end I am the Lord I change not Jesus Christ yesterday to Day and the same for ever His works indeed of the first Creation are changable to the worse and weaker but so is not he of old hast thou laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they all of them shall wax old like a Garment but thou art the same And so are all his works of the second Creation The renewing graces of his holy Spirit the older they are the newer and fresher and more flourishing they grow They that are partakers of them can say as Caleb did to Joshua Forty Years old was I when Moses sent me to espie the Land I am this Day fourscore and five Years old as yet I am as strong this Day as I was the Day when Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for War both to go out and to come in So it is said of Moses who was an hundred and twenty Years old when he dyed yet his Eye was not dim nor his natural force abated How much more may it be said of the everlasting Lord God that his Eyes are as sharp sighted as ever nor is his Divine force abated The Eyes of the Lord run too and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him Is his hand shortned that it cannot redeem Or have I no power to deliver Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his Eare heavy that it cannot hear And as his Power is so is his Mercy and Truth The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto Childrens Children Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations This House therefore with all its Furniture is alway new and fresh which can be said of no other nor is it new formally only but also effectively Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary His strength never decayeth nor doth his will ever alter towards his who by a never failing Power of the Holy Spirit are carryed as it were upon Eagles Wings to Heaven to the mark of their supernal Calling Yea their Wings grow like unto Eagles that is they grow young and renew in spiritual Vigour 9. It is a dwelling house dwelling in as well as dwelt in an habitation inhabiting in each of its Inhabitants which no other house is God is oft said to dwell in Heaven Unto thee will I lift up mine Eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory I dwell in the High and Holy Place The Heaven is my Throne We must not understand this placing God in Heaven as if he were totally circumscribed there for this is contrary to his infinite greatness Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord. Nor must we think he is so in Heaven as if his sight of things below were hindered by Heaven as a Curtain drawn before him as those great Fools thought for this is contrary to his Omnisciency But he is said to be in Heaven because he doth there most immediatly and visibly manifest his Majesty and exhibit the fulness of his Glory and because from thence he doth most manifest his powerful providence wisdome justice and mercy we are commanded when we pray to him to conceive of him as being in Heaven to teach us to raise our Souls as high in praise as possibly we can above the Earth beyond Heaven our thoughts cannot soar As also how to make Prayers pleasing to God both for matter and manner God is as oft said to dwell on Earth to have his Residence among his ancient People in the Land wherein they dwelt Defile not the Land which ye shall inhabit wherein I dwell for I the Lord dwell among the Children of Israel The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem I have surely built thee an House to dwell in A setled place for thee to abide in for ever In that place as in the flitting Tabernacle which Moses made he caused his Name to dwell that is he made manifest and known in those places the sacred Signs of his Presence as it were by his own proper name His Majesty and Glory in singular and wonderful effects of Grace and Power Every regenerate and faithful Man and Woman hath ever been is and will be owned and acknowledged the Temple of the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God These things are signifyed by this dwelling of the Spirit in Believers 1. That his Spirit is effectual and mighty to possess and govern them enlightning their minds to know and powerfully guiding them to do the known will of God 2. That his Presence is continual not as of a Guest who lodgeth for a Night at an Inne and is gone next Day nor as a Sojourner but as an owner and Possessor to abide for ever I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abâ—de with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth he dwelleth in you and shall be in you 3. The manner of his Presence not by Infiniteness of Power as he is present to all Creatures to sustain them but by his grace and healthful effects If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall quicken your immortal Souls and mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you 10. It is a movable Habitation according to the motion of those that dwell in it accompanying them whithersoever they go covering them where-soever they are Some Creatures carry their Houses about with them So doth every new Creature They are never out of this their own House The Israelites during their abode in the Wilderness dwelt in Tents Forty Years The Arabians and other People do so constantly having no firm Habitations In time of War and in travelling these moveable Houses were and still are in use Places to dwell in so made as they might be
