A Christian Directory Volume I Part 15

The libertines, antinomians, and autonomians of this age, have gathered you too many instances. The libertine saith, "The heart is the man; therefore you may deny the truth with your tongue, you may be present at false wors.h.i.+p, (as at the ma.s.s,) you need not suffer to avoid the speaking of a word, or subscribing to an untruth or error, or doing some little thing; but as long as you keep your hearts to G.o.d, and mean well, or have an honest mental reservation, and are forced to it by others, rather than suffer, you may say, or subscribe, or swear any thing which you can yourselves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds, or comply with any outward actions or customs to avoid offence and save yourselves."

The antinomians tell you, that "The moral law is abrogated, and that the gospel is no law; (and if there be no law, there is no governor nor government, no duty, no sin, no judgment, no punishment, no reward); that the elect are justified before they are born, or repent, or believe; that their sin is pardoned before it is committed; that G.o.d took them as suffering and fulfilling all the law in Christ, as if it had been they that did it in him: that we are justified by faith only in our consciences: that justifying faith is but the believing that we are justified: that every man must believe that he is pardoned, that he may be pardoned in his conscience; and this he is to do by a divine faith, and that this is the sense of the article, 'I believe the forgiveness of sins,' that is, that my sins are forgiven; and that all are forgiven that believe it: that it is legal and sinful to work or do any thing for salvation: that sin once pardoned need not be confessed and lamented, or at least, we need not ask pardon of sin daily, or of one sin oft: that castigations are no punishments; and yet no other punishment is threatened to believers for their sins; and consequently that Christ hath not procured them a pardon of any sin after believing, but prevented all necessity of pardon; and therefore they must not ask pardon of them, nor do any thing to obtain it: that fear of h.e.l.l must have no hand in our obedience, or restraint from sin. And some add, that he that cannot repent or believe, must comfort himself that Christ repented and believed for him (a contradiction)."[74] Many such doctrines of licentiousness the abusers of grace have brought forth.

And the sect which imitateth the father of pride in affecting to be from under the government of G.o.d, and to be the law-givers and rulers of themselves and all others, (which I therefore call the autonomians,) are licentious and much more. They equally contend against Christ's government, and for their own: they fill the world with wars and bloodshed, oppression and cruelty, and the ears of G.o.d with the cries of the martyrs and oppressed ones; and all that the spiritual and holy discipline of Christ may be suppressed, and seriousness in religion made odious, or banished from the earth, and that themselves may be taken for the centre, and pillars, and lawgivers of the church, and the consciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or fears of offending G.o.d, in comparison of offending them; and may absolutely submit to them; and never stick at any feared disobedience to Christ: they are the scorners and persecutors of strict obedience to the laws of G.o.d, and take those that fear his judgments, to be men affrighted out of their wits; and that to obey him exactly (which, alas! who can do, when he hath done his best) is but to be hypocritical or too precise: but to question their domination, or break their laws, (imposed on the world, even on kings and states, without any authority,) this must be taken for heresy, schism, or a rebellion, like that of Korah and his company.

This Luciferian spirit of the proud autonomians hath filled the christian world with bloodshed, and been the greatest means of the miseries of the earth, and especially of hindering and persecuting the gospel, and setting up a pharisaical religion in the world: it hath fought against the gospel, and filled with blood the countries of France, Savoy, Rhaetia, Bohemia, Belgia, Helvetia, Polonia, Hungary, Germany, and many more; that it may appear how much of the Satanical nature they have, and how punctually they fulfil his will.

And natural corruption containeth in it the seeds of all these d.a.m.nable heresies: nothing more natural to lapsed man, than to shake off the government of G.o.d, and to become a lawgiver to himself, and as many others as he can; and to turn the grace of G.o.d into wantonness.

