predominant in him But alas he is too easily tempted into Religious passions discontents contentious disputations quarrelsome and opprobrious words and his judgement lamentably darkened and perverted whenever contentious zeal prevaileth and passions do perturb the quiet and orderly operations of his soul. He wanteth both the knowledge and the experience and the mellowness of spirit which riper Christians have attained He hath a less degree of Charity and is less acquainted with the mischiefs of unpeaceableness And therefore it is the common course of young professors to be easily tempted into unpeaceable waies and when they have long tryed them if they prove not Hypocrites to come off at last upon experience of the evils of them and so the young Christians conjunct with some hypocrites make up the rigorous fierce contentious and vexatious party and the aged riper Christians make up the holy moderate healing party that groan and pray for the Churches peace and mourn in secret both for the ungodliness and violence which they cannot heal Yea the difference is much apparent in the Books and Sermons which each of them is best pleased with The ripe experienced Christian loveth those Sermons that kindle Love and tend to Peace and love such healing Books as do narrow differences and tend to reconcile and heal such as Bishop Halls Peace-maker and Pax terris and all his writings and Bishop Davenants Bishop Mortons and Bishop Hall's Pacificatory Epistles to Duraeus and Mr. Burroughs's Irenicon Ludov. Crocius Amyraldus Junius Paraeus's and many other Irenicons written by forein Divines to say nothing of those that are upon single controversies But the younger sowre uncharitable Christians are better pleased with such Books and Sermons as call them aloud to be very zealous for this or that controverted point of Doctrine or for or against some circumstance of worship or Church discipline or about some fashions or customs or indifferent things as if the Kingdom of God were in them Rom. 14.1 2 15 16. 3. But the seeming Christian is either a meer temporizer that will be of that Religion whatever it be which is most in fashion or which the higher powers are of or which will cost him least Or else he will run into the other extream and lift up himself by affected singularities and by making a bustle and stir in the world about some small and controverted point and careth not to sacrifice the peace and safety of the Church to the honour of his own opinions And as small as the Christian Church is he must be of a smaller society than it that he may be sure to be amongst the best while indeed he hath no sincerity at all but placeth his hopes in being of the right Church or Party or Opinion And for his Party or Church he burneth with a feverish kind of zeal and is ready to call for fire from Heaven and to decieve him the Devil sendeth him some from Hell to consume those that are not of his mind Yet doth he bring it as an Angel of light to defend the Truth and Church of Christ And indeed when the Devil will be the Defender of Truth or of the Church or of Peace or Order or Piety he doth it with the most burning zeal You may know him by the means he useth He defendeth the Church by forbidding the people to read the Scriptures in a known tongue and by imprisoning and burning the soundest and holiest members of it and abusing the most learned faithfull Pastors and defendeth the flock by casting out the Shepherds and such like means as the murders of the Waldenses and the Massacres of France and Ireland and the Spanish Inquisition and Queen Maries Bonefires and the Powder-plot yea and the Munster and the English rage and phrensies may give you fuller notice of He that hath no Holiness nor Charity to be zealous for will be zealous for his Church or Sect or Customs or Opinions And then this zeal must be the evidence of his piety and so the Inquisitors have thought they have religiously served God by murdering his servants and it is the badge of their honour to be the Devils hang-men to execute his malice on the members of Christ and all this is done in zeal for Religion by irreligious Hypocrites There is no standing before the malicious zeal of a graceless Pharisee when it riseth up for his carnal interest or the honour and traditions and customs of his Sect Luk. 6.7 And they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus Luke 4.28 Acts 5.17 13.45 John 16.2 Rom. 10 2. Phil. 3.6 Acts 36.10 11. The zeal of a true Christian consumeth himself with grief to see the madness of the wicked But the zeal of the Hypocrite consumeth others that by the light of the fire his Religiousness may be seen You may see the Christians fervent Love of God by the fervent flames which he can suffer for his sake And you may see the fervent Love of the Hypocrite by the flames which he kindleth for others By these he cryeth with Jehu Come and see my zeal for the Lord 2 King 10.16 2 Sam. 21.2 LV. 1. A Christian indeed is one that most highly esteemeth and regardeth the interest of God and mens salvation in the world and taketh all things else to be inconsiderable in comparison of these The interest of Great men and Nobles and Commanders yea and his own in corporal respects as riches honour health and life he taketh to be things unworthy to be named in competition with the interest of Christ and Souls The thing that his heart is most set upon in the world is that God be glorified and that the world acknowledge him their King and that his Laws be obeyed and that darkness and infidelity and ungodliness may be cast out and that pride and worldliness and fleshly lusts may not hurry the miserable world unto perdition It is one of the saddest and most amazing thoughts that ever entreth into his heart to consider how much of the world is overwhelmed in ignorance and wickedness and how great the Kingdom of the Devil is in comparison of the Kingdom of Christ that God should forsake so much of his Creation that Christianity should not be owned in above the sixth part of the world and Popish pride and ignorance with the corruptions of many other Sects and the worldly carnal minds of Hypocrites should rob Christ of so much of this little part and leave him so small a flock of holy ones that must possess the Kingdom His soul consenteth to the Method of the Lords Prayer as prescribing us the order of our Desires And in his prayers he seeketh first in order of estimation and intention the Hallowing of Gods name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven before his daily bread or the pardon of his sins or the deliverance of his own soul from temptations
the injury was like to go both against me and many others of my Brethren Therefore finding since among the relicts of my scattered Papers this imperfect piece which I had before written on that Text I was desirous to publish it as for the benefit of weak Christians so to right my self and to cashier that Farewel Sermon If the Reader will but peruse these Directions impartially and read them as he doth the Prescripts of his Physicians which are not written meerly to be read but must be daily practised whatever it cost him as he loveth his life then I make no doubt notwithstanding the weakness of the composure but it may further the cure of his spiritual weaknesses and distempers and of the consequent troubles and losses of others and himself I hope I shall not meet with many besides malignant hypocrites who will be so impenitent and peevish as to fly in the face of the Reprover and Directer and say that I open the nakedness of many servants of Christ to the reproach and dishonour of Religion I have told you from the Word of God that it is Gods way and must be ours to lay the just dishonour upon the sinner that it may not fall upon Religion and on God And that the defending or excusing odious sins in tenderness of the persons who committed them is the surest and worse way to bring dishonour first or last both upon Religion and on them A Noah a Lot a David a Solomon a Peter c. shall be dishonoured by God in holy Record to all ages that God may not be more dishonoured by them And the truly penitent are willing that it should be so and account their honour a very cheap Sacrifice to offer up to the honour of Religion which they have wronged And till you come to this you come short of true Repentance He that defendeth his open sin unless he could deny the fact doth as bad as say God liketh it Christ bid me do it the Scripture is for it or not against it Religion taught it me or doth not forbid it me The godly allow it and will do the like And what can be said more Blasphemously against God or more injuriously against Religion the Scriptures and the Saints But he that confesseth his sin doth as good as say Lay all the blame on me who do deserve it and not on God on Christ on Scripture on Religion or on the Servants of God For I learned it not from any of them nor was encouraged to it by them None are greater enemies to it than they If I had hearkened to them I had done otherwise It is one of the chief