is by closing with him Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of them This joyning makes this natural dwelling Neither let the Son of the Stranger that hath tyed himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord hath utterly separated me from his People Also the Sons of the Stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and love the Name of the Lord to be his servants even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and their Sacrifices shall be accepted He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit United with Christ and so to God the Father in Body and Soul as by a Bond of spiritual Matrimony in the Communion of the Spirit of Holiness This actual closing with God is especially by faith which is a trusting in his mercy through the mediation of his Son with an obediential affiance I have trusted in thy mercy and by this means made thee my Habitation and Salvation wherein I take no small Consolation Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rely with hearty confidence upon his faithful promises and most powerful wise and good providence for preventing and removing of evils and obtaining all good spiritual temporal and eternal The want of this is noted in that wicked mighty Man Loe this is the Man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness By repenting whereof and closing with God by a religious trust he might have made him his dwelling place for not doing so he is threatned to be pluckt out of his own dwelling place 3. God is made our Habitation by cleaving to him thus closed with persevering in faith and holiness adhearing constantly and abiding faithfully to God Seeking and expecting all our safety from his sole protection and accordingly qualifying our selves for a capacity thereof keeping in the way to which he hath promised his safeguard This is the meaning of the subject of this proposition in the first Verse of this Psalm He that dwelleth in the secret Place of the most High The same with making the Lord even the most High our Habitation Sticking fast also to him with the affections of the heart especially that of Love which hath the Nature of Glew The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own Soul Ruth clave to Naoimi intreat me not says she to hear thee or to return from following after thee For whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge where thou dyest will I dye and there will I be buried Hezekiah cleave unto the Lord and departed not from him but kept his Commandments him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave thus thou shalt make him thy habitation To the later Branch of the Question I answer in the words of the Apostle John in his first Epistle where he gives among others these four Characters of Persons dwelling in God 1. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Commandments of the moral Law are meant which whosoever keepeth approves himself to God and Men and to his own Conscience that he hath his dwelling in God He that lives in the breach of them evidenceth that he hath not his abiding in God Nor will obedience to some of these Commandments be any comfort to a Mans conscience that God is his habitation That young Man in the Gospel could say to Christ who bad him if he would enter into life keep the Commandments and mentions sundry of them All these things have I kept from my Youth up The proud Pharisee thanked God he was not as other Men were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers that he fasted twice a Week and gave Tithes of all that he possessed Herod did many things Obedience must be Universal Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet is guilty in one point offendeth in all David did according to all that God commanded him Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Conscience must be made of every sin great and small They only are blessed that do no iniquity I have refrained my Feet from every evil way I hate every false way Darling sins must be abandoned and abominated sins of constitution calling company I kept my self from mine iniquity So must every secret sin even of thought Why should I think upon a Maid Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments shall be excluded out of Heaven yea all appearance of evil must be abstain'd from And conscience must be made of every duty how costly dangerous or difficult soever 2 Cor. 8. 7. Phil. 4. 8 9. Dan. 6. 10. Rom. 12. 19 20. True it is we must be most careful of such duties that God hath laid a charge upon us especially to perform namely substantial duties of Piety and Charity and the duties of our particular Callings and Relations Mat. 22. 38 39 23. 23 24. 1 Sam. 15. 22. Hos 6. 6. Luk. 3. 13 14. 1 Tim. 6. 1 2. Tit. 2. 15. Eph. 5. 22. Not that it is expected that we should legally keep all these Commandments for this is impossible while we are in these earthly Tabernacles Evangelical obedience will be accepted which stands in five things 1. That we approve of all the Commandments of God I esteem all thy Commandments to be right the Law is holy the Commandment is holy just and good 2. That we unfeignedly will and earnestly endeavour to keep the whole Law We trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes Let now thine Ear be attentive to the Prayer of thy Servants who desire to fear thy Name 3. That there be in us as earnest an endeavour Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man 4. That we unfeignedly repent as oft as we fall or fail Grieving that we have done amiss and resolve to do so no more If thy Brother Sin against Thee seven times in a Day and seven times in a Day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out I gave her space to repent of her Fornication and she repented not They repented not to give him glory neither repented they of their murders or of their Sorceries nor of their thefts no Man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done There was under the Law a Sacrifice even for Perjury whereby a Man seals himself to the Devil 5. That we believe in the Lord
