28. and 13. 9. Col. 3. 16. and 4. 6. Eph. 4. 7. 29. and 3. 8. Gal. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 6 7. and 9. 8. Joh. 1. 16. c. II. The words MORALITY and MORAL have also divers significations I. In the first most comprehensive and most famous sense MORALITY as distinguished from meer Naturality or Physicks doth signifie the Relation of the Manners or Acts of an Intelligent free Agent to the Governing Will and Law of God And so Actus morales and Actus humani are used in the same sense and all Morality is distinguished into Moral Good and Moral Evil Virtue and Vice II. Some have used MORALITY in a narrower sense unfitly for so much of Man's duty as is revealed by the meer Law of Nature and as is of common obligation to lapsed Mankind And so it comprehendeth the relicts of the Law of Innocent Nature to love God and obey him c. and the additional Law of Lapsed Nature to Repent and use all possible means for our recovery and thankfully improve the Mercies which we receive And thus it is distinguished from Duty known by supernatural Revelation and especially the Mysteries of Redemption by Jesus Christ III. Some use the word improperly also for all that Duty which is of perpetual Obligation whether by natural or supernatural Revelation And so it is distinguished from Temporary Duties And thus the Lords-Day Baptism the Lords-Supper a Gospel Ministry Scripture to be used discipline are said to be Moral-Positives distinct from meer Natural Duties and from Temporaries IV. Lastly Some yet more unaptly confine the sense to the Duties of our common Conversation towards man as distinct from Holiness or our Duty to God And so they distinguish a meer moral honest man from a godly or religious man Though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common Fuel of vain Contendings yet we being not the Masters of Language must take words as we find them used and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them before they lay any stress on them in disputing In reference to these various senses of these words we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth I As to MORALITY in the first and most famous signification we are agreed 1. That all proper Humane Acts are moral that is morally Good or Evil And all Duty and Sin Virtue and Vice in Habit and Act Positive and Privative Vice are parts of Morality moral Good directly and moral Evil reductively and consequently 2. Holiness to the Lord or the Love of God as God is the chief part of Morality and what Duty soever is Evangelical and spiritual is also moral 3. Nothing is morally laudable or rewardable but Moral Good and nothing is punishable but Moral Evil. 4. All Morality is seated primarily in the Will but is secondarily as flowing thence in the imperate Acts of the Intellect and inferior Faculties 5. All truly moral Good in lapsed man is 1. From God's Efficient Grace 2. And exercised on some Objective Grace And 3. Is it self Subjective Grace either special or common 6. The Good called Moral in Infidels and all other ungodly unsanctified men is such but secundum quid and not simpliciter nor in the full or properest sense Because bonum est ex omnibus Causis essentialibus And a good Principle Rule End and right Object especially the formal Object are all essential to a truly good moral Act But every ungodly man in every Action doth want at least some one of these And an Act is denominated in Morality from that which is prevalent in it and not from every conquered deprest ingredient We say not that he that killeth his Father or Prince with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations doth therein do a good work though that reluctancy was good So he that hath some Love to God and Goodness but more Hatred and more love to sinful pleasure doth not a work properly Good which proceedeth from such a mixed Cause But the evil Principle and End is predominant in all ungodly men 7. But materially and secundum quid bad men may do Works that are morally good and physically very good to others as Governing and Protecting Common-wealths and Churches building Cities and Temples and Hospitals relieving the Poor preaching the Gospel expounding Scripture defending Truth promoting Learning and in good Nature Patience Meekness Temperance Chastity Wit and Industry they may be commendable and exemplary and their Precepts and Practice may conduce much to the good of others 8. Whatever good is found in Heathens or Infidels or ungodly Men is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth it being all from God who must not be robbed of his praise 9. A Man that hath but Common Grace is better than he would be if he had none and it is the usual preparatory for special saving Grace Though many civil temperate persons by overvaluing Common Good are hindred from seeking Special Grace that is not caused by the Good but by their abuse of it objectively And though God take occasion from some mens great sins to affright their Consciences to Repentance and Reformation that is not caused by the sin but by Gods Mercy Sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring nor sin as repented of in repenting but before in the committing God may Convert Paul in the act of Persecuting But Persecuting is not the way or means of Conversion Special Grace must be sought in the use of Common Grace and not in a way of negligence contempt or wilful sin II. Of MORALITY in the second sense as taken for Natural Duties which all Mankind is obliged to by Natural Revelation of God's Will we are agreed as followeth 1. The sum of this Natural Morality or Duty is to love God as God for himself and all things else for him even as being of Him and through Him and to Him to obey God and make it our chief care to please him and therein to place and seek our Happiness even in everlasting mutual love To love others as our selves and do all the good we can to all for Soul and Body especially to the most publick Societies to do justly and as we would be done by to use our Bodies as the Servants of our Souls and Soul and Body as the Servants of God And to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these This Natural Evidence will prove to be the Common Duty of Mankind 2. This Love to God and Man before described is true Holiness that is The Soul's separation and devotedness to God 3. All the Evidence which Nature affordeth us herein is not seen by all men that are of natural Wit or Industry no more than all that is revealed by the Scripture is known to all that read the Scripture or that believe it 4. Holiness is the End of Medicinal Grace as used