Therefore the profane, that never heard it from any heretics but themselves, do make themselves such a creed as this, that "G.o.d is merciful, and therefore we need not fear his threatenings, for he will be better than his word: it belongeth to him to save us, and not to us, and therefore we may cast our souls upon his care, though we care not for them ourselves. If he hath predestinated us to salvation, we shall be saved; and if he have not, we shall not; whatever we do, or how well soever we live. Christ died for sinners, and therefore though we are sinners, he will save us. G.o.d is stronger than the devil, and therefore the devil shall not have the most: That which pleaseth the flesh, and doth G.o.d no harm, can never be so great a matter, or so much offend him, as to procure our d.a.m.nation. What need of so much ado to be saved, or so much haste to turn to G.o.d, when any one that at last doth but repent, and cry G.o.d mercy, and believe that Christ died for him, shall be saved? Christ is the Saviour of the world, and his grace is very great and free, and therefore G.o.d forbid that none should be saved but those few that are of strict and holy lives, and make so much ado for heaven. No man can know who shall be saved, and who shall not; and therefore it is the wisest way, to do n.o.body any harm, and to live merrily, and trust G.o.d with our souls, and put our salvation upon the venture: n.o.body is saved for his own works or deservings; and therefore our lives may serve the turn as well as if they were more strict and holy." This is the creed of the unG.o.dly; by which you may see how natural it is to them to abuse the gospel, and plead G.o.d's grace to quiet and strengthen them in their sin, and to embolden themselves on Christ to disobey him.

But this is but to set Christ against himself; even his merits and mercy against his government and Spirit; and to set his death against the ends of his death; and to set our Saviour against our salvation; and to run from G.o.d and rebel against him, because Christ died to recover us to G.o.d, and to give us repentance unto life; and to sin, because he died to save his people from their sins, "and to purify a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works," Matt. i. 21; t.i.t. ii. 14. "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of G.o.d was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," 1 John iii. 8; John viii. 44.

_Direct._ XVIII. Watch diligently both against the more discernible decays of grace, and against the degenerating of it into some carnal affections, or something counterfeit, and of another kind. And so also of religious duties.

We are no sooner warmed with the celestial flames, but natural corruption is inclining us to grow cold; like hot water, which loseth its heat by degrees, unless the fire be continually kept under it. Who feeleth not that as soon as in a sermon, or prayer, or holy meditation, his heart hath got a little heat, as soon as it is gone, it is p.r.o.ne to its former earthly temper, and by a little remissness in our duty, or thoughts, or business about the world, we presently grow cold and dull again. Be watchful, therefore, lest it decline too far. Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining: when faintness telleth you that your stomach is emptied of the former meat, supply it with another, lest strength abate. You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interest and inclinations; and therefore intermit not too long, lest you go faster down by your ease, than you get up by labour.

[Sidenote: How grace may degenerate.]

The degenerating of grace, is a way of backsliding, very common, and too little observed. It is, when good affections do not directly cool, but turn into some carnal affections somewhat like them, but of another kind: as, if the body of a man, instead of dying, should receive the life or soul of a beast, instead of the reasonable, human soul. For instance: 1. Have you believed in G.o.d, and in Jesus Christ, and loved him accordingly? You shall seem to do so still as much as formerly, when your corrupted minds have received some false representation of him; and so it is indeed another thing that you thus corruptly believe and love. 2. Have you been fervent in prayer? You shall be fervent still; if Satan can but corrupt your prayers, by corrupting your judgment or affections, and get you to think that to be the cause of G.o.d, which is against him; and that to be against him, which he commandeth; and those to be the troublers of the church, which are its best and faithfullest members: turn but your prayers against the cause and people of G.o.d by your mistake, and you may pray as fervently against them as you will. The same I may say of preaching, and conference, and zeal: corrupt them once, and turn them against G.o.d, and Satan will join with you for zealous and frequent preaching, or conference, or disputes. 3. Have you a confidence in Christ and his promise for your salvation? Take heed lest it turn into carnal security, and a persuasion of your good estate upon ill grounds, or you know not why. 4. Have you the hope of glory? Take heed lest it turn into a careless venturousness of your soul, or the mere laying aside of fear and cautelous suspicion of yourselves. 5. Have you a love to them that fear the Lord? Watch your hearts, lest it degenerate into a carnal or a partial love. Many unheedful young persons of different s.e.xes, at first love each other with an honest, chaste, and pious love; but imprudently using too much familiarity, before they were well aware it hath turned into a fleshly love, which hath proved their snare, and drawn them further into sin or trouble.

