event And so I conclude Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 24. 1. That God did not command Ministers to give Infidels the Lords Supper to convert them to Christianity 2. He requireth us to give it to none but those that profess themselves converted from Infidelity Act. 2. 37 38. Matth. 28. 19 20. 1 Cor. 10. 16. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Acts 8. 13. 37 38. and a state of wickedness and to none that profess not true saving â—aith and repentance 3. God never commanded or allowed any Infidel to demand or receive it to his conversion 4. God commandeth the Pastors of the Church to deliver it to Hypocrites who at the heart are Infidels or Impenitent and ungodly if they profess faith and repentance and desire or require it 5. There is much in the nature of the Sacrament which tendeth to the conversion of an hypocrite 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 30. 6. And God often blesseth it to the conversion of hypocrites so that it may thence be said to be his secondary intention 7. But yet he that knoweth himself to be a meer hypocrite or void of saving faith and repentance should not come first and immediately to the Sacrament to be converted by it But should first so long hear read meditate and pray till he Repent and believe and his Heart consent to the Covenant of God And then he should come with penitent Contrition and solemnly renew his Covenant in this Sacrament and there receive a sealed pardon Quest. 97. Must no man come to the Sacrament that is uncertain or doubtful of the sincerity of his faith and repentance Answ. 1. HE that is sure of his unsoundness and hypocrisie should not come 2. He that upon tryal is not sure but yet as far as he can understand his own 1 Cor. 11. 28 29 31. heart and life doth judge himself an Impenitent hypocrite should use other means to know himself certainly and fullier to Repent before he cometh And though some melancholy and timerous persons be falsly perswaded that they are Impenitent yet it is better that such forbear the Sacrament while they use other means for their better acquaintance with themselves than that all the hypocrites and wicked impenitent people be told that it is their duty to come if they can but make themselves uncertain whether they be impenitent or not 3. But he that after the best endeavours he can use to know himself can say I am not certain that I truly Repent but as far as I can know my heart I do is not to be hindered from the Sacrament by that uncertainty 1. For few of the best attain to a full certainty of their own sincerity 2. And all that can be expected from us is that we proceed according to the best of our understandings and the best acquaintance with our selves that we can get 3. And otherwise it would keep us from all other duties proper to true Christians As from thanksgiving for our Justification Sanctification Adoption c. 4. He that only erreth about the Nature of true faith and repentance and not about the reality of it in himself should not be kept away by that error As if he can say As far as I know my heart I am willing to part with every known sin and to know every sin that I may part with it But I am afraid this is not true Repentance or he that saith I believe the Gospel to be true and I am willing to have Christ upon his Covenant terms and wholly to resign my self unto him but I am afraid yet that I am not a true believer This person is truly penitent and is a true believer and therefore ought to come 5. The case de esse whether a man be a true Christian or not is in order before the case de scirâ— whether he be certain of it or not He that is an Hypocrite is bound by God first to know 2 Cor. 13. 5 6. that he is so and then to Repent and then to Communicate He that is sincere is bound by God to know that he is sincere and to be thankful and to communicate And mans neglect of one duty will not make God change his Laws which still bind them to all this at once Quest. 98. Is it Lawful or a Duty to joyn Oblations to the Sacrament and how Answ. 1. THere is no question but a Christian must give up himself soul and body with all Rom. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. that he hath to God for his service And this oblation is Christianity it self 2. It is undoubted that the Lords day is a â—it time for our depositing what we have to spare for charitable and pious uses and this is partly of Divine appointment 1 Cor. 16 1 2. 3. No doubt but what we give to the poor should be for Gods sake and from our Love to Matth. 10. usâ— 25 40 c. God And therefore must first be devoted or given up to God and but secondarily to the poor 4. It is certain that the Lords Supper is as fit a season as any part of that day for such Oblations and Collections The antient Christians did therefore call it the Communion because in it they shewed their Love and Communion and feasted in common to that end There are two several â—orts of Oblations which may lawfully be made and fitly at the Communion 1. The Creatures of Bread and Wine should be offered or presented before God as acknowledging him to be the Creator and Giver of all and to desire his acceptance and benediction of them for that holy use 2. Our Alms or charitable contribution may be then fitly offered to God that he may first accept it and so it may be communicated to the Church and poor When we receive from God the most obliging benefits when we reâ—urn our greatest thanks when we resign our selves and all to God it s then sure a seasonable time to express all by the oblation of our benevolence That hypocrites may not pretend that they are charitable in secret but the Church may have due notice of it and the Pastors 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. be duly entrusted with it Quest. 99. How many Sacraments are there appointed by Christ Answ. THe word Sacrament hath so many significations that it is not fit for the Question Of which see Martiâ—ius fully in Onom de Sacraâ— Bellarmine himself reckoneth five till it be explained Passing all others now we must take notice 1. That our use of it is not so large as the Latin Interpreter who putteth it for Mysterie but for A solemn Dedication of man to God by a Vow expressed by some sacred Ceremony signifying mutually our Covenant to God and Gods Reception of us and his Covenant with us And it is brought into the Church from the Roman Military Oath called a Sacrament in which as Tertul. de Cor. Mil. sheweth the Souldier sware fidelity and obedience to Caesar renouncing
paribus by an unnecessary thing to occasion divisions in the Churches But where one part judgeth Church Musick unlawful for another part to use it would occasion divisions in the Churches and drive away the other part Therefore I would wish Church-musick to be no where set up but where the Congregation can accord in the use of it or at least where they will not divide thereupon 2. And I think it unlawful to use such streins of Musick as are Light or as the Congregation cannot easily be brought to understand Much more on purpose to commit the whole work of singing to the Choristers and exclude the Congregation I am not willing to joyn in such a Church where I shall be shut out of this noble work of praise 3. But plain intelligible Church-musick which occasioneth not divisions but the Church agreeth in for my part I never doubted to be lawful For 1. God set it up long after Moses Ceremonial Law by David Solomon c. 2. It is not an instituted Ceremony meerly but a natural help to the minds alacrity And it is a 1 Sam. 18. 6. 1 Chron. 15. 16. 2 Chron. 5. 13. 7. 6. 23. 13. 34. 22. Psal. 98. 99. 149. 150. duty and not a sin to use the helps of nature and Lawful art though to institute Sacraments c. of our own As it is lawful to use the comfortable helps of spectacles in reading the Bible so is it of Musick to exhilerate the soul towards God 3. Jesus Christ joyned with the Jews that used it and never spake a word against it 4. No Scripture forbiddeth it therefore it is not unlawful 5. Nothing can be against it that I know of but what is said against Tunes and Melody of Voice For whereas they say that it is a humane invention so are our Tunes and Metre and Versions Yea it is not a humane invention As the last Psalm and many other shew which call us to praise the Lord with instruments of musick And whereas it is said to be a carnal kind of pleasure they may say as much of a Melodious harmonious confort of Voices which is more excellent Musick than any Instruments And whereas some say that they find it do them harm so others say of melodious singing But as wise men say they find it do them good And why should the experience of some prejudiced self-conceited person or of a half-man that knoweth not what melody is be set against the experience of all others and deprive them of all such helps and mercies as these people say they find no benefit by And as some deride Church-musick by many scornful names so others do by singing as some Congregations neer me testifie who these many years have forsaken it and will not endure it but their Pastor is fain to unite them by the constant and total omission of singing Psalms It is a great wrong that some do to ignorant Christians by putting such whimseyes and scruples into their heads which as soon as they enter turn that to a scorn and snare and trouble which might be a real help and comfort to them as well as it is to others Quest. 128. Is the Lords day a Sabbath and so to be called and kept and that of Divine institution And is the seventh day Sabbath abrogated c. Answ. ALL the Cases about the Lords day except those practical directions for keeping it in the Oeconomical part of this Book I have put into a peculiar Treatise on that subject by it self and therefore shall here pass them over referring the Reader to them in that discourse Quest. 129. Is it Lawful to appoint humane Holy dayes and observe them Answ. THis also I have spoke to in the foresaid Treatise and in my Disput. of Church-Govern and Cer. Briefly 1. It is not lawful to appoint another weekly sabbath or day wholly separated to the Commemoration of our redemption For that is to mend pretendedly the institutions of God Yea and to contradict him who hath judged one day only in seven to be the fittest weekly proportion 2. As part of some dayes may be weekly used in holy assemblies so may whole days on just extraordinary occasions of prayer preaching humiliation and thanksgiving 3. The holy doctrine lives and sufferings of the Martyrâ— and other holy men hath been so great a mercy to the Church that for any thing I know it is lawful to keep anniversary Thanksgivings in remembrance of them and to encourage the weak and prâ—voke them to constancy and imitation 4. But to dedicate dayes or Temples to them in any higher sence as the Heathens and Idolaters did to their Hero's is unlawful or any way to intimate an attribution of Divinity to them by word or Worship 5. And they that live among such Idolaters must take heed of giving them scandalous encouragement 6. And they that scrupulously fear such sin more than there is cause should not be forced to sin against their Consciences 7. But yet no Christians should causelesly refuse that which is lawful nor to joyn with the Churches in holy exercises on the dayes of thankful commemoration of the Apostles and Martyrs and excellent instruments in the Church Much less peâ—ulantly to work and set open Shops to the offence of others But rather to perswade all to imitate the holy lives of those Saints to whom they give such honours Quest. 130. How far is the holy Scriptures a Law and perfect Rule to us Answ. 1. FOr all thoughts words affections and actions of Divine faith and obedience supposing still Gods Law of Nature For it is no Believing God to believe what he never revealed nor no Trusting God to trust that he will certainly give us that which he never either directly nor indirectly promised Nor no obeying God to do that which he never commanded 2. The Contents will best shew the Extent Whatever is Revealed promised and commanded in it for that it is a perfect Rule For certainly it is perfect in its kind and to its proper use 3. It is a perfect Rule for all that is of Universal Moral necessity That is Whatever it is necessary that 1 Tim. 3. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 20. 2 Tim. â— 15. Rom. 15. 4. 16. 26. Joh. â— 3â— Act. 1â— 2. 11. Joh. 19. 24 28 36 37. man believe think or do in all ages and places of the World this is of Divine obligation Whatever the World is Universally bound to that is All men in it it is certain that Gods Law in Nature or Scripture or both bindeth them to it For the World hath no Universal King or Lawgiver but God 4. Gods own Laws in Nature and Scripture are a perfect Rule for all the duties of the understanding thoughts affections passions immediately to be exercised on God himself For no one else is a discerner or judge of such matters 5. It perfectly containeth all the Essential and Integral parts of the Christian Religion so
g. The Law against relieving a beggar bindeth not when he is like to dye if he be not relieved or in such a case as after the burning of London when there was no Parish to bring him to A Law that is but for the ordering of mens charity to soul or body by preaching or alms will not disoblige me from the Duties of Charity themselves in cases where Scripture or Nature proveeth them to be imposed by God A Law for fasting will not bind me when it would be destructive to my body even on Gods Sabbaths duties of mercy were to be preferred to Rest and Sacrifices 14. If Gods own Laws must be thus expounded that When two duties come together and both cannot be done the lesser ceaseth at that time to be a duty and the greater is to be preferred mans Laws must also be necessarily so expounded And the rather because mans Laws may be contradictory when Gods never are so rightly understood 15. Where the subject is to obey so far he must discern which of the Laws inconsistent is to be preferred But in the Magistratical execution the Magistrate or Judge must determine E. g. One Law commandeth that all the needy poor be kept on the Parish where they were born or last lived Another Law saith that Non-conformable Ministers of the Gospel who take not the Oxford Oath shall not come within five miles of City or Corporation though they were born there or any place where they have been Preachers In case of necessity what shall they do Answ. Whither they shall go for relief they must discern as well as they can But whither they shall be carried or sent the Magistrate or Constable must discern and judge Also Whether he shall go with a Constable that by one Law bringeth him to a place which by the other Law he is forbid on pain of six months imprisonment in the Common Gaol to come to Answ. If he be not voluntary in it it is not his fault And if one bring him thither by force and and another imprison him for being there he must patiently suffer it 16. But out of such excepted Cases the Laws of our Rulers as the commands of Parents do bind us as is afore explained And it is a sin against God to violate them 17. Yea When the reason of the Law reacheth not our particular case and person yet when we have reason to judge that it is the Rulers will that all be bound for the sake of some and the common order and good will be hindered by our exemption we must obey to our corporal detriment to avoid the publick detriment and to promote the publick good CHAP. IV. Directions to Lawyers about their Duty to God GEntlemen you need not meet these Directions with the usual censures or suspicions that Divines are busying themselves with the matters of your Calling which belong not to them and which they do not understand You shall see that I will as much forbear such matters as you can well desire If your Calling be not to be sanctified by serving God in it and regulating it by his Law it is then neither honourable nor desirable But if it be permit me very Legum mihi placet autoritas sed earum usus hominum nequitia depravatur Itaque piguit perdiscere quo inhoneste uti nollem honeste vix possem etsi vellem Petrarch i◠vita sua briefly so far to Direct you § 1. Direct 1. Take the whole frame of Polity together and study each part in its proper place and Direct 1. know it in its due relation to the rest that is Understand first the Doctrine of Polity and Laws in genere and next the Universal Polity and Laws of God in specie and then study Humane Polity and Laws as they stand in their due subordination to the Polity and Laws of God as the by-Laws of Corporations do to the General Laws of the Land § 2. He that understandeth not what Polity and Law is in genere is unlike to understand what Divine or Humane Polity or Law is in specie He that knoweth not what Government is and what a community and what a politick society is will hardly know what a Common-wealth or Church is And he that knoweth not what a Common-wealth is in genere what is its End and what its constitutive parts and what the efficient causes and what a Law and Judgement and Execution is will study but unhappily the Constitution or Laws of the Kingdom which he liveth in § 3. 2. And he that understandeth not the Divine Dominium Imperium as founded in Creation and refounded in Redemption and mans subjection to his Absolute Lord and the Universal Laws which he hath given in Nature and Scripture to the world can never have any true understanding of the Polity or Laws of any Kingdom in particular No more than he can well understand the true state of a Corporation or the power of a Mayor or Justice or Constable who knoweth nothing of the state of the Kingdom or of the King or of his Laws What ridiculous discourses would such a man make of his Local Polity or Laws He knoweth nothing worth the knowing who knoweth not that all Kings and States have no power but what is derived from God and subservient to him and are all his Officers much more below him than their Justices and Officers are to them and that their Laws are of no force against the Laws of God whether of Natural or Supernatural Revelation And therefore it is most easie to see that he that will be a good Lawyer must first be a Divine And that the Atheists that deride or slight Divinity do but play the fools in all their independent broken studies A man may be a good Divine that is no Lawyer but he can be no good Lawyer that understandeth not Theology Therefore let the Government and Laws of God have the first and chiefest place in your studies and in all your observation and regard 1. Because it is the Ground of Humane Government and the Fountain of mans Power and Laws 2. Because the Divine Polity is also the End of Humane Policy Mans Laws being ultimately to promote our Obedience to the Laws of God and the honour of his Government 3. Because Gods Laws are the measure and bounds of Humane Laws against which no man can have power Male se rectum putat qui regulam summae rectitudinis ignorat Ambros. de Offic. 4. Because Gods Rewards and Punishments are incomparably more regardable than mans Eternal joy or misery being so much more considerable than temporal peace or suffering Therefore though it be a dishonour to Lawyers to be ignorant of Languages History and other needful parts of Learning yet it is much more their dishonour to be ignorant of the Universal Government and Laws of God § 4. Direct 2. Be sure that you make not the getting of money to be your principal end in the
worth no nor to get the true worth against his will or with scandal But if it be only to get a true worth of your commodity when he is willing but would be offended if his ignorance in some point were cured you may so far make use of his ignorance to a lawful end as is said before in the case of concealing faults § 14. Quest. 13. May I strive to get before another to get a good bargain which he desireth Quest. 13. Answ. Yes if you do it not out of a greedy mind nor to the injury of one that is poorer than your self You should rather further the supply of your neighbours greater needs Otherwise speed and industry in your Calling is no fault nor yet the crossing of a covetous mans desires You are not bound to let every man have what he would have § 15. Quest. 14. May I buy a thing out of anothers hand or hire a servant which another is about Quest. 14. or is treating with Or may I call a Chapman from another to buy of me Answ. There are some cases in which you may not do it and some in which you may You may not do it out of greedy covetousness nor to the injury of the poor nor when the other hath gone so far in the bargain that it cannot be honestly broken For then you injure the third person and tempt the other to a sin nor may you do it so as to disturb that due and Civil order which should be among moderate men in trading And it is a great matter how the thing is accounted of by the custome of the Countrey or Market where you bargain For where it is of ill report and accounted as unjust the scandal should make you avoid such a course But yet in some cases it is lawful and in some a needful duty It is lawful when none of the foresaid reasons or any such other are against it It is a duty when Charity to the poor or oppressed doth require it As e. g. a poor man must needs sell his Land his Horse his Corn or Goods A Covetous oppressor offereth him less than it is worth The poor man must take his offer if he can get no more The oppressor saith that it is injustice for any one to take his bargain out of his hand or offer money till he have done In this case it may be a duty to offer the poor man the worth of his commodity and save him from the oppressor A covetous man offereth a Servant or Labourer less than their service or labour is worth and will accuse you if you interrupt his bargain and would offer his Servant more In this case it may be your duty to help the servant to a better Master A Chapman is ready to be cheated by an unconscionable Tradesman to give much more for a commodity than its worth Charity may oblige you in such a case to offer it him cheaper In a word if you do it for your own gain in a greedy manner it is a sin But if you do it when it is not scandalous or injurious or do it in charity for anothers good it is lawful and sometime a duty § 16. Quest. 15. May I dispraise anothers commodity to draw the buyer to my own Quest. 15. Answ. This case is sufficiently answered in the former 1. You may not use any false dispraise 2. Nor a true one out of Covetousness nor in a scandalous manner 3. But you may help to save another from a Cheater by opening the deceit in charity to him § 17. Quest. 16. What should I do in doubtful cases where I am uncertain whether the thing be just or not Quest. 16. Answ. Causeless perplexing melancholy scruples which would stop a man in the course of his duty are not to be indulged But in rational doubts first use your utmost diligence as much as the nature of the cause requireth to be resolved and if yet you doubt be sure to go the safer way and to avoid sin rather than loss and to keep your consciences in peace § 18. Quest. 17. If the buyer lose the commodity between the bargain and the payment as if he buy Quest. 17. your Horse and he dye before payment or presently after what should the seller do to his relief Answ. If it were by the sellers fault or by any fault in the Horse which he concealed he isto make the buyer full satisfaction If it were casually only rigorous Justice will allow him nothing And therefore if it be either to a man that is Rich enough to bear it without any great sense of the loss or in a case where in common custome the buyer alwayes standeth to the loss meer justice will make him no amends But if it be where custome maketh some abatement judged a duty or where the person is so poor as to be pinched by the loss that common humanity which all good men use in bargaining which tempereth Justice with Charity will teach men to bear their part of the loss because they must do as they would be done by § 19. Quest. 18. If the thing bought and sold prove afterward of much more worth than was by either Quest. 18. party understood as in buying of Amber-chryse and Iewels it oft falleth out is the buyer bound to give the seller more than was bargained for Answ. Yes if it was the sellers meer ignorance and insufficiency in that business which caused him so to undersell it As if an ignorant Countrey-man sell a Jewel or Amber-chryse who knoweth not what it is a moderate satisfaction should be made him But if it was the sellers trade in which he is to be supposed sufficient and if it be taken for granted before hand that both buyer and seller will stand to the bargain what ever it prove and that the seller would have abated nothing if it had proved less worth than the price then the buyer may enjoy his gain Much more if he run any notable hazard for it as Merchants use to do § 20. Quest. 19. What if the title of the thing sold prove bad which was before unknown Quest. 19. Answ. If the seller either knew it was bad or through his notable negligence was ignorant of it or did not fully acquaint the buyer with so much of the uncertainty and danger as he knew or if it was any way his fault that the buyer was deceived and not the buyers fault he is bound to make him proportionable satisfaction As also in case that by Law or bargain he be bound to warrant the title to the buyer But not in case that it be their explicite or implicite agreement that the buyer stand to the hazard and the seller hath done his duty to make him know what 's doubtful § 21. Quest. 20. What if a change of Powers or Laws do overthrow the title almost as soon as it is Quest. 20. sold as it oft falls out about
would frighten the world out of their wits no doubt but other Bishops also would make use of it and say All are damned that will not be subject to us But if you would see the folly and mischief of Popery both in this and other points I refer you to my Treatise of the Catholick Church and my Key for Catholicks and my Safe Religion and my Disput at against Johnson and my Winding-sheet for Popery § 8. 3. Another temptation to confound you in your Religion is by filling your heads with practical 3 By Sâ—rupuloâ—iâ—y scrupulosity so that you cannot go on for doubting every step whether you go right and when you should cheerfully serve your Master you will do nothing but disquiet your minds with scruples whether this or that be right or wrong Your remedy here is not by caâ—â—ing away all care of pleasing God or fear of sinning or by debauching conscience but by a cheerful and quiet obedience to God so far as you know his will and an upright willingness and endeavour to understand it better and a thankful receiving the Gospel-pardon for your failings and infirmities Be faithful in your obedience but live still upon Christ and think not of reaching to any such obedience as shall set you above the need of his merits and a daily pardon of your sins Do the best you can to know the will of God and do it But when you know the Essentials of Religion and obey sincerely let no remaining wants deprive you of the comfort of that so great a Mercy as proves your â—â—ght to life â—â—â—â—nal In your sâ—â—king further for more knowledge and obedience let your care be such as tendeth to your profitting and furthering you to your end and as doth not hinder your joy and thanks for what you have received But that which destroyeth your joy and thankfulness and doth but perplex you and not further you in your way is but hurtful scrupulosity and to be laid by When you are right in the main thank God for that and be further solicitous so far as to help you on but not to hinder you It you send your servant on your message you had rather he went on his way as well as he can than stand scrupling every step whether he should set the right or left foot forward and whether he should step so far or so far at a time c. Hindering scruples please not God § 9. 4. Another way to confound you in your Religion is by setting you upon overdoing by inventions of your own when a poor soul is most desirous to please God the Devil will be Religious and set him upon some such taâ—k of Voluntary humility or Will-worship as the Apostle speaks of Col. 2. 18 20 21 22 23. or sâ—t him upon some ensnaring unnecessary Vows or Resolutions or some Popâ—sh works of conâ—â—ited supâ—rerogation which is that which Solomon calleth being righte us overmuch Eccles. 7. 16. Thus many have made duties to themselves which God never made for them and taken that for sin which God never forbad them The Popish Religion is very much made up of such Commandments of their own and Traditions of men As if Christ had not made us work enough men are forward to make much more for themselves And some that should teach them the Laws of Christ do think that their Office is in vain unless they may also prescribe them Laws of their own and give them new Precepts of Religion Yea some that are the bitterest enemies to the strict observance of the Laws of God as if it were a tedious needless thing must yet needs load us with abundance of unnecessary Precepts of their own And thus Religion is mad both wear some and uncertain and a door set open for men to enlarge it and increase the burden at their pleasure Indeed Popeâ—y is fitted to delude and quiet sleepy consciences and to torment with uncertainties the consciences that are awaked And there is something in the corrupted nature of man that inclineth him to some additions and voluntary service of his Own inventions as an offering most acceptable unto God Hence it is that many poor Christians do rashly intangle their consciences with Vows of circumstances and things unnecessary as to give so much to observe such dayes or hours in fasting and prayer not to do such or such a thing that in it self is lawful with abundance of such things which perhaps some change of providence may make accidentally their duty afterwards to do or disable them to perform their Vows And then these snares are â—â—â—â—tâ—rs on their pâ—rplâ—xâ—d consciences perhaps as long as they live Yea some of the Autonomians teach the people that things Indifferent are the fittest matter of a Vow as to live single to pâ—ssâ—ss nothing to live in solitude and the like Indeed all things lawful when they are vowed must be performed But it is unfit to be Vowed if it be not first profitable and best for our selves or others and that which is best is not indifferent it being every mans duty to choose what is best Vows are to bind us to the performance of that which God had bound us to by his Laws before They are our expression of consent and resolution by a self-obligation to obey his will And not to make new duties or Religion to our selves which eâ—se would never have been our duty § 10. To escape these snares it is necessary that you take hâ—ed of corrupting your Religion by burdens and mixtures of your own devising You are called to Obey Gods Laws and not to make Laws for your selves You may be sure that his Laws are just and good but yours may be bad and foolish When you obey him you may expect your reward and encouragement from him but when you will obey your selves you must reward your selves You may find it enough for you to keep his Laws without devising more work for your selves or feigning duties which he commanded not or sins which he forbad not Be not rash in making Vows Let them reach but unto necessary duties And let them have their due exceptions when they are about alterable things Or if you are entangled by them already consult with the most judicious able impartial men that you may come clearly â—ff without a wound There is a great deal of judgement and sincerity necessary in your Counsellors and a great deal of submission and self-denyal in your selves to bring you safely out of such a snare Avoid sin what ever you do for sinning is not the way to your deliverance And for the time to come be wiser and lay no more snares for your selves and clog not your selves with your own inventions but cheerfully obey what God commandeth you who hath Wisdom and Authority sufficient to make you perfect Laws Christs yoke is easie and his burden light Matth. 11. 30. and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. But if your mixtures and self-devised
them to contempt so that Servants and Children will be apt to sleight them and disobey them if the Husband interpose not to preserve their honour and authority Yet this must be done with such Cautions as these 1. Justifie not any error vice or weakness of your Wives They may be concealed and excused as far as may be but never owned or defended 2. Urge not obedience to any unlawful Command of theirs No one hath Authority to contradict the Law of God or disoblige any from his Government You will but diminish your own authority with persons of any understanding if you justifie any thing that is against Gods authority But if the thing commanded be lawful though it may have some inconveniences you must rebuke the disobedience of inferiours and not suffer them to sleight the commands of your Wives nor to set their own reason and wills against them and say We will not do it How can they help you in Government if you suffer them to be disobeyed § 5. Direct 4. Also you must preserve the Honour as well as the Authority of your Wives I◠they Direct 4. have any dishonourable infirmities they are not to be mentioned by Children or Servants As in the natural body we cover most carefully the most dishonourable parts for our comely parts have no need 1 Cor. 12. 23 24. So must it be here Children or Servants must not be suffered to carry themselves contemptuously or rudely towards them nor to despise them or speak unmannerly proud or disdainful words to them The Husband must vindicate them from all such injury and contempt § 6. Direct 5. The Husband is to excell the Wife in Knowledge and be her Teacher in the matters Direct 5. that belong to her salvation He must instruct her in the Word of God and direct her in particular duties and help her to subdue her own corruptions and labour to confirm her against temptations If she doubt of any thing that he can resolve her in she is to ask his resolution and he to open to her at home the things which she understood not in the Congregation 1 Cor. 14. 35. But if the husband be indeed an ignorant sot or have made himself unable to instruct his wife she is not bound to ask him in vain to teach her that which he understandeth not himself Those husbands that despise the word of God and live in wilful ignorance do not only despise their own souls but their families also and making themselves unable for their duties they are usually themselves despised by their inferiours For God hath told such in his message to Eli 1 Sam. 2. 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed § 7. Direct 6. The Husband must be the principal Teacher of the family He must instruct Direct 6. them and examine them and rule them about the matters of God as well as his own service and see that the Lords Day and Worship be observed by all that are within his gates And therefore he must labour for such understanding and ability as is necessary hereunto And if he be unable or negligent it is his sin and will be his shame If the wife be wiser and abler and it be cast upon her it is his dishonour But if neither of them do it the sin and shame and suffering will be common to them both § 8. Direct 7. The Husband is to be the mouth of the family in their daily conjunct prayers unto Direct 7. God Therefore he must be able to pray and also have a praying heart He must be as it were the Priest of the houshold and therefore should be the most Holy that he may be fit to stand between them and God and to offer up their prayers to him If this be cast on the Wife it will be his dishonour § 9. Direct 8. The Husband is to be the chief Provider for the family ordinarily It is supposed Direct 8. that he is most able for mind and body and is the chief disposer of the estate Therefore he must be specially careful that wife and children want nothing that is fit for them so far as he can procure it Direct 9. The Husband must be strongest in Family-patience bearing with the weakness and passions Direct 9. of the wife not so as to make light of any sin against God but so as not to make a great matter of any frailty as against himself and so so as to preserve the Love and Peace which is to be as the natural temper of their Relation Direct 10. The manner of all these Duties must also be carefully regarded As 1. That they Direct 10. be done in Prudence and not with folly rashness and inconsiderateness 2. That all be done in conjugal Love and tenderness as over one that is tender and the weaker vessel and that he do not teach or command or reprove a wife in the same imperious manner as a child or servant 3. That due familiarity be maintained and that he keep not at a distance and strangeness from his wife 4. That Love be confident without base suspicions and causless jealousies 5. That all be done in Gentleness and not in Passion roughness and sourness 6. That there be no unjust and causless concealment of secrets which should be common to them both 7. That there be no foolish opening of such secrets to her as may become her snare and she is not able to bear or keep 8. That none of their own matters which should be kept secret be made known to others His teaching and reproving her should be for the most part secret 9. That he be constant and not weary of his Love or duty This briefly of the Manner CHAP. IX The special Duties of Wives to Husbands THE Wife that expecteth comfort in a Husband must make conscience of all her own Duty to her Husband For though it be his duty to be kind and faithful to her though she prove unkind and froward yet 1. Men are frail and apt to fail in such difficult duties as well as women 2. And it is so ordered by God that comfort and duty shall go together and you shall miss of comfort if you cast off duty § 1. Direct 1. Be specially loving to your Husbands Your natures give you the advantage in his Direct 1. and Love feedeth Love This is your special requital for all the troubles that your infirmities put them to § 2. Direct 2. Live in a voluntary subjection and obedience to them If their softness or yieldingness Direct 2. cause them to relinquish their authority and for peace they are fain to let you have your wills yet remember that it is God that hath appointed them to be your Heads and Governours If they are so silly as to be unable you should not have chosen such to Rule you as are unfit but having chosen them you must assist them with your
cases when they come is the present question Nay the Question is yet harder Whether to avoid such inconvenience one may contribute towards anothers sin by affording them the means of committing it Answ. 1. No man may contribute to sin as sin formally considered 2. No man may contribute to anothers sin for sinful ends nor in a manner forbidden and sinful in himself 3. No man may contribute to anothers sin when he is not naturally or morally necessitated to it but might forbear it But as it is consistent with the holiness of God to contribute those Natural and providential mercies which he knoweth men will abuse to sin so is it in some cases with us his creatures to one another God giveth all men their lives and time their Reason and Free-will which he knoweth they will abuse to sin He giveth them that meat and drink and riches and health and vigour of senses which are the usual means of the sin and undoing of the world Object But God is not under any Law or obligation as we are Answ. His own perfection is above all Law and will not consist with a consent or acting of any thing that is contrary to holiness and perfection But this I confess that many things are contrary to the order and duty of the creature which are not contrary to the place and perfection of the Creator 1. When man doth generate man he knowingly contributeth to a sinful nature and life For he knoweth that it is unavoidable and that which is born of the flesh is flesh And yet he sinneth not Ioh. 3. 6. Eph. 2. 2 3. by so doing because he is not bound to prevent sin by the forbearance of Generation 2. When one advanceth another to the office of Magistracy Ministry c. knowing that he will sin in it he contributeth accidentally to his sin But so as he is not culpable for so doing 3. A Physicion hath to do with a froward and intemperate Patient who will please his appetite or else if he be denyed his passion will increase his disease and kill him In this case he may lawfully say Let him take a little rather than kill him though by so doing he contribute to his sin Because it is but a not-hindering that which he cannot hinder without a greater evil The sin is only his that ☞ chooseth it And it is specially to be noted that that which Physically is a positive act and contributing to the Matter of the sin yet Morally is but a not-hindering the sin by such a withholding of materials as we are not obliged to withhold which is the case also of Gods contributing to the matter of sin If the Physicion in such a case or the Parent of a sick and froward Child do actually give them that which they sin in desiring that Giving is indeed such a furthering of the sin as cannot be lawfully forborn lest we do hurt and therefore is morally but a not hindering it when we cannot hinder it 4. If a man have a Wife so proud that she will go mad or disturb him and his family by rage if her pride be not gratified by some sinful fashions curiosities or excesses if he give her money or materials to do it with to prevent her distraction it is but like the foresaid case of the Physicion or Parents of a sick Child In these cases I will give you a Rule to walk by for your selves and a caution how to judge of others 1. Be sure that you leave nothing undone that you can lawfully do for the cure and prevention of others sins And that it be not for want of zeal against sin through indifference or slothfulness that you forbear to hinder it but meerly through disability 2. See that in comparing the evil that is like to follow the Impedition you do not mistake but be sure that it be indeed a greater evil which you avoid by not hindering that particular sin 3. See therefore that your own caanal interest weigh not with you more than there is cause and that you account not meer fleshly suffering a greater evil than sin 4. But yet that dishonour which may be cast upon Religion and the Good of souls which may be hindered by a bodily suffering may come into the comparison 5. And your own duties to mens bodies as to save mens lives or health or peace is to be numbred with spiritual things and the materials of a sin may in some cases be administred for the discharge of such a duty If you knew a man would die if you give him not hot water and he will be drunk if you do give it him In this case you do but your duty and he commits the sin You do that which is good and are not bound to forbear it because he will turn it to sin unless you see that the hurt by that sin is like to be so great besides the sin it self as to discharge you from the duty of doing good 2. As to others 1. Put them on to their duty and spare not 2. But censure them not for the sins of their families till you are acquainted with all the case It 's usual with rash and carnal censurers to cry out of some godly Ministers or Gentlemen that their Wives are as proud and their Children and Servants as bad as others But are you sure that it is in their power to remedy it Malice and rashness judge at a distance of things which men understand not and sin in speaking against sin Quest. 2. IF a Gentleman e. g. of 500. or 1000. or 2000. or 3000. li. per annum could spare honestly half his yearly rents for his Children and for charitable uses and his wife be so proud and prodigal that she will waste it all in house-keeping and excesses and will rage be unquiet or go mad if she be hindered what is a mans duty in such a case Answ. It is but an instance of the fore-mentioned case and must thence be answered 1. It is supposed that she is uncurable by all wise and rational means of perswasion 2. He is wisely to compare the greatness of the cvil that will come by crossing her with the good thâ—â— may come by the improvement of his estate and the forbearance of those excesses If her rage or distraction or unquietness were like by any accident to do more hurt than his estate may do good he might take himself disabled from hindering the sin And though he give her the money which she mis-spendeth it is not sinning but only not hindering sin when he is unable 3. Ordinarily some small or tolerable degree of sinful waste and excess may be tolerated to avoid such mischiefs as else would follow but not too much And though no just measure can be assigned at what rate a man may lawfully purchase his own peace and consequently his liberty to serve God or at what rate he may save his Wife from madness or some mortal mischiefs of
her discontent yet the case must be resolved by such considerations And a prudent man that knoweth what is like to be the consequent on both sides may and must accordingly determine it 4. But ordinarily the life health or preservation of so proud luxurious and passionate a woman is not worth the saving at so dear a rate as the wasting of a considerable estate which might be used to relieve a multitude of the poor and perhaps to save the lives of many that are worthier to live And 1. A mans duty to relieve the poor and provide for his family is so great 2. And the account that all men must give of the use of their Talents is so strict that it must be a great reason indeed that must allow him to give way to very great wastfulness And unless there be somewhat extraordinary in the case it were better deal with such a Woman as a Bedlam and if she will be mad to use her as the mad are used than for a steward of God to suffer the Devil to be served with his masters goods Lastly I must charge the Reader to remember that both these cases are very rare and it is but few Women that are so lyable to so great mischiefs which may not be prevented at cheaper rates And therefore that the Indulgence given in these decisions is nothing to the greater part of men nor is to be extended to ordinary Cases But commonly men every where sin by omission of a stricter Government of their families and by Eli's sinful indulgence and remisness And though a Wife must be Governed as a Wife and a Child as a Child yet all must be governed as well as servants And though it may be truly said that a man cannot hinder that sin which he cannot hinder but by sin or by contributing to a greater hurt yet it is to be concluded that every man is bound to hinder sin whenever he is able lawfully to hinder it And by the same measures Tolerations or not-hindering Errours and sins about Religion in Church and Common-wealth is to be judged of None must commit them or approve them nor forbear any duty of their own to cure them But that is not a duty which is destructive which would be a duty when it were a means of edifying CHAP. X. The Duties of Parents for their Children OF how great importance the wise and holy Education of Children is to the saving of their souls and the comfort of the Parents and the good of Church and State and the happiness of the World I have partly told you before but no man is able fully to express And how great that calamity is which the World is faln into through the neglect of that duty no heart can conceive But they that think what a case the Heathen Infidel and ungodly Nations are in and how rare true piety is grown and how many millions must lie in Hell for ever will know so much of this inhumane negligence as to abhor it § 1. Direct 1. Understand and lament the corrupted and miserable state of your Children which they Direct 1. have derived from you and thank fully accept the offers of a Saviour for your selves and them and â—bsolutely See my Treat for Infant Baptism resign and dedicate them to God in Christ in the sacred Covenant and solemnize this Dedication and Covenant by their Baptism And to this end understand the command of God for entring your Children solemnly into Covenant with him and the Covenant-mercies belonging to them thereupon Rom. 5. 12 16 17 18. Ephes. 2. 1 3. Gen. 17. 4 13 14. Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Rom. 11. 17 20. Joh. 3. 3 5. Mat. 19. 13 14. You cannot sincerely dedicate your selves to God but you must dedicate to him all that is yours and in your power and therefore your Children as far as they are in your power And as Nature hath taught you your Power and your duty to enter them in their infancy into any Covenant with man which is certainly for their good and if they refuse the conditions when they come to age they forfeir the benefit so nature teacheth you much more to oblige them to God for their far greater good in case he will admit them into Covenant with him And that he will admit them into his Covenant and that you ought to enter them into it is past doubt in the evidence which the Scripture giveth us that from Abrahams time till Christ it was so with all the Children of his people Nay no man can prove that before Abrahams Time or since God had ever a Church on Earth of which the Infants of his servants if they had any were not members dedicated in Covenant to God till of late times that a few began to scruple the lawfulness of this As it is a comfort to you if the King would bestow upon your Infant-Children who were tainted by their Fathers treason not only a full discharge from the blot of that offence but also the titles and estates of Lords though they understand none of this till they come to age so is it much more matter of comfort to you on their behalf that God in Christ will pardon their Original sin and take them as his Children and give them title to everlasting life which are the mercies of his Covenant § 2. Direct 2. As soon as they are capable teach them what a Covenant they are in and what are Direct 2. the benefits and what the conditions that their souls may gladly consent to it when they understand it and you may bring them seriously to renew their Covenant with God in their own persons But the whole order of Teaching both Children and Servants I shall give you after by it self and therefore shall here pass by all that except that which is to be done more by your familiar converse than by more solemn teaching § 3. Direct 3. Train them up in exact obedience to your selves and break them of their own Direct 3. wills To that end suffer them not to carry themselves unreverently or contemptuously towards you but to keep their distance For too much Familiarity breedeth contempt and emboldeneth to disobedience The common course of Parents is to please their Children so long by letting them have what they crave and what they will till their wills are so used to be fulfilled that they cannot endure to have them denyed and so can endure no Government because they endure no crossing of their wills To be Obedient is to renounce their own wills and be ruled by their Parents or Governours wills To use them therefore to have their own wills is to teach them disobedience and harden and use them to a kind of impossibility of obeying Tell them oft familiarly and lovingly of the excellency of obedience and how it pleaseth God and what need they have of Government and how unfit they are to govern themselves and how dangerous it is to Children
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
commanded when none but Christ ever did so well Quest. 1. What is moral goodness in any creature and subject but a conformity to his Rulers will expressed in his Law And if this Conformity be its very form and being it cannot be that any thing should be morally good that is not commanded Quest. 2. Doth not the Law of God command us to love him with all our heart and soul and strength and accordingly to serve him And is it possible to give him more than all or can God come after and counsel us to give him more than is possible Quest. 3. Doth not the Law of Nature oblige us to serve God to the utmost of our Power He that denyeth it is become unnatural and must deny God to be God or deny himself to be his rational creature For nothing is more clear in nature than that the Creature who is nothing and hath nothing but from God and is absolutely His Own doth owe him all that he is able to do Quest. 4. Doth not Christ determine the Case to his Disciples Luke 17. 10. 5. A middle between Good and Evil in Morality is a contradiction There is no such thing For Good and Evil are the whole of Morality Without these species there is no Morality § 10. Object 2. It seems then you hold that there is nothing indifferent which is a paradox Object 2. Answ. No such matter There are thousands and millions of things that are indifferent But they Whether any things â—e Indifferent Stoici indifferentia distinguunt 1. â—â—a quaen queadsâ—â—â—â—â—tatem neque ad inâ—â—liâ—itatem confâ—â—â—â— ut sunt diviâ—iae sanitas vires gloria c. Nam sine his contingit â—oelicem esse cum earum usus vel rectus â—oelicitatis vel pravus intâ—licitatis author sit 2. Quae neque appetitum neque occasionem movent ut pares vel imparts habere capillos c. Lacit â—â— Zenoâ—â— are Things Natural only and not Things Moral They are indifferent as to Moral Good and Evil because they are neither But they are not Indifferentia Moralia The Indifferency is a Negation of any Morality in them in genere as well as of both the species of Morality Whatsoever participateth not of Virtue or Vice and is not Eligible or Refusable by a moral agent as such hath no morality in it There may be two words so equal as it may be indifferent which you speak and two Eggs so equal as that it may be indifferent which you eat But that is no more than to say the choosing of one before the other is not actus moralis There is no matter of Morality in the choice § 11. Object 3. But if there may be Things Natural that are Indifferent why not things Object 3. Mâ—ral Answ. As Goodness is convertible with Entity there is no Natural Being but is good As Goodness signifieth Commodity there is nothing but is Profitable or Hurtful and that is Good to one that is Hurtful to another But if it were not so yet such Goodness or Badness is but Accidental to Natural Being but Moral Goodness and Badness is the whole Essence of Morality § 12. Object 4. But doth not the Apostle say He that marrieth doth well and he that marrieth not Object 5. doth better Therefore all is not sin which is not best Answ. The Question put to the Apostle to decide was about Marrying or not Marrying as it belonged Whether Marrying â—e Indifferent to all Christians in general and not as it belonged to this or that individual person by some special reason differently from others And so in respect to the Church in general the Apostle determineth that there is no Law binding them to marry or not to marry For a Law that is made for many must be suited to what is common to those many Now Marriage being good for one and not for another is not made the matter of a common Law nor is it fit to be so and so far is left indifferent But because that to most it was rather a hinderance to good in those times of the Church than a help therefore for the present necessity the Apostle calleth marrying doing well because it was not against any Universal Law and it was a state that was suitable to some But he calls not marrying doing better because it was then more ordinarily suited to the ends of Christianity Now God maketh not a distinct Law for every individual person in the Church but one Universal Law for all And this being a thing variable according to the various Cases of individual persons was unfit to be particularly determined by an Universal Law But if the question had been only of any one individual person then the decision would have been thus Though marrying is a thing not directly commanded or forbidden yet to some it is helpful as to Moral Ends to some it is hurtful and to some it is so equal or indifferent that it is neither discernably helpful nor hurtful Now by the General Laws or Rules of Scripture to them that consideratis considerandis it is discernably helpful it is not indifferent but a duty To them that it is discernably hurtful it is not indifferent but a sin To them that it is neither discernably helpful or hurtful as to Moral Ends it is indifferent as being neither duty nor sin for it is not a thing of Moral choice or nature at all But the Light of Nature telleth us that God hath not left it Indifferent to men to Hinder themselves or to Help themselves as to Moral Ends Else why pray we Lead us not into temptation And marriage is so great a Help to some and so great a Hurt to others that no man can say that it is Morally Indifferent to all men in the world And therefore that being none of the Apostles meaning it followeth that his meaning is as aforesaid § 13. Object 5. But there are many things indifferent in themselves though not as cloathed with Object 5. all their accidents and circumstances And these actions being Good in their accidents may be the matter of a Vow Answ. True but those actions are commanded duties and not things indifferent as so circumstantiated It is very few actions in the world that are made simply duties or sins in their simple nature without their circumstances and accidents The commonest matter of all Gods Laws is Actions or dispositions which are Good or Evil in their circumstances and accidents Therefore I conclude Things wholly Indifferent are not to be Vowed § 14. Direct 5. It is not every Duty that is the matter of a lawful Vow Else you might have as Direct 5. many Vows as Duties Every good thought and word and deed might have a Vow And then every sin which you commit would be accompanied and aggravated with the guilt of Perjury And no wise man will run his soul into such a snare Object But do we not in Baptism Vow
your duty Rule 32. if you had not Vowed and to do that which would else have been your sin viz. If it be such a thing as is sin or duty but by some lesser accident which the accident of a Vow may preponderate or prevail against As if you swear to give a penny to a wandering beggar or to one that needeth it which by all circumstances would have been an unlawful mis-employing of that which should have been better used yet it seemeth to me your duty to do it when you have vowed it To cast away a cup of drink is a sin if it be causelesly But if you vow to do it it is hard to say that a man should rather be perjured than cast away a cup of drink or a penny or a pin The Jesuites think it lawful to exercise the Obedience of their Novices by bidding them sometime cast a cup of wine into the sink or do some such action which causelesly done were sin And shall not a Vow require it more strongly Suppose it would be your duty to pray or read at such or such an hour of the day as being fittest to your body and occasions yet if you have foolishly vowed against it it seemeth to me to be your duty to put it off till another time For perjury is too great a thing to be yielded to on every such small occasion Dr. Sanderson ubi supra giveth this instance If there be a Law that no Citizen elected Sanders pag. 73. to it shall refuse the office of a Praetor and he that doth refuse it shall be fined Cajus sweareth that he will not bear the office His oath is unlawful and disobedience would have been his sin if he were free yet it seems he is bound to pay his fine and disobey the precept of the Law rather than break his Vow § 55. Rule 33. There are so great a number of sins and duties that are such by accidents and Rule 33. circumstantial alterations and some of these greater and some less that it is a matter of exceeding great difficulty in morality to discern when they are indeed sins and duties and when not which must be by discerning the preponderancy of accidents and therefore it must be exceeding difficult to discern when a Vow shall weigh down any of these accidents and when not § 56. Rule 34. The exceeding difficulty and frequency of such cases maketh it necessary to those that Rule 34. have such entanglements of vows to have a very wise and faithful Counsellor to help them better to resolve their particular cases upon the knowledge of every circumstance than any book or general rules can do or any that are not so perfectly acquainted with the case And O what great ability is necessary in Divines that are employed in such works § 57. Rule 35. Thus also the case must be resolved whether an oath bind that hindereth a greater Rule 35. Good which I might do if I had not taken it In some cases it may bind As if I swear to acquaint none with some excellent medicine which I could not have known my self unless I had so sworn or in case that the breaking of the oath will do more hurt to me or others than the good comes to Sanders Prael 3. sect 12. which I omit or in case all things considered the doing of that good hic nunc is not my duty See Dr. Sanders of the difficulties here also pag. 78 79. § 58. Rule 36. No personal hurt or temporal loss is any sufficient cause for the violation of an oath Rule 36. He that taketh a false oath or breaketh a promissory oath for the saving of his life or a thousand Psal. 15. 4. Sanders pag. 80 81. mens lives or for lands or riches or Crowns and Kingdoms hath no considerable excuse for his perfidiousness and perjury all temporal things being such inconsiderable trifles in comparison of the will and pleasure of God and life everlasting That which will not justifie a Lye will much less justifie perjury § 59. Rule 37. If the matter of an oath prove only a Temptation to sin and not sin it self it must Rule 37. be kept But with the greater vigilancy and resolution As if a man have marryed a froward Wife that will be a Temptation to him all his life he is not disobliged from her § 60. Rule 38. If the matter of an Oath be such as maketh me directly the Tempter of my self or Rule 38. others it is a sin and not to be kept unless some greater good preponderate that evil For though it be no sin to be Tempted yet it is a sin to Tempt Though it be no sin to Tempt by a necessary tryal as a Master may lay money before a suspected servant to try whether he be a thief nor no sin to Tempt accidentally by the performance of a duty as a holy life doth accidentally Tempt a malignant person to hatred and persecution yet it is a sin to be Directly and needlesly a Tempter of our selves or others unto sin and therefore he that Voweth it must not perform it As if you had Vowed to perswade any to unchastity intemperance errour rebellion c. § 61. Rule 39. If the matter of an oath be such as accidentally layeth so strong a temptation before men Rule 39. especially before a multitude as that we may foresee it's exceeding likely to draw them into sin when Of Accidental Evil or Temptation Vowed there is no greater good to preponderate the evil of such a temptation it is a sin to do that thing though in performance of a Vow When actions are good or evil only by accident then Accidents must be put in the ballance against each other and the weightyest must preponderate As in matter of temporal commodity or discommodity it is lawful to do that action which accidentally bringeth a smaller hurt to one man if it bring a greater good to many or which hurteth a private person to the great good of the Common-wealth But it is not lawful to do that which clearly tendeth though but by accident to do more hurt than good As to sell powder and armes when we foresee it will be used against the King and Kingdom or to sell Ratsbane when you foresee it is like to be used to poison men Much more should the salvation of many or one be preferred before our temporal commodity and therefore for a lesser good we may not tempt men to evil though but accidentally As he that liveth where there is but little need of Taverns or Alehouses and the common use of them is for drunkenness it is unlawful for him there to sell Ale or Wine unless he can keep men from being drunk with it As if they take it home with them or be unruly he cannot For thus to be a foreknowing tempter and occasion unnecessarily is to be a Moral cause Two things will warrant a man
