callings to take them up Some of them make it their chief excuse that they do it to pass away the time Blind wretches that are so near eternity and can find no better uses for their Time To these I spoke before Chap. 5. Part. 1. § 20. 5. Another cause is the wicked neglect of their dutys to their own families making no conscience of loving their own relations and teaching them the fear of God nor following their business and so they take no pleasure to be at home The company of wife and children and servants is no delight to them but they must go to an ALE-house or Tavern for more suitable company Thus one sin bringeth on another § 21. 6. Another cause is the ill management of matters at home with their own Consciences when they have brought themselves into so terrible and sad a case that they dare not be much alone nor soberly think of their own condition nor seriously look towards another world but fly from themselves and seek a place to hide them from their consciences forgetting that sin will find them out They run to an ALE-house as Saul to his musick to drink away melancholy and drown the noise of a guilty self-accusing mind and to drive away all thoughts of God and Heaven and sin and Hell and death and judgement till it be too late As if they were resolved to be damned and therefore resolved not to think of their misery nor the remedy But though they dare venture upon Hell it self the sots dare not venture upon the serious thoughts of it Eeither there is a Hell or there is none If there be none why shouldst thou be afraid to think of it If there be a Hell as thou wilt find it if thou hold on but a little longer will not the feeling be more intollerable than the thoughts of it And is not the forethinking on it a necessary and cheap prevention of the feeling O how much wiser a course were it to retire your selves in secret and there to look before you to eternity and hear what conscience hath first to say to you concerning your life past your sin and misery and then what God hath to say to you of the remedy You 'll one day find that this was a more necessary work than any that you had at the ALE-house and that you had greater business with God and Conscience than with your idle companions § 22. 7. Another cause is the custom of pledging those that drink to you and of drinking healths by which the Laws of the Devil and the ALE-house do impose upon them the measures of excess and make it their duty to disregard their duty to God So lamentable a thing it is to be the tractable slaves of men and intractable rebels against God! Plutarck mentions One that being invited to a feast made a stop when he heard that they compelled men to drink after meat and askt whether they compelled them to eat too Apprehending that he went in danger of his belly And it seems to be but custom that maketh it appear less ridiculous or odious to constrain men to drinking than to eating § 23. 8. Another great cause of excess is the Devils way of drawing them on by degrees He doth not tempt them directly to be drunk but to drink one cup more and then another and another so that the worst that he seemeth to desire of them is but to drink a little more And thus as Solomon saith of the fornicator they yield to the flatterer and go on as the Ox to the slaughter and as the Fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7. 21 22 23. § 24. III. The Greatness of this sin appeareth in what is said before of Gluttony More specially 1. Think how base a master thou dost serve being thus a slave to thy throat What a beastly thing it is and worse than beastly for few beasts but a swine will be forced to drink more than doth them good How low and poor is that mans reason that is not able to command his throat § 25. Think how thou consumest the creatures of God that are given for service and not for gulosity and luxury The earth shall be a witness against thee that it bore that fruit for better uses which tion misspendestâ—on thy sin Thy Servants and Cattle that labour for it shall be witnesses against thee Thou 〈◊〉 the creatures of God as a sacrifice to the Devil for Drunkenness and Tipling is his serâ—â—â—â— It were less folly to do as Diogenes did who when they gave him a large cup of wine threw it under the table that it might do him no harm Thou makest thy self like Caterpillers and Foxes and wolves and other destroying creatures that live to do mischief and consume that which should 〈◊〉 man and therefore are pursued as unfit to live Thou art to the common-wealth as Mice in the Gâ—â—nary or Weeds in the Corn. It is a great part of the work of faithful Magistrates to weed out such as thou § 26. 3. Thou robbest the poor consuming that on thy throat which should maintain them If thou have any thing to spare it will comfort thee more at last to have given it to the needy than that a greedy thoat devoured it The covetous is much better in this than the Drunkard and Luxurious Prov. 1â— 2â— Prov 14 21. 2â— 1â— 3â— 14 â—2 9. â—8 â—7 For he is a gatherer and the other is a scatterer The Common-wealth maintaineth a double or trâ—ble charge in such as thou art As the same pasture will keep many Sheep which will keep but one Horse so the same country may keep many temperate persons which will keep but a few Gluttons and Drunkards The worldling makes provision cheaper by getting and sparing but the Drunkard and Glutton make it dearer by wasting The covetous man that scrapeth together for himself doth oft-times gather for one that will pity the poor when he is dead Prov. 28. 8. But the Drunkard and Riotous devour it while they are alive One is like a Hog that is good for something at lâ—â—â—â— though his feeding yield no profit while he liveth The other is like devouring vermine that leave nothing to pay for what they did consume The one is like the Pike among the fishes who payeth when he is dead for that which he devoured alive But the other is like the sink or chanel that repayeth you with nothing but stink and dirt for all that you cast into it § 27. 4. Thou drawest poverty and ruine upon thy self Besides the value which thou wastest God usually joyneth with the prodigal by his judgements and scattereth as fast as he Prov. 21. 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth wine and oyl shall not be rich There is that 〈…〉 a
to your selves And that both in time of Health and Sickness § 31. 1. In Health you must be careful to provide for each other not so much pleasing as wholsome food and to keep each other from that which is hurtful to your health disswading each other from Gluttony and Idleness the two great Murderers of mankind If the bodies of the poor in hunger and cold and nakedness must be relieved much more of those that are become as your own flesh § 32. 2. Also in Sickness you are to be tenderly regardful of each other and not to be sparing of any cost or pains by which the health of each other may be restored or your souls confirmed and Gen. 27. 14. your comforts cherished You must not lothe the Bodies of each other in the most lothsom sickness Eph 5 29 31. Job 19. 17. Job 2. 9. nor shun them through loathing no more than you would do your own Prov. 17. 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity Much more those that are so nearly bound for sickness and health till death shall separate them It is an odious sin to be aweary of a sick or suffering friend and desirous that God would take them meerly that you may be eased of the trouble And usually such persons do meet with such measure as they measured to others and those that they look for help and comfort from will perhaps be as weary of them and as glad to be rid of them § 33. Direct 8. Another duty of Husbands and Wives is to be helpful to each other in their worldly Direct 8. business and estates Not for worldly ends nor with a worldly mind but in obedience to God See Prov. 31. Gen. 31. 40. Tit. 2. 5. 1 Tâ—m 5. 14. 5. 8. who will have them Labour as well as pray for their daily bread and hath determined that in the sweat of their brows they shall eat their bread and that six dayes they shall labour and do all that they have to do and that he that will not work must not eat The care of their affairs doth lye upon them both and neither of them must cast it off and live in idleness unless one of them be an Ideot or so witless as to be unfit for care or so sick or lame as to be unfit for labour § 34. Direct 9. Also you must be careful of the lawful honour and good names of one another Direct 9. You must not divulge but conceal the dishonourable failings of each other as Abigail except 1 Sam. 25. 25. Matth. 18 16. Matth. 1. 19. 2 Sam. 11. 7. Prov. 31. 28. Eccles 7 3. Prov. 22. 1. 2 Sam. 6. 20. Gen 9 22 25. in any case compassion or justice require you to open them to any one for a cure or to clear the truth The reputation of each other must be as dear to you as your own It is a sinful and unfaithful practice of many both Husbands and Wives who among their companions are opening the faults and infirmities of each other which they are bound in tenderness to cover As if they perceived not that by dishonouring one another they dishonour themselves Love will cover a multitude of faults 1 Pet. 4. 8. Nay many disaffected pievish persons will aggravate all the faults of one another behind their backs to strangers and sometimes slander them and speak more than is truth Many a man hath been put to clear his good name from the slanders of a jealous or a passionate Wife And an open enemy is not capable of doing one so much wrong as she that is in his bosome because she will be easily be believed as being supposed to know him better than any other § 35. Direct 10. It is also a great part of the duty of Husbands and Wives to be helpful to one Direct 10. another in the education of their Children and in the government of the inferiors of the family Some 〈…〉 m 3. 4 12. Gen. 18. 19. â—â— 35. 2 c. 〈…〉 24 14. 〈…〉 101. men cast all the care of the Children while they are young upon their Wives And many women by their passion and indiscretion do make themselves unfit to help their Husbands in the Government either of their Children or Servants But this is one of the greatest parts of their employment As to the Mans part to govern his house well it is a duty unquestionable And it is not to be denyed of the Wife 1 Tim. 5. 14. I will that the younger Women marry bear Children guide the house Bathshâ—ba taught Solomon Prov. 31. 1. Abigail took better care of Nabal's house than he did himself They that have a joint interest and are one flesh must have a joint part in government although their power be not equal and one may better oversee some business and the other other business yet in their places they must divide the care and help each other And not as it is with many wicked persons who are the most unruly part of the family themselves and the chiefest cause that it is ungoverned and ungodly or one party hindreth the other from keeping order or doing any good § 36. Direct 11. Another part of their Duty is to help each other in works of charity and hospitality Direct 11. While they have opportunity to do good to all but especially to them of the houshold of faith Heb. 13. 2. Gen. 18. 6 c. Rom. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 9. 6. â—uke 1â— 9. 1 Tim 3. 2. 5. 10. Prov. 11. 20 28 Neh. 8. 10. Prov. 19. 17 Job 29. 13. 31. 20. Acts 20. 35. and to sow to the Spirit that of the Spirit they may reap everlasting life yea to sow plentifully that they may reap plentifully Gal. 6. that if they are able their houses may afford relief and entertainment for the needy especially for Christs servants for their Masters sake who hath promised that He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 10. 41 42. The woman of Sâ—â—â—â—em lost nothing by the entertainment of Elisha when she said to her Husband Behold now I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually Let us make him a little Chamber I pray thee on the wall and let us set for him there a Bed and a Table and a Stool and a Candlestick and it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither 2 Kings 4. 10. But now how common is it for the people to think all too little for themselves and if one of them be addicted to
indeed preach Christ of envy and strife and some of good will The one preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds but the other of love c. Here is an odious vice in the publick Ministry even an endeavour to increase the sufferings of the Apostle yet it was lawful to hear such preachers though not to prefer them before better Most sects among Christians are possessed with a tang of envy and uncharitableness against dissenters which useth to break forth in their preaching and praying and yet it is lawful to joyn with such 2. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath many defects and infirmities in his Ministration or manner of Worship As if he preach with some ignorance disorder unfit expressions or gestures unmeet repetitions or if he do the like in Prayer or in the Sacraments putting something last that should be first and leaving out something that should be said or praying coldly and formally These and such like are faults which we should do our best to reform and we should not prefer such a Ministry before a better but it is lawful and a duty to joyn with such when we have no better For all men are imperfect and therefore the manner of Worship as performed by them will be imperfect Imperfect men cannot be perfect in their Ministrations We must joyn with a defective and imperfect mode of Worship or joyn with none on earth And we must perform such or none our selves Which of you dare say that in your private prayers you have no disorder vain repetitions flatness or defects 3. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath some material errour or untruth in his preaching or praying so be it we be not called to approve it or make it ours and so it be not pernicious and destructive to the ends of his Ministry For all men have some errour and they that have them may be expected sometime to vent them And it is not our presence that is any signification of our consent to their mistakes If we run away from all that vent any untruth or mistake in publick or private Worship we shall scarce know what Church or person we may hold Communion with The Reason of this followeth § 93. 3. The sense of the Church and all its members is to be judged of by their publick professions and not by such words of a Minister which are his own and never had their consent I am by Profession a Christian and the Scripture is the Professed Rule of my Religion And when I go to the Assemblies I profess to Worship God according to that Rule I profess my self a hearer of a Minister of the Gospel that is to Preach the Word of God and that hath promised in his Ordination out of the holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed to his charge and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation but that which he shall be perswaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture This he professed when he was ordained and I profess by my presence only to hear such a Preacher of the Gospel and Worship God with him in those Ordinances of Worship which God hath appointed If now this man shall drop in any mistake in Preaching or modifie his prayers or administrations amiss and do his part weakly and disorderly the hearers are no way guilty of it by their presence For if I must run away from Gods publick worship because of mens mis-performance 1. I should joyn with none on Earth For a small sin may no more be wilfully done or owned than a greater 2. And then another mans weakness may disoblige me and discharge me from my duty To order and word his Prayers and Preaching aright is part of the Ministers own work and not the peoples And if he do it well it is no commendation to me that am present but to himself And therefore if he do it amiss it is no fault of mine or dispraise to me but to himself If the Common-Council of London or the Court of Aldermen agree to Petition the King for the Renewing of their Charter and commit the expressing of their request to their Recorder in their presence If he Petition for something else instead of that which he was intrusted with and so betray them in the substance of his business they are openly to contradict him and disown his treachery or mistake But if he deliver the same Petition which he undertook with stammering disorder defectiveness and perhaps some mixture of untruths in his additional reasons and discourse this is his failing in the personal performance of his duty and no way imputable to them that sent him and are present with him though in modesty they are silent and speak not to disown it For how can it be their fault that a man is wanting in his personal sufficiency and duty unless it be that they chose not a better And whether he speak ex tempore or more deliberately in a written form or without in words that other men taught him or wrote for him or in words of his own devising it altereth not their case § 94. Obj. But if a man fail through weakness in his own performance I know not of that before Obj. Of imposed defective Liturgies hand But if his faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed on him by a Law then I know it before hand and therefore am guilty of it Answ. To avoid confusion fix upon that which you think is the thing sinful 1. Either it is because the Prayers are defective and faulty 2. Or because they are imposed 3. Or because you know the fault before hand But none of all these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not â—â—â—â— hominâ—â— est facere quod potest â—â—aâ—rsi nâ—n â—aâ—â—at hâ—â— quod est â—â— gâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed 1. Because that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For it proveth the Minister less-voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the errour of their own judgements as most erroneous persons will 2. Because though lawful things oft become unlawful when superiours forbid them yet no reason can be given why a Lawful 〈◊〉 â—â— thing should become unlawful because a lawful superiour doth command iâ— Else superiours might take away all our Christian liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commanding thâ—m You would take it for a wilde conceit in your Children or servants if they say when you bid them learn a Catechism or use a form of Prayer It was lawful to us till you commanded us to do it but because you bid us do it it is unlawful If it be a duty to obey Governours in all lawful things then it is not a sin to obey them 3. And it is not your
Servants 2. Masters p. 490 CHAP. III. Disput. Whether the solemn Worship of God in and by families as such be of Divine appointment Aff. proved against the Cavils of the prophane and some Sectaries p. 493. What solemn Worship is What a family Proof as to Worship in general Family-advantages for Worship The Natural obligation on families to worship God Families must be sanctified societies Instructing families is a duty Family discipline is a duty Solemn prayer and prâ—ise is a family duty Objections answered Of the frequency and seasons of family worship 1. Whether it should be every day 2. Whether twice a day 3. Whether Morning and evening CHAP. IV. General Directions for the holy Government of famili 〈…〉 How to keep up Authority Of skill in Governing Of holy Willingness p. 509 CHAP. V. Special Motives to perswade men to the holy Government of their families p. 512 CHAP. VI. Motives for a holy and careful Education of Children p. 515 CHAP. VII The Mutual Duties of Husbands and Wives towards each other p. 520. How to maintain due Conjugal Love Of Adultery Motives and Means against dissention Motives and means to further each others salvation Further duties CHAP. VIII The special duties of Husbands to their Wives p. 529 CHAP. IX The special duty of Wives to their Husbands p. 531 Q. How far may a Wife give without her Husbands Consent Q. Of Wives propriety Q Is a Wife guilty of her Husbands unlawful getting if she keep it And is she bound to reveal it as in robbing Q. May a Wife go hear Sermons when her Husband forbiddeth her Q. Must a woman proceed to admonish a wicked Husband when it maketh him worse Q. What she must do in Controverted Cases of Religion when her judgement and her Husbands differ p. 534. Q. How long or in what Cases may Husbands and Wives be distant p. 535. Q. May the bare Commands of Princes separate Husbands and Wives as Ministers Iudges Souldiers Q. May Ministers leave their Wives to go abroad to preach the Gospel Q. May one leave a Wife to save his life in case of personal persecution or danger Q. May Husband and Wife part by consent if they find it to be for the good of both Q. May they consent to be divorced and to marry others Q. Doth Adultery dissolve marriage Q. Is the injured person bound to divorce the other or left free Q. Is it the proper priviledge of the man to put away an adulterous Wife or is it also in the womans power to depart from an adulterous Husband Q. May there be putting away or departing without the Magistrates divorce or license Q. Is not Sodomy and Buggery as lawful a reason of divorce as Adultery Q. What if both parties be adulterous Q. What if one purposely commit adultery to be separated from the other Q. Doth Infidelity dissolve the relation Q. Doth the desertion of one party disoblige the other Q. Must a woman follow a malignant Husband that goeth from the Means of Grace Q. Must she follow him if it be but to poverty or beggary Q. What to do in case of known intention of one to murder the other Q. Or if there be a fixed hatred of each other Q What if a man will not suffer his Wife to hear read or pray or do beat her so as to unfit her for duty or a woman will rail at the Husband in prayer time c. Q. What to do in danger of life by the Pox or Leprosie c. Q Who may marry after parting or divorce p. 539. Q Is it lawful to suffer yea or contribute to the known sin materially of Wife Child Servant or other relations Where is opened what is in our Power to do against sin and what not p. 539. Q. If a Gentleman have a great Estate by which he may do much good and his Wife be so Proud Prodigal and pievish that if she may not waste it all in house keeping and pride she will dye or grow mad or give him no quietness What is his duty in so sad a case p. 542 CHAP. X. The Duties of Parents for their Children Where are twenty special Directions for their Education p. 543 CHAP. XI The Duties of Children towards their Parents p. 547 CHAP. XII The special Duties of Children and Youth towards God p. 552 CHAP. XIII The Duties of Servants to their Masters p. 554 CHAP. XIV Tit. 1. The Duty of Masters towards their Servants p. 556 Tit. 2. The Duty of Masters to Slaves in the Plantations p. 557 Q. 1. Is it lawful for a Christian to buy and use a man as a Slave Q. 2. Is it lawful to use a Christian as a Slave p. 558 Q. 3. What difference must we make between a Servant and a Slave Q. 4. What if men buy Negro's or other Slaves of such as we may think did steal them or buy them of Robbers and Tyrants and not by Consent p. 559 Q. 5. May I not sell such again and make my mony of them Q. 6. May I not return them to him that I bought them of CHAP. XV. The Duties of Children and fellow servants to one another p. 561 CHAP. XVI Directions for holy Conference of fellow servants and others p. 562 Q. May we speak good when the Heart is not affected with it Q. Is that the fruit of the Spirit which we force our tongues to CHAP. XVII Directions for every member of the family how to spend every ordinary day of the Week p. 565 CHAP. XVIII Directions for the holy spending of the Lords Day in families Whether the whole day should be kept holy p. 569 Tit. 2. More particular Directions for the Order of holy duties on that day p. 572 CHAP. XIX Directions for profitable Hearing Gods Word preached p. 573 Tit. 2. Directions for Remembring what you Hear p. 575 Tit. 3. Directions for Holy Resolutions and Affections in hearing p. 576 Tit. 4. Directions to bring what we hear into practice p. 577 CHAP. XX. Directions for profitable Reading the holy Scriptures p. 579 CHAP. XXI Directions for Reading other Books p. 580 CHAP. XXII Directions for right Teaching Children and Servants so as is most likely to have success The summ of Christian Religion p. 582 CHAP. XXIII Directions for Prayer in general p 587 A Scheme or brief Explication of the Exact Method of the Lords Prayer p. 590 Tit. 2. Cases about Prayer p. 591. Q. 1. Is the Lords Prayer to be used as a form of words or only as a Directory for Matter and Method Q. 2. What need is there of any other prayer if this he perfect Q. 3. Is it lawful to pray in a set form of words Q. 4. Are those forms lawful which are prescribed by man and not by God Q 5 Is free praying called extemporate lawful Q. 6. Which is the better Q. 7. Must we ever follow the Method of the Lords Prayer Q. 8. Must we pray only when the Spirit moveth us or as Reason guideth
to their salvation I shall labour to speak as Plainly as I can because I specially intend it for the ignorant and yet to be competently exact in the Directions lest such Readers lose the benefit by mistakes and I must speak to many Cases because I speak to Families where all are not in the same condition and the same persons are not still the same And therefore if I should not be brief in the particulars I should be too long in the whole and tediousness might deprive some Readers of the benefit In Families some are too ordinarily Ungodly in a carnal unrenewed state and some are Godly 〈…〉 Socraâ—es in Cicer 1. Tuscul. Qui rectè â—onestâ— cuâ—iculum vivendi à natura datum confecerit ad astra facilè revertetur Non qui aut immoderatè aut iâ—temperaâ—ter vixâ—â—â—â— Cicero de Univers Improbo bâ—â—â—â—â—sse â—ot pâ—â—est Id. Par. Quod si â—â—â—â—st in 〈…〉 mâ—â—â—â— fides virtus concordia unde haec in terras nisi à superis diffluere potuerunt Cumque sit in novis Consisâ—â—â—â— â—â—â—â—o prâ—dentia 〈…〉 est Deus haec ipsa habere majora Nec habere solum sed etiam his uti in optimus maximus rebus Cicero de Nat. Deor. li. 2. pag. 76. Quod si poena si 〈◊〉 supplâ—cii â—â—â—â— ipsa 〈◊〉 dâ—terret ab inâ—â—â—â—iosa facinorosaque vita â—â—â—â—o â—st injustus At incaâ—ti potius habâ—â—di sunt iâ—pâ—oâ—i 〈◊〉 non boâ—i sâ—nt qâ—i 〈◊〉 taâ—tuâ— non ipso honesto ut boni viâ—i sint woventur Cic. de Leg. l. 1. p. 289. Ut nihil interest utâ—um nemo â—â—lâ—at aâ— nemo possit 〈◊〉 siâ— noâ— intelligo quid intersit uâ—â—uâ— nemo sit sapiens aâ— nemo esse possit Cic. de Nâ—t Dâ—â—r l. 3. p. 138. 〈…〉 was afraid to speak what he knew of the Unity of the Eternal God the Maker of all Illum quasi paâ—entâ—m hujus universitatis inâ—euire diâ—â—icile câ—m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vulgus nâ—fas Lib. de Univers p. 2. And the â—amâ— he saith Lib. 2. de Nat. Deor. in a state of Grace These are considerable as Christians simply with respect to God or in their Relations to others These Relations are either Ecclesiastical Civil or Domestical Family-relations Accordingly my intended Method is 1. To Direct Ungodly Carnal minds how to attain to a state of Grace 2. To Direct those that have saving Grace how to Use it both in the Contemplative and Active parts of their lives in their duties of Religion both private and publick in their Duties to men both in their Ecclesiastical Civil and Family Relations And by the way to Direct those that have Grace how to discern it and take the comfort of it and to Direct them how to grow in Grace and persevere unto the End § 4. And if any Reader should be discouraged at the Number of Duties and Directions set before him I intreat him to consider 1. That it is God and not I that imposeth all these Duties on you And who will question his Wisdom Goodness or Power to make Laws for us and all the world 2. That every Duty and Direction is a mercy to you and therefore should not be matter of grief to you but of Thanks They are but like the Commands of Parents to their Children when they bid them Eat their meat and wear their clothes and go to bed and eat not poison and tumble not in the dirt and cut not your fingers and take heed of fire and water c. To leave out any such Law or Duty were but to deprive you of an excellent mercy you will not cut off or cast away any member of your Body any Vein or Sinew or Artery upon pretence that the Number maketh them troublesome when the diminishing of that Number would Kill or Mâ—iâ— you A Student is not offended that he hath many Books in his Library nor a Tradesman that he hath store of Tools nor the Rich at the Number of his Farms or Flocks Believe it Reader if thou bring not a malignant quarrelsom mind thou wilt find that God hath not burdened but blessed thee with his holy Precepts and that he hath not appointed thee one unnecessary or unprofitable duty but only such as tend to thy Content and Ioy and Happiness O let it be the daily earnest prayer of me and thee that our Hearts prove not false and unwilling to follow the Directions which are given us lest we condemn our selves Vâ—lt Deus â—uodammodo pâ—tiâ—â—im hoc simmâ—â—â—â—st 〈◊〉 ut ad bâ—nefâ—â—iendâ—m â—â— puâ—â—ari 〈…〉 Jos Acosta l. 4. c. 12. p. 396. in the things which we allow Your Practice now will shew Whether it be through want of Will or Skill if henceforth you unfaithfully neglect your duty If you are willing obey now what is plainly taught you and shew by your diligence that you are willing CHAP. I. Leg. Danielis Episcop Epist. ad Bonif. Mogunt inter Epist. Bonif. 67. de methodo convertendi Paganos Directions to unconverted graceless sinners for the attaining of true saving Grace PART I. § 1. IF ungodly miserable sinners were as few as the Devil and their self-love would make Haesit tam desperati insulae excidâ—i insperatique mentiâ— auxilii memoriae corum qui utriusque miraculi testes extitere Et ob hoc Reges publici privati sacerdotes Ecclesiastici suum quique ordinem servarunt At illis decedentibus cum successissâ—t aetas tempestatis Illius nescia prâ—sentis tantum serenitatis expers ita cuâ—ctâ— veritatis ac justitiâ— moderaâ—iâ—a coacussa ac subversa sunt ut earum non dicam vestigium sed ne monumentum quidem in supra dictiâ— propemodum ordin bus appareat Exceptis paucis valde paucis qui ob amissionem tantae multitudinis quae quotidie prona ruit ad tartara tam brevis numeri hâ—â—entâ—r â—t â—os quodammodo venerabilis mater Ecclesia in sinu suo recumbentes non videaâ— quos solos veros filios habeat Quorum nequis me â—gregiam vitam omnious admiâ—abilem Deoque amabilem carpere putet si qua liberius de his immo lugâ—bâ—ius cumnâ—o malorum compulsus qui serviunt non solum ventri sed diabolo potius quam Christo. Gildas p. mihi 514. It was Pythagoras's saying which Ambrose saith he had from the Jewes Communem atque usitatam populo viam non esse â—â—rendam themselves believe I might forbear this part of my work as needless For the whole need not the Physicion but the sick If you go into twenty Families and ask them all Whether any of them are in an unsanctified state unrenewed and unpardoned and under the wrath and Curse of God You will meet with few that will not tell you they hope it is better with them than so and though they are sinners as all are yet that they are repenting pardoned sinners Nay there is scarce one of many of the most wicked and notoriously ungodly but
save thee as the Devil Direct 47. can be to damn thee and which then should prevail 2. Be you as constant in resistance Be as oft in prayer and other confirming means Do as Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7 8. who prayed thrice as Christ did in his agony when the prick in the flesh was not removed 3. Tempt not the Tempter by giving him encouragement A faint denyal is an invitation to ask again Give him quickly a flat denial and put him out of hope if you would shorten the temptation § 119 Tempt 48. Lastly the Divel would sink the sinner in despair and perswade him now it Tempt 48. is too late § 120. Direct 48. Observe his design that it is but to take off that Hope which is the weight Direct 49. to set the wheels of the soul a going In all he is against God and you In other sins he is against Gods Authority In this he is against his Love and Mercy Read the Gospel and you will find that Christs death is sufficient the promise is universal full and free and that the day of Grace is so far continued till the day of death that no man shall be denied it that truly desireth it And that the same God that forbiddeth thy presumption forbiddeth also thy despair Tit. 3. Temptations to draw us off from duty § 1. Tempt 1. THe greatest Temptation against duty is by perswading men that it is no duty Tempt 1. Thus in our dayes we have seen almost all duty cast off by this erroneous fancy One saith that the â—â—ly observation of the Lords day is not commanded of God in Scripture Another saith What Scripture have you for family-prayer or singing Psalms or baptizing Infants or praying before and aâ—ter Sâ—rmâ—n or for your Office Ordination Tythes Churches c. Another saith that Church-Government and Discipline aâ—e not of Divine Institution Another saith that Baptism and the Lords Supper â—â—re but for that age And thus all duty is taken down instead of doing it § 2. Direct 1. Read and fear Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments Direct 1. and shall teach men sâ— he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall â—e called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Denying duty is too easie a way of â—vâ—â—ing obedience to serve turn Denying the Laws that bind you to publick payments will not save you from them but for all that if you deny you must be distrained on And God will make it deaâ—â—â—â— to you if you put him to distrain on you for duty Must he go to Law with you for it He 'll quickly shâ—w you Law for it and prove that it was your duty Open your doubts to able men and you will hear more evidence than you know But if pride and false-heartedness blind you you must bear your punishment § 3. Tempt 2. Saith the Tempter It is a duty to weak ones but not for you You must not be Tempt 2. still under Ordinances in the lower form every day must be a Sabbath to you and every bit a Sacrament and every place as a Church you must live above Ordinances in Christ. § 4. Direct 2. We must live above Mosaical Ordinances Col. 2. 18. 21. but not above Christs Ordinances Direct 2. unless you will live above obedience and above the Government of Christ Hath not Christ appointed the Ministry and Church helps till we all come to a perfect man Ephes. 4. 13. and promised to be with them to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. It is befooling Pride that can make you think you have no need of Christs instituted means § 5. Tempt 3. But thou art unworthy to pray or recieve the Sacrament It 's not for Dogs Tempt â— Direct ◠§ 6. Direct 3. The wilful impenitent refusers of Grace are unworthy The willing soul that fain would be what God would have him hath an accepted worthiness in Christ. § 7. Tempt 4. But while you doubt you do it not in faith and therefore to you it is sin Tempt 4. Direct 4. § 8. Direct 4. But is it not a greater sin to leave it undone Will doubting of all duty excuse you from it Then you have an easie way to be free from all Do but doubt whether you should believe in God or Christ or love him or live a godly life and it seems you think it will excuse you But if you doubt whether you should feed your child you deserve to be hanged for murthering it if you famish it If you doubt of duty it is duty still and you are first bound to lay by your doubts But things indifferent left to your choice must not be done with a doubting conscience It was of such things that Paul spake § 9. Tempt 5. The Devil puts somewhat still in the way that seemeth necessary to thrust out Tempt 5. duty § 10. Direct 5. God hath not set you work which he alloweth you no Time for Is all your Direct 5. time spent in better things Is it not your carnal mind that makes you think carnal things most needful Christ saith One thing is needful Luke 10. 42. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you Had you that love and delight in holiness as you Matth. 6. 33. should you would find time for it An unwelcome Guest is put off with any excuse Others as poor as you can find time for duty because they are willing Set your business in order and let every thing keep its proper place and you may have time for every duty § 11. Tempt 6. But you are so unable and unskilful to pray to learn that it 's as good never Tempt 6. mâ—ddle with it § 12. Direct 6. Set your selves to learn and mark those that have skill and do what you can Direct 6. You must learn by practice The unskilfullest duty is better than none Unworded groans come oft from the Spirit of God and God understandeth and accepteth them Rom. 8. 26 27. § 13. Tempt 7. It will be so hard and long to learn that you will never overcome it Tempt 7. Direct 7. § 14. Direct 7. Willingness and diligence have the promise of Gods help Remember it is a thing that must be done When your own disuse and sin hath made it hard will you put God and your souls off with that as an excuse If you had neglected to teach your child to speak or go when it is young should he therefore never learn Will you despair and let go all your hope on this pretence or will you hope to be saved without prayer and other holy duty How foolish are both these Sick men must eat though their stomachs be against it they cannot live else § 15. Tempt 8. But thou findest thou art but the worse for duty and
Virgin doth well So then he that marrieth doth well but he that marrieth not doth better And mark Christs own words Matth. 19. 11. His Disciples say unto him If the case of a man be so with his wife it is not good to marry But he said unto them All men cannot receive this saying save they to whom it is given He that is able to receive it let him receive it § 30. 10. The business of a married state doth commonly devour almost all your time so that little is left for holy contemplations or serious thoughts of the life to come All Gods service is contracted and thrust into a corner and done as it were on the by The world will scarce allow you time to meditate or pray or read the Scripture You think your selves as Martha under a greater necessity of dispatching your business than of sitting at Christs feet to hear his Word O that single persons knew for the most part the pretiousness of their leisure and how free they are to attend the service of God and learn his Word in comparison of the married § 31. 11. There is so great a diversity of temperaments and degrees of understanding that there are scarce any two persons in the world but there is some unsuitableness between them Like stones that have some unevenness that maketh them lye crooked in the building some crossness there will be of opinion or disposition or interest or will by nature or by custome and education which will stir up frequent discontents § 32. 12. There is a great deal of duty which Husband and Wife do owe to one another As to instruct admonish pray watch over one another and to be continual helpers to each other in order to their everlasting happiness and patiently to bear with the infirmities of each other And to the weak and backward heart of man the addition of so much duty doth add to their weariness how good soever the work be in it self And men should feel their strength before they undertake more work § 33. 13. And the more they Love each other the more they participate in each others griefs And one or other will be frequently under some sort of suffering If one be sick or lame or pained or defamed or wronged or disquieted in mind or by temptation fall into any wounding sin the other beareth part of the distress Therefore before you undertake to bear all the burdens of another and suffer in all anothers hurts it concerneth you to observe your strength how much more you have than your own burdens do require § 34. 14. And if you should marry one that proveth ungodly how exceeding great would the affliction be If you loved them your souls would be in continual danger by them They would be the powerfullest instruments in the world to pervert your judgements to deaden your hearts to take you off from a holy life to kill your prayers to corrupt your lives and to damn your souls And if you should have the grace to scape the snare and save your selves it would be by so much the greater difficulty and suffering as the temptation is the greater And what a heart-breaking would it be to converse so nearly with a child of the Devil that is like to lye for ever in Hell The daily thoughts of it would be a daily death to you § 35. 15. Women especially must expect so much suffering in a Married life that if God had not put into them a natural inclination to it and so strong a love to their children as maketh them patient under the most annoying troubles the world would ere this have been at an end through their refusal of so calamitous a life Their sickness in breeding their pain in bringing forth with the danger of their lives the tedious trouble night and day which they have with their children in their nursing and their childhood besides their subjection to their husbands and continual care of family affairs being forced to consume their lives in a multitude of low and troublesome businesses All this and much more would have utterly deterred that Sex from marriage if Nature it self had not enclined them to it § 36. 16. And O what abundance of duty is incumbent upon both the Parents towards every child for Art thou discontented with thy childless state Remember that of all the Roman Kings noâ— one of them left the Crown to his Son Plutarch de â—ranq anim the saving of their souls What uncessant labour is necessary in Teaching them the Doctrine of Salvation Which made God twice over charge them to teach his word diligently or sharpen them unto their children and to talk of them when they sit in their houses and when they walk by the way and when they lye down and when they rise up Deut. 6. 6 7. 11. 19. What abundance of obstinate rooted corruptions are in the hearts of Children which Parents must by all possible diligence root up O how great and hard a work is it to speak to them of their sins and Saviour of their God their souls and the life to come with that reverence gravity seriousness and unwearied constancy as the weight of the matter doth require and to suit all their actions and carriage to the same ends Little do most that have Children know what abundance of care and labour God will require of them for the sanctifying and saving of their Childrens souls Consider your fitness for so great a work before you undertake it § 37. 17. It is abundance of affliction that is ordinarily to be expected in the miscarriages of Children when you have done your best much more if you neglect your duty as even godly Parents too often do After all your pains and care and labour you must look that the foolishness of some and the obstinacy of others and the unthankfulness of those that you have loved best should even pierce your hearts You must look that many vices should spring up and trouble you and be the more grievous by how much your children are the more dear And O what a grief it is to breed up a Child to be a servant of the Devil and an enemy of God and godliness and a persecutor of the Church of God! And to think of his lying in Hell for ever And alas how great is the number of such 18. And it is not a little care and trouble that servants will put you to so difficult is it to get those that are good much more to make them good so great is your duty in teaching them and minding them of the matters of their salvation so frequent will be the displeasures about your work and worldly business and every one of those displeasures will hinder them for receiving your instructions that most families are houses of correction or affliction § 39. 19. And these marriage Crosses are not for a year but during life They deprive you of all hope of relief while you live
that our own advantage falls in but impliedly and in evident subordination Such are the blessed works of praise and thanksgiving which we here begin and shall in Heaven perpetuate Yet see a most admirable Mystery of true Religion We indeed receive more largely from God and enjoy more fully our own felicity in him in these acts of worship that give all to God than in the other wherein we more directly seek for somewhat from him And those are the second sort of worship-actions viz. When the substance or matter of the work is a seeking or receiving somewhat from God or delivering something Religiously in his name and so is more directly for our selves though yet it 's God that should be our ultimate end in this too You may perceive I make this of three sorts Whereof the first consisteth in our religious addresses to God for something that we want And is called Prayer The 2. consisteth in our religious addresses to God to receive somewhat from him viz. 1. Instructions precepts promises threatnings from his mouth Messengers c. 2. The Sacramental signs of his grace in Baptism and the Lords Supper The 3. is when the Officers of Christ do in his name solemnly deliver either his Laws or Sacraments His Laws either in general by ordinary Preaching or by a more particular application in Acts of discipline 2. The Word Solemn signifies sometimes any thing usual and so some derive it Solenne est quod fieri solet Sometimes that which is done but on one set day in the year and so some make solenne to be quasi solum semel in anno But vulgarly it is taken and so we take it here for both celebre usit â—tum that is a thing that is not accidentally and seldom but statedly and ordinarily to be done and that with such Gravity and Honourable seriousness as beseems a business of such weight 3. By family we mean not a tribe or stock of kindred dwelling in many houses as the word is taken oâ—t in Scripture but I mean a houshold Domus familia a Houshold and family are indeed in Oeconomicks somewhat different notions but one thing Domus is to familia as civitas to respublica the former is made the subject of the latter the latter the finis internus of the former And so Domus est societas naturae consentanea e personis domesticis vitae in dies omnes commode sustentandae causa collecta Familia est ordo domus per Regimen Patris-familias in personas sibi subjectas Where note that to a compleat family must go four Integral parts Pater familias Mater familias Filius Servus A Father Mother Son and Servant But to the essence of a family it sufficeth if there be but the pars imperans pars subdita one head or Governor either Father Mother Master or Mistress and one or more governed under this head Note therefore that the Governour is an essential part of the family and so are some of the governed viz. that such their be but not each member If therefore twenty children or servants shall worship God without the Father or Master of the family either present himself or in some Representative it is not a family worship in strict sense But if the head of the family in himself or Delegate or Representative be present with any of his children or servants though all the rest be absent it is yet a family duty though the family be incompleat and maimed and so is the duty therefore if culpably so performed 4. When I say in and by a family I mean not that each must do the same parts of the work but that one either the head or some one deputed by him and representing him be the mouth and the rest perform their parts by receiving instructions or mentally concurring in the Prayers and praise by him put up Lastly by Divine appointment I mean any signification of Gods will that it is mens duty to perform this Whether a signification by natural means or supernatural directly or by consequence so we may be sure it is Gods will The sum of the Question then is Whether any Sacred Actions religiously and ordinarily to be performed to Gods honour by the head of the family with the rest be by Gods appointment made our duty My thoughts of this Question I shall reduce to these heads and propound in this order 1. I shall speak of family worship in General 2. Of the sorts of that worship in special 3. Of the time I. Concerning the first I lay down my thoughts in these Propositions following for limitation and caution and then prove the main conclusion Prop. 1. It is not all sorts of Gods worship which he hath appointed to be performed by families as Prop. 1. such There being some proper to more publick Assemblies 2. More particularly the Administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper are proper to the Ministerial or Organized Churches and not common to families for as they are both of them committed only to Ministers of the Gospel and have been only used by them for many hundred years in the Church except that some permitted others to baptize in case of necessity So the Lords Supper was appointed for a Symbole and means of a more publick communion than that of families And though some conjecture the contrary from its first institution and think that as there is a family prayer and Church prayer family teaching and Church teaching so there should be family Sacraments and Church Sacraments yet it is a Mistake For though Christ administred it to his family yet it was not as a family but as a Church For that which is but one family may possibly be a Church also This exposition we have from the Doctrine and practice of the Apostles and constant custom of all the Churches which have never thought the Lords Supper to be a family duty but proper to larger assemblies and administrable only by ordained Ministers Nor will the reasons drawn from circumcision and the passeover prove the contrary both because particular Churches were not then instituted as now and therefore families had the more to do and because there were some duties proper to families in the very institution of those Sacraments And because God gave them a power in those which he hath not given to Masters of families now in our Sacraments 3. Many thousands do by their own vitiousness and negligence disable themselves so that they cannot perform what God hath made their duty yet it remains their duty still Some disability may excuse them in part but not in whole I shall now prove that the Solemn Worship of God in and by families as such is of Divine appointment Argument 1. If Families are Societies of Gods Institution furnished with special advantages and opportunities for Gods solemn Worship having no prohibition so to use them then the solemn Worship of God in and by families as such is of
children speaking of them when thou â—ittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up and thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thy house and upon your Gates that your dayes may be multiplyed and the dayes of your children The like words are in Deut. 6. 6 7 8. where it is said And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children So Deut. 4. 9. Teach them thy sons and thy sons sons Here there is one part of Family Duty viz. Teaching children the Laws of God as plainly commanded as words can express it Arg. 2. From these texts which commend this Gen. 18. 18 19. All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him for I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord and it was not only a command at his death what they should do when he was dead For 1. It cannot be imagined that so holy a man should neglect a Duty all his life time and perform it but at death and be commended for that 2. He might then have great cause to question the efficacy 3. As God commandeth a diligent inculcating precepts on Children so no doubt it 's a practice answerable to such precepts that is here commended And it is not bare teaching but commanding that is here mentioned to shew that it must be an improvement of Authority as well as of knowledge and elocution So 2 Tim. 3. 15. Of a child Timothy knew the Scripture by the teaching of his Parents as appeareth 2 Tim. 1. 5. Arg. 3. Eph. 6. 4. Bring them up in the nurture and admontion of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated nurture signifieth both Instruction and Correction shewing that Parents must use both Doctrine and Authority or force with their Children for the Matters of the Lord and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated admonition signifieth such Instruction as putteth Doctrine into the mind and chargeth it on them and fully storeth their minds therewith And it also signifieth chiding and sometimes correction And it 's to be noted that Children must be brought up in this The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying carefully to nourish importeth that as you feed them with milk and bodily food so you must as carefully and constantly feed and nourish them with the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is called the nurture and admonition of the Lord because the Lord commandeth it and because it is the Doctrine concerning the Lord and the Doctrine of his teaching and the Doctrine that leadeth to him Arg. 4. Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way where he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Arg. 5. From all those places that charge Children to hearken to the instructions of their Parents Prov. 1. 8. My Son hear the Instruction of thy Father and forsake not the law of thy Mother Prov. 6. 20. is the like and 3. 22. with many the like Yea the Son that is stubborn and rebellious against the Instruction and Correction of a Father or Mother in Gluttony Drunkenness c. was to be brought forth to the Magistrate and stoned to death Deut. 21. 18 19 20. Now all the Scriptures that require Children to â—ear their Parents do imply that the Parents must teach their Children for there is no hearing and learning without teaching But lest you say that Parents and Children are not the whole family though they may be and in Abrahams case before mentioned the whole houshold is mentioned the next shall speak to other relations Arg. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 7. Likewise ye Husbands dwell with them your wives according to knowledge and Eph. 5. 25 26. Love your Wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it And this plainly implies that this knowledge must be used for the Instruction and sanctification of the Wife 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. Women must keep silence in the Church for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are to be under obedience as also saith the Law If they will learn any thing let them ask their Husbands at home Which shews that at home their Husbands must teach them Arg. 7. Col. 3. 22 23 24 25. Eph. 6. 5 6 7 8. Servants must be obedient unto their Masters as unto Christ and serve them as serving the Lord Christ and therefore Ministers must command in Christ. Arg. 8. A fortiori fellow Christians must exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin much more must the Rulers of families do so to Wives Children and Servants 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any speak it must be as the Oracles of God much more to our own Families Col. 3. 16. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another and much more must a man do this to Wife Children and Servants than to those more remote Arg. 9. Those that are to be chosen Deacons or Bishops must be such as Rule their own Children and their own houshold well 1 Tim. 3. 4 12. Now mark 1. That this is one of those Christian virtues which they were to have before they were made Officers therefore other Christians must have and perform it as well as they 2. It is a Religious Holy Governing such as a Minister is to exercise over his flock that is here mentioned which is in the things of God and salvation or else the comparison or argument would not suit ver 5. For if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he rule the Church of God But of this more before I would say more on this point but that I think it is so clear in Scripture as to make it needless I pass therefore to the next Prop. 3. Family Discipline is part of Gods solemn Worship or Service appointed in his Word This is Prop. 3. not called Worship in so near a sense as some of the rest but more remotely yet so it may well be called in that 1. It is an Authoritative Act done by commission from God 2 Upon such as disobey him and as such 3. And to his Glory yea and it should be done with as great solemnity and reverence as other parts of worship The Acts of this discipline are first denying the ungodly entrance into the family 2. Correcting 3. Or casting out those that are in I shall be but brief on these 1. The first you have 2 Ioh. 10. If there come any to you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds 2. The Duty of correcting either by corporal sensible punishment or by withdrawing some benefit is so commonly required in Scripture especially towards Children that