longest to be freed from it It 's Grace certainly that makes thee able to discern so hidden and close a Corruption and to hate it And as sense and feeling is a certain sign of a living Man as was now said So thy sense of hypocrisie with a hatred of it is a sure note and token of thy sincerity So that thou art not in the Flesh but in the Spirit Nor matters it so much what evil motions thou findest in thy self as how thou standest affected to them There are and will be filthy scums rising up in thy heart continually while thou livest here But while thou castest it off as it riseth by confession and self-condemnation it shall never hurt thee God will not condemn but absolve and acquit thee of it Thou mayest and oughtest to take comfort in the allowance of the Law of God in thy judgment and in thy will consenting to do it having an unfeigned desire purpose and endeavour to please God and to do his will this being the work of God's sanctifying Spirit and a special fruit of Christ's purchase as real comfort therefore herein as if thou wast perfect in obedience For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath nor shall he be rejected for that he hath not In this God's choicest Servants have comforted themselves against all their imperfections and falls and failings Obj. But I question the truth of my desires Answ That thou need'st not do as long as thou esteemest God's grace and favour above all things Seeking by prayer and other means every Day to grow less sinful and more holy and mournest for thy Daily miscarriages lamenting after the Lord. Obj. But my Conscience condemns me for an Hypocrite Ans O spiteful bitter thought bitterly spiteful thought Thou hast reason to discredit thy Conscience if it be opposite to the Word of God and not to regard it against the Word of God If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things He knowes the way thou takest that it is right And his word which is the Judge of Conscience hath given Sentence on the right side And therefore thou art bound in this case to check and condemn thy Conscience for troubling thee causlesly So did David and Job Let me give thee one caution take heed of making inherent Grace the only and chief ground of thy comfort Though it is indeed the only evidence of thy title to comfort For in so doing thou shalt commit two great evils one against thy self in leaning upon a bruised Reed for thine own Spirit may fail thee and be overwhelmed and thy heart may reproach thee another against the Lord making an Idol of that gift of his which cannot be so trusted in without sin Rely more upon God's Grace without thee than that which is within thee Yet cherish also inherent Holiness as thy only evidence of Life Eternal and the beginning of it Finally give not credit to thy misgiving heart that would perswade thee thou hast no assurance that God is thy Habitation For thou hast that degree of assurance which is necessary to the beeing of Grace the lowest degree of certainty which is in every true believer consisting in an application of adherence Whereby the Soul of a penitent sinner casts it self upon Jesus Christ with a resolved humble recumbency cleaving to him as the Ivy doth to the Oak Eagle to the Carkass goes out of it self renouncing its own Merits and relying upon the Person and Merits of Christ his active and passive obedience for forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation This is the act of Faith and every one that thus receiveth him with an Obediential affiance knows that and that through him dwelling in his heart he hath his dwelling in God You therefore as yet that have not any comfortable assurance cease hence-forth to doubt and fear and assay to joyn your selves with them that have with whom we are next to deal as Saul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples at Jerusalem Who will not at all as they were awhile of him be afraid of you but receive you joyfully into their blessed Society And when thou hast told despair Divine Herbert's strange story Say to it as he doth Hark Despair away THE FOURTH SERMON HAving dealt with those of this Divine Houshold that have as yet no comfortable assurance that the Lord is their Habitation we proceed to deal with them that have higher degrees of assurance which carry sensible comfort with them one is the Application of Experience when a Christian discerns in himself Divine impressions effects of regenerating Grace two or three whereof we will mention The prime and most general is a real change of the whole Man from evil to good This is a sure evidence of our being in Christ If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away all things are become new Whoever is changed in all his senses motions and affections speeches and actions is certainly ingrafted into the Body of Christ by his spirit The substance of the Soul and Body is the same the qualities and operations altered Another is walking in the light as God is the light Living and conversing following that light of God which is conferred upon us by Grace evidenceth us to be partakers of the Divine Nature Purifying our selves as he is pure Hereby we know we have fellowship one with another God with us and we with him that he dwells in us and we in him Love to the Brethren Christ's whole spiritual kindred who are knit to him to the bond of Faith and among themselves by that of love another infallible note We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren When a Christian's faith in lively exercise reflects upon its own acts receptive of Christ and operative by him having withall a sanctified Conscience witnessing sincerity in the actings he gathers by discourse and reasoning his own spiritual estate as Paul did Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the World and now abundantly to you-ward Such an application of experience had Thomas upon his Faith not quite exquisit before but very weak was raised and renewed by beholding touching and feeling The other application is that of evidence when the testimony of God's spirit comes and concurs with ours when we finde the Holy Ghost in us not only as a seal imprinting the graces of Christ upon our Souls nor only as an earnest giving us the first Fruits and as it were handle of Heaven Those holy and Heavenly Gift conferred in this life being a pledg of the perfection which shall be in the next but
