the particular Law to be most prudent But in this our rule is plain enough Our understanding ought to be inquisitive whether the civil constitution agree with our duty to God but we are bound to inquire no further And therefore beyond this although he who having no obligation to it as Counsellours have inquires not at all into the wisdome or reasonableness of the Law be not alwaies the wisest Man yet he is ever the best subject For when he hath given up his understanding to his Prince and Prelate provided that his duty to God be secured by a precedent search hath also with the best and with all the instruments in the world secured his obedience to Man SECT II. Of Provision or that part of Justice which is due from Superiours to Inferiours AS God hath imprinted his authority in several parts upon several estates of Men as Princes Parents Spiritual Guides so he hath also delegated and committed parts of his care and providence unto them that they may be instrumental in the conveying such blessings which God knows we need and which he intends should be the effects of Government For since GOD governs all the World as a King provides for us as a Father and is the great Guide and Conductor of our spirits as the Head of the Church and the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls they who have portions of these dignities have also their share of the administration the summe of all which is usually signified in these two words Governing and Feeding and is particularly recited in the following rules Duties of Kings and all the Supreme power as Lawgivers 1. Princes of the people and all that have Legislative power must provide useful and good Laws for the defence of propriety for the encouragement of labour for the safeguard of their persons for determining controversies for reward of noble actions and excellent arts and rare inventions for promoting trade and enriching their people Omittenda potius praevalida adulta vitia quà m hoc adsequi ut palam fiat quibus flagiâ—us impares fâ—mus Tacit. 2. In the making Laws Princes must have regard to the publick dispositions to the affections and disaffections of the people and must not introduce a Law with publick scandal and displeasure but consider the publick benefit and the present capacity of affairs and general inclinations of mens mindes For he that enforces a Law upon a people against their first and publick apprehensions tempts them to disobedience and makes Laws to become snares and hooks to catch the people and to enrich the treasury with the spoil and tears and curses of the Communalty and to multiply their mutiny and their sin 3. Princes must provide that the Laws be duly executed for a good Law without execution is like an unperformed promise and therefore they must be severe exactors of accounts from their Delegates and Ministers of Justice 4. The severity of Laws must be tempered with dispensations pardons and remissions according as the case shall alter and new necessities be introduced or some singular accident shall happen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eâ—h 5. c. 19. in which the Law would be unreasonable or intolerable as to that particular And thus the people with their importunity prevailed against Saul in the case of Jonathan and obtained his pardon for breaking the Law which his Father made because his necessity forced him to taste honey and his breaking the Law in that case did promote that service whose promotion was intended by the Law 5. Princes must be Fathers of the people and provide such instances of gentleness ease wealth and advantages as may make mutual confidence between them and must fix their security under God in the love of the people which therefore they must with all arts of sweetness remission popularity nobleness and sincerity endeavour to secure to themselves 6. Princes must not multiply publick Oaths without great eminent and violent necessity lest the security of the King become a snare to the people and they become false when they see themselves suspected or impatient when they are violently held fast but the greater and more useful caution is upon things then upon persons and if security of Kings can be obtained otherwise it is better that Oaths should be the last refuge and when nothing else can be sufficient 7. Let not the people be tempted with arguments to disobey 〈…〉 by the imposition of great and unnecessary taxes for that lost to the son of Solomon the dominion of the ten Tribes of Israel 8. Princes must in a special manner be Guardians of Pupils and Widows not suffering their persons to be oppressed or their states imbezâ—ll'd or in any sense be exposed to the rapine of covetous persons but be provided for by just Laws and provident Judges and good Guardians ever having an ear ready open to their just complaints and a heart full of pity and one hand to support them and the other to aveng them 9. Princes must provide that the Laws may be so administred that they be truly really and ease to the people not an instrument of vexation and therefore must be careful that the shortest and most equal waies of trials be appointed fees moderated and intricacies and windings as much cut off as may be lest injured persons be forced to perish under the oppression or under the Law in the injury or in the suit Laws are like Princes the best and most beloved who are most easie of accesse Chi compra il magistrato foâ—za è â—he venda â—a gâ—ustoâ—ia 13. Places of judicature ought at no hand to be sold by pious Princes who remember themselves to be Fathers of the people For they that buy the Office will sell the act and they that at any rate will be Judges will not at an easie rate doe justice and their bribery is lesse punishable when bribery opened the door by which they entred 14. Ancient priviledges favours customs and Acts of grace indulged by former Kings to their people must not without high reason and great necessities be revoked by their successors nor forfeitures be exacted violently nor penal Laws urged rigorously nor in light cases nor Laws be multiplied without great need nor virious persons which are publickly and deservedly hated be kept in defiance of popular desires nor any thing that may unnecessarily make the yoke heavy the affection light that may increase murmures and lessen charity alwaies remembring that the interest of the Prince and the People is so infolded in a mutual embrace that they cannot be untwisted without pulling a limb off or dissolving the bands and conjunction of the whole body 12. All Princes must esteem themselves as much bound by their word by their grants Nulla lex civilâ—â— sibi soâ—â— conscientiâ—m juâ—tâ—ie sâ—ae debet sed eis a quibus obsequium expectaâ— Tertull. Apologeâ— and by their promises as the meanest of their Subjects are by the
people so long GOD would have that to be the solemn manner of confessing these attributes but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law the great dutie remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances We are eternally bound to confess God Almightie to bee the Maker of Heaven and Earth but the manner of confessing it is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing to a speaking somthing from a day to a symbol from a ceremonie to a substance from a Jewish rite to a Christian dutie wee profess it in our Creed wee confess it in our lives wee describe it by every line of our life by every action of dutie by faith and trust and obedience and wee do also upon great reason complie with the Jewish manner of câ—nfessing the Creation so far as it is instrumental to a real dutie Wee keep one day in seven and so confess the manner and circumstance of the Creation and wee rest also that wee may tend holie duties so imitating God's rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening and could not by stripes or wounds bee raised up to steer the ship in a great storm God's rest was not a natural cessation hee who could not labor could not bee said to rest but God's rest is to bee understood to bee a beholding and a rejoicing in his work finished and therefore wee truly represent God's rest when wee confess and rejoice in God's Works and God's glorie This the Christian Church does upon every day but especially upon the Lord's day which she hath set apart for this and all other Offices of Religion being determined to this day by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord it beeing the first day of joy the Church ever had And now upon the Lord's day wee are not tied to the rest of the Sabbath but to all the work of the Sabbath wee are to abstain from bodily labour not because it is a direct dutie to us as it was to the Jews but because it is necessarie in order to our dutie that wee attend to the Offices of Religion The observatioâ— of the Lord's daie differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in the matter of Religion but in the manner They differ in the ceremony and external rite Rest with them was the