the Enemies of Religion that forbad Christs Ministers to preach his Gospel and forbad Gods servants to meet in Church-assemblies for his Worship the support of Religion and the comfort and edification of believers would then lye almost all upon the right performance of family-family-duties There Masters might teach the same truth to their housholds which Ministers are forbid to preach in the Assemblies There you might pray together as fervently and spiritually as you can There you may keep up as holy converse and communion and as strict a discipline as you please There you may celebrate the praises of your blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and observe the Lords Day in as exact and spiritual a manner as you are able You may there provoke one another to Love and to good works and rebuke every sin and mind each other to prepare for death and live together as passengers to eternal life Thus holy families may keep up Religion and keep up the life and comfort of believers and supply the want of publick preaching in those Countreys where persecutors prohibit and restrain it or where unable or unfaithful Pastors do neglect it § 8. Motive 8. The duties of your families are such as you may perform with greatest peace and least exception Motive 8. or opposition from others When you go further and would be instructing others they will think you go beyond your Call and many will be suspicious that you take too much upon you And if you do but gently admonish a rowt of such as the Sodomites perhaps they will say This one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a Iudge Gen. 19. 9. But your own house is your Castle Your family is your charge You may teach them as oft and as diligently as you will If the ungodly rabble scorn you for it yet no sober person will condemn you nor trouble you for it if you teach them no evil All men must confess that Nature and Scripture oblige you â—o it as your unquestionable work And therefore you may do it among sober people with approbation and quietness § 9. Motive 9. Well governed Families are honourable and exemplary unto others Even the worldly and Motive 9. ungodly use to bear a certain reverence to them For Holiness and Order have some witness that commendeth them in the consciences of many that never practised them A worldly ungodly disordered family is a Den of Snakes a place of hissing railing folly and confusion It is like a Wilderness overgrown with Bryars and Weeds But a holy family is a Garden of God It is beautified with his Graces and ordered by his Government and fruitful by the showres of his heavenly blessing And as the very sluggard that will not be at the cost and pains to make a Garden of his thorny Wilderness may yet confess that a Garden is more beautiful and fruitful and delightful and if wishing would do it his Wilderness should be such Even so the ungodly that will not be at the cost and pains to order their souls and families in holiness may yet see a beauty in those that are so ordered and wish for the happiness of such if they could have it without the labour and cost of self-denyal And no doubt the beauty of such holy and well governed families hath convinced many and drawn them to a great approbation of Religion and occasioned them at last to imitate them § 10. Motive 10. Lastly Consider That holy well governed families are blest with the special presence Motive 10. and favour of God They are his Churches where he is worshipped His houses where he dwelleth He is engaged both by Love and Promise to bless protect and prosper them Psal. 1. 3. 128. It is safe to sail in that Ship which is bound for Heaven and where Christ is the Pilot. But when you reject his Government you refuse his company and contemn his favour and forfeit his blessing by despising his presence his interest and his commands § 11. So that it is an evident truth that most of the mischiefs that now infest or seize upon mankind throughout the earth consist in or are caused by the disorders and ill-governedness of families These are the Schools and Shops of Satan from whence proceed the beastly ignorance lust and sensuality the devilish pride malignity and cruelty against the holy wayes of God which have so unman'd the progeny of Adam These are the Nests in which the Serpent doth hatch the Eggs of Covetousness Envy Strife Revenge of Tyranny Disobedience Wars and Bloodshed and all the Leprosie of sin that hath so odiously contaminated humane nature and all the miseries by which they make the world calamitous Do you wonder that there can be persons and Nations so blind and barbarous as we read of the Turks Tartarians Indians and most of the inhabitants of the earth A wicked education is the cause of all which finding nature depraved doth sublimate and increase the venome which should by education have been cured And from the wickedness of families doth National wickedness arise Do you wonder that so much ignorance and voluntary deceit and obstinacy in errors contrary to all mens common senses can be found among professed Christians as Great and small High and low through all the Papal Kingdom do discover Though the Pride and Covetousness and Wickedness of a worldly carnal Clergie is a very great cause yet the sinful negligence of Parents and Masters in their families is as great if not much greater than that Do you wonder that even in the Reformed Churches there can be so many unreformed sinners of beastly lives that hate the serious practice of the Religion which themselves profess It is ill education in ungodly families that is the cause of all this O therefore how great and necessary a work is it to cast Salt into these corrupted fountains Cleanse and cure these vitiated Families and you may cure almost all the calamities of the earth To tell what the Emperours and Princes of the earth might do if they were wise and good to the remedy of this common misery is the idle talk of those negligent persons who condemn themselves in condemning others Even those Rulers and Princes that are the Pillars and Patrons of Heathenisme Mahometanisme Popery and Ungodliness in the world did themselves receive that venome from their Parents in their birth and education which inclineth them to all this mischief Family-reformation is the easiest and the most likely way to a common Reformation At least to send many souls to Heaven and train up multitudes for God if it reach not to National reformation CHAP. VI. More special Motives for a holy and careful Education of Children BEcause the chief part of Family-Care and Government consisteth in the right Education of Children I shall adjoyn here some more special Motives to quicken considerate Parents to this duty And though most that I have to say for it be already said
deep rooted sins that are not easily pluckâ— up All the teaching and diligence and watchfulness that you can use is little enough and may prove too little They are obstiâ—â—te vices that have possessed them They are not quickly nor easily cast out and the remnants and roots are apt to be still springing up again when you thought they had been quite destroyed O then what wisdom and diligence is requisite to so great and necessary a work § 9. And now let me seriously speak to the hearts of those careless and ungodly Parents that neglect the holy education of their Children yea and to those Professors of Godliness that slubber over so great a work with a few customary formal duties and words that are next to a total omission of it O be not so unmerciful to the souls that you have helpâ— to bring into the world Think not so bâ—sely of them as if they were not worth your labour Make not your Children so like your Beasts as to make no provision but only for their flesh Remember still that it is not Beasts but men that you have begotten and brought forth Educate them then and use them as men for the Love and Obedience of their Maker O pity and help the souls that you have defiled and undone Have mercy on the souls that must perish in Hell if they be not saved in this day of salvation O help them that have so many enemies to assault them Help them that have so many temptations to pass through and so many difficulties to overcome and so severe a judgement to undergo Help them that are so weak and so easily deceived and overthrown Help them speedily while your advantages continue before sin have hardned them and Grace have forsaken them and Satan place a stronger Garrison in their hearts Help them while they are tractable before they are grown up to despise your help Before you and they are separated asunder and your opportunities be at an end You think not your pains from year to year too much to make provision for their bodies O be not cruel to their souls Sell them not to Satan and that for nought Betray them not by your ungodly negligence to Hell Or if any of them will perish let it not be by you that are so much bound to do them good The undoing of your childrens souls is a work much fitter for Satan than for their Purents Remember how comfortable a thing it is to work with Christ for the saving of souls You think the Calling of Ministers honourable and happy and so it is because they serve Christ in so high a work But if you will not neglect it you may do for your children more than any Minister can do This is your preaching place Here God calleth you to exercise your parts even in the holy instruction of your families Your charge is small in comparison of the Ministers He hath many hundred souls to watch over that are scattered all abroad the Parish and will you think it much to instruct and watch over those few of your own that are under your Roof You can speak odiously of unfaithful soul-betraying Ministers and do you not consider how odious a soul-betraying Parent is If God intrust you but with earthly Talents take heed how you use them for you must be accountable for your trust And when he hath entrusted you with souls even your childrens souls will you betray them If any Rulers should but forbid you the instructing and well-governing of your families and restrain you by a Law as they would have restrained Daniel from praying in his house Dan. 6. then you would think them monsters of impiety and inbumanity and you would cry out of a Satanical persecution that would make men Traytors to their childrens souls and drive away all Religion from the earth And yet how easily can you neglect such duties when none forbid them you and never accuse your selves of any such horrid impiety or inhumanity What hypocrisie and blind partiality is this Like a lazy Minister that would cry out of persecution if he were silenced by others and yet will not be provoked to be laborious but ordinarily by his slothfulness silence himself and make no such matter of it Would it be so heynous a sin in another to restrain you and is it not as heynous for you that are so much obliged to it voluntarily to restrain your selves O then deny not this necessary diligence to your necessitous children as you love their souls as you love the happiness of the Church or Commonwealth as you love the honour and interest of Christ and as you love your present and everlasting peace Do not see your children the slaves of Satan here and the firebrands of Hell for ever if any diligence of yours may contribute to prevent it Do not give Conscience such matter of accusation against you as to say All this was long of thee If thou hadst instructed them diligently and watched over them and corrected them and done thy part its like they had never come to this You till your Fields you weed your Gardens What pains take you about your grounds and Cattel and will you not take more for your childrens souls Alas what creatures will they be if you leave them to themselves how ignorant careless rude and beastly O what a lamentable case have ungodly Parents brought the world into Ignorance and selfishness beastly sensuality and devilish malignity have covered the face of the earth as a deluge and driven away wisdom and self-denyal and piety and charity and justice and temperance almost out of the world confining them to the breasts of a few obscure humble souls that love vertue for vertues sake and look for their reward from God alone and expect that by abstaining from iniquity they make themselves a prey to Wolves Isa. 59. 15. Wicked education hath unman'd the world and subdued it to Satan and made it almost like to Hell O do not joyn with the Sons of Belial in this unnatural horrid wickedness CHAP. VII The mutual Duties of Husbands and Wives towards each other § 1. IT is the pernicious subversion of all societies and so of the world that selfish ungodly persons enter into all Relations with a desire to serve themselves there and fish out all that gratifieth their flesh but without any sense of the Duty of their Relation They bethink them what honour or profit or pleasure their Relation will afford them but not Gen. 2 18 Prov. 18. 22. what God and man require or expect from them All their thought is What they shall have but not What they shall be and do They are very sensible what others should be and do to them but not what they should be and do to others Thus it is with Magistrates and with People with too many Pastors and their flocks with Husbands and Wives with Parents and Children with Masters and Servants and all other Relations Whereas our
her discontent yet the case must be resolved by such considerations And a prudent man that knoweth what is like to be the consequent on both sides may and must accordingly determine it 4. But ordinarily the life health or preservation of so proud luxurious and passionate a woman is not worth the saving at so dear a rate as the wasting of a considerable estate which might be used to relieve a multitude of the poor and perhaps to save the lives of many that are worthier to live And 1. A mans duty to relieve the poor and provide for his family is so great 2. And the account that all men must give of the use of their Talents is so strict that it must be a great reason indeed that must allow him to give way to very great wastfulness And unless there be somewhat extraordinary in the case it were better deal with such a Woman as a Bedlam and if she will be mad to use her as the mad are used than for a steward of God to suffer the Devil to be served with his masters goods Lastly I must charge the Reader to remember that both these cases are very rare and it is but few Women that are so lyable to so great mischiefs which may not be prevented at cheaper rates And therefore that the Indulgence given in these decisions is nothing to the greater part of men nor is to be extended to ordinary Cases But commonly men every where sin by omission of a stricter Government of their families and by Eli's sinful indulgence and remisness And though a Wife must be Governed as a Wife and a Child as a Child yet all must be governed as well as servants And though it may be truly said that a man cannot hinder that sin which he cannot hinder but by sin or by contributing to a greater hurt yet it is to be concluded that every man is bound to hinder sin whenever he is able lawfully to hinder it And by the same measures Tolerations or not-hindering Errours and sins about Religion in Church and Common-wealth is to be judged of None must commit them or approve them nor forbear any duty of their own to cure them But that is not a duty which is destructive which would be a duty when it were a means of edifying CHAP. X. The Duties of Parents for their Children OF how great importance the wise and holy Education of Children is to the saving of their souls and the comfort of the Parents and the good of Church and State and the happiness of the World I have partly told you before but no man is able fully to express And how great that calamity is which the World is faln into through the neglect of that duty no heart can conceive But they that think what a case the Heathen Infidel and ungodly Nations are in and how rare true piety is grown and how many millions must lie in Hell for ever will know so much of this inhumane negligence as to abhor it § 1. Direct 1. Understand and lament the corrupted and miserable state of your Children which they Direct 1. have derived from you and thank fully accept the offers of a Saviour for your selves and them and â—bsolutely See my Treat for Infant Baptism resign and dedicate them to God in Christ in the sacred Covenant and solemnize this Dedication and Covenant by their Baptism And to this end understand the command of God for entring your Children solemnly into Covenant with him and the Covenant-mercies belonging to them thereupon Rom. 5. 12 16 17 18. Ephes. 2. 1 3. Gen. 17. 4 13 14. Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Rom. 11. 17 20. Joh. 3. 3 5. Mat. 19. 13 14. You cannot sincerely dedicate your selves to God but you must dedicate to him all that is yours and in your power and therefore your Children as far as they are in your power And as Nature hath taught you your Power and your duty to enter them in their infancy into any Covenant with man which is certainly for their good and if they refuse the conditions when they come to age they forfeir the benefit so nature teacheth you much more to oblige them to God for their far greater good in case he will admit them into Covenant with him And that he will admit them into his Covenant and that you ought to enter them into it is past doubt in the evidence which the Scripture giveth us that from Abrahams time till Christ it was so with all the Children of his people Nay no man can prove that before Abrahams Time or since God had ever a Church on Earth of which the Infants of his servants if they had any were not members dedicated in Covenant to God till of late times that a few began to scruple the lawfulness of this As it is a comfort to you if the King would bestow upon your Infant-Children who were tainted by their Fathers treason not only a full discharge from the blot of that offence but also the titles and estates of Lords though they understand none of this till they come to age so is it much more matter of comfort to you on their behalf that God in Christ will pardon their Original sin and take them as his Children and give them title to everlasting life which are the mercies of his Covenant § 2. Direct 2. As soon as they are capable teach them what a Covenant they are in and what are Direct 2. the benefits and what the conditions that their souls may gladly consent to it when they understand it and you may bring them seriously to renew their Covenant with God in their own persons But the whole order of Teaching both Children and Servants I shall give you after by it self and therefore shall here pass by all that except that which is to be done more by your familiar converse than by more solemn teaching § 3. Direct 3. Train them up in exact obedience to your selves and break them of their own Direct 3. wills To that end suffer them not to carry themselves unreverently or contemptuously towards you but to keep their distance For too much Familiarity breedeth contempt and emboldeneth to disobedience The common course of Parents is to please their Children so long by letting them have what they crave and what they will till their wills are so used to be fulfilled that they cannot endure to have them denyed and so can endure no Government because they endure no crossing of their wills To be Obedient is to renounce their own wills and be ruled by their Parents or Governours wills To use them therefore to have their own wills is to teach them disobedience and harden and use them to a kind of impossibility of obeying Tell them oft familiarly and lovingly of the excellency of obedience and how it pleaseth God and what need they have of Government and how unfit they are to govern themselves and how dangerous it is to Children
to have their own wills speak often with great disgrace of self-willedness and stubbornness and tell others in their hearing what hath befâ—ln self-willed Children § 4. Direct 4. Make them neither too bold with you nor too strange or fearful and govern them Direct 4. no as servants but as Children making them perceive that you dearly love them and that all your commands restraints and corrections are for their good and not meerly because you will have it so They must be ruled as Rational Creatures that Love themselves and those that Love them If they perceive that you dearly love them they will obey you the more willingly and the easilier be brought to repent of their disobedience and they will as well obey you in heart as in outward actions and behind your back as before your face And the Love of you which must be caused by your Love to them must be one of the chiefest means to bring them to the Love of all that good which you commend to them and so to form their wills sincerely to the will of God and make them holy For if you are too strange to them and too terrible they will fear you only and not much love you And then they will love no Books no practices that you commend to them But like hypocrites they will seek to please you to your face and care not what they are in secret and behind your backâ— Nay it will tempt them to loath your government and all that good which you perswade them to and make them like birds in a Cage that watch for an opportunity to get away and get their liberty They will be the more in the company of servants and idle Children because your terrour and strangeness maketh them take no delight in yours And fear will make them lyars as oft as a lye seemeth necessary to their escape Parents that shew much love to their Children may safely shew severity when they commit a fault For then they will see that it is their fault only that displeaseth you and not their persons and your Love reconcileth them to you when they are corrected When less correction from Parents that are allway strange or angry and shew no tender love to their Children will alienate them and do no good Too much boldness of Children leadeth them before you are aware to contempt of Parents and all disobedience And too much fear and straâ—geness depriveth them of most of the benefits of your care and government But tender love with severity only when they do amiss and this at a reverend convenient distance is the only way to do them good § 5. Direct 5. Labour much to possess their hearts with the Fear of God and a reverence of the Direct 5. holy Scriptures and then whatsoever duty you command them or whatever sin you forbid them shew them sâ—me plain and urgent Texts of Scripture for it and cause them to learn them and oft repeat them that so they may find reason and Divine authority in your commands Till their obedience begin to be Rational and Divine it will be but formal and hypocritical It is Conscience that must watch them in private when you see them not And Conscience is Gods officer and not yours and will say nothing to them till it speak in the name of God This is the way to bring the Heart it self into subjection and also to reconcile them to all your commands when they see that they are first the commands of God of which more anon § 6. Direct 6. In all your speech of God and of Iesus Christ and of the Holy Scripture or the life Direct 6. to come or of any holy duty speak alwaies with gravity seriousness and reverence as of the most great and dreadful and most sacred things For before Children come to have any distinct undâ—rstanding of particulars it is a hopeful beginning to have their hearts possest with a general reverence and high esteem of holy matters For that will continually awe their Consciences and help their judgements and settle them against prejudice and prophane contempt and be as a seed of holiness in them For the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom Psal. 111 10. Prov. 9. 10. 1. 7. And the very manner of the Parents speech and carriage expressing great reverence to the things of God hath a very great power to leave the like impression on a Child Most Children of Godly Parents that ever came to good I am perswaded can tell you this by experience if their Parents did their duty in this point that the first good that ever they felt upon their hearts was a reverence to holy things which the speech and carriage of their Parents taught them § 7. Direct 7. Speak alwayes before them with great honour and praise of Holy Ministers and Direct 7. Isa. 3. 7 8 9 11 Psal. 15. 4. Psal. 101. Psal. 10. 2 3 4. people and with dispraise and loathing of every sin and of ungodly men For this also is a thing that Children will quickly and easily receive from their Parents Before they can understand particular doctrines they can learn in general what kind of persons are most happy or most miserable and they are very apt to receive such a liking or dâ—slâ—king from their Parents judgement which hath a great hand in all the following good or evil of their lives If you possess them with good and honourable thoughts of them that fear God they will ever after be enclined to think well of them and to dislike those that speak evil of them and to hear such Preachers and to wâ—sh themselves such Christians so that in this and the foregoing point it is that the first stirrings of grace in Children are ordinarily felt And therefore on the other side it is a most pernicious thing to Children when they hear their Parents speak contemptuously or lightly of holy things and persons and irreverently talk of God and Scripture and the life to come or speak dispraisingly or scornfully of Godly Ministers or people or make a jeast of the particular duties of a religious life These Children are like to receive that prejudice or prophane contempt into their hearts bâ—times which may bolt the doors against the love of God and holiness and make their salvation a work of much greater difficulty and much smaller hope And therefore still I say that wicked Parents are the most notable servants of the Devil in all the world and the bloodiest enemies to their Childrens souls More souls are damned by ungodly Parents and next them by ungodly Ministers and Magistrates than by any instruments in the world besides And hence it is also that whole Nations are so generally carryed away with enmity against the wayes of God The Heathen Nations against the true God and the Infidel Nations against Christ and the Papist Nations against Reformation and spiritual Worshippers Because the Parents speak evil to the Children of all
them not tyrannically but in tenderness and love and command them nothing that is against the Laws of God or the good of their souls Use not wrath and unmanlike fury with them nor any over-severe or unnecessary rebukes or chastisements Find fault in season with prudence and sobriety when your passions are down and when it is most likely to do good If it be too little it will embolden them in doing ill If it be too much or frequent or passionate it will make them sleight it and despise it and utterly hinder their repentance They will be taken up in blaming you for your rashness and violence instead of blaming themselves for the fault § 2. Direct 2. Provide them work convenient for them and such as they are fit for Not such or Direct 2. so much as to wrong them in their health or hinder them from the necessary means of their salvation Nor yet so little as may cherish their idleness or occasion them to lose their pretious time It is cruelty to lay more on your horse than he can carry or to work your Oxen to skin and bones Prov. 12. 10. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast much more of his servant Especially put not your servants on any labour which hazardeth their health or life without true necessity to some greater end Pity and spare them more in their health than in their bare labour Labour maketh the body sound but to take deep colds or go wet of their feet do tend to their sickness and death And should another mans Life be cast away for your commodity Do as you would be done by if you were servants your selves and in their case And let not their labours be so great as shall allow them no time to pray before they go about it or as shall so tire them as to unfit them for Prayer or instruction or the Worship of the Lords day and shall lay them like blocks as fitter to lie to sleep or rest themselves than to pray or hear or mind any thing that is good And yet take heed that you suffer them not to be idle as many great men use their Serving men to the undoing of their souls and bodies Idleness is no small sin it self and it breedeth and cherisheth many others Their time is lost by it and they are made unfit for any honest employment or course of life to help themselves or any others § 3. Direct 3. Provide them such wholsome food and lodging and such wages as their service doth Direct 3. deserve or as you have promised them Whether it be pleasant or unpleasant let their food and Col. 4. 1. lodging be healthful It is so odious an oppression and injustice to defraud a servant or labourer of his wages yea or to give him less than he deserveth that methinks I should not need to speak much against it among Christians Read Iam. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. and I hope it will be enough § 4. Direct 4. Use not your servants to be so bold and familiar with you as may tempt them to Direct 4. despise you nor yet so strange and distant as may deprive you of opportunity of speaking to them for their spiritual good or justly lay you open to be censured as too magisterial and proud Both these extreams have ill effects but the first is commonest and is the disquiet of many families § 5. Direct 5. Remember that you have a charge of the souls in your family and are as a Priest Direct 5. and Teacher in your own house and therefore see that you keep them to the constant worshipping of God especially on the Lords day in publick and private and that you teach them the things that concern their salvation as is afterward Directed And pray for them daily as well as for your selves § 6. Direct 6. Watch over them that they offend not God Bear not with ungodliness or gross sin in Direct 6. your family Read Psal. 101. Be not like those ungodly masters that look only that their own work be done and bid God look after his work himself and care not for their servants souls because they care not for their own and mind not whether God be served by others because they serve him not unless with hypocritical lip-service themselves § 7. Direct 7. Keep your servants from evil company and from being temptations to each other as Direct 7. far as you can If you suffer them to frequent Alehouses or riotous assemblies or wanton or malignant company when they are infected themselves they will bring home the infection and all the house may fare the worse for it And when Iudas groweth familiar with the Pharisees he will be seduced by them to betray his Master You cannot be accountable for your servants if you suffer them to be much abroad § 8. Direct 8. Go before them as examples of holiness and wisdom and all those virtues and duties Direct 8. which you would teach them An ignorant or a swearing cursing railing ungodly Master doth actually teach his servants to be such and if his words teach them the contrary he can expect but little reverence or success § 9. Direct 9. Patiently bear with those tolerable fâ—ailties which their unskilfulness or bodily temperature Direct 9. or other infirmity make them lyâ—ble to against their wills A willing mind is an excuse for many frailties much must be put up when it is not from wilfulness or gross neglect make not a greater matter of every infirmity or fault than there is cause Look not that any should be perfect upon earth Reckon upon it that you must have servants of the progeny of Adam that have corrupted natures and bodily weaknesses and many things that must be born with Consider how faultily you serve your Heavenly Master and how much he daily beareth with that which is amiss in you and how many faults and oversights you are guilty of in your own employment and how many you should be overtaken with if your were in their stead Eph. 6. 9. And ye Masters do the same things to them forbearing threatning knowing that your master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of persons with him Col. 4. 1. Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal c. § 10. Direct 10. See that they behave themselves well to their fellow servants of which I shall speak Direct 10. anon Tit. 2. Directions to those Masters in foraign Plantations who have Negro's and other Slaves being a solution of several Cases about them Direct 1. UNderstand well how far your Power over your slaves extendeth and what limits Direct 1. God hath set thereto As 1. Sufficiently difference between Men and Bruits Remember that they are of as good a kind as you that is They are reasonable Creatures as well as you and born to as much natural liberty If their sin have enslaved them to you yet Nature
be used but as means and not all at once but sometimes one and sometimes another when the End is still the same and paâ—t Deliberation or choice so all those Graces which are but means must be used thus variously and with deliberation and choice when the Love of God and of eternal life must be the constant tenour and constitution of the mind as being the final grace which consisteth with the exercise of every other mediate grace Never take â—o with lip-labour or bodily exercise alone nor bâ—rren thoughts unless your Hearâ—â— be also employed in a course of duty and holy breathings after God or motion towards him or in the sincere internal part of the duty which you perform to men JUSTICE and LOVE are Graces which you must still exercise towards all that you have to deal with in the world LOVE is called the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. because the LOVE of God and man is the soul of every outward duty and a cause that will bring forth these as its effects § 13. Direct 13. Keep up a high esteem of Time and be every day more careful that you lose Direct 13. none of your Time than you are that you lose none of your Gold or Silver And if vain recreations dressings feastings idle talk unprefâ—iable company or sleep be any of them Temptations to râ—â— yoâ— of any of your Time accordingly heighten your watchfulness and for in resolutions against them Be not more careful to escape Thieves and Robbers than to escape â—hat person or action or course of life that would rob you of any of your Time And for the Redeeming of Time especially see not only that you be never idle but also that you be doing the Greatest Good that you can do and prefer not a lâ—ss before a Greater § 14. Direct 14. Eat and drink with temperance and thankfulness for health and not for unprofitable Direct 14. pleasure For quantity most carefully avoid excess For many exâ—eed for one that taketh too little Never please your appetite in meat or drink when it tendeth to the detriment of your health Prov. 31. 4 6. It is not for Kings to drink Wine nor for Princes strong drink Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts Eccles. 10. 16. 17. Woe to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the worning Blessed aâ—t thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobleâ— and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness Then must poorer men also take heed of in temperance and excess Let your dyet incline rather to the courser than the finer sort and to the cheaper than the costly sort and to sparing abstinence than to fulness I would advise Rich men especially to write in great letters on the walls of their Dining rooms or Parlours these two sentences Ezek. 16. 49. BEHOLD THIS WAS THE INIQUITY OF SODOM PRIDE FULNESS OF BREAD and ABUNDANCE OF IDLENESS WAS IN HER neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy Luk. 16. 19 25. There was a certain Rich man which was CLOATHED IN PURPLE and SILK and FARED SUMPTUOUSLY every day Son remember that thou in thy life time * receivedst thy good things Paul wept when See Dr. Hammaâ—d's Annotat he mentioned them whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things being enemies to the Cross Phil. 3. 18 19. O live not after the flesh lest ye die Rom. 8. 13. Gal. 6. 8. and 5. 21 23 24. § 15. Direct 15. If any temptation prevail against you and you fall into any sins besides common infirmities Direct 15. presently lament it and confess not only to God but to men when confession conduceth more to good than harm and rise by a true and through repentance immediatly without delay Spare not the flesh and dawb not over the breach and do not by excuses palliate the sore but speedily rise whatever it cost For it will certainly cost you more to go on or to remain impenitent And for your ordinary infirmities make not too light of them but confess them and daily strive against them and examine what strength you get against them and do not aggravate them by impenitence and contempt § 16. Direct 16. Every day look to the special duties of your several Relations whether you are Direct 16. Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants Pastors People Magistrates Subjects remember that every Relation hath its special duty and its advantage for the doing of some good And that God requireth your faithfulness in these as well as in any other duty And that in these a mans sincerity or hypocrisie is usually more tryed than in any other parts of our lives § 17. Direct 17. In the evening return to the worshipping of God in the family and in secret as was Direct 17. directed for the morning And do all with seriousness as in the sight of God and in the sense of your necessities and make it your delight to receive instructions from the holy Scripture and praise God and call upon his name through Christ. § 18. Direct 18. If you have any extraordinary impediments one day to hinder you in your duty Direct 18. to God and man make it up by diligence the next And if you have any extraordinary helps make use of them and let them not overslip you As if it be a Lecture-day or a Funeral Sermon or you have opportunity of converse with men of extraordinary worth or if it be a day of humiliation or thanksgiving it may be expected that you gather a double measure of strength by such extraordinary helps § 19. Direct 19. Before you betake your selves to sleep it is ordinarily a safe and needful course Direct 19. to take a review of the Actions and Mercies of the past day that you may be specially thankful for all special mercies and humbled for your sins and may renew your repentance and resolutions for obedience and may examine your selves whether your souls grow better or worse and whether sin go down and grace increase and whether you are any better prepared for sufferings and death But yet waste not too much time in the ordinary accounts of your life as those that neglect their duty while they are examining themselves how they perform it and perplexing themselves with the long perusal of their ordinary infirmities But by a general yet sincere repentance bewail your unavoidable daily failings and have recourse to Christ for a daily pardon and renewed grace And in case of extraordinary sins or mercies be sure to be extraordinarily humbled or thankful Some think it best to keep a daily Catalogue or Diurnal of their sins and mercies If you do so be not too particular in the enumeration of those that are the matter of every dayes return For it
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
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
intent to swear either mentally or verbally As if an Englishman be taught to use the words of an oath in French and made believe that they have a contrary sense 3. Who only narratively recited the words of an oath as a reporter or historian without a real or professed intent of swearing 2. Reputatively he did not swear 1. Who spake the words of an Oath in his sleep or in a deliration distraction madness or such prevalent melancholy as mastereth Reason When a man is not compos mentis his act is not actus humanus 2. When a mans hand is forcibly moved by another against his will to subscribe the words of an Oath or Covenant For if it be totally involuntary it is not a moral act But Words cannot be forced For he that sweareth to save his life doth do it voluntarily to save his life The will may be moved by fear but not forced Yet the person that wrongfully frighteneth another into consent or to swear hath no right to any benefit which he thought to get by force or fraud and so in foro civili such Promises or Covenants or oaths may quoad effectum be reputatively null And he that by putting his sword to another mans breast doth compell him to swear or subscribe and seal a deed of Gift may be judged to have no right to it but to be punishable for the force But though this Covenant or promise be Null in foro humano because the person cannot acquire a right by violence yet the Oath is not a Nullity before God For when God is made a party he hath a right which is inviolable and when he is appealed to or made a witness his name must not be taken in vain 3. It is a nullity reputatively when the person is Naturally uncapable of self-obligation as in infancy when Reason is not come to so much maturity as to be naturally capable of such a work I say Naturally uncapable for the Reasons following § 40. Rule 26. We must distinguish between a Natural incapacity of Vowing or Swearing at all and Rule 26. an incapacity of doing it lawfully And between a true Nullity and when the Oath is only quasi nullum or as Null quoad effectum or such as I must not keep There are many real Oaths and Vows which must not be kept and so far are quasi nulla as to the effecting of the thing Vowed but they are not simply Null For they have the effect of making the man a sinner and perjured They are sinful Vows and therefore Vows A Natural incapacity proveth it no Vow at all But if I am naturally capable and only forbidden by God or man this maketh it not No Vow but a sinful Vow of which â—â—me must be kept and some must not § 41. In these following cases a real Vow is quasi nullum or must not be kept Cases in which a Vow must not be kept 1. In case the thing Vowed all things considered be a thing which God hath forbidden to be done that is in case it be a thing in it self evil But if the thing in it self be a duty though there be some inseparable sins which we shall be guilty of in the performance we must not therefore leave the duty it self undone which we have vowed As if I vow to Praise God and yet am sure that I cannot praise him without a sinful defect of that Love and Delight in him which is due I must not therefore forbear to praise him Else we must cast off all other duty because we cannot do it without some sin But yet though in case of unwilling infirmity we must thus do the duty though we are sure to sin in it yet in case of any chosen voluntary sin which we have an immediate power to avoid we must rather forbear the duty it self Vowed or not Vowed than commit such a sin As iâ— I vow to preach the Gospel and am forcibly hindered unless I would voluntarily tell one Lye or commit one sin wilfully for this liberty I ought rather never to preach the Gospel nor is it then a duty but become morally impossible to me As if in France or Spain I may not preach unless I would take Pope Pius his Trent Confession or Oath Nay if those very defects of Love and wandering thoughts which now inseparably cleave to my best performances were morally and immediately in my power and I could avoid them I ought not Electively and by Consent to commit them for any liberty of duty but rather to forbear the Duty it self as no Duty to me when it cometh upon such conditions For then it is supposed that I could serve God better without that Duty because I could Love him more c. Yet here is observable a great deal of difference between Omissions and Commissions A man may never commit a sin that good may come by it though he vowed the good But a man may oft times omit that which else would have been his duty to do some good which he hath vowed For Negative commands bind semper ad semper but the Affirmative do not at least as to outward duty Therefore in case of necessity a man may himself Consent to the present omission of some good for the escaping of greater unavoidable omissions another time or for the performing of a Vow or greater duty which is to be preferred § 42. 2. A Vow is not to be kept when the matter of it is unjust and injurious to another unless you have his consent As if you Vow to give away another mans lands or goods or to do him wrong by word or deed Or if you vow to forbear to pay him his due or to do that which you owe him As if a servant vow to forbear his Masters work unless it be so small an injury as he can other wayes repair or a Husband or Wife or Parents or Children or Prince or Subjects should Vow to deny their necessary duties to each other Here mans right together with Gods Law doth make it unjust to perform such Vows § 43. 3. A Vow is as Null or not to be kept when the matter is something that is morally or civilly out of our power to do As if a Servant or Child or Subject vow to do a thing which he cannot do lawfully without the consent of his superiour This Vow is not simply Null for it is a sinful Vow unless it was conditional Every rational creature is so far sui juris as that his soul being immediately subject to God he is capable of obliging himself to God and so his Vow is a real sinful Vow when he is not so far sui juris as to be capable of a Lawful Vowing or doing the thing which he voweth Such a one is bound to endeavour to get his superiours consent but not without it to perform his Vow no though the thing in it self be lawful For God having antecedently bound me to obey my superiours
cannot dispense with us for not Loving our Neighbours or not shewing mercy to the poor oâ— saving the lives of the neâ—dy in 〈◊〉 and diâ—â—ress Else they that at last shall hear I was hungry aâ—d yâ—â—â—â—â— mâ— not I was nâ—ked and ye 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— I was in prison and ye visited me not might oft say â—â—â—◠〈…〉 〈◊〉 Magistrates for bad â—s Yet a lâ—ssâ—r Moral duty may be forbidden by the Magistrate for the sake of a greater because then it is no duty indeed and may be forborn if he forbid it not As to save one manâ— liâ—â— iâ— it would prove the death of a multitude or to save one mans house on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—o woâ—lâ—â—â—â—â—â—any Therefore 10. Iâ— is lawful and â— dâ—â—â—â— to for â—â—â—â— some certain â—â—â—â— or number of Sermons Prayers or Sacraments c. when â—â—â—â—er the present â—se of them would apparently pâ—oâ—â—re more hâ—rt than good o◠〈…〉 forbear 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â— like to prâ—â—â—â—â— moâ—â— good than the doing of them For they are all for our Edification and are made for man and not man for them though for God As if forbearing this dâ—y 〈◊〉 pâ—â—â—â—uâ—â—â—â—â—â— liâ—â—â—â—y for many dayes serviâ—e afterward c. 〈…〉 at the 〈◊〉 oâ—â—an to forsake or forbear our Calling and duty when it is to bâ— judged Necessary to the honour of God to the good of the Church and of mens souls that is whâ—n aâ—â—in 〈◊〉 case Dan. 6. our Religion it self and our owning the true God doth seeâ— suspended by the suspence of our duty Or when the multitude of ignorant hardened â—â—godly souls and the want of fit men for number and quality doth put it past Controversie that our work is greatly necessary 12. Those that are not Immediately called by Christ as were the Apostles but by men being yet Mat. â—8 20. Râ—m 10. 14. 1 â—or 9. 16. â—â—â—â— â— 4â— 10. 4â— â—â—â—m 4 1 2. â—â—â—â— 8 4 12. 1â— 3â— statedly obliged to the death when they are called may truly say as Paul Necessity is laid upon me and woe â—e to me if I preach not the Gospel 13. Papists and Protestants concurr in this judgement Papists will preach when the Law forbids them And the judgement of Protestants is among others by Bishop Bilson of subjection and Bishop Andrews Tortur Tort. plainly so asserted 14. But all that are bound to preach are not bound to do it to the same number nor in the same manner as they have not the same opportunity and call Whether it shall be in this place or that to more or fewer at this hour or that are not determined in Scripture nor alike to all 15. The Temples tythes and such adjuncts of Worship and Ministry are at the Magistrates dispose and must not be invaded against his Laws 16. Where any are obliged to Preach in a forbidden discountenanced state they must study to do it with such prudence caution peaceableness and obedience in all the Lawful circumstantials as may tend to maintain peace and the honour of Magistracy and to avoid temptations to sedition and unruly passions Quest. 81. May we lawfully keep the Lords day as a fast Answ. NOt ordinarily Because God hath made it a day of thanksgiving And we must not pervert it from the use to which it was appointed by God But in case of extraordinary necessity it may be done As 1. In case that some great judgement call us so suddenly to humiliation and fasting as that it cannot be deâ—erred to the next day As some sudden invasion fire sickness c. Luk. 6. 5. 13. â—â— Maâ— 2. In case by persecution the Church be denyed liberty to meet on any other day in a time when publick fasting and prayer is a duty 3. In case the people be so poor or servants Children and Wives be so hardly restrained that they cannot meet at any other time It is lawful in such cases because Positives give way to Moral or Natural duties caeteris paribus and lesser duties unto greater The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath Quest. 82. How should the Lords day be spent in the main Answ. I Have so far opened that in the Family-directions that I will now only say 1. That Eâ—charistical worship is the great work of the day And that it should be kept as a day of publick Psal. 92. 1 2 3 4 5. Psal. 118. 1 2 3 15 19 23 24 27 28 29. Act. 20. 7 9. Rev. 1. 10. Act. 24. 14 25 26 c. Psal. 16. 7 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Thanksgiving for the whole work of Redemption especially for the Resurrection of our Lord. 2. And therefore the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was alwayes a chief part of its observation in the primitive Churches Not meerly for the Sacrament sake but because with it was still joyned all the Laudatory and Thanksgiving worship And it was the Pastors work so to pray and praise God and preach to the people as tendeth most to possess their souls with the liveliest sense of the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the holy Spirit on the account of our Redemption 3. Though confession of sin and humiliation must not be the chief work of the day yet it may and must come in as in due subordination to the chief 1. Because there are usually many persons present who are members only of the visible Church and are not fit for the Laudatory and rejoycing part 2. Because while we are in the flesh our sâ—lvation is imperfect and so are we and much sin still remaineth which must be a grief and burden to believers And therefore while sin is mixt Psal. 2. 9 10 11. Heb. 12. 28 29. with grace Repentance and sorrow must be mixed with our Thanksgivings and we must rejoyce with trembling And though we receive a Kingdom which cannot â—e moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with reverence and Godly fear because our God is a consuming fire 3. Our sin and misery being that which we are saved from doth enter the definition of our salvation And without the sense of theâ— we can never know aâ—ight what mercy is nor ever be truly glad and thankful But yet take heed that this subordinate duty be not pretended for the neglecting of that Thanksgiving which is the work of the day Quest. 83. May the people bear a Vocal part in Worship or do any more than say Amen Answ. YEs The people should say Amen that is openly signifie their consent But the meaning 1 Cor. 14. Psal. 150. 81 2 3. 98. 5. 94. 1 2 3 c. 105. 7. 2 c. 145. thoughout Col. 3 16. is not that they must do no more nor otherwise express their consent saving by that single word For 1. There is no Scripture which forbiddeth more 2. The people bear an equal part in singing the Psalms which are prayer and praise
cannot do with greater assemblies yea and to omit some assemblies for a time that we may thereby have opportunity for more which is not formal but only material obedience 4. But if it be only some circumstances of Assembling that are forbidden us that is the next case to be resolved Quest. 110. Must we obey the Magistrate if he only forbid us Worshiping God in such a place or Countrey or in such numbers or the like Answ. WE must distinguish between such a determination of Circumstances modes or accidents What if we be forbidden only Place Numbers c. as plainly destroy the worship or the end and such as do not For instance 1. He that â—aith You shall never assemble but once a year or never but at midnight or never above six or seven minutes at once c. doth but determine the circumstance of Time But he doth it so as to destroy the worship which cannot so be done in consistency with its ends But he that shall say You shall not meet till nine a clock nor stay in the night c. doth no such thing So 2. He that saith You shall not assemble but at forty miles distance one from another or you shall meet only in a room that will hold but the twentieth part of the Church or you shall never Preach in any City or popular place but in a Wilderness far from the inhabitants c. doth but determine the circumstance of Place But he so doth it as tends to destroy or frustrate the work which God commandeth us But so doth not he that only boundeth Churches by Parish bounds or forbâ—deth inconvenient places 3. So he that â—aith You shall never meet under a hundred thousand together or never above five or six doth but determine the accident of Number But he so doth it as to destroy the work and end For the first will be impossible And in the second way they must keep Church assemblies without Ministers when there is not so many as for every such little number to have one But so doth not he that only saith You shall not meet above ten thousand nor under ten 4. So he that saith You shall not hear a Trinitarian but an Arrian or you shall hear only one that cannot preach the essentials of Religion or that cryes down Godliness it self or you shall hear none but such as were ordained at Ierusalem or Rome or none but such as subscribe the Council of Trent c. doth but determine what person we shall hear But he so doth it as to destroy the work and end But so doth not he that only saith You shall hear only this able Minister rather than that 2. I need not stand on the application In the later case we owe formal obedience In the former we must suffer and not obey For if it be meet so to obey it is meet in obedience to give over Gods worship Christ said when Mat. 10. 13. Maâ— 16. 15. Maâ— 28. 19. 1 Tim. 2. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. 4. 1 2 â— they persecute you in one City flee to another But he never said If they forbid you Preaching in any City or populous place obey them He that said Preach the Gospel to every Creature and to all Nations and all the World and that would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth doth not allow us to forsake the souls of all that dwell in Cities and populous places and Preach only to some few Cottingers elsewhere No more than he will allow us to Love pity and relieve the bodies only of those few and take none for our Neighbours that dwell in Cities but with Priest and Levite to pass them by Quest. 111. Must Subjects or servants forbear weekly Lectures Reading or such helps above the Lords dayes worship if Princes or Masters do command it Answ. 1. THere is great difference between a meer subject or person governed and a servant slâ—ve or child 2. There is great difference between such as are hindered by just cause and real necessities and such as are hindered only through prophane malignity 1. Poor people have not so much leisure from their callings as the Rich And so providing for their families may at that time by necessity become the greater and the present duty 2. So may it be with Souldiers Judges and others that have present urgent work of publick consequence when others have no such impediment 3. He that is the child or slave of another or is his own by propriety is more at his power than he that is only a subject and so is but to be Governed in order to his own and the common good 4. A servant that hath absolutely hired himself to another is for that time neer the condition of a slave But he that is hired but with limitations and exceptions of Liberty exprest or understood hath right to the excepted liberty 5. If the King forbid Judges Souldiers or others whose labours are due to the publick to hear Sermons at the time when they should do their work Or if Parents or Masters so forbid Children and servants they must be obeyed while they exclude not the publick Worship of the Lords own day nor necessary Prayer and duty in our private daily cases 6. But he that is under such bondage as hindereth the needful helps of his soul should be gone to a freer place if Lawfully he can But a Child Wife or such as are not free must trust on Gods help in the use of such means as he alloweth them 7. A Prince or Tutor or Schoolmaster who is not a Proprietor of the person but only a Governour is not to be obeyed formally and for Conscience sake if he forbid his Subjects or Scholars such daily or weekly helps for their salvation as they have great need of and have no necessity to forbear such as are hearing or assembling with the Church on the week dayes at convenient time Reading the Scriptures daily or good Books accompanying with men fearing God praying c. Because God hath commanded these when we can perform them Quest. 112. Whether Religious Worship may be given to a Creature and what Answ. WHile the terms of the Question remain ambiguous it is uncapable of an answer 1. By Worship is meant either Cultus in genere any honour expressed to another Or some special act of honour We must understand the Question in the first General sense or else we cannot answer it till men tell us what Acts of honouring they mean 2. By Religious is meant either in general that which we are bound to by God or is done by virtue of a Religious that is a Divine obligation and so is made part of our Religion that is of our obedience to God Or else by Religious is meant Divine or that which is properly due to God The question must be taken in the first general sense or else it is no question but
knowledge The wise and the foolish must not be spoken to alike 2. According to the variety of their moral qualities One may be very pious and another weak in grace and another only teachable and tractable and another wicked and impenitent and another obstinate and scornful These must not be talkt to with the same manner of discourse 3. According to the variety of particular sins which they are inclined to which in some is pride in some sensuality lust or idleness in some covetousness and in some an erroneous zeal against the Church and cause of Christ Every wise Physicion will vary his remedies not only according to the kind of the disease but according to its various accidents and the complexion also of the patient § 8. Direct 8. Be sure to do most where you have most authority and obligation He that will Direct 8. neglect and slight his Family Relations Children and Servants who are under him and alwayes with him and yet be zealous for the Conversion of strangers doth discover much hypocrisie and sheweth that it is something else than the love of souls or sense of duty which carryeth him on § 9. Direct 9. Never speak of holy things but with the greatest reverence and seriousness you can Direct 9. The manner as well as the matter is needful to the effect To talk of sin and conversion of God and eternity in a common running careless manner as you speak of the men and the matters of the world is much worse than silence and tendeth but to debauch the hearers and bring them to a contempt of God and holiness I remember my self that when I was young I had sometime the company of one antient godly Minister who was of weaker parts than many others but yet did profit me more than most because he would never in prayer or conference speak of God or the life to come but with such marvellous seriousness and reverence as if he had seen the Majesty and Glory which he talkt of § 10. Direct 10. Take heed of inconsiderate imprudent passages which may marr all the rest and Direct 10. give malignant auditors advantage of contempt and scorn Many honest Christians through their ignorance thus greatly wrong the cause they manage I would I might not say Many Ministers Too few words is not so bad as one such imprudent foolish word too much § 11. Direct 11. Condescend to the weak and bear with their infirmity If they give you foolish Direct 11. answers be not angry and impatient with them yea or if they perversly cavil and contradict For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing opposers if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. He is a foolish Physicion that cannot bear the words of a phrenetick or delirant Patient § 12. Direct 12. When you are among those that can teach you be not so forward to teach as to Direct 12. learn Be not eager to vent what you have to say but desirous to hear what your betters have to say Questions in such a case should be most of your part It requireth great skill and diligence to draw that out of others which may profit you And be not impatient if they cross your opinions or open your ignorance Yea those that you can teach in other things yet in some things may be able to add much to your knowledge Tit. 3. Special Directions for Reproof and Exhortation for the Good of Others THis duty is so great that Satan hindereth it with all his power and so hard that most men quite omit it unless an angry reproach may go for Christian Exhortation And some spoil it in the management And some proud censorious persons mistake the exercise of their pride and passion for the exercise of a charitable Christian duty and seem to be more sensible of their neighbours sin and misery than of their own Therefore that you miscarry not in so needful a work I shall add these following Directions § 1. Direct 1. Be sure first that your reproof have a right end and then let the manner be suited to Direct 1. that end If it be to convince and convert a soul it must be done in a manner likely to prevail If it be only to bear down the arguments of a deceiver to preserve the standers by to vindicate the honour of God and godliness and to dishonour sin and to disgrace an obstinate factor for the Devil then another course is fit Therefore resolve first by the quality of the cause and person what must be your end § 2. Direct 2. Be sure that you reprove not that as a sin which is no sin either by mistaking the Direct 2. Law or the fact To make duties and sins of our own opinions and inventions and then to lay out our zeal on these and censure or reprove all that think as hardly of such things as we this is to make our selves the objects of the hearers pity and not to exercise just pity towards others Such reproofs deserve reproof For they discover great ignorance and pride and self-conceitedness and very much harden sinners in their way and make them think that all reproof is but the vanity of fantastical hypocrites In some cases with a child or servant or private friend or for prevention we may speak of faults upon hearsay or suspicion But it must be as of things uncertain and as a warning rather than a reproof In ordinary Reproof you must understand the case before you speak It is a shame to say after I thought it had been otherwise Such an erroneous reproof is worse than none § 3. Direct 3. Choose not the smallest sins to reprove nor the smallest duties to exhort them to For Direct 3. that will make them think that all your zeal is taken up with little matters and that there is no great necessity of regarding you and conscience will be but little moved by your speech when greater things will greatly and more easily affect men § 4. Direct 4. Stop not with unregenerate men in the mention of particular sins or duties but Direct 4. make use of particulars to convince them of a state of sin and misery It is easie to convince a man that he is a sinner and when that is done he is never the more humbled or converted For he will tell you that All are sinners and therefore he hopeth to speed as well as you But you must make him discern his sinful state and shew him the difference between a penitent sinner and an impenitent a converted sinner and an unconverted a justified pardoned sinner and an unjustified unpardoned one or else you 'l do him but little good § 5. Direct 5. Suit the manner of your reproof to the quality of the person It is seldome that a Direct 5. Parent Master or
