be improved Keep thus a just account of your Receivings and what Goods of your Masters is put into your hands And make it a principal part of your study to know what every thing in your hand is good for to your Masters use and how it is that he would have you use it § 9. Direct 6. Keep an account of your expences at least of all your most considerable talents and Direct 6. bring your selves daily or frequently to a reckoning what good you have done or endeavoured to do Every day is given you for some good work Keep therefore accounts of every day I mean in your conscience not in papers Every mercy must be used to some good Call your selves therefore to account for every mercy what you have done with it for your Masters vse And think not hours and minutes and little mercies may be past without coming into the account The servant that thinks he may do what his list with Shillings and Pence and that he is only to lay out greater summs for his Masters use and lesser for his own will prove unfaithful and come short in his accounts Less summs than pounds must be in our reckonings § 10. Direct 7. Take special heed that the common Thief your carnal-self either Personal or in your Direct 7. Relations do not rob God of his expected due and devour that which he requireth It is not for nothing that God calleth for the first fruits Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase so shall thy Barns be filled with plenty and thy Presses shall burst forth with new wine Prov. 3. 9 10. So Exod. 23. 16 19. 34. 22 26. Lev. 2. 12 14. Nehem. 10. 35. Ezek. 20. 40. 44. 30. 48. 14. For if carnal self might first be served its devouring greediness would leave God nothing Though he that hath Godliness with contentment hath enough if he have but food and rayment yet there will be but enough for themselves and children where men have many hundreds or thousands a year if once it fall into this Gulf. And indeed as he that begins with God hath the promise of his bountiful supplyes so he whose flesh must first be served doth catch such an hydropick thirst for more that all will but serve it And the Devil contriveth such necessities to these men and such Uses for all they have that they have no more to spare than poorer men and they can allow God no more but the leavings of the flesh and what it can spare which commonly is next to nothing Indeed though Holy uses in particular were satisfied with first fruits and limited parts yet God must have all and the flesh inordinately or finally have none Every penny which is laid out upon your selves and children and friends must be done as by Gods own appointment and to serve and please him Watch narrowly or else this thievish carnal self will leave God nothing § 11. Direct 8. Prefer greater duties caeteris paribus before lesser and labour to understand Direct 8. well which is the greater and to be preferred Not that any real duty is to be neglected But we call that by the name of Duty which is materially good and a duty in its season But formally indeed it is no duty at all when it cannot be done without the omission of a greater As for a Minister to be praying with his family or comforting one afflicted soul when he should be preaching publickly is to do that which is a duty in its season but at that time is his sin It is an unfaithful servant that is doing some little charâ— when he should be saving a Beast from drowning or the house from burning or doing the greater part of his work § 12. Direct 9. Prudence is exceeding necessary in doing good that you may discern good from evil Direct 9. discerning the season and measure and manner and among divers duties which must be preferred Therefore labour much for Wisdom and if you want it your self be sure to make use of theirs that have it and ask their counsel in every great and difficult case Zeal without Iudgement hath not only entangled souls in many heinous sins but hath ruined Churches and Kingdoms and under pretence of exceeding others in doing good it makes men the greatest instruments of evil There is scarce a sin so great and odious but ignorant zeal will make men do it as a good work Christ told his Apostles that those that killed them should think they did God service And Paul bare record to the Sell all and give to the poor and follow mâ— But sell not aâ—l except thou follow me that is Except thou have a vocation in which thou maist do as much good with little means as with great Lord Bacon Essay 13. the murderous persecuting Jews that they had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Rom. 10. 2. The Papists murders of Christians under the name of Hereticks hath recorded it to the world in the blood of many hundred thousands how ignorant carnal zeal will do good and what Sacrifice it will offer up to God § 13. Direct 10. In doing good prefer the souls of men before the body caeteris paribus To convert Direct 10. a sinner from the error of his way is to save a soul from death and to cover a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. And this is greater than to give a man an alms As cruelty to souls is the most heinous cruelty as persecutors and soul-betraying Pastors will one day know to their remediless wo so mercy to souls is the greatest mercy Yet sometime Mercy to the Body is in that season to be preferred For every thing is excellent in its season As if a man be drowning or famishing you must not delay the relief of his body while you are preaching to him for his conversion but first relieve him and then you may in season afterwards instruct him The greatest duty is not alwayes to go first in time Sometimes some lesser work is a necessary preparatory to a greater And sometimes a corporal benefit may tend more to the good of souls than some spiritual work may Therefore I say still that PRUDENCE and an HONEST HEART are instead of many Directions They will not only look at the immediate benefit of a work but to its utmost tendency and remote effects § 14. Direct 11. In doing good prefer the good of many especially of Church or Common-wealth before Direct 11. the good of one or few For many are more worth than one And many will honour God and serve him more than one And therefore both piety and charity requireth it Yet this also must be Absurdum est unum â—aâ—te vivere cum multi â—suriant Quanto enim gloriosâ—uâ— est multis benefacere quam magnifice habitate Quanto prudentius in homines quam in lapides in auâ—um impâ—nsas facere
whatsoever the will desireth is either as an End or as a Means That which is not desired as a Means to some Higher end is desired as our ultimate end it â—â—â—â— in that act But God only is mans lawful ultimate end He is a good Christian that remoteâ—â— and ultimately referreth all the creatures unto God and eateth and drinketh c. more to fit him for Gods service than to please the flesh But it is much more than this which the Creature was appointed for even for a present communication of the sense of the goodness of God unto the heart As the Musician that touchem but the Keys of his Harpsical or Organs causeth that sweet harmonious sound which we hear from the strings that are touched within so God ordained the order beauty sweetness c. of the Creature to touch the sense with such a pleasure as should suddenly touch the inward sense with an answerable delight in God who is the giver of the life of every Creature But a as where is the Christian that doth thus eat and drink and thus take pleasure in all his Mercies When contrarily our hearts are commonly so diverted from God by the Creature that so much delight as we find in it so much we lose of our delight in God yea of our regard and remembrance of him 2. Because it is against an express command 1 Cor. 10. 31. whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 3. Because else we shall take Gods creatures in vain and cast them away in waste 4. And we shall lose our own Benefit to which the Creature or Pleasure should be improved 5. And we shall silence Reason when it should direct and we shall suspend the Government of the will and give the government so long to the flesh or bruitish appetite For that faculty ruleth who object is our end These reasons clearly prove it a sin to terminate our desires in any act of flesh-pleasing as our end and look no higher when it is a matter of moral choice and deliberation 11. But the sin here is not simply that the flesh is pleased but that the duty of referring it to a higher end is omitted so that it is a sin of omission unless we proceed to refer hetter things as a means to it 12. The intending of Gods Glory or our spiritual good cannot be distinctly and sensibly re-acted in every particular pleasure we take or bit we eat or thing we use But a sincere Habitual Intention well laid at first in the Heart will serve to the right use of many particular Means As a man purposeth at his first setting out to what place he meaneth to go and afterward goeth on though at every step he think not sensibly of his end so he that devoteth himself to God and in general designeth all to his Glory and the furtherance of his duty and salvation will carry on small particulars to that â—nd by a secret unobserved action of the soul performed at the same time with other actions which only are observed He that intendeth but his health in eating and drinking is not remembring his health at every bit and cup and yet hath such a Habit of care and caution as will unobservedly keep him in his way and help him to fit the means unto the end As the accustomed hand of a Musicion can play a Lesson on his Lute while he thinks of something else so can a resolved Christian faithfully do such accustomed things as eating and drinking and cloathing him and labouring in his calling to the good ends which he first actually and still habitually resolved on without a distinct remembrance and observable intention of that end 13. The body must be kept in that condition as far as we can that is fittest for the service of the soul As you keep your Horse neither so pampered as to be unruly nor yet so low as to disable him for travel But all that health and strength which makes it not unruly maketh it the more serviceable It is not the Life of the Body but the Health and the Cheerfulness which maketh it fit for duty And so much pleasing of the flesh as tendeth but to its Health and Cheerfulness is a duty where it can be done without greater hurt the other way A heavy body is but a dull and heavy servant to the mind yea a great impediment to the soul in duty and a great temptation to many sins as sickly and melancholy persons and many dull and phlegmatick people know by sad experience It is as great a duty to help the Body to its due alacrity and fitness for service as it is to tame Yet it 's true which Petrarch saith li. 2. Dial. 3. Valetudo infirma Comes injucunda est sed fidelis quae te crebro vellicet iter signet conditionis admoneat Optimum in periculis monitor fidus Et i. 1. Dial 3. Multis periculosa pestilens sanitus est qui tutius aegrotassent Nusquam pejus quam in sano corpore aeger animus habitat Et Dial. 4. Quamvis mala quamvis pessima aegritudo videatur optabile malum tamen quod mali remedium sit majoris it and bring it under by fasting and sackcloth when it is proud or lustfull And they that think fasting on certain days in a formal manner is acceptable to God when the state of the body is not helpt but rather hurt and hindered by it as if it were a thing required for it self do mistakingly offer a Sacrifice to God which he requireth not and take him to be an enemy to man that desireth his pain and grief when it tendeth not to his good A Mower that hath a good Sythe will do more in a day than another that hath a bad one can do in two every Workman knoweth the benefit of having his Tools in order And every Traveller knows the difference between a cheerful and a tired Horse And they that have tryed health and sickness know what a help it is in every work of God to have a healthful body and cheerful spirits and an alacrity and promptitude to obey the mind When the sights of prospects and beauteous buildings and fields and countrys or the use of walks or gardens do tend to raise the soul to holy contemplation to admire the Creator and to think of the glory of the life to come as Bernard used his pleasant walks this Delight is lawful if not a duty where it may be had So when Musick doth cheer the mind and fit it for thanks and praise to God And when the Rest of the Body and the use of your best Apparel and moderate feasting on the Lords Day and other days of Thanksgiving do promote the spiritual service of the day they are good and profitable but to those that are more hindered by fulness even abstinence on such days is best So that the use of the body must be judged
the poorest people and their children They never teach them to read nor teach them any thing for the saving of their souls and they think that their poverty will be an excuse for all When reason telleth them that none should be more careful to help their children to Heaven than they that can give them nothing upon earth § 21. Direct 9. Be acquainted with the special Duties of the poor and carefully perform them Direct 9. They are these 1. Let your sufferings teach you to contemn the world It will be a happy poverty if it do but help Duty 1. to wean your affections from all things below that you set as little by the world as it deserveth 2. Be eminently Heavenly-minded The less you have or hope for in this life the more fervently Duty 2. seek a better You are at least as capable of the heavenly treasures as the greatest Princes God purposely Phil. 3. 18 20 21. 2 Cor. 5. 7 8. straitneth your condition in the world that he may force up your hearts unto himself and teach you to seek first for that which indeed is worth your seeking Matth. 6. 33 19 20 21. 3. Learn to live upon God alone Study his Goodness and faithfulness and all-sufficiency When Duty 3. you have not a place nor a friend in the world that you can comfortably betake your selves to for relief Gal. 2. 20. Psal. 73. 25. 26 27 28. 2 Cor. 1. 10. retire unto God and trust him and dwell the more with him If your poverty have but this effect it will be better to you than all the Riches in the world 4. Be laborious and diligent in your Callings Both precept and necessity call you unto this And Duty 4. if you cheerfully serve him in the labour of your hands with a heavenly and obedient mind it will Ephes 4. 28. Prov. 21. 25. 1 Sam. 15. 22. 2 Thes. 3. 8 10 be as acceptable to him as if you had spent all that time in more spiritual exercises For he had rather have Obedience than Sacrifice and all things are pure and sanctified to the pure If you cheerfully serve God in the meanest work it is the more acceptable to him by how much the more subjection and submission there is in your obedience 5. Be humble and submissive unto all A poor man proud is doubly hateful And if Poverty Duty 5. cure your Pride and help you to be truly humble it will be no small mercy to you 〈…〉 1â— 23. 〈…〉 uty 6 6. You are specially obliged to mortifie the flesh and keep your senses and appetites in subjection because you have greater helps for it than the Rich You have not so many baits of lust and wantonness and gluttony and voluptuousness as they 7. Your corporal wants must make you more sensibly remember your spiritual wants and teach Duty 7. you to value spiritual blessings Think with your selves If a hungry cold and naked body be so great a calamity how much greater is a guilty graceless soul a dead or a diseased heart If bodily food and necessaries are so desirable O how desirable is Christ and his Spirit and the Love of God and life eternal 8. You must above all men be careful Redeemers of your Time Especially of the Lords Day Duty 8. Your labours take up so much of your time that you must be the more careful to catch every opportunity for your souls Rise earlier to get half an hour for holy duty and meditate on holy things in your labours and spend the Lords Day in special diligence and be glad of such seasons and let scarcity preserve your appetites 9. Be willing to dye Seeing the world giveth you so cold entertainment be the more content to Duty 9. let it go when God shall call you For what is here to detain your hearts 10. Above all men you should be most fearless of sufferings from men and therefore true to God Duty 10. and Conscience For you have no great matter of honour or riches or pleasure to lose As you fear not a Thief when you have nothing for him to rob you of 11. Be specially careful to fit your children also for Heaven Provide them a portion which is better Duty 11. than a Kingdom For you can provide but little for them in the world 12. Be exemplary in Patience and Contentedness with your state For that grace should be the Duty 12. strongest in us which is most exercised And Poverty calleth you to the frequent exercise of this § 22. Direct 10. Be specially furnished with those Reasons which should keep you in a chearful contentedness Direct 10. with your state and may suppress every thought of anxiety and discontent As 1. Consider as aforesaid that that is the best condition for you which helpeth you best to Heaven Phil. 4. 11 12 13. Maâ—â—h â— â— 1 Sam. 2. 7. Matth. â— 2â— c. 〈…〉 8. 2◠〈…〉 14. 11. 〈…〉 16. 9. 〈…〉 3 15. 〈…〉 9 〈…〉 30 31. 〈…〉 3â— 25. 〈…〉 1â— 14. 〈…〉 5. 22. 〈…〉 9. 20. 〈…〉 4. â— 10. Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 13. 5. and God best knoweth what will do you good or hurt 2. That it is rebellion to grudge at the Will of God which must dispose of us and should be our Rest. 3. Look over the life of Christ who chose a life of poverty for your sakes and had not a place to lay his head He was not one of the Rich and voluptuous in the world and are you grieved to be conformed to him Phil. 3. 7 8 9. 4. Look to all his Apostles and most holy Servants and Martyrs Were not they as great sufferers as you 5. Consider that the Rich will shortly be all as poor as you Naked they came into the world and naked they must go out And a little time makes little difference 6. It is no more comfort to dye Rich than poor but usually much less because the pleasanter the world is to them the more it grieveth them to leave it 7. All men cry out that the world is vanity at last How little is it valued by a dying man and how sadly will it cast him off 8. The time is very short and uncertain in which you must enjoy it We have but a few dayes more to walk about and we are gone Alas of how small concernment is it whether a man be rich or poor that is ready to step into another world 9. The Love of this world drawing the heart from God is the common cause of mens damnation And is not the world liker to be over-loved when it entertaineth you with prosperity than when it useth you like an enemy Are you displeased that God thus helpeth to save you from the most damning sin and that he maketh not your way to Heaven more dangerous 10. You little know the troubles of the Rich He that hath much hath much to do with it and
that will rule them and not â—e ruled by them that will not suffer them to take their pleasure nor enjoy their riches but hold them to a life which they cannot endure and even undo them in the world he is then no longer a guest for them Whereas if Christ had been received as Christ and Truth and Godliness deliberately entertained for their welldiscerned Excellency and Necessity the deep rooting would have prevented this Apostacie and cured such Hypocrifie § 4. But alas poor Ministers find by sad experience that all prove not Saints that flock to hear them and make up the crowd nor that for a season rejoyce in their light and magnifie them and take their parts The blossom hath its beauty and sweetness but all that blossometh or appeareth in the bud doth not come to perfect fruit Some will be blasted and some blown down some nipt with â—â—osts some eaten by Worms some quickly fall and some hang on till the strongest blasts do cast them down some are deceived and poysoned by false Teachers some by worldly cares and the deceitfulness of riches become unfruitful and are turned aside The lusts of some had deeper rooting then the Word And the friends of some had greater interest in them than Christ and therefore they forsake him to satisfie their importunity some are corrupted by the hopes of preferment or the favour of man some feared from Christ by their threats and frowns and choose to venture on damnation to scape persecution And some are so worldly wise that they can see reason to remit their zeal and can save their souls and bodies too and prove that to be their duty which other men call sin if the end will but answer their expectations And some grow weary of truth and duty as a dull and common thing being not supplyed with that variety which might still continue the delights of Novelty § 5. Yet mistake not what I have said as if all the affection furthered by Novelty and abated by Commonness and use were a sign that the person is but an Hypocrite I know that there is something in the Nature of man remaining in the best which disposeth us to be much more passionately affected with things when they seem New to us and are first apprehended than when they are old and we have known or used them long There is not I believe one man of a thousand but is much more delighted in the Light of Truth when it first appeareth to him than when it is trite and familiarly known and is much more affected with a powerful Minister at first than when he hath long â—ate under him The same Sermon that even transported them at the first hearing would affect them less if they had heard it preach'd an hundred times The same Books which greatly affected us at the first or second reading will affect us less when we have read them over twenty times The same words of Prayer that take much with us when seldom used do less move our affections when they are daily used all the year At our first conversion we have more passionate sorrow for our sin and love to the godly than we can afterwards retain And all this is the case of learned and unlearned the sound and unsound though not of all alike Even Heaven it self is spoken of by Christ as if it did participate of this when he saith that Joy shall be in Heaven over One sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance Luke 15. 7 10. And I know it is the duty of Ministers to take notice of this disposition in their hearers and not to dull them with giving them still the same but to profit them by a pleasant and profitable variety Not by preaching to them another Christ or a new Gospel It is the same God and Christ and Spirit and Scripture and the same Heaven the same Church the same faith and hope and repentance and obedience that we must preach to them as long as we live Though they say we have heard this an hundred times Let them hear it still and bring them not a new Creed If they hear so oft of God and Christ and Heaven till by Faith and Love and Fruition they attain them as their end they have heard well But yet there is a grateful variety of subordinate particulars and of words and methods and seasonable applications necessary to the right performance of our Ministry and to the profitting of the flocks Though the Physicion use the same Apothecaries Shop and Dispensatory and Drugs yet how great a variety must he use of compositions and times and manner of administration § 6. But for all this though the best are affected most with things that seem new and are dulled with the long and frequent use of the same expressions yet they are never weary of the substance of their Religion so as to desire a change And though they are not so passionately affected with the same Sermons and Books or with the thoughts or mention of the same substantial matters of Religion as at first they were Yet do their Iudgements more solidly and tenaciously embrace them and esteem them and their wills as Resolvedly adhere to them and use them and in their lives they practise them better than before Whereas they that take up their Religion but for Novelty will lay it down when it ceaseth to be New to them and must either change for a Newer or have none at all § 7. And as unsound are they that are Religious only because their education or their friends or the Laws or judgement of their Rulers or the Custom of the Countrey hath made it necessary to their Reputation These are Hypocrites at the first setting out and therefore cannot be saved by continuance in such a carnal Religiousness as this I know Law and Custom and education and friends when they side with Godliness are a great advantage to it by affording helps and removing those impediments that might stick much with carnal minds But truth is not your own till it be received in its proper evidence nor your faith divine till you believe what you believe because God is true who dâ—th reveal it nor are you the Children of God till you Love him for himself nor are you truly Religious till the Truth and Goodness of Religion it self be the principal thing that maketh you Religious It helpeth much to discover a mans sincerity when he is not only Religious among the Religious but among the prophane and the enemies and scorners and persecutors of Religion And when a man doth not pray only in a praying family but among the prayerless and the deriders of fervent constant prayer And when a man is heavenly among them that are earthly and temperate among the intemperate and riotous and holdeth the truth among those that reproach it and that hold the contrary When a man is not carried only by a stream of
opportunity But let him that can be free and possess so great a mercy accept it thankfully though to his cost As Christ said in another case Every man cannot receive the saying but he that can receive it let him § 2. There is abundance of difference between a weak unskilful unexperienced dead-hearted formal Teacher and such a one as is described in the Direction Some that are sensless or indifferent in such matters as these themselves would perswade you to be so too and look first in your settlement to your bodily conveniencies and be content with such a Teacher as accidentally you are cast upon And they 'l tell you that the work of grace dependeth not on the Preachers gifts but on the gift and blessing of the Spirit of God The Formalists and the Enthusiasts concurr in this though from different principles But though God can frustrate the fittest means and can work without means or by that which is least fitted to the end yet it is his ordinary way to work by means and that for the soul as well as for the body and to work most by the aptest means And I am sure it is the duty of every Teacher to preach in the fittest manner that he can for the peoples edification and not to do Gods work deceitfully and ineptly because God can bless the unfittest means And it is the peoples duty to attend upon the best they can enjoy though God can equally work by the weakest or by none As that pretence will not excuse the contemners of Gods Ordinances that upon every little business stay at home and attend upon no Ministry at all no more will it excuse them that refuse that help that is most suited to their edification and take up with a worse when they might have better We are not to neglect duty upon a presumptuous expectation of miraculous or extraordinary works When we can have no better we may hope for the greater benefit from the weakest but not when it is the choice of our own presumptuous irreligious hearts God can make Daniel and his companions to thrive better by eating Pulse than others that fed at the Table of the King And rather than sin against God we must cast our selves on him for unusual supplyes or leave all to his will But few would therefore be perswaded causlesly to live on Pulse when they may have better And one would think this Truth should have no contradiction especially from those men that are apt to obscure and extenuate the Spirits operations on the soul and to confess no Grace but what consisteth in a congruous ordination of Means and Circumstances When their doctrine layeth all a mans hopes of salvation upon this Congruity of Means and Circumstances should they afterwards teach men to undervalue or neglect the fittest and wilfully cast their souls upon the most unfit and unlikely means But Ungodliness first resolveth what to speak against before it resolveth what to say and will contradict Gods Word though it contradict its own and will oppose holiness though by a self-opposing § 3. But the spiritual rellish and experience of the Godly is a very great preservative to them against such deluding reasonings as these It 's harder for a Sophister of greatest subtilty or authority to perswade him that hath tasted them that Sugar is bitter or Wormwood sweet than to perswade him to believe it that never tasted them And it 's hard to make a healthful man believe that it is best for him to eat but once a Week or best to live on Grass or Straw I doubt not but those that now I speak to have such experience and perception of the benefit of a judicious and lively Ministry in comparison of the ignorant cold and lifeless that no words will make them indifferent herein Have you not found the Ministry of one sort enlighten and warm and quicken and comfort and strengthen you much more than of the other I am sure I have the common sense and experience of the faithful on my side in this which were enough of it self against more than can be said against it Even new-born babes in Christ have in their new natures a desire not to sensless or malicious pratings but to the Rational sincere milk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may grow by it and to perform to God a Rational service Rom. 12. 1. § 4. And it must needs be a very proud or stupid heart that can be so insensible of its own infirmity sinfulness and necessity as to think the weakest dullest Minister may serve their turns and that they are able to keep up their life and vigour and watchfuless and fruitfulness with any little ordinary help I cannot but fear such men know not what the power and efficacy of the Word upon the heart and conscience meaneth nor what it is to live a life of faith and holiness and to watch the heart and walk with God If they did they could not but find so much difficulty herein and so much backwardness and unskilfulness in themselves hereto as would make them feel the necessity of the greatest helps And it could not be but they must feel the difference between a clear and quickning Sermon and an ignorant heartless dead discourse that is spoken as iâ— a man were talking in his sleep or of a matter that he never understood nor had experience of § 5. Alas how apt are the best to cool if they be not kept warm by a powerful Ministry How apt to lose the hatred of sin the tenderness of conscience the fervency in prayer the zeal and fulness in edifying discourse and the delights and power of heavenly Meditations which before we had How apt is faith to stagger if it be not powerfully underpropt by the helpers of our faith How hardly do we keep up the heat of Love the confidence of Hope the resolution and fulness of obedience without the help of a powerful Ministry Nay how hardly do we do our part in these in any tolerable sort even while we have the clearest liveliest helps that are ordinarily to be had And can any that are not blind and proud imagine that they are so holy and good that they are above the necessity of such assistance and that the weakest breath is enough to kindle the fire of holy Love and â—eal and keep them in the fear and obedience of God Alas we are under languishing weakness and must be dyeâ—â—ed with the best or we shall soon decay we are Cripples and cannot go or stand without our Crutches And there must be some savour of the Spirit in him that will be fit to make us spiritual and some savour of faith and love in him that would kindle faith and love in us and he must speak clearly and convincingly that will be understood and will prevail with such as we And he must speak feelingly that would make us feel and speak seriously that would be much regarded by us and
and will of erroneous and tempting persons And those that are more stiff to a stubborn resistance of all that should do them good He found it most suitable to tempt a Saul to malice David by a surprize to lust Absolom to ambition Peter to fearfulness and after to compliance and dissimulation to avoid the offence and displeasure of the weak Luther to rashness Melancthon to fearfulness Carolostadius to nnsetledness Illiricus to inordinate zeal Osiander to self-esteem if Historians have given them their due One Shâ—â—e fitteth not every foot § 4. Direct 2. Let your strictest watch be upon the sins of your temperature Far greater diligence Direct 2. and resolution is here necessary than against other sins And withdraw the fewel and strive against the bodily distempers themselves Fasting and labour will do much against lust which Idleness and fulness continually â—eed And so the rest have their several cures Know also what good your temper doth give you special advantage for and let it be turned unto that and still employed in it § 5. Tempt 3. The Temptor suiteth his Temptations to your Estates of Poverty or Riches The Tempt 3. pâ—â—r he tempteth to murmur and be impatient under their wants and distress themselves more with griefs and cares and to think that their sufferings may save them without holiness and that necessary labour for their bodies may excuse them from much minding the concernments of their souls And either to censure and hate the Rich through envy or to flatter them for gain The Rich he tempteth to an idle time-wasting voluptuous fleshly bruitish life To excess in sleep and meat and drink and sport and apparel and costly wayes of pride and idle discâ—urse and visits and complements to love the wealth and honours of the world and live in continual pleasing of the flesh to fare deliciously every day and to waste their time in unprofitableness without a conâ—tant Calling and to be unmerciful to the poor and to tyrannize over their inferiours Prov. 30. 8 9. Luke 16. § 6. Direct 3. Here also observe regardfully where your danger lyeth and there keep a continual Direct 3. watch Lâ—t the poor remember that if they be not Rich in grace it is long of themselves and if they be they have the chiefest Riches and have learnt in all estates to be content And have great cause to be thankful to God that thus helpeth them against the love and pleasures of the world Let the Rich remember that they have not less to do than the poor because they have more committed 1 Iaâ— 6 9 to their trust nor may they ever the more satisfie the inordinate desires of the flesh But they have more to dâ— and more dangers to fear and watch against as they have more of their Masters Talents to employ and give account for at the last § 7. Tempt 4. The Devil suiteth his Temptations to mens daily work and business If it be low Tempt 4. to be ashamed of it through Pride If it be high to be Proud of it If it be hard to be weary and unfaithful in it or to make it take up all their minds and time If it be about worldly things he tempteth them to be tainted by it with a worldly mind If they labour for themselves he tempteth them to ever-do If for others he tempteth them to deceitful unfaithful negligence and sloth If they are Ministers he tempteth them to be idle and unfaithful and senseless of the weight of truth the worth of souls the brevity of time that so their sin may be the ruine or the loss of many If Rulers the Devil useth his utmost skill to cause them to espouse an interest contrary to the interest of truth and holiness and to cast some quarrel against Christ into their minds and to perswade them that his interest is against theirs and that his servants are their enemies § 8. Direct 4. See that your work be lawful and that God have called you to it and then take Direct 4. it as the service which he himself assigneth to you and do it as in his sight and as passing to his judgement in obedience to his will And mind not so much whether it be hard or easie low or high as whether you are faithful in it And if it be sanctified to you by your intending all to the pleasing of God remember that he loveth and rewardeth that servant that stoopeth to the lâ—west woâ—k at his command as much as him that is employed in the highest Do all for God and walk in Holiness with him and keep out selfishness the poyson of your Callings and observe the proper danger of your places and keep a constant watch against them § 9. Tempt 5. The Devil suiteth his Temptations to our several Relations Parents he tempteth to be Tempt 5. cold and regardless of the great work of a wise and holy education of their Children Children he tempteth to be disobedient unthankful void of natural affection unreverent dishonourers of their Parents Husbands he tempteth to be unloving unkind impatient with the weaknesses of their Wives and Wives to be pievish self-willed proud clamorous passionate and disobedient Masters he tempteth to use their servants only as their Beasts for their own commodity without any care of their salvation and Gods service And servants he tempteth to be carnal untrusty false slothful eye-servants that take more care to hide a fault than not to commit it Ministers and Magistrates he tempteth to seek themselves and neglect their charge and set up their own Ends instead of the common good or to mistake the common good or the means that tendeth to it Subjects and People be tempteth to dishonour and murmur against their Governours and to censure them unjustly and to disobey them and rebell or else to honour and fear and serve them more than God and against God § 10. Direct 5. Here learn well the duties and dangers of your own Relations and remember that it Direct 5. is much of your work to be faithful and excellent in your Relations And mind not so much what other men owe to you as what you owe to God and them Let Masters and Ministers and Magistrates first study and carefully practise their own duties and yet they must next see that their Inferiours do their duties because that is their office But they must be more desirous that God be first served and more careful to procure obedience to him than that they be honoured or obeyed themselves Children Servants and Subjects must be taken up in the well doing of their proper work remembring that their good or hurt lyeth far more upon that than upon their superiours dealings with them or usage of them As it is your own Body and not your superiours which your soul doth animate nourish and use and which you have the continual sense and charge of so it is your own duty and not your superiours which
but Christ that profits you § 2â— Direct 14. This is distracted contradiction To set Christ against Christ and the Spirit Direct 14. against the Ordinances of the Spirit Is it not Christ and the Spirit that appointed them Doth he not best knâ—w in what way he will give his grace Can you not preserve the soul and life without killing the body Cannot you have the Water and value the Cistern or Spring without cutting off the â—â—â—â—s that must convey it O wonderful that Satan could make men so mad as this reasoning hâ—th shewed us that many are in our dayes And to set up superstition or pretend a good heart against Gods worship is to accuse him that appointed it of doing he knew not what and to think that we are wiser than he and to shew a good heart by disobedience pride contempt of God and of his mercies Tit. 4. Temptations to frustrate holy duties and make them uneffectual § 1. THe Devil is exceeding diligent in this 1. That he may make the soul despair and say Now I have used all means in vain there is no hope 2. To double the sinners misery by turning the very remedy into a disease 3. To shew his malice against Christ and say I have turned thy own means to thy dishonour § 2. Consider therefore how greatly we are concerned to do the work of God effectually Means well used are the way to more grace to communion with God and to salvation But ill used they dishonour and provoke him and destroy our selves like children that cut their fingers with the knife when they should cut their meat with it § 3. Tempt 1. Duty is frustrated by false ends As 1. To procure God to bear with them in their Tempt 1. sin when as it is the use of duty to destroy sin 2. To make God satisfaction for sin which is the work of Christ 3. To merit grace when the imperfection merits wrath 4. To prosper in the world and escape affliction Jam. 4. 3. and so they are but serving their flesh and desiring God to serve it 5. 〈…〉 uiet conscience in a course of sin by sinning more in offering the sacrifice of fools Eccles. 5. 1 2. 6. To be approved of men and verily they have their reward Matth. 6. 5. 7. To be saved when they can keep the world and sin no longer that is to obtain that the Gospel may all be false and God unjust § 4. Direct 1. First see that the Heart be honest and God and Heaven and Holiness most desired else all Direct 1. that you do will want right ends § 5. Tempt 2. When ignorance or error make men take God for what he is not thinking blasphemously Tempt 2. of him as if he were like them and liked their sins or were no lover of Holiness they frustrate all their worship of him § 6. Direct 2. Study God in his Son in his Word in his Saints in his Works Know him as described Direct 2. before Chap. 3. Direct 4. And see that your wicked corrupted hearts or wilful forgetting him blind not your understandings § 7. Tempt 3. To come to God in our selves and out of Christ and use his name but customarily and Tempt 3. not in faith and confidence § 8. Direct 3. Know well your sin and vileness and desert and the Justice and Holiness of God Direct 3. and then you will see that if Christ reconcile you not and Justifie you not by his blood and do not sanctifie and help you by his Spirit and make you sons of God and intercede not for you there is no access to God nor standing in his sight § 9. Tempt 4. The Tempter would have you pray hypocritically with the tongue only without the Tempt 4. heart To put off God in a few customary words with seeming to pray as they do the poor Jam. 2. with a few empty words either in a form of words not understood or not considered or not felâ— and much regarded or in more gross hypocrisie praying for the Holiness which they will not have and against the sin which they will not part with § 10. Direct 4. O fear the holy jealous heart-searching God that hateth hypocrisie and will be Direct 4. worshipped seriously in Spirit and Truth and will be sanctified of all that draw near him Lev. 10. 3. and saith they worship him in vain that draw nigh him with the lips when the heart is far from him Matth. 15. 8 9. See God by faith as present with thee and know thy self and it will waken thee to seriousness See Heb. 4. 13. Hos. 8. 12 13. § 11. Tempt 5. He would destroy Faith and Hope and make you doubt whether you shall get any Tempt 5. thing by duty § 12. Direct 5. But 1. Why should God command it and promise us his blessing if he meant not Direct 5. to perform it 2. Remember Gods Infiniteness and Omni-presence and All-sufficiency He is as verily with thee as thou art there he upholdeth thee he sheweth by his mercies that he regardeth thee and by his regarding lower things And if he regard thee he doth regard thy duties It is all one with him to hear thy prayers as if he had never another creature to regard and hear Believe then and hope and wait upon him § 13. Tempt 6. Sometime the Tempter will promise you more by holy duty than God doth and make Tempt 6. you expect deliverance from every enemy want and sickness and speedier deliverance of soul than ever God promised and all this is to make you cast away all as vain and think God faileth you when you miss your expectations § 14. Direct 6. But God will do all that He promiseth but not all that the Devil or your selves Direct 6. promise See what God promiseth in his Word That 's enough for you Make that and no more the end of duties § 15. Tempt 7. The Tempter usually would draw you from the heart and life of duty by too much Tempt 7. ascribing to the outside Laying too much on the bare doing of the work the giving of the alms the hearing the Sermons the saying the words the hansome expression order manner which in their places are all good if animated with Spirit life and seriousness § 16. Direct 7. Look most and first to the soul in duty and the soul of duty The picture of meat Direct 7. feedeth not the picture of fire warmeth not Fire and shadows will not nourish us God loveth not dead carcasses instead of spiritual worship we regard not words our selves further than they express the Heart Let the outer part have but its due § 17. Tempt 8. He tempteth you to rest in a forced affected counterseit servency stirred up by a desire Tempt 8. to take with others § 18. Direct 8. Look principally at God and holy motives and less at men that all your fire be Direct 8.