by Christ on us and as used by us towards Christ as the Mediator Faith in Christ is to kindle in us the holy love of God and obedience to him Love therefore as the final and everlasting Grace is preferred by the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. last v. and 13. throughout 5. Even our Faith in Christ and our Obedience to the Gospel in Preaching Sacraments and such like are neither only of natural nor only of supernatural Obligation but mixt Christ and his Ordinances are supernaturally revealed but being once revealed with the Evidence of Divine Authority natural Revelation then telleth us that it is our Duty to believe and obey 6. That which is of Natural Revelation and Obligation must be performed by supernatural Grace Though Nature prove that all Men should love God as God it is Grace that must dispose and enable them to do it 7. We call Grace supernatural not only because it is not essential to Nature no not to Adam in innocency but because in our lapsed state it is not conveyed to us by Natural Generation but Nature in the state of pravity is deprived of it and because God worketh it by the free gift of his Spirit in a manner beyond the search of man and by it as an effect of his love doth make us lovely in our union and relation to Christ who sanctifieth and justifieth us it being his Image on the Soul which no meer Natural Causes without this operation of God's Love and Spirit can effect But yet 1. We all agree that Holiness is Nature's health or rectitude and therefore sutable to it as its perfection as health is to the Body 2. And that the Spirit of God doth ordinarily make use of his appointed means and especially his Word for our sanctification And these being second Causes which have their proper Natures may so far be called natural Causes And that thus far Grace may be said to be Natural 8. This Holy Love being the final Act on God the final Object and so being man's felicity it self it followeth that all men have so much happiness constitutively as they have holy love to God and Goodness and that no man can be damned that hath the said predominant holy Love while such And that such have no cause to fear damnation any farther than they should fear lest by forfeiting Gods Grace they should lose that love 9. The Mediation of Christ and our Faith in him who is the Glass the Messenger and the great Gift of the Fathers Love are the Means appointed by God to sanctifie us by the effecting of this Love with all its Concomitants and Fruits 10. Therefore as God is called All in All so Christ is called All in all Col. 3. 11. to Believers as being the Way the Truth and the Life 11. Therefore they that would bring men to the holy and felicitating Love of God must preach Jesus Christ and his Grace to them as the means and bring them to believe in him and to take it for their Wisdom to know Christ crucified and glorified and to learn of him and obey him and trust in him and daily to use him as their Mediator for access to God acceptance with him and communication from him 12. To preach up the blessedness of Saints and excellency of holiness without teaching men how to attain it by Christ is but to commend health to the sick without directing them to the Physician and the Remedies And to hear of a Sanctity and Felicity not attainable is to be tormented by despair And to think to obtain it by our works or endeavours without a Mediator and his Grace or by any other Mediator than Christ is the way to lose it by false presumption and neglect of the necessary means It being Christ that is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 13. As Christ on Earth did purchase us this Salvation by his meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice and is now in Heaven our Head and Intercessor and the Treasury of Grace and Life to Believers so he sanctifieth us by his WORD and SPIRIT and herein differeth from all other Teachers that ever were in the World 1. That his Gospel Doctrine Precepts and Covenant-promises are singularly suited to this sanctifying work 2. That he sendeth forth his Spirit with it to work the Souls of men to that which he teacheth and commandeth that so they may be effectually taught of God Without the Spirit of Jesus no word or means will sanctifie and renew a Soul 14. Therefore all Preachers must jointly preach GOD and holy LOVE trust obedience and delight in him as the END and CHRIST and faith in him and learning of him and obeying him in the use of his healing Remedies as the MEANS This being life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17. 3. 15. And though the End must be preached as more excellent than the Means yet the Means must be preached as more mysterious and above meer natural Revelation Experience telleth us that all men quickly learn to confess that they should repent of sin and love God as God but they are hardly taught to understand the Mystery of Redemption the Person Incarnation Works Office and Grace of the Redeemer and therefore have here need of longer teaching The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Spirit must be the Preachers subject as it is the Christians benediction and felicity 16. There are things in Aristotle's Ethicks and in the Ethicks of the Stoicks and and some other Philosophers of great worth and use to Christians to shew us what by natural evidence may be discerned But they are all poor defective spirit-less Doctrines and Precepts in Comparison of the Gospel of Christ though to carnal wit they seem to excel it in Method Language and several Curiosities And the Writings of Christians who do but expound and apply Christ's Doctrine do far excel all the Heathens Ethicks 17. We have no reason to think that any of the Heathens understood all that Nature it self by way of proving-Evidence revealeth Yea or that any Christians perfectly understand it because natural evidences are exceeding numerous and none can say that he seeth them all and they are of various degrees some plain and some obscure and even natural verities as they arise from the great Branches into innumerable Partitions as smaller Sprigs are not perfectly discernable by a mortals Eye 18. Therefore no knowledge of Man much less any Heathens Writings are the certain measure of natural verities in Morality by which the number and certainty of the obscurer Particles may be known 19. Though Heathens know and teach that we must Love God and Goodness above all And all that sincerely love God and Goodness shall certainly be saved Yet this Confession will but more condemn them that have not and practice not what they teach but when they profess to know God