Many have honoured them that fear the Lord, who insensibly have declined to honour only those of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour, or that were esteemed for their parts or place by others, and little honoured the humble, poor, obscure christians, who were at least as good as they: forgetting that the "things that are highly esteemed among men, are abomination in the sight of G.o.d," Luke xvi. 15; and that G.o.d valueth not men by their places and dignities in the world, but by their graces and holiness of life. Abundance that at first did seem to love all christians, as such, as far as any thing of Christ appeared in them, have first fallen into some sect, and over-admiring their party, and have set light by others as good as them, and censured them as unsound, and then withdrawn their special love, and confined it to their party, or to some few; and yet thought that they loved the G.o.dly as much as ever, when it was degenerate into a factious love. 6. Are you zealous for G.o.d, and truth, and holiness, and against the errors and sins of others? Take heed lest you lose it, while you think it doth increase in you. Nothing is more apt to degenerate than zeal: in how many thousands hath it turned from an innocent, charitable, peaceable, tractable, healing, profitable, heavenly zeal, into a partial zeal for some party, or opinions of their own; and into a fierce, censorious, uncharitable, scandalous, turbulent, disobedient, unruly, hurting, and destroying zeal, ready to wish for fire from heaven, and kindling contention, confusion, and every evil work. Read well James iii. 7. So if you are meek or patient, take heed lest it degenerate into stupidity or contempt of those you suffer by. To be patient is not to be merely insensible of the affliction; but by the power of faith to bear the sense of it, as overruled by things of greater moment.

How apt men are to corrupt and debase all duties of religion, is too visible in the face of the far greatest part of the christian world.

Throughout both the eastern and the western churches, the papists, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Aba.s.sines, and too many others, (though the essentials of religion through G.o.d's mercy are retained, yet,) how much is the face of religion altered from what it was in the days of the apostles! The ancient simplicity of doctrine is turned into abundance of new or private opinions, introduced as necessary articles of religion: and, alas, how many of them false! So that christians, being too proud to accept of the ancient test of christianity, cannot now agree among themselves what a christian is, and who is to be esteemed a christian; and so they deny one another to be christians, and destroy their charity to each other, and divide the church, and make themselves a scorn by their divisions to the infidel world: and thus the primitive unity, charity, and peace is partly destroyed, and partly degenerate into the unity, charity, and peace of several sects among themselves. The primitive simplicity in government and discipline, is with most turned into a forcible secular government, exercised to advance one man above others, and to satisfy his will and l.u.s.ts, and make him the rule of other men's lives, and to suppress the power and spirituality of religion in the world. The primitive simplicity of wors.h.i.+p is turned into such a mask of ceremony, and such a task of formalities and bodily exercise, that if one of the apostolical christians should come among them, he would scarce think that this is the same employment which formerly the church was exercised in, or scarce know religion in this antic dress. So that the amiable, glorious face of christianity, is so spotted and defiled, that it is hidden from the unbelieving world, and they laugh at it as irrational, or think it to be but like their own: and the princ.i.p.al hinderance of the conversion of heathens, Mahometans, and other unbelievers, is the corruption and deformity of the churches that are near them, or should be the instruments of their conversion. And the probablest way to the conversion of those nations, is the true reformation of the churches, both in east and west: which, if they were restored to the ancient spirituality, rationality, and simplicity of doctrine, discipline, and wors.h.i.+p; and lived in charity, humility, and holiness, as those whose hearts and conversations are in heaven, with all worldly glory and honour as under their feet; they would then be so ill.u.s.trious and amiable in the eyes even of heathens and other infidels, that many would flock into the church of Christ, and desire to be such as they: and their light would so s.h.i.+ne before these men, that they would see their good works, and glorify their heavenly Father, and embrace their faith.

The commonest way of the degenerating of all religious duties, is into this dead formality, or lifeless image of religion. If the devil can but get you to cast off the spirituality and life of duty, he will give you leave to seem very devout, and make much ado with outward actions, words, and beads; and you shall have so much zeal for a dead religion, or the corpse of wors.h.i.+p, as will make you think that it is indeed alive. By all means take heed of this turning the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d into lip-service. The commonest cause of it is, a carnality of mind (fleshly men will think best of the most fleshly religion); or else a slothfulness in duty, which will make you sit down with the easiest part. It is the work of a saint, and a diligent saint, to keep the soul itself both regularly and vigorously employed with G.o.d. But to say over certain words by rote, and to lift up the hands and eyes, is easy: and hypocrites, that are conscious that they are void of the life and spirituality of wors.h.i.+p, do think to make all up with this formality, and quiet their consciences, and delude their souls with a handsome image. Of this I have spoken more largely in a book called, "The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite."