hypocrites have been conversant in them even afflicting their souls and fasting frequently and praying on such Days very servently And this is that which God's Ministers are bound to press upon Men that are in a natural condition to do matter of duty to set themselves as objects of the spirit of God attending upon Divine Ordinances As a neglected Courtier sets himself in the Kings sight standing and waiting where he usually passeth and there humbly faces him It is observed that the Spirits out-goings are only upon such as face him He goes right on and turns not as he goes They must do as Esther did who esteemed her self as lovely as she could in the Kings sight set her self in the best dress she had as an object of the Kings call and see what good success she had by so doing Qu. How far doth nature qualifie her self for grace when she reacheth forth her abilities as far as she can Answ 1. Morally God took occasion from Ahab's humiliation to spare his life when upon hearing of Elijah's words he rent his cloaths put Sack-cloath upon his flesh and fasted and lay in Sack-cloth and went softly seest thou saith God unto the Prophet how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his Days So he took occasion from what those noble Bereans did in bringing their Bodies to publick Assembly takeing the heads of Paul's Sermons and examining the Notes they had taken by the Scriptures to work effectual faith in them 2. Passively a Man makes himself an object of the grace Life a handle for the Spirit to lay hold upon when he harps upon the string of his misery Cries out of his sin implores mercy and waits for grace in the use of means And it is not only possible that he may be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace but probable he shall be so The Gospel being the market of grace he that goes to buy there without Money it 's probably he may be furnished to his mind As they that lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the moving of the Water were in fair probability to be healed of their Diseases The Scribe that answered discreetly was not far from the Kingdom of God If there be no certainty of obtaining saving grace yet this should not discourage any natural Man from doing their utmost for the obtaining of it no more than the Husband-man is discouraged from Plowing Sowing because he is not certain he shall have his seed again No more is the Merchant sure he shall have his Ship come home laden with goods yet he ventures and so do all that trade for earthly commodities The Argument or motive to pains-taking from a peradventure or may be hath a force in it 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. Dan. 4. 27. Joel 2. 14. Zeph. 2. 3. They that neglect to use the means are sure to perish and such are most Men in these last Days who embezzel Nature's abilities make her poorer than she is strip her naked even of common Principles Sensual livers that drown all in Belial manners and having stifled Conscience give themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness live as if they had no God to serve no soul to save or as if their souls served only as the souls of Swine to keep their Bodies from putrifying They that are less licentious and lead a civil life are generally prodigiously sloathful work not at all or not with half their might as if grace and glory were not worth the while to labour for Now them that are such we command and exhort to be impatient of a natural condition to look upon grace as lovely and the Mother of delights Herb. Ch. the Foil If we could see below The Spheer of Virtue and each shining grace As plainly as that above doth show This were the better Skie the brighter place God hath made Stars the foyle To set off Virtues Griefs to set off sinning Yet in this wretched World we toyle As if Grief were not foul nor Virtue winning Thus saith the Lord God O ye House of Israel let it suffice you of all your abominations It is now even time to turn over a new leaf Let possibility and probability put you upon straining your selves with all your strength for the improving of Nature in her abilities and prove me now herewith saith the Lord. If so the common grace I have given you to actuate nature I will not also add sanctifying saving Grace Yea let me assure you that if you finde in your selves a valuing of an estate of Grace in your selves above all earthly things and a vehement and constant desire to have admission into God's Grace and savour and that not only for the benefit and comfort it brings with it but for the beauty and excellency it brings with it also at least you would and wish heartily that it were the ground of your desire and if withall your purpose and resolution be to persevere in the use of all the means appointed to bring you to this estate God hath begun a work of Grace in your Souls which he will perfect and you are in the number of those thrice happy People whose habitation the Lord Jehovah is With whom we are next to deal And first with those whose habitation God is sure enough but they have no comfortable assurance that he is so Cannot say as David here in my Text He is my refuge I say they are not comfortably assured for there are none whose habitation the Lord is are utterly without all assurance Certainly the Lord is theirs that he dwells in them and they in him but many of them know not that they have this knowledge and some of them deny it yea conceive and conclude that they are out of God and as far from him as Hell from Heaven That it 's possible for Men to know a thing and not to know they know it yea to deny that they know it appears by these words of Thomas in the name of all his fellow Disciples to our Saviour who had assured him that Whither he went they knew and knew the way Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way They knew both but they knew not that they knew either And that Men in the state of Grace and abiding in God may be so far from any sensible and comfortable assurance of their interest in God of his love and favour towards them that they may seem to be assured of the contrary apprehend him as their mortal Enemy appeares by those words of Job He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me Mine Enemy sharpeneth his Eyes upon me Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Now the Grounds and Reasons why many precious Souls have such doubts and feares and are apt to pass such a sad conclusion