reasons why Repentance is so necessary because it justifieth God and godliness And alas it is too late to talk of concealing those weaknesses and crimes of Christians which are so visible before all the World which have had such publick effects upon Churches Kingdoms and States which have kept almost all the Christian Churches in a torn and bleeding woful state for so many hundred years to this present day Which have separated the Churches of the East and West and defiled both And have drawn so much blood in Christian Countreyes And keep us yet like distracted persons gazing strangely at our nearest friends and running away by peevish separation from our Brethren with whom we must live in Heaven and mistakingly using those as enemies with whom if we are Christians as we profess we are united in the same Head and by the same Spirit which is a Spirit of Love In a word when our faults are so conspicuous as to harden the Infidels Heathens and ungodly and to hinder the Conversion of the World and when they sound so loud in the mouths of our common reproaching enemies and when they have contracted so much malignity as to refuse a cure by such Wars Divisions Church-desolations Plagues and Flames as we have seen It is then too late to say to the Preachers of Repentance Be silent lest you open the nakedness of Christians and disgrace Religion and the Church We must not be silent lest we disgrace Religion and the Church to save the credit of the sinners Whoever readeth the holy Scriptures and ever understood the Christian Faith must needs know that nothing in all the World is so much against every one of our errors and mis-doings It is only for want of more Religion that any Professors of Religion do miscarry Nothing but the Doctrine of Christianity and Godliness did at first destroy the reign of their sin and nothing else can subdue the rest and finish the Cure It is no disgrace to Life that so many mens lives are burdensome with sickness which the dead are not troubled with Nor is it any disgrace to Learning that Scholars for want of more Learning have troubled the World with their contentious Disputes Nor is it any disgrace to reason that mens different Reasons for want of more Reason doth set the World together by the ears We can never magnifie you enough as you are Christians and Godly unless we should ascribe more to you than your bounteous Lord hath given you who hath made you little lower than Angels and crowned you with glory and honour Psal. 8.5 6. But your sins are so much the more odious as they are brought so near the holy presence and as they are aggravated by greater mercies and professions And God is so far from being reconciled or reconcileable to any one of them that though he see not such iniquity in Jacob as is in Heathens and the ungodly because it is not in them to be seen yet he seeth more aggravated iniquity in such sins as you do commit in many respects than in the Heathens And that which is our common trouble is that you hurt not your selves alone by your iniquities Families are hurt by them Neighbours are hurt by them Churches are distracted by them Kingdoms are afflicted by them and thousands of blind sinners are hardened and everlastingly undone by them The ignorant Husband faith I will never follow Sermons nor Scriptures nor be so Religious while I see my Wife that maketh so much ado with Religion to be as peevish and discontented and foul-tongued and unkind and contemptuous and disobedient as those that have no Religion The Master that is prophane saith I like not your Religion when that servant which most Professeth Religion in my house is as lazy and negligent and as surly and sawcy and as ready to dishonour me and answer again and as proud of his little knowledg as those that have no Religion at all The like I might say of all other Relations All the dishonour that this casteth upon Grace is that you have too little of it and it is so weak in you that its Victory over your flesh and passions is lamentably imperfect A servant hearing a high commendation of a Gentleman that he was of extraordinary wisdom and godliness and bounty and patience and
Mind and used by it And as interposed matter or defective application may cause the Image on the Wax to be imperfect though made by the most perfect Seal so is it in this case when one man doth defectively understand the Scripture-description of a godly man or Christian and another by misunderstanding mixeth false conceptions of his own and another by a corrupt depraved will doth hinder the understanding from believing or remembring or considering and using what it partly apprehendeth what wonder if the Godliness and Christianity in their hearts be unlike the Godliness and Christianity in the Scriptures When the Law of God in Nature and Scripture is pure and uncorrupt and the Law of God written imperfectly on the heart is there mixt with the carnal Law in their members no marvel if it be expressed accordingly in their lives I have therefore much endeavoured in all my writings and especially in this to draw out the full pourtraiture of a Christian or godly man indeed and to describe Gods Image on the soul of man in such a manner as tendeth to the just information of the Readers mind and the filling up of the wants and rectifying the errors which may be found in his former conceptions of it And I do purposely inculcate the same things oft in several writings as when I preached I did in all my Sermons that the Reader may find that I bring him not undigested needless novelties and that the frequent repetition of them may help to make the deeper and fuller impression For my work is to subserve the Holy Ghost in putting Gods Law into mens hearts and writing it out truly clearly and fully upon their inward parts that they may be made such themselves by understanding throughly what they must be and what a solid Christian is And that thus they may be born again by the incorruptible immortal seed the Word of God which will live and abide for ever and may purifie their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1.22 23 25. He is the best Lawyer Physician Souldier c. who hath his Doctrine in his brain and not only in his Books and hath digested his reading into an intellectual systeme and habit of knowledge If Ministers had an hundred times over repeated the integral pourtraiture or character of a sound Christian till it had been as familiar to the minds and memories of their hearers as is the description of a Magistrate a Physician a School-master a Husband-man a Shephered and such things as they are well acquainted with it would have been a powerfull means to make sound Christians But when mens minds conceive of a Christian as a man that differeth from Heathens and Infidels in nothing but holding the Christian Opinions and using different words and ceremonies of worship and such like no wonder if such be but opinionative lifeless Christians And if their Religion make them no better than a Seneca or Plutarch I shall never believe that they are any surer to be saved than they And such a sort of men there are that suppose Christianity to consist but of these three parts 1. The Christian Doctrine acknowledged which they call Faith 2. The Orders and Ordinances of the Christian Church and Worship submitted to and decently used which they call Godliness And 3. The heart and life of a Cato Cicero or Socrates adjoyned But all that goeth beyond this which is the Life of Christianity and Godliness a Lively Faith and Hope and Love a Heavenly and Holy mind and life from the renewing in dweling Spirit of God which is described in this Treatise they are strangers to it and take it to be but fansie and hypocrisie These No-Christians do much to reduce the Church to Infidelity that there may be indeed No Christians in the world For my part I must confess if there were no better Christians in the world than these I think I should be no Christian my self And if Christ made men no better than the Religion of Socrates Cato or Seneca and did no more to the reparation and perfecting of mens hearts and lives I should think no better of the Christian Religion than of theirs For the means is to be estimated by the End and Vse And that 's the best Physician that hath the Remedies which are fittest to work the cure If God had not acquainted me with a sort of men that have really more Holiness Mortification Spirituality Love to God and to one another and even to enemies and more heavenly desires expectations and delights than these men before described have it would have been a very great hinderance to my Faith The same may I say of those that place Godliness and Christianity only in holding strict opinions and in affected needless singularities and in the fluent Oratory and length of prayer and avoiding other mens forms and modes of worship and in any thing short of a Renewed Holy Heavenly heart and life And undoubtedly if a true full Character of Godliness had been imprinted in their minds we should never have seen the Professors of it so blotted with