principal with us it is the accessory They differ in the office or forms of worship For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father we are to adde to that Our Redeemer and all his other excellencies and mercies and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath yet the Jews had a divine Commandement for their day which we have not for ours but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week for doing it in solemn Assemblies and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures Rules for keeping the Lords day â—nd other Christian festivals 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival daies from common do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary daies that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire and enlarge upon the Holy day 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstain from all servile and laborous works except such which are matters of necessity of common life or of great charity for these are permitted by that authoritie which hath separated the day for holy uses The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest and established by God did yeeld to these The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement for which the Letter was decreed and to which it ought to minister And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit and there is no Commandement of God but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dress them for sacrifice and Châ—ist though born under the Law might heal a sick man and the sick man might carry his bed to witness his recovery and confess the mercy and leap and dance to God for joy and an Ox might be led to water and an Ass be haled out of a ditch a man may take physick and he may eat meat and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes and just determined stages but they had even then a reasonable latitude so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour or such as did not minister to charity or religion And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties Upon the Christian Sabbath necessity is to be served first then charity then religion for this is to give place to charity in great instances and the second to the fiâ—st in all and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth 3. The Lords day being the remembâ—ance of a great blessing must be a day of joy festivitie spiritual â—ejâ—icing and thanksgiving and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms in recounting the great works of God in remembring his mercies in worshipping his excellencâ—es in celebrating his attributes in admiâ—ing his person in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided and in all the arts and instruments of advancing God's glorie and the reputation of Religion in which it were a great decencie that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted that the particular religion of the day bee not swallowed up in the general And of this wee may the more easily serve our selvs by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imploied in publick offices 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of praier entring early and cheerfully attending reverently and devoutly abiding patiently during the whole office piously assisting at the praiers and gladly also hearing the Sermon and at no hand omitting to receive the holy Communion when it is offered unless some great reason excuse it this being the great solemnitie of thanksgiving and a proper work of the day 5. After the solemnities are past and in the intervalls between the morning and evening devotion as you shall finde opportunitie visit sick persons reconcile differences do offices of neighbâ—uâ—hâ—od â—nquire into the needs of the poor especially house keepers relieve them as they shall need and as you are able for then wee truly rejoice in God when we make
Holy Living In which are described The Means and Instruments of obtaining every Virtue and the Remedies against every Vice and Considerations serving to the resisting all Temptations Together with PRAYERS containing the whole duty of a Christian and the parts of Devotion fitted to all Occasians and furnished for all Necessities By JER TAYLOR D. D. The 5 th Edition corrected With Additionals LONDON Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1656. TO THE Right Honourable and truly Noble RICHARD Lord VAUGHAN Earl of Carbery Knight of the honourable Order of the Bath My Lord I Have lived to see Religion painted upon Banners and thrust out of Churches and the Temple turned into a Tabernacle and that Tabernacle made ambulatory and covered with skins of Beasts and torn Curtains and God to be worshipped not as he is the Father of our Lord Jesus an afflicted Prince the King of sufferings nor as the God of peace which two appellatives God newly took upon him in the New Testament and glories in for ever but he is owned now rather as the Lord of Hosts which title he was pleased to lay aside when the Kingdome of the Gospel was preached by the Prince of peace But when Religion puts on Armor and God is not acknowledged by his New Testament titles Religion may have in it the power of the Sword but not the power of Godliness and we may complain of this to God and amongst them that are afflicted but we have no remedy but what we must expect from the fellowship of â—hrists sufferings and the returns of the God of peace In the mean time and now that Religion pretends to stranger actions upon new principles and men are apt to preferre a prosperous errour before an afflicted truth and some will think they are religious enough if their worshipings have in them the prevailing ingredient and the Ministers of Religion are so scattered that they cannot unite to stop the inundation and from Chairs or Pulpiâ—s from their Synods or Tribunals chastise the iniquity of the errour and the ambition of evil Guides and the infidelity of the willingly seduced multitude and that those few good people who have no other plot in their religion but to serve God and save their souls doe want such assistances of ghostly counsel as may serve their emergent needs and assist their endeavours in the acquist of virtues and relieve their dangers when they are tempted to sinne and death I thought I had reasons enough inviting me to draw into one body those advices which the severall necessities of many men must use at some time or other and many of them daily that by a collection of holy precepts they might lesse feel the want of personall and attending Guides and that the Rules for conduct of souls might be committed to a Book which they might alwaies have since they could not alwaies have a Prophet at their needs nor be suffered to go up to the house of the Lord to inquire of the appointed Oracles I know my Lord that there are some interested persons who adde scorn to the afflictions of the Church of England and because she is afflicted by Men call her forsaken of the Lord and because her solemn Assemblies are scattered think that the Religion is lost and the Church divorc'd from God supposing Christ who was a Man of sorrows to be angry with his Spouse when she is like him for that 's the true state of the Errour and that he who promised his Spirit to assist his servants in their troubles will because they are in trouble take away the Comforter from them who cannot be a comforter but while he cures our sadnesses and relieves our sorrows and turns our persecutions into joyes and Crowns and Scepters But concerning the present state of the Church of England I consider that because we now want the blessings of external communion in many degrees and the circumstances of a prosperous unafflicted people we are to take estimate of our selves with single judgments every man is to give sentence concerning the state of his own soul by the precepts and rules of our Law-giver not by the after-decrees and usages of the Church that is by the essential parts of Religion rather then by the uncertain significations of any exteriour adherencies for though it be uncertain when a Man is the Member of a Church whether he be a Member to Christ or no because in the Churches Net there are fishes good and bad yet we may be sure that if we be members of Christ we are of a Church of all purposes of spiritual religion and salvation and in order to this give me leave to speak this great truth That Man does certainly belong to God who 1 Believes and is baptized into all the Articles of the Christian faith and studies to improve his knowledge in the matters of God so as may best make him to live a holy life 2 He that in obedience to Christ worships God diligently frequently and constantly with naturall Religion that is of prayer praises and thanksgiving 3 He that takes all opportunities to remember Christs death by a frequent Sacrament as it can be had or else by inward acts of understanding will and memory which is the spiritual communion supplies the want of the external rite 4 He that lives chastly 5 