God is not only pleased to entertain them as acceptable sacrifices but as actually done unto himself And that he hath engaged his promises for as certain an increase in this life as any temporal blessing can be hoped for at his hand and for an infallible reward in the life to come Quest But are not thine enemies and such as hate injure and offend thee excepted from such acts of thy mercy and charity or how far is the command of the Gospel in these cases obliging as to them Ans. To forgive them whatsoever they have done against me from my very soul even as I would be forgiven at the hand of God To chuse to suffer ten thousand evils from them then to return one evill to them After the highest provocations from them to blesse them pray for them and to do good to them in all my capacities Quest Is not a justification of our right by duelling after injuries received consistent with this part of Christian holiness and what is your judgement therein Ans. That duelling is directly against the doctrine of Christ an unhappy custome grounded upon the mistake of true honour and valour and the duel iâ— self either voluntarily accepted or offered is a sinne against this duty of charity on either part both in him that exposeth his own and in him that seâ—keth anothers blood and the fall of either miserable Quest But suppose he hath injured thine honour mayest thou not endeavour thy reparation Answer By any lawfull means I may where neither passion nor revenge hath interest and if I cannot otherwise obtain it then it is an argument of the clearest noblenesse and magnanimity to trust God with the defence of my honour and to forgive the offender Quest Suppose thou hast injured a person and offered all just satisfaction to him and yet he pursues thy life upon refusall of a duell What is in that case safest to be done Answ. To prevent it as much as possibly I can tenderly regarding his sinne as much as mine own suffering after which being unavoidably assaulted if in my pure defence he or I fall my soul is safe as to his or mine own blood CHAP. VI Quest THe rules of the first part of obeying the Gospel of Christ by all immediate services to God being discovered the Gospel as you sayd requires further holinesse of them that will live up to the institution of Christ which is to live justly to men What is then the obligation of the Gospel as to that part of holy life Answ To do to all men as I would they should do unto me Quest Now because this Doctrine of Christ obligeth to a duty which consists of infinite particulars of divers kinds First mention how many sorts of Iustice a Christian is bond to observe Answ. These two the first is called distributive justice which respects the allowance of all just duties from inferiours to Superiours and back again from Superiours to inferiours The seâ—ond is commutative justice which respects honest proceedings in civill contracts and dealings Quest The duties of the Gospel-distributive justice being further various according as men have publick or private relations First what duties of justice are required of Christians as to their publick relations Answ. Such as the people ought to perform to the civil Magistrate and Spirituall Pastor and such as they ought to return to their people back again Quest What duties are required of a Christian by the Law of the Gospel to the Civil Magistrate Answ. To give to Caesar the things that are Caesars To yield obedience for Conscience sake To submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not to resist their power upon peril of damnation By all which a Christian stands obliged not to do nor consent to any act that may impair the honour safety estate or power of them that God hath set over him in Government Quest How may a Christian Magistrate live justly as to his Subjects Answ. By interesting his power in the maintenance of an holy Religion against all its opponents by a tender regard to their peace quiet enjoyment of their proprieties by taking care that Iustice be impartially distributed and that their Subjects be securely protected from enemies abroad and from the insolencies of unquiet spirits at home Quest What are the duties which justice requires to be paid to the spirituall Pastors of the Church Answ. To obey them in their spirituall guidances as having rule over us justly to pay to them their allowed carnalls from whom we have received spiritualls and to have them in esteem for their work and office sake Quest What is in this holy justice required of them to their cures Answ. Faithfully to feed the flock of Christ by life and Doctrine and in all parts of their offices to be ready to do and administer every thing that may conduce to their salvation alwayes expressing a greater care of their peoples souls then of their own advantages in their places Quest Thus if thou livest thou hast kept a good conscience and obeyed Christ as to thy publick relations What are now the duties that concern private relations where further distribitive justice is required of Christs disciples Answ. Such concern the Family that is the reciprocal duties of Husband and Wife Parent and Child Master and Servant Quest How do the Servants of Christ fulfill the righteousnesse of the Gospel as to the first relation Answ. When the Husband expresseth love respect tendernesse and sweet carriage to the wife living with her and providing for her when the wife gives meek submission reverence and tender love to him both together bearing with one anothers infirmities do live like good yoke-fellows in all religious exercises and imployments of their callings Quest How do Christians perform Gods will in just living as to the second relation Ans. When children honour and obey their Parents supporting their decayes and protecting them in their helplesse ages when Parents govern them by the rules of piety not discouraging nor provoking them by caustlesse anger and providing for them honest educations and callings and means of livelihood Quest How is the Gospel obeyed in the third relation Answ. When Servants conscionably perform their offices and labours as in the sight of God preserving their Masters interests and honour and when Masters endevour to keep them in Gods fear using them mercifully in their labours and restraints respecting their burthens and rewarding their faithfulnesse and toyls Quest O blessed State where Religion and Christian justice guids all interests and happy family where Christ rules But you said the Gospel also requires commutative justice in all bargains commerces and dealings whatsoever and what is that justice Answ. Not to make use of any mans
