to that Sermon of Mutual Love If there be any thing else which I have promised and thou expectest I shall as God gives assistance and this finds acceptance endeavour according to my poor ability to answer thine expectation but for the present I have engaged my self to adde unto these something concerning the Enemies of Love and Moderation the greatest part whereof is at present ready In the mean time if thou receive any benefit by this Blesse God and pray for the unworthy Instrument who is Thine to serve thee in our Lord Jesus JOSIAH HUNTER Loves Companion Philipp 4.5 Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand Text THere are two things Beloved which were never more needfull to be pressed than now and they are Moderation and Zeal Perhaps some may judge this at the first reading to be a strange paradox but it is a real truth and if there be any thing strange it is in the times into which we are fallen that do at once require both a great measure of Zeal a great deal of Moderation for who doth not see that in things of less concernment mere notions speculations how hot we are here therefore is need of Moderation But on the other side who sees not that in things of weighty importance both for matter of doctrine and practice faith and love how cold we are here therefore is need of Zeal How hot many men are in defending an opinion and yet cold in opposing an heresie how hot many men are in opposing a ceremonie and yet lukewarm in the maintenance of things of greater concernment and the truth is I never knew the violent prosecution of speculations and politicks but it was ever accompanied with a coldness and loosness in piety and practice I shall make choice of another opportunitie to speak concerning Zeal for the present my subject shall be Moderation And for the right understanding of these words you must Consider that these Philippians to whom the Apostle directs his Epistle were in a suffering condition as appears out of 1 Phil. 27. Only let your conversation be as becommeth the Gospel of Christ standing fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God for unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me Upon these suffering Christians therefore it is that the Apostle layes this injunction Let your moderation be known unto all men adding also a reason to enforce it the Lord is at hand how at hand that is either for your present succour as it is in Psal 46.1 God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble Or he will come shortly to judgement and put an end to all your sufferings and revenge all the wrongs offer'd to his people as you have it James 5.8 Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh So that though it be many years off in your account yet it is not many dayes in Gods account with whom one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day 2 Pet. 3.8 Let your moderation be known to all men The Vulgar Intetpreter renders it Modestia vestra your Modestie which though it be an effect of Moderation yet it is not moderation it self no more than blushing can properly be said to be modestie because it is an effect of it but as blushing proceeds sometimes from modestie so doth modestie from Moderation In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your equitie or rather equabilitie or equal carriage being neither too much lifted up in wrath clamor or evil speaking because of the sins of your adversaries nor too much dejected and cast down be cause of the oppressions sufferings which you sustain from your adversaries Let this your moderation or equall carriage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be known that is let it be such that it may be manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all men not only your friends but your enemies not only to the godly and such as are well-affected to you but likewise to the wicked and such as are ill-affected to you Hence I might give you the observation That it is not enough for a Christian to have grace but he must also in his conversatiō manifest it that it may be known to others even all men But that which I intend is this That Christians ought to carry themselves so at all times but especially in suffering times Observ that their Moderation may be manifest to all men For the improvement of this point I will endeavour these three things 1. To shew you what this Moderation is 2. Why it is the duty of a Christian to express it 3. Why especially in suffering times First What this Moderation is to which I answer first negatively what it is not where I remove three things 1. Moderation is not an halting between two opinions when the thorow beleeving of one of them is necessary unto Salvation Elijah said unto the people How long will you halt between two opinions If the Lord be God then follow him but if Baal follow him 2 Kings 18.20 Such were they we read of 1 Zeph. 5. That worshipped and that sware by the Lord and that sware by Malcham This halting argueth at the best great weakness and instability both of judgement and affection if not a corrupt and rotten judgement and affection Contrary to this halting