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
revived who came to the assembly or to their pastors in great distress and allmost in despair See Iob 33. 23. 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. It is the office and delight of the Ministers of Christ to be helpers of his peoples faith and joy 2 Cor. 1. 24. Phil. 1. 4 25. 1 Thes. 2. 20. § 16. Direct 14. Make use of all that Prosperity and lawful pleasure which God giveth you in outward Direct 14. things for the increase and advantage of your Delight in God Though corrupted nature is apter to abuse Prosperity and earthly delights than any other state to the diverting of the heart from God and allmost all the Devils poyson is given in sugered or guilded allectives yet the primitive natural use of prosperity of health and plenty and honour and peace is to lead up the mind to God and give us a tast of his spiritual delights That the neighbourhood of the Body might be the souls advantage and that God who in this life will be seen by us but in a glass and will give out his comforts by his appointed means might make advantage of sensitive delights for his own reception and the communications of his Love and pleasure unto man That as soon as the eye or ear or tast perceiveth the delightfulness of their several objects the holy soul might presently take the hint and motion and be carried up to delightful thoughts of him that giveth us all these delights And doubtless so far as we can make use of a Delight in friends or food or health or habitations or any accomodations of our Bodies to further our Delight in God or to remove those melancholy fears or sorrows which would hinder this spiritual Delight it is not only Lawful but our duty to use them with that moderation as tendeth to this end § 17. Direct 15. Make use of affliction as a great advantage for your purest and unmixt delight in Direct 15. God The servants of Christ have usually never so much of the joy in the Holy Ghost as in their greatest sufferings especially if they be for his sake The soul never retireth so readily and delightfully to God as when it hath no one else that will receive it or that it can take any comfort from God comforteth us most when he hath made us see that none else can or will relieve us When all friends have forsaken us save only one that one is sweeter to us then than ever When all our house is â—â—red down except one room that room is pleasanter to us than it was before He that hath lost one eye will love the other better than before In prosperity our Delights in God are too often corrupted by a mixture of sensual delight But all that remaineth when the creature is gone is purely Divine § 18. Direct 16. Labour by self-examination deliberately managed under the direction of an able Direct 16. spiritual Guide to settle your souls in the well-grounded perswasion of your special interest in God and Heaven And then suffer not Satan by his troublesome importunity to renew your doubts or molest your peace An Orderly well-guided diligent self-examination may quickly do much to shew you your condition And if you are convinced that the truth of Grace is in you let not fears and suspicion go for reason and cause you to deny that which you cannot without the gainsaying of your Consciences deny You see not the design of the Devil in all this His business is by making you fear that you have no interest in God to destroy your Delight in him and in his service And next that to make you through weariness forsake him and either despair or turn to sensual delights Foresee and prevent these designs of Satan and suffer him not at his pleasure to raise new storms of fears and troubles and draw you to deny your Fathers mercies or to suspect his proved love § 19. Direct 17. Damp not your Delights by willful sin If you grieve your Comforter he will Direct 17. grieve you or leave you to grieve your selves In that measure that any known sin is cherished Delight in God will certainly decay § 20. Direct 18. Improve your observation of wicked mens sensual delights to provoke your souls Direct 18. to delight in God Think with your selves shall hawks and hounds and pride and filthyness and cards and dice and playes and sports and luxury and idleness and foolish talk or worldly honours be so delightful to these deluded sinners and shall not my God and Saviour his Love and promises and the hopes of Heaven be more delightful to me Is there any comparison between the matter of my delights and theirs § 21. Direct 19. Labour to overcome those fears of Death which would damp your Iâ—ys in the Direct 19. foresight of Everlasting joyes As nothing more feedeth Holy delights than the fore-thoughts of Heaven so there is scarce any thing that more hindreth our delight in those forethoughts than the fear of interposing death See what I have written against this fear in my Treatise of Self-denyal and Saints Rest and in my Treatise of Death as the last enemy and in my Last work of a Believer § 22. Direct 20. Pretend not any other Religious duties against your Delight in God and Holiness Direct 20. but use them all in their proper subserviencie to this Penitent sorrow is only a purge to cast out those corruptions which hinder you from relishing your spiritual delights Use it therefore as Physick only when there is need and not for it self but only to this end and turn it not into your ordinary food Delight in God is the Health of your souls Say not you cannot have while to be heathful because you must take physick or that you take Physick against Health or instead of health but for your health So take up no sorrow against your Delight in God or instead of it but for it and so much as promoteth it See the Directions for Love beforegoing § 23. By this time you may see that Holy Delight adjoyned to Love is the principal part of our Religion and that they mistake it which place it in any thing else And therefore how unexcusable are all the ungodly enemies or neglectâ—rs of a holy life If it had been a life of grief and toyle they had had some pretense But to fly from pleasure and refuse delight and such delight is unexcusable Be it known to you sinners God calleth you not to forsake Delight but to accept it To change your Delight in sin and vanity for Delight in him you dare not say but this is better you cannot have your houses and lands for ever nor your lust and luxury for ever but you may have God for ever And do you hope to live for ever with him and have you no Delight in him Men deal with Christ as the Papists with the Reformed Churches Because we reject their formalities and ceremonious toyes
Gospel Leave out this Gratitude and it is no Evangelical Repentance And what is our saving faith in Christ but the Assent to the truth of the Gospel with a Thankful Acceptance of the good which it offereth us even Christ as our Saviour with the Benefits of his Redemption The Love to God that is there required is the Thankful Love of his Redeemed ones And the Love to our very enemies and the forgiving of wrongs and all the Love to one another and all the works of Charity there required are the exercises of Gratitude and are all to be done on this account because Christ hath loved us and forgiven us and that we may shew our thankful Love to him Preaching and Praying and Sacraments and publick praises and communion of Saints and obedience are all to be animated with Gratitude and they are no further Evangelically performed than Thankfulness is the very life and complexion of them all The dark and defective opening of this by Preachers gave occasion to the Antinomians to run into the contrary extream and to derogate too much from Gods Law and our Obedience But if we obscure the doctrine of Evangelical Gratitude we do as bad or worse than they Obedience to our Ruler and Thankfulness to our Benefactor conjoyned and co-operating as the Head and Heart in the Natural body do make a Christian indeed Understand this well and it will much incline your hearts to Thankfulness § 4. Direct 2. Let the greatness of the manifold mercies of God be continually before your eyes Direct 2. Thankfulness is caused by the due apprehension of the greatness of mercies If you either know them not to be mercies or know not that they are mercies to you or believe not what is said and promised in the Gospel or forget them or think not of them or make light of them through the corruption of your minds you cannot be thankful for them I have before spoken of Mercy in order to the kindling of Love and therefore shall now only recite these following to be alwayes in your memories 1. The Love of God in giving you a Redeemer and the Love of Christ in giving his life for us and in all the parts of our Redemption 2. The Covenant of Grace the pardon of all our sins the justification of our persons our adoption and title to eternal life 3. The aptness of means for calling us to Christ The gracious and wise disposals of providence to that end the gifts and compassion of our instructers the care of Parents and the helps and examples of the servants of Christ. 4. The efficacy of all these means â—he giving us to will and to do and opening of our hearts and giving us repentance unto life and the Spirit of Christ to mortifie our sins and purifie our nature and dwell within us 5. A standing in his Church under the care of faithful Pastors the liberty comfort and frequent benefit of his Word and Sacraments and the publick communion of his Saints 6. The company of those that fear the Lord and their faithful admonitions reproofs and encouragements the kindness they have shewed us for body or for soul. 7. The mercies of our Relations or habitations our estates and the notable alterations and passages of our lives 8. The manifold preservations and deliverances of our souls from errors and seducers from terrors and distress from dangerous temptations and many a soul-wounding sin and that we are not leâ—t to the errors and desires of our hearts to seared Consciences as forsaken of God 9. The manifold deliverances of our bodies from enemies hurts distresses sicknesses and death 10. The mercies of adversity in wholesome necessary chastisements or honourable sufferings for his sake and support or comfort under all 11. The communion which our souls have had with God in the course of our private and publick duties in Prayer Sacraments and Meditation 12. The use which he hath made of us for the good of others that our time hath not been wholly lost and we have not lived as burdens of the world 13. The mercies of all our friends and his servants which were to us as our own and our interest in the mercies and publick welfare of his Church which are more than our own 14. His patience and forbearance with us under our constant unprofitableness and provocations and his renewed mercies notwithstanding our abuse our perseverance untill now 15. Our hopes of everlasting Rest and Glory when this sinsul life is at an end Aggravate these mercies in your more enlarged meditations and they will sure constrain you to cry out Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal. 102. 1 2 3 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name For the Lord is good his Mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Psal. 100. 4 5. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy to them that fear him Psal. 103. 8 11. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal. 136. 1 c. O give thanks unto the Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing ye unto him sing Psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye in his holy name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek him Psal. 105. 1 2 3. § 5. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the greatness of your sins and sensible of them as they are Direct 3. the aggravation of Gods Mercies to you This is the main end why God will humble those that he will save Not to drive them to despair of mercy nor that he taketh pleasure in their sorrows for themselves But to work the heart to a due esteem of saving mercy and to a serious desire after it that they may thankfully receive it and carefully retain it and faithfully use it An unhumbled soul sets light by Christ and Grace and Glory It relisheth no spiritual mercy It cannot be thankful for that which it findeth no great need of But true humiliation recovereth our appetite and teacheth us to value mercy as it is Think therefore what sin is as I have opened to you Dir. 8. and think of your manifold aggravated sins and then think how great those mercies are that are bestowed on so great unworthy sinners Then mercy will melt your humbled hearts when you confess that you are unworthy to be called Sons Luke 15. and that you are not worthy to look up to Heaven Luke 18. 13. and that you are not worthy of the least
is meant by Flesh here And 2. What flesh-pleasing it is that is unlawful and what sensuality is 3. Wherein the Malignity of this sin consisteth 4. I shall answer some Objections 5. I shall shew you the Signs of it 6. The Counterfeits of the contrary 7. And the false Signs which make some accused wrongfully by themselves or others § 2. I. Because you may find in Writings between the Protestants and Papists that its become a Controversie whether by flesh in Scripture where this sin is mentioned be meant the Body it What is meant by â—lesh self or the soul so far as it is unregenerate I shall briefly first resolve this question When we speak of the unregenerate part we mean not that the soul hath two parts whereof one is regenerate and the other unregenerate But as the purblind eye hath both Light and Darkness in the same subject so is it with the soul which is regenerate but in part that is in an imperfect degree And by the unregenerate part is meant the whole soul so far as it is unregenerate The word flesh in its primary signification is taken for that part of the Body as such without respect to sin and next for the whole body as distinct from the soul. But in respect to sin and duty it is taken 1. Sometime for the sensitive appetite not as sinful in it self but as desiring that which God hath obliged Reason to deny it 2. More frequently for this sensitive appetite as inordinate and so sinful in its own desires 3. Most frequently for both the inordinate sensitive appetite it self and the Rational powers so far as they are corrupted by it and sinfully disposed to obey it or to follow inordinately sensual things But then the Name is primarily taken for the sensual appetite it self as diseased and but by participation for the Rational powers For the understanding of which you must consider 1. That the appetite it self might innocently even in innocency desire a forbidden object when it was not the Appetite that was forbidden but the Desire of the Will or the actual taking it That a man in a Feavor doth Thirst for more than he may lawfully drink is not of it self a sin But to Desire it by Practical Volition or to Drink it is a sin For it is these that God forbids and not the Thirst which is not in our power to extinguish That Adam had an Appetite to the forbidden fruit was not his sin but that his will obeyed his appetite and his mouth did eat For the Appetite and sensitive nature is of God and is in nature antecedent to the Law God made us Men before he gave us Laws And the Law commandeth us not to alter our selves from what he made us or any thing else which is naturally out of our power But it is the sin of the will and executive powers to do that evil which consisteth in obeying an innocent Appetite The Appetite is necessary and not free and therefore God doth not direct his commands or prohibitions to it directly but to the Reason and free-will 2. But since mans fall the Appetite it self is corrupted and become inordinate that is more impetuous violent and unruly than it was in the state of Innocency by the unhappy distempers that have befallen the Body it self For we find now by experience that a man that useth himself to sweet and wholsom temperance hath no such impetuous strivings of his Appetite against his reason if he be healthful as those have that are either diseased or used to obey their appetites And if Use and Health make so great alteration we have cause to think that the Depravation of Nature by the Fall did more 3. This inordinate appetite is sin by Participation so far as the Appetite may be said to be Free by participation though not in it self Because it is the Appetite of a Rational free-agent For though sin be first in the will in its true form yet it is not the will only that is the subject of it though primarily it be but the whole man so far as his acts are Voluntary For the will hath the Command of the other faculties and they are Voluntary acts which the will either commands or doth not forbid when it can and ought To lye is a voluntary sin of the man and the tongue partaketh of the guilt The will might have kept out that sin which caused a disorder in the appetite If a Drunkard or a Glutton provoke a venerous inordinate appetite in himself that lust is his sin because it is voluntarily provoked 4. Yet such additions of inordinacy as men stir up in any Appetite by their own actual sins and customs are more aggravated and dangerous to the soul than that measure of distemper which is meerly the fruit of original sin 5. This inordinateness of the sensitive Appetite with the meer Privation of Rectitude in the Mind and Will is enough to cause mans Actual sin For if the Horses be headstrong the meer weakness sleepiness negligence or absence of the Coachman is enough to concur to the overthrow of the Coach So if the Reason and Will had no Positive inclinations to evil or sensual objects yet if they have not so much Light and Love to higher things as will restrain the sensual appetite it hath positive inclination enough in it self to forbidden things to ruine the soul by actual sin 6. Yet though it be a great controversie among Divines I conceive that in the Rational Powers themselves there are Positive habitual inordinate inclinations to sensual forbidden things For as actually its certain the Reason of the Proud and Covetous do contrive and oft approve the sin and the Will embrace it so these are done so constantly in a continued stream of action by the whole man that it â—eems apparent that the same faculties which run out out in such strong and constant action are themselves the subjects of much of the inclining Positive habits And if it be so in additional acquired sin its like it was so in Original sin 7. Though sin be formally subjected first in the Will yet Materially it is first in the sensitive appetite at least this sin of Flesh-pleasing or sensuality is The flesh or sensitive part is the first Desirer though it be sin no further than it is voluntary 8. All this set together telleth you further that the word flesh signifieth the sensual inclinations of the whole man but first and principally the corrupted sensual appetite and the Mind and Wills whether Privative or Positive concurrence but secondarily and as falling in with sense The Appetite 1. Preventeth Reason 2. And resisteth reason 3. And at last corrupteth and enticeth Reason and Will to be its servants and purveyors § 3. And that the name flesh doth primarily signifie the sensitive appetite it self is evident in the very notation of the name Why else should the Habits or Vices of the Rational powers be called Flesh
field and afterwards build thine house so I advise you to see first that the necessary work be done when that 's done and well done you may go quietly and cheerfully about the rest seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness O what a deal is done when this is done § 39. Direct 2. Learn to understand well the degrees of duties which is the greater and which the less Direct 2. that when two seem to require your Time at once you may know which of them to prefer Not only to know which is simply and in it self the greatest but which is the greatest for you and at that season and as considered in all the circumstances A great part of the art of Redeeming Time consisteth in the wise discerning and performing of this to give precedency to the greatest duty He loseth his Time who is getting a penny when he might get a pound who is visiting his Neighbour when he should be attending his Prince who is Weeding his Garden when he should be quenching a fire in his house though he be doing that which in it self is good So is he losing his Time who is preferring his body before his soul or man before God or indifferent things before necessary or private duties before publick or less edifying before the more edifying or Sacrifice before necessary mercy The order of good works I have shewed you before Chap. 3. Dir. 10. which you may peruse § 40. Direct 3. Be acquainted with the season of every duty and the duty of each season and Direct 3. take them in their Time And thus one duty will help on another whereas misplacing them and disordering them sets them against one another and takes up your time with distracting difficulties and loseth you in confusion As he that takes the morning hour for prayer or the fittest vacant hour shall do it quietly without the disturbance of his other affairs when if the season be omitted you shall scarce at all perform it or almost as ill as if you did it not at all so is it in point of Conference reproof reading hearing meditating and every duty A wise and well skilled Christian should bring his matters into such order that every ordinary duty should know his place and all should be as the links of one chain which draw on one another or as the parts of a Clock or other Engine which must be all conjunct and each right placed A Workman that hath all his Tools on a heap or out of place spends much of the day in which he should be working in looking his Tools When he that knoweth the place of every one can presently take it and lose no time If my Books be thrown together on a heap I may spend half the day in looking for them when I should use them but if they be set in order and I know their places it spares me that time So is it in the right Timing of our duties § 41. Direct 4. Live continually as under the Government of God and keep Conscience tender and Direct 4. in the performance of its office and always be ready to render an account to God and Conscience of what you do If you live as under the Government of God you will be still doing his work you will be remembring his judgement you will be trying your work whether it be such as he approveth This will keep you from all Time-wasting vanities If you keep Conscience tender it will presently check and reprehend you for your sin and when you lose but a minute of Time it will tell you of the loss whereas a seared Conscience is past feeling and will give you over to laseiviousness Ephes. 4. 19. 1 Tim. 4. 2. and will make but a jest at the loss of time or at least will not effectually tell you either of the sin or loss If you keep Conscience to its office it will ask you frequently what you are doing and try your works It will take account of Time when it is spent and ask you what you have been doing and how you have spent every day and hour And as Seneca could say He will be the more careful what he doth and how he spends the day who looks to be called to a reckoning for it every night This will make the foreseen day of Judgement have such a continual awe upon you as if you were presently going to it while conscience with respect to it is continually fore-judging you Whereas they that have silenced or discarded Conscience are like School-boyes that bolt their Master out of doors who do it with a design to spend the time in play which they should have spent in learning But the after-reckoning pays for all § 42. Here for the further Direction of your Consciences I shall lay you down a few Rules for Rules to know what â—â—me must be spâ—rt â—n the right spending of your Time 1. Spend it in nothing as a deliberate moral act which is not truly directly or remotely an act of obedience to some Law of God of meer natural acts which are no objects of moral choice I speak not 2. Spend it in nothing which you know must be Repented of 3. Spend it in nothing which you dare not or may not warrantably pray for a blessing on from God 4. Spend it in nothing which you would not review at the hour of death by an awakened well-informed mind 5. Spend it in nothing which you would not hear of in the day of judgement 6. Spend it in nothing which you cannot safely and comfortably be found doing if death should surprize you in the act 7. Spend it in nothing which flesh-pleasing perswadeth you to against your Consciences or with a secret grudge or doubting of your Consciences 8. Spend it in nothing which hath not some tendencie directly or remotely to your ultimate end the pleasing of God and enjoying him in Love for ever 9. Spend it in nothing which tendeth to do more hurt than good that would do a great hurt to your self or others under pretense of doing some little good which perhaps may better be done another way 10. Lastly spend it in nothing which is but a smaller good when a greater should be done § 43. Direct 5. Do your best to settle your selves where there are the greatest helps and smallest hinderances Direct 5. to the Redeeming of your Time And labour more to accommodate your habitation condition and employments to the great ends of your life and time than to your worldly honour ease or wealth Live where is best trading for the soul You may get more by Gods ordinary blessing in one year in a godly family or in fruitful company and under an able godly Minister than in many years in a barren soil among the ignorant dead-hearted or prophane where we must say as David I held my peace even from good while the wicked is before me Psalm 39. 1 2. And when we must
be ready to pour out to others and not be silent and lose his Time for want of matter or skill or zeal for in all these three your provision doth consist An ignorant empty person wants matter for his thoughts and words An Imprudent person wants skill to use it A careless cold indifferent person wants life to set his faculties on motion and oyl and poise to set the wheels of his soul and body a going Bethink you in the morning what company you are like to meet and what occasions of duty you are like to have and provide your selves accordingly before you go with matter and resolution Besides the general preparative of habitual Knowledge charity and zeal which is the chief you should also have your particular preparations for the duties of each day A workman that is strong and healthful and hath all his tools in readiness and Act. 6. 5. Matth. 7. 17. Luk. 6 45. Matth. 12 34. order will do more in a day than a sick man or one that wanteth tools or keeps them dull and unfit for use will do in many Psalm 37. 30 31. The mouth of the Righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgement And no wonder when The Law of his God is in his Heart none of his steps shall slide Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good Treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things Math. 12. 35. Every Scribe which is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man that is an housholder that bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old Matth. 13. 52. § 47. Direct 8. Promise not long life to your selves but live as those that are allwaies uncertain of Direct 8. another day and certain to be shortly gone from hence The groundless expectation of long life is a very great hindrance to the Redeeming of our Time Men will spend prodigally out of a full purse who would be sparing if they knew they had but a little or were like to come to want themselves Young people and healthful people are under the greatest temptation to the loss of Time They are apt to think that they have Time enough before them and that though its possible that they may die quickly yet it is more likely that they shall live long and so putting the day of death far from them they want all those awakenings which the face of death doth bring to them that still expect it and therefore want the wisdom zeal and diligence which is necessary to the Redemption of their time Pray therefore as Psalm 90. 12. So teach us to number our daies that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Dream not of rest and plenty for many years when you have no promise to live till the next morning Luke 12. 19 20. When they perceive death is at hand and time is near an end allmost all men seem highly to esteem of Time and promise to spend it better if God would but try them once again Do you therefore continually perceive that death is even at hand and time near an end and then it will make you continually more wise then death maketh the most and to redeem your Time as others purpose to Redeem it when it is too late § 48. Direct 9. Sanctifie all to God that you have and do And let Holiness to the Lord be written Direct 9. upon all whether you eat or drink let it be intended and ordered ultimately to his Glory Make all 1 Cor. 10. 31. Zeâ—h 14. 20 21. Rom 6. 19 22. Luk. 1. 75. 1 Tim. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 4 5. 2 Tim. 2. 21. your civil relations possessions and employments thus Holy designing them to the service and pleasing of God and to the everlasting good of your selves or others and mixing holy meditation and prayer with them all in season And thus we are bid to pray continually and in all things give thanks 1 Thes. 5. 17 18. And in all things to make known our requests to God in prayer supplication and giving of thanks Phil. 4. 6. And all things are sanctified by the word and prayer This sacred Alchymie that turneth all our conversation and possessions and actions into Holy is an excellent part of the art of Redeeming Time § 49. Direct 10. Lastly be acquainted with the great Thieves that rob men of their Time and with Direct 10. the Devils methods in entising them to lose it and live in continual watchfullness against them It is a more necessary thriftiness to be sparing and saving of your Time than of your money It more concerneth you to keep a continual watch against the things which would rob you of your Time than against those Thieves that would break your house and rob you by the high-way Those persons that would tempt you to the loss of Time are to be taken as your enemies and avoided I shall here recite the names of these Thieves and Time-wasters that you may detest them and save your Time and souls from their deceits Tit. 4. The Thieves or Time-wasters to be watchfully avoided § 50. Th. 1. ONe of the greatest Time-wasting sins is idleness or sloth The slothful see their Thief 1. Time pass away and their work undone and can hear of the necessity of Redeeming it and yet they have not hearts to stir When they are convinced that duty must be done they are still delaying and putting it off from day to day and saying still I will do it to morrow or hereafter To morrow is still the sluggards working day and to day is his idle day He spendeth his Time in fruitless wishes He lyeth in bed or sitteth idly and wisheth Would this were labouring He feasteth his flesh and wisheth that this were fasting He followeth his sports and pleasures and wisheth that this were prayer and a mortified life He lets his heart run after lust or pride or Covetousness and wisheth that this were heavenly mindedness and a laying up a treasure above Thus the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat Prov. 13. 4. Prov. 21. 25. The desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labour Every little opposition or difficulty will put him by a duty Prov. 20. 4. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing Prov. 22. 13. The slothful man saith There is a Lyon without I shall be slain in the streets Prov. 26. 14 15 16. As the door turneth upon his hindges so doth the slothful upon his bed The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth And at last his sloth depraves his Reason and bribeth it to plead the cause of his negligence The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason Time will slide on and duty will be undone and