bind my Conscience without any dispensation to sanctifie the Morning and Evening of every day with that service to chuse other times of the day by the example of other holy men as Christian prudence zeal and opportunity shall give me and to intermix my lawfull employments with frequent recourses to God in pious ejaculations Quest What are the offences against the calling upon Gods name in prayer in this holy worship Answ. As all omissions of the duty and neglect of invocation upon God are chargeable as sins so all taking his holy name in vain by useless unsanctified interpositions of it in our vain discourses by blasphemies and bold expressions of God by cursings imprecations and by all kinds of unnecessary and customary swearing not onely by the names of God but by any thing else are offences against God and contrary to this Gospel-duty Quest Together with private prayer you mentioned private fasting as a christian duty fitly â—onjoyned with prayer the one being sanctified by the other And doest thou suppose thou art obliged to perform such a servâ—ce to God Ans. Yes by the care our Saviour takes for the more religious performance of it and other frequent expressions of the exercise of it by holy persons in the Gospel Quest But being a duty which ever stands in relation or becomes instrumental to some other holy office and ought to be designed by religious persons for various ends as holy occasions will be administred Which be the chief ends and opportunities for the exercise of the duty of private fasting Ans. These three especially First to excite a zeal and fervencie in prayer in pursuit of some remarkable blessing Secondly to assist the soul in the work of repentance and humiliation for sin Thirdly to mortify the lust of nature and to assist the spiritual part against the contentions of the flesh Quest Now the times and repetitions of this service of private fasting being left to christian prudence and piety How often ought a Christian to return to this service Ans. The more frequently the more acceptably to God Therefore it is religion to undertake it as often as the ends of the duty shall occurre Quest But besides this may not a more punctual advice be given of general concernment Ans. Yes forâ—â—much as the life of the best Christian is full of frailties and defects it is expedient that the return of this duty be certain and determinate and that some day or days in the week be set apart for a more strict and severe examination of life and repentance heightned with the holy exercise of fasting Quest Whether after all these exercises and severities of a christian life will recreations be allowed to be consistent with the holy yoke of Christ Ans. Yes if they be innocent and sinlesse short and transient not scandalous not expensive of time nor such as shall indanger a temptation to lose zeal in devotion or hinder the holy offices of serving God in their chosen periods Quest Having served God thus far thou hast made good progress in this condition of the Gospel yet still is there a further process to be made and that is as thou saydst by serving God with the exercise of thy talent to the good of others And what is the command of the Gospel and thy duty therein Ans. To be charitable merciful and affectionately studious and active to advance the good of all men in whatsoever capacity of help God by his goodnesse hath put me Quest An example of such a course of living the conversation of our holy Master hath presented to us in whose steps we must walk if ever we expect to be members of his Kingdom here or hereafter But because the actions of this service of God bâ— as various as the necessities of men What method wilt thou take to guide thy conscience therein Ans. To help and assist them that want me first as to my spiritual Secondly as to my temporal capacity Quest Instance in some partiticulars that may direct thee to the understanding of all the parts of serving God by relieving others as to thy spiritual capacity Ans. To admonish some inconsiderate sinner and to endeavour to recover him from the errour of his way to go to some ignorant understanding to instruct some doubtful spirit to counsell and confirm some drooping afflicted soul to comfort and many such like which are called the spiritual Almes Quâ—st Blessed employments and acceptable services to God Yet the Commands of Christ to serve God with thy temporal capacity are more frequent and forcible and crowned with greater promises of reward What are the actions of that service Ans. All supplies whatsoever to my brothers present necessity want and my Saviours enumeration of some principal of them in the description of the accounts that must be given at the last day will help me to the understanding of all the other holy exercises of christian charity Quest It is true those acts of mercy have the honour to be mentioned by our Saviour as the rule of his sentence of absolution or condemnatiou to mankind And what are they Ans. To relieve the hungry and thirsty to entertain the destitute stranger to clothe the naked to visit and help poor prisoners and sick persons and all other actions of mercy and doing good that hold proportion with these Quest O rich souls that have laid down their present interests at the foot of Christ and made advantage of their earthly enjoyments to prepare a foundation for the time to come Now because there cannot be a punctual designment what proportion of every mans estate may be sufficient for the discharge of this duty to Christ What is the safest rule herein Ans. That my almes be liberal and plentifully distributed beyond the result of a consultation with flesh and blood or the examination of worldly prudence Considering what vain expenses of pride revenge and unnecessary luxuries my carnal part would judge fit to be allowed for the satisfaction of my lusts and were now more nobly and religiously expended in the service of God Again considering what accidental losses by casualty deceits of men extraordinary charges and many other disimprovements I have patiently borne and otherwise provided for which if I had begun to choose to have served God with I might easily have been tempted to thoughts of utter undoing had I so bestowed them Quest What other considerations may be added to move thee to enlarge thy heart and hand in this service besides the bare injunction of it by Christ as a Gospel-duty Ans. That almes are acts of purest generosity and most rational noblenesse in themselves and have a blessing beyond other noble actions that the very disbursements are gains and the securing of an immutable estate and reall treasure That
