by occasion of temptation practise some particular and the same grosse evils Out of which in time he recovers himself by repentance Who not foolish himself will say that David was simply a fool even when by occasion of speciall temptation of Satan he did a verie foolish act in numbring the people We are not therefore to measure a persons state by some one or few acts done as it were by the way and upon instance of some strong temptation but according to the tenour and course of his life Els what wise man should not be a fool also Or what fool should not be a wise man What Nabal should not be liberall yea bounteous when he makes a feast like a King A Rebell lurking in a Kingdom may by some advantage watched and taken prevail against the lawfull King in a conflict or two and yet for all that not raign in the Kingdom so may the treacherous flesh lurking in a Spirituall man get the masterie in some combat and yet not therefore drive the Lord quite out of his Kingdom there Yea the same flesh ever lusting against the Spirit even in them which are led of the Spirit and leading them into captivitie to the law of sin doth oft so far prevail in them as to captive them in some particular by-paths both of judgment and practise not so easily discerned all their life long For who can understand his errours And for these particular enormities whether actions or courses of godly persons howbeit considering them in themselvs and in their externall acts there appear in them no difference from those of the same kind practised by men utterly godlesse yet is there a great difference in Gods ey not onely in the person of the doer in Gods account but also in his own heart and affection even in the verie doing of them In which the Lord sees the inward struglings of grace though alas too weak by the persons default tending and bending the clean contrarie way and therein plainly differencing the doer from the profane contemners of God doing the same things in whom there is either altogether peace without any strife and resistance whilst the strong man keeps the house or that resistance which is meerely of naturall conscience terrifying with fear of punishment onely without the hatred of sin which is though too weak and feeble in the other Although it be a greater work of grace to become of vicious and evill good and vertuous then so to continue or to grow therein yet considering the mightie and many enemies of our salvation and the great stumbling stones in our way and with these the heavie clog of our own corruption which we draw after us it will be and is found a matter of no small difficultie not to be wearie of well doing nor to faint before we come to reap in due time that which we have formerly sown to the Spirit And this the experience of all ages confirmeth in which there are few which do the first works and leav not their first love fewer that bring forth more fruit in old age and are fat and green And yet we know that albeit of the labourers in the Vineyard who receaved ech his pennie some entered sooner and some later and some not till the very last hower of the day yet all continued their labour till the evening So for our selvs we must make account that at what time soever any begins onely he that continues to the end shall be saved And indeed it is a great honour to God when a good man notwithstanding all discouragements either from within or from without persevers in the course of goodnesse begun and gives not over till he come at the Goal how tirering soever his way be Such a one shews that the Lord is faithfull and that there is no unrighteousnesse with him To which purpose the saying of Polycarpus is verie remakable who being provoked by the Proconsul to blaspheme Christ answered that he had served him now eightie and sixe yeeres and had never had hurt by him in any thing why then should he speak evill of him On the contrarie he that departs from the Lord in the course of godlinesse formerly held greatly dishonours him as the Servant doth his Master in leaving him before his time be out Such a one makes shew as if out of judgment and experience he disliked goodnesse and therein really accuseth God as if he had found some evill in him or at least not that good which he promised and the other expected And to that purpose the Lord in great indignation expostulates with the Iews and asks What iniquitie they or their Fathers had found in him that they were gone from him after their vanities It is dangerous in course of Religion and godlinesse to fall forward by errours preposterous zeal or other misguidance yet not so much as to fall backward by an unfaithfull heart The former may break his face thereby and loose his comfort in a great measure both with God and men but the latter is in danger utterly to break the neck of his conscience as old Ely brake his neck bodily by falling backward from his seat and dyed Are there not many Elyes in all Ages And as the least declension from God is dangerous so is totall desperate neither will God ever forgive that sin or give repentance to any so sinning but hath utterly excluded everie such a one out of the otherwise infinite bounds of his mercie in Christ. The Preaching of the Word of God is the means to beget Faith and grace but for the nourishing and encreasing thereof we must therewith joyn the observation in our places of whatsoever Christ hath appointed his Apostles to teach in the vse whereof as the sanctified means for the obtaining of that end we shall keep our selvs in the fear of God and not fall from our stedfastnesse and withall grow in grace and in the acknowledgment of the Lord Iesus if not in bulk yet in firmnesse as when the body leavs growing in bignesse it knits better then before Neither indeed can we be safe from being drawn away from God otherwise then by continuall drawing nearer unto him For our way to Heaven is up a hill and we drag a Cart load of our corruptions after us which except we keep going will pull us backward ere we be aware The Holy Ghost in those vehement exhortations of the faithfull to perseverance inforced with so many promises and threatnings both shews therein mans pronenesse and danger in himself to fall away and also affoards the means by which God will preserv his sanctified ones from Apostacie using the same as Evangelicall conducts of grace for his working of that perseverance in them which he requires of them and that rather by our being apprehended of Christ as the Apostle speaks then by our apprehending him As the Father leading his weak Childe in