faith and repentance of children as they grow up is from Gods fulfilling of his Baptismal Covenant with them The reason is because that God in that Covenant did give them a Right of Relation to the holy Spirit in Christ their Head as their Sanctifier to operate on them as they are capable But if they first prove Apostates and be after converted God is disobliged yea to hypocrites never was obliged as to the engagement made by him in baptism And doth now 1. Freely give them faith and repentance as a Benefactor to his elect and then 2. As a Covenanter give them pardon and adoption c. 13. So to the adult that truly made the Baptismal Covenant and never apostatized from it all the Grace that God giveth them through their lives is his fulfilling of his promise made to them and sealed by baptism and a fruit of their baptism But to Hypocrites and Apostates it is otherwise as is before explained Quest. 45. What is a proper Violation of our Baptismal Covenant Answ. NOte well that there is a wide difference between these questions 1. When doth a man John 3 16 17 18 36. miss of or lose his present part in the Covenant or Promise of God in the Gospel This is as long as he is Impenitent an Unbeliever and Refuser 2. When doth a man totally lose his part John 1 11 12 13 and hope in that Promise or Covenant of God so as to be â—yable to all the penalty of it That is only by final Impenitence Unbelief and refusal when Life is ended 3. And when doth a man violate his own Covenant or promise made to God in baptism Which is our present question To which I answer 1. This Promise hath parts Essential and parts Integral We promise not both these parts alike nor on the same terms Though both be promised The essential parts are our essential duties of Christianity Faith Love Repentance in the essential parts c. The Integrals are the Integral 2 Pet. 2 20 21 22 23. duties of Christianity Heb. 6 2 4 5 6 â— 8. 2. He that performeth not the essential duties is an Apostate or Hypocrite 3. He that performeth not the Integral duties is a sinner not only against the Law of Nature and Heb. 10 26 27 28. Christs Precepts but his own Promise And in this sense we all confess our breach of Covenant with Christ But he is no Apostate Hypocrite or out of Covenant 1 Joh. 1 9 10. James 3. 2 3. Quest. 46. May not Baptism in some Cases be repeated And when Answ. 1. YOu must distinguish between Baptism taken Morally or only Physically 2. Between Baptism Morally as it is a Church or Visible Covenant and as a Heart Covenant 3. Between Real baptism and seeming baptism which is a Nullity 4. Between certain reception of baptism and that which is uncertain or justly doubted of And so I answer 1. Real and Certain Baptism as a visible Church-Ordinance may not be repeated Though the Heart-Covenant was wanting And though it wanted not only decent modes but integral parts 2. But in these cases Baptism may be used where it seemed to have been received before 1. When the person made no profession of the Christian faith nor his Parents for him if an Infant 2. If that profession notoriously wanted an Essential part As if he only professed to believe in God the Father and not in the Son or the Holy Ghost 3. If the Minister only baptized him into the name of the Father or Son or left out any essential part 4. If the person or Minister only contracted for a distant futurity As I will be a Christian when I am old c. and not for the present which is not to be christened but only to promise to be christened hereafter 5. If all application of water or any watery element was omitted which is the external sign 6. Of the Baptizers power I shall speak anon 7. If the Church or the person himself have just cause of doubting whether he was truly baptized or not to do it again with hypothetical expressions If thou art not baptized I baptize thee yea or simply while that is understood is lawful and fit And it is not to be twice baptized Morally but only Physically As I have fully opened in the Question of Re-ordination to which I must refer the Reader 3. And I confess I make little doubt but that those in Acts 19. were Re-baptized notwithstanding the witty evasion invented by Phil. Marnixius Aldegondus and Beza's improvement of it and the now common reception of that interpretation For 1. A new and forced exposition which no Reader Of Acts 19 1 2 3 4 5. dreameth of till it be put into his head is usually to be suspected lest art deceive us Whether it were re-baptizing 2. The omission of the Holy Ghost is an essential defect and maketh Baptism specifically another thing And he were now to be re-baptized who should be so baptized 3. Whatever some say in heat against the Papists Iohns baptism and our Christian baptism are so specifically distinct also that he that had now but Iohns were to be yet baptized The person of the Mâ—ssiah himself being not determinately put into Iohns baptism as such Nor can it be supposed that all the Jews that Iohn baptized were baptized into the profession of faith in this numerical person Iesus but only to an unknown Saviour undetermined However he pointed to Christ in the hearing of some of his disciples We must not run from plain truth in pievishness of opposition to Papists oâ— any other men 4. The fifth Verse would not be true of Iohns baptism as the History sheweth that When Johns hearers heard this they were baptized into the Name of the Lord Iesus This is contrary to the Text that recordeth it 5. In the fourth Verse the words that is on Christ Iesus are plainly Pauls expository words of Iohns and â—ot Iohns words Iohn baptized them into the Name of the Messiah that should come after him which indeed saith Paul was Christ Iesus though not then personally determined by Iohn 6. The connexion of the fourth fifth and sixth Verses puts all out of doubt 1. In the fourth Verse the last words are Pauls that is on Christ Iesus 2 In the next words Ver. 4. When they heard this they were baptized c. must refer to the last words or to his that was speaking to them 3. Ver. 6. The Pronoun Them when Paul had laid his hands on them plainly reâ—â—erreth to them last spoken of Ver. 5. which therefore was not Iohns hearers as such 4. And the â—ords they were baptized into the name of the Lord Iesus are plainly distinctive from Iohns baptism Saith Grotius Sic accepere Latinus Syrus Arabs Veteres omnes ante Marnixium â—ut verba Lâ—ucae Yet I say not so hardly of Iohns baptism as Tertuliâ—â— on this Text de Baptis Adeo pasâ—â—â—â—a in
as much as they can whether by Synods or other meet wayes of correspondency And though this be not a distinct Government it is a distinct mode of Governing Object But that there be Pastors with fixed Churches or Assemblies is not of the Law of Nature Answ. 1. Hath Christ no Law but the Law of Nature Wherein then differ the Christian Religion and the Heathenish 2. Suppose but Christ to be Christ and man to be what he is and Nature it self will tell us that this is the fittest way for ordering the Worship of God For Nature saith God must be solemnly and ordinarily worshipped and that qualified persons should be the official Guides in the performance And that people who need such conduct and private oversight besides should where they live have their own stated Overseers Object But particular Congregations are not de primaria intentione divina For if the whole world could joyn together in the publick Worship of God no doubt that would be properly a Church But particular Congregations are only accidental in reference to Gods intention of having a Church because of the Impossibility of all mens joyning together for Ordinances c. Answ. 1. The question with me is not whether they be of primary Intention but whether stated Churches headed with their proper Bishops or Pastors be not of Gods institution in the Scripture 2. This Objection confirmeth it and not denyeth it For 1. It confesseth that there is a necessity of joyning for Gods Worship 2. And an Impossibility that all the world should so joyn 3. But if the whole world could so joyn it would be properly a Church So that it confesseth that to be a society joyned for Gods publick Worship is to be properly a Church And we confess all this If all the world could be one family they might have one Master or one Kingdom they might have one King But when it is confessed that 1. A Natural Impossibility of an Universal Assembly necessitateth more particular assemblies 2. And that Christ hath instituted such actually in his Word what more can a considerate man require 3. I do not understand this distinction de primaria intentione divina and accidental c. The Primary Intention is properly of the Ultimate End only And no man thinketh that a Law de mediis of the means is no Law or that God hath made no Laws de mediis For Christ as a Mediator is a Means But suppose it be limited to the Matter of Church Laws If this be the meaning of it that it is not the principal means but a subordinate means or that it is not instituted only propter finem ultimum no more than propter se but also in order to a higher thing as its immediate end we make no question of that Assemblies are not only that there may be assemblies but for the Worship and Offices there performed And those for Man And all for God But what or all this Hath God made no Laws for subordinate means No Christian denyeth it Therefore the Learned and Judicious Disputer of this point declareth himself for what I say when he saith I engage not in the Controversie Whether a particular Congregation be the first political Dr. Stillingflects Iâ—en p. 154 so p. 170. By Church here I mean not a particular Congregation c. So h gâ—anteth that 1 the Universal Church 2. Particular Congregations are of Divine Institution one ex intentione primaria and the other as he calls it accidentally but yet of Natural necessity Church or no It sufficeth for my purpose that there are other Churches besides The thing in question is Whether there be no other Church but such particular Congregations Where it seemeth granted that such particular Churches are of Divine institution And for other Churches I shall say more anon In the mean time note that the question is but de nomine here whether the Name Church be fit for other societiâ—s and not de re But lest any should grow to the boldness to deny that Christ hath instituted Christian stated Societies consisting of Pastors and flocks associate for personal Communion in publick Worship and holy living which is my detinition of a particular Church as not so confined to one assembly but that it may be in divers and yet not consisting of divers such distinct stated assemblies with their distinct Pastors nor of such as can have no personal communion but only by Delegates I prove it thus from the Word of God 1. The Apostles were commissioned by Christ to deliver his commands to all the Churches and settle them according to his will Iohn 20. 21. Matth. 28. 19 20 c. 2. These commissioned persons had the promise of an infallible Spirit for the due performance of their work Iohn 16. 13 14 15. 15. 26. 14. 26. Matth. 28. 20. 3. These Apostles where ever the success of the Gospel prepared them materials did settle Christian stated societies consisting of Pastors or Elders with their flocks associated for personal communion in publick worship and holy living These setled Churches they gave orders to for their direction and preservation and reformation These they took the chief care of themselves and exhorted their Elders to fidelity in their work They gave command that none should forsake such assemblies and they so fully describe them as that they cannot easily be misunderstood All this is proved Acts 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. Rom. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 18 20. 22 26. 1 Cor. 14. 4 5 12 19 23 28 33 34. Col. 4. 16. Acts 11. 26. 13. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Acts 14. 27. 15. 3. to omit many more Here are proofs enow that such particular Churches were de facto setled by the Apostles Heb. 10. 25. Forsake not the assembling of your selves together So Iames 2. 2. they are called Synagogues 2. It is confessed that there is a natural necessity of such stated Churches or Assemblies supposing but the Institution of the Worship it self which is there performed And if so then we may say that the Law of Nature it self doth partly require them 1. It is of the Law of Nature that God be publickly worshipped as most Expositors of the fourth Commandment do confess 2. It is of the Law of Nature that the people be taught to know God and their duty by such as are able and fit to teach them 3. The Law of Nature requireth that man being a sociable creature and conjunction working strongest affections we should use our sociableness in the greatest matters and by conjunction help the zeal of our prayers and praises of God 4. Gods institution of publick Preaching Prayer and Praise are scarce denyed by any Christians 5. None of these can be publickly done but by assembling 6. No Assembly can suffice for these without a Minister of Christ Because it is only his Office to be the ordinary Teacher and to go before the people in prayer and praise and to administer the
against forms of prayer that all the years that he lived at Middleburg and Anâ—werp he constantly used the same form before Sermon and mostly after Sermon and also did read prayers in the Church and that since he seldome concluded but with the Lords Prayer of England Cartwright Hildersham Greenham Perkins Baine Amesius c. And I less fear erring in all this company than with those on either of the extreams Quest. 79. Is it lawful to forbear the preaching of some Truths upon mans prohibition that I may have liberty to preach the rest yea and to promise before hand to forbear them Or to do it for the Churches peace Answ. 1. SOme Truths are of so great moment and necessity that without them you cannot preach the Gospel in a saving sort These you may not forbear nor promise to forbear 2. Some Truths are such as God at that time doth call men eminently to publish and receive as against some Heresie when it is in the very height or the Church in greatest danger of it Or concerning some Duty which God then specially calleth men to perform As the duty of Loyalty just in the time of a perillous Rebellion c. Such preaching being a Duty must not be forborn when it can be performed upon lawful terms 3. But some Truths are Controverted among good men and some are of a lower nature and usefulness And concerning these I further say 1. That you may not renounce them or deny them not subscribe to the smallest untruth for liberty to preach the greatest truth 2. But you may for the time that the Churches benefit requireth it both forbear to preach them and promise to forbear both for the Churches peace and for that Liberty to preach the Gospel which you cannot otherwise obtain The Reasons are 1. Because it is not a duty to preach them at that time For no duty is a duty at all times Affirmative Precepts bind not ad semper because man cannot alwayes do them 2. It is a sin to prefer a lesser truth or good before a Greater You cannot speak all things at once When you have all done some yea a thousand must be by you omitted Therefore the less should be omitted rather than the greater 3. You have your Office to the Churches Edification Preaching is made for man and not man for preaching But the Churches Edification requireth you rather to preach the Gospel than that opinion or point which you are required to forbear Without this the hearers may be saved but not without the Gospel And what a man may do and must do he may on good occasion promise to do He that thinketh Diocesans or Liturgies or Ceremonies unlawful and yet cannot have leave to preach the Gospel in time of need unless he will forbear and promise to forbear to preach against them may and ought so to doâ— and promise rather than not to preach the Gospel Object But if men imprison or hinder me from preaching that is their fault But if I voluntarily forbear any duty it is my own fault Answ. 1. It is to forbear a sin and not a duty at that time It is no more a duty than reading or singing or praying at Sermon time 2. When you are in Prison or know in all probability you shall be there though by other mens fault it is your own fault if you will deny a lawful means to avoid it For your not preaching the Gospel is then your own sin as well as other mens And theirs excuseth not yours Quest. 80. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to Preach the Gospel go on still to preach it against the Law Answ. DIstinguish between 1. Iust silencing and Unjust 2. Necessary preaching and unnecessary 1. Some men are justly forbidden to preach the Gospel as 1. Those that are utterly unable and do worse than nothing when they do it 2. Those that are Hereticks and subvert the Essentials of Christianity or Godliness 3. Those that are so Impious and Malignant that they turn all against the Practice of that Religion which they profess In a word All that do directly more hurt than good 2. In some places there are so many able preachers that some tolerable men may be spared if not accounted supernumeraries and the Church will not suffer by their silence But in other Countreys either the Preachers are so few or so bad or the people so very ignorant and hardened and ungodly or so great a number that are in deep necessity that the need of preaching is undenyable And so I conclude 1. That he that is justly silenced and is unfit to Preach is bound to forbear 2. He that is silenced by just Power though unjustly in a Countrey that needeth not his Preaching must forbear there and if he can must go into another Coâ—â—â—â—â—y where he may be more serviceable 3. Magistrates may not Ecclesiastically Ordain Ministers or degrade them But only either give them Liberty or deny it them as there is cause 4. Magistrates are not the â—ountain of the Ministerial Office as the Soveraign is of all the Civil power of inferiour Magistrates But both offices are immediately from God 5. Magistrates have not power from God to forbid men to Preach in all cases nor as they please but justly only and according to Gods Laws 6. Men be not made Ministers of Christ only pro tempore or on tryal to go off again if they dislike it But are absolutely dedicated to God and take their lot for better and for worse which maketh the Romanists say that ordination is a Saâ—ramenâ— and so it may be aptly called and that we receive an indelible character that is an obligation during life unless God himself disable us 7. Aâ— we are â—â—â—â—rlier devoted and relaâ—ed to God than Church lands goods and temples are so the sacriledge of alienating a consecrated person unjustly is greater and more unquestionable than the sacriledge of alienating Consecrated houses lands or things And therefore no Minister may Sacrilegiously alienate himself from God and his undertaken office and work 8. We must do â—â—y Lawful thing to procure the Magistrates Licence to Preach in his Dominions 9. All men silenced or forbidden by Magistrates to Preach are noâ— thereby obliged or warranted to forbear Foâ— â— The Apostles expresly determine it Act. 4. 19. Whether it be better to hearken to God rather than to you judge ye 2. Christ oâ—â— foreâ—old his servants that they must Preach against the will of Rulers and suffer by them 3. The Apostles and ordinary Ministers also for 300 years after Christ did generally preach against the Magistrates will throughout the Roman Empire and the World 4. The Orthodox Bishops commonly took themselves bound to Preach when Arrian or other Heretical Emperours forâ—ad them 5. A moral duty of stated necessity to the Church and mens salvation is noâ— subjected to the will of men for Order sake For Order is for the thing Ordered and for the End Magistrates
non esse penes Regeâ— sed aut penes Ordines aut certe penes id corpus quod Rex juncti constituunt ut Bodinus Suarezius Victoria aliique abunde demonstratunt Certum summum Imperium totum aliquid imperare non posse ideo tantum quod alter veteâ— aut intercedat plane sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this or that or the other thing or not Nor whether it shall be exercised thus or thus by standing Courts or temporary Judges c. 3. Nor hath he named the person or family that shall rule § 6. Prop. 5. Though these in the constitution are determined of by explicite or implicite contract or consent between the Ruler and the Community yet by none of these three can the people be truly and properly said to Give the Ruler his Power of Government Not by the first or last for both those do but determine who shall be the Recipient of that power whether one or more and who individually Not the second for that is but a limiting or bounding or regulating the Governing power that it be not exercised to their hurt The bounding and regulating of their power is not the Giving them power The People having the strength cannot be ruled against their concordant wills And therefore if they contract with their Governours that they will be Ruled thus and thus or not at all this is not to Give them power Yet Propriety they have and there they may be Givers So that this Bounding or Regulating and Choosing the form and Persons and giving of their propriety is all that they have to do And the choosing of the Family or person is not at all a Giving the Power They are but sine quibus non to that They do but open the door to let in the Governour They do but name the family or man to whom God and not they shall Give the power As when God hath already determined what authority the Husband shall have over the Wife the Wife by choosing him to be her Husband giveth him not his power but only chooseth the man to whom God giveth it by his standing Law Though about the disposing of her estate she may limit him by pre-contracts But if she contract against his Goâ—ernment it is acontradiction and null Nor if he abuse his power doth it at all fall into her hands If the King by Charter give power to a Corporation to choose their Mayor or other Officer they do but nominate the persons that shall receive it but it is the Kings Charter and not they that give him the power If a Souldier voluntarily list himself under the Kings General or other Commanders he doth but choose the man that shall command him but it is the Kings Commission that giveth him the power to command those that voluntarily so list themselves And if the authority be abused or forfeited it is not into the Souldiers hands but into the Kings § 7. Prop. 6. The Constituting-Consent or Contract of Ancestors obligeth all their posterity if Prop. 6. they will have any of the protection or other benefit of Government to stand to the constitution Else Governments should be so unsetled and mutable as to be uncapable of their proper End § 8. Prop. 7. God hath neither in nature or Scripture estated this Power of Government in whole or Prop. 7. in part upon the people of a meer Community much less on Subjects whether Noble or Ignoble So foolish and bad â—s the 〈◊〉 tâ—o 〈…〉 man shâ—uâ—d not endanger himself for his Countrey because wisdom is not to be cast away for the commodity of fools Laert. in Aristip. But a wise man must be wise for others and not only for himself Learned or unlearned the part of the Community or the whole body Real or Representative The people as such have not this Power either to Use or to Give But the absolute Soveraign of all the world doth communicate the Soveraign power in every Kingdom or other sort of Common-wealth from himself Immediately I say Immediately not without the Mediation of an Instrument signifying his will for the Law of Nature and Scripture are his Instrument and the Charter of Authority nor yet so Immediately as without any kind of medium for the Consent and Nomination of the Community before expressed may be Conditio sine qua non so far as aforesaid But it is so Immediately from God as that there is no immediate Recipient to receive the power first from God and convey it to the Soveraign § 9. Prop. 8. The Natural power of individual persons over themselves is tota specie different from Prop. 8. this Political or Civil Power And it is not the Individuals resignation of this Natural power of selfdisposal It was one of the Roman Laws of the twelve Tables Vendendi filium patri potestas esâ—o But this Law rather giveth the Father that power than declareth it to be naturally in him Nature alloweth him no other selling of him than what is for his Child 's own good unto one or more which is the efficient Cause of Soveraignty or Civil Power § 10. Prop. 9. If you take the word Law properly for the expression of a Rulers Will obliging Prop. 9. the Governed or making their duty and not improperly for meer Contracts between the Soveraign and the people then it is clear in the definition it self that neither Subjects nor the Community as such have any Legislative power Neither Nature nor Scripture hath given the people a Power of making Laws either by themselves or with the Soveraign Either the sole power or a part of it But the very Nature of Government requireth that the whole Legislative power that is the power of making Governing Laws belong to the summa Majestas or Soveraign alone Unless when the summa potestas is in many hands you compare the partakers among themselves and call one Party the Soveraign as having more of the Soveraignty than the rest For those that are no Governours at all cannot perform the chief act of Government which is the making of Governing-Laws But the people are no Governours at all either as a Community or as Subjects So that you may easily perceive that all the Arguments for a natural Democracy are built upon false suppositions and where ever the People have any part in the Soveraignty it is by the after-Constitution and not by Nature And that Kings receive not their Power from the peoples gift who never had it themselves to use or give but from God alone § 11. Prop. 10. Though God have not made an Universal determination for any one sort of Government against the rest whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy because that is best for one people which may be worse for others yet ordinarily Monarchy is accounted better than Aristocracy and Aristocracy better than Democracy So much briefly of the Original of Power § 12. Object 1. But saith worthy Mr. Richard Hooker
sin to disobey it while the thing is lawful Else servants and children must prove all to be needful as well as lawful which is commanded them before they must obey Or the command may at the same time be evil by accident and the obedience good by accident and per se very good accidents consequence or effects may belong to our Obedience when the accidents of the command it self are evil I could give you abundance of instances of these things § 68. Direct 36. Yet is not all to be obeyed that is evil but by accident nor all to be disobeyed Direct 36. that is so but the accidents must be compared and if the obedience will do more good than harm we must obey if it will evidently do more harm than good we must not do it Most of the sins in the world are evil by accident only and not in the simple act denuded of its accidents circumstances or It was one of the Roman Laws of the twelve Tables Justa imperia sunto iisque cives modesâ—e ac sine recusatione parento consequents You may not sell poyson to him that you know would poyson himself with it though to sâ—ll poyson of it self be lawful Though it be lawful simply to lend a Sword yet not to a Traytor that you know would kill the King with it no nor to one that would kill his Father his neighbour or himself A command would not excuse such an act from sin He wâ—â— slain by David that killed Saul at his own command and if he had but lent him his Sword to do it it had been his sin Yet some evil accidents may be weighed down by greater evils which would evidently follow upon the not doing of the thing commanded § 69. Direct 37. In the question whether Humane Laws bind Conscience the doubt is not of that nature Direct 37. as to have necessary influence upon your practice For all agree that they bind the subject to obedience and that Gods Law bindeth us to obey them And if Gods Law bind us to obey mans Law and so to disobey them be materially a sin against Gods Law this is as much as is needful to resolve you in respect of practice No doubt mans Law hath no primitive obliging power at all but a Derivative from God and under him And what is it to bind the Conscience an improper Speech but to bind the person to judge it his duty conscire and so to do it And no doubt but he is bound to judge it his duty that is immediately by Humane Law and remotely by Divine Law and so the contrary to be a sin prâ—ximatâ—ly against man and ultimately against God This is plain and the rest is but logomachy § 70. Direct 38. The question is much harder whether the violation of every Humane Penal Law be Direct 38. a sin against God though a man submit to the penalty And the desert of every sin is death Mr. Rich. Hoâ—kers last Book unhappily ended before he gave us the full reason of his judgement in Eccl. Pol. l. 8. p. 2â—4 this case these being his last words Howbeit too rigorous it were that the breach of every Humane Law should be a deadly sin A mean there is between those extremities if so be we can find it out Amesius hath diligently discust it and many others The reason for the affirmative is because God bindeth us to obey all the lawful commands of our Governours And suffering the penalty is not obeying the penalty being not the primary intention of the Law-giver but the Duty and the penalâ—y only to enforce the duty And though the suffering of it satisfie man it satisfieth not God whose Law we break by disobeying Those that are for the Negative say that God binding us but to obey the Magistrate and his Law binding but aut ad obedientiam an t ad poenam I fulfill his will if I either do or suffer If I obey not I please him by satisfying for my disobedience And it is none of his will that my choosing the penalty should be my sin or damnation To this it is replyed that the Law bindeth ad poenam but on supposition of disobedience And that disobedience is forbidden of God And the penalty satisfieth not God though it satisfie man The other rejoyn that it satisfieth God in that it satisfieth man because Gods Law is but to give force to mans according to the nature of it If this hold then no disobedience at all is a sin in him that suffereth the penalty In so hard a case because more distinction is necessary to the explication than most Readers are willing to be troubled with I shall now give you but this brief decision On second thoughts this case is fullier opened afterward There are some penalties which fulfil the Magistrates own will as much as obedience which indeed have more of the nature of a Commutation than of Penalty As he that watcheth not or mendeth not the High-wayes shall pay so much to hire another to do it He that shooteth not so oft in a year shall pay so much He that eateth flesh in Lent shall pay so much to the poor He that repaireth not his Hedges shall pay so much and so in most amercements and divers Penal Laws in which we have reason to judge that the penalty satisfieth the Law-giver fully and that he leaveth it to our choice In these cases I think we need not afflict our selves with the conscience or fear of sinning against God But there are other Penal Laws in which the penalty is not desired for it self and is supposed to be but an imperfect satisfaction to the Law-givers will and that he doth not freely leave us to our choice but had rather we obeyed than suffered only he imposeth no greater a penalty either because there is no greater in his power or some inconvenience prohibiteth In this case I should fear my disobedience were a sin though I suffered the penalty Still supposing it an act that he had Power to command me § 71. Direct 39. Take heed of the perâ—icious design of those Atheistical Politicians that would make Direct 39. the world believe that all that is excellent among men is at enmity with Monarchy yea and Government it self And take heed on the other side that the most excellent things be not turned against it by abuse Here I have two dangers to advertise you to beware The first is of some Machiavellian pernicious principles and the second of some erroneous unchristian practices § 72. I. For the first there are two sorts of Atheistical Politicians guilty of them The first sort are some Atheistical flatterers that to engage Monarchs against all that is good would make them believe that all that is good is against them and their interest By which means while their design is to steal the help of Princes to cast out all that is good from the world they are most
matters Conscire The knowledge of our selves our duties our faults our fears our hopes our diseases c. 2. Or more limitedly and narrowly The knowledge of our selves and our own matters in relation to Gods Law and Iudgement Iudicium hominis de seipso prout subjicitur judicio Dei as Amesius defineth it 2. Conscience is taken 1. Sometime for the Act of self-knowing 2. Sometime for the Habit 3. Sometime for the Faculty that is for the Intellect it self as it is a faculty of self-knowing In all these senses it is taken properly 2. And sometimes it is used by custome improperly for the Person himself that doth Conscire or for his Will another faculty 3 The Conscience may be said to be bound 1. Subjectively as the subjectum quod or the faculty obliged 2. Or Objectively as Conscire the Act of Conscience is the thing ad quod to which we are obliged And upon these necessary distinctions I thus answer to the first question Prop. 1 The Act or the Habit of Conscience are not capable of being the subject obliged no more than any other act or duty The Act or duty is not bound but the man to the act or duty 2. The Faculty or Iudgement is not capable of being the Object or Materia ad quam the thing to which we are bound A man is not bound to be a man or to have an Intellect but is made such 3. The Faculty of Conscience that is the Intellect is not capable of being the immediate or nearest subjectum quod or subject obliged The reason is Because the Intellect of it self is not a free-working faculty but acteth necessarily per modum naturae further than it is under the Empire of the Will And therefore Intellectual and Moral habits are by all men distinguished 4. All Legal or Moral Obligation falleth directly upon the Will only and so upon the Person as a Voluntary agent So that it is proper to say The Will is bound and The Person is bound 5 Improperly and remotely it may be said The Intellect or faculty of Conscience is bound or the tongue or hand or foot is bound as the Man is bound to use them 6. Though it be not proper to say that the Conscience is bound it is proper to say that the Man is bound to the Act and Habit of Conscience or to the exercise of the faculty 7. The common meaning of the phrase that we are bound in conscience oâ— that conscience is bound is that we are bound to a thing by God or by a Divine obligation and that it is a fin against God to violate it So that Divines use here to take the word Conscience in the narrower Theological sense as respect to Gods Law and Iudgement doth enter the definition of it 8. Taking Conscience in this narrower sense To ask Whether mans Law as Mans do bind us in Conscience Having spoken of this Controversie in my Life of Faith as an easie thing in which I thought we were really agreed while we seemed to differ which I called A pitiful Case some Bâ—ethren who say nothing against the truth of what I said are offended at me as speaking too confidently and calling that so easie which Bishop Saâ—derâ—oa and so many others did make a greater matter of I retract the words if they â—e unsuittable either to the matter or the Readers But as to the matter and the truth of the words I desire the Reader but to consider how easie a case Mr. P. maketh of it Eccl. Pol. and how heinous a matter he maketh of our supposed dissent And if after all this it shall appear that the Non-conformists do not at all differ from Hooker Bilson and the generality of the Conformists in this point let him that is willing to be represented as odious and intolerable to Rulâ—rs and to mankind for that in which we do not differ proceed to backbite me for saying that it is a pitiful case and pretending that we are agreed is all one as to ask Whether Man be God 9. And taking Conscience in the large or General sense to ask whether Mans Laws bind us in Conscience subjectively is to ask whether they bind the Understanding to know our duty to man And the tenour of them will shew that While they bind us to an outward Act or from an outward Act it is the man that they bind to or from that act and that is as he is a Rational Voluntary Agent so that a humane obligation is laid upon the Man on the Will and on the Intellect by humane Laws 10. And humane Laws while they bind us to or from an outward Act do thereby bind us as Rational-free agents knowingly to choose or refuse those acts Nor can a Law which is a Moral Instrument any otherwise bind the hand foot or tongue but by first binding us to choose or refuse it knowingly that is conscientiously so that a humane bond is certainly laid on the mind soul or conscience taken in the larger sense 11. Taking Conscience in the stricter sense as including essentially a relation to Gods obligation the full sense of the question plainly is but this Whether it be a sin against God to break the Laws of man And thus plain men might easily understand it And to this it must be answered that it is in two respects a sin against God to break such Laws or Commands as Rulers are authorized by God to make 1. Because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers Therefore he that so obeyeth them not sinneth against a Law of God God obligeth us in General to obey them in all things which they are authorized by him to command But their Law determineth of the particular matter Therefore God obligeth us in Conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God Therefore they can command us by a power derived from God Therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God And thus the General case is very plain and easie How man sinneth against God in disobeying the Laws of man and consequently how in a tolerable sense of that phrase it may be said that mans Laws do or do not bind the conscience or rather bind us in point of Conscience or by a Divine obligation Man is not God and therefore as man of himself can lay no Divine obligation on us But Man being Gods Officer 1. His own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine For it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. And Gods own Law bindeth us to obey mans Laws Quest. 2. BUt is it a sin to break every Penal Law of man Answ. 1. You must remember that Mans Law is essentially the signification of mans Will And therefore obligeth no further than it
heed of running from one extream into another p. 50 Direct 11. Be not too confident in your first apprehensions or opinions but modestly suspicious of them p. 51 Direct 12. What to do when Controversies divide the Church Of silencing truth p. 52 Direct 13. What Godliness is The best life on earth How Satan would make it seem troublesome and ungrateful 1. By difficulties 2. By various Sects 3. By scrupulosity 4. By your over-doing in your own inventions 5. By perplexing fears and sorrows 6. By unmortified lusts 7. By actual siâ—s 8. By ignorance of the Covenant of grace p. 54 Direct 14. Mortifie the flesh and rule the senses and the appetite p. 57 Direct 15. Be wary in choosing not only your Teachers but your Company also Their Characters p. 58 Direct 16. What Books to prefer and read and what to reject P. 60 Direct 17. Take not a Doctrine of Libertinism for Free Grace p. 61 Direct 18. Take heed lâ—st Grace degenerate into Counterfeits formality c. p. 63 Direct 19. Reckon not on prosperity or long life but live as dying p. 65 Direct 20. See that your Religion be purely Divine That God be your First and Last and All Man nothing p. 66 CHAP. III. The General Grand Directions for walking with God in a life of faith and Holiness Containing the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity p. 69 Gr. Dir. 1. Understand well the Nature Grounds Reason and Order of Faith and Godliness Propositions opening somewhat of them The Reader must note that here I blotted out the Method and Helps of Faith having fullier opened them in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and another of the Unreasonableness of Infidelity Gr. Dir. 2. How to live by Faith on Christ. How to make Use of Christ in twenty necessities p. 72 Gr. Dir. 3. How to Believe in the Holy Ghost and live by his Grace His Witness Seal Earnest c. Q. When good effects are from Means from our Endeavour and when from the Spirit p. 77 78 Gr. Dir. 4. For a True Orderly and Practical Knowledge of God A Scheme of his Attributes p. 81 82 Gr. Dir. 5. Of self resignation to God as our Owner Motives Marks Means p. 83 Gr. Dir. 6. Of subjection to God as our Soveraign King What it is How to bring the soul into subjection to God How to keep up a Ready and Constant Obedience to him p. 85 Gr. Dir. 7. To Learn of Christ as our Teacher How The Imitation of Christ. p. 90 Gr. Dr. 8. To obey Christ our Physicion or Saviour in his Repairing healing work p. 95 How each faculty is diseased or depraved The Intellect its acts and maladies The Wiâ—â— Q. Whether the Locomotive and sense can move us to sin without the Consent of the Will â—r Reason upon its bare Omission The sin of the Memory Imagination affections sensitive appetite exterior parts which need a Cure Forty intrinsecal evils in sin which make up its Malignity The common Aggravations of sin Special aggravations of the sins of the Regenerate Directions to get a hatred of sin How to cure it p. 95 Gr. Dir. 9. Of the Christian Warfare under Christ Who are our Enemies Of the Devil The state of the Armies and of the War between Christ and Satan The ends grounds advantages auxiliaries instruments and methods of the Tempter p. 104 How Satan keepeth off the forces of Christ and frustrateth all means Christs contrary Methods p. 109 Tit. 2. Temptations to particular sins with Directions for preservation and Remedy 1. How Satan prepareth his baits of Temptation p. 111 2. How he applyeth them p. 114 Tit. 3. Temptations to draw us off from duty p. 124 Tit. 4. Temptations to frustrate holy duties p. 126 Gr. Dir. 10. How to work as servants to Christ our Lord. The true doctrine of Good Works p. 128 Directions for our serving Christ in well doing p. 130. Where are many Rules to know what are good works and how to do them acceptably and successfully Q. Is doing good or avoiding sin to be most looked at in the choice of a Calling or Employment of life p. 133 Q. May one change his Calling for advantages to do good Q. Who are excused from living in a Calling or from Work p. 124 Q. Must I do a thing as a Good work while I doubt whether it be good indifferent or sin p. 134 Q. Is it not every mans duty to obey his Conscience p. 135 Q. Is it not a sin to go against Conscience Q. Whether the formal cause alone do constitute obedience Q. How sin must be avoided by one that hath an erroneus conscience Q. How can a man lawfully resist or strive against an erring conscience when he striveth against a supposed truth Q Is not going against conscience sinning against Knowledge p. 136 Q. When the information of conscience requireth a long time is it not a duty to obey it at the present Q. May one do a Great Good when it cannot be done but by a Little sin as a Lye Q Must I not forbear all Good Works which I cannot do without sin Q Must I forbear a certain great duty as preaching the Gospel for fear of a small uncertain sin Q. What shall a man do that is in doubt after all the means that he can use p. 137 Sixteen Rules to guide a doubting conscience and to know among many seeming duties which is the greatest and to be preferred p. 137 Gr. Dir. 11. To LOVE GOD as our Father and Felicity and End The Nature of holy Love God must be Loved as the Universal Infinite Good Whether Passionately What of God must be loved p. 141 What must be the Motive of our first Love Whether Gods special Love to us The sorts of holy Love Why Love is the highest Grace p. 143 The Contraries of holy Love How God is Hated The Counterfeits of Love p. 144 Directions how to excite and exercise Divine Love ibid. How to see God Signs of true Love p 154 Gr. Dir. 12. Absolutely to Trust God with Soul Body and all with full acquiâ—scence The Nature of Trust of which see more in my Life of Faith and Disp. of Saving Faith p. 157. The Contraries The Counterfeits Q. Of a particular faith The Uses of Trust. p. 158. Fifteen Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God p. 158 Gr. Dir. 13. That the temperament of our Religion may be a DELIGHT in God and Holiness Twenty Directions to procure it with the Reasons of it 162 Gr. Dir. 14. Of THANKFULNESS to God our grand Benefactor The signs of it Eighteen Directions how to obtain and exercise it 167 c. Gr. Dir. 15. For GLORIFYING God Ten Directions how the Mind must Glorifie God Ten Directions for Praising God or Glorifying him with our Tongues Where are the Reasons for Praising God Twelve Directions for Glorifying God by our Lives p. 172 Gr. Dir. 16. For Heavenly mindedness and Gr. Dir. 17. For Self-denyal
Only named as being formerly written of at large p. 180 An Appendix of the Reasons and measure of Divine and Self-love p. 182 CHAP. IV. Subordinate Directions against the Great sins most directly contrary to Godliness Part 1. Directions against Unbelief Q. Whether it be Unbelief not to believe that our own sins are pardoned and we elected Can a man be surer that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true The Article of Remission of sin is to be believed applyingly p. 196. Thirty six Dir. or helps against Unbelief Q. Why the Prophets were to be believed Part 2. Directions against Hardness of Heart What it is The evil and danger of it p. 204 Part 3. Directions against Hypocrisie What it is and who are Hypocrites The Helps p. 210 Part 4. Directions against Inordinate Man-pleasing or Idolizing man or that over-valuing mans favour which is the fruit of Pride and Cause of Hypocrisie What the sin is and is not The difficulty of Man-pleasing Pleasing God is our business and End The Motives to it The signes of it p. 218 c. Part 5. Directions against Pride and for Humility What they are The Inward seemings of Pride that are not Pride The Outward seemings of Pride that are not it p. 229. The Counterfeits of Humility p. 232. Signes of the worst part of Pride against God p. 232. Signes of the next degrees of Pride against God p. 235. Signes of Pride in and about Religious duties p. 237. Signes of Pride in common converse p. 239. The dreadful consequents of Pride A summary of the signs of Humility p. 247 Many considerations and helps against pride Part 6. Directions against Covetousness Love of Riches and Worldly Cares p. 254. What Love of Riches is lawful what unlawful and what is Covetousness The malignity of it The signes of it Counterfeits or false signes of one not Covetous which deceive many False signes or appearances of Covetousness that cause many to be falsly accused Means to destroy it Part 7. Directions against the master sin Sensuality Fleshpleasing or Voluptuousness p. 264. The nature of Flesh-pleasing What meant by Flesh and what is mans Corruption What flesh-pleasing is unlawful and how far a sin The malignity of the sin The Plea or Excuses of Flesh-pleasers answered Counterfeits of Mortification or temperance which deceive many flesh-pleasers Seemings of sensuality which are not it The enmity of the flesh p. 264 CHAP. V. Further subordinate Directions for the next great duties of Religion necessary to the right performance of the Grand Duties p. 274. and first Directions for Redeeming or well improving Time What is time here and what are Opportunities What Redeeming it is To what uses and from what and by what Time must be Redeemed Directions Contemplative for improving Time p. 276. Directions contemplative for taking the due season p 283. Directions Practical for Improving Time p. 285. Rules to know what Time must he spent in Thieves or Time-wasters to be watcht against p. 288. 1. Sloth 2. Excess of sleep 3. Inordinate adorning of the body 4. Pomp and Curiosity in attendance house furniture provision entertainments Complement and servitude to the humour of Time-wasters 5. Needless Feasting gluttony and tipling 6. Idle talk 7. Vain and sinful company 8. Pastimes inordinate Recreations sports plays 9. Excess of worldly business and cares 10. Vain and sinful Thoughts 11. Reading vain books Romances Play books c. and vain studies 12. An ungodly heart which doth all things for a carnal end Eight sorts especially called to Redeem Time CHAP. VI. Directions for the Government of the Thoughts p. 294 Tit. 1. Directions against evil and idle Thoughts ibid. Tit. 2. Directions to furnish the Mind with good Thoughts Twenty great Subjects or Promptuaries affording abundant matter for Meditation p. 298 Tit. 3. Directions to make Good Thoughts Effectual 1. General Directions for Meditation or good Thoughts p. 304. 2. Particular Directions about the work of Meditation p. 306 Tit. 4. The difference between a contemplative and an Active Life Q. 1. What is a contemplative life Q. 2. Is every man bound to it Q. 3. Whose duty is it Q. 4. How far are all men bound to contemplation Answered in twelve Rules p. 309 Tit. 5. Directions to the Melancholy about their Thoughts Signes of Melancholy The Causes Directions for cure Special truths to be known for preventing causless troubles c. p. 312 c. Tit. 6. Twenty Directions for young Students for the most profitable ordering of their studying Thoughts p. 319. Twenty Instances of extreams to be avoided p. 323 CHAP. VII Directions for the Government of the Passions Tit. 1. Directions against all sinful Passions in general p. 327 Tit. 2. Directions against sinful Love of Creatures 1. Helps to discover sinful Love 2. Helps to mâ—rtisie sinful Love p. 329 Tit. 3. Directions against sinful Desires and Discontents p. 332 Tit. 4. Directions against sinful mirth and pleasure p. 335 Tit. 5. Directions against sinful Hopes p. 338 Tit. 6. Directions against sinful Hatred aversation or backwardness towards God and Godliness p. 339 Tit. 7. Directions against sinful Anger 1. Directions Meditative against it p. 341. Two Directions practical against it p. 342 Tit. 8. Directions against sinful fear 1. Of God p. 344. 2. Against sinful fear of the Devil p. 345. 3. Against the sinful fear of men and of sufferings by them p. 346 Tit 9. Directions against sinful Grief and trouble of mind When sinful p. 351 Tit. 10. Directions against sinful â—espair and doubting What it is When the day of Grace is past What sin is mortal and what is Infirmity c. p. 355 c. CHAP. VIII Directions for the Government of the senses Part 1. General Directions to Govern them all by faith p. 361. Deny not all our senses as the Papists p. 363 Part 2. Particular Directions for the Government of the Eyes p. 366 Part 3. Directions for the Government of the Ear. p. 368 Part 4. Directions for the Governing the Taste and Appetite p. 370 Tit. 1. Directions against Gluttony 1. What it is 2. What are its Causes 3. The greatness of the sin 4. Directions and Helps against it Rules for the Measure of Eating Tit. 2. Against excess of Drink and drunkenness 1. What it is The various degrees 2. The Causes 3. The greatness of the sin 4. The Excuses of it Q. May we drink when thirsty c. Q. May one drink healths 5. Twenty Questions for the conviction of drunkards Twelve Questions to prove that it 's their wilfulness and not meer disability to forbear Practical Directions against Tipling c. p. 381 Part 5. Tit. 1. Directions against Fornication and all uncleanness The Greatness of the sin Directions for the Cure p. 394 c. T it 2. Directions against Inward filthy Lusts. p. 400 Part 6. Directions against sinful excess of sleep 1. What is eâ—câ—ss 2 The Evil of it Q. Whether Love of sleep may be a
any such necessary p. 916 Q. 173. What particular Directions for Order of Studies and Books should be observed by young Students who intend the Sacred Ministry p. 917 Q. 174. What Books should a poor man choose that for want of money or Time can have or read but few There are three Catalogues set down but somewhat disorderly as they came into my memory 1. The smallest or Poorest Library 2. A poor Library that hath considerable Additions to the former 3. Some more Additions to them for them that can go higher With some additional Notes p. 921 TOME IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. GEneral Directions for an Upright Life p. 1 The most passed by on necessary reasons CHAP. II. A few brief Memoranda to Rulers for the interest of Christ the Church and mens salvation p. 5 CHAP. III. Directions to Subjects concerning their duty to Rulers p. 9. Of the Nature and Causes of Government Mr. Richard Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy as it is for Popularity examined and confuted Directions for obedience Duty to Rulers Q. Is the Magistrate Iudge in Controversies of faith or worship p. 20. Q. 2. May the Oath of Supremacy be lawfully taken in which the King is pronounced Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil p. 20. Q. 3. Doth not this give the Pastors power to the Magistrate Q. 4. Hath the King power of Church Discipline and Excommunication Q. 5. If Kings and Bishops differ which must be obeyed Q. Is he obliged to suffer who is not obliged to obey p. 25. Of admonition of Rulers Q. 1. Whether the sound Authors of Politicks be against Monarchy Q. 2. Whether Civilians be against it Q. 3. Are Historians against it Greek Roman or Christian Q. 4. Whether Athens Rome Aristotle Philosophers Academies be against it Q. 5. Are Divines and Church discipline against it Q. 6. Is Scripture and Christianity against it Objections answered Q. Are Papists Prelatists and Puritans against it Bilson and Andrews Vindication of the Puritans Christianity is the greatest help to Government Further Directions Tit. 2. Q. Whether mans Laws bind the Conscience Q. Is it a sin to break every Law of man More fully answered p. 36 37 CHAP. IV. Directions to Lawyers about their Duty to God p. 39 CHAP. V. The Duty of Physicions p. 43 CHAP. VI. Directions to Schâ—olmasters about their duties for Childrens souls p. 44 CHAP. VII Directions for Souldiers about their duty in point of Conscience Princes Nobles Iudges and Iustices are past by lest they take Counsel for injury p. 46 CHAP. VIII Advice against Murder p. 50. The Causes of it Wars Tyranny malignant persecuting fury Unrighteous judgement oppression and uncharitableness Robbery Wrath Guilt and Shame Malice and Revenge wicked Impatience Covetousness Ambition c. The Greatness of the sin The Consequents Tit. 2. Advice against Self-murder The Causes to be avoided Melancholy worldly trouble discontent passion c. p. 54. Besides Gluttony Tipling and Idleness the great Murderers CHHP. IX Directions for the forgiving of injuries and enemies Against wrath malice revenge and persecution Practical Directions Curing Considerations Twenty p. 56 CHAP. X. Cases resolved about forgiving wrongs and debts and about self defence and seeking â—ur Right by Law or otherwise p. 61 Q. What injuries are we bound to forgive Neg. and Affir resolved Q. 2. What is the meaning of Matth. 5. 38 c. Resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee c. p. 63 Q. 3. Am I bound to forgive another if he ask me not forgiveness Luke 17. 3 c. p. 64 Q. 4. Is it lawful to sue another at Law 1 Cor. 6. 7. Q. 5. Is it lawful to defend our lives or estates against a Robber Murderer or unjust Invader by force of Arms Q. 6. Is it lawful to take away anothers life in defending my purse or estate only p. 65 Q. 7. May we kill or wound another in defence or vindication of our honour or good name p. 66 CHAP. XI Special Directions to escape the guilt of persecution Determining much of the Case about Liberty in matters of Religion p 67. What is persecution The several kinds of it The greatness of the sin Understand the Case of Christs interest in the world Q. Whether particular Churches should require more of their members as Conditions of Communion than the Catholick Church and What Penalties to be chosen that hinder the Gospel least More Directions to the number of forty one CHAP. XII Directions against Scandal as Given p. 80. What Scandal is and what not The sorts of scandalizing The Scripture sense of it Twenty Directions CHAP. XIII Directions against Scandal taken or an aptness to receive hurt by the words or deeds of others Especially quarrelling with Godliness p. 88. or taking encouragement to sin Practical Directions against taking hurt by others p. 90. CHAP. XIV Directions against soul-murder and partaking of other mens sins p. 92 The several wayes of destroying souls How we are not guilty of other mens sin and ruine CHAP. XV. General Directions for furthering the salvation of others p. 95 CHAP. XVI Special Directions for holy Conference Exhortation and Reproof Tit. 1. Motives to holy Conference and Exhortation p 97 Tit. 2. Directions to Christian edifying discourse p. 100 Tit. 3. Special Directions for Exhortations and Reproofs p. 101 CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men How the Proud do hinder Peace Many more Causes and Cures opened p. 103 CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft fraud or injurious getting keeping or desiring that which is anothers p. 107 Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Theft and such injuries Q. 1. Is it sin to steal to save ones life Q. 2. May I take that which another is bound to give me and will not Q. 3. May I take my own from an unjust borrower or possessor if I cannot otherwise get it Q. 4. May I recover my own by force from him that taketh it by force from me Q. 5. May we take from the Rich to relieve the poor Q. 6. If he have so much as that he will not miss it may I take some Q. 7. May not one pluck ears of Corn or an Apple from a Tree c. Q. 8. May a Wife Child or Servant take more than a Cruel Husband Parent or Master doth allâ—w May Children forsake their Parents for such Cruelty Q. 9. May I take what a man forfeiteth penally Q. 10. What if I resolve when I take a thing in necessity to make satisfaction if ever I be able Q. 11. What if I know not whether the Owner would consent Q. 12. May I take in jeast from a friend with a purpose to restore it Q 13. May I not take from another to prevent his hurting himself Q. 14. May I take away Cards Dice Play-books Papist-books by which he would hurt his soul. Q 15. May not a Magistrate take the Subjects goods when it is necessary to their own preservation Q 16. May I take from
another for a holy use p. 109 c. CHAP. XIX General Directions and particular Cases of Conscience â—boâ—t Contracts in general and about Buying and selling borrowing and lending and Usury in particular p. 113 Tit. 1. General Directions against injurious bargaining and contracts ibid. Tit. 2. Cases about Iustice in Contracts p. 114. Q. 1. Must I in all Cases do as I would be done by Q. 2. Is a Son bound by the Contracts which Parents or Guardians made for him in his Infancy Q 3. Is one obliged by a Contract made in ignorance or mistake of the matter Q. 4. Doth the contract of a man drunk or in passion or melancholy bind him Q 5. May another hold such a one to his contract or if he give or play away his money Q. 6. Am I obliged by Covenanting words without a Covenanting intent Q. 7. May I promise a Robber money to save my life or to save a greater commodity Q. 8. May I give money to a Iudge or Magistrate to hire him to do me justice and not to wrong me or not to persecute me Q. 9. If I make such a contract may the Magigistrate take it of me Q 10. If I promise money to an Officer or Robber under a force am I bound to pay it when the necessity is over So of other constrained promises Q. 11. May I promise a Thief or Bribe-taker to conceal him and must I keep that promise Q. 12. Must I keep a promise which I was drawn into by deceit Q 13. Is it a Covenant when neither of the contracting parties understand each other Q. 14. Must I stand to a bargain made for me by a friend or servant to my injury Q. 15. If I say I will give one this or that am I bound to give it him Q 16. Doth a mental promise not uttered oblige Q. 17. May I promise to do a thing simply unlawful without a purpose to perform it to save my life Q. 18. May any thing otherwise unlawful become a duty upon a promise to do it Q. 19. May he that promised for a reward to promote anothers sin take the reward when he hath done it Q. 20. Am I bound by a contract without witness or legal form Q 21. May an Office in a Court of Iustice be bought for money Q. 22. May a place of Magistracy or Iudicature be bought Q. 23. May one sell a Church Benefice or Orders Q. 24 May one buy Orders or a Benefice Q. 25. May I give money to Servants or Officers to assist my Suit Q. 26. May I after give by way of gratitude to the Bishop Patron c. Q. 27. May a Bishop or Pastor take money for Sermons Sacraments or other Offices Q. 28. May I disoblige another of his promise made to me Q. 29. What if it be secâ—nded by an Oath Q. 30. Doth a promise bind when the cause or reason proveth a mistake Q 31. What if a following accident make it more to my hurt than could be foreseen Q. 32. Or if it make it injurious to a third person Q. 33. Or if a fâ—llowing accident make the perfâ—rmance a sin Q. 34. Am I bound to him that breaketh Covenant with me Q. 35. May I contract to do that which I foresee like to become impossible before the time of performance Tit. 3. Cases about Iustice in Buying and Selling p. 120 Q 1. Am I bound to endeavour the gain of him that I bargain with as well as my own Q. 2. May I take more for my labour or goods than the worth if I can get it Q. 3. May I ask more in the Market than the worth Q. 4. How shall the worth of a Commodity be judged of Q. 5. May I conceal the faults or make a thing seem better than it is by setting the best side outward adorning c. Q. 6. If I was deceived or gave more than the worth may I do so to repair my loss Q. 7. If I foresee a cheapness of my Commodity as by coming in of Ships c. must I tell the buyer of it that knoweth it not Q. 8. May I keep my Commodity if I foresee a dearth Q. 9. May one use many words in buying and selling Q. 10. May I buy as cheap as I can or below the worth Q. 11. May I sell dearer for anothers necessity Cases instanced in Q. 12. May I take advantage of the buyers ignorance Q. 13. May I strive to get a good bargain before another Q. 14. May I buy a thing or hire a servant which another is first about or call away his Chapman Q. 15. May I dispraise anothers Commodity to draw the buyer to my own Q. 16. What to do in cases of doubtful equity Q. 17. What if the buyer lose the thing bought before the payment as a Horse dye c. Q. 18. If the thing bought as Amber-Chryse Iewels c. prove of much more worth than either party expected must more be after payed Q. 19. What if the title prove bad which was before unknown Q. 20. If a change of powers overthrow a title speedily who must bear the lâ—ss p. 120 Tit. 4. Cases about Lending and Bâ—rrowing Q 1. May one borrow money who seeth no probability that he shall be able to repay it Q 2. May one drive a Trade with borrowed money when success and repayment is uncertain Q. 3. May be that cannot pay his debts retain any thing for his food and rayment Q. 4. May one that breaketh secure that to his Wife and Children which on Marriage he promised before he was in debt Q. 5. May one that breaketh retain somewhat to set up again by compounding with his Creditors Q. 6. May I in necessity break my day of payment Q. 7. May I borrow of one to keep day with another Q. 8. May one that hath no probability of paying the last man borrow of one to pay another Q. 9. Is it lawful to take pledges pawns or mortgages for security Q. 10. May a foâ—feiture pledge or mortgage be kept on Covenant breaking Q. 11. May I take the promise or bond of a third person as security for my money Q. 12. Is it lawful to lend upon usury interest or increase Q. 13. Whom are we bound to lend to Q. 14. Is it lawful to take money on usury in such cases as the Lender sinneth in Q 15. Doth not contracting for a certain summ make usury the more unlawful p. 124 Tit. 5. Cases about Lusory Contracts Q. 1. Is it lawful to lay wagers about the truth of our discourses Q. 2. Is it lawful to lay wagers about Horse-races Dogs Hawks c. Q. 3. May one give money to see Games or Activities Bear-baitings Playes c. Q 4. Is it lawful to play for money at Cards Dice Lottery c. Q. 5. Or at Games of Activity as Bowling Shooting Running c. Q. 6. If the looser prove angry and unwilling to pay may I get it of him by Law p. 129 Tit.