is upright walking which is so often and so much commended to us in Scripture The integrity of the upright shall guide them Prov. 11.3 As for the Upright he directeth his way Prov. 21.29 And the way of the Lord is strength to the upright 10 Prov. 29. Though a man be weak yet if he be upright the way of the Lord shall be strength to him and his uprightness shall guide him and direct him in the way Halting therefore comes from Hypocrisie at the least from unsettledness We read in (b) Mr. Fuller in his Holy State Act. 27 12. of an Haven that lay towards the South-west and towards the North-west It is strange that it could have part of two so opposite parts North and South sure it must needs be very winding Yet there are some mens Souls in such intricate postures that they lie towards the Papists and towards the Protestants and among Protestants there are many that lie towards Anabaptisme Judaisme Arminianisme c. such as these we account not of a moderate judgement but of an immoderate unsettledness or indeed the falseness of their hearts is rather to be feared than the meer fickleness of their judgements Peter and therefore no such wonder of other men though in
these times eminent was not altogether free from this halting between the Jews and Gentiles and therefore Paul withstood him to the face and told him openly of his dissimulation 2 Gal. 11 12 13. Only observe what I say I say that Moderation is not an halting between two opinions when the thorough beleeving of one of them is necessary unto Salvation Otherwise if the thing be not necessary unto Salvation it may be Wisedom sometimes in a moderate man to suspend his judgement in himself at least the declaration of his judgement unto others The like also may be said in matters of practice he is not a moderate man but a Newter that holds off from both when the Glory of God and the good of the Church or State doth require him to engage himself on one side Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof 5 Jud. 23. because they came not to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty vers 18. Whereas Zebulun and Naphtali are highly commended because they jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field Such a one we account not a moderate man but an immoderate lover of himself and his own private interest who stays in his Tent when God calls him into the field and cannot be drawn from the smoak of his own Chimney to quench a publike fire This is baseness of mind as far below Moderation in the defect as a proud and ambitious adventuring of a mans self beyond his calling and without a call is above it in the excess He cannot be taxed therefore for a man that exceeds the bounds of Moderation who being fully assured and convinced of the lawfullness in the general and the present necessity in particular doth freely engage himself though it be to the hazard of his life in the defence of the truth of the Gospel and the cause of God against Papists Socinians Anabaptists Atheists and prophane persons or whomsoever else of that same coin or stamp By what hath been said it is apparent that upright Moderation differs from halting Neutrality in two things in Sincetity and in Settledness the latter flows from the former for therefore is a moderate man setled because he is sincere for Truth is uniform and alwaies like to it self The Philosopher saith of a just man that he is like a Dye which is every way even and like it self turn it how you will it falls upon an equall botttome the like might be said of an upright man But the Newter is like an unballasted ship that toples up and down in the Sea and bends sometimes to one Shoar sometimes to another but Lands no where not but that the Ground is good to land on but he is not resolved yet on which side he had best to land and therefore he sails between both and to keep both in fair hopes he salutes them sometimes on one side sometimes on the other but he will Land on neither till he see he can make his own advantage The moderate man is not afraid or unwilling to interest himself in the necessary quarrels of the Church the Newter like a prophane Atheist will engage himself on neither but stands by and laughs at the dissentions of both parties and cares not much on whose side the Victory fall so it do but end in peace He much weighs not whether Truth get the better of Error in this quarrel so that Peace do but get the better of Dissention that he may lead a quiet for whether he lead a godly life or no he doth but little regard 2. This Moderation is not a Lukewarmness in those things wherein Gods glory is concerned here it is a true Rule Mr. Fuller loc supr cit Turpe est contra ardeuter perversa asserentes nos pro veritate frigidiores inveniri Rust Diac. lib. adversus Acephalos cited by Dr. Plafere in his Path-way to perfection Non amat qui non zelat and they that are thus lukewarm here shall be too hot hereafter in that Oven wherein Dough-baked Cakes shall be burnt And a great shame it is for us to be cold in defending the Truth when our Adversaries are so hot in opposing it Saint Pauls spirit was stirred in him when he saw the