And is merciful 6 And despises the World using it as a Man but never suffering it to rifle a duty 7 And is just in his dealing and diligent in his calling 8 He that is humble in his spirit 9 And obedient to Government 10 And content in his fortune and imployment 11 He that does his duty because he loves God 12 And especially if after all this he be afflicted and patient or prepared to suffer affliction for the cause of God The Man that have these twelve signes of grace and predestination does as certainly belong to God and is his Son as surely as he is his creature And if my brethren in persecution and in the bands of the Lord Jesus can truly shew these marks they shall not need be troubled that others can shew a prosperous outside great revenues publick assemblie uninterrupted successions of Bishops prevailing Armies or any arm of flesh or lesse certain circumstance These are the marks of the Lord Jesus and the characters of a Christian This is a good Religion and these things Gods grace hath put into our powers and Gods Laws have made to be our duty and the nature of Men and the needs of Common-wealths have made to be necessary the other accidents and pomps of a Church are things without our power and are not in our choice they are good to be used when they may be had and they help to illustrate or advantage it but if any of them constitute a Church in the being of a society and a Government yet they are not of its constitution as it is Christian and hopes to be saved And now the
Angels he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to imploy those abilities and hath also designed him to a state of life after this to which he can only arrive by that service and obedience And therefore as every man is wholly Gods own portion by the title of creation so all our labours and care all our powers and faculties must be wholly imployed in the service of God even all the daies of our life that this life being ended we may live with him for ever Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of God as a work of the least necessity or of small imployment but that it be done by us as God intended it that it be done with great earnestness and passion with much zeal and desire that we refuse no labour that we bestow upon it much time that we use the best guides and arrive at the end of glory by all the waies of grace of prudence and religion And indeed if we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature how many years are wholly spent before we come to any use oâ— reason how many years more before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education false principles ill company bad examples and want of experience how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping in necessary businesses and unnecessary vanities in wordly civilities and lesse useful circumstances in the learning arts and sciences languages or trades that little portion of hours that is left for the practises of piety and religious walking with God is so short and trifling that were not the goodness of God infinitely great it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of him eternal joyes in heaven even after the well spending those few minutes which are left for God and Gods service after we have served our selves and our own occasions And yet it is considerable that the fruit which comes from the many daies of recreation and vanity is very little and although we scatter much yet we gather but little profit but from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life the returne is great and profitable and what we sowe in the minutes and spare portions of a few years grows up to crowns and scepters in a happy and a glorious eternity 1. Therefore although it cannot be enjoyn'd that the greatest part of our time be spent in the direct actions of devotion and religion yet it will become not only a duty but also a great providence to lay aside for the services of God and the businesses of the Spirit as much as we can because God rewards our minutes with long and eternal happiness and the greater portion of our time we give to God the more we treasure up for our selves and No man is a better Merchant then be that layes out his time upon God and his money upon the Poor 2. Only it becomes us to remember and to adore Gods goodness for it that God hath not only permitted us to serve the necessities of our nature but hath made them to become parts of our duty that if we by directing these actions to the glory of God intend them as instruments to continue our persons in his service he by adopting them into religion may turne our nature into grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arriaâ—n Epict. l. 1. c. 13. and accept our natural actions as actions of religion God is pleased to esteem it for a part of his service if we eat or drink so it be done done temperately and as may best preserve our health that our health may enable our services towards him And there is no one minute of our lives after we are come to the use of reason but we are or may be doing the work of God even then when we most of all serve our selves 3. To which if we adde that in these and all other actions of our lives we alwaies stand before God acting and speaking and thinking in his presence and that it matters not that our conscience is seal'd with secresie since it lies open to God it will concern us to behave our selves carefully as in the presence of our Judge These three considerations rightly manag'd applied to the several parts and instances of our lives will be like Elisha stretched upon the childe apt to put life and quickness into every part of it and to make us live the life of grace and doe the work of God I shall therefore by way of introduction reduce these three to practise and shew how every Christian may improve all and each of these to the advantage of piety in the whole course of his life that if he please to bear but one of them upon his spirit he may feel the benefit like an universal instrument helpful in all spiritual and temporal actions SECT I. The first general instrument of holy living Care of our time HE that is choice of his time will also be choice of his company and choice of his actions lest the first ingage him in vanity and losle and the latter by being criminal be a throwing his time and himself away and a going back in the accounts of eternity God hath given to man a short time here upon earth and yet upon this short time eternity depends but so that for every hour of our life after we are persons capable of laws and know good from evil we must give account to the great Judge of Men and Angels And this is it which our blessed Saviour told us that we must account for every idle word not meaning that every word which is not designed to edification or is lesse prudent shall be reckoned for a sin but that the time which we spend in our idle talking and unprofitable discoursings that time which might and ought to have been imployed to spiritual and useful purposes that is to be accounted for For we must remember that we have a great work to doe many enemies to conquer many evils to prevent much danger to run through many difficulties to be mastered many necessities to serve and much good to doe many children to provide for or many friends to support oâ— many poor to relieve or many diseases to cure besides the needs of nature and of relation our private and our publick cares and duties of the world which necessity and the providence of God hath adopted into the family of Religion And that we need not fear this instrument to be a snare to us or that the duty must end in scruple vexation and eternal fears we must remember that the life of every man may be so ordered and indeed must that it may be a perpetual serving of God The greatest trouble and most busie trade and wordly incumbrances when they are necessary or charitable or profitable in order to any