sensuality selfishness pride ambition worldliness distrust of God self-conceitedness heresie schism rebellions unquietness impatiency unmercifulness and cruelty to mens souls and bodies as we have seen them in this age and all this justified as consistent with Religion And I fear that because this Treatise will speak to few that are not some way guilty every face which hath a spot or blemish will be offended with the glass and lest the faulty will say that I particularly intended to disgrace them But I must here tell the Reader to prevent his misunderstanding that if he shall imagine that I have my eyes upon particular parties and as a discontented person do intend to blame those that differ from my self or to grieve inferiours or dishonour and asperse superiours they will mistake me and wrong themselves and me who professedly intend but the true Description of sound Christians diseased Christians and seeming Christians And for the manner of this writing I am conscious it hath but little to commend it The matter is that for which it is published The Lord Verulam in his Essayes truly saith that much reading makes one full much discourse doth make one ready and much writing doth make a man exact Though I have had my part of all these means yet being parted five years from my Books and three years from my Preaching the effects may decay and you must expect neither Quotations or Oratory Testimonies or ornament of stile But having not yet wholly ceased from Writing I may own so much of the exactness as will allow me to intreat the Reader not to use me as many have done who by over-looking some one word have made the sense another thing and have made it a crime to be exact in Writing because they cannot or will not be exact in Reading or charitable or humane in interpreting The Contents THE Characters of a strong
confirmed Christian. page 1 1. He liveth by such a Faith of unseen things as governeth his soul instead of sight 6 2. He hath cogent Reasons for his Religion 9 3. He seeth the well-ordered frame of sacred verities and the integral parts in their harmony or consort and setteth not up one truth against another 11 4. He adhereth to them and practiseth them from an inward connatural principle called The Divine Nature and The Spirit of Christ. 12 5. He serveth not God for fear only but for Love 14 6. He loveth God 1. Much for his Goodness to himself 2. And more for his Goodness to the Church 3. And most of all for his essential Goodness and perfection 16 7. He taketh this Love and its Expressions for the heart and height of all his Religion 19 8. He hath absolutely put his soul and all his hopes into the hand of Christ and liveth by faith upon him as his Saviour 21 9. He taketh Christ as the Teacher sent from God and his Doctrine for the truest wisdom and learneth of none but in subordination to him 23 10. His Repentance is universal and effectual and hath gone to the Root of every sin 25 11. He loveth the Light as it sheweth him his sin and duty and is willing to know the worst of sin and the most of duty 27 12. He desireth the highest degree of Holiness and hath no sin which he had not rather leave than keep and had rather be the Best though in poverty than the Greatest in prosperity 30 13. He liveth upon GOD and HEAVEN as the End Reward and Motive of his Life 32 14. He counteth no cost or pains too great for the obtaining it and hath nothing so dear which he cannot part with for it 35 15. He is daily exercised in the practice of Self-denial as next to the Lovers of God the second half of his Religion 38 16. He hath mortified his fleshly desires and so far mastereth his senses and appetite that they make not his obedience very uneasie or uneven 42 17. He preferreth the means of his holiness and happiness incomparably before all provisions and pleasures of the flesh 45 18. He is crucified to the world and the world to him by the Cross of Christ and contemneth it through the belief of the greater things of the life to come 47 19. He foreseeth the End in all his waies and judgeth of all things as they will appear at last 50 20. He liveth upon God alone and is content with his favour and approbation without the approbation and favour of men 53 21. He hath absolutely devoted himself and all that he hath to God to be used according to his will 56 22. He hath a readiness to obey and a quick and pleasant compliance of his will to the will of God 58 23. He delighteth himself more in God and Heaven and Christ and Holiness than in all the world Religion is not tedious and grievous to him 59 24. He is conscious of his own sincerity and assured of his Justification and title to Everlasting Joyes 66 25. This Assurance doth not make him more careless and remiss but increaseth his love and holy diligence 68 26. Yet he abhorreth Pride as the first born of the Devil and is very low and vile in his own eyes and can easily endure to be low and vile in the eyes of others 69 27. Being acquainted with the deceitfulness of the heart and the methods of temptation he liveth as among snares and enemies and dangers in a constant watch and can conquer many and subtil and great temptations through grace 72 28. He hath counted what it may cost him to be saved and hath resolved not to stick at suffering but to bear the Cross and be conformed to his crucified Lord and hath already in heart forsaken all for him 74 29. He is not a Christian only for company or carnal ends or upon trust of other mens opinion and therefore would be true to Christ if his Rulers his Teachers his Company and all that he knoweth should forsake him 78 30. He can digest the hardest Truths of Scripture and the hardest passages of Gods Providence 80 31. He can exercise all his Graces in harmony without neglecting one to use another or setting one against another 81 32. He is more in getting and using Grace than in enquiring whether he have it though he do that also in its place 82 33. He studieth Duty more than Events and is more carefull what he should be towards God than how he shall here be used by him 83 34. He is more regardfull of his duty to others than of theirs to him and had much rather suffer wrong than do it 84 35. He keepeth up a constant Government of his Thoughts restraining them from evil and using them upon God and for him 87 36. He keepeth a constant Government over his passions so far as that they pervert not his judgement his heart his tongue or actions 88 37. He governeth his tongue imploying it for God and restraining it from evil 90 38. Heart-work and Heaven-work are the principal matters of his religious discourse not barren controversies or impertinencies 92 39. He liveth upon the common great substantials of Religion and yet will not deny the smallest Truth or commit the smallest sin for any price that man can offer him 93 40. He is a high esteemer and carefull Redeemer of Time and abhorreth Idleness and Diversions which would rob him of it 98 41. His heart is set upon doing all the good in the world that he is able It is his daily business and delight 101 42. He truly loveth his neighbour as himself 103 43. He hath a special love to all godly Christians as such and such as will not stick at cost in its due expressions nor be turned into bitterness by tollerable differences 104 44. He forgiveth injuries and loveth his enemies and doth them all the good he can from the sense of the love of Christ to him 106 45. He doth as he would be done by and is as precise in the Justice of his dealings with men as in acts of piety to God 108 46. He is faithful and laborious in his outward trade or calling not out of covetousness but obedience to God 111 47. He is very conscionable in the duties of his several Relations in his family or other society as a superiour inferiour or equal 112 48. He is the best subject whether his Rulers be good or bad though Infidel and ungodly Rulers may mistake use him as the worst 113 49. His trust in God doth overcome the fear of man and settle him in a constant fortitude for God 121 50. Judgement and Zeal conjunct are his constitution His Judgement kindleth Zeal and his Zeal is still judicious 123 51. He can bear the infirmities of the weak and their censures and abuses of himself and requiteth them not with uncharitable censure or reproach 126 52. He
