temptations it would be no other than what thy Lord himself submitted to who was still the dearly beloved of the Father Matth. 4. One sin is more terrible than this § 9. Direct 9. Remember that if God should permit him to appear to thee it might turn to thy very Direct 9. great advantage by killing all thy unbelief or doubts of Angels and Spirits and the unseen world It would sensibly prove to thee that there is indeed an unhappy race of Spirits who envy man and seek his ruine and so would more convince thee of the evil of sin the danger of souls the need of godliness and the truth of Christianity And it is like this is one cause why the Devil no more appeareth in the world not only because it is contrary to the ordinary Government of God who will have us live by faith and not by fight but also because the Devil knoweth how much it would do to destroy his Kingdom by destroying Infidelity Atheism and security and awakening men to faith and fear and godliness The Fowler or the Angler must not come in sight lest he spoil his Game by frighting it away § 10. Direct 10. If it be the spiritual temptations and molestations only of Satan which you fear Direct 10. remember that you have more cause to fear your selves for he can but tempt you and if you do not more against your selves than all the Devils in Hell can do you will never perish And if you are willing to accept and yield to Christ you need not inordinately fear either Satan or your selves For it is in the name and strength of Christ and under his conduct and protection that you are to begin and finish your warfare And the Spirit that is in us is greater and stronger than the Spirit that is in the world and that molesteth us 1 Iohn 4. 4. And the Father that giveth us to Christ is greater than all and none can pluck us out of his hands John 10. 29. And the God of peace will tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. If it were in his power he would molest us daily and we had never escaped so far as we have done Our daily experience telleth us that we have a Protector Directions against the sinful fear of men and sufferings by them § 1. Direct 1. Bottom thy soul and hopes on Christ and lay up thy treasure in Heaven be not a Direct 1. worldling that liveth in hope of happiness in the creature and then thou art so far above the fear of men Omma Christe tuâ— superant tormenta ferendo Tollere quae nâ— queunt haec toleraâ—e queunt His vita â—aruisse fâ—uâ— est posâ—isse potiri Et superasse paâ—â— est superesse mori as knowing that thy treasure is above their reach and thy foundation and fortress safe from their assaults It is a base hypocritical worldly heart that maketh you immoderately afraid of men Are you afraid lest they should storm and plunder Heaven Or lest they cast you into Hell or lest they turn God against you or lest they bribe or over-awe your Judge No no these are none of your fears No you are not so much as afraid lest they hinder one of your prayers from prevailing with God nor lest their Prison walls and chains should keep out God and his Spirit from you and force you from your communion with him You are not afraid lest they forcibly rob you of one degree of grace or heavenly mindedness or hopes of the life to come If it be lest they hinder you from these by tempting or affrightning you into sin which is all the hurt they can do your souls then you are the more engaged to cast away the fears of their hurting your bodies because that is their very temptation to hurt your souls No it is their hurting of your flesh the diminishing your estates the depriving you of your liberty or worldly accommodations or of your Ad tribunal aeternum judicis justâ— provocatio salva est â—â— solet is perperam judicata resemderâ— Pâ—tra â—h Dial. 66. li. 2. lives which is the thing you fear And doth not this shew how much your hearts are yet on earth and how much unmortified worldliness and fleshliness is still within you and how much yet your hearts are false to God and Heaven O how the discovery should humble you to find that you are yet no more dead to the things of the world and that the Cross of Christ hath yet no more crucified it to you to find that yet the fleshly interest is so powerful in you and the interest of Christ and Heaven so low That God seemeth not enough for you and that you cannot take Heaven alone for your portion but are so much afraid of losing earth O presently search into the bottom of this corruption in your hearts and lament your worldliness and hypocrisie and work it out and set your hearts and hopes above and be content with God and Heaven alone and then this inordinate fear of man will have nothing left to work upon § 2. Direct 2. Set God against man and his wisdom against their policy and his Love and mercy Direct 2. against their malice and cruelty and his power against their impotency and his truth and omniscience and righteousness against their slanders and lies and his promises against their threatnings and then if yet thou art inordinately afraid of man thou must confess that in that measure thou believest not in God If God be not wise enough and good enough and just enough and powerful enough to save thee so far as it is â—est for thee to be saved then he is not God Away with Atbeism and then fear not man § 3. Direct 3. Remember what man is that thou art afraid of He is a bubble raised by Providence Direct 3. to 〈…〉 ut the world and for God to honour himself by or upon He is the meer product Joâ— 13. â—5 Psal. 1. 5 6. 68. 2. Psal. 73 20. Job 20. 8. Victor uticâ—â—â—â— saith of Au gustine that he dyed of fear Nunc illud eloquentiae quod ubertim per omnes
reason when we mourn not for sin as sin but as one sin hindereth another or as it marred some ill design 2. And by the effect when it doth but sink men in despair or torment th 〈…〉 and not at all separate them from the sin 3. When it cometh not at all from any love to God or care to please him but only an unwillingness to be damned and so it is lâ—mented only as a means of damnation which though it be a sorrow positively neither good nor â—â—il yet it is evil privatively § 5. But it is the Passion of Grief as in its excess that I am now to speak against And it is in 〈…〉 maâ—h 〈…〉 and heaviness â—â— an enemy to Christianâ—ty and to the Spirit of God excess 1. When we grieve for that which we ought not at all to grieve for that is either for some gâ—od or for a thing indifferent that is neither good or bad Both which come from the error of the mind a. When we grieve too much for that which we may grieve for lawfully in some measure that is for our own afflictions or penal suffering 3. When we grieve too much for that which we are bound to grieve for in some measure As 1. For our sin 2. For our loss of the favour of God or of his Grace and Spirit 3. For other mens sin and suffering 4. For the sufferings of the Church and calamities of the world 5. For Gods dishonour § 6. Though it is not easie to have too much sorrow for sin considering it Estimatively that is we can hardly take sin for a worse evil than it is and accordingly grieve for it yet it is oft too easie to have too much sorrow for sin or any other evil intensively as to the greatness of the Passion And thus sorrow for sin is too great 1. When it distracteth the mind and overturneth reason and maketh us unfit for the ends of sorrow 2. When it so cloudeth and clotheth the soul in grief that it is made unfit to see and consider of the promise to rellish mercy or believe it to acknowledge benefits or own Grace received or be thankful for it to feel the Love of God or love him for it to praise him or to mind him or to call upon him when it driveth the soul from God and weakneth it to duty and teacheth it to deny mercy and sinketh it towards despair all this is too much and sinful sorrow and so is all that doth the soul more hurt than good For sorrow is not good of it self but as it doth good or sheweth good § 7. Direct 1. Keep your hearts as true and close to God as possible and make sure of his love Direct 1. that you may know you have not an unregenerate miserable soul to mourn for and then all other grief is the more curable and more tollerable Be once able to say that God is on your side that Christ and the Spirit and Heaven is yours and then you have the greatest Cordial against excessive grief that this world affords If you say How should this be done I answer that is opened in its proper place No marvail if sorrow overwhelm that soul that is in the chains of sin under the Curse of God as soon as awakened conscience comes to feel it And it is most miserable when it hath the smallest sorrow there being some hope that sorrow may drive it home to Christ. Therefore it thou have been a secure unhumbled carnal wretch and God be now beginning to humble thee by shewing thee thy sin and misery take heed as thou lovest thy soul that thou drive not away necessary healing sorrow and repentance under precence of driving away melancholy or over much sorrow Thy smart tendeth to thy hopes of Cure § 8. Direct 2. Renew not the wounds of Conscience by renewed willful gross sin For sin will bring Direct 2. sorrow especially if thou have any life of grace to feel it Even as falls and breaking the bones brings pain Obey carefully if thou wouldst have peace § 9. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the General grounds of hope in the Mercy of God the Office Direct 3. and Death of Christ and the free universal offer of pardon grace and life in the New Covenant Abundance of grief doth dwell in many humbled souls through the ignorance of these General grounds of comfort which would vanish away if these were known § 10. Direct 4. Know well the true nature and use of godly sorrow how it is but a means to higher Direct 4. grace and a thing which may exceed and not a thing that we should stop in or think we can never have too much of it Desire is but in its place and to its proper ends § 11. Direct 5. Know well the nature and excellency of those higher graces which sorrow tendeth Direct 5. to Even Love and Thankfulness and Delight in God and fruitful Obedience And then you will be carried after these and will learn to hate the sorrow that hindereth them and to cherish that sorrow which leadeth you up to them and to value it but as a means to them § 12. Direct 6. Manage all your affairs especially those of your souls with prudent foresight and Direct 6. look not only on things as they appear at hand Judge not by Sense but by Reason for Sense cannot 〈◊〉 sâ—ntentiâ—â—â—â—â— Pruâ—â—n â—â—m viroâ—um esse prius quam adversa câ—ntingant praeviâ—â—re â—â— venâ—â—nt â—â—â—â—iuâ— vero cum iâ—â—a contigeâ—â—r aequo animo sâ—râ—e I aâ—â—t in Pâ—ttaâ— fâ—resee but pleaseth it self at present with that which must be bitterness in the end Thus carnal delight is the common way to overwhelming sorrow He that would not have the pain and sickness of a Surfeit to morrow must not please his appetite against reason to day Poyson will gripe and kill nevertheless for tasting sweet You must fore-know how that which you take will work and what will be the effects of it and not only how it tasteth if you would escape the pain The Drunkard thinketh not of his vomiting and poverty or shame or sickness and therefore causeth them There is no sorrow so intollerable as that of a guilty soul that 's passing in terror to the Bar of God and thence to everlasting pain Foresee this sorrow in your most pleasant sin and remember that when you are tempted to sin you are tempted to sorrow and then you may prevent it And in all your particular actions use a foreseeing judgement and ask what is like to be the end before you enter on the beginning Most of our sorrows come for want of this and express themselves by Had I known or Had I thought of this I had prevented it Do nothing which you may foresee must be repented of for Repentance is sorrowful and the weightier the case the deeper the sorrow How easie and comfortable a life and death might men attain if
pound of â—â—m 〈…〉 but a pâ—nny â—â— thâ— nâ—â—â—â— Because â—aith he I may oft receive of them but God knows whether ever I shall have more of him Laert. in Diog. Prov. 28. 19. scattereth and yet increaseth Prov. 11. 24. But this is not the issue of thy scattering Prov. 23. 19 20 21. Hear thou my son and be wise and guide thy heart in the way Be not amongst wine bibbers amongst riotous eaters of flesh For the Drunkard and the Glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall cloath a man with rags § 28. 5. Thou art an enemy to thy family Thou grievest thy friends Thou impoverishest thy children and robbest those whom thou art bound to make provision for Thou fillest thy house with discontents and brawlings and banishest all quietness and fear of God A discontented or a brawling wife and ragged dissolute untaught Children are often signs that a Drunkard or Riotous person is the mâ—â—â—â—er of the family § 29. 6. Thou art a heynous consumer of thy pretious Time This is far worse than the wasting of thy estate O that thou didst but know as thou shalt know at last what those hours are worth which thou wastest over thy pots and how much greater work thou hadst to lay it out upon How many thousands in Hell are wishing now in vain that they had those hours again to spend in prayer and repentance which they spent in the ALE-house and senselesly cast away with their companions in sin Is the glass turned upon thee and death posting towards thee to put an end to all thy time and â—ay thee where thou must dwell for ever and yet canst thou sit tipling and prating away thy time as if this were all that thou hadst to do with it O what a wonder of sottishness and stupidity is a hardned sinner that can live so much below his reason The senses neglect of thy souls concernment and greater matters is the great part of thy sin more than the drunkenness it self § 30. 7. How base a Price dost thou set upon thy Saviour and salvation that wilt not forbear so much as a cup of drink for them The smallness of the thing sheweth the smallness of thy Love to God and the smallness of thy regard to his word and to thy soul. Is that loving God as God when thou lovest a cup of drink better Art thou not ashamed of thy Hypocrisie when thou saiest thou lovest God above all when thou lovest him not so well as thy Wine and Ale Surely he that loveth him not above Ale loveth him not above all Thy choice sheweth what thou lovest best more certainly than thy tongue doth It is the dish that a man greedily eateth of that he loveth and not that which he â—â—h 14 15. â— Jâ—â— 5. 2 3. commendeth but will not meddle with God tryeth mens Love to Him by their keeping his commandments It was the aggravation of the first sin that they would not deny so small a thing as the forbidden fruit in obedience to God! And so it is of thine that wilt not leave a forbidden cup for him O miserable wretch dost thou not know thou canst not be Christ Disciple if thou forsake not all for him and hate not even thy life in comparison of him and wouldst not rather die than forsake him Luk. 14. 26 33. And art thou like to lay down thy life for him that wilt not leave a cup of drink for him Canst thou burn at a stake for him that canst not leave an ALE-house or vain company or excess for him What a sentence of condemnation dost thou pass upon thy self Wilt thou â—â—ll thy God and thy soul for so small a matter as a cup of drink Never delude thy self to say I hope I do not so when thou knowest that God hath told thee in his word that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. Nay God hath commanded those that will come to Heaven to have no familiarity with thee upon earth no not so much as to eat with thee 1 Cor. 5. 11. Read what Christ himself saith Matth. 24. 48 49 50 51. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and to drink with the drunken the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Read Deut. 29. 19 20. If when thou hearest the words of Gods curse thou bless thy self in thy heart and say I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst the Lord will not spare that man but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against him and all the curses that are written in this Book shall lye upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven and the Lord shall separate him to evil Thou seest here how God will spice thy Cups § 31. 8. Thou art the shame of humane nature Thou representest man in the likeness of a Beast And a shame to thy fâ—mâ—ly As its said thâ—â— Ciâ—â—ro's son pâ—oved a drunkard to whom he directed his Book de offiâ—iâ—sâ— which is made his fathers reproach and worse As if he were made but instead of a Barrel or a sink Look on a drunkard filthing and spewing and reeling and bawling and see if he be not uglyer than a bruit Thou art a shame to thy own Reason when thou shewest the world that it cannot so much as shut thy mouth nor prevail with thee in so small a thing Wrong not Reason so much as to call thy self Rational and wrong not mankind so much as to call thy self a man Non homo sed ampbora said one of Bonâ—sus the drunken Emperour when he was hang'd It is a barrel and not a man § 32. 9. Thou destroyest that Reason which is the Glory of thy Nature and the natural part of the Image of God upon thy mind If thou shouldst deface the Kings Armes or Image in any publick place and set in the stead of it the image of a dog would it not be a Traiterous contempt How much worse is it to do thus by God If thou didst mangle and deform thy body it were less in this respect for it is not thy body but thy soul that is made after the Image of God Hath God given thee Reason for such high and excellent ends and uses and wilt thou dull it and drown it in obedience to thy throat Thy Reason is of higher value than thy house or land or money and yet thou wilt not cast them away so easily Had God made thee an ideot or mad and lunatick thy case had been to be pityed but to make thy self mad and despise
covering him § 4. 3. And that God hath not put this Law into mans nature without very great cause albeit the Implicite belief and submission due to him should satisfie us though we knew not the causes particularly yet much of them is notorious to common observation As that if God had not restrained lust by Laws it would have made the female sex most contemptible and miserable and used worse by men than dogs are For first rapes and violence would deflowre them because they are too weak to make resistance And if that had been restrained yet the lust of men would have been unsatisfied and most would have grown weary of the same woman whom they had abused and taken another at least when she grew old they would choose a younger and so the aged women would be the most calamitous creatures upon earth Besides that lust is addicted to variety and groweth weary of the same the fallings out between men and women and the sicknesses that make their persons less pleasing and age and other accidents would expose them almost all to utter misery And men would be Law-makers and therefore would make no Laws for their relief but what consisted with their lusts and ends So that half the world would have been ruined had it not been for the Laws of matrimony and such other as restrain the lusts of men § 5. 4. Also there would be a confused mixture in procreation and no men would well know what children are their own which is worse than not to know their Lands or Houses § 6. 5. Hereby all natural affection would be diminished or extinguished As the love of Husband and Wife so the Love between Fathers and Children would be diminished § 7. 6. And consequently the due education of children would be hindered or utterly overthrown The mothers that should first take care of them would be disabled and turned away that fresh harlots might be received who would hate the offspring of the former So that by this means the world and all societies and civility would be ruined and men would be made worse than bruits whom nature hath either better taught or else made for them some other supply Learning Religion and civility would be all in a manner extinct as we see they are among those few savage Cannibals that are under no restraint For how much all these depend upon education experience telleth us In a word this confusion in procreation would introduce such confusion in mens hearts and families and all societies by corrupting and destroying necessary affection and education that it would be the greatest plague imaginable to mankind and make the world so base and beastly that to destroy mankind from off the earth would seem much more desirable Judge then whether God should have left mens Lusts unrestrained § 8. Object But you 'll say there might have been some moderate restraint to a certain number as Object it is with the Mahometans without so much strictness as Christ doth use Answ. That this strictness is necessary and is an excellency in Gods law appeareth thus 1. By Answ. the greatness of the mischief which else would follow To be remiss in preventing such a confusion in the world would be an enmity to the world 2. In that mans nature is so violently inclined to break over that if the hedge were not close there were no sufficient restraining them they would quickly run out at a little gap 3. The wiser and the better any nation or persons are even among the Heathens the more fully do they consent to the strictness of Gods Laws 4. The cleanest sort of bruits themselves are taught by nature to be as strict in their copulations Though it be otherwise with the meer terrestrial beasts and birds yet the aërial go by couples Those that are called the fowles of the Heavens that fly in the air are commonly taught this chastity by nature as if God would not have lust come near to Heaven 5. The families of the Mahometans that have more wives than one do shew the mischief of it in the effects in the hatred and disagreement of their wives and the great slavery that women are kept in making them like slaves that they may keep them quiet And when women are thus enslaved who have so great a part in the education of children by which all virtue and civility are maintained in the world it must needs tend to the debasing and brutifying of mankind § 9. 7. Children being the pretiousest of all our treasure it is necessary that the strictest Laws be made for the securing of their good education and their welfare If it shall be treason to debase or counterfeit the Kings coyn and if men must be hanged for robbing you of your goods or money and the Laws are not thought too strict that are made to secure your estates how much more is it necessary that the Laws be strict against the vitiating of mankind and against the debasement of your image on your children and against that which tendeth to the extirpation of all virtue and the ruine of all societies and souls § 10. 8. God will have a holy seed in the world that shall bear his image of holiness and therefore he will have all means fitted thereunto Bruitish promiscuous generation tendeth to the production of a bruitish seed And though the word preached is the means of sanctifying those that remain unsanctified from their youth yet a holy marriage and holy dedication of children to God and holy education of them are the former means which God would not have neglected or corrupted and to which he promiseth his blessing As you may see 1 Cor. 7. 14. Mal. 2. 15. Did not he make one Yet had he the residue of the spirit And wherefore one That he might seek a godly seed Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth For the Lord bateth putting away § 11. 9. Yea lust corrupteth the mind of the person himself if it be not very much restrained and moderated It turneth it from the only excellent pleasure by the force of that bruitish kind of pleasure It carrieth away the thoughts and distempereth the passions and corrupteth the phantasie and Solomons wives turned away his heart aâ—ter other Gods 1 Kings 11. 4. The wisdom of Solomon preserved him not from the power of lust and the deceit of women 1 Pet. 2. 10. Fleshly â—â—â—â—ts that fight against the â—oâ—l thereby doth easily corrupt the intellect and heart Pleasure is so much of the End of man which his Nature leadeth him to desire that the chief thing in the world to make a man Good and Happy is to engage his heart to those Pleasures which are Good and make men Happy And the chief thing to make him Bad and Miserable is to engage him in the pleasures which make men Bad and end in Misery And the principal thing by which you may know