truth should have depended upon worldly successes and prosperity what advantages should its enemies have had and with what poor comforts should its members have been supported when it lay so long under the bloody persecutions of the Roman Emperours Nero Domitian Trajan c Now if any just cause that is oppressed if any part of Christs Church that is afflicted may plead no disadvantage to them by Gods permitting them to bee outwardly miserable much more the Ministery whose of all just causes and who of all parties in the Church have been ever exposed to the saddest providences as to the worlds eye We shall find therefore as if the cross had been the Label of the Apostles Commission Our Saviour tells them when he sends them forth it should be as sheep in the midst of Wolves From whom what entertainment they were likely to receive he expresseth more fully in a sollowing passage They should be hated of all men for his Names sake And as if they had received with their commissions a commonpasse of trouble they must be persecuted from one City to another All which as they were infallibly to become true in our Saviours prediction so were they as evidently accomplished in the following tragedies of the Churches miseries when the Apostles were set forth as men appointed to death when they were made a theatre a common spectacle a people shewen forth for mockery and misery to Angels and to men For they hungred and thirsted and were naked and buffeted and had no certain dwelling place Afterward followed the violent deaths of all the Apostles under the hands of their Persecutors St. John onely excepted and of the first renownned Fathers os the Church Ignatius Polycarp Irenaeus Justin c. which paid their lives to the prevailing enemies of the Gospel of Christ all which to relate would rather require some large Martyrolygy then a digression in a small Tractate But were all these forsaken of God because they had not prosperity and present successes What providence should then have been followed the prosperous or the adverse If their scornes troubles and oppressions under the hands of their prosperous enemies had disproved the truth of their calling or cause the very Gospel it self might as justly upon the same argument have been called in question By all which it appeares that the charge against this Church for its adversities and miseries is most unjust especially by them who have themselves been instrumental to them It is a hard case first to be made miserable and forlorne and then to be quarrel'd with and disputed against for being so But I leave this to their own consciences and timely repentance only I desire to mind them of a notable prediction by learned Hooker of them and of the ruines of this Church by them even at a determinate period of time which is directly this present age Which becauso it fell from so grave and deliberate a pen I will set down in his own words By these or the like suggestions meaning our adversaries endeavours to overthrow the Ministery in their maintenance and otherwise received with all joy and with like sedulity practised in certain parts of the Christiag world they have brought to passe that as David doth say of a man so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole Religion ond Service of God The time thereof may peradventure fall out to be threescore and ten years or if strength do serve unto fourscore what followeth is likely to be small joy for them whatsoever they be that behold it By these considerations I find all my scruples answered and doubts satisfied that I can with all clearnesse of judgement assert the truth of the visible Church of England Now I desire to recline my soul in her bosome and most cheerfully undertake and exercise the whole course of those forementioned Rules of Christian living in its profession as the safest in the world FORMES OF PRAYER For private PERSONS AND FAMILIES To the READER WHosoever thou art I beseech thee but if thy soule stands upon my account to God I mean if thou beest one of my care and charge then I earnestly beg of thee that when thou readest and ownest these plaein directions for Devotion thou obligest thy self upon as strong purposes to follow them or at least the duties intended by them as the interest of saving a soule requires That thou take care by making it a part of thy duty to Christ to season thy children as with the first elements of religious knowledge so with suitable practices of prayer as soon as they shall be capable of these little formes And that thou thy self accont no busines so necessary which should betray thee to forget to sanctify at least the morning and evening of every day in thy privacy and family with prayers and praises considering that the houres spent in this or other religious exercises will be of more concernment and eomfort to thee at thy dying hour then all the pleasures profits and present advantages whatsoever thou canst obtain by the engagement of the rest of thy time I desire thee that before thou enterest upon these exercises or in the midst of them where I have directed thee thou readest part of holy Davids Psalmes by certain periods that thou mayest imitate Davids spirit in thy addresses to God And do not read them as an history meerly to affect thy understanding but as acts of service with affection reverence and piety befitting such communions with God as most of the Psalmes perport Do thou also before thou departest from serving God in any of these offices read some part of she holy Scriptures in such order as thy prudence shall direct thee and digest the same by meditation to particular application to thy self that thou mayest live in the strength of it in all thy actions to God and man I have divided as thou shalt observe the prayers into several parts according to the most considerable periods of the duty First because they will be the more fit and methodical to be taught to children servants and such as cannot read Secondly that after the end of any one part of the devotion the supplicant may stay and collect his spirit to a frame fit for the next considering as to instance that confession and thanksgiving and so the rest do require different carriages of the Spirit Thirdly because the pious soule may more fitly stay in any part and poure out it self to God as spiritual necessity will be administred and yet not break the order of the devotion Lastly because such a partition will alleviate the weariness that is apt to be contracted by one long continued form Now having rigg'd this little ship ef devotion The Lord give thee an heart to venture thy soul in its bottome and grant thee a prosperous gale of his Spirit to drive thee forward to the port of rest which is desired designed and sincerely endeavoured by