whole City given to Idolatry Acts 17.16 How earnest also was our Saviour when he drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple then his Disciples remembred that it was written The zeal of thine House hath eaten me up John 2.15 17. was not Nehemiah zealous when he contended with the Rulers and said Why is the House of God forsaken and in those daies saith he I saw men working and bearing all manner of Burthens on the Sabbath day so I testified against them and I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them what evill thing is this that ye do and prophane the Sabbath And when divers Merchants came and brought ware to sell on the Sabbath day I testified against them and said unto them why lodge you al out the Wall If you do so again I will lay hands on you In those daies also saith he I saw Jews that had maried wives of Ashdod Ammon and Moab and their Children spake half in the Speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews language and I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair and made them swear by God saying Ye shall not give your Daughters to their Sons c. Nehem. 13.11 15 18 21 24 25. How zealous also was Asa in his Reformation where he spared not his own Mother but removed her from being Queen because she had made an Idol in a Grove and Asa cut down her Idoll and stamped it and burnt it at the Brook Kidron 2 Chron. 15 16. And the same Apostle that enjoins moderation in the Text tells us also That it is good to be zealously affected alwaies in a good thing Galat. 4 18. and (e) Nullum omnipotenti deo tale est sacrificium quale est zelus animarum Paulo post sunt mnita bona quae aguntur sacrificia sed holo caustum non sunt quia totam mentem in amore spirituali minimè incendunt Greg. super Ezechiel homil 12. Gregory saith That the zeal of the Soul is the most acceptable Sacrifice to God and makes other Sacrifices to become whole-burnt-offerings unto the Lord. God can less endure Lukewarmness than if a man were altogether cold for speaking after the manner of men saith he to the Church of Laodicea I would thou wert cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth Rev. 3.15 16. Will you say he is a moderate man who can hear the Glorious name of God and his Son Jesus Christ blasphemed and yet his Spirit not boyle within him with a mixture of anger and grief
and a mover of sedition and Michol despised David as a vain person when in his zeal he danced before the Ark yet the Holy Ghost commends all these for their zeal but no where condemns them of Immoderation For such as condemn Moderation for lukewarmnesse if they be observed in the general course of their lives to be conscientious they are to be pitied directed but if they be carnal Time-serving Professors they are to be sharply dealt with and detected as those whom we may justly suspect for Hypocrisie and the driving on some privare design I will only adde this that of all men they who plead for a Toleration have the least reason to accuse moderate persons of lukewarmness SIR I might have added much more to what I have said concerning the Enemies of Moderation Give me leave to say a little in vindication of men of mine own function the Priests as the Sectaries Star-gazers call them who lie under the Odium of Immoderation I do freely confesse that if the Lot should be cast I fear many of our Tribe would be taken yet even for them I think I may safely say this that many speak Against them for speaking but that which they themselves think But for others who doth not see that therefore they are accounted immoderate because they do zealously declare against the Heresies and Corruptions of the times and the giving of Credence to the predictions of every vain Sooth-sayer and Astrologer falsly so called Again I may subjoyn this that many Ministers are more strict than otherwise they would be because they see that people are Generally more loose not only in their practice but their opinions than they have been herein imitating a carefull Father who holds a more strict hand over his child than otherwise he would because he sees that his natural inclination together with the temptations of evil company provoke him to break out into such disorders as are not only sin in him but shame to his Father Thirdly therefore it may be some Ministers are the more stiff because they know when they come to a debate they must be forced to abate something and cannot with safety abate too much as a Chapman will ask full as much as his commodity is worth because else he knows that he shall be bidden less than it is worth all the danger is that if a man ask too much perhaps he shall be bidden nothing at all Lastly people expect zeal from Ministers though they care not for it themselves as many that care not so much for preaching as to come constantly once on a Lords-day who yet would be ready to Article against their Minister if he did not preach twice That which Luther said sometimes Nunquam periclitatur Religio nisi inter Reverendissimos the Vulgar are readie enough to take up as a Maxim or an Oracle It is observed when Christ was crucified Pilate the