grace which he hath given us 2. And by shewing us the truth of the Promise made to all believers 3. And by helping us from those Promises to conclude with boldness that we are the children of God 4. And by helping us to rejoyce therein § 12. II. I have been the longer though too short in acquainting you with the Office of the Holy Ghost supposing your Belief that he is the third person in the Trinity because it is an Article of grand importance neglected by many that profess it and because there are so many and dangerous errors in the world about it Your great care now must be 1. To find this Spirit in you as the Principle of your operations and 2. To obey it and follow its motions as it leadeth you up to communion with God Of the first I have spoken in the first Chapter For the second observe these few Directions § 13. Direct 1. Be sure you mistake not the Spirit of God and its motions nor receive instead of Direct 1. them the motions of Satan or of your passions pride or fleshly wisdom It is easie to think you are obeying the Spirit when you are obeying Satan and your own corruptions against the Spirit By these fruits the Spirit of God is known 1. The Spirit of God is for Heavenly Wisdom and neither for Foolishness or treacherous craftiness Psal. 19. 7. 94. 8. Jer. 4. 22. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5 6 7. 2. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Love delighting to do good its doctrine and motions are for Love and tend to Good abhorring both selfishness and hurtfulness to others Gal. 5. 21 22. 3. He is a Spirit of Concord and is ever for the Unity of all believers abhorring both Divisions among the Saints and carnal complyances and â—onfederacies with the wicked 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6 13. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Nâ—mo magnus sine aâ—iquo afflaâ—â— Dâ—vâ—â—o â—nquam suit â—â—â—â— 2. â—â— Nâ—â— Dâ—o 3. 3. Rom. 16 17 18. 4. He is a Spirit of humility and self-denyal making us and our knowledge and gifts and worth to be very little in our own eyes Abhorring pride ambition self-exalting boasting as also the actual debasing of our selves by earthliness or other sin Matth. 18. 3. Eph. 4. 2. 5. He is a Spirit of meekness and patience and â—orbearance Abhorring stupidity and inordinate passion boisterousness tumult envy contention reviling and revenge Math. 11. 28 29. Ephes. 4. 2. Iames 3. 1 Pet. 2. 20 21 23. Gal. 5. 20. Rom. 12. 18 19 20. Eph. 4. 31. Col. 3. 8. 6. He is a Spirit of zeal for God resolving men against known sin and for known truth and duty Abhorring a furious destroying zeal and also an indifferency in the cause of God and a yielding complyance with that which is against it Gal. 4. 18. Numb 25. 11 13. Titus 2. 14. Iames 3. 15. 17. Luke 9. 55. Rev. 3. 16. 7. He is a Spirit of Mortification crucifying the flesh and still conâ—ending against it and causeing men to live above all the Glory and Riches and Pleasures of the world Abhorring both carnal licentiousness and sensuality and also the destroying and disabling of the Body under preâ—ence of true mortification Rom. 8. 1. 13. Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 13. 13 14. 1 Cor. 9. 27. 2 Pâ—t 2. 19. Col. 2. 18 21 23. 8. The Spirit of Christ contradicteth not the doctrine of Christ in the holy Scripture but moveth us to an exact conformity thereto Isa. 8. 20. This is the sure Rule to try pretences and motions of every Spirit by For we are sure that the Spirit of Christ is the Author of that word and we are sure he is not contrary to himself 9. The motions of the Spirit do all tend to our Good and are neither Ludicrous impertinent or hurtful finally They are all for the perfecting of sanctification obedience and for our salvation Therefore unprofitable trifles or despair and hurtful distractions and disturbances of mind which drive from God unfit for duty and hinder salvation are not the motions of the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 1. 7. Rom. 8. 15. Isa. 11. 2. Gal. 5. 22. Zech. 12. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 10. Lastly The Spirit of God subjecteth all to God and raiseth the heart to him and maketh us spiritual and divine and is ever for Gods glory 1 Iohn 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 17 20. Ephes. 2. 18 22. Phil. 3. 3 19 20. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 4 6. Examine the Texts here cited and you will find that by all these fruits the Spirit of God is known from all seducing Spirits and from the fancies or passions of self-conceited men § 14. Direct 2. Quench not the Spirit either by wilful sin or by your neglecting of its offered help Direct â— It is as the spring to all your spiritual motions as the Wind to your Sails You can do nothing without it Therefore reverence and regard its help and pray for it and obey it and neglect it not When you are sure it is the Spirit of God indeed that is knocking at the door behave not your selves as if you heard not 1. Obey him speedily Delay is a present unthankful refusal and a kind of a denyal 2. Obey him throughly A half obedience is disobedience Put him not off with Ananias and Saphira's gift the half of that which he requireth of you 3. Obey him constantly not sometime hearkning to him and more frequently neglecting him but attending him in a learning obediential course of life § 15. Direct 3. Neglect not those means which the Spirit hath appointed you to use for the receiving Direct 3. of us help and which be useth in his holy operations If you will meet with him attend him in his own way and expect him not in by-wayes where he useth not to go Pray and meâ—itaâ—e and hear and read and do your best and expect his blessing Though your plowing and sâ—winâ— will not give you a plentiful harvest without the Sun and Rain and the blessing of God yet these will not do â—t neither unless you plow and sow God hath not appointed a course of means in Nature or Morality in vain nor will he use to meet you in any other way § 16. Direct 4. Do most when the Spirit helpeth you most Neglect not the extraordinary measures Direct 4. of his assistance If he extraordinarily help you in prayer or meditation improve that help and break not â—st so soon as at other times without necessity Not that you should omit duty till you seel his help For he useth to come in with help in the performance and not in the neglect of duty But tire not out your self with affected length when you want the life § 17. Direct 5. Be not unthankful for the assistance he hath given you Deny not his grace Direct 5. Ascribe it not to nature Remember it to encourage your future expectations
modest some one shall drink a health or importune him and put the cup into his hand The thief with Achan shall see the bait and the sight will work a Coveteous desire The glutton shall have the Tempting dishes before him and be at a Table which by variety of delicious food is fitted to become his snare whereas if he had nothing set before him but the poor mans simple food which hath nothing in it fit to tempt him he might easily have escaped The fornicator shall have his beautiful dirt brought near him and presented to him in a tempting dress for at a sufficient distance there had been little danger The ambitious person shall have preferment offered him or brought so fair to his hand that with a little seeking it may be attained The fearful coward shall be threatned with the loss of estate or life and hear the report of the Cannons Guns and Drums of Satan Peter is half conquered when he is got among questioning company in the High-Priests Hall Thus David thus Lot thus ordinarily sinners are drawn into the snare § 34. Direct 5. As ever you would preserve your innocency and your souls fly as far from Direct 5. tempting objects as you can I say as you can without distrusting God in the neglect of a certain duty A Wife or a servant that are bound cannot fly nor must we leave undone our certain duty upon an uncertain danger which may otherwise be avoided But keep off from the Temptation at as great a distance as you can The safest course is the best when your souls lie at the stake If it be not Necessary plead not the Lawfulness of what you do when it is a Temptation to that which is unlawful You say It is lawful to wear such curious ornaments and set out your selves in the neatest dress But is it lawful to be Prowd or Lustful or to consume your time unprofitably If not tempt not your selves or others to it Keep away from the place where the snare is laid Look first to the end before thou meddle with the beginning Why should I eat that which I know I cannot digest but must cast it up again And why should I taste that which I must not eat And why should I desire to have that set before me and to look upon it which I must not taste Come not near if thou wouldst not be taken What dost thou at the ALE-house with a cup before thee if thou wouldst not be drawn to excess of drink If thou be subject to excess in eating make not thy own table thy Temptation Fly from the Temptation as thou wouldst do from Hell or from the Devil himself See not the bait of lust or come not near if thou be inclinable to lust saith Solomon Remâ—â—e thy way far from her and come not near the dore of her house Prov. 5. 8. For her end is biâ—er as wormwoâ—d sharp as a two edged sword Her feet go down to death her steps take hold on Hell verse 4 5. Her house inclineth to death and her paths unto the dead None that go to her return again neither take they â—old of the paths of Life Prov. 2. 18 19. Her house is the way to Hell going down to the chambers of Death Prov. 7. 27. Whoso is simple let him turn in hither and as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him stolne waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant But he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of Hell Prov. 9. 16 17 18. Lust not after her beauty in thy heart neither let her take thee with her eye-lids Can a man take fire in his bosom and his cloaths not be burnt Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be hurt Prov. 6. 25 27 28. Remember that you pray daily Lead us not into Temptation And if you will run into it your selves are not your prayers hypocritical and an abuse of God If you would be saved from sin you must be saved in Gods way and that is by flying from Temptations and not drawing near and gazing on forbidden objects and tempting your selves Even as Gods holy means must be used by all that would come to holiness and Heaven so the Devils must be avoided by him that would would scape sin and Hell 2. But if you cannot remove far enough from the snare then double your fâ—â—r and watchfulness and resolution Fly with Ioseph from the sin if you cannot Gen. 39. 12. go out of the house How carefully should every foot be placed when we know that every step we tread is among snarâ—s Rule your senses if you cannot remove the bait Make Iobs covenant with your eyes that you look not on that which would allure Iob 31. 1. Let every sense have a constant watch § 35. Tempt 6. The next great work of the Tempter is to give us the fairest opportunities to sin Tempt 6. and to remove all impediments and shew men encouraging hopes and invitations He will shew the thief which way he may steal and shew the coveteous man which way he may thrive and deceive and over-reach and the ambitious man which way he may rise and the fornicator how he may obtain his desire and sin unknown and then he tells them how easie it is now no one seeth you you may do it without fear or shame It is the Devils great care to take all things out of the way that would affright or hinder sinners That they may have full opportunity to invite them Therefore he is very desirous that publick impediments should be all removed especially a godly Magistrate and Minister and that the common disgrace of sinning may be taken off and if it may be turned against Religion or fall on them that are the greatest adversaries to sin § 36. Direct 6. It is therefore a principal part of your wisdom and watchfulness to avoid the Direct 6. opportunities of sinning and keep out as many impediments as may be in your own way It is a most foolish and sinful thing in some men who think it a brave thing to have power to do hurt though they pretend that they abhor the doing of it He that saith he hateth oppression yet would have a Power to oppress To have all men at his will and mercy he thinks is brave so they that would not be gluttonous would have a tempting table still before them presuming that their own will is a sufficient preservative against the sin so they that would not be insnared with lust have yet a desire to appear as comly and lovely and desirable as may be and to be as much beloved that they may have others affections at command and also to have opportunity offered them that they may sin if they will And is thy will so well established mortified and unchangable as to be so far trusted O foolish sinner that no better knowest thy self nor
holy fetcht from Heaven § 19. Tempt 9. He would keep you in a lazy sluggish coldness to read and hear and pray as asleep Tempt 9. as if you did it not § 20. Direct 9. Awake your selves with the presence of God and the great concernment of what Direct 9. you are about and yield not to your sloth § 21. Tempt 10. He would make you bring a divided distracted heart to duty that is half about your Tempt 10. worldly business § 22. Direct 10. Remember God is jealous your business with him is great much lyeth on it Direct 10. call off your hearts and let them not stay behind all the powers of your souls are little enough in such a work Ezek. 33. 31. § 23. Tempt 11. Ignorance unskilfulness and unacquaintedness with duty is a great impediment Tempt 11. to most § 24. Direct 11. Learn by study joyned with practice Be not weary and difficulties will be Direct 11. overcome § 25. Tempt 12. Putting duty out of its place and neglecting the season that is fittest makes it oft Tempt 12. done slightly § 26. Direct 12. Redeem time and dispatch other business that idleness deprive you not of leisure Direct 12. and do all in order § 27. Tempt 13. Neglecting one duty is the Tempters snare to spoil another If he can keep you Tempt 13. from reading you will not understand well what you hear If he keep you from meditating you will not digest what you hear or read If he keep you from hearing you will want both matter and life for prayer and meditation and conference If he keep you from godly company you will be hindered in all and in the practice No one is omitted but you are disadvantaged by it in all the rest § 28. Direct 13. Observe how one duty helpeth another and take all together each one in its Direct 13. place § 29. Tempt 14. Sometime the Tempter doth call you off to other duty and puts in unseasonable Tempt 14. motions to that which in its time is good he interrupts prayer by meditation he sets seeming truth against Love and Peace and Concord § 30. Direct 14. Still know which duties are greatest and which is the due season for each and do Direct 14. all in order § 31. Tempt 15. He spoileth duty by causing you to do it only as a duty and not as a means for the Tempt 15. good of your own souls or only as a Means and not as a Duty If you do it only as a Duty then you will not be quickned to it by the ends and benefits nor carryed by Hope nor fit all to the end nor be so fervent or vigorous in it as the sense of your own good would make you be And if you do it only as a Means and not as a Duty then you will give over or faint when you want or question the success Whereas the sense of both would make you vigorous and constant § 32. Direct 15. Keep under the sense of Gods Authority that you may feel your selves bound Direct 15. to obey him whatever be the success and may resolve to wait in an obedient way And withall admire his wisdom in fitting all Duties to your Benefit and commanding you nothing but what is for your own or others good or to his honour And mark the Reason and tendency of all and your own Necessity § 33. Tempt 16. The Tempter hindereth you in duty as well as from duty by setting you a quarrelling Tempt 16. with the Minister the words the company the manner the circumstances that these things may divert your thoughts from the matter or distract your mind with causeless scruples § 34. Direct 16. Pray and labour for a clear judgement and an upright self-judging humble Direct 16. heart wihch dwelleth most at home and looketh most at the spiritual part and affecteth not singularity § 35. Tempt 17. The Tempter spoileth duty by your unconstancy While you read or pray so seldom Tempt 17. that you have lost the benefit of one duty before you come to another and cool by intermissions § 36. Direct 17. Remember that it is not your divertisement but your Calling and is to your Direct 17. soul as eating to your Bodies § 37. Tâ—mpt 18. Sometime Satan corrupteth Duty by mens private passions interest and opinions Tempt 1â— making men in preaching and praying to vent their own conceits and spleen and inveigh against those that diâ—â—er from them or ofâ—end them and prophane the name and work of God or proudly to seek the praise of men § 38. Direct 18. Remember that God is most jealous in his Worship and hateth hypocritical prophanâ—ss Tempt 18. above all prophaness Search your hearts and mortifie your passions and specially selfishness Remembring that it is a poysonous and insinuating sin and will easily hide it self with a Cloke of â—eal § 39. Tempt 19. False-hearted Reservedness is a most accursed corrupter of holy duty when the soul Tempt 19. is not wholy given up to God but sets upon duty from some common motive as because it is in credit or to pleasâ— sâ—me friend purposing to try it a while and leave it if they like it not § 40. Direct 19. Fâ—ar God thou Hypocrite and halt not between two opinions If the Lord be Direct 12. God â—bâ—y and sâ—rve him with all thy heart But if the Devil and the flesh be better Masters follow them and let him go § 41. Tempt 20. Lastly The Tempter hindereth holy duty much by wandring thoughts and melancholy Tempt 20. perplexities and a hurry of Temptations which torment and distract some Christians so that they â—ry out I cannot pray I cannot meditate and are weary of duty and even of their lives § 42. Direct 20. This sheweth the malice of the Tempter and thy weakness but if thou hadst Direct 20. rather be delivered from it it hindereth not thy acceptance with God Read for this what I have said Chap. 5. Part. 2. at large specially in my Directions to the Melancholy § 43. I have been forced to put off many things briefly here which deserved a larger handling and I must now omit the discovery of those Temptations by which Satan keepeth men in sin when he hath draâ—n them into it 2. And those by which he causeth declining in grace and Apâ—staâ—y 3. And those by which he discomforteth true Believers because else this Direction would swell to a Treatiâ—â— and most will think it too long and tedious already though the Brevity which I use to avoid prâ—liâ—ity doth wrong the matter through the whole Acquaintance with Temptations is needful to our overcoming them DIRECT X. Your lives must be laid out in doing God service and doing all the good you can in Gr. Dir. 10 â—â—â—â— sâ—rving Christ ouâ— Master in good works works of piety justice and charity with prudence fidelity industry
both were not sinful they would not both be 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ishâ—d wâ—th 〈…〉 2. Your Conscience is not your Knowledge when you err but your Igno 〈…〉 〈◊〉 â—â— it signifieth the faculty of Knowing may be said to be Conscience when it erreth as 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 in the â—â—â—â—ulty when we err And Conscience as to an erring act may be called 〈◊〉 so farr as there is any true Knowledge in the act as a man is said to see when he mis-judgeth of 〈◊〉 or to Reasâ—n when he argueth amiss But so farr as it erreth it is no Conscience in act at all â—or Conscience is science and not nescience You sin against your Knowledge when you sin against a well inâ—â—rmed Conscience but you sin in ignorance when you sin against an erring 〈◊〉 3. And if the Question be not what is your duty but which is the smaller sin then it is true that 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—bus it is a greater sin to go against your judgement than to follow it But 〈…〉 impaâ—ities in matter and circumstances may be an exception against this rule § 〈◊〉 Quest. 8. But it is not possible for every man presently to know all his duty and to avoid all 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Knowledge must be got in time All men are ignorant in many things should 〈…〉 in the mean time follow my Conscience Answ. 1. Your ignorance is culpable or not culpable If it be not culpable the thing which you 〈◊〉 〈…〉 of is not your duty If culpable which is the case supposed as you brought your self in â—â—â—â— difficulty of knowing so it will remain your sin till it be cured and one sin will not war 〈…〉 And all that time you are under a double command the one is to Know and use the 〈…〉 Knowledge and the other is to do the thing commanded So that how long soever you â—â—main i 〈…〉 you remain in sin and are not under an obligation to follow your error but first to Kâ—â—w and then to Dâ— the contrary duty 2. And as long as you keep your self in a necessity or way â—f 〈◊〉 you must call it sin as it is and not call it duty It is not your duty to choose a 〈…〉 a greater but to refuse and avoid both the lesser and the greater And if you say 〈…〉 yet remember that it is only your sin that is your impotency or your impotency is 〈◊〉 But it is true that you are most obliged to avoid the greatest sin Therefore all that re 〈…〉 in the resolving of all such cases is but to â—now of two sins which is the greatest § 〈◊〉 Quest. 9. What if there be a Great duty which I connot perform without committing a little Quest. the sin Or a very great Good which I cannot do but by an unlawful means As to save the lives of many by a liâ— Answ. 1. It is no duty to you when you cannot do it without willful sin be it never so little Answ. Deliberately to choose a sin that I may perform some service to God or do some Good to others is to run before we are called and to make work for our selves which God never made for us and to offer sin for a sacrifice to God and to do evil that good may come of it and abuse God and reject his government under pretence of serving him The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind Prov. 21. 27. 15. 8. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be abomination Prov. 28. 9. Be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil Eccles. 5. 1. 2. If you will do Good by sinning you must do Good in opposition to God and how easily can he disappoint you and turn it into Evil It is not Good indeed which must be accomplished by sin The final Good is never promoted by it And all other Good is to be estimated by its tendency to the End You think that Gâ—â—d which is not so because you judge by the present feeling of your flesh and do not foresee how it stands related to the everlasting Good § 41. Quest. 10. Seeing then that I am sure before hand that I cannot Preach or Hear or Pray Quest. or do any good action without sin must I not by this rule forbear them all Answ. No because your infirmities in the performance of your duty which you would avoid Answ. and cannot are not made the condition of your action but are the diseases of it They are not chosen and approved of The duty is your duty notwithstanding your infirmities and may be accepted of for you cannot serve God in perfection till you are perfect and to cast away his service is a farr greater sin than to do it imperfectly But you may serve him without such willful chosen sin if not in one way yet in another The imperfection of your service is repented of while it is committed but so is not your approved chosen sin For a man to make a bargain against God that he will commit a sin against him though the action be the same which he hath often done before in pardonable weakness this is to turn it to a presumptuous heinous sin If he do it for worldly gain or safety he selleth his obedience to God for trifles If he do it to serve God by he blâ—sphemeth God declaring him to be Evil and a lover of sin or so Impotent as not to be able to do good or attain his ends by lawful means It is most dangerous to give it under our hands to the Devil that we will sin on what pretence soever § 42. Quest. 11. What if I am certain that the duty is great and uncertain whether the thing Quest. annexed to it be a sin or not Must I forbear a certain duty for an uncertain sin Or forbear doing a great and certain good for fear of a small uncertain evil Answ. 1. The Question de esse must go before the Question de apparere Either that which you Answ. say you are uncertain of is indeed a sin or it is none If it be no sin then you are bound both to search till you know that it is no sin and not to forbear your duty for it But if really it be a sin then your uncertainty of it is another sin And that which God bindeth you to is to forsake them both 2. Your Question containeth a contradiction you cannot be certain that it is a duty at all to you any further than you are certain whether the Condition or means be lawful or a sin What if an auditor in Spain or Italy say I am certain that it 's a duty to obey my Teachers but I am uncertain whether their doctrines of the Mass Purgatory and the rest have any untruth or sin in them therefore I must not forbear
certain obedience for uncertain sin Or if a Priest among them say I am certain that it is a duty to preach Gods word but I am not certain that the Trent Articles which I must swear or subscribe are sinful or false therefore I must not leave a great and certain duty for an uncertain sin The answer to them both is easie 1. It is your sin that you are uncertain of the sinfullness of those things which God hath forbidden And God biddeth you first to search the Scriptures and cure that error He made his Law before your doubts arose and will not change it because you doubt 2. You contradict your selves by a mistake you have no more certainty that you should obey your Teachers in these particulars than you have that the things which they teach or command you are not against that Law of God You are certain that you must obey them in all things not forbidden by God and within the reach of their office to require And you are as certain that it is unlawful to obey them against the Law of God and that God must be obeyed before man But whether you must obey them in this particular case you cannot be certain while you are uncertain whether it be forbidden of God And the Priest must be as uncertain whether it be any duty of his at all to preach Gods word as he is uncertain of the lawfullness of the Trent-Oath or subscription unless he can do it without If a subject say I am certain that to Govern the Kingdom well is a great good work and duty but I am uncertain whether to depose the King if he Govern not well and set up my self be a sin therefore the Certain good must overrule the uncertain evil I give him the same answer It is your sin to be uncertain whether Rebellion be a sin and God bindeth you to lay by the sin of your judgement and not to make it a shooing-horn to more 2. You are sure that Governing well is a Good work but you should be as sure that it is no duty of yours nor no Good work for you to do as you are sure that you are but a private man and a subject and never called to do the Good of anothers office A private man may say I am sure preaching is a good work but I am not sure that a private unordained man may not statedly separate himself to do it But he can be no surer that it is a duty to him than he is that he is called to it § 43. Quest. 12. Well suppose my ignorance be my sin and suppose that I am equally uncertain of Quest. the duty and of the sin annexed yet if I have done all that I am able and remain still unresolved and after my most diligent enquiry am as much in doubt as ever what should I then do Answ. 1. If you had by any former sin so forfeited Gods assistance as that he will leave you Answ. to your blindness this altereth not his Law and your obligations which are still the same to Learn understand and practise 2. But if you are truly willing to understand and practise and use his means you have no cause to imagine that he will thus forsake you undoubtedly he appointeth you no means in vain If you attain not sufficient resolution to guide you in your duty it is either because your hearts are false in the enquiry and byassed or unwilling to know the truth or do it or because you use not the true appointed means for resolution but in partiality or laziness neglect it § 44. Quest. 13. Suppose still my ignorance be my sin which is the Greater sin to neglect the Quest. good work or to venture on the feared evil that is annexed I am not conscious of any unfaithfullness but humane frailty that keepeth me from certainty And no man is so perfect as to have no culpable ignorance and to be certain in every point of duty Therefore I must with greatest caution avoid the greatest sin when I am out of hope of avoiding all On one side it is a common Rule that I must do nothing against Conscience no not a doubting Conscience though I must not allwaies do what it biddeth me For he that doubteth is condemned if he eat for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14. 23. On the other side if all duty be omitted which conscience doubteth of I may be kept from allmost every duty Answ. The heart is so deceitful that you have great cause to watch lest humane frailty be pretended Answ. for that error which a corrupted byassed partial mind or willful lazyness is the cause of Diligent study and enquiry and prayer with a sincere desire to know the truth may succeed at least to so much satisfaction as may keep your minds in quietness and peace and give you comfort in your way and preserve you from all such sin as is inconsistent with this your safety and acceptance with God But yet it is true that humane frailty will occasion in the best uncertainties in some particular cases and though God make it not our duty of two sins to choose the less but to refuse both yet he maketh it our duty more diligently to avoid the greater than the less And oft times the case is so sudden that no enquiry can be made And therefore I confess a Christian should know which sins are greatest and to be most avoided At present I shall lay down these following Rules premising this that where accidents and circumstances which make sins Great or Small are to be compared they are oft times so numerous and various that no Rules can be laid down before hand that will serve all turns no more than in Law and Physick any Law-books or Physick-books will serve all cases without a present experienced judicious Counsellor Present PRUDENCE and SINCERITY must do most § 45. Rule 1. In things altogether indifferent nothing must be done that Conscience doubteth of Rule because there is a possibility or fear of sinning on the one side but none on the other And in that case it is a certain sin to venture on a feared sin But then it is supposed that the thing be indifferent as cloathed with all its circumstances and that there be no accident that taketh away its indifferencie § 46. Rule 2. â—â—â—aâ—e the thing be really unlawful and I think it to be lawful but with sâ—me 〈…〉 ing â—ut aâ—â— clear that the forbearing it is no sin there the sin is only in the doing it because all â—s clâ—â—r and sâ—sâ— on the other side § 47. Rule 3. There are many sins which are allwaies and to all persâ—ns in all cases sins and not dâ—uâ—teâ— â—â—â—â— any witâ—â—ut gâ—â—â—â— unfaithfullness or negligence and â—ere there is no room for any dâ—ubting whether we must do that â—â—â—â—d which cannot be done without that sin it being certain that nâ— sâ—â—â—â— Goâ—d can be
in case they were all sinful but yet I am most strongly suspicious of sinfulness in the subscription and less suspicious of sinfullness in my forbearing in such a case to preach and least of all suspicious of sinfullness in my preaching though prohibited In this case to subscribe sinfully is the greatest sin and to forbear sinfully to exercise my office is the next and to preach unwarrantably is the least § 52. Rule 8. If I could perceive no difference in the degrees of evil in the Omission and the Rule Commission nor yet in the degrees of my suspicion or doubting then that is the greater sin which I had greater helps and evidence to have known and did not § 53. Rule 9. If both greater material evil be on one side than on the other and greater suspicion Rule or evidence of the sinfullness also then that must needs be the greater sin § 54. Rule 10. If the Greatness of the Material Evil be on one side and the greatness of the Rule suspicion and evidence be on the other then the former if sin will be materially and in it self considered the worst but the later will be formally the greater disobedience to God But the comparison will be very difficult As suppose that I swear to God that I will cast away a shilling or that I will forbear to pray for a week together Here I take perjury to be a greater sin than my casting away a shilling or forbearing to pray a week But when I question whether the Oath should be kept or not I have greater suspicion that it should not than that it should because no oath must be the bond of the least iniquity Here if the not keeping it prove a sin I shall do that which is the Greater sin in it self if I keep it not but I shall shew more disobedience in keeping it if it be not to be kept § 55. Rule 11. If it be a double sin that I suspect on one side and but a single one on the other Rule it maketh an inequality in the case As suppose that in my Fathers family there are Hereticks and Drunkards and I swear that in my place and calling I will endeavour to cast them out My Mother approveth my Vow My Father is against it and dischargeth me of it because I did it not by his advice On one side I doubt whether I am bound or may act against my Fathers will On the other side I as much doubt whether I am not perjured and disobedient to my Mother if I do it not and whether I disobey not God that made it my duty to endeavour the thing in my place and calling before I vowed it § 56. Rule 12. There is a great deal of difference between omitting the substance of a duty for Rule â—ver and the delaying it or altering the time and â—place and manner For instance that which will justifie or excuse me for shortning my prayer or for praying but once a day or at noon rather than in the morning or for defect in method or fervency or Expressions may not justifie or excuse me for denying renouncing or long forbearing prayer And that which may excuse an Apostle for not preaching in the Temple or Synagogues or not having the Emperors or the High-Priests allowance or consent or for not continuing in one City or Country would not excuse them if they had renounced their callings or totally as to all times and places and manner of performance have ceased their work for fear of men § 57. Rule 13. If the duty to be omitted and the sin to be committed seem equal in greatness and Rule our doubt be equal as to both it is commonly held safer to avoid the Commission more studiously than the â—mission For which there are many reasons given § 58. Rule 14. There is usually much more matter for fear and suspicion caeteris paribus of sins Rule to be committed than of Duties to be omitted when the Commission is made necessary to the doing of the duty Both because it is there that the fear beginneth For I am certain that the Good work is no Duty to me if the act be a sin which is its necessary Condition Therefore so far as I suspect the act to be sinful I must needs suspect the duty to be no duty to me at that time It is not possible I should be rationally more perswaded that the Duty is my duty than that the Condition is no sin If it were the saving of the lives of all the men in the Country I could no further take it to be my duty than I take that to be no sin by which it must be done it being a thing past controversie that we must not sin for the accomplishment of any good whatsoever And also because the sin is supposed to be allwaies sin but few duties are at all timeâ— duties And the sin is a sin to every man but the duty may be another mans duty and not mine For instance Charles the fifth imposeth the Interim upon Germany Some Paâ—â—â—â—rs yielded to it Others refused it and were cast out Those that yielded pleaded the Good of the Churches and the prevention of their utter desolation but yet confessed that if the thing imposed were sinful it was not their duty to do it for any Good whatsoever but to seek the Good of the Church as well as they could without it The other that were cast out argued that so far as they were confident the Interim was sinful they must be confident that nothing was their duty that could not be done without it and that God knew best what is Good for his Church and there is no accomplishing its good by sin and Gods displeasure and that they did not therefore forsake their Ministry but only lose the Rulers License for they resolved to preach in one place or other till they were imprisoned and God can serve himself by their imprisonment or death as well as by their preaching And while others took their places that thought the Interim lawful the Churches were not wholy destitute and if God saw it meet he could restore their fuller liberties again In the mean time to serve him as all Pastors did for three hundred years after Christ without the License of the Civil Magistrate was not to cast away their office Another instance The zealous Papists in the Reign of Hen. 3. in France thought that there was a Necessity of entring the League and warring against the King because Religion was in danger the preservation whereof is an unquestionable duty The Learned and moderate Lawyers that were against them said that there being no question but the King had the total soveraingty over them they were sure it was a sin to resist the Higher powers and therefore no preservation of Religion could be a duty or lawful to them which must be done by such a certain sin Sin is not the means to save
119. 162. Ier. 15. 16. 7. Delight thy self in his Image though but imperfectly printed on thy soul and also on his holy servants Gal. 2. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 10. 2 Cor. 7 18. 8. Delight your selves in the consideration of the Glory which he hath from all his creatures and the universal fullfiling of his will As the prosperity and happiness of your friend delighteth you and the success of any excellent enterprises and the praise of excellent things and persons and as you have a special delight in the success of truth and the flourishing order and unity and peace and prosperity of Kingdoms especially of the Church much more than in your personal prosperity unless you have selfish private base unmanly dispositions so much more should you delight in the Glory and Happiness of God 9. Delight your selves in the safety which you have in his favour and defence and the treasury which you have in his All sufficiency and Love for your continual supplies in every want and deliverance in every danger and the ground of quiet contentedness and confidence which is offered to fearful souls in him 10. Delight yourselves in the particular discoveries of his common mercies to the world and his special mercies to his saints and his personal mercies to your selves from your birth to this moment both upon your souls and bodies and friends and names and estates and affairs in all relations 11. Delight your selves in the Priviledge you enjoy of speaking to him and of him and hearing from him and adoring and worshipping him and singing and publishing his Praise and in the communion which your souls may have with him through Christ on his Days and at all times in his sacraments and in all your lives And say as Solomon 1 King 8. 27. And will God indeed dwell on earth will he dwell and walk with sinful men When the Psal 68 3 4 5. 69 30 31 32. Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him Psalm 40. 16. Let those that seek him Rejoyce and be glad in him and 122. 1. Let us be glad to go up to the house of the Lord and joyn with his holy Assemblies in his worship Psalm 46. 4. The streams of his Grace make glad the City of God the holy Tabernacles of the most high God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved 12. Delight your selves above all in the forethoughts and hope of the Glory which you shall see and enjoy for ever I do but name all these for your memory because they are before spoken of in the Directions for Love § 4. Direct 4. Understand how much these holy Delights are pleasing unto God and how much he Direct 4. is for his peoples pleasure For it much hindereth the Joy of many Christians that they think it is How much God is for his servants Deligâ—ts against the will of God that such as they should so much Rejoyce Or at least that they apprehend not how much he hath commanded it and how great a duty it is and how much pleasing to their God Consider 1. It is not for nothing that the nature of man is made capable of higher and larger delights than the bruitish sensual nature is And that in this we are made little lower than Angels Phil. 3. 1. Isa. 58. 19. Job 22. 26. Isa. 55. 2 3. Psal. 4. 7. Acts 14. 15. Deut 27. 7. 1â— 12 18. â— Pet. 1 â— 4 6. Joh. 14. 16 26. 15. 2â— Isa. 53. 3. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 8 9. Mat. 11. 28. Isa. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17. 1 Thes. 5. 11 14 16. Phil. 4. 4. Psal. 33 1. 1 Pet. 5. 7. Joh. 5. 40. 2. Nor is it for nothing that God hath made Delight and Complacency the most powerful commanding affection and the end of all the other passions which they proâ—essedly subserve and seek and the most natural inseparable affection of the soul there being none that desireth not delight 3. Nor is it in vain that God hath provided and offered such plenty of most excellent objects for our Delight especially himself in his attributes Love Mercy Son Spirit and Kingdom which Bruits were not made to know or to enjoy 4. Nor hath he given us in vain such excellent convenient and various helps and inferiour preparations which tend to our delight even for body and mind to further our Delight in God 5. Nor is it in vain that he maketh us yet more neerly capable by his Spirit even by affecting humiliations and mortifying cleansing illuminating and quickning works And that the Kingdom of God consisteth in Righteousness Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And that the spirit hath undertaken to be the comforter of Believers who is sent upon no low or needless work 6. Nor did Christ purchase his peoples Joys in vain by the price of his grievous sufferings and sorrows Having bâ—rn our griefs and being made a man of sorrows that we that see him not might rejoyce in believing with joy unspeakable and full of glory 7. Nor is it in vain that he hath filled his word with such matter of Delight and Comfort in the gladdest tidings that could come to man and in such free and full and faithful promises 8. Nor hath he multiplied his commands for his Rejoycing and delight in vain again and again commanding us to Rejoyce and allwaies to Rejoyce 9. Nor is it insignificant that he hath forbidden those worldly cares and fears and griefs which would devour their joyes Nor that he hath so clearly shewed them the way to Joy and blameth them if they walk not in it 10. He filleth up their lives with mercies and matter of delight by his direction support provisions and disposals And all this in their way of tryal and in the valley of tears 11. How tender is he of their sufferings and sorrows not afflicting willingly nor delighting to grieve the sons of men 12. He taketh not away their delight and comfort till they cast it away themselves by sinning or self-afflicting or neglecting his proposed pleasures 13. He never faileth to meet them with his delights while they walk in the way prescribed to that end unless Isa 63. 9. 2 Cor. 2. 7. Zeph. 3. 17. Deut. 30 9. 10. 15. Isa 62. 5. Jam. 2. 13. Joh. 14. 13. 18. when it tendeth to their greater pleasure to have some present interruption of the pleasure 14. In their greatest needs when themselves and other helps must fail he giveth them oft-times the greatest joys 15. And he takes their delights and sorrows as if they were his own In all their afflictions he is afflicted and he delighteth in their wellfare and rejoyceth over them to do them good Cannot you see the will of your Father in all this 16. If you cannot yet lift up your heads and foresee the eternal Delights which he hath prepared for you when you shall enter into your Masters Joy And then judge whether God be for your Delight § 5. Direct
they say we take down all Religion so because we would call men from their bruitish pleasures they say we would let them have no pleasure For the Epicure thinks when his luxury lust and sport is gone all is gone Call a sluggard from his bed or a glutton from his feast to receive a Kingdom and he will grudge if he observe only what you would take from him and not what you give him in its stead When earthly pleasures end in misery then who would not wish they had preferred the Holy durable Delights DIRECT XIV Let Thankfulness to God thy Creator Redeemer and Regenerater be the very Gr. Dir. 14. For a life of Thankfulness temperament of thy soul and faithfully expressed by thy Tongue and Life § 1. THough our Thankfulness is no benefit to God yet he is pleased with it as that which is suitable to our condition and sheweth the ingenuity and honesty of the Heart An unthankful person is but a devourer of mercies and a grave to bury them in and one that hath not the wit and honesty to know and acknowledge the hand that giveth them But the Thankful looketh above himself and returneth all as he is able to him from whom they flow § 2. True Thankfulness to God is discerned from Counterfeit by these qualifications 1. True Thankfulness having a just estimate of mercies comparatively preferreth spiritual and everlasting mercies before those that are meerly corporal and transitory But carnal Thankfulness chiefly valueth carnal Mercies though notionally it may confess that the spiritual are the greater 2. True Thankfulness inclineth the soul to a spiritual rejoycing in God and to a desire after more of his spiritual mercies But carnal thankfulness is only a delight in the prosperity of the flesh or the delusion and carnal security of the mind inclining men to carnal empty mirth and to a desire of more such fleshly pleasure plenty or content As a Beast that is full fed will skip and play and shew that he is pleased with his state or if he have ease he would not be molested 3. True thankfulness kindleth in the heart a love to the Giver above the Gift or at least a Love to God above our Carnal prosperity and pleasure and bringeth the heart still nearer unto God by all his mercies But carnal thankfulness doth spring from Carnal self-love or love of fleshly prosperity and is moved by it and is subservient to it and Loveth God and Thanketh him but so far as he gratifieth or satisfieth the flesh A child-like Thankfulness maketh us love our Father more than his gift and desire to be with him in his arms But a Dog doth love you and is thankful to you but for feeding him He loveth you in subordination to his appetite and his bones 4. True Thankfulness inclineth us to obey and please him that obligeth us by his benefits But carnal thankfulness puts God off with the hypocritical complemental thanks of the lips and spends the mercy in the pleasing of the flesh and makes it but the fewell of lust and sin 5. True thankfulness to God is necessarily transcendent as his mercies are transcendent The saving of our souls from Hell and promising us eternal life besides the giving us our very beings and all that we have do oblige us to be totally and obsolutely his that is so transcendent a Benefactor to us and causeth the thankful person to devote and resign himself and all that he hath to God to answer so great an obligation But carnal thankfulness falls short of this absolute and total dedication and still leaveth the sinner in the power of self-love devoting himself really to himself and using all that he is or hath to the pleasing of his fleshly mind and giving God only the tythes or leavings of the flesh or so much as it can spare lest he should stop the streams of his benignity and bereave the flesh of its prosperity and contents § 3. Directions for Thankfulness to God our Benefactor Direct 1. Understand well how great this duty is in the nature of the thing but especially how the Direct 1. very design and tenour of the Gospel and the way of our salvation by a Redeemer bespeaketh it as the very complexion of the soul and of every duty A creature that is wholly his Creators and is preserved every moment by him and daily fed and maintained by his bounty and is put into a capacity of life eternal must needs be obliged to uncessant Gratitude And Unthankfulness among men is justly taken for an unnatural monstrous vice which forfeiteth the benefits of friendship and society 2 Tim. 3. 2. The unthankful are numbred with the unholy c. as part of the monsters which should come in the last times and which we have lived to see exactly answering that large description of them But the Design of God in the work of Redemption is purposely laid for the raising of the highest Thankfulness in man and the Covenant of Grace containeth such abundant wonderous Mercies as might compell the souls of men to Gratitude or leave them utterly without excuse It is a great truth and much to be considered that Gratitude is that general duty of the Gospel ☜ which containeth and animateth all the rest as being Essential to all that is properly Evangelical A Law as a Law requireth Obedience as the general duty and this Obedience is to be exercised and found in every particular duty which it requireth And the Covenant with the Jews was called The Law because the Regulating part was most eminent and so obedience was the thing that was eminently required by the Law though their measure of mercy obliged them also to thankfulness But the Gospel or New Covenant is most eminently a history of Mercy and a tender and promise of the most unmatchable benefits that ever were heard of by the ears of man so that the Gift of Mercy is the predominant or eminent part in the Gospel or New Covenant and though still God be our Governour and Gratitude is to the Promise much what Obedience is to the Law the New Covenant also hath its Precepts and is a Law yet that is in a sort but the subservient part And what obedience is to a Law that Thankfulness is to a Benefit even the formal answering of its obligation so that though we are called to as exact obedience as ever yet it is now only a Thankfull Obedience that we are called to And just as Law and Promises or Gifts are conjoyned in the New Covenant just so should Obedience and Thankfulness be conjoyned in our hearts and lives one to God as our Ruler and the other to him as our Benefactor And thâ—se two must animate every act of heart and life We must Repent of sin but it must be a Thankful Repenting as becometh those that have a free pardon of all their sins procured by the blood of Christ and offered them in the
many creatures and comforts for their bodies That live continually upon the plenty of his Love That have received so much and are still receiving Should we not bless him every day with Praise that blesseth us every day with benefits Should we not praise the bridge that we go over The friend that we have tryed so oft And resolve as Psalm 145. 2. Every day will I bless thee I will praise thy name for ever and ever Psalm 63. 3 4. Because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I lâ—â—e I will lift up my hands in thy name Are they not bound to praise him on earth that must reign with Christ for ever in Heaven Rom. 8. 17 33. Rev. 1. 5 6. Col. 1. 12. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 6. The Praises of God do exercise our highest Graces Praise is the very breath of Love and Ioy and Gratitude It tendeth to raise us above our selves and make our hearts to burn within us while the glorious name of God is magnified It hath the most pure and spiritual and elevating effect upon the soul and therefore tendeth most effectually to make us more holy by the encrease of these graces § 19. 7. To be much employed in the Praise of God doth tend exceedingly to the vanquishing of all hurtful doubts and fears and sorrows Ioy and Praise promote each other And this it doth 1. By keeping the soul near to God and within the warmth of his love and goodness Psal. 140. 13. 2. By the exercise of Love and Joy which are the cordial reviving strengthning graces Psal. 94. 19. 116. 1. 3. By dissipating distrustful vexing thoughts and diverting the mind to sweeter things Psal. 104. 34. 4. By keeping off the Tempter who usually is least able to follow us with his molestations when we are highest in the praises of our God 5. By bringing out the Evidences of our sincerity into the light while the chiefest graces are in exercise 2 Cor. 3 18. 6. And by way of Reward from God that loveth the Praises of his meanest servants And here I would commâ—nd this experiment to uncomfortable troubled souls that have not found comfort by long searching after evidence in themselves Exercise your selves much in the Praises of God This is a duty that you ☜ have no pretence against Against Thanksgiving for his grace you pretend that you know not that you have received his grace But to praise him in the excellency of his perfections his power and wisdom and goodness and mercy and truth is the duty of all men in the world While you are doing this you will feel your graces stir and feel that comfort from the face of God which you are not like to meet with in any other way whatsoever Evidences are exceeding useful to our ordinary stated peace and comfort But it is oft long before we confidently discern them and they are oft discerned when yet the soul is not excited to much sense of comfort and delight and we quickly lose the sight of evidences if we be not very wise and careful But a life of praise bringeth ☜ comfort to the soul as standing in the Sunshine bringeth light and warmth Or as labouring doth warm the body or as the sight and converse of our dearest friend or the hearing of glad tydings doth rejoyce the heart without any great reasoning or arguing the case This is the way to have comfort by feeling to be much in the hearty praises of the Lord When we come to Heaven we shall have our Joy by immediate Vision and the delightful exercise of Love and Praise And if you would taste the Heavenly Joyes on earth you must imitate them in Heaven as near as possibly you can And this is your work of nearest imitation § 20. 8. To live a life of praising God will make Religion sweet and easie to us and take off the wearisomness of it and make the work of God a pleasure to us Whereas they that set themselves only to the works of humiliation and leave out these soul-delighting exercises do cast themselves into exceeding danger by making Religion seem to them a grievous and undesirable life This makes men backward to every duty and do it heartlesly and easily yield to temptations of omission and neglect if not at last fall off through weariness whereas the soul that is daily employed in the high and holy Prayses of his God is still drawn on by encouraging experience and doth all with a willing ready mind § 21. 9. No duty is more pleasing to God than the cheerful Praises of his Servants He loveth your prayers tears and groans but your Praises much more And that which pleaseth God most must be most pleasing to his servants For to please him is their End This is the End of all their labour that whether present or absent they may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5 9. So that it is a final enjoying and therefore a delighting duty § 22. 10. To be much employed in the Praises of God will acquaint the world with the nature of true Religion and remove their prejudice and confute their dishonourable thoughts and accusations of it and recover the honour of Christ and his holy wayes and servants Many are averse to a holy life because they think that it consisteth but of melancholly fears or scrupulosity But who dare open his mouth against the joyful praises of his Maker I have heard and read of several enemies and murderers that have broke in upon Christians with an intent to kill them or carry them away that finding them on their knees in prayer and reverencing the work so much as to stay and hear them till they had done have reverenced the persons also and departed and durst not touch the heavenly worshippers of God This life of praise is a continual pleasure to the soul clean contrary to a Melancholly life It is recreating to the Spirits and healthful to the body which is consumed by cares and fears and sorrows It is the way that yieldeth that mirth which doth good like a medicine and is a continual feast Prov. 17. 22. 15. 15. Therefore saith the Apostle Iames 5. 13. Is any merry Let him sing Psalms He cannot better exercise mirth than in singing praises to his God This keeps the soul continually on the wing desiring still to be nearer God that it may have more of these delights And so it overcomes the sense of persecutions and afflictions and the fears of death and is a most excellent cordial and companion in the greatest sufferings Was it not an excellent hearing to have been a witness of the joy of Paul and Silas when in the Prison and Stocks with their backs sore with scourges they sang at midnight the praises of the Lord Acts 16. 25. so that all the doors were opened and all the prisoners bonds were loosed that had been their auditors so great was Gods
such a reward But he had rather have that reward of it self without Holiness 62. He may also Love and desire Christ as a means conceited to such an end And he may use much Religious duty to that end And he may forbear such sins as that End can spare lest they deprive him of his hoped-for felicity Yea he may suffer much to prevent an endless suffering 63. As Nature necessarily Loveth self and self-felicity God and the Devil do both make great use of this natural pondus or necessitating Principle for their several ends The Devil saith Thou Lovest Pleasure therefore take it and make provision for it God saith Thou lovest felicity and fearest misery I and my Love are the true felicity and adhering to sensual pleasure depriveth thee of better and is the beginning of thy misery and will bring thee unto worse 64. God commandeth man nothing that is not for his own good and forbiddeth him nothing which is not directly or indirectly to his hurt And therefore engageth self-love on his side for every act of our obedience 65. Yet this good of our own is not the highest nor all the good which God intendeth and we must intend but it is subordinate unto the greater good fore-mentioned 66. As a carnal man may have opinionative uneffectual convictions that God and his Love are his spiritual felicity better than sensual yea and that God is his ultimate End above his own felicity it self so the sanctifying of man consisteth in bringing up these convictions to be truly effectual and practical to renew and rule the Mind and Will and Life 67. Whether this be done by first knowing God as the Beginning and End above our selves and then knowing effectually that he is mans felicity or whether self-love be first excited to Love him as our own felicity and next we be carryed up to Love him for himself as our highest End it cometh all to one when the work is done And we cannot prove that God tyeth himself constantly to either of these methods alone But experience telleth us that the later is the usual way and that as Nature so Grace beginneth with the smallest seed and groweth upward towards perfection And that self-love and desire of endless felicity and fear of endless misery are the first notable effects or changes on a repenting soul. 68. And indeed the state of sin lyeth both in mans fall from GOD to SELF and in the mistake of his own felicity preferring even for Himself a sensible good before a spiritual and the Creature before the Creator And therefore he must be rectified in both 69. And the hypocrites uneffectual Love to God and Holiness is much discovered in this that as he loveth dead Saints and their Images and Holy-dayes because they trouble him not so he best loveth opinionatively and least hateth practically the Saints in Heaven and the Holiness that is far from him and God as he conceiveth of him as one that is in Heaven to glorifie men But he hateth practically though not professedly the God that would make him holy and deprive him of all his sinful pleasures or condemn him for them And he can better like Holiness in his Pastor neighbour or child than in Himself 70. Therefore sincerity much consisteth in the Love of self-holiness but not as for self alone but as carrying self and all to God 71. As the Sun-beams do without any interception reach the eye and by them without interception our sight ascendeth and extendeth to the Sun so Gods communicated Goodness and Glorious Revelation extend through and by all inferiour mediums to our understandings and our wills And our Knowledge and Love ascendeth and extendeth through all and by all again to God And as it were unnatural for the eye illuminated by the Sun to see it self only or to see the mediate creatures and not to see the Light and Sun by which it seeth nay it doth least see it self so is it unnatural for the soul to understand and Love it self alone which it little understandeth and should Love with self-denyal and the Creatures only and not to Love God by whom we know and Love the creature 72. It is possible to Love God and Holiness and Heaven as a conceited state and means of our sensual felicity and escape of pain and misery But to Love God as the true felicity of the Intellectual nature and as our spiritual Rest and yet to Love him only or chiefly for our selves and not rather for Himself as our highest end implyeth a contradiction The same I say of Holiness as Loved only for our selves The evidence whereof is plain in that it is Essential to God to be not only better than our selves and every creature but also to be the Ultimate End of all things to which they should tend in all their perfections And it is Essential to Holiness to be the souls devotion of it self to God as God and not only to God as our felicity Therefore to Love God only or chiefly for our selves is to make him only a means to our felicity and not our chief End and it is to make our selves Better and so more Amiable than God that is to be Gods our selves 73. This is much of the sense of the Controversie between the Epicureans and the sober Philosophers as is to be seen in Cicero c. The sober Philosophers said that Virtue was to be loved for it self more than for Pleasure Because if Pleasure as such be better than vertue as such than all sensual Pleasure would be better than Vertue as such The Epicureans said that not all pleasure but the pleasure of Vertue was the chief good as Torquatus his words in Cicero shew And if it had been first proved that a mans self is his just ultimate end as the finis cui or the personal end than it would be a hard question whether the Epicureans were not in the right as to the finis cujus or the Real end which indeed is but a medium to the personal cui But when it is most certain that no mans person is to be his own ultimate end as cui but God and then the Universe and societies of the world as beforesaid it is then easie to prove that the sober Philosophers were in the right and that no mans Pleasure is his ultimate end finis cujus Because no mans Pleasure is either such a demonstration of the Divine perfection as Vertue is as such nor yet doth it so much conduce to the common good of societies or mankind and so to the pleasing and glorifying of God And this way Cicero might easily have made good his cause against the Epicureans 74. Though no man indeed Love God as God who Loveth him not as Better than himself and therefore Loveth him not better and as his absolutely ultimate end and though no man desire Holiness indeed who desireth not to be devoted absolutely to God before and above himself yet is it very common to