Vows The use the obligation VVhether any things be indifferent and such may be Vowed As Marrying c. May we Vow things Indifferent in themselves though not in their circumstances In what Cases we may not Vow VVhat if Rulers command it VVhat if I doubt whether the Matter imposed be lawful Of Vowing with a doubting Conscience Tit. 2. Directions against Perjury and Perfidiousness and for keeping Vows and Oaths The heinousness of Perjury Thirty six Rules about the obligation of a Vow to shew when and how far it is obligatory useful in an age stigmatized with open Perjury Mostly out of Dr. Sanderson VVhat is the Nullity of an Oath Cases in which Vows must not be kept p. 700 How far Rulers may Nullifie a Vow Numb 30. opened Of the Accidental Evil of a Vow Of Scandal Q. Doth an error de persona caused by that person disoblige me ibid. CHAP. VI. Directions to the people concerning their Internal and private duty to their Pastors and their profiting by the Ministerial Office and Gifts p. 714 The Ministerial Office opened in fifteen particulars The Reasons of it The true old Episcopacy Special duties to your own Pastors above others Of the Calling Power and Succession of Pastors The best to be preferred The Order of Minirial Teaching and the Resolution of faith How far Humane faith conduceth to Divine Of Tradition VVhat use to make of your Pastors to p. 724 CHAP. VII Directions for the discovery of Truth among Contenders and how to escape Heresie and deceit Cautions for avoiding deceit in Disputations p. 725 CHAP. VIII Directions for the Union and Communion of Saints and for avoiding unpeaceableness and Schism p. 731 VVherein our Unity consisteth VVhat diversity will be in the Churches VVhat Schism is VVhat Heresie VVhat Apostasie VVho are Schismaticks The degrees and progress of it VVhat Separation is a duty Q. Is any one form of Church Government of Divine appointment May man make new Church Officers The Benefits of Christian Concord to themselves and to Insidels The mischiefs of Schism VVhether Papists or Protestants are Schismaticks The aggravations of Division Two hinderances of our true apprehension of the evil of Schism Direrections against it Of imposing defective Liturgies The Testimonies of antiquity against the bloody and Cruel way of Curing Schism Their Character of Ithacian Prelates CHAP. IX Twenty Directions how to worship God in the Church Assemblies p. 755 CHAP. X. Directions about our Communion with holy souls departed now with Christ. p. 758 CHAP. XI Directions about our Communion with the holy Angels p. 763 The Contents of the Ecclesiastical Cases of Conscience added to the Third Part. Q. 1. HOw to know which is the true Church among all pretenders that a Christians Conscience may be quiet in his Relation and communion p. 771 Q. 2. Whether we must esteem the Church of Rome a true Church And in what sence some Protestant Divines affirm it and some deny it p. 774 Q. 3. Whether we must take the Romish Clergie for a true Ministry p. 775 Q. 4. Whether it be necessary to believe that the Pope is the Antichrist p. 777 Q. 5. Whether we must hold that a Papist may be saved p. 778 Q. 6. Whether those that are in the Church of Rome are bound to separate from it And whether it be lawful to go to their Mass or other worship p. 779 Q. 7. Whether the true calling of the Minister by Ordination or Election be necessary to the essence of the Church ibid Q. 8. Whether sincere faith and Godliness be necessary to the being of the Ministry And whether it be lawful to hear a wicked man or take the Sacrament from him or take him for a Minister p. 780 Q. 9. Whether the people are bound to receive or consent to an ungodly intolerable heretical Pastor yea or one far less fit and worthy than a competitor if the Magistrate command it or the Bishop impose him p. 781 Q. 10. What if the Magistrate command the people to receive one Pastor and the Bishop or Ordainers another which of them must be obeyed p. 787 Q. 11. Whether an uninterrupted succession either of right Ordination or of conveyance by jurisdiction be necessary to the being of the Ministry or of a true Church p. 787 Q. 12. Whether there be or ever was such a thing in the world as one Catholick Church constituted by any head besides or under Christ p. 789 Q 13. Whether there be such a thing as a visible Catholick Church and what it is ibid. Q. 14. What is it that maketh a visible member of the universal Church and who are to be accounted such p. 790 Q. 15. Whether besides the profession of Christianity either testimony or evidence of conversion or practical Godliness be necessary to prove a man a member of the Universal visible Church ibid. Q. 16. What is necessary to a mans reception into membership in a particular Church over and above this foresaid title Whether any other tryals or Covenant or What p. 791 Q. 17. Wherein doth the Ministerial office Essentially consist p. 792 Q. 18. Whether the peoples choice or consent is necessary to the office â—f a Minister in his first work as he is to convert Insidels and Baptize them And whether this be a work of office and what call is necessary to it p. 793 Q. 19. Wherein consisteth the power and nature of Ordination and To whom doth it belong and Is it an act of jurisdiction and Is imposition of hands necessary in it p 794 Q. 20. Is ordination necessary to make a man a Pastor of a particular Church as such and Is he to be made a General Minister and a particular Church-Elder or Pastor at once and at one Ordination p. 795 Q. 21. May a man be oft or twice ordained p. 796 Q. 22. How many ordainers are necessary to the validity of Ordination by Christs Institution Whether one or more p. 798 Q. 23. What if one Bishop Ordain a Minister and three or many or all the rest protest against it and declare him no Minister or degrade him is he to be received as a true Minister or not ibid. Q. 24. Hath a Bishop power by divine right to ordain degrade or govern excommunicate or absolve in another Diocess or Church either by his consent or against it And doth a Minister that officiateth in anothers Church act as a Pastor and their Pastor or as a private man And doth his Ministerial office cease when a man removeth from his flock p. 799 Q. 25. Whether Canons Be Laws and Pastors have a Legislative power p. 800 Q. 26. Whether Church-canons or Pastors directive determinations of matters pertinent to their Office do bind the Conscience and what accidents will disoblige the people you may gather before in the same case about Magistrates Laws in the Political Directions As also by an impartial transferring the case to the precepts of Parents and School-masters to Children without respect to
any such necessary p. 916 Q. 173. What particular Directions for Order of Studies and Books should be observed by young Students who intend the Sacred Ministry p. 917 Q. 174. What Books should a poor man choose that for want of money or Time can have or read but few There are three Catalogues set down but somewhat disorderly as they came into my memory 1. The smallest or Poorest Library 2. A poor Library that hath considerable Additions to the former 3. Some more Additions to them for them that can go higher With some additional Notes p. 921 TOME IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. GEneral Directions for an Upright Life p. 1 The most passed by on necessary reasons CHAP. II. A few brief Memoranda to Rulers for the interest of Christ the Church and mens salvation p. 5 CHAP. III. Directions to Subjects concerning their duty to Rulers p. 9. Of the Nature and Causes of Government Mr. Richard Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy as it is for Popularity examined and confuted Directions for obedience Duty to Rulers Q. Is the Magistrate Iudge in Controversies of faith or worship p. 20. Q. 2. May the Oath of Supremacy be lawfully taken in which the King is pronounced Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil p. 20. Q. 3. Doth not this give the Pastors power to the Magistrate Q. 4. Hath the King power of Church Discipline and Excommunication Q. 5. If Kings and Bishops differ which must be obeyed Q. Is he obliged to suffer who is not obliged to obey p. 25. Of admonition of Rulers Q. 1. Whether the sound Authors of Politicks be against Monarchy Q. 2. Whether Civilians be against it Q. 3. Are Historians against it Greek Roman or Christian Q. 4. Whether Athens Rome Aristotle Philosophers Academies be against it Q. 5. Are Divines and Church discipline against it Q. 6. Is Scripture and Christianity against it Objections answered Q. Are Papists Prelatists and Puritans against it Bilson and Andrews Vindication of the Puritans Christianity is the greatest help to Government Further Directions Tit. 2. Q. Whether mans Laws bind the Conscience Q. Is it a sin to break every Law of man More fully answered p. 36 37 CHAP. IV. Directions to Lawyers about their Duty to God p. 39 CHAP. V. The Duty of Physicions p. 43 CHAP. VI. Directions to Schâ—olmasters about their duties for Childrens souls p. 44 CHAP. VII Directions for Souldiers about their duty in point of Conscience Princes Nobles Iudges and Iustices are past by lest they take Counsel for injury p. 46 CHAP. VIII Advice against Murder p. 50. The Causes of it Wars Tyranny malignant persecuting fury Unrighteous judgement oppression and uncharitableness Robbery Wrath Guilt and Shame Malice and Revenge wicked Impatience Covetousness Ambition c. The Greatness of the sin The Consequents Tit. 2. Advice against Self-murder The Causes to be avoided Melancholy worldly trouble discontent passion c. p. 54. Besides Gluttony Tipling and Idleness the great Murderers CHHP. IX Directions for the forgiving of injuries and enemies Against wrath malice revenge and persecution Practical Directions Curing Considerations Twenty p. 56 CHAP. X. Cases resolved about forgiving wrongs and debts and about self defence and seeking â—ur Right by Law or otherwise p. 61 Q. What injuries are we bound to forgive Neg. and Affir resolved Q. 2. What is the meaning of Matth. 5. 38 c. Resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee c. p. 63 Q. 3. Am I bound to forgive another if he ask me not forgiveness Luke 17. 3 c. p. 64 Q. 4. Is it lawful to sue another at Law 1 Cor. 6. 7. Q. 5. Is it lawful to defend our lives or estates against a Robber Murderer or unjust Invader by force of Arms Q. 6. Is it lawful to take away anothers life in defending my purse or estate only p. 65 Q. 7. May we kill or wound another in defence or vindication of our honour or good name p. 66 CHAP. XI Special Directions to escape the guilt of persecution Determining much of the Case about Liberty in matters of Religion p 67. What is persecution The several kinds of it The greatness of the sin Understand the Case of Christs interest in the world Q. Whether particular Churches should require more of their members as Conditions of Communion than the Catholick Church and What Penalties to be chosen that hinder the Gospel least More Directions to the number of forty one CHAP. XII Directions against Scandal as Given p. 80. What Scandal is and what not The sorts of scandalizing The Scripture sense of it Twenty Directions CHAP. XIII Directions against Scandal taken or an aptness to receive hurt by the words or deeds of others Especially quarrelling with Godliness p. 88. or taking encouragement to sin Practical Directions against taking hurt by others p. 90. CHAP. XIV Directions against soul-murder and partaking of other mens sins p. 92 The several wayes of destroying souls How we are not guilty of other mens sin and ruine CHAP. XV. General Directions for furthering the salvation of others p. 95 CHAP. XVI Special Directions for holy Conference Exhortation and Reproof Tit. 1. Motives to holy Conference and Exhortation p 97 Tit. 2. Directions to Christian edifying discourse p. 100 Tit. 3. Special Directions for Exhortations and Reproofs p. 101 CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men How the Proud do hinder Peace Many more Causes and Cures opened p. 103 CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft fraud or injurious getting keeping or desiring that which is anothers p. 107 Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Theft and such injuries Q. 1. Is it sin to steal to save ones life Q. 2. May I take that which another is bound to give me and will not Q. 3. May I take my own from an unjust borrower or possessor if I cannot otherwise get it Q. 4. May I recover my own by force from him that taketh it by force from me Q. 5. May we take from the Rich to relieve the poor Q. 6. If he have so much as that he will not miss it may I take some Q. 7. May not one pluck ears of Corn or an Apple from a Tree c. Q. 8. May a Wife Child or Servant take more than a Cruel Husband Parent or Master doth allâ—w May Children forsake their Parents for such Cruelty Q. 9. May I take what a man forfeiteth penally Q. 10. What if I resolve when I take a thing in necessity to make satisfaction if ever I be able Q. 11. What if I know not whether the Owner would consent Q. 12. May I take in jeast from a friend with a purpose to restore it Q 13. May I not take from another to prevent his hurting himself Q. 14. May I take away Cards Dice Play-books Papist-books by which he would hurt his soul. Q 15. May not a Magistrate take the Subjects goods when it is necessary to their own preservation Q 16. May I take from
6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâ—lâ—er did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâ—mesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ— admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
would frighten the world out of their wits no doubt but other Bishops also would make use of it and say All are damned that will not be subject to us But if you would see the folly and mischief of Popery both in this and other points I refer you to my Treatise of the Catholick Church and my Key for Catholicks and my Safe Religion and my Disput at against Johnson and my Winding-sheet for Popery § 8. 3. Another temptation to confound you in your Religion is by filling your heads with practical 3 By Sâ—rupuloâ—iâ—y scrupulosity so that you cannot go on for doubting every step whether you go right and when you should cheerfully serve your Master you will do nothing but disquiet your minds with scruples whether this or that be right or wrong Your remedy here is not by caâ—â—ing away all care of pleasing God or fear of sinning or by debauching conscience but by a cheerful and quiet obedience to God so far as you know his will and an upright willingness and endeavour to understand it better and a thankful receiving the Gospel-pardon for your failings and infirmities Be faithful in your obedience but live still upon Christ and think not of reaching to any such obedience as shall set you above the need of his merits and a daily pardon of your sins Do the best you can to know the will of God and do it But when you know the Essentials of Religion and obey sincerely let no remaining wants deprive you of the comfort of that so great a Mercy as proves your â—â—ght to life â—â—â—â—nal In your sâ—â—king further for more knowledge and obedience let your care be such as tendeth to your profitting and furthering you to your end and as doth not hinder your joy and thanks for what you have received But that which destroyeth your joy and thankfulness and doth but perplex you and not further you in your way is but hurtful scrupulosity and to be laid by When you are right in the main thank God for that and be further solicitous so far as to help you on but not to hinder you It you send your servant on your message you had rather he went on his way as well as he can than stand scrupling every step whether he should set the right or left foot forward and whether he should step so far or so far at a time c. Hindering scruples please not God § 9. 4. Another way to confound you in your Religion is by setting you upon overdoing by inventions of your own when a poor soul is most desirous to please God the Devil will be Religious and set him upon some such taâ—k of Voluntary humility or Will-worship as the Apostle speaks of Col. 2. 18 20 21 22 23. or sâ—t him upon some ensnaring unnecessary Vows or Resolutions or some Popâ—sh works of conâ—â—ited supâ—rerogation which is that which Solomon calleth being righte us overmuch Eccles. 7. 16. Thus many have made duties to themselves which God never made for them and taken that for sin which God never forbad them The Popish Religion is very much made up of such Commandments of their own and Traditions of men As if Christ had not made us work enough men are forward to make much more for themselves And some that should teach them the Laws of Christ do think that their Office is in vain unless they may also prescribe them Laws of their own and give them new Precepts of Religion Yea some that are the bitterest enemies to the strict observance of the Laws of God as if it were a tedious needless thing must yet needs load us with abundance of unnecessary Precepts of their own And thus Religion is mad both wear some and uncertain and a door set open for men to enlarge it and increase the burden at their pleasure Indeed Popeâ—y is fitted to delude and quiet sleepy consciences and to torment with uncertainties the consciences that are awaked And there is something in the corrupted nature of man that inclineth him to some additions and voluntary service of his Own inventions as an offering most acceptable unto God Hence it is that many poor Christians do rashly intangle their consciences with Vows of circumstances and things unnecessary as to give so much to observe such dayes or hours in fasting and prayer not to do such or such a thing that in it self is lawful with abundance of such things which perhaps some change of providence may make accidentally their duty afterwards to do or disable them to perform their Vows And then these snares are â—â—â—â—tâ—rs on their pâ—rplâ—xâ—d consciences perhaps as long as they live Yea some of the Autonomians teach the people that things Indifferent are the fittest matter of a Vow as to live single to pâ—ssâ—ss nothing to live in solitude and the like Indeed all things lawful when they are vowed must be performed But it is unfit to be Vowed if it be not first profitable and best for our selves or others and that which is best is not indifferent it being every mans duty to choose what is best Vows are to bind us to the performance of that which God had bound us to by his Laws before They are our expression of consent and resolution by a self-obligation to obey his will And not to make new duties or Religion to our selves which eâ—se would never have been our duty § 10. To escape these snares it is necessary that you take hâ—ed of corrupting your Religion by burdens and mixtures of your own devising You are called to Obey Gods Laws and not to make Laws for your selves You may be sure that his Laws are just and good but yours may be bad and foolish When you obey him you may expect your reward and encouragement from him but when you will obey your selves you must reward your selves You may find it enough for you to keep his Laws without devising more work for your selves or feigning duties which he commanded not or sins which he forbad not Be not rash in making Vows Let them reach but unto necessary duties And let them have their due exceptions when they are about alterable things Or if you are entangled by them already consult with the most judicious able impartial men that you may come clearly â—ff without a wound There is a great deal of judgement and sincerity necessary in your Counsellors and a great deal of submission and self-denyal in your selves to bring you safely out of such a snare Avoid sin what ever you do for sinning is not the way to your deliverance And for the time to come be wiser and lay no more snares for your selves and clog not your selves with your own inventions but cheerfully obey what God commandeth you who hath Wisdom and Authority sufficient to make you perfect Laws Christs yoke is easie and his burden light Matth. 11. 30. and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. But if your mixtures and self-devised
Should we not think that God had utterly forsaken us He suffered himself to be tempted also by men by the abuses and reproaches of his enemies by the desertion of his followers by the carnal counsel of Peter perswading him to put by the death which he was to undergo And he that made all Temptations serve to the triumph of his patience and conquering power will give the victory also to his Grace in the weakest soul. § 12. 9. It would be the greatest attractive to us to draw near to God and make the thoughts of him pleasant to us if we could but believe that he dearly loveth us that he is reconciled to us and taketh us for his children and that he taketh pleasure in us and that he resolveth for ever to glorifie us with his Son and that the dearest friend that we have in the world doth not Love us the thousandth part so much as he And all this in Christ is clearly represented to the eye of faith All this is procured for believers by him And all this is given to believers in him In him God is reconciled to us He is our Father and dwelleth among us and in us and walketh in us and is our God 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Light and Heat are not more abundant in the Sun than Love is in Iesus Christ. To look on Christ and not perceive the Love of God is as to look on the Sun and not to see and acknowledge its light Therefore when ever you find your hearts averse to God and to have no pleasure in him look then to Iesus and observe in him the unmeasurable love of God that you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you may be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3. 18 19. Love and Goodness are that to the will which delicious sweetness is to the sensitive appetite Draw near then and taste the Feast of Love which God hath prepared and proposed by his Son Dost thou not see or feel the Love of God Come near and look upon God incarnate upon a crucified Christ upon the Covenant sealed in his blood upon all the benefits of his Redemption upon all the priviledges of the Saints and upon the glory purchased possessed and promised by him Put thy hand into his wounded side and be not faithless but believing and then thou wilt cry out My Lord and my God § 13. 10. So also when the soul would fain perceive in it self the flames of Love to God it is the beholding of Christ by faith which is the striking of fire and the effectual means of kindling love And this is the true approach to God and the true Communion and converse with him so far as we Love him so far do we draw near him and so far have we true communion with him O what would the soul of a Believer give that it could but burn in Love to God as oft as in prayer or meditation or conference his Name and Attributes are mentioned or remembred For this there is no such powerful means as believingly to look on Christ in whom such glorious Love appeareth as will draw forth the Love of all that by a lively faith discern it Behold the Love that God hath manifested by his Son and thou canst not but Love him who is the spring of this transcendent Love In the Law God sheweth his frowning wrath and therefore it breedeth the Spirit of bondage unto fear But in Christ God appeareth to us not only as Loving us but as Love it self and therefore as most lovely to us giving us the Spirit of Adoption or of filial Love by which we fly and cry to him as our Father § 14. 11. The actual undisposedness and disability of the soul to prayer meditation and all holy converse with the blessed God is the great impediment of our walking with him And against this our relief is all in Christ He is filled with the Spirit to communicate to his members He can quicken us when we are dull He can give us faith when we are unbelieving he can give us boldness when we are discouraged he can pour out upon us the Spirit of supplication which shall help our infirmities when we know not what to pray for as we ought Beg of him then the Spirit of prayer And look to his example who prayed with strong cryes and tears and continued all the night in prayer and spake a Parable to this end that we should alwayes pray and not wax faint Luke 18. 1. Call to him and he that is with the Father will reach the hand of his Spirit to you and will quicken your desires and lift you up § 15. 12. Sometime the soul is hearkning to temptations of unbelief and doubting whether God observe our prayers or whether there is so much to be got by prayers as we are told In such a case faith must look to Christ who hath not only commanded it and encouraged us by his example but also made us such plentiful promises of acceptance with God and the grant of our desires Recourse to these promises will animate us to draw nigh to God § 16. 13. Sometime the present sense of our vileness who are but dust and despicable worms doth discourage us and weaken our expectations from God Against this what a wonderful relief is it to the soul to think of our union with Christ and of the dignity and glory of our Head Can God despise the members of his Son Can he trample upon them that are as his flesh and bone Will he cut off or forsake or cast away the weakest parts of his body § 17. 14. Sometime the guilt of renewed infirmities or decayes doth renew distrust and make us shrink and we are like the Child in the Mothers arms that feareth when he loseth his holt as if his safety were more in his holt of her than in her holt of him Weak duties have weak expectations of success In this case what an excellent remedy hath faith in looking to the perpetual intercession of Christ Is he praying for us in the Heavens and shall we not be bold to pray and expect an answer â—â— remember that he is not weak when we are weak and that it concerneth us that he prayeth for us and that we have now an unchangeable Priest who is able to save them to the uttermost or to perpetuity that come sincerely to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb 7. â—4 25 If you heard Christ pray for you would it not encourage you to pray and perswade you that God will not reject you Undoubtedly it would § 18. 15. Sometimes weak Christians that have not gifts of memory or utterance are apt to think that Ministers indeed and able men are accepted of God but that he little valueth such as them It
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.
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
Clem. Alexand. 2. Poedag 12. understood with a caeteris paribus For its possible some cases of exception may be found Pauls is a high instance that could have wished himself accursed from Christ for the sake of the Jews as judging Gods honour more concerned in all them than in him alone § 15. Direct 12. Prefer a durable good that will extend to posterity before a short and transitory good As to build an Alms-house is a greater work than to give an Alms and to erect a School than to teach a Scholar so to promote the settlement of the Gospel and a faithful Ministry is the greatest of all as tending to the good of many even to their everlasting good This is the preheminence of Good Books before a transient speech that they may be a more durable help and benefit Look before you with a judicious foresight and as you must not do that present Good to a particular person which bringeth greater hurt to many so you must not do that present good to one or many which is like to produce a greater and more lasting hurt Such blind reformers have used the Church as ignorant Physitions use their patients who give them a little present ease and cast them into greater misery and seem to cure them with a dose of opium or the Jesuits powder when they are bringing them into a worse disease than that which they pretend to cure O when shall the poor Church have wiser and foreseeing helpers § 16. Direct 13. Let all that you do for the Churches good be sure to tend to HOLINES and PEACE Direct 13. and do nothing under the name of a good work which hath an enmity to either of these For these are to the Church as Life and Health are to the body and the increase of its wellfare is nothing else but the increase of these What ever they pretend believe none that say they seek the good and wellfare of the Church if they seek not the promoting of Holiness and Peace If they hinder the powerful preaching of the Gospel and the means that tendeth to the saving of souls and the serious spiritual worshiping of God and the unity and peace of all the faithful and if they either divide the faithful into sects and parties or worry all that differ from them and humor them not in their conceits take all these for such benefactors to the Church as the wolf is to the flock and as the plague is to the City or the feavor to the body or the fire in the thatch is to the house The wisdom from above is first PURE then PEACEABLE gentle c. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work â—am 3. 14 15 16 17 18. § 17. Direct 14. If you will do the good which God accepteth do that which he requireth and put Direct 14. not the name of good works upon your sins nor upon unnecessary things of your own invention nor think not that any Good must be accomplished by forbidden means None know what pleaseth God so well as himself Our waies may be right in our own eyes and carnal wisdom may think it hath devised the fittest means to honour God when he may abominate it and say who required this at your hand And if we will do good by sinning we must do it in despite of God who is engaged against our sins and us Rom. 3. 8. God needeth not our lie to his glory If Papists think to find at the last day their foppish ceremonies and superstition and will-worship their touch not taste not handle not to be reckoned to them as Good works or if Jesuites or Enthusiasts think to find their Perjurie Treasons Rebellions or conspiracies numbred with good works or the persecuting of the Preachers and faithful professors of Godliness to be good works how lamentably will they find their expectations disappointed § 18. Direct 15. Keep in the way of your Place and calling and take not other mens works upon Direct 15. you without a call under any pretense of doing good Magistrates must do good in the place and work of Magistrates and Ministers in the place and work of Ministers and private men in their private place and work and not one man step into anothers place and take his work out of his hand and say I can do it better For if you should do it better the disorder will do more harm than you did good by bettering his work One Iudge must not step into anothers Court and Seat and say I will pass more righteous judgement You must not go into another mans School and say I can teach your Scholars better nor into anothers charge or Pulpit and say I can preach better The servant may not rule the Master because he can do it best no more than you may take another mans Wife or House or Lands or Goods because you can use them better than he Do the Good that you are called to § 19. Direct 16. Where God hath prescribed you some particular Good work or way of service you Direct 16. must prefer that before another which is greater in its self This is explicatory or limiting of Dir. 8. The reason is because God knoweth best what is pleasing to him and Obedience is better than Sacrafice You must not neglect the necessary maintenance of Wife and Children under pretense of doing a work of piety or greater good because God hath prescribed you this order of your duty that you begin at home though not to stop there Another Minister may have a greater or more needy flock but yet you must first do good in your own and not step without a call into his charge If God have called you to serve him in a low and mean imployment he will better accept you in that work than if you undertook the work of another mans place to do him greater service § 20. Direct 17. Lose not your resolutions or opportunities of doing good by unnecessary delayes Direct 17. Prov. 3. 27 28. With-hold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Say not to thy neighbour Goe and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth It 's two to one but delay will take away thine opportunity and raise such unexpected diversions or difficulties as will frustrate thine intent and destroy the work Take thy Time if thou wilt do thy service It is beautiful in its season Direct 18. § 21. Direct 18. Yet present necessity may make a lesser work to be thy duty when the greater may better bear delay As to save a mans
19. And he that will not work must be forbidden to eat 2 Thes. 3. 6 10 12. And indeed it is necessary to our selves for the health of our bodies which will grow diseased with idleness and for the help of our souls which will fail if the body fail And man in flesh must have work for his body as well as for his soul And he that will do nothing but pray and meditate it 's like will by sickness or Melancholy be disabled e're long either to pray or meditate Unless he have a body extraordinary strong § 26. Direct 22. Be very watchful redeemers of your Time and make conscience of every hour and Direct 22. minute that you lâ—se it not but spend it in the best and most serviceable manner that you can Of this I intend to speak more particularly anon and therefore shall here add no more § 27. Direct 23. Watchfully and resolutely avoid the entanglements and diverting occasions by Direct 23. which the tempter will be still endeavouring to waste your time and hinder you from your work Know what is the principal service that you are called to and avoid avocations especially Magistrates and Ministers and those that have great and publick work must here take heed For if you be not very wise and watchful the Tempter will draw you before you are aware into such a multitude of diverting cares or businesses that shall seem to be your duties as shall make you almost unprofitable in the world You shall have this or that little thing that must be done and this or that friend that must be visited or spoke to and this or that civility that must be performed so that â—rifâ—es shall detain you from all considerable works I confess friends must not be neglected nor â—ivilities be denied but our Greatest duties having the Greatest necessity all things must give place to them in their proper season And therefore that you may avoid the offence of friends avoid the place or occasions of such impediments And where that cannot be done whatever they judge of you neglect not your most necessary work Else it will be at the will of men and Satan whether you shall be serviceable to God or not § 28. Direct 24. Ask your selves seriously how you would wish at death and judgement that you Direct 24. had used all your wit and time and wealth and resolve accordingly to use them now This is an excellent Direction and Motive to you for doing good and preventing the condemnation which will pass upon unprofitable servants Ask your selves will it comfort me more at death or judgement to think or hear that I spent this hour in plays or idleness or in doing good to my self or others How shall I wish then I had laid out my estate and every part of it Reason it self condemneth him that will not now choose the course which then he shall wish that he had chosen when we foresee the consequence of that day § 29. Direct 25. Understand how much you are beholden to God and not be to you in that he Direct 25. will imploy you in doing any good and how it is the way of your own receiving and know the excellency of your work and â—nd that you may do it all with Love and Pleasure Unacquaintedness with our Master and with the nature and tendency of our work is it that maketh it seem tedious and unpleasant to us And we shall never do it well when we do it with an ill will as meerly forced God loveth a cheerful servant that Loveth his Master and his work It is the main policie of the Devil to make our duty seem grievous unprofitable undesirable and wearisom to us For a little thing will stop him that goâ—th unwillingly and in continual pain § 30. Direct 26. Expect your Reward from God alone and look for unthankfulness and abuse Direct 26. from men or wonder not if it befall you If you are not the servants of Men but of God expect your recompence from him you serve You serve not God indeed if his Reward alone will not content you unless you have also mans reward Verily you have your reward if with the Hypocrite you work for mans approbation Mat. 6. 2 5. Expect especially if you are Ministers or others that labour directly for the good of souls that many prove your enemies for your telling them the truth and that if you were as good as Paul and as unwearied in seeking mens salvation yet the more you love the less you will by many be loved and those that he could have wisht himself accursed from Christ to save did hate him and persâ—cute him as if he had been the most accursed wrâ—tch A peâ—â—ilent fellow and a mover of sedition among the people and one that turneth the world upside down were the names they gave them and where ever he came bonds and imprisonment did attend him and slandering and reviling and whipping and stocks and vowing his death are the thanks and requital which he hath from those for whose salvation he spared no pains but did spend and was spent If you cannot do good upon such terms as these and for those that will thus requite you and be contented to expect a reward in Heaven you are not fit to follow Christ who was worse used than all this by those to whom he shewed more love than any of his servants have to shew Take up your cross and do good to the unthankful and bless them that curse you and love them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you if you will be the children of God Mat. 5. § 31. Direct 27. Make not your own judgements or Consciences your Law or the maker of your Direct 27. duty which is but the Discerner of the Law of God and of the duty which he maketh you and of your own obedience or disobedience to him There is a dangerous error grown too common in the world that a man is bound to do every thing which his Conscience telleth him is the will of God and that every man must obey his Conscience as if it were the Law-giver of the world whereas indeed it is not our selves but God that is our Law-giver And Conscience is not appointed or authorised to make us any duty which God hath not made us but only to discern the Law of God and call upon us to observe it And an erring Conscience is not to be obeyed but to be better informed and brought to a righter performance of its office § 32. In prosecution of this Direction I shall here answer several cases about doubting Quest. 1. What if I doubt whether a thing be a duty and good work or not Must I do it while I Quest. doubt Nay what if I am uncertain whether it be duty or sin Answ. 1. In all these cases about an erring or a doubting Conscience forget not to distinguish be
Answ. tween the Being of a duty and the Knowledge of a duty and remember that the first Question is whether this be my duty and the next How I may discern it to be my duty And that God giveth it the Being by his Law and Conscience is but to know and use it And that God changeth not his Law and our duty as oft as our opinions change about it The obligation of the Law is still the same though our Consciences err in apprehending it otherwise Therefore if God command you a duty and your opinion be that he doth not command it or that he forbids it and so that it is no duty or that it is a sin it doth not follow that indeed God commands it not because you think so Else it were no error in you nor could it be possible to err if the thing become true because you think it to be true God commandeth you to Love him and to worship him and to nourish your children and to obey the higher powers c. And do you think you shall be discharged from all these duties and allowed to be prophane or sensual or to resist authority or to famish your children if you can but be blind enough to think that God would have it so 2. Your error is a sin it self And do you think that one sin must warrant another or that sin can discharge you from your duty and disannull the Law 3. You are a subject to God and not a King to your self and therefore you must obey his Laws and not make new ones § 33. Quest. 2. But is it not every mans duty to obey his Conscience Quest. Answ. Answ. No It is no mans duty to obey his Conscience in an error when it contradicteth the command of God Conscience is but a Discerner of Gods command and not at all to be obeyed strictly as a Commander but it is to be obeyed in a larger sense that is to be followed where ever it truly discerneth the command of God It is our duty to lay by our error and seek the cure of it till we attain it and not to obey it § 34. Quest. 3. But is it not a sin for a man to go against his Conscience Quest. Answ. Answ. Yes Not because Conscience hath any authority to make Laws for you but because interpretatively you go against God For you are bound to obey God in all things and when you think that God commandeth you a thing and yet you will not do it you disobey formally though not materially The Matter of Obedience is the thing commanded The form of obedience is our doing the thing because it is commanded when the Authority of the Commander causeth us to do it Now you reject the Authority of God when you reject that which you think he commandeth though he did not Quest. § 35. Quest. 4. Seeing the form of obedience is the being of it and denominateth which the Matter doth not without the form and there can be no sin which is not against the authority of God which is the formal cause of obedience is it not then my duty to follow my Conscience Answ. Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes or concurrence of all necessaries to make up Obedience though the want of any one will make a sin If you will be called Obedient you must have the matter and form because the true form is found in no other matter You must do the thing commanded because of his Authority that commandeth it If it may be called really and formally Obedience when you err yet it is not that obedience which is acceptable For it is not any kind of obedience but obedience in the thing commanded that God requireth 2. But indeed as long as you err sinfully you are also wanting in the form as well as the matter of your obedience though you intend Obedience in the particular act It is not only a willful opposing and positive rejecting the Authority of the Commander which is formal disobedience but it is any Privation of due subjection to it when his Authority is not so regarded as it ought to be and doth not so powerfully and effectually move us to our duty as it ought Now this formal disobedience is found in your erroneous Conscience For if Gods Authority had moved you as it should have done to diligent enquiry and use of all appointed means and to the avoiding of all the causes of error you had never erred about your duty For if the error had been perfectly involuntary and blameless the thing could not have been your particular duty which you could not possibly come to know Quest. § 36. Quest. 5. But if it be a sin to go against my Conscience must I not avoid that sin by obeying it Would you have me sin Answ. Answ. You must avoid the sin by changing your judgement and not by obeying it For that is but to avoid one sin by committing another An erring judgement is neither obeyed nor disobeyed without sin It can make you sin though it cannot make you duty It doth ensnare though not oblige If you follow it you break the Law of God in doing that which he forbids you If you forsake it and go against it you reject the authority of God in doing that which you think he forbids you So that there is no attaining to innocence any other way but by coming first to Know your duty and then to do it If you command your servant to weed your corn and he mistake you and verily think that you bid him pull up the corn and not the weeds what now should he do Shall he follow his judgement or go against it Neither but change it and then follow it and to that end enquire further of your mind till he be better informed and no way else will serve the turn § 37. Quest. 6. Seeing no man that erreth doth know or think that he erreth for that 's a contradiction Quest. how can I lay by that opinion or strive against it which I take to be the truth Answ. It is your sin that you take a falshood to be a truth God hath appointed means for the Answ. cure of blindness and error as well as other sins or else the world were in a miserable case Come into the light with due self-suspicion and impartiallity and diligently use all Gods means and avoid the causes of deceit and error and the Light of Truth will at once shew you the Truth and shew you that before you erred In the mean time sin will be sin though you take it to be duty or no sin § 38. Quest. 7. But seeing he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with Quest. 〈…〉 â—e that knoweth it not with few is it not my duty chiefly to avoid the many 〈…〉 against my Conscience or Knâ—wledge Answ. 1. Your duty is to avoid both and if
But the misery is that few of the ignorant and weak have knowledge and humility enough â—o pâ—rceive their ignorance and weakness but they think they speak as wisely as the best and are offended if their words be not reverenced accordingly As a Minister should study and labour for a skill and ability to preach because it is his work so every Christian should study for skill to discourse with wisdom and meet expressions about holy things because this is his work And as unfit expressions and behaviour in a Minister do cause contempt instead of edifying so do they in discourse § 31. Direct 10. When ever Gods holy Name or Word is blasphemed or used in levity or jeast Direct 10. or a holy life is made a scorn or God is notoriously abused or dishonoured be ready to reprove it with gravity where you can and where you cannot at least let your detestation of it be conveniently manifested Of Prayer I have spoken aâ—terwaâ—d Among those to whom you may freely speak lay open the greatness of their sin Or if you are unable for long or accurate discourse at least tell them who hath said Thou shalt Tom. 2. c. not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And where your speech is unmeet as to some Superiours or is like to do more harm than good let your departing the room or your looks or rather your tears shew your dislike Directions for the glorifying God in our Lives § 32. Direct 1. Our Lives then glorifie God when they are such as his Excellencies most appear in Direct 1. And that is when they are most Divine or Holy when they are so managed that the world may see that Turâ—issimum est Philosopho secus docere quam viviâ— Paul Scaligâ—r p. 728. it is God that we have chiefly respect unto and that HOLINESS TO THE LORD is written upon all our faculties and affairs So much of GOD as appeareth in our lives so much they are truly venerable and advanced above the rank of fleshly worldly lives God only is the real glory of every person and every thing and every word or action of our lives And the natural conscience of the world which in despight of their Atheism is forced to confess and reverence a Deity will be forced even when they are hated and persecuted to reverence the appearance of God in his holy ones Let it appear therefore 1. That Gods Authority commandeth you above all the powers of the earth and against all the power of fleshly lusts 2. That it is the Glory and Nam illa quae de regno calorum commâ—mâ—rantur à nâ—bâ—â— dâ—que praesentâ—um reâ—um contâ—mpâ—u vel non caâ—â—unt vel non â—aâ—â—le sibi peâ—suadeâ—t cum sâ—rmo factis evertitur Interest of God that you live for and look after principally in the world and not your own carnal interest and glory And that it is his work that you are doing and not your own and his cause and not your own that you are engaged in 3. That it is his Word and Law that is your Rule 4. And the example of his Son that is your pattern 5. And that your hearts and lives are moved and acted in the world by motives fetcht from the Rewards which he hath promised and the punishments which he hath threatned in the world to come 6. And that it is a supernatural powerful principle sent from God into your hearts even the Holy Ghost by which you are inclined and actuated in the tenor of your lives 7. And that your daily converse is with God and that men and other creatures are comparatively nothing to you but are made to stand by while God is preferred and honoured and served by you and that all your business is with him or for him in the world Acâ—staâ—l 4. c. 18. p. 418. § 33. Direct 2. The more of Heaven appeareth in your Lives the more your Lives do glorifie God Worldly and carnal men are conscious that their glory is a vanishing glory and their pleasure but a transitory dream and that all their honour and wealth will shortly leave them in the dust And Direct 2. therefore they are forced in despight of their sensuality to bear some reverence to the life to come And though they have not hearts themselves to deny the pleasures and profits of the world and to spend their dayes in preparing for eternity and in laying up a treasure in Heaven yet they are convinced that those that do so are the best and wisest men and they could wish that they might dye the death of the righteous and that their last end might be like his As Heaven exceedeth Earth even in the reverent acknowledgement of the World though not in their practical esteem and choice so Heavenly Christians have a reverent acknowledgement from them when malice doth not hide their Heavenliness by slanders though they will not be such themselves Let it appear in your lives that really you seek a higher happiness than this world affordeth and that you verily look to live with Christ and that as Honour and Wealth and Pleasure command the lives of the ungodly so the hope of Heaven commandeth yours Let it appear that this is your design and business in the world and that your Hearts and conversation are above and that whatever you do or suffer is for this and not for any lower end and this is a life that God is glorified by § 34. Direct 3. It glorifieth God by shewing the excellency of faith when we contemn the riches Direct 3. and honours of the world and live above the worldlings life accounting that a despicable thing which he accounts his happiness and loseth his soul for As men despise the toyes of children so a believer must take the transitory vanities of this world for matters so inconsiderable as not to be worthy his regard save only as they are the matter of his duty to God or as they relate to him or the life to come Saith Paul 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at the things which are seen they are not worth our observing or looking at but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal The world is under a believers feet while his eye is fixed on the coelestial world He travelleth through it to his home and he will be thankful if his way be fair and if he have his daily bread but it is not his home nor doth he make any great matter whether his usage in it be kind or unkind or whether his Inn be well adorned or not He is almost indifferent whether for so short a time he be rich or poor in a high or in a low condition further than as it tendeth to his Masters service Let men see that you
against or perswading you to mortifie § 17. Direct 5. Look on the worst of the creature with the best and foresee what it will be when it Direct 5. withereth and what it will appear to you at the last I have applyed this against worldliness before Chap. 4. Part 6. and I shall afterwards apply it to the lustful love Bring your beloved creature to the grave and see it as it will appear at last and much of the folly of your Love will vanish § 18. Direct 6. Understand well the most that it will do for you and how short a time you must Direct 6. enjoy it and flatter not your selves with the hopes of a longer possession than you have reason to expect If men considered for how short a time they must possess what they dote upon it would somewhat cool their fond affections § 19. Direct 7. Remember that too much Love hath the present trouble of too much care and the future trouble of too much grief when you come to part with what you love Nothing more createth Direct 7. care and grief to us than inordinate Love You foreknow that you must part with it and will you now be so glued to it that then it may tear your flesh and heart Remember you caused all that your selves § 20. Direct 8. Remember that you provoke God to deprive you of what you overlove or to suffer it Direct 8. to grow unlovely to you Many a mans horse that he over-loved hath broke his neck And many a mans child that he over-loved hath dyed quickly or lived to be his scourge and sorrow And many a Husband or Wife that was over-loved hath been quickly snatcht away or proved a thorn or a continual grief and misery § 21. Direct 9. If there be no other means left prudently and moderately embitter to thy self the creature which thou art fond on which may be done many ways according to the nature of it By Direct 9. the seldomer or more abstemious use of it or by using it more to benefit than delight or by mixing some mortifying humbling exercises or mixing some self-denying acts and minding more the good of others c. § 22. Direct 10. In the practice of all Directions of this nature there must abundance of difference be made between a carnal voluptuous heart that is hardly taken off from sensual Love and a mortified Direct 10. melancholy or over-scrupulous person who is running into the contrary extream and is afraid of every bit they eat or of all they possess or wear or use and sometime of their very children and relations and ready to over-run their mercies or neglect their duties suspecting that all is too much loved And it is a very hard thing for us so to Write or Preach to one party but the other will mis-apply it to themselves and make an ill use of it All that we can write or say is too little to mortifie the fleshly mans affections And yet speak as cautelously as we can the troubled soul will turn it into gall to the increase of his trouble And what we speak to his peace and settlement though it prove too little and uneffectual yet will be effectual to harden the misapplying sensualist in the sinful affections and liberty which he useth Therefore it is best in such cases to have still a wise experienced faithful guide to help you in the application in cases of difficulty and weight Tit. 3. Directions against sinful Desires and Discontent § 1. I Shall say but little here of this subject because I have already treated so largely of it in my Read Mâ— â—â—â—â—roughs excellent â—reat called Tâ—â—â—â—â—â— of Coâ—tâ—ntâ—â—â—â—t And that excellent Tract of a Heathen Plutarch de tranquillitate animi Book of self-denyal and in that of Crucifying the World and here before in Chap. 4. Part 6. 7. against worldliness and Flesh-pleasing and here against sinful Love which is the cause § 2. How sinful Desires may be known you may gather from the discoveries of sinful Love As 1. When you Desire that which is forbidden you 2. Or that which will do you no good upon a misconceit that it is better or more needful than it is 3. Or when you desire it too eagerly and must needs have it or else you will be impatient and discontented and cannot quietly be ruled and disposed of by God but are murmuring at his providence and your lot 4. Or when you desire it too hastily and cannot stay Gods time 5. Or else too greedily as to the measure being not content with Gods allowance but must needs have more than he thinks fit for you 6. Or speciall when your desires are perverse preferring lesser things before greater desiring bodily and transitory things more than the mercies for your souls which will be everlasting 7. When you desire any thing ultimately and meerly for the flesh without referring it to God it is a sin Even your daily bread and all your comforts must be desired but as Provender for your Horse that he may the better go his journey even as Provision for your bodies to fit them to the better and more cheerful service of your souls and God 8. Much more when your desires are for wicked ends as to serve your lust or pride or covetousness or revenge they are wicked desires 9. And when they are injurious to others § 3. Direct 1. Be well acquainted with your own Condition and consider what it is that you have Direct 1. most need of and then you will find that you have so much grace and mercy to desire for your souls Meâ—â—em nullis imaginibus depâ—ctam habeat Nam si corde mundus ab universis imaginibus liber esse cupit nil penitus cum amore possidere nulli hommi per voâ—â—ntarium affectum singulaâ—â— familiaritatâ— nulluâ— ipsi adhaerâ—re debet Omnis namque familiaritas aut conversatio pure propter Dei amorem non inita variis imaginibus inficit perturbat hominum mentes cum non ex Deo sed ex carne originâ—m ducat Quisquis in virum spiritualem divinum proficere cupit is carnali vitâ penitus renunciata Deo â—oli amore adhaereat eundemque interiori homine suo peculiariter possideat quo habito mox omnis multiplicitas omnes imagines omnis inordinaâ—us erga creaturas amor fortâ—ter ab eo prostigabuntur Deus quippe per amorem intus possesso protinus ab universis homo imaginibus liberatur Deus spiritus est cujus imaginem nemo proprie exprimere aut â—ffigiare potest Thaulerus flor pag. 79 80. without which you are lost for ever and that you have a Christ to desire and an endless life with God to desire that it will quench all your thirst after the things below This if any thing will make you wiser when you see you have greater things to mind A man that is in present danger of his life will