Civil Magistrate absolved him Caiphas the High Priest condemned him Judas his own disciple betrayed him people are willing to wash their hands as Pilate did and think they have done all well enough if they can with any colour lay the blame at the Ministers door Sure it is cold Ministers make bold sinners and all the blame will be laid upon the unfaithfull Ministry that should have been burning and shining lights if Atheism or Heresie grow to an height Sir I know you bear honourable respects out of conscience to all conscientious Ministers however traduced and maligned by some Apostatical persons And this set aside my private engagement the publike recital whereof would not make others more to wonder than your self to blush hath induced me to dedicate this Sermon to you as a testimony of that honor which I bear to you and cannot otherwise to the world expresse It was intended for you by the unworthy Author when the other Sermon concerning Mutual Love was put forth if the Printers slacknesse had not prevented and I am sure I have no reason to alter my intentions For my self I wish that the Sermon were but in any respect worthy of your patronage as you are in every respect worthy of its dedication For you I wish that you may indeed show that you patronize it by practising it And that your Zeal may not burn up your Moderation nor your Moderation choak your Zeal is the prayer of Sir October 25th 1656. Your Worships humbly devoted Josiah Hunter To the Moderate Reader THat I am not ambitious of being seen in Print this is no small Argument that I have suffered this Sermon though ready for the Press to lie beside me these seven moneths when I know it was expected by divers to be made publike every week That which hath been a great incouragement now at last to expose it is not hope of gain or credit but the present calmness and serenity of the times wherein a Sermon of Moderation shall not be so bold to look out but it shall be as acceptably taken in When one presented a Treatise of Iustice to Antigonus at that very time besieging a City he told him that he came out of season And it was the saying of a King when a Treatise of Happiness was offered to him that he was not at leisure And perhaps if this Treatise should have been presented to publike view whilst we were in the heat of our civil wars it might have been thought to have come out of season and few or none would have been at leisure to read it But now after such a blessed cessation of war insomuch that Councels of War are turned into Councels of State I hope this subject will come in season and even the Souldier will have leisure enough to read it I know it is a very nice and tickle point which whosoever undertakes to handle it will be expected from him that he should find out the maximum quod sic and the minimum quod non and that he should be like those men of Benjamin who could sling stones at an hair-breadth and not miss Jud. 20.16 Antoninus Pius for his desire to search to the least differences was called in a by word Cumini Sector a Carver of Cummine seed But a man cannot be too exact in a subject of this Nature in dividing if it were possible to an hairs breadth between the two extreams of Moderation wherein I should be most vainly conceited of my self if I did not suspect that I had failed Yet this I have to plead in way of Apologye for my self that it is a subject whereof few have written professedly None that ever I saw except Mr. Fuller in his Holy State of whom I think it no discredit to be a borrower and so far as I remember I have not concealed any thing that was borrowed The reason why I entitle this Sermon Loves Companion is because that Moderation is always a Concomitant of Love and likewise because I intended at first that it should have been printed with and joyned
up Dan. 3.17 18. Alike moderate and yet resolute was the answer of Fredericke the Electour of Saxonie who being prisoner to Charles the fifth was promised inlargement and restitution of dignity if he would come to Mass Summum in terris Dominum agnosco Caesarem in Coelis Deum In all earthly matters I acknowledge Caesar as supream but in heavenly God We are not to revile any much lesse the Gods of the people such hot tongues as are blistered with this venom surely are set on fire of hell and are far from this Moderation Again certainly so much bitterness even in the just prosecution of the Sects and errors of our times must needs be condemned and yet what a deal of it may one meet with in the Press and sometimes in the Pulpit so much virulency and bitterness Rom. 3.13 14. as if the poyson of Aspes were under their lips their mouthes are so full of cursing and bitterness This doth more inrage but nothing more reclaim them who are given to schism and innovation who are more proud the more proudly they are opposed and come to encrease and be well liked of amongst ignorant people as persecuted men because of such bitter opposition A fool must not be altogether unanswered yet he must not be answered foolishly for then we are like unto him Prov. 26.4 5. Now there is nothing wherein a wiseman doth more bewray