hoped that we had differed but in lesser things from our Accusers we do find our selves so far mistaken as that some of them who have thought it worth their labour to write vehemently for our reproach and increased sufferings do differ from us in the Vitals of our Religion even of our Belief our Love and Practice We mean such as hold That all the Obligations of Scandal proceed purely from that extraordinary height of Charity and tenderness of good Nature that is so signally recommended in the Gospel But if it proceed from humour or pride or wilfulness or any other vitious Principle then is the Man to be treated as a peevish and stubborn Person and no Man is bound to part with his own freedom because his Neighbour is froward and humorous and if he be resolved to fall there is no reason I should forego the use of my liberty because he is resolved to make that his Stumbling-block Ecclesiast Polit. page 231. Because this is contrary to that very Religion in which only we hope for Salvation we take the boldness to put these few Questions to them who thus judge Q. 1. Is not Love the fulfilling of the Law and the End of the Gospel and Faith working by Love the Sum of Christian Religion Doth not the Law of Nature oblige us to love our Neighbour as our selves Q. 2. Doth not God beneficently love his Enemies even the sinful the humorous the proud and the peevish Did not Christ come to seek and save them Is there not joy in Heaven for their Repentance Doth not God welcome such Prodigals when they return Luke 16. and call invite and intreat them to return Q. 3. Are we not Commanded to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful and to love even our Enemies and pray for Persecutors that we may be like him And is not this a Natural Common Duty Q. 4. Hath not God sent out his Ministers to preach home such sinners and commanded them to do it instantly in season and out of season reproving and exhorting and with meekness to instruct opposers if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth And must we not labour hard and suffer much for to win such Souls Q. 5. Should not every thing be valued according to its worth And are not the Souls of such as you call humorous peevish or wilful worth more than some of that which you call your Liberty Are they not worth more than a Pipe of Tobacco or a Cup of Sack or a Stage-play or a needless Ceremony which you account part of your Liberty Would you deny none of these to save many Souls Q. 6. Would you not deny your Liberty in a Cup of Drink or a Pipe of Tobacco to save the Life of one that in humour would destroy himself or his House who would set it on fire Q. 7. If not doth this Religion of yours much commend it self to the Nature of Mankind Or is he that writeth this fit to report us of the other mind unfit for subjection or Humane Society Can Christians be of your Religion Q. 8. Are not Souls more worth than Bodies And should not the Soul of a Sinner be as compassionately saved by us as his Body as far as we are able and at as dear a rate Q 9. Is that Man like to profit his Hearers or be taken for a faithful Pastor or an honour to the Church of England who would tell them I would not forsake a Pipe of Tobacco or a lawful sport or jeast to save any of your Souls who are vitious humourous or peevish Q. 10. Doth not this doleful Doctrine tell Men consequently that they should seek to save the Soul of no Sinner in the World For if you 1. Except all that have humour pride wilfulness or any other vitious Principle 2. And that but so far prevalent as to be resolved to make a Stumbling-block of some liberty of anothers What Sinner almost is not here excluded from your Charity Who is it that hath not as great sin as some humorous or peevish stumbling at some lawful thing or who is it that hath no pride no peevishness no humorousness or at least that hath no vitious Principle at all Is not that Man perfectly holy 3. And if to save such an one you would not so much as deny any of your liberty for him what would you do for him at all Who can expect that you should bestow any great labour or c 〈◊〉 st to do good or save a Sinner that would not lose a Cup of Sack to save him Q. 11. Do you not thus reproach Christ that set a higher price on Souls when you value them not at the price of a Cup of Drink Would you have it believed that they are purchased by his Blood Q 12. Would you have God care no more for your soul and value it at no higher a rate Doth he believe the immortality of Souls who will say so Q. 13. Should God give such a Law to all his Creatures for their acting towards your self and one another q. 〈◊〉 D 〈◊〉 ny not so much as a lawful Jeast or Sport or Ceremony to win and save any one in the world that out of any vitous principle will stumble at your liberty what Family or Common-wealth could subsist under such an inhumane privation of love Q. 14. If you loved your Neighbour as your self and did as you would have others do to you would you deny no lawful thing to save his Soul though he had some vitious principle Q. 15. What will people say of such men as you if you shall ever preach for Love and Good Works and would make people believe that its you that are for them and we against them when they compare this Doctrine with your words Q. 16. Why do such men call us Puritans as if we succeeded the old Catharists or Perfectionists and the Novatians when we are so far from so vilifying sinners that have a vitious principle and sin against some lawful thing by taking it for unlawful that we know none in the world that hath no vitious principle and is not to be helped at a dearer rate And seeing we find such real difference in our very Religion it self from such as this we cannot wonder if men of such Principles use us and the Nation no better than they do But we crave their solid resolving of these Doubts if they will lose so much of their Ease and Liberty for the convincing of persons judged so unworthy Pr. 50. For our parts we must profess that we take it to be our duty not only to deny a lawful thing or our liberty therein for the saving of Souls that have vitious principles and humours but to bestow our labours and endure poverty reproach persecution imprisonment and when God calls us to it death it self to serve Christ in the saving of such Souls Pr. 51. We suppose that Christ and his Apostles were