reason when we mourn not for sin as sin but as one sin hindereth another or as it marred some ill design 2. And by the effect when it doth but sink men in despair or torment th 〈…〉 and not at all separate them from the sin 3. When it cometh not at all from any love to God or care to please him but only an unwillingness to be damned and so it is lâ—mented only as a means of damnation which though it be a sorrow positively neither good nor â—â—il yet it is evil privatively § 5. But it is the Passion of Grief as in its excess that I am now to speak against And it is in 〈…〉 maâ—h 〈…〉 and heaviness â—â— an enemy to Christianâ—ty and to the Spirit of God excess 1. When we grieve for that which we ought not at all to grieve for that is either for some gâ—od or for a thing indifferent that is neither good or bad Both which come from the error of the mind a. When we grieve too much for that which we may grieve for lawfully in some measure that is for our own afflictions or penal suffering 3. When we grieve too much for that which we are bound to grieve for in some measure As 1. For our sin 2. For our loss of the favour of God or of his Grace and Spirit 3. For other mens sin and suffering 4. For the sufferings of the Church and calamities of the world 5. For Gods dishonour § 6. Though it is not easie to have too much sorrow for sin considering it Estimatively that is we can hardly take sin for a worse evil than it is and accordingly grieve for it yet it is oft too easie to have too much sorrow for sin or any other evil intensively as to the greatness of the Passion And thus sorrow for sin is too great 1. When it distracteth the mind and overturneth reason and maketh us unfit for the ends of sorrow 2. When it so cloudeth and clotheth the soul in grief that it is made unfit to see and consider of the promise to rellish mercy or believe it to acknowledge benefits or own Grace received or be thankful for it to feel the Love of God or love him for it to praise him or to mind him or to call upon him when it driveth the soul from God and weakneth it to duty and teacheth it to deny mercy and sinketh it towards despair all this is too much and sinful sorrow and so is all that doth the soul more hurt than good For sorrow is not good of it self but as it doth good or sheweth good § 7. Direct 1. Keep your hearts as true and close to God as possible and make sure of his love Direct 1. that you may know you have not an unregenerate miserable soul to mourn for and then all other grief is the more curable and more tollerable Be once able to say that God is on your side that Christ and the Spirit and Heaven is yours and then you have the greatest Cordial against excessive grief that this world affords If you say How should this be done I answer that is opened in its proper place No marvail if sorrow overwhelm that soul that is in the chains of sin under the Curse of God as soon as awakened conscience comes to feel it And it is most miserable when it hath the smallest sorrow there being some hope that sorrow may drive it home to Christ. Therefore it thou have been a secure unhumbled carnal wretch and God be now beginning to humble thee by shewing thee thy sin and misery take heed as thou lovest thy soul that thou drive not away necessary healing sorrow and repentance under precence of driving away melancholy or over much sorrow Thy smart tendeth to thy hopes of Cure § 8. Direct 2. Renew not the wounds of Conscience by renewed willful gross sin For sin will bring Direct 2. sorrow especially if thou have any life of grace to feel it Even as falls and breaking the bones brings pain Obey carefully if thou wouldst have peace § 9. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the General grounds of hope in the Mercy of God the Office Direct 3. and Death of Christ and the free universal offer of pardon grace and life in the New Covenant Abundance of grief doth dwell in many humbled souls through the ignorance of these General grounds of comfort which would vanish away if these were known § 10. Direct 4. Know well the true nature and use of godly sorrow how it is but a means to higher Direct 4. grace and a thing which may exceed and not a thing that we should stop in or think we can never have too much of it Desire is but in its place and to its proper ends § 11. Direct 5. Know well the nature and excellency of those higher graces which sorrow tendeth Direct 5. to Even Love and Thankfulness and Delight in God and fruitful Obedience And then you will be carried after these and will learn to hate the sorrow that hindereth them and to cherish that sorrow which leadeth you up to them and to value it but as a means to them § 12. Direct 6. Manage all your affairs especially those of your souls with prudent foresight and Direct 6. look not only on things as they appear at hand Judge not by Sense but by Reason for Sense cannot 〈◊〉 sâ—ntentiâ—â—â—â—â— Pruâ—â—n â—â—m viroâ—um esse prius quam adversa câ—ntingant praeviâ—â—re â—â— venâ—â—nt â—â—â—â—iuâ— vero cum iâ—â—a contigeâ—â—r aequo animo sâ—râ—e I aâ—â—t in Pâ—ttaâ— fâ—resee but pleaseth it self at present with that which must be bitterness in the end Thus carnal delight is the common way to overwhelming sorrow He that would not have the pain and sickness of a Surfeit to morrow must not please his appetite against reason to day Poyson will gripe and kill nevertheless for tasting sweet You must fore-know how that which you take will work and what will be the effects of it and not only how it tasteth if you would escape the pain The Drunkard thinketh not of his vomiting and poverty or shame or sickness and therefore causeth them There is no sorrow so intollerable as that of a guilty soul that 's passing in terror to the Bar of God and thence to everlasting pain Foresee this sorrow in your most pleasant sin and remember that when you are tempted to sin you are tempted to sorrow and then you may prevent it And in all your particular actions use a foreseeing judgement and ask what is like to be the end before you enter on the beginning Most of our sorrows come for want of this and express themselves by Had I known or Had I thought of this I had prevented it Do nothing which you may foresee must be repented of for Repentance is sorrowful and the weightier the case the deeper the sorrow How easie and comfortable a life and death might men attain if
appetite I hope you will not say that God is too strict with you or would dyet you too hardly as long as he alloweth you ordinarily to choose that when you can have it lawfully which is most for your own health and forbiddeth you nothing but that which hurteth you What Heathen or Infidel that is not either mad or swinish will not allow this measure and choice as well as Christians Yea if you believe not a life to come methinks you should be loth to shorten this life which now you have God would but keep you from hurting your selves by your excess as you would keep your Children or your Swine Though he hath a farther end in it and so must you namely that a healthful body may be serviceable to a holy soul in your Masters work yet it is the health of your bodies which is to be your nearest and immediate end and measure It is a very great oversight in the Education of youth that they be not taught betimes some The Measure of Eating common and necessary Precepts about dyet acquainting them what tendeth to health and life and what to sickness pain and death And it were no unprofitable or unnecessary thing if Princes took a course that all their subjects might have some such common needful Precepts familiarly known As if it were in the Books that Children first learn to read in together with the Precepts of their moral duty For it is certain that men love not death or sickness and that all men love their health and Multum confert coâ—â—tatio exitus qâ—od cum omnibus â—iâ—jis sit commune tamen huic proprâ—um Petrarch life And therefore those that fear not God would be much restrained from Excess by the fear of sickness and of death And what an advantage this would be to the Common-wealth you may easily perceive when you consider what a mass of treasure it would save besides the lives and health and strength of so many subjects And it is certain that most people have no considerable knowledge what measure is best for them but the common rule that they judge by is their Appetite They think they have eaten enough when they have eaten as long as they have list and not before If they could eat more with an appetite and be not sick after it they never think they have been guilty of Gluttony or Excess § 44. First Therefore you must know that Appetite is not to be your Rule or measure either for Temperaâ—tia voluptatâ—bus imperat alias odit atque abigit alias dispensat ad sanum modum dirigit nec unquam ad illas propter ipsas venit Senâ—â— Scit optimum esse modum cupidorum non quantum velis sed quantum debeas sumere Senâ—â— quantity quality or time For 1. It is irrational and Reason is your Ruling faculty if you are men 2. It dependeth on the temperature of the Body and the humours and diseases of it and not meerly on the natural need of meat A man in a Dropsie is most Thirsty that hath least cause to drink Though frequently in a putrid or malignant Feavor a draught of cold drink would probably be death yet the Appetite desireth it never the less Stomachs that have acide humours have commonly a strong appetite be the digestion never so weak and most of them could eat with an appetite above twice as much as they ought to eat And on the contrary some others desire not so much as is necessary to their sustenance and must be urged to eat against their Appetite 3. Most healthful people in the world have an Appetite to much more than nature can well digest and would kill themselves if they pleased their appetites For God never gave man his Appetite to be the measure of his eating or drinking but to make that grateful to him which Reason biddeth him take 4. Mans Appetite is not now so sound and regular as it was before the fall but is grown more rebellious and unruly and diseased as the body is And therefore it is now much more unfit to be our measure than it was before the fall 5. You see it even in Swine and many greedy Children that would presently kill themselves if they had not the Reason of others to rule them 6. Poyson it self may be as delightful to the Appetite as food and dangerous meats as those that are most wholsome So that it is most certain that Appetite is not fit to be the measure of a man Yet this is true withal that when Reason hath nothing against it then an Appetite sheweth what nature taketh to be most agreeable to it self and Reason therefore hath something for it if it have nothing against it because it sheweth what the Stomach is like best to close with and digest and it is some help to Reason to discern when it is prepared for food § 45. Secondly It is certain also that the present feeling of ease or sickness is no certain rule to judge of your digestion or your measure by For though some tender relaxed windy stomachs are sick or troubled when they are overcharged or exceed their measure yet with the most it is not so unless they exceed to very swinishness they are not sick upon it nor feel any hurt at present by less excesses but only the imperfection of concoction doth vitiate the humours and prepare for sicknesses by degrees as is aforesaid and one feeleth it a moneth after in some diseased evacuations and another a twelve-moneth after and another not of many years till it have turned to some uncurable disease For the diseases that are bred by so long preparations are ordinarily much more uncurable than those that come but from sudden accidents and alterations in a cleaner body Therefore to say I feel it do me no harm and therefore it is no excess is the saying of an ideot that hath no foreseeing Reason and resisteth not an enemy while he is Garrisoning fortifying and arming himself but only when it comes to blows Or like him that would go into a Pest-house and say I feel it do me no harm But within a few dayes or weeks he will feel it As if the beginning of a Consumption were no hurt to them because they feel it not Thus living like a Beast will at last make men judge like Beasts and brutifie their brains as well as their bellies § 46. Thirdly It is certain also that the common custom and opinion is no certain rule nay certainly it is an erring rule For judging by appetite hath brought men ordinarily to take excess to be but temperance All these then are false measures § 47. It I should here presume to give you any Rules for judging of a right measure Physicions would think I went beyond my Calling and some of them might be offended at a design that tendeth 〈…〉 for the Measure of Eating so much to their impoverishing and those that serve the greedy Worm
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
understand the true nature and use of Recreations Labour to be acquainted Direct 2. just how much and what sort of Recreation is needful to your selves in particular In which you must have respect 1. To your bodily strength 2. To your minds 3. To your labours And when you have resolved on 't what and how much is needful and fit to help you in your duty allow it its proper time and place as you do your meals and see that you suffer it not to encroach upon your duty § 51. Direct 3. Ordinarily joyn profit and pleasure together that you lose no time I know not one Direct 3. person of an hundred or of many hundred that needeth any Game at all there are such variety of better exercises at hand to recreate them And it is a sin to idle away any time which we can better improve I confess my own nature was as much addicted to playfullness as most and my judgement alloweth me so much recreation as is needful to my Health and Labour and no more But for all that I find no need of any game to recreate me When my mind needeth recreation I have variety of recreating Books and Friends and business to do that And when my body needeth it the hardest Labour that I can bear is my best recreation walking is instead of games and sports as profitable to my body and more to my mind If I am alone I may improve that time in meditation If with others I may improve it in profitable cheerful conference I condemn not all sports or games in others but I find none of them all to be best for my self And when I observe how far the temper and life of Christ and his best servants was from such recreations I avoid them with the more suspition And I see but few but distaste it in Ministers even Shooting Bowling and such more healthful games to say nothing of Chess and such other as fit not the end of a recreation Therefore there is somewhat in it that nature it self hath some suspition of That student that needeth Chess or Cards to please his Mind I doubt hath a carnal empty mind If God and all his books and all his friends c. cannot suffice for this there is some disease in it that should rather be cured than pleased And for the Body it is another kind of exercise that profits it § 52. Direct 4. Watch against inordinate sensual Delight even in the Lawfullest sport Excess Direct 4. of pleasure in any such vanity doth very much corrupt and befool the mind It puts it out of relish with spiritual things and turneth it from God and Heaven and duty § 53. Direct 5. To this end keep a watch upon your thoughts and fantasies that they run not after Direct 5. sports and pleasures Else you will be like children that are thinking of their sport and longing to be at it when they should be at their Books or business § 54. Direct 6. Avoid the company of revellers gamesters and such time-wasters Come not Direct 6. among them lest you be ensnared Accompany your selves with those that delight themselves in God 2 Tim. 2. 22. § 55. Direct 7. Remember death and judgement and the necessities of your souls Usually these Direct 7. Eccles. 2. 2. sports seem but foolishness to serious men And they say of this mirth as Solomon it is madness And it is great and serious subjects which maketh serious men Death and the world to come when they are soberly thought on do put the mind quite out of rellish with foolish pleasures § 56. Direct 8. Be painful in your honest Callings Laziness breedeth a love of sports when Direct 8. you must please your slothful flesh with ease then it must be further pleased with vanities § 57. Direct 9. Delight in your relations and family duties and mercies If you love the company Direct 9. and converse of your Parents or Children or Wives or Kindred as you ought you will find more pleasure in discoursing with them about holy things or honest business than in foolish sports But Adulterers that love not their Wives and unnatural Parents and Children that love not one another and ungodly Masters of Families that love not their duty are put to seek their sport abroad § 58. Direct 10. See to the sanctifying of all your Recreations when you have chosen such as are Direct 10. truly suited to your need and go not to them before you need nor use them not beyond your need See also that you lift up your hearts secretly to God for his blessing on them and mix them all along as far as you can with holy things as with holy Thoughts or holy Speeches As for Musick which is a lawful pleasure I have known some think it prophaness to use it privately or publickly with a Psalm that scrupled not using it in common mirth When as all our mirth should be as much sanctified as is possible All should be done to the Glory of God And we have much more in Scripture for the Holy Use of Musick publick and private than for any other use of it whatever And it is the excellency of Melody and Musick that they are recreations which may be more aptly and profitably sanctified by application to holy uses than any other And I should think them little worth at all if I might not use them for the holy exhilerating or elevating of my soul or affecting it towards God or exciting it to duty Direct 11. § 59. Direct 11. The sickly and the Melancholy who are usually least inclined to sport have much more need of Recreation than others and therefore may allow it a much larger time than those that are in health and strength Because they take it but as Physick to recover them to health being to abate again when they are recovered § 60. Direct 12. Be much more severe in regulating your selves in your recreations than in censuring Direct 12. others for using some sports which you mislike For you know not perhaps their case and reasons and temptations But an idle Time-wasting sensual sporter every one should look on with pity as a miserable wretch PART III. Directions about Apparel and against the Sin therein committed § 1. Direct 1. FItness is the first thing to be respected in your Apparel to make it a means to Direct 1. the end to which it is appointed The Ends of Apparel are 1. To keep the body warm 2. To keep it from being hurt 3. To adorn it soberly so far as beseemeth the common dignity of humane nature and the special dignity of your places 4. To hide those parts which nature hath made your shame and modesty commandeth you to cover § 2. The Fitness of Apparel consisteth in these things 1. That it be fitted to your Bodies as your Shoo to your foot your Hat to your head c. 2. That it be suited to your
or your Answ. ultimate end Therefore here you owe them no formal obedience But yet the will of Parents with all the consequents must be put into the scales with all other considerations and if they make the discommodities of a single life to become the greater as to your end then they may bring you under a duty or obligation to marry not necessitate praecepti as obedience to their command but necessitate medii as a means to your ultimate end and in obedience to that general command of God which requireth you to seek first your ultimate end even the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Matth. 6. 33. Quest. But what if I have a corporal necessity and yet I can foresee that marriage will greatly disadvantage Quest. me as to the service of God and my salvation Answ. First You must understand that no corporal necessity is absolute For there is no man so Answ. lustful but may possibly bridle his lust by other lawful means by dyet labour sober company diverting business solitude watching the thoughts and senses or at least by the Physicions help so that the necessity is but secundum quid or an urgency rather than simple necessity And then 2. This measure of necessity must be it self laid in the ballance with the other accidents and if this necessity will turn the scales by making a single life more disadvantageous to your ultimate end your lust being a greater impediment to you than all the inconveniences of marriage will be than the case is resolved It is better to marry than to burn But if the hinderances in a married state are like to be greater than the hinderances of your concupiscence then you must set your self to the curbing and curing of that concupiscence and in the use of Gods means expect his blessing § 7. 2. Children are not ordinarily called of God to marry when their Parents do absolutely Of Parents Wills and peremptorily forbid it For though Parents Commands cannot make it a duty when we are sure it would hinder the interest of God our ultimate end yet Parents prohibitions may make it a sin when there is a clear probability that it would most conduce to our ultimate end were it not prohibited Because 1. Affirmatives bind not semper ad semper as Negatives or prohibitions do 2. Because the sin of disobedience to Parents will cross the tendency of it unto good and do more against our ultimate end than all the advantages of marriage can do for it A duty is then to us no duty when it cannot be performed without a chosen wilful sin In many cases we are bound to forbear what a Governour forbiddeth when we are not bound to Do the contrary if he command it It is easier to make a duty to be no duty than to make a sin to be no sin One bad ingredient may turn a duty into a sin when one good ingredient will not turn a sin into a duty or into no sin § 8. Quest. But may not a Governours prohibition be over weighed by some great degrees of incommodity Quest. It is better to marry than to burn 1. What if Parents forbid Children to marry absolutely untill death and so deprive them of the lawful remedy against lust 2. And if they do not so yet if they forbid it them when it is to them most seasonable and necessary it seemeth little better 3. Or if they forbid them to marry where their affections are so engaged as that they cannot be taken off without their mutual ruine may not Children marry in such cases of necessity as these without and against the will of their Parents Answ. I cannot deny but some cases may be imagined or fall out in which it is lawful to do Answ. what a Governour forbiddeth and to marry against the will of Parents For they have their Power to edification and not unto destruction As if a Son be qualified with eminent gifts for the work of the Ministry in a time and place that needeth much help if a malignant Parent in hatred of that Sacred Office should never so peremptorily forbid him yet may the Son devote himself to the blessed work of saving souls even as a Son may not forbear to relieve the poor with that which is his own though his Parents should forbid him nor forbear to put himself into a capacity to relieve them for the future nor forbâ—â—â—â— his own necessary food and rayment though he be forbidden As Daniel would not forbear praying openly in his house when he was forbidden by the King and Law When any inseparable accident doth make a thing of it self indifferent become a duty a Governours prohibition will not discharge us from that duty unless the accident be smaller than the accident of the Rulers prohibition and then it may be over weighed by it But to determine what Accidents are Greater or Less is a difficult task § 9. And as to the particular Questions to the first I answer If Parents forbid their Children to marry while they live it is convenient and safe to obey them until death if no greater obligation to the contrary forbid it But it is necessary to obey them during the time that the Children live under the Government of their Parents as in their Houses in their younger years except in some few extraordinary cases But when Parents are dead though they leave commands in their Wills or when age or former marriage hath removed Children from under their Government a smaller matter will serve to justifie their disobedience here than when the Children in minority are less fit to Govern themselves For though we owe Parents a limited obedience still yet at full age the Child is more at his own dispose than he was before Nature hath given given us a hint of her intention in the instinct of bruits who are all taught to protect and lead and provide for their young ones while the young are insufficient for themselves But when they are grown to self-sufficiency they drive them away or neglect them If a wiâ—e Son that hath a Wife and many Children and great affairs to manage in the world should be bound to as absolute obedience to his aged Parents as he was in his childhood it would ruine their affairs and Parents government would pull down that in their old age which they built up in their middle age § 10. And to the second Question I answer that 1. Children that pretend to unconquerable Lust or Love must do all they can to subdue such inordinate affections and bring their lusts to stoop to reason and their Parents wills And if they do their best there is either none or not one of many hundreds but may maintain their chastity together with their obedience 2. And if any say I have done my best and yet am under a necessity of marriage and am I not then bound to marry though my Parents forbid me I answer it is not
a state of meer delight lest it prove but a fools Paradice to you See that you be furnished with Marriage-strength and patience for the duties and sufferings of a married state before you venture on it Especially 1. Be well provided against Temptations to a Worldly mind and life For here you are like to be most violently and dangerously assaulted 2. See that you be well provided with Conjugal affections For they are necessary both to the Duties and Sufferings of a married life And you should not enter upon the state without the necessary preparations 3. See that you be well provided with Marriage-prudence and understanding that you may be able to instruct and edifie your families and may live with them as men of knowledge 1 Pet. 3. 7. and may manage all your business with discretion Psal. 112. 15. 4. See that you be provided with Resolvedness and Constancy that you vex not your self and relations by too late repentings and come not off with a Had I wist or non putâram Levity and mutability is no fit preparative for a state that only death can change Let the Love and Resolutions which brought you into that state continue with you to the last 5. See that you be provided with a diligence answerable to the greatness of your undertaken duties A slothful mind is unfit for one that entereth himself voluntary upon so much business as a cowardly mind is unfit for him that listeth himself a Souldier for the Wars 6. See that you are well provided with Marriage-patience to beat with the infirmities of others and undergo the daily crosses of your life which your business and necessities and your own infirmities will unavoidably infer To Marry without all this preparation is as foolish as to go to Sea without the necessary preparations for your Voyage or to go to War without Armor or Ammunition or to go to work without Tools or Strength or to go to buy Meat in the Market when you have no money § 43. Direct 4. Take special care that fansie and passion over-rule not Reason and Friends advice in the choice of your condition or of the person I know you must have Love to those that you match with But that Love must be Rational and such as you can justifie in the severest tryal by the evidences of worth and fitness in the person whom you love To say you Love but you know not why is more beseeming children or mad folks than those that are soberly entring upon a change of life of so great importance to them A blind Love which maketh you think a person excellent and amiable who in the eyes of the wisest that are impartial is nothing so or maketh you overvalue the person whom you fansie and be fond of one as some admirable creature that in the eyes of others is next to contemptible this is but the Index and evidence of your folly And though you please your selves in it and honour it with the name of Love there is none that is acquainted with it that will give it any better name than LUST or FANCY And the marriage that is made by Lust and Fancy will never tend to solid Content or true Felicity But either it will feed till death on the fewell that kindled it and then go out in everlasting shame or else more ordinarily it proveth but a blaze and turneth into loathing and weariness of each other And because this passion of Lust called Love is such a besotting blinding thing like the longing of a woman with child it is the duty of all that feel any touch of it to kindle upon their hearts to call it presently to the tryal and to quench it effectually and till that be done if they have any relicts of wit or reason to suspect their own apprehensions and much more to trust the judgement and advice of others § 44. The means to quench this Lust called Love I have largely opened before I shall now only How to cure Lustful Love remember you of these few 1. Keep asunder and at a sufficient distance from the person that you dote upon The nearness of the fire and fewel causeth the combustion Fancy and Lust are enflamed by the senses Keep out of sight and in time the Feavor may abate 2. Overvalue not vanity Think not highly of a Silken Coat or of the great Names of Ancestors or of Money or Lands or of a painted or a spotted face nor of that natural comeliness called beauty Judge not of things as children but as men Play not the fools in magnifying trifles and overlooking inward real worth Would you fall in Love with a Flower or Picture at this rate Bethink you what work the Pox or any other withering sickness will make with that silly beauty which you so admire Think what a spectacle death will make it And how many thousands once more beautiful are turned now to common earth And how many thousand souls are now in Hell that by a beautiful body were drowned in lust and tempted to neglect themselves and how few in the world you can name that were ever much the better for it what a childish thing it is to dote on a Book of tales and lyes because it hath a beautiful gilded cover and to undervalue the writings of the wise because they have a plain and homely outsides 3. Rule your thoughts and let them not run masterless as fansie shall command them If Reason cannot call off your thoughts from following a lustful desire and imagination no wonder if one that rideth on such an unbridled Colt be cast into the dirt 4. Live not idly but let the business of your callings take up your time and employ your thoughts An idle fleshly mind is the carkass where the Vermine of Lust doth crawl and the nest where the Devil hatcheth both this and many other pernicious sins 5. Lastly and chiefly forget not the concernments of your souls Remember how near you are to Eternity and what work you have to do for your salvation Forget not the presence of God no◠the approach of death Look oft by faith into Heaven and Hell and keep Conscience tender and then I warrant you you will find something else to mind than Lust and greater matters than a silly carkass to take up your thoughts and you will seel that Heavenly Love within you which will extinguish earthly carnal Love § 45. Direct 5. Be not too hasty in your choice or resolution but deliberate well and throughly Direct 5. know the person on whom so much of the comfort or sorrow of your life will necessarily depend Where Repentance hath no place there is the greater care to be used to prevent it Reason requireth you to be well acquainted with those that you trust but with an important secret much more with all your honour or estates and most of all with one whom you must trust with so much of the comfort of your lives and your
madness to think that a Christian totally devoted unto God when he is a Private Man if he were after made a Souldier a Minister a Magistrate a King were not bound by his Dedication now to serve God as a Souldier a Minister a Magistrate a King So he that is devoted to God in a single state is bound to serve him as a Husband a Father a Master when he comes into that state We do devote all that we have to God when we devote our selves to him Moreover the Scripture tells us that to the pure all things are pure Tit. 1. 15 16. And all things are sanctified to them by the word and prayer 1 Tim. 4 5. which is in that they are made the Goods and Enjoyments Actions and Relations of a sanctified people who are themselves devoted or sanctified to God So that all sanctification referreth ultimately and principally to God Quod sanctum Deo sanctum est though it may be said subordinately to be sanctified to us Seeing then it is past all doubt that every Christian is a man sanctified and devoted to God and that when ever any man is so devoted to God he is devoted to serve him to the utmost capacity in every state Relation or Condition that he is in and with all the faculties he possesseth it followeth that those Relations are sanctified to God and in them he ought to worship him and honour him Yet further we find in Scripture that the particular family relations are expresly sanctified The family compleat consisteth of three pairs of Relations Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters and Servants Husbands must love their Wives with an Holy Love in the Lord even as the Lord loved the Church who gave himself for it to sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church Ephes. 5. 25 26 27. Wives must submit themselves to their Husbands as unto the Lord and be subject to them as the Church is to Christ Ephes. 5. 22 23 24. Children must obey their Parents in the Lord Ephes. 6. 1. Parents must bring up their children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord Ephes. 6. 4. Servants must be obedient unto their Masters as unto Christ and as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from their hearts with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to man knowing that what good thing any man doth the same shall be receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free and Masters must do the same to them knowing that their Master is in Heaven Ephes. 6. 5 6 7 8 9. So that it is evident that every distinct family-Relation is dedicated or holy to God and to be used to the utmost for God I shall have occasion to make further use anon of these Texts for the particular sorts of Worship though I now make use of them as for Worship in general Argument 5. The several sorts of solâ—mn Worship in and by Christian Families are found appointed used and commanded in the Scripture therefore it may well be concluded of Worship in the general seeing the Genus is in each Species But this Argument brings me to the second part of my undertaking viz. to prove the point as to some special kinds of Worship which I the more hasten to because in so doing I prove the General also II. Concerning Gods Worship in Special I shall speak but to two or three of the Chief parts of it which belong to families And 1. Of Teaching under which I comprise 1. Teaching the letter of the Scripture 1. By reading it 2. By teaching others to read it 3. Causing them to learn it by memory which is a kind of Catechising 2. Teaching the sense of it 3. Applying what is so taught by familiar Reproofs Admonitions and Exhortations Propos. 2. It is the Will of God that the Rulers of families should teach those that are under them the Propos. 2. Doctrine of salvation i. e. the Doctrine of God concerning salvation and the terms on which it is to be had and the means to be used for attaining it and all the Duties requisite on our parts in order thereunto Before I come to the proof take these Cautions 1. Where I say men must thus teach I imply they must be able to teach and not teach before they are able And if they be not able it is their own sin God having vouchsafed them Means for enablement 2. Men must measure their teaching according to their abilities and not pretend to more than they have nor attempt that which they cannot perâ—orm thereby incurring the guilt of proud self-conceitedness prophanation or other abuse of holy things For example men that are not able judiciously to do it must not presume to interpâ—et the Original or to give the sense of dark Prophesies and other obscure Texts of Scripture nor to determine Controversies beyond their reach 3. Yet may such conveniently study what more learned able men say to such cases and tell their families This is the judgement of Fathers or Councils or such and such Learned Divines 4. But ordinarily it is the safest humblest wisest and most orderly way for the master of the Family to let Controversies and obscure Scriptures alone and to teach the plain few necessary Doctrines commonly contained in Catechisms and to direct in matters of necessary practice 5. Family teaching must stand in a subordination to Ministerial teaching as Families are subordinate to Churches And therefore 1. Family teaching must give place to Ministerial teaching and never be set against it you must not be hearing the Master of a Family when you should be in a Church hearing the Pastor and if the Pastor send for Servants or Children to be Catechised in any fit place or at any fit time the Master is not then to be doing it himself or to hinder them but they must go first to the Pastor to be taught also if a Pastor come into a family the Master is to give place and the Family to hear him first 2. And therefore when any hard Text or Controversies fall in the Master should consult with the Pastor for their exposition unless it fall out that the Master of the Family be better learned in the Scripture than the Pastor is which is rare and rarer should be seeing unworthy Ministers should be removed and private men that are worthy should be made Ministers And the Pastors should be the ablest men in the Congregation Now to the proof remembring still that whatsoever proves it the Rulers Duty to teach must needs prove it the Families Duty to learn and to hearken to his teaching that they may learn Arg. 1. From Deut. 11. 18 19 20 21. Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your hearts and in your soul and bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes and you shall teach them your
beyond our Callings nor into confusion Argument 5. It is a Duty to receive all the mercies that God offereth us But for a family to have access to God in joynt prayers and praises is a mercy that God offereth them Therefore it is their duty to accept it The major is clear in nature and Scripture Because I have offered and ye refused is Gods great aggravation of the sin of the rebellious How oft would I have gathered you together and ye would not All the day long have I stretched out my hand c. To refuse an offered kindness is contempt and ingratitude The minor is undeniable by any Christian that ever knew what family prayers and prayses were Who dare say that it is no mercy to have such a joynt access to God Who feels not conjunction somewhat help his own affections who makes conscience of watching his heart Argument 6. Part of the Duties of families are such that they apparently loose their chiefest life and excellency if they be not performed joyntly Therefore they are so to be performed I mean singing of Psalms which I before proved an ordinary Duty of conjunct Christians Therefore of families The Melody and Harmony is lost by our separation and consequently the alacrity and quickning which our affections should get by it And if part of Gods praises must be performed together it is easie to see that the rest must be so too Not to speak of teaching which cannot be done alone Argument 7. Family prayer and praises are a Duty owned by the teaching and sanctifying work of the spirit Therefore they are of God I would not argue backward from the spirits teaching to the words commanding but on these two suppositions 1. That the experiment is very general and undeniable 2. That many texts of Scripture are brought already for family prayer and that this argument is but to second them and prove them truly interpreted The Spirit and the word do alway agree If therefore I can prove that the spirit of God doth commonly work mens hearts to a love and savour of these Duties doubtless they are of God Sanctification is a transcript of the precepts of the word on the heart written out by the spirit of God So much for the consequence The Antecedent consisteth of two parts 1. That the sanctified have in them inclinations to these Duties 2. That these Inclinations are from the spirit of God The first needs no proof being a matter of experience I appeal to the heart of every sound and stable Christian whether he feel not a conviction of this Duty and an inclination to the performance of it I never met with one such to my knowledge that was otherwise minded Object Many in our times are quite against family prayer who are good Christians Answ. I know none of them I confess I once thought some very good Christians that now are against them but now they appear otherwise not only by this but by other things I know none that cast off these Duties but they took up vile sins in their stead and cast off other Duties as well as these Let others observe and judge as they find 2. The power of delusion may for a time make a Christian forbear as unlawful that which his very new nature is inclined too As some think it unlawful to pray in our Assemblies and some to joyn in Sacraments And yet they have a spirit within them that inclineth their hearts to it still and therefore they love iâ— and wish it were lawful even when they forbear it upon a conceit that it is unlawful And so it 's possible for a time some may do by family Duties But as I expect that these ere long recover so for my part I take all the rest to be graceless Prejudice and error as a temptation may prohibit the exercise of a Duty when yet the spirit of God doth work in the heart an inclination to that Duty in sanctifying it 2. And that these inclinations are indeed from the spirit is evident 1. In that they come in with all other grace 2. And by the same means 3. And are preserved by the same means standing or falling increasing or decreasing with the rest 4. And are to the same end 5. And are so generally in all the sâ—iâ—ts 6. And so resisted by flesh and blood 7. And so agreeable to the Word that a Christian sins against his new nature when he neglects family Dutys And God doth by his spirit create a desire after them and an estimation of them in every gracious soul. Argument 8. Family prayer and praises is a Duty ordinarily crowned with admirable divine and special blessings Therefore it is of God The consequence is evident For though common outward prosperity may be given to the wicked who have their portion in this life yet so is not prosperity of soul. For the Antecedent I willingly appeal to the experience of all the holy families in the world Who ever used these Duties seriously and found not the benefits What Families be they in which grace and Heavenly mindedness prospereth but those that use these Duties Compare in all your Towns Cities and Villages the families that read Scriptures pray and praise God with those that do not and see the difference Which of them abound more with impiety with Oaths and cursings and railings and Drunkenness and Whoredoms and Worldliness c. And which abound most with Faith and Patience and Temperance and Charity and Repentance and Hope c. The controversie is not hard to decide Look to the Nobility and Gentry of England See you no difference between those that have been bred in praying families and the rest I mean taking them as we say one with another proportionably Look to the Ministers of England Is it praying families or prayerless families that have done most to the well furnishing of the Universities Argument 9. All Churches ought solemnly to pray to God and praise him A Christian family is a Church Therefore The major is past doubt the minor I prove from the nature of a Church in general which is a society of Christians combined for the better worshipping and serving of God I say not that a family formally as a family is a Church But every family of Christians ought moreover by such a combination to be a Church Yea as Christians they are so combined seeing Christianity tieth them to serve God conjunctly together in their Relations 2. Scripture expresseth it 2 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute much in the Lord with the Church that is in they house He saith not which meeteth in their house but which is in it So Philemon 2. And to the Church in this house Rom. 16. 5. Likewise greet the Church that is in their house Col. 4. 15. Salute the brethren that are at Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his house Though some Learned men take these to be meant of part of the Churches assembling in
these houses yet Beza Grotius and many others acknowledge it to be meant of a family or dâ—mestick Church according to that of Tertullian ubi tres licet laici ibi Ecclesia yet I say not that such a family Church is of the same species with a particular organized Church of many families But it could not so much as Analogically be called a Church if they might not and must not pray together and praise God together for these therefore it fully concludeth Argument 10. If Rulers must teach their families the word of God then must they pray with them But they must teach them Therefore The Antecedent is fully proved by express Scripture already See also Psalms 78 4. 5. 6. Ministers must teach from house to house therefore Rulers themselves must do it Acts 5. 42. 20. 20. The Consequence is proved good 1. The Apostles prayed when they Preached or Instructed Christians in private Assemblies Acts 20. 36. and other places 2. We have special need of Gods Assistance in reading the Scriptures to know his mind in them and to make them profitable to us therefore we must seek it 3. The Reverence due to so holy a business requireth it 4. We are commanded in all things to make our requests known to God with Prayers Supplications and thanksgiving and that with all manner of prayer in all places without ceasing therefore specially on such occasions as the reading of Scriptures and instructing others And I think that few men that are convinced of the duty of reading Scripture and solemn instructing their families will question the duty of praying for Gods blessing on it when they set upon the work Yea a Christians own Conscience will provoke him reverently to begin all with God in the imploring of his acceptance and aid and blessing Argument 11. If Rulers of families are bound to teach their families to Pray then are they bound to Pray with them But they are bound to teach them to Pray Therefore In the foregoing Argument I speak of teaching in general Here I speak of teaching to Pray in special The Antecedent of the major I prove thus 1. They are bound to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Eph. 6. 44. Therefore to teach them to Pray and Praise God For the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord containeth that 2. They are bound to teach them the fear of the Lord and train them up in the way that they should go and that is doubtless in the way of Prayer and Praising God The Consequence Appeareth here to be sound in that men cannot be well and effectually taught to Pray without Praying with them or in their hearing herefore they that must teach them to Pray must Pray with them It is like Musick which you cannot well teach any man without playing or singing to him seeing teaching must be by practising And in most practical Doctrines it is so in some degree If any question this I appeal to Experience I never knew any man that was well taught by man to pray without practising it before them They that ever knew any such may have the more colour to object but I did not Or if they did yet so rare a thing is not to be made the ordinary way of our Endeavouâ—s no more than we should forbear teaching men the most curious Artifices by ocular demonstration because some Wits have learnt them by few words or of their own Invention They are cruel to Children and Servants that teach them not to pray by practice and example Argument 12. From 1 Tim. 4. 3 4 5. Meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer Here mark That all our Meat is to be received with thanksgiving not only with a disposition of thankfulness 2. That this is twice repeated here together expresly yea thrice in sense 3. That God created them so to be received 4. That it is made a Condition of the goodness that is the blessing of the Creature to our use 5. That the Creature is said to be sanctified by Gods Word and Prayer and so to be unsanctified to us before 6. That the same thing which is called thanksgiving in the two former verses is called Prayer in the last Else the consequence of the Apostle could not hold when he thus argues It s good if it â—â— received with thanksgiving because it is sanctified by Prayer Hence I will draw these two Arguments 1. If families must with thanksgiving receive their meat as from God then is the thanksgiving of families a duty of Gods appointment But the former is true therefore so is the latter The Antecedent is plain All must receive their meat with thanksgiving Therefore families must They eat together therefore they must give thanks together And that Prayer is included in thanksgiving in this Text I manifested before 2. It is the Duty of families to use means that all Gods Creatures may be sanctified to them Prayer is the means to be used that all Gods Creatures may be sanctified to them Therefore it is the duty of families to use prayer Argument 13. From 1 Pet. 3. 7. Likewise ye Husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honour to the Wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered That Prayer which is especially hindered by ignorant and unkind converse is it that is especially meant here in this Text. But it is conjunct Prayer that is especially so hindered Therefore c. I know that secret personal prayer is also hindered by the same causes but not so directly and notably as conjunct prayer is With what hearts can Husband and Wife joyn together as one soul in prayer to God when they abuse and exasperate each other and come hot from chidings and dissentions This seemeth the true meaning of the Text And so the conjunct prayer of Husband and Wife being proved a duty who sometime constitute a family the same reasons will include the rest of the family also Arg. 14. From Col 3. 16 17. to Col. 4. 4. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him Wives submit your selves c. 4. 2. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving Hence I may fetch many arguments for family-prayers 1. It appeareth to be family prayers principally that the Apostle here speaketh of For it is families that he speaks to For in verse 16 17. he speaketh of prayer and thanksgiving and in the next words he speaketh to each family-relation Wives Husbands Children Parents Servants Masters And in the next words continuing his speech to the same
fit to be brought to the ears of the Church-assemblies 3. And if it were fit to mention them all in publick yet the number of such cases would be so great as would overwhelm the Minister and confound the publick Worship nay one half of them in most Churches could not be mentioned 4. And such cases are of ordinary occurrence and therefore would ordinarily have all these inconveniences And yet there are many such cases that are not fit to be confined to our secret prayers each one by himself because 1. They often so sin together as maketh it fit that they consess and lament it together 2. And some mercies which they receive together its fit they seek and give thanks for together 3. And many works which they do together its fit they seek a blessing on together 4. And the presence of one another in Confession Petition and Thanksgiving doth tend to the increase of their fervour and warming of their hearts and engaging them the more to duty and against sin and is needful on the grounds laid down before Nay it is a kind of Family-schism in such cases to separate from one another and to pray in secret only as it is Church schism to separate from the Church-assemblies and to pray in families only Nature and Grace delight in Unity and abhor division And the Light of Nature and Grace engageth us to do as much of the work of God in Unity and Concord and Communion as we can Argument 20. If before the giving of the Law to Moses God was worshipped in families by his own appointment and this appointment be not yet reverst then God is to be worshipped in families still But the Antecedent is certain Therefore so is the consequent I think no man denyeth the first part of the Antecedent that before the flood in the families of the righteous and after till the establishment of a Priesthood God was worshipped in families or housholds It is a greater doubt whether then he had any other publick Worship When there were few or no Church assemblies that were larger than families no doubt God was ordinarily worshipped in families Every Ruler of a family then was as a Priest to his own family Cain and Abel offered their own Sacrifices so did Noah Abraham and Iacob If it be objected that all this ceased when the Office of the Priest was instituted and so deny the later part of my Antecedent I reply 1. Though sâ—me make a doubt of it whether the Office of Priesthood was instituted before Aarons time I think there is no great doubt to be made of it seeing we find a Priesthood then among other Nations who had it either by the light of Nature or by Tradition from the Church And Melchizedecks Priesthood who was a Type of Christ is expresly mentioned So that though family-worship was then the most usual yet some more publick worship there was 2. After the institution of Aarons Priesthood family worship continued as I have proved before yea the two Sacraments of Circumcision and the Passeover were celebrated in Families by the Master of the house Therefore Prayer was certainly continued in families 3. If that part of Worship that was afterward performed in Synagogues and publick Assemblies was appropriated to them that no whit proveth that the part which agreed to families as such was transferred to those Assemblies Nâ—y it is a certain proof that that part was left to families still because we find that the publick Assemblies never undertook it We find among them no prayer but Church-prayer and not that which was fitted to Families as such at all Nor is there a word of Scripture that speaketh of Gods reversing of his command or order for family-prayer or other proper family-worship Therefore it is proved to continue obligatory still Had I not been too long already I should have urged to this end the example of Iob in sacrificing daily for his Sons and of Esther's keeping a Fast with her Maids Hest. 4. 16. And Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy fury on the Heathen that know thee not and on the families that call not on thy name It s true that by families here is meant Tribes of people and by calling on his Name is meant their worshipping the true God But yet this is spoken of all Tribes without exception great and small And Tribes in the beginning as Abrahams Isaacs Iacobs c. were confined to families And the argument holdeth from parâ—ty of reason to a proper family And that calling on Gods Name is put for his Worship doth more confirm us because it proveth it to be the most eminent part of Worship or else the whole would not be signified by it At least no reason can imagine it excluded So much for the proof of the fourth Proposition Objections answered Object 1. HAd it been a duty under the Gospel to pray in families we should certainly have found Object 1. it more expresly required in the Scripture Answ. 1. I have already shewed you that it is plainly required in the Scripture But men must not teach God how to speak nor oblige him to make all plain to blind perverted minds 2. Those things which were plainly revealed in the Old Testament and the Church then held without any contradiction even from the persecutors of Christ themselves might well be past over in the Gospel and taken as supposed acknowledged things 3. The General Precepts to pray alway with all prayer in all places c. being expressed in the Gospel and the Light of Nature making particular application of them to Families what need there any more 4. This reason is apparent why Scripture speaketh of it no more expresly Before Christs time the Worship of God was less spiritual and more ceremonial than afterward it was And therefore you find ofter mention of Circumcision and sacrificing than of Prayer And yet Prayer was still supposed to concurr And after Christs time on earth most Christian families were disturbed by persecution and Christians sold up all and lived in Community And also the Scripture History was to describe to us the state of the Churches rather than of particular families Object 2. Christ himself did not use to pray with his family as appeareth by the Disciples asking Object 2. him to teach them to pray and by the silence of the Scripture in this point Therefore it is no duty to us Answ. 1. Scripture silence is no proof that Christ did not use it All things are not written which he did 2. His Teâ—ching them the Lords Prayer and their desire of a common Rule of Prayer might consist with his usual praying with them At least with his using to pray with them after that though at first he did not use it 3 But it is the Consequence that I principally deny 1. Because Christ did afterwards call his servants to many duties which he put them not on at first as Sacraments Discipline preaching frequenter Praying c.