Unbelief is one of the Causes of them and the sinfullest Cause § 2. And that the Article of Remission of sin is to be Believed with application to our selves is certain The Article of Remission of sin to be believed applyingly But not with the application of Assurance Perswasion or Belief that we are already pardoned but with an applying Acceptance of an offered pardon and Consent to the Covenant which maketh it ours We believe that Christ hath purchased Remission of sin and made a Conditional Grant of it in his Gospel to all viz. if they will Repent and Believe in him or take him for their Saviour or become Penitent Christians And we consent to do so and to accept it on these terms And we believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent § 3. By all this you may perceive that those troubled Christians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God but only of their own sincerity and consequently of their Justification and Salvation do ignorantly complain that they have not faith or that they cannot believe For it is no act of unbelief at all for me to doubt whether my own heart be sincere This is my ignorance of my self but it is not any degree of unbelief For Gods Word doth no where say that I am sincere and therefore I may doubt of this without doubting of Gods Word at all And let all troubled Christians know that they have no more unbelief in them than they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of God Even that despair it self which hath none of this in it hath no unbelief in it iâ— there be any such I thought it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is before I come to give you Directions against it And though the meer doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all yet real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures is so common and dangerous a sin and some degree of it is latent in the best that I think we can no way so much further the work of Grace as by destroying this The weakness of our faith in the truth of Scriptures and the remnant of our unbelief of it is the principal cause of all the languishings of our Love and Obedience and every Grace and to strengthen faith is to strengthen all What I have â—ullier written in my Saints Rest Part 2. and my Treatise against Infidelity I here suppose § 4. Direct 1. Consider well how much of Religion Nature it self teacheth and Reason without Direct 1. supernatural Revelation must needs confess as that there is another life which man was made for and that he is obliged to the fullest Love and Obedience to God and the rest before laid down 〈…〉 in the world are perpetual visible Evidences in my eyes of the truth of the Holy Scriptures 1 That there should be so Universal and implacable a hatred against the godly in the common sort â—f unrenewed men in all Agâ—â— and Nations of the Earâ—h when thâ—se men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong â—s a visible proof of Adams fall and he 〈◊〉 of a Saviour and a Sanctifier 2 That all those who are seriously Christians should be so far renewed and recovered from the common corruption as their heavenly â—inds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth â—o â—lainly shew a particular special Providence in the converting and confirming souls by differencing Grace and work on the soul as the sanctified feel doth shew that indeed the work is his 4. That God doth so plainly grant many of his Servants prayers by special Providences doth prove his owning them and his 〈◊〉 5. That God suffereth his Servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so much for his Love and Service from the world and flâ—sh dâ—â—h shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ— and thâ—n how should his Government of men be just 6. That the Renewed Nature which maketh men better and therefore is of God doth wholly look at the life to come and lead us to â—t and live upon it this sheweth that such a life there is or else this would be delusory and vain and Goodness it self would be a deceit 7. When it is undenyable that de facto esse the world is not Governed without the Hopes and Fears of another life almost all Nations among the Heathens believing iâ— and shewing by their very worshipping their dead Heroes as Gods that they believed that their soulâ— did live and even the wicked generally being restrained by those hopes and fears in themselves And also that de posse it is not pâ—â—â—â—ible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wâ—â—se than Beasts and all Villanies would be the allowed practice of the world As every man may feel in himself what he were like to be and do if he had no such restraint And there being no Doctrine or Life comparable to Christianity in their tendency to the life to come All these are visible staâ—ding evidences assisted so much by common sense and reason and still apparent to all that they leave Infidelity without excuse and are ever at hand to help our faith and resist temptations to unbelief 8. And if the world had not had a Beginning according to the Scriptures 1. We should have found Monuments of Antiquity above sâ—x thousand years old 2. Arts and Sciences would have come to more perfection and Printing Guns c. not have been of so late invention 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world would not have been yet uninhabited unplanted or undiscovered Of Aâ—heâ—sm I have spoken before in the Introduction and Nature so clearly revealeth a God that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men in the Introduction And then observe how congruously the doctrine of Christ comes in to help where Nature is at a loss and how exactly it suits with Natural Truths and how clearly it explaineth them and fully containeth so much of them as are necessary to salvation and how suitable and proper a means it is to attain their Ends and how great a testimony the Doctrines of Nature and Grace do give unto each other § 5. Direct 2. Consider that mans End being in the life to come and God being the righteous and Direct 2. merciful Governour of man in order to that End it must needs be that God will give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that end And that the clearest fullest means must needs demonstrate most of the Government and Mercy of God § 6. Direct 3. Consider what full and sad experience the world hath of its pravity and great
it as some of a higher degree The thing pretended by Eminent Hypoâ—â—ites is to be zealous eminent Christians or at least to be sincere in a special manner while they discern the common Hypocrite not to be sincere 2. The cloak of seeming or pretense by which they would be thought to be what they are not is any thing in gâ—neral that hath an appearance of Godliness and is apt to make others think them godly And thus there are diverse sorts of Hypocrites according to the variety of their cloaks or ways of dissimulation though hypocrisie it self be in all of them the same thing As among the very Mahometanes and Heathens there oft arise some notable Hypocrites that by pretended Revelations and austerity of life profess themselves as Mahomet did to be Holy persons that had some extraordinary familiarity with God or Angels So among the Papists there are besides the common ones as many sorts of Hypocrites as they have self-devised Orders And every where the cloak of the common Hypocrite is so thin and transparent that it sheweth his nakedness to the more intelligent sort And this puts the Eminent Hypocrite upon some more laudable pretense that is not so transparent As for instance the Hypocrisie of common Papists whose cloak is made up of penances and ceremonies of saying over latine words or numbering words and beads for prayers with all the rest of their trumpery before named Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 15. Dir. 11. is so thin a cloak that it will not â—atisfie some among themselves but they withdraw into distinct societies and orders the Church and the profession of Christianity being not enough for them that they may be Religious as if they saw that the rest are not Religious And then the common sort of ungodly Protestants have so much wit as to see through the cloak of all the Popish Hypocrisie and therefore they take up a fitter for themselves and that is the name of a Protestant Reformed Religion and Church joyned to the Common Profession of Christianity The Name or Profession of a Christian and a Protestant with going to Church and a heartless lip-service or saying their Prayers is the cloak of all ungodly Protestants Others discerning the thinness of this cloak do think to make themselves a better and they take up the strictest opinions in Religion and own those which they account the strictest party and own that which they esteem the purest and most spiritual worship The cloak of these men is their opinions pâ—rty and way of worship while their carnal lives detect their Hypocrisie Some that see through all these pretenses do take up the most excellent cloak of all and that is An appearance of serious spirituality in Religion with a due observation of all the outward parts and means and a Reformation of life in works of piety Iustice and charity I say An appearance of all these which if they had indeed they were sincere and should be saved in which the Godly Christian goeth beyond them all § 4. By this it is plain that among us in England all men that are not Saints are Hypocrites because that all except here or there a Jew or Infidel profess themselves to be Christians and every true Christian is a Saint They know that none but Saints or Godly persons shall be saved And there is few of them that will renounce their hopes of Heaven and therefore they must pretend to be all godly And is it not most cursed horrid hypocrisie for a man to pretend to Religion as the only way to his salvation and confidently call himself a Christian while he hateth and derideth the power and practice of that very Religion which he doth profess Of this see my Treat of The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite When Pâ—â—â—â— in vita sua speaketh of others extolling his eloquence he addeth his own neglect of it Ego modo bene vixisâ—em qualiter dixisâ—em parvi sacerem Venâ—osa gloria est de solo verborum splendore famam quaerere Conscientiam potius quam famam attende Falli saepe poterit fama Conscientia nunquam Seâ—ec § 5. The Hypocrites Ends in his pretenses and dissemblings are not all the same One intendeth the pleasing of Parents or some friends on whom he doth depend that will else be displeased with him and think ill of him Another intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers when it falls out that they are friends to Godliness Another intends the preserving of his esteem with religious persons that they may not judge him wicked and prophane Another intendeth the hiding of some particular villany or the success of some ambitious enterprise But the most common end is to quiet and comfort their guilty souls with an Image of that Holiness which they are without and to steal some peace to their Consciences by a lie And so because they will not be Religious indeed they will take up some shew or image of Religion to make themselves as well as others believe that they are Religious § 6. Direct 1. To escape Hypocrisie understand well wherein the life and power of Godliness doth consist Direct 1. and wherein it differeth from the lifeless Image or Corps of Godliness The life of Godliness is expressed in the 17 Grand Directions in Chap. 4. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ as causeth us to Love God above all and obey him before all and prefer his favour and the hopes of Heaven before all the pleasures or profits or honours of the world and to worship him in spirit and truth according to the direction of his word The Images of Religion I shewed you before § 3. Take heed of such a lifeless Image § 7. Direct 2. See that your chief study be about the Heart that there Gods Image may be planted Direct 2. and his interest advanced and the interest of the world and flesh subdued and the Love of every sin cast out and the Love of Holiness succeed and that you content not your selves with seeming to do goâ—d in outward acts when you are bad your selves and strangers to the great internal duties The first and Sic vivendum est quaâ—i in coâ—â—â—â—ctu â—â—â—amuâ— Sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis pectus intimum prospicere poâ—â—iâ— Senec. Rem dâ—â—am ex qua mâ—â—â—â—s a stimes nâ—straâ— Vix quempiam invenâ—es qui possit aperto ostiâ—â—ivâ—re jâ—â—itores conscientia nostra suposuit sic vivimus ut deprehendi sit sabiâ—â— aspici Senec. Ep. 96. great work of a Christian is about his heart There it is that God dwelleth by his spirit in his Saints And there it is that sin and Satan reign in the ungodly The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart There is the root of Good and Evil The tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within The inward habit of sin is as a second nature And a sinful nature is worse than a sinful
act Keep your hearts with all diligence for from thence are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good But the viperous generation that are evil cannot speak good for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Math. 12. 33 34. Till the spirit have regenerated the soul all outward Religion will be but a dead and pittiful thing Though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do in order to his own conversion yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God till he be converted To make up a Religion of doing or saying something that is good while the heart is void of the spirit of Christ and sanctifying grace is the Hypocrites Religion Rom. 8. 9. § 8. Direct 3. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts and the desire and other affections or passions Direct 3. of the mind as well as of the sins of tongue or hand A lustful thought a malicious thought a proud ambitious or covetous thought especially if it proceed to a wish or contrivance or consâ—nt is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and neer the heart as Christ hath shewed you Mat. 5. 6. The Hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man doth live as if his Thoughts were free § 9. Direct 4. Make conscience of secret sins which are committed out of the sight of men and may Direct 4. be concealed from them as well as of open and notorious sins If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation the Hypocrite is bold But a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience and much more to the all-seeing God § 10. Direct 5. Be faithful in secret duties which have no witness but God and Conscience As meditation Direct 5. and self-examination and secret prayer And be not only Religious in the sight of men § 11. Direct 6. In all publick worship be more laborious with the heart than with the tongue or knee Direct 6. and see that your tongue over-run not your heart and leave it not behind Neglect not the due composure of your words and due behaviour of your bodys But take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing loving fervent soul. § 12. Direct 7. Place nâ—t more in the externals or modes or circumstances or ceremonies of worship Direct 7. than is due and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share but 〈…〉 ed mâ—â—â—â—ad of hurt fuâ—â—â—â—nes ceremonies be obâ—iteraâ—â—d by ceremoniâ—s Let the Prâ—â—sts perswade the novâ—â—â—â— that holy water Images â—oâ—aâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 and â—oâ—ches and the rest which the Church alloweth and uâ—â—th are very â—it for them and let them exâ—â—l them with many praises in their popular Sermons that instead of the old superstition they may be used to new and religious signs This is to quenth the â—iâ—e with oyl let the great substantials of Religion have the precedencie and be far preferred before them Let the Love of God and man be the sum of your obedience And be sure you learn well what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And remember that the great thing which God requireth of you is to do Iustice and love mercy and walk humbly with your God Destroy not him with your meat fâ—r whom Christ dyed Call not for fire from Heaven upon dissenters and think not every man intollerable in the Church that is not in every little matter of your mind Remember that the hypocrisie of the Pharisees is described by Christ as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions and the inventions of men and the smallest matters of the Ceremonial Law with a neglect of greatest moral duties and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshipers of God Math. 15. 2. Why do thy disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread v. 7. Ye Hypocrites well did Esaias prophesie of you saying This people draweth niâ—â—â—ntâ— me with their mouth and hâ—â—â—â—ureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching fâ—r doctrines the commandments of men Math. 23. 4 5 6 13 14 c. They bind heavy burdens which they touch not themselves All their works they do to be seen of men They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the burdens of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief sâ—ats in the Synagogues and greetings in publick and to be called Rabbi But they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the Gospel by the people They tythed mint and annise and cummin and omitted the great matters of the Law Iudgement and Mercy and Faith They streined at a gnat and swallowed a Camel They had a great veneration for the dead Prophets and Saints and yet were persecuters and murderers of their successors that were living v. 23 c. By this description you may see which way Hypocrisie doth most ordinarily work even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions and traditions and ceremonies and other little things to the treading down the interest of Christ and his Gospel and a neglect of the life and power of Godliness and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies I marvel that many Papists tremble not when they read the Character of the Pharisees But that hypocrisie is a hidden sin and is an enemy to the light which would discover it § 13. Direct 8. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors and of justice and mercy Direct 8. towards men as well as of acts of piety to God Say not a long mass in order to devour a widows house or a Christians life or reputation Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers And labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other Set your selves to do all the good you can to all and do hurt to none And do to all men as you would they should do to you § 14. Direct 9. Be much more busie about your selves than about others and more censorious of Direct 9. your selves than of other men and more strict in the Reforming of your selves than of any others For this is the character of the sincere When the Hypocrite is little at home and much abroad and is a sharp reprehender of others and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself Mark his discourse in all companies and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others How such men and such men that differ from him or have opposed him or that he hates are thus and thus faulty and bad and hateful Yea he is as great an accuser of his
liberty were it as long as we live if it be necessary to the saving of our brethrens souls by removing the offence which hindereth them by prejudice We mâ—st not seek our own carnal ends but the benefit of others and do them all the good we can § 6. 3. As our neighbour is commanded to Love us as himself we are bound by all lawful means to render our selves amiable to him that we may help and facilitate this his Love as it is more necessary to him than to us For to help him in obeying so great a command must needs be a great duty And therefore if his very sin possess him with prejudice against us or cause him to distaste us for some indifferent thing we must as far as we can lawfully remove the cause of his prejudice and dislike Though he that hateth us for obeying God must not be cured by our disobeying him we are so far from being obliged to displease men by surliness and morasity that we are bound to pleasing gentleness and brotherly kindness and to all that carriage which is necessary to care their sinful hatred or dislike § 7. 4. We must not be self-conceited and prefer a weak unfurnished judgement of our own before the greater wisdom of another but in honor must prefer each other and the ignorant must honour the knowledge and parts of others that excel them and not be stiff in their own opinion nor wise in their own eyes nor undervalue another mans reasons or judgement but be glad to learn of any that can teach them in the humble acknowledgement of their own insufficiency § 8. 5. Especially we must reverence the judgement of our able faithful Teachers and not by pride set up our weaker judgement against them and resist the truth which they deliver to us from God Neither must we set light by the censures or admonitions of the lawful Pastors of the Church When they are agreeable to the word and judgement of God they are very dreadful As Tertullian Gal. 5. 10. 1 Cor. 5. saith If any so offend as to be banished from communion of prayer and assembly and all holy commerce it is a judgement foregoing the great judgement to come Yea if the Officers of Christ should wrong you in their censures by passion or mistake while they act in their own charge about matters belonging to their cognisance and judgement you must respectfully and patiently bear the wrong so as not to dishonour and contemn the authority and office so abused § 9. 6. If sober godly persons that are well acquainted with us do strongly suspect us to be faulty where we discern it not our selves it should make us the more suspitious and fearful and it judicious persons fear you to be Hypocrites and no sound Christians by observing your temper and course of life it should make you search with the greater fear and not to disregard their judgement And if judicious persons especially Ministers shall tell a poor fearful doubting Christian that they verily think their state is safe it may be a great stay to them and must not be sleighted as nothing though it cannot give them a certainty of their case Thus far mans judgement must be valued § 10. 7. A good name among men which is the reputation of our integrity is not to be neglected as a thing of naught for it is a mercy from God for which we must be thankful and it is a useful means to our succesful serving and honouring God And the more eminent we are and the more the honour of God and Religion is joyned with ours or the good of mens souls dependeth Qui 〈…〉 Non solem veritas in hac parte sed etiam opinio studiose quaerenda est ut te hypoâ—â—â—â—am agere interdum mâ—nâ—me poeâ—â—tâ—at said 〈…〉 harshly enough to Acosta â—â—â—i 4. c. 17. p. 413. on our reputation the more careful we should be of it and it may be a duty sometimes to vindicate it by the Magistrates justice against a slander Especially Preachers whose success for the saving of their hearers depends much on their good name must not despise it § 11. 8. The censurers of the most petulant and the scorns of enemies are not to be made light of as they are their sins which we must lament nor as they may provoke us to a more diligent search and careful watchfullness over our waies Thus far mans judgement is regardable § 12. But 1. We must know how frail and erroneous and unconstant a thing man is and therefore not be too high in our expectations from man We must suppose that men will mistake us and wrong us and slander us through ignorance passion prejudice or self-interest And when this befals us we must not account it strange and unexpected § 13. 2. We must consider how far the enmity that is in lapsed man to holiness and the ignorance 1 Pet. 4 1â— 13 c. 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. Acts â—â— â—2 Acts 24 5 6. Mat. 5. 10. â—â— 1â— prejudice and passion of the ungodly will carry them to despise and scorn and slander all such as seriously and zealously serve God and cross them in their carnal interest And therefore if for the sake of Christ and righteousness we are accounted as the scorn and off-scouring of all things and as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people and such as are unworthy to live and have all manner of evil spoken of us falsly it must not seem strange or unexpected to us nor cast us down but we must bear it patiently yea and exceedingly rejoyce in hope of our reward in Heaven § 14. 3. Considering what remnants of pride and self-conceitedness remain in many that have true grace and how many Hypocrites are in the Church whose Religion consisteth in Opinions and their several modes of worship we must expect to be reproached and abused by such as in Opinions and Modes and Circumstances do differ from us and take us therefore as their adversaries A great deal of injustice sometime by slanders or reproach and sometimes by greater violence must be expected from contentious professors of the same Religion with our selves especially when the interest of their faction or cause requireth it and especially if we bring any truth among them which seemeth new to them or crosseth the opinions which are there in credit or would be Reformers of them in any thing that is amiss § 15. 4. No men must be Pleased by sin nor their favour preferred before the pleasing of God Mans favour as against God is to be despised and their displeasure made light of It doing our duty will displease them let them be displeased we can but pitty them § 16. 5. We must place none of our happiness in the favor or approbation of men but account it as to our selves to be a matter of no great moment neither worth any great care or endeavour to obtain it or grief for losing
this to encrease and multiply your pleasure Is not health and friends and food and convenient habitation much sweeter as the â—ruit of the Love of God and the fore-tastes of everlasting mercies and as our helps to Heaven and as the means to spiritual comfort than of themselves alone All your mercies are from God He would take nâ—ne from you but sanctifie theâ— and give you more § 26. Direct 5. See that Reason keep up its authority as the Governour of sense and appetite And Direct 5. so take an accounâ— whatâ—ver the Appetite would have of the Ends and Reasons of the thing and to what it doth câ—â—duce Take nothing and do nothing meerly because the sense or appetite would have it but because you have Reason so â—â— do and to gratifie the appetite Else you will deal as Brutes if Reason be laid by in humane acts § 27. Direct 6. Go to the Gâ—ave and see there the end of fleshly pleasure and what is all that it Direct 6. will do for you at the last One would think iâ— should cure the mad desire of plenty and pleasure to see where all our wealth and mirth and sport and pleasure must be buryed at last § 28. Direct 7. Lastly be still sensible that flesh is the grand Enemy of your souls and flesh-pleasing Direct 7. the greatest hinderance of your salvation The Devils enmity and the worlds are both but subordinate to this of the Flesh For its Pleasure is the End and the world and Satans temptations are both but the means to attain it Besides the malignity opened before consider 1. How contrary a voluptuous life is to the blessed example of our Lord and of his servant Paul The enmity of the Flesh. and all the Apostles Paul tamed his body and brought it into subjection left having preached to others himself should be a castaway 1 Cor. 9. 27. And all that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 5. 24. This was signified in the antient manner of baptizing and so is still by Baptism it self when they went over head in the water and then rose out of it to signifie that they were dead and buried with Christ Rom. 6. 3 4. and rose with him to newness of life This is called our being Baptized into his death And seems the plain sense of 1 Cor. 15. 29. of being Baptized for the dead that is for dead or to shew that we are dead to the world and must dye in the world but shall rise again to the Kingdom of Christ both of Grace and Glory 2. Sensuality sheweth that there is no true belief of the life to come and proveth so far as it prevaileth the absence of all grace 3. It is a home-bred continual traytor to the soul A continual tempter and nurse of all sin The great withdrawer of the heart from God and the common cause of Apostacy it self It still fighteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. And is seeking advantage from all our Liberties Gal. 5. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 10. 4. It turneth all our outward mercies into sin and strengthneth itself against God by his own benefits 5. It is the great cause of our afflictions For God will not spare that Idol which is set up against him Flesh rebelleth and flesh shall suffer 6. And when it hath brought affliction it is most impatient under it and maketh it seem intollerable A flesh-pleaser thinks he is undone when affliction depriveth him of his pleasure 7. Lastly It exceedingly unfitteth men for Death For then Flesh must be cast into the dust and all its pleasure be at an end O doleful day to those that had their good things here and their portion in this life When all is gone that ever they valued and sought and all the true felicity lost which they brutishly contemned If you would joyfully then bear the dissolution and ruine of your flesh O master it and mortifie it now Seek not the ease and pleasure of a little walking breathing clay when you should be seeking and fore-tasting the everlasting pleasure Here lyeth your danger and your work Strive more against your own flesh than against all your Enemies in Earth and Hell If you be saved from this you are saved from them all Christ suffered in the flesh to tell you that it is not pampering but suffering that your flesh must expect if you will reign with him CHAP. V. Further Subordinate Directions for the next great duties of Religion necessary See the Directions how to spend every day Tom. 2. Chap. 17. to the right performance of the former Directions for REDEEMING or well improving TIME § 1. TIME being Mans opportunity for all those works for which he liveth and which his Creator doth expect from him and on which his endless life dependeth the REDEEMING or well improving of it must needs be of most high importance to him And therefore it is well made by holy Paul the great mark to distinguish the Wise from fools Ephes. 5. 15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time So Col. 4. 5. I shall therefore give you special Directions for it when I have first opened the nature of the duty to you and told you what is meant by Time and what by Redeeming it § 2. Time in its most common acception is taken generally for all that space of this present life What 's meant by Time which is our opportunity for all the works of life and the measure of them Time is often taken more strictly for some special Opportunity which is fitted to a special work which we call the season or the fittest time In both these senses Time must be Redeemed § 3. As every work hath its season which must be taken Eccles. 3. 1. So have the greatest works What are the special seasons of duty assigned us for God and our souls some special seasons besides our common time 1. Some Times God hath fitted by Nature for his service So the Time of Youth and health and strength is specially fit for holy work 2. Some Time is made specially fit by Gods Institution As the Lords Day above all other dayes 3. Some Time is made fit by Governours appointment as the hour of publick Meeting for Gods Worship and Lecture-dayes and the hour for family-worship which every Master of a family may appoint to his own houshold 4. Some Time is made fit by the temper of mens Bodies The Morning hours are best to most and to some rather the Evening and to all the Time when the Body is freest from pain and disabling weaknesses 5. Some Time is made fit by the course of our necessary natural or civil business as the day is fitter than the sleeping time of the night and as that hour is the fittest wherein our other imployments will least disturb us 6. Some Time is made fit by a special showr of Mercy publick
pleasure do waste many hours day after day in Plays and Gaming and Voluptuous courses while their miserable souls are dead in sin enslaved to their fleshly lusts unreconciled to God and find no delight in him or in his service and cannot make a recreation of any Heavenly work How will it torment these unhappy souls to think how they plaid away those hours in which they might have been pleasing God and preventing misery and laying up a treasure in Heaven And to think that they sold that precious time for a little fleshly sport in which they should have been working out their salvation and making their calling and election sure But I have more to say to these anon § 58. Th. 9. Another Time-wasting Thief is excess of worldly cares and business These do not Thief 9. only as some more disgraced sins pollute the soul with deep stains in a little time and then recede but they dwell upon the mind and keep possession and keep out good They take up the greatest part of the lives of those that are guilty of them The world is first in the morning in their thoughts and last at night and almost all the day The world will not give them leave to entertain any sober fixed thoughts of the world to come nor to do the work which all works should give place to The World devoureth all the Time almost that God and their souls should have It will not give them leave to Pray or Read or Meditate or Discourse of holy things even when they seem to be Praying or hearing the Word of God the World is in their thoughts And as it 's said Ezek. 33. 31. They come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their Covetousness In most families there is almost no talk nor doings but all for the world These also will know that they had greater works for their precious time which should have always had the precedency of the World § 59. Th. 10. Another Time-waster is vain ungoverned and sinful thoughts When men are wearied Thief 10. with vain works and sports they continue unwearied in vain thoughts when they want company for vain Discourse and Games they can waste the time in idle or lustful or ambitious or Covetous thoughts alone without any company In the very night time while they wake and as they travail by the way yea while they seem to be serving God they will be wasting the Time in useless thoughts so that this devoureth a greater proportion of pretious Time than any of the former when Time must be reckoned for what abundance will be found upon most mens accounts as spent in idle sinful thoughts O watch this Thief and remember though you may think that a vain Thought is but a little sin yet Time is not a little or contemptible commodity nor to be cast away on so little a thing as idle thoughts and to vilifie thus so choice a treasure is not a little sin And that it is not a little work that you have to do in the Time which you thus wast And a daily course of idle thoughts doth waste so great a measure of time that this aggravation maketh it more heynous than many sins of greater infamy But of this more in the next part § 60. Th. 11. Another dangerous Time-wasting sin is the Reading of vain-Books Play-books Romances Thief 11. and feigned Histories and also unprofitable studies undertaken but for vain-glory or the pleasing of a carnal or curious mind Of this I have spoken in my Book of Self-denyal I speak not here how pernicious this vice is by corrupting the fancy and affections and breeding a diseased appetite and putting you out of relish to necessary things But bethink you before you spend another hour in any such Books whether you can comfortably give an account of it unto God! and how precious the Time is which you are wasting on such Childish toys You think the Reading of such things is lawful but is it lawful to lose your precious Time you say that your petty studies are desirable and laudable But the neglect of far greater necessary things is not laudable I discourage no man from labouring to know all that God hath any way revealed to be known But I say as Seneca We are ignorant of things necessary because we learn things superfluous and unnecessary Art is long and life is short And he that hath not time for all should make sure of the greatest matters and if he be ignorant of any thing let it be of that which the Love of God and our own and other mens salvation and the publick good do least require and can best spare It s a pitiful thing to see a man waste his time in criticizing or in growing wise in the less necessary Sciences and arts while he is yet a slave of pride or worldliness and hath an unrenewed soul and hath not learned the mysteries necessary to his own salvation But yet these studies are laudable in their season But the Fanatick studies of those that would pry into unrevealed things and the lascivious employment of those that read Love-books and Play-books and vain stories will one day appear to have been but an unwise expense of Time for those that had so much better and more needful work to do with it I think there is few of those that plead for it that would be found with such Books in their hands at death or will then find any pleasure in the remembrance of them § 61. Th. 12. But the Master-Thief that robs men of their Time is an unsanctified ungodly heart Thief 12. For this loseth Time whatever men are doing Because they never truly intend the Glory of God and having not a right principle or a right end their whole course is Hell-wards and whatever they do they are not working out their salvation And therefore they are still losing their Time as to themselves however God may use the Time and gifts of some of them as a mercy to others Therefore a New and Holy Heart with a Heavenly intention and design of life is the great thing necessary to all that will savingly Redeem their Time Tit. 5. On whom this duty of Redeeming Time is principally incumbent § 62. THough the Redeeming of Time be a duty of grand importance and necessity to all yet all these sorts following have special obligations to it Sort. 1. Those that are in the youth and vigour of their Time nature is not yet so much corrupted in Sort 1. you as in old accustomed sinners your hearts are not so much hardened sin is not so deeply rooted and confirmed Satan hath not triumphed in so many victories you are not yet plunged so deep as others into worldly incumbrances and cares your understanding memory and
strength are in their vigour and do not yet fail you And who should go fastest or work hardest but he that hath the greatest strength You may now get more by diligence in a day than hereafter you can get in many How few prove good Scholars or wise men that begin not to learn till they are old Fly youthful lusts therefore 2 Tim. 2. 22. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth Eccl. 12. 1. If you be now trained up in the way you should go you will not depart from it when you are old Prov 22. 6. O that you could but know what an unspeakable advantage and benefit and comfort it is to come to a ripe age with the provisions and furniture of that wisdom and holiness and acquaintance with God which should be attained in your youth and what a misery it is to be then to learn that which you should have been many years before in practising and to be then to begin to live when you must make an end much more to be cast to Hell if death should find you unready in your youth or to be forsaken of God to a hardened age Happy they that with Timothy and Obadiah do learn the Scripture and fear God in their Childhood and from their youth 1 King 18. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 15. § 63. Sort 2. Necessity maketh it incumbent on the weak and sick and aged in a special manner Sort 2. to Redeem their Time If they will not make much of it that are sure to have but a little and if they will trifle and loyter it away that know they are near their journeys end and ready to give up their accounts they are unexcusable above all others A Thief or Murderer will pray and speak good words when he is going out of the World Well may it be said to you as Paul doth Rom. 13. 11 12. Now it is high time to awake out of sleep when your salvation or damnation is so near It is high time for that man to look about him and prepare his soul and lose no time that is so speedily to appear before the most Holy God and be used for ever as he hath lived here § 64. Sort 3. It is specially incumbent on them to Redeem the Time who have loytered and Sort 3. mispent much time already If Conscience tell you that you have lost your youth in ignorance and vanity and much of your age in negligence and worldliness it is a double crime in you if you Redeem not diligently the Time that is left The just care of your salvation requireth it unless you 1 Pet. 4. 3. are willing to be damned Ingenuity and duty to God requireth it unless you will defie him and resolve to abuse and despise him to the utmost and spend all the time against him which he shall give you The nature of true Repentance requireth it unless you will know none but the Repentance of the damned and begin to Repent the mispending of your Time when it s gone and all is too late § 65. Sort 4. It is specially their duty to Redeem the Time who are scanted of time through poverty Sort 4. service or restraint If poor people that must labour all the day will not Redeem the Lords day and those few hours which they have they will then have no time at all for things spiritual servants that be not Masters of their time and are held close to their work had need to be very diligent in Redeeming those few hours which are allowed them for higher things Sort 5. § 66. Sort 5. Thâ—se that enjoy any special helps either publick or private must be specially carefull to improve them and Redeem the Time Do you live under a convincing powerful Ministry O improve it and Redeem the Time for you know not how soon they may be taken from you or you from them Do you live with Godly Relations Parents Husband Wife Masters in a Godly Family or with godly fellow-servants friends or Neighbours Redeem the time get somewhat by them every day you know not how short this season will be Do you live where you have Books and leisure Redeem the time This also may not be long Had not Ioshua been horribly unexcusable if he would have loitered when God made the Sun stand still while he pursued his enemies O loiter not you while the Sun of mercy patience means and helps do all attend you § 67. Sort 6. Those must especially Redeem the Time who are ignorant or graceless or weak in Sort 6. grace and have strong corruptions and little or no assurance of salvation and are unready to dye and have yet all or the most of their work to do If these loiter they are doubly to blame sure the Ephes. 2. 2. Time past of your lives may suffice to have loitered and done evil 1 Pet. 4. 3. Hath not the Devil had too much already Will ye stand all the day idle Mat. 20. 6. Look home and see what you have yet to do How much you want to a safe and comfortable death Hos. 10. 12. Sow to your selves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you § 68. Sort 7. It much concerneth them to Redeem the Time who are in any office or have any Sort 7. opportunity of doing any special or publick good especially Magistrates and Ministers of Christ. Your life will not be long your office will not be long O bestir you against sin and Satan and for Christ and holiness while you may God will try you but a time Let Obadiah hide and feed the Prophets when he is called to it and while he may that God may hide him and not think to shift off duty and save himself to a better time saith Mordechai to Esther Esth. 9. 13 14. Think not with thy self that thou shalt escape in the Kings house more than all the Iews For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place but thou and thy Fathers house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this Are you Ministers O preach the Gospel while you may Redeem the time All times are your season so great a work and the worth of souls commandeth you to do it in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4. 2. A man that is to save many others from drowning or to quench a fire in the City is unexcusable above all men if he Redeem not time by his greatest diligence and speed § 69. Sort 8. Lastly it is specially incumbent on them to Redeem the time who being recovered Sort 8. from sickness or saved from any danger are under the obligation both of special mercy and special promises of their own who have promised God in the time of sickness or
crime 12. Their Consciences are quick in telling them of sin and putting them upon any dejection as a duty but they are dead to all duties that tend to consolation as to Thanksgiving for mercies Praises of God meditating on his Love and grace and Christ and promises Put them never so hard on these and they feel not their duty nor make no conscience of it but think it is a duty for others but unsuitable to them 13. They alway say that they cannot believe and therefore think they cannot be saved Because that commonly they mistake the nature of faith and take it to be a Believing that they themselves are forgiven and in favour with God and shall be saved And because they cannot believe this which their disease will not suffer them to believe therefore they think that they are no believers whereas saving faith is nothing but such a Belief that the Gospel ☜ is true and Christ is the Saviour to be trusted with our souls as causeth our Wills to Consent that he be ours and that we be his and so to subscribe the Covenant of Grace Yet while they thus consent and would give a world to be sure that Christ were theirs and to be perfectly holy yet they think they believe not because they believe not that he will forgive or save them 14. They are still displeased and discontended with themselves just as a pievish froward person is apt to be with others see one that is hard to be pleased and is finding fault with every thing that they see or hear and offended at every one that comes in their way and suspicious of every body that they see whispering and just so is a Melancholy person against himself suspecting displeased and finding fault with all 15. They are much addicted to solitariness and weary of company for the most part 16. They are given up to fixed musings and long poring thoughts to little purpose so that deep musings and thinkings are their chief employments and much of their disease 17. They are much averse to the labours of their callings and given to idleness either to lye in bed or sit thinking unprofitably by themselves 18. Their thoughts are most upon themselves like the mill-stones that grind on themselves when they have no grist so one thought begets another Their thoughts are taken up about their thoughts when they have been thinking irregularly they think again what they have been thinking on They meditate not much on God unless on his wrath nor Heaven nor Christ nor the state of the Church nor any thing without them ordinarily but all their thoughts are contracted and turned inwards on themselves self-troubling is the sum of their thoughts and lives 19. Their thoughts are all perplexed like ravelled Yarn or Silk or like a man in a maze or wilderness or that hath lost himself and his way in the night He is poring and groping about and can make little of any thing but is bewildred and moithered and entangled the more full of doubts and difficulties out of which he cannot find the way 20. He is endless in his scruples afraid lest he sin in every word he speaketh and in every thought and every look and every meal he eateth and all the Cloaths he weareth And if he think to amend them he is still scrupling his supposed amendments He dare neither travel nor stay at home neither speak nor be silent but he is scrupling all as if he were wholly composed of self perplexing scruples 21. Hence it comes to pass that he is greatly addicted to superstition to make many Laws to himself that God never made Col. 2. 18 19 20 21 22 23. him and to ensnare himself with needless Vows and resolutions and hurtful austerities Touch not taste not handle not and to place his Religion much in such Outward self-imposed tasks to spend so many hours in this or that act of devotion to wear such cloaths and forbear other that are finer to forbear all dyet that pleaseth the appetite with much of the like A great deal of the Perfection of Popish devotion proceeded from Melancholy though their Government come from Pride and Covetousness 22. They have lost the power of Governing their thoughts by Reason so that if you convince them that they should cast out their self-perplexing unprofitable thoughts and turn their thoughts to other subjects or be vacant they are not able to obey you They seem to be under a necessity or constraint They cannot cast out their troublesome thoughts They cannot turn away their minds They cannot think of Love and mercy They can think of nothing but what they do think of no more than a man in the Tooth-ache can forbear to think of his pain 23. They usually grow hence to a disability to any private prayer or meditation Their thoughts are presently cast all into a confusion when they should pray or meditate They scatter abroad a hundred wayes and they cannot keep them upon any thing For this is the very point of their disease a distempered confused fantasie with a weak reason which cannot govern it Sometime terrour driveth them from Prayer they dare not hope and therefore dare not pray and usually they dare not receive the Lords Supper here they are fearfullest of all And if they do receive it they are cast down with terrours fearing that they have taken their own damnation by receiving unworthily 24. Hence they grow to a great aversness to all holy duty Fear and dispair make them go to prayer hearing reading as a Bear to the stake And then they think they are haters of God and Godliness imputing the effects of their disease to their souls when yet at the same time those of them that are Godly would rather be freed from all their sins and be perfectly holy than have all the riches or honour in the world 25. They are usually so taken up with busie and earnest thoughts which being all perplexed do but strive with themselves and contradict one another that they feel it just as if something were speaking within them and all their own violent thoughts were the pleadings and impulse of some other And therefore they are wont to impute all their fantasies either to some extraordinary actings of the Devil or to some extraordinary motions of the spirit of God And they are used to express themselves in such words as these It was set upon my heart or it was said to me that I must do thus and thus and then it was said I must not do this or that and I was told I must do so or so And they think that their own imagination is something talking in them and saying to them all that they are thinking 26. When Melancholy groweth strong they are almost alwayes troubled with hideous Blaspheamous temptations against God or Christ or the Scripture and against the immortality of the soul which cometh partly from their own fears which make them think most against their
the final obstinate refusers of Christ and life 4. That he that so far believeth the truth of the Gospel as to Consent to the Covenant of Grace even that God the Father be his Lord and Reconciled Father and Christ his savior and the Holy Ghost his sanctifier hath true saving faith and right to the blessing of the Covenant 5. That the day of Grace is so far commensurate or equal to our Life time that whosoever truly Repenteth and Consenteth to the Covenant of Grace before his death is certainly pardoned and in a state of life and that it is every mans duty so to do that pardon may be theirs 6. That Satans temptations are none of our sins but only our yielding to them 7. That the effects of natural sickness or diseasedness is not in it self a sin 8. That those are the smallest sins formally and least like to condemn us which we are most unwilling of and are least in Love or liking of 9. That no sin shall condemn us which we hate more than love and which we had rather leave and be delivered from than keep For this is true Repentance 10. That he is truly sanctified who had rather be perfect in Holiness of heart and life in Loving God and Living by Faith than to have the greatest pleasures riches or honours of the world taking in the Means also by which both are attained 11. That he who hath this Grace and desire may know that he is elect and the making of our Calling sure by our Consenting to the holy Covenant is the making of our Election sure 12. That the same thing which is a great duty to others may be no duty to one who by bodily distemper as Feavors Phrensies Melancholy is unable to perform it § 6. Direct 2. Take heed of worldly cares and sorrows and discontents Set not so much by earthly things as to enable them to disquiet you But learn to cast your cares on God You can have less peace in an affliction which cometh by such a carnal sinful means It s much more safe to be distracted with cares for Heaven than for Earth § 7. Direct 3. Meditation is no duty at all for a melancholy person except some few that are able to Direct 3. bear a diverting meditation which must be of something farthest from the matter which troubled them Or except it be short meditations like ejaculatory prayers A set and serious meditation will but confound you and disturb you and disable you to other duties If a man have a broken leg he must not go on it till it s knit lest all the body fare the worse It is your Thinking faculty or your Imagination which is the broken pained part and therefore you must not use it about the things that trouble you Perhaps you 'll say That this is to be prophane and forget God and your soul and let the tempter have his will But I answer No It is but to forbear that which you cannot do at present that by doing other things which you can do you may come again to do this which you now cannot do It is but to forbear attempting that which will but make you less able to do all other duties And at the present you may conduct the affairs of your soul by holy Reason I perswade you not from Repenting or Believing but from set and long and deep Meditations which will but hurt you § 8. Direct 4. Be not too long in any secret duty which you find you are not able to bear Prayer Direct 4. it self when you are unable must be performed but as you can Short confessions and requests to God must serve instead of longer secret prayers when you are unable to do more If sickness may excuse a man for being short where nature will not hold out the case is the same here in the sickness of the brain and spirits God hath appointed no means to do you hurt § 9. Direct 5. Where you find your selves unable for a secret duty struggle not too hard with your Direct 5. selves but go that pace that you are able to go quietly For as every striving doth not enable you but vex you and make duty wearisom to you and disable you more by increasing your disease Like an Ox that draweth unquietly and a Horse that chaseth himself that quickly tireth Preserve your willingness to duty and avoid that which makes it grievous to you As to a sick stomach it is not eating much but digesting well that tends to health and little must be eaten when much cannot be digested So it is here in case of your meditations and secret prayers § 10. Direct 6. Be most in those dutys which you are best able to bear which with most is Prayer Direct 6. with others hearing and good discourse As a sick man whose stomach is against other meats must eat of that which he can eat of And God hath provided variety of means that one may do the work when the other are wanting Do not misunderstand me In cases of absolute necessity I say again you must strive to do it whatever come of it If you are backward to believe to Repent to Love God and your neighbour to live soberly righteously and godly to pray at all here you must strive and not excuse it by any backwardness for it is that which must needs be done or you are lost But a man that cannot read may be saved without his reading and a man in prison or sickness may be saved without hearing the word and without the Church-communion of Saints And so a man disabled by melancholy may be saved by shorter thoughts and ejaculations without set and long meditations and secret prayers And other duties which he is able for will supply the want of these Even as nature hath provided two eyes and two ears and two nostrils and two reins and lungs that when one is stopt or faulty the other may supply its wants for a time So is it here § 11. Direct 7. Avoid all unnecessary solitariness and be as much as possible in honest chearful company Direct 7. You have need of others and are not sufficient for your selves And God will use and honour others as his hands to deliver us his blessings Solitariness is to those that are fit for it an excellent season for meditation and converse with God and with our hearts But to you it is the season of temptation and danger if Satan tempted Christ himself when he had him fasting and solitary in a wilderness much more will he take this as his opportunity against you Solitude is the season of musings and thoughtfulness which are the things which you must fly from if you will not be deprived of all § 12. Direct 8. When blasphemâ—us or disturbing thoughts look in or fruitless musings presently meet Direct 8. them and use that authority of Reason which is left you to cast them and command them out If you