DIRECTIONS FOR Weak distempered CHRISTIANS TO Grow up to a confirmed State OF GRACE With MOTIVES opening the lamentable Effects of their Weaknesses and Distempers The FIRST PART Published also to further that REPENTANCE which WARS and PLAGVES and FLAMES and CHVRCH-CONVULSIONS have so long and loudly Preached to ENGLAND By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Crowns over against Holborn Conduit 1669. To my Dearly Beloved the Church of Christ at Kederminster in Worcestershire I Suppose you do not only remember that ten Years ago I Preached these Sermons to you but also what Schisms what revilings of the Ministers of Christ what Heresies of Ranters Seekers and others what cruelties against one another and what remorsless overturnings of Government and worst of all what bold appeals to God himself as if he were the approver of all this did give you and me extraordinary occasions of such thoughts and lamentations as are here expressed But though the great mercy of God did preserve your selves from these transgressions and made it your los to behold them with daily complaints and sorrows yet I must not so flatter you as to say that the ordinary weaknesses of Christians are not at all among you The things which I specially loved in you I will freely praise which were A special measure of humility a plain simplicity in Religion a freedom from the common Errors a readiness to receive the Truth a Catholick temper without addictedness to any Sect a freedom from Schisme and separating wayes and a unity and unanimity in Religion a hatred and disowning of the Usurpations and perturbations and Rebellions against the Civil Government and an open bearing of your testimony in all these cases together with seriousness in Religion and sober righteous charitable and godly conversations But yet with all this which is truly amiable I know you have your frailties and imperfections The weaker sort of Christians either in knowledg or in holiness are the greater number in the best Congregation that I ever yet knew To say nothing of the unsound And what may be your Case these eight years since I have been separated from your presence I cannot tell though through the mercy of God I hear not of your declining It is our sin which hath parted us asunder Let us lay the blame upon our selves I have now done expecting my ancient comforts in labouring among you any more For these six years time in which I thought my greater experience had made me more capable of serving my Master better than before his Wisdom and Justice have caused me to spend in grievous silence And now my decayes and disability of body are so much increased that if I had leave I have not strength nor can ever reasonably expect it Therefore once more I am glad to speak to you as I may and shall be thankful if Authority will permit these Instructions to come to your view that the weak may have some more counsel and assistance And if any shall miscarry and disgrace Religion there may remain on Record one more testimony what Doctrine it was that you were taught The Lord be your Teacher and your strength and save you from your selves and from this present evil World and preserve you to his heavenly Kingdom through Jesus Christ Amen Octob. 31. 1668. Your Servant R. B. THE PREFACE Readers THat you may neither mis-understand this Book nor me I owe you this pre-advertisement That it was Preached in a Lecture at Kederminster in Worcestershire about seven or eight years ago 1658 That the sad experience of the distempers of weak well-meaning people though not in that place yet in those times especially of those who ran after the most gross deceivers distracted the Churches reviled afflicted and busily attempted to pull down the Pastors and actually pulled down the higher Powers whom God forbad them to resist was the chief occasion of the Preaching of these Sermons And that the special reasons for my publishing them now are these that follow 1. Because I perceive not that yet people are sufficiently humbled for those miscarriages or have yet well found out their sins which by many and sore Judgments have found them out 2. Because I perceive that it is too ordinary to speak to Weak Christians only by way of comfort and too rare to shew them the evil of their distempers and that the very terms are used as if they imported nothing but what is to be loved or tenderly gainsayed And most that hear themselves called Weak Christians do take it for a word of honouring-pity and feel in it no humbling matter of reproof As if the comfort of being a Living man did nullify the trouble and pain of Infancy of a Lethargy a Leprosie a Feaver Gout or Stone The scandals which have dishonoured Religion in this Age do tell us that it is not all a Preachers work to convince and convert the Infidels and Profane ones but that much of it lyeth in detecting Hypocrisies and humbling the weak and healing their distempers and saving and raising them from their Falls The thoughts of the Case of such Christians as these did tempt Augustine once to doubt whether there were not a Purgatory It seemed so hard to him to believe either that men who in the rest of their lives were godly and honest should go to Hell or that men so guilty of particular crimes and scandals of which their ignorance and error kept them from repenting could go strait to Heaven And no doubt but it was the heinous sins and great distempers of men professing Godliness which caused humane reason to invent and entertain this doctrine of Purgeing-pains But when God hath cast men into many Purgatories and yet they repent not I fear it threateneth worse than Purgatory 3. Moreover I remembred the request of that Learned Pious Peaceable A. B. Usher which I mentioned in the Preface to my Call to the Unconverted According to which I had before Published 1. That Call 2. Directions against miscarrying in the work of Conversion 3. And this I intended for the Third Part when I began it but was hindered from bringing it to the purposed perfection The Fourth Part being Directions for Peace of Conscience being extant long before 4. But that which since urged me to this publication was that the last Sermon which I Preached publickly was at Black-Fryars on this Text Col. 2.6 7. and presently after there came forth a Book called Farewell-Sermons among which this of mine was one Who did it or to what end I know not nor doth it concern me to enquire But I took it as an injury both as it was done without my knowledg and against my will and to the offence of my Superiors and because it was taken by the Notary so imperfectly that much of it was non-sence Especially when some Forreigners that lived in Poland Hungary and Helvetia were earnest to buy this with the rest of my Writings I perceived how far
it for matter or manner or else if the Minister displease you your feeble stomachs do loath the food because you like not the Cook that dresseth it or because his hands are not so clean as you desire The full Soul loatheth an Honey-comb but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet Prov. 27.7 Or if you get it down you can hardly keep it but are ready to cast it up to our faces And thus a great deal of our labour is lost with you holy Doctrine lost and Sacraments and other Ordinances lost because you have not strength to digest them Labour therefore to be stablished and built up 7. I beseech you look upon the face of the World and see whether it have not need of the strongest helps Whereas the weak and sick are burthensome to others rather than fit to help the distressed It is a multitude among us and abroad in the world that are ignorant and ungodly and in the depth of misery And if there be but a few to help them those few should not be Babes Abundance of this multitude are obstinate in their sin blind and wilful captivated by the Devil and have sold themselves to do evil and shall such miserable Souls as these have none but children or sick folks to help them I tell you Sirs their Diseases prove too hard for the skilfullest Physicians It will put the wisest man in England to it to perswade one obstinate enemy of godliness to the hearty love of a holy life or to cure one old superstitious person of his self-conceitedness or one covetous person of his love of the World or one old drunkard or glutton of his sensuality How then will silly ignorant Christians be able to perswade them I know it is not the ability of the Instrument but the will of God that is the principal cause but yet God useth to work by instruments according to their fitness for the work What a case is that Hospital in where all are sick and no healthful persons among them to help them Poor weak Christians you are not able much to help one another how much less to help the dead ungodly World Wo to the World if it had no better helpers And wo to your selves if you had not the help of stronger than your selves seeing it is Gods way to work by means Alas a child or sick person is so unfit to labour for the Family and to work for others that they are the burdens of the Family and must be provided for by others They are so unmeet to help others in their weakness that they must be carried or attended and waited on themselves What a Life is this to be the burdens of the Church when you might be the Pillars of the Church To be so blind and lame when you might be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame I speak not this to extenuate Gods mercies to you nor to undervalue the great felicitie of the Saints even the poorest and weakest of them I know that Christ is tender of the weakest that are sincere and will not forsake them But though you are so far above the dead world even in the bed of your groaning and languishing yet O how far are you below the Confirmed healthful Christian You are happy in being