When that which you do is done with an ill will and with a constant weariness of mind and there is no alaâ—rity or pleasure in your work 6. When you do no more in much time than you might do in less if you had a willing ready mind 7. When the backward mind is shifting it off with excuses or finding something else to do or at least delaying it 8. When you choose a condition of greater ease and smaller labour before a laborious condition of life which in other respects is better for you As when a Servant had rather live in an ungodly family where thâ—re is more ease and fulness to be had than in a place of greatest advantage for the soul where there is more labour and want 9. When little impedimiments Pâ—ov 26 13. discourage or stop you The slâ—thful saith there is a Lyon in the way Prov. 22. 13. His way is an hedge of thorns Prov. 15. 19. He will not plow by reason of cold Prov. 20. 4. 10. When you make a great matter of a little business It cannot be done but with such preparation and so much a do that shews a slothful mind in the doer Even the putting his hand to his mouth and pulling it out of his bosome is a business with the sluggard that is he maketh a great matter of a little one Prov. 26. 15. 19 24. 11. Lastly The fruits of slothfulness use to detect Hâ—w lâ—ttle have some men yea Mâ—â—â—â—sters theâ—selve◠〈◊〉 shâ—wâ—â— aâ—l the good they might have done through all their lives The work they have done caâ—â— them idle it in soul and body and â—state For it corrupteth impoverisheth and ruineth all The weeds of his Field or Garden the vices of his soul the sins of his life the duties omitted or sleepily performed the disorders of his family or charge and usually or oft his poverty do detect him Prov. 24. 30. 12. 24 27. § 5. By this much it is easie to discern the impudent folly of the Quakers and some ignorant Ruâ—â—icks that rail against Magistrates and Ministers for living idly because they do not plow or thrâ—sh or use some mechanick Trade or Labour As if the labour of their highest Callings were no labour but meer idleness Thus proud men speak evil of that which they understand not Had they tryed it they would have found that the work of a faithful Minister is further distant from idleness than a Thrâ—sher is Doth not Christ and the Holy Ghost oft call them labourers fâ—llow-labourers with Christ and workmen and their work a labour Luke 10. 27. 1 Cor. 3. 9. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Matth. 10. 10. 1 Cor. 3. 13 14 15. 9. 1. Ephes. 4. 12. Phil. 2. 30. § 6. Hence also you may see 1. That though all that can must labour yet there is great diversity of labours and all men are not to do the same work Magistrates and Pastors and Lawyers and Physicions must labour diligently but they are not all bound to plow and thresh and use the more â—â—rvile labours of their inferiors 2. That every man must labour in the works of his own Calling and do his own business as 1 Thess. 4. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 11. and take that for the employment for him which God doth call him to and not presume to step out of his best place and take the work of other mens Callings out of their hands 3. That a man that is paid for his labour by anâ—â—her as Lawyers Physicions Schoolmasters Servants do rob them by their idleness when they withhold from them any part of that which they are paid for § 7. Direct 1. The first help against sloth is to be well acquainted with the greatness of the sin Direct 1. For no wonder if it be committed by them that think it small First therefore I shall tell you what it is § 8. 1. God himself reckoneth it with heinous sins Ezek. 16. 49. Pride fulness of bread and 1 Thess. 5 12 13. Prâ—v 18. 9 21. 25. 2 Thess. 3. Prov. 12 24 19 15. Eâ—câ—es 10. 18. abundance of idleness the very character of the debauched part of the Gentry is said to have been Sodoms sin that was consumed with fire from Heaven And the Thessalonians were forbidden to keep company with such as lived disorderly and did not work § 9. 2. Idleness is a temporary destruction as to their use of all the faculties of mind and body which should be exercised It is contrary to Nature For Nature made our faculties for use You bury your selves alive If it be a sin to hide Gods lesser Talents what is it to bury our selves and all our powers If it be pity to see a dead man because he is unuseful to the world Is it not pity and shame to see one voluntarily dead that maketh himself useless by his sloth Should not the Church yard be the dwelling of the slothful that he may be nearest them in place that he is nearest to in quality § 10. 3. Idleness and sloth are consumers of all the mercies of God You are the barren ground where he soweth his seed and none comes up You return him but a crop of thorns and bryars and such ground is nigh to cursing the final curse whose end is to be burnt Doth God daily â—eb 6. 8. feed and clothe and keep you and protect and support you and teach and warn you and all for nothing Is idleness that for which he hired you Will you accuse your Maker of so great imprudence and your Redeemer of more as if he created and redeemed you to do nothing or that which is as bad or worse than nothing He calleth to you Why stand you idle Matth. 20. 3 6. And it is a terrible sentence that such shall receive Matth. 25. 26. Thou wicked and slothful servant Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness c. § 11. 4. Idleness is a robbing God who is the Lord of us and all our faculties and all our service is his due You rob him of the honour and service that you might have done him by your diligence § 12. 5. And it is a robbing your selves of all the good to soul or body which by your Prov. 10. 26. Prov. 18. 9. labour and industry you might have got The slothful man lyeth wishing till he perish Prov. 21. 25. § 13. 6. And it is a robbing of the Commonwealth and of all those to whom your labours or the fruit of them was due You are burdens to the Commonwealth like Drones in the Hive Col. 3. 22. § 14. 7. Slothfulness is a great consumer of Time as is shewed Chap. 5. You lose not only all the Time when duty is omitted but much of the time in which you perform it while you rid no work and do it as if you did it not He that goeth but a mile an hour loseth his Time though he be still going even as
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
all your dayes § 2. Direct 2. Remember that you are entring into the way to everlasting life and not into a place Direct 2. of happiness or continuance Presently therefore set your hearts on Heaven and make it the design of all your lives to live in Heaven with Christ for ever O happy you if God betimes will throughly teach you to know what it is that must make you happy and if at your first setting out your End be right and your faces be Heavenward Remember that as soon as you begin to live you are hasting toward the end of your lives Even as a Candle as soon as it beginneth to burn and the Hour-glass as soon as it is turned is wasting and hasting to its end So as soon as you begin to live your lives are in a Consumption and posting towards your final hour As a runner as soon as he beginneth his race is hasting to the end of it so are your lives even in your youngest time It is another kind of life that you must live for ever than this trifling pitiful fleshly life Prepare therefore speedily for that which God sent you hither to prepare for O happy you if you begin betime and go on with cheerful resolution to the end It is blessed wisdom to be wise betime and to know the worth of Time in childhood before any of it be wasted and lost upon the fooleries of the world Then you may grow wise indeed and be treasuring up understanding and growing up in sweet acquaintance with the Lord when others are going backwards and daily making work for sad repentance or final desperation Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say of all things here below I have no pleasure in them § 3. Direct 3. Remember that you have corrupted Natures to be cured and that Christ is the Physicion Direct 3. that must cure them and the Spirit of Christ must dwell within you and make you holy and give 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom 8 9. â—3 John 3. 3 5 6. you a new heart and nature which shall Love God and Heaven above all the honour and pleasures of the world Rest not therefore till you find that you are born anew and that the Holy Ghost hath made you hâ—ly and quickned your hearts with the Love of God and of your dear Redeemer The old nature loveth the things of this world and the pleasures of the flesh but the New Nature loveth the Lord that made you and Redeemed and Renewed you and the endless joyes of the world to come and that holy life which is the way thereto § 4. Direct 4. Take heed of loving the pleasures of the flesh in overmuch eating or drinking or Direct 4. play Set not your hearts upon your bâ—lly or your sport Let your meat and sleep and play be moderate Meddle not with Cards or Dice or any bewitching or riotous sports Play not for money lest it stir up covetous desires and tempt you to be over eager in it and to lye and wrangle and fall out with others Use neither food or sports which are not for your health A greedy appetite enticeeth children to devour raw fruits and to rob their neighbours Orchards and at once to undo soul and body And an excessive love of play doth cause them to run among bad companions and lose their time and destroyeth the love of their Books and their duty and their Parents themselves and all 1 Cor. 10. 31. that 's good You must eat and sleep and play for health and not for useless hurtful pleasure § 5. Direct 5. Subdue your own wills and desires to the will of God and your superiours and be not Direct 5. eagerly set upon any thing which God or your Parents do deny you Be not like those self-willed fleshly children that are importunate for any thing which their fansie or appetite would have and cry or are discontent if they have it not Say not that I must have this or that But be contented with any thing which is the will of God and your Superiours It is the greatest misery and danger in the world Psal. 81. 10 11 12. to have all your own wills and to be given up to your hearts desire § 6. Direct 6. Take heed of a custome of foolish filthy railing lying or any other sinful Direct 6. words You think it is a small matter but God thinketh not so It is not a jeasting matter to sin against the God that made you It is fools that make a sport with sin Prov. 14. 9. 10. 23. 26. 19. One lye one curse one oath one ribbald or railing or deriding word is worse than all the pain that ever your flesh endured § 7. Take heed of such company and playfellows as would entice and tempt you to any of these sins Direct 7. and choose such company as will help you in the fear of God And if others mock at you care no more for it than for the shaking of a leaf or the barking of a Dog Take heed of lewd and wicked company as ever you care for the saving of your souls If you hear them rail or lye or swear or talk filthily be not ashamed to tell them that God forbiddeth you to keep company with such as they Psal. 119. 63. Prov. 13. 20. 18. 7. 1 Cor. 5. 12. Eph. 5. 11. 4. § 8. Direct 8. Take heed of Pride and Covetousness Desire not to be fine nor to get all to Direct 8. your selves but be humble and meek and love one another and be as glad that others are pleased as your selves § 9. Direct 9. Love the Word of God and all good Books which would make you wiser and Direct 9. better and read not Play-books nor Tale-books nor Love-books or any idle stories When idle Children are at play and fooleries let it be your pleasure to read and learn the mysteries of your salvation § 10. Direct 10. Remember that you keep holy the Lords Day Spend not any of it in play or idleness Direct 10. Reverence the Ministers of Christ and mark what they teach you and remember it is a message from God about the saving of your souls Ask your Parents when you come home to help your understandings and memories in any thing which you understood not or forgat Love all the holy exercises of the Lords Day and let them be pleasanter to you than your meat or play § 11. Direct 11. Be as careful to practise all as to hear and read it Remember all is but Direct 11. to make you holy to love God and obey him Take heed of sinning against your knowledge and against the warnings that are given you § 12. Direct 12. When you grow up by the direction of your Parents choose such a Trade or Calling Direct 12. as alloweth you
some notable yea or ordinary providence which did lately occurr 5. Or of some examples of good or evil that are fresh before you 6. Or of the right doing of the duty that you are about or any such like helps Direct 5. § 7. Direct 5. Talk not of vain unprofitable controversies nor often of small circumstantial matters that make but little to edification For there may be idle talking about matters of Religion as well as about other smaller things Especially see that the quarrells of the times engage not your thoughts and speeches too far into a course of unprofitableness or contention § 8. Direct 6. Furnish your selves before hand with matter for the most edifying discourse and never Direct 7. go abroad empty And let the matter be usually 1. Things of weight and not small matters 2. Things of certainty and not uncertain things Particularly the fittest subjects for your ordinary discourse are these 1. God himself with his Attributes Relations and Works 2. The great mysterie of mans Redemption by Christ His person office sufferings doctrine example and work His resurrection ascension glory intercession and all the priviledges of his Saints 3. The Covenant of Grace the promises the duties the conditions and the threatnings 4. The workings of the Spirit of Christ upon the soul and every grace of the Spirit in us with all the signs and helps and hinderances of it 5. The wayes and wiles of Satan and all our spiritual enemies the particular temptations which we are in danger of what they are and how to avoid them and what are the most powerful helps against them 6. The corruption and deceitfulness of the heart The nature and workings effects and signs of ignorance unbelief hypocrisie pride sensuality worldliness impiety injustice intemperance uncharitableness and every other sin with all the helps against them all 7. The many duties to God and man which we have to perform both internal and external and how to do them and what are the chiefest hindrances and helps As in reading hearing meditating prayer giving alms c. And the duties of our Relations and several places with the contrary sins 8. The Vanity of the world and deceitfulness of all earthly things 9. The powerful Reasons used by Christ to draw us to holiness and the unreasonable madness of all that is brought against it by the Devil or by wicked men 9. Of the sufferings which we must expect and be prepared for 10. O◠death and the preparations that will then be found necessary and how to make ready for so great a change 11. Of the day of judgement and who will be then justified and who condemned 12. Of the joyes of Heaven the employment the company the nature and duration 13. Of the miseries of the damned and the thoughts that then they will have of their former life on earth 14. Of the state of the Church on earth and what we ought to do in our places for its welfare Is there not matter enough in all these great and weighty points for your hourly meditation and conference § 9. Direct 7. Take heed of proud self-conceitedness in your conference Speak not with supercilious Direct 7. censorious confidence Let not the weak take on them to be wiser than they are Be readier to speak by way of Question as Learners than as Teachers of others unless you are sure that they have much more need to be taught by you than you by them It 's ordinary for novices in Religion to cast all their discourse into a Teaching strain or to make themselves Preachers before they understand It is a most loathsome and pitiful hearing and yet too ordinary to hear a raw self-conceited ungrounded unexperienced person to prate magisterially and censure confidently the doctrine or practices or persons of those that are much better and wiser than themselves If you meet with this proud censorious spirit rebuke it first and read to them Iam. 3. and if they go on turn away from them and avoid them for they know not what manner of spirit they are of they serve not the Lord Jesus whatever they pretend or think themselves but are proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and making divisions in the Church of God and ready to fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. 6. 3 4 5 Rom. 16. 17. Luk. 9. 55. Direct 8. § 10. Direct 8. Let the wisest in the company and not the weakest have most of the discourse But yet if any one that is of an abler tongue than the rest do make any determinations in doubtful controverted points take heed of a hasty receiving his judgement let his reasons seem never so plausible or probable but put down all such opinions as doubts and move them to your Teachers or some other impartial able men before you entertain them Otherwise he that hath most wit and tongue in the company might carry away all the rest into what errour or heresie he please and subvert their faith when he stops their mouths § 11. Direct 9. Let the matter of your speech be suitable to your end even to the good of your Direct 9. selves or others which you seek The same subject that is fit for one company is very unfit for others Learned men and ignorant men pious men and prophane men are not fit for the same kind of discourse The medicine must be carefully fitted to the disease § 12. Direct 10. Let your speech be seasonable when prudence telleth you it is not like to do more Direct 10. harm than good There is a season for the prudent to be silent and refrain even from good talk Amos 5. 17. Psal. 39. 1 2. Cast not Pearls before Swine and give not holy things to Dogs that you know will turn again and rend you Matth. 7. 6. Yea and among good people themselves there is a time to speak and a time to be silent Eccles. 3. 7. There may possibly be such excess as tendeth to the tiring of the hearers and more may be cram'd in than they can digest and surfetting may make them loath it afterwards You must give none more than they can bear And also the matters of your business and callings must be talkt of in their time and place § 13. Direct 11. Let all your speech of holy things be with the greatest seriousness and reverence Direct 11. that you are able Let the words be never so good yet levity and rudeness may make them to be prophane God and holy things should not be talkt of in a common manner But the gravity of your speech should tell the hearers that you take them not for small or common matters If servants and others that live near together would converse and speak as the Oracles of God how holy and heavenly and happy would such families or societies be CHAP. XVII Directions for each particular member of the Family how to spend every ordinary day of
more to hinder them from the same priviledge than what is of Necessity § 14. Direct 14. At Supper spend the time as is aforesaid at Dinner Alwayes remembring Direct 14. that though it be a day of Thansgiving it is not a day of gluttony and that you must not use too full a dyet lest it make you heavy and drowsie and unfit for holy duty § 15. Direct 15. After Supper examine your Children and Servants what they have learnt all Direct 15. day and sing a Psalm of praise and conclude with prayer and thanksgiving § 16. Direct 16. If there be time after both you and they may in secret review the duties Direct 16. and mercies and failings of the day and recommend your selves by Prayer into the bands of God for the night following and to betake your selves to your rest § 17. Direct 17. And to shut up all let your last thoughts be holy in the thankful sense of Direct 17. the mercy you have received and the goodness of God revealed by our Mediator and comfortably trusting your souls and bodies into his hands and longing for your nearer approach unto his Glory and the beholding and full enjoying of him for ever § 18. I have briefly named this order of duties for the memory of those that have opportunity to observe it But if any mans place and condition deny him opportunity for some of these he must do what he can but see that carnal negligence cause not his omission And now I appeal to Reason Conscience and Experience whether this employment be not more suitable to the principles ends and hopes of a Christian than idleness or vain talk or Cards or Dice or Dancing or Ale-house haunting or worldly business or discourse And whether this would not exceedingly conduce to the increase of Knowledge Holiness and Honesty And whether there be ever a worldling or voluptuous sensualist of them all that had not rather be found thus at death or look back when Time is past and gone upon the Lords days thus spent than as the idle fleshly and ungodly spend them CHAP. XIX Directions for profitable Hearing the Word Preached OMitting those Directions which concern the external modes of Worship for the Reasons mentioned Tom. 2. and known to all that know me and the time and place I live in I shall give you such Directions about the personal internal management of your duty as I think most necessary to your Edification And seeing that your Duty and benefit lyeth in these four General points 1. That you hear with understanding 2. That you Remember what you hear 3. That you be duly affected with it 4. And that you sincerely practise it I shall more particularly Direct you in order to all these ends and duties Tit. 1. Directions for the Understanding the Word which you hear § 1. Direct 1. REad and meditate on the holy Scriptures much in private and then you will be Direct 1. the better able to understand what is Preached on it in publick and to try the doctrine whether it be of God Whereas if you are unacquainted with the Scriptures all that is treated of or alledged from it will be so strange to you that you will be but little edified by it Psal. 1. 2. Psal. 119. Deut. 6. 11 12. § 2. Direct 2. Live under the clearest distinct convincing teaching that possibly you can procure Direct 2. There is an unspeakable difference as to the edification of the hearers between a judicious clear distinct and skilful Preacher and one that is ignorant confused general dry and only scrapeth together a Cento or mingle-mangle of some undigested sayings to fill up the hour with If in Philosophy Physicks Grammar Law and every Art and Science there be so great a difference between one Teacher and another it must needs be so in Divinity also Ignorant Teachers that understand not what they say themselves are unlike to make you men of understanding as Erroneous Teachers are unlike to make you Orthodox and Sound § 3. Direct 3. Come not to hear with a careless heart as if you were to hear a matter that little Direct 3. concerned you but come with a sense of the unspeakable weight necessity and consequence of the holy word which you are to bear and when you understand how much you are concerned in it and truly Love it as the word of Life it will greatly help your Understanding of every particular truth That which a man Loveth not and perceiveth no necessity of he will hear with so little regard and heed that it will make no considerable impression on his mind But a good understanding of the Excellency and Necessity exciting Love and â—â—rioâ—s attention would make the particulars easie to be understood when else you will be like â—â— stopt oâ— narrow mouthed bottle that keepeth out that which you desire to put in I know that understanding must go before affections But yet the understanding of the concernments and worth of your own souls must first procure such a serious care of your salvation and a general regard to the word of God as is needful to your further understanding of the particular instructions which you shall after hear § 4. Direct 4. Suffer not vain thoughts or drowsie negligence to hinder your attention If you mark Direct 4. not what is taught you how should you understand and learn set your selves to it as for your Prâ—â— 4. 1 20 ◠〈…〉 7. 24. lives Be as earnest and diligent in attending and learning as you would have the Preacher be in Teaching If a drowsie careless Preacher be bad a drowsie careless hearer is not good Saith Mâ—ses Dâ—ut 32. 46. Set your hearts to all the words which I testifie among you this day Neâ— 1 6. 1â— Psal. 130. 2. Prov. 28. 9. 47. For it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life You would have God attentive to your pâ—ayers in your distresses and why will you not then be attentive to his words when the prayers of him are abominable to God that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law â—â—ik 19. 48. All the people were very attentive to hear Christ. Neh. 8. 3. when Ezra read the Law from morning till mid day the ears of all the people were attentive to it when Paul continued his Lords day exercise Act 16. 14. Act. 10. 9. and speech untill midnight one young man that full asleep did fall down dead as a warning to them that will sleep when they should hear the message of Christ. Therefore you are excused that day from worldly business that you may attend oâ— the Lord with out distraction 1 Cor. 7. 35. Lydia's attending to the words of Paul accompanied the opening of her heart and her Conversion Act. 16. 14. § 5. Direct 5. Mark specially the design and drift and principal doctrine of the Sermon Both because Direct 5. that is the chief thing
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
your labour is in vain How easie is it for you to overlook some one thing among a multitude that must be seen about the Causes and Cure of diseases unless God shall open it to you and give you a clear discerning and an universal observation And when twenty considerable things are noted a mans life may be lost for want of your discerning one point more What need have you of the help of God to bring the fittest remedies to your memory And much more to bless them when they are administred as the experience of your daily practice may inform you where Atheism hath not made men fools § 5 Direct 5. Let your continual observation of the fragility of the flesh and of mans mortality Direct 5. make you more spiritual than other men and more industrious in preparing for the life to come and greater contemners of the vanities of this world He that is so frequently among the sick and a spectator of the dead and dying is utterly unexcusable if he be himself unprepared for his sickness or for death If the heart be not made better when you almost dwell in the house of mourning it is a bad and deplorate heart indeed It is strange that Physicions should be so much suspected of Atheism as commonly they are and Religio medici should be a word that signifieth irreligiousness Sure this conceit was taken up in some more irreligious Age or Countrey For I have oft been very thankful to God in observing the contrary even how many excellent pious Physicions there have been in most Countreys where the purity of Religion hath appeared and how much they promoted the work of Reformation such as Crato Platerus Erastus and abundance more that I might name And in this Land and Age I must needs bear witness that I have known as many Physicions Religious proportionably as of any one profession except the Preachers of the Gospel But as no men are more desperately wicked than those that are wicked after pious education and under the most powerful means of their reformation so it is very like that those Physicions that are not truly good are very bad because they are bad against so much light and so many warnings And from some of these it 's like this censorious Proverb came And indeed mans nature is so apt to be affected with things that are unusual and to lose all sense of things that are grown common that no men have more need to watch their hearts and be afraid of being hardened than those that are continually under the most quickening helps and warnings For it is very easie to grow customary and sensless under them and then the danger is that there are no better means remaining to quicken such a stupid hardened heart Whereas those that enjoy such helps but seldom are not so apt to lose the sense and benefit of them The sight of a sick or dying man doth usually much awaken those that have such sights but seldom But who are more hardened than Souldiers and Sea men that live continually as among the dead when they have twice or thrice seen the fields covered with mens Carkasses they usually grow more obdurate than any others And this is it that Physicions are in danger of and should most carefully avoid But certainly an Atheistical or ungodly Physicion is unexcusably blind To say as some do that they study nature so much that they are carryed away from God is as if you should say They study the work so much that they forget the workman or They look so much on the Book that they overlook the sense or that They study medicine so much that they forget both the patient and his health To look into Nature and not see God is as to see the creatures and not the light by which we see them or to see Trees and Houses and not to see the Earth that beareth them For God is the Creating Conserving Dirigent Final Cause of all Of him and Through him and To him are all things He is All in all And if they know not that they are the subjects of this God and have immortal souls they are ill proficients in the study of Nature that know no better the nature of man To boast of their acquisitions in other Sciences while they know not what a Man is nor what they are themselves is little to the honour of their understandings You that live still as in the fight of death should live as in the sight of another world and excell others in spiritual wisdom and holiness and sobriety as your advantages by these quickening helps excell § 6. Direct 6. Exercise your Compassion and Charity to mens souls as well as to their Bodies and Direct 6. speak to your patients such words as tend to prepare them for their change You have excellent opportunities if you have hearts to take them If ever men will hear it is when they are sick and if ever they will be humbled and serious it is when the approach of death constraineth them They will hear that counsel now with patience which they would have despised in their health A few serious words about the danger of an unregenerate state and the necessity of holiness and the use of a Saviour and the everlasting state of Souls for ought you know may be blest to their conversion and salvation And it is much more comfortable for you to save a soul than to cure the body Think not to excuse your selves by saying It is the Pastors duty For though it be theirs ex officio it is yours also ex charitate Charity bindeth every man as he hath opportunity to do good to all and especially the greatest good And God giveth you opportunity by casting them in your way The Priest and Levite that past by the wounded man were more to be blamed for not relieving him than those that never went that way and therefore saw him not Luk. 10. 32. And many a man will send for the Physicion that will not send for the Pastor And many a one will hear a Physicion that will despise the Pastor As they reverence their Landlords because they hold their estates from them so do they the Physicion because they think they can do much to save their lives And alas in too many places the Pastors either mind not such work or are insufficient for it or else stand at ods and distance from the people so that there is but too much need of your charitable help Remember therefore that he that converteth a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. Remember that you are to speak to one that is going into another world and that must be saved now or never And that all that ever must be done for his salvation must be presently done or it will be too late Pity humane nature and harden not your hearts against a man
is in two cases viz. 1. If they commit such capital crimes as God and man would have punished with death its fit they dye and then they are silenced For in this case it is supposed that their lives by their impunity are like to do more hurt than good 2. If their Heresie insufficiency scandal or any fault what ever do make them more hurtful than profitable to the Church it is fit they be cast out If their Ministry be not like to do more good than their faults to do harm let them be silenced But if it be otherwise then let them be punished in their bodies or purses rather than the peoples souls should suffer The Laws have variety of penalties for other men Will none of those suffice for Ministers But alas What talk I of their faults Search all Church History and observe whether in all ages Ministers have not been silenced rather for their duties than their faults or for not subscribing to some unnecessary opinion or imposition of a prevailing party or about some wrangling controversies which Church disturbers set afoot There is many a poor Minister would work in Bridewell or be tyed to shovell the Streets all the rest of the Week if he might but have liberty to preach the Gospel And would not such a penalty be sufficient for a dissent in some unnecessary point As it is not every fault that a Magistrate is deposed for by the Soveraign but such as make him unfit for the place so is it also with the Ministers § 39. Direct 18. Malignity and Prophaneness must not be gratified or encouraged It must be considered Direct 18. how the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8. 7 â— Gen. 3. 15. And that enmity is put between the Womans and the Serpents seed and that the whole business of the world is but the prosecution of the War between the Armies of Christ and Satan And that malignity inclineth the ungodly world to slander and reproach the servants of the Lord and they are glad of any opportunity to make them odious or to exasperate Magistrates against them And that their silencing and fall is the joy of the ungodly And if there be any Civil differences or sidings the ungodly rabble will take that side be it right or wrong which they think will do most to the downfal of the godly whom they hate Therefore besides the merits of the particular cause a Ruler that regardeth the interest of the Gospel and mens salvation must have some care that the course which he taketh against godly Ministers and people when they displease him be such as doth not strengthen the hands of evil doers nor harden them increase them or make them glad I do not say that a Ruler must be against what ever the ungodly part is for or that he must be for that which the major part of godly men are for I know this is a deceitful rule But yet that which pleaseth the malignant rabble and displeaseth or hurteth the generality of godly men is so seldome pleasing to God that its much to be suspected § 40. Direct 19. The substance of faith and the Practice of Godliness must be valued above all opinions Direct 19. and parties and worldly interests And Godly men accounted as they are caeteris paribus the best members both of Church and State If Rulers once knew the difference between a Saint and a sensualist a vile person would be contemned in their eyes and they would honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. And if they honoured them as God commandeth them they would not persecute them And if the promoting of practical Godliness were their design there were little danger of their oppressing those that must be the instruments of propagating it if ever it prosper in the World § 41. Direct 20. To this end Remember the neer and dear relation which every true believer standeth Direct 20. in to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost They are called by God his peculiar treasure his jewels Exod. 19. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Mal. 3. 17 18. â—â—h 3. 17. 1 Cor. 3. 16. 2 Tim. 1. 14. 1 Joh. 4 15 16. his Children the members of Christ the Temples of the Holy Ghost God dwelleth in them by Love and Christ by faith and the Spirit by all his sanctifying gifts If this were well believed men would more reverence them on Gods account than causelesly to persecute them Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye § 42 Direct 21. Look not so much on mens infirmities as to overlook or make light of all that is good in them But look as much at the good as at the evil And then you will see reason for lenity as well as for severity and for love and tenderness rather than for hatred and persecution And you will discern that those may be serviceable to the Church in whom blinded malice can see nothing worthy of honour or respect § 43. Direct 22. Estimate and use all lesser matters as means to spiritual worship and practical holiness Direct 22. If there be any thing of worth in Controversies and Ceremonies and such other matters of inferiour rank it is as they are a means to the power of Godliness which is their end And if once they be no otherwise esteemed they will not be made use of against the interest of Godliness to the silencing of the Preachers and persecuting the professours of it § 44. Direct 23. Remember that the Understanding is not Free save only participative as it is Direct 23. subject to the will It acteth of it self per modum naturae and is necessitated by its object further than as it is under the power of the will A man cannot hold what opinion he would himself nor be against what he would not have to be true much less can he believe as another man commandeth him My understanding is not at my own command I cannot be of every mans belief that is uppermost Evidence and not force is the natural means to compell the mind even as Goodness and not force is the natural means to win mens Love It is as wise a thing to say Love me or I will kill thee as to say Believe me or I will kill thee § 45. Direct 24. Consider that it is essential to Religion to be above the authority of man unless as Direct 24. they subserve the authority of God He that worshippeth a God that is subject to any man must subject his Religion to that man But this is no Religion because it is no God whom he worshippeth But if the God whom I serve be above all men my Religion or service of him must needs be also above the will of men § 46. Direct 25. Consider that an obedient disposition towards Gods Laws and a tender Conscience