as melancholick monks do So for others the lesser helps and provocations of grace they can have from them with whom they are occasioned to converse they are to be the more frequent with God in the personall exercises of pietie but so as they take heed that they wrong not father and mother by their Corban nor make a speciall calling of the common works of all christians Others are grown more out of kinde who take greater delight in the following and fellowship of horses and hauks and dogs then in mens companie Such have drunk deep of the cup of Circes by which she is said to have transformed men into beasts That which was Nabuchad-nezzars punishment they make their cheif pleasure As God hath established fellowships and communities of men to procure their mutuall good and to fence them the better on everie side against evill so sin and wickednes being the greatest and onely absolute evill christians are most bound by vertue of their association to help and assist within the bounds of the callings in which God hath set them their brethren and associates against it according to that of the Phylosopher He that bears with the vices of his freind makes them his own Hence all Israel was punished and is sayd to have sinned for not preventing or reforming one Achans transgression The sin of another how near soever unto me cannot defile me because he doth it for then that which neyther goes into a man nor comes out of him might defile him but when eyther I doe something for the furthering of it which I should not do or neglect something which I should perform in my place for the preventing or reforming of it by these means I become accessorie eyther before or after the fact and not otherwise Although it be to be desyred and that unto which we are bound as humanitie our speciall places and occasion will permit that we converse onely with such as eyther may make us better which is wisdom or which we are like to make better which is charity yet will a good and wise man make good use of all companies Amongst the good he will learn to love goodnes the more amongst the evill and most amongst the worst the more to hate evill But yet notwithstanding there is a difference In evill company we see what to avoid which is good but in good what to follow which is better Besides there is danger if of no worse thing lest the edg of our zeal against evill should be taken of if we be occasioned continually to be grateing against it The spirit of grace and goodnes had need to be strong in him that is not tyred with continuall struglings and stryvings with the mallice of others He that at the first with righteous Lot vexeth his righteous soul dayly with the wicked deeds of them with whom he liveth yet will in time be in danger to be vexed dayly lesse and lesse with them as things growing by custom more familiar to him Also there is a second danger lest living amongst fools or wicked persons we cōtent our selvs with the litle model of goodnes or wisdom which we have because we are some body in comparison of them as he that hath but half an eye is a king amongst them that are blinde whereas amongst the wise and good we have still matter of imitation and provocation to aspire unto greater perfection in goodnes I conclude with that of the father If men good and bad be joyned together in speciall bond of societie they eyther quickly part or usually become alike Friendship eyther takes or makes men alike Much acquayntance shews eyther great imployment in the world which puts men necessarily upon the acquayntance of many or great ability and endowments which draw the acquaintance of many to a man for their benefit or an ambitious heart which seeks to be known and acknowledged by many or an idle head that hath litle els to do but to occupy it self in seeking or getting freinds As many who if they walked alone would by reason of their richer apparrell be thought men of better estate then they are and others meaner then they are by reason of their russet coats who yet both are discerned of what condition and rank they be by their companions and consorts so the vertuous or vitious dispositions of men are much discovered by the company which they affect and with which they sort with most gladnes and content For like will to like whether good or evill There is a difference between love goodwill and freindship We may love other things besides men bear good-will to the persons that know us not but we have freindship onely with men and that with mutuall consent arising from mutuall love and goodwill for our mutual good Now though divers other contracts be more streyt in severall relations yet is there in this of freindship a kinde of inwardnes arising from conformitie of judgment and affections the conjunction of the minde being the nearest kindred by which persons are more streitly tyed together then any other way There is a freind sayth Salomon that sticketh closer then a brother And Moses passing from brother to child and from childe to wife placeth her as near as the mans bosom but a freind nearer as reckning him as his own soul. Such a freind Ionathan was whose love to David passed the love of women Him whom we are to take so near unto us so constantly to keep and so freely to communicate withall we must not lightly make choyse of nor as the manner of many is by meeting together at a feast or playing a game at bowls or tables or lodging in one Inn but eyther after long experience and having as the proverb is eaten a bushell of salt together or upon some singular and extraordinary motive or tryall And as Christ committed not himself to the Iews because he knew their hearts so neyther are we easily to commit our selvs to men because we know not their hearts We are wisely to judg before but freely to credit after the knot of freindship tyed yet so as we try the wisdō secrecy faithfulnes of our freinds in smaller matters before we trust them in greater as men use to try whether their vessels will hould water or no before they put wyne into them And albeit that christian love which is the bond of perfection and first fruits of the spirit be due to all christians from all yet are not all fit freinds for all of that fellowship David notwithstanding the many worthyes in his kingdom had specially Husha◠the kings freind and so had our Lord whilst he lived upon earth specially Iohn among all the twelv the disciple whom he loved This speciall affection to one above the rest in Christ was holy yet humayn Many complayn of the perfidiousnes of freinds how vilely they have been used by them