which becometh women professing godliness with good works 9. As those meats are to be avoided which tempt our stomacks beyond our hunger so also should prudent persons decline all such spectacles relations Theatres loud noises and out-cries which concern us not and are besides our natural or moral interest Our senses should not like petulant and wanton Girles wander into Markets and Theatres without just imployment Oedipam curiositas in extremas cojecit calamitateâ— Plat but when they are sent abroad by reason return quickly with their errand and remain modestly at home under their guide till they be sent againe 10. Let all persons be curious in observing modesty toward themselves in the handsome treating their own body and such as are in their power whether living or dead Against this rule they offend who expose to others their own or pry into others nakedness beyond the limits of necessity where a leave is not made holy by a permission from God It is also said that God was pleased to work a miracle about the body of Epiphanius to reprove the immodest curiosity of an unconcerned person who pryed too neer when charitable people were composing it to the grave In all these cases and particulars although they seem little yet our duty and concernment is not little Concerning which I use the words of the Son of Sirach He that despiseth little things shall perish by little and little SECT VI. Of contentedness in all estates and accidents Virtues and Discourses are like Friends necessary in all fortunes but those are the best which are Friends in our sadnesses and support us in our sorrows and sad accidents and in this sense no man that is virtuous can be friendlesse nor hath any man reason to complain of the Divine Providence or accuse the publick disorder of things or his own infelicity since God hath appointed one remedy for all the evils in the World and that is a contented spirit For this alone makes a man passe through fire and not be scorched through Seas and not be drowned through hunger and nakedness and want nothing For since all the evil in the world consists in the disagreeing between the object and the appetite as when a man hath what he desires not or desires what he hath not or desires amisse he that composes his spirit to the present accident hath variety of instances for his virtue but none to trouble him because his desires enlarge not beyond his present fortune and a wise man is placed in the variety of chances like the Nave or Centre of a wheel in the midst of all the circumvolutions and changes of posture without violence or change save that it turns gently in complyance with its changed parts and is indifferent which part is up and which is down for there is some virtue or other to be exercised what ever happens either patience or thanksgiving love or fear moderation or humility charity or contentedness and they are every one of them equally in order to his great end and immortal felicity and beauty is not made by white or red by black eyes and a round face by a straight body and a smooth skin but by a proportion to the fancy No rules can make amability our mindes and apprehensions make that and so is our felicity and we may be reconciled to poverty a low fortune if we suffer contentedness and the grace of God to make the proportions For no man is poor that does not think himself so But if in a full fortune with impatience he desires more he proclaims his wants and his beggerly condition Nam facta tibi est si dissimules injuria But because this grace of contentedness was the sum of all the old moral Philosophy and a great duty in Christianity and of most universal use in the whole course of our lives and the only instrument to ease the burdens of the world and the enmities of sad chances it will not be amisse to presse it by the proper arguments by which God hath bound it upon our spirits it being fastned by Reason and Religion by duty and interest by necessity and conveniency by example and by the proposition of excellent rewards no lesse then peace and felicity 1. Contentedness in all estates is a duty of Religion it is the great reasonableness of complying with the Divine providence which governs all the World and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great Family He were a strange fool that should be angry because Dogs and sheep need no shoes and yet himself is full of care to get some God hath supplied those needs to them by natural provisions and to thee by an artificial for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade or some meanes to make or buy them so that it onely differs in the manner of our provision and which had you rather want shoes or reason And my Patron that hath given me a Farm is freer to me then if he gives a loaf ready baked But however all these gifts come from him and therefore it is fit he should dispence them as he please and if we murmure here we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us to be Angels or Stars For if that which we are or have doe not content us we may be troubled for every thing in the World which is besides our being or our possessions God is the Master of the Scenes we must not choose which part we shall act it concerns us only to be careful that we doe it well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwaies saying If this please God let it be as it is and we who pray that Gods will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven must remember that the Angels doe whatsoever is commanded them and go where ever they are sent and refuse no circumstances and if their imployment be crossed by a higher decree â—an 14.13 they sit down in peace and rejoice in the event and when the Angel of Judea could not prevail in behalf of the people committed to his charge because the Angel of Persia opposed it he only told the story at the command of God and was as content and worshipped with as great an extasie in his proportion as the prevailing Spirit Doâ— thou so likewise keep the station where God hath placed you and you shall never long for things without but sit at home feasting upon the Divine Providence and thy own reason by which we are taught that it is necessary and reasonable to submit to God For is not all the World Gods family Are not we his creatures Are we not as clay in the hand of the Potter Doe we not live upon his meat and move by his strength and doe our work by his light Are we any thing but what we are from him and shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and herds because their Lord or their Shepherd chooses their pastures and
estate passes wiâ—h all its burden If the Father by perswading his neighbour to doe justice be bound to restore the action is extinguished by the death of the Father because it was only the Fathers sin that bound him which cannot directly binde the son therefore the son is free And this is so in all personal actions unlesse wheâ—e the civil Law interposes and alters the case ¶ These Rules concern the persons that are obliged to make restitution the other circumstances of it are thus described 8. He that by fact or word or signe either fraudulently or violently does hurt to his Neighbours bâ—dy life goods good name friends or soul is bound to make restitution in the several instances according as they are capable to be made In all these instances we must separate intreaty and inticements from deceit or violence If I perswade my Neighbour to commit adultery I still leave him or her in their own power and though I am answerable to God for my sin yet not to my Neighbour For I made her to be willing yet she was willing (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict that is the same at last as I was at first but if I have used fraud and made her to believe a lie (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Non licet suffurare mentem vel Samaritani R. Maimon Can. Eth. upon which confidence she did the act and without it she would not as if I tell a woman her Husband is dead or intended to kill her or is himself an adulterous man or if I use violence that is either force her or threaten her with death or a grievous wound or any thing that takes her from the liberty of her choice I am bound to restitution that is to restore her to a right understanding of things and to a full liberty by taking from her the deceit or the violence 9. An adulterous person is tyed to restitution of the injury so farre as it is reparable and can be made to the wronged person that is to make provision for the children begotten in unlawful embraces that they may doe no injury to the legitimate by receiving a common portion and if the injured person doe account of it he must satisfie him with money for the wrong done to his bed He is not tyed to offer this because it is no proper exchange but he is bound to pay it if it be reasonably demanded for every man hath justice done him when himself is satisfied though by a word or an action or a peny 10. He that hath killed a man is bound to restitution by allowing such a maintenance to the children and neer relatives of the deceased as they have lost by his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— Mich. Ephes ad 5 Eth. considering and allowing for all circumstances of the mans age and health and probability of living And thus Hercules is said to have made expiation for the death of Iphitus whom he slew by paying a mulct to his children 11. He that hath really lessened the fame of his neighbor by fraud or violence is bound to restore it by its proper instruments Sic Vivanus resipuit de infâ—sta accusatione apud Cassidor 1. â—1 such as are confession of his fault giving testimony of his innocence or wroth doing him honor or if that will doe it and both parties agree by money which answers all things 12. He that hath wounded his neighbour is tyed to the expences of the Surgeon other incidences and to repair what ever losse he sustaines by his disability to work or trade and the same is in the case of false imprisonment in which cases only the real effect and remaining detriment are to be mended and repaired for the action