alive but you are unhappy in being so diseased and weak You are happy in being of the Family and fellow-Citizens with the Saints But you are unhappy in being so useless and unprofitable and burdensom For indeed you live but as the Poor of the Parish not only on the Alms of Christ for so we do all but on the Alms of your brethrens assistance and support And I know that in worldly matters you will rather labour with your hands that you may have to give to them that need than be troublesom to others and live upon Charity Eph. 4.28 I know that the time is not yet come that there shall not be a Beggar in Israel I mean one that needs not our continual relief The poor we shall have alwayes with us even the poor in Grace to exercise our Charity and I know that the strong must bear with their infirmities and exercise compassion on them But yet you should remember the words of Christ It is more honourable to give than to receive And therefore be perswaded to be stir your selves for spiritual health and strength and riches that the multitudes of needy miserable Souls may have some help from you and that when they come to your doors you may not turn them away with so cold an answer Alas we have nothing for our selves Were you but strong confirmed Christians what blessings might you be to all about you What a stay to the places where you live Your lips would feed many as a Tree of Life The ear that heard you would bless you and the eye that saw you would bear you witness Job 29.11 You would be to poor Souls as bountiful Rich men are to their bodies the support and relief of many that are needy You would not eat your morsells alone nor would you see any perish for lack of cloathing but the loyns of the poor would bless you Job 31.17 18 19 20. Oh pity the poor World that needeth more than Childrens help and grow up unto Confirmation O pity the poor Church that abounds with weaklings that 's pestered with childish self conceited quarrellers and needeth more than childrens help and grow up to confirmation O pity your selves and live not still in so childish sickly and beggarly a condition when the way of riches and health is before you but up and be doing till you have attained confirmation 8. Yea this is not all you do not only deny the Church your assistance but most of the troubles and divisions of the Church are from such unsetled weaklings as you In all Ages almost these have made the Church more work than the Heathen Persecutors did with Fire and Sword These Novices as Paul calleth them that is your beginners in Religion are they that most commonly are puffed up with Pride and fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3.6 These are they that are easiest deceived by Seducers as being not able to make good the truth nor to confute the plausible reasonings of the adversaries and withall they have not that rooted love to the Truth and wayes of God which should hold them fast and they quickly yield like cowardly Souldiers that are able to make but small resistance And as Paul speaks they are like children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 If you will still continue children what better can we expect of you but thus to be toss'd and carryed about Thus you gratify Satan and Seducers when you little think on it And thus you harden the ungodly in their way And thus you grieve the hearts
trouble you consider that your own weakness leaves you lyable to far greater and offer offences against God and this should trouble you much more Let me give you another instance If you have a Pastor that is truly godly and yet is so weak that he can scarce speak with any understanding or life the Message that he should deliver and withall is undiscreet and as scandalous as will stand with Grace what good is this man like to do for all his Godliness At least you will soon see a lamentable difference between such a one and a judicious convincing holy heavenly powerful and unspotted man O what a blessing is one to the place and the other may be a grievous judgment and you would be ready to run away from his Ministry Why Sirs if there be so great a difference between Pastor and Pastor where both have Grace methinks you should see what a difference there is also between People and People even where all have Grace For truly poor Ministers find this to their sorrow in their people as well as you can find it in them Some Ministers have a stayed confirmed judicious humble meek self-denying teachable peaceable and experienced people and these walk comfortably and guide them peaceably and labour with them cheerfully and O what beauty and glory is upon such Assemblies and what order and growth and comfort is among them But alas how many Ministers have a flock even of those that we hope are godly that grieve them by their levity or weary them by their unteachable ignorance or self-conceitedness or hinder their labours by errors and quarrels and perverse opposition to the truths which they do not understand So that there is a great difference between people and people that are godly Brethren it is far from the desire of my heart to cast any unjust dishonour upon Saints much less to dishonour the Graces of God in them No I take it rather for an honour to that immortal spark that it can live among its enemies and not be conquered and in the waters of corruption and not be quenched But yet I must take up a just complaint that few of us answer the cost of our Redemption and the provisions of God or are near such a people as our receiveings or Professions require we should be It is one of the most grievous thoughts that ever came to my heart to observe how the lives of the greatest part of Professors do tend to dishonour the power and worth of Grace in the eyes of the World and that the ungodly should see that Grace doth make no greater a difference and do no more upon us than it doth Yea it is a sore temptation oftentimes to Believers to see that Grace doth no more in the most but that so many are still a shame to their Profession I must confess that I once thought more highly of Professors as to the measure of their Grace than experience now will suffer me to think Little did I think that they had been so unstable so light so ignorant so giddy as to follow almost any that do but whistle them What a dreadful sight it is to see how quickly the most odious Heresies do infect and destroy even multitudes of them and that in a moment as soon as they appear the grossest mists of the bottomless pit are presently admired as the light of God If a Church-divider do but arise how quickly doth he get Disciples If a Papist have but opportunity he will lightly catch some as oft as he doth cast his net If he cannot prevail bare-faced it is but puting on the visor of some other Sect. Even the odious Heresies of the Quakers themselves and their railings which an honest Pagan would abhor do presently find entertainment with Professors and let the matter or manner be never so sensless yet is it accepted if it be but zealously put off O who would have thought that our people that seemed godly should be so greedy of the Devils baits as to catch at any thing yea and to devour the bare hooks O who would have thought that so many that seemed lovers of God would so readily believe every deceiver that speaks against him if he can but do it with a pious pretence Yea if Seekers themselves do but cast in their objections how many of our people are presently at a loss and their Faith is muddied and they are to seek for a Ministry and to seek for a Church and to seek for Ordinances and to seek for a Scripture even for the Gospel it self and therefore it 's like they are to seek for a Christ or to seek for a Religion if not to seek for God and for a Heaven O sad day that ever these things should come to pass and that we are forced to utter them having no possibility of concealing them from the World Were these men confirmed and stablished in the Faith Were these men rooted and built up in Christ Alas Sirs if any deceivers come among us how few of our people are able to withstand them and defend the truth of God against them but they are catcht up by the Devils Faulconers as the poor Chickens by the Kite except those that fly under the wings of a judicious setled Minister If an Anabaptist assault their Baptism how few of them can defend it And silly Souls when they find themselves non-plus't they suspect not their own unfurnished understandings or unexperienced unsetled hearts but suspect the truth of God and suspect their Teachers be they never so far beyond them in knowledg and holiness as if their Teachers had misled them when ever these unprofitable Infants are thus stalled If a Papist be to plead his cause with them how few have we that can answer him If an Infidel should oppose the Scripture or Christ himself how few among us are able to defend them and solidly give proof either of the truth of Scripture or of the Faith that they do profess And this is not all though it is a heart-breaking case but even in their Practice alas what remisness and what corruptions do appear How few in secret do keep any constant watch upon their hearts and fear and abhor the approach of an evil thought Nay how few are they that do not leave their fancy almost common and ordinarily even feed on covetous proud malicious or lustful thoughts and make no great matter of it but live in it from day to day How few do keep up life and constancy in secret Prayer or Meditation How few are the Families where the Cause and Worship and Government of Christ is kept up in life and honour and where all is not dissolved into a little weary disordered heartless performance Look into our Congregations and judg but by their very looks and carriage and gestures how many even of those that we think the best do so much as seem to be earnest and serious in Prayer or Praise when the Church