to honour the names of Peter and Paul and Stephen and Iohn of Augustin Hierom Chrysostom and other such saints of God And yet wilt thou make a scorn of those that strive to imitate them Search and see if any of these men did after their conversion live in luxury carding dicing prophaneness and if any of them was against a Holy life against much Praying Hearing Reading the Scriptures meditating exact obedience to God then let not the shame be thine but mine He that is most unlike them let him have the scorn § 25. 19. Thou deridest men for Repenting of their former sins and for accepting that mercy which Christ hath purchased and God hath offered them and sent his messengers to intreat them to accept Can they Repent of their former ungodliness and not turn from it and amend If thou knewest what they know thou wouldst repent thy self and not deride men for repenting If thou knewest the gift of God thou wouldst beg it and gladly accept of it thy self and not deride them that accept it § 26. 20. Thou scornest men for keeping that Covenant which thou also madest with God in thy Baptism thy self At the same time thou speakest against the Anabaptists that will not have their children baptised and deridest those that keep their Covenant which in baptism they made What a monster of contradictions is an ungodly Hypocrite Didst thou not in Baptism renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and give up thy self in Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost And dost thou not yet know what thou didst But scorn them that perform it What is it to be given up to God in Baptism but to take him for thy God thy Saviour and Sanctifier whom thou must Love and seek and obey in Holiness with all thy Heart and Soul and Might He is a Covenant-breaker indeed that hates the keeping of it I have hitherto been shewing thee what it is that thou opposest and deridest I shall now tell thee further what thou dost in shewing thee the Aggravations of thy sin and its importance § 27. 2. Consider in all this what an open enemy thou art to God and an open Souldier for the Devil What canst thou do more against God and do thy worst than make a scorn of all his work and sâ—â—vants He feareth not thy power or rage thou canst not hurt him How many millions of such woâ—ms as thou can he tread to Hell or destroy in a moment It is in his servants and service that he is honoured or opposed here and that mortals shew their Love or hatred to him And how canst thou devise if thou wouldst do thy worst to serve the Devil more notoriously than by opposing and deriding the service of God If such be not Satans Servants he hath none § 28. 3. Consider what a terrible badge of misery thou carriest about thee thou bearest the mark of Satan Death and Hell in thy forehead as it were If there were any doubt whether a Swearer or drunkard or Fornicator may be in a state of Grace yet it is past all doubt that a Scorner of Godliness is not It were strange indeed for that man to be Holy that derideth Holiness There is scarce any sort of men in the world that are more undoubtedly in a state of damnation than thou art It is dark to us what God will do with Infidels and Heathens that never had the means of salvation But what he will do with all the unbelieving and ungodly that have had the means we know past doubt much more what he will do with those that are not only void of Holiness but deride it I deny not but yet if thou be converted thou maist be saved And O that God would give the repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that thou mightest escape out of the Devils snares who leads thee captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25. 26. It is written of Basil that by his prayers he caused the Devil to give back a writing by which a wretched man had sold his soul to him that he might enjoy his Masters daughter and that the man repented and was delivered If thou maist be so recovered it will be a happy day for thee But till then it is as sure as the Scripture is sure that thou art a miserable creature and an undone â—â—â—â—iâ—â—us Arriaâ—â—â—â—um Episâ—â—â—â—uâ— Hâ—â—nâ—riâ—â—m Râ—gâ—m pâ—rsâ—â—sit non pâ—sâ—â— pacaâ—um atque longaevum obtinere regnum nisi nomen perderet innocentum Qui tamen Dei judicio post non mulâ—os dâ—es turpâ—ssâ—ma moâ—te prâ—ventus scateâ—s vermibus expiravit Victor Vâ—ic p. 369. man if thou die in that condition that thou art in O with what fear shouldst thou rise and lie down if thou hadst thy wiâ—s about thee lest thou shouldst die before thou art converted § 29. 4. To scorn at Holiness is a defiance of grace as if thou didst renounce Gods mercy Thou dost thy worst to drive away all hope and make thy case uncurable and desperate For if ever thou be saved it must be by this gâ—â—ce and Holy life which thou deridest And is scorning grace the way to get it And is it likely that the Holy-Ghost will come and dwell in the man that scorneth his sanctifying works § 30. 5. To scorn at Godliness is a daring of God to give over his patience and presently to execute his vengeance on thee Canst thou wonder if he should make thee a monument of his Justice and set thee up for all others to take warning by Who is fitter for this than the scornful opposers of his grace and service Hasten not vengeance man it will come time enough Will a worm defie the God of Heaven § 31. 6. How little dost thou understand of all that thou opposest Didst thou ever try a holy life If thou hadst thou wouldst not speak against it If thou hadst not art thou not ashamed to speak evil of that which thou dost not understand It is a thing that none can througly know without experience Try it a while and then speak thy mind § 32. 7. Didst thou ever consider how many judgements are against thee and whom thou dost contradict and scorn 1. If thou scorn at serious Godliness at Preaching hearing reading Praying Meditating and strict avoiding sin thou contradictest God himself for none in all the world is so Holy or so much for Holiness as he And therefore ultimately it is him that all thy malice is against even God the Father and the Redeemer and the Sanctifier 2. Thou settest thy self against all the evidence of Scripture 3. And against all the works of God For all conspire to call the world to Holiness and strict obedience to God 4. And thou contradictest all the Prophets and Apostles and all the ancient Fathers of the Church and all the Martyrs and Saints of God that ever were in the world and all the learned faithful Ministers and Pastors of the Church that are
ability opportunity and a Call may be excused by Religion from worldly labours as Ministers but not from such spiritual labours for others which they can perform He that under pretence of Religion withdraweth from converse and forbeareth to do good to others and only liveth to himself and his own soul doth make Religion a pretense against Charity and the works of Charity which are a great part of Religion For pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world Jam. 1. 27. Even when sickness imprisonment or persecution disableth to do any more for others we must pray for them But while we can do more we must § 4. Quest. 4. Will not Riches excuse one from labouring in a Calling Answ. No but rather bind Quest. 4. them to it the more For he that hath most wages from God should do him most work Though Wâ—â—l not Riches excuse they have no outward want to urge them they have as great a necessity of obeying God and doing good to others as any other men have that are poor § 5. Quest. 5. Why is labour thus necessary to all that are able Answ. 1. God hath strictly commanded Quest. 5. â—â—y Labour is necessary it to all And his Command is Reason enough to us 2 Thess. 3. 10 11 12. For even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all but are busie-bodies Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Iesus Christ that with quietness Ezek. 46. 1. Deut. 16. 15. Deut. 2. 7. Exod. 34. 21. they work and eat their own bread See vers 6. 14. 1 Thess. 4. 11. We beseech you brethren that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business and work with your hands as we commanded you that ye may walk honestly or decently towards them that are without and that ye may have lack of nothing Gen. 3. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground And in the fourth Commandment Six dayes shalt thou labour So Ephes. 4. 28. Prov. 31. 31 33. § 6. 2. Naturally action is the end of all our Powers and the Power were vain but in respect to the act To be able to understand to read to write to go c. were little worth if it were not that we may Do the things that we are enabled to § 7. 3. It is for Action that God maintaineth us and our abilities work is the moral as well as the natural End of power It is the act by the power that is commanded us § 8. 4. It is action that God is most served and honoured by not so much by our being able to do good but by our doing it who will keep a servant that is able to work and will not Will his meer ability answer your expectation § 9. 5. The publick welfare or the good of many is to be valued above our own Every man therefore is bound to do all the good he can to others especially for the Church and Commonwealth And this is not done by Idleness but by Labour As the Bees labour to replenish their hive so man being a sociable creature must labour for the good of the society which he belongs to in which his own is contained as a part § 10. 6. Labour is necessary for the preservation of the faculties of the mind 1. The labour of the mind is necessary hereto because unexercised Abilities will decay as Iron not used will consume with rust Idleness makes men fools and dullards and spoileth that little ability which they have 2. And the exercise of the Body is ordinarily necessary because of the minds dependance on the body and acting according to its temperature and disposition It is exceedingly helped or hindered by the body § 11. 7. Labour is needful to our health and life The Body it self will quickly fall into mortal Socrates was mightâ—ly addicted to the exercise of his body as necessary to the health of body and mind Laert. Plâ—tarch out of Plato saith that soul and body should be equally exercised togâ—ther and driven on as two Houses in a Coach and not either of them overgo the osher Prâ—â— of Health diseases without it except in some very few persons of extraordinary soundness Next to abstinence labour is the chief preserver of health It stirreth up the natural heat and spirits which perform the chief offices for the life of man It is the proper bellows for this vital fire It helpeth all the concoctions of nature It attenuateth that which is too gross it purifieth that which beginneth to corrupt it openeth obstructions it keepeth the mass of blood and other nutritious humours in their proper temperament fit for motion circulation and nutrition it helpeth them all in the discharge of their natural offices It helpeth the parts to attract each one its proper nutriment and promoteth every sermentation and assimilation by which nature maintaineth the transitory still consuming Oyle and mass It excelleth art in the preparation alteration and expulsion of all the excrementitious matter which being retained would be the matter of manifold diseases and powerfully fighteth against all the enemies of health In a word it doth incomparably excell the help of the most skilful Physicions and excellent Medicines in the world for the preventing of most diseases incident to man and consequently to the benefit of the soul it self which cheerfully useth a cheerful and well tempered body and useth a languishing sickly body as the Rider useth a tired Horse or as we use a sick or lazie servant or a blunted Knife or a Clock or Watch that is out of order I speak all this of Bodily labour which is necessary to the Body and consequently to the mind For want of which abundance grow melancholly and abundance grow sluggish and good for nothing and abundance cherish filthy lusts and millions yearly turn to earth before their time For want of bodily labour a multitude of the idle Gentry and rich people and young people that are slothful do heap up in the secret receptacles of the body a dunghill of unconcocted excrementitious filth and vitiate all the mass of humours which should be the fewel and oyle of life and dye by thousands of untimely deaths of Feavors Palsies Convulsions Apoplexies Dropsies Consumptions Gout c. more miserably than if Thieves had murdered them by the High-way because it is their own doing and by their sloth they kill themselves For want of bodily exercise and labour interposed abundance of Students and sedentary persons fill themselves with diseases and hasten their death and causelesly blame their hard studies for that which was caused by their bodily sloth The hardest studies will do
held to such a course of life as may be most effectual to destroy and change those habits And some that are upright at the heart and in the main and most momentous things are guilty but of some actual faults and of these some more seldom and some more frequent And if you do not prudently diversifie your rebukes according to their faults you will but harden them and miss of your ends For there is a family-justice that must not be overthrown unless you will overthrow your families as there is a more publick justice necessary to the publick good § 12. Direct 4. Be a good Husband to your Wife and a good Father to your Children and a good Direct 4. Master to your Servants and let Love have Dominion in all your Government that your inferiours may easily find that it is their interest to obey you For interest and self-love are the natural rulers of the world And it is the most effectual way to procure obedience or any good to make men perceive that it is for their own good and to engage self-love for you that they may see that the benefit is like to be their own If you do them no good but are sour and uncourteous and close-handed to them few will be ruled by you § 13. Direct 5. If you would be skilful in Governing others learn first exactly to command your Direct 5. selves Can you ever expect to have others more at your will and government than your selves Is he fit to rule his family in the fear of God and a holy life who is unholy and feareth not God himself Or is he fit to keep them from passion or drunkenness or gluttony or lust or any way of sensuality that cannot keep himself from it Will not inferiours despise such reproofs which are by your selves contradicted in your lives You know this is true of Wicked Preachers and is it not as true of other Governours § 14. III. Gen. Direct You must be Holy Persons if you would be Holy Governours of your families Mens actions follow the bent of their Dispositions They will do as they are An enemy of God will not govern a family for God Nor an enemy of Holiness nor a stranger to it set up a holy order in his house and in a holy manner manage his affairs I know it is cheaper and easier to the flesh to call others to mortification and holiness of life than to bring our selves to it But yet when it is not a bare command or wish that is necessary but a course of holy and industrious Government unholy persons though some of them may go far have not the ends and principles which such a work requireth § 15. Direct 1. To this end be sure that your own souls be entirely subjected unto God and that you Direct 1. more accurately obey his Laws than you expect any inferiour should obey your commands If you daâ—e disobey God why should they fear disobeying you Can you more sâ—verely revenge disobedience or more bountifully reward obedience than God can do Are you Greater and Better than God himself is § 16. Direct 2. Be sure that you lay up your treasure in Heaven and make the enjoyment of God in Direct 2. Glory to be the ultimate commanding end both of the affairs and government of your family and all things else with which you are entrusted Devote your selves and all to God and do all for him Do all as passengers to another world whose business on earth is but to provide for Heaven and promote their everlasting interest If thus you are separated unto God you are sanctified And then you will separate all that you have to his use and service and this with his acceptance will sanctifie all § 17. Direct 3. Maintain Gods authority in your family more carefully than your own Your own Direct 3. is but for his More sharply rebuke or correct them that wrong and dishonour God than those that wrong and dishonour your selves Remember Elies sad example Make not a small matter of any of the sins especially the Great sins of your children or servants It is an odious thing to slight Gods cause and put up all with It is not well done when you are fiercely passionate for the loss of some small commodity of your own Gods honour must be greatest in your family and his service must have the preheminence of yours and sin against him must be the most intolerable offence § 18. Direct 4. Let spiritual Love to your family be predominant and let your care be greatest for Direct 4. the saving of their souls and your compassion greatest in their spiritual miseries Be first careful to provide them a portion in Heaven and to save them from whatsoever would deprive them of it And never prefer the transitory pelf of earth before their everlasting riches Never be so cumbered about many things as to forget that one thing is necessary but choose for your selves and them the Luk. 10. 4â— better part § 19. Direct 5. Let your family neither be kept in idleness and flesh-pleasing nor yet overwhelmed Direct 5. with such a multitude of business as shall take up and distract their minds diverting and unfitting them for holy things Where God layeth on you a necessity of excessive labours it must patiently and chearfully be undergone but when you draw them unnecessarily on your selves for the Love of Riches you do but become the Tempters and Tormentors of your selves and others forgetting 1 Tim. 6. 1â— the terrible examples of them that have this way fallen off from Christ and pierced themselves through with many sorrows § 20. Direct 6. As much as is possible settle a constant order of all your businesses that every ordinary Direct 6. work may know its time and confusion may not shut out Godliness It is a great assistance in every Calling to do all in a set and constant order It maketh it easie It removeth impediments and promoteth success Distraction in your business causeth a distraction of your minds in holy duty Some Callings I know can hardly be cast into any order and method but others may if prudence and diligence be used Gods service will thus be better done and your work will be better done to the ease of your servants and quiet of your own minds Foresight and skillfullness would save you abundance of labour and vexation CHAP. V. Special Motives to perswade men to the Holy Governing of their Families IF it were but well understood what Benefits come by the holy Governing of Familes and what mischiefs come by its neglect there would few persons that walk the streets among us appear so odious as those careless ungodly Governours that know not or mind not a duty of such exceeding weight While we lie all as overwhelmed with the calamitous fruits of this neglect I think meet to try if with some the cause may be removed by awakening ignorant sluggish
and shalt deliver his soul from Hell Prov. 19. 18. Chasten thy Son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying Ask him whether he would have you by sparing him to disobey God and hate him and destroy his soul. And when his reason is convinced of the reasonableness of correcting him it will be the more sucessful § 18. Direct 18. Let your own example teach your children that holiness and heavenliness and Direct 18. blamelessness of tongue and life which you desire them to learn and practise The example of Parents is most powerful with children both for good and evil If they see you live in the fear of God it will do much to perswade them that it is the most necessary and excellent course of life and that they must do so too And if they see you live a carnal voluptuous and ungodly life and hear you curse or swear or talk filthily or railingly it will greatly embolden them to imitate you If you speak Direct 19. never so well to them they will sooner believe your bad lives than your good words § 19. Direct 19. Choose such a Calling and course of life for your children as tendeth most to the saving of their souls and to their publick usefulness for Church or State Choose not a Calling that is most lyable to temptations and hinderances to their salvation though it may make them rich but a Calling which alloweth them some leisure for the remembring the things of everlasting consequence and fit opportunities to get good and to do good If you bind them Apprentices or Servants if it be possible place them with men fearing God and not with such as will harden them in their sin § 20. Direct 20. When they are marriageable and you find it needful look out such for them as are Direct 20. suitable betimes When Parents stay too long and do not their duties in this their children often choose for themselves to their own undoing For they choose not by judgement but blind affection § 21. Having thus told you the common duties of Parents for their children I should next have Direct 1. told you what specially belongeth to each Parent but to avoid prolixity I shall only desire you to remember especially these two Directions 1. That the Mother who is still present with children when they are young be very diligent in teaching them and minding them of good things When the Fathers are abroad the Mothers have more frequent opportunities to instruct them and be still speaking to them of that which is most necessary and watching over them This is the greatest service that most women can do for God in the world Many a Church that hath been blessed with a good Minister may thank the pious education of Mothers And many a thousand souls in Heaven may thank the holy care and diligence of Mothers as the first effectual means Good women this way by the good education of their children are ordinarily great blessings both to Church and State And so some understand 1 Tim. 2. 15. by Child-bearing meaning bringing up children for Direct 2. God but I rather think it is by Maries bearing Christ the promised seed 2. By all means let children be taught to read if you are never so poor and what ever shift you make or else you deprive them of a singular help to their instruction and salvation It is a thousand pities that a Bible should signifie no more than a Chip to a rational creature as to their reading it themselves and that so many excellent Books as be in the world should be as sealed or insignificant to them § 22. But if God deny you children and save you all this care and labour repine not but be thankful believing it is best for you Remember what a deal of duty and pains and hearts grief he hath freed you from and how few speed well when Parents have done their best what a life of misery children must here pass through and how sad the fear of their sin and damnation would have been to you CHAP. XI The special Duties of Children towards their Parents THough Precepts to Children are not of so much force as to them of riper age because of their natural incapacity and their childish passions and pleasures which bear down their weak dâ—gree of Reason yet somewhat is to be said to them because that measure of Reason which they have is to be exercised and by exercise to be improved and because even those of riper years while they have Parents must know and do their duty to them and because God useth to bless even children as they perform their duties § 1. Direct 1. Be sure that you dearly love your Parents Delight to be in their company Be not Direct 1. like those unnatural children that love the company of their idle play-fellows better than their Parents and had rather be abroad about their sports than in their Parents sight Remember that you have your Being from them and come out of their loins Remember what sorrow you have cost them and what care they are at for your education and provision and remember how tenderly they have loved you and what grief it will be to their hearts if you miscarry and how much your happiness will make them glad Remember what Love you owe them both by Nature and in Iustice for all their Love to you and all that they have done for you They take your Happiness or Misery to be one of the greatest parts of the Happiness or Misery of their own lives Deprive them not then of their Happiness bâ— depriving your selves of your own Make not their lives miserable by undoing your selves Though they chide you and restrain you and correct you do not therefore abate your Love to them For this is their Duty which God requireth of them and they do it for your good It is a sign of a wicked child that loveth his Parents the less because they correct him and will not let him have his own will Yea though your Parents have many faults themselves yet you must love them as your Parents still § 2. Direct 2. Honour your Parents both in your Thoughts and speeches and behaviour Think Direct 2. not dishonourably or contemptuously of them in your hearts Speak not dishonourably rudely unreverently or sawcily either to them or of them Behave not your selves rudely and unreverently before them Yea though your Parents be never so poor in the world or weak of understanding yea though they were ungodly you must honour them notwithstanding all this Though you cannot honour them as Rich or Wise or Godly you must honour them as your Parents Remember that the fifth Commandment hath a special promise of temporal blessing Honour thy Father and Mother that thy dayes may be long in the land c. And consequently the dishonourers of Parents have a special curse even in this life And the Justice of