of the Discerning of it some having but little holiness and some but little discerning of it in themselves yet the least may afford much comfort to the soul upon justifiable grounds though not so much as the greater degrees of grace and clearer discerning of it may do § 8. The foundation being thus laid it must be our next endeavour to build upon it a setled Peace of Conscience and quietness of soul For till we can attain to Ioy it is a great mercy to have Peace and to be free from the accusations fears and griefs which belong to the unjustified And Peace must be the temper more ordinary than much joy to be expected in this our frail condition § 9. Thirdly Peace being thus setled we must endeavour to rise up daily into Ioy as our great duty and our great felicity on earth It being frequently and earnestly commanded in the Scriptures that we Rejoyce in the Lord always and shout for joy all that are upright in Heart Psalm 33. 1. Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. Deut. 12. 12 18. 27. 7. Thus he that proveth his own work may have Rejoycing in himself Gal. 6. 4. even in the testimony of his Conscience of his own simplicity and godly-sincerity 2 Cor. 1. 12. And this all believers should maintain and actuate in themselves § 10. Fourthly with this Rejoycing in God our lawful natural mirth must be taken in as subordinate or sanctified that is we must further our holy joy by natural mirth and cheerfulness and by the comforts of our Bodys in Gods lower mercies promote the service and the comforts of our souls And this is the right Place for this mirth to come in and this is the true Method of rejoycing § 11. Direct 4. Mark well the usefulness and tendencie of all thy Mirth and if it be useful to fit thee Direct 4. for thy duty and intended by thee to that end though you alway observe not that intention at the time and if it tend to do thee good or help thee to do good without a greater hurt or danger then cherish and promote it But if it tend to carry thee away from God to any creature and to unfit thy soul for the dutys of thy place and to carry thee into sin then avoid it as thy hurt Still remembring that the necessary support of nature must not be avoided by good or bad A Christian that hath any acquaintance with himself and with the work of holy watchfulness may discern what his mirth is by the tendency and effects and know whether it doth him good or harm § 12. Direct 5. Take beed that the flesh defile not your mirth by dropping in any obscene or ribbald Direct 5. talk or by stirring up fleshly lust and sin Which it will quickly do if not well watcht and holy mirth and cheerfulness is very apt to degenerate on a sudden into sinful mirth § 13. Direct 6. Consider what your mirth is like to prove to others as well as to your selves If it be Direct 6. like to stir up sin in others or to be offensive to them you must the more avoid it in their presence or manage it with the greater caution If it be needful to cheer up the drooping minds of those you converse with or to remove their prejudice against a holy life you must the more give place to it For it is good or bad as it tendeth unto good or bad § 14. Direct 7. Never leave out Reason or Godliness from any of your mirth Abhor that mirth Direct 7. that maketh a man a fool or playeth the fool And take heed of that ungodliness which maketh a man merriest when he is furthest from God like the Horse or Ox that leapeth and playeth for gladness when he is unyoaked or loosed from his labour Something of God and Heaven should appear or be dropped into all our mirth to sweeten and to sanctifie it § 15. Direct 8. Watch your tongues in all your mirth for they are very apt to take liberty then Direct 8. to sin Mirth is to the tongue as Holydays and Playdays to idle scholars who are glad of them as a time in which they think they have liberty to game and fight and do amiss § 16. Direct 9. If a word break forth from your selves or your companions to the wrong of others Direct 9. in your mirth as of backbiting evil speaking jearing scorning defaming yea though it be your enemy rebuke it and cast it out as dirt or dung that falleth into your dish or cup. § 17. Direct 10. If Prophaness intrude and any make merry with jeasting at Scripture Religion Direct 10. or the slanders or scorns of godly persons with a tendencie to make Religion odious or contemptible if they are such as you may speak to reprove them with reverent seriousness to their terror if they are not then shew your abhorrence of it by turning your backs and quitting the place and company of such devillish enemies of God Be not silent or seemingly-consenting witnesses of such odious mirth against your maker § 18. Direct 11. If the mirth of others in your company begin to grow insipid frothy foolish wanton Direct 11. or impious or otherwise corrupt drop in some holy salt to season it and something that is serious and divine to awe it and repress it As to remember them of Gods presence or to recite such a text as Ephes. 5. 3 4. But fornication and all uncleaneness or covetousness let it not be once named amongst you as becometh saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jeasting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks § 19. Direct 12. If mirth grow immoderate and exceed in measure and carry you away from God Direct 12. and duty by the very carnal pleasure of it have always at hand these following considerations to repress Considerations to repress excessive mirth it 1. Remember that God is present and levity is not comely in his sight 2. Remember that Death and judgement are at hand when all this levity will be turned into seriousness 3. Remember that your souls are yet under a great deal of sin and wants and danger and you have a great deal of serious work to do 4. Look on Iesus Christ and remember what an example he gave you upon earth Whether he laught and plaid and jested and taught you immoderate or carnal mirth And whether you live like the Disciples of a crucified Christ. 5. Think on the ordinary way to Heaven described in Scripture which is through many tribulations afflictions fastings temptations humiliation sufferings and mortification And think whether a wanton jesting playful life be like to this 6. Think of the course of the ancient and excellent Christians who went to Heaven through labour and watchings and fasting and poverty and cruel persecutions and not through carnal mirth and sport 7. Think of the many calamitous objects of sorrow that are
they would not buy a little forbidden poisonous pleasure with the price of future pain and sorrows and if they did not foolishly and over-tenderly refuse those holy necessary medicinal sorrows by which their greater overwhelming and undoing sorrows should have been prevented § 13. Direct 7. Look always on your Remedy when you look on your misery and when you find any Direct 7. dangerous sin or sign in you presently consider what is your duty in order to your recovery and escape It is an ordinary thing with pievish distempered natures when they are reproved for any sin to resist the reproof by excuses as long as they can And when they can resist no longer then they fall into despairing lamentations If they are so bad what then shall they do and in the mean time never set themselves against the sin and cast it off and return to their obedience that their comforts may return They will do any thing rather than amend The reason why God convinceth them of sin is that they may forsake it and they are sooner brought to any thing than to this Convince them of their pride or malice or worldliness or disobedience or slothfulness or passion and they will sooner sink in sorrow and despair than they will set upon a resolved reformation This is it indeed which the Devil desireth He can allow you grief and desperation but not to amend But is this best for you Or is it pleasing to God Deny not your sin but see withal that there is enough in Christ for your pardon and deliverance He hath appointed you means for your present recovery and he is ready to help you Ask what is your duty for your cure and set upon it without delay § 14. Direct 8. Remember your causes of Ioy as well as your cause of sorrow that each may have Direct 8. their due and your joy and sorrow may both be suited to their causes To which end you must labour for the exactest acquaintance with your own condition that possibly you can attain to If you are yet ungodly Act. 8. 8. your sorrow must be greater than your joy or else it will be irrational joy and pernitious to your souls and increase your after sorrow And you must not over-look so much cause of comfort as is afforded you in Gods patience and the offers of a saviour and of pardon and grace and life in him If you are truly Godly you must so mourn for sin and weakness and wants and crosses and afflictions of your selves and others as never to forget the unvaluable mercies which you have already received your part in Christ and life eternal your beginnings of grace and your reconciliation with God which allow and command you greatly to rejoyce And remember that no humiliations will excuse you from the observation and acknowledgement of all these mercies § 15. Direct 9. Read over all the commands of Scipture that make it your Duty to rejoyce in the Direct 9. Lord and exceedingly to rejoyce And make as much conscience of them as of other commands of God The same God commandeth you to Rejoyce who commandeth you to hear and pray and repent See Psal. 33. 1 Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. Rom. 5. 2. Phil. 3. 3. 1 Thes. 5. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 6. 8. 4. 13. Heb. 3. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 10. Rom. 12. 12. Psal. 32. 11. 132. 9 16. Rom. 14. 17. Psal. 5. 11. § 16. Direct 10. Befriend not your own excessive sorrows by thinking them to be your duty nor Direct 10. suspect not lawful mirth and joy as if it were a sin or a thing unbecoming you For if you take your sin for your duty and plead for it and your duty for your sin and plead against it you are far from the way of amendment and recovery And yet it is common with an afflicted weak impatient soul to fall into liking though not in Love with their inordinate sorrows and to justifie them and think that it is their duty still to mourn If these sorrows were of God we should be more backward to them And if our comfort were not more pleasing to God our natures would not be so backward to them as they are § 17. Direct 11. Love no creature too much and let it not grow too sweet and pleasant to you Else Direct 11. you are preparing for sorrow from the creature Love it less and you shall sorrow less All your grief for crosses and losses in goods estate in children and friends in reputation liberty health and life doth come from your over-loving them Value them but as they deserve and you may easily bear the loss of them He that maketh them his Idol or felicity will grieve for the want of them or the loss of them as a man undone that cannot live without them But he that hath placed his happiness and hopes in God and valueth the world no further than it tendeth to his ultimate end will no further grieve for the want of it than as he misseth it to that end 1 Tim. 6. 10. The love of money and coveting after it doth pierce men through with many sorrows Mark what you find your heart too much set upon and pleased in or hoping after and take it off quickly if you love your peace § 18. Direct 12. Learn to be pleased and satisfied in the will of God Trust your Heavenly Father Direct 12. who knoweth what you need It is some rebellion or crossness of our wills to the will of God which causeth our inordinate griefs and trouble Because we cannot bring our wills to his will nor make our reason stoop unto his wisdom nor think well of his providence unless he will suit it to our conceits and interests and lusts therefore so far as we are carnal we are ordinarily displeased and grieved at his ways If we might have had our own wills about our estates or names or children or friends or health or life we should not have been troubled at the present But because it is not our way but Gods way that is taken nor our will but Gods will that is done therefore we are grieved and discontent as if his way and will were worse than ours and God had wanted his foolish children to be his counsellors or they could have chosen better for themselves § 19. Direct 13. Afflict your selves no further than God or man afflict you But remember if you think Direct 13. Libâ—nter feâ— as quod necesâ—e est â—doâ—or patieâ—â—ia vinâ—itur Martiâ— Duâ—niens de Morib Tristitiam si poâ—es ne admiseris sin minus ne ostenderis Id. ibid. that you have too much already against your wills how foolish and self contradicting it is to lay a great deal more willfully upon your selves Is it slanders or reproach that men afflict you with Let it be so that toucheth not the heart Is it poverty crosses or losses that God afflicteth you with Let it be so
your selves or others what you are is to know what your pleasures are or at least what you choose and desire for your pleasure If the Body rule the Soul you are bruitish and shall be destroyed If the Soul rule the Body you live according to true humane nature and the ends of your creation If the Pleasures of the Body are the predominant pleasures which you are most addicted to then the Body ruleth the Soul and you shall perish as Traytors to God that debase his Image and turn man into Beast Rom. 8. 13. If the Pleasure of the Soul be your most predominant pleasure which you are most addicted to though you attain as yet but little of it then the Soul doth Rule the Body and you live like men And this cannot well be till Faith shew the Soul those higher Pleasures in God and everlasting Glory which may carry it above all fleshly pleasures By all this set together you may easily perceive that the way of the Devil to corrupt and damn men is to keep them from faith that they may have no Heavenly Spiritual pleasure and to strengthen sensuality and give them their fill of fleshly pleasures to imprison their minds that they may ascend no higher And that the way to sanctifie and save men is to help them by faith to Heavenly pleasure and to abate and keep under that fleshly pleasure that would draw down their minds And by this you may see how to understand the doctrine of mortification and taming the body and abstaining from the pleasures of the flesh And you may now understand what personal mischief Lust doth to the soul. § 12. 10. Your own experience and consciences will tell you that if it be not exceedingly moderated it unfitteth you for every holy duty You are unfit to meditate on God or to pray to him or to receive his word or sacrament And therefore nature teacheth those that meddle with holy things to be more continent than others which Scripture also secondeth 1 Sam. 21. 4 5. Such sensual Rev. 14. 4. things and sacred things do not well agree too near § 13. 11. And as by all this you see sufficient cause why God should make stricter Laws for the bridling of Lust than fleshly lustful persons like so when his Laws are broken by the unclean it is a sin that Conscience till it be quite debauched doth deeply accuse the guilty for and beareth a very clear testimony against O the unquietness the horror the despair that I have known many persons Saith Chrysostom The Adulterer even before damnation is most miserable still in fear trembling at a shadow fearing them that know and them that know not always in pain even in the dark in even for the sin of self-pollution that never proceeded to fornication And how many adulterers and fornicators have we known that have lived and died in despair and some of them hang'd themselves Conscience will condemn this sin with a heavy condemnation till custom or infidelity have utterly seared it § 14. 12. And it is also very observable that when men have once mastered conscience in this point and reconciled it to this sin of fornication it 's an hundred to one that they are utterly hardned 1 Tim. 6 9. Hâ—râ—sâ—d lusts whâ— hâ—d own men in destruction and perâ—â—tion in all abhomination and scarce make conscience of any other villany whatsoever If once fornication go for nothing or a small matter with them usually all other sin is with them of the same account If they have but an equal temptation to it lying and swearing and perjury and theft yea and murder and treason would seem small too I never knew any one of these but he was reconcileable and prepared for any villany that the Devil set him upon And if I know such a man I would no more trust him than I would trust a man that wants nothing but Interest and Opportunity to commit any heynous sin that you can name Though I confess I have known divers of the former sort that have committed this sin under horror and despair that have retained some good in other points and have When an Adulterer asked Thales whether he should make al Vow against his sin he answered him Adultery is as bad as pâ—rjury If thou dare be an adulterer thou darest forswear thy self Laert. Herod durst behead Iohâ— that durst be incestuous been recovered yea of this later sort that have reconciled their Consciences to fornication I never knew one that was recovered or that retained any thing of Conscience or honesty but so much of the shew of it as their Pride and worldly interest commanded them and they were malignant enemies of goodness in others and lived according to the unclean spirit which possessed them They are terrible words Prov. 2. 18 19. For her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead None that go unto her return again neither take they hold on the paths of life Age keepeth them from actual filthiness and lust and so may Hell for there is no fornication but they retain their debauched seared Consciences § 15. 13. And it is the greater sin because it is not committed alone but the Devil taketh them by couples Lust enflameth lust And the fewel set together makes the greatest flame Thou art guilty of the sin of thy wretched companion as well as of thine own § 16. 14. Lastly the miserable effects of it and the punishments that in this life have attended it do Jud. 19. 20 The tribe of Benjamin was almost cut off upon the occasion of an Adultery or rape See Num. 25 8. Gen. 12. 17. 2 Sam 12. 10. Luk 3. 19. 1 Cor. 5. 1. Joh. 8. 2. Aid Aeliaâ— sol 47. tell us how God accounteth of the sin It hath ruined persons families and Kingdoms And God hath born his testimony against it by many signal judgements which all Histories almost acquaint you with As there is scarce any sin that the New-testament more frequently and bitterly condemneth as you may see in Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 2. Iud c. so there are not many that Gods providence more frequently pursueth with shame and misery on earth And in the latter end of the world God hath added one concomitant plague not known before called commonly the Lues Venerea the Venereous Pox so that many of the most bruitish sort go about stigmatized with a mark of Gods vengeance the prognostick or warning of a heavier vengeance And there is none of them all that by great Repentance be not made new creatures but leave an infamous name and memory when they are dead if their sin was publickly known Let them be never so great and never so gallant victorious successful liberal and flattered or applauded while they lived God ordereth it so that Truth shall ordinarily prevail with the Historians that write of them when they are dead and with all sober men their names rot and stink as
is we must first know what Truth is and what is the What Truth is Use of Speech Truth is considerable 1. As it is in the things known and spoken of 2. As it is in the conception or knowledge of the mind 3. As it is in the expressions of the tongue 1. Truth Vid. Aquin. de Veritat in the things known is nothing but their Reality that indeed they are that which their names import or the mind apprehendeth them to be This is that which is called both Physical and Metaphysical Truth 2. Truth in the conception or knowledge of the mind is nothing else but the agreement or conformity of the knowledge to the thing known To conceive of it truly is to conceive of it as it is Mistake or error is contrary to this Truth 3. Truth as it is in the expressions is indeed a twofold relation 1. The primary relation is of our words or writings to the matter expressed And so Truth of speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to the things expressed when we speak of them as they are 2. The secondary relation of our words is to the mind of the Speaker For the natural use of the tongue is to express the mind as well as the matter And thus Truth of Speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to our thoughts or judgements Truth as it is the agreement of Thoughts or words to the matter may be called Logical Truth And this is but the common Matter of Moral or Ethical Truth which may be â—ound partly in a Clock or Watch or Weather-cock or a Seamans Chart. The agreement of our words to our minds is the more proper or special matter of Moral Truth The form of it as a Moral Virtue is its agreement to the Law of the God of Truth And as the Terminus entereth the definition of relations so our words have respect to the Mind of the hearer or reader as their proper Terminus their use being to acquaint him 1. With the matter expressed 2. With our minds concerning it Therefore it is necessary to the Logical Truth of speech that it have an aptitude rightly to inform the hearer and to the Ethical Truth that it be intended by the speaker really to inform him and not to deceive him Supposing that it is another that we speak to § 2. You see then that to a Moral Truth all these things are necessary 1. That it be an agreement of the words with the matter expressed as far as we are obliged to know the matter 2. That it be an agreement of the words with the speakers mind or judgement 3. That the expressions have an aptitude to inform the hearer of both the former truths 4. That we really intend them to inform him of the truth so far as we speak it 5. That it be agreeable to the Law of God which is the Rule of duty and discoverer of sin § 3. In some speeches the Truth of our words as agreeing to the Matter and to the Mind is all one viz. when our own conception or judgement of a thing is all that we assert As when we say I think or I believe or I judge that such a thing is so Here it is no whit necessary to the Truth of my words that the Thing be so as I think it to be For I affirm it not to be so but that indeed I think as I say I think But that our words and minds agree is alwayes and inseparably necessary to all Moral Truth § 4. We are not bound to make known all that is true for then no man must keep a secret How far we are bound to speak the truth much less to every man that asketh us Therefore we are not bound to endeavour the Cure of every mans ignorance or error in every matter For we are not bound to talk at all to every man And if I be not bound to make known the truth at all or my mind at all I am not bound to make known all the truth or all that is in my mind No not to all those to whom I am bound to make known part of both If I find a man in an ignorance or error which I am not bound to cure nay possibly it were my sin to cure it as to open the secrets of the Kings Counsels or Armies to his Enemies c. I may and must so fit my speech to that man even about those matters as not to make him know what he should not know either of the matter or of my mind I may either be silent or speak darkly or speak words which he understandeth not through his own imperfection or which I know his weakness will misunderstand But I must speak no falshood to him Also there is a great difference between speaking so as not to cure the ignorance or error of the hearer which I found him in and so speaking as to lead him into some new error I may do the former in many cases in which I may not do the latter And there is great difference between speaking such words as in the common use of men are apt to inform the hearers of the truth though I may know that through some weakness of their own they will misunderstand them and be deceived by them and the speaking of words which in common use of men have another signification than that which I use them to By the former way the hearer sometime is the deceiver of himself and not the speaker when the speaker is not bound to reveal any more to him But by the later way the speaker is the deceiver Also there is great difference to be made between my speaking to one to whom it is my duty to reveal the truth and my speaking to a man to whom I am not bound to reveal it yea from whom my duty to God and my King or Country bind me to conceal it By these grounds and distinctions you may know what a Lye is and may resolve the ordinary doubts that are used to be raised about our speaking truth or falshood As § 5. Quest. 1. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that asketh me Answ. You are not Quest. 1. bound to speak at all in every case to every one that asketh you And he that is silent speaketh not the truth § 6. Quest. 2. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that I answer to Answ. Your Answer Quest. 2. may sometimes be such as signifieth but a denying to answer or to reveal what is demanded of you § 7. Quest. 3. Am I bound to speak all the Truth when ever I speak part of it Answ. No It is Quest. 3. Gods Word that must tell you when and how much you must reveal to others And if you go as 〈…〉 â—6 63. Maâ— 1â— 61. 15. 5 Luke 23. 9. Jâ—â—n 19 9. â—â—r 8 26 27. far as God alloweth you it followeth not that
genuine 1. There is a zeal and activity meerly Natural which is the effect of an active temperature of body 2. There is an affected zeal which is hypocritical about things that are good when men speak and make an outward stir as if they were truly zealous when it is not so 3. There is a selfish zeal when a proud and selfish person is fervent in any matter that concerneth himself for his own opinions his own honour his own estate or friends or interest or any thing that is his own 4. There is a partial factioâ—s zeal when errour or pride or worldliness hath engaged men in a party and they think it is their duty or interest at least to side with the Sect or Faction which they have chosen they will be zealous for all the Mat. 23. 15. Opinions and wayes of their espoused Party 5. There is a superstitious Childish carnal zeal for small indifferent inconsiderable things Like that of the Pharisees and all such hypocrites for their Washings and Fastings and other ceremonious Observances 6. There is an envious malicious zeal against those that have the precedency and cross your desires or cloud your honour in the World or that contradict you in your conceits and ways such is that at large described Iam. 3. 7. There is a pievish contentious wrangling zeal that is assaulting every man who is not squared just to your conceits 8. There is a malignant zeal against the Cause and Servants of the Lord which carryeth men to persecute them See that you take not any of these or any such like for holy zeal § 3. If you should so mistake these mischiefs would ensue 1. Sinful zeal doth make men The mischiefs of false zeal doubly sinful As holy zeal is the fervency of our grace so sinful zeal is the intention and fervency of sin 2. It is an honouring of sin and Satan as if sin were a work and Satan a Master worthy to be fervently and diligently followed 3. It is the most effectual violent way of sinning making men do much evil in a little time and making them more mischievous and hurtful to others than other sinners are 4. It blindeth the judgement and maketh men take truth for falshood and good for evil and disableth Reason to do its office 5. It is the violent resister of all Gods means and teacheth men to rage against the truth that should convince them It stops mens ears and turns away their hearts from the Counsel which would do them good 6. It is the most furious and bloody persecutor of the Saints and Church of Jesus Christ It made Paul once exceeding mad against them Act. 26. 10 11. and shut them up in Prison and punish them in the Synagogues See Jam. 3. and câ—mpel them to blaspheam and persecute them even unto strange Cities and vote for their death Thus concerning zeal he persecuted the Church Phil. 4. 6. 7. It is the turbulent disquieter of all Societies A destroyer of Love a breeder and fomenter of contention and an enemy to order peace and quietness 8. It highly dishonoureth God by presuming to put his name to sin and errour and Rom. 10. 2. Act. 21. 20 22. to entitle him to all the wickedness it doth Such zealous sinners commit their sin as in the Name of God and fight against him ignorantly by his own pretended or abused authority 9. It is an impenitent way of sinning The zealous sinner justifieth his sin and pleadeth reason or Scripture for it and thinketh that he doth well yea that he is serving God when he is murdering his Servants Ioh. 16. 2. 10. It is a multiplying sin and maketh men exceeding desirous to have all others of the sinners mind The zealous sinner doth make as many sin with him as he can Yea if it be but a zeal for small and useless things or about small Controversies or Opinions in Religion 1. It sheweth a mind that 's lâ—mentably strange to the tenour of the Gospel and the mind of Christ and the practice of the great substantial things 2. It destroyeth Charity and peace and breedeth censuring and abusing others 3. It dishonoureth holy zeal by accident making the prophane think that all zeal is no better than the foolish passion of deceived men 4. And it disableth the persons that have it to do good even when they are zealous for holy truth and duty the people will think it is but of the same nature with their erroneous zeal and so will disregard them § 4. The signs of holy zeal are these 1. It is guided by a right Judgement It is a zeal for The signs of holy zeal Truth and Good and not for falshood and Evil Rom. 10. 2. 2. It is for God and his Church or cause and not only for our selves It consisteth with meekness and self-denyal and patience as to our own concernments and causeth us to prefer the interest of God before our own Numb 12. 3. Exod. 32. 19. Gal. 4. 12. Act. 13. 9 12. 3. It is always more careful of the substance than the circumstances It preferreth great things before small It contendeth not for small Controversies to Mat. 23. 22 23. Tit. 2. 14. the loss or wrong of greater truths It extendeth to every known truth and duty but in due proportion being hottest in the greatest things and coolest in the least It maketh men rather zealous of good works than of their controverted Opinions 4. Holy Zeal is alway charitable It is not cruel 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. â—â—â—â—k 9. 4. 1 Cor. 5. and bloody nor of a hurting disposition Luk. 9. 55. but is tender and merciful and maketh men burn with a desire to win and save mens souls rather than to hurt their bodies 1 Cor. 13. Zeal against the sin is conjunct with Love and pity to the sinner 2 Cor. 12. 21. 5. Yet it excludeth that foolish pity which cherisheth the sin Rev. 2. 2. 1 King 15. 13. 6. True zeal is tender of the Churches Unity and Peace It is not a dividing tearing zeal It is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits Jam. 3. 17. 7. True zeal is impartial and is Gâ—n 38. 24. 2 Sam. 12. 5. as hot against our own sins and our Childrens and other relations sins as against anothers Mat. 7. 4. 8. True zeal respecteth all Gods Commandments and is not hot for one and contemptuous of another It aimeth at perfection and stinteth not our desires to any lower degree It maketh a man desirous to be like to God even Holy as he is Holy It consisteth principally in the fervour of our Love to God when false Zeal consisteth principally in censorious wranglings against other mens actions or opinions It first worketh towards good and then riseth up against the hindering-evil 9. It maketh 2 Cor. 8. 3. Act 18. 25. Exod. 36. 6. a man laborious in holy duty to God and diligent in
melodious praise § 34. Quest. 5. Doth not your Conscience tell you that your delight is more in your plays and Quest. 5. games than it is on God And that these sports do no way increase your delight in God at all but more unfit and undispose you And yet every blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and in it he meditâ—teth day and night Psal. 1. 2. And do you do so § 35. Quest. 6. Do you bestow as much Time in Praying and reading the word of God and meditating Quest. 6. on it as you do in your sports and recreations Nay do you not shuffle this over and put God off with a few hypocritical heartless words that you may be at your sports or something which you love better § 36. Quest. 7. Doth not Conscience tell thee that this pretious Time might be much better Quest. 7. spent in the works that God hath appointed thee to do And that thy sinful soul hath need enough to spend it in far greater matters Doth it become one that hath sinned so long and is so unassured of pardon and salvation and near another world and so unready for it to sit at Cards or be hearing a Stage-play when he should be making ready and getting assurance of his peace with God § 37. Quest. 8. Wouldst thou be found at Cards or Plays when Death cometh If it were this Quest. 8. day hadâ—â— thou not rather be found about some holy or some profitable labour § 38. Quest. 9. Will it be more comfort to thee when thou art dying to think of the time which Quest. 9. thou spentst in Cards and Plays and Vanity or that which thou spentst in serving God and preparing for eternity § 39. Quest. 10. Darest thou pray to God to bless thy Cards and Dice and Plays to the good of Quest. 10. thy soul or body Would not thy Conscience tell thee that this were but a mocking of God as praying for that which thou dost not intend and which thy pleasures are unfit for And yet no recreation is lawful which you may not thus lawfully pray for a blessing on § 40. Quest. 11. If you were sure your selves that you sin not in your games or sports are you Quest. 11. sure that your Companions do not That they have no lust or vanity of mind at Stage-plays no Covetousness or sinful pleasure or passion at Cards or Dice If you say we are not bound to keep all other men from sin I answer You are bound to do your best towards it And you are bound not to contribute willingly to their sin And you are bound to forbear a thing indifferent though not a duty to avoid Rom. 14. 21. 1 Cor. 8. 13. the scandalizing or tempting of another If Paul would never eat flesh while he lived rather than make a weak person offend should not your sports be subject to as great Charity He saith It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor any thing whereby thy weak brother stumbleth or is offended or made weak Object Then we must give over our meat and drink and cloaths and all Answ. It followeth not that we must forsake our Duty to prevent another mans sin because we must forsake our pleasure in things indifferent If you knew what sin is and what it is to save or lose ones soul you would not make a sport of other mens sin nor so easily contribute to their damnation and think your sensual pleasure to be a good excuse Rom. 15. 1 2 3. In such cases we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak that is to compassionate them as we do children in their weakness and not to please our selves to their hurt Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification that is prefer the edifying of anothers soul before the pleasure of your bodies For even Christ pleased not himself If Christ lost his life to save men from sin will not you lose your sport for it § 41. Quest 12. What kind of men are they that are most addicted to thy games and plays and Qâ—â—â—â— 12. 〈…〉 what kind of men are they that avoid them and are against them Are there not more Fornicators Drunkards Swearers Cursers Coveters of other mens mony and prophane neglecters of God and their souls among Gamesters and Players than among them that are against them Judge by the fruits § 42. And what I say to idle Gamesters is proportionably to be said to Voluptuous Youths that run after Wakes and May-games and Dancings and Revellings and are carried by the Love of sports and pleasure from the Love of God and the care of their Salvation and the Love of Holiness and the Love of their Callings and into idleness riotousness and disobedience to their Superiors For the cure of this Voluptuousness besides what is said Chap. 4. Part 9. Consider § 43. 1. Dost thou not know that thou hast higher delights to mind And are these toyes beseeming a noble soul that hath Holy and Heavenly matters to delight in § 44. 2. Dost thou not feel what a plague the very pleasure is to thy affections How it bewitchâ—th thee and befooleth thee and maketh thee out of Love with Holiness and unfit for any thing that 's good § 45. 3. Dost thou know the worth of those pretious hours which thou playest away Hast thou no more to do with them Look inwards to thy soul and forward to eternity and bethink thee better § 46. 4. Is it sport that thou most needest Dost thou not more need Christ and Grace and Pardon and preparation for Death and Judgement and assurance of Salvation Why then are not these thy business § 47. 5. Hast thou not a God to obey and serve And doth he not allway see thee And will He Eccles. 11. 9. not judge thee Alas thou knowest not how soon Though thou be now merry in thy youth and thy Heart cheer thee and thou walk in the ways of thy heart and the sight of thy eyes yet know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement § 48. 6. Observe in Scripture what God judgeth of thy ways Tit. 3. 3. We our selves were 1 Pâ—â—â— 14 15. 2. 11 12. sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures 2 Tim. 2. 22. Fly youthful lusts but follow after righteousness faith charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart Read 1 Pet. 4. 1 2 3 4. 2 Pet. 3. 3. 1 Tim. 3. 4. Lovers of pleasure more than Lovers of God § 49. 7. You are but preparing for your future sorrow either by Repentance or destruction And the greater is your pleasure now the greater will be your sorrow and shame in the review Having spoken this much for the cure of sinful sports I proceed to direct the more sober in their recreations § 50. Direct 2. When you
or your Answ. ultimate end Therefore here you owe them no formal obedience But yet the will of Parents with all the consequents must be put into the scales with all other considerations and if they make the discommodities of a single life to become the greater as to your end then they may bring you under a duty or obligation to marry not necessitate praecepti as obedience to their command but necessitate medii as a means to your ultimate end and in obedience to that general command of God which requireth you to seek first your ultimate end even the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Matth. 6. 33. Quest. But what if I have a corporal necessity and yet I can foresee that marriage will greatly disadvantage Quest. me as to the service of God and my salvation Answ. First You must understand that no corporal necessity is absolute For there is no man so Answ. lustful but may possibly bridle his lust by other lawful means by dyet labour sober company diverting business solitude watching the thoughts and senses or at least by the Physicions help so that the necessity is but secundum quid or an urgency rather than simple necessity And then 2. This measure of necessity must be it self laid in the ballance with the other accidents and if this necessity will turn the scales by making a single life more disadvantageous to your ultimate end your lust being a greater impediment to you than all the inconveniences of marriage will be than the case is resolved It is better to marry than to burn But if the hinderances in a married state are like to be greater than the hinderances of your concupiscence then you must set your self to the curbing and curing of that concupiscence and in the use of Gods means expect his blessing § 7. 2. Children are not ordinarily called of God to marry when their Parents do absolutely Of Parents Wills and peremptorily forbid it For though Parents Commands cannot make it a duty when we are sure it would hinder the interest of God our ultimate end yet Parents prohibitions may make it a sin when there is a clear probability that it would most conduce to our ultimate end were it not prohibited Because 1. Affirmatives bind not semper ad semper as Negatives or prohibitions do 2. Because the sin of disobedience to Parents will cross the tendency of it unto good and do more against our ultimate end than all the advantages of marriage can do for it A duty is then to us no duty when it cannot be performed without a chosen wilful sin In many cases we are bound to forbear what a Governour forbiddeth when we are not bound to Do the contrary if he command it It is easier to make a duty to be no duty than to make a sin to be no sin One bad ingredient may turn a duty into a sin when one good ingredient will not turn a sin into a duty or into no sin § 8. Quest. But may not a Governours prohibition be over weighed by some great degrees of incommodity Quest. It is better to marry than to burn 1. What if Parents forbid Children to marry absolutely untill death and so deprive them of the lawful remedy against lust 2. And if they do not so yet if they forbid it them when it is to them most seasonable and necessary it seemeth little better 3. Or if they forbid them to marry where their affections are so engaged as that they cannot be taken off without their mutual ruine may not Children marry in such cases of necessity as these without and against the will of their Parents Answ. I cannot deny but some cases may be imagined or fall out in which it is lawful to do Answ. what a Governour forbiddeth and to marry against the will of Parents For they have their Power to edification and not unto destruction As if a Son be qualified with eminent gifts for the work of the Ministry in a time and place that needeth much help if a malignant Parent in hatred of that Sacred Office should never so peremptorily forbid him yet may the Son devote himself to the blessed work of saving souls even as a Son may not forbear to relieve the poor with that which is his own though his Parents should forbid him nor forbear to put himself into a capacity to relieve them for the future nor forbâ—â—â—â— his own necessary food and rayment though he be forbidden As Daniel would not forbear praying openly in his house when he was forbidden by the King and Law When any inseparable accident doth make a thing of it self indifferent become a duty a Governours prohibition will not discharge us from that duty unless the accident be smaller than the accident of the Rulers prohibition and then it may be over weighed by it But to determine what Accidents are Greater or Less is a difficult task § 9. And as to the particular Questions to the first I answer If Parents forbid their Children to marry while they live it is convenient and safe to obey them until death if no greater obligation to the contrary forbid it But it is necessary to obey them during the time that the Children live under the Government of their Parents as in their Houses in their younger years except in some few extraordinary cases But when Parents are dead though they leave commands in their Wills or when age or former marriage hath removed Children from under their Government a smaller matter will serve to justifie their disobedience here than when the Children in minority are less fit to Govern themselves For though we owe Parents a limited obedience still yet at full age the Child is more at his own dispose than he was before Nature hath given given us a hint of her intention in the instinct of bruits who are all taught to protect and lead and provide for their young ones while the young are insufficient for themselves But when they are grown to self-sufficiency they drive them away or neglect them If a wiâ—e Son that hath a Wife and many Children and great affairs to manage in the world should be bound to as absolute obedience to his aged Parents as he was in his childhood it would ruine their affairs and Parents government would pull down that in their old age which they built up in their middle age § 10. And to the second Question I answer that 1. Children that pretend to unconquerable Lust or Love must do all they can to subdue such inordinate affections and bring their lusts to stoop to reason and their Parents wills And if they do their best there is either none or not one of many hundreds but may maintain their chastity together with their obedience 2. And if any say I have done my best and yet am under a necessity of marriage and am I not then bound to marry though my Parents forbid me I answer it is not
will draw them to your mind to be Godly Are you stronger in grace than they are in sin 2. If you know well what Grace is and what a sinful unrenewed soul is you would not think it so easie a matter to convert a soul. Why are there so few converted if it be so easie a thing You cannot make your selves better by adding higher degrees to the grace you have much less can you make another better by giving them the grace which they have not 3. It 's true that God is able to convert them when he will and it 's true that for ought I know it may be done But what of that Will you in so weighty a case take up with a meer possibility God can make a beggar Rich and for ought you know to the contrary he will do it And yet you will not therefore marry a Beggar Nor will you marry a Leper because God can heal him why then should you marry an ungodly person because God can convert him see it done first if you love your peace and safety § 50. Quest. But what if my Parents command me to marry an ungodly person Answ. God having Quest. forbidden it no Parent hath authority to command you to do so great a mischief to your self no more than to cut your own throats or to dismember your bodies § 51. Quest. But what if I have a necessity of marrying and can get none but an ungodly person Quest. Answ. If that be really your case that your necessity be real and you can get no other I think it is lawful § 52. Quest. But is it not better have a good natured person that is ungodly than an ill natured person Quest. that is religious as many such are And may not a bad man be a good husband Answ. 1. A bad man may be a good Taylor or Shoomaker or Carpenter or Seaman because there is no moral virtue necessary to the well-doing of their work But a bad man cannot be simply a good Magistrate or Minister or Husband or Parent because there is much moral Virtue necessary to their duties 2. A bad nature unmortified and untamed is inconsistent with true Godliness such persons may talk and profess what they please but if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans religion is vain Jam. 1. 26. 3. I did not say that Godliness alone is all that you must look after Though this be the first yet more is necessary § 53. Direct 7. Next to the fear of God make choice of a nature or temperament that is not too much Direct 7. unsuitable to you A crossness of dispositions will be a continual vexation and you will have a domestick War instead of Love Especially make sure of these following qualities 1. That there be a Loving and not a selfish nature that hath no regard to another but for their own end 2. That there be a Nature competently quiet and patient and not intolerably froward and unpleasable 3. That there be a competency of wit for no one can live lovingly and comfortably with a fool 4. That there be a competent humility For there is no quietness to be expected with the proud 5. That there be a power to be silent as well as to speak For a babling tongue is a continual vexation § 54. Direct 8. Next to Grace and Nature have a due and moderate respect to Person Education Direct 8. and Estate 1. So far have respect to the Person as that there be no unhealthfulness to make your condition over-burdensome nor no such deformity as may hinder your affections 2. And so far have respect to Parentage and Education as that there be no great unsuitableness of mind nor no prejudicate opinions in Religion which may make you too unequal Differing opinions in Religion are much more tolerable in persons more distant than in so near relations And those that are bred too high in idleness and luxury must have a through work of grace to make them fit for a low condition and cure the Pride and sensuality which are taken for the honourable badges of their Gentility And it is scarce considerable how Rich such are For their pride and luxury will make even with all and be still in greater want than honest contented temperate poverty § 55. Direct 9. If God call you to marriage take notice of the helps and comforts of that condition as Direct 9. well as of the hinderances and troubles that you may chearfully serve God in it in the expectation of his blessing Though mans corruption have filled that and every state of life with snares and troubles yet from the beginning it was not so God appointed it for mutual help and as such it may be used As a married life hath its temptations and afflictions so it hath its peculiar benefits which you are See Eccles. 4. 10 11 12. thankfully to accept and acknowledge unto God 1. It is a mercy in order to the propagating of a people on earth to love and honour their Creatour and to serve God in the world and enjoy him for ever It is no small mercy to be the Parents of a Godly seed and this is the end of the institution of marriage Mal. 2. 15. And this Parents may expect if they be not wanting on their part however sometimes their Children prove ungodly 2. It is a mercy to have a faithful friend that loveth you entirely and is as true to you as your self to whom you may open your mind and communicate your affairs and who will be ready to strengthen you and â—ivide the caâ—es of your affairs and family with you and help you to bear your burdens and comfort you in your sorrows and be the daily companion of your lives and partaker of your joys and sorrows 3. And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul to joyn with you in prayer and other holy exercises to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers and to stir up in you the grace of God and remember you of the life to come and cheerfully accompany you in the wayes of holiness Prov. 19. 14. A prudent wife is from the Lord. Thus it is said Prov. 18. 22. Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favour of the Lord. See Prov. 31. 10 11 12 c. § 56. Direct 10. Let your Marriage Covenant be made understandingly deliberately heartily in the Direct 10. fear of God with a fixed resolution faithfully to perform it Understand well all the duties of your relation before you enter into it And run not upon it as boys to a play but with the sense of your duty as those that engage themselves to a great deal of work of great importance towards God and towards each other Address your selves therefore before hand to God for Counsel and earnestly
beyond our Callings nor into confusion Argument 5. It is a Duty to receive all the mercies that God offereth us But for a family to have access to God in joynt prayers and praises is a mercy that God offereth them Therefore it is their duty to accept it The major is clear in nature and Scripture Because I have offered and ye refused is Gods great aggravation of the sin of the rebellious How oft would I have gathered you together and ye would not All the day long have I stretched out my hand c. To refuse an offered kindness is contempt and ingratitude The minor is undeniable by any Christian that ever knew what family prayers and prayses were Who dare say that it is no mercy to have such a joynt access to God Who feels not conjunction somewhat help his own affections who makes conscience of watching his heart Argument 6. Part of the Duties of families are such that they apparently loose their chiefest life and excellency if they be not performed joyntly Therefore they are so to be performed I mean singing of Psalms which I before proved an ordinary Duty of conjunct Christians Therefore of families The Melody and Harmony is lost by our separation and consequently the alacrity and quickning which our affections should get by it And if part of Gods praises must be performed together it is easie to see that the rest must be so too Not to speak of teaching which cannot be done alone Argument 7. Family prayer and praises are a Duty owned by the teaching and sanctifying work of the spirit Therefore they are of God I would not argue backward from the spirits teaching to the words commanding but on these two suppositions 1. That the experiment is very general and undeniable 2. That many texts of Scripture are brought already for family prayer and that this argument is but to second them and prove them truly interpreted The Spirit and the word do alway agree If therefore I can prove that the spirit of God doth commonly work mens hearts to a love and savour of these Duties doubtless they are of God Sanctification is a transcript of the precepts of the word on the heart written out by the spirit of God So much for the consequence The Antecedent consisteth of two parts 1. That the sanctified have in them inclinations to these Duties 2. That these Inclinations are from the spirit of God The first needs no proof being a matter of experience I appeal to the heart of every sound and stable Christian whether he feel not a conviction of this Duty and an inclination to the performance of it I never met with one such to my knowledge that was otherwise minded Object Many in our times are quite against family prayer who are good Christians Answ. I know none of them I confess I once thought some very good Christians that now are against them but now they appear otherwise not only by this but by other things I know none that cast off these Duties but they took up vile sins in their stead and cast off other Duties as well as these Let others observe and judge as they find 2. The power of delusion may for a time make a Christian forbear as unlawful that which his very new nature is inclined too As some think it unlawful to pray in our Assemblies and some to joyn in Sacraments And yet they have a spirit within them that inclineth their hearts to it still and therefore they love iâ— and wish it were lawful even when they forbear it upon a conceit that it is unlawful And so it 's possible for a time some may do by family Duties But as I expect that these ere long recover so for my part I take all the rest to be graceless Prejudice and error as a temptation may prohibit the exercise of a Duty when yet the spirit of God doth work in the heart an inclination to that Duty in sanctifying it 2. And that these inclinations are indeed from the spirit is evident 1. In that they come in with all other grace 2. And by the same means 3. And are preserved by the same means standing or falling increasing or decreasing with the rest 4. And are to the same end 5. And are so generally in all the sâ—iâ—ts 6. And so resisted by flesh and blood 7. And so agreeable to the Word that a Christian sins against his new nature when he neglects family Dutys And God doth by his spirit create a desire after them and an estimation of them in every gracious soul. Argument 8. Family prayer and praises is a Duty ordinarily crowned with admirable divine and special blessings Therefore it is of God The consequence is evident For though common outward prosperity may be given to the wicked who have their portion in this life yet so is not prosperity of soul. For the Antecedent I willingly appeal to the experience of all the holy families in the world Who ever used these Duties seriously and found not the benefits What Families be they in which grace and Heavenly mindedness prospereth but those that use these Duties Compare in all your Towns Cities and Villages the families that read Scriptures pray and praise God with those that do not and see the difference Which of them abound more with impiety with Oaths and cursings and railings and Drunkenness and Whoredoms and Worldliness c. And which abound most with Faith and Patience and Temperance and Charity and Repentance and Hope c. The controversie is not hard to decide Look to the Nobility and Gentry of England See you no difference between those that have been bred in praying families and the rest I mean taking them as we say one with another proportionably Look to the Ministers of England Is it praying families or prayerless families that have done most to the well furnishing of the Universities Argument 9. All Churches ought solemnly to pray to God and praise him A Christian family is a Church Therefore The major is past doubt the minor I prove from the nature of a Church in general which is a society of Christians combined for the better worshipping and serving of God I say not that a family formally as a family is a Church But every family of Christians ought moreover by such a combination to be a Church Yea as Christians they are so combined seeing Christianity tieth them to serve God conjunctly together in their Relations 2. Scripture expresseth it 2 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute much in the Lord with the Church that is in they house He saith not which meeteth in their house but which is in it So Philemon 2. And to the Church in this house Rom. 16. 5. Likewise greet the Church that is in their house Col. 4. 15. Salute the brethren that are at Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his house Though some Learned men take these to be meant of part of the Churches assembling in
fit to be brought to the ears of the Church-assemblies 3. And if it were fit to mention them all in publick yet the number of such cases would be so great as would overwhelm the Minister and confound the publick Worship nay one half of them in most Churches could not be mentioned 4. And such cases are of ordinary occurrence and therefore would ordinarily have all these inconveniences And yet there are many such cases that are not fit to be confined to our secret prayers each one by himself because 1. They often so sin together as maketh it fit that they consess and lament it together 2. And some mercies which they receive together its fit they seek and give thanks for together 3. And many works which they do together its fit they seek a blessing on together 4. And the presence of one another in Confession Petition and Thanksgiving doth tend to the increase of their fervour and warming of their hearts and engaging them the more to duty and against sin and is needful on the grounds laid down before Nay it is a kind of Family-schism in such cases to separate from one another and to pray in secret only as it is Church schism to separate from the Church-assemblies and to pray in families only Nature and Grace delight in Unity and abhor division And the Light of Nature and Grace engageth us to do as much of the work of God in Unity and Concord and Communion as we can Argument 20. If before the giving of the Law to Moses God was worshipped in families by his own appointment and this appointment be not yet reverst then God is to be worshipped in families still But the Antecedent is certain Therefore so is the consequent I think no man denyeth the first part of the Antecedent that before the flood in the families of the righteous and after till the establishment of a Priesthood God was worshipped in families or housholds It is a greater doubt whether then he had any other publick Worship When there were few or no Church assemblies that were larger than families no doubt God was ordinarily worshipped in families Every Ruler of a family then was as a Priest to his own family Cain and Abel offered their own Sacrifices so did Noah Abraham and Iacob If it be objected that all this ceased when the Office of the Priest was instituted and so deny the later part of my Antecedent I reply 1. Though sâ—me make a doubt of it whether the Office of Priesthood was instituted before Aarons time I think there is no great doubt to be made of it seeing we find a Priesthood then among other Nations who had it either by the light of Nature or by Tradition from the Church And Melchizedecks Priesthood who was a Type of Christ is expresly mentioned So that though family-worship was then the most usual yet some more publick worship there was 2. After the institution of Aarons Priesthood family worship continued as I have proved before yea the two Sacraments of Circumcision and the Passeover were celebrated in Families by the Master of the house Therefore Prayer was certainly continued in families 3. If that part of Worship that was afterward performed in Synagogues and publick Assemblies was appropriated to them that no whit proveth that the part which agreed to families as such was transferred to those Assemblies Nâ—y it is a certain proof that that part was left to families still because we find that the publick Assemblies never undertook it We find among them no prayer but Church-prayer and not that which was fitted to Families as such at all Nor is there a word of Scripture that speaketh of Gods reversing of his command or order for family-prayer or other proper family-worship Therefore it is proved to continue obligatory still Had I not been too long already I should have urged to this end the example of Iob in sacrificing daily for his Sons and of Esther's keeping a Fast with her Maids Hest. 4. 16. And Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy fury on the Heathen that know thee not and on the families that call not on thy name It s true that by families here is meant Tribes of people and by calling on his Name is meant their worshipping the true God But yet this is spoken of all Tribes without exception great and small And Tribes in the beginning as Abrahams Isaacs Iacobs c. were confined to families And the argument holdeth from parâ—ty of reason to a proper family And that calling on Gods Name is put for his Worship doth more confirm us because it proveth it to be the most eminent part of Worship or else the whole would not be signified by it At least no reason can imagine it excluded So much for the proof of the fourth Proposition Objections answered Object 1. HAd it been a duty under the Gospel to pray in families we should certainly have found Object 1. it more expresly required in the Scripture Answ. 1. I have already shewed you that it is plainly required in the Scripture But men must not teach God how to speak nor oblige him to make all plain to blind perverted minds 2. Those things which were plainly revealed in the Old Testament and the Church then held without any contradiction even from the persecutors of Christ themselves might well be past over in the Gospel and taken as supposed acknowledged things 3. The General Precepts to pray alway with all prayer in all places c. being expressed in the Gospel and the Light of Nature making particular application of them to Families what need there any more 4. This reason is apparent why Scripture speaketh of it no more expresly Before Christs time the Worship of God was less spiritual and more ceremonial than afterward it was And therefore you find ofter mention of Circumcision and sacrificing than of Prayer And yet Prayer was still supposed to concurr And after Christs time on earth most Christian families were disturbed by persecution and Christians sold up all and lived in Community And also the Scripture History was to describe to us the state of the Churches rather than of particular families Object 2. Christ himself did not use to pray with his family as appeareth by the Disciples asking Object 2. him to teach them to pray and by the silence of the Scripture in this point Therefore it is no duty to us Answ. 1. Scripture silence is no proof that Christ did not use it All things are not written which he did 2. His Teâ—ching them the Lords Prayer and their desire of a common Rule of Prayer might consist with his usual praying with them At least with his using to pray with them after that though at first he did not use it 3 But it is the Consequence that I principally deny 1. Because Christ did afterwards call his servants to many duties which he put them not on at first as Sacraments Discipline preaching frequenter Praying c.
Widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day Night and day can be no less than Morning and Evening And if you say This is not Family-prayer I answer 1. It is all kind of Prayer belonging to her 2. And if it commend the less much more the greater Arg. 6. From Luk. 6. 14. 2. 37. 18. 17. Act. 26. 7. 1 Thes. 3. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 3. Rev. 7. 15. Nâ—h 1. 6. Psal. 88. 1. Josh. 1. 8. Psal. 1. 2. which shew that night and day Christ himself prayed and his servants prayed and meditated and read the Scripture Arg 7. Deut 6. 7. 11. 19. It is exprâ—sly commanded that Parents teach their Children the Word of God when they lye down and when they rise up And the parity of reason and conjunction of the word and prayer will prove that they should also pray with them lying down and rising up Arg. 8. For brâ—vity sake I offer you together Psal. 119. 164. David praised God seven times a day 145. 2. Every day will I bless thee Psal. 5. 3. my voiâ—e shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer to thee and will look up 59. 16. I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning 88. 13. In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee 92. 12. It is good to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises to thy name O mâ—st High to shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night 119. 147 148. I prevented the dâ—wning of the morning aâ—d cryed I hâ—ped in thy word mine eyes preveâ— the night watches that I might meditate on thy word 130. 6 My sâ—ul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning The Priests were to offer Sacrifices and thanks to God every morning 1 Chron. 23. 30. Exod 30. 7. 36. 3. Lev. 6. 12. 2 Chron. 13. 11. Ezek. 46. 13 14 15. Amos 4. 4. And Christians are a hâ—ly Priesthood to offer up sacrifices to God acceptable through Iesus Châ—ist 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Expresly saith David Psal. 55. 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice So Morning and Evening were Sacrifices and Burnt offerings offered to the Lord and there is at least equal reason that Gospel worship should be as frequent 1 Chron. 16. 40. 2 Chron. 2. 4. 13. 11. 31. 3. Ezr. 3. 3. 2 King 16. 15. 1 King 18. 29 36. Ezra 9. 5. And no doubt but they prayed with the Sacrifices Which David intimateth in comparing them Psal. 141. 2. Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands aâ— the Evening sacrifice And God calleth for Prayer and praise as better than sacrifice Psal. 50. 14 15 23. All these I heap together for dispatch which fully shâ—w how frâ—quently Gods servants have been wont to Worship him and how often God expecteth it And you will all confess that it is reason that in Gospel times of greater light and holiness we should not come behind them in the times of the Law especially when Christ himself doth pray all night that had so little need in comparison of us And you may observe that these Scriptures speak of Prayer in general and limit it not to secresie and therefore they extend to all prayer according to opportunity No reason can limit all these examples to the most secret and least noble sort of prayer If but two or three are gathered together in his name Christ is especially among them If you say that by this rule we must as frequently pray in the Church-assemblies I answer The Church cannot ordinarily so oft assemble But when it can be without a greater inconvenience I doubt not but it would be a good work for many to meet the Minister daily for prayer as in some rich and populous Cities they may do I have been more tedious on this subject than a holy hungry Christian possibly may think necâ—ssary who needeth not so many arguments to perswade him to â—east his soul with God and to delight himself in the frequent exercises of faith and Love And if I have said less than the other sort of Readers shall think necessary let them know that if they will open their eyes and recover their appetites and feel their sins and observe their daily wants and dangers and get but a heart that Loveth God these Reasons then will seem sufficient to convince them of the need of so sweet and profitable and necessary a work And if they observe the difference between Praying and Prayerless families and care for their souls and for communion with God much fewer words than these may serve their turn It is a dead and graceless carnal heart that must be cured before these men will be well satisfied A better appetite would help their reason If God should say in general to all men You shall eat as oft as will do you good the sick stomach would say once a day and that but a little is enough and as much as God requireth when another would say Thrice a day is little enough A good and healthful Heart is a great help in the expounding of Gods word especially of his General Commandments That which men love not but are aweary of they will not easily believe to be their duty The new nature and holy Love and desires and experience of a sound believer do so far make all these Reasonings needless to him that I must confess I have written them principally to convince the carnal hypocrite and to stop the â—â—ouths of wrangling enemies CHAP. IV. General Directions for the Holy Government of Families § 1. THE Principal thing requisite to the right governing of Families is the Fitness of the Governours and the Governed thereto which is spoken of before in the Directions for the Constitution But if persons unfit for their Relations have joyned themselves together in a Family their first duty is to Repent of their former sin and rashness and presently to turn to God and seek after that fitness which is necessary to the right discharge of the duties of their several places And in the Governours of Families thâ—se three things are of greatest necessity hereunto I. Authority II. Skill III. Holiness and readiness of Will § 2. I Gen. Dir. Let Governours maintain their Authority in their Families For if once that be lost Direct 1. and you are despised by those that you should rule your word will be of no effect with them How to keep up Authorâ—ty you do but ride without a Bridle your power of Governing is gone when your Authority is lost And here you must first understand the Nature Use and Extent of your Authority For as your Relations are different to your Wife your Children and your Servants so
Sects and follow several Teachers you will hardly avoid that contention and confusion which will prove a great advantage to the Devil and a great impediment to your spiritual good § 25. Direct 11. If difference in judgement in matters of Religion do fall out between you be sure Subdir 11. that it be managed with Holiness Humility Love and Peace and not with Câ—â—nality Pride Uncharitableness or Contention 1. To manage your differences Holily is to take God for the Iudge and to refer the matter to his Word and to aim at his Glory and the pleasing of his Will and to use his Means for the Concord of your judgements which is to search the Scripture and consult with the faithful able Pastors of the Church and soberly and patiently to debate the case and pray together for the illumination of the Spirit On the contrary your Differences are carnally managed when carnal reasons breed or feed them and when you run after this or that Sect or Party through admiration of the persons and value not the persons for the sake of Truth but measure Truth by the opinion and estimate of the persons and when you end your differences by selfish carnal principles and respects And hence it comes to pass that if the Husband be a Papist or otherwise erroneous it s two to one that the Wife becometh of his erroneous Religion not because of any cogent evidence but because he is of the stronger parts and hath constant opportunity to perswade and because Love prepareth and inclineth her to be of his opinion And thus Man instead of God is the master of the faith of many 2. Your differences are managed in Humility when you have a just and modest suspicion of your own understandings and debate and practise your differences with meekness and submission and do not proudly overvalue all your own apprehensions and despise anothers Reasons as if they were not worthy of your consideration 3. Your differences must be so far managed in Love not that meer Love should make you turn to anothers opinion be it true or false but that you must be very desirous to be of the same mind and if you cannot must take it for a sore affliction and must bear with the tolerable mistakes of one another as you bear with your own infirmities that they cool not Love nor alienate not your hearts from one another but only provoke you to a tender healing compassionate Care and endeavour to do each other good 4. And you must manage your differences in quietness without any passionate wranglings and dissentions that no bitter fruits may be bred by it in your families among your selves Thus all true Christians must manage their differences in matters of Religion but married persons above all § 26. Direct 12. Be not either blindly indulgent to each others faults nor yet too censorious of each others Subdir 12. state lest Satan thereby get advantage to alienate your affections from one another To make nothing of the faults of those whom you Love is to Love them foolishly to their hurt and to shew that it is not for their vertues that you Love them And to make too great a matter of one anothers faults is but to help the Tempter to quench your love and turn your hearts from one another Thus many good women that have Husbands that are guilty of too much coldness in Religion or worldly-mindedness or falling into ill company and mispending their time are first apt to overlook all possibility of any seed of grace that may be in them and then looking on them as ungodly persons to abate too much their Love and duty to them There is great wisdom and watchfulness requisite in this case to keep you from being carryed into either of the extreams § 27. Direct 13. If you are married to one that is indeed an infidel or an ungodly person yet Subdir 13. keep up all the Conjugal Love which is due for the relation sake Though you cannot love them as true Christians yet love them as Husband or Wife Even Heathens are bound to Love those that are thus related to them The Apostle hath determined the case 1 Cor. 7. that Christians must perform their Duties to Husbands or Wives that are Unbelievers The faults of another discharge you not from your duty As Satan hath deceived some by separating principles about Church-communion to deny almost all Gods Ordinances to many to whom they are due so doth he thus deceive some persons in family-relations and draw them from the duties which they owe for one anothers good § 28. Direct 14. Ioyn together in frequent and fervent prayer Prayer doth force the mind into Subdir 14. some composedness and sobriety and affecteth the heart with the presence and Majesty of God Pray also for each other when you are in secret that God may do that work which you most desire upon each others hearts § 29. Direct 15. Lastly Help each other by an exemplary life Be that your selves which you desire Subdir 14. your Husband or Wife should be Excell in meekness and humility and charity and dutifulness and diligence and self-denyal and patience as far as you do excell in profession of Religion St. Peter saith that even those that will not be won by the Word may be won without it by the Conversation of their Wives 1 Pet. 3. 1. That is the excellency of Religion may so far appear to them by the fruits of it in their Wives Conversations as may first incline them to think well and honourably of it and so to enquire into the nature and reason of it and to hearken to their Wives and all this without the publick Ministry A life of undissembled holiness and heavenliness and self-denyal and meekness and love and mortification is a powerful Sermon which if you be constantly preaching before those that are still near you will hardly miss of a good effect Works are more palpably significant and perswasive than words alone § 30. Direct 7. Another great Conjugal duty is to be helpful to each other for the health and comfort Direct 7. of their Bodies Not to pamper each others flesh or cherish the vices of pride or sloth or gluttony Rom. 13 13 14. Eph 5 29 3â— Gen. 2. 18. or voluptuousness in each other but to further the health and chearfulness of the Body to fit it for the service of the soul and God Such cherishing or pleasing of the Flesh which is unlawful in each person to himself is also unlawful ordinarily to use to another But such as you may use for your self you may use also for your Wife or Husband Not to live above your Estates nor as servants to your guts to serve the appetites of one another by delicious fare but to be careful of that health without which your lives will be made unserviceable or uncomfortable And this must proceed from such a love to one another as you have
strait or penurious therefore she will dispose of it without his consent this is thievery disobedience and injustice Quest. But as the case standeth with us in England hath the Wife a joint propriety or not Quest. 1. Answ. Three wayes at least she may have a propriety 1. By a reserve of what was her own before which however some question it may in some cases be done in their agreement at marriage 2. By the Law of the Land 3. By the Husbands consent or donation What the Law of the Land saith in this case I leave to the Lawyers But it seemeth to me that his words at Marriage with all my worldly goods I thee endow do signifie his consent to make her a joynt-proprietor And his consent is sufficient to the collation of a title to that which was his own Unless any can prove that Law or custome doth otherwise expound the words as an empty formality and that at the contract this was or should be known to her to be the sense And the Laws allowing the wife the third part upon death or separation doth intimate a joynt-propriety before Quest. 2. If the Husband live upon unlawful gain as cheating stealing robbing by the high-way c. Quest. 2. is not the wife guilty as a joynt proprietor in retaining such ill-gotten goods if she know it And is she bound to accuse her Husband or to restore such goods Answ. Her duty is first to admonish her husband of his sin and danger and endeavour his repentance in the mean time disclaiming all consent and reception of the goods And if she cannot prevail for his Repentance Restitution and Reformation she hath a double duty to perform the one is to help them to their goods whom he hath injured and robbed by prudent and just means The other is to prevent his robbing of others for the time to come But how these must be done is the great difficulty 1. If she foresee or may do that either by her husbands displeasure or by the cruel revenge of the injured party the hurt of discovering the fraud or robbery will be greater than the good then I think that she is not bound to discover it But by some secret indirect way to help the owner to his own if it may be done without a greater hurt 2. To prevent his sin and other mens future suffering by him she seemeth to me to be bound to reveal her husbands sinful purposes to the Magistrate if she can no other way prevail with him to forbear My reasons are Because the keeping of Gods Law and the Law of the Land and the publick order and good and the preventing of our Neighbours hurt by Robbery or fraud and so the interest of honesty and right is of greater importance than any duty to her Husband or preservation of her own peace which seemeth to be against it But then I must suppose that she liveth under a Magistrate who will take but a just revenge For if she know the Laws and Magistrate to be so unjust as to punish a fault with death which deserveth it not she is not to tell such a Magistrate but to preserve her Neighbours safety by some other way of intimation If any one think that a Wife may in no case accuse a husband to the hazzard of his life or estate let them 1. Remember what God obliged Parents to do against the lives of incorrigible Children Deut. 21. 2. And that the honour of God and the lives of our Neighbours should be preferred before the life of one offender and their estates before his estate alone 3. And that the light of Reason telleth us that a Wife is to reveal a Treason against the King which is plotted by a Husband and therefore also the robbing of the Kings Treasury or deceiving him in any matter of great concernment And therefore in due proportion the Laws and common good and our Neighbours welfare are to be preserved by us though against the nearest relation Only all due tenderness of the life and reputation of the Husband is to be preserved in the manner of proceedings as far as will stand with the interest of justice and the common good Quest. 3. May the Wife go hear Sermons when the Husband forbiddeth her Quest. 3. Answ. There are some Sermons which must not be heard There are some Sermons which may be heard and must when no greater matter doth divert us And there are some Sermons which must be heard whoever shall forbid it Those which must not be heard are such as are Heretical ordinarily and such as are superfluous and at such times when greater duties call us another way Those which may be heard are either occasional Sermons or such Lectures as are neither of Necessity to our selves nor yet to the owning of God and his publick Worship One that liveth where there are daily or hourly Sermons may hear them as oft as suiteth with their condition and their other duties But in this case the Command of a Husband with the inconveniences that will follow disobeying him may make it a duty to forbear But that we do sometimes publickly owne Gods Worship and Church-Ordinances and receive Ministerial teaching for our Edification is of double necessity that we dâ—ny not God and that we betray not or desert not our own souls And this is especially necessary ordinarily on the Lords Dayes which are appointed for these necessary uses And here the Husband hath no power to forbid the Wife nor should she formally obey his prohibition But yet as affirmatives bind not ad semper and no duty is a duty at every season so it is possible that on the Lords Day it may extraordinarily become a duty to forbear Sermons or Sacraments or other publick Worship As when any greater duty calleth us away As to quench a fire and to save mens lives and to save our Countrey from an enemy in a time of War and to save our own lives if we knew the assembly would be assaulted or to preserve our liberty for greater service Christ â—et us to learn the meaning of this Lesson I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice In such a case also a mischief may be avoided even from a Husband by the omission of a duty at that time when it would be no duty for this is but a transposition of it But this is but an act of prudent self-preservation and not an act of formal obedience Quest. 4. If a Woman have a Husband so incorrigible in Vice as that by long tryal she findeth that Quest. 4. speaking against it maketh him worse and causeth him to abuse her is she bound to continue her disswasion or to fâ—rbear Answ. That is not here a duty which is not a means to do some good And that is no means which we know before hand is like iâ— not certain to do no good or to do more harm We must not by weariness laziness or â—ensoriousness take a case to
you as your superiours and not as your inferiours See that they fare as well as your selves yea though you got not your riches by their means yet even for your being you are their debtors for more than that § 12. Direct 12. Imitate your Parents in all that is good both when they are living and when they Direct 12. are dead If they were lovers of God and of his word and service and of those that fear him let their example provoke you and let the love that you have to them engage you in this imitation A wicked child of godly Parents is one of the most miserable wretches in the world With what horror do I look on such a person How near is such a wretch to Hell When Father or Mother were eminent for Godliness and daily instructed them in the matters of their salvation and prayed with them and warned them and prayed for them and after all this the children shall prove covetous or drunkards or whoremongers or prophane and enemies to the servants of God and deride or neglect the way of their religious Parents it would make one tremble to look such wretches in the face For though yet there is some hope of them alas it is so little that they are next to desperate when they are hardned under the most excellent means and the light hath blinded them and their acquaintance with the wayes of God hath but turned their hearts more against them what means is left to do good to such resisters of the grace of God as these The likeliest is some heavy dreadful judgement O what a woful day will it be to them when all the prayers and tears and teachings and good examples of their religious Parents shall witness against them How will they be confounded before the Lord And how sad a thought is it to the heart of holy diligent Parents to think that all their prayers and pains must witness against their graceless children and sink them deeper into Hell And yet alas how many such woful spectacles are there before our eyes and how deeply doth the Church of Gâ—d 〈…〉 by the malice and wickedness of the children of those Parents that taught them better and walked before them in a holy exâ—mplary life But if Parents be ignorant superstitious idolatrous Pâ—pish or prophane their children are forward enough to imitate them Then they can say Our fâ—r fâ—â—hers were of this mind and we hope they are saved and we will rather imitate them than such in 〈…〉 ting reformers aâ— you As they said to Ieremy Chap. 44. 16 17 18. As for the word that 〈…〉 hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken to thee But we will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the Streets of Jerusalem for then we had plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and famine Thus they walk after the imagination of their hearts and after Baalim the false Worship which their Fathers taught them Jâ—r 9. 14. And they forget Gods name as their Fathers did forget it Jâ—r 23. 27. They and their Fathers have transgressed to this day Ezek. 2. 3. Yea they harden their necks and do worse than their Fathers Jer. 7. 26. Thus in error and sin they can imitate their fore-fathers when they should rather remember 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. that it cost Christ his blood to redeem men from their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers And they should penitently confess as Dan. 9. 8. O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee v. 16. And as Psal. 106. 6. We have sinned with our Fathers c. Saith God Jer. 16. 11 12 13. Behold your Fathers have forsaken me and have not kept my Law and ye have done worse than your Fathers therefâ—re I will cast you out c. Jer. 43. 9. Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your Fathers and the wickedness of the Kings of Judah and your own wickedness they are not humbled even unto this day v. 21. Zâ—ch 1. 4. Be not as your Fathers to whom the former Prophets have cryed saying Turn ye now from your evil wayes but they did not hear Mal. 3. 7. Even from the dayes of your Fathers ye are gone away from mine Ordinances and have not kept them Return unto me and I will return unto you Ezek. 20. 18. Walk ye not in the Statutes of your Fathers So v. 27. 30 36. Follow not your Fathers in their sin and error but follow them where they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. CHAP. XII The special Duties of Children and Youth towards God THough I put your duty to your Parents first because it is first learned yet your Duty to God immediately is your greatest and most necessary duty Learn these following Precepts well § 1. Direct 1. Learn to understand the Covenant and Vow which in your Baptism you made Direct 1. with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost your Creator Redeemer and Regenerater and when you well understand it renew that Covenant with God in your own persons and absolutely deliver up your selves to God as your Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier your Owner your Ruler and your Father and felicity Baptism is not an idle Ceremony but the solemn entring into Covenant with God in which you receive the greatest mercies and bind your selves to the greatest duties It is but the entring into that way which you must walk in all your lives and a vowing that to God which you must be still performing And though your Parents had authority to promise for you it is you that must perform it for it was you that they obliged If you ask by what authority they obliged you in Covenant to God I answer by the authority which God had given them in Nature and in Scripture as they oblige you to be Subjects of the King or as they enter your names into any Covenant by lease or other contract which is for your benefit And they do it for your good that you may have part in the blessings of the Covenant And if you grudge at it and refuse your own consent when you come to age you lose the benefits If you think they did you wrong you may be out of Covenant when you will if you will renounce the Kingdom of Heaven But it is much wiser to be thankful to God that your Parents were the means of so great a blessing to you and to do that again more expresly by your selves which they did for you and openly with thankfulness to own the Covenant in which you are engaged and live in the performance and in the comforts of it
speak of For 1. Such a heart will be like a Spring which is alwayes running and will contiuually feed the streams Forced and feigned things are of short continuance The hypocrites affected forced speech is exercised but among those where it may serve his pride and carnal ends At other times and in other company he hath another tongue like other men It is like a Land-flood that is quickly gone or like the bending of a Bow which returneth to its place as soon as it is loosed 2. And that which cometh from your hearts will be serious and hearty and likeliest to do good to others For words do their work upon us not only by signifying the matter which is spoken but also by signifying the affections of the speaker And that which will work affections must express affection ordinarily If it come not from the heart of the speaker it is not so like to go to the hearts of the hearers A hearty Preacher and a hearty feeling discourse of holy things do pierce heart-deep and do that good which better composed words that are heartless do not § 2. Direct 2. Yet for all that when your hearts are cold and dull and barren do not think that Direct 2. your tongues must therefore neglect their duty and be silent from all good till your hearts be better but force your tongues to do their duty if they will not do them freely without constraint For 1. Duty is duty whether you be well disposed to it or not If all duty should cease when men are ill disposed to it no wicked man would be bound to any thing that is truly holy 2. And if Heart and Tongue be both obliged it is worse to omit both than one 3. And there may be sincerity in a duty when the heart is cold and dull 4. And beginning to do your duty as well as you can is the way to overcome your dulness and unfitness when you force your tongues at first to speak of that which is good the words which you speak or hear may help to bring you into a better frame Many a man hath begun to pray with coldness that hath got him heat before he had done And many a man hath gone unwillingly to hear a Sermon that hath come home a converted soul. 5. And when you set your selves in the way of Duty you are in the way of promised grace § 3. Object But is not this to play the Hypocrite to let my tongue go before my heart and speak the Object things which my heart is not affected with Answ. If you speak falsly and dissemblingly you play the Hypocrites But you may force your Answ. selves to speak of good without any falshood or hypocrisie Words signifie as I told you the matter spoken and the speakers mind Now your speaking of the things of God doth tell no more of your mind but this that you take them to be true and that you desire those that you speak to to regard them And all this is so and therefore there is no hypocrisie in it Indeed if you told the hearers that you are deeply affected with these things your selves when it is not so this were hypocrisie But a man may exhort another to be good without professing himself to be good yea though he confess himself to be bad Therefore all the good discourses of a wicked man are not hypocrisie Much less the good discourse of a sincere Christian that is dull and cold in that discourse And if a duty had some hypocrisie in it it is not the duty but the hypocrisie that God disliketh and you must forsake As if there be coldness in a duty it is the coldness and not the duty that is to be blamed and forborn And wholly to omit the duty is worse than to do it with some coldness or hypocrisie which is not the predominant complexion of the duty § 4. Object But if it be not the fruit of the Spirit it is not acceptable to God And that which Object I force my tongue to is none of the fruits of the Spirit Therefore I must stay till the Spirit move me Answ. 1. There are many duties done by Reason and the common assistances of God that are better Answ. than the total omission of them is Else no unsanctified man should hear the Word or pray or relieve the poor or obey his Prince or Governours or do any duty towards children or neighbours because whatsoever is not the fruit of the special grace of the Spirit is sin and without faith it is impossible to please God and all men have not faith Heb. 11. 6. 2 Thess. 3. 2. 2. It is a distracted conceit of the Qâ—akers and other Fanaticks to think that Reason and the Spirit of God are not conjunct principles in the same act Doth the Spirit work on a man as on a beast or a stone and cause you to speak as a Clock that striketh it knoweth not what or play on mans soul as on an instrument of Musick that hath neither knowledge of the melody nor any pleasure in it No the Spirit of God supposeth Nature and worketh on man as man by exciting your own Understanding and Will to do their parts So that when against all the remnant of dulness and backwardness that is in you you can force your selves to do your duty it is because the Spirit of God assisteth you to take that resolution and use that force For thus the Spirit striveth against the flesh Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 16 17 18 c. Though it is confessed that there is more of the Spirit where there is no backwardness or resistance or need of forcing § 5. Direct 3. By all means labour to be furnished with understanding in the matters of God For Direct 3. 1. An understanding person hath a Mine of holy matter in himself and never is quite void of matter for good discourse He is the good Scribe that is instructed to the Kingdom of God that bringeth out of his treasury things new and old Matth. 13. 52. 2. And an understanding person will speak discreetly and so will much further the success of his discourse and not make it ridiculous contemptuous or uneffectual through his indiscretion But yet if you are ignorant and wanting in understanding do not therefore be silent for though your ability is least your necessity is greatest Let necessity therefore constrain you to ask instruction as it constraineth the needy to beg for what they want But spare no pains to increase your knowledge § 6. Direct 4. If your own understandings and hearts do not furnish you with matter have recourse to Direct 4. those manifold helps that God vouchsafeth you As 1. You may discourse of the last Sermon that you heard or some one lately preached that nearly touched you 2. Or of something in the last Book you read 3. Or of some Text of Scripture obvious to your thoughts 4. Or of
and Sanctifier of souls and in what order he doth all this by the Ministry of the Word 12. In the next open to them the office and use and duty of the ordinary Ministry and their duty toward them especially as Hearers and the nature and use of publick Worship and the nature and Communion of Saints and Churches 13. In the next open to them the Nature and use of Bâ—pâ—ism and the Lords Supper 14. In the next open to them the shortness of life and the state of souls at death and after death and the day of Judgement and the Justification of the Righteous and the Condemnation of the wicked at that day 15. In the next open to them the Joyes of Hâ—aven and the miseries of the damned 16. In the next open to them the vanity of all the pleasure and profits and honour of this World and the method of Temptations and how to overcome them 17. In the next open to them the reason and use of suffering for Christ and of self denyal and how to prepare for sickness and death And after this go over also the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments § 13. Direct 13. After all your instructions make them briefly give you an account in their own Direct 13. words of what they understand and remember of all or else the next time to give account of the fâ—rmer And encourage them for all that is well done in their endeavours § 14. Direct 14. Labour in all to keep up a â—akened serious attention and still to print upon their Direct 14. hearts the greatest things And to that end For the Matter of your teaching and discourse let nothing be so much in your mouths as 1. The Nature and Relations of God 2. A Crucified and a Glorified Christ with all his grace and priviledges 3. The operations of the spirit on the soul. 4. The madness of sinners and the vanity of the world 5. And endless Glory and Joy of Saints and misery of the ungodly after death Let these five points be frequently urged and be the life of all the rest of your discourse And then for the Manner of your speaking to them let it be alwayes with such a mixture of familiarity and seriousness that may carry along their serious attentions whether they will or no Speak to them as if they or you were dying and as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell § 15. Direct 15. Take each of them sometime by themselves and there describe to them the work Direct 15. of Renovation and ask them whether ever such a work was wrought upon them Shew them the true Marks of Grace and help them to try themselves Urge them to tell you truly whether their Love to God or the Creature to Heaven or Earth to Holiness or Flesh-pleasing be more and what it is that hath their hearts and care and chief endeavour And if you find them regenerate help to strengthen them If you find them too much dejected help to Comfort them And if you find them unregenerate help to convince them and then to humble them and then to shew them the remedy in Christ and then shew them their duty that they may have part in Christ and drive all home to the end that you desire to see But do all this with Love and gentleness and privacy § 16. Direct 16. Some pertinent Questions which by the answer will engage them to teach themselves Direct 16. or to judge themselves will be sometimes of very great use As such as these Do you not know that you must shortly dye Do you not believe that immediately your souls must enter upon an endless life of joy or misery Will worldly wealth and honours or fleshly pleasures be pleasant to you then Had you then rather be a Saint or an ungodly sinner Had you not then rather be one of the holiest that the World despised and abused than one of the greatest and richest of the wicked When Time is past and you must give account of it had you not then rather it had been spent in holiness and obedience and diligent preparation for the life to come than in pride and pleasure and pampering the flesh How could you make shift to forget your endless life so long Or to sleep quietly in an unregenerate state What if you had died before conversion what think you had become of you and where had you now been Do you think that any of those in Hell are glad that they were ungodly or have now any pleasure in their former merriments and sin What think you would they do if it were all to do again Do you think if an Angel or Saint from Heaven should come to decide the Controversie between the Godly and the Wicked that he would speak against a Holy and Heavenly life or plead for a loose and fleshly life or which side think you he would take Did not God know what he did when he made the Scriptures Is he or an ungodly scorner to be more regarded Do you think every man in the World will not wish at last that he had been a Saint what ever it had cost him Such kind of Questions urge the Conscience and much convince § 17. Direct 17. Cause them to learn some one most plain and pertinent text for every great Direct 17. and necessary duty and against every great and dangerous sin and often to repeat them to you As Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye Repent ye shall all perish Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 18. 14. Ioh. 3. 16 Luk. 18. 1 c. So against lying swearing taking Gods name in vain flesh-pleasing Gluttony pride and the rest § 18. Direct 18. Drive all your Convictions to a Resolution of Endeavour and amendment and Direct 18. make them sometime promise you to do that which you have convinced them of And sometimes before witnesses But let it be done with these necessary Cautions 1. That you urge not a promise in any doubtful point or such as you have not first convinced them of 2. That you urge not a promise in things beyond their present strength As you must not bid them promise you to Believe or to Love God or to be tender-hearted or heavenly-minded but to do those duties which tend to these as to hear the Word or read or pray or meditate or keep good company or avoid temptations c. 3. That you be not too often upon this or upon one and the same strain in the other methods lest they take them but for words of course and custome teach them to contemn them But seasonably and prudently done their promises will lay a great engagement on them § 19. Direct 19. Teach them how to pray by formes or without as is most suitable to their â—ase and Direct 19. parts And either your self or
the Church had sinned in for bearing kneeling in the act of Receiving so many hundred years after Christ as is plain they did by the Canons of General Councils Nic. 1◠Trull that universally forbad to adore kneeling any Lords Day in the year and any Week-day between Easter and Whitsuntide and by the Fathers Tertullian Epiphanius c. that make this an Apostolical or Universal Tradition 2. And for kneeling I never yet heard any thing Mr. Paybodyes Book I think unanswerable to prove it unlawful If there be any thing it must be either some Word of God or the Nature of the Ordinance which is supposed to be contradicted But 1. There is no Word of God for any gesture nor against any gesture Christs example can never be proved to be intended to oblige us more in this than in many other circumstances that are confessed not obligatory as that he delivered it but to Ministers and but to a family to twelve and after Supper and on a Thursday night and in an upper room c. And his gesture was not such a sitting as ours 2. And for the Nature of the Ordinance it is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed Pardon from Christ by his Embassadour upon our knees § 41. Quest. 4. But what if I cannot receive it but according to the administration of the Common-prayer-Book Quest. 4. or some other imposed form of prayer Is it lawful so to take it Answ. If it be unlawful to receive it when it is administred with the Common-prayer-book it is either 1. Because it is a form of prayer 2. Or because that form hath some forbidden matter in it 3. Or because that form is imposed 4. Or because it is imposed to some evil end and consequent 1. That it is not unlawful because a form is proved before and indeed needs no proof with any that is judicious 2. Nor yet for any Evil in this particular form for in this part the Common-prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is Imposed For a Command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with and for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light § 42. In the General I must here tell all the people of God in the bitter sorrow of my soul that at last it is time for them to discern that Temptation that hath in all ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our Union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions And that true humility and acquaintance with our selves and sincere Love to Christ and one another would shew some men that it was but their pride and prejudice and ignorance that made them think so heinously of other mens manner of Worship and that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their Worship is not so odious as prejudice and faction and partiality representeth it and that God accepteth that which obey reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common people by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that party which he taketh to be the right Church and for worshipping in that Manner which he and his party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every part by this is brought to account that ridiculous and vile which the other party accounteth best § 43. Quest. 5. But what if my conscience be not satisfied but I am still in doubt must I not forbear Quest. 5. seeing he that doubteth is condemned if he eat because he eateth not in faith for whatsoever Rom. 14. 24. is not of faith is sin Answ. The Apostle there speaketh not of eating in the Sacrament but of eating meats which he doubteth of whether they are lawful but is sure that it is lawful to forbear them And in case of doubting about things indifferent the surer side is to forbear them because there may be sin in doing but there can be none on the other side in forbearing But in case of Duties your doubting will not disoblige you Else men might give over praying and hearing Gods Word and believing and obeying their Rulers and maintaining their families when they are but blind enough to doubt of it 2. Your erring conscience is not a Law-maker and cannot make it your duty to obey it For God is your King and the Office of Conscience is to discern his Laws and urge you to obedience and not to make you Laws of its own So that if it speak falsly it doth not oblige you but deceive you It doth only ligare or ensnare you but not obligare or make a sin a duty It casteth you into a necessity of sinning more or less till you relinquish the error But in the case of such duties as these it is a sin to do them with a doubting conscience but ordinarily it is a greater sin to forbear § 44. Object But some Divines write that Conscience being Gods Officer when it erreth God himself doth bind me by it to follow that error and the evil which it requireth becometh my duty Answ. A dangerous error tending to the subversion of souls and Kingdoms and highly dishonourable to God God hath made it your Duty to know his will and do it And if you ignorantly mistake him will you lay the blame on him and draw him into participation of your sin when he forbiddeth you both the error and the sin And doth he at once forbid and command the same thing At that very moment God is so far from obliging you to follow your error that he still obligeth you to lay it by and do the contrary If you say You cannot I answer Your impotency is a sinful impotency and you can use the means in which his graee can help you and he will not change his Law nor make you Kings and Rulers of your selves instead of him because you are ignorant or impotent § 45. Direct 7. In the time of the administration go along with the Minister throughout the work and keep your hearts close to Iesus Christ in the exercise of all those graces which are suited to the several parts of the administration Think not that all the work must be the Ministers It should be a busie day with you and your hearts should be taken up with as much diligence as your hands be in your common labour But not in a toilsome weary diligence but in such Delightful business as becometh the guests of the God of Heaven at so sweet a feast and in the receiving of such unvaluable gifts § 46. Here I should distinctly shew you I. What graces they be
and accordingly your speech must be mixt and tempered and your counsels or comforts given with the Conditions and Suppositions exprest § 13. Quest. But what order would you have us observe in speaking to the ignorant and ungodly Quest. 5. when the time is so short Answ. 1. Labour to awaken them to a lively sense of the change which is at hand that they may Answ. understand the necessity of looking after the state of their souls 2. Then shew them what are the terms of salvation and who they are that the Gospel doth judge to salvation or damnation 3. Next advise them to try which of these is their condition and to deal faithfully seeing self-flattery may undo them but can do them no good 4. Then help them in the tryal q. d. If it have been so or so with you then you may know that this is your case 5. Then tell them the Reasons of your fears if you fear they are unconverted or of your hopes if you hope indeed that it is better with them 6. Then exhort them conditionally if they are yet in a carnal unsanctified state to lament it and be humbled and penitent for their sinful and ungodly life 7. And then tell them the Remedy in Christ and the Holy Ghost and the Promise or Covenant of Grace 8. And lastly tell them their present duty that this Remedy may prove effectual to their salvation And if you have so much interest or authority as maketh it fit for you excite them by convenient questions so far to open their case as may direct you and as by their answers may shew whether they truly resolve for a holy life if God restore them and whether their hearts indeed be changed or not § 14. Direct 7. If you are not able to instruct them as you should read some good Book to Direct 7. them which is most suitable to their case Such as Mr. Perkins Right art of Dying well The Practice of Piety in the Directions for the Sick Mr. Ed. Lawrences Treatise of Sickness or what else is most suitable to them And because most are themselves unable for counselling the sick aright and you may not have a fit Book at hand I shall here subjoyn a brief Form or two for such to Read to the Sick that can endure no long discourse And other books will help you to forms of Prayer with them if you cannot pray without such help § 15. Direct 8. Iudge not of the state of mens souls by those carriages in their sickness which Direct 8. proceed from their diseases or bodily distemper Many ignorant people judge of a man by the manner of his dying If one die in calmness and clearness of understanding and a few good words they think that this is to die like a Saint Whereas in Consumptions and oft in Dropsies and other such Chronical diseases this is ordinary with good and bad And in a Feaver that 's violent or a Phrensie or Distraction the best man that is may die without the use of Reason Some diseases will make one blockish and heavy and unapt to speak and some consist with as much freedom of speech as in time of health The state of mens souls must not be judged of by such accidental unavoidable things as these § 16. Direct 9. Be neither unnaturally sensless at the death of friends nor excessively dejected or afflicted Direct 9. To make light of the Death of Relations and friends be they good or bad is a sign of a very vitious nature that is so much selfish as not much to regard the Lives of others And he that regardeth not the Life of his friends is little to be trusted in his lower concernments I speak not this of those persons whose temper alloweth them not to weep For there may be as deep a regard and sorrow in some that have no tears as in others that abound with them But I speak of a naughty selfish nature that is little affected with any ones concernments but its own § 17. Yet your grief for the death of friends must be very different both in degree and kind 1. For ungodly friends you must grieve for their own sakes because if they dyed such they are lost for ever 2. For your Godly friends you must mourn for the sake of your selves and others because God hath removed such as were blessings to those about them 3. For choice Magistrates and Ministers and other instruments of publick good your sorrow must be greater because of the common loss and the judgement thereby inflicted on the World 4. For old tryed Christians that have overcome the world and lived so long till age and weakness make them almost unserviceable to the Church and who groan to be unburdened and to be with Christ your sorrow should be least and your joy and thanks for their happiness should be greatest But especially abhor that nature that secretly is glad of the death of Parents or little sorrowful because that their estates are faln to you or you are enriched or set at liberty by their death God seldom leaveth this sin unrevenged by some heavy judgements even in this life § 18. Direct 10. To overcome your inordinate grief for the death of your relations consider these Direct 10. things following 1. That excess of sorrow is your sin And sinning is an ill use to be made of your Help against excessive grief for the Death of friends affliction 2. That it tendeth to a great deal more It unfitteth you for many duties which you are bound to as to Rejoice in God and to be Thankful for mercies and cheerful in his Love and Praise and Service And is it a small sin to unfit your selves for the greatest duties 3. If you are so troubled at Gods disposal of his own what doth your Will but rise up against the will of God as if you grudged at the exercise of his Dominion and Government that is that he is God! Who is wisest and Best and fittest to dispose of all mens lives Is it God or you Would you not have God to be the Lord of all and to dispose of Heaven and earth and of the lives and Crowns of the greatest Princes If you would not you would not have him to be God If you would is it not unreasonable that you or your friends only should be excepted from his disposal 4. If your friends are in Heaven how unsuitable is it for you to be overmuch mourning for them when they are rapt into the highest Joyes with Christ and Love should teach you to rejoice with them that rejoice and not to mourn as those that have no hope 5. You know not what mercy God Isa. 57. 1. shewed to your friends in taking them away from the evil to come you know not what suffering Phil. 1. 2◠23. the Land or Church is falling into or at least might have faln upon themselves nor what sins they might have
among them and defile them 7. It is the duty of the several members of the flock if a Brother trespass against them to tell him his faults between them and him and if he hear not to take two or three and if he hear not them to tell the Church 8. It is the Pastors duty to admonish the unruly and call them to Repentance and pray for their Conversion 9. And it is the Pastors duty to declare the obstinately impenitent uncapable of Communion with the Church â—nd to charge him to forbear it and the Church to avoid him 10. It is the peoples duty to avoid such accordingly and have no familiarity with them that they may be ashamed and with such no not to eat 11. It is the Pastors duty to Absolve the Penitent declaring the remission of their sin and re-admitting to the Communion of the Saints 12. It is the peoples duty to re-admit the absolved to their Communion with joy and to take them as Brethren in the Lord. 13. Though every Pastor hath a General power to exercise his office in any part of the Church where he shall be truly called to it yet every Pastor hath a special obligation and consequently a special power to do it over the flock of which he hath received the special charge and oversight 14. The Lords day is separated by Gods appointment for the Churches ordinary holy Communion in Gods Worship under the conduct of these their Guides 15. And it is requisite that the several particular Churches do maintain as much agreement among themselves as their capacity will allow them and keep due Synods and correspondencies to that end Thus much of Gods Worship and Church-order and Government at least is of Divine institution and determined by Scripture and not left to the will or liberty of man Thus far the Form of Government at least is of Divine Right § 21. But on the contrary 1. About Doctrine and Worship the Scripture is no Law in any of these following cases but hath left them undetermined 1. There are many natural Truths which the Scripture meddleth not with As Physicks Metaphysicks Logick c. 2. Scripture telleth not a Minister what particular Text or Subject he shall Preach on this day or that 3. Nor what method his Text or Subject shall be opened and handled in 4. Nor what day of the week besides the Lords day he shall preach nor what hour on the Lords day he shall begin 5. Nor in what particular place the Church shall meet 6. Nor what particular sins we shall most confess nor what personal mercies we shall at this present time first ask nor for what we shall now most copiously give thanks For special occasions must determine all these 7. Nor what particular Chapter we shall now read nor what particular Psalm we shall now sing 8. Nor what particular translation of the Scripture or version of the Psalms we shall now use Nor into what Sections to distribute the Scripture as we do by Chapters and Verses Nor whether the Bible shall be Printed or Written or in what Characters or how bound 9. Nor just by what sign I shall express my consent to the truths or duties which I am called to express consent to besides the Sacraments and ordinary words 10. Nor whether I shall use written Notes to help my memory in Preaching or Preach without 11. Nor whether I shall use a writing or book in prayer or pray without 12. Nor whether I shall use the same words in preaching and prayer or various new expressions 13. Nor what utensils in holy administrations I shall use as a Temple or an ordinary house a Pulpit a font a Table cups cushions and many such which belong to the several parts of Worship 14. Nor in what particular gesture we shall preach or read or hear 15. Nor what particular garments Ministers or people shall wear in time of Worship 16. Nor what natural or artificial helps to our natural faculties Of which I have spoke more fully in my Disput. 5. of Church-Government p. 400. c. we shall use as medicaments for the Voice tunes musical instruments spectacles hour-glasses These and such like are undetermined in Scripture and are left to be determined by humane prudence not as men please but as means in order to the proper end according to the General Laws of Christ. For Scripture is a General Law for all such circumstances but not a particular Law So also for Order and Government Scripture hath not particularly determined 1. What individual persons shall be the Pastors of the Church 2. Or of just how many persons the Congregations shall consist 3. Or how the Pastors shall divide their work where there are many 4. Nor how many every Church shall have 5. Nor what particular people shall be a Pastors special charge 6. Nor what individual persons he shall Baptize receive to Communion admonish or absolve 7. Nor in what words most of these shall be expressed 8. Nor what number of Pastors shall meet in Synods for the communion and agreement of several Churches noâ— how oft nor at what time or place nor what particular order shall be among them in their consultations with many such like § 22. When you thus understand how far Scripture is a Law to you in the Worship of God it will be the greatest Direction to you to keep you both from disobeying God and your Superiours that you may neither pretend obedience to man for your disobedience to God nor pretend obedience to God against your due obedience to your Governours as those will do that think Scripture is a more particular Rule than ever Christ intended it And it will prevent abundance of unnecessary scruples contentions and divisions § 23. Direct 12. Observe well in Scripture the difference between Christs Universal Laws which Direct 12. bind all his Subjects in all times and places and those that are but local personal or alterable Laws What commands of God are not universal noâ— perpetual lest you think that you are bound to all that ever God bound any others to The Universal Laws and unalterable are those which result from the Foundation of the universal and unalierable nature of persons and things and those which God hath supernaturally revealed as suitable constantly to all The particular local or temporary Laws are those which either resulted from a particular or alterable nature of persons and things as mutually related as the Law of nature bound Adams Sons to marry their Sisters which bindeth others against it or those which God supernaturally enacted only for some particular people or person or for a time If you should mistake all the Iewish Laws for universal Laws as to persons or duration into how many errours would it lead you So also if you mistake every personal mandate sent by a Prophet or Apostle to a particular man as obliging all you would make a snare of it Every man is not to abstain
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