by their works deny him and are void of true sanctifying Grace 20. Therefore it is intolerable in those that are stiled the Ministers of Christ and Preachers of the Gospel to preach little more than what Heathens teach and when they speak of Christianity and Faith and should open the Mysteries of the Gospel to do it as drily scantly and heartlesly as if it were done but on the bye and for Custom or Fashion sake rather than as a matter of the necessity and importance before described In all this we are agreed III. As to MORALITY in the third sense as it signifieth Naturals and Positives of perpetual Obligation we are agreed 1. That all to whom they are promulgate are obliged to the practice of them 2. And that for that Practice we need the fore-described helps of Grace even efficient objective and subjective Grace For saving Practice special Grace and for common Practice common Grace IV. And as to the fourth Sense of MORALITY as signifying only our Duty to Man as distinct from holiness to God we are agreed 1. That as the Love of our Neighbour as our selves is the second great Commandment like to the first so the practice of this in our Duty towards Man proceeding from Love and Obedience to God is the second part of our Duty and to be preached and practised accordingly 2. And it is that part about a near discernable Object by which our Love to God must be expressed and made known and by which it shall by Christ himself be judged of at the last day 3. And it is that Matter in which God will have our obedience to him to be carefully and constantly exercised Because God needeth us not himself but as his Government of Man is his ordering us to our own good and felicity so he obligeth us to do good to our selves and one another 4. But as Man without God is nothing and no Man so Duty and Love to Man not depending on Duty and Love to God is no Duty no Morality at all And as to love honour or obey Man above God as the best or greatest is damnable Idolatry or Rebellion against God so to preach up Love Honour and Obedience to Man as separated from or not dependent on our Love Honour and Obedience to God much more as above him or against him were but to preach up Idolatry or Rebellion No Man can love Man for Gods sake that loveth not God more And no Man can honour or obey Man for Gods sake who doth not more honour and obey God He that will serve Man more than God doth as it were make Man his God and from Man must expect his Protection Provision and Reward 5. Profession of Piety to God without true Justice and Charity to man is but Hypocrisie While we have time we must do good as we are able to all Men for with such Sacrifice God is well pleased Gal. 6. Heb. 13. Christ was our great Pattern in doing good even to the unworthy and he purifieth to himself a peculiar People zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. For we are his workmanship created unto good works in Christ Jesus which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2. 10. To be rich in good works is to be rich to God Luke 12. 21. and to lay up a good Foundation for the time to come to lay hold on eternal Life to lay up our Treasure in Heaven and to make us Friends of that which to worldlings is the unrighteous Mammon and blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy and receiving a Prophet in the name of a Prophet or a righteous Man in the name of a righteous Man is the way to have a Prophets or a righteous mans reward when Christ will say In as much as ye did it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye did it unto me Pure Religion and undefiled is to visit the Fatherless and Widdows in their Adversity and to keep our selves unspotted of the World As we verily believe that not only the Parties called Conformists and Non-Conformists alas that we must call them Parties but most true Protestants are agreed in all this so we take it to be our Duty to profess our dissent from the Practice of such as would hinder Love and Concord by perswading men that we are really disagreed when it is not so And as we are the Believing Disciples of the Prince of Peace that blessed Reconciler who took down the Partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles and made them one so we would serve him with all our power and interest in building up the Wall of Defence and taking down every Partition-wall which unjustly divideth the Church of Christ and dayly pray that God would humble convert and reform those men who have built them up and will not yet be intreated to give peace to the Churches and in special to this self-distracting Land FINIS THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS OF THINGS INDIFFERENT Commanded by AUTHORITY As far as the Subscribers are acquainted with it Written to save the Ignorant from the temptations of Diabolism described 2 Tim. 3. 3. and 1 Joh. 3. 10. 12. 15. Joh. 8. 44. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5. 9. Printed in the Year 1676. THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS OF Things Indifferent Commanded by Authority Quest WHether things antecedently lawful do therefore become unlawful because commanded by Lawful Authority Neg. We take the Question as we hear it stated by some Accusers of the Non-conformists who feign them to affirm it And some seem serious in the Fiction as if they did indeed believe themselves by which they dispatch these several works of no small moment viz. 1. They hereby render the Non-Conformists contemptible and odious as Brain-sick Persons who keep up a dividing Faction in spight of the Light and Obligation of the Common Principles of Humanity and Society 2. They hereby imprint the Stamp of Satan viz. the hatred of their Brethren upon the minds of such hearers as will believe them and receive the Impress 3. They hereby fill Families Cities and Countries with all that Spawn of ugly sins which are the genuine Fruits of such hatred and contempt and keep men also from Repentance for any thing that they have said or done how cruelly soever against such Ministers and others as are represented as so odious to them 4. They hereby fortifie the Peoples Souls against receiving converting or edifying instruction by such accused Ministers 5. They furnish Papists Insidels and other Adversaries with Matter of Accusation against one part of the Ministers and Servants of Christ They are able now to say that such and such Protestant Clergy-men themselves reported it 6. They tempt the worser and weaker sort of the accused to return the like measure to them again and to judge as they are judged Satan hereby gets Matter for a Temptation to call the Accusers Fools in revenge to bring