is a high esteemer of the Unity of Christians and abhorreth the principles spirit and practises of Division 128 53. He seeketh the Churches unity and concord not upon partial unrighteous or impossible but upon the possible righteous terms here mentioned 139 54. He is of a mellow peaceable spirit not masterly domineering hurtfull unquiet or contentious 146 55. He highliest regardeth the interest of God and mens salvation in the world and regardeth no secular interest of his own or any mans but in subserviency thereto 152 56. He is usually hated for his Holiness by the wicked and censured for his Charity and Peaceableness by the factious and the weak and is moved by neither from the way of Truth 157 57. Though he abhor ungodly soul-destroying Ministers yet he reverenceth the Office as necessary to the Church and world and highly valueth the holy faithfull Labourers 159 58. He hath great Experience of the Providence Truth and Justice of God to fortifie him against temptations to Unbelief 161 59. Though he greatly desireth lively Affections and gifts yet he much more valueth the three Essential parts of holiness 1. A high estimation in the Understanding of God Christ Holiness and Heaven above all that be set in any competition 2. A resolved choice and adhesion of the Will to these above and against all competitors 3. The seeking them first in the endeavours of the life And by these be judgeth of the sincerity of his heart 162 60. He is all his life seriously preparing for his death as if it were at hand and is ready to receive the sentence with joy but especially he longeth for the blessed day of Christs appearing as the answer of all his desires and hopes 164 Six Uses of these Characters 170 THE CHARACTER OF 1 A Sound Confirmed Christian 2 And of the Weak Christian 3 And of the Seeming Christian. IN the Explication of the Text which I made the ground of the foregoing discourse I have shewed you that there is a Degree of Grace to be expected and sought after by all true Christians which putteth the Soul into a sound confirmed radicated state in comparison of that weak diseased tottering condition which most Christians now continue in And I have shewed you how desireable a state that is and what calamities follow the languishing unhealthfull state even of such as may be saved And indeed did we but rightly understand how deeply the errors and sins of many well-meaning Christians have wounded the interest of Religion in this age and how heynously they have dishonoured God and caused the enemies of holyness to blaspheme and hardened thousands in Popery and Ungodliness in probability to their perdition Had we well observed when Gods Judgements have begun and understood what sins have caused our Warres and Plagues and Flames and worse than all these our great heart-divisions and Church-distractions and convulsions we should ere this have given over the flattering of our selves and one another in such a Heaven-provoking state and the ostentation of that little goodness which hath been eclipsed by such lamentable evils And instead of these we should have betaken our selves to the exercise of such a serious deep Repentance as the quality of our sins and the greatness of Gods Chastisements do require It is a dolefull case to see how light many make of all the rest of their distempers when once they think that they have so much Grace and Mortification as is absolutely necessary to save their souls And expect that Preachers should say little to weak Christians but words of comfort setting forth their happiness And yet if one of them when he hath the Gout or Stone or Collick or Dropsie doth send for a Physitian he would think himself derided or abused if his Physitian instead of curing his disease should only comfort him by telling him that he is not dead What excellent disputations have Cicero and Seneca the Platonists and Stoicks to prove that Virtue is of it self sufficient to make Man happy And yet many Christians live as if Holiness were but the way and means to their felicity or at best but a small part of their felicity it self or as if felicity it self grew burdensome or were not desireable in this life or a small degree of it were as good as a greater And too many mistake the will of God and the nature of Sanctification and place their Religion in the hot prosecution of those mistakes They make a composition of error and passion and an unyielding stiffness in them and siding with the Church or party which maintaineth them and an uncharitable censuring those that are against them and an unpeaceable contending for them And this composition they mistake for Godliness especially if there be but a few drams of Godliness and Truth in the composition though corrupted and over-powered by the rest For these miscarriages of many well-meaning zealous persons the Land mourneth the Churches groan Kingdoms are disturbed by them Families are disquieted by them Godliness is hindered and much dishonoured by them the Wicked are hardened by them and encouraged to hate and blaspheme and oppose Religion the glory of the Christian Faith is obscured by them and the Infidel Mahometan and Heathen World are kept from Faith in Jesus Christ and many millions of Souls destroyed by them I mean by the miscarriages of the weaker sort of Christians and by the wicked lives of those carnal Hypocrites who for custome or worldly interest do profess that Christianity which was never received by their hearts And all this is much promoted by their indiscretion who are so intent upon the consolatory opening of the safety and happiness of Believers that they omit the due explication of their Description their Dangers and their Duties One part of this too much neglected work I have endeavoured to perform in the foregoing Treatise Another I shall attempt in this second Part There are five Degrees or ranks of true Christians observable 1. The Weakest Christians who have only the Essentials of Christianity or very little more As Infants that are alive but of little strength or use to others 2. Those that are lapsed into some wounding sin though not into a state of damnation Like men at age who have lost the use of some one member for the present though they are strong in other parts 3. Those that having the Integral parts of Christianity in a considerable measure are in a sound and healthfull state though neither perfect nor of the highest form or rank of Christians in this life nor without such infirmities as are the matter of their daily Watchfulness and Humiliation 4. Those that are so strong as to attain extraordinary degrees of grace who are therefore comparatively called Perfect as Mat. 5.45.5 Those that have an absolute Perfection without sin that is The Heavenly Inhabitants Among all these it is the third sort or degree which I have here characterized and upon the by the first sort and the Hypocrite