it self is to be punished or repented of and enters not into the question of restitution But in these and all other cases the injured person is to be restored to that perfect and good condition from which he was removed by my fraud or violence so farre as is possible Thus a ravisher must repair the temporal detriment or injury done to the maid and give her a dowry or marry her if she desire it For this restores her into that capacity of being a good wife which by the injury was lost as far as it can be done 13 He that robbeth his Neighbour of his goods or detains any thing violently or fraudulently is bound not only to restore the principal but all its fruits and emoluments which would have accrued to the right owner during the time of their being detained * By proportion to these rules we may judge of the obligation that lies upon all sorts of injurious persons the sacrilegious the detainers of tythes cheaters of mens inheritances unjust Judges false witnesses and accusers those that doe fraudulently or violently bring men to sin that force men to drink that laugh at and disgrace virtue tâ—at perswade servants to run away or commâ—nd such purposes violent persecutors of religion in any instance and all of the same nature 14. He that hath wronged so many or in that manner as in the way of daily trade that he knows not in what measure he hath done it or who they are must redeem his fault by alms and largesses to the poor according to the value of his wrongful dealing as neere as he can proportion it Better it is to go begging to Heaven then to go to Hell laden with the spoils of rapine and injustice 15. The order of paying the debts of contract or restitution are in some instances set down by the civil Laws of a kingdom in which cases their rule is to be observed In destitution or want of such rules we are 1. to observe the necessity of the Creditor 2. Then the time of the delay and 3. The special obligations of friendship or kindness and according to these in their severall degrees make our restitution if we be not able to doe all that we should but if we be the best rule is to doe it so soon as we can taking our accounts in this as in our humane actions according to prudence and civil or natural conveniences or possibilities only securing these two things 1. That the duty be not wholy omitted and 2. That it be not deferred at all out of covetousness or any other principle that is vitious Remember that the same day in which Zacheus made restitution to all whom he had injured the same day Christ himself pronounced that salvation was come to his house Luke 19.9 * Gratitude 16. But besides the obligation arising from contract or default * there is one of another sort which comes from kindness and the acts of charity and friendship He that does me a favour hath bound me to make him a return of thankfulness The obligation comes not by covenant not by his own expresse intention but by the nature of the thing and is a duty springing up within the spirit of the
will be as tempting with the windiness of a violent fast as with the flesh of an ordinary meal But a daily substraction of the nourishment will introduce a lesse busie habit of body and that will prove the more effectual remedy Chi digiuna altro ben non faâ— spâ—ragna il pane al infernova See Chap. 2. Sect. 2 3. 8. fasting alone will not cure this Devil though it helps much towards it but it must not therefore be neglected but assisted by all the proper instruments of remedy against this unclean spirit and what it is unable to doe alone in company with other instruments and Gods blessing upon them it may effect 9. All fasting for whatsoever end it be undertaken must be done without any opinion of the necessity of the thing it self without censuring others with all humility in order to the proper end and just as a man takes physick of which no man hath reason to be proud and no man thinks it necessary but because he is in sickness or in danger and disposition to it 10. All fasts ordained by lawful authority are to be observed in order to the same purposes to which they are enjoyned and to be accompanied with actions of the same nature just as it is in private fasts for there is no other difference but that in publick our Superiours choose for us what in private we doe for our selves 11. Fasts ordained by lawful authority are not to be neglected because alone they cannot doe the thing in order to which they were enjoyned It may be one day of Humiliation will not obtain the blessing or alone kill the lust yet it must not be despised if it can doe any thing towards it An act of Fasting is an act of self-denial and though it doe not produce the habiâ— yet it is a good act 12. When a principal end why a Fast is publickly prescribed is obtained by some other instrument in a particular person as if the spirit of Fornication be cured by the rite of Marriage or by a gift of chastity yet that person so eased is not freed from the Fasts of the Church by that alone if those fasts can prudently serve any other end of Religion as that of prayer or repentance or mortification of some other appetite for when it is instrumental to any and of the Spirit it is freed from superstition and then we must have some other reason to quit us from the Obligation or that alone will not doe it 13. When the Fast publickly commanded by reason of some indisposition in the particular person cannot operate to the end of the Commandment yet the avoiding offence and the complying with publick order is reason enough to make the obedience to be necessary For he that is otherwise disobliged as when the reason of the Law ceases as to his particular yet remains still obliged if he cannot doe otherwise without scandal but this is an obligation of charity not of justice 14. All fasting is to be used with prudence and charity for there is no end to which fasting serves but may be obtained by other instruments and therefore it must at no hand be made an instrument of scruple or become an enemy to our health or be imposed upon persons that are sick or aged or to whom it is in any sense uncharitable such as are wearied Travellers or to whom in the whâ—le kinde of it it is uselesse such as are Women with childe poor people and little children But in these cases the Church hath made provision and inserted caution into her Laws and they are to be reduced to practise according to custome and the sentence of prudent persons with great latitude and without niceness and curiosity having this in our first care that we secure our virtue and next that we secure our health that we may the beter exercise the labours of virtue lest out of too much austerity we bring our selves to that condition * S. Basil Monast Constit. cap. 5. Cassian coll 21. cap. 22 Nè per causaÌ„ necessitatis eò impingâ—mus ut voluptatibus serviamus that it be necessary to be indulgent to softnesse ease and extreme tendernesse 15. Let not intemperance be the Prologue or the Epilogue to your fast lest the fast be so farre from taking off any thing of the sin that it be an occasion to increase it and therefore when the fast is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naâ— be carefull that no supervening act of gluttony or excessive drinking unhallow the religion of the passed day but eat temperately according to the proportion of other meals lest gluttony keep either of the gates to abstinence The benefits of Fasting He that undertakes to enumerate the benefits of fasting may in the next page also reckon all the benefits of physick for fasting is not to be commended as a duty bâ—t as an instrument and in that sense no Man can reprove it or undervalue it but he that knows neither spiritual arts nor spiritual necessities but by the doctors of the Church it is called the nourishment of prayer the restraint of lust the wings of the soul the diet of Angels the instrument of humility and self-denial the purification of the Spirit and the paleness and maigâ—enesse of visage which is consequent to the daily fast of great mortifiers is by Saint Basil said to be the mark in the Forehead which the Angel observed when he signed the Saintâ— in the forehead to escape the wrath of God The soul that is greatly vexed which goeth stooping and feeble and the eyes that fail Baruch â— v. 18. and the hungry soul shall give thee praise and righteousness O Lord. SECT VI. O keeping Festivals and daies holy to the Lord particularly the Lords day TRue naturall Religion that which was common to all Nations and Ages did principally relye upon four great propositions 1. That there is one God 2. That God is nothing of those things which we see 3. That God takes care of all things below governs all the World 4. That he is the Great Creator of all things without himself and according to these were fram'd the four first precepts of the Decalogue In the first the Unitie of the Godhead is expresly affirmed In the second his invisibility and immateâ—iality In the third is affirmed God's government and providence by avenging them that swear falsly by his Name by which also his Omniscience is declared In the fourth Commandement he proclaims himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth for in memorie of God's rest from the work of six daies the seventh was hallowed into a Sabbath and the keeping it was a confessing GOD to bee the great Maker of Heaven and Earth and consequently to this it alâ—o was a confâ—ssion of his goodness his Omnipotence and his Wisdom all which were written with a Sun-beam in the great book of the Creature So long as the Law of the Sabbath was bound upon God's