and breed up children for the devil Their natural corruption is advantage enough to Satan to engage them to himself and use them for his service But when Parents shall also take the Devils part and teach their children by precepts or example how to serve him and shall estrange them from God and a holy life and fill their minds with false conceits and prejudice against the means of their salvation as if they had sold their children to the Devil no wonder then if they have a black posterity that are trained up to be heirs of Hell He that will train up children for God must begin betimes before sensitive objects take too deep possession of their hearts and custom increase the pravity of their nature Original sin is like the arched Indian Fig-tree whose branches turning downwards and taking root do all become as trees themselves The acts which proceed from this habitual viciousness do turn again into vicious habits And thus sinful nature doth by its fruits increase it self And when other things consume themselves by breeding all that sin breedeth is added to it self and its breeding is its feeding and every act doth confirm the habit And therefore no means in all the world doth more effectually tend to the happiness of souls than wise and holy education This dealeth with sin before it hath taken the deepest root and boweth nature while it 's but a twig It preventeth the increase of natural pravity and keepeth out those deceits corrupt opinions and carnal fantasies and lusts which else would be serviceable to sin and Satan ever after It delivereth up the heart to Christ betime or at least doth bring him a Disciple to his School to learn the way to life eternal and to spend those years in acquainting himself with the ways of God which others spend in growing worse and in learning that which must be again unlearned and in fortifying Satans garrison in their hearts and defending it against Christ and his saving grace But of this more anon § 5. Motive 5. A holy well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed Church If Masters of families did their parts and sent such polished materials to the Churches as they ought to Motive 5 do the work and life of the Pastors of the Church would be unspeakably more easie and delightful It would do one good to Preach to such an auditory and to Catechise them and instruct them and examine them and watch over them who are prepared by a wise and holy education and understand and love the doctrine which they hear To lay such polished stones in the building is an easie and delightful work How teachable and tractable will such be And how prosperously will the labours of their Pastors be laid out upon them And how comely and beautiful the Churches be which are composed of such persons And how pure and comfortable will their communion be But if the Churches be sties of unclean beasts if they are made up of ignorant and ungodly persons that savour nothing but the things of the flesh and use to worship they know not what we may thank ill-governed families for all this It is long of them that Ministers preach as to idiots or barbarians that cannot understand them and that they must be always feeding their auditors with milk and teaching them the principles and Catechizing them in the Church which should have been done at home Yea it is long of them that there are so many Wolves and Swine among the Sheep of Christ and that holy things are administred to the enemies of holiness and the godly live in communion with the haters of God and Godliness and that the Christian Religion is dishonoured before the heathen world by the worse-than-heathenish lives of the Professors and the pollutions of the Churches do hinder the conversion of the unbelieving world whilest they that can judge of our Religion no way but by the people that profess it do judge of it by the lives of them that are in heart the enemies of it when the haters of Christianity and Godliness are the Christians by whose conversations the Infidel world must judge of Christianity you may easily conjecture what judgement they are like to make Thus Pastors are discouraged the Churches defiled Religion disgraced and Infidels hardned through the impious disorder and negligence of families What Universities were we like to have if all the Grammar-Schools should neglect their duties and send up their scholars untaught as they received them and if all Tutors must teach their pupils first to spell and read Even such Churches we are like to have when every Pastor must first do the work which all the Masters of families should have done and the part of many score or hundreds or thousands must be performed by one § 6. Motive 6. Well-governed Families tend to make a happy State and Commonwealth A good Motive 6. education is the first and greatest work to make good Magistrates and good Subjects because it tends to make good men Though a good man may be a bad Magistrate yet a bad man cannot be a very good Magistrate The ignorance or worldliness or sensuality or enmity to godliness which grew up with them in their youth will shew it self in all the places and relations that ever they shall come into When an ungodly family hath once confirmed them in wickedness they will do wickedly in every state of life when a perfidious Parent hath betrayed his Children into the power and service of the Devil they will serve him in all relations and conditions This is the School from whence come all the injustice and cruelties and persecutions and impieties of Magistrates and all the murmurings and rebellions of subjects This is the soil and seminary where the seed of the Devil is first sown and where he nurseth up the plants of Covetousness and Pride and Ambition and Revenge Malignity and Sensuality till he transplant them for his service into several Offices in Church and State and into all places of inferiority where they may disperse their venome and resist all that is good and contend for the interest of the flesh and Hell against the interest of the Spirit and of Christ. But O what a blessing to the world would they be that shall come prepared by a holy education to places of Government and Subjection And how happy is that Land that is ruled by such superiours and consisteth of such prepared subjects as have first learnt to be subject to God and to their Parents § 7. Motive 7. If the Governours of Families did faithfully perform their duties it would be a Motive 7. great supply as to any defects in the Pastors part and a singular means to propagate and preserve Religion in times of publick negligence or persecution Therefore Christian Families are called Churches because they consist of holy persons that worship God and learn and love and obey his word If you lived among
and temperature of your children which is a great advantage for the choosing and applying of the best remedy 8. You have opportunity of watching over them and discerning all their faults in time But if a Minister speak to them he can know no more what fault to reprehend than others tell him or the party will confess You may also discern what success your former exhortations had and whether they amend or still go on in sin and whether you should proceed to more severe remedies 9. You have opportunity of speaking to them in the most familiar manner which is better understood than the set speech of a Minister in the Pulpit which few of them mark or understand You can quicken their attention by questions which put them upon answering you and so awaken them to a serious regard of what you say 10. You are so frequently with them that you can repeat your instructions and drive them home that what is not done at one time may be done at another Whereas other men can seldom speak to them and what is so seldome spoken is easily neglected or forgotten 11. You have power to place them under the best means and to remove many impediments out of their way which usually frustrate other mens endeavours 12. Your example is near them and continually in their sight which is a continual and powerful Sermon By all these advantages God hath enabled you above all others to be instruments of your Childrens good and the first and greatest promoters of their salvation § 6. Motive 6. Consider how great a Comfort it would be to you to have your children such as you Motive 6. may confidently hope are the children of God being brought to know him and love and serve him through your own endeavours in a pious education of them 1. You may love your children upon an higher account than as they are yours even as they are Gods adorned with his Image and quickned with a divine celestial life And this is is to love them with a higher kind of Love than meer Natural affection is It would rejoyce you to see your children advanced to be Lords or Princes But O how much greater cause of joy is it to see them made the members of Christ and quickned by his Spirit and sealed up for life eternal 2. When once your children are made the children of God by the Regeneration of the Spirit you may be much more free from care and trouble for them than before Now you may boldly trust them on the care of their heavenly Father who is able to do more for them than you are able to desire He loveth them better than you can love them He is bound by promise to protect them and provide for them and to see that all things work together for their good He that clotheth the Lillies of the fields and suffereth not the young Lions or Ravens to be unprovided for will provide convenient food for his own children though he will have you also do your duty for them as they are your children While they are the children of Satan and the servants of sin you have cause to fear not only lest they be exposed to miseries in this world but much more lest they be snatched away in their sin to Hell Your children while they are ungodly are worse than among Wolves and Tygâ—rs But when once they are renewed by the Spirit of Christ they are the charge of all the blessed Trinity and under God the charge of Angels Living or dying they are safe For the Eternal God is their portion and defence 3. It may be a continual comfort to you to think what a deal of drudgery and calamity your child is freed from To think how many Oaths he would have sworn and how many lyes and curses he would have uttered and how bâ—aftly and fleshly a life he would have lived how much wrong he would have done to God and men and how much he would have pleased the Devil and what torments in Hâ—ll he must have endured as the reward of aâ—â—â—â— and then to think how mercifully God hath prevented all this and what service he may do God in the world and finally live with Christ in glory What a joy is this to a considering believing Parent that taketh the mercies of his children as his own 4. Religion will teach your children to be more dutiful to your selves than Nature can teach them It will teach them to Love you even when you have no more to give them as well as if you had the wealth of all the world It will teach them to honour you though you are poor and contemptible in the eyes of others It will teach them to obey you and if you â—all into want to relieve you according to their power It will â—it them to comfort you i st the time of your sickness and distress when ungodly children will be as thorns in your feet or eyes and cut your hearts and prove a greater grief than any enemies to you A gracious child will bear with your weaknesses when a Châ—m will not cover his Fathers nakedness A gracious Child can pray for you and pray with you and be a blessing to your house when an ungodly Child is fitter to curse and prove a curse to those he liveâ— with 5. And is it not an exceeding joy to think of the everlasting happiness of your Child and that you may live togâ—ther in Heaven for ever When the foresâ—en misâ—ry of a gracâ—lâ—ss Child may grieve you when ever you look him in the face 6. Lastly It will be a great addition to your joy to think that God blessed your diligent instructions and made you the instrument of all that good that is done upon your children and of all that good that is done by them and of all the happiness they have for ever To think that this was conveyed to them by your means will give you a larger share in the delights of it § 7. Motive 7. Remember that your Childrens Original sin and misery is by you and therefore in Motive 7. juâ—â—ice you that have undone them are bound to do your best to save them If you had but conveyed a leprosiâ— or some hereditary Disease to their bodies would you not have done your best to cure them O that you could do them but as much good as you do them hurt It is more than Adamâ— sin that runneth down into the natures of your Children yea and that bringeth judgements on them And even Adams sin cometh not to them but by you § 8. Motive 8. Lastly Consider what exceeding great need they have of the utmost help you can afford Motive 8. them It is not a corporal disease an easie enemy a tolerable that we call unto you for their helpâ—â— But it is against Sin and Satan and Hell fire It is against a body of sin not one but many â—oâ— small but pernicious having seized upon the heart
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
and shalt deliver his soul from Hell Prov. 19. 18. Chasten thy Son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying Ask him whether he would have you by sparing him to disobey God and hate him and destroy his soul. And when his reason is convinced of the reasonableness of correcting him it will be the more sucessful § 18. Direct 18. Let your own example teach your children that holiness and heavenliness and Direct 18. blamelessness of tongue and life which you desire them to learn and practise The example of Parents is most powerful with children both for good and evil If they see you live in the fear of God it will do much to perswade them that it is the most necessary and excellent course of life and that they must do so too And if they see you live a carnal voluptuous and ungodly life and hear you curse or swear or talk filthily or railingly it will greatly embolden them to imitate you If you speak Direct 19. never so well to them they will sooner believe your bad lives than your good words § 19. Direct 19. Choose such a Calling and course of life for your children as tendeth most to the saving of their souls and to their publick usefulness for Church or State Choose not a Calling that is most lyable to temptations and hinderances to their salvation though it may make them rich but a Calling which alloweth them some leisure for the remembring the things of everlasting consequence and fit opportunities to get good and to do good If you bind them Apprentices or Servants if it be possible place them with men fearing God and not with such as will harden them in their sin § 20. Direct 20. When they are marriageable and you find it needful look out such for them as are Direct 20. suitable betimes When Parents stay too long and do not their duties in this their children often choose for themselves to their own undoing For they choose not by judgement but blind affection § 21. Having thus told you the common duties of Parents for their children I should next have Direct 1. told you what specially belongeth to each Parent but to avoid prolixity I shall only desire you to remember especially these two Directions 1. That the Mother who is still present with children when they are young be very diligent in teaching them and minding them of good things When the Fathers are abroad the Mothers have more frequent opportunities to instruct them and be still speaking to them of that which is most necessary and watching over them This is the greatest service that most women can do for God in the world Many a Church that hath been blessed with a good Minister may thank the pious education of Mothers And many a thousand souls in Heaven may thank the holy care and diligence of Mothers as the first effectual means Good women this way by the good education of their children are ordinarily great blessings both to Church and State And so some understand 1 Tim. 2. 15. by Child-bearing meaning bringing up children for Direct 2. God but I rather think it is by Maries bearing Christ the promised seed 2. By all means let children be taught to read if you are never so poor and what ever shift you make or else you deprive them of a singular help to their instruction and salvation It is a thousand pities that a Bible should signifie no more than a Chip to a rational creature as to their reading it themselves and that so many excellent Books as be in the world should be as sealed or insignificant to them § 22. But if God deny you children and save you all this care and labour repine not but be thankful believing it is best for you Remember what a deal of duty and pains and hearts grief he hath freed you from and how few speed well when Parents have done their best what a life of misery children must here pass through and how sad the fear of their sin and damnation would have been to you CHAP. XI The special Duties of Children towards their Parents THough Precepts to Children are not of so much force as to them of riper age because of their natural incapacity and their childish passions and pleasures which bear down their weak dâ—gree of Reason yet somewhat is to be said to them because that measure of Reason which they have is to be exercised and by exercise to be improved and because even those of riper years while they have Parents must know and do their duty to them and because God useth to bless even children as they perform their duties § 1. Direct 1. Be sure that you dearly love your Parents Delight to be in their company Be not Direct 1. like those unnatural children that love the company of their idle play-fellows better than their Parents and had rather be abroad about their sports than in their Parents sight Remember that you have your Being from them and come out of their loins Remember what sorrow you have cost them and what care they are at for your education and provision and remember how tenderly they have loved you and what grief it will be to their hearts if you miscarry and how much your happiness will make them glad Remember what Love you owe them both by Nature and in Iustice for all their Love to you and all that they have done for you They take your Happiness or Misery to be one of the greatest parts of the Happiness or Misery of their own lives Deprive them not then of their Happiness bâ— depriving your selves of your own Make not their lives miserable by undoing your selves Though they chide you and restrain you and correct you do not therefore abate your Love to them For this is their Duty which God requireth of them and they do it for your good It is a sign of a wicked child that loveth his Parents the less because they correct him and will not let him have his own will Yea though your Parents have many faults themselves yet you must love them as your Parents still § 2. Direct 2. Honour your Parents both in your Thoughts and speeches and behaviour Think Direct 2. not dishonourably or contemptuously of them in your hearts Speak not dishonourably rudely unreverently or sawcily either to them or of them Behave not your selves rudely and unreverently before them Yea though your Parents be never so poor in the world or weak of understanding yea though they were ungodly you must honour them notwithstanding all this Though you cannot honour them as Rich or Wise or Godly you must honour them as your Parents Remember that the fifth Commandment hath a special promise of temporal blessing Honour thy Father and Mother that thy dayes may be long in the land c. And consequently the dishonourers of Parents have a special curse even in this life And the Justice of
to your souls and bodies to be bred too high and fed too full and daintily than to be bred too low and fed too hardly One tendeth to pride and gluttony and wantonness and the overthrow of health and life and the other tendeth to a humble mortified self-denying life and to the health and soundness of the body Remember how the earth opened and swallowed all those rebellious murmurers that grudged against Moses and Aaron Num. 16. Read it and apply it to your case And remember the story of rebellious Absâ—lom and the folly of the Prodigal Luke 15. and desire not to be at your own dispose nor be not eager to have the vain desires of your hearts fulfilled While you contentedâ—y submit to your Parents you are in Gods way and may expect his blessing but when you will needs be Carvers for your selves you may expect the punishment of Rebels § 5. Direct 5. Humble your selves and submit to any labour that your Parents shall appoint you to Direct 5. Take heed as you love your souls lest either a proud heart make you murmur and say This work is too low and base a drudgery for me Or lest a lazy mind and body make you say This work is too hard and toilsome for me Or lest a foolish playful mind do make you weary of your Book or labour that you may be at your sports and say This is too tedious for me It is little or no hurt that is like to befall you by your labour and diligence but it is a dangerous thing to get a habit or custome of idlâ—ness and voluptuousness in your youth § 6 Direct 6. Be willing and thankful to be instructed by your Parents or any of your Teachers but Direct 6. especially about the fear of God and the matters of your salvation These are the matters that you are born and live for These are the things that your Parents have first in charge to teach you Without knowledge and hâ—liness all the riches and honours of the world are nothing worth and all your pleasures Read Mâ— Tâ—o Wâ—iâ—s 〈…〉 e book for â—ittle Children Maâ— 9 36. 1â— 14. 16. will but undo you O what a comfort is it to understanding Parents to see their children willing to learn and to love the Word of God and lay it up in their hearts and talk of it and obey it and prepare betime for everlasting life If such children die before their Parents how joyfully may they part with them as into the arms of Christ who hath said that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 19. 14. And if the Parents die first how joyfully may they leave behind them a holy seed that is like to serve God in their generation and to follow them to Heaven and live with them for ever But whether they live or die what a hear-breaking to the Parents are ungodly children that love not the word and way of God and love not to be taught or restrained from their own licentious courses § 7. Direct 7. Patiently submit to the correction which your Parents lay upon you Consider that Direct 7. God hath commanded them to do it and that to save your souls from Hell and that they hate you if they correct you not when there is cause and that they must not spare for your crying Prov 13. 24. 22. 15. 29. 15. 23. 13 14. 19. 18 It is not their delight but for your own necessity Avoid the fault and you may escape the correction How much rather had your Parents see you obedient than hear you cry It is not long of them but of your selves that you are corrected Be angry with your selves and not with them It is a wicked child that instead of being better by correction will hate his Parents for it and so grow worse Correction is a means of Gods own appointment and therefore go to God on your knees in prayer and intreat him to bless and sanctifie it to you that it may do you good § 8. Direct 8. Choose not your own company but use such company as by your Parents is appointed Direct 8. you Bad company is the first undoing of a Child When for the love of sport you choose such play-fellows as are idle and licentious and disobedient and will teach you to curse and swear and lie and talk filthily and draw you from your Book or duty this is the Devils High-way to Hell Your Parents are fittest to choose your company § 9. Direct 9. Choose not your own Calling or Trade of life without the choice or consent of your Parents Direct 9. You may tell them what you are most inclined to but it belongeth more to them than to you to make the choice And it is your part to bring your wills to theirs Unless your Parents choose a Calling for you that is unlawful and then you may with humble submissiveness refuse it But if it be only inconvenient you have liberty afterward to change it for a better if you can when you are from under their dispose and government § 10. Direct 10. Marry not without your Parents consent Nay if it may be let their choice determine Direct 10. first of the person and not your own Unexperienced youth doth choose by fancy and passion when your experienced Parents will choose by judgement But if they would force you to joyn your selves to such as are ungodly and like to make your lives either sinful or miserable you may humbly refuse them But you must remain unmarried while by the use of right means you can live in chastity till your Parents are in a better mind But if indeed you have a flat necessity of marrying and your Parents will consent to none but one of a false Religion or one that is utterly unfit for you in such a case they forfeit their authority in that point which is given them for your edification and not for your destruction And then you should advise with other friends that are more wise and faithful But if you suffer your fond affections to contradict your Parents wills and pretend a necessity that you cannot change your affections as if your folly were uncurable this is but to enter sinfully into that state of life which should have been sanctified to God that he might have blest it to you § 11. Direct 11. If your Parents be in want it is your duty to relieve them according to your ability Direct 11. yea and wholly to maintain them if there be need For it is not possible by all that you can do that ever you can be on even terms with them or even requite them for what you have received of them It is base inhumanity when Parents come to poverty for children to put them off with some short allowance and to make them live almost like their servants when you have riches and plenty for your selves Your Parents should still be maintained by
you as your superiours and not as your inferiours See that they fare as well as your selves yea though you got not your riches by their means yet even for your being you are their debtors for more than that § 12. Direct 12. Imitate your Parents in all that is good both when they are living and when they Direct 12. are dead If they were lovers of God and of his word and service and of those that fear him let their example provoke you and let the love that you have to them engage you in this imitation A wicked child of godly Parents is one of the most miserable wretches in the world With what horror do I look on such a person How near is such a wretch to Hell When Father or Mother were eminent for Godliness and daily instructed them in the matters of their salvation and prayed with them and warned them and prayed for them and after all this the children shall prove covetous or drunkards or whoremongers or prophane and enemies to the servants of God and deride or neglect the way of their religious Parents it would make one tremble to look such wretches in the face For though yet there is some hope of them alas it is so little that they are next to desperate when they are hardned under the most excellent means and the light hath blinded them and their acquaintance with the wayes of God hath but turned their hearts more against them what means is left to do good to such resisters of the grace of God as these The likeliest is some heavy dreadful judgement O what a woful day will it be to them when all the prayers and tears and teachings and good examples of their religious Parents shall witness against them How will they be confounded before the Lord And how sad a thought is it to the heart of holy diligent Parents to think that all their prayers and pains must witness against their graceless children and sink them deeper into Hell And yet alas how many such woful spectacles are there before our eyes and how deeply doth the Church of Gâ—d 〈…〉 by the malice and wickedness of the children of those Parents that taught them better and walked before them in a holy exâ—mplary life But if Parents be ignorant superstitious idolatrous Pâ—pish or prophane their children are forward enough to imitate them Then they can say Our fâ—r fâ—â—hers were of this mind and we hope they are saved and we will rather imitate them than such in 〈…〉 ting reformers aâ— you As they said to Ieremy Chap. 44. 16 17 18. As for the word that 〈…〉 hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken to thee But we will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the Streets of Jerusalem for then we had plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and famine Thus they walk after the imagination of their hearts and after Baalim the false Worship which their Fathers taught them Jâ—r 9. 14. And they forget Gods name as their Fathers did forget it Jâ—r 23. 27. They and their Fathers have transgressed to this day Ezek. 2. 3. Yea they harden their necks and do worse than their Fathers Jer. 7. 26. Thus in error and sin they can imitate their fore-fathers when they should rather remember 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. that it cost Christ his blood to redeem men from their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers And they should penitently confess as Dan. 9. 8. O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee v. 16. And as Psal. 106. 6. We have sinned with our Fathers c. Saith God Jer. 16. 11 12 13. Behold your Fathers have forsaken me and have not kept my Law and ye have done worse than your Fathers therefâ—re I will cast you out c. Jer. 43. 9. Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your Fathers and the wickedness of the Kings of Judah and your own wickedness they are not humbled even unto this day v. 21. Zâ—ch 1. 4. Be not as your Fathers to whom the former Prophets have cryed saying Turn ye now from your evil wayes but they did not hear Mal. 3. 7. Even from the dayes of your Fathers ye are gone away from mine Ordinances and have not kept them Return unto me and I will return unto you Ezek. 20. 18. Walk ye not in the Statutes of your Fathers So v. 27. 30 36. Follow not your Fathers in their sin and error but follow them where they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. CHAP. XII The special Duties of Children and Youth towards God THough I put your duty to your Parents first because it is first learned yet your Duty to God immediately is your greatest and most necessary duty Learn these following Precepts well § 1. Direct 1. Learn to understand the Covenant and Vow which in your Baptism you made Direct 1. with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost your Creator Redeemer and Regenerater and when you well understand it renew that Covenant with God in your own persons and absolutely deliver up your selves to God as your Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier your Owner your Ruler and your Father and felicity Baptism is not an idle Ceremony but the solemn entring into Covenant with God in which you receive the greatest mercies and bind your selves to the greatest duties It is but the entring into that way which you must walk in all your lives and a vowing that to God which you must be still performing And though your Parents had authority to promise for you it is you that must perform it for it was you that they obliged If you ask by what authority they obliged you in Covenant to God I answer by the authority which God had given them in Nature and in Scripture as they oblige you to be Subjects of the King or as they enter your names into any Covenant by lease or other contract which is for your benefit And they do it for your good that you may have part in the blessings of the Covenant And if you grudge at it and refuse your own consent when you come to age you lose the benefits If you think they did you wrong you may be out of Covenant when you will if you will renounce the Kingdom of Heaven But it is much wiser to be thankful to God that your Parents were the means of so great a blessing to you and to do that again more expresly by your selves which they did for you and openly with thankfulness to own the Covenant in which you are engaged and live in the performance and in the comforts of it
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
and Sanctifier of souls and in what order he doth all this by the Ministry of the Word 12. In the next open to them the office and use and duty of the ordinary Ministry and their duty toward them especially as Hearers and the nature and use of publick Worship and the nature and Communion of Saints and Churches 13. In the next open to them the Nature and use of Bâ—pâ—ism and the Lords Supper 14. In the next open to them the shortness of life and the state of souls at death and after death and the day of Judgement and the Justification of the Righteous and the Condemnation of the wicked at that day 15. In the next open to them the Joyes of Hâ—aven and the miseries of the damned 16. In the next open to them the vanity of all the pleasure and profits and honour of this World and the method of Temptations and how to overcome them 17. In the next open to them the reason and use of suffering for Christ and of self denyal and how to prepare for sickness and death And after this go over also the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments § 13. Direct 13. After all your instructions make them briefly give you an account in their own Direct 13. words of what they understand and remember of all or else the next time to give account of the fâ—rmer And encourage them for all that is well done in their endeavours § 14. Direct 14. Labour in all to keep up a â—akened serious attention and still to print upon their Direct 14. hearts the greatest things And to that end For the Matter of your teaching and discourse let nothing be so much in your mouths as 1. The Nature and Relations of God 2. A Crucified and a Glorified Christ with all his grace and priviledges 3. The operations of the spirit on the soul. 4. The madness of sinners and the vanity of the world 5. And endless Glory and Joy of Saints and misery of the ungodly after death Let these five points be frequently urged and be the life of all the rest of your discourse And then for the Manner of your speaking to them let it be alwayes with such a mixture of familiarity and seriousness that may carry along their serious attentions whether they will or no Speak to them as if they or you were dying and as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell § 15. Direct 15. Take each of them sometime by themselves and there describe to them the work Direct 15. of Renovation and ask them whether ever such a work was wrought upon them Shew them the true Marks of Grace and help them to try themselves Urge them to tell you truly whether their Love to God or the Creature to Heaven or Earth to Holiness or Flesh-pleasing be more and what it is that hath their hearts and care and chief endeavour And if you find them regenerate help to strengthen them If you find them too much dejected help to Comfort them And if you find them unregenerate help to convince them and then to humble them and then to shew them the remedy in Christ and then shew them their duty that they may have part in Christ and drive all home to the end that you desire to see But do all this with Love and gentleness and privacy § 16. Direct 16. Some pertinent Questions which by the answer will engage them to teach themselves Direct 16. or to judge themselves will be sometimes of very great use As such as these Do you not know that you must shortly dye Do you not believe that immediately your souls must enter upon an endless life of joy or misery Will worldly wealth and honours or fleshly pleasures be pleasant to you then Had you then rather be a Saint or an ungodly sinner Had you not then rather be one of the holiest that the World despised and abused than one of the greatest and richest of the wicked When Time is past and you must give account of it had you not then rather it had been spent in holiness and obedience and diligent preparation for the life to come than in pride and pleasure and pampering the flesh How could you make shift to forget your endless life so long Or to sleep quietly in an unregenerate state What if you had died before conversion what think you had become of you and where had you now been Do you think that any of those in Hell are glad that they were ungodly or have now any pleasure in their former merriments and sin What think you would they do if it were all to do again Do you think if an Angel or Saint from Heaven should come to decide the Controversie between the Godly and the Wicked that he would speak against a Holy and Heavenly life or plead for a loose and fleshly life or which side think you he would take Did not God know what he did when he made the Scriptures Is he or an ungodly scorner to be more regarded Do you think every man in the World will not wish at last that he had been a Saint what ever it had cost him Such kind of Questions urge the Conscience and much convince § 17. Direct 17. Cause them to learn some one most plain and pertinent text for every great Direct 17. and necessary duty and against every great and dangerous sin and often to repeat them to you As Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye Repent ye shall all perish Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 18. 14. Ioh. 3. 16 Luk. 18. 1 c. So against lying swearing taking Gods name in vain flesh-pleasing Gluttony pride and the rest § 18. Direct 18. Drive all your Convictions to a Resolution of Endeavour and amendment and Direct 18. make them sometime promise you to do that which you have convinced them of And sometimes before witnesses But let it be done with these necessary Cautions 1. That you urge not a promise in any doubtful point or such as you have not first convinced them of 2. That you urge not a promise in things beyond their present strength As you must not bid them promise you to Believe or to Love God or to be tender-hearted or heavenly-minded but to do those duties which tend to these as to hear the Word or read or pray or meditate or keep good company or avoid temptations c. 3. That you be not too often upon this or upon one and the same strain in the other methods lest they take them but for words of course and custome teach them to contemn them But seasonably and prudently done their promises will lay a great engagement on them § 19. Direct 19. Teach them how to pray by formes or without as is most suitable to their â—ase and Direct 19. parts And either your self or
Understandings and Charity to be both exceeding low § 7. Quest. 7. Must we alwayes pray according to the Method of the Lords Prayer and is it a sin Quest. 7. to do otherwise Answ. 1. The Lords Prayer is first a Rule for your Desires And it is a sin if your Desires follow not that Method If you do not begin in your Desires with God as your Ultimate End and if you first Desire not his Glory and then the flourishing of his Kingdom and then the Obeying of his Laws and herein the publick welfare of the world before and above your particular benefit And it is a sin if you desire not your Daily Bread or necessary support of Nature as a lower mercy in order to your higher spiritual mercies and if you desire not pardon of sin as a means to your future sanctity duty and felicity and if you desire not these as a means to the glory of God and take not his Praises as the highest part of your Prayers But for the Expressing of these Desires particular occasions may warrant you oft-times to begin in another order As when you pray for the sick or pray for directions or a blessing before a Sermon or some particular work you may begin and end with the subject that is before you as the prayers of holy men in all ages have done 2. You must distinguish also as between Desires and Expressions so between an Universal and a Particular Prayer The one containeth all the parts of prayer and the other is but about some one subject or part or but some few This last being but one or few particular Petitions cannot possibly be uttered in the Method of an Universal Prayer which hath all the parts There is no one Petition in the Lords Prayer but may be made a prayer it self and then it cannot have the other Petitions as parts 3. And you must distinguish between the even and ordinary case of a Christian and his extraordinary case when some special reason affection or accident calleth him to look most to some one particular In his even and ordinary case every universal prayer should be expressed in the Method of the Lords Prayer But in cases of special reason and inducement it may be otherwise § 8. Quest. 8. Must we pray alwayes when the Spirit moveth us and only then or as Reason guideeth Quest. 8. us Answ. There are two sorts of the Spirits motions The one is by extraordinary inspiration or impulse as he moved the Prophets and Apostles to reveal new Laws or precepts or events or to do some actions without respect to any other command than the Inspiration it self This Christians are not now to expect because experience telleth us that it is ceased or if any should pretend to it as not yet ceased in the prediction of events and direction in some things otherwise indifferent yet it is most certain that it is ceased as to Legislation For the spirit it self hath already given us those Laws which he hath declared to be perfect and unchangeable till the end of the world The other sort of the spirits working is not to make new Laws or Duties but to Guide and quicken us in the doing of that which is our Duty before by the Laws already made And these are the motions that all true Christians must now expect By which you may see that the Spirit and Reason are not to be here dis-joyned much less opposed As Reason sufficeth not without the spirit being dark and asleep so the spirit worketh not on the Will but by the Reason He moveth not a man as a beast or stone to do a thing he knoweth not why but by illumination giveth him the soundest Reason for the doing of it And Duty is first Duty before we do it And when by our own sin we forfeit the special motions or help of the spirit duty doth not thereby cease to be duty nor our omission to be sin If the spirit of God teach you to discern the meetest season for prayer by considering your affairs and when you are most free this is not to be denyed to be the work of the spirit because it is rational as phanatick enthusiasts imagine And if you are moved to pray in a crowd of business or at any time when Reason can prove that it is not your duty but your sin the same Reason proveth that it was not the spirit of God that moved you to it For the spirit in the heart is not contrary to the spirit in the Scripture Set upon the duty which the spirit in the Scripture commandeth you and then you may be sure that you obey the spirit otherwise you disobey it Yea if your hearts be cold prayer is a likelyer means to warm them than the omission of it To ask whether you may pray while your hearts are cold and backward is as to ask whether you may labour or come to the fire before you are warm Gods spirit is liker to help you in Duty than in the neglect of it § 9. Quest. 9. May a man pray that hath no Desire at all of the Grace which he prayeth for Quest. 9. Answ. No because it is no prayer but Dissembling and dissembling is no duty He that asketh for that which he would not have doth lye to God in his hypocrisie But if a man have but cold and common desires though they reach not to that which will prove them evidences of true grace he may pray and express those desires which he hath § 10. Quest. 10. May a man pray that doubteth of his interest in God and dare not call him Father Quest. 10. as his Child Answ. 1. There is a common Interest in God which all mankind have as he is Good to all and as Psal. 42. 9. 22. 1. â—on 2. 4. Jâ—r 31. 9. Luk. 15. 12 17 19. Mal. 2. 10. his mercy through Christ is offered to all And thus those that are not regenâ—rate are his Children by Creation and by participation of his mercy And they may both call him Father and pray to himself though yet they are unregenerate 2. God hath an interest in you when you have no special interest in him Therefore his command must be obeyed which bids you pray 3. Groundless doubts will not disoblige you from your duty else men might free themselves from almost all their obedience § 11. Quest. 11. May a wicked or unregenerate man pray and is he accepted Or is not his prayer Quest. 11. abominable to God Answ. 1. A wicked man as a wicked man can pray no how but wickedly that is he asketh only Act. 15. 17. 1â— 27. 8. 22. Isa. 55. 6. Psal. 14. 4. for things unlawful to be asked or for lawful things to unlawful ends and this is still abominable to God 2. A wicked man may have in him some good that proceedeth from common grace and this he may be obliged to exercise and so by prayer
§ 30. 1. Your duty with your hearts consisteth in these particulars 1. That you do your best in the close Examination of your hearts about your states and the sincerity of your Faith Repentance and Obedience To know whether your hearts are true to God in the Covenant which you are to renew and seal Which may be done by these enquiries and discerned by these signs 1. Whether Marks of Sincerity you truly lothe your selves for all the sins of your hearts and lives and are a greater offence and burden to your selves because of your imperfections and corruptions than all the world beside is ☜ Ezek. 6. 9. 20. 43. 36. 31. Rom. 7. 24. 2. Whether you have no sin but what you are truly desirous to know and no known sin but what you are truly desirous to be rid of and so desirous as that you had rather be perfectly freed from sin than from any affliction in the world Rom. 7. 22 18 24. 8. 18. 3. Whether you Love the searching and reforming light even the most searching parts of the Word of God and the most searching Books and searching Sermons that by them you may be brought to know your selves in order to your setled peace and reformation Iohn 3. 19 20 21. 4. Whether you truly love that degree of Holiness in others which you have not yet attained your selves and love Christ in his children with such an unseigned love as will cause you to relieve them according to your abilities and suffer for their sakes when it is your duty 1 Iohn 3. 14 16. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 3. 8. Iames 2. 12 13 14 15. Matth. 25. 40 c. 5. Whether you can truly say that there is no degree of Holiness so high but you desire it and had rather be perfect in the Love of God and the obedience of his Will than have all the riches and pleasures of this world Rom. 7. 18 21 24. Psal. 119. 5. Matth. 5. 6. and had rather be one of the Holiest Saints than of the most renowned prosperous Princes upon earth Psal. 15. 4. 16. 2. Psal. 84. 10. 65. 4. 6. Whether you have so far laid up your treasure and your hopes in Heaven as that you are resolved to take that only for your portion and that the hopes of Heaven and interest of your souls hath the preheminence in your hearts against all that stands in competition with it Col. 3. 1 3 4. Matth. 6. 20 21. 7. Whether the chiefest care of your hearts and endeavour of your lives be to serve and please God and to enjoy him for ever rather than for any worldly thing Matth. 6. 33. Iohn 5. 26. 2 Cor. 5. 1 6 7 8 9. 8. Whether it be your daily desire and endeavour to mortifie the flesh and master its rebellious opposition to the Spirit and you so far prevail as not to live and walk and be led by the flesh but that the course and drift of your life is spiritual Rom. 8. 1 6 7 8 9 10 13. Gal. 5. 17. 21 22. 9. Whether the world and all its honour wealth and pleasure appear to you so small and contemptible a thing as that you esteem it as dung and nothing in comparison of Christ and the Love of God and Glory and are Resolved that you will rather let go all than your part in Christ and which useth to carry it in the time of tryal in your deliberate choice Phil. 3. 7 8 9 13 14 18 19 20. 1 Iohn 2. 15. Luke 14. 26 30 33. Matth. 13. 19 21. 10. Whether you are resolved upon a course of holiness and obedience and to use those means which God doth make known to you to be the way to please him and to subdue your corruption and yet feeling the frailties of your hearts and the burden of your sins do trust in Christ as your Righteousness before God and in the Holy Ghost whose grace alone can illuminate sanctifie and confirm you Acts 11. 23. Psal. 119. 57 63 69 106. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Rom. 8. 9. Iohn 15. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 9. By these signs you may safely try your states § 31. 2. When this is done you are also to try the strength and measure of your grace that you may perceive your weakness and know for what help you should seek to Christ And to find out what inward Corruptions and sinful inclinations are yet strongest in you that you may know what to lament and to ask forgiveness of and help against My Book called Directions for weak Christians will give you fuller advice in this § 32. 3. You are also to take a strict account of your Lives and to look over your dealings with God and men in secret and publick especially of late since the last renewal of your Covenant with Psal. 4. 4 5 6. God and to hear what God and Conscience have to say about your sins and all their aggravations Psal. 139. 23. 1 Cor. 11. 28. § 33. 4. And you must labour to get your hearts affected with your condition as you do discover it To be humbled for what is sinful and to be desirous of help against your weakness and thankful for the Grace which you discern § 34. 5. Lastly you must consider of all the work that you go to do and all the mercies which you are going to receive and what Graces are necessary to all this and how they must be used and accordingly look up all those Graces and prepare them for the exercise to which they are to be called out I shall name you the particulars anon § 35. II. Your duty towards God in your Preparation for this Sacrament is 1. To cast down your selves before him in humble penitent confession and lamentation of all the sins which you discover And to beg his pardon in secret before you come to have it publickly sealed and delivered 2. To look up to him with that Thankfulness Love and Ioy as becomes one that is going to receive so great a mercy from him And humbly to beg that grace which may prepare you and quicken you to and in the work § 36. III. Your duty towards others in this your preparation is 1. To forgive those that have done you wrong and to confess your fault to those whom you have wronged and ask them forgiveness and make them amends and restitution so far as in your power and to be reconciled to those with whom you are fallen out and to see that you love your neighbours as is your selves Matth. 5. 23 24 25 26 44. Iames 5. 16. 2 That you seek advice of your Pastors or some fit persons in cases that are too hard for your selves to resolve and where you need their special help 3. That you lovingly admonish them that you know do intend to communicate unworthily and to come thither in their ungodliness and gross sin unrepented of that you shew not such hatred of your Brother as to suffer sin upon
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
be proportionable to your possessions John 15. 5. Mar. 12. 41. Luke 12. 48. Do as much more good in the world than the poor as you are better furnished for it than they Let your servants have more time for the learning of Gods Word and let your families be the more religiously instructed and governed To whom God giveth much from them he doth expect much Direct 12. Direct 12. Do not only take occasions of doing good when they are thrust upon you but study how to do all the good you can as those that are zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. Zeal of good Matth. 5. 16. Gal. 6. 7 8 9 10. 1 Pet. 2. 12. Heb. 10. 24. Tit. 3. 8 14. 2. 7. Ephes. 2. 10. 1 Tim. 2. 10. 5. 10. Acts 9. 36. works will make you 1. Plot and contrive for them 2. Consult and ask advice for them 3. It will make you glad when you meet with a hopeful opportunity 4. It will make you do it largely and not sparingly and by the halves 5. It will make you do it speedily without unwilling backwardness and delay 6. It will make you do it constantly to your lives end 7. It will make you pinch your own flesh and suffer somewhat your selves to do good to others 8. It will make you Labour in it as your Trade and not only consent that others do good at your charge 9. It will make you glad when good is done and not to grudge at what it cost you 10. In a word it will make your neighbours to be to you as your selves and the Pleasing of God to be above your selves and therefore to be as glad to do good as to receive it Direct 13. Do good both to mens souls and bodies but alwayes let bodily benefits be conferred in Direct 13. order to those of the soul and in due subordination and not for the body alone And observe the many other Rules of Good Works more largely laid down Tom. 1. Cap. 3. Direct 10. Direct 14. Ask your selves often How you shall wish at death and judgement your estates had been Direct 14. laid out and accordingly now use them Why should not a man of Reason do that which he knoweth before hand he shall vehemently wish that he had done Direct 15. As your care must be in a special manner for your children and families so take heed Direct 15. of the common error of worldlings who think their children must have so much as that God and their own souls have very little When selfish men can keep their wealth no longer to themselves they leave it to their children who are as their surviving selves And all is cast into this gulf except some inconsiderable parcels Direct 16. Direct 16. Keep daily account of your use and improvement of your Masters Talents Not that Mat. 25. 14 15 you should too much remember your own good works but remember to do them and therefore ask your selves What Good have I done with all that I have this Day or Week Direct 17. Look not for long life for then you will think that a long journey needeth great provisions Direct 17. But dye daily and live as those that are going to give up their account And then Conscience 1 Tim. 6. 18. 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. Luke 16. 10. will force you to ask whether you have been faithful Stewards and to lay up a treasure in Heaven and to make you friends of the Mammon that others use to unrighteousness and to lay up a good foundation for the time to come and to be glad that God hath given you that the improvement of 1 Tim. 5. 25. which may further the good of others and your salvation Living and Dying let it be your care and business to Do Good CHAP. XXIX Directions for the Aged and weak HAving before opened the Duties of Children to God and to their Parents I shall give no other particular Directions to the Young but shall next open the special Duties of the Aged § 1. Direct 1. The old and weak have a lowder call from God than others to be accurate Direct 1. in examining the state of their souls and making their calling and election sure Whether they Iâ— Augustines speech to the people of Hippo for Fradius his succession he saith In Infantiâ spâ—raâ—ur pueritia in pueritia speratur adolescentia in adolescentià spâ—râ—â—ur juventuâ— in juventure speratur gravitas in gravitate speratur senectus Utrum contingat incertum est est tamen quod sperâ—tur Senâ—ctus autem alâ—am â—â—atem quam speret non habet Vid. Papâ—r Massoâ— in vita Coelâ—sti fol. 58. are yet Regenerate and Sanctified or not is a most important question for every man to get resolved but especially for them that are nearest to their end Ask counsel therefore of some able faithful Minister or friend and set your selves diligently to try your Title to eternal life and to cast up your accounts and see how all things stand between God and you And if you should find your selves in an unrenewed state as you love your souls delay no longer but presently be humbled for your so long and sotâ—ish neglect of so necessary and great a work Go open your case to some able minister and lament your sin and fly to Christ and set your hearts on God as your felicity and change your company and course and rest not any longer in so dangerous and miserable a case The more full Directions for your Conversion I have given before in the beginning of the Book and in divers others and therefore shall say no more to such it being others that I am here especially to Direct § 2. Direct 2. Cast back your eyes upon the sins of all your life that you may perceive how humble Direct 2. those souls should be that have sinned so long as you have done and may feel what need you have of Christ to pardon so long a life of sin Though you have repented and been justified long ago yet you have daily sinned since you were Justified And though all be forgiven that is repented of yet must it be still before your eyes both to keep you humble and continue the exercise of that Repentance and drive you to Christ and make you thankful Yea your forgiveness and Iustification are yet short of perfection whatever some may tell you to the contrary as well as your sanctification For 1. Your Justification is yet given you but conditionally as to its continuance even upon condition of your perseverance 2. And the temporal chastisement and the pains of death and the long absence of the body from Heaven and the present wants of grace and comfort and communion with God are punishments which are not yet forgiven executively 3. And the final sentence of Justification at the day of Judgement which is the perfectest sort is yet to come And therefore you have
and lastly of our Keeping it § 3. The Christian Covenant is a Contract between God and man through the Mediation of Iesus Christ The Covenant what for the return and reconciliation of sinners unto God and their Iustification Adoption Sanctification and Glorification by him to his Glory § 4. Here we must first consider who are the Parties in the Covenant 2. What is the matter of the Covenant on Gods Part 3. What is the matter on Mans Part 4. What are the terms of it propounded on Gods Part. 5. Where and how he doth express it 6. What are the necessary Qualifications on mans part 7. And what are the Ends and Benefits of it § 5. I. The Parties are GOD and MAN GOD the FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST on the one part and REPENTING BELIEVING SINNERS on the other part Man is the party that needeth it but God is the party that first offereth it Here note 1. That Gods part of the Covenant is made Universally and Conditionally with all mankind as to the tenor enacted and so is in Being before we were born 2. That it is not the Father Son and Holy Ghost considered simply as persons in the Godhead but as Related to Man for the ends of the Covenant 3. That it is only Sinners that this Covenant is made with because the Use of it is for the restoration of those that broke a former Covenant in Adam It is a Covenant of Reconciliation and therefore supposeth an Enmity antecedent 4. When I say that it is Repenting and Believing sinners that are the party I mean 1. That taking the Covenant in its first Act it is Repentance and faith themselves that are that Act and are our very Covenanting But taking the Covenant in its external expression so it is a Repenting Believing sinner that must make it it being but the expression of his Repentance and faith by an explicit contract with God 5. Note that though Gods Covenant be by one Universal Act of which more anon yet mans is to be made by the several acts of the individual persons each one for himself and not by the Acts of Societies only § 6. II. The matter of the Covenant on Gods Part is in General that He will be our God more particularly that God the Father will be our Reconciled God and Father in Jesus Christ that God the Son will be our Saviour and God the Holy Ghost will be our Sanctifier And the Relation of a God to us essentially containeth these three parts 1. That as on the title of Creation and Redemption he is our Owner so he doth take us as his own peculiar people 2. That as he hath title to be our Absolute King or Governour so he doth take us as his Subjects 3. That he will be our Grand Benefactor and Felicity or our most Loving Father which comprizeth all the rest And as he will be thus Related to us so he will do for us all that these Relations do import As 1. He will do all that belongeth to a Creator for his creature in our preservation and supplies 2. He will save us from our sins and from his wrath and Hell 3. And he will sanctifie us to a perfect conformity to our Head Also 1. He will use us and defend us as his own peculiar ones 2. He will govern us by a Law of Grace and righteousness 3. He will make us fully happy in his Love for ever § 7. III. The Matter on mans part of the Covenant is 1. In respect of the Terminus a quo that we will forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil as they are adverse to our Relations and Duties to God 2. In regard of the Terminus ad quem that we will take the Lord for our God and more particularly 1. That we do take God the Father for our Reconciled Father in Iesus Christ and do give up our selves to him as Creatures to their Maker 2. That we do take Iesus Christ for our Redeemer Saviour and Mediator as our High-Priest and Prophet and King and do give up our selves to him as his Redeemed ones to be reconciled to God and saved by him 3. That we do take the Holy Ghost for our Regenerâ—â—er and Sanctifier and do give up our selves to be perfectly renewed and sanctified by him and by his operations carryed on to God in his holy service Also 1. That we do take God for our Absolute Lord or Owner and do give up our selves to him as his Own 2. That we take him for our Universal Soveraign Governour and do give up our selves unto him as his subjects 3. That we do take him for our most bountiful Benefactor and loving Father and felicity and do give up our selves to him as his children to seek him and please him and perfectly to Love him Delight in him and Enjoy him for ever in Heaven as our Ultimate End And in consenting to these Relations we covenant to do the Duties of them in sincerity § 8. IV. The Terms or Conditions which God requireth of man in his Covenant are Consent and Fidelity or Performance He first Consenteth conditionally if we will consent And he consenteth to be actually our God when we consent to be his people so that as bare Consent without any performance doth found the Relation between Husband and Wife Master and Servant Prince and People but the sincere performance of the duties of the Relation which we consent to are needful afterward to continue the Relation and attain the benefits and ends so is it also between God and man We are his Children in Covenant as soon as we consent but we shall not be glorified but on Condition of sincere performance and obedience § 9. V. Gods Covenant with man is nothing else but the Universal Promise in the Gospel and to the solemnization the Declaration and Application and solemn Invâ—stiture or Delivery by his authorized Ministers 1. The Gospel as it relateth the matters of fact in and about the work of our Redemption is a Sacred History 2. As it containeth the Terms on which God will be served and commandeth us to obey them for our salvation it is called The Law of Christ or Grace 3. As it containeth the Promise of life and salvation conditionally offered it is called Gods Promise and Covenant viz. on his part as it is Proposed only 4. When by our Consent the Condition is so far performed or the Covenant Accepted then Gods Conditional Universal Promise or Covenant becometh actual and particular as to the effect and so the Covenant becometh Mutual between God and man As if a King make an Act or Law of Pardon and Oblivion to a Nation of Rebels saying Who ever cometh in by such a day and confesseth his fault and sueth out his pardon and promiseth fidelity for the future shall be pardoned This Act is a Law in one respect and it is an Universal Conditional pardon of all those Rebells or a Promise of pardon and an
Ghost forsaking the Devil the World and the Flesh and is solemnly entered a visible member of Christ and his Church a pardoned regenerate Child of God and an heir of Heaven § 15. As the word Baptism is taken for the meer Administration or external Ordinance so the Internal Covenanting or faith and Repentance of the adult person to be baptized is no essential part of it nor requisite to the Being oâ— it but only the Profession of such a faith and Repentance and the external entering of the Covenant But as Baptism is taken for the Ordinance as performed in all its essential parts according to the true intent of Christ in his Institution that is in the first and proper meaning of the word so the Internal Covenanting of a Penitent sincere Believer is necessary to the Being of it And indeed the word Baptism is taken but equivâ—â—ally or Analogically at most when it is taken for the meer external administration and action For God doth not institute worship ordinances for bodily motion only when he speaketh to man and requireth Worship of man he speaketh to him as to a man and requireth humane actions from him even the work of the soul and not the words of a Parrot or the motion of a Poppeâ— Therefore the word Baptism in the first and proper signification doth take in the inward actions of the Heart as well as the outward Profession and actions And in this proper sense Baptism is the mutual Covenant between God the Father Compleat Baptism what it is Son and Holy Ghost and a penitent Believing sinner solemnized by the washing of water in which as a Sacrament of his own appointment God doth engage himself to be the God and reconciled Father the Saâ—iâ—ur and the Sanctifier of the Believer and taketh him for his reconciled Child in Christ and delivereth to him by solemn investiture the pardon of all his sins and title to the mercies of this life and of that which is to come What I say in this Description of a Penitent Believer is also to be understood of the Children of such that are dedicated by them in Baptism to God who thereupon have their portion in the same Covenant of Grace § 16. The word Baptism is taken in the first sense when Simon Magus is said to be Baptized Act. 8. and when we speak of it only in the ecclesiastick sense as it is true Baptism in foro ecclesiae But it is taken in the later sense when it is spoken of as the compleat ordinance of God in the sense of the Institution and as respecting the proper ends of Baptism as pardon of sin and life eternal and in foro coeli § 17. In this full and proper sense it is taken by Christ when he saith Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved that is He that Believeth and is by Baptism entered into the Covenant of God And in this sense the Ancients took it when they affirmed that all that were Baptized were Regenerated pardoned and made the Children of God And in this sense it is most true that he that is Baptized that is is a sincere Covenanter shall be saved if he die in that Condition Read the Propositions of the Synod in Nâ—w England and the Defense of them against Mr. Davenpoâ—t about the subject of Baptism that he is then in All that the Minister warrantably Baptizeth are sacramentally Regenerate and are in foro ecclesiae members of Christ and Children of God and Heirs of Heaven But it is only those that are sincerely delivered up in Covenant to God in Christ that are spiritually and really Regenerate and are such as shall be owned for members of Christ and Children of God in foro â—oeli Therefore it is not unfit that the Minister call the Baptized Regenerate and pardoned members of Christ and Children of God and Heirs of Heaven supposing that in soro ecclesiae they were the due subjects of Baptism But if the persons be such as ought not to be Baptized the sin then is not in calling Baptized persons Regenerate but in Baptizing those that ought not to have been Baptized and to whom the â—eal of the Covenant was not due § 18. None ought to be Baptized but those that either personally Deliver up themselves in Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost professing a true Repentance and faith and consent to the Covenant or else are thus delivered up and dedicated and entred into-Covenant in their Infancy by those that being Christians themselves have so much interest in them and power of them that their act may be esteemed as the Infants act and legally imputed to them as if themselves had done it If any others are unduly Baptized they have thereby no title to the pardon of sin or life eternal nor are they taken by God to be in Covenant as having no way consented to it § 19. Direct 4. When you enter a child into the Christian Covenant with God address your selves to Direct 4. it as to one of the greatest works in the world as thâ—se that know the Greatness of the Benefit of the Duty and of the Danger The Benefit to them that are sincere in the Covenant is no less than to have the pardon of all our sins and to have God himself to be our God and Father and Christ our Saviour and the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier and to have title to the blessings of this life and of that to come And for the Duty how Great a work is it for a sinner to enter into so solemn a Covenant with the God of Heaven for Reconciliation and Newness of life â—nd â—or salvation And therefore if any should abuse God by Hypocrisie and take on them to conseâ—â— to the terms of the Covenant for themselves or their Children when indeed they do not the Danger of such prophaneness and abuse of God must needs be great Do it therefore with that due preparation reverence and seriousness as beseemeth those that are transacting a business of such unspeakable importance with God Almighty § 20. Direct 5. Having been entered in your Infancy into the Covenant of God by your Parents you Direct 5. must at years of discretion review the Covenant which by them you made and renew it personally your selves and this with as great seriousness and resolution as if you were nâ—w first to enter and subscribe it and as if your everlasting Life or death were to depend on the sincerity of your consent and performance For your Infant Baptismal Covenanting will save none of you that live to years of discretion and do not as heartily own it in their own persons as if they had been now to be baptized But this I pass by having said so much of it in my Book of Confirmation § 21. Direct 6. Your Covenant thus 1. Made 2. Solemnized by Baptism 3. And Owned at age Direct 6. must 4. Be frequently renewed through the