care for your state for all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs that is They too much seek their own and not entirely enough the things that are Christs which Timothy did naturally as if he had been born to it and Grace had made the Love of Christ and the souls of men and the good of others as naturall to him as the Love of himself Alas how lowdly do their own distempers and soul miscarriages and the divisions and calamities of the Church proclaim that the weaker sort of Christians have yet too much selfishness and that selfdenial is lamentably imperfect in them 3. But in the seeming Christian selfishness is still the predominant principle he loveth God but for himself and he never had any higher end than self All his Religion his opinions his practice is animated by self-love and governed by it even by the Love of carnal self self-esteem self-conceitedness self-love self-willedness self-seeking and self-saving are the constitution of his heart and life He will be of that opinion and way and party in Religion which selfishness directeth him to choose He will go no farther in Religion than self-interest and safety will allow him to go He can change his friend and turn his love into hatred and his praises into reproach when ever self-interest shall require it He can make himself believe and labour to make others believe that the wisest and holiest servants of God are erroneous homorous hypocrites and unsufferable if they do but stand cross to his opinions and interest For he judgeth of them and loveth or hateth them principally as they conform to his will and interest or as they are against it As the godly measure all persons and things by the will and interest of God so do all ungodly men esteem them as they stand in reference to themselves When their factious interest required it the Jews and specially the Pharisees could make themselves and others believe that the Son of God himself was a breaker of the Law and an enemy to Caesar and a blasphemer and unworthy to live on the earth And that Paul was a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among the people and a ringleader of a sect and a prophaner of the Temple Act. 24.5 6. and which of the Prophets and Apostles did they not persecute Because Christs doctrine doth cross the interest of selfish men therefore the world doth so generally rise up against it with indignation even as a Country will rise against an invading enemy For he cometh to take away that which is dearest to them As it is said of Luther that he medled with the Popes crown and the Fryars bellies and therefore no wonder if they swarmed all about his ears Selfishness is so generall and deeply rooted that except with a few self-denying Saints self-love and self-interest ruleth the world And if you would know how to please a graceless man serve but his carnal interest and you have done it Be of his opinion or take on you to be so applaud him admire him flatter him obey him promote his preferment honour and wealth be against his enemies in a word make him your God and sell your soul to gain his favour and so it 's possible you may gain it XVI 1. A Christian indeed hath so far mortified the flesh and brought all his senses and appetite into subjection to sanctified Reason as that there is no great rebellion or perturbation in his mind but a little matter a holy thought or a word from God doth presently rebuke and quiet his inordinate desires The flesh is as a well-broken and well-ridden horse that goeth on his journey obediently and quietly and not with striving and chasing and vexatious resisting Though still flesh will be flesh and will be weak and will fight against the spirit so that we cannot do all the good we would Isa. 5.17 Rom. 7.16 17 c. yet in the confirmed Christian it is so far tamed and subdued that its rebellion is much less and its resistance weaker and more easily overcome It causeth not any notable unevenness in his obedience nor blemishes in his life it is no other than consisteth with a readiness to obey the will of God Gal. 5.24 25. 1 Cor. 9.26 27. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof They run not as uncertainly they fight not as one that beateth the air but they keep under their bodies and bring them into subjection lest by any means they should be castawaies They put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.13 14. As we see to a temperate man how sweet and easie temperance is when to a glutton or drunkard or riotous liver it is exceeding hard so it is in all other points with a confirmed Christian. He hath so far crucified the flesh that it is as dead to its former lusts and so far mastered it that it doth easily and quickly yield And this maketh the life of such a Christian not only pure but very easie to him in comparison of other mens Nay more than this he can use his sense as he can use the world the objects of sense in subserviency to faith and his salvation His eye doth but open a window to his mind to hold and admire the Creator in his work His tast of the sweetness of the creatures is but a means by which the sweeter Love of God doth pass directly to his heart His sense of pleasure is but the passage of spiritual holy pleasure to his mind His sense of bitterness and pain is but the messenger to tell his heart of the bitterness and vexatiousness of sin As God in the creation of us made our senses but as the inlet and passage for himself into our minds even as he made all the creatures to represent him to us by this passage so grace doth restore our very senses with the creature to this their holy original use that the goodness of God through the goodness of the creature may pass to our hearts and be the effect and end of all 2. But for the weak Christian though he have mortified the deeds of the body by the spirit and live not after the flesh but be freed from its captivity or reign Gal. 5.24 Rom. 8.1 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. yet hath he such remnants of concupiscence and sensuality as make it a far harder matter to him to live in temperance and deny his appetite and govern his senses and restrain them from rebellion and excess He is like a weak man upon an ill-ridden headstrong horse who hath much ado to keep his saddle and keep his way He is stronglier inclined to fleshly lusts or excess in meat or drink or sleep or sports or some such fleshly pleasure than the mortified temperate person is and therefore is ofter guilty of some excess so that his life is a very tiresome
yet to manage assurance well and therefore it is that it is not given him Graces must grow proportionably together If he be but confidently perswaded that he is justified and shall be saved he is very apt to gather some consequence from it that tendeth to security and to the remitting of his watchfulness and care He is ready to be the bolder with sin and stretch his conscience and omit some duties and take more fleshly liberty and ease and think Now I am a child of God I am out of danger I am sure I cannot totally fall away And though his judgement conclude not therefore I may venture further upon worldly fleshly pleasures and need not be so strict and diligent as I was yet his heart and practice thus conclude And he is most obedient when he is most in fear of hell and he is worst in his heart and life when he is most confident that all his danger is past Heb. 4.1 2. 3.14 15.16 3. But the seeming Christian though he have no assurance is hardned in his carnal state by his presumption Had he but assurance to be saved without a holy life he would cast off that very image of godliness which he yet retaineth The conceit of his own sincerity and salvation is that which deludeth and undoeth him What sin would not gain or pleasure draw him to commit if he were but sure to be forgiven It is fear of hell that causeth that seeming religion which he hath And therefore if that fear be gone all is gone and all his piety and diligence and righteousness is come to nought Gal. 6.3 Joh. 8.39 42 44. XXVI 1. For all his assurance a confirmed Christian is so well acquainted with his manifold imperfections and daily failings and great unworthiness that he is very low and vile in his owne eyes and therefore can easily endure to be low and vile in the eyes of others He hath a constant sense of the burden of his remaining sin Especially he doth even abhor himself when he findeth the averseness of his heart to God and how little he knoweth of him and how little he loveth him in comparison of what he ought and how little of Heaven is upon his heart and how strange and backward his thoughts are to the life to come These are as fetters upon his soul He daily groaneth under them as a captive that he should be yet so carnal and unable to shake off the remnant of his infimities as if he were sold under sin that is in bondage to it Rom. 7.14 He hateth himself more for the imperfections of his love and obedience to God than hypocrites do for their reigning sin And O how he longeth for the day of his deliverance Rom. 7.24 He thinketh it no great injury for another to judge of him as he judgeth of himself even to be less than the least of all Gods mercies He is more troubled for being over praised and overvalued than for being dispraised and vilified as thinking those that praise him are more mistaken and lay the more dangerous snare for his soul. For he hath a special antipathy to pride and wondreth that any rational man can be so blind as not to see enough to humble him For his own part in the midst of all Gods graces he seeth in himself so much darkness imperfection corruption and want of further grace that he is loathsom and burdensom continually to himself If you see him sad or troubled and ask him the cause it is ten to one but it is himself that he complaineth of The frowardest wife the most undutiful child the most disobedient servant the most injurious neighbour the most malicious enemy is not half so great a trouble to him as he is to himself He prayeth abundantly more against his own corruption than against any of these O could he but know and love God more and be more in heaven and willinger to die and freer from his own distempers how easily could he bear all crosses or injuries from others He came to Christs school as a little child Mat. 18.3 And still he is little in his own esteem And therefore disesteem and contempt from others is