2. The Action as farther specified by the terminating Object 1. In the first respect the Gradus Actus is Accidens accident 〈◊〉 And an Act may become Good or Evil by such Intenseness or Remissness as is ordinate or inordinate And the Timing it may do the like As to be thinking when I should sleep 2. In the second respect an Accident supervening or added to the Object is said to make that Action Good or Evil by Accident that is by an alteration of the specifying Object by some Accident And this is the commonest Case and the Sense in which this Controversie in hand is most concerned which therefore we desire to be most observed Prop. 15. Any Man therefore that knoweth what true Knowledge is may easily perceive that he that will Dispute about Bonum vel Malum per se per accidens if he would not lose his labour or deceive must use more diligence in explaining these Terms than they do that toss them about unexplained as if they were sufficiently intelligible of themselves to such as some use to make the Receivers of their cholerick and splenetick evacuations Even Bonum Malum per se is not such Ver se qua substantiam nor per se qua Actum nor per se qua Intellectionem Volitionem aut Praxin execu ivam but per se ut Accidens substantiae scilicet Actum circa Objectum quod est accidens plerumque sine altero accidente superaddito So that the same which now is Bonum vel Malum per accidens is called Bonum vel malum per se in respect to a supervenient Accident And excluding all Accidents or all Good or Evil by Accident so nothing in the World is Bonum or Malum morale per se except what is anon excepted E. G. To Love is an Act that Act as is the Habit also is an Accident To love a Man as godly or wise or as my King or Teacher is to love him for Accidents that is Godliness Wisdom Authority c. This is Bonum per accidens and yet Bonum per se stating the Object thus without farther Accidents To love him as an Enemy and Persecutor and Silencer of Godly Ministers of Christ is Malum per Accidens and yet Malum per se in respect to farther Accidents To love the Man is not Evil but to love him for his Evil. The Exception here is when we are bound to love the simple Essence as such abstracting from all Accidents The principal Instance is of our love to God of which more anon because God hath no Accidents and therefore is loved meerly as in his Essence And no doubt but God is to be loved as in his Essential perfection But yet we are nono of those that against Pet. Hurtado Mendez and other Nominals will undertake to prove that Relations to the Creatures which are Accidents do not truly belong to God such as that of Creator Owner Ruler Benefactor c. we leave that Task to the Thomists and to other Mens judgements how well they perform it The next Instance is our love to Man as Man and so to other Created Essences which we deny not but add 1. That Man's Relation to God as he sheweth his Maker's perfections is a Relation and that 's it that is to be loved morally in Man at least principally and never left out The same we say of other Essences 2. And the Wisdom Goodness and so the moral amiableness of Man at least the principal is it self an Accident The Word of God and the Worship of God are Accidents But yet we say that the properest Notion of Bonum per se is when we love a thing but specially God himself as in the simple Essence 〈◊〉 a supervening obliging Accident And of malum per 〈◊〉 when God's very Essence is hated or not loved But that any morally hate the very substantial Essence of a Creature we leave others to prove Prop. 16. This holdeth about the very Negative Laws of the Decalogue e. g. To kill a Man is in it self no moral Evil else it were sin to Execute Malefactors and Kings Judges and Souldiers were the most criminal sinners To kill a Man Authoritatively that is a Traytor or Murderer is good that is an Act with its due Mode and Object which are Accidents that make it good And to kill the Innocent or without Authority is sin by this Accident of an undue Mode and Object To take another Mans Goods or Money is not Malum per se for it may be done as a Mulct or by Law on just Cause or for the Publick defence by Authority or by his Consent But to take it without Consent Right or Authority is sin by this Accident So also of the seventh Commandment The Law forbids the Act as Clothed with its undue Accidents The Names of Injustice Coveting Murder Adultery Theft False-witness c. all signifie the Acts with the undue prohibited Accidents One of our Casuists excepteth only Lying as simply per se Evil But he that Lyeth sinneth not because he speaketh those same words but because he speaketh words that in relation to his own mind and to the matter and to the hearers understanding are false and deceitful And that Relative Incongruity of the words is the accident that maketh them sinful Prop. 17. Man passeth his life among such a multitude of accidents and circumstances that it is not one but very many that every one of our actions is Clothed with or concerned in which tend to make it Good or Evil. Prop. 18. A chief distinction here to be observed is between Immutable Duties supposing our own continued Faculties and mutable ones and those things are principally or eminently called Good or Evil per se which are so immutably and no supervenient accident can ever make them otherwise And in the most notable Sense those things are called Good or Evil per accidens which by supervening accidents may be changed from what they were before Pr. 19. That which is thus immutably Good per se is Mans Duty to God himself immediately as he is our Owner Ruler Benefactor and End Considering this Duty not in this or that time but in kind in its season and supposing our Faculties and Con-causes For if a Man should be exercising even Love to God when he is bound to sleep for the support of Nature or if a Man should love God with so passionate an affection as would distract him this as so used is not good but we never knew any in much danger of so over-doing Nor is it a Duty for a Man in Infancy or an Apoplexy or deep sleep c. actually to love fear or trust God and in other such Cases of Impossibility But when possible or in its season it is immutably a Duty Not so rarely as the Jansenist chargeth the Jesuite Casuists to hold once in many Weeks or Months or Years but Love constraining us to its holy Fruits must be the very New