will be often at it when they love it so that all these benefits will follow 1. It will make them Love the Book though it be but with a common Love 2. It will make them spend their time in it when else they would rather be at play 3. It will acquaint them with Scripture-History which will afterwards be very useful to them 4. It will lead them up by degrees to the knowledge of the doctrine which is all along interwoven with the History § 5. Direct 5 Take heed that you turn not all your family instructions into a customary formal Direct 5. course by bare readings and repeating Sermons from day to day without familiar personal application For it is ordinarily seen that they will grow as sleepy and senseless and customary under such a dull and distant course of duty though the matter be good almost as if you had said nothing to them Your business therefore must be to get within them and awaken their consciences to know that the matter doth most nearly concern them and to force them to make application of it to themselves § 6. Direct 6. Let none affect a formal Preaching way to their families except they be Preachers Direct 6. themselves or men that are able for the Ministry But rather spend the time in Reading to them the pâ—â—e fullest Books and speaking to them more familiarly about the state and matters of their souls Not that I think it unlawful for a man to preach to his family in the same Method that a Minister doth to his people For no doubt but he may teach them in the profitablest manner he can And that which is the best Method for a set speech in the Pulpit is usually the best Method in a family But my reasons against this Preaching-way ordinarily are these 1. Because it is very few Masters of families that are able for it even among them that think they are And then they ignorantly abuse the Scripture so as tends much to Gods dishonour 2. Because there is scarce any of them all but may read at the same time such lively profitable Books to their Families as handle those things which they have most need to hear of in a far more edifying manner than they themselves are able except they be so poor that they can get no such Books 3. Because the familiar way is most edifying And to talk seriously with Children and Servants about the great concernments of their souls doth commonly more move them than Sermons or set speeches Yet because there is a season for both you may sometimes read some powerful Books to them and sometimes talk familiarly to them 4. Because it often comes from Pride when men put their speech into a Preaching method to shew their parts and as often nourisheth pride § 7. Direct 7. Let the manner of your teaching them be very often interlâ—cutory or by way of Direct 7. Questions Though when you have so many or such persons present as that such familiarity is not seasonable then Reading repeating or set speeches may do best But at other times when the number or quality of the company hindereth not you will find that Questions and familiar discourse is best For 1. It keepeth them awake and attentive when they know they must make some answer to your Questions which set speeches with the dull and sluggish will hardly do 2. And it mightily helpeth them in the application so that they much more easily take it home and perceive themselves concerned in it § 8. Direct 8. Yet prudently take heed that you speak nothing to any in the presence of others that Direct 8. tends to open their ignorance or sin or the secrets of their hearts or that any way tendeth to shame them except in the necessary reproof of the obstinate If it be their common ignorance that will be opened by questioning them you may do it before your servants or Children themselves that are familiar with each other but not when any strangers are present But if it be about the secret state of their souls that you examine them you must do it singly when the person is alone Lâ—st shaming and troubling them make them haâ—e instruction and deprive them of all the benefit of it § 9. Direct 9. When you come to teach them the Doctrine of Religion begin with the Baptismal Direct 9. Covenant as the summ of all that is essential to Christianity And here teach them briefly all the substance of this at once For though such General knowledge will be obscure and not distinct and satisfactory yet it is necessary at first because they must see Truths set together For they will understand nothing truly if they understand it but independantly by broken parts Therefore open to them the summ of the Covenant or Christian Religion all at once though you say but little at first of the several parts Help them to understand what it is to be baptized into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And here you must open it to them in this order You must help them to know who are the Covenanters GOD and MAN and first the nature of man is to be opened because he is first known and God in him who is his Image Familiarly tell them that man is not like a beast that hath no Reason nor free will nor any knowledge of another World nor any other life to live but this But he hath an understanding to know God and a will to choose good and refuse evil and an immortal soul that must live for ever and that all inferiour Creatures were made for his service as he was made for the service of his Creator Tell them that neither man nor any thing that we see could make it self but God is the Maker preserver and disposer of all the world That this God is infinite in Power and Wisdom and Goodness and is the Owner and Ruler and Benefactor Felicity and End of man That man was made to be wholly devoted and resigned to God as his Owner and to be wholly Ruled by him as his Governour and to be wholly given up to his Love and Praise as his Father his Felicity and End That the Tempter having drawn man from this blessed state of life in Adam's fall the world fell under the wrath of God and had been lost for ever but that God of his mercy provided us a Redeemer even the Eternal Son of God who being One with the Father was pleased to take the nature of man and so is both God and man in one person who being born of a Virgin lived among men and fulfilled the Law of God and overcame the Tempter and the World and dyed as a Sacrifice for our sins to reconcile us unto God that all men being born with corrupted natures and living in sin till Christ recover them there is now no hope of salvation but by him that he hath paid our debt and made
satisfaction for our sins and Risen from the dead and conquered death and Satan and is ascended and Glorified in Heaven and that he is the King and Teacher and High Priest of the Church That he hath made a new Covenant of Grace and pardon and offered it in his Scriptures and by his Ministers to the World and that those that are sincere and faithful in this Covenant shall be saved and those that are not shall remedilâ—sly be damned because they reject this Christ and Grace which is the last and only remedy And here open to them the nature of this Covenant that God doth offer to be our Reconciled God and Father and Felicity and Christ to be our Saviour to forgive our sins and reconcile us unto God and renew us by his spirit and the Holy Spirit to be our sanctifier to illuminate and regenerate and confirm us and that all that is required on our part is such an unfeigned consent as will appear in the performance in our serious endeavours Even that we wholly give up our selves to be renewed by the holy spirit to be justified taught and Governed by Christ and by him to be brought again to the Father to Love him as our God and End and to live to him and with him for ever But whereas the temptations of the Devil and the allurements of this deceitful world and the desires of the flesh are the great enemies and hinderances in our way we must also consent to renounce all these and let them go and deny our selves and take up with God alone and what he seeth meet to give us and to take him in Heaven for all our portion And he that consenteth unfeignedly to this Covenant is a member of Christ a justified reconciled Child of God and an heir of Heaven and so continuing shall be saved and he that doth not shall be damned This is the Covenant that in Baptism we solemnly entred into with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as our Father and Felicity our Saviour and our Sanctifier This in some such brief explication you must familiarly open to them again and again § 10. Direct 10. When you have opened the Baptismal Covenant to them and the Essentials of Direct 10. Christianity cause them to learn the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments And tell them the Uses of them that man having three Powers of soul his Understanding his Will and his Obediential or executive power all these must be sanctified and therefore there must be a Rule for each And that accordingly the Creed is the summary Rule to tell us what our Understandings must Believe and the Lords Prayer is the summary Rule to direct us what our wills must desire and our tongues must ask and the Ten Commandments is the summary Râ—le of our Practice And that the Holy Scripture in general is the more large and perfect Rule of all And that all that will be taken for true Christians must have a General implicite Belief of all the Holy Scriptures and a particular explicite Belief Desire and sincere practice according to the Creeds Lords Prayer and ten Commandments § 11. Direct 11. Next teach them a short Catechism by memory which openeth these a little Direct 11. more fully and then a larger Catechism The shorter and larger Catechism of the Assembly are very well fitted to this use I have published a very brief one my self which in eight Articles or Answers containeth all the essential points of Belief and in One Answer the Covenant-consent and in four Articles or Answers more containeth all the substantial parts of Christian duty The answers are some of them long for Children But if I knew of any other that had It is in my 〈…〉 and by it self so much in so few words I would not offer this to you because I am conscious of its imperfections But there are very few Catechisms that differ in the substance Which ever they learn let them as they go have your help to understand it and let them keep it in memory to the last § 12. Direct 12. Next open to them more distinctly the particular part of the Covenant and Catechism Direct 12. And here I think this Method most profitable for a family 1. Read over to them the best expositions that you can get on the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments which are not too large to confound them nor too brief so as to be hardly understood For a summary Mr. Brinsleyes True watch is good but thus to read to them such as Mr. Perkins on the Creed and Dr. King on the Lords Prayer and Dod on the Commandments are fit so that you may read one Article one Petition and one Commandment at a time And read these over to them divers times 2. Besides this in your familiar discourse with them open to them plainly one Head or Article of Religion at a time and another the next time and so on till you come to the end And here 1. Open in one discourse the nature of man and the Creation 2. In another or before it the nature and attributes of God 3. In another the fall of man and especially the Corruption of our nature as it consisteth in an inordinate inclination to earthly and fleshly things and a backwardness or averseness or enmity to God and Holiness and the Life to come and the nature of sin and the impossibility of being saved till this sin be pardoned and these natures renewed and restored to the Love of God and Holiness from this Love of the world and fleshly pleasures 4. In the next discourse open to them the doctrine of Redemption in general and the Incarnation and natures and person of Christ particularly 5. In the next open the Life of Christ his fulfilling the Law and his overcoming the Tempter his humble life and contempt of the world and the end of all and how he is exemplary and imitable unto us 6. In the next open the whole Humiliation and suffering of Christ and the pretenses of his persecutors and the Ends and Uses of his suffering death and burial 7. In the next open his Resurrection the proofs and the Uses of it 8. In the next open his Ascension Glory and Interâ—ession for us and the Uses of all 9. In the next open his Kingly and Prophetical offices in General and his making the Covenant of Grace with man and the nature of that Covenant and its effects 10. In the next open the Works or Office of the Holy Ghost in General as given by Christ to be his Agent in men on earth and his great witness to the world and particularly open the extraordinary gift of the spirit to the Prophets and Apostles to plant the Churches and indite and seal the holy Scripture and shew them the authority and use of the holy Scriptures 11. In the next open to them the ordinary works of the Holy Ghost as the Illuminater Renewer
their wickedness after sufficient admonition you must professedly disown communion with them And then you are morally separated and discharged when you have not power locally to separate 3. It is your sin to fly from your duty because a wicked man is there whom you have no power to remove 4. There are many prayers that a wicked man is bound to put up to God And you must not omit your duty because he performeth his though faultily Me thinks you should more scruple joyning or conversing with one that forsaketh Prayer which is the greater sin than with one that prayeth 5. But if you are free to choose you are to be blamed if you will not choose a better family or Church other things being equal especially if all the company be wicked § 18. Quest. 18. But what if the Master of the family or Pastor be a Heretick or ungodly Quest. 18. Answ. You must distinguish between his personal faults and the faults of his performance or worship His personal faults such as swearing or drunkenness c. you must disown and must not choose a Master or Pastor that is such while you have your choice and may have better But otherwise it is lawful to joyn with him in doing good though not in evil But if the fault of his Duty it self be intolerable you must not joyn with him Now it is intolerable in these cases 1. In case he be utterly unable to express a prayer and so make it no prayer 2. In case he beâ—d his prayers against Godliness and known Truth and Charity and Peace and so make his prayers but the Instruments of mischief to vent heresie or malice and do more hurt than good to others § 19. Quest. 19. May we pray Absolutely for outward mercies or only Conditionally Quest. 19. Answ. You must distinguish 1. Between a condition spoken of the subject when we are uncertain whether it be a mercy or not and an extrinsick condition of the grant 2. Between a condition of prayer and a condition of expectation 3. Between submission to Gods will and a conditional desire or prayer And so I answer 1. It is necessary when we are uncertain whether the thing it self be Good or not that we pray with a subjective conditionality Grant this if it be good or If it be not Good I do not pray for it For it is presupposed in prayer that we know the thing prayed for to be good 2. But when we know the thing to be a mercy and good we may pray for it absolutely 3. But we may not believe that we shall receive all with an absolute expectation which we absolutely Pray for For Prayer being the expression of desire that which may be absolutely desired though not absolutely promised may be absolutely prayed for As our increase or strength of Grace or the Conversion of our relations c. 4. But yet all such must be asked with a submission to the will of God But that maketh it not properly a conditional form of praying For when the nature of Prayer is as it were to move the will of God it is not so proper to say Lord do this if it be thy will already or Lord be pleased to do this if it be thy pleasure as to say Lord grant this mercy But if thou deny it it is my duty to submit So Christ mentioneth both the subjective conditionality and the submission of his will Mat. 26. 39. If it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt As if he had said Nature requireth me with a simple nolition to be unwilling of the suffering and if it be consistent with the desired ends of my mediâ—torship to be desâ—rous to avoid it but seeing that cannot be my comparing will commandeth this simple will of self-preservation to submit to thy most perfect will But if any call this submission a condition the matter is not great § 20. Quest. 20. May we pray for all that we may lawfully desire Quest. 20. Answ. No for prayer is not only an expression of Desire but also a means to attain the thing desired And some things may be lawfully desired at least with a simple velleity which may not be sought because they must not be hoped for where God hath said that he will not grant them For it is vain to seek that which you have no hope to find As to desire to see the Conversion of the whole world or to pass to Heaven as Henoch without dying are lawful by a simple velleity But all things compared it is not lawful peremptorily to desire it without submission and therefore not to ask it It is the expression of a comparate determinate desire which is properly called prayer being the use of means for the obtaining of that desire And whatsoever I may so desire I may pray for For if there be no hope of it I may not so desire it But the desire by way of simple velleity may not be put into a proper prayer when there is no hope I must have a simple Desire with submission to attain a sinless perfection here even this hour But because there is no hope I may not let it proceed to a determinate peremptory desire upon a comparing judgement nor into a proper prayer And yet these velleities may be expressed in prayer though they have not the full nature of a prayer Obj. But was not Christs a prayer Matth. 26. 39. Answ. Either Christ as man was certain that the Cup must not pass from him or uncertain If you could prove him uncertain then it is a proper prayer with submission to his Fathers will But if he was certain that it was not to pass from him then it was analogically only a Prayer it being but a representing of his velleity to his father and not of his determinate will nor was any means to attain that end And indeed such it was As if he had said Father if it had stood with the ends of my office and thy will I would have asked this of thee â—ut because it doth not I submit And this much we may do § 21. Quest. 21. How then can we pray for the salvation of all the world must it be for all men Quest. 21. collectively or only for some excluding no numerical denominate person Answ. Just as Christ prayed here in this Text we must express our simple velleity of it to God as a thing that in it self is most desireable as the passing of the Cup was unto Christ But we cannot express a determinate volition by a full prayer such as hath any tendency as a means to attain that end because we are certain that Gods will is against it or that it will not be § 22. Quest. 22. May we pray for the Conversion of all the Nations of the World to Christianity with Quest. 22. a hopeful prayer Answ. Yes For we are not certain that every nation shall
among those that cannot pray Iohn and Christ taught their Disciples Mat. 6. Luk. 11. to pray Tit. 4. Special Directions for secret Prayer § 1. Direct 1. LET it be in as secret a place as conveniently you can that you may not be Direct 1. disturbed Let it be done so that others may not be witnesses of it if you can avoid it and yet take it not for your duty to keep it unknown that you pray secretly at all for that will be a snare and scandal to them § 2. Direct 2. Let your voice be suited to your own help and benefit if none else hear you If it be Direct 2. needful to the orderly proceeding of your own thoughts or to the warming of your own affections you may use a voice But if others be within hearing it is very unfit § 3. Direct 3. In secret let the matter of your prayers be that which is most peculiarly your own Direct 3. concernment or those secret things that are not fit for publick prayer or are there passed by Yet never forgetting the highest interest of Christ and the Gospel and the World and Church § 4. Direct 4. Be less sollicitous about words in secret than with others and lay out your care about Direct 4. the heart For that 's it that God most esteemeth in your prayers § 5. Direct 5. Do not through carnal unwillingness grow into a neglect of secret prayer when you Direct 5. have time Nor yet do not superstitiously tye your selves to just so long time whether you are fit or at leisure from greater duties or not But be the longer when you are most fit and vacant and the shorter when you are not To give way to every carnal backwardness is the sin on one side and to resolve to spend so long time when you do but tire your selves and sleep or business or distemper maketh it a lifeless thing is a sin on the other side Avoid them both § 6 Direct 6. A melancholy person who is unfit for much solitariness and heart-searchings must be much Direct 6. short if not also seldomer in secret prayers than other Christians that are capable of bearing it And they must instead of that which they cannot do be the more in that which they can do As in joyning with others and in short ejaculations besides other duties but not abatâ—ing their piety in the main upon any pretence of curing melancholy CHAP. XXIV Brief Directions for Families about the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. OMitting those things which concern the publick administration of this Sacrament for the Reasons before intimated Tom 2. I shall here only give you some brief Directions for your private duty herein § 1. Direct 1. Understand well the proper ends to which this Sacrament was instituted by Direct 1. Christ and take heed that you use it not to ends for which it never was appointed The true ends Q. What are the Ends of the Sacramâ—nâ— Matth. 26. 28. Mar. 14. â—4 Luâ— â—2 â—0 1 Cor. 11. 25. Heb. 9. 15 16 â—â— 1â— 1 Cor. 10. 16 24. Joh. 6. 32 35 51 58. are these 1. To be a solemn commemoration of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ to keep it as it were in the eye of the Church in his bodily absence till he come 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the holy Covenant which was first entred in Baptism between Christ and the Receiver And in that Covenant it is on Christs part a solemn delivery of Himself first and with Himself the Benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and right to life eternal And on mans part it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his Benefits upon his terms and a Delivering up our selves to Him as his Redeemed ones even to the Father as our Reconciled Father and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier with Professed Thankfulness for so great a benefit 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means by which the spirit of Christ should work to stir up and exercise and increase the Repentance Faith Desire Love Hope Ioy Thankfulness and new-obedience of Believers by a lively Representation of the evil of sin the infinite Love of God in Christ the firmness of the Covenant or promise the greatness and sureness of the mercy given and the blessedness purchased and promised to us and the great obligations that are laid upon us And that herein Believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 31. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 â—1 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Act 2 42 46. 20. 7. graces and might be provoked and assisted to stir up themselves to this Communion with God in Christ and to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ. 4. It is appointed to be the solemn profession of Believers of their Faith and Love and Gratitude and obedience to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of continuing firm in the Christian Religion And a badge of the Church before the world 5. And it is appointed to be a signe and means of the Unity Love and Communion of Saints and their readiness to communicate to each other § 2. The false mistaken ends which you must avoid are these 1. You must not with the Papists think that the end of it is to turn Bread into no bread and Wine into no wine and to make them Really the true Body and blood of Jesus Christ. For if sense which telleth all men that it is still Bread and wine be not to be believed then we cannot believe that ever there was a Gospel or an Apostle or a Pope or a man or any thing in the world And the Apostle expresly calleth it Bread three times in three verses together after the consecration 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. And he telleth us that the use of it is not to make the Lords Body really present but to shew the Lords death till be come that is As a visible representing and commemorating sign to be instead of his bodily presence till he come § 3. 2. Nor must you with the Papists use this Sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father to propitiate him for the quick and dead and ease souls in Purgatory and deliver them out Rom. 6. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Heb. 9. 26. 10. 12 26. Heb. 9. 24. of it For Christ having dyed once dyeth no more and without killing him there is no sacrificing him By once offering up himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Having finished the sacrificing work on earth he is now passed into the Heavens to appear before God for his Redeemed ones § 4. 3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the Sacrament to