no great matter with him He thinks it can be no great wrong that is done against so poor a worm and so unworthy a sinner as himself except as God or the souls of men may be interested in the cause He heartily approveth of the justice of God in abhorring the proud and hath learned that Rom. 12.10 in honour preferring one another and Gal. 5.26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another 2. But the remnant of Pride is usually the most notable sin of the weak Christian Though it reigneth not it souly blemisheth him He would fain be taken for some body in the Church He is ready to step up into a higher room and to think himself wiser and better than he is If he can but speak confidently of the principles of Religion and some few controversies which he hath made himself sick with he is ready to think himself fit to be a preacher He looketh through a magnifying glass upon all his own performances and gifts He loveth to be valued and praised He can hardly bear to be slighted and dispraised but is ready to think hardly of those that do it if not to hate them in some degree He loveth not to be found fault with though it be necessary to his amendment And though all this vice of pride be not so predominant in him as to conquer his humility yet doth it much obscure and interrupt it And though he hate this his pride and strive against it and lamenteth it before God yet still it is the forest ulcer in his soul And should it prevail and overcome him he would be abhorred of God and it would be his ruine 2 Chro. 16.10 12. Luk. 22.24 25 26. 3. But in the Hypocrite Pride is the reigning sin The praise of men is the aire which he liveth in He was never well acquainted with himself and never felt aright the burden of his sins and wants and therefore cannot bear contempt from others Indeed if his corrupt disposition turn most to the way of coveteousness tyranny or lust he can the easier bear contempt from others as long as he hath his will at home and he can spare their love if he can be but feared and domineer But still his Pride is predominant and when it affecteth not much the reputation of goodness it affecteth the name of being rich or great Sin may make him sordid but grace doth not make him humble Pride is the vital spirit of the corrupted state of man XXVII 1. A confirmed Christian is acquainted with the deceitfulness of mans heart and the particular corrupt inclinations that are in it and especially with his own and he is acquainted with the wiles and methods of the tempter and what are the materials which he maketh his
of his duties and the concernments of his soul permitting the world to take up too much of the vigour of his spirit Or else he is confident in his mistakes and verily thinks that he understandeth better than many wiser men these things which he never understood at all He chooseth his party by the Zeal that he findeth in them without any judicious tryal of the truth of what they hold and teach He is very earnest for many a supposed truth and duty which proveth at last to be no truth or duty at all And he censureth many a wiser Christian than himself for many a supposed sin which is no sin but perhaps a duty For he is alwayes injudicious and his heat is greater than his light or else his light is too flashy without heat Peremptorily he doth set down some among the number of the most wise and excellent men for keeping him company in his mistakes And he boldly numbreth the best and wisest of his Teachers with the transgressors for being of a sounder understanding than himself and doing those duties which he calleth sins And hence it is that he is a person apt to be mislead by appearances of Zeal and the Passions of his Teachers prevail more with him than the Evidence of Truth He that Prayeth and Preacheth most fervently is the man that carryeth him away though none of his Arguments be truly cogent If he hear any hard name against any opinion or manner of worship he receiveth that prejudice which turneth him more against it than reason could have done so the bug-bear name of Heresie Lutheranism and Calvinism frightneth many a well-meaning Papist both from the Truth and almost from his wits And the names of Popery Arminianism Prelacy Presbyterianism Independency c. do turn away the hearts of many from things which they never tryed or understood If a zealous Preacher do but call any opinion or practice Antichristian or Idolatrous it is a more effectual terrour than the clearest proof Big and terrible words do move the passions while the understanding is abased or a stranger to the cause And Passion is much of their Religion And hence alas is much of the calamity of the Church Rom. 14.1 2 3 4 c. 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3 4. Act. 21.20 Gal. 4.17 18. 3. But the seeming Christian is only zealous finally for Himself or zealous about the smaller matters of Religion as the Pharisees were for their Ceremonies and traditions or for his own inventions or some opinions or wayes in which his honour seemeth to be interessed and pride is the bellows of his zeal But as for a holy zeal about the substance and practice of Religion and that for God as the final cause he is a stranger to it He may have a zeal of God and of and for the Law and Worship of God as the material cause but not a true zeal for God as the chief final cause Rom. 10.2 2 Sam. 21.2 2 King 10.16 Act. 22.3 LI. A Christian indeed can bear the infirmities of the weak Though he love not their weakness yet he pittyeth it because he truly loveth their persons Christ hath taught him not to break the bruised reed and to gather the Lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosome and gently lead them that are with young Isa. 40.11 42.3 If they have diseases and distempers he seeketh in tenderness to cure them and not in wrath to hurt and vex them He turneth not the Infants or sick persons from the family because they cry or are unquiet unclean infirm and troublesome but he exerciseth his love and pitty upon their weaknesses If they mistake their way or are ignorant and peevish and froward in their mistakes he seeketh not to undoe them but gently to reduce them If they censure himself and call him erroneous heretical antichristian idolatrous because he concurreth not with them in their mistakes he beareth it with Love and patience as he would do the peevish chidings of a child or the frowardness of the sick He doth not lose his charity and set his wit against a Child and aggravate the crimes and being reviled revile again and say you are Schismaticks hypocrites obstinate and fit to be severely dealt with but he overcometh them with love and patience which is the conquest of a Saint and the happiest victory both for himself and them It is a small matter to him to be judged of man 1 Cor. 4.3 4. He is more troubled for the weakness and disease of the consorious than for his own being wronged by their censures Phil. 1.16 17 18. Rom. 15.1 2 3. 14.2 3. 2. But the weak Christian is readier to censure others than patiently to bear a censure himself Either he stormeth against the Censurers as if they did him some unsufferable wrong through the over-great esteem of himself and his reputation or else to escape the fangs of censure and keep up his repute with them he complyeth with the censorious and overruns his judgement and conscience to be well spoken of and counted a sincere and stedfast man Gal. 2.12 13 14. 3. But the seeming Christian is so proud and selfish and wanteth Charity and tenderness to the weak that he is impatient of their provocations and would cure the diseases of the servants of Christ by cutting their throats or ridding the Countrey of them If a Child do but wrangle with him he cryeth Away with him he is a troubler of the World He taketh more notice of one of their infirmities than of all their graces yea he can see nothing but obstinacy and hypocrisie in them if they do but cross him in his opinions or reputation or worldly ends Selfishness can turn his Hypocrisie into Malignity and cruelty if once he take them to be against his interest Indeed his interest can make him patient He can bear with them that he looketh to gain by but not with them that seem to be against him The radical enmity against sincerity that was not mortified but covered in his heart will easily be again uncovered Mark 6.18 20 21 22. Phil. 1.15 16. 3 Joh. 9. LII 1. A Christian indeed is a great esteemer of the Vnity of the Church and greatly averse to all Divisions among Believers As there is in the natural body an abhorring of dismembring or separating any part from the whole so there is in the mystical body of Christ The members that have life cannot but feel the smart of any distempering attempt For abscision is destruction The members die that are separated from the body And if there be but any obstruction or hinderance of communion they will be painfull or unusefull He feeleth in himself the reason of all those strict commands and earnest exhortations 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same