Nature as it were of our Souls and the Business of our Lives Prop. 20. That which makes this to be Bonum per se immutabile which no accident can alter is 1. Because the Foundations of our Obligations are Immutable while our Faculties and Powers endure else they would cease for the de 〈◊〉 itum is a Relation resulting from the meer Being or Position of the Humane Nature as related to God And God will never change Therefore unless Man cease to be man or to be able to act as man the obligation can by no accident be changed 2. Because it is a duty to the supreme Ruler and absolute infinite Good and therefore the very performance of it is exclusive of all changing accidents For he that loveth God as a means to his fleshly pleasure and prosperity only and as less good to him than the world loveth him not as God And he that loveth him as God loveth him as the absolute Power Wisdom and Goodness and therefore exclusively as to all Competitors unless as this love is sinfully defective but that accident of defectiveness maketh not our love to God to be a sin but the defe 〈◊〉 t of it as to degree or frequency of exercise is the sin 3. And also because that God is the Final Object and Love the Final Act which together make up the ultimate end of man including the Vision that kindleth love and the praise joy and obedience which express it But though mean 〈◊〉 may be oft changed and may be too much loved yet the ultimate end is unchangeable and cannot be too much loved by true mental love distinct from distracting passions therefore our Obligations to it are according So that Love to God is the most immutable Moral Good And the same in their place and time must be said of holy Fear Trust and Obedience to God from which no Accident can disoblige us no Command or Prohibition of man no suffering of body or danger of life it self much less the allurements of sensual delights Pr. 21. Accordingly to hate God to distrust his known Promise to disobey his known Law to oppose or persecute his known Interest in the world in his Word and Worship Church and Servants are immutably evil per se which no Accident can make good or lawful For the Reasons before given Pr. 22. But where the object is mutable and the circumstances of things which the Obligation presupposeth there the duty or sinfulness is by supervening Accidents mutable Even Incest which is a hainous sin was a duty to Adams Children because of accidental difference of the case The killing of an innocent Son was well consented to by Abraham when the Lord of Life and of all the world had commanded it and that consent was an act of eminent goodness and accordingly rewarded The borrowing of the Egyptians Goods without intent to restore them and the robbing of them by taking them away was well done when the absolute Owner of the World had by his Precept altered the Propriety Thus the altering of the Case may alter Obligations Pr. 23. But besides the immutable Obligations to God himself there are many instances of our actions towards men and worldy Things which are ordinarily unchanged and only some rare or supernatural declaration of the will of God doth change them For as God the Author and Orderer of Nature sheweth us by experience that he delighteth much in the ordinary Constancy of his operations and rarely changeth the course of Nature so there is an answerable constancy in the ordinary state and order of Things and consequently of obligations or duty And these are the matter of Gods common universal Laws which ordinarily oblige all mankind These are the matter of the second Table of the Decalogue and are seconds in point of immutable Obligation to the first mentioned sort our natural duty to God For though man be mutable and God immutable yet God preserveth so much constancy in Humane Affairs as is just matter of constant universal Laws though they are lyable rarely to dispensations or exceptions And as not murdering not committing Adultery not stealing not lying or false witness bearing are such so also are the meer Positives of the first Table such as are the acts of Instituted Worship and the holy observation of the Lords day Prop. 24. The Cases of Mans Life which are more mutable are the matter of mutable Duty and Sin which are most usually called Good or Evil per accidens because that mutable accidents added to the more constant accidents make them such by change And so it is greatly to be noted that the Act which is a Duty to one Man in one Place at one Time c. may be a sin to another Man or at another Time Place c. And that new accidents may again come in and make that Action that was a sin to become again a Duty And more new accidents may make it a sin again and so over and over Even as when you are weighing in the Ballance one Grain may turn the Scales the other way and two more in the other end may turn them back again and three more in the other end may yet return them and so on many times over and over For Instance Suppose an honest Man cannot pray without some unseemly faults in utterance in secret it is his Duty to pray vocally if that most profit and affect his heart if an exceptious Person be known to over-hear him it may be a sin to do it audibly If his Family be capable of bearing it it is his Duty to do it as he can If strangers come in that would by scorn make it do more hurt than good he may be bound to forbear till they are gone When they are gone it is his Duty again A Fire breaketh out or one falleth into a swound and it is his Duty to forbear When that is over it may be his Duty again c. Pr. 25. Two sorts therefore sin against God that would tye Men to do the very same things of such a mutable Nature without excepting the mutation of accidents 1. Those that will tye them to it by peremptory Laws 2. Those that will censoriously reproach or condemn them as sinners that do not do just as they do when the Circumstances alter the Case Many are so guilty who complain of other Mens Impositions Pr. 26. Hence it is evident that Prudence discerning how the alteration of accidents alter our Obligations is a very needful thing to Christians for the same guidance of their hearts and lives And as Men picture Justice as holding the Ballance so should Christian Prudence be thought on even as judging of Good and Evil with the Ballance in our hand and putting every Grain of considerable accidents into each end And much errour censoriousness disorder and other sin is in the World by ignorant Mens judging of things by some mistaken word of Scripture without prudent weighing of Circumstances and