consenteth to the Covenant may boldly come and signifie his Consent and receive the sealed Covenant of God For Consent is your preparation or the necessary condition of your Right If you Consent not you refuse all the mercy of the Covenant And dare you live in such a state Suppose a Pardon be offered to a condemned Thief but so that if he after cast it in the dirt or turn Traytor he shall dye a sorer death will he rather choose to dye than take it and say I am afraid I shall abuse it To refuse Gods Covenant is certain death but to Consent is your preparation and your life § 25. Quest. 7. But what if Superiours compell such a Christian to communicate or else they will excommunicate Quest. 7. and imprison him What then should he choose Answ. If he could do it without his own souls hurt he should obey them supposing that it is nothing but that which in it self is good that they command him But they have their power to 2 Cor. 13. 10. Matth. 10. 28. edification and not to destruction and he must value his soul above his body and therefore it is past question that it is a smaller hurt to be excommunicated and lye and dye in Prison than to cast his soul into despair by doing that which he thinketh is a grievous sin and would be his damnation But all means must be used to cure the mistake of his own understanding § 26. Quest. 8. Is not the case of an Hypocrite that knoweth not himself to be an hypocrite and of Quest. 8. a sincere Christian that knoweth not himself to be sincere all one as to communicating when both are equally in doubt Answ. No For Being and Seeing are things that must be distinguished The one hath grace in Being though he see it not and therefore hath a Right to the blessings of the Covenant and therefore at once remaineth obliged both to Discern his Title and to Come and take it And therefore if he come doubtingly his sin is not that he Receiveth but in the Manner of receiving that he doth it doubtingly And therefore it will be a greater sin not to receive at all unless in the last mentioned case wherein the consequents are like to be worse to him But the other hath no true Repentance or Faith or Love in Being and therefore hath no Right to the blessings of the Covenant and therefore at present is obliged to discern that he is graceless and to Repent of it and it is not his sin that he doubteth of his title but that he demandeth and taketh what he hath no title to And therefore it is a greater sin in him to Take it than to delay in order to his recovery and preparation Yea even in point of Comfort there is some disparity For though the true Christian hath far greater terrors than hypocrites when he taketh himself to be an unworthy Receiver as being more sensible and regardful of the weight of the matter yet usually in the midst of all his fears there are some secret testimonies in his heart of the Love of God which are a Cordial of hope that keep him from sinking into despair and have more life and power in them than all the hypocrites false perswasions of his own sincerity § 27. Quest. 9. Wherein lyeth the sin of an hypocrite and ungodly person if he do receive Quest. 9. Answ. His sin is 1. In lying and hypocrisie in that he professeth to Repent unfeignedly of his sin and to be resolved for a holy life and to Believe in Christ and to Accept him on his Covenant-terms and to give up himself to God as his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier and to forsake the flesh the world and the Devil when indeed he never did any of this but secretly abhorreth it at his heart and will not be perswaded to it And so all this profession and his very Covenanting it self and his Receiving as it is a professing-Covenanting-sign is nothing but a very lye And what it is to lye to the Holy Chost the case of Ananias and Sapphira telleth us 2. It is usurpation to come and lay claim to those Benefits which he hath no title to 3. It is a prophanation of these holy mysteries to be thus Commandment 2. 3. Lev. 10. 2 3. used and it is a taking of Gods Name in vain who is a jealous God and will be sanctified of all that draw near unto him 4. And it is a wrong to the Church of God and the Communion of Saints and the honour of the Christian Religion that such ungodly hypocrites intrude as members As it is to the Kings Army when the enemies spies creep in amongst them or to his Marriage-feast to have a guest in rags Matth. 22. 11 12. Object But it is no Lye because they think they say true in their profession Answ. That is through their sinful negligence and self-deceit And he is a lyar that speaks a falshood which he may and ought to know to be a falshood though he do not know it There is a Lyar in Rashness and Negligence as well as of set purpose § 28. Quest. 10. Doth all unworthy receiving make a man lyable to damnation Or what unworthiness Quest. 10. is it that is so threatned 1 Cor. 11. 28 29. Answ. There are three sorts of unworthiness or unfitness and three sorts of judgement answerably to be feared 1. There is the utter unworthiness of an Infidel or Impenitent ungodly hypocrite And damnation to Hell fire is the punishment that such must expect if conversion prevent it not 2. There is an unworthiness through some great and scandalous crime which a regenerate person falleth into and this should stop him from the Sacrament for a time till he have repented and cast away his sin And if he come before he rise from his fall by a particular Repentance as the Corinthians that sinned in the very use of the Sacrament it self they may expect some notable Vid. Synod Doâ—â—draâ— suffrag Theol. Brittan in Artic 5. temporal judgement at the present and if Repentance did not prevent it they might fear eternal punishment 3. There is that measure of unworthiness which consisteth in the ordinary infirmities of a Saint and this should not at all deterr them from the Sacrament because it is accompanied with a greater worthiness yea though their weakness appear in the time and manner of their Receiving But yet ordinary corrections may follow these ordinary infirmities The grosser abuse of the Sacrament it self I joyn under the second rank Quest. 11. What is the particular preparation needful to a fit Communicant Quest. 11. Answ. This bringeth me up to the next Direction § 29. Direct 5. Let your Preparation to this Sacrament consist of these particulars following Direct 5. 1. In your duty with your own consciences and hearts 2. In your duty towards God 3. And in your duty towards your neighbour
XXX Directions for the Sick THough the chief part of our preparation for Death be in the time of Health and it is a work for which the longest life is not too long yet because the folly of unconverted sinners is so great as to forget what they were born for till they see Death at hand and because there is a special preparation necessary for the best I shall here lay down some Directions for the sick And I shall reduce them to these four heads 1. What must be done to make Death safe to us that it may be our passage to Heaven and not to Hell 2. What must be done to make sickness profitable to us 3. What must be done to make Death comfortable to us that we may Dye in Peace and Ioy 4. What must be done to make our Sickness Profitable to others about us Tit. 1. Directions for a safe Death to secure our Salvation THe Directions of this sort are especially necessary to the unconverted impenitent sinner yet needful also to the Godly themselves and therefore I shall distinctly speak to both 1. Directions for an uncoverted sinner in his sickness It is a very dreadful case to be found by sickness in an unconverted state There is so Great a work to be done and so little time to do it in and soul and body so unfit and undisposed for it and the misery so great even everlasting torment that will follow so certainly and so quickly if it be undone that one would think it should overwhelm the understanding and heart of any man with astonishment and horrour to foresee such a condition in the time of his health much more to find himself in it in his sickness And though one would think that the near approach of Death and the nearness of another world should be unresistibly powerful to convert a sinner so that few or none shold Die unconverted however they lived yet Scripture and sad experience declare the contrary that most men Die as well as live in an unsanctified and miserable state For 1. A life of sin doth usually settle a man in Ignorance or Unbelief or both so that sickness findeth him in such a dungeon of Darkness that he is but lost and confounded in his fears and knoweth not whither he is going nor what he hath to do 2. And also sin wofully Hardeneth the Heart and the long resisted spirit of God forsaketh them and giveth them over to themselves in sickness who would not be ruled and sanctified by him in their health And such remain like blocks or beasts even to the last 3. And the Nature of sickness and approaching death doth tend more to affright than to renew the soul and rather to breed fear and trouble than Love And though Grief and fear be good preparatives and helps yet it is the Love of God and Holiness in which the souls Regeneration and Renovation doth consist and there is no more Holiness than there is Love and Willingness And many a one that is affrighted into strong Repentings and cryes and prayers and promises and seem to themselves and others to be Converted do yet either Die in their sins and misery or return to their unholy lives when they recover being utter strangers to that true Repentance which reneweth the heart as sad experience doth too often testifie 4. And many poor sinners finding that they have so short a time do end it in meer amazement and terrour not knowing how to compose their thoughts to examine their hearts and lives nor to exercise faith in Christ nor to follow any Directions that are given them but lye in trembling and astonishment wholly taken up with the fears of Death much worse than a beast that is going to be butchered 5. And the very pains of the body do so divert or hinder the thoughts of many that they can scarce mind any spiritual things with such a composedness as is necessary to so great a work 6. And the greatest number being partly confounded in ignorance and partly withheld by backwardness and undisposedness and partly disheartned by thinking it impossible to become new-creatures and get a regenerate heavenly heart on such a sudden do force themselves to hope that they shall be saved without it and that though they are sinners yet that kind of Repentance which they have will serve the turn and be accepted and God will be more merciful than to damn them And this false Hope they think they are necessitated to take up For there is but two other wayes to be taken The one is utterly to Despair and both Scripture and Reason and Nature it self are against that The other way is to be truly converted and won to the Love of God and Heaven by a lively faith in Iesus Christ And they have no such faith and to this they are strange and undisposed and think it impossible to be done And if they must have no Hopes but upon such terms as these they think they shall have none at all Or else if they hear that there is no other Hope and that none but the holy can be saved they will force themselves to hope that they have all this and that they are truly converted and become new creatures and do Love God and holiness above all not because indeed it is so but because they would have it so for fear of being damned And instead of finding that they they are void of faith and Love and Holiness and labouring to get a renewed soul they think it a nearer way to make themselves believe that it is so already And thus in their presumption self-deceiving and false hopes they linger out that little time that is left them to be converted in till death open their eyes and hell do undeceive them 7. And the same Devil and wicked men his instruments that kept them in health from true Repentance will be as diligent to keep them from it in their sickness and will be loth to lose all at the last cast which they had been winning all the time before And if the Devil can but keep them in his power till sickness come and take them up with pain and fear he will hope to keep them a few dayes longer till he have finished that which he had begun and carryed on so far And if there be here and there one that will be held no longer by false hopes and presumption he will at last think to take them off by desperation and make them believe that there is no remedy § 4. And indeed it is a thing so difficult and unlikely to convert a sinner in all his pain and weakness at the last that even the Godly friends of such do many times even let them alone as thinking that there is little or no hope But this is a very sinful course As long as there is life there is some hope And as long as there is hope we must use the means A Physicion will try the best Remedies
that be gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Act. 13. 39. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Heb. 8. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more If it be the weakness of his grace that troubleth him let him choose such passages as these Isa. 40. 11. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bâ—som and shall gently lead those that are with young Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Matth. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Joh. 6. 37. All that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Luk. 17. 5. The Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our faith If it be the fear of death and strangeness to the other world that troubleth you remember the words of Christ before cited and 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 4 5 6 8. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1. 23. For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them 1 Cor. 15. 55. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Act. 7. 59. Lord Iesus receive my spirit Fix upon some such word or promise which may support you in your extremity § 6. Direct 6. Look up to God who is the Glory of Heaven and the Light and Life and Ioy of souls Direct 6. and believe that you are going to see his face and to live in the perfect everlasting fruition of his fullest Love among the glorified If it be delectable here to know his works what will it be to see the Cause of all All Creatures in Heaven and Earth conjoyned can never afford such content and joy to holy souls as God alone O if we knew him whom we must there behold how weary should we be of this dungeon of mortality and how fervently should we long to see his face The Chicken that cometh out of the shell or the Infant that newly cometh from the womb into this illuminated world of humane converse receiveth not such a joyful change as the soul that is newly loosed from the flesh and passeth from this mortal life to God One sight of God by a blessed soul is worth more than all the Kingdoms of the earth It is pleasant to the eyes to behold the Sun But the Sun is as darkness and useless in his Glory Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it For the Glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof Rev. 22. 3 4 5. And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads and there shall be no night there and they need no candle nor light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever If David in the Wilderness so impatiently thirsted to appear before God the living God in his Sanctuary at Ierusalem Psal. 42. How earnestly should we long to see his Glory in the Heavenly Ierusalem The glimpse of his back-parts was as much as Moses might behold Exod. 34. yet that much put a shining glory upon his face v. 29 30. The sight that Stephen had when men were ready to stone him was a delectable sight Act. 7. 55 56. The glimpse of Christ in his transfiguration ravished the three Apostles that beheld it Mat. 17. 2 6. Pauls vision which rapt him up into the third Heavens did advance him above the rest of mankind But our Beatifical sight of the Glory of God will very far excell all this When our perfected bodies shall have the perfect Glorious Body of Christ to see and our perfected souls shall have the God of Truth the most perfect uncreated Light to know what more is a created understanding capable of And yet this is not the top of our felicity For the Understanding is but the passage to the Heart or Will and Truth is but subservient to Goodness And therefore though the Understanding be capable of no more than the Beatifical Vision yet the Man is capable of more even of receiving the fullest communications of Gods Love and feeling it poured out upon the heart and living in the returns of perfect Love and in this entercourse of Love will be our highest Ioyes and this is the top of our heavenly felicity O that God would make us foreknow by a lively faith what it is to behold him in his Glory and to dwell in perfect Love and Ioy and then death would no more be able to dismay us nor should we be unwilling of such a blessed change But having spoken of this so largely in my Saints Rest I must stop here and refer you thither § 7. Direct 7. Look up to the Blessed Society of Angels and Saints with Christ and remember their Direct 7. blessedness and joy and that you also belong to the same society and are going to be numbred with them It will greatly overcome the fears of death to see by faith the Joyes of them that have gone before us and withall to think of their relation to us As it will encourage a man that is to go beyond Sea if the far greatest part of his dearest friends be gone before him and he heareth of their safe arrival and of their Joy and happiness Those Angels that now see the face of God are our special friends and guardians and entirely Love us better than any of our friends on earth do They rejoiced at our Conversion and will rejoice at our Glorification And as they are better and Love us better so therefore our Love should be greater to them than to any upon earth and we should more desire to be with them Those blessed souls that are now with Christ were once as
and ye fed me c. Heb. 5. 9. He is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Matth. 7. 24 25. whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock Rev. 22. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gate into the City for without are dogs c. Thus must you rejoyce in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ not only as he was Crucified on it for you but also as you are crucified by it to the world and the world to you Gal. 6. 14. He that as a Benefactor will give you that Glory which you could never deserve of him on terms of commutative Justice for so no Creature and deserve any thing of God will yet as a Righteous Governour and Judge deliver it you only on the terms of his Paternal governing-distributive justice and all shall receive according to what they have done in the body And therefore you may take comfort in that Evangelical Righteousness which consisteth in your fulfilling the conditions of the new Covenant though you have no Legal-Righteousness which consisteth in innocency or freedom from the Curse of the Law but only in the Merits and Sacrifice of Christ. If you are accused as being Impenitent Unbelievers or Hypocrites Christs Righteousness will not Justifie you from that accusation but only your Repentance faith and sincerity wrought in you by the spirit of Christ But if you can but shew the evidence of this Evangelical Righteousness Christ then will justifie you against all the other accusations of guilt that can be charged on you Of which more anon Seeing therefore the spirit hath given you these Evidences to difference you from the wretched world and prove your title to eternal life if you over look these you resist your Comforter and can see no other ground of Comfort than every graceless hypocrite may see Imitate holy Paul 2 Cor. 1. 12. For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them also that love his appearing To look back and see that in sincerity you have gone the way to heaven is a just and necessary ground of assurance that you shall attain it If you say But I have been a grievous sinner I answer so was Paul that yet rejoyced after in this evidence Are not those sins repented of and pardoned If you say But I cannot look back upon a holy life with comfort it hath been so blotted and uneven I answer Hath it not been sincere though it was imperfect Did you not first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6. 33. If you say My whole life hath been ungodly till now at last that God hath humbled me I answer It is not the Length of time but the sincerity of your hearts and service that is your evidence If you came in at the last hour if now you are faithfully devoted to God you may look with comfort on this change at last though you must look with Repentance on your sinful lives § 10. Direct 10. When you see any of this evidence of your interest in Christ appeal to him to Direct 10. acquit you from all the sin that can be charged on you For all that believe in him are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Whatever sin a penitent believer hath committed he is not chargeable with it Christ hath undertaken to answer for it and justifie him from it and therefore look not on it with terrour but with penitent shame Isa. 53. 10 11 12 c. and believing-thankfulness as that which shall tend to the honour of the Redeemer and not to the condemation of the sinner He hath born our transgressions and we are healed by his stripes § 11. Direct 11. Look back upon all the Mercies of your lives and think whence they came and Direct 11. what they signifie Love tokens are to draw your hearts to him that sent them These are dropt from Heaven to entice you thither If God have been so good to you on earth what will he be in Glory If he so blessed you in this Wilderness what will he do in the land of promise It greatly emboldeneth my soul to go to that God that hath so tenderly loved me and so graciously preserved me and so much abounded in all sorts of mercies to me through all my life Surely he is Good that so delighteth to do good And his presence must be sweet when his distant mercies have been so sweet What Love shall I enjoy when perfection hath fitted me for his Love who have tasted of so much in this state of sin and imperfection The sense of mercy will banish the fears and mis-givings of the heart § 12. Direct 12. Remember if you have attained to a declining age what a competent time Direct 12. you have had already in the world If you are grieved that you are mortal you might on that account have grieved all your dayes But if it be only that you die so soon if you have lived well you have lived long When I think how many years of mercy I have had since I was near to death and since many younger than I are gone and when I think what abundance of mercy I have had in all that time ingenuity forbiddeth me to grudge at the season of my death and maketh me almost ashamed to ask for longer life How long would you stay before you would be willing to come to God If he desired our company no more than we do his and desired our happiness in Heaven no more than we desire it our selves we should linger here as Lot in Sodom Must we be snatcht away against our wills and carryed by force to our Fathers presence § 13. Direct 13. Remember that all mankind is mortal and you are to go no other way than all that Direct 13. ever came into the world have gone before you except Henoch and Elias Yea the poor bruit creatures must die at your pleasure to satisfie your hunger or delight Beasts and birds and fishes even many to make one meel must die for you And why then should you shrink at the entrance of such a trodden path which leadeth you not to hell as it doth the wicked nor meerly