be observed 1. That you keep not his sword for your benefit and advantage nor claim a propriety in it but give it his friends or deliver it to the Magistrate 2. That you do nothing without the Magistrate in which you may safely stay for his Authority and help But if two be fighting or thieves be robbing or murdering a man or anothers life be in present danger you must help them without staying for the Magistrates authority 3. That you make not this a pretence for the usurping of Authority or for resisting or deposing your lawful Prince or Magistrate or Parent or Master or of exercising your own will and passions against your Superiours pretending that you take away their swords to save themselves or others from their rage when it is indeed but to hinder justice § 21. Quest. 14. May I not then much more take away that by which he would destroy his own or other Quest. 14. mens souls As to take away Cards or Dice from Gamesters or heretical or sâ—diâ—ious books or Play-books and Romances or to pull down Idols which the Idolaters do adore or are instruments of Idolatry Answ. There is much difference in the cases though the soul be more precious than the body For 1. Here there is supposed to be so much leisure and space as that you may have time to tell the Magistrate of it whose duty primarily it is Whereas in the other case it is supposed that so much delay would be a mans death Therefore your duty is to acquaint the Magistrate with the sin and danger and not to anticipate him and play the Magistrate your self Or in the case of Cards and Dice and hurtful books you may acquaint the persons with the sin and perswade them to cast them away themselves 2. Your taking away these instruments is not like to save them For the love of the sin and the Will to do it remaineth still and the sinner will but be hardened by his indignation against your irregular course of charity 3. Men are bound to save mens bodies whether they will or not because it may be so done But no man can save anothers soul against his will And it is Gods will that their salvation or damnation shall be more the fruit of their own wills than of any others Therefore though it 's possible to devise an instance in which it is lawful to steal a poysonous book or idol from another when it is done so secretly as will encourage no disobedience or disorder nor is like to harden the sinner but indeed to do him good c. yet ordinarily all this is A Wife or near friend that is under no suspicion of alienating the thing to their own commodity nor of ill designes may go somewhat further in such cases than an inferiour or a stranger unlawful for private men that have no Government of others or extraordinary interest in them § 2. Quest. 15. May not a Magistrate take the subjects goods when it is necessary for their own preservation Quest. 15. Answ. I answered this question once heretofore in my Political Aphorisms And because I repent of medling with such subjects and of writing that Book I will leave such cases hereafter for fitter persons to resolve Quest. 16. But may I not take from another for a holy use As to give to the Church or maintain the Quest. 16. Bishops If David took the hallowed bread in his necessity may not hallowed persons take common bread much more Answ. If holy persons be in present danger of death their lives may be saved as other mens on the terms mentioned in the first case Otherwise God hath no need of theft or violence nor must you rob the Laity to cloath the Clergy But to do such evil on pretence of piety and good is an aggravation of the sin CHAP. XIX General Directions and particular Cases of Conscience about Contracts in general and about Buying and Selling Borrowing and Lending Usury c. in particular Tit. 1. General Directions against injurious Bargaining and Contracts BEsides the last Directions Chap. 18. take these as more nearly pertinent to this case § 1. Direct 1. See that your hearts have the two great principles of Iustice deeply and habitually Direct 1. innaturalized or radicated in them viz. The true Love of your neighbour and the Denyal of your self which in one precept are called The Loving of your neighbour as your self For then you will be freed from the Inclination to injuries and fraud and from the power of those temptations which carry men to these sins They will be contrary to your habitual will or inclination and you will be more studious to help your neighbour than to get from him § 2. Direct 2. Yet do not content your self with these habits but be sure to call them up to act Direct 2. when ever you have any bargaining with others and let a faithful Conscience be to you as a Cryer to proclaim Gods Laws and say to you Now remember Love and Self-denyal and Do as you would be done by If Alexander Severus so highly valued this saying Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris as to make it his Motto and write and engrave it on his doors and buildings having learned it of some Christians or Jews saith Lampridius What a crime and shame is it for Christs own profest Disciples neither to learn or love it Put home the question when you have any bargaining with others How would I be dealt with my self if my case were the same with his § 3. Direct 3. When the Tempter draweth you to think only of your own commodity and gain remember Direct 3. how much more you will lose by sin than your gain can any way amount to If Acan Gehezi Ahab Iudas c. had foreseen the end and the greatness of their loss it would have curbed their covetous desires Believe Gods Word from the bottom of your heart that you shall lose things eternal if you sinfully get things temporal and then you will not make haste to such a bargain to win the world and lose your souls § 4. Direct 4. Understand your neighbours case aright and meditate on his wants and interest You Direct 4. think what you want your self but you think not whether his wants with whom you deal may not be as great as yours Consider what his commodity costeth him or what the toil of the workmans labour is What house rent he hath to pay and what a family to maintain and whether all this can be well done upon the rates that you desire to trade with him And do not believe every common report of his riches or of the price of his commodity For same in such cases is frequently false § 5. Direct 5. Regard the publick good above your own commodity It is not lawful to take up Direct 5. or keep up any oppressing monopoly or Trade which tendeth to enrich you
not ad semper no act especially external is a duty at all times Therefore not this of revealing an offenders fault And if it be not alwayes a duty then it must be none when it is inconsistent with some greater benefit or duty For when two goods come together the greater is to be preferred Therefore in case that you see in just probability that the concealment of the sinner will do more hurt to the Common-wealth or the souls of men than the saving of your life is like to do good You may not promise to conceal him or if you sinfully promise it you may not perform it But in case that your life is like to be a greater good than the Not promising to conceal him then such a promise is no fault because the disclosing him is no duty But to judge rightly of this is a matter of great difficulty If it be less than life which you save by such a promise it oft falls out that it is a lesser good than the detecting of the offence § 18. But it will here be said If I promise not to conceal a Robber I must conceal him nevertheless for when he hath killed me I cannot reveal him and I must conceal the bribe-taker for till I have promised secrecy I cannot prove him guilty And he that promiseth to forbear a particular good action whilest he liveth doth yet reserve his life for all other good works whereas if he dye he will neither do that nor any other But this case is not so easily determined If Daniel dye he can neither pray nor do any other good on earth And if he live he may do much other good though he never pray And yet he might not promise to give over praying to save his life I conceive that we must distinguish of duties essential to the outward part of Christianity or of constant indispensible necessity and duties which are alterable and belong only to some persons times and places Also between the various consequents of omissions And I conceive that ordinarily a man may promise for the saving of his life that he will forbear a particular alterable duty or relation As to read such a Commentary to speak with such a Minister to be a Magistrate or a Minister c. in case we have not before bound our selves never to give over our Calling till death And in case that the good which will follow our forbearance is likely to a judicious person to be greater than the evil But no man may promise to omit such a duty as God hath made necessary during life as not to love God or fear or trust him not to Worship him and call upon him and praise him nor to do good to mens souls or bodies in the general or not to Preach or Pray while I am a Minister of Christ or not at all to Govern while you are a Governour For all these contradict some former and greater promises or duties Nor may you omit the smallest duty to save your life at such a time when your death is like to do more good than your life would do without that one duty Apply this to the present case § 19. Quest. 12. If another man deceive me into a promise or Covenant against my good am I bound Quest. 12. to perform it when I have discovered the deceit Answ. Yes 1. In case that the Law of the Land or other reasons for the publick good require it 2. Or in case that you were faulty by negligence heedlesness or otherwise guilty of your own deceit in any considerable and avoidable degree Otherwise in that measure that he deceived you and in those respects you are not obliged § 20. Quest. 13. If the contracting parties do neither of them understand the other is it a Covenant Quest. 13. Or if it be whose sense must carry it Answ. If they understand not each other in the Essentials of the Contract it is no contract in point of Conscience except where the Laws for the publick safety do annex the obligation to the bare external act But if they understand not one another in some circumstances and be equally culpable or innocent they must come to a new agreement in those particulars But if one party only be guilty of the misunderstanding he must bear the loss if the other insist on it § 21. Quest. 14. Am I bound to stand to the bargains which my friend or trustee or servant maketh Quest. 14. for me when it proveth much to my injury or loss Answ. Yes 1. If they exceed not the bounds of that commission or trust which they received from you 2. Or if they do yet if by your former trusting and using them or by any other sign you have given the other party sufficient cause to suppose them entrusted by you to do what they do so that he is deceived by your fault you are bound at least to see that he be no loser by you though you are not bound to make him a gainer unless you truly signified that you authorized them to make the contract For if it be meerly your friends or servants errour without your fault it doth not bind you to a third person But how far you may be bound to pardon that errour to your friend or servant is another question and how far you are bound to save them harmless And that must be determined by laying together all other obligations between them and you § 22. Quest. 15. If I say I will give such or such a one this or that am I bound thereby to do it Quest. 15. Answ. It is one thing to express your present mind and resolution without giving away the liberty of changing it And it s another thing to intend the obliging of your self to do the thing mentioned and that obligation is either intended to man or to God only and that is either in point of rendition and use or in point of veracity or the performance of that moral duty of speaking truth If you meant no more in saying I will do it or I will give it but that this is your present Will and purpose and resolution yea though it add the confident perswasion that your will shall not change yet this no further obligeth you than you are obliged to continue in that will And a mans confident resolutions may lawfully be changed upon sufficient cause But if you intended to alienate the title to another or to give him present right or to oblige your self for the future to him by that promise or to oblige your self to God to do it by way of peremptory assertion as one that will be guilty of a lye if you perform it not or if you dedicate the thing to God by those words as a Vow then you are obliged to do accordingly supposing nothing else to prohibit it § 23. Quest. 16. Doth an inward promise of the mind not expressed oblige Quest. 16. Answ. In a Vow to God it
several tempers and strength and appetites 2. And between the restraint of Want and the restraint of Gods Law And so it is thus resolved 1. Such difference in quantity or quality as mens health or strength and real benefit requireth may be made by them that have no want 2. When want depriveth the poor of that which would be really for their health and strength and benefit it is not their duty who have no such want to conform themselves to other mens afflictions Except when other reasons do require it 3. But all men are bound to avoid real excess in matter or manner and curiosity and to lay out nothing needlesly on their bellies yea nothing which they are called to lay out a better way Understand this answer and it will suffice you § 5. Inst. 2. Another way of Prodigality is by needless costly Visits and Entertainments Inst. 2. Quest. 2. What cost upon Visits and Entertainments is unlawful and prodigal Quest. 2. Answ. 1. Not only all that which hath an ill original as Pride or flattery of the rich and all that hath an ill End as being meerly to keep up a carnal unprofitable interest and correspondency but also all that which is excessive in degree I know you will say But that 's the difficulty to know when it is excessive It is not altogether impertinent to say when it is above the proportion of your own estate or the ordinary use of those of your own ranck or when it plainly tendeth to cherish gluttony or excess in others But these answers are no exact solution I add therefore that it is excess when any thing is that way expended which you are called to expend another way Object But this leaveth it still as difficult as before Answ. When in rational probability a greater good may be done by another way of expence consideratis considerandis and a greater good is by this way neglected then you had a call to spend it otherwise and this expence is sinful Object It is a doubt whether of two goods it be a mans duty alwayes to choose the greater Answ. Speaking of that Good which is within his choice it is no more doubt than whether Good be the object of the will If Good be eligible as good then the greatest good is most eligible Object But this is still a difficulty insuperable How can a man in every action and expence discern Whether a man is bound to prefer the greatest good which way it is that the greatest good is like to be attained This putteth a mans conscience upon endless perplexities and we shall never be sure that we do not sin For when I have given to a poor man or done some good for ought I know there was a poorer that should have had it or a greater good that should have been done Answ. 1. The contrary opinion legitimateth almost all villany and destroyeth most good works as to our selves or any others If a man may lawfully prefer a known lesser good before a greater and be justified because that the lesser is a real good than he may be feeding his Horse when he should be saving the life of his child or neighbour or quenching a fire in the City or defending the person of his King He may deny to serve his King and Countrey and say I was ploughing or sowing the while He may prefer sacrifice before mercy He may neglect his soul and serve his body He may plow on the Lords Day and neglect all Gods Worship A lesser duty is no duty but a sin when a greater is to be done Therefore it is certain that when two goods come together to our choice the greater is to be chosen or else we sin 2. As you expect that your Steward should proportion his expences according to the necessity of your business and not give more for a thing than it is worth nor lay out your money upon smaller commodities while he leaveth your greater business unprovided for And as you expect that your Servant who hath many things in the day to do should have so much skill as to know which to prefer and not to leave undone the chiefest whilest he spendeth his time upon the least So doth God require that his servants labour to be so skilful in his service as to be able to compare their businesses together and to know which at every season to prefer If Christianity required no wisdome and skill it were below mens common Trades and Callings 3. And yet when you have done your best here and truly endeavour to serve God faithfully with the best skill and diligence you have you need not make it a matter of scrupulosity perplexity and vexation For God accepteth you and pardoneth your infirmities and rewardeth your fidelity And what if it do follow that you know not but there may be some sinful omission of a better way Is that so strange or intollerable a conclusion As long as it is only a pardoned failing which should not hinder the comfort of your obedience Is it strange to you that we are all imperfect And imperfect in every good we do Even by a culpable sinful imperfection You never Loved God in your lives without a sinful imperfection in your Love And yet nothing in you is more acceptable to him than your love Shall we think a case of Conscience ill resolved unless we may conclude that we are sure we have no sinful imperfection in our duty If your Servant have not perfect skill in knowing what to prefer in buying and selling or in his work I think you will neither allow him therefore to neglect the greater and better knowingly or by careless negligence nor yet would you have him sit down and whine and say I know not which to choose But you would have him learn to be as skilful as he can and then willingly and chearfully do his business with the best skill and care and diligence he can And this you will best accept So that this holdeth as the truest and exactest solution of this and many another such case He that spendeth that upon an entertainment of some great ones which should relieve some poor distressed families that are ready to perish doth spend it sinfully If you cannot see this in Gods cause suppose it were the Kings and you will see it If you have but twenty pound to spend and your Tax or Subsidie cometh to so much If you entertain some Noble friend with that money will the King be satisfied with that as an excuse Or will you not be told that the King should have first been served Remember him then who will one day ask Have you fed or clothed or visited me Mat. 25. You are not absolute Owners of any thing but the stewards of God! and must expend it as he appointeth you And if you let the poor lye languishing in necessities whilest you are at great charges to entertain the rich without necessity or a greater good
you must answer it as an unfaithful Servant And yet on the other side it may fall out that a person of quality by a seasonable prudent handsome respectful entertainment of his equals or superiours may do more good than by bestowing that charge upon the poor He may save more than he expendeth by avoiding the displeasure of men in power He may keep up his interest by which if he be faithful he may do God and his Countrey more service than if he had given so much to the poor And when really it is a needful means to a greater good it is a duty and then to omit it and give that cost to the poor would be a sin § 6. Object But if this rule hold a man must never do but one kind of good when he hath found out the greatest he must do nothing else Answ. He must alwayes do the greatest good but the same thing is not at all times the greatest good Out of season and measure a good may be turned to an evil Praying in its season is better than plowing and plowing in its season is better than praying and will do more good For God will more accept and bless it § 7. Object Therefore it seemeth the prudentest way to divide my expences according to the proportion of others of my quality some to the poor and some to necessary charges and some to actions of due civility Answ. That there must be a just distribution is no question because God hath appointed you several duties for your expences But the question is of the proportions of each respectively Where God hath made many duties constantly necessary as to maintain your own bodies your children to pay tribute to the King to help the poor to maintain the charges of the Church there all must be wisely proportioned But entertainments recreations and other such after to be mentioned which are not constant duties may be sometimes good and sometimes sinful And the measure of such expences must be varyed only by the rule already laid down viz. According to the proportion of the effect or good which is like to follow Though the custome of others of the same rank may sometimes intimate what proportion will be suitable to that lawful end And sometimes the inordinate custome of others will rather tell one what is to be avoided Therefore true prudence without a carnal byas comparing the good effects together which rationally are like to follow is the only resolver of this doubt Which having so largely shewed I shall refer you to it in the solution of many of the following questions § 8. Inst. 3. Another way of sinful wasting is upon unnecessary sumptuous buildings Inst. 3. Quest. 3. When is it prodigality to erect sumptuous Edifices Quest. 3. Answ. Not when they are for the publick good either in point of use or ornament and honour so be it no greater good be thereby omitted Therefore it is not Churches Hospitals Burses or Common Halls that I am speaking of Nor when they are proportioned to the quality of the person for the honour of Magistracy or for a mans necessary use But when it is for the ostentation of a mans riches or rather of his Pride and for the gratifying of a carnal irrational fancy And when a man bestoweth more upon buildings than is proportionable to his estate and to his better expences and to speak more exactly when he bestoweth that upon his buildings which some greater service calleth for at that time it is then his prodigality and sin § 9. Quest. 4. Here once for all let us enquire Whether it be not lawful as in dyet so in buildings Quest. 4. recreation and other such things to be at some charge for our Delight as well as for our Necessities Answ. The question is thus commonly stated but not well For it seemeth to imply that no Delights are necessary and so putteth things in opposition which are oft co-incident Therefore I distinguish 1. Of necessity Some things are necessary to our being and some to our felicity and and some but to our smaller benefit 2. Of Delight Some delight is sinful as gratifying a sinful humour or disposition Some is unnecessary or wholly useless and some is necessary either to our greater or our lesser good And so the true solution is 1. The sinful delight of a Proud a Covetous a lustful a voluptuous mind is neither to be purchased or used 2. A Delight wholly needless that is unprofitable is sinful if it be purchased but at the price of a farthing or of a bit of bread or of a minutes time Because that is cast away which purchaseth it 3. A Delight which tendeth to the health of the body and the alacrity of the mind to fit it for our Calling and the service of God being not placed in any forbidden thing may be both indulged and purchased so it be not above its worth 4. So far as delight in house or sports or any creature tendeth to corrupt our minds and draw us to the love of this present world and alienate our hearts from Heaven so far must they be resisted and mortified or sanctified and turned a better way 5. In the Utensils of our duty to God usually a moderate natural delight is a great help to the duty and may become a spiritual delight As a delight in my Books in the Preachers utterance in the melody of Psalms in my study and its conveniences in my walk for meditation c. And a delight in our food and recreations maketh them much fitter to cherish health and to attain their ends so it be not corrupt immoderate or abused to evil ends § 10. Inst. 4. Another way of 〈…〉 rodigality is in needless costly Recreations Inst. 4. Quest. 5. Is all cost laid out upon recreations unlawful Quest. 5. Answ. No but caeteris paribus we should choose the cheapest and be at no needless cost on them nor lay out any thing on them which consideratis considerandis might be better bestowed But of this before § 11. Inst. 5. Another way of Prodigality is in over-costly apparel Inst. 5. Quest. 6. What may be accounted Prodigality in the costliness of apparel Quest. 6. Answ. Not that which is only for a due distinction of superiours from inferiors or which is needful to keep up the Vulgâ—rs reverence to Magistrates But 1. All that which is meerly serviceable to pride or vain curiosity or amorous lust or an affectation to be thought to be more comely and beautiful than others 2. All that which hath more cost bestowed upon it than the benefit or end is worth 3. Or which hath that cost which should be rather laid out another way upon better uses The cheapest apparel must be chosen which is warm and comely and sitted to the right ends And we must come nearer those that are below our ranck than those above it § 12. Inst. 6. Also Prodigality is much shewed in
never yet found cause to repent or be ashamed of it Remember that the fruit of sin was bitter and that when your eyes were opened and you saw your shame you would fain have fled from the face of God and that then it appeared another thing to you then it seemed in the committing Remember what grâ—ans and hearts grief it hath cost you and into what fears it brought you of the wrath of Gâ—d 〈…〉 how long it was before your broken bones were healed and what it cost both Christ and you And thâ—s will make the very name and first approach of â—in to cast you into a preventing fear A Bâ—ast that hath once fallen into a Gulf or Quick-sand will hardly be driven into the same again A Fâ—sh that was once sâ—â—icken and scap't the hook will fear and fly from it the next time A Bird that hath once escap t the Sâ—are oâ— the Tallons of the Hawk is afterwards afraid of the fight or noise of such a thing Remember where you fell and what it cost you and what you scaped which it might have cost you and you will obey more accurately hereafter § 19. Direct 6. Remember that this is your day of tryal and what depends upon your accurate 〈…〉 obedience God will not crâ—wn untryed Servants Satan is purposely suffered to tempt you to try whether you will be true to God or not All the hope that his malice hath of undoing you for ever â—â—nsisteth in his hope to make you disobedient to God Methinks these considerations should awaken you to the most watchful and diligent obedience If you were told before hand that a Thief or â—â—t purse had undertaken to rob you and would use all his cunning and industry to do it you would then watch more carefully than at another time If you were in a Race to run for your lives you wâ—uld not go then in your ordinary pace Doth God tell you before that he will try your obedience by temptation and as you stand or fall you shall speed for ever and will not this keep you watchful and obedient § 20. Direct 7. Avoid those tempting and deluding objects which are still entiâ—ing your hearts from Direct 7. your obedience and avoid that diverting crowd and noise of company or worldly business which drowns the vâ—iâ—e of Gods commands If God call you into a life of great temptations he can bring you safely through them all But if you rush into it wilfully you may soon find your own disability to resist It is dangerous to be under strong and importunate temptations lest the stream should bear us down But especially to be long under them lest we be weary of resisting They that are long solicited do too often yield at last It is hard to be alwayes in a clear and ready and resolute frame Few men have their wits much less their graces alwayes at hand in a readiness to use And if the Thief come when yoâ— are dropt asleep you may be robbed before you can awake The constant drawings of temptation do ofttimes abaâ—e the habit of obedience and diminish our hatred of sin and holy resolutions by â—low insâ—nsible degrees before we yield to commit the act And the mind that will be kept in full subjectiâ—n must not be so diverted in a crowd of distracting company or business as to have no time to thâ—â—k on the motives of his obedience This withdrawing of the fewel may put out the fire § 21. Direct 8. If you are unavoidably cast upon strong Temptation take the Allarm and put on all Direct 8. tâ—e 〈◊〉 of God and call up your souls to watchfulness and resolution remembring that you are now aâ—â—ng your enemies and must resist as for your lives Take every temptation in its naked proper sense â—s coming from the Devil and tending to your damnation by enticing your hearts from your subjection unto God suppose you saw the Devil himself in his instruments offering you the bait of preferment oâ— honour or riches or fleshly lusts or sports or of delightful meats or drinks to tempt you to excess and suppose you heard him say to you plainly Take this for thy salvation Sell me for this thy God and thy soul and thy everlasting hopes Commit this sin that thou maist fall under the judgement of God and be tormented in Hell with me for ever Do this to please thy flesh that thou maist displease thy God and grieve thy Saviour I cannot draw thee to Hell but by drawing thee to sin And I cannot make thee sin against thy will nor undo thee but by thy own consent and doing Therefore I pray theâ— consent and do it thy self and let me have thy company in torments This is the naked meaning of every temptation Suppose therefore you saw and heard all this with what detestation then would you reject it With what horror would you fly from the most enticing bait If a Robber would entice you out of your way and company with flattering words that you might fall into the hands of his companions if you knew all his meaning and design before hand would you be enticed after him Watch therefore and Resolve when you know before hand the Design of the Devil and what he intendeth in every temptation § 22. Direct 9. Be mâ—st suspicious fearful and watchful about that which your flesh doth most desire Direct 9. â—â— finds the greatest pleasure in Not that you should deny your bodies all delight in the mercies of God If the body have none the mind will have the less Mercy must be differenced from punishment and must be valued and relished as mercy Meer Natural pleasing of the senses is in it self no mâ—ral good or evil A holy improvement of lawful pleasure is a daily duty Inordinate pleasure is a sin All is inordinate which tendeth more to corrupt the soul by enticing it to sin and turning it from God than to â—it and dispose it for God and his service and preserve it from sinning But still remember it is not sorrow but Delight that draweth away the soul from God and is the fleshes interest which it sets up against him Many have sinned in sorrows and discontents but none ever sinned fâ—r sorrows and discontents Their discontents and sorrows are not taken up and loved for themselves but are the effects of their love to some pleasure and content which is denyed them or taken from them Therefore though all your bodily pleasures are not sin yet seeing nothing but the pleasures of the flesh and carnal mind is the End of sinners and the Devils great and chiefest bait and this only causeth mens perdition you have great reason to be most afraid of that which is most pleasing to your flesh and to the mind as it is corrupt and carnal escape the delusions of fleshly pleasure and you escape damnation You have far more cause to be afraid of prosperity than of adversity of riches than of poverty