Yet run not here into the contrary extreme, as to think that the body must not wors.h.i.+p G.o.d as well as the soul, or that the decent and edifying determination of the outward circ.u.mstances of religion, and the right ordering of wors.h.i.+p, is a needless thing, or sinful; or that a form of prayer in itself, or when imposed, is unlawful: but let the soul and body of religion go together, and the alterable adjuncts be used, as things alterable, while the life of holiness is still kept up.

_Direct._ XIX. Promise not yourselves long life, or prosperity and great matters in the world, lest it entangle your hearts with transitory things, and engage you in ambitious or covetous designs, and steal away your hearts from G.o.d, and destroy all your serious apprehensions of eternity.

Our own experience, and the alterations which the approach of death makes upon the most, doth sensibly prove, that the expectation of a speedy change, and reckoning upon a short life, doth greatly help us in all our preparation, and in all the work of holiness through our lives. Come to a man that lieth on his death-bed, or a prisoner that is to die to-morrow, and try him with discourse of riches, or honours, or temptations to l.u.s.t, or drunkenness, or excess; and he will think you are mad, or very impertinent, to tell him of such things. If he be but a man of common reason, you shall see that he will more easily vilify such temptations, than any religious persons will do, in their prosperity and health. Oh how serious are we in repenting and perusing our former lives, and casting up our accounts, and asking, What we shall do to be saved, when we see that death is indeed at hand, and time is at an end, and we must away! Every sentence of Scripture hath then some life and power in it; every word of exhortation is savoury to us; every reproof of our negligence and sin is then well taken; every thought of sin, or Christ, or grace, or eternity, goes then to the quick. Then time seems precious; and if you ask a man whether it be better spent in cards and dice, and plays and feastings, and needless recreations and idleness, or in prayer, and holy conference, and reading and meditating on the word of G.o.d and the life to come, and the holy use of our lawful labours; how easily will he be satisfied of the truth, and confute the cavils of voluptuous time-wasters! Then his judgment will easilier be in the right, than learning or arguments before could make it.[75] In a word, the expectation of the speedy approach of the soul into the presence of the eternal G.o.d, and of our entering into an unchangeable, endless life of joy or torment, hath so much in it to awaken all the powers of the soul, that if ever we will be serious, it will make us serious, in every thought, and speech, and duty. And therefore, as it is a great mercy of G.o.d, that this life, which is so short, should be as uncertain, and that frequent dangers and sicknesses call to us to look about us, and be ready for our change; so usually the sickly, that look for death, are most considerate: and it is a great part of the duty of those that are in youth and health, to consider their frailty, and the shortness and uncertainty of their lives, and always live as those that wait for the coming of their Lord. And we have great reason for it, when we are certain it will be ere long; and when we have so many perils and weaknesses to warn us, and when we are never sure to see another hour; and when time is so swift, so quickly gone, so unrecoverable, and nothing when it is past. Common reason requireth such to live in a constant readiness to die.

But if youth or health do once make you reckon of living long,[76] and make you put away the day of your departure, as if it were far off; this will do much to deceive and dull the best, and take away the power of every truth, and the life of every good thought and duty, and all will be apt to dwindle into customariness and form. You will hardly keep the faculties of the soul awake, if you do not still think of death and judgment as near at hand. The greatest certainty of the greatest change, and the greatest joy or misery for ever, will not keep our stupid hearts awake, unless we look at all as near, as well as certain. This is plain in the common difference that we find among all men, between their thoughts of death in health, and when they see indeed that they must presently die. They that in health could think and talk of death with laughter, or lightly, without any awakening of soul, when they come to die are oftentimes as much altered, as if they had never heard before that they are mortal. By which it is plain, that to live in the house of mirth is more dangerous than to live in the house of mourning; and that the expectation of long life is a grievous enemy to the operations of grace, and the safety of the soul.