sins 4. And another thing to forbear all communion with them even as to Baptism and other lawful things 5. And another thing to use some open detestations or protestations against them 2. And we must distinguish much of persons whether they be Ministers or people free or bound as Wives Children c. And now I answer 1. There is no question but it is a duty to judge all that evil which is evil among the Papists or any other 2. It is the duty of all to forbear subscribing swearing to or otherwise approving evil 3. It is the duty of all Mass-Priests to renounce that part of their calling and not to administer their Mass or any other unlawful thing 4. It is the duty of all private Christians to forbear communion in the Mass because it is a kind of Idolatry while they worship a piece of Bread as God As also Image-Worship and all other parts of their Religion in which they are put upon sin themselves or that which is notorious scandal and symbolizing with them in their Bread-worship or other corruptions of the substance of Gods Ordinances 5. It is their duty who have fit opportunity when it is like to do more good than harm to protest against the Papal corruptions where they are and to declare their detestation of them 6. It is the duty of those that have children to be baptized or catechized to make use of more lawful and sound Ministers when they may be had rather than of a Papist Priest 7. But in case they cannot remove or enjoy better I think it is lawful 1. To let such baptize their children rather than leave them unbaptized 2. To let their children be taught by them to read or in Arts and Sciences or the Catechism and common principles of Religion so they will mix no dangerous errors 3. And to hear those of them preach who preach soundly and piously such as were Gerrhard Zuâ—phaniensis Thaulerus Ferus and many more 4. And to read such good Books as these now mentioned have written 5. And to joyn with them in such Prayers as are â—ound and pious so they go no further 8. And Wives Children and such other as are bound and cannot lawfully remove may stay among them and take up with thâ—se helps dealing faithfully in abstaining from the rest II. The second Question is answered in this Only I add that it is one thing to be present as Elias was in a way of opposition to them or as Disputants are that open their errors or as a wise man may go to hear or see what they do without complyance as we read their Books And it is another thing to joyn with them in their sinful worship or scandalously to encourage them in it by seeming so to do See Calv. Contr. Nicod c. Quest. 7. Whether the true Calling of the Minister by Ordination or Election c. be necessary to the Essence of the Church BY a Church here we mean a Political Society of Christians and not any Assembly or Community And no doubt but Pastor and Flock are the constitutive parts of such a Church And where either of them are notoriously wanting it is notorious that there is no true Church Therefore all the doubt is whether such parts of his Call be necessary to the being of the Ministry or not And here we must conclude that the word Ministry and Church are ambiguous By a Mister or Pastor is meant either one that God so far owneth as to accept and justifie his administrations as for himself even his own good and salvation or one whose administrations God will own accept and bless to the people I. In the former sense 1. He is no true Minister that wanteth the essential qualifications of a Minister viz. that hath not 1. The understanding and belief of all the essential Articles of faith without Heresie 2. Tolerable Ability to teach these to the people and perform the other essentials of his office 3. Sincere Godliness to do all this in Love and obedience to God as his Servant in order to life eternal 2. And he is thus no true Pastor as to Gods acceptance of himself who hath not a lawful Calling that is 1. Ordination when it may be had 2. The Consent or Reception of that Church of which he pretendeth to be Pastor which is still necessary and must be had if Ordination cannot II. But in the second sense he is a Pastor so far as that God will own his Administrations as to the Peoples Good who 1. Hath possession 2. And seemeth to them to have necessary qualifications and a lawful call though it prove otherwise so be it it be not through their wilful fault that he is culpable or they mistaken in him If he be not a true Believer but an Infidel or Heretick he is no Minister as Act. 1. 17. Mat. 7. 22. to himself that is God will use him as an Usurper that hath no title But if he profess to be a believer when he is not he is a true Pastor visibly to the people Otherwise they could never know when they have a Pastor Even as real faith makes a real Christian and Professed faith maketh a visible Christian so is it as to the Ministry If he seem to understand the Articles of faith and do not or if he seem to have due ordination when he hath not if he be upon this mistake Accepted by the people he is a true Visible Pastor as to them that is as to their Duty and Benefit though not as to himself Yea the peoples consent to his entrance is not necessary ad esse nor to his Relation neither so far as to justifie himself but to his Administrations and to his Relation so far as their own Right and benefit is interessed in it So that two things are necessary to such a Visible Pastor as shall perform valid administrations to the Church 1. Seeming necessary qualifications and Calling to it 2. Possession by the peoples Reception or Consent to his Administrations and Relation so far as to their benefit And II. Thus also we must distinguish of the word Church It is 1. Such an entire Christian society as hath a Minister or Pastor whose office is valid as to himself and them Or it is such a society only as hath a Pastor whose office is valid to them but not to himself Let us not confound the question de re and de nomine These societies differ as is said Both may fitly be called True Churches As it is with a Kingdom which hath a Rightful Prince and one that hath an Usurper so is it here 1. If it have a Rightful King accepted it is a Kingdom in the fullest sense 2. If it have an Usurper accepted as King it is a Kingdom but faulty 3. If the Usurper be only so far accepted as that the people consent not to his entrance no nor his Relation so as to justifie his title but wish him cast out
Covenant of Grace When a man Receiveth the Lords Supper unworthily in scorn in drunkenness or impenitency much more without any right as Infidels he doth eat and drink damnation or judgement to himself and maketh his sin greater Therefore he that gets a Child Baptized unworthily and without right doth not therefore infallibly procure his salvation 7. Because the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. Else were your Children unclean but now are they holy and the Scripture giveth this priviledge to the Children of the faithful above others whereas the contrary opinion levelleth them with the seed of Infidels and Heathens as if these had right to salvation by meer Baptism as well as the others 8. Because else it would be the greatest act of Charity in the world to send Souldiers to catch up all Heathens and Infidels Children and Baptize them which no Christians ever yet thought their duty Yea it would be too strong a temptation to them to kill them when they had done that they might be all undoubtedly saved Obj. But that were to do evil that good might come by it Answ. But God is not to be so dishonoured as to be supposed to make such Laws as shall forbid men the greatest good in the World and then to tempt them by the greatness of the benefit to take it to be no evil As if he said If Souldiers would go take up a million of Heathens Children and Baptize them it will put them into an undoubted state of salvation But yet I forbid them doing it And if they presently kill them lest they sin after they shall undoubtedly be saved but yet I forbid them doing it I need not aggravate this temptation to them that know the power of the Law of nature which is the Law of Love and good works and how God that is most Good is pleased in our doing good Though he tryed Abraham's obedience once as if he should have killed his Son yet he stopt him before the execution And doth he ordinarily exercise mens obedience by forbidding them to save the souls of others when it is easily in their power Especially when with the adult the greatest labour and powerfullest Preaching is frequently so frustrate that not one of many is converted by it 9. Because else God should deal with unaccountable disparity with Infants and the Adult in the same ordinance of Baptism It is certain that all Adult persons Baptised if they dyed immediately should not be saved Even none that had no right to the Covenant and to Baptism such as Infidels Heathens Impenitent persons Hypocrites that have not true Repentance and faith And why should Baptism save an Infant without title any more than the Adult without title I still suppose that some Infants have no title and that now I speak of them alone Obj. But the Church giveth them all right by Receiving them Answ. This is to be farther examined anon If you mean a particular Church perhaps they are Baptized into none such Baptism as such is a Reception only into the Universal Church as in Eunuchs case Act. 8. appeareth If you mean the Universal Church it may be but one single ignorant man in an Infidel Countrey that Baptizeth And he is not the Universal Church Yea perhaps is not a lawfully called Minister of that Church However this is but to say that Baptism giveth Right to Baptism For this Receiving is nothing but Baptizing But there must be a Right to this Reception if baptism be a distinguishing Ordinance and all the world have not right to it Christ saith Matth. 28. 19. Disciple me all Nations baptizing them They must be initially made Disciples first by Consent and then be Invested in the visible state of Christianity by Baptism 10. If the Children of Heathens have right to baptism and salvation thereby it is either 1. As they are men and all have right or 2. Because the parents give them right 3. Or because remote ancestors give them right 4. Or because the universal Church gives them right 5. Or because a particular Church giveth them right 6. Or because the Sponsors give them right 7. Or the Magistrate 8. Or the Baptizer But it is none of all these as shall anon be proved II. But as to the second question I answer 1. It will help us to understand the case the better if we prepare the way by opening the case of the Adult because in Scripture times they were the most famous subjects of Baptism And it is certain of such 1. That every one outwardly Baptized is not in a state of salvation That no hypocrite that is not a true penitent believer is in such a state 2. That every true penitent believer is before God in a state of salvation as soon as he is such And before the Church as soon as he is baptized 3. That we are not to use the word Baptism as a Physical term only but as a moral Theological term Because words as in Law physick c. are to be understood according to the art or science in which they are treated of And Baptism taken Theologically doth as Essentially include the Wills consent or Heart-Covenanting with God as Matrimony includeth marriage consent and as a man containeth the soul as well as the body And thus it is certain that all truly Baptized persons are in a state of salvation that is All that sincerely consent to the Baptismal Covenant when they profess consent by Baptism but not hypocrites 4. And in this sense all the Ancient Pastors of the Churches did concur that Baptism did wash away all sin and put the baptized into a present right to life eternal as he that examineth their Writings will perceive not the outward washing and words alone but when the inward and outward parts concur or when by true faith and repentance the Receiver hath right to the Covenant of God 5. In this sense it is no unfit language to imitate the Fathers and to say that the truly baptized are in a state of Justification adoption and salvation unless when mens misunderstanding maketh it unsaâ—e 6. The sober Papists themselves say the same thing and when they have said that even ex opere operato Baptism saveth they add that it is only the meet Receiver that is the penitent believer and no other of the adult So that hitherto there is no difference 2. Now let us by this try the case of Infants concerning which there are all these several opinions among Divines 1. Some think that all Infants baptized or not are saved from Hell and positive punishment but are not brought to Heaven as being not capable of such joyes 2. Some think that all Infants dying such are saved as others are by actual felicity in Heaven though in a lower degree Both these sorts suppose that Christs death saveth all that reject 〈…〉 not and that Infants reject it not 3. Some think that all unbaptized Infants do suffer the poenam damni and are shut out
own part Which is but what the antients were wont to say of the Baptized Adult But they never meant that the Infidel and Hypocrite and Impenitent person was in a state of life because he was baptized But that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying Confirmation but it never said that they receive no detriment by their Parents or Sponsors Infidelity and Hypocrisie or by their want of true Right Coram Deo to be baptized 12. But yet before these Questions either of them be taken as resolved by me I must first take in some other questions which are concerned in the same Cause as Quest. 36. What is meant by this speech that Believers and their seed are in the Covenant of God which giveth them right to Baptism Answ. THough this was opened on the by before I add 1. The meaning is not that they are in that Absolute promise of the first and all following grace supposed ordinarily to be made of the Elect as such unknown viz. I will give them Faith Repentance Conversion Iustification and Salvation and all the Conditions of the Conditional promise without any Condition on their part which many take to be the meaning of I will take the hard heart out of them c. For 1. This promise is not now to be first performed to the adult who Repent and believe already And no other are to be baptized at age If that Absolute promise be sealed by baptism either it must be so sealed as a promise before it be performed or after If before either to all because some are elect or only to some that are elect Not to all for it is not common to Infidels Not to some as elect for 1. They are unknown 2. If they were known they are yet supposed to be Infidels Not after performance for then it is too late 2. The meaning is not only that the Conditional Covenant of Grace is made and offered to them For so it may be said of Heathens and Infidels and all the world that hear the Gospel But 1. The Covenant meant is indeed this Conditional Covenant only Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved 2. To be in this Covenant is to be a Consenting believer and so to be one that hath by Inward Heart Consent the true Conditions of right to the benefits of the Covenant and is thereby prepared solemnly by baptism to Profess this Consent and to receive an Investiture and seal of Gods part by his Minister given in his name 3. Infants are thus in Covenant with their Parents because Reputatively their Parents Wills are thâ—â—rs to dispose of them for their good And therefore they Consent by their Parents who Consent for them Quest. 37. Are Believers Children certainly in Covenant before their Baptism and thereby in a state of Salvation Or not till they are baptized Answ. DIstinguish between 1. Heart-Covenanting and Mouth-Covenanting 2. Between being in Covenant before God and Visibly before the Church 1. No person is to be baptized at age whose Inward Heart Consent before professed giveth him not Right to baptism Therefore all the adult must be in Covenant that is Consent on their part to the Covenant before they are baptized 2. Therefore it is so with the seed of the faithful who must Consent by their Parents before they have right Otherwise all should have right and their baptism be essentially another baptism as sealing some other Covenant or none 3. If there be no promise made to the seed of the faithful more than to others they have no right more than others to baptism or salvation But if there be a promise made to them as the seed of believers then are they as such within that promise that is performers of its conditions by their Parents and have right to the benefit 4. If the Heart Consent or faith of the Adult do put themselves into a state of salvation before their baptism then it doth so by their children But c. 5. But this Right to salvation in Parents and Children upon Heart Consent before baptism is only before God For the Church taketh no Cognizance of secret heart-transactions But a man then only consenteth in the Judgement of the Church when he openly professeth it and desireth to signifie it by being baptized 6. And even before God there is a necessitas praecepti obliging us to open baptism after heart consent And he that heartily consenteth cannot refuse Gods way of uttering it unless either through ignorance he know it not to be his duty for himself and his child or through want of ability or opportunity cannot have it So that while a man is unbaptized somewhat is wanting to the compleatness of his right to the benefits of the Covenant viz. A reception of Investiture and possession in Gods appointed way though it be not such a want as shall frustrate the salvation of those that did truly consent in heart 7. I take it therefore for certain that the children of true believers Consent to the Covenant by their Parents and are as certainly saved if they dye before baptism as after Though those that despise baptism when they know it to be a duty cannot be thought indeed to believe or consent for their children or themselves Quest. 38. Is Infants title to Baptism and the Covenant-benefits given them by God in his Promise upon any proper Moral Condition or only upon the Condition of their Natural Relation that they be the Seed of the Faithful Answ. THat which is called a meer Natural Condition is properly in Law sense no condition at all nor doth make a Contract or Promise to be called Conditional in a Moral sense But it is matters of Morality and not of Physicks only that we are treating of and therefore we must take the terms in a Moral sense For a Physical Condition is either past or present or future or not-future If it be past or present the proposition may indeed be hypothetical but it is no such conditional promise as we are speaking of For instance if you say If thou wast born in such a City or if thy name be Iohn I will give thee so much These are the words of an uncertain promiser but the Promise is already either equivalent to an Absolute Gift or Null So if the Physical condition be de futuro e. g. If thou be alive to morrow I will give thee this or that or if the Sun shine to morrow c. This indeed suspendeth the gift or event but not upon any Moral being which is in the power of the Receiver but upon a Natural Contingency or uncertainty And God hath no such Conditional Covenants or promises to be sealed by baptism He saith not If thou be the child of such or such a man thou shalt be saved as his natural off-spring only If the Papists that accuse
hold their own mercies upon the condition of their own continued fidelity And let their Apostasie be on other reasons never so impossible or not future yet the promise of continuance and consummation of the personal felicity of the greatest Saint on earth is still conditional upon the condition of â—his persevering sidelity 6. Even before Children are capable of Instruction there are certain duties imposed by God on the Parents for their sanctification viz. 1. That the Parents pray earnestly and believingly for them Second Commandment Prov. 20. 7. 2. That they themselves so live towards God as may invite him still to bless their Children for their sakes as he did Abrahams and usually did to the faithful's seed 7. It is certain that the Church ever required Parents not only to enter their Children into the Covenant and so to leave them but to do their after duty for their good and to pray for them and educate them according to their Covenant 8. It is plain that if there were none to promise so to educate them the Church would not baptize them And God himself who allowed the Israelites and still alloweth us to bring our Children into his Covenant doth it on this supposition that we promise also to go on to do our duty for them and that we actually do it 9. All this set together maketh it plain 1. That God never promiseth the adult in Baptism though true believers that he will work in them all graces further by his sanctifying spirit let them never so much neglect or resist him or that he will absolutely see that they never shall resist him nor that the spirit shall still help them though they neglect all his means or that he will keep them from neglecting the means Election may secure this to the Elect as such but the Baptismal Covenant as such secureth it not to the baptized nor to believers as such 2. And consequently that Infants are in Covenant with the Holy Ghost still conditionally as their Parents are And that the meaning of it The Holy Ghost is promised in Baptism to give the Child grace in his Parents and his own faithful use of the appointed means is that the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier will afford you all necessary help in the use of those means which he hath appointed you to receive his help in Obj. Infants have no means to use Answ. While Infants stand on their Parents account or Wills the Parents have means to use for the continuance of their grace as well as for the beginning of it 10. Therefore I cannot see but that if a believer should apostatize whether any do so is not the question and his Infant not be made anothers Child he forfeiteth the benefits of the Covenant to his Infant But if the propriety in the Infant be transferred to another it may alter the case 11. And how dangerously Parents may make partial forfeitures of the spirits assistance to their Children and operations on them by their own sinful lives and neglect of prayer and of prudent and holy education even in particular acts I fear many believing Parents never well considered 12. Yet is not this forfeiture such as obligeth God to deny his spirit For he may do with his own as a free benefactor as he list And may have mercy freely beyond his promise though not against his word on whom he will have mercy But I say that he that considereth the woful unfaithfulness and neglect of most Parents even the Religious in the Great work of holy educating their Children may take the blame of their ungodliness on themselves and not lay it on Christ or the spirit who was in Covenant with them as their sanctifier seeing he promised but conditionally M. â—â—istoâ— pag. â—3 As Abraham as a single person in Covenant was to accept of and perform the conditions of the Covenant so as a Parent he had something of duty incumbent on him with reference to his immediate seed And as his faithful performance of that duty incumbent on him in his single capacity so his performing that duty incumbent on him as a Parent in reference to his seed was absolutely necessary in order to his enjoying the good promised with reference to himself and his seed Proved Gen. 17 1. 18. 19. He proveth that the promise is conditional and that as to the continuance of the Covenant state the conditions are 1. The Parents upright life 2. His duty to his Children well done 3. The Childrens own duty as they are capable to give them the sanctifying Heavenly influences of his Life Light and Love in their just use of his appointed means according to their abilities 13. Also as soon as Children come to a little use of Reason they stand conjunctly on their Parents Wills and on their own As their Parents are bound to teach and rule them so they are bound to learn of them and be ruled by them for their good And though every sin of a Parent or a Child be not a total forfeiture of grace yet both their notable actual sins may justly be punished with a denyal of some further help of the spirit which they grieve and quench 11. And now I may seasonably answer the former question whether Infants Baptismal saving grace may be lost of which I must for the most that is to be said referr the Reader to Davenant in Mr. Bedfords Book on this subject and to Dr. Sam. Ward joyned with it Though Mr. Gatakers answers are very Learned and considerable And to my small Book called My Iudgement of Perseverance Augustine who first rose up for the doctrine of perseverance against its Adversaries carried it no higher than to all the Elect as such and not at all to all the Sanctified but oft affirmeth that some that were justified sanctified and Love God and are in a state of salvation are not elect and fall away But since the Reformation great reasons have been brought to carry it further to all the truly sanctified of which cause Zanchius was one of the first Learned and zealous Patrons that with great diligence in long disputations maintained it All that I have now to say is that I had rather with Davenant believe that the fore-described Infant state of salvation which came by the Parents may be lost by the Parents and the Children though such a sanctified renewed nature in holy Habits of Love as the adult have be never lost than believe that no Infants are in the Covenant of Grace and to be baptized Obj. But the Child once in possession shall not be punished for the Parents sin Answ. 1. This point is not commonly well understood I have by me a large Disputation proving from the current of Scripture a secondary original sin besides that from Adam and a secondary punishment ordinarily inflicted on Children for their Parents sins besides the common punishment of the World for the first sin 2. But the thing in question is
Actis Apostolorum invenimus quoniam qui Iohannis baptismum habebant non accepissent Spiritum Sanctum quem ne auditu quidem noverant Ergo non erat coeleste quod coelestia non exhibebat See Dr. Hammond in loc Quest. 47. Is Baptism by Lay-men or Women Lawful in Cases of necessity Or are they nullities and the person to be re-baptized Answ. 1. I Know some of the Antients allowed it in necessity But I know no such necessity that can be For 1. God hath expresly made it a part of the Ministerial Office by Commission Mat. 28. 19 20. 2. He hath no where given to any other either Command to oblige them to do it or Commission to authorize them or Promise to bless and accept them in it or Threatning if they omit it 3. He oft severely punisheth such as invade the Sacred Function or usurp any part of of it 4. Therefore it is a sin in the doer and then there can be no necessity of it in such a case in the receiver 5. He that is in Covenant by open professed Consent wants nothing necessary to his salvation either necessitate medii vel praecepti when it cannot be had in a lawful way II. As to the nullity I will not determine so controverted a point any further than to say 1. That if the Lay-man had the Counterfeit Orders of a Minister and had possession of the place and were taken for one his deceit deprived not the Receiver of his right nor made it his sin and I should not re-baptize him if after discovered 2. But if he were in no possession or pretence of the Office I would be baptized again if it were my case Because I should fear that what is done in Christs name by one that notoriously had no authority from him to do it is not owned by Christ as his deed and so is a nullity As if a deceiver go in my name to make bargains for me 3. And if any that had after discovered a Minister to be indeed no Minister that baptized him should doubt of the validity and for certainty have it done again by an authorized Minister I would not discommend him Nor would I account it Morally twice baptizing but a Physical repeating of that act which morally is but one As I explained before of Re-ordination Therefore if one that was a gross Heretick in the very Essentials or an Infidel or one that had not knowledge and parts essentially necessary to the Ministry baptize one in right words I would not blame him that for certainty would have an authorized person to do it Especially if he was notoriously such a one when he did it Let those that are angry with this resolution be as fair to me as they will be to Venerable Beda and that great Miracle-working Bishop Iohn whom in his Ecclesiastical History he reporteth to baptize a man again in England meerly because the Priest that did Of which before it was so dull ignorant and insufficient as in Iohns judgement to be uncapable of the Office and therefore had been by him forbidden to use it though the person baptized at age knew not this viz. Herebaldus ut Bed l. 5. c. 6. Quest. 48. May Anabaptists that have no other error be permitted in Church-communion Answ. YEs And tolerated in their own practice also For 1. They agree with us in all points absolutely necessary to communion 2. The antient Christians had liberty either to baptize or to let them stay till age as they thought best And therefore Tertullian and Nazianzen speak against haste And Augustine and many children of Christian Parents were baptized at age 3. The Controversie is of so great difficulty that if in all such cases none that differ be tolerated we may not live together in the world or Church but endlesly excommunicate or persecute one another 4. Such sober Antipaedobaptists will consent to profess openly that they do devote their children to God according to all the power or duty which they can find communicated or laid upon them in the Word of God And that if they believed that God would accept them into his Covenant upon their dedication they would willingly do it And that actually they do offer them to God according to their power and promise to bring them up in his way And who can force mens wills to choose aright for themselves or others Quest. 49. May one offer his Child to be baptized with the Sign of the Cross or the use of Chrysme the White Garment Milk and Hony or Exorcisme as among the Lutherans who taketh these to be unlawful things Answ. I Am not now to meddle with the question Whether they be lawful But to this question I answer 1. He that judgeth them unlawful must first do his best to be â—â—rtain whether they be so or not 2. If so he must never approve of them or consent to them 3. He must not offer his child to be so baptized when caeteris paribus he may have it done in a better manner on lawful terms 4. But when he cannot lawfully have better he may and must offer his child to them that will so baptize him rather than to worse or not at all Because baptism is Gods Ordinance and his priviledge and the sin is the Ministers and not his Another mans sinful Mode will not justifie the neglect of our duty Else we might not joyn in any Prayer or Sacrament in which the Minister modally sinneth that is with none 5. The Milk and Honey White Garment and Chrysme are so antient called by Epiphanius and others the Traditions and Customes of the Universal Church that the original of them is not known And he that then would not be so baptized must not have been baptized at all 6. But in this case he that bringeth his child to baptism should make known that it is baptism only that he desireth and that he disowneth and disalloweth the manner which he accounteth sinful And then he is no consenter to it 7. But where Law scandal or greater inconveniencies forbid him he is not to make this profession openly in the Congregation but in that prudent manner which beseemeth a sobâ—r peaceable person whether to the Minister in private or to his neighbours in converse It being easie among neighbours to make known a mans dissent without a disorderly troubling of the Church or violating the Laws of Obedience Civility and Peace 8. But he must not 1. Either offer his child to baptism where the Ordinance is essentially corrupted or worse than none 2. Or where he cannot be admitted without an actual sin of his own As by false professions subscriptions c. For we must not do evil for good ends Quest. 50. Whence came the antient universal custome of Anointing at Baptism and putting on a White Garment and tasting Milk and Honey And whether they are lawful to us Answ. 1. WE must remember that the signification of these was not by a new institution
as much as they can whether by Synods or other meet wayes of correspondency And though this be not a distinct Government it is a distinct mode of Governing Object But that there be Pastors with fixed Churches or Assemblies is not of the Law of Nature Answ. 1. Hath Christ no Law but the Law of Nature Wherein then differ the Christian Religion and the Heathenish 2. Suppose but Christ to be Christ and man to be what he is and Nature it self will tell us that this is the fittest way for ordering the Worship of God For Nature saith God must be solemnly and ordinarily worshipped and that qualified persons should be the official Guides in the performance And that people who need such conduct and private oversight besides should where they live have their own stated Overseers Object But particular Congregations are not de primaria intentione divina For if the whole world could joyn together in the publick Worship of God no doubt that would be properly a Church But particular Congregations are only accidental in reference to Gods intention of having a Church because of the Impossibility of all mens joyning together for Ordinances c. Answ. 1. The question with me is not whether they be of primary Intention but whether stated Churches headed with their proper Bishops or Pastors be not of Gods institution in the Scripture 2. This Objection confirmeth it and not denyeth it For 1. It confesseth that there is a necessity of joyning for Gods Worship 2. And an Impossibility that all the world should so joyn 3. But if the whole world could so joyn it would be properly a Church So that it confesseth that to be a society joyned for Gods publick Worship is to be properly a Church And we confess all this If all the world could be one family they might have one Master or one Kingdom they might have one King But when it is confessed that 1. A Natural Impossibility of an Universal Assembly necessitateth more particular assemblies 2. And that Christ hath instituted such actually in his Word what more can a considerate man require 3. I do not understand this distinction de primaria intentione divina and accidental c. The Primary Intention is properly of the Ultimate End only And no man thinketh that a Law de mediis of the means is no Law or that God hath made no Laws de mediis For Christ as a Mediator is a Means But suppose it be limited to the Matter of Church Laws If this be the meaning of it that it is not the principal means but a subordinate means or that it is not instituted only propter finem ultimum no more than propter se but also in order to a higher thing as its immediate end we make no question of that Assemblies are not only that there may be assemblies but for the Worship and Offices there performed And those for Man And all for God But what or all this Hath God made no Laws for subordinate means No Christian denyeth it Therefore the Learned and Judicious Disputer of this point declareth himself for what I say when he saith I engage not in the Controversie Whether a particular Congregation be the first political Dr. Stillingflects Iâ—en p. 154 so p. 170. By Church here I mean not a particular Congregation c. So h gâ—anteth that 1 the Universal Church 2. Particular Congregations are of Divine Institution one ex intentione primaria and the other as he calls it accidentally but yet of Natural necessity Church or no It sufficeth for my purpose that there are other Churches besides The thing in question is Whether there be no other Church but such particular Congregations Where it seemeth granted that such particular Churches are of Divine institution And for other Churches I shall say more anon In the mean time note that the question is but de nomine here whether the Name Church be fit for other societiâ—s and not de re But lest any should grow to the boldness to deny that Christ hath instituted Christian stated Societies consisting of Pastors and flocks associate for personal Communion in publick Worship and holy living which is my detinition of a particular Church as not so confined to one assembly but that it may be in divers and yet not consisting of divers such distinct stated assemblies with their distinct Pastors nor of such as can have no personal communion but only by Delegates I prove it thus from the Word of God 1. The Apostles were commissioned by Christ to deliver his commands to all the Churches and settle them according to his will Iohn 20. 21. Matth. 28. 19 20 c. 2. These commissioned persons had the promise of an infallible Spirit for the due performance of their work Iohn 16. 13 14 15. 15. 26. 14. 26. Matth. 28. 20. 3. These Apostles where ever the success of the Gospel prepared them materials did settle Christian stated societies consisting of Pastors or Elders with their flocks associated for personal communion in publick worship and holy living These setled Churches they gave orders to for their direction and preservation and reformation These they took the chief care of themselves and exhorted their Elders to fidelity in their work They gave command that none should forsake such assemblies and they so fully describe them as that they cannot easily be misunderstood All this is proved Acts 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. Rom. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 18 20. 22 26. 1 Cor. 14. 4 5 12 19 23 28 33 34. Col. 4. 16. Acts 11. 26. 13. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Acts 14. 27. 15. 3. to omit many more Here are proofs enow that such particular Churches were de facto setled by the Apostles Heb. 10. 25. Forsake not the assembling of your selves together So Iames 2. 2. they are called Synagogues 2. It is confessed that there is a natural necessity of such stated Churches or Assemblies supposing but the Institution of the Worship it self which is there performed And if so then we may say that the Law of Nature it self doth partly require them 1. It is of the Law of Nature that God be publickly worshipped as most Expositors of the fourth Commandment do confess 2. It is of the Law of Nature that the people be taught to know God and their duty by such as are able and fit to teach them 3. The Law of Nature requireth that man being a sociable creature and conjunction working strongest affections we should use our sociableness in the greatest matters and by conjunction help the zeal of our prayers and praises of God 4. Gods institution of publick Preaching Prayer and Praise are scarce denyed by any Christians 5. None of these can be publickly done but by assembling 6. No Assembly can suffice for these without a Minister of Christ Because it is only his Office to be the ordinary Teacher and to go before the people in prayer and praise and to administer the
for the edification of many persons At least those that cannot otherwise do so well Therefore those persons must use a form Full experience doth prove the Minor and nothing but strangeness to men can contradict it Quest. 72. Are Forms of Prayer or Preaching in the Church lawful Answ. YEs Most Ministers study the Methodical form of their Sermons before they preach God gave forms of preaching to Moses and the Prophets See a large form of prayer for all the people Deut. 26. 13 14 15. And so elsewhere there are many them And many write the very words or study them And so most Sermons are a form And sure it is as lawful to think before hand what to say in praying as in preaching 1. That which God hath not forbidden is lawful But God hath not forbidden Ministers to study their Sermons or Prayers either for matter method or words and so to make them many wayes a form 2. That which God prescribed is lawful if he reverse it not But God prescribed publick forms of prayer As the titles and matter of many of the Psalms prove which were daily used in the Jewish Synagogues Object Psalms being to be sung are more than Prayers Answ. They were Prayers though more They are called Prayers and for the Matter many of them were no more than prayers but only for the measures of words Nor was their singing like ours now but liker to our saying And there are many other prayers recorded in the Scripture 3. And all the Churches of Christ at least these thirteen or fourteen hundred years have taken publick forms for lawful which is not to be gainsayed without proof Quest. 73. Are publick Forms of mans Devising or Composing lawful Answ. YEs 1. The Ministers afore mentioned throughout the Christian world do devise and compose the form of their own Sermons and Prayers And that maketh them not unlawful 2. And who ever speaketh ex tempore his words are a form when he speaketh them though not a premeditated form 3. And when Scripture so vehemently commandeth us to search meditate study the Scriptures and take heed to our selves and unto doctrine c. What a person is that who will condemn prayer or preaching only because we before hand studied or considered what to say As if God abhorred diligence and the use of reason Men are not tyed now from thinking before hand what to say to the Judge at the Bar for estate or life or what to say on an Embassage or to a King or any man that we converse with And where are we forbidden to forethink what to say to God Must the people take heed how they hear and look to their foot when they go into the house of God And must not we take heed what we speak and look to our words that they be fit and decent Object Forms are Images of prayer and preaching forbidden in the second Commandment Answ. Prove it and add not to the Word of God 1. Then Scripture and Gods servants even Christ himself had broken the second Commandment when they used or prescribed forms 2. Forms are no more Images than extemporate words are as they signifie our minds Are all the Catechisms printed and written Sermons and Prayers Images or Idols All forms that Parents teach their children O charge not such untruths on God and invent not falshoods of his Word while you cry down mans inventions Quest. 74. Is it lawful to Impose Forms on the Congregation or the people in publick Worship YEs and more than Lawful It is the Pastors duty so to do For whether he fore-think what to pray or not his prayer is to them a form of words And they are bound in all the lawful parts to concur with him in Spirit or desire and to say Amen So that every Minister by Office is daily to impose a form of prayer on all the people in the Congregation Only some men impose the same form many times over or every day and others impose every day a new one Quest. 75. Is it lawful to use Forms Composed by man and imposed not only on the people but on the Pastors of the Churches Answ. THe question concerneth not the Lawfulness of Imposing but of using forms imposed And 1. It is not unlawful to use them meerly on that account because they are imposed or commanded without some greater reason of the unlawfulness For else it would be unlawful for any other to use imposed forms as for a Scholar or Child if the Master or Parent impose them or for the Congregation when the Pastor imposeth them which is not true 2. The using of Imposed forms may by other accidents be sometimes good and sometimes evil as the Accidents are that make it so 1. These accidents may make it evil 1. When the form is bad for matter or manner and we voluntarily prefer it before that which is better being willing of the imposition 2. When we do it to gratifie our slothfulness or to cover our wilful ignorance and disability 3. When we voluntarily obey and strengthen any unlawful usurping Pastors or powers that impose it without authority and so encourage Church-tyranny 4 When we choose a singular form imposed by some singular Pastor and avoid that which the rest of the Churches agree in at a time when it may tend to division and offence 5. When the weakness and offence of the Congregation is such that they will not joyn with us in the imposed form and so by using it we drive them from all publick Worship or divide them 2. And in the following circumstances the using of an imposed form is lawful and a duty 1. When the Minister is so weak that he cannot pray well without one nor compose so good a one himself 2. Or when the errors or great weakness of the generality of Ministers is such as that they usually corrupt or spoil Gods Worship by their own manner of praying and no better are to be had and thereupon the wise and faithful Pastors and Magistrates shall impose one sound and apt Liturgy to avoid error and division in such a distempered time and the Ablest cannot be left at liberty without the relaxing of the rest 3. When it is a means of the Concord of the Churches and no hinderance to our other prayers 4. When our hearers will not joyn with us if we use them not For error and weakness must be born with on one side as well as on the other 5. When obedience to just Authority requireth it and no command of Christ is crost by it 6. When the imposition is so severe that we must so worship God publickly or not at all and so all Gods publick Worship will be shut out of that Congregation Countrey or Nation unless we will use imposed prayers â—7 In a word when the good consequents of Obedience Union avoiding offence Liberty for Gods publick Worship and preaching the Gospel c. are greater than the bad consequents which are
14. of good and evil as is unsavoury and tendeth to tempt men to fiction and false speaking 3. There are usually such multitudes of vain words poured out on the Circumstantials as are a sin themselves and tempt the hearers to the like 4. They usually mix such amorous or other such ensnaring expressions or actions as are fitted to kindle mens sinful lusts and to be temptations to the evils which they pretend to cure 5. A great deal of precious Time is wasted in them which might have been much better spent to all the lawful ends which they can intend 6. It is the preferring of an unmeet and dangerous Recreation before many fitter God having allowed us so great choice of better it cannot be lawful to choose a worse The body which most needeth exercise with most of the Spectators hath no exercise at all And the mind might be much more fruitfully recreated many wayes by variety of Books of Converse by contemplating God and his works by the fore-thoughts of the heavenly Glory c. So that it is unlawful as unfitted to its prâ—â—ended ends 7. It usually best suiteth with the most carnal minds and more corrupteth the affections and passions as full experience proveth Those that most love and use them are not reformed by them but commonly are the most loose ungodly sensual people 8. The best and wisest persons least relish them and are commonly most against them And they are best able to make experiment what doth most help or hurt the soul. Therefore when the sensual say We profit by them as much as by Sermons they do but speak according to their sense and lust As one that hath the Green-Sickness may say Câ—als and Clay and Ashes do me more good than meat because they are not so fit to judge as those that have a healthful state and appetite And it John 6. 12. 1 Pet. 4. 10. Matth. 18. 23. Rom. 14. 12. Phil. 4. 17. Psal. 1. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. seldome pleaseth the Conscience of a dying man to remember the time he spent at Stage-playes 9. Usually there is much cost bestowed on them which might be better employed and therefore is unlawful 10. God hath appointed a stated means of instructing souls by Parents Ministers c. which is much more fit and powerful Therefore that time were better spent And it is doubtful whether Play houses be not a stated means of mans institution set up to the same pretended use as the Church and Ministry of Christ and so be not against the second Commandment For my part I cannot defend them if any shall say that the Devil hath apishly made these his Churches in competition with the Churches of Christ. 11. It seemeth to me a heinous sin for Players to live upon this as a Trade and Function and to be educated for it and maintained in it That which might be used as a recreation may not alwayes be made a Trade of 12. There is no mention that ever such Playes were used in Scripture times by any godly persons 13. The Primitive Christians and Churches were commonly against them Many Canons are yet to be seen by which they did condemn them Read but Dr. Io Reignolds against Albericus Gentilis and you shall see unanswerable testimonies from Councils Fathers Emperours Kings and all sober antiquity against them 14. Thousands of young people in our time have been undone by them Some at the Gallows and many Apprentices who run out in their accounts neglect their Masters business and turn to Drunkenness and Whoredom and Debauchery do confess that Stage-playes were not the last or least of the temptations which did overthrow them 15. The best that can be said of these Playes is that they are controverted and of doubtful lawfulness But there are other means enow of undoubted and uncontroverted lawfulness for the same honest ends And therefore it is a sin to do that which is doubtful without need Upon all these reasons I advise all that Love their time their souls their God and happiness to turn away from these nurseries of vice and to delight themselves in the Law and Ordinances of their Saviour Psalm 1. 2 3. Quest. 115. Is it ever unlawful to use the known Symbols and Badges of Idolatry Answ. 1. ORdinarily it is unlawful as being the thing forbidden in the second Commandment For he that useth them 1. Is corporally Idolatrous what ever his secret thoughts may be 2. And he is interpretatively an Idolater and actually perswadeth others to be so 2. But yet though no man may ever use such symbols of Idolatry formaliter qua tales as such yet materially he may use them in some cases As 1. When an Idolater will take an Ordinance of God and an appointed duty and turn it into a symbol of his Idolatry As in the foregoing instance of the Mahometans We may not therefore forsake that duty but we must do it in such a manner as may sufficiently disclaim the Idolaters use of it As if any Idolaters will mâ—â—â—â—e a symbol of some Scripture Texts or of the Lords Day or of the Sacramental Bread and Wine c. we must not therefore disuse them 2. When a thing Indifferent is made an Idolatrous symbol or badge though I must not use it as Idolaters do yet if any act of Divine Providence make it become Necessary as a Moral duty I may be obliged to use it disclaiming the Idolaters manner and end And then it will be known that I use it not as their symbol As if a man by famine or a swoon were dying in an Idols Temple I might give him meat or drink there to save his life though such as was a badge of their Idolatry while I disclaim their ends and use The reason is 1. Because at such a time it is a natural duty and therefore may not be omitted for fear of scandal or seeming sin which at that time is no sin 2. Because Christ hath taught us in the instance of himself and his disciples that Positive Commands give place to natural caeteris paribus And that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. Mat. 2. 27. the Sabbath And that we must learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And if we must break the Rest of the Sabbath for the life yea the feeding of an Ox or Ass much more of a man And the Positives of the second Commandment must be regulated as the Positives of the fourth 3. And the scandal in such a case may be avoided by declaring that I do disclaim their use and ends In a Countrey where kneeling or being uncovered to the Prince is a Civil honouring Custome if the Prince should be a Caligula and command the subjects to worship him and his Image as a God and make bowing kneeling or being uncovered the badge or symbol of it Here I would ordinarily avoid even that which before was a duty
God and disobey his Laws and the matter doubted of is confessed unnecessary by the Imposers So Infinite is the distance between God and Man and so wholly dependent on him are the Highest that they should be exceeding unwilling to vie with the Authority of their maker in mens Consciences or to do any thing unnecessary which tendeth to compell men to tread down Gods Authority in their Consciences and to prefer mans Much more unwilling should they be to silence the sober Preachers of Christs Gospel upon such accounts Quest. 132. Is it unlawful to obey in all those cases where it is unlawful to impose and command Or in what cases And how far Pastors must be believed and obeyed Answ. I Must intreat the Reader carefully to distinguish here 1. Between Gods Law forbidding Rulers to do evil and his Law forbidding Subjects or private men 2. Between Obedience formally so called which is when we therefore obey in conscience because it is commanded and the commanders Authority is the Formal Reason and object of our obedience And Obedience Material only which is properly no obedience but a doing the thing which is commanded upon other Reasons and not at all because it is commanded 3. Between Formal obedience to the Office of the Ruler in General and formal obedience to him as commanding this very Matter in particular 4. Between such Authority in the Ruler as will warrant his Impositions before God for his own justification And such Authority as may make it my duty to obey him And so I answer 1. We shall not be judged by those Laws of God which made the Rulers duty but by that which made our own It is not all one to say Thou shalt not command it and to say Thou shalt not do it 2. Whatever God absolutely forbiddeth men to do we must not do whoever command it 3. There are many of the things forementioned Absolutely and alwayes unlawful as being evil of themselves which no man may either command or do And there are some of them which are only evil by accident which may not be commanded but may be done when contrary weightier Accidents do preponderate 4. Many such things may be done Materially on other reasons as for the Churches good the furtherance of the Gospel the winning of men to God the avoiding of scandal or of hurt to others or our selves c. when they are not to be done in formal obedience out of Conscience to the Authority imposing As if it be commanded by one that hath no just power 5. Our Actions may participate of obedience in general as being actions of subjects when they are not obedience in the full and perfect formality as to the particular The last leaf of Rich. Hooker's eighth Book of Eccl. Polit. will shew you the reason of this He that hath not just power to command me this one particular Act yet may be my Ruler in the General and I am bound to Honour Eph. 5. 24. Col. 3. 20 22. Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. him in General as my Ruler And to disobey him in a thing Lawful for me to do though not for him to command may be dishonouring of him and an appearance of disobedience and denyall of his power A Parent is forbidden by God to command his Child to speak an idle word or to do a vain and useless action much more a hurtful Yet if a Parent should command a Child to speak an idle word or do a vain action the duty of obedience would make it at that time not to be vain and idle to him yea if he bid him throw away a cup of Wine or a piece of bread which is evil when causeless the Child may be bound to do it not only because he knoweth not but the Parents may have lawful ends and reasons for their command as to try and exercise his obedience but also if he were sure that it were not so Because he is a subject and the honouring of a Parent is so great a good and the dishonouring him by that disobedience may have such ill consequents as will preponderate the evil of the lâ—ss of a Cup of Wine c. Yet in this case the Act of obedience is but mixt It is an act of subjection or Honour to a Parent because in General he is a Governour But it is but Materially obedience in respect of that particular matter which we know he had no Authority to command 6. In this respect therefore A Ruler may have so much power as may induce on the subject an obligation to obey and yet not so much as may justifie his commands before God nor save himself from Divine punishment I add this so distinctly lest any should misapply Mr. Rich. Hooker's doctrine aforesaid Eccl. Pol. l. 8. p. 223 224. As for them that exercise power altogether against order though the kind of power which they have may be of God yet in their exercise thereof against God and therefore not of God otherwise than by permission as all injustice is Usurpers of power whereby we do not mean them that by violence have aspired unto places of highest authority but them that use more authority than they did ever receive in form and manner before mentioned Such Usurpers thereof as in the Exercise of their power do more than they have been authorized to do cannot in Conscience bind any man to obedience Lest any should gather hence that they are never bound in Conscience to obey their Parents their Job 19. 11. Rom. 13. 1. King their Pastors in any point wherein they exercise more power than God gave them I thought meet to speak more exactly to that point which needed this distinguishing For the ground is sure that There is no power but of God And that God hath given no man power against himself his Laws and service But yet there are many cases in which God bindeth children and subjects to obey their superiours in such matters as they did sinfully command 7. It greatly concerneth all sober Christians therefore to be well studied in the Law of God that we may certainly know what those things are which God hath absolutely forbidden us to do whoever command them and to distinguish them from things that depend on mutable accidents That as the three Witnesses and Daniel Dan. 3. 6. we may be true to God whatever we suffer for it and yet may obey men in all â—hat is our duty to them Thus the Apostles knew that no man had power from God to silence them or persecute them for the Gospel Therefore they would not obey those that forbad them to Preach And yet they would appear before any Magistrate that commanded them and obey their 〈◊〉 And so we may do even to an Usurper or a private man 8. The principal and most notable Case in which we must obey when a Ruleâ— sinfully commandeth is when the matter which he commandeth is not such as is either forbidden us by
those doctrines against which no Minister shall be allowed to preach and according to which he is to instruct the people 3. To be a testimony to all neighbour or forreign Churches in an heterodox contentious and suspicious age how we understand the Scriptures for the Confuting of scandals and unjust suspicions and the maintaining Communion in Faith and Charity and Doctrine Quest. 144. May not the Subscribing of the whole Scriptures serve turn for all the foresaid ends without Creeds Catechisms or Confessions Answ. BY Subscribing to the Scriptures you mean either Generally and Implicitly that All in them is True and Good though perhaps you know not what is in it Or else particularly and explicitly that every point in it is by you both understood and believed to be true In the first sense it is not sufficient to salvation For this Implicite faith hath really no act in it but a Belief that all that God faith is true which is only the formal object of faith and is no more than to believe that there is a God for a Lyar is not a God And this he may do who never believed in Christ or a word of Scripture as not taking it to be Gods Word yea that will not believe that God forbiddeth his beastly life Infidels ordinarily go thus far In the second sense of an explicite or particular Actual belief the belief of the whole Scriture is enough indeed and more than any man living can attain to No man understandeth all the Scripture Therefore that which no man hath is not to be exacted of all men or any man in order to Ministration or Communion While 1. No man can subscribe to any one Translation of the Bible that it is not faulty being the work of defectible man 2. And few have such acquaintance with the Hâ—brew and Chaldee and Greek as to be able to say that they understand the Original Languages perfectly 2. And no man that understands the words doth perfectly understand the matter It followeth that no man is to be forced or urged to subscribe to all things in the Scriptures as particularly understood by him with an Explicite faith And an Implicite is not half enough 2. The true Mean therefore is the antient way 1. To select the Essentials for all Christians to be believed particularly and explicitely 2. To Collect certain of the most needful Integrals which Teachers shall not preach against 3. And for all men moreover to profess in General that they implicitely believe all which they can discern to be the holy Canonical Scripture and that all is true which is the Word of God Forbearing each other even about the number of Canonical Books and Texts And it is the great wisdom and mercy of God which hath so ordered it that the Scripture shall 1 Cor. 8. 1 2. 13. 1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 8. 3. Rom. 8. 28. have enough to exercise the strongest and yet that the weakest may be ignorant of the meaning of a thousand sentences without danger of damnation so they do but understand the Marrow or Essentials and labour faithfully to increase in the knowledge of the rest Quest. 145. May not a man be saved that believeth all the Essentials of Religion as Coming to him by Verbal Tradition and not as contained in the holy Scriptures which perhaps he never knew Answ. 1. HE that believeth shall be saved which way ever he cometh by his belief So be it it be sound as to the object and act that is If it contain all the Essentials and they be predominantly Believed Loved and practised 2. The Scriptures being the Records of Christs Doctrine delivered by Himself his Spirit and his Apostles it is the Office of Ministers and the duty of all Instructers to open these Scriptures to those they teach and to deliver particulars upon the authority of these Inspired sealed Records which contain them 3. They that thus receive particular truths from a Teacher explaining the Scripture to them do receive them in a subordination to the Scripture Materially and as to the Teachers part though not formally and as to their own part And though the Scripture authority being not understood by them be not the formal object of their faith but only Gods authority in general 4. They that are ignorant of the being of the Scripture have a great disadvantage to their faith 5. Yet we cannot say but it may be the case of thousands to be saved by the Gospel delivered by Tradition without resolving their faith into the authority of the Scriptures For 1. This was the case of all the Christians as to the New Testament who lived before it was written And there are several Articles of the Creed now necessary which the Old Testament doth not reveal Matth. 16. 16. Rom. 10. 9 10 13 14 15. 2. This may be the case of thousands in Ignorant Countreys where the Bible being rare is to most unknown 3. This may be the case of thousands of Children who are taught their Creed and Catechism before they understand what the Bible is 4. This may be the case of thousands among the Papists where some perverse Priests do keep not only the Reading but the Knowledge of the Scriptures from the people for fear lest they should be taught to resolve their faith into it and do teach them only the Articles of Faith and Catechism as known by the Churches tradition alone Quest. 146. Is the Scripture fit for all Christians to read being so obscure Answ. 1. THe Essentials and points necessary to salvation are plain 2. We are frequently and vehemently commanded to delight in it and meditate John 5. 39. Psalm 1. 2. Deut. 6. 11. Psal. 19. 7 8 9 10 11. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Psal. 119. 98 105. 133. 148. Acts 17. 11. Acts 8. in it day and night to search it to teach it our very children speaking of it at home and abroad lying down and rising up and to write it on the posts of our houses and on our doors c. 3. It is suited to the necessity and understanding of the meanest to give light to the simple and to make the very foolish wise 4. The antient Fathers and Christians were all of this mind 5. All the Christian Churches of the world have been used to Read it openly to all even to the simplest And if they may Hear it they may Read the same words which they hear 6. God blessed the ignorant Ethiopian Eunuch when he found him Reading the Scriptures though he knew not the sense of what he read and sent him Philip to instruct him and convert him 7. Timothy was educated in the knowledge of the Scriptures in his childhood 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 15. 4. Mat. 12. 24. 8. That which is written to and for all men may be read by all that can But the Scripture was written to and for all c. Object But there are many things in it hard to be understood Answ.