Law Pr. 41. But to know of several Goods which is most eligible or the greatest is a matter of great difficulty in many Instances in which consisteth no small part of the Christian Wisdom Work and Life The Rules of such discerning are elsewhere laid down by such as have written on that Subject see Christian Direct p. 137. c. Pr. 42. A Good that in it self is Lesser may be the matter of a Greater Duty pro hic nunc because the Greater may have another season when the Lesser cannot E. G. to save a Soul or to build a Church may be a better work than to quench the Fire in an House And yet for that time the quenching of the Fire may be the greater Duty because it can be done no other time when the other may and so both done in their several seasons are better than one alone Pr. 43. A greater Good may be no Duty to him that is not called to do it as preaching to a Woman or unable Lay-man To Rule well as a King is a greater Good than private Business and yet private Men must not usurp it but let it alone as no work of theirs The Subject must not take up the Rulers work nor the Child the Fathers nor the Wife the Husbands nor the Scholar the Teachers because it is better Pr. 44. A Rulers Command will not justifie all scandal given by the Act commanded nor make that Act lawful Nor will all scandal that we foreknow will thence be taken excuse us from obeying the Rulers Command in the offending Act. It is therefore a matter of great difficulty and prudence sometimes to discern whether the Rulers Command or the scandalousness or accidental hurtfulness of the Act put into the Counterballance do weigh down the other Pr. 45. If Governours determine Circumstances antecedently indifferent as the place and hour of Assemblies c. that way which some will be scandalized at and turn to their sin and hurt when they might have avoided this occasion of their sin by another way without any or so great a hurt this is the Governours sin so to mis-do But it may notwithstanding be a Duty in the Subject to obey that Determination because 1. It is a Command of a Ruler in his place 2. The thing is supposed not only lawful but such as doth more good for Concord as it is a Determination of Authority than it doth hurt by Mens mistake of which we have spoken in another Paper As e. g. some are so offended at the old Metre of our singing Psalms that they will separate from the worship on that account Suppose that the Magistrate and Pastors will use them and no other If they sin in chusing no better and if my using them be offensive to them that separate yet is it my Duty and the rest of the Peoples to obey the Magistrate and Pastor and joyn with the Church in using them rather than separate as others do for many reasons Pr. 46. Of the Nature Kinds Causes and Cure of Scandal given and taken one of us hath written so much Christian Directory Tom. 4. p. 80. c. as may excuse the omission of the same in this writing But we must still desire the Reader to note that the word Scandal is among us variously used 1. Sometime by the vulgar for meer displeasing or grieving another especially in matters of Religion 2. Sometime for a seeming sinfulness So a Scandal is said to be raised of a Man when he is truly or falsly accused of sin especially a disgraceful sin And a Man is called scandalous and scandalized when others justly or unjustly report him to be a disgraceful Sinner and he is called a Scandal in the place where he liveth for that Infamy 3. The use of the word in the Gospel is for any thing that is a Snare or Trap or Stumbling-block to others to keep or hinder them by Temptation from Faith Repentance Holiness or Salvation Pr. 47. Love kindled by Faith and Faith kindling Love and Love working in the order of Obedience is the Sum of all our Duty or Religion To love our Neighbours as our selves and exercise Love in doing good to all as we are able is indispensible Duty We speak of Natural and Moral-legal Power Conjunct Illu 〈◊〉 possumus quod animae corporisque viribus jure possumus Seeing then that Love is the fulfilling of God's Law no Rulers Law can disoblige us from it no not to our very Enemies Nor are they disobliged themselves Pr. 48. He breaketh the sixth Command Thou shalt not Murder who doth not do his best to save his Neighbours Life in danger Much more if he voluntarily and unnecessarily do that which he knew or ought to know would be the occasion and means abused to effect it He that oweth maintenance to another and denyeth it him is guilty of his suffering though he take nothing from him E. G. He that provideth not Food for the Life of his Child and famisheth him by such omission He that suffereth his Neighbour to famish when he might relieve him Yea or his Enemy except when in Wars or a Course of Justice he may take away his Life He that seeth his Neighbour in Fire or Water or among Thieves and could save him by lawful means and doth not is guilty of his Blood So is he that seeth his Neighbour in Drunkenness Folly or Passion making away himself and doth not save him from himself if he can Much more is be guilty of Murder who wilfully selleth Poyson to him who he knoweth doth intend to kill his Neighbour or himself much more his Prince with it And if we have any Casuists more loose than the Jesuites accused by Montaltus who will justifie this because that selling Arsenick c. is lawful per se and unlawful only per accidens ye we suppose that the Judges would be stricter Casuists in judging him to punishment that sinned thus per accidens And as Gods Laws reaching the Conscience are stricter in such things than Mans so should the Expositors of them be than the Judges And we hope that our Casuists will never see a Law so made that shall Command or tolerate all Apothecaries to sell Poyson to those that they know mean to use it to Treason or Murder and shall say you are not bound to neglect your Trade your Right or Liberty to prevent another Mans sin and abusing it to his own or others hurt Our Law-makers will never say we may Command this because it is sin but per accidens When Interest is against their Errour who by Interest were led into it it will then be easie to see the evil of such commanding yea or conniving at sin per accidens Till then it is hard curing them whom mistaken Interest blindeth of the most Inhumane Errour Pr. 49. We therefore who are called Non-Con 〈◊〉 ormists and Puritans by Men whose Interest dictateth reproaches do now confess that whereas we once