it is for Brethren both by nature and grace to dwell together in Unity both of judgment and affection Next he expounds and so proves the pleasure and the profit of this two-fold Unity First by parable and similitude which is double to shew the pleasure he compares it to that odoriferous anointing Oyl which God commanded to be made and compounded after the Art of the Apothecary which when it was poured upon Aaron's head ran down upon his Beard and thence went to his Skirts So this sweet communion of spiritual grace cunningly composed of united minds and affections passeth down from Christ our Head not only upon the stronger Professours which are as great an Ornament to the Church as a Beard is on the Face of a Man but also to the meanest and weakest Christian Members To set forth the pleasure of it he compares it to Dew which is a special blessing sent upon the Earth for the refreshing thereof which falls freely and therefore is said to be begotten of God and finely distilled down in so small drops that it cannot be perceived till it be laid and fully it falls into lowest Valleys as well as highest Hills and fitly in Spring for growth in Harvest for ripening and fruitfully making the Ground bring forth abundantly So it is in all these respects with spiritual graces especially with this And then he proves it by plain strong and binding demonstration where this Unity is God commandeth the blessing and life for ever-more that is promiseth and fully performes it in this life spiritually and corporally and hereafter Eternally I hinted this Unity to be twofold and will speak a little to both First of mind and judgment it is a thing greatly to be wished and sought after that all God's Children and Servants dwelling together in the same House might be of one mind and judgment in all points The Apostle oft earnestly presseth this frequently striketh upon this String Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment be of one mind for matter of Opinion If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort and love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercy fulfill ye my joy that ye may be like-minded being of one accord and of one mind A most passionate obtestation importing a most vehement desire of their good agreement whereunto he conjures them by all the bonds of love between him and them Perswasion it self could not speak more perswasively Here are so many words so many Weapons able to pierce and work upon any heart that had not an Iron sinew How many Arguments doth he take from one to inforce his Exhortation with all possible carefulness To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace One Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all The Apostle well knew the neerer they were agreed in Judgment the faster their affections would be knit one to another and beside the great advantage that all wicked Men take at the disagreement of God's People should make them desirous to be all of one mind and to compose all the differences that are between them Let there be I pray thee no strife between thee me between c. for we are brethren not only upon this account but because the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwell in the Land and because of our dissention we shall give them occasion to speak evil of our holy Religion and alienate their hearts more from it How oft have you had this cast in your Dish by enemies both to the form power of godliness when you have perswaded them to embrace both Agree first among your selves There is no such stumbling Block at this Day in this Land laid in the way of ungodly Men through God's just Judgment indeed and it is necessary there should be such offences but woe unto you if you become occasions of such offences if you repent not that you are so and labour not to take away the stumbling Block out of your way by endeavouring to be all of one mind But because perfect Unity is not to be expected till the Church be come to her perfection There must be Heresies among you Sects and Dissentions concerning Tenets and Grounds of Doctrine and wayes of Worship It is a thing unavoidable by reason of the Devil's malice Men's wickedness and God's most wise counsel and according to the frequent predictions of the Holy Ghost God indeed hath promised to give his People One Heart and one Way But the meaning is that they shall all agree in all Fundamental points of Doctrine and in all substantial ways of Worship in which they should joyntly and conformably serve him but in points of Religion and Circumstances of divine Worship that are of inferiour moment there will be Brethren different in Opinion and practice from you towards whom you are bound to bear brotherly love which is of a bearing and forbearing nature and not suffer difference in judgment to work in you the least alienation of affection towards them What a deal of pains does the Apostle take to work Christians to a charitable Toleration each of other 1. Disswading them from censuring one another for or in the use of things indifferent the parties that dissented were weak and strong Christians the things wherein were Meats and Days the strong thought all difference of Meates prohibited by the Law to be abolished by Christ and therefore did not forbear to feed on any and they conceived all Jewish Festivals to be abrogated by God and so observed them not The weak not seeing their own liberty in the case of Meates choose rather to eat Herbs than with a doubting Conscience to feed upon Meats forbidden and conceiving the Festivals not to be abrogated still observed them In both these cases the Apostle gives negative directions and exhortations to both sorts of Christians Viz. That in the case of Meates the strong should not contemn the weak as superstitious for abstaining Nor the weak censure the strong as prophane for neglecting the observation of distinction of them And in the case of Dayes that neither of them should do any thing with a gain-saying or doubting Conscience pressing these directions with sundry Arguments and that by no means the strong should give the least offence to their weak brethren by abuse of their liberty 2. And he perswades every one to study not to please himself but his Neighbour to edification for his good by the example of Christ who did not only not please himself but sought the good of others and so saith he must we bearing one with another receiving one another as he received us to be partakers of