serve the Devil and the Flesh. God must be our First and Last and All. § 4. Not that any exact or full Body or Method of Divinity is to be Learnt so early But 1. The Baptismal Covenant must be well opened betime and frequently urged upon their hearts 2. Therefore the Creed the Lords Prayer and Decalogue must be opened to such betime that is They must be wisely Catechised 3. They must be taught the Scripture History especially Genesis and the Gospel of Christ. 4. They must with the other Scriptures read the most plain and suitable Books of practical Divinâ—s after named 5. They must be kept in the company of suitable wise and exemplary Christians whose whole conversation will help them to the sense and Love of Holiness And must be kept strictly from perverting wicked company 6. They must be frequently lovingly familiarly yet seriously treated with about the state of their own souls and made to know their need of Christ and of his holy spirit of Justification and Renovation 7. They must be trained up in the Practice of Godliness in Prayer pious speeches and obedience to God and man 8. They must be kept under the most powerful and profitable Ministers of Christ that can be had 9. They must be much urged to the study of their own hearts To know themselves what it is to be a Man to have Reason Free-will and an Immortal soul what it is to be a Child of Lapsed Adam and an unregenerate unpardoned sinner what it is to be a Redeemed and a sanctified Justified person and an adopted heir of life eternal And by close examination to know which of these conditions is their own To know what is their daily duty and what their danger and what their Temptations and impediments and how to escape § 5. For if once the soul be truly sanctified then 1. Their salvation is much secured and the main work of their lives is happily begun and they are ready to Die safely when ever God shall call them hence 2. It will possess them with a right end in all the studies and labours of their lives which is an unspeakable advantage both for their pleasing of God and profiting themselves and others without which they will but prophane Gods name and word and turn the Ministry into a worldly fleshly life and study and Preach for Riches Preferment or applause and live as he Luk. 12. 18 19. Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry and they will make Theology the way to hell and study and preach their own condemnation 3. A Holy heart will be alwayes under the Greatest Motives and therefore will be constantly and powerfully impelled as well in secret as before others to diligence in studies and all good endeavours 4. And it will make all sweet and easie to them as being a noble work and relishing of Gods Love and the endless Glory to which it tendeth A holy soul will all the year long be employed in sacred studies and works as a good stomach at a feast with constant pleasure And then O how happily will all go on When a carnal person with a dull unwilling weary mind taketh now and then a little when his carnal interest it self doth prevail against his more slothful sensual inclinations but he never followeth it with hearty affections and therefore seldom with good success 4. And a holy soul will be a continual Treasury and fountain of holy matter to pour out to others when they come to the Sacred Ministry so that such a one can say more from the feeling and experience of his soul than another can in a long time gather from his Books 5. And that which he saith will come warm to the hearers in a more lively experimental manner than usual carnal Preachers speak 6. And it is liker to be attended by a greater blessing from God 7. And there are many Controversies in the Church which an experienced holy person caeteris paribus hath great advantage in above all others to know the right and be preserved from errours § 6. Direct 2. Let young mens time till about 18 19 or 20 be spent in the improvement of their Memories rather than in studies that require much judgement Therefore let them take that time to get Organical knowledge such as are the Latine and Greek tongues first and chiefly and then the Hebrew Chaldee Syriack and Arabick with the exactest acquaintance with the true Precepts of Logick And let them learn some Epiâ—ome of Logick without Book In this time also let them be much conversant in History both Civil Scholastical of Philosophers Orators Poets c. and Ecclesiastical And then take in as much of the Mathematicks as their more necessary studies will allow them time for still valuing Knowledge according to the various degrees of usefulness § 7. Direct 3. When you come to seek after more abstruse and real wisdom joyn together the study of Physicks and Theologie and take not your Physicks as separated from or independant on Theologie But as the study of God in his works and of his works as leading to himself Otherwise you will be but like a Scrivener and Printer who maketh his Letters well but knoweth not what they signifie § 8. Direct 4. Unite all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or knowledge of Real eâ—tities into one science both spirits and Bodies God being taken in as the First and last the Original Director and End of all And study not the doctrine of Bodies alone as separated from spirits For it is but an imaginary separation and a delusion to mens minds Or if you will call them by the name of several sciences be sure you so link those severals together that the due dependance of bodies on spirits and of the Passive natures on the Active may still be kept discemable And then they will be one while you call them divers § 9. Direct 5. When you study only to know what is True you must begin at the Primum câ—gnoscibile and so rise in ordine cognoscendi But when you would come to see things in their proper Order by a more perfect satisfying knowledge you must draw up a synthetical sebeme juxta ordinem â—ssendi where God must be the First and Last the first Efficient Governour and End of all § 10. Direct 6. Your first study of Philosophy therefore should be of your selves To know a man And the Knowledge of mans soul is a part so necessary so neer so useful that it should take up both the first and largest room in all your Physicks or knowledge of Gods works Labour therefore to be accurate in this § 11. Direct 7. With the knowledge of your selves joyn the Knowledge of the rest of the works of God but according to the usefulness of each part to your moral duty and as all are Related to God and You. § 12. Direct 8. Be sure in all your progress that you keep a distinct knowledge of things certain and things
more congruously and it seems with less offence than we Saith the Geographia Nubiensis aptly There is a certain King dwelling at Rome called the Pope c. when he goeth to describe him Nothing well suites with our function but the pure Doctrine of Salvation Let States-men and Lawyers mind the rest Two things I must apologize for in this Part 1. That it 's maimed by defect of those Directions to Princes Nobles Parliament-men and other Magistrates on whose duty the happiness of Kingdoms Churches and the World dependeth To which I answer that those must teach them whom they will hear while my Reason and experience forbid me as an unacceptable person to speak to them without a special invitation I can bear the Censures of Strangers who knew not them or me I am not so proud as to expect that men so much above me should stoop to read any Directions of mine much less to think me fit to teach them Every one may reprove a poor servant or a beggar It 's part of their priviledge But Great men must not be so much as admonished by any but themselves and such as they will hear At least nothing is a duty which a man hath reason to think is like to do much more harm than good And my own judgement is much against pragmatical presumptuous Preachers who are over-forward to meddle with their Governours or their affairs and think that God sendeth them to reprove persons and things that are strange to them and above them and vent their distastes upon uncertain reports or without a Call 2. And I expect to be both blamed and mis-understood for what I hear say in the Confutation of Mr. Richard Hooker his Political Principles and my Citation of B. Bilson and such others But they must observe 1. That it is not all in Mr. Hookers first and eighth Book which I gainsay but the principle of the Peoples being the fountain of Authority or that Kings receive their Office it self from them with the consequents hereof How far the people have in any Countrys the power of Electing the Persons Families or Forms of Government or how far nature giveth them propriety and the consequents of this I meddle not with at all 2. Nor do I choose Mr. Hooker out of any envy to his name and honour but I confess I do it to let men know truly whose Principles these are And if any causelesly question whether the eighth imperfect Book be in those passages his own let them remember that the sum of all that I confute is in his first Book which is old and highly honoured by you know whom And I will do him the honour and my self the dishonour to confess that I think the far greater number of Casuists and Authors of Politicks Papists and Protestants are on his side and fewest on mine But truth is truth On the subjects duty I am larger because if they will not hear at least I may boldly and freely instruct them If in the later part there be any useful Cases of Conscience left out it is because I could not remember them Farewell A Christian Directory TOM IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. General Rules for an Upright Conversation § 1. SOLOMON saith Prov. 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely And Perfection and Uprightness are the characters of Iob Chap. 1. 1 8. 2. 3. And in the Scripture to be Upright or Righteous and to walk uprightly and to do righteously are the titles of those that are acceptable to God And by Uprightness is meant not only sincerity as opposed to Hypocrisie but also Rectitude of Heart and Life as opposed to crookedness or sin and this as it is found in various Degrees of which we use to call the lowest degree that is saving by the name of sincerity and the highest by the name of Perfection § 2. Concerning Uprightness of life I shall I. Briefly tell you some of those blessings that should make us all in love with it and II. Give you some necessary Rules of practice § 3. I. Uprightness of heart and life is a certain fruit of the Spirit of Grace and consequently a mark of our Union with Christ and a proof of our acceptableness with God Psal. 7. 10. My defence is of God who saveth the upright in heart Psal. 11. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance doth behold the upright It is a title that God himself assumeth Psal. 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Psal. 92. 15. To shew that the Lord is upright He is my rock and no unrighteousness is in him And God-calleth himself the Maker the Director the Protector and the Lover of the upright Eccl. 7. 29. God made man upright Psal. 1. 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous Psal. 25. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord him will he teach in the way that he shall choose Prov. 2. 7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly 2. The Upright are the Pillars of humane society that keep up Truth and Iustice in the world without whom it would be but a company of lyers deceivers robbers and enemies that live in constant rapine or â—ostility There were no Trust to be put in one another further than self-interest did oblige men Psal. 15. 1 2. Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle Who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart Therefore the wicked and the enemies of Peace and destroyers of Societies are still described as Enemies to the upright Psal. 11. 2 3. For lo the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do Job 12. 4. The just and upright man is laughed to scorn Psal. 37. 14. The wicked have drawn out the sword to slay such as be of upright conversation And indeed it is for the uprights sake that societies are preserved by God as Sodom might have been for ten Lots At least they are under the protection of Omnipotency themselves Isa. 33. 15 16. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppression that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes that stoppeth his ear from hearing of blood that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the Land that is very far off Prov. â—8 10. The upright shall have good things in possession Prov. 14. 11. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish 3. Uprightness affordeth Peace of Conscience and quietness and holy security to the soul. This was Pauls rejoycing the testimony
you do evil with double violence and with blasphemous fathering your sins on God and with impenitence and justification of your sin This made Paul mad in persecuting the Church Prov. 15. 21. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom but a man of understanding walketh uprightly No man can do that well which he understandeth not well Therefore you must study and take unwearied pains for knowledge Wisdom never grew up with idleness though the conceit of wisdom doth no where more prosper This age hath told us to what desperate precipices men will be carryed by ignorant zeal 2. And the understanding must be large or it cannot be solid When many particulars are concerned in an action the over-looking of some one may spoil the work Narrow minded men are turned as the weather-cock with the wind of the times or of every temptation and they seldome avoid one sin but by falling into another It is Prudence that must manage an upright life And Prudence seeth all that must be seen and putteth every circumstance into the ballance For want of which much mischief may be done while you seem to be doing the greatest good The prudent man looketh well to his going Prov. 14. 15 See therefore that ye walk circumspectly at a hairs breadth not as fools but as wise 6. But because you will object that alas few even of the upright have wits so strong as to be fit Psal. 119. 98. Prov. 1 6 7. 8. 12. 15 18. 13. 1. 14 20. 15. 2. 7 12. 31. 22. 17. 25. 12. Eccles. 12. 11. Dan. 12. 3 10. Matth. 24. 45. Psal. 37. 30. Eccles. 2. 13. Isa. 33. 6. Matth. 12. 42. Luke 1. 17. 21. 15. Acts 6. 3. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Mal. 2. 6 7. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7 17. Tit. 1. 9 13. 2. 1 8. 2 Tim. 4. 3. for this I add that he that will walk uprightly must in the great essential parts of Religion have this foresaid knowledge of his own and in the rest at least he must have the conduct of the wise And therefore 1. He must be wise in the great matters of his salvation though he be weak in other things 2. And he must labour to be truly acquainted who are indeed wise men that are meet to be his guides And he must have recourse to such in Cases of Conscience as a sick man to his Physicion It is a great mercy to be so far wise as to know a wise man from a fool and a Counsellor from a deceiver 7. He that will walk uprightly must be the master of his passions not stupid but calm and sober Though some passion is needful to excite the understanding to its duty yet that which is Prov. 14. 29. Col. 3. 8. inordinate doth powerfully deceive the mind Men are very apt to be confident of what they passionately apprehend And passionate judgements are frequently mistaken and ever to be suspected It being exceeding difficult to entertain any passion which shall not in some measure pervert our reason which is one great reason why the most confident are ordinarily the most erroneous and blind Be sure therefore when ever you are injured or passion any way engaged to set a double guard upon your judgements 8. He that will walk uprightly must not only difference between simple Good and Evil but between a greater Good and a less For most sin in the world consisteth in preferring a Lesser Good before Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. Psal. 40. 6. 51. 16. 1 Sam. 15. 22. a Greater He must still keep the ballance in his hand and compare good with good Otherwise he will make himself a Religion of sin and preferr Sacrifice before mercy and will hinder the Gospel and mens salvation for a ceremony and violate the bonds of love and faithfulness for every opinion which he calleth Truth and will tythe Mint and Cummin while he neglecteth the great things of the Law When a lesser good is preferred before a greater it is a sin and the common way of sinning It is not then a duty when it is inconsistent with a greater good 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 15. 2. 14. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. Rom. 3. 8. Eph. 4. 12 c. 1 Cor. 12. 9. He must ever have a conjunct respect to the Command and the End The good of some actions is but little discernable any where but in the Command and others are evidently good because of the good they tend to We must neither do evil and break a Law that good may come by it Nor yet pretend obedience to do mischief as if God had made his Laws for Destruction of the Church or mens souls and not for Edification 10. He must keep in Union with the Universal Church and preferr its interest before the interest of any party whatsoever and do nothing that tendeth to its hurt 11. He must love his neighbour as himself and do as he would be done by and love his enemies and Matth. 22 39. 5. 43 44. 7. 12. forgive wrongs and hear their defamations as his own 12. He must be Impartial and not lose his Iudgement and Charity in the opinion or interest of a Jam. 3. 15 16 17 18. Party or Sect Nor think all right that is Held or Done by those that he best liketh nor all wrong that is held or done by those that are his adversaries But judge of the Words and Deeds of those Gal. 2 13 14. Deut. 25. 16. 1 Cor. 6. 9. that are against him as if they had been said or done by those of his own side Else he will live in slâ—ndering backbiting and gross unrighteousness 13. He must be deliberate in judging of Things and Persons not rash or hasty in believing reports Matth. 7. 1 2. John 7. 24. Râ— 14. 10 13. 1 Pet. 1. 17. or receiving opinions not judging of Truths by the first appearance but search into the naked evidence Nor judging of persons by prejudice fame and common talk 14. He must be willing to receive and obey the Truth at the dearest rate especially of laborious Luke 14. 26. 33. 1â— 4. Prov. 23. 23. Matth. 1â— 3. Prov. 26. 12. 16 28 11. 1 Cor. 3. 18 Prov. â— 7. study and a self-denying life Not taking all to be Truth that costeth men dear nor yet thinking that Truth indeed can be over-prized 15. He must be Humble and self-suspicious and come to Christs School as a little child and not have a proud over-valuing of himself and his own understanding The proud and selfish are blind and cross and have usually some opinions or interests of their own that lye cross to duty and to other mens good 16. He must have an eye to posterity and not only to the present time or age and to other Nations Judg. 8. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 35. 1 King 14. 16. 15. 26.
non esse penes Regeâ— sed aut penes Ordines aut certe penes id corpus quod Rex juncti constituunt ut Bodinus Suarezius Victoria aliique abunde demonstratunt Certum summum Imperium totum aliquid imperare non posse ideo tantum quod alter veteâ— aut intercedat plane sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this or that or the other thing or not Nor whether it shall be exercised thus or thus by standing Courts or temporary Judges c. 3. Nor hath he named the person or family that shall rule § 6. Prop. 5. Though these in the constitution are determined of by explicite or implicite contract or consent between the Ruler and the Community yet by none of these three can the people be truly and properly said to Give the Ruler his Power of Government Not by the first or last for both those do but determine who shall be the Recipient of that power whether one or more and who individually Not the second for that is but a limiting or bounding or regulating the Governing power that it be not exercised to their hurt The bounding and regulating of their power is not the Giving them power The People having the strength cannot be ruled against their concordant wills And therefore if they contract with their Governours that they will be Ruled thus and thus or not at all this is not to Give them power Yet Propriety they have and there they may be Givers So that this Bounding or Regulating and Choosing the form and Persons and giving of their propriety is all that they have to do And the choosing of the Family or person is not at all a Giving the Power They are but sine quibus non to that They do but open the door to let in the Governour They do but name the family or man to whom God and not they shall Give the power As when God hath already determined what authority the Husband shall have over the Wife the Wife by choosing him to be her Husband giveth him not his power but only chooseth the man to whom God giveth it by his standing Law Though about the disposing of her estate she may limit him by pre-contracts But if she contract against his Goâ—ernment it is acontradiction and null Nor if he abuse his power doth it at all fall into her hands If the King by Charter give power to a Corporation to choose their Mayor or other Officer they do but nominate the persons that shall receive it but it is the Kings Charter and not they that give him the power If a Souldier voluntarily list himself under the Kings General or other Commanders he doth but choose the man that shall command him but it is the Kings Commission that giveth him the power to command those that voluntarily so list themselves And if the authority be abused or forfeited it is not into the Souldiers hands but into the Kings § 7. Prop. 6. The Constituting-Consent or Contract of Ancestors obligeth all their posterity if Prop. 6. they will have any of the protection or other benefit of Government to stand to the constitution Else Governments should be so unsetled and mutable as to be uncapable of their proper End § 8. Prop. 7. God hath neither in nature or Scripture estated this Power of Government in whole or Prop. 7. in part upon the people of a meer Community much less on Subjects whether Noble or Ignoble So foolish and bad â—s the 〈◊〉 tâ—o 〈…〉 man shâ—uâ—d not endanger himself for his Countrey because wisdom is not to be cast away for the commodity of fools Laert. in Aristip. But a wise man must be wise for others and not only for himself Learned or unlearned the part of the Community or the whole body Real or Representative The people as such have not this Power either to Use or to Give But the absolute Soveraign of all the world doth communicate the Soveraign power in every Kingdom or other sort of Common-wealth from himself Immediately I say Immediately not without the Mediation of an Instrument signifying his will for the Law of Nature and Scripture are his Instrument and the Charter of Authority nor yet so Immediately as without any kind of medium for the Consent and Nomination of the Community before expressed may be Conditio sine qua non so far as aforesaid But it is so Immediately from God as that there is no immediate Recipient to receive the power first from God and convey it to the Soveraign § 9. Prop. 8. The Natural power of individual persons over themselves is tota specie different from Prop. 8. this Political or Civil Power And it is not the Individuals resignation of this Natural power of selfdisposal It was one of the Roman Laws of the twelve Tables Vendendi filium patri potestas esâ—o But this Law rather giveth the Father that power than declareth it to be naturally in him Nature alloweth him no other selling of him than what is for his Child 's own good unto one or more which is the efficient Cause of Soveraignty or Civil Power § 10. Prop. 9. If you take the word Law properly for the expression of a Rulers Will obliging Prop. 9. the Governed or making their duty and not improperly for meer Contracts between the Soveraign and the people then it is clear in the definition it self that neither Subjects nor the Community as such have any Legislative power Neither Nature nor Scripture hath given the people a Power of making Laws either by themselves or with the Soveraign Either the sole power or a part of it But the very Nature of Government requireth that the whole Legislative power that is the power of making Governing Laws belong to the summa Majestas or Soveraign alone Unless when the summa potestas is in many hands you compare the partakers among themselves and call one Party the Soveraign as having more of the Soveraignty than the rest For those that are no Governours at all cannot perform the chief act of Government which is the making of Governing-Laws But the people are no Governours at all either as a Community or as Subjects So that you may easily perceive that all the Arguments for a natural Democracy are built upon false suppositions and where ever the People have any part in the Soveraignty it is by the after-Constitution and not by Nature And that Kings receive not their Power from the peoples gift who never had it themselves to use or give but from God alone § 11. Prop. 10. Though God have not made an Universal determination for any one sort of Government against the rest whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy because that is best for one people which may be worse for others yet ordinarily Monarchy is accounted better than Aristocracy and Aristocracy better than Democracy So much briefly of the Original of Power § 12. Object 1. But saith worthy Mr. Richard Hooker
they call Ecclesiastical and keep the people in dependance on their dictates and teach them to disobey upon pretence that God is against the matter of their obedience And also by contending for their Opinions or for superiority and domination over one another they fill Kingdoms with quarrels and break them into sects and factions and are the chief disturbers of the publick peace Ans. We cannot deny but that carnal ignorant worldly proud unholy Pastors have been and are Answ. the great calamity of the Churches But that is no more disgrace to their Office or to Divinity than it is to Philosophy or reason that Philosophers have been ignorant erroneous divided and contentious nor then it is to Government that Kings and other Rulers have been imperfect bad contentious and filled the World with wars and bloodshed Nay I rather think that this is a proof of the excellency of Divinity As the reason of the foresaid imperfections and faultiness of Philosophers and Rulers is because that Philosophy and Government are things so excellent that the corrupt imperfect nature of man will not reach so high as to qualifie any man to manage them otherwise than with great defectiveness so also Divinity and the Pastoral office are things so excellent and sublime that the nature of lapsed man will not reach to a capacity of being perfect in them So that the faultiness of the nature of man compared with the excellency of the things to be known and practised by Divines is the cause of all these faults which they complain of And natures vitiâ—siâ—y if any thing must be blamed Certainly the Pastoral office hath men as free from ignorance worldliness pride and unquietness as any Calling in the World To charge the faults of nature upon that profession which only discovereth but never caused them yea which would heal them iâ— they are to be healed on earth judge whether this dealing be not foolish and injurious and what will be the consequents if such unreasonable persons may be heard And therefore though Leviathan and his Spawn among all that is good bring down Divines and the zealots for Democracy have gloried of their new forms of Common-wealths as inconsistent with a Clergie their glory is their shame to all but Infidels Let them help us to take down and cure the ignorance pride carnality worldliness and contentiousness of the Clergie and we will be thankful to them but to quarrel with the best of men for the common pravity of nature and to reproach the most excellent science and function because depraved nature cannot attain or manage them in perfection this is but to play the professed enemies of mankind § 78. Obj. 6. These Atheists or Infidels also do spit their venome against Christianity and Godliness it Object 6. self and would make Princes believe that the principles of it are contrary to their interest and to Government and peace And they fetch their cavils 1. From the Scriptures contemptuous expressions of worldly wealth and greatness 2. From its prohibition of revenge and maintaining our own right 3. From the setting it above all humane Laws and by its authority and obscurity filling the minds of men with scrupulosity 4. From the divisions which Religion occasioneth in the world and 5. From the testimonies of the several sects against each other I shall answer them particularly though but briefly § 79 Obj. 1. Say the Infidel Politicians How can subjects have honourable thoughts of their superiours Object 1. when they believe that to be the Word of God which speaketh so contemptuously of them As Just such accusaâ—ions as Papists bring against the Reformers did the Heathens bring against the Christians as you may see in Eâ—napius in Aedesio At egregii illi viri bellicosi confusis perturbatisque rebus omnibus debellasse Deos incruentis quidem sed ab avaritiae crimine non puris manibus gloriabantur sacrilegium impietatis crimen laudi sibi assumentes Iidem postea in Sacra loca invexerunt Monachos sic dictos homines quidem speciè sed vitam turpem porcorum more exigentes qui in propatulo infinita infanda scelera committebant quibus tamen pietatis pars videbatur sacri loci reverentiam proculcari O partiality Luk. 6. 24. Woe to you that are rich for ye have received your consolation Jam. 5. 1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you ver 5 6. Ye have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton Ye have condemned and killed the just Luk. 12. 21. Luk. 16. The Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus is spoken to make men think of the Rich as miserable damned creatures Ezek. 21. 25. Thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel Prov. 25. 5. Take away the wicked from before the King Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to lies all his servants are wicked The contempt of Greatness is made a part of the Christian Religion Ans. 1. As if there were no difference between the contempt of Riches and worldly prosperity Answ and the contempt of Government He is blind that cannot see that Riches and Authority are not the same Yea that the over-valuing of Riches is the cause of seditions and the disturbance of Governments when the contempt of them removeth the chief impediments of obedience and peace 2. And may not Governours be sufficiently honoured unless they be exempted from the Government of God and unless their sin must go for virtue and unless their duty and their account and the danger of their souls be treacherously concealed from them God will not flatter dust and ashes Great and small are alike to him He is no respecter of persons When you can save the greatest from death and judgement then they may be excepted from all those duties which are needful to their preparation 3. And is it not strange that God should teach men to contemn the power which he himself ordaineth and which is his own Hath he set officers over us for the work of Government and doth he teach us to despise them There is no shew of any such thing in Scripture There are no principles in the world that highlyer advance and honour Magistracy than the Christian principles unless you will make Gods of them as the Roman Senate did of the Antonines and other Emperours § 80. Obj. 2. How can there be any Government when men must believe that they must not resist evil Object 2. Rom. 12. 17 19 20. Luk. 6. 28 29 30. Matth. 5. 39 40 41. Luk. 22. 25 26. but give place to wrath and turn the other cheek to him that smiteth them and give their Coat to him that taketh away their Cloke and lend asking for nothing again Is not this to let thieves and violent rapacious men rule all and have their will and go unpunished What use is there then for Courts or Iudges And when Christ commandeth his disciples that
serious Direct 5. words about their souls and the life to come in such a plain familiar manner as tendeth most to the awakening of their Consciences and making them perceive how greatly what you say concerneth them A little such familiar serious discourse in an interlocutory way may go to their hearts and never be forgotten when meer forms alone are lifeless and unprofitable Abundance of good might be done on Children if Parents and Schoolmasters did well perform their parts in this § 6. Direct 6. Take strict account of their spending the Lords day How they hear and what they Direct 6. remember and how they spend the rest of the day For the right spending of that day is of great importance to their souls And a custome of play and idleness on that day doth usually debauch them and prepare them for much worse Though they are from under your eye on the Lords day yet if on Munday they be called to account it will leave an awe upon them in your absence § 7. Direct 7. Pray with them and for them If God give not the increase by the dews of Heaven Direct 7. and shine not on your labours your planting and watering will be all in vain Therefore prayer is as suitable a means as Teaching to do them good and they must go together He that hath a heart to pray earnestly for his Scholars shall certainly have himself most comfort in his labours and it is likely that he shall do most good to them § 8. Direct 8. Watch over them by one another when they are behind your backs at their sports or Direct 8. converse with each other For it is abundance of wickedness that Children use to learn and practise which never cometh to their Masters ears especially in some great and publick Schools They that came thither to learn sobriety and piety of their Masters do oftentimes learn profaneness and ribaldry and cursing and swearing and scorning deriding and reviling one another of their ungracious School-fellows And those lessons are so easily learnt that there are few Children but are infected with some such debauchery though their Parents and Masters watch against it and perhaps it never cometh to their knowledge So also for gameing and robbing Orchards and fighting with one another and reading Play-books and Romances and lying and abundance other vices which must be carefully watcht against § 9. Direct 9. Correct them more sharply for sins against God than for their dulness and failing at their Direct 9. books Though negligence in their learning is not to be indulged yet smart should teach them especially to take heed of sinning that they may understand that sin is the greatest evil § 10. Direct 10. Especially curb or cashier the leaders of impiety and rebellion who corrupt the rest Direct 10. There are few great Schools but have some that are notoriously debauched that glory in their wickedness that in filthy talking and fighting and cursing and reviling words are the infecters of the rest And usually they are some of the bigger sort that are the greatest fighters and master the rest and by domineering over them and abusing them force them both to follow them in their sin and to conceal it The correcting of such or expelling them if incorrigible is of great necessity to preserve the rest For if they are suffered the rest will be secretly infected and undone before the Master is aware This causeth many that have a care of their Childrens souls to be very fearful of sending them to great and publick Schools and rather choose private Schools that are freer from that danger It being almost of as great concernment to Children what their companions be as what their Master is CHAP. VII Directions for Souldiers about their duty in point of Conscience THough it is likely that few Souldiers will read what I shall write for them yet for the sake of those few that will I will do as Iohn Baptist did and give them some few necessary Directions and not omit them as some do as if they were a hopeless sort of men § 1. Direct 1. Be careful to make your peace with God and live in a continual readiness to dye Direct 1. This being the great duty of every rational man you cannot deny it to be especially yours whose calling setteth you so frequently in the face of death Though some Garrison Souldiers are so seldom if ever put to fight that they live more securely than most other men yet a Souldier as such being by his place engaged to fight I must fit my Directions to the ordinary condition and expectation of men in that employment It is a most irrational and worse than beastly negligence for any man to live carelesly in an unpreparedness for death considering how certain it is and how uncertain the time and how unconceivably great is the change which it inferreth But for a Souldier to be unready to dye who hath such special reason to expect it and who listeth himself into a state which is so near it this is to live and fight like beasts and to be Souldiers before you understand what it is to be a Christian or a Man First therefore make sure that your souls are regenerate and reconciled unto God by Christ and that when you dye you have a part in Heaven and that you are not yet in the state of sin and nature An unrenewed unsanctified soul is sure to go to Hell by what death or in what cause soever he dyeth If such a man be a Souldier he must be a coward or a mad man If he will run upon death when he knoweth not whither it will send him yea when Hell is certainly the next step he is worse than mad But if he know and consider the terribleness of such a change it must needs make him tremble when he thinks of dying He can be no good Souldier that dare not dye And who can expect that he should dare to dye who must be damned when he dyeth Reason may command a man to venture upon death but no reason will allow him to venture upon Hell I never knew but two sorts of valiant Souldiers The one was Boyes and bruitish ignorant sots who had no sense of the concernments of their souls and the other who only were truly valiant were those that had made such preparations for Eternity as at least perswaded them that it should go well with them when they dyed And many a debauched Souldier I have known whose Conscience hath made them Cowards and shift or run away when they should venture upon death because they knew they were unready to dye and were more afraid of Hell than of the Enemy He that is fit to be a Martyr is the fittest man to be a Souldier He that is regenerate and hath laid up his treasure and his hopes in Heaven and so hath overcome the fears of death may be bold as a Lyon and ready for
preservation of the family in peace If children cry or fight or chide or make any fowle or troublesome work the mother will not therefore turn them out of doors or use them like strangers but remember that it is her place and duty to bear with that weakness which she cannot cure The proud impatience of the Pastors hath frequently brought them into the guilt of persecution to the alienating of the peoples hearts and the distraction and division of the Churches when poor distempered persons are offended with them and it may be revile them and call them seducers or antichristian or superstitious or what their pride and passion shall suggest or if some weak ones raise up some erroneous opinions alas many Pastors have no more wit or grace or pity than presently to be rough with them and revile them again and seek to right themselves by wayes of force and club down every errour and contention when they should overcome them by evidence of truth and by meekness patience and love Though there be place also for severity with turbulent implacable impenitent hereticks § 55. Direct 33. Time of learning and overcoming their mistakes must be allowed to those that are Direct 33. mis-informed We must not turn those of the lower forms out of Christs School because they learn not as much as those of the higher forms in a few weeks or years The Holy Ghost teacheth those who for the time might have been Teachers of others and yet had need to be taught the first Principles Heb. 5. 11 12. He doth not turn them out of the Church for their non-proficiency And where there is ignorance there will be errour § 56. Direct 34. Some inconveniences must be expected and tolerated and no perfect Order or Concord Direct 34. expected here on earth It is not good reasoning to say If we suffer these men they will cause this or that disorder or inconvenience But you must also consider whither you must drive it if you suffer them not and what will be the consequents He that will follow his Conscience to a prison will likely follow it to death And if nothing but death or prison or banishment can restrain them from what they take to be their duty it must be considered how many must be so used and whether if they were truly faulty they deserve so much and if they do yet whether the evils of the Toleration or of the Punishment are like to be the greater Peace and Concord will never be perfect till Knowledge and Holiness be perfect § 57. Direct 35. You may go further in restraining than in constraining in forbidding men to Direct 35. preach against approved doctrines or practices of the Church than in forcing them to preach for them or to subscribe or speak their approbation or assent If they be not points or practices of great necessity a man may be sit for the Ministry and Church-communion who meddleth not with them but Preacheth the wholsome truths of the Gospel and lets them alone And because no duty is at all times a duty a sober mans judgement will allow him to be silent at many an errour when he dare not subscribe to or approve the least But if here any proud and cruel Pastors shall come in with their lessâ—â— selfish incommodities and say If they do not approve of what we say and do they will secretly foment a faction against us I should answer them that as good men will foment no faction so if such Proud impatient turbulent men will endure none that subscribe not to all their opinions or differ from them in a circumstance or a Ceremony they shall raise a greater faction if they 'l call it so against themselves and make the people look on them as tyrants and not as Pastors and they shall see in the end when they have bought their wit by dear experience that they have but torn the Church in pieces by preventing divisions by carnal means and that they have lost themselves by being over zealous for themselves and that DOCTRINE and LOVE are the instruments of a wise Shepheard that loveth the flock and understands his work § 58. Direct 36. Distinguish between the making of new Laws or articles of belief and the punishing Direct 36. of men for the Laws already made And think not that we must have new Laws or Canons every time the old ones are broken or that any Law can be made which can keep it self from being broken Perversness in this errour hath brought the Church to the misery which it endureth God hath made an Universal Law sufficient for the Universal Church in matters of faith and holy practice leaving it to men to determine of necessary circumstances which were unfit for an universal Law And if the sufficiency of Gods Law were acknowledged in mens practices the Churches would have had more peace But when particular Countreys have their particular Volumes of Articles Consessions Liturgies and I know not what else to be subscribed to and none must Preach that will not say or write or swear that he believeth all this to be true and good and nothing in it to be against the Word of God this Engine wracks the limbs of the Churches all to pieces And then what 's the pretense for this epidemical calamity Why no better than this Every Heretick will subscribe to the Scriptures and take it in his own sense And what followeth Must we needs therefore have new Laws which Hereticks will not subscribe to or which they cannot break It is the Commendation of Gods Law as fit to be the means of Unity that all are so easily agreed to it in terms and therefore would agree in the sense if they understood it But they will not do so by the Laws of men All or many Hereticks in the primitive times would profess assent to the Churches Creed no doubt in a corrupt and private sense But the Churches did not therefore make new Creeds till above 300 years after Christ they began to put in some particular words to obviate Hereticks which Hilary complained of as the Cause of all their divisions And what if Hereticks will subscribe to all you bid them and take it in their own corrupted sense Must you therefore be still making new Laws and Articles till you meet with some which they cannot mis-understand or dare not thus abuse What if men will mis-interpret and break the Laws of the Land Must they be made new till none can mis-expound or violate them Sure there is a wiser way than this Gods word containeth in sufficient expressions all that is necessary to be subscribed to Require none therefore to subscribe to any more in matters of faith or holy practice But if you think any Articles need a special interpretation let the Church give her sense of those Articles and if any man Preach against that sense and corrupt the Word of God which he hath subscribed let his fault be
and that all strict Religion is but hypocrisie or at least to refuse their help and counsels Even Plutark noted that It so comes to pass that we entertain not virtue nor are â—apt into a desire of imitating it unless we highly honour and love the person in whom it is discerned And if they see or think the Preacher to be himself of a loose and careless and licentious life they will think that the like is very excusable in themselves and that his doctrine is but a form of speech which his office bindeth him to say but is no more to be regarded by them than by himself Two wayes is mens damnation thus promoted 1. By the ill lives of hypocritical ungodly preachers who actually bring their own persons into disgrace and thereby also the persons of others and consequently their sacred work and function 2. By wicked Preachers and people who through a malignant hatred of those that are abler and better than themselves and an envy of their reputation do labour to make the most zealous and faithful Preachers of the Gospel to be thought to be the most hypocritical or erroneous or factious and schismatical § 5. 5. The neglect of Ministerial duties is a common cause of sin and of mens damnation When they that take the charge of souls are either unable or unwilling to do their office when they teach them too seldome or too unskilfully in an unsuitable manner not choosing that doctrine which they most need or not opening it plainly and methodically in a fitness to their capacities or not applying it with necessary seriousness and urgency to the hearers state When men preach to the ungodly who are neer to damnation in a formal pase like a School-boy saying his lesson or in a drowsie reading tone as if they came to preach them all asleep or were afraid of wakening them When they speak of sin and misery and Christ of Heaven and Hell as if by the manner they came to contradict the matter and to perswade men that there are no such things The same mischief followeth the neglect of private personal inspection When Ministers think that they have done all when they have said a Sermon and never make conscience of labouring personally to convince the ungodly and reclaim offenders and draw sinners to God and confirm the weak And the omission much more the perversion and abuse of sacred Discipline hath the like effects When the Keys of the Church are used to shut out the good or not used when they ought to rebuke or to shut out the impenitent wicked ones nor to difference between the precious and the vile it hardeneth multitudes in their ungodliness and perswadeth them that they are really of the same family of Christ as the Godly are and have their sins forgiven because they are partakers of the same Holy Sacraments Not knowing the difference between the Church mystical and visible nor between the judgement of ministers and of Christ himself § 6. 6. Parents neglect of instructing Children and other parts of holy education is one of the greatest causes of the perdition of mankind in all the World But of this elsewhere § 7. 7. Magistrates persecution or opposition to Religion or discountenancing those that preach it or most seriously practise it tendeth to deceive some who over-reverence the judgement of superiours and to affright others from the obedience of God § 8. 8. Yea the negligence of Magistrates Masters and other Superiours omitting the due rebuke of sinners and due correction of the offenders and the due encouragement of the good is a great cause of the wickedness and damnation of the World § 9. 9. But above all when they make Laws for sin or for the contempt or dishonour or suppression of Religion or the serious practice of it this buildeth up Satans Kingdom most effectually and turneth Gods Ordinance against himself Thousands under Infidel and ungodly Princes are conducted by Obedience to damnation and their Rulers damn them as honourably as the Physicion kill'd his Patients who boasted that he did it secundum artem according to the rules of art § 10. 10. The vulgar example of the multitude of the ungodly is a great cause of mens impiety and damnation They must be well resolved for God and holiness who will not yield to the major Vote nor be carryed down the common stream nor run with the rabble to excess of ryot When Christianity is a Sect which is every where spoken against it proveth so narrow a way that Act. 2. 8. few have a mind to walk in it Men think that they are at least excusable for not being wiser and better than the multitude Singularity in honour or riches or strength or health is accounted no crime but singularity in godliness is at least thought unnecessary What! will you be wiser than all the Town or than such and such superiours is thought a good reprehension of Godliness where it is rare Even by them who hereby conclude their superiours or all the Town to be wiser than God § 11. 11. Also the vulgars scorning and deriding Godliness is a common cause of Murdering souls Because the Devil knoweth that there cannot one Word of solid Reason be brought against the Reason of God and so against a Holy life he therefore teacheth men to use such weapons as they have A Dog hath teeth and an Adder hath a sting though they have not the Weapons of a man A fool can laugh and jeer and rail and there is no great wit or learning necessary to smile or grin or call a man a Puritan or precisian or Heretick or Schismatick or any name which the malice of the age shall newly coin Mr. Robert Bolton largely sheweth how much the malignity of his age did vent it self against Godliness by the reproachful use of the word Puritan When Reason can be bribed to take the Devils part either natural or literate reason he will hire it at any rate But when it cannot he will make use of such as he can get Barking or hissing may serve turn where talking and disputing cannot be procured Drum and Trumpets in an Army serve the turn instead of Oratory to animate cowards and drown the noise of dying mens complaints and groans Thousands have been mocked out of their Religion and salvation at once and jeered into Hell who now know whether a scorn or the fire of Hell be the greater suffering As Tyrants think that the Greatest and Ablest and wisest men must either be drawn over to their party or destroyed so the Tyrant of Hell who ruleth in the Children of disobedience doth think that if Reason Learning and wit cannot be hired to dispute for him against God they are to be suppressed silenced and disgraced which the noise of rude clamours and foolish jeers is fit enough to perform § 12. 12. Also idle sensless prating against Religion as a needless thing doth serve turn to deceive the simple Ignorant people
worth no nor to get the true worth against his will or with scandal But if it be only to get a true worth of your commodity when he is willing but would be offended if his ignorance in some point were cured you may so far make use of his ignorance to a lawful end as is said before in the case of concealing faults § 14. Quest. 13. May I strive to get before another to get a good bargain which he desireth Quest. 13. Answ. Yes if you do it not out of a greedy mind nor to the injury of one that is poorer than your self You should rather further the supply of your neighbours greater needs Otherwise speed and industry in your Calling is no fault nor yet the crossing of a covetous mans desires You are not bound to let every man have what he would have § 15. Quest. 14. May I buy a thing out of anothers hand or hire a servant which another is about Quest. 14. or is treating with Or may I call a Chapman from another to buy of me Answ. There are some cases in which you may not do it and some in which you may You may not do it out of greedy covetousness nor to the injury of the poor nor when the other hath gone so far in the bargain that it cannot be honestly broken For then you injure the third person and tempt the other to a sin nor may you do it so as to disturb that due and Civil order which should be among moderate men in trading And it is a great matter how the thing is accounted of by the custome of the Countrey or Market where you bargain For where it is of ill report and accounted as unjust the scandal should make you avoid such a course But yet in some cases it is lawful and in some a needful duty It is lawful when none of the foresaid reasons or any such other are against it It is a duty when Charity to the poor or oppressed doth require it As e. g. a poor man must needs sell his Land his Horse his Corn or Goods A Covetous oppressor offereth him less than it is worth The poor man must take his offer if he can get no more The oppressor saith that it is injustice for any one to take his bargain out of his hand or offer money till he have done In this case it may be a duty to offer the poor man the worth of his commodity and save him from the oppressor A covetous man offereth a Servant or Labourer less than their service or labour is worth and will accuse you if you interrupt his bargain and would offer his Servant more In this case it may be your duty to help the servant to a better Master A Chapman is ready to be cheated by an unconscionable Tradesman to give much more for a commodity than its worth Charity may oblige you in such a case to offer it him cheaper In a word if you do it for your own gain in a greedy manner it is a sin But if you do it when it is not scandalous or injurious or do it in charity for anothers good it is lawful and sometime a duty § 16. Quest. 15. May I dispraise anothers commodity to draw the buyer to my own Quest. 15. Answ. This case is sufficiently answered in the former 1. You may not use any false dispraise 2. Nor a true one out of Covetousness nor in a scandalous manner 3. But you may help to save another from a Cheater by opening the deceit in charity to him § 17. Quest. 16. What should I do in doubtful cases where I am uncertain whether the thing be just or not Quest. 16. Answ. Causeless perplexing melancholy scruples which would stop a man in the course of his duty are not to be indulged But in rational doubts first use your utmost diligence as much as the nature of the cause requireth to be resolved and if yet you doubt be sure to go the safer way and to avoid sin rather than loss and to keep your consciences in peace § 18. Quest. 17. If the buyer lose the commodity between the bargain and the payment as if he buy Quest. 17. your Horse and he dye before payment or presently after what should the seller do to his relief Answ. If it were by the sellers fault or by any fault in the Horse which he concealed he isto make the buyer full satisfaction If it were casually only rigorous Justice will allow him nothing And therefore if it be either to a man that is Rich enough to bear it without any great sense of the loss or in a case where in common custome the buyer alwayes standeth to the loss meer justice will make him no amends But if it be where custome maketh some abatement judged a duty or where the person is so poor as to be pinched by the loss that common humanity which all good men use in bargaining which tempereth Justice with Charity will teach men to bear their part of the loss because they must do as they would be done by § 19. Quest. 18. If the thing bought and sold prove afterward of much more worth than was by either Quest. 18. party understood as in buying of Amber-chryse and Iewels it oft falleth out is the buyer bound to give the seller more than was bargained for Answ. Yes if it was the sellers meer ignorance and insufficiency in that business which caused him so to undersell it As if an ignorant Countrey-man sell a Jewel or Amber-chryse who knoweth not what it is a moderate satisfaction should be made him But if it was the sellers trade in which he is to be supposed sufficient and if it be taken for granted before hand that both buyer and seller will stand to the bargain what ever it prove and that the seller would have abated nothing if it had proved less worth than the price then the buyer may enjoy his gain Much more if he run any notable hazard for it as Merchants use to do § 20. Quest. 19. What if the title of the thing sold prove bad which was before unknown Quest. 19. Answ. If the seller either knew it was bad or through his notable negligence was ignorant of it or did not fully acquaint the buyer with so much of the uncertainty and danger as he knew or if it was any way his fault that the buyer was deceived and not the buyers fault he is bound to make him proportionable satisfaction As also in case that by Law or bargain he be bound to warrant the title to the buyer But not in case that it be their explicite or implicite agreement that the buyer stand to the hazard and the seller hath done his duty to make him know what 's doubtful § 21. Quest. 20. What if a change of Powers or Laws do overthrow the title almost as soon as it is Quest. 20. sold as it oft falls out about
deceivers If the very Vices the Ambition the Carnal Policies and Pomps the filthiness and worldliness of the Roman Clergy did not become a preservative to mens minds against the Temptations which would draw them to their way and if the Atheism Infidelity Whoredoms and prophaneness of Papists did not become an Antidote how few were like to return uninfected And because the Jesuits know that they can never take this stumbling block out of the way therefore too many of them have thought best to debauch those first whom they would proselyte and to reconcile them first to Playes and drunkenness and whoredoms that so the dislike of these may not hinder their reconciliation with the Kingdom of Rome yea that a seeming necessity of a Priests pardon may make it seem necessary to become their subjects And as unfurnished are these young travellers usually to resist the temptations to this sensuality lust and pomp as those of Popery So that they are perfidiously sent into a Pesthouse when they are in the greatest disposition to be infected And if they come not home drunkards gluttons gamesters idle prodigal proud infidels irreligious or Papists its little thanks to those perfidious Parents who thus perform their promise for them in Baptism by sending them to Satans Schools and University to be educated Whereas if they were but kept to their due studies and under a holy government at home till they were furnished with sound religious knowledge and till they were rooted in holiness and in a Love to a pious sober life and till they had got a setled hatred of intemperance and all sin and till they had a Map of the places persons and affairs of the world well imprinted on their minds by study and due information then necessary travel would be more safe and then they would be in a capacity to learn wisdom from other mens folly and virtue from other mens vice and piety from other mens impiety which Novices are rather apâ— to imitate 5. And in the mean time the loss of all the helps which they should have at home doth greatly tend to their destruction For they oft travel into Countreys where they shall have no publick worship of God which is lawful or which they understand or if they have it is usually cold preaching and dull praying when they have need of the best and all too little And they have seldome such pious society to edifie and quicken them by private converse as they have or might have here at home And seldome come into such well ordered religious families And if humane nature be prone to infection by temptations and so averse to holiness that all means is too little and even in the best families folly and sensuality and a distaste of Godliness often thrives as unsown Weeds overspread the Garden where with great cost and labour only better things were sowed What then but sin and misery can be expected from those that by their own Parents are banished from their native Countrey not so well as into a Wilderness but into the pestilent infected Countreys of the world I would ask those Parents that plead for this crime and cruelty as a kindness Are you no wiser or better your selves than the company into which you send your children Can you teach them and educate them no better nor give them better examples than they are like to have abroad Can you set them on no better work for the improvement of their time If not Why do you not repent of this your shame and misery and reform your selves If you can Why will you then betray your children Congressus sapientum consert prudentiam non montes non maria Erasm. Or if you cannot Are there no Schools no Learned and Pious men no Religious families and company at home in your own Land where you might place them to better advantage than thus to expose them to the Tempter Undoubtedly there are and such as may be had at Cheaper rates 6. And it is not the smallest part of the guilt and danger that they are sent abroad without due oversight and conduct They that do but get them some sober or honest servant to attend them or some sober companion think they have done well when as they had need of some Divine or Tutor of great Learning Piety Prudence and Experience whom they will reverence and obey that may take the oversight of them and be ready to answer any Sophister that would seduce them But the charge of this is thought too great for the safety of their own children whom they themselves expose to a necessity of it I know that carnal minds will distaste all this and have Objections enough against it and reasons of their own to make it seem a duty to betray and undo their childrens souls and to break their promise made for them in Baptism All this is but our preciseness They must have experience and know the world or else they will be contemptible tenebriones or Owls When ever they go it will be a temptation and such they must have at home There is no other part of their age so fit or that can be spared and we must trust God with them where ever they are and they that will be bad will be bad in one place as well as another and many are as bad that stay at home And thus quos perdere vult Iupiter hos dementat Yea the poor children and the Common-wealth must suffer by such Parents soâ—tish folly And well saith Solomon Prov. 28. 11. The Rich man is wise in his own conceit And because it is not Reason indeed but Pride and the Rich disease and Carnality which is here to be consuted I shall not honour them with a distinct particular answer But only tell them If all companies be alike send them to Bedlam or to a Whore-house If all means be alike let them be Janizaries and bred up where Christ is scorned If you think they need but little helps and little watching it seems you never gave them more And its pity you should have children before you know what a man is and how much nature is corrupted and how much is needful to its recovery And its pity that you dedicated them to God in Baptism before you believed Christ and knew what you did And engaged them to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil under a Crucified Christ while you purposed like hypocrites to train them in the School and Service of the World the Flesh and the Devil and in the contempt of the Cross of Christ or of a holy mortified life And if all ages be alike and Novices be equal to experienced persons let the Scholars rule their Master and let Boyes be Parliament men and Judges and let them be your Guides at home And if acquaintance with Courtship and the customes of the world and the reputation of such acquaintance be worth the hazarding of their souls renounce God and give up your
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