Or will you presume to bind God himself by your Vows that he shall make no such alteration Or if you were never so confident of your own unchangeableness you know not what fond and violent affections another may be possessed with which may make an alteration in your duty At the present it may be your duty to live retiredly and avoid Magistracy and publick employments But you may not therefore Vow it for continuance For you know not but God may make such alterations as may make it so great and plain a duty as without flat impiety or cruelty you cannot refuse Perhaps at the present it may be your duty to give half your yearly revenews to charitable and pious uses But you must not therefore Vow it for continuance without some special cause to warrant it For perhaps the next year it may be your duty to give but a fourth or a tenth part or none at all according as the providence of God shall dispose of your estate and you Perhaps God may impose a clear necessity on you of using your estate some other way § 21. Direct 11. If you be under Government you may not lawfully Vow without your Governours Direct 11. consent to do any thing which you may not lawfully do without their consent in case you had not Vowed it For that were 1. Actually to disobey them at the present by making a Vow without the direction and consent of your Governours 2. And thereby to bind your selves to disobey them for the future by doing that without them which you should not do without them But if it be a thing that you may do or must do though your Governours forbid you then you may Vow it though they forbid you if you have a call from the necessity of the Vow § 22. Direct 12. If Oaths be commanded us by Usurpers that have no authority to impose them we Direct 12. must not take them in formal obedience to their commands For that were to own their Usurpation and encourage them in their sin If we owe them no obedience in any thing we must not obey them in so great a thing Or if they have some authority over us in other matters but none in this as a Constable hath no power to give an Oath we must not obey them in the point where they have no authority But yet it is possible that there may be other reasons that may make it our duty to do it though not as an act of formal obedience As I may take an Oath when a Thief or Murderer requireth it not to obey him but to save my life And if any man command me to do that which God commandeth me I must do 〈…〉 because God commandeth it § 23. Direct 13. If a lawful Magistrate impose an Oath or Vow upon you before you take it you Direct 13. must consult with God and know that it is not against his will God must be first obeyed in all things but especially in matters of so great moment as Vows and Promises § 24. Quest. 1. What if I be in doubt whether the Oath or promise imposed be lawful Must I take it or not If I take an Oath which I judge unlawful or false I am a perjured or prophane despiser of God And if a man must refuse all Oaths or promises which the Magistrate commandeth if he do but doubt whether they be lawful then Government and Iustice will be injured while every man that hath ignorance enough to make him dubious shall refuse all Oaths and promises of Allegiance or for witness to the truth Answ. 1. I shall tell you what others say first in the case of doubting Dr. Sanderson saith Praelect 3. Sect. 10. pag. 74 75. Tertius Casus est cum quis juramento pollicetur se facturum aliquid in se fortassis licitum quod tamen ipse putat esse illicitum Ut siquis ante haec tempora admittendus ad beneficium ut vocant Ecclesiasticum promisisset in publicis sacris observare omnes ritus legibus Ecclesiasticis imperatos vestem scilicet lineam crucis signum ad sacrum fontem ingeniculationem in percipiendis Symbolis in sacra coena id genus alios quos ipse tamen ex aliquo levi praejudicio putaret esse superstitiosos Papisticos Quaeritur in hoc casu quae sit Obligatio Pro Resp. dico tria Dico 1. Non posse tale juramentum durante tali errore siâ—e gravi peccato suscipi Peccat enim graviter qui contra conscientiam peccat etsi erroneam Iudicium enim intellectus cum sit unicuique proxima agendi regula Voluntas si judicium illud non sequatur deficiens a regula sua necesse est ut in obliquum feratur Tritum est illud Qui facit contra conscientiam aedificat ad gehennam Sane qui jurat in id quod putat esse illicitum nihilominus juraturus esset si esset revera illicitum Atque ita res illa ut ut alii licita est tamen ipsi illicita sententiam ferente Apostolo Rom. 14. 14. c. Dico 2. Tale juramentum non obligare c. that is The third case is when a man promiseth by Oath that he will do a thing which in it self perhaps is lawful but he thinketh to be unlawful As if one before these times being to be admitted to an Ecclesiastical Benefice as they call it had promised that in publick worship he would observe all the rites commanded in the Ecclesiastick Laws to wit the Surplice the Sign of the Cross at the sacred Font kneeling in the receiving of the symbols in the holy Supper and others the like which yet out of some light prejudice he thought to be superstitious and Papistical The Question is What Obligation there is in this case For answer I say three things 1. I say that an Oath while such an error lasteth cannot be taken without grievous sin For he grievously sinneth who sinneth against his conscience although it be erroneous For when the judgement of the intellect is to every man the nearest rule of action it must be that the will is carryed into obliquity if it follow not that judgement as swerving from its rule It s a common saying He that doth against his conscience buildeth unto Hell Verily he that sweareth to that which he thinketh to be See before Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 10. pag. 125 c. unlawful would nevertheless swear if it were indeed unlawful And so the thing though lawful to another is to him unlawful the Apostle passing the sentence Rom. 14. 14 c. 2. I say that such an Oath bindeth not c. Of the Obligation I shall speak anon but of the Oath or Promise I think the truth lyeth here as followeth § 25. 1. The Question de esse must first be resolved before the Question of Knowing or Opinion Either the thing is really lawful which is doubted of or denyed or it is not
the greatness of the benefit require it yet being taken it is nevertheless obligatory Sand. p. 122. ad p. 133. supposing nothing else do make it void Man is a free Agent and cannot be forced though he may be frightned If he swear to a thief for the saving of his life he voluntarily doth choose the inconveniences of the oath as a means to save his life Therefore being a voluntary act it is obligatory Else there should be no obligation on us to suffer for Christ but any thing might be sworn or done to escape suffering See of this Dr. Sanderson largely Praelect 4. sect 14 15 16. The Imposition and the Oath are different things In the Imposition a thief or Tyrant is the party commanding and I am the party commanded And his having no authority to command me doth nullifie only his command and maketh me not obliged to obey him nor to take it in any obedience to him But yet if I do take it without any authority obliging me as private oathes are taken it is still an Oath or Vow in which the Parties are God and man Man Vowing and making himself a Debtor to God And God hath Authority to require me to Keep my Vows when men have no authority to require me to make them All men confess that private Vows bind And the nullity of the Imposers authority maketh them but private Vows This case is easie and commonly agreed on § 33. Rule 19. If in a complex Vow or promise there be many things which prove materially unlawful Rule 19. and one or more that are lawful the conjunction of the things unlawful doth not disoblige me from the Vow of doing the Lawful part Otherwise a man might make void all his Vows to God and Oaths and Covenants with men by putting in something that is Evil with the good And so God and the King and our Neighbours would all have their debts paid by our sin and injury done them on the by § 34. Rule 20. If some part of that which you Vowed become Impossible that doth not disoblige Rule 20. you from so much as remaineth possible As if you vow Allegiance to the King and Tyrants or disability hinder you from serving him as Subjects in some one particular way you remain still obliged to serve him by those other wayes in which you are yet capable to serve him So if you had taken an Oath against Popery to Preach against it and reject the practice of it and for ever renounce it this would not bind you from the common truths and duties of Christianity which Papists hold in common with all other Christians nor could you Preach against Popery if you were hindered by imprisonment banishment or restraint But you have still power to forbear Approving consenting subscribing or practising their errours And this you are still bound to do § 35. Rule 21. Though you are not bound to do that of your Vow which changes have made impossible Rule 21. or unlawful yet if another change make them possible and lawful again your obligation doth return afresh unless you made it with such limitation It is not a temporary cessation of the matter or end or correlate that will perpetually discharge you from your Vow If your Wife be taken Captive many years when she returneth you are bound to the duties of a Husband If the King be expelled by Usurpers you are bound at present to so much duty as is possible and to obey him as your actual Governour when he returneth But in the case of servants and Souldiers and other temporary Relations it is otherwise For a removal may end the Relation it self If you promise to Preach the Gospel to medicate the sick to relieve the poor to reform your families c. you are not hereby obliged to do it while any unresistible impediment maketh it impossible But when the hinderance ceaseth you are obliged to do it again the matter and your capacity being restored § 36. Rule 22. Therefore many a Vow and promise may be lawfully unperformed which may not be Rule 22. renounced or disclaimed When you are taken Captives you must forbear your duty to your King your father your husband or wife but you may not therefore renounce them and say I have no obligation to them no not to the death because they are Relations for life And how improbable soever it may seem that you should be returned to them yee God can do it and you must wait on him § 37. Rule 23. A former Vow or promise is not nullified by a later that contradicteth it Otherwise Rule 23. a mâ—n might disoblige himself at his pleasure Yet he that maketh contrary Vows obligeth Sanders p 50. himself to contraries and impossibles and bringeth a necessity of perjury on himself for not doing the things impossible which he vowed And in some cases a later promise to men may null a former when we made the former with the reserve of such a power or liberty or are justly supposed to have power to recall a former promise or when it is the duty of a mutable Relation which we Vow as of a Physicion a Schoolmaster c. and by a later Vow we change the Relation it self which we may still lawfully change § 38. Rule 24. The Actus jurandi must still be distinguished from the materia juramenti And it Rule 24. very often cometh to pass that the Act of swearing or the oath as our act is unlawfully done and was a sin from the beginning and yet it is nevertheless obligatory as long as the res jurata the matter Sanders p. 55 56. â—nquo â—aâ—â— locum habet quod vuâ—go dâ—citur Fiâ—ri non debeâ— factum â—alet Possumus ergo distinguere Juramentum dici illiciâ—um dâ—obâ—s modis Vel respectu rei juâ—atae vel respectu actus jâ— and Juramentum illicitum respectu rei juratae nuilatâ—nus obligat Juramentum illicitum respectu actus juraâ—â—â—â— obligat nisi aâ—â—unde impedâ—atur sworn is lawful or necessary Dr. Sanderson instanceth in Ioshua's oath to the Gibeonites The nature of the thing is proof enough For many a thing is sinfully done for want of a due call or manner or end that yet is done and is no nullity A man may sinfully enter upon the Ministry that yet is bound to do the duty of a Minister And many marriages are sinful that are no null ties § 39. Rule 25. The nullity of an oath ab initio is quando realiter vel reputative non juravimus Rule 25. when really or reputatively we did not swear The sinfulness of an oath is when we did swear really What is the Nullity of an Oath but unlawfully as to the ground or end or matter or manner or circumstances Really that man did not swear 1. Who spake not mentally nor orally the words of an oath 2. Who thought those words had signified no such thing and so had no
in all lawful things I cannot disoblige my self by my own Vows § 44. Yet here are very great difficulties in this case which causeth difference among the learnedst Sanderson p. 72 73. Dico ordinarie quia fortassis possunt darâ— casus in quibus juramentum quod videtur alicui lâ—gi communiâ—â—â—â—is aut vocatiâ—nâ—s adversari eâ—si non debuâ—rit suscipâ— susceptum tamen potest obligare Ut e. g. in lege poenali disjunctiva See the instances which he addeth Ioseph took an Oath of the Israelites to carry his bones out of Aegypt Gen. 50. 25. What if Pharaoh forbid them Are they acquit The Spies swore to Rhahab Iosh. 2. 12 18. Had they been quit if the Rulers had acquit them pious Casuists 1. If a Governour have before hand made a Law for that which I vow against it is supposed by many that my Vow is not to be kept the thing being not against the Law of God Because the first obligation holdeth 2. Yet some think that Magistrates Poenal Laws binding but aut ad obedientiam aut ad poenam to obedience or punishment I am therefore obliged in indifferent things to bear his penalty and to keep my Vow 3. But if I first make an Absolute Vow in a thing indifferent as to drink no Wine or to wear no Silks c. and the Magistrate afterwards command it me some think I am bound to keep my Vow because though I must obey the Magistrate in all things lawful yet my Vow hath made this particular thing to be to me unlawful before the Magistrate made it a duty 4. Though others think that even in this case the general obligation to obey my superiours preventeth my obliging my self to any particular which they may forbid in case I had not vowed it or against any particular which they may command 5. Others distinguish of things lawful or indifferent and say that some of them are such as become accidentally so useful or needful to the common good the end of Government that it is fit the Magistrate make a Law for it and the breaking of that Law will be so hurtful that my Vow cannot bind me to it as being now no indifferent thing But other indifferent things they say belong not to the Magistrate to determine of as what I shall eat or drink whether I shall marry or not what Trade I shall be of how each Artificer Tradesman or Professor of Arts and Sciences shall do the business of his profession c. And here the Magistrate they think cannot bind them against their Vows because their power of themselves in such private cases is greater than his power over them in those cases All these I leave as so many Questions unfit for me to resolve in the midst of the contentions of the Learned The great Reasons that move on both sides you may easily discern 1. Those that think an Oath in lawful things obligeth not contrary to the Magistrates antecedent or subsequent command are moved by this reason that else subjects and children might by their Vows exempt themselves from obedience and null Gods command of obeying our superiours 2. Those that think a Vow is obligatory against a Magistrates command are moved by this reason because else say they a Magistrate may at his pleasure dispense with all Vows except in things commanded before by God For he may come after and cross our Vows by his commands which against the Popes pretensions Protestants have denyed to be in the power of any mortal man And God say they hath the first right which none can take away I must not be forward in determining where Rulers are concerned only to those that may and must determine it I add these further materials to be considered of § 45. 1. It is most necessary to the decision of this case to understand how far the Inferiour that voweth was sui juris and had the power of himself when he made the Vow as to the making of it and how far he is sui juris as to the act which he hath vowed and to that end to know in a case where there is some power over his act both in his superiour and in himself whether his own power or his superiours as to that act be the greater 2. It is therefore needful to distinguish much between those acts that are of Private use and signification only and those that antecedently to the Rulers command are of publick use and nature or such as the Ruler is as much concerned in as the inferiour 3. It is needful to understand the true intent and sense of the command of our superiour whether Read of this at large Amesii Cas. Câ—â—s l. 5. c. 25. Qu. 4. it be really his intent to bind inferiours to break their Vows or whether they intend only to bind those that are not so entangled and pre-engaged by a Vow with a tacite exception of those that are And what is most just must be presumed unless the contrary be plain 4. It must be discerned whether the commands of superiours intend any further penalty than that which is affixed in their Laws As in our Poenal Laws about using Bow and Arrows and about fishing hunting c. whether it be intended that the offender be guilty of damnation or only that the threatned temporal penalty do satisfie the Law And whether God bind us to any further penalty than the superiour intendeth 5. The End of the Laws of men must be distinguished from the words And a great difference must be put between those forbidden acts that do no further harm than barely to cross the Letter of the Law or Will of a Superiour and those that cross the just end of the Command or Law and that either more or less as it is more or less hurtful to others or against the common good For then the matter will become sinful in it self 6. Whether Perjury or the unwilling violation of humane Laws be the greater sin and which in a doubtful case should be most feared and avoided it is easie to discern § 46. Rule 27. A Vow may be consequently made Null or Void 1. By cessation of the matter or Rule 27. any thing essential to it of which before § 13. or by a Dispensation or dissolution of it by God to whom we are obliged No doubt it is in Gods power to disoblige a man from his Vow But how he ever doth such a thing is all the doubt extraordinary revelations being ceased there is this way yet ordinary viz. by bringing the matter which I vowed to do under some prohibition of a General Law by the Changes of his Providence § 47. Rule 28. As to the power of man to dispense with Oaths and Vows there is a great and most Rule 28. remarkable difference between those Oaths and Vows where Man is the only party that we are primarily bound to and God is only appealed to as witness or judge as to the keeping of
taken upon a particular occasion must be generally or strictly interpreted Rule 44. unless there be special reasons for a restraint from the Matter End or other evidence As if you are afraid that your Son should marry such a Woman and therefore swear him not to marry without your Consent He is bound thereby neither to marry that Woman not any other Or if your servant haunt one particular Alehouse and you make him forswear All Houses in General he must avoid all other So Dr. Sanderson instanceth in the Oath of Supremacy p. 195. § 67. Rule 45. He that Voweth absolutely or implicitly to obey another in all things is bound to obey Rule 45. him in all lawful things where neither God nor other superiour or other person is injured unless the nature of the relation or the ends or reasons of the oath or something else infer a limitation as implyed § 68. Rule 46. Still distinguish between the falshood in the words as disagreeing to the Thing sworn and Rule 46. the falshood of them as disagreeing from the swearers mind The former is sometime excusable but the later never There are many other Questions about Oaths that belong more to the Chapter of Contracts and Justice between man and man and thither I refer them CHAP. VI. Directions to the People concerning their Internal and Private Duty to their Pastors and the improvement of their Ministerial Office and Guifts THe Peoples Internal and Private duty to their Pastors which I may treat of without an appearance of â—ncroachment upon the work of the Canons Rubricks and Diocesans I shall open to you in these Directions following § 1. Direct 1. Understand first the true Ground and Nature and Reasons of the Ministerial Direct 1. Office or else you will not understand the Grounds and Nature and Reasons of your duty to them The Diâ—â—â—â— 2. of Church-Government Ch. 1. And universal Coâ—coâ—d Nature and Works of the Ministerial Office I have so plâ—inly opened already that I shall referr you to it to avoid repetition Hâ—re are two sorts of Reasons to be given you 1. The Reasons of the necessity of the Ministerial work 2. Why certain persons must be separated to this work and it must not be left to all in common § 2. 1. The Necessity of the work it self appeareth in the very Nature of it and enumeration of the parts of it Two sorts of Ministers Christ hath made use of for his Church The first sâ—rt was for Of the differencâ— between fixed and uâ—fixed Ministers see my Disp. 2. 〈…〉 Church-Government and Ios. Acoâ—â—aâ— 5. â— 21. 22. dâ— Missionibus the Revelation of some New Law or Doctrine to be the Churches Rule of Faith or Life And these were to prove their authority and credibility by some Divine attestation which was especially by Miracles and so Moses revealed the Law to the Jews and Christ and the Apostles revealed the Gospel The second sort of Ministers are appointed to Guide the Church to salvation by opening and applying the Rule thus already sealed and delivered And these as they are to bring no new Revelations or Doctrines of faith or Rule of life so they need not bring any Miracle to prove their call or authority to the Church For they have no power to deliver any new Doctrine or Gospel to the Church but only that which is confirmed by Miracles already And it is impudency to demand that the same Gospel be proved by new Miracles by every Minister that shall expound or preach it That would make Miracles to be no Miracles § 3. The work of the ordinary Ministry such as the Priests and Teachers were under the Law The Work of the Ministry and ordinary Pastors and Teachers are under the Gospel being only to Gather and Govern the Churches their work lay in Explaining and Applying the Word of God and delivering his Sacraments and now containeth thâ—se particulars following 1. To Preach the Gospel for the Conversion Rom. 10. 7 14. Mar. 16. 15. of the unbelieving and ungodly world And that is done partly by expounding the words by a Translation into a tongue which the hearers or readers understand and partly by opening the sense Matth. 28. 19 20. and matter 2. In this they are not only Teachers but Messengers sent from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to charge and command and intreat men in his Nâ—me to Repent and believe and be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19 20 21. to God and in his Name to offer them a sâ—alâ—d pardon of all their sins and title to eternal life 3. Those that become the Disciples of Christ they are as his Stewards to receive into his Acts 26 17 18. Eph. 2. 19. house as fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the Houshold of God and as his Commissioned Officers Acts 2. 37 38 39 40. to solemnize by Baptism their enterance into the holy Covenant and to receive their engagement to God and to be the Messengers of Gods Engagement unto them and by Investiture to deliver them by that Sacrament the pardon of all their sin and their title by Adoption to â—ternal life As a house is delivered by the delivery of a Key or Land by a Twig and Turfe or Knighthood by a Sword or Garter c. 4. These Ministers are to gather these Converts into solemn Assemblies and ordered Churches Tit. 1. 7. 1 â—or 4. 1 2. Matth 28. 19 20. for their solemn worshipping of God and mutual edification communion and safe proceeding in their Christian course 5. They are to be the stated Teachers of the Assemblies by expounding and applying that Word which is fit to build them up 6. They are to be the Guides of the Congregation Acts 20. 32. 1 Cor. 3. 11 12. in publick Worship and to stand between them and Christ in things pertaining to God as subservient to Christ in his Priestly Office And so both for the people and also in their names to put Acts 14. 23. 2 Tim 2. 2. Acts 13. 2. 2. 41 42. 6. 2 Acts 20. 7 28. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Titus 1. 5. Acts 20 20 31. â—ol 1. 28. Eph 4 11 12. Mal. 2. 7. 1 Tim. 5. 17. up the publick Prayers and Praises of the Church to God 7. It is their duty to Administer to them as in the Name and stead of Christ his Body and Blood as broken and shed for them and so in the frequent renewals of the holy Covenants to subserve Christ especially in his Priestly Office to offer and deliver Christ and his benefits to them and to be their Agent in offering themselves to God 8. They are appointed to Oversâ—e and Govern the Church in the publick Ordering of the solemn Worship of God and in râ—buking any that are there disorderly and seeing that all things be done to edification 9. They are appointed as Teachers for every particular Member of the Church to have private
he calleth them out of Babylon It 's true you must partake with no Church in their sins but you may partake with any Church in their holy profession and worship so far as you can do it without partaking with them in their sins § 88. Direct 11. Understand what it is that maketh you partakers of the sins of a Church or any Direct 11. member of it lest you think you are bound to separate from them in good as well as in evil Many fly from the publick Assemblies lest they partake of the sins of those that are there present Certainly nothing but Consent direct or indirect can make their faults to become yours And therefore nothing which signifieth not some such consent should be on that account avoided 1. If you by word or subscription or furtherance own any mans sin you directly consent to it 2. If you neglect any duty which lyeth upon you for the cure of his sin you indirectly consent For you consent that he shall rather continue in his sin than you will do your part to help him out of it Consider therefore how far you are bound to reprove any sin or to use any other means for the reformation of it whether it be in the Pastor or the people and if you neglect any such means your way is to reform your own neglect and do your duty and not to separate from the Church before you have done your duty to reform it But if you have done all that is your part then the sin is none of yours though you remain there present § 89. It is a turbulent fanâ—ie and disquieting errour of some people to think that their presence Quest. Whether presence be not a consent to sin in the Assembly and continuance with the Church doth make them guilty of the personal faults of those they joyn with If so who would ever joyn with any Assembly in the World Quest. But what if they be gross and scandalous sinners that are members of the Church Answ. If you be wanting in your duty to reform it it is your sin But if bare presence made their sins to be ours it would also make all the sins of the Assembly ours But no word of God doth intimate any such thing Paul never told the Churches of Galatia and Corinth so that had so many defiled members Quest. But what if they are sins committed in the open Assembly even by the Minister himself in his praying preaching and other administrations and what if all this be imposed on him by a Law and so I am certain before hand that I must joyn with that which is unwarrantable in Gods Worship Answ. The next Direction containeth those distinctions that are necessary to the answer of this § 90. Direct 12. Distinguish carefully 1. Between a Ministers Personal faults and his Ministerial Direct 12. faults 2. Between his tolerable weaknesses and his intolerable insufficiencies 3. And between the work ☜ of the Minister and of the Congregation And then you will see your doubt resolved in these following Propositions § 91. 1. A Ministers personal faults as swearing lying drunkenness c. may damn himself Saith Câ—â—aâ—thâ—s in â—art The Peripâ—â—â—â—ticks are like Letters that sound well but hear not themselves and must be matter of lamentation to the Church and they must do their best to reform them or to get a better Pastor by any lawful means But in case they cannot his sin is none of theirs nor doth it make his administration null of ineffectual nor will it allow you to separate from the Worship which he administreth Though many of the Priests were wicked men the Godly Jews were not thereby disobliged from Gods publick Worship or sacrifices which were to be offered by their hands Otherwise how sad a case were the Church in that must answer for the sins which they never committed nor could reform But no Scripture chargeth this upon them § 92. 2. It is not all Ministerial faults that will allow you to separate from or disown a Minister Yet I excuse not imâ—iâ—ty or insufficiency in Ministers but only those that prove him or his ministration utterly intolerable Such are 1. An utter insufficiency in knowledge or utterance for the necessary parts of the Ministerial work As if he be not able to Teach the necessary points of Christian Religion nor to administer the Sacraments and other parts of publick Worship 2. If he set himself to oppose the very ends of his Ministry and Preach down It was one of Soloâ—s Laws Qâ—i nequitia ac slaâ—itiis insignis est tribunali publicisque sâ—â—gâ—stis arâ—eâ—dus est And Gildas saith to the ungodly Pastors of Britain Apparet ergò â—um qui vos sacerdotes sclers ex corde dicit noâ—â—sse exiâ—ium Christianum Quomodo vos aliquid solvetis ut sit solutum iâ— coelis à coelo ob scâ—lâ—ra adempti immaniâ—m peccatorum fuâ—ibus coâ—pâ—diti Qua ratione aliquid in teâ—â—a ligabitis quod supra mundum etiam ligetur propter vosmâ—t iâ—sos qâ—i ita ligaâ—i iniquitatibus iâ— hoc mundo tenemini ut in coelos nunquam asâ—endatis sed in infausta taâ—tari ergastula non conversi in haâ— vita ad dominum dâ—â—idatis fol. ult O iniâ—ici Dei noâ— sacerdotes O liciâ—atores malorum non poâ—tifices traditores non sanctorum Apostolorum successorâ—s inpugnatorâ— non Christi ministri pag. 571. impres Basil. Godliness or any part of it that is of necessity to salvation For then he doth the Devils work in seeking the damnation of souls and so maketh himself the Devils Minister and is not the Minister of Christ. For the end is essential to the Relation Herein I include a Preacher of Heresie that doth preach up any damning errour and preach down any necessary saving Truth that is that preacheth such errour as subverteth either Faith or Godliness and doth more harm in the Church than Good 3. If he so deprave Gods publick Worship as to destroy the substance of it and make it unacceptable and offer up a publick false-worship to God which he disowneth in the very matter of it As if he put up blaspheamy for praise and prayer or commit Idolatry or set up New Sacraments and guide the people thus in publick Worship As the Papists Priests do that adore bread with Divine Worship and pray to the dead and offer real Sacrifices for them c. Such Worship is not to be joyned in 4. Or if they impose any actual sin upon the people As in their Responds to speak any falshood or to adore the bread or the like These faults discharge us from being present with such Pastors at such Worship But besides these there are many Ministerial faults which warrant not our separation As 1. The internal vices of the Pastors mind though manifested in their Ministration As some tolerable errours of judgement or envy and pettish opposition to others Phil. 1. 15. Some
sins 4. And another thing to forbear all communion with them even as to Baptism and other lawful things 5. And another thing to use some open detestations or protestations against them 2. And we must distinguish much of persons whether they be Ministers or people free or bound as Wives Children c. And now I answer 1. There is no question but it is a duty to judge all that evil which is evil among the Papists or any other 2. It is the duty of all to forbear subscribing swearing to or otherwise approving evil 3. It is the duty of all Mass-Priests to renounce that part of their calling and not to administer their Mass or any other unlawful thing 4. It is the duty of all private Christians to forbear communion in the Mass because it is a kind of Idolatry while they worship a piece of Bread as God As also Image-Worship and all other parts of their Religion in which they are put upon sin themselves or that which is notorious scandal and symbolizing with them in their Bread-worship or other corruptions of the substance of Gods Ordinances 5. It is their duty who have fit opportunity when it is like to do more good than harm to protest against the Papal corruptions where they are and to declare their detestation of them 6. It is the duty of those that have children to be baptized or catechized to make use of more lawful and sound Ministers when they may be had rather than of a Papist Priest 7. But in case they cannot remove or enjoy better I think it is lawful 1. To let such baptize their children rather than leave them unbaptized 2. To let their children be taught by them to read or in Arts and Sciences or the Catechism and common principles of Religion so they will mix no dangerous errors 3. And to hear those of them preach who preach soundly and piously such as were Gerrhard Zuâ—phaniensis Thaulerus Ferus and many more 4. And to read such good Books as these now mentioned have written 5. And to joyn with them in such Prayers as are â—ound and pious so they go no further 8. And Wives Children and such other as are bound and cannot lawfully remove may stay among them and take up with thâ—se helps dealing faithfully in abstaining from the rest II. The second Question is answered in this Only I add that it is one thing to be present as Elias was in a way of opposition to them or as Disputants are that open their errors or as a wise man may go to hear or see what they do without complyance as we read their Books And it is another thing to joyn with them in their sinful worship or scandalously to encourage them in it by seeming so to do See Calv. Contr. Nicod c. Quest. 7. Whether the true Calling of the Minister by Ordination or Election c. be necessary to the Essence of the Church BY a Church here we mean a Political Society of Christians and not any Assembly or Community And no doubt but Pastor and Flock are the constitutive parts of such a Church And where either of them are notoriously wanting it is notorious that there is no true Church Therefore all the doubt is whether such parts of his Call be necessary to the being of the Ministry or not And here we must conclude that the word Ministry and Church are ambiguous By a Mister or Pastor is meant either one that God so far owneth as to accept and justifie his administrations as for himself even his own good and salvation or one whose administrations God will own accept and bless to the people I. In the former sense 1. He is no true Minister that wanteth the essential qualifications of a Minister viz. that hath not 1. The understanding and belief of all the essential Articles of faith without Heresie 2. Tolerable Ability to teach these to the people and perform the other essentials of his office 3. Sincere Godliness to do all this in Love and obedience to God as his Servant in order to life eternal 2. And he is thus no true Pastor as to Gods acceptance of himself who hath not a lawful Calling that is 1. Ordination when it may be had 2. The Consent or Reception of that Church of which he pretendeth to be Pastor which is still necessary and must be had if Ordination cannot II. But in the second sense he is a Pastor so far as that God will own his Administrations as to the Peoples Good who 1. Hath possession 2. And seemeth to them to have necessary qualifications and a lawful call though it prove otherwise so be it it be not through their wilful fault that he is culpable or they mistaken in him If he be not a true Believer but an Infidel or Heretick he is no Minister as Act. 1. 17. Mat. 7. 22. to himself that is God will use him as an Usurper that hath no title But if he profess to be a believer when he is not he is a true Pastor visibly to the people Otherwise they could never know when they have a Pastor Even as real faith makes a real Christian and Professed faith maketh a visible Christian so is it as to the Ministry If he seem to understand the Articles of faith and do not or if he seem to have due ordination when he hath not if he be upon this mistake Accepted by the people he is a true Visible Pastor as to them that is as to their Duty and Benefit though not as to himself Yea the peoples consent to his entrance is not necessary ad esse nor to his Relation neither so far as to justifie himself but to his Administrations and to his Relation so far as their own Right and benefit is interessed in it So that two things are necessary to such a Visible Pastor as shall perform valid administrations to the Church 1. Seeming necessary qualifications and Calling to it 2. Possession by the peoples Reception or Consent to his Administrations and Relation so far as to their benefit And II. Thus also we must distinguish of the word Church It is 1. Such an entire Christian society as hath a Minister or Pastor whose office is valid as to himself and them Or it is such a society only as hath a Pastor whose office is valid to them but not to himself Let us not confound the question de re and de nomine These societies differ as is said Both may fitly be called True Churches As it is with a Kingdom which hath a Rightful Prince and one that hath an Usurper so is it here 1. If it have a Rightful King accepted it is a Kingdom in the fullest sense 2. If it have an Usurper accepted as King it is a Kingdom but faulty 3. If the Usurper be only so far accepted as that the people consent not to his entrance no nor his Relation so as to justifie his title but wish him cast out
own part in such cases I would do thus 1. I would look at my ultimate end Gods Glory and at the next end the Good of souls and welfare Eph. 4. 12 14. 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 14. 19. Rom. 15. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 23. 1 Cor. 14. 5 12 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. of the Church and so at the Peoples Interest as it is the End of the Order of Magistracy and Ministry And I would take my self to be so obliged to that end as that no point of meer Order could disoblige me the End being better than the Means as such Therefore I would do all things to edification supposing that all Power of man is as Paul's was for Edification and not for destruction 2. But in judging of what is Best for the Church I must take in every accident and circumstance and look to many more than to a few and to distant parts as well as to those near me and to the time and ages to come as well as to the present and not go upon mistaken suppositions of the Churches good He that doth not see all things that are to be weighed in such a case may err by leaving out some one 3. I would obey the Magistrate formally for conscience sake in all things which belong to his Office And particularly in this case if it were but a Removal from place to place in respect to the Temple or Tythes or for the Civil peace or for the preservation of Church order in cases where it is not grosly injurious to the Church and Gospel 4. In cases which by Gods appointment belong to the Conduct of Bishops or Pastors or the Concord of Consociate Churches I would formaliter follow them And in particular if they satisfie me that the removal of me is an apparent injury to the Church As in the Arrians times when the Emperours removed the Orthodox from all the Great Churches to put in Arrians I would not obedientially and voluntarily remove 5. If Magistrates and Bishops should concur in commanding my remove in a case notoriously injurious and pernicious to the Church as in the aforesaid case to bring in an Arrian I would not obey formally for conscience sake supposing that God never gave them such a power against mens souls and the Gospel of Christ And there is no power but of God 6. But I would prefer both the Command of the Magistrate and the Direction of the Pastors before the meer will and humour of the people when their safety and welfare were not concerned in the case 7. And when the Magistrate is peremptory usually I must obey him Materially when I do it not formally in conscience to his meer Command Because though in some cases he may do that which belongeth not to his Office but to the Pastors yet his violence may make it become the Churches interest that I yield and give place to his wrath For as I must not Resist him by force so if I depart not at his Command it may bring a greater suffering on the Churches And so for preventing a greater evil he is to be submitted to in many cases where he goeth against God and without authority though not to be formally obeyed 8. Particular Churches have no such interest in their Ministers or Pastors as to keep them against their wills and the Magistrates and against the interest of the Universal Church as shall be next asserted I have spoken to this instance as it taketh in all other cases of difference between the Power of the Magistrate the Pastors and the peoples interest when they disagree and not as to this case alone Quest. 104. Is a Pastor obliged to his Flock for Life Or is it lawful so to oblige himself And may be remove without their Consent And so also of a Church-member the same questions are put THese four Questions I put together for brevity and shall answer them distinctly I. 1. A Minister is obliged to Christ and the Universal Church for Life durante vita with this exception if God disable him not 2. But as a Pastor he is not obliged to this or that flock for life There is no such command or example in Gods Word II. To the second 1. It is lawful to oblige our selves to a people for life in some cases conditionally that is If God do not apparently call us away 2. But it is never lawful to do it Absolutely 1. Because we shall engage our selves against God against his power over us and interest in us and his wisdom that must guide us God may call us whither he please And though now he speak not by supernatural revelation yet he may do it by providential alterations 2. And we shall else oblige our selves against the Universal Church to which we are more strictly bound than to any particular Church and whose good may oblige us to remove 3. Yea we may bind our selves to the hurt of that Church it self seeing it may become its interest to part with us 4. And we should so oblige our selves against our duty to authority which may remove us III. To the third question I answer 1. A Pastor may not causelesly remove nor for his own worldly commodity when it is to the hurt of the Church and hinderance of the Gospel 2. When he hath just cause he must acquaint the people with it and seek their satisfaction and consent 3. But if he cannot procure it he may remove without it As 1. When he is sure that the interest of the Gospel and Universal Church require it 2. Or that just authority doth oblige him to it The reasons are plain from what is said And also 1. He is no more bound to the people than they are to him But they are not so bound to him but they may remove on just occasion 2. If he may not remove it is either because God forbids it or because his own Contract with them hath obliged him against it But 1. God no where forbids it 2. Such a contract is supposed not made nor lawful to be made IV. As to the peoples case it needs no other answer 1. No member may remove without cause 2. Nor abruptly and uncharitably to the Churches dissatisfaction when he may avoid it But 3. He may remove upon many just causes private or publick whether the Church and Pastors consent or not so the manner be as becometh a Christian. Quest. 105. When many men pretend at once to be the true Pastors of a particular Church against each others title through differences between the Magistrates the Ordainers and the Flocks what should the people do and whom should they adhere to Answ. THis case is mostly answered before in Quest. 82. c. I need only to add these What Pastor to adhere to Rules of Caution 1. Do not upon any pretence accept of an Heretick or one that is utterly unfit for the Office 2. Do not easily take a Dividing Course or person but keep
will ever study the Laws of the Land And it is a preposterous course and the way of Ignorance and errour for a Divine to study Gods Laws and a Lawyer mans Laws before either of them know in general what a Law or what Government is as nature notifieth it to us § 20. Direct 15. When you come to Divinity I am not for their way that would have you begin with the Fathers and thence form a body of Divinity to your selves If every young student must be put on such a task we may have many Religions quickly but shall certainly have much ignorance and errour We must not be so blind or unthankful to God as to dâ—ny that later times have brought forth abundance of Theological writings incomparably more methodical judicious full clear and excellently fiâ—ted also by application to the good of souls than any that are known to us since the writing of the Sacred Scriptures Reverence of antiquity hath its proper place and use but is not to make men fools non-proficients or contemners of Gods greater mercies My advice therefore is that you begin with a conjunction of English Catechisms and the Confessions I mention not your reading the Scripture as supposing it â—ust be your constant work of all the Churches and the Practical holy writings of our English Divines And that you never separate these asunder These Practical Books do commonly themselves contain the Principles and do press them in so warm a working manner as is likest to bring them to the heart And till they are there they are not received according to their use but kept as in the porch Get then six or seven of the most judicious Catechisms and compare them well together and compare all the Confessions of the Churches where you may be sure that they put those which they account the weightiest and surest truths And with them read daily the most spiritual heart-moving Treatises of Regeneration and our Covenant with God in Christ of Repentance faith Love obedience hope and of a Heavenly mind and life as also of Prayer and other particular duties and of Temptations and particular sins And when you have gone through the Catechisms read over three or four of the soundest systemes of Divinity And after that proceed to some larger Theses and then to the study of the clearest and exactest Methodists And think not that you well understand Divinity till 1. You know it as methodized and joynted in a due Scheme and the several parts of it in their several Schemes seeing you know not the beauty nor the true sense of things if you know them not in their proper places where they stand in their several respects to other points And 2. Till it be wrought into your very hearts and digested into a holy nature For when all is done it is only a holy and Heavenly life that will prove you wise and make you happy and give you solid peace and comfort § 21. Direct 16. When you have gone so far set your selves to read the Ancients 1. And take them in order as they lived 2. Observe most the Historical part what doctrines and practises de factâ— did then obtain 3. Some must be read wholly and some but in part 4. Councils and Church History here have a chief place § 22. Direct 17. With them read the best Commentators on the Scriptures old and new § 23. Direct 18. And then set your selves to the study of Church Controversies Though those that the Times make necessary must be sooner lookt into Look first and most into those which your own Consciences and practice require your acquaintance with And above all here read well those Writings that confute Atheists and Infidels and most solidly prove the truth of the Christian Religion And then those that defend the greatest points And think not much to bestow some time and labour in reading some of the old School Divines § 24. Direct 19. When you come to form up your Belief of certainties in Religion take in nothing as sure and necessary which the ancient Churches did not receive Many other things may be taken for truths and in perspicuity and method the late times much excell them But Christian Religion is still the same thing and therefore we must have no other Religion in the great and necessary parts than they had § 25. Direct 20. Still remember that mens various capacities do occasion a great variety of Duties some men have clear and strong Understandings by nature These should study Things as much as Books For possibly they may excell and correct their Authors Some are naturally of duller or less-judicious heads that with no study of Things can reach half so high as they may do by studying the Writings of those who are wiser than ever they are like to be These must take more on trust from their Authors and confess their weakness § 26. Direct 21. After or with all Controversies be well verst in the Writings of those Reconcilers who pretend to narrow or end the differences For usually they are such as know more than the Contenders I proceed now to give you some Names of Books Quest. 174. What Books Especially of Theologie should one choose who for want of money or time can read but few Answ. General THe truth is 1. It is not the reading of many Books which is necessary to make a man wise or good But the well reading of a few could he be sure to have the best 2. And it is not possible to read over very many on the same subjects without a great deal of loss of pretious time 3. And yet the Reading of as many as is possible tendeth much to the increase of knowledge and were the best way if greater matters were not that way unavoidably to be omitted Life therefore being short and work great and Knowledge being for Love and Practice and no man having leisure to learn all things a wise man must be sure to lay hold on that which is most useful and necessary 4. But some considerable acquaintance with many Books is now become by accident necessary to a Divine 1. Because unhappily a young Student knoweth not which are the best till he hath tryed them And when he should take another mans word he knoweth not whose word it is that he should take For among grave men accounted great Scholars it s few that are truly judicious and wise and he that is not wise himself cannot know who else are so indeed And every man will commend the Authors that are of his own opinion And if I commend to you some Authors above others what do I but commend my own judgement to you even as if I commended my own Books and perswaded you to read them when another man of a different judgement will commend to you Books of a different sort And how knoweth a raw Student which of us is in the right 2. Because no one man is so full and perfect as to say all
quae nemo possit reprehendere Cicero de fin Read Plutarks Precepts of Policy and that Old men should be Rulers given you from above Joh. 19. 11. Remember therefore that as Constables are your officers and subjects so you are the officers and subjects of God and the Redeemer and are infinitely more below him than the lowest subject is below you And that you owe him more obedience than can be due to you And therefore should study his Laws in Nature and Scripture and make them your daily meditation and delight Iosh. 1. 3 4 5. Psal. 1. 2 3. Deut. 17. 18 19 20. And remember how strict a judgement you must undergo when you must give account of your Stewardship and the greater have been your dignities and mercies if they are abused by ungodliness the greater will be your punishment Luk. 16. 2. 12. 48. § 2. Memorand 2. Remember therefore and watch most carefully that you never own or espouse any Memor 2. Interest which is adverse to the Will or Interest of Christ and that you never fall out with his interest Read often Psalm 2. Psalm 101. or his ordinances and that no temptation ever perswade you that the Interest of Christ and the Gospel and the Church is an enemy to you or against your real interest and that you keep not up suspicions against them But see that you devote your selves and your power wholly to his Will and Service and make all your interest stand in a pure subservience to him as it stands in a real dependance on him § 3. Memorand 3. Remember that under God your End is the publick good Therefore desire Memor 3. nothing to your selves nor do nothing to others which is really against your End § 4. Memorand 4. Remember therefore that all your Laws are to be but subservient to the Laws Memor 4. of God to promote the obedience of them with your Subjects and never to be either contrary to them nor co-ordinate or independant on them But as the By Laws of Corporations are in respect to the Laws and will of the soveraign power which have all their Life and power therefrom § 5. Memorand 5. Let none perswade you that you are such terrestrial animals that have nothing Memor 5. to do with the Heavenly concernments of your subjects For if once men think that the end of your office is only the bodily prosperity of the people and the End of the Ministry is the good of their souls it will tempt them to prefer a Minister before you as they prefer their souls before their bodies And they that are taught to contemn these earthly things will be ready to think they must contemn your office seeing no means as such can be better than the end There is no such thing as a temporal Happiness to any people but what tendeth to the happiness of their souls and must be thereby measured and thence be estimated Though Ministers are more immediately employed about the soul yet your office is ultimately for the happiness of souls as well as theirs though bodily things rewards or punishments are the means by which you may promote it which Ministers as such may not meddle with Therefore you are custodes utriusque tabulae and must bend the force of all your Government to the saving of the peoples souls And as to the objection from Heathen Read Bilson of subject p. 129. to the end of the second part specially p. 140 141 142. the Laws of Charles the Great And Grotius de Imperio sum Pot. circa sacrá cap. 1. per totuâ— Governours distinguish between the Office and an Aptitude to exercise it The Office consisteth 1. In an Obligation to do the duty 2. And in Authority to do it Both these a Heathen Ruler hath else the omission were a duty and not a sin But it is the Aptitude to do the duty of his place which a Heathen wanteth and he wanteth it culpably and therefore the omission is his sin Even as it is the sin of an insufficient Minister that he doth not Preach For the Question is of the like nature and will have the like solution Whether an ignorant Minister be bound to Preach who is unable or Heretical It is Aptitude that he wanteth and neither Authority nor Obligation if he be really a Minister But he is obliged in this Order first to get Abilities and then to Preach so is it in the present case § 6. Memorand 6. Encourage and strengthen a Learned Holy self denying serious laborious Memor 6. Ministry as knowing that the same Lord hath commissioned them in the institution of their office who instituted yours and that it is such men that are suited to the work for which their office was appointed And that souls are precious and those that are the Guides and Physicions of souls can never be too well furnished nor too diligent And the Church hath no where prospered on earth but in the prosperity of the abilities holiness and diligence of their Pastors God hath alwayes built by such and the Devil hath pulled down by pulling down such § 7. Memorand 7. Remember that the people that are seriously Religious that Love and Worship Memor 7. and Obey the Lord with all their heart are the best of your subjects and the honour of your Dominions I 〈…〉 saith of the Anâ—o 〈…〉 that they would not be saâ—â—ted by filthy persons And â—amprid of Alâ—xand 〈◊〉 that Nâ—sâ—â—h nâ—stos borae â—amae homines ad salutationem non admiâ—t Jussâ—â—que ut nemo ingrediatur nisi qui se innocentem novit Per praeconem edixit ut nemo salutaret principem qui se furem esse nosset ne aliquando detectus capâ—â—ali supplieâ—â— subâ—eretur Read Sebastian Foxius de Regno Regisâ— institutione see therefore that serious Godliness be every where encouraged and that the prophane and ignorant rabble be never encouraged in their enmity and opposition to it And that true Fanaticism Hypocrisie and Schism be so prudently discountenanced and supprest that none may have encouragement to set themselves against Godliness under the slander or pretension of such names If Christianity be better than Heathenism those Christians then are they that must be * Even Croesus Dionysius and Iâ—liaâ— were liberal to Philosophers and ambitious of their converse Vera civitatis foelicitas est ut Dei sit amans amata Deo illum sibi regem se illius populum agnoscat August de civiâ— Dei l. 5. c. 14. countenanced who go further in Holiness and Charity and Justice than Heathens do rather than those that go no further besides Opinions and Formalities than a Cato a Plato or Socrates have done If all Religion were a deceit it were fit to be banished and Atheism professed and men confess themselves to be but bruits But if there be a God there must be a Religion And if we must be Religious we must sure
Sword in their own hands and not have put it into the Clergies hands to fulfill their wills by For 1. By this means the Clergy had escaped the odium of usurpation and domineering by which atheistical Politicians would make Religion odious to Magistrates for their sakes 2. And by this means greater unity had been preserved in the Church while one faction is not armed with the Sword to tread down the rest For if Divines contend only by dint of Argument when they have talkt themselves and others aweary they will have done But when they go to it with dint of Sword it so ill becometh them that it seldom doth good but the party often that trusteth least to their Reason must destroy the other and make their cause good by Iron arguments 3. And then the Romish Clergy had not been armed against Princes to the terrible concussions of the Christian world which Histories at large relate if Princes had not first lent them the Sword which they turned against them 4. And then Church Discipline would have been better understood and have been more effectual which is corrupted and turned to another thing and so cast out when the Sword is used instead of the Keys under pretence of making it effectual None but Consenters are capable of Church-communion No man can be a Christian nor Godly nor saved against his will And therefore Consenters and Volunteers only are capable of Church-discipline As a Sword will not make a Sermon effectual no more will it make Discipline effectual which is but the management of Gods Word to work upon the conscience So far as men are to be driven by the Sword to the use of means or restrained from offering injury to Religion the Magistrate himself is fittest to do it It is noted by Historians as the dishonour of Cyrill of Alexandria though a famous Bishop that he was the first Bishop that like a Magistrate used the Sword there and used violence against Hereticks and dissenters 5. Above all abuse not the name of Religion for the resistance of your lawful Governours Religion must be defended and propagated by no irreligious means It is easie before you are aware to catch the feavor of such a passionate zeal as Iames and Iohn had when they would have had fire from Heaven to consume the refusers and resisters of the Gospel And then you will think that any thing almost is lawful which doth but seem necessary to the prosperity of Religion But no means but those of Gods allowance do use to prosper or bring home that which men expect They may seem to do wonders for a while but they come to nothing in the latter end and spoil the work and leave all worse than it was before § 101. Direct 40. Take heed of mistaking the nature of that Liberty of the people which is truly Direct 40. valuable and desirable and of contending for an undesirable Liberty in its stead It is desirable to have 1 Pet. 2. 16. Gal. 5. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 19. Gal. 4. 26. 2 Cor. 3. 17. Liberty to do good and to possess our own and enjoy Gods mercies and live in peace But it is not desirable to have Liberty to sin and abuse one another and hinder the Gospel and contemn our Governours Some mistake Liberty for Government it self and think it is the peoples Liberty to be Governours And some mistake Liberty for an exemption from Government and think they are most free when they are most ungoverned and may do what their list But this is a misery and not a mercy and therefore was never purchased for us by Christ. Many desire servitude and calamity under the name of liberty Optima est Reipublicae forma saith Seneca ubi nulla Libertas deest nisi licentia pereundi As Mr. R. Hooker saith Lib. 8. p. 195. I am not of opinion that simply in Kings the Most but the Best limited power is best both for them and the people The Most limited is that which may deal in fewest things the best that which in dealing is tyed to the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things than that whose King is himself their Law Yet no doubt but the Law-givers are as such above the Law as an Authoritative instrument of Government but under it as a man is under the obligation of his own Consent and Word It ruleth subjects in the former sense It bindeth the summam Potestatem in the later § 102. Direct 41. When you have done all that you can in just obedience look for your reward Direct 41. from God alone Let it satisfie you that he knoweth and approveth your sincerity You make it a holy work if you do it to please God and you will be fixed and constant if you take Heaven for your Reward which is enough and will not fail you But you make it but a selfish carnal work if you do it only to please your Governours or get preferment or escape some hurt which they may do you and are subject only in flattery or for fear of wrath and not for conscience sake And such obedience is uncertain and unconstant For when you fail of your hopes or think Rulers deal unjustly or unthankfully with you your subjection will be turned into passionate desires of revenge Remember still the example of your Saviour who suffered death as an enemy to Caesar when he had never failed of his duty so much as in one thought or word And are you better than your Lord and Master If God be All to you and you have laid up all your hopes in Heaven it is then but little of your concernment further than God is concerned in it whether Rulers do use you well or ill and whether they interpret your actions rightly or what they take you for or how they call you But it is your concernment that God account you Loyal and will judge you so and justifie you from mens accusations of disloyalty and reward you with more than man can give you Nothing is well done especially of so high a nature as this which is not done for God and Heaven and which the Crown of Glory is not the motive to I have purposely been the larger on this subject because the times in which we live require it both for the setling of some and for the confuting the false accusations of others who would perswade the world that our doctrine is not what it is when through the sinful practices of some the way of truth is evil spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 2. Tit. 2. A fuller resolution of the Cases 1. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience 2. Especially smaller and Penal Laws THe word Conscience signifieth either 1. In general according to the notation of the word The knowledge of our own