And it is one of the greatest strengtheners of your temptations to luxury, ambition, worldliness, and almost every sin. When men think that they shall have many years' leisure to repent, they are apt the more boldly to transgress: when they think that they have yet many years to live, it tempteth them to pa.s.s away time in idleness, and to loiter in their race, and trifle in all their work, and to overvalue all the pleasures, and honours, and shadows of felicity that are here below. He that hath his life in his house or land, or hath it for inheritance, will set more by it, and bestow more upon it, than if he thought he must go out of it the next year. To a man that thinks of living many years, the favour of great ones, the raising of his estate, and name, and family, and the accommodations and pleasing of his flesh, will seem great matters to him, and will do much with him, and will make self-denial a very hard work.

Therefore, though health be a wonderful great mercy, as enabling him to duty that hath a heart to use it to that end; yet it is by accident a very great danger and snare to the heart itself, to turn it from the way of duty. The best life for the soul, is that which least endangereth it by being over pleasing to the body, and in which the flesh hath the smallest interest, to set up and plead against the Spirit. Not but that the largest stock must be accepted and used for G.o.d, when he trusteth us with it; for when he setteth us the hardest work, we may expect his greatest help. But a dwelling as in tents, in a constant unsettledness, in a movable condition, having little, and needing little, never feeling any thing in the creature to tempt us to say, "Soul, take thy rest;" this is to most the safest life, which giveth us the freest advantages for heaven.

Take heed therefore, as you love your souls, of falling into the snare of worldly hopes, and laying designs for rising, and riches, and pleasing yourselves in the thoughts and prosecution of these things, for then you are in the readiest way to perdition; even to idolatrous worldliness, and apostasy of heart from G.o.d, and opening a door to every sin that seems but necessary to your worldly ends, and to odious hypocrisy for a cloak to all this, and to quiet your guilty minds with something that is like religion. When once you are saying, with worldly security, as he, Luke xii. 17-19, "I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and goods; and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry;" you are then befooling yourselves, and near being called away as fools by death, ver. 20, 21. And when, without a sense of the uncertainty of your lives, you are saying, as those in James iv. 13, 14, "To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain, whereas you know not what will be on the morrow;" you forget what your lives are, that they are "a vapour appearing a little while, and then vanis.h.i.+ng away," ver. 14. "Boast not thyself therefore of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth," Prov. xxvii. 1.

_Direct._ XX. See that your religion be purely divine, and animated all by G.o.d, as the beginning, the way, and the end; and that first upon thy soul, and then upon all that thou hast or dost, there be written "HOLINESS TO THE LORD;" and that thou corrupt not all with an inordinate hypocritical respect to man.

To be holy is to be divine, or devoted to G.o.d, and appropriated to him, and his will, and use; and that our hearts and lives be not common and unclean.[77] To be G.o.dly, is to live to G.o.d, as those that from their hearts believe that he is G.o.d indeed, and that "he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him," that he is "our G.o.d all-sufficient, our s.h.i.+eld and exceeding great reward," Heb. xi. 6; Gen. xv. 1; xvii. 1; and that "of him, and through him, and to him are all things," that all may give the glory for ever unto him, Rom. xi.

36. As G.o.d is infinitely above all creatures, so living upon G.o.d, and unto G.o.d, must needs advance us above the highest sensual life; and therefore religion is transcendently above all sciences or arts. So much of G.o.d as is in you and upon you, so much you are more excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance you to. G.o.d should be the First, and Last, and All in the mind, and mouth, and life of a believer. G.o.d must be the princ.i.p.al matter of your religion. The understanding and will must be exercised upon him. When you awake you should be still with him, Psal. cx.x.xix. 8. Your meditations of him should be sweet, and you should be glad in the Lord, Psal. civ. 34.

Yet creatures, under him, may be the frequent, less princ.i.p.al matter of your religion; but still as referred unto him. G.o.d must be the author of your religion: G.o.d must inst.i.tute it, if you expect he should accept it and reward it. G.o.d must be the rule of your religion, as revealing his will concerning it in his word. G.o.d must be the ultimate end of your religion; it must be intended to please and glorify him. G.o.d must be the continual motive and reason of your religion, and of all you do: you must be able truly to fetch your reason from heaven, and to say, I do it because it is his will; I do it to please, and glorify, and enjoy him. G.o.d must be taken as the Sovereign Judge of your religion, and of you, and of all you do; and you must wholly look to his justification and approbation, and avoid whatever he condemneth. Can you take G.o.d for your Owner, your Sovereign, your Saviour, your sufficient Protector, your Portion, your All? If not, you cannot be G.o.dly, nor be saved: if his authority have not more power upon you, than the authority of the greatest upon earth, you are atheistical hypocrites, and not truly religious, whatever you pretend. If "holiness to the Lord" be written upon you, and all that is yours, you are devoted to him as his own peculiar ones. If your names be set upon your sheep, or plate, or clothes, you will say, if another should take them, They are mine; do you not see my mark upon them? Slavery to the flesh, the world, and the devil, is the mark that is written upon the unG.o.dly (upon the foreheads of the profane, and upon the hearts of hypocrites and all); and Satan, the world, and the flesh have their service. If you are consecrated to G.o.d, and bear his name and mark upon you, tell every one that would lay claim to you, that you are his, and resolved to live to him, to love him, to trust him, and to stand or fall to him alone. Let G.o.d be the very life, and sense, and end of all you do.

When once man hath too much of your regard and observation, that you set too much by his favour and esteem, or eye him too much in your profession and practice; when man's approbation too much comforteth you, and man's displeasure or dispraise doth too much trouble you; when your fear, and love, and care, and obedience are too much taken up for man; you so far withdraw yourselves from G.o.d, and are becoming the servants of men, and friends of the world, and turning back to bondage, and forsaking our Rock and Portion, and your excellency; the soul of religion is departing from you, and it is dying and returning to the dust. And if once man get the pre-eminence of G.o.d, and be preferred and set above him in your hearts or lives, and feared, trusted, and obeyed before him, you are then dead to G.o.d, and alive to the world; and as men are taken for your G.o.ds, you must take up with such a salvation as they can give you. If your alms and prayer are done to be seen of men, and to procure their good thoughts and words; if you get them, make your best of them; "for verily," your Judge hath said unto you, "you have your reward," Matt. vi. 1-3.

Not that man is absolutely to be contemned or disregarded.[78] No; under G.o.d, your superiors must be obeyed; you must do wrong to none, and do good to all, as far as in you lieth; you must avoid offence, and give good example, and, under G.o.d, have so much regard to men, as to become all things to all men for their salvation. But if once you set them above their rank, and turn yourselves to an inordinate dependence on them, and make too great a matter of their opinion or words concerning you, you are losing your G.o.dliness or divine disposition, and turning it into man-pleasing and hypocrisy. When man stands in compet.i.tion with G.o.d, for your first and chief regard, or in opposition to him, or as a sharer in co-ordination with him, and not purely in subordination to him, he is to be numbered with things to be forsaken. Even good men, whom you must love and honour, and whose communion and help you must highly value, yet may be made the object of your sin, and may become your snare. Your honouring of them, or love to them, must not entice you to desire inordinately to be honoured by them, nor cause you to set too much by their approbation. If you do, you will find that while you are too much eyeing man, you are losing G.o.d, and corrupting your religion at the very heart. And you may fall among those, that, how holy soever, may have great mistakes in matters of religion, tending to much sin, and may be somewhat censorious against those that are not of their mind; and so the retaining of their esteem, and the avoiding of their censures, may become one of the greatest temptations of your lives. And you will find that man-pleasing is a very difficult and yet unprofitable task. Love Christ as he appeareth in any of his servants, and be followers of them as they are followers of Christ, and regard their approbation as it agreeth with Christ's: but O see that you are able to live upon the favour of G.o.d alone, and to be quieted in his acceptance, though man despise you; and to be pleased so far as G.o.d is pleased, though man be displeased with you; and to rejoice in his justification, though men condemn you with the odiousest slanders and the greatest infamy, and cast out your names as evil-doers. See that G.o.d be taken as enough for you, or else you take him not as your G.o.d; even as enough without man, and enough against man; that you may be able to say, "If G.o.d be for us, who can be against us? Who is he that condemneth? It is G.o.d that justifieth," Rom. viii. 31, 33, 34. "Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ," Gal. i. 10. Jer.

xvii. 5-8, "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh.[79]--Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Isa. ii. 22, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"

Having given you these directions, I must tell you in the conclusion, that they are like food, that will not nourish you by standing on your table, or like physic, that will not cure you by standing in the box: they must be taken and digested, or you will find none of the benefit.

It is not the reading of them that will serve the turn to so great use, as the safe proceeding and confirmation of beginners or novices in religion: it will require humility to perceive the need of them; and labour to learn, digest, and practise them. Those slothful souls, that will refuse the labour, must bear the sad effects of their negligence: there is not one of all these directions, as to the matter of them, which can be spared. Study them, understand them, and remember them, as things that must be done. If either a senselessness of your necessity, or a conceit that the spirit must do it without so much labour and diligence of your own, do prevail with you, to put off all these with a mere approbation, the consequent may be sadder than you can yet foresee. Though I suppose you to have some beginnings of grace, I must tell you, that it will be comparatively a sad kind of life, to be erroneous, and scandalous, and troublesome to the church, or full of doubts, and fears, and pa.s.sions, and to be burdensome to others and yourselves! Yea, it is reason that you be very suspicious of your sincerity, if you desire not to increase in grace, and be not willing to use the means which are necessary to your increase. He is not sincere, that desireth not to be perfect; and he desireth not sincerely, who is not willing to be at the labour and cost, which is necessary to the obtaining of the thing desired. I beseech you, therefore, as you love the happiness of prudent, strong, and comfortable christians, and would escape the misery of those grievous diseases, which would turn your lives into languis.h.i.+ng, unserviceableness, and pain; that you seriously study these directions, and get them into your minds, and memories, and hearts; and let the faithful practice of them be your greatest care, and the constant employment of your lives.

FOOTNOTES:

[46] I have since written a book on this subject, to which I refer the reader for fuller direction.

[47] Fere idem exitus est odii et amoris insani. Senec. de Ben.

[48] Scientia quae est remota a just.i.tia, calliditas potium quam sapientia appellanda est. P. Scalig. Of the necessity of prudence in religious men, read Nic. Videlius de Prudent. Veterum. The imprudences of well meaning men have done as much hurt to the church sometimes as the persecution of enemies. _e. g._ When Constantine, the son of Constans, was emperor, some busy men would prove from the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, that his two brethren, Tiberius and Heraclius, should reign with him: saying, Si in Trinitate credimus, tres etiam coronemus; which cost the chief of them a hanging. Abbas Urspergens. Edit. Melancth. p. 162.

[49] Leg. Acost. 1. 4. c. 21 et 22. de fructu catechizandi. Et Li. 5.

[50] Opus est imprimis duplici catechismo: Uno compendario et brevi quem memoriter addiscant; ubi summa sit eorum omnium quae ad fidem et mores Christiano sunt necessaria: altero uberiore, ubi eadem amplius, dilucidiusque dicantur, et copiosius confirmentur: ut ille prior discipulis potius, hic posterior ipsis praeceptoribus usu sit. Acosta, l. 5. c. 14. p. 490.

[51] Stoici dic.u.n.t virtutes sibi invicem ita esse connexas, ut qui unam habuerit, omnes habeat. Laertius in Zenone.

[52] Laert. saith of Cleanthes, c.u.m aliquando probo illi daretur, quod esset timidus, at ideo inquit, parum pecco.

[53] Qui discipulum rudem et elatum habet, contra ventum adverso flumine navigat, serpentem nutrit, aconitum excolit, hostem docet.

Petrarch. Dial. 41. li. 2.

[54] Beatus est cui vel in senectute contigerit, qua sapientiam erasque opiniones consequi posset. Cicero de fin.

[55] Even when a teacher is impatient with his people's unprofitableness, they oft think highliest of their knowledge, and they are proud while their dulness tireth out their guides: for, Quo quisque est solertior et ingeniosior, hoc docet iracundius et laboriosius. Quod enim ipse celeriter arripuit, id quum tarde percipi videt, discruciatur. Cicero pro Ros.

[56] Nihil homini metuendum nisi ne flicitatem excludat. Solon in Laert. p. 31.

[57] Securus ergo sum de Christo Deo, et Domino meo. Haec Regi dicatis, subigat ignibus, adigat bestiis, excruciet omnium tormentorum generibus, si cessero, frustra sum in ecclesiae catholica baptizatus; nam si haec praesens vita sola esset, et aliam quae vera est, non speraremus aeternam, nec ita facerem ut modic.u.m et temporaliter gloriarer, et ingratus existerem qui suam fidem mihi contulit, Creatori. Victoria.n.u.s ad Hunnerychum in Vict. Utic. p. 461. Victor Uticensis saith, that before the persecution of Hunnerychus these visions were seen: 1. All the lights put out in the church, and a darkness and stink succeeded. 2. The church filled with abundance of swine and goats. 3. Another saw a great heap of corn unwinnowed, and a sudden whirlwind blew away all the chaff: and after that, one came and cast out all the stricken dead and useless corn, till a very little heap was left. 4. Another heard one cry on the top of a mount, Migrate, migrate. 5. Another saw great stones cast from heaven on the earth, which flamed and destroyed; but he hid himself in a chamber, and none of them could touch him. Page 405. Sed hoc edificium ubi construere visus est diabolus, statim illud destruere dignatus est Christus. Id. ib.

[58] Id. ib. saith that an Arian bishop being put over a city, all that could take s.h.i.+p fled away to Spain, and the rest not only refused all the temptations of the bishop, but also publicly celebrated the divine mysteries in one of their houses; and the king being hereat enraged, caused them in the open market-place to have their tongues and right hands cut off by the root; and that they yet spake after as well as before. And them that will not believe it, he referreth to one of them then living, and honoured for this in the emperor's court, that still spake perfectly. Page 462, 463.

[59] Sulpitius Severus in Vit. Martini, noteth that none but bishops were against him because he was unlearned and of no presence.

Look more in your teachers at matter than fine words. Augustin. de Cathechizand. rud. cap. 9. His maxime utile est nosse ita esse praeponendas verbis sententias, ut praeponitur animus corpori: ex quo fit, ut ita malle debeant veriores quam disertiores audire sermones, sicut malle debent prudentiores quam formosiores habere amicos.

Noverint etiam non esse vocem ad aures Dei nisi animi affectum: ita enim non irridebunt si aliquos antist.i.tes et ministros forte animadverterint vel c.u.m barbarismis et solcismis Deum invocare, vel eadem verba quae p.r.o.nunciant, non intelligere, perturbateque distinguere. Vid. Filesac.u.m de Episc. autorit. p. 105. Pnituit multos vanae sterilisque cathedrae. Juven. Italis Ciceronianis sum iniquior, quia tantum loquuntur verba, non res, et rhetorica ipsorum plerumque est ???a?e?t???: Est glossa sine textu: nux sine nucleo: nubes sine pulvia. Plumae sunt meliores quam avis ipsa. Buchozer. Take heed lest prejudice or any corruption possess your minds, for then all that you hear will be unsavoury or unprofitable to you: Magna debet esse eloquentia, quae invitis placeat, ait Senec. praef. lib. 10. Controv.

[60] Acosta noteth it as a great hinderance of the Indians'

conversion, that their teachers s.h.i.+ft for better livings, and stay not till they are well acquainted with the people, and that the bishops are of the same temper: Haec tanta clades est animarum, ut satis deplorari non possit; nihil sacerdos Christi praeclari proficiet in salute Indorum, sine familiari et hominum et rerum not.i.tia, l. 4. c.

10. p. 390. Sunt autem multi qui injuncto muneri copiose se satisfacere existimant, orationem dominicam et symbolum et salutationem angelicam, tum praecepta decalogi Hispani. idomate identidem Indis recitantes, eorum infantes baptizantes, mortuos sepelientes, matrimonio juvenes collocantes, et rem sacram festis diebus facientis.--Neque conscientia, quam utinam cauterizatam non habeant, mordentur quod dispersae sint oves Domini, &c. c. 7. p. 373.

[61] Against uncharitableness and schism, see more in part. 2. ch. 23.

[62] Utrumque imperium, et Mahometic.u.m et pontificium ortum est, ex dissidiis de doctrina--c.u.m in oriente dilaceratae essent ecclesiae--et haec varietas in multorum animis dubitationes et odium religionis christianae accenderet, et disciplina laxata esset, &c. Melancth. Ep.

Dedic. Chron. Carionis.

[63] Ecclesia vera discreta est a ctu Cain, qui secesserat a patre, et habuit suos ritus, et suam sectam. Ita statim initio verae doctrinae vocem et veram ecclesiam pars humani generis deseruit. Carion Chronic.

lib. 1. p. 16.