as you can by obtaining of others to pray for you this being the great blessing of the communion of Saints that a praier united is strong like a well ordered Army and God loves to be tied fast with such cords of love and constrained by a holy violence 15. Every time that is not seaz'd upon by some other duty is seasonable enough for praier but let it be performed as a solemn duty morning and evening that God may begin and end all our business and the out-goings of the morning and evening may praise him for so we bless God and God blesses us And yet sail not to finde or make opportunities to worship God at some other times of the day at least by ejaculations and short addresses more or less longer or shorter solemnly or without solemnity privately or publickly as you can or are permitted alwaies remembring that as every sin is a degree of danger and unsafety so every pious praier and well-imploied opportunity is a degree of return to hope and pardon Cautions for making Vows 16. A vow to God is an act of praier and a great degree and instance of opportunity and an increase of duâ—y by some new uncommanded instance or some more eminent degree of duty or frequency of action or earnestness of spirit in the same And because it hath pleased God in all Ages of the World to admit of entercourse with his servants in the matter of vows it is not ill advice that we make vows to God in such cases in which we have great need or great danger But let it be done according to these rules and by these cautions 1. That the matter of the Vow be lawfull 2. That it be useful in order to Religion or Charity 3. That it be grave not trifling and impertinent but great in our proportion of duty towards the blessing 4. That it be in an uncommanded instance that is that it be of something or in some manner or in some degree to which formerly wee were not formerly obliged or which we might have omitted without sinne 5. That it be done with prudence that is that it be safe in all the circumstances of person lest we beg a blessing and fall into a snare 6. That every vow of a new action bee also accompanied with a new degree and enforcement of our essential and unalterable duty such as was Jacobs vow that besides the paiment of a tithe God should be his God that so hee might strengthen his duty to him first in essentials and precepts and then in additionals and accidentals For it is but an ill Tree that spends more in leavs and â—â—ckers and gummes then in fruit and that thankfulness and Religion is best that first secures duty and then enlarges in counsels Therefore let every great praier and great need and great danger draw us to GOD nearer by the approach of a pious purpose to live more strictly and let every mercy of GOD answering that praier Augustum annulum non gâ—sta dixit Pythag. id est vitaegenus liberum sectare nec vinculo temetipsum â—bstringe Plutarch produce a real performance of it 7. Let not young beginners in Religion enlarge their hearts and straighten their libertie by vows of long continuance nor indeed any one else without a great experience of himself and of all accidental dangers Vows of single actions are safest and proportionable to those single blessings ever begg'd in such cases of sudden and transient importunities Sic Novatus â—â—vitios suos compulit ad jurandum nâ—â—nquam ad Catholicos Episcopos redirent Euseb l. 2. Eccl hist. 8. Let no action which is matter of question and dispute in Religion ever become the matter of a vow He vows foolishly that promises to God to live and die in such an opinion in an article not necessary nor certain or that upon confidence of his present guide bindes himself for ever to the profession of what he may afterwards more reasonably contradict or may finde not to bee useful or not profitable but of some danger or of no necessitie If we observe the former rules we shall pray piously and effectually but because even this duty hath in it some especial temptations it is necessarie that we be armed by special remedies against them The dangers are 1. Wandring thoughts 2. Tediousness of spirit Against the first these advices are profitable Remedies against wandring thoughts in Praier If we feel our spirits apt to wander in our praiers and to retire into the World or to things unprofitable or vain and impertinent 1. Use praier to bee assisted in praier pray for the spirit of supplication for a sober fixed and recollected spirit and when to this you adde a moral industry to be steady in your thoughts whatsoever wandrings after this do return irremediably are a miserie of Nature and an imperfection but no sin while it is not châ—rished and indulged to 2. In private it is not amiss to attempt the cure by reducing your praiers into Collects and short forms of praier making voluntary interruptions and beginning again that the want of spirit and breath may bee supplied by the short stages and periods 3. When you have observed any considerable wandring of your thoughts binde your self to repeat that praier again with actual attention or else revolve the full sense of it in your spirit and repeat it in all the effect and desires of it and possibly the tempter may bee driven away with his own art and may cease to interpose his trifles when he perceives they doe but vex the person into carefulness and piety and yet he loses nothing of his devotion but doubles the earnestness of his care 4. If this be not seasonable or opportune or apt to any Mans circumstances yet be sure with actual attention to say a hearty Amen to the whole prayer with one united desire earnestly begging the graces mentioned in the prayer for that desire does the great work of the prayer and secures the blessing if the wandring thoughts were against our will and disclaimed by contending against them 5. Avoid multiplicity of businesses of the World and in those that are unavoydable labour for an evennesse and tranquillity of spirit that you may be untroubled smooth in all tempests of fortune for so we shall better tend Religion when we are not torn in pieces with the cares of the World and seased upon with low affections passions and interest 6. It helps much to attention and actual advertisement in our prayers if wâ— say our prayers silently without the voice only by the spirit For in mental prayer if our thoughts wander we only stand still when our minde returns we go on again there is none of the prayer lost as it is if our mouths speak and our hearts wander 7. To incite you to the use of these or any other counsels you shall meet with remember that it is a great undâ—câ—ncy to desire of God to hear those
prayers a great part whereof we doe not hear our selves If they be not worthy of our attention they are farre more unworthy of Gods Signes of tediousnesse of spirit in our prayers and all actions of religion The second temptation in our prayer is a tediousness of spirit or a weariness of the imployment like that of the Jews who complained that they were weary of the new moons and their souls loathed the frequent return of their Sabbaths so doe very many Christians who first pray without servour and earnestness of spirit and secondly meditate but seldom and that without fruit or sense or affection or thirdly who seldom examine their consciences and when they doe it they doe iâ— but sleepily slightly without compunction or hearty purpose or fruits of amendment 4. They enlarge themselves in the thoughts and fruition of temporal things running for comfort to them only in any sadness and misfortune 5. They love not to frequent the Sacraments nor any the instruments of religion as sermons confessions prayers in publick fastings but love ease and a loose undiscipli'nd life 6. They obey not their superiours but follow their own judgment when their judgment follows their affections and their affections follow sense and worldly pleasures 7. They neglect or dissemble or deferre or doe not attend to the motions and inclinations to virtue which the Spirit of God puts into their soul. 8. They repent them of their vows and holy purposes not because they discover any indiscretion in them or intolerable inconvenience but because they have within them labor as the case now stands to them displeasure 9. They content themselves with the first degrees and necessary parts of virtue and when they are arrived thither they sit down as if they were come to the mountain of the Lord and caâ—e not to proceed