me the time of grace is past when God never said so Thy heart may say I am undone I can find no comfort in any friend no evidence of grace within me no comfort in God in Christ or in the promises no comfort in my life which is but a burden to me I cannot pray I cannot believe I cannot answer the Objections of Satan I can strive no longer against my fears I cannot bear my wounded conscience All this is the failing of the Heart but proveth not any failing of God whose grace is sufficient for thee and his strength is manifested perfect in thy weakness The heart hath a thousand sayings and conceits which God is utterly against § 22. Direct 15. When you cannot exercise a Trust of Assurance exercise the Trust of general faith Direct 15. and hope and the quiet submission of thy self to the holy Will of God The common pretence of distrust is I know not that I am a Child of God and it beseems the ungodly to fear his wrath But as the Gospel is tydings of great joy to any people where it cometh so is it a word of hope and trust At least trust God so far as Infinite Goodness should be trusted who will damn none but the finally obstinate Of Hope and Assurance I have spoken afterward refusers of his saving grace And with Aaron Lev. 10. 3. hold your peace when he is glorifying himself in his corrections Remember that the will of God is never mis-guided that it is the Beginning and End of all things Rev. 4. 11. Rom. 11. 36. that it never willeth any thing but good that it is the Center and End of all our wills There is no rest or quietness for our wills but in the will of God And his will is alwayes for the good of them that truly desire to be conformed to it by obedience to his commands and submission to his disposals Say therefore with your Saviour Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me but not as I will but as thou wilt There is nothing got by strugling against the will of God nor nothing lost by a quiet submission to it And if thou love it and desire to obey and please it Trust in it for it will surely save thee DIRECT XIII Diligently labour that God and Holiness may be thy chief DELIGHT and this â—r Dir. 13. 〈…〉 in Gâ—d holy DELIGHT may be the ordinary temperament of thy Religion Directions for DELIGHTING our selves in God § 1. Direct 1. RIghtly understand what Delight in God it is that you must seek and exercise It Direct 1. is not a meer sensitive Delight which is exercised about the objects of sense O◠〈…〉 I havâ— saâ—d more in my Du 〈…〉 oâ— the 〈◊〉 of Church divisions and in the Deâ—en 〈…〉 and in other books or phâ—ntasie and is common to beasts with men Nor is it the delights of immediate intuition of God such as the blessed have in Heaven nor is it an Enthusiastick delight consisting in irrational raptures and joys which we can give no account of the Reason of them Nor is it a Delight inconsistent with sorrow and fear when they are duties But it is the solid rational complacencie of the soul in God and Holiness arising from the apprehensions of that in him which is justly delectable to us And it is such as in estimation of its object and inward complacency and gladness though not in passionate joy or mirth must excel our delight in temporal pleasure and must be the end of all our humiliations and other inferior duties § 2. Direct 2. Understand how much of this holy Delight may be hoped for on earth Though too Direct 2. many Christians feel much more fear and sorrow in their Religion than Delight yet every true Christian doth esteem God more Detectable or fit and worthy of his Delights if he could enjoy him whereas to the carnal fleshly things do seem more fit to be their Delights And though most Christians reach not very high in their Delights in God yet God hath prescribed us such means in which if we faithfully used them we might reach much higher And this much we might well expect 1. So much as might make our lives incomparably more quiet contented and pleasant to us than are the lives of the greatest or happiest worldlings 2. So much as might make our thoughts of God and the life to come to be ready welcom pleasant thoughts to us 3. So much as might greatly prevail against our inordinate griefs and fears and our backwardness to duties and weariness in them and might make Religion an ordinary Pleasure 4. So much as might take off our hankering desire after unnecessary recreations and unlawful pleasures of the flesh 5. So much as might sweeten all our mercies to us with a spiritual perfume or relish 6. So much as might make some sufferings joyful and the rest more easie to us 7. And so much as might make the thoughts of death less terrible to us and make us desire to be with Christ. § 3. Direct 3. Understand what there is in God and Hâ—liness which is fit to be the souls Delight Direct 3. As 1. Behold him in the infinite perfections of his Being his Omnipotence Omniscience and his Psal 99 2 3. 1 Chro. 16. 34. 2 Chro 5. 13. Psal 31. 7. 86 5. 108 3 4. Psal. 92. 4 5 136 4. 145 5 6 7 11 1â— 119. 64. 〈◊〉 36 24 26. Psal. 107. 22. 104 31 Psaâ— 67. 6. Rev. 1. 5. Joh â—â— 9. Gal. 2. 20. Eph 1 17 18. 2 6 7. 3 18 19. Psal. 130 6 7. Psal 91. 2 9. 94. 22. 59. 16. 62 7 8. 91. 2. 9. 57. 1. 59. 16. 4â— 1. 7. 11. Pâ—al â—9 1. 1. 6. 1. 2 3 1 3. 1 2 3. 〈◊〉 13 16. 1â— 34. 1 2 3. Goodness his Holiness Eternity Immutability c. And as your eye delighteth in an excellent picture or a comely building or fields or gardens not because they are yours but because they are a delectable object to the eye so let your minds delight themselves in God considered in himself as the only object of highest delight 2. Delight your selves also in his Relative Attributes in which is expressed his Goodness to his Creatures As his All sufficiency and faithfulness or truth his benignity his mercy and compassion and patience to sinners and his justice unto all 3. Delight your selves in him as his Glory appeareth in his wondrous works of Creation and daily Providence 4. Delight your selves in him as he is Related to you as your God and Father and as all your interest hope and happiness is in him alone 5. Delight your selves in him as his excellencies shine forth in his blessed Son 6. And as they appear in the wisdom and goodness of his Word in all the precepts and promises of the Gospel Psalm
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
any more than Spirit or any thing else If it were only in respect of their object they should be called the World also because that is their object It is a certain Rule that That faculty is most predominant in man whose Object is made his chiefest End Sensitive delights being made the felicity and end of the unsanctified it followeth that the sensitive faculties are predominant which being called Flesh by a nearer Trope the Mind from it receives the denomination The Scriptures also shew this plainly I remember not any one place in the Old Testament where there is any probability that the word flesh should signifie only the Rational soul as unrenewed Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee that is mortal man hath not revealed it Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak that is your Bodies are weak and resist the willingness of your souls For sinful habits are not here called weak John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh that is Man by natural Generation can beget but natural man called Flesh from the visible part and not the spiritual life which nature is now destitute of Rom 7. 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin that is with my sensitive powers and my mind so far as captivated thereto Rom. 8. 1 5. Flesh and Spirit are oft opposed They that are of the flesh mind the things of the flesh c. that is They in whom the sensitive interest and appetite are predominant For it is called the Body here as well as the flesh v. 10 11 13. The mind is here included but it is as serving the flesh and its interest Gal. 5. 16 17 19. Flesh and Spirit are in the same manner opposed And 2 Pet. 2. 18. the Lusts of the flesh are in this sense mentioned And Ephes. 2. 3. Rom. 7. 18. Rom. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 11. in which there is mention of fleshly lusts which fight against the Spirit and fleshly wisdom making provision for the flesh c. And Col. 2. 18. there is indeed the name of a fleshly mind which is but a mind deceived and subservient to the flesh so that the flesh it self or sensitive interest and appetite are first signified in all or most places and in some the Mind as subservient thereto § 4. It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood lest you be tempted to imitate the Libertines who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil and therefore all its actions being indifferent we may be indifferent about them and look only to the superiour powers And others that think that the Scripture by flesh meaneth only the Rational soul ☜ as unâ—enewed do thereupon cherish the Flesh it self and pamper it and feed its unruly lusts and never do any thing to tame the body but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them that is their sinful habits of Reason and Will while they cherish the cause or neglect a chief part of the cure And on the contrary some Papists that look only at the Body as their enemy are much in fastings and bodily exercises while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds § 5. II. How far flesh-pleasing is a sin I shall distinctly open to you in these propositions What Flesh-pleasing is a sin 1. The Pleasing or displeasing of the sensitive appetite in it self considered is neither sin nor duty good or evil but as commanded or forbidden by some Law of God which is not absolutely done 2. To please the flesh by things forbidden is undoubtedly a sin and so it is to displease it too Therefore this is not all that is here meant that the Matter that pleaseth it must not be things forbidden 3. To overvalue the Pleasing of the Flesh is a sin And to prefer it before the Pleasing of God and the holy preparations for Heaven is the state of carnality and ungodliness and the common cause of the Damnation of souls The Delight of the Flesh or Senses is a Natural Good and the natural desire of it in it self as is said is neither vice nor vertue But when this little natural Good is preferred before the Greater Spiritual Moral or Eternal Good this is the sin of Carnal minds which is threatned with death Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. 4. To buy the pleasing of the flesh at too dear a rate as the loss of time or with care and trouble above its worth and to be too much set on making provisions to please it doth shew that it is overvalued and is the sin forbidden Rom. 13. 14. 5. When any desire of the Flesh is inordinate immoderate or irregular for matter or manner quantity quality or season it is a sin to please that inordinate desire 6. When Pleasing the flesh doth too much pamper it and cherish filthy lusts or any other sin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aâ—â—â—â—o sufficiâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— satâ—s est â—â—â—â—um â—â—â—â—pus namque propter animi servitium seciffe naturam nemo tam corporis servus est qui nesciat Id si proprio munere fungitur quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid ampâ—ius requiras Petraâ—ch li. 2 Dial. 2 Vires corporis sunt vires carceris ut Petrarch li. 1. Dial. 5. What mean you to make your prison so strong said Plato to one that over-pampered his flesh Mars Ficin iâ— Vita Plat. is not necessary on some other account as doing greater good it is a sin But if Life require it lust must be subdued by other means 7. When pleasing the flesh doth hurt it by impairing health and so making the body less fit for duty it is a sin And so almost all intemperance tendeth to breed diseases And God commandeth Temperance even for the Bodies good 8. When unnecessary Flesh-pleasing hindereth any duty of Piety Justice Charity or self-preservation in thought affection word or deed it is sinful 9. It any Pleasing of the Flesh can be imagined to have no tendency directly or indirectly to any moral Good or Evil it is not the Object of a moral Choosing or Refusing but like the winking of the eye which falls not under deliberation it is not within the compass of morality 10. Every Pleasing of the flesh which is capable of being referred to a higher end and is not so referred and used is a sin And there is scarce any thing which is eligible which a vacant waking man should deliberate on but should be referred to a higher end even to the glory of God and our salvation by cheering us up to Love and Thankfulness and strengthening or fitting us some way for some duty This is apparently a sin 1. Because else Flesh-pleasing is made our ultimate end and the Flesh an Idol if ever we desire it only for it self when it may be referred to a higher end For though the sensitive Appetite of it self hath no intended end yet
of as it is a Means or an Expression of the good or evil of the mind 14. Sometime the present time must be most regarded herein and sometimes the future For when some great sin or judgement or other reason calls us to a Fast when it becomes needful to the ends of that present day we must do it though the Body were so weak that it would be somewhat the worse afterward so be it that the Good which we may expect by it that day be greater than the good which it is like to deprive us of afterward otherwise the after loss if greater is more to be avoided 15. Many things do Remotely fit us for our main end which neerly and directly seem to have no tendency to it As those that are only to furnish us with natural strength and vigor and alacrity or to prevent impediments As a Travellers hood and cloak and other carriage seem rather to be hinderances to his speed but yet are necessary for preventing the cold and wet which else might hinder him more yea a possible uncertain danger or impediment if great may be prevented with a certain small impediment So it is meet that our Bodies be kept in that health and alacrity which is ordinarily necessary to our duty and in eating and drinking and lawfull recreations it is not only the next or present duty which we prepare for but for the duty which may be very distant 16. Ordinarily it is safest to be more fearful of excess of fleshly-pleasure than of defect For ordinarily we are all very prone to an excess and also the excess is usually more dangerous When excess is the Damnation of all or most that ever perish and Defect is but the Trouble and hinderance but never or rarely the Damnation of any it 's easie then to see on which side we should be most fearful cautelous and vigilant 17. Yet excessive scrupulousness may be a greater sin and a greater hinderance in the work of God than some small excesses of flesh-pleasing which are committed through ignorance or inadvertency When an honest heart which preferreth God before the Flesh and is willing to please him though it displease the flesh shall yet mistake in some small particulars or commit some daily errors of infirmity or heedlessness it is a far less hinderance to the main work of Religion than if that man should daily perplex his mind with scruples about every bit he eats whether it be not too pleasing or too much and about every word he speaks and every step he goes as many poor tempted melancholy persons do thereby disabling themselves not only to Love and Praise and Thankfulness but even all considerable service In sum All pleasing of the senses or flesh which is lawful must have these qualifications 1. Gods Glory must be the ultimate end 2. The matter must be lawful and not forbidden 3. Therefore it must not be to the hinderance of duty 4. Nor to the drawing of us to sin 5. Nor to the hurt of our health 6. Nor too highly valued or too dearly bought 7. The measure must be moderate where any of these are wanting it is sin And where flesh-pleasing is Habitually in the bent of Heart and Life preferred before the Pleasing of God it proves the soul in captivity to the flesh and in a damnable condition § 6. III. I am next to shew you the evil or malignity of predominant Flesh-pleasing For if the The Greatness of the sin greatness of the sin were known it would contribute much to the cure And 1. Understand that it is the sin of sins the end of all sin and therefore the very sum and Life of all All the evil wicked men commit is ultimately to please the flesh The love of flesh-pleasing is the cause of all Pride and Covetousness and Whoredom and wantonness and gluttony and drunkenness and all the rest are but either the immediate works of sensuality and Flesh-pleasing or the distant service of it by laying in provision for it And all the malicious enmity and opposition to God and Godliness is from hence because they cross the interest and desires of the flesh The final cause is it for which men invent and use all the Means that tend to it Therefore all other sin being nothing but the means for the pleasing of our fleshly appetites and fancies its evident that flesh-pleasing is the common cause of them all and is to all other sin as the spring is to the watch or the poise to the clock the weight which giveth them all their motion Cure this sin and you have taken off the poise and curâ—d all the positite sins of the soul Though the privative sins would be still uncured if there were no more done Bâ—cause that which makes the clock stand still is not enough to make it go right But indeed nothing but the Love of Pleasing God can truly cure the Love of flesh-pleasing and such a cure is the cure of every sin both positive and privative active and defective § 7. 2. Flesh-pleasing is the Grand Idolatry of the world and the Flesh the greatest Idol that ever wâ—s set up against God Therefore Paul saith of sensual worldlings that their Belly is their God and thence it is that they mind earthly things and glory in their shame and are enemies to the cross of Christ that is to sufferings for Christ and the doctrine and duties which would cause their sufferings That is a mans God which he taketh for his chief Good and Loveth best and trusteth in most and is most desirous to please And this is the flesh to every sensualist He loveth pleasure more than God 2 Tim. 3. 2 4. He savoureth or mindeth the things of the flesh and liveth to it and walketh after it Rom. 8. 1 5 6. 7. 8. 13. He maketh provision for it to satisfie its appetite or lusts Rom. 13. 14. H soweth to the flesh Gal. 6. 8. and fullfilleth his lust when it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5. 16 17. And thus while concupiscence or sensuality hath dominion sin is said to have dominion over them and they are servants to it Rom. 6. 14 20. For to whom men yield themselves servants to obey his servants they are whom they serve or obey Rom. 6. 16. It is not bowing the knee and praying to another that is the chief Idolatry As Loving and Pleasing and Obeying and Trusting and Seeking and Delighting in him are the chiefest parts of the service of God which he preferreth before a thousand sacrifices or complements So Loving the flesh and Pleasing it and Obeying it and Trusting in it and Seeking and Delighting in its pleasures are the chief service of the Flesh and more than if you offered sacrifice to it and therefore is the Grand Idolatry And so the flesh is the great enemy of God which hath the chiefest Love and Service which is due to him and robs him of the Hearts of all mankind that are
their bodies or minds to serve God you may so far go beyond them and use with thankfulness the mercies given you But you must no more be flesh-pleasers than they 5. And some deceive themselves by interposing sometimes a formal fast as the fleshly Pharisee that fasted twice a week Luke 18. 12. and then they think that they are no sensualists I speak not of the Popish fasting with Fish and Delicates this is not so much as a shew of mortification But what if you really fast as oft as the Pharisees did and quarrel with Christs Disciples for not fasting Matth. 9. 14 15. Will not a sensualist do as much as this if his Physicion require it for his health If the scope of your lives be fleshly it is not the interruption of a formal fast that will acquit you which perhaps doth but quicken your appetite to the next meal § 21. VII Yet many are wrongfully taken by others if not by themselves to be sensual by False appearances of sensuality such mistakes as these 1. Because they live not as meanly and scantly as the poor who want things necessary or helpful to their duty But by that rule I must not be well because other men are sick or I must not go apace because the lame can go but slowly If poor men have bad Horses I may ride on the best I can get to dispatch my business and redeem my time so I prefer not costly useless ostentation before true serviceableness 2. Others are accused as sensual because the weakness of their bodies requireth a more tender usage and dyet than healthful mens some bodies are unfitter for duty if they fast And some are useless through sickness and infirmities if they be not used with very great care And it is as truly a duty to cherish a weak body to enable it for God service as to tame an unruly lustful body and keep it from offending him 3. Some Melancholy conscientious persons are still accusing themselves through meer scrupulosity questioning almost all they eat or drink or wear or do whether it be not too much or too pleasing But it is a cheerful sobriety that God requireth which neither pampereth the body nor yet disableth or hindereth it from its duty and not an unprofitable wrangling scrupulosity § 22. Direct 1. The first and Grand Direction against Flesh-pleasing is that you be sure by a serious Direct 1. living faith to see the Better things with God and to be heartily taken up in minding loving seeking and securing them All the other directions are but subservient to this For certainly mans soul will not be idle being a living active principle And it s as certain that it will not act but upon some End or for some End And there are no other Ends to take us up but either the things temporal or eternal And therefore there is no true cure for a sensual Love of temporal things but to turn the heart to things eternal Believingly think first of the certainty greatness and eternity of the Ioyes above and then think that these may more certainly be yours than any worldly Riches or delights if you do not contemptuously reject them And then think that this is the time in which you must make sure of them and win them if ever you will possess them and that you are sent into the world of purpose on this business And then think with your selves how fleshly pleasures are the only competitors with the everlasting pleasures and that if ever you lose them it will be by over-loving these transitory things and that one half of your work for your salvation lyeth in killing your affections to all below that they may be alive to God alone And lastly think how much higher and sweeter pleasures even in this life the godly do enjoy than you and you are losing them while you prefer these fordid pleasures Do you think that a true Believer hath not a more excellent delight in his fore-thoughts of his immortal blessedness with Christ and in the assurance of the Love of God and communion with him in his holy service than you or any sensualist hath in flâ—shly pleasures Sober and serious Meditation on these things will turn the mind to the true delights § 23. Direct 2. Be acquainted with the range of sensual desires and follow them and watch them Direct 2. in all thâ—ir extravagancies Otherwise while you are stopping one gap they will be running out at many more I have given you many instances in my Treatise of Self-denyal I will here briefly set some before your eyes 1. Wâ—â—ch your Appetites as to meat and drink both quantity and quality Gluttony is a common unâ—bsâ—rvâ—â— sin The flesh no way enslaves men more than by the appetite As we see in Drunkards and Gluttons that can no more forbear than one that thirsteth in a burning Feavor 2. Take heed of the Lust of uncleanness and all degrees of it and approaches to it especially immodest embraces and behaviour 3. Take heed of ribald filthy talk and Love Songs and of such incensing snares 4. Take heed of too much sleep and Idleness 5. Take heed of taking too much delight in your Riches and lands your buildings and delectable convâ—niences 6. Take heed lest Honours or worldly Greatness or mens applause become your too great pleasure 7. And lest you grow to make it your delight to think on such things when you are alone or talk â—â—â—â—y of them in company with others 8. And take heed lest the success and proâ—perity of your affairs do too much please you as him Luke 12. 20 9. Take not up any inordinate pleasure in your children relations or nearest friends 10. Take heed of a delight in vain â—â—profitable sinful company 11. Or in fineness of apparel to set you out to the eyes of others 12. Take heed of a delight in Romances Play-books feigned stories useless news which corrupt the mind and waste your time 13. Take heed of a delight in any recreations which are excessive needless devouring time discomposing the mind entising to further sin hindering any duty especially our delight in God They are miserable souls that can delight themselves in no more safe or profitable things than Cards and Dice and Stage-playes and immodest dancings § 24. Direct 3. Next to the universal Remedy mentioned in the first Direction see that you have the Direct 3. particular remedies still at hand which your own particular way of flesh-pleasing doth most require And let not the love of your vanity prejudice you against a just information but impartially consider of the diseasâ— and the remedy Of the pâ—â—ticulâ—rs anon § 25. Direct 4. Remember still that Goâ— would â—ive yâ—u more pleasure and not less and that he Direct 4. will give you as much of the â—elights of sense as is truly good for you so you will take them in their place in subordination to your heavenly delights And is not
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
of Christs Body and Blood aright But besides all these what a deal of duty have you to perform to Magistrates Pastors Parents Masters and other superiours to subjects people children servants and other inferiours to every neighbour for his soul his body his estate and name and to do to all as you would be done by And besides all this how much have you to do directly for your selves for your souls and bodies and families and estates Against your ignorance infidelity pride selfishness sensuality worldliness passion sloth intemperance cowardize lust uncharitableness c. Is not here matter for your thoughts § 15. Direct 15. Overlook not that life full of particular mercies which God hath bestowed on your Direct 15. selves and you will find pleasant and profitable matter for your thoughts To spare me the labour of 15. All our particular Mercies repeating them look back to Chap. 3. Dir. 14. Think of that mercy which brought you into the world and chose your Parents your place and your condition which brought you up and bore with you patiently in all your sins and closely warned you of every danger which seasonably afflicted you and seasonably delivered you and heard your Prayers in many a distress which hath yet kept the worst of you from death and Hell and hath Regenerated justified adopted and sanctified those that he hath fitted for eternal life How many sins he hath forgiven How many he hath in part subdued How many and suitable helps he hath vouchsafed you From how many Enemies he hath saved you how oft he hath delighted you by his word and grace what comforts you have had in his Servants and ordinances in your relations and callings His mercies are innumerable and yet do your meditations want matter to supply them If I should but recite the words of David in many thankful Psalms you would think Mercy found his Thoughts employment § 16. Direct 16. Foresee that exact and righteous judgement which shortly you have to undergo Direct 16. and it will do much to find you employment for your thoughts A man that must give an account to 16. The account at Judgement God of all that he hath done both good and evil and knoweth not how soon for ought he knows before to morrow me thinks should find him something better than vanity to think on Is it nothing to be ready for so great a day To have your justification ready your accounts made up Your Consciences cleansed and quietted on good grounds To know what answer to make for your selves against the accuser To be clear and sure that you are indeed Regenerate and have a part in Christ and are washed in his blood and reconciled to God and shall not prove hypocrites and self-deceivers in that trying day when it is a sentence that must finally decide the question whether we shall be saved or damned and must determine us to Heaven or Hell for ever and you have so short and uncertain a time for your preparation will not this administer matter to your Thoughts If you were going to a Judgement for your lives or all your estates you would think it sufficient to provide you matter for your thoughts by the way How much more this final dreadful judgement § 17. Direct 17. If all this will not serve the turn it 's strange if God call not home your thoughts Direct 17. by sharp afflictions and methinks the improvement of them and the removal of them should find some 17. Our Afflictions employment for your thoughts It 's time then to search and try your ways and turn again unto the Lord Lam. 3. 4. To find out the Achan that troubleth your peace and know the voice of the rod and what God is angry at and what it is that he calleth you to mind To know what root it is that beareth these bitter fruits and how they may be sanctified to make you conformable to Christ and partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. Besides the exercise of holy patience and submission there is a great deal of work to be done in sufferings to exercise faith and honour God and the good cause of our suffering and to humble our selves for the evil cause and to get the benefit And if you will not meditate of the Duty you shall meditate of the pain whether you will or not and say as Lam. 3. 17 18 19 20. I forgate prosperity and I said My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me Put not God to remember you by his spur and help your meditations by so sharp a means Psal. 78. 33 34 35. Therefore did he consume their days in vanity and their years in trouble when he â—lew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer § 18. Direct 18. Be diligent in your callings and spend no time in idleness and perform your labours Direct 18. with holy minds to the glory of God and in obedience to his commands and then your thoughts will 18. The business of your Calling have the less leisure and liberty for vanity or idleness Employments of the body will employ the Thoughts They that have much to do have much to think on For they must do it prudently and skillfully and carfully that they may do it successfully and therefore must think how to do it And the urgency and necessity of business will almost necessitate the thoughts and so carry them on and find them work Though some employments more than others And let none think that these Thoughts are bad or vain because they are about worldly things For if our Labours themselves be not bad or vain then neither are those thoughts which are needful to the well-doing of our work Nor let any worldling please himself with this and say My thoughts are taken up about my calling For his calling it self is perverted by him and made a carnal work to carnal ends when it should be sanctified That the thoughts about your labours may be good 1. Your Labours themselves must be good performed in obedience to God and for the good of others and to his glory 2. Your Labours and thoughts must keep their bounds and the higher things must be still preferred and sought and thought on in the first place And your Labours must so far employ your thoughts as is needful to the well-doing of them but better things must be thought on in such labours as leave a vacancy to the Thoughts But diligence in your calling is a very great help to keep out sinful thoughts and to furnish us with thoughts which in their place are good § 19. Direct 19. You have all Gods spiritual helps and holy ordinances to feed your meditations Direct 19. and