been tempted to But you are sure that Heaven is better than Earth and that it is far better for them to be with Christ. 6. You allwayes knew that your friends must die To grieve that they were mortal is but to grieve that they were but men 7. If their mortality or death be grievous to you you should rejoice that they are arrived at the state of Immortality where they must Live indeed and die no more 8. Remember how quickly you must be with them again The expectation of living long your selves is the cause of your excessive grief for the death of friends If you lookt your selves to die to morrow or within a few weeks you would lâ—ss grieve that your friends are gone before you 9. Remember that the world is not for one Generation only Others must have our places when we are gone God will be served by successive Generations and not only by one 10. If you are Christians indeed it is the highest of all your Desires and Hopes to be in Heaven And will you so grieve that your friends are gone thither where you most Desire and Hope to be § 19. Obj. All this is reason if my friend were gone to Heaven But he dyed impenitently and Object how should I be comforted for a soul that I have cause to think is damned Answ. Their misery must be your grief But not such a grief as shall deprive you of your greater Answ. Joyes or disable you for your greater duties 1. God is fitter than you to judge of the measures Helps to moderate our sorrow for the dâ—mned of his mercy and his judgements and you must neither pretend to be more merciful than he nor to reprehend his Justice 2. All the works of God are Good and all that is Good is amiable Though the misery of the creature be Bad to it yet the works of Justice declare the Wisdom and Holiness of God and the perfecter we are the more they will be amiable to us For 3 God himself and Christ who is the merciful Saviour of the World approve of the damnation of the finally ungodly 4. And the Saints and Angels in Heaven do know more of the misery of the souls in Hell than we do And yet it abateth not their Joyes And the perfecter any is the more he is like-minded unto God 5. How glad and thankful should you be to think that God hath delivered your selves from those eternal flâ—mes The misery of others should excite your Thankfulness 6. And should not the Joyes of all the Saints and Angels be your Ioy as well as the sufferings of the wicked be your sorrows But above all the thoughts of the Blessedness and Glory of God himself should over-top all the concernments of the creature with you If you will mourn more for the Thieves and Murderers that are hanged than you will rejoice in the Justice prosperity and honour of the King and the wellfare of all his faithful subjects you behave not your selves as faithful subjects 7. Shortly you hope to come to Heaven Mourn now for the damned as you shall do then or at least let not the difference be too great when that and not this is your perfect state A Form of Exhortation to the Ungodly in their Sickness or those that we fear are such DEar Friend The God that must dispose of us and all things doth threaten by this sickness to call away your soul and put an end to the time of your pilgrimage and therefore your friends that Love and pity you must not now be silent if they can speak any thing for your preparation and salvation because it must be Now or Never When a few days are past they must never have any such opportunity more If now we prevail not with you you are likely to be quickly out of hearing and past our advice and help for ever And because I know your weakness bids me be but short and your memory is not to be burdened with too much and yet your Necessity must not be neglected I shall reduce all that I have to say to you to these four heads 1. Of the change which you seem near to and the world which you are going to 2. Of the Preparation that must be made by all that will be saved and who they be that the Gospel doth Iustifie or Condemn 3. I would fain help you to understand which of these conditions you are in and what will become of your soul if it thus goeth hence And 4. If your case be bad I would direct you how you may come out of it and what is yet to be done while there remaineth any time and hope And I pray you set your heart to what I say for I will speak nothing but the certain truth of God revealed to the world by his son and spirit expressed in the Scripture and believed by all the Church of Christ. I. God knoweth the change is great which you are near You are leaving this world where you have spent the dayes of your preparation for eternity and leaving this flesh to corrupt and turn to common earth and must here converse with man no more You are going now to see that world which the Gospel told you of and you have often heard of but neither you nor we did ever see Before your friends have laid your body in the grave your soul must enter into its endless state and at the Resurrection your Body be joyned with it Either Heaven or Hell must be your lot for ever If it be Heaven you will there find a world of Light and Love and Peace A world of Angels and glorified souls who are all made perfect in Knowledge and Holiness living in the perfect flames of Love to their Glorious Creator Redeemer and Regenerater And with them you will be thus perfected your self your soul will see the Glory of God and be rapt up in his Love and filled with his Joyes and employed triumphantly in his Maâ— 13. 2 Thes 1. 6 7 8 9 10 11. praises and this for ever If Hell should be your portion you will there be thrust away as a hated thing from the face of God and there you will find a world of Devils and unholy damned miserable souls among whom you must dwell in the flames of the wrath of God and the horrours of your own Conscience remembring with anguish the mercy which you once rejected and the warnings and time which once you lost and at the Resurrection your Soul and Body must be reunited and live there in torment and despair for ever I know these things are but half believed by the â—ngodly world while they profess to believe them And therefore they must feel that which they refuseâ— to believe But God hath revealed it to us and we will believe our Maker You are now going to see the great difference between the end of Holiness and of sin between the Godly and the ungodly and to
is through the faith of Christ that being made conformable unto his death I may attain to the Resurrection of the dead and may by him be presented without spot or blemish My God thou hast encouraged my fearful soul by the multitude of thy mercies as well as by thy promises to trust thee and yield it self to thee Thou hast filled up all my dayes with mercy Every place that I have lived in and every relation and all that I have had to do with in the world are the witnesses of thy Love and mercy to me Thy eyes beheld my substance being yet imperfect and all my members were written in thy Book My parents were instructed by thee to educate me and all things commanded by thee to serve for my preservation comfort and salvation Thou hast brought me forth in a land and age of mercies and caused me to hear and see the things which others have not seen or heard The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places My life hath not been spent in a howling wilderness nor in banishment from thy Sanctuary or the communion of thy Saints nor hath it been wholly consumed in darkness and sorrow and unserviceable barrenness But often have I heard the joyful sound and I have gone with the multitude to the house of God and there have seen the light of thy countenance and drank of the Rivers of thy pleasure even of the waters of life and have been solaced with the voice of joy and praise How oft have I cryed unto thee in my trouble and thou hast delivered me out of my distresses When for my folly and transgression I was afflicted thou broughtst me out of darkness and the shadow of death Thou renewedst my age as Hezekiahs and causedst the shadow of my Dyal to go back and hast set me at liberty to praise thee for thy Goodness and declare thy Psal. 107. 8. 15 Psal. 50. 15. 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. Psal. 23. Psal. 139. 17 18. Heb. 13. 5. John 13. 1. Psal 57. 10. 108. 4. 36. 5. 103. 17. 136. Psal. 63. 3. Phil. 1. 23. Luke 2. 29 30. 2 Cor. 1. 2 3 4 5 7 8. works to the children of men In the day of trouble I called upon thee and thou didst deliver me that I might glorifie thee Thou causedst me to receive the sentence of death that I might trust in God that raiseth the dead My Shepheard hath led me in his pleasant pastures by the silent streams He restored my soul and conducted me in the paths of righteousness How pretious are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the summ of them If I should count them they are more in number than the sand And will that mercy now forsake me which hath abounded to me and supported me so long Thou hast said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Having loved thy own that are in the world thou wilt love them to the end For thy mercy is great and reacheth to the Heavens and it endureth for ever O therefore when I awake let me be with thee And as thy loving kindness is better than Life and to depart and be with Christ is far better than the best condition upon earth so let thy servant depart in peace his eye of faith beholding thy salvation And when my earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved let me have that building of God the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Let my present burden of sin and suffering make me more earnestly to groan not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life that being absent from the body I may be present with the Lord. And seeing this Cup may not pass from me and I must not look for the Chariot of Elias to carry me unto Heaven let thy Will be done and let me rest therein and let death be the gain and advantage of my soul And Phil. 1 21. 2 Cor. 4. 16 â—8 1 Kings 19. 4. while this outward man is perishing let the inner man be renewed from day to day For what am I better than my Fathers and all thy Saints and the generations of mankind that I should think of any other passage than this of Death to the world of immortality O let this fainting heart be glad and let my glory rejoyce and in Love and Ioy in Thankfulness and Praise let me pass into the world of Love and Ioy where Thanksgiving and Praise shall be my work for ever And though my flesh and heart will fail Psal. 73. 26. be thou the strength of my heart O God and my portion for ever Though I must walk through the valley of the shadow of death let me fear no evil But be thou still with me and let me be comforted by thy rod Psal. 23. 4 5 6. and staff Let the goodness and mercy which hath followed me thus far all my dayes receive me at the last that I may dwell with thee for ever For it is the will of my Redeemer that those which thou hast given him be with him where he is to behold the glory which thou hast given him And that his servants John 17. 24. John 12. 26. Acts 7. 59. Luke 23. 43. John 20. 17. Joh. 14. 1 2 3. Psal. 16. 11 12. should follow him that where he is there also may his servants be Amen Lord Iesus Good is thy Will and the Word which thou hast spoken Into thy hands I commend my Spirit which thou hast Redeemed Receive it and let me be with thee in Paradise O thou that hast called us thy Brethren when thou didst ascend to thy Father and our Father and to thy God and our God take up this poor unworthy soul to the mansions which thou hast prepared for us that I may be with thee where thou art And though this flesh must perish let it rest in hope and be but sowed as a grain of wheat till thy powerful Call shall raise it from the dust and this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality and this 1 Cor. 15. 53 54 55. natural body shall be raised a spiritual body and death shall be swallowed up in Victory For though I be dead my life is hid with Christ in God And when thou appearest who art my Life then let me appear with Col. 3. 3 4 5. 2 Thess. 1. 10 11. thee in glory O hasten that appearance and come with thy holy glorious Angels to be glorified in thy Saints and admired in and by Believers When thou wilt change our vile bodies and make them like to thy Glorious Body by the mighty working by which thou canst subdue even all things to thy self Hast Phil. 3. 21. Rev. 2â— 20 17 Eph. 5. 26 27. 1 Cor. 15. 45. Acts 3. 5. John 14. 19. Rev. 14. 13. Matth. 10. 30. Luke 21. 18. Heb. 12. 22 23 Rev. 1. 6. Rom. 11. 36. Rev.
Obedience to God And doth not Obedience contain every particular Duty Answ. We Vow sincere Obedience but not perfect Obedience We do not Vow that we will never sin nor neglect a duty nor ought we to do so So that as sincere obedience respecteth every known duty as that which we shall practise in the bent of our lives but not in perfect constancy or degree so far our Vow in Baptism hath respect to all known duties but no further § 15. Direct 6. To make a Vow Lawful besides the Goodness of the thing which we Vow there Direct 6. must be a rational discernable probability that the Act of Vowing it will do more good than hurt and this to a wise foreseeing judgement For this Vowing is not an ordinary worship to be offered to God except the Baptismal Vow renewed in the Lords Supper and at other seasons But it is left as an extraordinary Means for certain ends which cannot by ordinary means be attained And therefore we must discern the season by discerning the necessity or usefulness of it Swearing is a part of the service of God but not of his daily worship nor frequently and rashly to be used by any that would not be held guilty of taking the Name of God in vain And so it is in the case of Vowing Therefore he that will make a Lawful Vow must see before hand what is the probable Benefit of it and what is the probable hurt or danger And without this foresight it must be rash and cannot be lawful And therefore no one can make a lawful Vow but wise foreseeing persons and those that advise Plutarch with such and are guided by them if they be not such themselves unless in a case where Quest. Roman 44. God hath prescribed by his own determining commands as in the Covenant of Christianity Why may not Priests swear Resp. Is it because an Oath put to free-born men is as it were the rack and torture offered them For certain it is that the soul as well as the body of the Priest ought to continue free and not be forced by any torture Or that we must not distrust them in small matters who are to be believed in great and divine things Or because the peril of perjury would reach in common to the whole Commonwealth if a wicked and ungodly and forsworn person should have the charge and superintendency of the Prayers Vows and Sacrifices made in behalf of the City pag. 866. Therefore to one man the same Vow may be a sin that to another may be a duty because one may have more reason for it or necessity of it and less danger by it than another One man may foresee that Vowing in case where there is no Necessity may ensnare him either in perplexing doubts or terrors which will make all his life after more irregular or uncomfortable Another man may discern that he is lyable to no such danger § 16. Direct 7. No man should pretend danger or scruple against his renewing the Vow of Christianity Direct 7. or any one essential part of it viz. To take God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for my God and Saviour and Sanctifier my Owner Governour and Father renouncing the Devil the world and the flesh Because there is an absolute necessity praecepti medii of performing this and he that doth it not shall certainly be damned And therefore no worse matter can stand up against it He that denyeth it giveth up himself despairingly to damnation Yet I have heard many say I dare not promise to turn to God and live a holy life lest I break this promise and be worse than before But dost thou not know that it must be both made and kept if thou wilt be saved Wilt thou choose to be damned for fear of worse There is but one Remedy for thy soul and all the hope of thy salvation lyeth upon that alone And wilt thou refuse that one for fear lest thou cast it up and dye When thou shalt certainly dye unless thou both take it and keep it and digest it § 17. Direct 8. About particular sins and duties deliberate resolutions are the ordinary means of Direct 8. governing our lives and Vows must not be used where these will do the work without them For extraordinary means must not be used when ordinary will serve turn Nor must you needlesly draw a double guilt upon your selves in case of sinning And in mutable or doubtful cases a Resolution may be changed when a Vow cannot Try therefore what deliberate Resolutions will do with the help of other ordinary means before you go any further § 18. Direct 9. When ordinary Resolutions and other helps will not serve the turn to engage the will Direct 9. to the forbearance of a known sin or the performance of a known duty but temptations are so strong as to bear down all then it is seasonable to bind our selves by a solemn Vow so it be cautelously and deliberately done and no greater danger like to follow In such a case of necessity 1. You must deliberate on the benefits and need 2. You must foresee all the assaults that you are like to have to tempt you to perjury that they come not unexpected 3. You must joyn the use of all other means for the keeping of your Vows § 19. Direct 10. Make not a Law and Religion to your selves by your voluntary Vows which God Direct 10. never made you by his Authority Nor bind your selves for futurity to all that is a duty at present where it is possible that the change of things may change your duty God is our King and Governour and not we our selves It is not we but He that must give Laws to us We have work enough to do of his appointing we need not make more to our selves as if he had not given us enough Vows are not to make us New Duties or Religions but to further us in the obedience of that which our Lord hath imposed on us It is a self-condemning sin of foolish Will-worshippers to be busie in laying more burdens on themselves when they know they cannot do so much as God requireth of them Yea some of them murmur at Gods Laws as too strict and at the observers of them as too precise though they come far short of what is their duty and yet will be cutting out more work for themselves § 20. And it is not enough that what you Vow be your Duty at the present but you must bind your selves to it by Vows no longer than it shall remain your duty It may be your Duty at the present to live a single life But if you will Vow therefore that you will never marry you may bind your selves to that which may prove your sin you know not what alterations may befall you in your body or estate that may invite you to it Are you sure that no change shall make it necessary to you
to a more edifying Church that useth all the publick Ordinances of God unless the publick good forbid or some great impediment or contrary duty be our excuse § 36. 11. If a true Church will not cast out any impenitent notorious scandalous sinner though 2 John 10. 11. 2 Tim. 3. 5. Rom. 16. 17. 1 Cor. 5. 11. I am not to separate from the Church yet I am bound to avoid private familiarity with such a person that he may be ashamed and that I partake not of his sin § 37. 12. As the Church hath diversity of members some more holy and some less and some of whole sincerity we have small hope some that are more honourable and some less some that walk Mat. 13. 41 30. Jer. 15. 19. 1 Cor. 12. 23 24. blamelesly and some that work iniquity So Ministers and private members are bound to difference between them accordingly and to honour and love some far above others whom yet we may not excommunicate And this is no sinful separation § 38. 13. If the Church that I live and communicate with do hold any tolerable error I may differ therein from the Church without a culpable separation Union with the Church may be continued with all the diversities before mentioned D. 3. § 10. § 39. 14. In case of persecution in one Church or City when the servants of Christ do flye to another having no special reason to forbid it this is no sinful separation Matth. 10. 23. § 40. 15. If the publick service of the Church require a Minister or a private Christian to remove to another Church if it be done deliberately and upon good advice it is no sinful separation § 41. 16. If a Lawful Prince or Magistrate command us to remove our habitation or command a Minister from one Church to another when it is not notoriously to the detriment of the common interest of Religion it is no sinful separation to obey the Magistrate § 42. 17. If a poor Christian that hath a due and tender care of his salvation do find that under one Minister his soul declineth and groweth dead and under another that is more sound and clear and lively he is much edified to a holy and heavenly frame and life and if hereupon preferring his salvation before all things he remove to that Church and Minister where he is most edified without unchurching the other by his censures this is no sinful separation but a preferring the One thing needful before all § 43. 18. If one part of the Church have leisure opportunity cause and earnest desires to meet ofter for the edifying of their souls and redeeming their time than the poorer labouring or careless and less zealous part will meet in any fit place under the oversight and conduct of their Pastors and not in opposition to the more publick full assemblies as they did Acts 12. 12. to pray for Peter at the house of Mary where many were gathered together praying and Acts 10. 1 c. this is no sinful separation § 44. 19. If a mans own outward affairs require him to remove his habitation from one City or Countrey to another and there be no greater matter to prohibite it he may lawfully remove his local communion from the Church that he before lived with to that which resideth in the place he goeth to For with distant Churches and Christians I can have none but Mental Communion or by distant means as writing messengers c. It is only with present Christians that I can have local personal communion § 45. 20. It is possible in some cases that a man may live long without local personal communion with any Christians or Church at all and yet not be guilty of sinful separation As the Kings Embassadour or Agent in a Land of Infidels or some Traveller Merchants Factors or such as go to convert the Infidels or those that are banished or imprisoned In all these twenty cases some kind of separation may be lawful § 46. 21. One more I may add which is when the Temples are so small and the Congregations so great that there is no room to hear and joyn in the publick Worship or when the Church is so excessively great as to be uncapable of the proper ends of the society in this case to divide or withdraw is no sinful separation When one Hive will not hold the Bees the swarm must seek themselves another without the injury of the rest By all this you may perceive that sinful separation is first in a censorious uncharitable mind condemning Churches Ministers and Worship causelesly as unfit for them to have communion with And Secondly it is in the personal separation which is made in pursuance of this censure But not in any local removal that is made on other lawful grounds § 47. Direct 4. Understand and consider well the Reasons why Christ so frequently and earnestly Direct 4. presseth Concord on his Church and why he so vehemently forbiddeth Divisions Observe how much the Scripture speaketh to this purpose and upon what weighty Reasons Here are four things distinctly to be represented to your serious consideration 1. How many plain and urgent are the Texts that speak for Unity and condemn Division 2. The great Benefits of Concord 3. And the mischiefs of Discord and Divisions in the Church 4. And the Aggravations of the sin § 48. I. A true Christian that hateth fornication drunkenness lying perjury because they are forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also when he well observeth how frequently and vehemently they are forbidden and Concord highly commended and commanded John 17. 21 22 23. That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also See Rom. 14. throughout Rom. 15. 12. 5 6 7. may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Ephes. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. thou hast loved me Here you see that the Unity of the Saints must be a special means to convince the Infidel world of the truth of Christianity and to prove Gods special Love to his Church and 1 Pet. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 12. throughout Phil. 3. 15 16. Acts 2. 1 46. 4. 32. also to accomplish their own perfection 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions or Schisms among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement For it hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you Rom. 12. 4 5. Psalm 133. 1 Cor. 8. 1