folly than in being bitter when he is in just contention with a fool it is but a sorry victory that a man gets by conquering of a fool but if whilst he strive with a fool he can but rule his own spirit that is a victory indeed more considerable than the taking of a City Prov. 16.32 otherwise be the cause never so strong that a man defends if he be passionate he is weak and his weakness will his adversary though without cause be ready to cast as an aspersion upon his cause and ignorant people who have but little skill of controversie are in their opinions led for the most part by the actions of the persons their Logick lying alltogether in inartificial arguments as Jovinian said to the Arrian and orthodox Bishops contending for the faith Of your learning subtle disputations I cannot so well judge but I can well marke and observe which of your behaviours is most peaceable and fruitfull So your ordinary people are not so able to judge of mens parts nor of the question that is in dispute but they can easily see whose carriage is most sober peaceable and plausible and their rule most what is to judge of the cause by the persons Passion is one mark of a fool Anger resteth in the bosome of fools Eccl. 7.9 and Prov. 27.3 A stone is heavy and the sand weighty but a fools wrath is heavier than them both As a man that is light in his head with drink or with a disease if he chance to fall goes so much more sadly and heavily to the ground not able to stay or succour himself in his fall so it is with a fool the reason why his wrath is so heavy is because his head is so light and he hath not reason to counterpoise his passion When a wise man therefore contending with a fool shall break out into unseemly passion what can one say As Demonax when he saw one cruel in the beating of his servant Fie saith he forbear lest by the world you be taken for the servant So it may be said to a wise man in rage striving with a fool fie forbear lest by the world you be taken for the fool Nothing doth so befool a man as extream passion this doth make men fools that otherwise are not and shew them to be fools that are so if we cannot tame violent passions that they may yeeld to our ease we should labour at least to smother them by concealment that they may not appear to our shame I confess indeed a wise man dealing with a fool goes upon much disadvantage one way he shall be sure to have many provocations unto passion his irrational reasons incongruous answers and groundless distinctions with his tedious Circumlocutions must needs be very irksom and unpleasing to a judicious man and when a fool propounds a question and it come to be discussed he shall as most what he doth flie from the matter refusing to be kept within any limits this is a very great provocation and his extravagancie in the Action makes his Opponent sometimes extravagant in his passion but a wise and moderate man knowing that he must expect no fair dealing from a fool should therefore arm himself accordingly before-hand with humble prayer to God and strong resolution within himself saying that he will and praying that he may take heed to his ways that he sin not with his tongue but keep his mouth as with a bridle whilst the wicked is before him Psal 39.1 I doe not see how a wise man when he flies from the matter he is contending about to fall upon the person that he contends with can clear himself before God or sober men When a man contends with a fool he doth not so much contend against him as his errour for who else would trouble himself with a fool When a wise man therefore in the heat of contention shall so far forget himself as to leave the prosecution of the question to fall upon the person surely this is more distempered heat than zeal for he hath now strayed and gone from the businesse and he that makes the fool and not his folly the Butt that he shoots at doth undoubtedly misse the mark so he may wound the person and make the fool rage but leaves the errour untouched Again when a mans passion boiles so within him as to send forth the scum of evil language or the froth of uncivil taunts against his adversary undoubtedly he hath transgressed the bounds of Moderation Neither railing nor lightnesse become a wise man any more than a grave parable doth a fool A fool will rage and rail but what then do ye expect any better from a briar than that it should scratch Wickednesse will proceed from the wicked as saith the proverb of the Antients but a wise man will keep off his hand and keep up his tongue 2 Sam. 14.13 knowing that if reason will not convince his adversary raising will but more exasperate and obdurate him To shut up this the moderate man if God see it good desireth life and loveth many dayes that he may see good and do much good and therfore keepeth his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile Psal 34.12 13. not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that he is thereunto called that he may inherit a blessing 1 Pet 3.9 For so did our Saviour he left us an example behind him that we should follow his steps who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed