temperance out of bookes So that the Pâ—rson having studied and mastered all his lusts and affections within and the whole Army of Temptations without hath ever so many sermons ready penn'd as he hath victories And it fares in this as it doth in Physick He that hath been sick of a Consumption and knows what recovered him is a Physitian so far as he meetes with the same disease and temper and can much better and particularly do it then he that is generally learned and was never sick And if the same person had been sick of all diseases and were recovered of all by things that he knew there were no such Physician as he both for skill and tendernesse Just so it is in Divinity and that not without manifest reason for though the temptations may be diverse in divers Christians yet the victory is alike in all being by the self-same Spirit Neither is this true onely in the military state of a Christian life but even in the peaceable also when the servant of God freed for a while from temptation in a quiet sweetnesse seeks how to please his God Thus the Parson considering that repentance is the great vertue of the Gospel and one of the first steps of pleasing God having for his owne use examined the nature of it is able to explaine it after to others And particularly having doubted sometimes whether his repentance were true or at least in that degree it ought to be since he found himselfe sometimes to weepe more for the losse of some temporall things then for offending God he came at length to this resolution that repentance is an act of the mind not of the Body even as the Originall signifies and that the chiefe thing which God in Scriptures requires is the heart and the spirit and to worship him in truth and spirit Wherefore in case a Christian endeavour to weep and cannot since we are not Masters of our bodies this sufficeth And consequently he found that the essence of repentance that it may be alike in all Gods children which as concerning weeping it cannot be some being of a more melting temper then others consisteth in a true detestation of the soul abhorring and renouncing sin and turning unto God in truth of heart and newnesse of life Which acts of repentance are and must be found in all Gods servants Not that weeping is not usefull where it can be that so the body may joyn in the grief as it did in the sin but that so the other acts be that is not necessary so that he as truly repents who performes the other acts of repentance when he cannot more as he that weeps a floud of tears This Instruction and comfort the Parson getting for himself when he tels it to others becomes a Sermon The like he doth in other Christian vertues as of faith and Love and the Cases of Conscience belonging thereto wherein as Saint Paul implyes that he ought Romans 2. hee first preacheth to himselfe and then to others CHAP. XXXIV The Parson's Dexterity in applying of Remedies THe Countrey Parson knows that there is a double state of a Christian even in this Life the one military the other peaceable The military is when we are assaulted with temptations either from within or from without The Peaceable is when the Divell for a time leave us as he did our Saviour and the Angels minister to us their owne food even joy and peace and comfort in the holy Ghost These two states were in our Saviour not only in the beginning of his preaching but afterwards also as Mat. 22.35 He was tempted And Luke 10.21 He rejoyced in Spirit And they must be likewise in all that are his Now the Parson having a Spirituall Judgement according as he discovers any of his Flock to be in one or the other state so he applies himselfe to them Those that he findes in the peaceable state he adviseth to be very vigilant and not to let go the raines as soon as the horse goes easie Particularly he counselleth them to two things First to take heed lest their quiet betray them as it is apt to do to a coldnesse and carelesnesse in their devotions but to labour still to be as fervent in Christian Duties as they remember themselves were when affliction did blow the Coals Secondly not to take the full compasse and liberty of their Peace not to eate of all those dishes at table which even their present health otherwise admits nor to store their house with all those furnitures which even their present plenty of wealth otherwise admits nor when they are among them that are merry to extend themselves to all that mirth which the present occasion of wit and company otherwise admits but to put bounds and hoopes to their joyes so will they last the longer and when they depart returne the sooner If we would judg ourselves we should not be judged and if we would bound our selves we should not be bounded But if they shall fear that at such or such a time their peace and mirth have carryed them further then this moderation then to take Iobs admirable Course who sacrificed lest his Children should have transgressed in their mirth So let them go and find some poore afflicted soul and there be bountifull and liberall for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Those that the Parson findes in the military state he fortifyes and strengthens with his utmost skill Now in those that are tempted whatsoever is unruly falls upon two heads either they think that there is none that can or will look after things but all goes by chance or wit Or else though there be a great Governour of all things yet to them he is lost as if they said God doth forsake and persecute them and there is none to deliver them If the Parson suspect the first and find sparkes of such thoughts now and then to break forth then without opposing directly for disputation is no Cure for Atheisme he scatters in his discourse three sorts of arguments the first taken from Nature the second from the Law the third from Grace For Nature he sees not how a house could be either built without a builder or kept in repaire without a house-keeper He conceives not possibly how the windes should blow so much as they can and the sea rage as much as it can and all things do what they can and all not only without dissolution of the whole but also of any part by taking away so much as the usuall seasons of summer and winter earing and harvest Let the weather be what it will still we have bread though sometimes more somtimes lesse wherewith also a carefull Ioseph might meet He conceives not possibly how he that would beleeve a Divinity if he had been at the Creation of all things should lesse beleeve it seeing the Preservation of all things For Preservation is a Creation and more it is a continued Creation and a creation every
and we have nothing of our selves to draw with Wherefore he ever begins the reading of the Scripture with some short inward ejaculation as Lord open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law c. The third means is a diligent Collation of Scripture with Scripture For all Truth being consonant to it self and all being penn'd by one and the self-same Spirit it cannot be but that an industrious and judicious comparing of place with place must be a singular help for the right understanding of the Scriptures To this may be added the consideration of any text with the coherence thereof touching what goes before and what follows after as also the scope of the Holy Ghost When the Apostles would have called down fire from Heaven they were reproved as ignorant of what spirit they were For the Law required one thing and the Gospel another yet as diverse not as repugnant therefore the spirit of both is to be considered and weighed The fourth means are Commenters and fathers who have handled the places controverted which the Parson by no means refuseth As he doth not so study others as to neglect the grace of God in himself and what the Holy Spirit teacheth him so doth he assure himself that God in all ages hath had his servants to whom he hath revealed his Truth as well as to him and that as one Countrey doth not bear all things that there may be a Commerce so neither hath God opened or will open all to one that there may be a traffick in knowledg between the servants of God for the planting both of love and humility Wherfore he hath one Comment at least upon every book of Scripture and ploughing with this and his own meditations he enters into the secrets of God treasured in the holy Scripture CHAP. V. The Parsons Accessary Knowledges THe Countrey Parson hath read the Fathers also and the Schoolmen and the later Writers or a good proportion of all out of all which he hath complied a book and body of Divinity which is the storehouse of his Sermons and which he preacheth all his Life but diversly clothed illustrated and inlarged For though the world is full of such composures yet every mans own is fittest readyest and most savory to him Besides this being to be done in his younger and preparatory times it is an honest joy ever after to looke upon his well spent houres This Body he made by way of expounding the Church Catechisme to which all divinity may easily be reduced For it being indifferent in it selfe to choose any Method that is best to be chosen of which there is likelyest to be most use Now Catechizing being a work of singular and admirable benefit to the Church of God and a thing required under Canonicall obedience the expounding of our Catechisme must needs be the most usefull forme Yet hath the Parson besides this laborious work a slighter forme of Catechizing fitter for country people according as his audience is so he useth one or other or somtimes both if his audience be intermixed He greatly esteemes also of cases of conscience wherein he is much versed And indeed herein is the greatest ability of a Parson to lead his people exactly in the wayes of Truth so that they neither decline to the right hand nor to the left Neither let any think this a slight thing For every one hath not digested when it is a sin to take something for mony lent or when not when it is a fault to discover anothers fault or when not when the affections of the soul in desiring and procuring increase of means or honour be a sin of covetousnes or ambition and when not when the appetites of the body in eating drinking sleep and the pleasure that comes with sleep be sins of gluttony drunkenness sloath lust and when not and so in many circumstances of actions Now if a shepherd know not which grass will bane or which not how is he fit to be a shepherd Wherefore the Parson hath throughly canvassed al the particulars of humane actions at least all those which he observeth are most incident to his Parish CHAP. VI The Parson praying THe Countrey Parson when he is to read divine services composeth himselfe to all possible reverence lifting up his heart and hands and eyes and using all other gestures which may expresse a hearty and unfeyned devotion This he doth first as being truly touched and amazed with the Majesty of God before whom he then presents himself yet not as himself alone but as presenting with himself the whole Congregation whose sins he then beares and brings with his own to the heavenly altar to be bathed and washed in the sacred Laver of Christs blood Secondly as this is the true reason of his inward feare so he is content to expresse this outwardly to the utmost of his power that being first affected himself hee may affect also his people knowing that no Sermon moves them so much to a reverence which they forget againe when they come to pray as a devout behaviour in the very act of praying Accordingly his voyce is humble his words treatable and slow yet not so slow neither as to let the fervency of the supplicant hang and dy between speaking but with a grave livelinesse between fear and zeal pausing yet pressing he performes his duty Besides his example he having often instructed his people how to carry themselves in divine service exacts of them all possible reverence by no means enduring either talking or sleeping or gazing or leaning or halfe-kneeling or any undutifull behaviour in them but causing them when they sit or stand or kneel to do all in a strait and steady posture as attending to what is done in the Church and every one man and child answering aloud both Amen and all other answers which are on the Clerks and peoples part to answer which answers also are to be done not in a hudling or slubbering fashion gaping or scratching the head or spitting even in the midst of their answer but gently and pausably thinking what they say so that while they answer As it was in the beginning c. they meditate as they speak that God hath ever had his people that have glorified him as wel as now and that he shall have so for ever And the like in other answers This is that which the Apostle cals a reasonable service Rom 12. when we speak not as Parrats without reason or offer up such sacrifices as they did of old which was of beasts devoyd of reason but when we use our reason and apply our powers to the service of him that gives them If there be any of the gentry or nobility of the Parish who somtimes make it a piece of state not to come at the beginning of service with their poor neighbours but at mid-prayers both to their own loss and of theirs also who gaze upon them when they come in and neglect the present