once got in If it have but tainted your very fantasie or memory as tempting sights will almost unavoidably do it hath there spawned the matter for a swarm of vain and sinful thoughts It is almost impossible to rule the Thoughts without ruling the eye And then the passions are presently tainted and the cittadel of the Heart is taken before you are aware You little know when a lustful look or a covetous look beginneth the game to how sad a period it tendeth Many a horrid adultery and murther and robbery and wickedness hath begun but with a Look A Look hath begun that which hath brought many a thousand to the gallows and many millions to Hell § 9. Direct 9. Keep both eye and mind employed in continual duty and let them not be idle and have Direct 9. leisure to wander upon vanity Idleness and neglect of spiritual and corporal duty is the beginner and the nurse of much sensuality Let your spiritual work and your lawful bodily-labours take up your time and thoughts and command and keep your senses in their services § 10. Direct 10. Beg daily of God the preserving assistance of his Grace and providence Of his inward Direct 10. grace to confirm you and assist you in your resolutions and watch and of his providence and gracious disposals of you and objects to keep the Temptations from before your eyes And when others will run and go on purpose to gaze on vain or tempting shews or to admire like children the vanities of the playful pompous world do you go to God with Davids prayer Psalm 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy way And imitate him vers 148. Mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in thy word And make every look a passage to thy mind to carry it up to God and pray Psal. 119. 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law Observe these with the General Directions fore named PART III. Directions for the Government of the Ear. § 1. Direct 1. IMploy your ears in the dutys which they were made for and to that end understand Direct 1. Gen. 49 2. Exod. 19. 9. Deut. 1. 16. 4. 10 5. 1 25 27. 31. 13. Prov. 1. 8. 19. 20 27. 22. 17. Ec 5. 1. 7. 5. Jam. 1. 19. Isa. 66. 4. 65. 12. 30. 9. Ezek. 12. 2. Mal. 2. 2. Act. 3 23. Lev. ◠1. Deut. 13. 12. those dutys Which are as followeth 1. To be the organe of reception of such communications from others as is necessary for our converse in the world and the dutys of our several relations and vocations 2. To hear the word of God delivered publickly by his appointed Teachers of the Church 3. To hear the counsel of those that privately advize us for our good and the reproofs of those that tell us of our sin and danger 4. To hear the Praises of God set forth by his Church in publick and particular servants in private 5. To hear from our ancestors and the learned in historie what hath been done in the times before us 6. To hear the complaints and petitions of the poor and needy and distressed that we may compassionate them and endeavour their relief 7. To be the passage for grief and hatred to our hearts by the sinful words which we hear unwillingly § 2. Direct 2. Know which are the sins of the ear that you may avoid them And they are such as follow 1. A careless ear which heareth the word of God and the private exhortations of his servants as if it heard them not 2. A sottish sleepy ear that heareth the word of God but as a confused sound and understandeth not nor feeleth what is heard 3. A scornful ear which despiseth the message of God and the reproofs and counsel of men and scorneth to be reproved or taught 4. An obstinate stubborn ear which regardeth not advice or will not yield 5. A prophane and impious Direct 2. ear which loveth to hear oaths and curses and prophane and blasphemous expressions 6. A carnal ear which loveth to hear of fleshly things but savoureth not the words which favour of holiness 7. An airy hypocritical ear which loveth more the musick and melody than the sense and spiritual elevation of the soul to God and regardeth more the numbers and composure and tone than the matter of preaching prayer or other such dutys and serveth God with the ear when the heart is far from him 8. A curious ear which nauseateth the most profitable sermons prayers or discourses if they be not accurately ordered and expressed and sleighteth or loseth the offered benefit for a modal imperfection in the offer or the instrument and casteth away all the gold because a piece or two did catch a little rust And perhaps quarrelleth with the style of the sacred Scriptures as not exact or fine enough for its expectations 9. An itching ear which runs after novelties and a heap of Teachers and liketh something extraordinary better than things necessary 10. A selfish ear which loveth to hear all that tends to the confirmation of its own conceits and to be flattered or smoothed up by others and can endure nothing that is cross to its opinions 11. A proud ear which loveth its own applause and is much pleased with its own praises and hateth all that speak of him with mean undervaluing words 12. A pievish impatient ear which is netled with almost all it heareth and can endure none but silken words which are oyled and sugared and fitted by flattery or the lowest submission to their froward minds and is so hard to be pleased that none but graduates in the art of pleasing can perform it 13. A bold presumptuous ear which will hear false Teachers and deceivers in a proud conceit and confidence of their own abilities to discern what is true and what is false 14. An ungodly ear that can easily hear the reproach of holiness and scorns at the servants and ways of Christ. 15. A neutral indifferent ear that heareth either good or evil without much love or hatred but with a dull and cold indifferencie 16. A dissembling temporizing ear which can complyingly hear one side speak for holiness and the other speak against it and suit it self to the company and discourse it meets with 17. An uncharitable ear which can willingly hear the censures backbitings slanders revilings that are used against others yea against the best 18. An unnatural ear which can easily and willingly hear the dishonour of their parents or other near relations if any carnal interest do but engage them against their honour 19. A rebellious disobedient ear which hearkneth not to the just commands of Magistrates Parents Masters and other Governours but hearkneth with more pleasure to the words of seditious persons that dishonour them 20. A filthy unclean adulterous ear which loveth to hear filthy ribbald speeches
unacquainted with the particular weaknesses and dangers of your own hearts or Direct 9. any of your sinful inclinations That when you know where the wall is weakest you may there make the best defense That wanton word will set a wanton heart on fire which a sober mind doth hear with pity as a bedlam kind of speech A pievish passionate heart is presently disturbed and kindled with those words which are scarce observed by a well-composed soul. § 10. Direct 10. Hear every sinful word as dictated by the Devil and suppose you saw him all Direct 10. the while at the speakers elbow putting each word into his mouth and telling him what to say For it is as verily the Devil that doth suggest them all as if you saw him Suppose you saw him behind the rayler hissing him on as boys do dogs in fighting and bidding him Call him thus or thus Suppose you saw him at the malignants ear bidding him Revile a holy life and speak evil of the ways and servants of the Lord Suppose you saw him behind the wanton bidding him use such ribbald talk or on the stage suggesting it to the actors or at the ear of those that would provoke you to passion to tell them what to say against you This just supposition would much preserve you § 11. Direct 11. Suppose you heard the end annexed to every speech As when you hear one Direct 11. tempting you to lust suppose he said come let us take our pleasure a while and be damned for ever So also in every word that tempteth you to any other sin if the Tempter put in the sin do you put in Gods wrath and Hell and separate not that which God hath adjoyned but with the serpent see the sting § 12. Direct 12. Observe when the infection first seizeth on you and presently take an antidote to Direct 12. expel it if yâ—u love your souls The signs of infection are 1. When your zeal abateth and you grow more indifferent what you hear 2. Next you will feel some little inclination to it 3. Next you will a little venture upon an imitation 4. And lastly you will come to full consent and so to ruine If you feel but a remitting of your dislike and hatred or any filth or tincture left on your thoughts and fantasie go presently and shake them off Bewail it to God in true Repentance and wash your souls in the blood of Christ and cast up the poison by holy resolutions and sweat out the remnant by the servent exercises of Love and Holiness PART IV. Directions for Governing the Tast and Appetite Tit. 1. Directions against Gluttony § 1. THE most that is necessary to be said to acquaint you with the Nature and Evil of this sin is said before in Chap. 4. Part 7. against Flesh-pleasing But something more particularly must be said 1. To shew you what is and what is not the sin of Gluttony 2. To shew you the Causes of it 3. The odiousness of it and 4. To acquaint you with the more particular Helps and Means against it § 2. I. Gluttony is a Voluntary excess in eating for the pleasing of the Appetite or some other carnal So the Israâ—lites Num 11. loathing Manna because they must have change of dyet waâ— a sin of gulâ—sity or gluttony being more for Appetite than Health end Here note 1. The Matter 2. The end or effect of this excess 1. It is sometime an excess in quantity when more is eaten than is meet 2. Or else it may be an excess in the Delicious quality when more regard is had of the Delight and sweetness than is meet 3. Or it may be an excess in the frequencie and ordinary unseasonableness of eating When men eat too oft and sit at it too long 4. It may be an excess in the costliness or price when men feed themselves at too high rates 5. Or it may be an excess of curiosity in the dressing and sawâ—ing and ordering of all 2. And it is usually for some carnal end whether it may be properly called Glttony if a man should think that at a Sacrifice or thanksgiving he were bound to eat inordinately and so made the service of God his end we need not enquire though I see not but it may have that name For that 's a case that is more rare and it is undoubtedly a sin And it is Gluttony if it be done for the pleasing of Even fruitful land saith Plâ—tarch enricheth not if it cost too much the manuring So here others that are importunate with you But the common Gluttony is when it is done for the pleasing of the Appetite with such a pleasure as is no help to Health or Duty but usually a hurt to Body or Soul the Body being hurt by the excess the soul is hurt by the inordinate Pleasure § 3. Yea it is a kind of Gluttony and excess when men will not fast or abstain when they are required from that which at other times they may use with abstinence and without blame If a man use not to eat excessively nor deliciously yet if he will not abstain from his temperate dyet either at a publick fast or when his lust requireth him to take down his body or when his Physicion would dyet him for his health and his disease else would be encreased by what he eateth this is an inordinate eating and excess to that person at that time Or if the Delight that the appetite hath in one sort of meat which is hurtful to the body prevail against reason and health so with the person that he will not forbear it it is a degree of Gulosity or Gluttony though for quantity and quality it be in it self but mean and ordinary § 4. By this you may see 1. That it is not the same quantity which is an excess in one which is in another A labouring man may eat somewhat more than one that doth not labour and a strong and healthful body more than the weak and sick It must be an excess in quantity as to that particular person at that time which is when to please his appetite he eateth more than is profitable to his health or duty 2. So also the frequency must be considered with the quality of the person For one person may rationally eat a little and often for his health and another may luxuriously eat ofter than is profitable to health Eccles. 10. 16 17. Wo to thee O land when thy King is a child and thy Princes eat in the morning Blessed art thou O land when thy King is the son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness 3. And in point of costliness the same measure is not to be set to a Prince and to a plow-man that is luxurious excess in one which may be temperance and frugality in another But yet unprofitable cost which all things considered would do more good another way is
hurt And of this there be many degrees He that hath in the least degree disturbed his Reason and disabled or hindred it from its proper office is Drunken in that degree And he that hath overturned it or quite disabled it is stark drunk or drunk in a greater degree § 4. All excess of Drink is sinful Gulosity or sensuality of the same nature with Gluttony and falls under all my last Reproofs and Directions And in some persons that can sâ—t it out and bear much drink without intoxication the sin may be greater than in some others that by a smaller quantity are drunk by a surprize before they are aware But yet caeteris paribus the overthrow of the understanding maketh the sin to be much the greater For it hath all the evil that the other degrees have with more It is A voluptuous excess in drink to the depravation of Reason Gulosity is the general nature of it Excess is the Matter Depravation of Reason is its special form § 5. It is Excess of drinking when you drink more than according to the judgement of sound Reason doth tend to fit your body mediately or immediately for its proper duty without a greater hurt Sometime the immediate benefit is most to be regarded As if a man had some present duty of very great moment to perform The present benefit consisteth 1. In the abatement of such a troublesom thirst or pain as hindreth you from doing your duty 2. In adding that refocillation and alacrity to the spirits as maketh them fitter instruments for the operations of the mind and body That measure which doth one or both of these without greater hurt is not too great I say without greater hurt because if any one should in a Dropsie or a Feaver prefer a little present ease and alacrity before his health and life it were excess Or if any man ordinarily drink more than nature will well digest and which causeth the incoction of his meat and consequently crudities and consequently a dunghil of flegm and vitious humours fit to engender many diseases this is excess of drinking though he feel it ease him and make him cheerful for the present time And this is the common case of most Bibbers or Tiplers that are not stark Drunkards They feel a present ease from thirst and perhaps a little alacrity of spirits and therefore they think that measure is no excess which yet tendeth to crudities and diseases and the destruction of their health and life § 6. Therefore except in some great extraordinary case of necessity it is not so much the present as the future foreseen effects which must direct you to know your measure Reason can foresee though Appetite cannot Future effects are usually Great and long when present effects may be small and short He that will do that which tendeth to the hurt of his health for the present easing or pleasing of his thirsty appetite doth sin against Reason and play the beast You should be so well acquainted with your Bodies and the means of your own health as to know first whether the enduring of the thirst or the drinking to quench it is like to be the more hurtful to your health and more a hindrance to your duty § 7. And for the present Alacrity which strong drink bringeth to some you must foresee that you purchase it not at too dear a rate by a longer dullness or disablement afterwards And take heed that you take not an alien counterfeit hilarity consisting in meer sensual delight for that serenity and just alacrity of the spirits as doth fit you for your duty For this also is a usual and wilful self-deceit of sensualists They make themselves believe that a cup of sack or strong drink giveth them a true assistant alacrity when it only causeth a sensual delight which doth more hinder and corrupt the mind than truly further it in its duty and differeth from true alacrity as paint from beauty or as a feaver doth from our natural heat § 8. You see then that Intemperance in drinking is of two sorts 1. Bibbing or drinking too much 2. Drunkenness in various degrees And these Intemperate Bibbers are of several sorts 1. Those that when they have over-heated themselves or are seaverish or have any ordinary diseased thirst will please their appetites though it be to their hurt and will venture their health rather than endure the thirst Though in Feavers Dropsies Coughs it should be the greatest enemy to them yet they are such beastly servants to their appetites that drink they must whatever come of it Though Physicions forbid them and friends disswade them they have so much of the bruit and so little of the man that Appetite is quite too hard for Reason with them These are of two sorts One sort keep the soundness of their Reason though they have lost all the strength and power of it for want of a Resolved will And these confess that they should abstain but tell you They cannot They are not so much men The other sort have given up their very Reason such as it is to the service of their Appetites and these will not believe till the Cough or Gout or Dropsie c. make them believe it that their measure of drinking is too much or that it will do them hurt but say that it would hurt them more to forbear it Some through real ignorance and some made willingly ignorant by their appetites § 9. 2. Another sort of Bibbers their are much worse than those who have no great diseased thirst to excuse their gulosity but call it a Thirst when ever their Appetite would have drink and use themselves ordinarily to satisfie such an Appetite and drink almost as oft as the throat desireth it and say It is but to quench their thirst and never charge themselves with Intemperance for it These may be known from the first sort of Bibbers by the quality of their drink It is cold small beer that the first sort desire to quench a real thirst when Reason bids them endure it if other means will not quench it But it is Wine or Strong-Drink or some drink that hath a delicious gust which the second â—â— non solum 〈…〉 seculares 〈…〉 sed ip 〈…〉 x domiâ—i 〈…〉 que pasâ—o 〈…〉 quâ— exâ—m 〈…〉 omni pâ—ebi dâ—buerirt ebrierâ—te quam plurimi quasi vino mâ—didi torpebant resoluti animositatum tumore juâ—giorum contentione 〈…〉 ae rapâ—â—â—â—bus ungulis indiscreto boni malique judicio carpebantur Gildas sort of Bibbers use to please the Appetite which they call their Thirst. And of these Luxurious Tiplers next to stark Drunkards there are also divers degrees some being less guilty and some more § 10. 1. The Lowest degree are they that will never ordinarily drink but at meels But they will then drink more than nature requireth or than is profitable to their health § 11. 2. The second degree are they that use to drink between meels
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
there should be any saith the Spartan Then be is to pay an Oxe so great as shall stand on this side the River Tayget and drink of the River Eurota saith the other that is impâ—ssible And saith the Spartan Et quo pacto Spartae existat adulter in quâ divitiae deliciae corporis adscititius cultus probro habentur contra verecundia modestia ac obedientiae Magistratibus debitae observatio decori laudique dantur that is And how can there be an Adulterer at Sparta where Riches delights and strange attire or ornament are a disgrace or reproach and contrarily shamefaceness modesty and the observance of due obedience to Magistrates is an honour and praise And if Rich men think it their priviledge to fare sumptuously and satisfie their appetites they must take it for their priviledge to feed their lust But God giveth no man plenty for such uses nor is it any excuse for eating and drinking much because you have much no more than it would be to your Cooks to put much Salt It 's Zeno's comparison in Lâ—â—â—â—t l. 7. c. 1. In Laâ—rt l. 6. c. 1. in your meat more than in poorer mens because you have more He that observeth the filthy and and pernicious effects of that Gluttony which is accounted Rich mens honour and felicity will never envy them that miserable happiness but say rather as Antisthenes Hostium filiis contingat in deliciis vivere Let it befall the Children of my enemies to live in delights but that the curse is too heavy for a Christian to use to any of his enemies But for himself he must remember that he is the Servant of a Holy God and hath a Holy work to do and Holy sacrifices to offer to him and therefore must not pamper his flesh as if he were preparing a sacrifice for Venus For as 1 Thes. 4. 3 4. This is the will of God even your sanctification that you abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God As the Philosopher answered Antigonus when he asked him whether he should go to a merry feast that he was invited to Thou art the Son of a King so it is answer enough for a Christian Laâ—rt l. 2. c. 38. against Temptations to voluptuousness I am the Son of the most Holy God If thou be invited to feasts where urgency or allurement is like to make thee break thy bounds go not or go back when thou feest the bait As Epaminondas in Plutarch finding excess at a feast that he was invited to went away when he saw it saying Ego te sacrificare non lascivire putaram so say thou I came to dine and not to be wanton or luxurious to support my body for duty and not to pamper it for lust Plutarch marvaileth at the folly of those men that detest the charms of witches lest they hurt them and fear not but love the charms of dishes which hurt a thousand where witches hurt one Withdraw the fuel of excess and the fire of lust will of it self go out or at least this enemy must be besieged and starved out when it cannot be conquered by storm § 4. Direct 2. Take heed of Idleness and be wholly taken up in diligent business of your lawful callings Direct 2. Otia si tolâ—as periere cupidinis areus c. when you are not exercised in the more immediate service of God David in his idleness or vacancy catcht those sparks of lust which in his troubles and military life he was preserved from Idleness is the soil the culture and the opportunity of Lust. The idle person goeth to School to the Devil He sets all other employment aside that the Devil may have time to teach him and treat with him In vacuo pectore regnat amor Ovid. and sollicit him to evil Do you wonder that he is thinking on lustful objects or that he is taken up in feasting and drinking in chambering and wantonness why he hath nothing else to do Whereas a laborious diligent person hath a body subdued and hardened against the mollities the effeminateness of Diogenes called Love Otiosorâ—m negotium the wanton and a mind employed and taken up with better things Leave thy body and mind no leisure to think of tempting filthy objects or to look after them As Hierome saith Facito aliquid operis ut semper Diabolus inveniat te occupatum Be still doing some work that the Devil may always find thee busie And do not for thy fleshly ease remit thy labours and indulge thy flesh Rise early and go late to bed and put thy self upon a Necessity of diligence all the day undertake and engage thy self in as much business as thou art able to go through that if thou wouldst thou maist not be able to give any indulgence to the flesh For if thou be not still pressed by necessity Lust will serve it self by idleness and the flesh will lye down if it feel not the spur Therefore are the Rich and idle more lustful and filthy than the poor labouring people The same Bed is the place of sloth and Lust. Hear a Heathen Nullus mihi per oâ—ium dies exit partem noctium studiis vendico Non vaco somno sed succumbo oculos vigâ—lâ—a fatigatos cadentesque in opere detineo Maâ—e mihi esse malo quam molliter si mollis es paulatim effoeminatur animus atque in similitudinem otii sui pigritiae in qua jacet solvitur Dormio minimum brevissimo somno utor satis est mihi vigilare desiâ—ste Aliquando dormisâ—e scio aliquando suspicor and refuse not to imitate him Seneca saith No day passeth me in idleness Part of the night I reserve for studies I do not purposely set my self to sleep but yield to it when it overcometh me and when my eyes are wearyed with watching and are falling I hold them to their work I had rather it went ill with me than delicately or tenderly If thou be delicate or tender the mind by little and little is effeminate and is dissolved into the similitude of the idleness and sloth in which it lyeth I sleep very little and take but a short nap It sufficeth me to have ceased watching sometimes I know that I slept sometime I do but suspect it Aristotle saith Nature made nothing to be idle And Plato calls Idleness the Plague of Mortals If thon be resolved to serve and please thy flesh then never ask advice against thy lust for its part of the pleasure of it and then no wonder if thou refuse this Physick as too bitter and the remedy as too dear But if thou be resolved to be cured and to be saved stick not at the pains give up thy self totally to thy business and lust will dye for want of food § 5. Direct 3. If thou
of the thoughts of men if you would not be lyars Pride makes men so desirous of reputation and so impatient of the hard opinion of others that all the honest endeavours of the Proud are too little to procure the reputation they desire and Direct 4. therefore Lying must make up the rest Shame is so intolerable a suffering to them that they make lyes the familiar cover of their nakedness He that hath not Riches hath Pride and would be thought some body and therefore will set out his estate by a lye He that hath not eminency of Parentage and Birth if he have Pride will make himself a Gentleman by a lye He that is a contemptible person at home if he be Proud will make himself honourable among strangers by a lye He that wanteth Learning Degrees or any thing that he would be proud of will endeavour by a lye to supply his wants Even as wanton Women by the actual lye of Painting would make themselves Beautiful through a proud desire to be esteemed Especially he that committeth a shameful crime if he be Proud will rather venture on a lye than on the shame But if your Pride be cured your temptation to lying will be as nothing You will be so indifferent in matters of honour or reputation as not to venture your souls on Gods displeasure for it Not that any should be impudent Avoid both the extreams which Pâ—tâ—ach mâ—ntiâ—neth Nam ut multi qui se bonos â—ic aâ—â—quâ— qui se malos fingeâ—enâ— sunt reperti quod vel humani favoris pâ—stilentem auram vel invisam bonorum temporalium sarcinam declinâ—rent Quod de Ambrosio lectum est Quam similis amiciuae aduâ—atio non imitatur tanâ—um â—â—â—â—am sed vincit eo ipso gratiosos facit quo laed t. Sâ—â—ec or utterly regardless of their reputation But none should over-value it nor prefer it before their souls nor seek it by unlawful means Avoid shame by well-dâ—ing and spare not Only see that you have a higher end Seneca saith There are more that abstain from sin through shame than through virtue or a good will It 's well when virtue is so much in credit and vice in discredit that those that have not the virtue would fain have the name and those that will not leave the vice would scâ—pe the shame And it 's well that there are humane motives to restrain them that care not for Divine ones But as humane motives cause no saving virtues so devillish and wicked means are far from preventing any pernicious hurt being the certain means to procure it § 32. Direct 5. Avoid Ambition and humane unnecessary dependance if you would avoid lying Direct 5. For the ambitious give up themselves to men and therefore flattering must be their trade And how much of lying is necessary to the composition of flattery I need not tell you Truth is seldom taken for the fittest instrument of flattery It 's contrarily the common road to hatred Libere sine adulatione veritatem praedicantes gesta pravae vitae arguentes gratiam non habent apud homines saith Ambros. They that Preach Truth freely and without flattery and reprove the deeds of a wicked Hieâ—oâ— iâ— Gal 4. life find not favour with men Veritatem semper inimicitiae persequuntur Hatred is the shadow of Truth as envy is of Happiness When Aristippus was asked why Dionysius spake so much against him he answered for the same reason that all other men do Intimating that it was no wonder if the Tyrant was impatient of Truth and plain dealing when it is so with almost all mankind They are so culpable that all but flatterers seem to handle them too hard and hurt their sores Cujus aures clausae veritati sunt ut ab aâ—â—â—â—o verum auâ—ire nequeat hujuâ— salus despeâ—anda est Ci â—â— â—hâ—t li 1. Nâ—mo parasitum caâ—um amaâ— Materia quoque fâ—ngendi tempore conseâ—esâ—â—t Athâ—â—â—â—â—s Malum hominem â—landiloquâ—ntâ—m agâ—â—sce tuum laqueum esse Habâ—t suum venenum blanda Oraâ—â—o Sâ—â—ec And herein lyeth much of the misery of Great men that few or none deal truly with them but they are flattered into perdition Saith Seneca Divites cum omnia habent unum illis deest scilicet qui verum dicat si enim in clientelam foelicis hominis potentumque perveneris aut veritas aut amicitia perdenda est One thing Rich men want when they have all things that is a man to speak the truth For if thou become the dependant or client of prosperous or great men thou must cast away or lose either the Truth or their friendship Hierome thought that therefore Christ had not a house to put his head in because he would flatter no body and therefore no body would entertain him in the City And the worst of all is that where flattery reigneth it is taken for a duty and the neglect of it for a vice As Hieron ad Cel. saith Quodque gravissimum est quia humilitatis aâ— benevolentiae loco ducitur ita fit utqui adulari nescit aut invidus aut superbus reputetur i. e. And which is most grievous because it goes for humility and kindness it comes to pass that he that cannot flatter is taken to be envious or proud But the time will come that the flatterer will be hated even by him that his fallacious praises pleased Deceit and lyes do please the flattered person but a while even till he find the bitterness of the effects and the fruit have told him that it was but a sugered kind of enmity And therefore he will not be long pleased with the flatterer himself Flattery ever appeareth at last to be but perniciosa dulcedo as Austin calls it Saith the same Austin in Psal. 59. There are two sorts of persecutors the opposer or dispraiser and the flatterer but the tongue of the flatterer hurteth more than the hand of the persecuter And think not that any mans Prov. 12. 19. greatness or favour will excuse thee or save thee harmless in thy lyes for God that avengeth them is greater than the greatest Saith Austin li. de mendac Quisquis autem esse aliquod genus mendacii quod peccatum non sit putaverit decipiet semetipsum turpiter cum honestum se deceptorem arbitretur aliorum i. e. whoever thinks that there is any kind of lye that is no sin he deceiveth himself fouly whilest he thinks himself an honest deciever of others Be not the servants of men if you would be true 1 Cor. 7. 23. § 33. Direct 5. Love not Covetousness if you would not be lyars A lye will seem to a Covetous Direct 6. man an easie means to procure his gain to get a good bargain or put off a crackt commodity for Read Prov. 21. 6. more than it is worth Rupêre foedus impius luâ—ri furor ira praeceps Sen. Hip. He that loveth money better than God and Conscience will