the cost which is laid out for needless pomp and Inst. 6. oâ—tentation of greatness or curiosity in keeping a numerous retinue and in their gallantry and in keeping many Horses and costly furniture and attendance Quest. 7. When is a costly retinue and other pompous furniture to be accounted Prodigality Quest. 7. Answ. Not when they are needful to the honour of Magistracy and so to the Government of the Common-wealth Nor when it is made but a due means to some lawful end which answereth the cost But when it is either the fruits and maintenance of Pride or exceedeth the proportion of mens estates or especially when it expendeth that which better and more necessary uses call for It is a most odious and enormous crime to waste so many hundred or thousand pounds a year in the vanities of pomp and fruitless curiosities and need-nots while the publick uses of the State and Church are injured through want and while thousands of poor families are rackt with cares and pinched with necessities round about us § 13. Inst. 7. Another way of Prodigality is that which is called by many keeping a good house Inst. 7. that is in unnecessary abundance and waste of meat and drink and other provisions Quest. 8. When may great house-keeping be accounted prodigality Quest. 8. Answ. Not when it is but a convenient work of charity to feed the poor and relieve the distressed or entertain strangers or to give such necessary entertainment to equals or superiours as is before described But when the truest relief of the poor shall be omitted and it may be poor Tenants wracked and opprest to keep up the fame and grandeur of their abundance and to seem magnificent and praised by men for great house-keepers The whole and large estates of many of the rich and great ones of the world goeth this way and so much is devoured by it as starveth almost all good works § 14. Inst. 8. Another way of Prodigality is Cards and Dice and other gaming in which whilest Inst. 8. men desire to get that which is anothers they lose and waste their own § 15. Inst. 9. Another act of Prodigality is giving over-great portions wiâ—h children It being a Inst. 9. sinful waste of our Masters stock to lay it out otherwise than he would have us and to serve our pride and self-interest in our children instead of him Quest. 9. When may our childrens portions be accounted prodigality or too great Quest. 9. Answ. Not when you provide for their comfortable living according to your estates and give them that due proportion which consisteth with the discharge of other duties But when all that men can get is thought little enough for their children and the business of their lives is to live in fulness themselves as long as they can and then to leave that to their posterity which they cannot keep themselves When this gulf of self-pampering and providing the like for children devoureth almost all that you can gather and the poor and other needful uses are put off with some inconsiderable pittance And when there is not a due proportion kept between your provision for your children and the other duties which God requireth of you Psal. 49. 7 8 9 11 13. Their inward thought is that their houses shall be perpetuated and their dwelling places to generations they call their Lands after their own names This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings Psal. 73. 12. Behold these are the Ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Psal. 17. 14. They have their portion in this life They are full of children or their children are full and they leave the rest of their substance to their babes A Parent that hath an heir or other children so wise religious and liberal as that they are like to be more charitable and serviceable to good uses than any other whom he can trust with his estate should not only leave such children sufficient for themselves but enable them as much as he can to do good For they will be more faithful Trustees to him than strangers But a Parent that hath but common and untrusty children should do all the good he can himself and what he would have done when he is dead he must commit to them that are more trusty and allow his children but their proper maintenance And Parents that have debauched wicked ungodly children such as God commanded them to cause to be put to death Deut. 21. should allow them no more than their daily bread if any thing at all which is their own to dispose of § 16. Inst. 10. Also to be careless in many small expences or losses because they are but little things Inst. 10. and to let any such thing be cast away is sinful prodigality Quest. 10. How far is it a duty to be frugal in small matters and the contrary a sin Quest. 10. Answ. We must not over-value any thing great or small nor be sparing out of covetousness nor yet in an imprudent way which seemeth to signifie baseness and worldliness when it is not so Nor must we be too tinking in bargaining with others when every pâ—â—ny which we get by it is lost to one that needeth it more But we must see that nothing of any â—â—â—â— be lost through satiety negligence or contempt For the smallest is part of Gods gifts and talents given us not to cast away but to use as he would have us And there is nothing that is good so small but some one hath need of it or some good use or other may be made of it Even Christ when he had fed thousands by a miracle yet commanded his Disciples to gather up the broken bread or fragments that nothing be lost John 6. 12. which plainly sheweth that it is a duty which the richest man that is is not exempted from to be frugal and a sin in the greatest Prince to be wasteful of any thing that is good But this must not be in sordid covetousness but in obedience to God and to do good to others He is commendable who giveth liberally to the poor out of his abundance But he is much more commendable who is a good husband for the poor as worldlings are for themselves and frugally getteth and saveth as much as he can and denyeth all superfluities to himself and all about him that he may have the more to give to pious and charitable uses § 17. Inst. 11. Idleness also and negligence in our Callings is sinful wastefulness and prodigality Inst. 11. When either the pride of Gentility maketh people think themselves too good to labour or to look after the matters of their families or slothfulness maketh them think it a life too toilsome for their flesh to bear Prov. 18 9. He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster These drones consume that which others labour for but are no
obliging you hereunto As 1 Ioh. 3. 11 23. 4. 7 12 20 21. Direct 4. To this end let Christ be your continual study He is the full revelation of the Love of Direct 4. God the lively pattern of love and the best teacher of it that ever was in the world His incarnation life and sufferings his Gospel and Covenant his intercession and preparations for our heavenly felicity all are the great demonstrations of condescending matchless love Mark both Gods Love to us in him and his Love to man and you will have the best directive and incentive of your Love Direct 5. Observe all the good which is in every man Consider of the good of Humanity in his Direct 5. nature and the goodness of all that truth which he confesseth and of all that moral good which appeareth in his heart and life And let not oversight or partiality cause you to overlook it or make light of it For it is Goodness which is the only attractive of Love And if you overlook mens goodness you cannot love them Direct 6. Abhor and beware of a censorious disposition which magnifieth mens faults and vilifieth Direct 6. their virtues and maketh men seem worse than indeed they are For as this cometh from the want of love so doth it destroy that little which is left Direct 7. Beware of superstition and an erring judgement which maketh men place Religion where Direct 7. God never placed it For when this hath taught you to make duties and sins of your own humour and invention it will quickly teach you to love or hate men accordingly as they fit or cross your opinion and humour Thus many a Papist loveth not those that are not subjects of the Roman Monarch and that follow not all his irrational fopperies Many an Anabaptist loveth not those that are against his opinion of rebaptizing One loveth not those who are for Liturgies Forms of Worship and Church-musick and many love not those who are against them And so of other things of which more anon Direct 8. Avoid the company of censorious backbiters and proud contemners of their brethren Hearken Direct 8. not to them that are causelesly vilifying others aggravating their faults and extenuating their virtues For such proud supercilious persons religious or prophane are but the messengers of Satan by whom he intreateth you to hate your Neighbour or abate your love to him And to hear them speak evil of others is but to go hear a Sermon against Charity which may take with such hearts as ours before we are aware Direct 9. Keep still the motives and incentives of Love upon your minds Which I shall here next set Direct 9. before you Tit. 3. The Reasons or Motives of Love to our Neighbour Mot. 1. COnsider well of the Image and interest of God in man The worst man is his Creature Motive 1. and hath his natural Image though not his Moral Image And you should love the work for the workmans sake There is something of God upon all humane nature above the bruits It is intelligent and capable of knowing him of loving him and of serving him And possibly may be brought to do all this better than you can do it Undervalue nor the noble nature of man nor overlook not that of God which is upon them nor the interest which he hath in them Mot. 2. Consider well of Gods own Love to man He hateth their sins more than any of us and Motive 2. yet he loveth his workmanship upon them and maketh his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the evil and on the good on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5. 45. And what should more stir us up to Love than to be like to God Mot. 3. And think oft of the Love of Christ unto mankind yea even unto his enemies can you have Motive 3. a better example a livelyer incentive or a surer guide Mot. 4. Consider of our Unity of Nature with all men suitableness breedeth and maintaineth Motive 4. love Even Birds and Beasts do love their kind And man should much more have a love to man as being of the same specifick form Mot. 5. Love is the principle of doing good to others It enclineth men to beneficence And all men Motive 5. call him good who is inclined to do good Mot. 6. Love is the bond of all Societies Of Families Cities Kingdoms and Churches Without Mot. 6. Love they will be but enemies conjunct who are so much the more hurtful and pâ—rnicious to each other by how much they are nearer to each other The soul of Societies is gone when Love is gone Mot. 7. Consider why it is that you love your selves rationally and why it is that you would be Mot. 7. beloved of others And you will see that the same reasons will be of equal force to call for Love to others from you Mot. 8. What abundance of duty is summarily performed in Love And what abundance of sin is Mot. 8. avoided and prevented by it If it be the fulfilling of the Law it avoideth all the violations of the Law proportionably So far as you have Love you will neither dishonour superiors nor oppress interiors nor injure equals You will neither covet that which is your neighbours nor envy nor malice them nor defame nor backbite nor censure them unjustly nor will you rob them or defraud them nor withold any duty or kindness to them Mot. 9. Consider how much Love pleaseth God and why it is made so great a part of all your Mot. 9. duty and why the Gospel doth so highly commend it and so strictly command it and so terribly condemn the want of it And also how suitable a duty it is for you who are obliged by so much love of God These things well studied will not be without effect Mot. 10. Consider also that it is your own interest as well as your great duty 1. It is the soundness Mot. 10. and honesty of your hearts 2. It is pleasing to that God on whom only you depend 3. It is a condition of your receiving the saving benefits of his love 4. It is an amiable virtue and maketh you lovely to all sober men All men love a loving nature and hate those that hate and hurt their neighbours Love commandeth love and hurtfulness is hatefulness 5. It is a sweet delightful duty All Love is â—ssentiated with some complacence and delight 6 It tendeth to the ease and quietness of your lives What contentions and troubles will love avoid What peace and pleasure doth it cause in families neighbourhoods and all societies And what brawling and vexations come where it is wanting It will make all your neighbours and relations to be a comfort and delight to you which would be a burden and trouble if Love were absent 7. It maketh all other mens felicity and comforts to be yours If you love them as
shut-up the bowels of his compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him 1 Iohn 3. 17. Surely if the love of his brother were in him the love of God had been in him But he hath no true love to his brother that will only love him on terms that cost him little and cannot give and suffer for his love All these are deceiving Counterfeits of Love to the children of God Tit. 6. Cases and Directions for intimate special Friends Quest. 1. IS it lawful to have an earnest desire to be Loved by others Especially by some one person Quest. 1. above all other Answ. There is a desire of others Love which is lawful and there is a desire which is unlawful I. It is lawful 1. When we desire it as it is their duty which God himself obligeth them to perform and so is part of their integrity and is their own good and pleaseth God So Parents must desire their children to love them and one another because it is their duty and else they are unnatural and bad And Husband and Wife may desire that each other discharge that duty of Love which God requireth and so may all others 2. It is lawful also to desire for our own sakes to be loved by others so be it it be 1. With a calm and sober desire which is not eager peremptory or importunate nor overvalueth the Love of man 2. According to the proportion of our own worth not desiring to be thought Greater Wiser or Better than indeed we are nor to be loved erroneously by an overvaluing Love 3. When we desire it for the benefits to which it tendeth more than to be valued and loved our selves As 1. That we may receive that edification and good from a friend which Love disposeth them to communicate 2. That we may do that good to our friends which Love disposeth them to receive 3. That we may honour and please God who delighteth in the true Love and Concord of his Children II. But the unlawful desire of others Love to us is much more common and is a sin of a deeper malignity than is commonly observed This desire of love is sinful when it is contrary to that before described As 1. When we desire it over eagerly 2. When we desire it selfishly and proudly to be set up in the good opinion of others and not to make a benefit of it to our selves or them bt our own Honour is more desired in it than the honour of God 3. When we desire to be thought Greater Wiser or Better than we are and to be loved with such an overvaluing Love and have no desire that the bounds of Truth and Usefulness should restrain and limit that love to us which we affect 4. When it is an erroneous fanciful carnal or lustful esteem of some one person which maketh us desire his love more than others As because he is higher richer fairer c. This eager desire to be over-loved by others hath in it all these aggravations 1. It is the very sin of Pride which God hath declared so great a detestation of For Pride is an over-valuing our selves for Greatness Wisdom or Goodness and a desire to be so over-valued of others And he that would be over-loved would be over-valued 2. It is self-idolizing When we would be loved as better than we are we rob God of that Love which men should render to him who can never be over-loved and we would fain seem a kind of petty Deities to the world and draw mens eyes and hearts unto our selves When we should be jealous of Gods interest and honour lest we or any creature should have his due this proud disposition maketh people set up themselves in the estimation of others and they scarce care how Good or Wise they are esteemed nor how much they are lifted up in the hearts of others 3. It is an injurious ensnaring the minds of others and tempting them to erroneous opinions of us and affections to us which will be their sin and may bring them into many inconveniences It is an ordinary thing to do greater hurt to a friend whom we value by ensnaring him in an inordinate Love than ever we did or can do to an enemy by hating him Quest. 2. Is it lawful meet or desirable to entertain that extraordinary affection to any one which Quest. 2. is called special friendship or to have an endeared intimate friend whom we love far above all others Answ. Intimate special friendship is a thing that hath been so much pleaded for by all sorts of men and so much of the felicity of mans life hath been placed in it that it beseemeth not me to speak against it But yet I think it meet to tell you with what Cautions and limits it must be received and how far it is good and how far sinful For there are perils here to be avoided which neither Cicero nor his Scipio and Laelius were acquainted with I. 1. It is lawful to choose some one well qualified person who is fittest for that use and to make him the chief companion of our lives our chiefest counsellor and comforter and to confine our intimacy and converse to him in a special manner above all others 2. And it is lawful to love him not only according to his personal worth but according to his special suitableness to us and to desire his felicity accordingly and to exercise our love to him more frequently and sensibly because of his nearness and presence than towards some better men that are further off The Reasons of such an intimate friendship are these 1. No man is sufficient for himself and therefore Nature teacheth him to desire an helper And there is so wonderful a diversity of temperaments and conditions and so great a disparity and incongruity among good and wise men towards each other that one that is more suitable and congruous to us than all the rest may on that account be much preferred 2. It is not many that can be so near us as to be ordinary helpers to us And a wiser man at a distance or out of reach may be less useful to us than one of inferiour worth at hand 3. The very exercise of friendly love and kindness to another is pleasant And so it is to have one to whom we may confidently reveal our secrets to bear part of our burden and to confirm us in our right apprehensions and to cure us of wrong ones 4. And it is no small benefit of a present bosome friend to be instead of all the world to us that is of common unprofitable company For man is a sociable creature and abhorreth utter solitude And among the common sort we shall meet with so much evil and so little that is truly wise or good as will tempt a man to think that he is best when he is least conversant with mankind But a selected friend is to us for usefulness instead of many without these common
Love is holy and from God whereas the same Love may be of God as to the principle motives and ends in the main and yet may have great mixtures of passionate weakness and sinful excess which may tend to their great affliction in the end Some that have been converted by the writings of a Minister a hundred or a thousand miles off must needs go see the Author some must needs remove from their lawful dwellings and callings to live under the Ministry of such a one yea if it may be in the house with him some have affections so violent as proveth a torment to them when they cannot live with those whom they so affect some by that affection are ready to follow those that they so value into any errour And all this is a sinful Love by this mixture of passionate weakness though pious in the main Quest. 9. Why should we restrain our Love to a bosome friend contrary to Cicero's doctrine and what Quest. 9. sin or danger is in loving him too much Answ. All these following 1. It is an errour of judgement and of will to suppose any one Better than he is yea perhaps than any creature on earth is and so to Love him 2. It is an irrational act and therefore not fit for a Rational creature to Love any one farther than reason will allow us and beyond the true causes of regular Love 3. It is usually a fruit of sinful selfishness For this excess of Love doth come from a selfish cause either some strong conceit that the person greatly Loveth us or for some great kindness which he hath shewed us or for some need we have of him and fitness appearing in him to be useful to us c. Otherwise it would be purely for Amiable worth and then it would be proportioned to the nature and measure of that worth 4. It very often taketh up mens minds so as to hinder their Love to God and their desires and delights in holy things While Satan perhaps upon Religious pretences turneth our affections too violently to some person it diverteth them from higher and better things For the weak mind of man can hardly think earnestly of one thing without being alienated in his thoughts from others nor can hardly love two things or persons fervently at once that stand not in pure subordination one to the other And we seldom Love any fervently in a pure subordination to God For then we should Love God still more fervently 5. It oft maketh men ill members of the Church and Commonwealth For it contracteth that Love to one over-valued person which should be diffused abroad among many and the common good which should be loved above any single person is by this means neglected as God himself which maketh Wives and Children and bosome friends become those gulfs that swallow up the estates of most rich men so that they do little good with them to the publick state which should be preferred 6. Overmuch friendship engageth us in more duty than we are well able to perform without neglecting our duty to God the Commonwealth and our own souls There is some special duty followeth all special acquaintance but a bosome friend will expect a great deal You must allow him much of your Time in conference upon all occasions and he looketh that you should be many wayes friendly and useful to him as he is or would be to you When alas frail man can do but little our Time is short our strength is small our estates and faculties are narrow and low And that Time which you must spend with your bosome friend where friendship is not moderated and wisely managed is perhaps taken from God and the publick good to which you first owed it Especially if you are Magistrates Ministers Physicions Schoolmasters or such other as are of publick usefulness Indeed if you have a sober prudent friend that will look but for your vacant hours and rather help you in your publick service you are happy in such a friend But that is not the excess of Love that I am reprehending 7. This inordinate friendship prepareth for disappointments yea and for excess of sorrows Usually experience will tell you that your best friends are but uncertain and imperfect men and will not answer your expectation And perhaps some of them may so grosly fail you you as to set light by you or prove your Adversaries I have seen the bonds of extraordinary dearness many ways dissolved One hath been overcome by the flesh and turned drunkard and sensual and so proved unfit for intimate friendship who yet sometime seemed of extraordinary uprightness and zeal Another hath taken up some singular conceits in Religion and joyned to some sect where his bosome friend could not follow him And so it hath seemed his duty to look with strangeness contempt or pity on his ancient friend as one that is dark and low if not supposed an adversary to the truth because he espouseth not all his mis-conceits Another is suddenly lifted up with some preferment dignity and success and so is taken with higher things and higher converse and thinks it is very fair to give an embrace to his ancient friend for what he once was to him instead of continuing such endearedness Another hath changed his place and company and so by degrees grown very indifferent to his ancient friend when he is out of sight and converse ceaseth Another hath himself chosen his friend amiss in his unexperienced youth or in a penury of wise and good men supposing him much better than he was and afterward hath had experience of many persons of far greater wisdom piety and fidelity whom therefore reason commanded him to preser All these are ordinary dissolvers of these bonds of intimate and special friendship And if your Love continue as hot as ever its excess is like to be your excessive sorrow For 1. You will be the more grieved at every suffering of your friend as sickness losses crosses c. whereof so many attend mankind as is like to make your burden great 2. Upon every removal his absence will be the more troublesome to you 3. All incongruities and fallings out will be the more painful to you especially his jealousies discontents and passions which you cannot command 4. His death if he die before you will be the more grievous and your own the more unwellcome because you must part with him These and abundance of sore afflictions are the ordinary fruits of too strong affections And it is no rare thing for the best of Gods servants to profess that their sufferings from their friends who have over-loved them have been ten times greater than from all the enemies that ever they had in the world And to those that are wavering about this case Whether only a common friendship with all men according to their various worth or a bosome intimacy with some one man be more desirable I shall premise a free confession of my
is here a great encouragement to the soul to think that Jesus our great High Priest doth make all his Children Priests to God They are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the prayses of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellâ—us light An holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5 â— Even their broken hearts and contrite Spirits are a sacrifice which God will not despâ—se Psal. 51. 17. He knoweth the meaning of the Spirits groans Rom. 8. 26 27. § 19. 16. The strength of corruptions which molest the soul and are too often strugling with it and too much prevail doth greatly discourage us in our approach to that God that hateth all the workers of iniquity And here faith may find relief in Christ not only as he pardoneth us but as he hath conquered the Devil and the world himself and bid us be of good cheer because he hath conquered and hath all power given him in Heaven and Earth and can give us victorious grace in the season and measure which he seeth meetest for us We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us Go to him then by faith and prayer and you shall find that his grace is sufficient for you § 20. 17. The thoughts of God are the less delightful to the soul because that Death and the Grave do interpose and we must pass through them before we can enjoy him And it is unpleasing to nature to think of a separation of soul and body and to think that our flesh must rot in darkness But against this faith hath wonderful relieâ— in Iesus Christ. For asmuch as we were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with us that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death even the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hâ—b 2. 14 15. O what an encouragement it is to faith to observe that Christ once dyed himself and that he rose from the dead and reigneth with the Father it being impossible that death should hâ—ld him And having conquered that which seemed to conquer him it no more hath dominion over him but he hath the Keyes of Death and Hell we may now entertain death as a disarmed enemy and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Yea it is sanctified by him to be our friend even an entrance into our Masters joy it being best for us to depart and be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. and therefore death is become our gain v. 21. O what abundance of strength and sweetness may faith perceive from that promise of Christ John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be As he was dead but now liveth for evermore so hath he promised that because he liveth therefore shall we live also John 14. 19. But of this I have written two Treatises of Death already § 21. 18. The terror of the day of Iudgement and of our particular doom at death doth make the thoughts of God less pleasing and delectable to us And here what a relief is it for faith to apprehend that Iesus Christ must be our Judge And will he condemn the members of his body Shall we be afraid to be judged by our dearest friend by him that hath justified us himself already even at the price of his own blood § 22. 19. The very strangeness of the soul to the world unseen and to the inhabitants and employments there doth greatly stop the soul in its desires and in its delightful approaches unto God Had we seen the world where God must be enjoyed the thoughts of it would be more familiar and sweet But faith can look to Christ and say My head is there he seeth it for me he knoweth what he possesseth prepareth and promiseth to me and I will quietly rest in his acquaintance with it § 23. 20. Nay the Godhead it self is so infinitely above us that in it self it is inaccessible and it is ready to amaze and overwhelm us to think of coming to the incomprehensible Majesty But it emboldneth the soul to think of our Glorified Nature in Christ and that even in Heaven God will everlastingly condescend to us in the Mediator For the Mediation of Redemption and acquisition shall be ended and thus he shall deliver up the Kingdom to the Father yet it seems that a Mediation of fruition shall continue For Christ said to his Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory John 17. 24. We shall rejoyce when the marriage of the Lamb is come Rev. 19. 7. They are blessed that are called to his Marriage Supper v. 9. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple and the Light of the New Ierusalem Rev. 21. 22 23. Heaven would not be so familiar or so sweet to my thoughts if it were not that our glorified Lord is there in whose Love and Glory we must live for ever O Christian as ever thou wouldst walk with God in comfortable communion with him study and exercise this Life of faith in the daily use and improvement of Christ who is our Life and Hope and All. DIRECT III. Gr. Dir. 3. Understand well what it is to believe in the Holy Ghost and see that he dwell To believe in the Holy Ghost and live upon his Grace and operate in thee as the Life of thy soul and that thou do not resist or quench the Spirit but thankfully obey him § 1. EAch person in the Trinity is so believed in by Christians as that in Baptism they enter Scrutari temeritas est credere pietas nesse vita Bernard de consid ad Eâ—geâ— l. 5. distinctly into Covenant with them which is to Accept the Mercies of and perform the 〈…〉 each person distinctly As to take God for Our God is more than to believe that there is a God â—nd to take Christ for Our Saviour is more than barely to believe that he is the Messiah so to Believe in the Holy Ghost is to take him for Christs Agent or Advocate with our souls and for our Guide and Sanctifier and Comforter and not only to believe that he is the third person in the Trinity This therefore is a most practical Article of our Belief § 2. If the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be the unpardonable sin then all sin against the Holy Ghost must needs have a special aggravation by being such And if the sin against the Holy Ghost be the greatest sin then our duty towards the Holy Ghost is certainly none of our smallest duties Therefore the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit and our duty towards him and sin against him deserve not the least or
last place in teaching learning and most serious consideration § 3. Two sorts do most dangerously sin against or abuse the Holy Ghost The first is the Prophane who through custom and education can say I believe in the Holy Ghost and say that He sanctifieth them and all the Elect people of God but hate or resist all sanctifying works and motions Deus est principium eâ—â—ectivum in Creatione refectivum in redemptione perfectivum in sanctificatione Ioh. Con. bis comp Theol. l. 4. c. 1. of the Holy Ghost and hate all those that are sanctified by him and make them the objects of their scorn and deride the very name of sanctification or at least the thing The second sort is the Enthusiasts or true Fanaticks who advance extoll and plead for the Spirit Rejectis propheticis Apostolicis scriptis Manichaei novum Evangelium scripserunt ut antecellere communi hominum multitudini semi-d 〈…〉 rentur simularunt Enthusiaâ—mos seu afflatus subâ—â—o in â—urâ—a se in terram objâ—â—â—â—entes c vâ—lut 〈◊〉 dâ—â— tacentes deinde tanquam redeuntes ex specu Trophonio plorantes multa vaticinati sunt Prorsus ut Anabaptistae recens fâ—ceruâ— in seditione Monasteriensi Etsi autem in quibusdam manifesta simulatio fuit tamen aliquibus reipsa à Diabolis surâ—tes immisses esse certum est Carioâ— Chron. l. 3. p. 54. against the Spirit covering their greatest sins against the Holy Ghost by crying up and pretending to the Holy Ghost They plead the Spirit in themselves against the Spirit in their Brethren yea and in almost all the Church They plead the authority of the Spirit in them against the authority of the Spirit in the holy Scriptures and against particular truths of Scripture and against several great and needful Duties which the Spirit hath required in the Word and against the Spirit in their most judicious godly faithful Teachers But can it be the Spirit that speaks against the Spirit Is the Spirit of God against it self Are we not all baptized by One Spirit and not divers or contrary into one body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. But it is no marvel for Satan to be transformed into an Angel of light or his Ministers into the Ministers of Christ and of Righteousness whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. The Spirit himself therefore hath commanded us that we believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4. 1. Yea the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. Therefore take heed that you neither Mistake nor abuse the Holy Spirit § 4. 1. The Doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost to be believed is briefly this 1. That the Holy Ghost as given since the Ascension of Christ is his Agent on earth or his Advocate with men called by him the Paraclete Instead of his bodily presence which for a little space he vouchsafed to a few being John 16. 7. â— ascended he sendeth the Holy Spirit as better for them to be his Agent continually to the end and John 15 2â— John 16. 13. Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4 Heb. 2. 3 4. unto all and in all that do believe 2. This Holy Spirit so sent infallibly inspired the holy Apostles and Evangelists first to preach and then to write the Doctrine of Christ contained as indited by him in the Holy Scriptures perfectly imprinting therein the Holy Image of God 3. The same Spirit in them sealed this holy Doctrine and the Testimony of these holy men by many Miracles and wonderful Gifts by which they did actually convince the unbelieving world and plant the Churches 4. The same Spirit having first by the Apostles given a Law or Canon to the Universal Church constituting its Offices and the duty of the Officers and the manner of their entrance Eph. 3 2 3 4 8 13. dâ—tâ— Qualifie and â—ispose men for the stated ordinary Ministerial work which is to Explain and Apâ—â—â—â— â—he â—oresaid Scriptures and directeth those that are to Ordain and Choose them they being not wanting on their part and so he appointeth Pastors to the Church 5. The same Spirit assisteth the Ministers thus sent in their faithful use of the means to Teach and Apply the holy Scriptures according to the necessities of the peoplâ— the weight of the matter and the Majesty of the Word of God 6. The same Spirit doth by this Word heard or read renew and sanctifie the souls of the Elect illuminating their minds opening and quickning their hearts prevailing with changing and Actâ— 26. 18. resolving their wills thus writing Gods Word and imprinting his Image by his Word upon their hearts making it powerful to conquer and cast out their strongest sweetest dearest sins and bringing John 14 16 26 them to the saving knowledge love and obedience of God in Jesus Christ. 7. The same holy Spirit assisteth the sanctified in the exercise of this grace to the increase of it by blessing and concurring with the means appointed by him to that end And helpeth them to use those means perform their duties conquer temptations oppositions and difficulties and so confirmeth and preserveth them to the end 8. The same Spirit helpeth believers in the exercise of grace to feel it and discern the sincerity of it in themselves in that measure as they are meet for and in these seasons when it is fittest for them 9. The same Spirit helpeth them hereupon to conclude that they are justified and reconciled to God and have right to all the benefits of his Covenant 10. Also he assisteth them actually to rejoyce in the discerning of this Conclusion For though Reason of it self may do something in these acts yet so averse is man to all that is holy and so many are the difficulties and hinderances in the way that to the effectual performance the help of the Spirit of God is necessary § 5. By this enumeration of the Spirits operations you may see the errors of many detected and many common Questions answered 1. You may see their blindness that pretend the Spirit within them against Scripture Ministry or the use of Gods appointed means when the same Spirit first indited the Scripture and maketh it the Instrument to illuminate and sanctifie our souls Gods Image is 1. Primarily in Jesus Christ his Son 2. Derivatively by his Spirit imprinted perfectly in the holy Scriptures 3. And by the Scripture or the holy Doctrine of it instrumentally impressed on the soul. So that the Image of God in Christ is the Cause of his Image in his holy Word or Doctrine and his Image in his Word is the Cause of his Image on the heart So a King may have his Image 1. Naturally on his Son who is like his Father 2. Expressively in his Laws which express
good Nor is he most beloved of God who hath rolled over the greatest number of good thoughts in his mind or of good words in his mouth no nor he that hath stirred up the strongest passions hereabouts but he that Loveth God and Heaven best and hateth sin most and whose will is most confirmed for Holiness of life He that goeth about his labour in obedience to God may have as much comfort as another that is meditating or praying But neither labour nor prayer is matter of comfort to an ungodly carnal heart Yea if decay of memory or natural ability take you off both Action and Conâ—â—mplation you may have as much acceptance and solid comfort in a patient bearing of the Cross and an obedient ☜ cheerful submission to the holy Will of God Tit. 5. Directions to the Melancholy about their Thoughts IT is so easie and ordinary a thing for some weak-headed persons to cast themselves into Melancholy Read more after Paâ—t 3. against Despair by over-straining either their Thoughts or their Affections and the case of such is so exceeding lamentable that I think it requisite to give such some particular Directions by themselves And the rather because I see some Persons that are unacquainted with the nature of this and other diseases exceedingly abuse the name of God and bring the profession of Religion into scorn by imputing all the affects and speeches of such Melancholy persons to some great and notable operations of the spirit of God and thence draw observations of the methods and workings of God upon the soul and of the nature of the legal workings of the spirit of bondage As some other such have divulged the prophecies the possessions and dispossessing of Hysterical Women as I have read especially in the Writings of the Fryars I do not call those Melancholy who are rationally sorrowful for sin and sensible of their misery and sollicitous about their recovery and salvation though it be with as great seriousness as the faculties can bear As long as they have sound Reason and the imagination fantasie or thinking faculty is not crazed or diseased But by Melancholy I mean this diseased crazynes hurt or errour of the imagination and consequently of the understanding which 〈◊〉 dicunt â—â—p entem nunquam sanitate mentis excâ—dere Incidere tamen aliquando in imaginationes absurdas propter atraebiâ—is redundantiam sive ob delâ—rationem non quidem deviatione rationis verum ex imbecilâ—itate naturae Laert. in Zâ—â—one is known by these following signes which yet are not all in every Melancholy person § 2. 1. They are commonly exceeding fearful causlesly or beyond what there is cause for every thing which they hear or see is ready to increase their fears especially if fear was the first cause as ordinarily it is 2. Their fantasie most erreth in aggravating their sin or dangers or unhappiness every ordinary infirmity they are ready to speak of with amazement as a heynous sin And every possible danger they take for probable and every probable one for certain and every little danger for a great one and every calamity for an utter undoing 3. They are still addicted to excess of sadness some weeping they know not why and some thinking it ought to be so and if they should smile or speak merrily their hearts smite them for it as if they had done amiss 4. They place most of their Religion in sorrowing and austerities to the flesh 5. They are continual self-accusers turning all into matter of accusation against themselves which they hear or read or see or think of quarrelling with themselves for every thing they do as a contentious person doth with others 6. They are still apprehending themselves forsaken of God and are prone to despair They are just like a man in a Wilderness forsaken of all his friends and comforts forlorn and desolate their continual thought is I am undone undone undone 7. They are still thinking that the day of Grace is past and that it is now too late to repent or to find mercy If you tell them of the tenour of the Gospel and offers of free pardon to every penitent believer they cry out still too late too late my day is past not considering that every soul that truly repenteth in this life is certainly forgiven 8. They are oft tempted to gather despairing thoughts from the doctrine of Predestination and to think that if God have reprobated them or have not elected them all that they can do or that all the world can do cannot saâ—e them and next they strongly conceit that they are not elected and so that they are past help or hope not knowing that God electeth not any man separatedly or simply to be saved but conjunctly to believe repent and to be saved and so to the end and means together and that all that will repent and choose Christ and a holy life are elected to salvation because they are elected to the means and condition of salvation which if they persevere they shall enjoy To Repent is the best way to prove that I am elected to Repent 9. They never read or hear of any miserable instance but they are thinking that this is their case If they hear of Cain of Pharaoh given up to hardness of heart or do but read that some are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction or that they have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and understand not they think This is all spoken of me or this is just my case If they hear of any terrible example of Gods judgements on any they think it will be so with them If any dye suddenly or a house be burnt or any be distracted or dye in despair they think it will be so with them The reading of Spira's case causeth or increaseth Melancholy in many the ignorant Author having described a plain Melancholy contracted by the trouble of sinning against Conscience as if it were a damnable despair of a sound understanding 10. And yet they think that never any one was as they are I have had abundance in a few weeks with me almost just in the same case and yet every one say that never any one was as they 11. They are utterly unable to Rejoyce in any thing They cannot apprehend believe or think of any thing that is comfortable to them They read all the threatnings of the word with quick sense and application but the Promises they read over and over without taking notice of them as if they had not read them or else say They do not belong to me The greater the mercy of God is and the riches of grace the more miserable am I that have no part in them They are like a man in continual pain or sickness that cannot rejoyce because the feeling of his pain forbiddeth him They look on husband wife friends children house goods and all without any comfort as one would do that is going to be executed for some
crime 12. Their Consciences are quick in telling them of sin and putting them upon any dejection as a duty but they are dead to all duties that tend to consolation as to Thanksgiving for mercies Praises of God meditating on his Love and grace and Christ and promises Put them never so hard on these and they feel not their duty nor make no conscience of it but think it is a duty for others but unsuitable to them 13. They alway say that they cannot believe and therefore think they cannot be saved Because that commonly they mistake the nature of faith and take it to be a Believing that they themselves are forgiven and in favour with God and shall be saved And because they cannot believe this which their disease will not suffer them to believe therefore they think that they are no believers whereas saving faith is nothing but such a Belief that the Gospel ☜ is true and Christ is the Saviour to be trusted with our souls as causeth our Wills to Consent that he be ours and that we be his and so to subscribe the Covenant of Grace Yet while they thus consent and would give a world to be sure that Christ were theirs and to be perfectly holy yet they think they believe not because they believe not that he will forgive or save them 14. They are still displeased and discontended with themselves just as a pievish froward person is apt to be with others see one that is hard to be pleased and is finding fault with every thing that they see or hear and offended at every one that comes in their way and suspicious of every body that they see whispering and just so is a Melancholy person against himself suspecting displeased and finding fault with all 15. They are much addicted to solitariness and weary of company for the most part 16. They are given up to fixed musings and long poring thoughts to little purpose so that deep musings and thinkings are their chief employments and much of their disease 17. They are much averse to the labours of their callings and given to idleness either to lye in bed or sit thinking unprofitably by themselves 18. Their thoughts are most upon themselves like the mill-stones that grind on themselves when they have no grist so one thought begets another Their thoughts are taken up about their thoughts when they have been thinking irregularly they think again what they have been thinking on They meditate not much on God unless on his wrath nor Heaven nor Christ nor the state of the Church nor any thing without them ordinarily but all their thoughts are contracted and turned inwards on themselves self-troubling is the sum of their thoughts and lives 19. Their thoughts are all perplexed like ravelled Yarn or Silk or like a man in a maze or wilderness or that hath lost himself and his way in the night He is poring and groping about and can make little of any thing but is bewildred and moithered and entangled the more full of doubts and difficulties out of which he cannot find the way 20. He is endless in his scruples afraid lest he sin in every word he speaketh and in every thought and every look and every meal he eateth and all the Cloaths he weareth And if he think to amend them he is still scrupling his supposed amendments He dare neither travel nor stay at home neither speak nor be silent but he is scrupling all as if he were wholly composed of self perplexing scruples 21. Hence it comes to pass that he is greatly addicted to superstition to make many Laws to himself that God never made Col. 2. 18 19 20 21 22 23. him and to ensnare himself with needless Vows and resolutions and hurtful austerities Touch not taste not handle not and to place his Religion much in such Outward self-imposed tasks to spend so many hours in this or that act of devotion to wear such cloaths and forbear other that are finer to forbear all dyet that pleaseth the appetite with much of the like A great deal of the Perfection of Popish devotion proceeded from Melancholy though their Government come from Pride and Covetousness 22. They have lost the power of Governing their thoughts by Reason so that if you convince them that they should cast out their self-perplexing unprofitable thoughts and turn their thoughts to other subjects or be vacant they are not able to obey you They seem to be under a necessity or constraint They cannot cast out their troublesome thoughts They cannot turn away their minds They cannot think of Love and mercy They can think of nothing but what they do think of no more than a man in the Tooth-ache can forbear to think of his pain 23. They usually grow hence to a disability to any private prayer or meditation Their thoughts are presently cast all into a confusion when they should pray or meditate They scatter abroad a hundred wayes and they cannot keep them upon any thing For this is the very point of their disease a distempered confused fantasie with a weak reason which cannot govern it Sometime terrour driveth them from Prayer they dare not hope and therefore dare not pray and usually they dare not receive the Lords Supper here they are fearfullest of all And if they do receive it they are cast down with terrours fearing that they have taken their own damnation by receiving unworthily 24. Hence they grow to a great aversness to all holy duty Fear and dispair make them go to prayer hearing reading as a Bear to the stake And then they think they are haters of God and Godliness imputing the effects of their disease to their souls when yet at the same time those of them that are Godly would rather be freed from all their sins and be perfectly holy than have all the riches or honour in the world 25. They are usually so taken up with busie and earnest thoughts which being all perplexed do but strive with themselves and contradict one another that they feel it just as if something were speaking within them and all their own violent thoughts were the pleadings and impulse of some other And therefore they are wont to impute all their fantasies either to some extraordinary actings of the Devil or to some extraordinary motions of the spirit of God And they are used to express themselves in such words as these It was set upon my heart or it was said to me that I must do thus and thus and then it was said I must not do this or that and I was told I must do so or so And they think that their own imagination is something talking in them and saying to them all that they are thinking 26. When Melancholy groweth strong they are almost alwayes troubled with hideous Blaspheamous temptations against God or Christ or the Scripture and against the immortality of the soul which cometh partly from their own fears which make them think most against their
first care should be to know and perform the Duties of our Relations and please God in them and then look for his blessing by way of encourageing-reward Study and do your parts and God will certainly do his § 2. Direct 1. The first Duty of Husbands is to Love their Wives and Wives their Husbands Direct 1. with a true entire Conjugal Love Ephes. 5. 25 28 29 33. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it So ought men to love their Wives as their own Gen 2. 24. Ephes. 5 25 28 29 33. bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself For no man ever yet â—ated his own flesh â—ut nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church Let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself It is a Relation of Love that you have entered God hath made it your Duty for your mutual help and comfort that you may be as willing and ready to succour one another as the hand is to help the eye or other fellow-member and that your converse may be sweet and your burdens easie and your lives may be comfortable If Love be removed but for an hour between Husband and Wife they are so long as a bone out of joint There is no ease no order no work well done till they are restored and set in joint again Therefore be sure that Conjugal Love be constantly maintained § 3. The Sub-directions for maintaining Conjugal Love are such as these Direct 1. Choose one at Sub-directions â—o maintain Conjugal love first that is truly amiable especially in the vertues of the mind 2. Marry not till you are sure that you can Love entirely Be not drawn for sordid ends to joyn with one that you have but ordinary affections â—or 3. Be not too hasty but know before hand all the imperfections which may tempt you afterwards to loathing But if these duties have been sinfully neglected yet 4. Remember that Justice commandeth you to Love one that hath as it were forsaken all the world for you and is contented to be the companion of your labours and sufferings and be an equal sharer in all conditions with you and that must be your companion until death It is worse than barbarous inhumanity to entice such a one into a bond of Love and society with you and then to say You cannot Love her This was by perfidiousness to draw her into a spare to her undoing What comfort can she have in her converse with you and care and labour and necessary sufferings if you deny her Conjugal Love Especially if she deny not Love to you the inhumanity is the greater 5. Remember that Women are ordinarily affectionate passionate creatures and as they love much themselves so they expect much love from you And when you joyned your self to such a Nature you obliged your self to answerable duty And if Love cause not Love it is ungrateful and unjust contempt 6. Remember that you are under Gods command And to deny conjugal Love to your Wives is to deny a duty which God hath urgently imposed on you Obedience therefore should command your Love 7. Remember that you are Relatively as it were one flesh You have drawn her to forsake Father and Mother to cleave to you You are conjoyned for procreation of such children as must bear the image and nature of you both your possessions and interests are in a manner the same And therefore such nearness should command affection They that are as your selves should be most easily loved as your selves 8. Take more notice of the good that is in your Wives than of the evil Let not the observation of their faults make you forget or overlook their vertues Love is kindled by the sight of Love or Goodness 9. Make not infirmities to seem odious faults but excuse them as far as lawfully you may by considering the frailty of the Sex and of their tempers and considering also your own infirmities and how much your Wives must bear with you 10. Stir up that most in them into exercise which is best and stir not up that which is evil And then the good will most appear and the evil will be as buried and you will easilier maintain your love There is some uncleanness in the best on earth And if you will be daily stirring in the filth no wonder if you have the annoyance And for that you may thank your selves Draw out the fragrancy of that which is good and delectable in them and do not by your own imprudence or pievishness stir up the worst and then you shall find that even your faulty Wives will appear more amiable to you 11. Overcome them with Love and then whatever they are in themselves they will be Loving to you and consequently Lovely Love will cause Love as fire kindleth fire A good husband is the best means to make a good and loving Wife Make them not froward by your froward carriage and then say We cannot love them 12. Give them examples of amiableness in your selves set them the pattern of a prudent lowly loving meek self denying patient harmless holy heavenly life Try this a while and see whether it will not shame them from their faults and make them walk more amiably themselves § 4. Direct 2. Another Duty of Husbands and Wives is Cohabitation and where age prohibiteth Direct 2. not a sober and modest conjunction for procreation Avoiding lâ—sciviousness unseasonableness and whatever tendeth to corrupt the mind and make it vain and filthy and hinder it from holy employment And therefore Lust must not be cherished in the married but the mind be brought to a moderate chaste and sober frame and the Remedy must not be turned into an increase of the disease but used to extinguish it For if the mind be left to the power of Lust and only marriage trusted to for the cure with many it will be found an insufficient cure and Lust will rage still as it did before and will be so much the more desperate and your case the more miserable as your sin prevaileth against the remedy Yet marriage being appointed for a remedy against lust for the avoiding all unlawful congress the Apostle hath plainly described your duty 1 Cor. 7. 2 3 4 5. It is good for a man not to touch a woman Nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife Defraud you not one the other except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency Therefore those persons live contrary to the nature of
of Iesus of Nazareth which thing I also did c. And 1 Tim. 1. 13. that it was ignorantly in unbelief that he was a blaspheamer a persecutor and injurious And on the other side some Persâ—cute Truth and Goodness while they know it to be so Not because it is Truth or Goodness but because it is against their carnal worldly interest and inclination As the Conscience of a worldling a drunkard a whoremonger beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it so oft-times doth the Conscience of the Persâ—cutor and he hath secret convictions that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself § 5. 3. As to the cause sometime persecution is for Christianity and Godliness in the gross or for some great essential point And sometimes it is only for some particular Truth or duty and that perhaps of a lower nature so small or so dark that it is become a great Controversie whether it be Truth or errour duty or sin In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted and more heynous in the persecutor that the suffering be for the Greatest things For this leaveth no doubt in the mind whether our cause be good or not and this sheweth that the persecutors mind is most aliene from God and truth But in some other respect it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor and of the comfort of the persecuted when it is for smaller truths and duties For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things And it is a sign of a heart that is true to God and very sincere when we will rather suffer any thing from Man than renounce the smallest truth of God or commit the smallest sin against him or omit the smallest duty when it is a duty 4. Sometime persecution is directly for Religion that is for matters of professed Faith or Worship And sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause Yet still it is for our Obedience to God or else it is not the persecution which we speak of though the Matter of it be some common or civil thing As if I were persecuted meerly for giving to the poor or helping the sick or for being Loyal to my Prince and to the Laws or for doing my duty to my Parents or because I will not bear false-witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or any such like This is truly persecution whatever the matter of it be as long as it is truly for Obeying God that we undergo the suffering § 6. I omit many other less considerable distributions And also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions as when a man is punished for a fault in a far greater measure than it deserveth this is Injustice but not persecution unless it be his Religion and Obedience to God which is the secret cause of it § 7. Direct 2. Understand well the greatness of the sin of Persecution that you may be kept in a Direct 2. due fear of being tempted to it Here therefore I shall shew you how Great a sin it is § 8. 1. Persecution is a fighting against God So it is called Act. 5. 39. And to fight against God is odious Malignity and desperate folly 1. It is Venemous malignity for a Creature to fight against his Creator and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the All-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the fountain of Love and Goodness 2. And what Folly can be greater than for a Mole to reproach the Sun for darkness or a lump of Earth to take up Arms against the Almighty terrible God Art thou able to make good thy cause against him or to stand before him when he is offended and chargeth thee with sin Hear a Pharisee Act. 6. 38 39. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God Or hear Christ himself Act. 9. 4 5. I am Iesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul and crush thee to the lowest Hell His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains Canst thou Conquer the Almighty God Wilt thou assault the Power which was never overcome or storm Jehovahs Throne or Kingdom First try to take down the Sun and Moon and Stars from the Firmament and to stop the course of the Rivers or of the Sea and to rebuke the Winds and turn night into day and Winter into Summer and decrepit Age into vigorous Youth Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these It is a greater matter than any of these to conquer God whose cause thou fightest against Hear him again Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or thy work He hath no hands And Isa. 45. 9. who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Wo to the man that is not content to fight with men but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy It had been better for thee that all the World had been against thee § 9. 2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer and hindereth his Gospel and work of mercy to the world and endeavoureth the ruine of his Kingdom upon earth Christ came to save men and persecutors raise up their power against him as if they envyed salvation to the World And if God have made the work of mans Redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design If you could pull the Stars out of the Firmament or hinder the motions of the Heavens or deny the rain to the thirsty Earth you might look for as good a reward for this as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the World in the blessed work of mans salvation § 10. 3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. saith Stephen to the Jews Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye If you silence the Ministers who are the means by which the spirit worketh in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls Act. 26. 17 18. or if you afflict men for those Holy duties which the
spirit of God hath taught them to perform or would force men from that which the spirit of Christ is sent to draw them to this is to raise War against that spirit into whose name you were your selves baptized § 11. 4. Persecution endeavoureth the damnation of mens souls either by depriving them of the Preaching of the Gospel which should save them or by forcing them upon that sin for which God will condemn them Yea the banishing or silencing of one faithful Preacher may conduce to the damnation of many hundreds If it be said that others who are set up in their stead may save mens souls as well as they I answer 1. God seldome if ever did qualifie supernumeraries for the work of the Ministry Many a Nation hath had too few but I never read of any Nation that had too many who were well qualified for that great and difficult work no not from the dayes of Christ till now so that if they are all fit men there are none of them to be spared but all are too few if they conjoyn their greatest skill and diligence Christ biddeth us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth more labourers into his Harvest but never biddeth us pray to send out fewer or to call any in that were but tolerably fitted for the work 2. Many persecutors banish all Preachers of the Gospel and set up no other to do the service which they were called to And it is rarely seen that any who can find in their hearts to cast out any faithful Ministers of Christ have hearts to set up better or any that are competent in their stead But it is ordinarily seen that when the judgement is so far depraved as to approve of the casting out of worthy men it is also so far depraved as to think an ignorant unskilful heartless or scandalous sort of Ministers to be as fit to save men souls as they And how many poor Congregations in the Eastern and the Western Churches nay how many thousand have ignorant ungodly sensual Pastors who are such unsavoury Salt as to be unfit for the Land or for the Dunghill Whilest men are extinguishing the clearest lights or thrusting them into obscurity Matth. 5. 13 14 15. Luk. 14. 35. 3. And there may be something of suitableness between a Pastor and the flock which may give him advantage to be more profitable to their souls than another man of equal parts 4. And though God can work by the weakest means yet ordinarily we see that his work upon mens souls is so far Moral as that he usually prospereth men according to the fitness of their labours to the work and some men have far more success than others He that should expell a dozen or twenty of the ablest Physicions out of London and say theâ—e are enough left in their steads who may save mens lives as well as they might notwithstanding that assertion be found guilty of the blood of no small numbers And as men have sometime an averseness to one sort of food as good as any to another man and as this distemper is not laudable and yet he that would force them to eat nothing else but that which they so abhor were liker to kill them than to cure them so is it with the souls of many And there are few who have any spiritual discerning and relish but have some special sense of what is helpful or hurtful to their souls in Sermons Books and Conference which a stander by is not so fit a judge of as themselves So that it is clear that persecution driveth men towards their damnation And O how sad a case it is to have the damnation of one soul to answer for which is worse than the murdering of many bodies Much more to be guilty of the perdition of a multitude § 12. 5. Persecution is unjustice and oppression of the innocent And what a multitude of terrible threatnings against this sin are found throughout the holy Scriptures Doth a man deserve to be cruelly used for being faithful to his God and for preferring him before man and for being afraid to sin against him or for doing that which God commandeth him and that upon pain of greater sufferings than man can inflict upon him Is it not his Saviour that hath said Fear not them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Though Christianity was once called a Sect which every where was spoken against Act. 28. 22. and Paul was accused as a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among the people Act. 24. 5. and Christ was Crucified as a Usurper of the Crown yet innocency shall be innocency still in spight of malice and lying accusations because God will be the final Judge and will bring all secret things to light and will justifie those whom injustice hath condemned and will not call them as slandering tongues have called them Yea the Consciences of the persecuters are often forced to say as they did of Daniel Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God And therefore the net which they were fain to lay for him was a Law against his Religion or prayers to God For a Law against Treason sedition swearing drunkenness fornication c. would have done them no service And yet they would fain have aspersed him there verse 4. Jer. 22. 13. Woe to hiâ— that buildeth his house by unrighteousness c. Isa. 33. 1. Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled Isa. 5. 20. Woe to them that call evil good and good evil Jer. 2. 34. In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents Prov. 6. 16 17. Hands that shed innocent blood the Lord doth hate c. § 13. 6. Persecution maketh men likest unto Devils and maketh them his most notable servants in Daemones ex hominibus fieri quidam opinatâ— sunt perpetua criminum licentia c. Quod ut forte tolerabiliter dictum sit malarum voluntatum similitudo efficit qua homo malus atque in malis obstinatus pene daemonem aequat Petrarch de injusto Domin the world Many wicked men may neglect that duty which they are convinced they should do But to hate it and malice men that do it and seek their ruine this if any thing is a work more beseeming a Devil than a man These are the Commanders in the Armies of the Devil against the Cause and Kingdom of the Lord Iohn 8. 42. 44. and accordingly shall they speed § 14. 7. Persecution is an inhumane disingenuous sin and sheweth an extinction of the light of Nature A good natured man if he had no grace at all would abhorr to be cruel and to oppress his brethren and that meeâ—ly because they are true to their