Ecclesiastical Affairs much more are we far from condemning all the ancient and present Churches of Christ that have used such or yet use them throughout the Christian world And yet farther are we from separating from them on that account for using Liturgies and from encouraging such a Separation Yea we commonly use a stinted Liturgie our selves at least the Psalms read and sung and we hold it lawful to use such as are invented by men that are no Prophets seeing we are commanded to use Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs which confineth us not only to Scripture words and all men have not the skill to make Hymns ex tempore much less would all the Assembly ex tempore break forth into the same words Therefore those that are used by all must be invented by some And Ministers with us do ordinarily impose their own invented words on all the Congregation who must follow them as our Metres and Tunes of Psalms are imposed XVII We think it not unlawful to use as much of the English Liturgy as we consented to use when by his Majesties Commission some of us treated about the reformation or alteration of it viz. in such Assemblies where the Peoples incapacity maketh not such use of it more hurtful than helpful to their edification and the comly concordant worshipping of God Much less do we think it unlawful for our selves or the People in this case to join in the reverent and serious use of it with others We find that even the old Non-conformists such as Cartwright Hildersham Knewstube Dr. Jo. Reignolds Bradshaw Paget Ball c. petitioned for a Reformation but not an Abolition of it and wrote and preached against separating from it or for it from the Churches that used it and many of them not only used much or most of it themselves but also perswaded to the use of it and answered largely the Separatists Arguments against such use And we join with Mr. Ball and other of them in thanking God that England hath a more reformed Liturgy than most of the Churches in the World and we would not seem to use it when we do not but do it as aforesaid in the serious devotion and fervour of our Souls Nor would we peevishly make any thing in it worse than it is but would put the best construction on each part of it that true Reason will justifie or allow XVIII We are far from judging the Parish Ministers to be no true Ministers of Christ or the Parish Churches no true Churches or judging it unlawful to hold Communion with them But if there be any called Ministers or Priests of these following sorts we take them for no true Ministers of Christ ziz 1. If by insufficiency they are uncapable of Teaching the necessary parts of Christianity and Guiding the Church accordingly in the Publick Worship of God 2. If they are Hereticks denying any of these essential parts 3. If they are malignant Opposers of the practice of them And in a word If they are such through incapacity as are like to do more harm than good XIX In several Customs freely not by constraint used in many ancient Churches and in several practices of several Churches of these Times we find that which we would not by Oaths or Subscriptions or Covenants approve but with they were reformed and that they had never been used when yet we do not for such things dishonour and reproach such Churches nor inveigh against them in our preaching to diminish their due esteem much less disclaim them as no Churches of Christ but love and honour them and live peaceably under many faults which we cannot reform in the places where we live So be it no sin be put upon our selves we can hold Communion with those that have divers sins or faults in their Ministrations not as with their sin but with their Church in worship notwithstanding the sin so it corrupt not God's worship so far as that he himself rejecteth it For no Man is sinless in his best performance XX. Though the Pastors hold any tolerable errors personally and though such are usually uttered in their Ministration and though they be inserted in their Liturgies so that we may expect to hear them yea uttered as in that Churches name we hold not all this sufficient cause to warrant our separation from that Church For all Churches consist of Men and all Men are faulty and imperfect and such as the Men are such we may expect their works should be notwithstanding the Divine assistance And to separare from all faulty Churches and Worship is to separate from all the World and allow all the World to separate from us XXI If 〈◊〉 true Church deny us Communion unless we will commit some sin or omit some necessary duty though we cannot be locally present in such cases nor approve what they so do yet we shall not therefore renounce them as no Churches but lamenting their sin and their denying us their Communion on just Terms we shall continue the Union and Communion of Faith and Love and be present in spirit though corporally absent desiring a part in their Prayers and owning all that God disowneth not XXII We hold that no Christians must be disjoyned or separated in any of the seven Points of Union required by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. 1. One Body the Catholick Church headed by Christ 2. One Spirit the Holy Ghost 3. One Hope of our Calling Remission Adoption and the Heavenly Glory 4. One Lord Jesus Christ 5. One Faith the Essentials of Christianity believed 6. One Baptisme or Baptismal Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 7. One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all of whom and to whom and through whom are all things XXIII Though we are not satisfied of the lawfulness of using the transient Image of the Cross as a Dedicating Sign and Symbol of Christianity so much Sacramental much less to refuse from Baptism and Christendom all Christians Infants unless they will have them so crossed no more than if a Crucifix were so imposed and used yet do we not condemn all use of either Cross or Crucifix Nor do we presume censoriously to reproach and dishonour the ancient Christians who living among Pagans that derided Christ Crucified did shew them by oft using this sign that they were not ashamed of the Cross And though we find that they used more Rites and significant devised Signs and Ceremonies than we think they should have done yet we judge it our Duty to love and honour their Memorial Nor do we take all Rites to be sinful that are significant XXIV We hold not all the use of Images even the Images of holy Persons to be unlawful Historical and memorative use we commonly allow as the English Geneva Bible sheweth by many Pictures We condemn not them that have Scripture Persons and History Painted on their Walls or on the very Bricks that