be contemned Mark here the difference between the mentioning of good mens falls by the Godly and by the Ungodly The Godly mention them to make sin appear a thing more to be feared and watcht against and Holiness to appear more excellent and necessary But the ungodly mention them and read them in Scripture to make themselves believe that sin is not so bad and dangerous a thing as Preachers tell them and that Holiness doth but little differ from a fleshly life § 51. Direct 5. Iudge not of Gods servants barely by report without some considerable acquaintance Direct 5. with them I cannot remember one of a multitude of the enemies scorners and persecutors of Godliness great or small high or low but such as never had the happiness to be well acquainted with them by any familiarity or observation of the secret passages of their lives But usually they are such as know them but by report or by sight or small acquaintance And if they did but live with them in the same houses or were of their familiarity it were the likeliest way to change their minds and speeches unless their acquaintance were only with some of the more ignorant passionate or distempered sort of Christians § 52. Direct 6. Take heed of uncharitableness and malice against any but especially the servants of Direct 6. Christ. For this blinds the judgement and mads men with a venemous kind of passion and will make them scorn and rage against the most holy servants of the Lord. The least true Love to a Christian as a Christian would do much to the cure of all this sin § 53. Direct 7. Take heed of being engaged in a sect or faction and take heed of the carnal zeal of Direct 7. schism and of the spirit of faction which ordinarily makes men think it lawful if not necessary to scorn the persons that seem against them that so they may disable them from hindering the interest of their cause or party Thus Papists and thus the factious ones of every Party think that their revilings are but the necessary disarming of the enemies of God for such all must seem that differ from them And a stripping them of that honour by which they might do hurt Thus good is pretended for the most odious evil and God is set up against that Love which is the fullfilling of his Law and made the Prov 1. 2â— 27. Patron of the scorners of his children But surely he scorneth the scorners Prov. 3. 34. § 54. Direct 8. Take heed of error and infidelity For if the understanding be once deluded and Direct 8. take Religion it self to be but a deceit or fansie and Godliness to be but conceit and hypocrisie no wonder if it be made a scorn by such And such scorners will justifie themselves in it and think they do no harm So great a plague is a blinded mind I have said less against this Devillish sin than the nature of it requireth because I have already said so much especially in three Treatises viz. The Vain Religion of the formal Hypocrite That called Now or Never and a Saint or a Bruit I conclude with these earnest requests to the Godly 1. Give men no occasion of scorn by your imprudence scandal selfishness or passion as you tender the honour of God and mens Salvation As Chrysostom saith As he that beareth the Kings Standard in fight had need to be well guarded so he that carryeth the name and profession of God and Godliness 2. Be not discouraged by scorners These are but Socrates cum fuisset a quodam calce percussus admiramibus illius tolerantiam dixit Quid si me asinus calce impeâ—isset Num illi diem dixissem easie in comparison of what Christ suffered for you and what the scorners themselves must suffer CHAP. X. Directions for the Government of the Body PART 1. Directions about our Labour and Callings Tit. 1. Directions for the Right choice of our Calling and ordinary Labour I Have already spoken of Christian works and the duty of our Callings Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 10. And am now only to subjoyn these few Directions for the right choosing of your Callings For of the Using of them I must speak more anon § 1. Direct 1. Understand how necessary a life of labour is and the reasons of the necessity Direct 1. Quest. 1. Is Labour necessary to all Or to whom if not to all Answ. It is necessary as a duty to Quest. 1. all that are Able to perform it But to the unable it is not necessary As to Infants and sick persons Is labour necessary to all or distracted persons that cannot do it or to prisoners or any that are restrained or hindered unavoidably by others or to people that are disabled by age or by any thing that maketh it naturally impossible § 2. Quest. 2. What Labour is it that is necessary Answ. Some labour that shall employ the faculties of Quest. 2. the soul and body and be profitable as far as may be to others and our selves But the same kind What labour iâ— necessary of Labour is not necessary for all In some Labours the mind is more employed than the body As in the labours of a Magistrate a Minister a Physicion a Lawyer c. Though some in these may have much bodily labour also The Labour of some is almost only of the mind As 1. Of Students in Divinity Philosophy Law Physick c. Who are but preparing themselves for a Calling 2. Of some Ministers or other godly persons who by the iniquity of the place or times where they live may for a season be disabled from appearing among men and labouring for any except by the mind being imprisoned or driven into solitude or otherwise made uncapable 3. Of men that have some extraordinary necessity for a season to converse with God and themselves alone As men that are near death and have need to lay by all other labours to prepare themselves Though usually even they that are near death should labour the good of others to the last and in so doing they profit and prepare themselves The Labour of some others is more of the Body than the mind As most Tradesemen and day-labourers And the Labour of some is equally of the body and mind as some painful Ministers and Physicions See 1 Cor 9 6. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 10. 2 Tim 2. 15. Scribes and Artificers of more ingenious professions as Watchmakers Printers Builders c. Some of these are fittest for one man and some for another § 3. Quest. 3. May not Religion excuse men from all other labour save prayer and contemplation Answ. Religion Quest. 3. is our obligation to obey God God bindeth us to do all the good we can to others Some men Will Religion excuse from labour See before Chap. 6. Tit. 4. of this And in my Treat of Divine Life Part 3. that have
chosen this for thy good and tryeth and valueth thy obedience to him the more by how much the meaner work thou stoopest to at his Command But see that thou do it all in obedience to God and not meerly for thy own necessity Thus every servant must serve the Lord in serving their Masters and from God expect their chief reward Col. 3. 22 23 24. Ephes. 6. 6 7. Tit. 2. Directions against Idleness and Sloth § 1. HEre I must shew you what Idleness and Sloth is and what are the Signs of it and then What Sloth and Idleness is give you Directions how to conquer it Sloth signifieth chiefly the indisposition of the mind and body and Idleness signifieth the actual neglect or omission of our duties Sloth is an aversness to labour through a carnal love of ease or indulgence to the flesh This averseness to labour is sinful when it is a voluntary backwardness to that labour which is our duty Sloth sheweth it self 1. In keeping us from our duty and causing us to delay it or omit it and 2. In making us to do it slowly and by the halves And both these effects are called Idleness which is the omission or negligent performance of our duties through a flesh-pleasing backwardness to labour § 2. By this you may see 1. That it is not sloth or sinful Idleness to omit a labour which we are What it is not unable to perform As for the sick and aged and weak to be averse to labour through the power of an unresistible disease or weakness Or when Nature is already wearied by as much labour as it can bear 2 Or when Reason alloweth and requireth us to forbear our usual labour for our health or for some other sufficient cause 3. Or when we are unwillingly restrained and hindered by others as by imprisonment or denyal of opportunity as if the Magistrate forcibly hinder a Preacher or Physicion or Lawyer from that which otherwise he should do 4. Or if a mistake or sinful error only keep a man from his labour it is a sin but not this sin of sloth So also if any sensual vice or pleasure besides this love of ease take him off 5. If it be a backwardness only to such labour as is no duty to us it is but a Natural and not a vitious sloth But Voluntary averseness to the labour of our duty through indulgence of fleshly ease is the sinful sloth or Laziness which we speak of § 3. Sloth and Idleness thus described is a sin in all but aâ—far greater sin in some than in others The aggravtions of it It was one of Soloâ—s Laws Is qui sectatur otium omnibus accusaâ—e volentibus obnoxius esto Ut Laâ—rt in Sol. Num solum aquas haurio inquit Cleanthes nonne fodio rigo omnia facio philâ—sophiae causa whâ—n they asked him why he would draw water And you may thus know what sloth it is that is the most sinful 1. The more sloth is subjected in the mind it self and the less it is subjected in the Body the greater is the sin For the mind is the nobler part and immediate seat of sin 2. The smaller the bodily distempers or temptations are which seduce the mind the greater is the sin For it shews the mind to be the more corrupted and tainted with the disease of sloth He that is under an unresistible indisposition of body sinneth not at all unless as he voluntarily contracted that disease But if the bodies indisposition to labour be great but yet not unresistible it is a sin to yield to it but so much the smaller sin caeteris paribus as the bodily disease is greater He that hath some scorbutical lassitude or flegmatick heaviness and dulness doth sin if he strive not against it as much as he can and as in reason he should It is not every bodily indisposition that will excuse a man from all labour as long as he is able to labour notwithstanding that disease But if the disease be great so that he resisteth his lassitude with a great deal of labour the sin is the less But he that hath a body sound and able that hath no disease to indispose him sinneth most of all if he be slothful as shewing the most corrupted mind 3. He is most sinfully slothful who is most voluntarily slothful As he that endeavoureth least against it and he that most loveth it and would not leave it and he that is least troubled at it and least repenteth and lamenteth it and contriveth to accommodate his sloth 4. The sloth is caeteris paribus the worst which most prevaileth to the omission or negligent performance of our duty But that sloth which doth but indispose us but is so far conquered by our resistance as not to keep us from our duty or not much and often is the smaller sin 5. That is the most sinful sloth caeteris paribus which is against the greatest duties To be backward to the most holy duties as praying and hearing or reading the Word of God c. or to duties of publick consequence is a greater sin than to be lazily backward to a common toilsome work 6. That is the most sinful sloth and idleness which is committed against the greatest motives to labour and diligence Therefore in that respect a poor mans sloth is more sinful than a rich mans because he is under the pressure of Necessity And in another respect the rich mans sloth is worst because he buryeth the greatest Talents and is idle when he hath the greatest wages A man that hath many children sinneth more than another by his idleness because he wrongeth them all whom he must provide for A Magistrate or Pastor of the Church doth sin more incomparably than common people if they be slothful because they betray the souls of men or sin against the good of many As it is a greater sin to be lazy in quenching a fire in the City than in a common needless business so it is a greater sin to be slothful in the working out our salvation and making our calling and election sure when God and Christ and Heaven and Hell are the motives to rowze us up to duty aâ—d when the time is so short in which all our work for eternity must be done I say it is a far greater sin than to be slothful when only corporal wants or benefits are the motives which we resist Yet indeed the will of God is resisted in all who forbiddeth us to be slothful in business Rom. 12. 11. § 4. Sloth is a thing that is easily discerned The signs of it are 1. When the very thought of The signs of Sloth labour is troublesome and unpleasing and ease seems sweet 2. When duty is omitted hereby and left undone 3. When the easie part of duty is culled out and the haâ—der part is cast aside 4. When the judgement will not believe that laborious duty is a duty at all 5.
it will do its duty well in nothing and zeal will quickly be extinct Diligence will die when Conscience is corrupted or fallen aslèep § 39. Direct 8. Live in a constant expectation of death Do not foolishly flatter your self with Direct 8. groundless conceits that you shall live long There is a great power in Death to rowze up a drowsie soul when it is taken to be near And a great force in the conceit of living long to make even good men grow more negligent and secure § 40. Direct 9. Live among warm and serious Christians especially as to your intimate familiarity Direct 9. There is a very great power in the zeal of one to kindle zeal in others as there is in fire to kindle fire Prov. 22. â—4 â—5 27. 17. Heb. 3 13. 10 24 25. Rom. 15. 14. Serious hearty diligent Christians are excellent helps to make us serious and diligent He that travelleth with speedy travellers will be willing to keep pace with them and tired sluggards are drawn on by others When he that travelleth with the slothful will go slowly as they do § 41. Direct 10. Lastly Be oft in the use of quickning means Live if you can attain it under a Direct 10. quickning zealous Minister There is life in the word of God which when it 's opened and applied lively will put life into the hearers Read the holy Scriptures and such lively writings as help you to understand and practise them As going to the fire is our way when we are cold to cure our benummedness so reading over some part of a warm and quickning book will do much to warm and quicken a benummed soul And it is not the smallest help to rowze us up to prayer or meditation and put life into us before we address our selves more nearly unto God I have found it my self a great help in my studies and to my preaching when studying my own heart would not serve the turn to awake me to serious servency but all hath been cold and dull that I have done because all was cold and dull within I have taken up a book that was much more warm and serious than I and the reading of it hath recovered my heat and my warmed heart hath been fitter for my work Christians take heed of a cold and dull and heartless kind of Religion and think no pains too much to cure it Death is cold and life is warm and labour it self doth best excite it PART II. Directions about Sports and Recreations and against excess and sin therein § 1. Direct 1. IF you would escape the sin and danger which men commonly run into by unlawful Direct 1. sporting under pretense of lawful recreations you must understand what lawful recreation is and what is its proper end and use No wonder else if you sin when you know not what you do § 2. No doubt but some sport and recreation is lawful yea needful and therefore a duty to some What lawful recreation is men Lawful sport or recreation is the use of some Natural thing or action not forbidden us for the exhilerating of the natural spirits by the fantasie and due exercise of the natural parts thereby to fit the body and mind for ordinary duty to God It is some delightful exercise § 3. 1. We do not call unpleasing Labour by the name of sport or recreation though it may be better and more necessary 2. We call not every Delight by the name of sport or recreation For eating and drinking may be delightful and holy things and duties may be delightful and yet not properly spâ—â—ts or recreations But it is the fantasie that is chiefly delighted by sports § 4. Qual 1. All these things following are necessary to the Lawfulness of a sport or recreation and the want of any one of them will make and prove it to be unlawful 1. The end which you really intend in using it must be to fit you for your service to God that is either for your callings or for his worship or some work of obedience in which you may Please and Glorifie him 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the Glory of God It is just to your Duty as the Mowers whetting to his Sithe to make it for to do his work § 5. Qual 2. Therefore the person that useth it must be one that is heartily devoted to God and his Service and really liveth to do his work and please and glorifie him the world which none but the Godly truly do And therefore no carnal ungodly person that hath no such Holy end can use any recreation lawfully because he useth it not to a due end For the end is essential to the moral good of any action and an evil end must needs make it evil Tit. 1. 15. Unto the Pure all things are Pure that is all things not forbidden but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing Pure but even their mind and Conscience is defiled § 6. Quest. But must all wicked men therefore forbear recreation Answ. 1. Wicked men are such as Quest. will not obey Gods law if they know it and therefore they enquire not what they should do with any purpose sincerely to obey But if they would obey that which God commandeth them is immediately to forsake their wickedness and to become the servants of God and then there will be no room for the question 2. But if they will continue in a sinful ungodly state it is in vain to contrive how they may sport themselves without sin But yet we may tell them that if the sport be materially lawful it is not the matter that they are bound to forsake but it is the sinful end and manner And till this be reformed they cannot but sin § 7. Qual 3. A lawful recreation must be a means fitly chosen and used to this end If it have no aptitude to fit us for Gods service in our ordinary Callings and duty it can be to us no lawful recreation Though it be lawful to another that it is a real help to it is unlawful to us § 8. Qual 4. 4. Therefore all Recreations are unlawful which are themselves preferred before our Callings or which are used by a man that liveth idly or in no Calling and hath no ordinary work to make him need them For these are no fit means which exclude our end instead of furthering it § 9. Qual 5. 5. Therefore all those are unlawful sports which are used only to delight a carnal fantasie and have no higher end than to please the sickly mind that loveth them § 10. Qual 6. 6. And therefore all those are unlawful sports which really unfit us for the dutys of our Callings and the service of God which laying the benefit and hurt together do hinder us as much or more than they help us Which is the case of all voluptuous wantons § 11. Qual 7.
that they themselves dislike and so possess them with the same dislike from generation to generation Woe to them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa. 5. 20. § 8. Direct 8. Let it be the principal part of your care and labour in all their education to make Direct 8. Holiness appear to them the most Necessary Honourable gainful pleasant delightful amiable state of life and to keep them from apprehending it either as needless dishonourable hurtful or uncomfortable Especially draw them to the Love of it by representing it as lovely And therefore begin with that which is easiest and most grateful to them as the History of the Scripture and the lives of the Martyrs and other good men and some short familiar lessons For though in restraining them from sin you must go to the highest step at first and not think to draw them from it by allowing them the least degree for every degree disposeth to more and none is to be allowed and a general reformation is the easiest as well as absolutely necessary Yet in putting them upon the Practice of Religious duties you must carry them on by degrees and put them at first upon no more than they can bear either upon the learning of doctrines too high and spiritual for them or upon such duty for quality or quantity as is over-burdensome to them For if you once turn their hearts against Religion and make it seem a slavery and a tedious life to them you take the course to harden them against it And therefore all Children must not be used alike as all stomachs must not be forced to â—at alike If you force some to take so much as to become a surfet they will loath that sort of meat as long as they live I know that nature it self as corrupt hath already an enmity to Holiness and I know that this enmity is not to be indulged in Children at all But withall I know that mis-representations of Religion and imprudent Education is the way to increase it and that the enmity being in the Heart it is the change of the Mind and Love that is the overcoming of it and not any such constraint as tendeth not to reconcile the Mind by Love The whole skill of Parents for the Holy education of their Children doth consist in this to make them conceive of Holiness as the most amiable and desirable life which is by representing it to them in words and practice not only as most Necessary but also as most Profitable Honourable and Delightful Prov. 3. 17. Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace c. § 9. Direct 9. Speak often to them of the bruitish baseness and sinfulness of flesh-pleasing sensuality Direct 9. and of the greater excellency of the Pleasures of the mind which consist in wisdom and in doing good For your chiefest care must be to save them from Flesh-pleasing which is not only in general the sum of all iniquity whatsoever but that which in special Children are most prone to For their flesh and sense is as quick as others and they want not only faith but clear Reason to resist it And so besides their natural pravity the custome of obeying sense which is in strength without Reason which is in infancy and almost useless doth much increase this pernicious sin And therefore still labour to imprint in their minds an odious conceit of a fleshpleasing life speak bitterly to them against Gluttony and drunkenness and excess of sport and let them often hear or read the parable of the Glutton and Lazarus in the 16 of Luke And let them learn without book Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 9 13. Rom. 13. 13 14. and oft repeat them Direct 10. § 10. Direct 10. To this end and also for the health of their bodies keep a strict guard upon their appetites which they are not able to guard themselves Keep them as exactly as you can to the rules of reason both in the quantity and quality of their food Yet tell them the Reason of your restraint or else they will secretly strive the more to break their bounds Most Parents that ever I knew or had any good account of in that point are guilty of the great hurt and danger of their Childrens health and souls by pleasing and glutting them with meat and drink If I should call them Devils and Murderers to their own Children they would think I spake too harshly But I would not have them give so great occasion for it as by destroying as far as lyeth in them the souls and bodies of their Children They destroy their souls by accustoming them to gluttony and to be ruled by their appetites which all the teaching in the world will hardly ever after overcome without the special grace of God What is all the vice and villany in the world but the pleasing of the desires of the flesh And when they are habituated to this they are rooted in their sin and misery And they destroy their Bodies by suffering them to please their appetites with raw fruits and other hurtful things but especially by drowning and overwhelming nature by excess And all this is through that beastly ignorance joyned with self conceitedness which maketh them also overthrow themselves They think that their appetite is the measure of their eating and drinking and that if they drink but when they are thirsty as some Drunkards are continually and eat but when they are hungry it is no excess And because they are not presently sick or vomit it not up again the Beasts think it doth them no harm but good You shall hear them like mad people say I warrant them it will do them no harm to eat and drink when they have list it will make them strong and healthful I see not that those that are dyeted so strictly are any healthfuller than others When as all this while they are burdening nature and destroying digestion and vitiating all the humours of the body and turning them into a dunghill of flegm and filth which is the fewel that breedeth and feedeth almost all the diseases that after seize upon them while they live and usually bringeth them to an untimely end as I have fullyer opened before Tom. 1. in the Directions against Gluttony If therefore you love either the souls or Bodies of your Children use them to temperance from their infancy and let not their appetites or craving wills but your own reason be the chooser and the measure of their dyet Use them to eat sparingly and so it moderately please their appetite or be not such as nature loatheth let it be rather of the courser than the finer sort of dyet see it measured to them your selves and suffer no servant to give them more nor to let them eat or drink between meals and out of season And so you will
help to overcome their sensual inclinations and give reason the mastery of their lives and you will under God do as much as any one thing can do to help them to a healthful temper of body which will be a very great mercy to them and fit them for their duty all their lives § 11. Direct 11. For sports and recreations let them be such and so much as may be needful to Direct 10. their health and cheerfulness but not so much as may carry away their minds from better things and draw them from their Books or other duties nor such as may tempt them to gaming or covetousness Children must have convenient spâ—rt for the health of the body and alacrity of the mind such as well exerciseth their bodies is best and not such as little stirreth them Cards and Dice and such idle sporâ—s are every way most unfit as tending to hurt both body and mind Their time also must be limited them that their play may not be their work As soon as ever they have the use of any reason and speech they should be taught some better things and not left till they are five or six years of age to do nothing but get a custome of wasting all their time in play Children are very early capable of learning something which may prepare them for more § 12. Direct 12. Use all your wisdom and diligence to root out the sin of Pride And to that end Direct 12. dâ— not as is usual with foolish Parents that please them with making them fine and then by telling them how fine they are But use to commend humility and plainness to them and speak disgracefully of Pride and fineness to breed an aversness to it in their minds Cause them to learn such Texts of Scripture as speak of Gods abhorring and resisting the proud and of his loving and honouring the humble When they see other Children that are finely cloathed speak of it to them as their shame that they may not desire to be like them Speak against boasting and every other way of Pride which they are lyable to And yet give them the Praise of all that 's well for that is but their due encouragement § 13. Direct 13. Speak to them disgracefully of the Gallantry and pomp and Riches of the world Direct 13. and of the sin of selfishness and covâ—tousness and diligently watch against it and all that may tempt them tâ— it When they see great houses and attendance and gallantry tell them that these are the Devils baits to â—ice poor sinners to love this world that they may lose their souls and the world to come Tell them how much Heaven excelleth all this and that the lovers of the world must never come thither but the humble and meek and poor in spirit Tell them of the Rich Glutton in Luk. 16. that was thus cloathed in purple and silk and fared deliciously every day but when he came to Hâ—ll could not get a drop of Water to cool his tongue when Lazarus was in the joyes of Paradice Do not as the wicked that entice their Children to worldliness and covetousness by giving them money and letting them game and play for money and promising them to make them fine or rich and speaking highly of all that are rich and great in the world But tell them how much happier a poor believer is and withdraw all that may tempt their minds to Covetousness Teach them how good it is to love their brethren as themselves and to give them part of what they have and praise them for it and dispraise them when they are greedy to keep or heap up all to themselves And all will be little enough to cure this pernicious sin Teach them such Texts as Psal. 10. 3. They bless the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth § 14. Direct 14. Narrowly watch their tongues especially against Lying railing ribbald talk Direct 14. and taking the name of God in vain And pardon them many lighter faults about common matters sooner than one such sin against God Tell them of the odiousness of all these sins and teach them such Texts as most expresly condemn them and never pass it by or make light of it when you find them guilty § 15. Direct 15. Keep them as much as may be from ill company especially of ungodly play-fellows Direct 14. It is one of the greatest dangers for the undoing of Children in the world especially when they are sent to common Schools For there is scarce any of those schools so good but hath many rude and ungodly ill-taught Children in it that will speak prophanely and filthily and make their ribbald and railing speeches a matter of boasting besides fighting and gaming and scorning and neglecting their lessons and they will make a scorn of him that will not do as they if not beat and abuse him And there is such tinder in nature for these sparks to catch upon that there are very few Children but when they hear others take Gods name in vain or sing wanton songs or talk filthy words or call one another by reproachful names do quickly imitate them And when you have watched over them at home as narrowly as you can they are infected abroad with such beastly vices as they are hardly ever after cured of Therefore let those that are able either educate their Children most at home or in private and well ordered Schools and those that cannot do so must be the more exceeding watchful over them and charge them to associate with the best and speak to them of the odiousness of these practises and the wickedness of those that use them and speak very disgracefully of such ungodly Children and when all 's done it 's a great mercy of God if they be not undone by the force of the contagion notwithstanding all your antidotes Those therefore that venture their Children into the rudest Schools and company and after that to Rome and other prophane or Popish Countries to learn the fashions and customes of the world upon pretence that else they will be ignorant of the course of the world and ill bred and not like others of their rank may think of themselves and their own reasonings as well as they please for my part I had rather make a Chimney Sweeper of my Son if I had any than be guilty of doing so much to sell or betray him to the Devil Quest. But is it not lawful for a man to send his son to travel Answ. Yes in these cases 1. In case he be a ripe confirmed Christian that is not in danger of being perverted but able to resist the enemies of the truth and to Preach the Gospel or do good to others and withall have sufficient business to invite him 2. Or if he go in the company of wise and godly persons and such be his companions and the probability of his gain be greater than of his loss and danger 3. Or if he go only into
way but the scandal which is spoken against in Scripture is the laying a Temptation before men that are weak to make them sin 9. Take heed of that hypocritical and câ—nsorious temper which turneth the holy observation of the day into a Ceremonious abstinence from lawful things and censureth those as ungodly that are not of the same mind and forbear not such things as well as they Mark the difference between Christ and the Pharisees in this point Much of their contention with him was about the outward observation of the Sabbath because his disciples rubbed out Corn to eat on the Sabbath day and because he healed on the Sabbath and bid the healed man Take up his bed and walk And they said There are six dayes in which men ought to work they might come and be healed on them Luk 6. 1 5 6. 13. 12 14 15 16. Ioh. 5. 17 18. Mark 1. 21 24. 2. 23 24 25 26 27 28. 3. 2 3 5. 6. 2 5. Luk. 14. 1 3 5 6. Ioh. 5. 9 10 16. 7. 22 23 24. 9. 14 16. And a man that is of their spirit will think that the Pharisees were in the right No doubt Christ might have chosen another day to heal on But he knew that the works which most declared the power of God and honoured him before all and confirmed the Gospel were fittest for the Sabbath day Take heed therefore of the Pharisees Ceremoniousness and Censoriousness If you see a man walking abroad on the Lords day censure him not till you know that he doth it from prophaneness or negligence You know not but it may be necessary to his health and he may improve it in holy meditation If you hear some speak a word more than you think needful of common things or do more about meat and cloathing than you think meet censure them not till you hear their reason A scrupulousness about such outward observances when the holy duties of the day are no whit hindred by that thing and a censoriousness towards those that are not as scrupulous is too Pharisaical and Ceremonious a Religion for spiritual charitable Christians And the extreams of some Godly people in this kind have occasioned the Quakers and Seekers to take and use all daies alike and the prophane to contemn the sanctifying of the Lords day Tit. 2. More particular Directions for the order of holy duties § 1. Direct 1. REmember the Lords day before it cometh and prepare for it and prevent those Direct 1. disturbances that would hinder you and deprive you of the benefit For Preparation 1. Six daies you must labour and do all that you have to do Dispatch all your business that you may not have it then to hinder and disturb you And see that your Servants do the same 2. Shake off the thoughts of worldly things and clear your minds of worldly delights and cares 3. Call to mind the doctrine taught you the last Lords day and if you have servants cause them to remember it that you may be prepared to receive the next 4 Go seasonably to bed that you and your servants may not be constrained to lye long the next morning or be sleepy on the Lords day 5. Let your meditations be preparatory for the day Repent of the sins of the week past as particularly and seriously as you can and seek for pardon and peace through Christ that you come not with guilt or trouble upon your Consciences before the Lord. § 2. Direct 2. Let your first thoughts be not only Holy but suitable to the occasions of the day Direct 2. With gladness remember what a day of mercies you awake to and how early your Redeemer rose from the dead that day and what excellent work you are to be employed in § 3. Direct 3. Rise full as early that day as you do on other daies Be not like the carnal generation Direct 3. that sanctifie the Lords day but as a Swine doth by sleeping and idleness and fulness Think not your worldly business more worthy of your early rising than your spiritual imployment is § 4. Direct 4. Let your dressing time be spent in some fruitful meditation or conference Direct 4. or hearing some one read a Chapter And let it not be long to detain you from your duty § 5. Direct 5. If you can have leisure go first to secret prayer And if you are servants Direct 5. or have any necessary business to do dispatch it quickly that you may be free for better work § 6. Direct 6. Let Family-worship come next and not be slubbered over sleightly but be serious Direct 6. and reverent and suit all to the nature or end of the day Especially awaken your selves and servants to consider what you have to do in publick and to go with prepared sanctified hearts § 7. Direct 7. Enter the holy Assembly with reverence and joy and compose your selves as those Direct 7. that come thither to treat with the living God about the matters of Eternal life And watch your hearts that they wander not nor sleep not nor sleight the sacred matters which you are about And guard your eyes that they carry not away your hearts And let not your hearts be a moment idle but seriously employed all the Time And when hypocrites and distempered Christians are quarrelling with the imperfections of the speaker or congregation or mode of Worship do you rather make it your diligent endeavour to watch your hearts and improve what you hear § 8. Direct 8. As soon as you come home while dinner is preparing it will be a seasonable Direct 8. time either for secret prayer or meditation to call over what you heard and urge it on your hearts and beg Gods help for the improvement of it and pardon for your publick failings § 9. Direct 9. Let your time at meat be spent in the chearful remembrance or mention of the Direct 9. Love of your Redeemer or somewhat suitable to the company and the day § 10. Direct 10. After dinner call your families together and sing a Psalm of Praise and Direct 10. by examination or repetition or both cause them to remember what was publickly taught them § 11. Direct 11. Then go again to the Congregation to the beginning and behave your Direct 11. selves as before § 12. Direct 12. When you come home call your families together and first crave Gods assistance Direct 12. and acceptance and then sing a Psalm of Praise and then repeat the Sermon which â—â—u heard or if there was none read one out of some lively profitable book and then Pray and Praise God and all with the holy seriousness and joy which is suitable to the work and day § 13. Direct 13. Then while Supper is preparing betake your selves to secret prayer and meditation Direct 13. â—either in your Chambers or walking as you find most profitable And let your Servants have no