on toward perfection 10. They enquire into all cases in which it may be lawful to omit a duty and though they will not do less then they are bound to yet they will do no more then needs must for they do out of fear and self-love not out of the love of God or the spirit of holyness and zeal The event of which will be this He that will do no more then needs must will soon be brought to omit something of his duty and will be apt to believe less to be necessary then is Remedies against tediousness of spirit The Remedies against this temptation are these 1. Order your privat devotions so that they become not arguments causes of tediousness by their indiscreet length but reduce your words into a narrower compass still keeping all the matter and what is cut off in the length of your praiers supply in the earnestness of your spirit for so nothing is lost while the words are changed into matter and length of time into servencie of devotion The forms are made not the less perfect and the spirit is more and the scruple is remov'd 2. It is not imprudent if we provide variety of forms of Praier to the same purposes that the change by consulting with the appetites of fancy may better entertain the Spirit and possibly we may be pleased to recite a hymn when a collect seems flat to us and unpleasant and we are willing to sing rather then to say or to sing this rather then that we are certain that variety is delightful and whether that be natural to us or an imperfection yet if it be complied with it may remove some part of the temptation 3. Break your office and devotion into fragments and make frequent returnings by ejaculations and abrupt entercourses with God for so no length can oppress your tenderness and sickliness of spirit and by often praying in such manner and in all circumstances we shall habituate our souls to praier by making it the business of many lesser portions of our time and by thrusting in between all our other imploiments it will make every thing relish of religion and by degrees tuâ—n all into its nature 4. Learn to abstract your thoughts and desires from pleasures and things of the world For nothing is a direct cure to this evil but cutting off all others loves and adherences Order your affairs so that religion may be propounded to you as a reward and praier as your defence and holy actions as your security and charity and good works as your treasure consider that all things else are satisfactions but to the brutish part of a man and that these are the refreshments and relishes of that noble part of us by which we are better then beasts and whatsoever other instrumeÌ„t exercise or consideration is of use to take our loves from the world the same is apt to place them upon God 5. Doe not seek for deliciousness and sensible consolations in the actions of religion but only regard the duty and the conscience of it For although in the beginning of religion most frequently and at â—â—me other tim 's irregularly God complies with our infirmity and encourages our duty with little overflowings of spiritual joy and sensible pleasure and delicacies in prayer so as we seem to feel some little beam of Heaven and great refreshments from the Spirit of consolation yet this is not alwaies safe for us to have neither safe for us to expect and look for and when we doe it is apt to make us cool in our enquiries and waitings upon Christ when we want them It is a running after him nor for the miracles but for the loaves not for the wonderfull things of God and the desires of pleasing him but for the pleasures of pleasing our selves And as we must not judge our devotion to be barren or unfruitful when we want the overflowings of joy running over so neither must we cease for want of them If our spirits can serve God choosingly and greedily out of pure conscience of our duty it is better in it self and more safe to us 6. Let him use to soften his spirit with frequent meditation upon sâ—d and dolorous objects as of death the terrours of the day of judgment fearful judgments upon sinners strange horrid accidents fear of Gods wrath the pains of Hell the unspeakable amazements of the damned the intolerable load of a sad eternity For whatsoever creaâ—es fear or makes the spirit to dwell in a religious sadness is apt to entender the spirit and make it devout and plyant to any part of duty For a great fear when it is ill managed is the parent of superstition but a discreet well guided fear produces religion 7. Pray often and you shall pray oftner and when you are accustomed to a frequent devotion it will so insensibly unite to your nature and affections that it will become trouble to omit your usual or appointed prayers and what you obtain at first by doing violence to your inclinations at last will not be leâ—t without as great unwillingness as that by which at first it entred This rule relies not only
〈…〉 est in noluit 〈◊〉 Senâ—ctâ—◠〈…〉 brevis nec 〈◊〉 mâ—vendas In 〈…〉 facili dâ—â—funditur â—austu 〈…〉 amans culti villicus hâ—â—i â—â—de 〈◊〉 pâ—sâ—t◠〈…〉 Pythagoâ—as Est aliquid puecunque lico quocunque necessu Vnius dominum sese fecisse laceâ—tae Iuven. Sat. 3. but he that feasts every day feaâ—â—â— no day there being nothing left to which he may beyond his Ordinary extend his appetite that the rich man sleeps not so soundly as the poor labourer that his feares are more and his needs are greater for who is poorer he that needs 5 l or he that needs 5000 the poor man hath enough to fill his belly and the rich hath not enough to fill his eye that the poor mans wants are easy to be relieved by a common charity but the needs of rich men cannot be supplied but by Princes and they are left to the temptation of great vices to make reparation of their needs and the ambitious labours of men to get great estates is but like the selling of a Fountian to buy a Fever a parting with content to buy necessity a purchase of an unhandsome condition at the price of infelicity that Princes and they that enjoy most of the world have most of it but in title and supreme rights and reserved priviledges pepper corns homages trifling services and acknowledgements the real use descending to others to more substantial purposes These considerations may be useful to the curing of covetousnesse that the grace of mercifulness enlarging the heart of a man his hand may not be contracted but reached out to the poor in almes SECT IX Of Repentance Repentance of all things in the World makes the greatest change it changes things in Heaven and Earth for it changes the whole man from sin to grace from vitious habits to holy customes from unchast bodies to Angelical soules from Swine to Philosophers from drunkenness to sober counsels and God himself with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change is pleased by descending to our weak understandings to say that he changes also upon mans repentance that he alters his decrees revokes his sentence cancels the bils of accusation throwes the Records of shame and sorrow from the Court of Heaven and lifts up the sinner from the grave to life from his prison to a throne from Hell and the guilt of eternal torture to Heaven and to a title to never ceasing felicities If we be bound on earth we shall be bound in Heaven if we be absolved here we shall be loosed there if we repent God will repent and not send the evil upon us which we have deserved But repentance is a conjugation and society of many duties and it contains in it all the parts of a holy life from the time of our returne to the day of our death inclusively and it hath in it some things specially relating to the sins of our former dayes which are now to be abolished by special arts and have obliged us to special labours and brought in many new necessities and put us into a very great deal of danger and because it is a duty consisting of so many parts and so much imployment it also requires much time and leaves a man in the same degree of hope of pardon as is his restitution to the state of righteousness holy living for which we covenanted in Baptism For we must know that there is but one repentance in a mans whole life if repentance be taken in the proper and strict Evangelicall Covenant sense and not after the ordinary understanding of the word That is we are but once to change our whole state of life from the power of the Devil and his intire possession from the state of sin and death from the body of corruption to the life of grace to the possession of Jesus to the kingdome of the Gospel and this is done in the baptisme of water or in the baptisme of the spirit when the first right comes to be verified by Gods grace coming upon us and by our obedience to the heavenly calling we working together with God After this change if ever wee fall into the contrary state and be wholly estranged from God and Religion and profess our selves servants of unrighteousness God hath made no more covenant of restitution to us there is no place left for any more repentance or intire change of condition or new birth