ordinary § 3. Prop. 2. It is not alway in the power of the Magistrate to remit the temporal punishment of beynous crimes against the common-good Because it is ordinarily necessary to the common good that they be punished and his power is for the common good and not against it The enemies of the publick peace must by punishment be restrained § 4. Prop. 3. Much less is it in the power of a private man to remit a penalty to be inflicted by a Magistrate And what I say of Magistrates holdeth of Parents and other Governours caeteris paribus according to the proportion of their Authority § 5. Prop. 4. I may by just means exact satisfaction for damages to my self in my reputation or estate when the Ends of Christianity even the honour of God and the publick good and the benefit of mens souls requireth it that is when I only vindicate these by lawful means as they are the Talents which God hath committed to me for his service and for which he will call me to account It may fall out that the vindicating of a Ministers or other Christians name from a slander may become very needful for the interest and honour of Religion and for the good of many souls And if I have an estate which I resolve to use for God and a Thief or a deceiver take it from me who will do no good with it but hurt I may be bound to vindicate it that I may be enabled to do good and may give God a comfortable account of my Stewardship besides the suppressing of thievery and deceit as they are against the common good § 6. Prop. 5. When my estate is not entirely my own but Wife or Child or any other is a sharer in it it is not wholly in my power to remit any debt or dammage out of it but I must have the Consent of them that are joynt-owners Unless I be entrusted for them § 7. Prop. 6. If I be primarily obliged to maintain Wife and Children or any others with my Estate I am bound on their behalf to use all just means to vindicate it from any that shall injuriously invade it Otherwise I am guilty of their sufferings whom I should maintain I may no more suffer a thief than a dog to go away with my Childrens meat § 8. Prop. 7. And as I must vindicate my Estate for others to whom I am entrusted to Administer it by God so must I for my self also so far as God would have me use it my self For he that hath charged me to provide for my Family requireth also that I famish not my self And he hath required me to love my Neighbour but as my self And therefore as I am bound to vindicate and help my Neighbour if a Thief or Oppressour would rob him according to my place and power so must I do also for my self In all these seven cases I am not obliged to forgive § 9. But on the other side in all these Cases following I am bound to forgive and let go my right Prop. 1. As the Church may declare to penitent sinners the remission of the eternal punishment so may it remit the temporal punishment of excommunication to the penitent Yea this they are obliged by Christ to do ministerially as under him § 10. Prop. 2. When the Repentance and satisfaction of the sinner is like to conduce more to the publick good and the honour of God and other Ends of Government than his punishment would do a private man may not be obliged to prosecute him before the Magistrate and the Magistrate hath power to forgive him as to the penalty which it belongeth to him to inflict Though this may not â—xtend to the remitting of crimes ordinarily and frequently nor to the remitting of some sort of heynous crimes at all because this cannot attain the ends of Government as aforesaid § 11. Prop. 3. All personal wrongs so far as they are meerly against my self and disable me not from my duty to God and my Neighbour I may and must forgive For my own interest is put more in my own power and here it is that I am commanded to forgive If you say that I am bound to preserve my own life and soul as much as anothers I answer It 's true I am bound to preserve my own and anothers ultimately for the service and glory of God and Gods interest in me I cannot remit or give away As there is no obligation to duty but what is Originally from God so there is none but what is Ultimately for God even to Please and Glorifie him Obj. But if this be all I shall forgive no wrongs for there is none which doth not some way hinder me in my duty Answ. Yes there may be many to your body your estate and name which yet may be no disablement or hinderance to you except you make it so your self As if you receive a box on the Ear or be slandered or reviled where none heareth it but your self or such as will make no evil use of it or if a little be diminished injuriously out of a superfluous estate or so as to be employed as well as you would have done 2. But I further answer this objection in the next propositions § 12. Prop. 4. If my patient suffering a personal injury which somewhat hindereth me from my duty be like to be as great a service to God or to do more good than by that duty I should do I ought to pass by and forgive that injury Because then Gods interest obligeth me not to vindicate my right § 13. Prop. 5. If when I am injured and thereby disabled from doing some good which I should else have done I am not able by seeking reparation or the punishment of the person to recover my capacity and promote the service of God I am bound to pass by and remit that injury I speak not of the criminal part but the injury as such For a man may be bound to bring a Thief to punishment on the account of Gods honour and the common Good though else he might forgive the injury to himself § 14. Prop. 6. If it be probable that he that defraudeth me of my Estate will do more good with it than I should have done I am not bound to vindicate it from him for my own interest Though as he is criminal and the crime is hurtful as an ill example to the common good so I may be bound to it Nay were it not for the said criminal respect I am bound rather to let him take it than to vindicate it by any such means as would break Charity and do more hurt than good § 15. Prop. 7. If I am absolutely trusted with the Person or Estate of another I may so far forgive the wrongs done to that other upon sufficient reasons as well as against my self § 16. Prop. 8. A private man may not usurp the Magistrates power or do any act which is proper to his
of Iesus of Nazareth which thing I also did c. And 1 Tim. 1. 13. that it was ignorantly in unbelief that he was a blaspheamer a persecutor and injurious And on the other side some Persâ—cute Truth and Goodness while they know it to be so Not because it is Truth or Goodness but because it is against their carnal worldly interest and inclination As the Conscience of a worldling a drunkard a whoremonger beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it so oft-times doth the Conscience of the Persâ—cutor and he hath secret convictions that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself § 5. 3. As to the cause sometime persecution is for Christianity and Godliness in the gross or for some great essential point And sometimes it is only for some particular Truth or duty and that perhaps of a lower nature so small or so dark that it is become a great Controversie whether it be Truth or errour duty or sin In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted and more heynous in the persecutor that the suffering be for the Greatest things For this leaveth no doubt in the mind whether our cause be good or not and this sheweth that the persecutors mind is most aliene from God and truth But in some other respect it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor and of the comfort of the persecuted when it is for smaller truths and duties For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things And it is a sign of a heart that is true to God and very sincere when we will rather suffer any thing from Man than renounce the smallest truth of God or commit the smallest sin against him or omit the smallest duty when it is a duty 4. Sometime persecution is directly for Religion that is for matters of professed Faith or Worship And sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause Yet still it is for our Obedience to God or else it is not the persecution which we speak of though the Matter of it be some common or civil thing As if I were persecuted meerly for giving to the poor or helping the sick or for being Loyal to my Prince and to the Laws or for doing my duty to my Parents or because I will not bear false-witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or any such like This is truly persecution whatever the matter of it be as long as it is truly for Obeying God that we undergo the suffering § 6. I omit many other less considerable distributions And also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions as when a man is punished for a fault in a far greater measure than it deserveth this is Injustice but not persecution unless it be his Religion and Obedience to God which is the secret cause of it § 7. Direct 2. Understand well the greatness of the sin of Persecution that you may be kept in a Direct 2. due fear of being tempted to it Here therefore I shall shew you how Great a sin it is § 8. 1. Persecution is a fighting against God So it is called Act. 5. 39. And to fight against God is odious Malignity and desperate folly 1. It is Venemous malignity for a Creature to fight against his Creator and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the All-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the fountain of Love and Goodness 2. And what Folly can be greater than for a Mole to reproach the Sun for darkness or a lump of Earth to take up Arms against the Almighty terrible God Art thou able to make good thy cause against him or to stand before him when he is offended and chargeth thee with sin Hear a Pharisee Act. 6. 38 39. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God Or hear Christ himself Act. 9. 4 5. I am Iesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul and crush thee to the lowest Hell His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains Canst thou Conquer the Almighty God Wilt thou assault the Power which was never overcome or storm Jehovahs Throne or Kingdom First try to take down the Sun and Moon and Stars from the Firmament and to stop the course of the Rivers or of the Sea and to rebuke the Winds and turn night into day and Winter into Summer and decrepit Age into vigorous Youth Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these It is a greater matter than any of these to conquer God whose cause thou fightest against Hear him again Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or thy work He hath no hands And Isa. 45. 9. who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Wo to the man that is not content to fight with men but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy It had been better for thee that all the World had been against thee § 9. 2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer and hindereth his Gospel and work of mercy to the world and endeavoureth the ruine of his Kingdom upon earth Christ came to save men and persecutors raise up their power against him as if they envyed salvation to the World And if God have made the work of mans Redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design If you could pull the Stars out of the Firmament or hinder the motions of the Heavens or deny the rain to the thirsty Earth you might look for as good a reward for this as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the World in the blessed work of mans salvation § 10. 3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. saith Stephen to the Jews Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye If you silence the Ministers who are the means by which the spirit worketh in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls Act. 26. 17 18. or if you afflict men for those Holy duties which the
named 3. What are the particular wayes and sorts of scandal 4. The greatness of this sin 5. Directions to avoid it § 2. I. I shall not need to stand upon the Etymologie of the word Scandal whether it come Scandal what it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 claudico as Erasmus thought or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curvum c. Martinius Stephanus Lyserus c. have sufficiently done it whither I referr you As for the sense of the word it is past doubt that the ordinary use of it in Scripture is for a stumbling block for a man to fall upon or a trap to ensnare a man And in the Old Testament it is oft used for a stumbling stone on which a man may fall into any corporal calamity or a snare to hurt or ruine a man in the world As Exod. 10. 7. 1 Sam. 18. 21. 25. 31. Psal. 119. 165. Ezek. 7. 19. Sept. But in the New Testament which speaketh more of spiritual hurts it is taken for a stumbling block or temptation by which a man is in danger of falling into sin or spiritual loss or ruine or dislike of Godliness or any way to be turned from God or hindered in a Religious holy way And if sometimes it be taken for Grieving or Troubling it is as it hereby thus hindereth or ensnareth So that to scandalize is sometimes taken for the doing of a blameless action from which another unjustly taketh occasion to fall or sin or be perverted But when it signifieth a sin as we take it in this place then to scandalize is By something unlawful of it self or at least unnecessary which may occasion the spiritual hurt or ruine of another 1. The matter is either something that is simply sinful and then it is a double sin or something Indifferent or unnecessary and then it is simply the sin of scandal 2. It must be that which may occasion anothers fall I say occasion For no man can forcibly cause another man to sin but only occasion it or tempt him to it as a Moral Cause § 3. II. By this you may see 1. That to scandalize is not meerly to displease or grieve another What is not Scandal that is by many so called For many a man is displeased through his folly and vice by that which tendeth to his good and many a man is tempted that is scandalized by that which pleaseth him When Christ saith If thy right eye or hand offend or scandalize thee pluck it out or cut it off c. Mat. 5. he doth not by offending mean displeasing or grieving For by so offending it may profit us But he plainly meaneth If it draw thee to sin or else he had never added that it is better to enter maimed into life than having two eyes or hands to be cast into Hell That is in a word Thy damnation is a greater hurt than the loss of hand or eye and therefore if there were no other way to avoid it this would be a very cheap way So pedem offendere in lapidem is to stumble upon a stone The most censorious and humorous sort of men have got a notion that what ever offendeth or displeaseth them is scandalous And they think that no man must do any thing which grieveth or displeaseth them lest he be guilty of scandal And by this trick who ever can purchase impatiency and pievishness enough to be alwayes displeased with the actions of others shall rule the world But the truth is the ordinary way of scandalizing these men is by pleasing them § 4. I will give you one instance of scandal in Scripture which may help this sort of people better to understand it Gal. 2. 10. to 16. Peter there giveth true scandal to the Jews and Gentiles He walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel but laid a stumbling block before the Jews and Gentiles And this was not by displeasing the Jews but by pleasing them The Jews thought it a sin to eat with the Gentiles and to have communion with uncircumcised men Peter knew the contrary but for fear of them of the circumcision lest they should be offended at him as a sinner he withdrew and separated himself This scandal tended to harden the Jews in their sinful separation and to seduce the Gentiles into a conceit of the necessity of circumcision and Barnabas was carryed away with the dissimulation Here you may see that if any think it a sin in us to have communion in such or such Congregations with such persons in such worship which God alloweth us not to separate from it is a sin of scandal in us to separate to avoid these mens offence We scandalize them and others even by pleasing them and by avoiding that which they falsly called scandalous And if we would not scandalize them we must do that which is just and not by our practice hide the sound doctrine which is contrary to their separating error § 5. 2. And it is as apparent that to scandalize another is not as is vulgarly imagined by the ignorant to do that which is commonly reputed sinful or which hath the appearance of a sin or which will make a man evil thought of or spoken of by others Yet commonly when men say This is a scandalous action they mean it is an action which is reproachful or of evil report as a sin And therefore in our English speech it is common to say of one that slandereth another that he raised a scandal of him But this is not the meaning of the word in Scripture Materially indeed scandal may consist in any such thing which may be a stumbling block to another But formally it is the Tempting of another or occasioning his fall or ruine or hurt which is the nature of scandalizing And this is done more seldome by committing open disgraceful sins and doing that which will make the doer evil spoken of For by that means others are the more assisted against the temptation of imitating him But scandal is most commonly found in those actions which are under least reproach among men or which have the most plausible appearance of good in them when they are evil For these are apter to deceive and overthrow another § 6. 3. And it is also apparent that it is no sinful scandalizing to do a duty or necessary action which I have not power to forbear though I know that another will be offended or fall by it into sin If God have made it my duty even at this time I must not disobey him and omit my duty because another will make it an occasion of his sin It must be either a sinful or an indifferent action that is scandal or something that is in my own power to do or to forbear Yet this must be added that Affirmatives binding not ad semper to all times and no duty being a duty at every moment it may oft fall out that that which else would have been my duty at
this time may become at this time no duty but a sin by the evil consequents which I may foresee as if another man will make it an occasion of his fall So that this may oblige me to defer a duty to a fitter time and place For all such duties as have the nature of a means are never duties when they cross the interest of their chief ends and make against that which they are used to effect And therefore here Christian prudence foreseeing consequents and weighing the Good and Evil together is necessary to him that will know a duty from a sin and a scandal from no scandal § 7. III. The several wayes of scandalizing are these following 1. Scandal is either intended The sorts of scandalizing or not intended either that which is done malitiously of set purpose or that which is done through negligence carelesness or contempt Some men do purposely contrive the fall or ruine of another and this is a Devillish aggravation of the sin And some do hurt to others while they intend it not yet this is far from excusing them from sin For it is Voluntary as an Omission of the Will though not as its positive choice That is called Voluntary which the will is chargeable with or culpable of And it is chargeable with its Omissions and sluggish neglects of the duty which it should do Those that are careless of the consequent of their actions and contemn the souls of other men and will go their own way come of it what will and say let other men look to themselves are the commonest sort of scandalizers and are as culpable as a servant that would leave hot water or fire when the children are like to fall into it or that would leave Straw or Gunpowder near the fire or would leave open the doors though not of purpose to let in the Thieves § 8. 2. Scandal is that which tendeth to anothers fall either directly or indirectly immediately or remotely The former may easily be foreseen but the latter requireth a large foreseeing comparing understanding Yet this kind of scandal also must be avoided and wise men that would not undo mens souls while they think no harm must look far before them and foresee what is like to be the consequent of their actions at the greatest distance and at many removes 3. Scandals also are Aptitudinal or Actual Many things are Apt to Tempt and occasion the ruine of another which yet never attain so bad an end because God disappointeth them But that is no thanks to them that give the scandal § 9. 4. Scandal also as to the Means of it is of several sorts 1. By Doctrine 2. By perswasion 3. By alluring Promises 4. By Threats 5. By Violence 6. By Gifts 7. By Example 8. By Omission of duties and by silence By all these wayes you may scandalize § 10. 1. False Doctrine is directly scandalous for it seduceth the judgement which then mis-guideth the will which then misruleth the rest of the Faculties False Doctrine if it be in weighty practical points is the pernitious plague of souls and Nations § 11. 2. Also the sollicitations of seducers and of tempting people are scandalous and tend to the ruine of souls when people have no reason to draw a man to sin they weary him out by tedious importunity And many a one yields to the earnestness or importunity or tediousness of a perswasion who could easily resist it if it came only with pretence of reason § 12. 3. Alluring promises of some gain or pleasure that shall come by sin is another scandal which doth cause the fall of many The course that Satan tryed with Christ All this will I give thee was but the same which he found most successful with sinners in the world This is a bait which sinners will themselves hunt after if it be not offered them Iudas will go to the Pharisees with a What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Peter saith of the scandalous Hereticks of his time They allure through the lust of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from them who live in error While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption 2 Pet. 2. 18 19. § 13. 4. Threatnings also and scorns are scandals which frighten unbelieving souls into sin Thus Rabshekah thought to prevail with Hezekiah Thus Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. thought to have drawn those three Worthies to Idolatry Thus the Pharisees thought to have frightned the Apostles from preaching any more in the name of Christ Acts 4. 17 21. Thus Saul thought to have perverted the Disciples by breathing out threatnings against them Acts 9. 1. § 14. 5. And what words will not do the ungodly think to do by force And it enrageth them that any should resist their wills and that their force is patiently endured What cruel torments What various sorts of heavy sufferings have the Devil and his instruments devised to be stumbling blocks to the weak to affright them into sin § 15. 6. Gifts also have blinded the eyes of some who seemed wise Exod. 23. 8. As oppression maketh a wise man mad so a gift destroyeth the heart What scandals have preferments proved to the world and how many have they ruined Few are able to esteem the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of the world § 16. 7. And evil examples are the commonest sort of scandals not as they offend or grieve or Feb. 11. 26. are apparently sinful but as they seem good and therefore are temptations to the weak to imitate them So apt are men to imitation especially in evil that they will do what they see another do without examining whether it be justifiable or not Especially if it be the example either of Great men or of Learned men or of men reputed eminently Godly or of a Multitude any of these the people are apt to imitate This therefore is the common way of scandal When people do that which is evil as if it were good and thereby draw the ignorant to think it good and so imitate them Or else when they do that which is lawful it self in such a manner as tendeth to deceive another and draw him to that which is indeed unlawful or to hinder him in any thing that is good § 17 8. Lastly Even Silence and Omissions also may be scandalous and draw another into error and sin If by silence you seem to consent to false doctrine or to wicked works when you have opportunity to controll them hereby you draw others to consent also to the sin Or if you omit those publick or private duties which others may be witnesses of you tempt them to the like omission and to think they are no duties but indifferent things For in evil they will easily rest in your judgement and say that you are wiser than they But they are not so ductile and flexible to good § 18. 5. Scandals
not every one that committeth a sin after admonition who is here to be understood but such as are impenitent in some mortal or ruling sin For some may sin oft in a small and controverted point for want of ability to discern the truth and some may live in daily infirmities as the best men do which they condemn themselves and desire to be delivered from And even the most impenitent mans sins must not be medled with by every one at his pleasure but only when you have just cause Quest. 9. What if it be one whom I cannot speak to face to face Quest. 9. Answ. You must let him alone till you have just cause to speak of him Quest. 10. When hath a man a just cause and call to open anothers faults Quest. 10. Answ. Negatively 1. Not to fill up the time with other idle chatt or table-talk 2. Not to second any man how good soever who backbiteth others no though he pretend to do it to make the sin more odious or to exercise godly sorrow for other mens sin 3. Not when ever interest passion faction or company seemeth to require it But Affirmatively 1. When we may speak it to his face in love and privacy in due manner and circumstances as is most hopeful to conduce to his amendment 2. When after due admonition we take two or three and after that tell the Church in a case that requireth it 3. When we have a sufficient cause to accuse him to the Magistrate 4. When the Magistrate or the Pastors of the Church reprove or punish him 5. When it is necessary to the preservation of another As if I see my friend in danger of marrying with a wicked person or takeing a false servant or trading and bargaining with one that is like to over-reach him or going among cheaters or going to hear or converse with a dangerous Heretick or Seducer I must open the faults of those that they are in danger of so far as their safety and my charity require 6. When it is any treason or conspiracy against the King or Common-wealth where my concealment may be an injury to the King or damage or danger to the Kingdom 7. When the person himself doth by his self-justification force me to it 8. When his reputation is so built upon the injury of others and slanders of the just that the justifying of him is the condemning of the innocent we may then indirectly condemn him by vindicating the just As if it be in a case of contention between two if we cannot justifie the right without dishonour to the injurious there is no remedy but he must bear his blame 9. When a mans notorious wickedness hath set him up as a spectacle of warning and lamentation so that his crimes cannot be hid and he hath forfeited his reputation we must give others warning by his fall As an excommunicate person or malefactor at the Gallows c. 10. When we have just occasion to make a bare narrative of some publick matters of fact as of the sentence of a Judge or punishment of offenders c. 11. When the crime is so heinous as that all good persons are obliged to joyn to make it odious as Phinehas was to execute judgement As in cases of open Rebellion Treason Blasphemy Atheism Idolatry Murders Perjury Cruelty Such as the French Massacre the Irish far greater Massacre the Murdering of Kings the Powder Plot the Burning of London c. Crimes notorious should not go about in the mouths or ears of men but with just detestation 12. When any persons false reputation is a seducement to mens souls and made by himself or others the instrument of Gods dishonour and the injury of the Church or State or others though we may do no unjust thing to blast his reputation we may tell the truth so far as justice or mercy or piety requireth it Quest. 11. What if I hear dawbers applauding wicked men and speaking well of them and extenuating Quest. 12. their crimes and praising them for evil doing Answ. You must on all just occasions speak evil of sin But when that is enough you need not meddle with the sinner no not though other men applaud him and you know it to be false For you are not bound to contradict every falshood which you hear But if in any of the twelve fore-mentioned cases you have a call to do it as for the preservation of the hearers from a snare thereby as if men commend a Traytor or a wicked man to draw another to like his way in such cases you may contradict the false report Quest. 12. Are we bound to reprove every backbiter in this age when honest people are grown to Quest. 12. make little conscience of it but think it their duty to divulge mens faults Answ. Most of all that you may stop the stream of this common sin Ordinarily when ever we can do it without doing greater hurt we should rebuke the tongue that reporteth evil of other men causelesly behind their backs For our silence is their encouragement in sin Tit. 2. Directions against Backbiting Slandering and Evil Speaking Direct 1. MAintain the life of brotherly Love Love your neighbour as your self Direct 1. Direct 2. Watch narrowly lest interest or passion should prevail upon you For Direct 2. where these prevail the tongue is set on fire of Hell and will set on fire the course of nature Iam. 2. Selfishness and passion will not only prompt you to speak evil but also to justifie it and think you do well yea and to be angry with those that will not hearken to you and believe you Direct 3. Especially involve not your selves in any faction Religious or Secular I do not mean Direct 3. that you should not love and imitate the best and hold most intimate communion with them But that you abhor unlawful divisions and sidings and when error or uncharitableness or carnal interest hath broken the Church into pieces where you live and one is of Paul and another of Apollo and another of Cephas one of this party and another of that take heed of espousing the interest of any party as it stands cross to the interest of the whole It would have been hardly credible if sad experience had not proved it how commonly and heinously almost every Sect of Christians do sin in this point against each other And how far the interest of their Sect which they account the interest of Christ will prevail with multitudes even of zealous people to belye calumniate backbite and reproach those that are against their opinion and their party Yea how easily will they proceed beyond reproaches to bloody persecutions He that thinketh that he doth God service by killing Christ or his Disciples will think that he doth him service by calling him a deceiver and one that hath a Devil a blasphemer and an enemy to Caesar and calling his Disciples pestilent fellows and movers of
Honour for uncharitableness And the voice of Pride is the voice of the Devil contrary to him who made himself of no reputation Phil. 2. 7 8. and submitted to be arrayed in a garb of mockery and led out with scorn like a fool and bowed to and buffetted and spit upon and crucified who calleth to us to learn of him to be meek and lowly and to deny our selves and take up the Cross which is shameful suffering if we will be his disciples Matth. 11. 28 29. Luke 14. 30 32 33. To every Christian it is the greatest honour to be like Jesus Christ and to excell in Charity It is a greater dishonour to want Love to an enemy than to fly from him or not resist him He that teacheth otherwise and maketh sin honourable and the imitation and obedience of Christ to be more dishonourable doth preach up Pride and preach down Charity and doth preach for the Devil against Jesus Christ and therefore should neither call himself a Jesuite nor a Christian. Yea more if the person that would hurt or kill you be one that is of more worth and usefulness as to the publick good you should rather suffer by him or be slain by him than you should equally hurt him or kill him in your own defence As if the King of another Kingdom that hath no authority over you for of your own there is no question should assault you Or any one whose death would be a greater loss than yours For the publick good is better than your own And it will not alwayes hold that you may wish another as much hurt as you may do him For in defending your self you may sometime blamelesly do more hurt than you were willing to do And you must never wish your enemies hurt as such but only as a necessary means of good as of preservation of himself or you or others Quest. 7. Must Kings and States Love their enemies How then can War be lawful Quest. 7. Answ. Kings and States are bound to it as much as private men And therefore must observe the foresaid Laws of Love as well as others Therefore they must raise no War unnecessarily nor for any cause be it never so just in it self when the benefits of the War are not like to be a greater good than the War will bring hurt both to friends and foes set together A lawful offensive War is almost like a true General Council On certain suppositions such a thing may be But whether ever the world saw such a thing or whether ever such suppositions will come to existence is the question Tit. 2. Motives to Love and do good to Enemies Motive 1. GOd loveth his enemies and doth them good and he is our best exemplar Mot. 1. Matth. 5. 45 46 But I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven For he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Mot. 2. Jesus Christ was incarnate to set us a pattern especially of this vertue He sought the Mot. 2. salvation of his enemies he went up and down doing good among them He dyed for his enemies He prayeth for them even in his sufferings on the Cross He wept over them when he foresaw their ruine When he was reviled he reviled not again This is the pattern which we must imitate Mot. 3. God loved even us our selves when we were his enemies Or else what had become of Mot. 3. us And Christ dyed even for us as enemies to reconcile us by his death to God Rom. 5. 9 10. Therefore we are specially obliged to this duty Mot. 4. To be Gods Enemies is to be wicked and unlovely so that in such God could see nothing Mot. 4. amiable but our Nature and those poor remainders of virtue in it and our capacity of being made better by his grace and yet he then loved us But to be an enemy to you or me is not to be ungodly or wicked as such It is an enmity but against a vile unworthy Worm and therefore is a smaller fault Mot. 5. We do more against our selves than any Enemy or Devils and yet we love our selves why Motive 5. then should we not love another who doth less against us Mot. 6. All that is of God and is good must be loved But there may be much of God and much Motive 6. natural and moral good in some enemies of ours Mot. 7. To Love an enemy signifieth a mind that is impartial and loveth purely on Gods account Motive 7. and for Goodness sake But the contrary sheweth a selfish mind that loveth only on his own account Mot. 8. If you love only those that love you you do no more than the worst man in the world may Motive 8. do But Christians must do more than others Mat. 5. 47. or else they must expect no more than others Mot. 9. Loving and doing good to enemies is the way to win them and to save them If there be any Motive 9. spark of true humanity left in them they will love you when they perceive indeed that you love them A man can hardly continue long to hate him whom he perceiveth unfeignedly to love him And this will draw him to love Religion for your sake when he discerneth the fruits of it Mot. If he be implacable it will put you into a condition fit for God to own you in and to judge Mot. 10. you accordingly to your innocency These two together contain the sense of heaping coals of fire on his head that is q. d. If he be not implacable you will melt and win him and if he be implacable you will engage God in your cause who best knoweth when and how to revenge Tit. 3. Directions for Loving and doing good to Enemies Direct 1. MAke no man your enemy so far as you can avoid it For though you may pretend to Love Direct 1. him when he is your enemy you have done contrary to Love in making him your enemy For thereby he is deprived of his own Love to you And if his Charity be his best commodity then he that robbeth him though he be never so culpable himself hath done that which belongeth to the worst of enemies It is a thousand times greater hurt and loss to him to lose his own Love to others than to lose anothers love to him And therefore to make him hate you is more injurious or hurtful to him than to hate him Direct 2. Take not those for your enemies that are not and believe not any one to be your enemy Direct 2. till cogent evidence constrain you Take heed therefore of ill suspicious and ungrounded censures except defensively so far only as to secure your selves
God hath gone before him by any particular prescript and tyed him to one certain way of giving and where God hath only given him some general Direction and left him to discern his Duty in particulars by that general Rule and the further direction of objects and providence And in this enquiry he will find 1. That God hath first prescribed to him in Nature the necessary sustentation of his own life And 2. The necessary maintenance of his children and family 3. The necessary maintenance of the Preachers of the Gospel for the Worship of God and the salvation of men 1 Cor. 9. Phil. 4. 10 11 14 17 18. Luke 10. 7. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. 4. The necessary maintenance of the Common-wealth and paying tribute to the higher powers who are the Ministers of God to us for good attending continually upon this very thing Rom. 13. 4 6. 5. The saving of the lives of those that are in apparent danger of famine or perishing within our sight or reach 1 Iohn 3. 17. Luke 10. 33. Thus far God hath prescribed to us how he would have us use our estates in an ordinary way In many other things he hath left us to more General Directions 3. To know among good works which is to be preferred it principally concerneth Us next to know what works do most contribute to our chiefest ends which God is most honoured by which tend to the greatest good And here we shall find that caeteris paribus 1. The Souls of men are to be preferred before their Bodies in estimation and intention But in time the Body is oft to be preferred before the Soul because if the Body be suffered to perish the helping of the Soul will be past our power 2. And so the Church is finally and estimatively to be preferred before the Common-wealth but the Common-wealth must be first served in time when it is necessary to the Churches support and welfare For the Church will else perish with the Common-wealth 3. The good of many is to be preferred before the Good of few and publick good to be valued above private Rom. 9. 3. 4. A continued good is greater than a short and transitory good And so necessary is it to have chief respect in all our works to our chiefest end the greatest good that even when God seemeth to have prescribed to us the way of our expences yet that is but as to our ordinary course for if in an extraordinary case it fall out that another way is more to Gods glory and the common good it must be then preferred For all means are to be judged of by the end and chosen and used for it For example if the good of Church and Common-wealth or of the souls of many do stand up against our corporal provision of our children or families it is to be preferred which is easily proved a fortiore because it is to be preferred before our own good even the saving of our lives A good subject will lose his life to save the life of his King and a good Souldier will dye to save his General or the Army And a useless member of the Church should be content to dye if it be necessary to save the life of a Pastor that is greatly useful If a poor ordinary Christian then had been so put to it that either Paul or He must famish no doubt but his ultimate end would have commanded him to prefer the Apostle before himself So that in extraordinary cases the end and greatest good must be our guide 4. Though I may ordinarily prefer my own life â—efore anothers yet I must not prefer my meer delight nor health before anothers life And though men must provide for the lives of their children before the lives of others yet the life of a poor neighbour caeteris paribus must be preferred and provided for before the portions of your own children and before the supply of their tollerable wants So that as long as there are poor about you that are in necessity of food to save their lives the portions or comliest clothing of your children must rather be neglected than the poor be suffered to perish How else do I love my neighbour as my self if I make so great a difference between my self and him 5. Even the food and rayment and other necessaries which a Christian useth himself he must use for God and not for his carnal self at all not taking it as his own which he may use at and for his own pleasure but as part of his Masters goods which are all to be used only for his service As a steward that when he giveth every servant his part and taketh his own part it is not as if it were primarily his own but as a servant on the same account with the rest So when I devote all that I have to God I am so far from excepting my own part even my food and rayment that I do more confidently intend the serving of God with that than with the rest because it is more in my power and there is in it more of my duty The same I may say of that which is given to our children and other relations 6. Therefore when more of the service and interest of God lyeth upon your own or your childrens using of his talents than upon other mens you are bound for God and not for your selves to retain so much the more to your selves and children It is a fond conceit that a man is bound to give all to others rather than to himself or children when it is most probable that those others would do God less service with it than himself or his children would do As suppose such a man as Mr. Elliot in New England that devoteth himself to the Conversion of the Indians had riches when some neighbour Ministers were poor that are engaged in no such work He that knoweth that God hath given him a heart and an opportunity to do him more service with it than another would do is not bound to put it out of his own hands into anothers that is less like to be a faithful improver of it If you have a Son of your own that is a Preacher of the Gospel and is more able and serviceable than other Ministers in equal want no doubt you have then a double obligation to relieve your own Son before another as he is your Son and as he is more serviceable to God If other men are bound to supply your want for the work and interest of the Gospel you are not bound to give away your own supplyes to the disabling you from your work unless when you see a greater work or the present absolute necessity of others doth require it 7. It is imprudent and unsafe and therefore unlawful ordinarily to tye your self unchangably for continuance to any one particular way of using your estates for God As to vow that you will give it to Ministers or to the poor or to Schools
mercies to ask them and those that have received them to be thankful for them Obj. So they may do singly Answ. It is not only as single persons but as a society that they receive the meroy Therefore not only as single persons but as a society should they pray and give thanks Therefore should they do it in that manner as may be most fit for a society to do it in and that is together conjunctly that it may be indeed a family Sacrifice and that each part may see that the rest joyn with them And especially that the Ruler may be satisfied in this to whom the oversight of the rest is committed to see that they all joyn in Prayer which in secret he cannot see it being not fit that secret prayer should have Spectatours or Witness that is should not be secret But this I intended to make another Arment by it self which because we are faln on it I will add next Arg. 3. If God hath given charge to the Ruler of the Family to see that the rest do worship him in that Family then ought the Ruler to cause them solemnly or openly to joyn in that Worship But God hath given charge to the Ruler of the Family to see that the rest do worship him in that Family Therefore c. The reason of the Consequence is because otherwise he can with no convenience see that they do it For 1. It is not fit that he should stand by while they pray secretly 2. Nor are they able vocally to do it in most Families but have need of a leader it being not a thing to be expected of every Woman and Child and Servant that hath wanted good education that they should beable to pray without a Guide so as is fit for others to hear 3. It would take up almost all the time of the Ruler of many Families to go to them one after another and stand by them while they pray till all have done What man in his wits can think this to be so fit a course as for the Family to joyn together the Ruler being the mouth The Antecedent I prove thus 1. The fourth Commandment requireth the Ruler of the Family not only to see that himself sanctifie the Sabbath day but also that his Son and Daughter and Man servant and Maid servant his Cattle that is so far as they are capable yea and the Stranger that is within his gates should do it 2. It was committed to Abrahams charge to see that all in his Family were Circumcised So was it afterward to every Ruler of a Family insomuch as the Angel threatned Moses when his Son was uncircumcised 3. The Ruler of the Family was to see that the Passeover was kept by every one in his Family Exod. 12. 2 3 c. and so the Feast of Weeks Deut. 16. 11 12. All that is said before tendeth to prove this and much more might be said if I thought it would be denyed Arg. 4. If God prefer and would have us prefer the prayers and praises of many conjunct before the prayers and praises of those persons dividedly then it is his will that the particular persons of Christian Families should prefer conjunct prayer and praises before disjunct But the Antecedent is true Therefore so is the consequent Or thus take it for the same Argument or another If it be the Duty of Neighbours when they have occasion and opportunity rather to joyn together in praises of common concernment than to do it dividedly then much more is this the Duty of Families But it is the Duty of Neighbours Therefore In the former Argument the reason of the consequence is because that way is to be taken that God is best pleased with The reason of the consequence in the latter is because familie members are more nearly related than neighbours and have much more advantage and opportunity for conjunction and more ordinary reasons to urge them to it from the conjunction of their interests and affairs There is nothing needs proof but the Antecedent which I shall put past all Doubt by these Arguments 1. Col. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. Here is one Duty of praise required to be done together and not apart only I shall yet make further use of this text anon 2. Acts 12. 12. Many were gathered together praying in Maryes house when Peter came to the door this was not an Assembly of the whole Church but a small part They judged it better to pray together than alone 3. Acts 20. 36. Paul prayed together with all the Elders of the Church of Ephesus when he had them with him and did not choose rather to let them pray each man alone 4. Iames 5. 15 16. Iames commands the sick to send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him and the prayer of the faithful shall save the sick c. He doth not bid send to them to pray for you but he would have them joyn together in doing it 5. Church prayers are preferred before private on this ground and we commanded not to forsake the Assembling of our selves together Heb. 10. 25. â—6 Striving together in prayer is desired Rom. 15. 30. 7. Matth. 18. 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them 8. Therefore Christ came among the Disciples when they were gathered together after his resurrection And sent down the Holy Ghost when they were gathered together Acts 2. And they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Acts 1. 14. 24. 2. 42. And When they had prayed the place was shaken where they had assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost c. Act. 4. 31. 9. Is not this implied in Christs directing his Disciples to pray in the plural number Our Father c. Give us this day c. 10. The very necessitie of the persons proves it in that few societies are such but that most are unable to express their own wants so largely as to affect their hearts so much as when others do it that are better stored with affection and expression And this is one of Gods ways for communion and communication of grace that those that have much may help to warm and kindle those that have less Experience telleth us the benefit of this As all the body is not an eye or hand so not a tongue and therefore the tongue of the Church and of the family must speak for the whole body not but that each one ought to pray in secret too But 1. There the heart without the tongue may better serve turn 2. They still ought to prefer conjunct prayer And 11. the communion of Saints is an Article of our Creed which binds us to acknowledge it fit to do as much as we can of Gods work in communion with the Saints not going
truly signifieth the Rulers Will. 2. That it is the Act of a Power derived from God and therefore no further bindeth than it is the exercise of such a power 3. That it is given 1. Finally for Gods glory and pleasure and for the Common Good comprehending the Honour of the Ruler and the welfare of the society ruled And therefore obligeth not when it is 1. Against God 2. Or against the Common Good 2. And it is subordinate to Gods It is not Mr. Humphâ—â—y alone that hath written that Laws bind not in conscience to obedience which are against the Publick Good The greatest Casuists say the same excepting the case of scandal He that would see this in them may choose but these two special Authors Bapt. Fragos de Regimine Reipublicae Greg. Sayrus in his Clavis Regia and in them he shall find enow more câ—â—ed Though I think some further Cautions would make it more satisfactory own Laws in Nature and Scripture and therefore obligeth not to sin or to the violation of Gods Law 4. You must note that Laws are made for the Government of Societies as such universally and so are fitted to the Common Case for the Common Good And it is not possible but that a Law which prescribeth a duty which by accident is so to the most should meet with some particular subject to whom the case is so circumstantiated as that the same act would be to him a sin And to the same man it may be ordinarily a duty and in an extraordinary case a sin Thence it is that in some cases as Lent Fasts Marriages c. Rulers oft authorize some persons to grant dispensations in certain cases And hence it is said that Necessity hath no Law Hereupon I conclude as followeth 1. It is no sin to break a Law which is no Law as being against God or not authorized by him as of a Usurper c. See R. Hooker Conclus Lib 8. 2. It is no Law so far as it is no signification of the true Will of the Ruler what ever the words be Therefore so far it is no sin to break it 3. The Will of the Ruler is to be judged of not only by the Words but by the Ends of Government and by the Rules of Humanity 4. It being not possible that the Ruler in his Laws can foresee and name all exceptions which may occur it is to be supposed that it is his Will that the Nature of the thing shall be the notifier of his Will when it cometh to pass And that if he were present and this case fell out before him which the sense and end of the Law extendeth not to he would say This is an excepted Case 5. There is therefore a wide difference between a General Law and a personal particular Mandate As of a Parent to a Child or a Master to a Servant For this latter fully notifieth the Will of the Ruler in that very case and to that very person And therefore it cannot be said that here is any exception or that it is not his Will But in an Universal or General Law it is to be supposed that some particular excepted Cases will fall out extraordinarily though they cannot be named And that in those Cases the Rulers will dispenseth with it 6. Sometimes also the Ruler doth by the meer neglect of pressing or executing his own Laws permit them to grow obsolete and out of use And sometimes he forbeareth the execution of them for some time or to some sort of persons And by so doing doth notifie that it was not his Will that â—t such a time and in such cases they should oblige I say not that all remissness of execution is such a sign But sometimes it is And the very word of the Law-giver may notifie his dispensation or suspending will As for instance Upon the burning of London there were many Laws about coming to Parish Churches and relief of the poor of the Parish and the like that the people became uncapable of obeying And it was to be supposed that the Rulers will would have been to to have excepted such Cases if foreseen and that they did dispense with them when they fell out 7. Sometimes also the penalty of violating a Law is some such Mulct or service which the Ruler intendeth as a Commutation for the duty so that he freely leaveth it to the choice of the subject which he will choose And then it is no sin to pay the Mulct and omit the Action because it crosseth not the Law-givers will 8. Sometimes also the Law may command this principally for some mens sake which so little concerns others that it should not extend to them at all were it not lest the Liberty of them should be an impediment to the obedience of others and consequently of the common good In which case if those persons so little concerned do but omit the action secretly so as to be no scandal or publick hurt it seemeth that they have the implicite Consent of the Rulers 9. Sometimes particular duties are commanded with this express exception Unless they have just and reasonable impediment As for coming every Lords Day to Church c. which seemeth to imply that though in cases where the publick good is concerned the person himself shall not be Judge nor at all as to the penalty yet that in actions of an indifferent nature in themselves this exception is still supposed to be implyed Unless we have just and reasonable impediments of which in private Cases as to the Crime we may judge 10. I need not mention the common natural exceptions As that Laws bind not to a thing when it becometh naturally impossible or cessante materia vel capacitate subjecti obligati c. 11. Laws may change their sense in part by the change of the Law-giver For the Law is not formally to us his Law that is dead and was once our Ruler but his that is alive and is now our Ruler If Henry the eighth make a Law about the outward acts of Religion as for coming to Church c. and this remain unrepealed in King Edwards Queen Maries Queen Elizabeths King Iames his dayes c. even till now As we are not to think that the Law-givers had the same sense and will so neither that the Law hath the same sense and obligation For if the general words be capable of several senses we must not take it as binding to us in the sense it was made in but in the sense of of our present Law-givers or Rulers because it is their Law 12. Therefore if a Law had a special Reason for it at the first making as the Law for using Bows and Arrows that Reason ceasing we are to suppose the Will of the Law-giver to remit the obligation if he urge not the execution and renew not the Law 13. By these plain principles many particular difficulties may be easily resolved which cannot be foreseen and named e.