among those that cannot pray Iohn and Christ taught their Disciples Mat. 6. Luk. 11. to pray Tit. 4. Special Directions for secret Prayer § 1. Direct 1. LET it be in as secret a place as conveniently you can that you may not be Direct 1. disturbed Let it be done so that others may not be witnesses of it if you can avoid it and yet take it not for your duty to keep it unknown that you pray secretly at all for that will be a snare and scandal to them § 2. Direct 2. Let your voice be suited to your own help and benefit if none else hear you If it be Direct 2. needful to the orderly proceeding of your own thoughts or to the warming of your own affections you may use a voice But if others be within hearing it is very unfit § 3. Direct 3. In secret let the matter of your prayers be that which is most peculiarly your own Direct 3. concernment or those secret things that are not fit for publick prayer or are there passed by Yet never forgetting the highest interest of Christ and the Gospel and the World and Church § 4. Direct 4. Be less sollicitous about words in secret than with others and lay out your care about Direct 4. the heart For that 's it that God most esteemeth in your prayers § 5. Direct 5. Do not through carnal unwillingness grow into a neglect of secret prayer when you Direct 5. have time Nor yet do not superstitiously tye your selves to just so long time whether you are fit or at leisure from greater duties or not But be the longer when you are most fit and vacant and the shorter when you are not To give way to every carnal backwardness is the sin on one side and to resolve to spend so long time when you do but tire your selves and sleep or business or distemper maketh it a lifeless thing is a sin on the other side Avoid them both § 6 Direct 6. A melancholy person who is unfit for much solitariness and heart-searchings must be much Direct 6. short if not also seldomer in secret prayers than other Christians that are capable of bearing it And they must instead of that which they cannot do be the more in that which they can do As in joyning with others and in short ejaculations besides other duties but not abatâ—ing their piety in the main upon any pretence of curing melancholy CHAP. XXIV Brief Directions for Families about the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. OMitting those things which concern the publick administration of this Sacrament for the Reasons before intimated Tom 2. I shall here only give you some brief Directions for your private duty herein § 1. Direct 1. Understand well the proper ends to which this Sacrament was instituted by Direct 1. Christ and take heed that you use it not to ends for which it never was appointed The true ends Q. What are the Ends of the Sacramâ—nâ— Matth. 26. 28. Mar. 14. â—4 Luâ— â—2 â—0 1 Cor. 11. 25. Heb. 9. 15 16 â—â— 1â— 1 Cor. 10. 16 24. Joh. 6. 32 35 51 58. are these 1. To be a solemn commemoration of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ to keep it as it were in the eye of the Church in his bodily absence till he come 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the holy Covenant which was first entred in Baptism between Christ and the Receiver And in that Covenant it is on Christs part a solemn delivery of Himself first and with Himself the Benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and right to life eternal And on mans part it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his Benefits upon his terms and a Delivering up our selves to Him as his Redeemed ones even to the Father as our Reconciled Father and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier with Professed Thankfulness for so great a benefit 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means by which the spirit of Christ should work to stir up and exercise and increase the Repentance Faith Desire Love Hope Ioy Thankfulness and new-obedience of Believers by a lively Representation of the evil of sin the infinite Love of God in Christ the firmness of the Covenant or promise the greatness and sureness of the mercy given and the blessedness purchased and promised to us and the great obligations that are laid upon us And that herein Believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 31. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 â—1 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Act 2 42 46. 20. 7. graces and might be provoked and assisted to stir up themselves to this Communion with God in Christ and to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ. 4. It is appointed to be the solemn profession of Believers of their Faith and Love and Gratitude and obedience to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of continuing firm in the Christian Religion And a badge of the Church before the world 5. And it is appointed to be a signe and means of the Unity Love and Communion of Saints and their readiness to communicate to each other § 2. The false mistaken ends which you must avoid are these 1. You must not with the Papists think that the end of it is to turn Bread into no bread and Wine into no wine and to make them Really the true Body and blood of Jesus Christ. For if sense which telleth all men that it is still Bread and wine be not to be believed then we cannot believe that ever there was a Gospel or an Apostle or a Pope or a man or any thing in the world And the Apostle expresly calleth it Bread three times in three verses together after the consecration 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. And he telleth us that the use of it is not to make the Lords Body really present but to shew the Lords death till be come that is As a visible representing and commemorating sign to be instead of his bodily presence till he come § 3. 2. Nor must you with the Papists use this Sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father to propitiate him for the quick and dead and ease souls in Purgatory and deliver them out Rom. 6. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Heb. 9. 26. 10. 12 26. Heb. 9. 24. of it For Christ having dyed once dyeth no more and without killing him there is no sacrificing him By once offering up himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Having finished the sacrificing work on earth he is now passed into the Heavens to appear before God for his Redeemed ones § 4. 3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the Sacrament to
him Levit. 19. 17. but tell him his faults as Christ hath directed you Matth. 18. 15 16 17. and do your parts to promote Christs discipline and keep pure the Church See 1 Cor. 5. throughout § 37. Direct 6. When you come to the holy Communion let not the over-scrupulous regard of the person of Direct 6. the Minister or the company or the imperfections of the ministration disturb your meditations nor call away your minds from the high and serious employment of the day Hypocrites who place their Religion in bodily exercises have taught many weak Christians to take up unnecessary scruples and to turn their eye and observation too much to things without them Quest. But should we have no regard to the due celebration of these sacred mysteries and to the Minister and Communicants and manner of administration Answ. Yes You should have so much regard to them 1. As to see that nothing be amiss through your default which is in your power to amend 2. And that you joyn not in the committing of any known sin But 1. Take not every sin of another for your sin and think not that you are guilty of that in others which you cannot amend or that you must forsake the Church and Worship of God for these corruptions which you are not guilty of or deny your own mercies because others usurp them or abuse them 2. If you suspect any thing imposed upon you to be sinful to you try it before you come thither and leave not your minds open to disturbance when they should be wholly employed with Christ. § 38. Quest. 1. May we lawfully receive this Sacrament from an ungodly and unworthy Minister Quest. 1. Answ. Whoever you may lawfully commit the guidance of your souls to as your Pastor you may lawfully receive the Sacrament from yea and in some cases from some others For in case you come May we receive from an unworthy Minister into a Church that you are no member of you may lawfully joyn in communion with that Church for that present as a stranger though they have a Pastor so faulty as you might not lawfully commit the ordinary conduct of your soul to For it is their fault and not yours that they chose no better and in some cases such a fault as will not warrant you to avoid communion with them But you may not Receive if you know it from a Heretick that teacheth any error against the Essence of Christianity 2. Nor from a man so utterly ignorant of the Christian faith or duty or so utterly unable to Teach it to others as to be notoriously uncapable of the Ministry 3. Nor from a man professedly ungodly or that setteth himself to preach down Godliness it self These you must never own as Ministers of Christ that are utterly uncapable of it But see that you take none for such that are not such And there are three sorts more which you may not receive from when you have your choice nor take them for your Pastors but in case of Necessity imposed on you by others it is lawful and your duty And that is 1. Usurpers that make themselves your Pastors without a lawful Call and perhaps do forcibly thrust out the Lawful Pastors of the Church 2. Weak ignorant cold and lifeless Preachers that are tolerable in case of necessity but not to be compared with worthier men 3. Ministers of scandalous vicious lives It is a sin in you to preferr any one of these before a better and to choose them when you have your choice But it is a sin on the other side if you rather submit not to one of these than be quite without and have none at all You own not their faults in such a case by submitting to their Ministry § 29. Quest. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons or in an undisciplined Church Quest. 2. Answ. You must here distinguish if you will not err and that 1. Between persons so unworthy as Gildas ae excid Britt speaketh thus to the better sort of Pastors then Quis perosuâ— est consilium maâ—â—guantâ—um cum impiis non sedit Quis eorum salutari in arca hoc est inunc Ecclesia ullum Deo adversantium ut Noe diluvii tempore non admisiâ— ut perspicue monstraretur non nisi innoxios vel poenitentes egregios in dominica domo esse debere to be no-Christians and those that are culpable scandalous Christians 2. Between a few members and the whole society or the denominating part 3. Between sin professed and owned and sin disowned by a seeming penitence 4. And between a Case of Liberty when I have my choice of a Better society and a Case of Necessity when I must communicate with the worser society or with none And so I answer 1. You ought not to communicate at all in this Sacrament with a society that professeth not Christianity if the whole body or denominating part be such that is 1. With such as never made profession of Christianity at all 2. Or have Apostatized from it 3. Or that openly own any Heresie inconsistent with the Essential Faith or Duty of a Christian. 4. Or that are notoriously ignorant what Christianity is 2. It is the duty of the Pastors and Governours of the Church to keep away notorious scandalous offendors till they shew Repentance and the peoples duty to assist them by private reproof and informing the Church when there is cause Therefore if it be through the neglect of your own duty that the Church is corrupted and undisciplined the sin is yours whether you receive with them or not 3. If you rather choose a corrupted undisciplined Church to communicate with when you have your choice of a better caeteris paribus it is your fault But on the contrary It is not your sin but your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the members are capable of Church-communion though there may some Infidels or Heathens or uncapable persons violently intrude or scandalous persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption For here the Reasons and Ends of a lawful separation are removed Because it tendeth not to Gods honour or their reformation or your benefit For all these are more crossed by holding communion with no Church than with such a corrupted Church And this is to be preferred before none as much as a better before this § 40. Quest. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Quest. 3. or sitting Answ. 1. For sitting or standing no doubt it is lawful in it self For else authority were not to be obeyed if they should command it and else
of God are seldomer and shorter than they were wont to be 2. And at the same time the thoughts of God do grow less serious and pleasing and more dead and lifeless 3. And then the means which should kindle love are used with more dulness and remissness and indifferency 4. And then Conscience being galled with the guilt of wilful omissions and commissions being acquainted with the fleshly designs of the heart doth raise a secret fear of Gods displeasure and this being not strong enough to restrain the man from sin doth make his sin greater and maketh him very backward to draw near to God or seriously to think of him or call upon him and turneth Love into terror and aversation 5 And if God do not stop and recover the sinner he will next grow quite aweary of God and out of love with a holy life and change him for his worldly fleshly pleasures 6. And next that he will entertain some Infidel or Atheistical or Libertine Doctrine which may quiet him in his course of sin by justifying it and will conform his judgement to his heart 7. And next that he will hate God and his wayes and servants and turn a persecutor of them Till vengeance lay him in Hell where pain and desperation will increase his hatred but his fleshly pleasure and malitious persecution shall be for ever at an end § 11. 3. Backsliders in Life and Practice do receive the first infection at the heart and the life declineth no further than the Heart declineth But yet I distinguish this sort from the other as the effect from the cause And the rather because some few do much decline in heart that yet seem to keep much blamelessness of life in the eye of Men. And it is usually done by these degrees § 12. 1. In the mans backsliding into positive sin as sensuality or worldliness the heart being prepared as before 1. The judgement doth reason more remisly against sin than it did before And the Will doth oppose it with less resolution and with greater faintness and indifferency 2. Then the sinner tasteth of the bait and first draweth as near to sin as he dare and embraceth the occasions and opportunities of sinning while yet he thinketh to yield no further And in this case he is so long disputing with the Tempter and hearkning to him and gazing on the bait till at last he yieldeth and having long been playing at the pits brink his violent lust or appetite doth thrust him in 3. When he hath once sinned against knowledge he is troubled a while and this he taketh for true Repentance And when he is grown into some hope that the first sin is forgiven him he is the bolder to venture on the like again and thinketh that the second may be as well forgiven as the first 4. In the same order he falleth into it again and again till it come to a custome 5. And by this time he Loveth it more and wisheth it were lawful and there were no danger by it 6. And then he thinketh himself concerned to prove it lawful to quiet conscience that it may not torment him and therefore he gladly heareth what the justifiers of his sin can say for it and he maketh himself believe that the Reasons are of weight 7. And then he sinneth without remorse § 13. 2. So in mens backsliding from the practice of Religion 1. The Heart is alienated and undisposed as aforesaid 2. And then the Life of the duty doth decay and it dwindleth towards a dead Formality Like a body in a Consumption the vivid complexion and strength and activity decay 3. Next this he can frequently omit a duty especially in secret where no man knoweth it till by degrees he grow more seldome in it 4. All this he taketh for a pardoned infirmity which consisteth with a state of grace and therefore he is little troubled about it 5. Next this he loseth all the life and comfort of Religion and misseth not any duty when he hath omitted it but is glad that he scapeth it and when it is at an end as an Oxe is when he is out of the yoke 6. Next he beginneth to hearken to them that speak against so much ado in Religion as if it were a needless unprofitable thing 7. And if God forsake him he next repenteth of his former diligence and settleth himself either in a dead course of such customary lip-service as doth cost him nothing or else in utter worldliness and ungodliness and perhaps at last in malignity and persecution § 14. III. Though the Signs or Symptomes of declining may be gathered from what is said already I shall add some more 1. You are declining when you grow bolder with sin or with the 1 Tim. 1. 19. occasions of it and temptations to it than you were in your more watchful state 2. When you Signs of declining make a small matter of those inward corruptions and infirmities which once seemed grievous to you and almost intollerable 3. When you settle in a course of Profession o◠Religiousness that putteth your flesh to little cost in labour reproach or suffering from the ungodly but leave out the hard and costly part and seem to be very Religious in the rest 4. When you are quiet and contented in the daily customary use of Ordinances though you find no profit or increase in grace by it or communion with God 5. When you grow strange to God and Jesus Christ and have little converse with him in the Spirit and your thoughts of him are few and cold and lifeless and your Religion lyeth all in conversing with good men and good Books and outward duties 6. When you grow neglecters of your hearts and strangers to them and find little work about them from day to day either in trying them or watching them or stirring them up or mortifying their corruptions but your business in Religion is most abroad and in outward exercises 7. Yea though your own hearts and duties be much of your care and thoughts you are on the losing hand if the Wonders of Love and Grace in Christ have not more of your thoughts or if you set not your selves more to the study of a Crucified and Glorified Christ than of your own distempered hearts 8. All is not well with you when spiritual helps and advantages are less relished and valued and you grow more indifferent to the Sermons and Prayers and Sacraments which once you could not live without And use them but as bare Duties for necessity and not as Means with any great hope of benefit and success 9. When you grow too regardful of the eye of man and too regardless of the eye of God and are much more careful about the words and outside of your Prayers and discourses than the Spirit and inward part and manner of them and dress your selves accurately when you appear abroad as those that would seem very good to men but go at home in the
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
Love are the Churches dissolution which first causeth sissures and separations and in process crumbleth us all to dust And therefore the Pastors of the Church are the fittest instruments for the cure who are the Messengers of Love and whose Government is paternal and hurteth not the body but is only a Government of Love and exercised by all the means of Love All Christians in the world confess that LOVE is the very â—â—â—â— and perfection of all Grace and the End of all our other duties and that which maketh us like to God and that iâ— Love dwelleth in us God dwelleth in us and that it will be the everlasting Grace and the work of Heaven and the Happiness of souls and that it is the excellent way and the character of Saints and the Nâ—w Commandmâ—nt And all this being so it is most certain that no way is the 1 â—â—â—â— 4. 7. 8. â—â—â—â— 13 35. 〈…〉 way of God wâ—â—câ—â—â— not the way of Love And therefore what specious pretences soever they may have and one may cry up Truth and another Holiness and another order and another Unity it seâ—â— to jâ—â—â—â—â— their â—nvyings hatred cruelties it is most certain that all such pretences are Satanical deceiâ—â— And â—â— they bile and devour one another they are not like the sheep of Christ but shall be dâ—â—â—â—â—â—d one of another Gal. 5. 15. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling 〈…〉 4. 2. 〈…〉 of the Law Rom. 13. 10. When Papists that shew their love to mens souls by racking their bodies and fryâ—â—g them in the fire can make men apprehensive of the excellency of that kind of Love they may â—â—â—â— it to the healing of the Church In the mean time as their Religion is such is their Concord while all those are called Members of their Union and Professors of their Religion who must be burnt to ashes if they say the contrary They that give God an Image and Carkass of Religion â—â—â—â— 1. 4 are thus content with the Image and Carkass of a Church for the exercise of it And if there were nothing â—llâ— but this to detect the sinfulness of the Sect of Quakers and many more it is enough to satisfie any sober man that it cannot be the way of God God is not the author of that Spirit and way which tends to wrath emulation hatred railing and the extinction of Christian Love to all â—â—vâ— their own Sect and party Remember as you love your souls that you shun all wayes that are destructive to universal Christian Love § 83. Direct 6. Make nothing necessary to the unity of the Church or the communion of Christians Direct 6. which God hath not made necessary or directed you to make so By this one â—olly the Papists are become see 〈…〉 p. 52â— the most notorious Schismaticks on earth even by making new Articles of faith and new parts of worship and imposing them on all Christians to be sworn subscribed professed or practised so as that no man shall be accounted a Catholick or have communion with them or with the Universal Church if they could hinder it that will not follow them in all their Novelties They that would subscribe to all the Scriptures and to all the antient Creeds of the Church and would do any thing that Christ and his Apostles have enjoyned and go every step of that way to Heaven that Peter and Paul went as far as they are able yet if they will go no further and believe no more yeâ— if they will not go against some of this must be condemned cast out and called Schismaticks by these notorious Schismaticks If he hold to Christ the Universal Head of the Church and will not be subject or sworn to the Pope the Usurping Head he shall be taken as cut off from Christ. And there is no certainty among these men what measure of faith and worship and obedience to them shall be judged necessary to constitute a Church-member For as that which served in the Apostles dayes and the following ages will not serve now nor the subscribing to all the other pretended Councils until then will not serve without subscribing to the Creed or Council of Trâ—nt so no body can tell what New Faith or Worship or Test of Christianity the next Council if the world see any more may require and how many thousand that are Trent-Catholicks now may be judged Hereticks or Schismaticks then if they will not shut their eyes and follow them any whither and change their Religion as oft as the Papal interest requireth a change Of this Chillingworth Hales and Dr. H. More have spoken plainly If the Pope had imposed but one lye Dâ— H. More saith Myst. Redemp p. 495. l. 10. c. 2. There is scarce any Church in Christâ—ndome at this day that doth not obtrude not only falshood but such falsehoods that will appear to any free Spirit pure contradictiors and impossibilities and that with the same gravity authority and importunity that they do the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be sad For what knowing and conscientious man but will be driven off if he cannot assert the truth without open asserting of a gross lye Id. p. â—26 And as for Opinions though some may be better than other some yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyment of either private or publick rights supposing there be no venome of the persecutive spirit mingled with them But every one that professeth the faith of Christ and believeth the Scriptures in the Historical sense c. to be subscribed or one sin to be done and said All Nations and persons that do not this are no Christians or shall have no communion with the Church the man that refuseth that imposed lye or sin is guiltless of the Schism and doth but obey God and save his soul And the Usurper that imposeth them will be found the heinous Schismatick before God and the cause of all those Divisions of the Church And so if any private Sectary shall feign an opinion or practice of his own to be necessary to salvation or Church communion and shall refuse communion with those that are not of his mind and way it is he and not they that is the cause of the uncharitable separation * See Hales of Schisme p. 8. § 84. Direct 7. Pray against the Usurpations or intrusions of intrusions of impious carnal ambitious Direct 7. covetous Pastors into the Churches of Christ. For one wicked man in the place of a Pastor may do more In Ecclesiâ—s plus certaminum gignunt verba hominum quam Dei magâ—sque pugnatur fere de Apolline Petro Paulo quam de Christo Retine divina Relinque humana Bucholcer to the increase of a Schism or faction than many private men can do And carnal men have carnal minds and carnal interests which are both unreconcileable to the spiritual holy mind and interest For the
that nothing is of it self and directly any part of the Christian Religion which is not there 6. It instituteth those Sacraments perfectly which are the seals of Gods Covenant with man and the delivery of the benefits and which are the Badges or Symbols of the Disciples and Religion of Christ in the World 7. It determineth what Faith Prayer and obedience shall be his appointed means and Conditions of Justification Adoption and Salvation And so what shall be Professed and Preached in his name to the World 8. It is a perfect Instrument of donation or Conveyance of our Right to Christ and of Pardon and Justification and Adoption and the Holy Spirits assistances and of Glory As it is Gods Covenant promise or deed of gift 9. It instituteth certain Ministers as his own Church officers and perfectly describeth their office as instituted by him 10. It instituteth the form of his Church Universal which is called his body And also of Particular holy societies for his Worship And prescribeth them certain Duties as the Common Worship there to be performed 11. It determineth of a weekly day even the first to be separated for and used in this holy Worship 12. It is a perfect General Rule for the Regulating of those things which it doth not command or forbid in particular As that all be done wisely to edification in charity peace concord season order c. 13. It giveth to Magistrates Pastors Parents and other Superiours all that power by which they are authorized to oblige us under God â—o any undetermined particulars 14. It is the perfect Rule of Christs Judging Rewarding and punishing at last according to which he will proceed 15. It is the only Law that is made by Primitive Power 16. And the only Law that is made by Inâ—allâ—ble wisdom 17. And the only Law which is faultless and hath no thing in it that will do the subject any harm 18. And the only Law which is from Absolute Power the Rule of all other Laws and from which Psal. 12. 6. 19. 7 8 9 10. Psal. 119. there is finally no appeal Thus far the holy Scripture with the Law of nature is our perfect Rule But not in any of the following respects 1. It is no particular revelation or perfect Rule of natural Sciences as Physicks Metaphysicks c. 2. It is no Rule for the Arts for Medicine Musick Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Grammar Râ—eâ—orick Logick nor for the Mechanicks as Navigation Architecture and all the Trades and occupations of men no not Husbandry by which we have our food 3. It is no particular Rule for all the muâ—able subordinate duties of any societies It will not serve instead of all the Statutes of this and all other Lands nor tell us when the Terms shall begin and end nor what work every Parent and Master shall set his Children and Servants in his family c. 4. It is no full Rule in particular for all those Political principles which are the ground of humane Laws As whether each Republick be Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical What person or of what Family shall Reign Who shall be his Officers and Judges and how diversified so of his Treasury Munition Coin c. 5. It is no Rule of Propriety in particular by which every man may know which is his own Land or house or goods or Cattle 6. It is no particular Rule for our natural actions what meat we shall eat what Cloaths we shall wear So of our rest labour c. 7. It is no particular Law or Rule for any of all those Actions and Circumstances about Religion or Gods own Ordinances which he hath only commanded in general and left in specie or particular to be determined by man according to his General Laws But of these next Quest. 131. What Additions or humane Inventions in or about Religion not commanded in Scripture are lawful or unlawful Answ. 1. THese following are unlawful 1. To feign any new Article of faith or doctrine any Deut. 12. 32. Rev. 2â— 18. Col. 2. 18 19 20 21 22 23. 16 17. Mat. 15. 3 8 9. Gal. 1. 8 9. Jer. 5. 12. Jer. 14. 14. 23 25 26 32. Ezek. 13 9 19. 22. 28. Zeâ—h 13. 2 3 4 5 6. precept promise threatning prophesie or revelation and falsly to father it upon God and say that it is of him or his special Word 2. To say that either that is written in the Bible which is not or that any thing is the sense of a Text which is not and so that any thing is a sin or a duty by Scripture which is not Or to father Apocryphal Books or Texts or words upon the spirit of Christ. 3. To make any Law for the Church universal or as obligatory to all Christians which is to usurp the soveraignty of Christ For which treasonable Usurpation it is that Protestants call the Pope Antichrist 4. To add new parts to the Christian Religion 5. To make any Law which it did properly belong to the Universal Soveraign to have made if it should have been made at all Or which implyeth an accusation of ignorance oversight errour or omission in Christ and the holy Scriptures 6. To make new Laws for mens inward Heart-duties towards God 7. To make new Sacraments for the fealing of Christs Covenant and Collation of his benefits therein contained and to be the publick Tesserae Badges or Symbols of Christians and Christianity in the World 8. To feign new Conditions of the Covenant of God and necessary means of our Justification Adoption and salvation 9. To alter Christs instituted Church-Ministry or add any that are supra-ordinate co-ordinate or derogatory to their office or that stand on the like pretended ground and for equal ends 10. To make new spiritual societies or Church-forms which shall be either supra-ordinate co-ordinate Gal. 2. 5. or derogatory to the Forms of Christs Institution 11. Any impositions upon the Churches be the thing never so lawful which is made by a pretended Act. 15. 28 24 25. 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. 1 Cor. 14. 5 12 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. Eph. 4. 12 16 1 Tim. 1 4. power not derived from God and the Redeemer 12. Any thing that is contrary to the Churches good and Edification to justice charity piety order unity or peace 13. Any unnecessary burden imposed on the Consciences of Christians especially as necessary either to their salvation communion liberty or peace 14. And the exercise of any power pretended to be either Primitive and underived or Infallible or Impeccable or Absolute 15. In general any thing that is contrary to the Authority matter form obligation honour or ends of the Laws of God in Nature or Scripture 16. Any thing which setteth up those Judaical Laws and Ceremonies which Christ hath abrogated in that form and respect in which he abrogated them 17. Where there is a doubt among sober Conscionable Christians lest in obeying man they should sin against