a man can be regenerated but once and such are voluntary malicious Apostates Witches obstinate impenitent persons and the like But if we be overtaken by infirmity or enter into the marches or borders of this estate and commit a grievous sin or ten or twenty so we be not in the intire possession of the Devil we are for the present in a damnable condition if we dye but if we live we are in a recoverable condition for so we may repent often we repent or rise from death but once but from sickness many times and by the grace of God we shall be pardoned if so we repent But our hopes of pardon are just as is the repentance which if it be timely hearty industrious and effective God accepts not by weighing graues or scruples but by estimating the great proportions of our life a hearty endevour an effectual general change shall get the pardon the unavoidable infirmities and past evils and present imperfections and short interruptions against which we watch and pray and strive being put upon the accounts of the crosse and payed for by the holy Jesus This is the state and condition of repentance its parts and actions must be valued according to the following rules Acts and parts of Repentance 1. He that repents truly is greatly sorrowful for his past sins not with a superficial sigh or tear but a pungent afflictive sorrow such a sorrow as hates the sin so much that the man would choose to dye rather then act it any more This sorrow is called in Scripture a weeping sorely Ier. 13 17. Ioel 2.13 Ezek. 27 31. Iames 4.9 a weeping with bitternesse of heart a weeping day and night a sorrow of heart a breaking of the spirit mourning like a dove and chattering like a swallow and we may read the degree and manner of it by the lamentations and sad accents of the Prophet Jeremy when he wept for the sins of the nation by the heart breaking of David when he mourned for his murder and adultery and the bitter weeping of S. Peter after the shameful denying of his Master * The expression of this sorrow differs according to the temper of the body the sex the age and circumstance of action and the motive of sorrow and by many accidental tendernesses or masculine hardnesses and the repentance is not to be estimated by the tears but by the grief and the grief is to be valued not by the sensitive trouble but by the cordial hatred of the sin and ready actual dereliction of it and a resolution and real resisting
is commanded 3. By obedience we are made a society and a republick and distinguished from herds of Beasts and heaps of Flies who doe what they list and are incapable of Laws and obey none and therefore are killed and destroyed though never punished and they never can have a reward 4. By obedience we are rendred capable of all the blessings of government signified by S. Paul in these words He is the Minister of God to thee for good and by S. Peter in these Governours are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers Rom 1â— 4 1 Pet. 2.14 and for the praise of them that doe well And he that ever felt or saw or can understand the miseries of confusion in publick affairs or amazement in a heap of sad tumultuous and indefinite thoughts may from thence judge of the admirable effects of order and the beauty of Government What health is to the body and peace is to the Spirit that is Government to the societies of Men the greatest blessing which they can receive in that temporal capacity 5. No man shall ever be fit to govern others that knows not first how to obey For if the spirit of a Subject be rebellious in a Prince it will be tyrannical and intolerable and of so ill example that as it will encourage the disobedience of others so it will render it unreasonable for him to exact of others what in the like case he refused to pay 6. There is no sin in the World which God hath punisht with so great severity and high detestation as this of disobedience For the crime of Idolatry God sent the Sword amongst his people but it was never heard that the Earth opened and swallowed up any but rebels against their Prince 7. Obedience is better then the particular actions of Religion and he serves GOD better that followes his Prince in lawful services then he that refuses his command upon pretence he must goe say his prayers But Rebellion is compared to that sin which of all sins seems the most unnatural and damned impiety Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft 8. Obedience is a complicated act of virtue and many 〈◊〉 are exercised in one act of obedience It is an act of humility of mortification and self-denial of charity to God of care 〈…〉 publick of order and charity to our selves and all our society and a great instance of a victory over the most refractory and uâ—â—â—ly passions 9. To be a subject is a greater temporal felicity then to be a King for all eminent Governments according to their heights have a great burden huge care infinite business little rest (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoâ—eâ— Iâ— â— innumerable fears and all that he enjoyes above another is that he does enjoy the things of the World with other circumstances and a bigger noise and if others goe at his single command it is also certain he must suffer inconvenience at the needs and disturbances of all his people and the evils of one man and of one family are not enough for him to bear unlesse also he be almost crushed with the evils of mankinde He therefore is an ingrateful person that will presse the scales down with a voluntary load and by disobedience put more thorns into the Crown or Mitre of his Superiour Much better is the advice of Saint Paul Obey them that have the rule over you as they that must give an account for your souls that they may doe it with joy and not with grief for besides that it is unpleasant to them it is unprofitable for you 10. The Angels are ministring spirits and perpetually execute the will and commandment of God and all the wise men and all the good men of the world are obedient to their Governours and the eternal Son of God esteemed it his Meat and drink to doe the will of his Father and for his obedience alone obtained the greatest glory and no man ever came to perfection but by obedience and thousands of Saints have chosen such institutions and manners of living in which they might not choose their own work nor follow their own will nor please themselves but be accountable to others and subject to discipline and obedient to command as knowing this to be the lightway of the Crosse the way that the King of Sufferings and humility did choose and so became the King of Glory 11. No man ever perished who followed first the will of God and then the will of his Superiours but thousands have been damned meerly for following their own will and relying upon their own judgments and choosing their own work and doing their own fancies â—or if we begin with our selves whatsoever seems good in our eyes is most commonly displeasing in the eyes of God 12. The sin of rebellion though it be a spiritual sin and imitable by Devils yet it is of that disorder unreasonableness and impossibility amongst intelligent spirits that they never murmured or mutined in their lowe stations against their Superiours Nay the good angels of an inferiour Order durst not revile a Devil of a higher Order This consideration which I reckon to be most pressing in the discourses of reason and obliging next to the necessity of a divine precept we learn from Saint Jude Likewise also these filthy dreamers despise dominion and speak evil of dignities Iude 8. â— And yet Michael the archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation But because our Superiours rule by their example by their word or law and by the rod therefore in proportion there are several degrees and parts of obedience of several excellencies and degrees towards perfection Degrees of Obedience 1. The first is the obedience of the outward work and this is all that Humane Laws of themselves regard for because Man cannot judge the heart therefore it prescribes nothing to it the publick end is served not by good wishes but by real and actual performances and if a Man obeys against his will he is not punishable by the Laws 2. The obedience of the will and this is also necessary in our obedience to Humane Laws not because man requires it for himself but because God commands it towards Man and of it although Man cannot yet God will demand account For we are to doe it as to the Lord and not to men and therefore we must doe it willingly But by this means our obedience in private is secured against secret arts and subterfuges and when we can avoid the punishment yet we shall not decline our duty but serve Man for Gods sake that is cheerfully promptly vigorously for these are the proper parts of willingness and choice 3. The understanding must yeeld obedience in general though not in the particular instance that is we must be firmly perswaded of the excellency of the obedience though we be not bound in all cases to think