of things and this is commendable where the matter is such as we either understand not throughly or may er in Some again though of weak understanding no sooner heare an objection against any thing which they hold but forth with they fall upon it with an answer And this they do oft out of a conceipt that it is a point of wit in them and credit to them to say something to everie thing though little to purpose to any thing in whom the Proverb is verified to the contrarie He that answereth a matter before he know it it is folly and shame unto him Others there are again who trust most to the Scorpions sting their venemous tongue in disgracing in stead of refuting both cause and person of their opposites by all possible means and these are for the most part such as presume that the times which they serv and their credits with them will countenance and authorize against their underling-adversaries the slaunders and calumnies which they either malitiously invent or lightly receav or uncharitably conceiv against them which therefore they spit freely abroad with black tongues as Serpents do their poyson to blast and corrupt whatsoever they light upon These hoat reproachers are often as cold disputers There want not also who affect differences in Religion with others either in wantonnesse and for ostentation of wit or in affectation of singularitie or in envie at Superiours or in contempt of Inferiours or to gratifie the Mightie by opposing such specially of mean condition as the other hate and despise But we should affect strife with none but studie as far as can be to accord with all accounting it a benefit when we can so do with any and the contrarie a crosse and the same the greater by how much their gifts or graces or places are greater or the bond nearer between them and us whether Naturall or Civill or Religious Lastly there are to be found too many who make either proud contempt or bold obstinacie a buckler to ward all blows of arguments that are or can be brought against their preconceaved opinions We ought to be firmly perswaded in our hearts of the truth and goodnesse of the Religion vvhich vve embrace in all things yet as knowing our selvs to be men whose propertie it is to er and to be deceived in many things and accordingly both to converse with men in that modestie of minde as alwayes to desire to learn something better or further by them if it may be as also to beg at Gods hands the pardon of our errours and aberrations which may be and are secret in us and we not aware thereof Whosoever offers the Word of God and holy Scriptures for justification of his Religion deservs to be heard and to have his cause examined for the verie Words sake whose testimonie he offers to produce as in civill course he who offers to bring for his cause witnesses honourable and worthy of credit will be admitted to plead it for his witnesses sake though not for his own No difference or alienation in Religion how great soever either dissolvs any naturall or civill bond of societie or abolisheth any the least dutie thereof A King Husband Father c. though an Heathen Idolater Atheist or Excommunicate is as well and as much a King Husband or Father as if he were the best Christian living and so both oweth and hath owing unto him reciprocally the duties and offices of that state in which he is set by an inviolable right which they that denie are monsters amongst men and enemies to humain societies Divisions amongst a few though not in the greatest matters are most observed because First It is expected that weak parties should be firmly united for their better defence Secondly A few and their doings are remarkeable for their fewnesse as a handfull of Forreighnours in a strange Countrey Thirdly their differences are oft more vehement partly for the greater zeal spirituall or carnall of the persons and partly because their opposition is more immediate whereas amongst many it will be hard but some mediatours will be found to moderate things And this is the reason why the danger of civill tumults is greatest in such Countreys as in which two Religions onely are in use Lastly All will be bold with them and readie to proclaim their miscariages to the full and above truth The most count it the best and safest way in differences of Religion without further question to take the strongest part that doing as the most do they may have the fewest finde fault with them Such forget God who is strongest of all But the best and safest way indeed is to get true and sound conscience of things certain and without controversie Such a person God will direct in his wayes so far and certainly as not to misse of the main end Life eternall and therewith in mercie will pardon all other his humain abberrations With mine whole heart have I sought thee Oh let me not wander from thy Commandments Men are for the most part minded for or against Toleration of diversitie of Religions according to the conformitie which they themselvs hold or hold not with the Countrey or Kingdom where they live Protestants living in the Countreys of Papists commonly plead for Toleration of Religion so do Papists that live where Protestants bear swey though few of either specially of the Clergie as they are called would have the other tolerated where the world goes on their side The verie same is to be observed in the ancient Fathers in their times of whom such as lived in the first three hundred yeeres after Christ and suffered with the Churches under Heathen Persecuters pleaded against all violence for Religion true or false affirming that it is of humain right and naturall libertie for everie man to worship what he thinketh God and that it is no propertie of Religion to compell to Religion which ought to be taken up freely that No man is forced by the Christians against his will seeing he that wants faith devotion is unserviceable to God and that God not being contentious would not be worshiped of the unwilling Whereas on the contrarie the latter having the Emperours Christian and on their side incited and pressed them to violent courses But considering that to tolerate is not to approve and that the Magistrates are Kings Lords over men properly and directly as they are their Subjects and not as they are Christs but that by accident and as the same persons who are civilly their Subjects are Spiritually Christs and Christians and lastly considering that neither God is pleased with unwilling worshipers nor Christian societies bettered nor the persons themselvs neither but the plain contrarie in all three the saying of the wise King of Poland seemeth approveable that it is one of the three things which God hath kept in his own hands to urge the conscience this way and to cause