them greater Love and Honour than you ow 〈…〉 ny Saints on Earth Eph. 3. 15. The whole â—â—â—â—ly in Heaven and Earth is named of Christ. Those are the happiest and noblest paâ—â—s that are most pure and perfect and dwell in the highest and most glorious habitations nearest unto Christ yea with him If Holiness be lovely the most Holy are the most lovely We have many obligations therefore to Love them more than the Saints on earth They are more excellent and amiable and Christ Loveth them more And if any be Honourable it must especially be those spirits that are of greatest excellencies and perfections and advanced to the greatest Glory and nearness to their Lord. Make Conscience therefore of this as your duty not only to Love and Honour blessed souls but to Love and Honour them more than those that are yet on Earth And as every Duty is attended with Benefiâ— so we shall find this exceeding great benefit in the performance of this duty that iâ— will incline our â—earts to be the more Heavenly and draw up our Desires to the society which we so much Love and Honour § 2. Direct 2. Remember that it is a part of the life of faith to see by it the Heavenly Society of Direct 2. the blessed and a part of your Heavenly Conversation to have frequent serious and delightful thoughts Heb. 11. 1. of thâ—se Crowned souls that are with Christ. Otherwise God would never have given us such descriptions of the Heavenly Ierusalem and told us so much of the Hosts of God that must inhabit it for ever that must come from the East and from the West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God When it is said that our conversatiâ—n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. the meaning extendeth both to our Relation Priviledges and Converse We are Denizâ—ns or Citizens of the Heavenly Society and our title to their happiness is our highest Priviledge and Honour and therefore our daily business is there and our sweetest and most serious converse is with Christ and all those blessed spirits Whatever we are doing here our Eye and Heart should still be there For we look not at the temporal things which are seen but at the eternal things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. A wise Christian that hath forsaken the Kingdom of darkness will be desirous to know what the Kingdom of Christ is into which he is translated and who are his fellow Subjects and what are their several ranks and dignities so far as tendeth to his congruous converse with them all And how should it affect us to find that we are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of Iust men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. Live then as the members of this society and exclude not the chief members from your thoughts and converse though our local visible communion be only with these rural inferiour inhabitants and not with the Courtiers of the King of Heaven yet our Mental Communion may be much with them If our home and treasure be there with them our Hearts will be there also Mat. 6. 21. § 3. Direct 3. It is the will of God that the Memory of the Saints be honoured on earth when they are Direct 3. dead It is some part of his favour which he hath promised to them Prov. 10. 7. The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Matth. 26. 13. Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be Preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her The history of the Scripture recordeth the Lives of the Saints to their perpetual honour And God will have it so also for the sake of his abused servants upon earth that they may see that the slanders of malicious tongues shall not be able to obscure the glory of his Grace and that the lies of the ungodly prevail but for a moment And God will have it so for the sake of the ungodly that they may be ashamed of their malicious enmity and lyes against the godly while they perceive that the departed Saints do leave behind them a surviving testimony of their sanctity and innocency sufficient to confound the venemous calumnies of the Serpents Seed Yea God will have the Names of his eminent servants to be honoured upon earth for the honour of their Head and of his Grace and Gospel so that while malice would cast dishonour upon Christ from the meanness and failings of his servants that are alive the memory of the dead who were once as much despised and slandered shall rise up against them to his honour and their shame And it is very observable how God constraineth the bitter enemies of Holiness to bear this Testimony for the honour of Holiness against themselves that many who are the cruelest persecutors and murderers of the Living Saints do honour the Dead even to excess How zealous are the Papists for the multitude of their Holy dayes Concil Later sub Innoc. 3. can 3. and the honouring of their Names and Relicts and pretending many Miracles to be wrought by a very touch of their Shrines or Bones whilest they revile and muder those that imitate them and deprive Temporal Lords of their Dominions that will not exterminate them Yea while they burn the living Saints they make it part of their crime or Heresie that they honour not the Dayes and Relicts of the Dead so much as they To shew us that the things that have been shall be and that wickedness is the same in all generations Matth. 23. 29 30 31 32 33. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because ye build the Tâ—mbes of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of the righteous and say If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets wherefore ye be witnesses to your selves that ye are the Children of them which killed the Prophets Filâ— ye up then the measure of your fathers Ye Serpents ye generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell I know that neither did the Pharisees nor do the Papists believe that those whom they murdered were Saints but Deceivers and Hereticks and the troublers of the World But if Charity be the grace most necessary to salvation then sure it will not keep any man from damnation that he had malice and uncharitableness sufficient to perswade him that the members of Christ were Children of the Devil But thus God will force even the persecutors and haters of his Saints to honour them And
3. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life eternal to know thee c. Joh. 5. 21. The Son quickeneth whom he will v. 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself Joh. 6. 27. Labour for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you For him â—ath God the Father sealed V. 32. 33. He giveth Life unto the World V. 53 54 55 56. Whosâ— eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life dwelleth in me and I in him my flesh is meat indeed At the Living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me V. 63. It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 7. 39. This spake he of the spirit which they that believe in him should receive Joh. 3. 34. God giveth not the spirit to him by measure 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. The Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Phil. 1. 19. Through the supply of the spirit of Iesus Christ. Joh. 15. 4. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me V. 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit For without me or out of me or severed from me ye can do nothing I will add no more All this is proof enough that the spirit is not given radically or Immediately from God to any believer but to Christ and so derivatively from him to us Not that the Divine nature in the third person is subject to the humane nature in Christ But that God hath made it the office of our Mediators Glorified Humanity to be the Cistern that shall first receive the Waters of life and convey them by the pipes of his appointed means to all the offices of his house Or to be the Head of the Animal spirits and by nerves to convey them to all the members 3. We are much in the dark concerning the degree of Infants Glory And therefore we can as little know what degree of grace is necessary to prepare them for their Glory 4. It is certain that Infants before they are Glorified shall have all that Grace that is prerequisite to their preparation and fruition 5. No sanctified person on earth is in an Immediate capacity for Glory Because their sin and imperfection must be done away which is done at the dissolution of soul and body The very accession of the soul to God doth perfect it 6. Infants have no actual faith or hope or Love to God to exercise And therefore need not the influence of the spirit of Christ to exercise them 7. We are all so very much in the dark as to the clear and distinct apprehension of the true nature of Original inherent pravity or sin that we must needs be as much ignorant of the true nature of that Inherent sanctity or Righteousness which is its contrary or curâ— Learned Illirious thought it was a Substance which he hath in his Clavis pleaded for at large Others call it a Habit Others a nature or natural Inclination and a privation of a Natural Inclination to God Others call it an Indisposition of the mind and will to holy Truth and Goodness and an Ill disposition of them to errour and evil Others call it only the Inordinate Lust of the sensitive faculties with a debility of Reason and Will to resist it And whilest the nature of the soul it self and its faculties are so much unknown to it self the nature of Original pravity and Righteousness must needs be very much unknown 8. Though an Infant be a distinct natural person from his Parents yet is he not actually a distinct person Morally as being not a moral Agent and so not capable of moral Actions good or evil Therefore his Parents Will goeth for his 9. His first acceptance into the Complacencial Love of God as distinct from his Love of Benevolence is not for any inherent Holiness in himself but 1. As the Child of a believing Parent who hath Dedicated him to Christ and 2. As a member of Christ in whom he is well pleased 10. Therefore God can complacencially as well as benevolently Love an Infant in Christ who only believeth and Repenteth by the Parents and not by himself nor is not yet supposed to have the spirit of sanctification 11. For the spirit of sanctification is not the presupposed Condition of his acceptance into Covenant with God but a gift of the Covenant of God it self following both the Condition on our part and our right to be Covenanters or to Gods promise upon that condition 12. So the adult themselves have the operation of the spirit by which they Believe and Repent by which they come to have their Right to Gods part in the Covenant of Baptism for this is antecedent to their baptism But they have not that gift of the spirit which is called in Scripture the spirit Act. 26 8. 2 Tâ—m 4. 7. Rom. 8 30. Gal. 4. 6. of sanctification and of Power Love and a sound mind and is the benefit given by the Covenant of Baptism till afterward Because they must be in that Covenant before it can be made good to them And their Faith or Consent is their Infants right also antecedent to the Covenant gift 13. There is therefore some notable difference between that work of the spirit by which we first Repent and believe and so have our title to the promise of the spirit and that gift of the spirit which is promised to believers which is not only the spirit of Miracles given in the first times but some notable degree of Love to our Reconciled Father suitable to the Grace and Gospel of Redemption and Rom. 8 9. Rom. 8. 16. â—5 Reconciliation and is called the spirit of Christ and the spirit of Adoption which the Apostles themselves seem not to have received till Christs ascension And this seemeth to be not only different from the Gifts of the spirit common to Hypocrites and the unbelievers but also from the special gift of the spirit which maketh men believers So that Mr. Tho. Hooker saith trulyer than once I understood that Vâ—cation is a special Grace of the spirit distinct from Common Grace on one side and from sanctification on the other side Whether it be the same degree of the spirit which the faithful had before Christs Incarnation which causeth men first to believe distinct from the higher following degree I leave to enquiry But the certainest distinction is from the different effects 14. Though an Infant cannot be either disposed
state and condition of Christians And where the Reasons and Case is the same the Obligations will be the same In a word the Text it self will one way or other shew us when a Command or Example is universally and durably obligatory and when not Quest. 137. How much of the Scripture is necessary to Salvation to be believed and understood Answ. THis question is the more worthy consideration that we may withal understand the use of Catechisms Confessions and Creeds of which after and the great and tender mercies of God to the weak and may be able to answer the Cavils of the Papists against the Scriptures as insufficient to be the Rule of Faith and Life because much of it is hard to be understood 1. He that believeth God to be true and the Scripture to be his Word must needs believe all to be true which he believeth to be his Word 2. All the Scripture is profitable to our knowledge love and practice and none of it to be neglected but all to be loved reverenced and studied in due time and order by them that have time and capacity to do it 3. All the Holy Scriptures either as to matter or words are not so necessary as that no man can be saved who doth not either believe or understand them But some parts of it are more necessary than others 4. It is not of necessity to salvation to believe every Book or Verse in Scripture to be Canonical or written by the Spirit of God For as the Papists Canon is larger than that which the Protestants own so if our Canon should prove defective of any one Book it would not follow that we could not be saved for want of a sufficient faith The Churches immediately after the Apostles time had not each one all their Writings but they were brought together in time and received by degrees as they had proof of their being written by authorized inspired persons The second of Peter Iames Iude Hebrews and Revelations were received in many Churches since the rest And if some Book be lost as Henocks Prophecy or Pauls Epistle to the Laodiceans or any other of his Epistles not named in the rest or if any hereafter should be lost or doubted of as the Canticles or the second or third Epistles of Iohn the Epistle of Iude c. it would not follow that all true faith and hope of salvation were lost with it It is a Controversie whether 1 Iohn 5. 7. and some other particular Verses be Canonical or not because some Greek Copies have them and some are without them But who ever erreth in that only may be saved 5. There are many hundred or thousand Texts of Scripture which a man may possibly be ignorant of the meaning of and yet have a saving faith and be in a state of salvation For no man living understandeth it all 6. The holy Scripture is an entire comely body which containeth not only the essential parts of the true Religion but also the Integral parts and the ornaments and many accidents which must be Rom. 14. 17 18. Rom. 13. 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 15. 2 3 4 5 6. Mar. 16. 16. distinguished and not all taken to be equal 7. So much as containeth the Essentials of true Religion must be understood and believed of necessity to salvation And so much as containeth the Integrals of Religion doth greatly conduce to our salvation both that we may be the surer and the better Christians as having greater helps to both 8. The very adjuncts also have their use to make us the more adorned Christians and to promote our knowledge of greater things Quest. 138. How may we know the Fundamentals Essentials or what parts are necessary to Salvation And is the Papists way allowable that some of them deny that distinction and make the difference to be only in the degrees of mens opportunities of knowledge Answ. 1. THâ—se Papists perverseness can mean no better than that Christianity it self is not necessary to salvation to those that have not opportunity to know it As Iohnsons Rejoynd to me and Sancta Clara and many others plainly intimate And were that never so true and certain it were nothing to the question between them and us which is What are the Essentials of Christianity And what is necessary to salvation where Christianity is necessary or where the Christian Religion is made known and men may come to the knowledge of it if they will do their best This is the true state of our Controversie with them And whereas they would make all the parts of Christian faith and practice equally necessary where men have a capacity and ability to know believe and practise them It is a gross deceit unworthy of men pretending to a mediocrity of knowledge in the nature of Religion And thereby they make all sins and errors as equal as all duties and James 3. 2. 1 John 1. ult truths Whereas 1. There is no man that hath not some error and some sin 2. There is no man that doth all that ever he was able to do to understand all the truth 3. Therefore there is no man whose errors themselves are not many of them at least culpable or sinful 4. And they that distinguish between Mortal and Venial sins and yet will not distinguish between Mortal and Venial Errors are either blind or would keep others blind As it is not so damning a sin for a man to think a vain thought or to speak a vain word as not to Love God or Holiness no though he was more able to have forborn that idle word than to have Loved God So it is not so mortal a sin that is inconsistent with a justified state to mistake in a small matter as who was the Father of Arpâ—â—xad or what year the world was drowned in c. as to blaspheme the Holy Ghost or deny Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the world or to deny that there is a God or everlasting life or a difference between Good and Evil. All sins are not equal in magnitude or danger Therefore all errors are not equal in magnitude sinfulness or danger 2. And what Priest is able to know whom to take for a Christian and baptizable upon such terms as these Who knoweth just what opportunities of knowledge other men have had and what impediments And will they indeed baptize a man that is a Heathen because he had not opportunity to come to the knowledge of Christianity I think they will not Or will they deny Baptism to one that knoweth and believeth only all the Articles of the Creed and the chief points of Religion because he knoweth not as much more as he had opportunity to know I think not Do not these men perceive how they condemn themselves For do they not say themselves that Baptism to the due receiver washeth away sin and puts the person in a state of life O when will God deliver his poor Church from factious deceivers
those doctrines against which no Minister shall be allowed to preach and according to which he is to instruct the people 3. To be a testimony to all neighbour or forreign Churches in an heterodox contentious and suspicious age how we understand the Scriptures for the Confuting of scandals and unjust suspicions and the maintaining Communion in Faith and Charity and Doctrine Quest. 144. May not the Subscribing of the whole Scriptures serve turn for all the foresaid ends without Creeds Catechisms or Confessions Answ. BY Subscribing to the Scriptures you mean either Generally and Implicitly that All in them is True and Good though perhaps you know not what is in it Or else particularly and explicitly that every point in it is by you both understood and believed to be true In the first sense it is not sufficient to salvation For this Implicite faith hath really no act in it but a Belief that all that God faith is true which is only the formal object of faith and is no more than to believe that there is a God for a Lyar is not a God And this he may do who never believed in Christ or a word of Scripture as not taking it to be Gods Word yea that will not believe that God forbiddeth his beastly life Infidels ordinarily go thus far In the second sense of an explicite or particular Actual belief the belief of the whole Scriture is enough indeed and more than any man living can attain to No man understandeth all the Scripture Therefore that which no man hath is not to be exacted of all men or any man in order to Ministration or Communion While 1. No man can subscribe to any one Translation of the Bible that it is not faulty being the work of defectible man 2. And few have such acquaintance with the Hâ—brew and Chaldee and Greek as to be able to say that they understand the Original Languages perfectly 2. And no man that understands the words doth perfectly understand the matter It followeth that no man is to be forced or urged to subscribe to all things in the Scriptures as particularly understood by him with an Explicite faith And an Implicite is not half enough 2. The true Mean therefore is the antient way 1. To select the Essentials for all Christians to be believed particularly and explicitely 2. To Collect certain of the most needful Integrals which Teachers shall not preach against 3. And for all men moreover to profess in General that they implicitely believe all which they can discern to be the holy Canonical Scripture and that all is true which is the Word of God Forbearing each other even about the number of Canonical Books and Texts And it is the great wisdom and mercy of God which hath so ordered it that the Scripture shall 1 Cor. 8. 1 2. 13. 1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 8. 3. Rom. 8. 28. have enough to exercise the strongest and yet that the weakest may be ignorant of the meaning of a thousand sentences without danger of damnation so they do but understand the Marrow or Essentials and labour faithfully to increase in the knowledge of the rest Quest. 145. May not a man be saved that believeth all the Essentials of Religion as Coming to him by Verbal Tradition and not as contained in the holy Scriptures which perhaps he never knew Answ. 1. HE that believeth shall be saved which way ever he cometh by his belief So be it it be sound as to the object and act that is If it contain all the Essentials and they be predominantly Believed Loved and practised 2. The Scriptures being the Records of Christs Doctrine delivered by Himself his Spirit and his Apostles it is the Office of Ministers and the duty of all Instructers to open these Scriptures to those they teach and to deliver particulars upon the authority of these Inspired sealed Records which contain them 3. They that thus receive particular truths from a Teacher explaining the Scripture to them do receive them in a subordination to the Scripture Materially and as to the Teachers part though not formally and as to their own part And though the Scripture authority being not understood by them be not the formal object of their faith but only Gods authority in general 4. They that are ignorant of the being of the Scripture have a great disadvantage to their faith 5. Yet we cannot say but it may be the case of thousands to be saved by the Gospel delivered by Tradition without resolving their faith into the authority of the Scriptures For 1. This was the case of all the Christians as to the New Testament who lived before it was written And there are several Articles of the Creed now necessary which the Old Testament doth not reveal Matth. 16. 16. Rom. 10. 9 10 13 14 15. 2. This may be the case of thousands in Ignorant Countreys where the Bible being rare is to most unknown 3. This may be the case of thousands of Children who are taught their Creed and Catechism before they understand what the Bible is 4. This may be the case of thousands among the Papists where some perverse Priests do keep not only the Reading but the Knowledge of the Scriptures from the people for fear lest they should be taught to resolve their faith into it and do teach them only the Articles of Faith and Catechism as known by the Churches tradition alone Quest. 146. Is the Scripture fit for all Christians to read being so obscure Answ. 1. THe Essentials and points necessary to salvation are plain 2. We are frequently and vehemently commanded to delight in it and meditate John 5. 39. Psalm 1. 2. Deut. 6. 11. Psal. 19. 7 8 9 10 11. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Psal. 119. 98 105. 133. 148. Acts 17. 11. Acts 8. in it day and night to search it to teach it our very children speaking of it at home and abroad lying down and rising up and to write it on the posts of our houses and on our doors c. 3. It is suited to the necessity and understanding of the meanest to give light to the simple and to make the very foolish wise 4. The antient Fathers and Christians were all of this mind 5. All the Christian Churches of the world have been used to Read it openly to all even to the simplest And if they may Hear it they may Read the same words which they hear 6. God blessed the ignorant Ethiopian Eunuch when he found him Reading the Scriptures though he knew not the sense of what he read and sent him Philip to instruct him and convert him 7. Timothy was educated in the knowledge of the Scriptures in his childhood 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 15. 4. Mat. 12. 24. 8. That which is written to and for all men may be read by all that can But the Scripture was written to and for all c. Object But there are many things in it hard to be understood Answ.
till their heads are setled and they come to themselves and that is not usually till the hand of God have laid them lower than it found them and then perhaps they will again hear reason unless pride hath left their souls as desperate as at last it doth their bodies or estates The experience of this Age may stand on record as a teacher to future generations what power there is in great successes to conquer both Reason Religion Righteousness Professions Vows and all obligations to God and man by puffing up the heart with pride and thereby making the understanding drunken CHAP. VIII Advice against Murder § 1. THough Murder be a sin which humane nature and interest do so powerfully rise up against that one would think besides the Laws of Nature and the fear of temporal punishment there should need no other argument against it And though it be a sin which is not frequently committed except by Souldiers yet because mans corrupted heart is lyable to it and because one sin of such a heynous nature may be more mischievous than many small infirmities I shall not wholly pass by this sin which falls in order here before me I shall give men no other advice against it than only to open to them 1. The Causes and 2. The Greatness and 3. The Consequents of the sin § 2. I. The Causes of Murder are either the Neerest or the more radical and remote The opening of the Neerest sort of Causes will be but to tell you how many wayes of murdering the World is used to And when you know the Cause the contrary to it is the prevention Avoid those Causes and you avoid the sin § 3. 1. The greatest Cause of the cruellest murders is unlawful wars All that a man killeth in an unlawful war he murdereth And all that the Army killeth he that setteth them a work by Command or Counsel is guilty of himself And therefore how dreadful a thing is an unrighteous war and how much have men need to look about them and try every other lawful way and suffer long before they venture upon war It is the skill and glory of a Souldier when he can kill more than other men He studyeth it he maketh it the matter of his greatest care and valous and endeavour He goeth through very great difficulties to accomplish it This is not like a sudden or involuntary act Thieves and Robbers kill single persons but Souldiers murder thousands at a time And because there is none at present to judge them for it they wash their hands as if they were innocent and sleep as quietly as if the avenger of blood would never come O what Devils are those Counsellers and incâ—ndâ—ries to Princes and States who stir them up to unlawful wars § 4. 2. Another Cause and way of Murder is by the Pride and tyranny of men in power When they do it easily because they can do it When their Will and Interest is their Rule and their Passion seemeth a sufficient warrant for their injustice It is not only Nero's Tiberius's Domitian's c. that are guilty of this crying crime but O what man that careth for his soul had not rather be tormented a thousand years than have the blood-guiltiness of a famous applauded Alexander or Caesar or Tamerlane to answer for So dangerous a thing it is to have Power to do mischief that Uriah may fall by a Davids guilt and Crispus may be killed by his father Constâ—mine O what abundance of horrid murders do the histories of almost all Empires and Kingdoms of the World afford us The maps of the affairs of Greeks and Romans of Tartariuns Turks Russians Germans of Heathens and Infidels of Papists and too many Protestants are drawn out with too many purple lines and their Histories written in letters of blood What write the Christians of the Infidels the Orthodox of the Arrians Romans or Goths or Vandals or the most impartial Historians of the mock Catholicks of Rome but Blood Blood Blood How proudly and loftily doth a Tyrant look when he telleth the oppressed innocent that displeaseth him Sirra I 'le make you know my power Take him Imprison him Rack him Hang him Or as Pilate to Christ Joh. 9. 10. Knowest thou not that I have power to Crucifie thee and have power to release â—hee I 'le make you know that your life is in my hand Heat the Furnace seven times horter Dan. 3. Alas poor worm Hast thou power to kill So hath a Toad or Adder or mad Dâ—gg or pestilence when God permitteth it Hast thou power to kill But hast thou also power to keep thy self alive and to keep thy Corpse from rottenness and dust and to keep thy soul from paying for it in Hell or to keep thy Conscience for worrying thee for it to all Eternity With how trembling a heart and ghastly look wilt thou at last hear of this which now thou gloriest in The bones and dust of the oppressed Innocents will be as great and honourable as thine And their souls perhaps in rest and joy when thine is tormented by infernal furies When thou art in Nebuchadâ—ezzara glory what a mercy were it to thee if thou mightest be turned out among the beasts to prevent thy being turned out among the Devils If killing and destroying be the glory of thy greatness the Devils are more honourable than thou And as thou agreest with them in thy work and glory so shalt thou in the reward § 4. 3. Another most heynous Cause of Murders is a malignant enmity against the Godly and a persecuting destructive Zeal What a multitude of innocents hath this consumed and what innumerable companies of holy souls are still crying for vengeance on these persecutors The Enmity began immediately upon the fall between the Womans and the Serpents seed It shewed it self presently in the two first men that were born into the World A malignant envy against the accepted Sacrifice of Abel was able to make his Brother to be his Murderer And it is usual with the Devil to cast some bone of carnal interest also between them to heighten the malignant enmity Wicked men are all Covetous voluptuous and proud And the doctrine and practice of the Godly doth contradict them and condemn them And they usually espouse some wicked interest or engage themselves in some service of the Devil which the servants of Christ are bound in their several places and callings to resist And then not only this resistance though it be but by the humblest words or actions yea the very conceit that they are not for their interest and way doth instigate the befooled world to persecution And thus an Ishmael and an Isaac an Esau and a Iacob a Saul and a David cannot live together in peace Gal. 4. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Sauls interest maketh him think it just to persecute David and religiously he
this or subscribe this without the guilt of a deliberate sin and I cannot sin without displeasing God and hindering my salvation He that dare wilfully sin himself and make it his deliberate choice and dare play away his own salvation at the poorest game that the Devil will invite him to and will sell his own soul at the basest price even for a little pelf or pleasure or high titles for so short a time certainly this man is unlike to be very tender of the souls of others or to stick at scandalizing and ensnaring them or to care any more to murder souls than a Butcher doth to kill a Hog Iudas's heart will make them sell their Lord or his flock at Iudas's price and prepare themselves for Iudas's reward And hence it is that the Carnal seed even within the Church hath ordinarily persecuted the spiritual seed For saith Paul As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. § 26. Direct 4. To be well acquainted with the methods of Satan and the way of particular temptations Direct 4. is a great help against your scandalizing others He that seeth the Devil as the principal in each temptation and knoweth in what manner he engageth his instruments to carry on his work and whither all this tendeth at the last will scarce be willing to serve such a master in so bad a work Remember that scandalizers and tempters of others and hinderers of mens salvation are the servants of the Devil and are executing his malice for the damnation of their brethrens souls And what reward can they expect for such a work from such a master The Devil useth them but as men do Ferrets whose mouths are sealed because they must not partake of the prey but only bring it to their masters hand Live in a constant watchful resistance of temptations your selves and you will have no mind to the drudgery of tempting others § 27. Direct 5. Set not your selves upon any worldly ambitious design For the Love of the Riches Direct 5. and Honours of the World will not only engage you in a course of sinning but also make it seem your interest to make others as bad and miserable as your selves and to drive them on to serve your interests by their sin § 28. Direct 6. Take â—heed lest a fleshly inclination do draw you to the Love of fleshly pleasures Direct 6. and that your minds be not set upon the pleasing of your fansies sense or appetite either in meat or drink or cloaths or dwellings or recreations or any such delights If once the Love of these grow strong it will conquer your reason and seduce it into Libertinism and make you think that a voluptuous flesh-pleasing life so it be not by gross disgraced sins is but the lawful use of the Creature which Christ hath purchased not only for our necessity but for our delight and that the contrary opinion is but the too much rigour of such as understand not their Christian liberty § 29. Direct 7. Be not rashly and ignorantly zealous in soliciting and importuning others to your Direct 7. private opinions before you are certain that they are of God O what abundance of zeal and labour hath many a man laid out to make others of his mind in the points of Antinomiâ—nism Aâ—abaptism Separation Popery c. thinking that the saving of their souls had lain upon it And at last they find that as they erred themselves so all their labour was but to scandalize the weak and lay a stumbling block in their way to Heaven § 30. Direct 8. Never perswade any man much less compell him to any thing unnecessary Direct 8. which be taketh to be a sin whatever you take it for your selves For if he judge it a sin it is a sin to him No man can innocently do that which he thinketh is forbidden him of God And shall a thing unnecessary be preferred before the saving of a soul Yea before the souls of thousands as by many merciless men it is Indeed if there be an Antecedent necessity as well as a lawfulness in the thing and such a necessity as is not in your power to take away then the Doing it will be his sin and the not doing it his greater sin and the greater sin is greatliest to be avoided but by convenient means § 31. Direct 9. Remember the charge which you have of the souls of one another Though you Direct 9. be not Magistrates or Pastors For their care of souls is so unquestionable and so great that scandal in them is like Parents murdering their own Children Yet no private man must say as Cain Am I my brothers keeper Every man is bound to do his best for the saving of his Neighbour Much more to forbear infecting seducing scandalizing and destroying him § 32. Direct 10. Keep up a special tenderness of the weak So doth God himself and so must Direct 10. we He gathereth the Lambs with his arms c. Isa. 40. 11. If his Infants cry he doth not therefore knock out their brains or turn them out of doors Nor doth he say they are not his Children for every ignorance or pievish passion which they are guilty of Christ doth not turn men out of his School because they want knowledge For why then will he have little Children come and what do they come for but to learn He doth not hate his new born babes but feedeth and nurseth them with a special tenderness And he hath commanded and communicated the like tenderness to his Ministers who must not be weak with the weak and froward with the froward but in meekness and patience must bear with the weak and endure their bitterest censures and requitals For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves c. 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. And if they are long learning before they come to the Knowledge of the truth they are not therefore to be cast off He that can read Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 12. 12. 8. Gal. 6. and yet can be so merciless and cruel as to cast men out of the Ministry or Church or to ruine them for tolerable weakness which God hath so earnestly charged us to bear with in our Brethren either he doth not understand what he readeth or not believe it or hath somewhat else which he more regardeth at his heart than the Authority or Love of God § 33. Direct 11. Do not censure every man to be wilful or obstinate who is not of your opinion Direct 11. when he hath heard your reasons how clear soever they may may seem to you Alas how many things are there besides wilful obstinacy to hinder one man from being as wiâ—e as another If a few times repeating over the Reasons of an opinion is
is the way to make the sinner think that it is a small or jeasting matter To perswade men to conversion or a godly life without a melting love and pity to their souls and without the reverence of God and seriousness of mind which the nature and weight of the thing requireth is the way to harden them in their sin and misery All these wayes may a man be guilty 1. Of the sin and 2. The perdition of another § 27. But here on the Negative part take notice of these things following How we are not guilty of other mens â—in or ruine 1. That properly no man doth partake of the same formal numerical sin which is anothers Noxa caput sequitur The sin is individuated and informed by the individual will of the offender It is not possible that another mans sin should be properly and formally mine unless I were individually and formally that same man and not another If two men set their hands to the same evil deed they are distinct causes and subjects of the distinct formal guilt though Con-causes and partial causes of the effect So that it is only by multiplication that we make the sin or guilt of another to become the matter of sin to us the form resulting from our selves § 28. 2. All men that are guilty of the sin and damnation of other men are not equally guilty Not only as some are pardoned upon repentance and some remain impenitent and unpardoned But as some contribute wilfully to the mischief and with delight and in a greater measure and some only in a small degree by an oversight or small omission or weak performance of a duty by meer infirmity or surprize § 29. 3. All that do not hinder sin or reprove it are not guilty of it No more than all that do not punish it But those only that have power and opportunity and so are called by God to do it § 30. 4. If another man will sin and destroy his soul by the occasion of my necessary duty I must not cease my duty to prevent such mens sin or hurt Else one or other will by their perverseness excuse me from almost all the duty which I should do I must not cease praying hearing Sacraments nor withdraw from Church-communion because another will turn it to his sin Else Satan should use the sin of others to frustrate all Gods worship Yet I must add that many things cease to be a duty when another will be so hurt by them § 31. 5. I am not guilty of all mens sins which are committed in my presence no though I know before hand that they will sin For my calling or duty may lead me into the presence of those that I may â—ore know will sin Wicked men sin in all that they do And yet it followeth not that I must have nothing to do with them Many a failing which is his sin may a Minister or Church be guilty of even in that publick Worship of God which yet I am bound to be present at But of all these somewhat is said before Chap. 12. CHAP. XV. General Directions for the furthering of the salvation of others THE great Means which we must use for the salvation of our Neighbours are § 1. Direct 1. Sâ—und Doctrine Let those who are their instructors inculcate the wholsome Principles of Godliness which are Self-denyal Mortification the Love of God and man the Hopes of Heaven universal absolute obedience to God and all this by faith in Iesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures Instead of Novelties or vain janglings and perverse disputings teach them these Principles here Direct 1. briefly named over and over an hundred times Open these plainly till they are well understood These are the necessary saving things This is the doctrine which is according to godliness which will make sound Christians of sound judgements sound hearts sound conversations and sound consciences God sanctifieth his chosen ones by these Truths § 2. Direct 2. Therefore do your best to help others to the benefit of able and faithful Pastors and Direct 2. Instructers A fruitful soil is not better for your seed nor a good pasture for your Horse or Cattel nor wholsome dyet for your selves than such instructers are for your neighbours souls If you love them you should be more desirous to help them to good Teachers or plant them under a sound and powerful Ministry than to procure them any worldly benefits One time or other the Word may prevail with them It is hopeful to be still in mercies way § 3. Direct 3. The concord of their Teachers among themselves is a great help to the saving of the Direct 3. flock John 17. 21 25. That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me Concord much furthereth reverence and belief and consequently mens salvation so it be a holy concord § 4. Direct 4. The Concord also of godly private Christians hath the same effect When the ignorant Direct 4. see here a Sect and there a Sect and hear them condemning one another it teacheth them to contemn them all and think contemptibly of piety it self But concord layeth an awe upon them § 5. Direct 5. The blameless humble loving heavenly lives of Christians is a powerful means of Direct 5. winning souls Preach therefore every one of you by such a conversation to all your neighbours whom you desire to save § 6. Direct 6. Keep those whom you would save in a humble patient learning posture and keep Direct 6. them from proud wranglings and running after novelties and Sects The humble Learner takes root downward and silently groweth up to wisdom But if once they grow self conceited they turn to wranglings and place their Religion in espoused singular Opinions and in being on this or that side or Church and fall into divided Congregations where the business is to build up souls by destroying Charity and teaching Sectaries to overvalue themselves and despise dissenters Till at last they run themselves out of breath and perhaps fall out with all true Religion § 7. Direct 7. Do what you can to place them in good families and when they are to be maâ—â—ied Direct 7. to joyn them to such as are fit to be their helpers In families and relations of that sort people are so near together and in such constant converse that it will be very much of the help or hinderance of their salvation § 8. Direct 8. Keep them also as much as is possible in good company and out of bad seducing Direct 8. company Especially those that are to be their familiars The worlds experience telleth us what power Company hath to make men better or worse And what a great advantage it is to work any thing on mens minds to have interest in them and intimacy with them Especially with those
nature of Carnal-selfishness and it is no better § 4. 3. SELFISHNESSE is the corruption of all the faculties of the soul. It is the sin of the mind by self-conceitedness and pride It is the sin of the will and affections by self-love and all the selfish passions which attend it Selfish desires angers sorrows discontents jealousies fears audacities c. It is the corruption of all the inferiour faculties and the whole conversation by self-seeking and all the forementioned evils § 5. 4. Selfishness is the commonest sin in the world Every man is now born with it and hath it more or less And therefore every man should fear it § 6. 5. Selfishness is the hardest sin in the world to overcome In all the unregenerate it is predominant For nothing but the sanctifying Spirit of God can overcome it And in many thousands that seem very zealous in Religion and very mortified in all other respects yet in some way or other selfishness doth so lamentably appear yea and is so strong in many that are sincere that it is the greatest dishonour to the Church of Christ and hath tempted many to infidelity or to doubt whether there be any such thing as true sanctification in the world The persons that seemed the most mortified Saints if you do but cross them in their self-interest or opinion or will or seem to slight them and have a low esteem of them what swellings what heart-burnings what bitter censurings what proud impatience if not Schisms and separations will it cause God hath better servants but too many which seem to themselves and others to be the best are no better How then should every Christian abhor and watch against this Universal Evil § 7. Direct 2. Consider oft how amiable a creature man would be and what a blessed condition the Direct 2. world and all societies would be in if selfishness were but overcome There would then â—e no pride no covetousness no sensuality no tyranny or oppressing of the poor no malice cruelty or persecution no Church-divisions no scandals nothing to dishonour Religion or to hinder the saving progress of the Gospel no fraud or treacheries no over-reaching or abusing others no lying noâ— deceit no neglect of our duty to others In a word no injustice or uncharitableness in the world § 8. Direct 3. Iudge of good and evil by sober Reason and not by bruitish sense And then oft Direct 3. consider whether really there be not a more excellent end than your self ish interest Even the publick good of many and the pleasing and glorifying of God And whether all mediate good or evil should not be judged of principally by those highest ends Sense leadeth men to selfishness and privateness of design But true Reason leadeth men to prefer the publick or any thing that is better than our self-interest § 9. Direct 4. Nothing but returning by converting Grace to the true Love of God and of Man for Direct 4. his sake will conquer selfishness Make out therefore by earnest prayer for the Spirit of Sanctification And be sure that you have a true apprehension of the state of Grace that is that it is indeed The Love of God and Man Love is the fulfilling of the Law Therefore Love is the Holiness of the soul Set your whole study upon the exercise and increase of Love and selfishness will dye as Love reviveth § 10. Direct 5. Study much the self-denying example and precepts of your Saviour His life and Direct 5. doctrine are the liveliest representation of self-denyal that ever was given to the World Learn Christ and you will learn self-denyal He had no sinful selfishness to mortifie yet natural-self was so wonderfully denyed by him for his Fathers Will and our Salvation that no other Book or Teacher in the world will teach us this lesson so perfectly as he Follow him from the Manger or rather from the Womb to the Cross and Grave Behold him in his poverty and contempt enduring the contradiction and ingratitude of sinners and making himself of no reputation Behold him apprehended accused condemned crowned with thorns clothed in purple with a reed in his hand scourged and led away to execution bearing his Cross and hanged up among Thieves forsaken by his own Disciples and all the world and in part by him who is more than all the world And consider why all this was done For whom he did it and what lesson he purposed hereby to teach us Consider why he made it one half the condition of our salvation and so great a part of the Christian Religion to Deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him and will have no other to be his Disciples Luke 14. 26 31 33. Were a Crucified Christ more of our daily study and did we make it our Religion to learn and follow his holy example self-denyal would be better known and practised and Christianity would appear as it is and not as it is misunderstood adulterated and abused in the world But because I have long ago written a Treatise of Self-denyal I shall add no more CHAP. XXVII Cases and Directions for Loving our Neighbour as our selves Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Loving our Neighbour Quest. 1. IN what sense is it that I must love my neighbour as my self Whether in the kind of Quest. 1. love or in the degree or only in the reality Answ. The true meaning of the Text is You must love him according to his true worth without the diversion and hinderance of selfishness and partiality As you must love your self according to that degree of Goodness which is in you and no more so must you as impartially love your neighbour according to that degree of Goodness which is in him So that it truly extendeth to the reality the kind and the degree of love supposing it in both proportioned to the goodness of the object But before this can be understood the true nature of Love must be well understood Quest. 2. What is the true Nature of Love both as to my self and neighbour Quest. 2. Answ. Love is nothing but the prime motion of the Will to its proper object which is called Complacence The object of it is simple Goodness or Good as such It ariseth from suitableness between the Object and the Will as appetite doth from the suitableness of the appetent faculty and the food This GOOD as it is variously modified or any way differeth doth accordingly cause or require a difference in our Love Therefore that Love which in its prime act and nature is but one is diversly denominated as its objects are diversified To an object as simply Good in it self it followeth the Understandings Estimation and is called as I said meer Complacence or Adhesion To an Object as not yet attained but absent or distant and attainable it is called Desire or Desiring Love And as expected Hope or Hoping Love which is a conjunction of Desire