of the day and contriving it to his best gaines To this end besides his ordinary prayers he makes a peculiar one for a blessing on the exercises of the day That nothing befall him unworthy of that Majesty before which he is to present himself but that all may be done with reverence to his glory and with edification to his flock humbly beseeching his Master that how or whenever he punish him it be not in his Ministry then he turnes to request for his people that the Lord would be pleased to sanctifie them all that they may come with holy hearts and awfull mindes into the Congregation and that the good God would pardon all those who come with lesse prepared hearts then they ought This done he sets himself to the Consideration of the duties of the day and if there be any extraordinary addition to the customary exercises either from the time of the year or from the State or from God by a child born or dead or any other accident he contrives how and in what manner to induce it to the best advantage Afterwards when the hour calls with his family attending him he goes to Church at his first entrance humbly adoring and worshipping the invisible majesty and presence of Almighty God and blessing the people either openly or to himselfe Then having read divine Service twice fully and preached in the morning and catechized in the afternoone he thinks he hath in some measure according to poor and fraile man discharged the publick duties of the Congregation The rest of the day he spends either in reconciling neighbours that are at variance or in visiting the sick or in exhortations to some of his flock by themselves whom his Sermons cannot or doe not reach And every one is more awaked when we come and say Thou art the man This way he findes exceeding usefull and winning and these exhortations he cals his privy purse even as Princes have theirs besides ther publick disbursments At night he thinks it a very fit time both sutable to the joy of the day and without hinderance to publick duties either to entertaine some of his neighbours or to be entertained of them where he takes occasion to discourse of such things as are both profitable and pleasant and to raise up their mindes to apprehend Gods good blessing to our Church and State that order is kept in the one and peace in the other without disturbance or interruption of publick dvinie offices As he opened the day with prayer so he closeth it humbly beseeching the Almighty to pardon and accept our poor services and to improve them that we may grow therein and that our feet may be like hindes feet ever climbing up higher and higher unto him CHAP. IX The Parson's state of Life THe Country Parson considering that virginity is a higher state then Matrimony and that the Ministry requires the best and highest things is rather unmarryed then marryed But yet as the temper of his body may be or as the temper of his Parish may be where he may have occasion to converse with women and that among suspicious men and other like circumstances considered he is rather married then unmarried Let him communicate the thing often by prayer unto God and as his grace shall direct him so let him proceed If he be unmarried and keepe house he hath not a woman in his house but findes opportunities of having his meat dress'd and other services done by men-servants at home and his linnen washed abroad If he be unmarryed and sojourne he never talkes with any woman alone but in the audience of others and that seldom and then also in a serious manner never jestingly or sportfully He is very circumspect in all companyes both of his behaviour speech and very looks knowing himself to be both suspected and envyed If he stand steadfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep himself a virgin he spends his dayes in fasting and prayer and blesseth God for the gift of continency knowing that it can no way be preserved but only by those means by which at first it was obtained He therefore thinkes it not enough for him to observe the fasting dayes of the Church and the dayly prayers enjoyned him by auctority which he observeth out of humble conformity and obedience but adds to them out of choyce and devotion some other dayes for fasting and hours for prayers and by these hee keeps his body tame serviceable and healthfull and his soul fervent active young and lusty as an eagle He often readeth the Lives of the Primi tive Monks Hermits and virgins and wondreth not so much at their patient suffering and cheerfull dying under persecuting Emperours though that indeed be very admirable as at their daily temperance abstinence watchings and constant prayers and mortifications in the times of peace and prosperity To put on the profound humility and the exact temperance of our Lord Iesus with other exemplary vertues of that sort and to keep them on in the sunshine and noone of prosperity he findeth to be as necessary and as difficult at least as to be cloathed with perfect patience and Christian fortitude in the cold midnight stormes of persecution and adversity He keepeth his watch and ward night and day against the proper and peculiar temptations of his state of Life which are principally these two Spirituall pride and Impurity of heart against these ghostly enemies he girdeth up his loynes keepes the imagination from roving puts on the whole Armour of God and by the vertue of the shield of faith he is not afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkenesse carnall impurity nor of the sicknesse that destroyeth at noone day Ghostly pride and self-conceite Other temptations he hath which like mortall enemies may sometimes disquiet him likewise for the humane soule being bounded and kept in in her sensitive faculty will runne out more or lesse in her intellectuall Originall concupisence is such an active thing by reason of continuall inward or outward temptations that it is ever attempting or doing one mischief or other Ambition or untimely desire of promotion to an higher state or place under colour of accommodation or necessary provision is a common temptation to men of any eminency especially being single men Curiosity in prying into high speculative and unprofitable questions is another great stumbling block to the holinesse of Scholers These and many other spirituall wickednesses in high places doth the Parson fear or experiment or both and that much more being single then if he were marryed for then commonly the stream of temptations is turned another way into Covetousnesse Love of pleasure or ease or the like If the Parson be unmarryed and means to continue so he doth at least as much as hath been said If he be marryed the choyce of his wife was made rather by his eare then by his eye his