or others from a possible hurt Direct 3. Be not desirous or inquisitive to know what men think or say of you unless in some special Direct 3. case where your duty or safety requireth it For if they say well of you it is a temptation to pride and if they say ill of you it may abate your love and tend to enmity Eccles. 7. 21. Also take no heed to all words that are spoken lest thou hear thy servant curse thee For oft-times also thy own heart knoweth that thou thy self likewise hast cursed or spoken evil of others It is strange to see how the folly of men is pleased with their own temptations Direct 4. Frown away those flatterers and whisperers who would aggravate other mens enmity to Direct 4. you or injuries against you and think to please you by telling you needlesly of other mens wrongs While they seem to shew themselves enemies to your enemies indeed they shew themselves enemies consequently to your selves For it is your destruction that they endeavour in the destruction of your Love Prov. 16. 28. If a whisperer separate chief friends much more may he abate your love to 2 Cor. 12. 20. enemies Let him therefore be entertained as he deserveth Direct 5. Study and search and hearken after all the good which is in your enemies For nothing will Direct 5. be the object of your Love but some discerned good Hearken not to them that would extenuate and hide the good that is in them Direct 6. Consider much how capable your enemy and Gods Enemy is of being better And for Direct 6. ought you know God may make him much better than your selves Remember Pauls case And when such a one is converted forethink how penitent and humble how thankful and holy how useful and serviceable he may be And love him as he is capable of becoming so lovely to God and man Direct 7. Hide not your love to your enemies and let not your minds be satisfied that you are Direct 7. Conscious that you love them But manifest it to them by all just and prudent means For else you are so uncharitable as to leave them in their enmity and not to do your part to cure it If you could help them against hunger and nakedness and will not how can you truly say you love them And if you could help them against malice and uncharitableness and will not how can you think but this is worse If they knew that you love them unfeignedly as you 'l say you do it 's two to one but they would abate their enmity Direct 8. Be not unnecessarily strange to your enemies but be as familiar with them as well you can Direct 8. For distance and strangeness cherish suspicious and false reports and enmity And converse in kind familiarity hath a wonderful power to reconcile Direct 9. Abhor above all enemies that pride of heart which scorneth to stoop to others for love and Direct 9. peace It is a Devilish language to say Shall I stoop or crowch to such a fellow I scorn to be so base Humility must teach you to give place to the pride and wrath of others and to confess it when you have wronged them and ask them forgiveness And if they have done the wrong to you yet must you not refuse to be the first movers and seekers for reconcilation Though I know that this rule hath some exceptions as when the enemies of Religion or us are so malicious and implacable that they will but make a scorn of our submission and in other cases when it is like to do more harm than good it is then lawful to retire our selves from malice Direct 10. However let the Enmity be in them alone Watch your own hearts with a double carefulness Direct 10. as knowing what your temptation is and see that you Love them whether they will love you or not Direct 11. Do all the good for them that lawfully you can For benefits melt and reconcile And Direct 11. hold on though ingratitude discourage you Direct 12. Do them good first in those things that they are most capable of valuing and relishing That Direct 12. is ordinarily in corporal commodities or if it be not in your power to do it your selves provoke others to do it if there be need And then they will be prepared for greater benefits Direct 13. But stop not in your enemies corporal good and in his reconciliation to your self For then Direct 13. it will appear to be all but a selfish design which you are about But labour to reconcile him to God and save his soul and then it will appear to be the Love of God and him that moved you Direct 14. But still remember that you are not bound to Love an enemy as a friend but as a man Direct 14. so qualified as he is nor to Love a wicked man who is an Enemy to Godliness as if he were a Godly man but only as one that is capable of being Godly This precept of Loving enemies was never intended for the levelling all men in our Love CHAP. XXX Cases and Directions about works of Charity Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Works of Charity Quest. 1. WHat are the grounds and reasons and motives to charitable works Quest. Answ. 1. That doing good doth make us likest to God He is the universal Father Motives and benefactor to the world All good is in him or from him and he that is best and doth most good is likest to him 2. It is an honourable employment therefore It is more honourable to be the Best man in the Land than to be the greatest Greatness is therefore honourable because it is an ability to do good And Wisdom is honourable because it is the skill of doing good so that Goodness is that end which maketh them honourable and without respect to which they were as nothing A power or skill to do mischief is no commendations 3. Doing good maketh us pleasing and amiable to God because it maketh us like him and because it is the fulfilling of his will God can love nothing but Himself and his own excellencies or image appearing in his works or his works so far as his attributes appear and are glorified in them 4. Good works are profitable to men Tit. 3. 8. Our brethren are the better for them The bodies of the poor are relieved and mens souls are saved by them 5. In doing good to others we do good to our selves because we are living members of Christs body and by Love and Communion feel their joys as well as pains As the hand doth maintain it self by maintaining and comforting the stomach so doth a Loving Christian by good works 6. There is in every good nature a singular delight in doing good It is the pleasantest life in all the World A Magistrate a Preacher a Schoolmaster a Tutor a Physicion a Judge a Lawyer hath so much
true pleasure as his life and labours are successful in doing good I know that the Conscience of honest endeavours may afford solid comfort to a willing though unsuccessful man and well-doing may be pleasant though it prove not a doing good to others But it is a double yea a multiplyed comfort to be successful It is much if an honest unsuccessful man a Preacher a Physicion c. can keep up so much peace as to support him under the grief of his unsuccessfulness But to see our honest labours prosper and many to be the better for them is the pleasantest life that man can here hope for 7. Good works are a comfortable evidence that faith is sincere and that the heart dissembleth not with God When as a faith that will not prevail for works of Charity is dead and uneffectual and the image o◠carkass of faith indeed and such as God will not accept Iam. 2. 8. We have received so much our selves from God as doubleth our obligation to do good to others Obedience and Gratitude do both require it 9. We are not sufficient for our selves but need others as well as they need us And therefore as we expect to receive from others we must accordingly do to them If the eye will not see for the body nor the hand work for the body nor the feet go for it the body will not afford them nutriment and they shall receive as they do 10. Good works are much to the honour of Religion and consequently of God and much tend to mens conviction conversion and salvation Most men will judge of the doctrine by the fruits Mat. 5. 16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 11. Consider how abundantly they are commanded and commended in the word of God Christ himself hath given us the pattern of his own life which from his first moral actions to his last was nothing but doing good and bearing evil He made Love the fulfilling of his Law and the works of Love the genuine fruits of Christianity and an acceptable sacrifice to God Gal. 6. 10. As we have opportunity let us do good to all men especially to them of the houshold of faith Heb. 13. 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Tit. 3. 8. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou constantly affirm that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works These things are good and profitable to men Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Tit. 2. 14. To purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Act. 20. 35. So labouring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Iesus how he said It is more blessed to give than to receive Ephes. 4. 28. Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing that is good that he may have to give to him that needeth You see poor labourers are not excepted from the command of helping others In so much that the first Church sold all their possessions and had all things common not to teach levelling and condemn propriety but to shew all after them that Christian Love should use all to relieve their brethren as themselves 12. Consider that God will in a special manner judge us at the last day according to our works and especially our works of Charity As in Matth. 25. Christ hath purposely and plainly shewed and so doth many another text of Scripture These are the Motives to works of Love Quest. 2. What is a good work even such as God hath promised to reward Quest. 2. Answ. 1. The matter must be lawful and not a sin 2. It must tend to a good effect for the benefit of man and the honour of God 3. It must have a good end even the pleasing and Glory of God and the good of our selves and others 4. It must come from a right principle even from the Love of God and of man for his sake 5. It must be pure and unmixed If any sin be mixt with it it is sinful so as to need a pardon And if sin be predominant in it it is so far sinful as to be unacceptable to God in respect to the person and is turned into sin it self 6. It must be in season or else it may sometimes be mixt with sin and sometimes be evil it self and no good work 7. It must be comparatively good as well as simply It must not be a lesser good instead of a greater or to put off a greater As to be praying when we should be quenching a fire or saving a mans life 8. It must be good in a convenient degree Some degrees are necessary to the Moral being of a good work and some to the well being God must be loved and worshipped as God and Heaven sought as Heaven and mens souls and lives must be highly prized and seriously preserved some sluggish doing of good is but undoing it 9. It must be done in confidence of the merits of Christ and presented to God as by his hands who is our Mediator and Intercessour with the Father Quest. 3. What works of Charity should one choose in these times who would improve his masters talents Quest. 3. to his most comfortable account Answ. The diversity of mens abilities and opportunities make that to be best for one man which is 〈◊〉 the Pre 〈…〉 e to my 〈…〉 ok called 〈◊〉 Crucifying 〈…〉 he world impossible to another But I shall name some that are in themselves most beneficial to mankind that every man may choose the best which he can reach to 1. The most eminent work of Charity is the promoting of the Conversion of the Heathen and Infidel parts of the world To this Princes and men of power and wealth might contribute much if they were willing especially in those Countreys in which they have commerce and send Embassadours They might procure the choicest Scholars to go over with their Embassadours and learn the languages and set themselves to this service according to opportunity Or they might erect a Colledge for the training up of Students purposely for that work in which they might maintain some Natives procured from the several Infidel Countreys as two or three Persians as many Indians of Indostan as many Tartarians Chinenses Siamites c. which might possibly be obtained and these should teach students their Countrey languages But till the Christian world be so happy as to have such Princes something may be done by Volunteers of lower place and power As Mr. Wheelock did in translating the New Testament and Mr. Pococke by the Honourable Mr. Robert Boile's procurement and charge in translating Grotius de Verit. Christ. Relig. into
this pernicious vice is as destructive to good works as almost any in the World That God who hath said that he is worse than an Infidel who provideth not for his own Family will judge many thousands to be worse than Christians and than any that will be saved must be who make their families the devourers of all which should be expended upon other works of Charity Direct 6. Take it as the chiefest extrinsecal part of your Religion to do good and make it the trade or Direct 6. business of your lives and not as a matter to be done on the by Jam. 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world If we are created for good works Ephes. 2. 10. and redeemed and purified to be zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. and must be judged according to such works Matth. 25. then certainly it should be our chiefest daily care and diligence to do them with all our hearts and abilities And as we keep a daily account of our own and our servants business in our particular Callings so should we much more of our employment of our Masters Talents in his Service And if a Heathen Prince could say with lamentation Alas I have lost a day if a day had past in which he had done no one good how much more should a Christian who is better instructed to know the comforts and rewards of doing good Direct 7. Give not only out of your superfluities when the flesh is glutted with as much as it desireth Direct 7. but labour hard in your Callings and be thrifty and saving from all unnecessary expences and deny the desires of ease and fulness and pride and curiosity that you may have the more to do good with Thriftiness for works of Charity is a great and necessary duty though Covetous thriftiness for the love of riches be a great sin He that wasteth one half his masters goods through sloathfulness or excesses and then is charitable with the other half will make but a bad account of his Stewardship Much more he that glutteth his own and his Families and retainers fleshly desires first and then giveth to the poor only the leavings of luxury and so much as their fleshly lusts can spare It is a dearer a laborious and a thrifty charity that God doth expect of faithful Stewards Direct 8. Delay not any good work which you have present ability and opportunity to perform Delay Direct 8. signifieth unwillingness or negligence Love and Zeal are active and expeditious And delay doth frequently frustrate good intentions The persons may dye that you intend to do good to or you may dye or your ability or opportunities may cease That may be done to day which cannot be done to morrow The Devil is not ignorant of your good intentions and he will do all that possibly he can to make them of no effect And the more time you give him the more you enable him to hinder you You little foresee what abundance of impediments he may cast before you and so make that impossible which once you might have done with ease Prov. 3. 28. Say not to thy Neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Direct 9. Distrust not Gods providence for thy own provision An unbelieving man will needs be a Direct 9. God to himself and trust himself only for his provisions because indeed he cannot trust God But you will find that your labour and care is vain or worse than vain without Gods blessing Say not distrustfully what shall I have my self when I am old Though I am not perswading you to make no provision or to give away all yet I must tell you that it is exceeding folly to put off any present duty upon distrust of God or expectation of living to be old He that over-night said I have enough laid up for many years did quickly hear Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and whose then shall the things be which thou hast provided Luk. 12. 20. Rather obey that Eccl. 9. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might For there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Do you think there is not an hundred thousand whose estates are now consumed in the flames of London who could wish that all that had been given to pious or charitable uses Do but believe from the bottom of your hearts that he that hath pity on the pâ—or lendeth to the doâ—d and that which he layeth out he will pay him again Prov. 19. 17. And that Matth. 10. 40 41 â—2 He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward and whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only i. e. when he hath no better in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward I say Believe this and you will make haste to give while you may lest your opportunity should overslip you Direct 10. What you cannot do your selves provoke others to do who are more able Provoke one Direct 10. another to love and to good works Modesty doth not so much forbid you to beg for others as for your selves Some want but information to draw them to good works And some that are unwilling may be urged to it to avoid the shame of uncharitableness And though such giving do little good to themselves it may do good to others Thus you may have the reward when the cost is anothers as long as the Charity is yours Direct 11. Hearken to no doctrine which is an enemy to Charity or good works nor yet which Direct 11. teacheth you to trust in them for more than their proper part He that ascribeth to any of his own works that which is proper to Christ doth turn them into heynous sin And he that ascribeth not to them all that which Christ ascribeth to them is a sinner also And whatever ignorant men may prate the time is coming when neither Christ without our Charity nor our Charity without Christ but in subordination to him will either comfort or save our souls CHAP. XXXI Cases and Directions about confessing sins and injuries to others Tit. 1. Cases about confessing sins and injuries to others Quest. 1. IN what cases is it a duty to confess wrongs to those that we have wronged Quest. 1. Answ. 1. When in real injuries you are unable to
Offer of pardon to all that it is revealed to But it is an Actual Pardon to those that come in and conferreth on them the benefits of the Act as if they were named in it and is their very Title to their pardon of which their Consent is the Condition and the Condition being performed the Pardon or Collation of the benefit becometh particular and actual without any new act it being the sense of the Law it self or Conditional Grant that so it should do So as to the reality of the Internal Covenant-interest and benefits Iustification and Adoption it is ours by vertue of this Universal Conditional Covenant when we perform the condition But as to our Title in foro Ecclesiae and the due solemnization and Investiture it is made ours when Gods Minister applyeth it to us in Baptism by his Commission As the Rebel that was fundamentally pardoned by the Act of Oblivion must yet have his personal pardon delivered him by the Lord Chancellor under the Great Seal In this sense Ministers are the instruments of God not only in declaring us to de pardoned but in Delivering to us the pardon of our sins and solemnly investing us therein As an Attorney delivereth possession to one that before had his fundamental Title Thus God entreth into Covenant with man § 10. VI. The Qualifications of absolute Necessity to the Validity of our Covenant with God in Quis vero non doleat Baptismo plerosque adultos initio passim nostro tempore non raro ante persundi quam Christianam Catechesin vel mediocriter tenâ—ant neque an flagitiosae superstitiosae vitae poenitenâ—ia tangantur neque vero id ipsum quod accipiunt an velint accipere satis constet Acosta l. 6. c. 2. p. 520. Nisi peâ—ant instent Christianae vitae professione donandi non sunt Idem p. 521. And again While ignorant or wicked men do hasten any how by right or wrong by guile or force to make the barbarous people Christians they do nothing else but make the Gospel a scorn and certainly destroy the deserters of a rashly undertaken faith Id. ibid. p. 522. foro interiore are these 1. That we understand what we do as to all the Essentials of the Covenant For ignorantis non est consensâ—s 2. That it be our own act performed by our Natural or Legal selves that is some one that hath power so far to dispose of us as Parents have of their children 3. That it be Deliberate sober and rationall done by one that is compos mentis in his wits and not in Drunkenness madness or incogitancy 4. That it be seriously done with a real intention of doing the thing and not histrionically ludicrously or in jeast 5. That it be done entirely as to all essential parts for if we leave out any essential part of the Covenant it is no sufficient consent As to consent that Christ shall be our Iustifier but not the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier 6. That it be a Present consent to be presently in Covenant with God For to Consent that you will be his servants to morrow or hereafter but not yet is but to purpose to be in Covenant with him hereafter and is no present covenanting with him 7. Lastly It must be a Resolved and Absolute Consent without any open or secret Exceptions or Reserves § 11. VII The Fruits of the Covenant which God reapeth though he need nothing is the Pleasing of his Good and Gracious Will in the exercise of his Love and Mercy and the Praise and Glory of his Grace in his peoples Love and Happiness for ever The fruits or Benefits which accrew to man are unspeakable and would require a Volume competently to open them Especially that God is our God and Christ our Saviour Head Intercessor and Teacher and the Holy Ghost is our Sanctifier and that God will regard us as his own and will protect us preserve us and provide for us and will govern us and be our God and Joy for ever that he will Pardon us Justifie and Adopt us and Glorifie us with his Son in Heaven § 12. Direct 2. When you thus understand well the Nature of the Covenant labour to understand the special Reasons of it The Reasons of the Matter of the Covenant you may see in the fruits and benefits now mentioned But I now speak of the Reason of it as a Covenant in genere and such a Covenant in specie 1. In General God will have man to receive Life or Death as an Accepter and Keeper or a Refuser or Breaker of his Covenant because he will do it not only as a Benefactor or Absolute Lord but also as a Governour and will make his Covenant to be also his Law and his Promise and Benefits to promote obedience And because he will deal with man as with a free agent and not as with a bruit that hath no choosing and refusing power conducted by Reason Mans life and death shall be in his own hands and still depend upon his own will though God will secure his own Dominion interest and ends and put nothing out of his own power by putting it into mans nor have ever the less his own will by leaving man to his own will God will at last as a Righteous Judge determine all the world to their final Joy or Punishment according to their own choice while they were in the flesh and according to what they have done in the Body whether it be good or evil Matth. 25. Therefore he will deal with us on Covenant-terms § 13. 2. And he hath chosen to Rule and Judge men according to a Covenant of Grace by a Redeemer and not according to a rigorus Law of works that his Goodness and Mercy may be the fullâ—er manifested to the sons of men and that it may be easier for man to Love him when they have so wonderful demonstrations of his Love And so that their service here and their work and happiness hereafter may consist of Love to the Glory of his Goodness and the Pleasure of his Love for ever § 14. Direct 3. Next understand rightly the nature use and ends of Baptism Baptism is to the Direct 3. mutual Covenant between God and man what the solemnization of Marriage is to them that do before Consent or what the Listing a Souldier by giving him Colours and writing his name is to one that Consented before to be a Souldier In my Universal Concord p. 29 30. I have thus described it See the Râ—formed â—â—yturgiâ— pag. 68. External Baptism what Baptism is a holy Sacrament instituted by Christ in which a person professing the Christian faith or the Infant of such is Baptized in water into the Name of the Father the Son and Holy Ghost in signification and solemnization of the holy Covenant in which as a Penitent Believer or the seed of such he giveth up himself or is by the Parent given up to God the Father Son and Holy
Ghost forsaking the Devil the World and the Flesh and is solemnly entered a visible member of Christ and his Church a pardoned regenerate Child of God and an heir of Heaven § 15. As the word Baptism is taken for the meer Administration or external Ordinance so the Internal Covenanting or faith and Repentance of the adult person to be baptized is no essential part of it nor requisite to the Being oâ— it but only the Profession of such a faith and Repentance and the external entering of the Covenant But as Baptism is taken for the Ordinance as performed in all its essential parts according to the true intent of Christ in his Institution that is in the first and proper meaning of the word so the Internal Covenanting of a Penitent sincere Believer is necessary to the Being of it And indeed the word Baptism is taken but equivâ—â—ally or Analogically at most when it is taken for the meer external administration and action For God doth not institute worship ordinances for bodily motion only when he speaketh to man and requireth Worship of man he speaketh to him as to a man and requireth humane actions from him even the work of the soul and not the words of a Parrot or the motion of a Poppeâ— Therefore the word Baptism in the first and proper signification doth take in the inward actions of the Heart as well as the outward Profession and actions And in this proper sense Baptism is the mutual Covenant between God the Father Compleat Baptism what it is Son and Holy Ghost and a penitent Believing sinner solemnized by the washing of water in which as a Sacrament of his own appointment God doth engage himself to be the God and reconciled Father the Saâ—iâ—ur and the Sanctifier of the Believer and taketh him for his reconciled Child in Christ and delivereth to him by solemn investiture the pardon of all his sins and title to the mercies of this life and of that which is to come What I say in this Description of a Penitent Believer is also to be understood of the Children of such that are dedicated by them in Baptism to God who thereupon have their portion in the same Covenant of Grace § 16. The word Baptism is taken in the first sense when Simon Magus is said to be Baptized Act. 8. and when we speak of it only in the ecclesiastick sense as it is true Baptism in foro ecclesiae But it is taken in the later sense when it is spoken of as the compleat ordinance of God in the sense of the Institution and as respecting the proper ends of Baptism as pardon of sin and life eternal and in foro coeli § 17. In this full and proper sense it is taken by Christ when he saith Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved that is He that Believeth and is by Baptism entered into the Covenant of God And in this sense the Ancients took it when they affirmed that all that were Baptized were Regenerated pardoned and made the Children of God And in this sense it is most true that he that is Baptized that is is a sincere Covenanter shall be saved if he die in that Condition Read the Propositions of the Synod in Nâ—w England and the Defense of them against Mr. Davenpoâ—t about the subject of Baptism that he is then in All that the Minister warrantably Baptizeth are sacramentally Regenerate and are in foro ecclesiae members of Christ and Children of God and Heirs of Heaven But it is only those that are sincerely delivered up in Covenant to God in Christ that are spiritually and really Regenerate and are such as shall be owned for members of Christ and Children of God in foro â—oeli Therefore it is not unfit that the Minister call the Baptized Regenerate and pardoned members of Christ and Children of God and Heirs of Heaven supposing that in soro ecclesiae they were the due subjects of Baptism But if the persons be such as ought not to be Baptized the sin then is not in calling Baptized persons Regenerate but in Baptizing those that ought not to have been Baptized and to whom the â—eal of the Covenant was not due § 18. None ought to be Baptized but those that either personally Deliver up themselves in Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost professing a true Repentance and faith and consent to the Covenant or else are thus delivered up and dedicated and entred into-Covenant in their Infancy by those that being Christians themselves have so much interest in them and power of them that their act may be esteemed as the Infants act and legally imputed to them as if themselves had done it If any others are unduly Baptized they have thereby no title to the pardon of sin or life eternal nor are they taken by God to be in Covenant as having no way consented to it § 19. Direct 4. When you enter a child into the Christian Covenant with God address your selves to Direct 4. it as to one of the greatest works in the world as thâ—se that know the Greatness of the Benefit of the Duty and of the Danger The Benefit to them that are sincere in the Covenant is no less than to have the pardon of all our sins and to have God himself to be our God and Father and Christ our Saviour and the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier and to have title to the blessings of this life and of that to come And for the Duty how Great a work is it for a sinner to enter into so solemn a Covenant with the God of Heaven for Reconciliation and Newness of life â—nd â—or salvation And therefore if any should abuse God by Hypocrisie and take on them to conseâ—â— to the terms of the Covenant for themselves or their Children when indeed they do not the Danger of such prophaneness and abuse of God must needs be great Do it therefore with that due preparation reverence and seriousness as beseemeth those that are transacting a business of such unspeakable importance with God Almighty § 20. Direct 5. Having been entered in your Infancy into the Covenant of God by your Parents you Direct 5. must at years of discretion review the Covenant which by them you made and renew it personally your selves and this with as great seriousness and resolution as if you were nâ—w first to enter and subscribe it and as if your everlasting Life or death were to depend on the sincerity of your consent and performance For your Infant Baptismal Covenanting will save none of you that live to years of discretion and do not as heartily own it in their own persons as if they had been now to be baptized But this I pass by having said so much of it in my Book of Confirmation § 21. Direct 6. Your Covenant thus 1. Made 2. Solemnized by Baptism 3. And Owned at age Direct 6. must 4. Be frequently renewed through the