A Christian Directory

Directions for faithful serving Christ, and doing Good.

§. 4. Direct. 1. Be sure that you have that Holiness, Justice and Charity within, which are the necessary Principles of good works. For a good Tree will being forth good fruit, and an evil Tree evil fruit: Make the Tree good, and the fruit good: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things: As out of the Heart proceed evil works, Matth. 15. 19, 20. So out of the heart must good works come: Matth. 7. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Can the dead do the works of the living? Or the unh • lie do the works of holiness? or the unrighteous do the works of justice? or the uncharitable do the works of charity? Will he do good to Christ in his members on earth, who hateth them? Or will he not rather imprison them, than visit them in prison, and rather strip them of all they have, than feed and clothe them? Or if a man should do that which materially is good, from pride, or other sinful principles, God doth not accept it, but taketh all sacrifice but as Carrion, that is offered to him without the Heart.

§. 5. Direct. 2. Content not yourselves to do some good extraordinarily on the by, or when you are urged to it; but study to do good, and make it the Trade or business of your lives. Having so many obligations, and so great encouragements, do what you do with all your might: If you would know whether you are servants to Christ, or to the Flesh, the question must be, which of these have the main care and diligence of our lives: For as every carnal act will not prove you servants to the flesh, so every good action will not prove you the servants of Christ.

§. 6. Direct. 3. Before you do any work▪ consider, whether you can truly say, it is a service of God; and will be accepted by him: See therefore that it be done, 1. To his glory, or to please him: 2. And in obedience to his command. Meer natural actions, that have no moral good or evil in them, and so belong not to morality, these belong not to our present subject; as being not the matter of rational (or at least of obediential) choice. Such as the w • nking of the eye, the setting of this foot forward first, the taking of this or that, meat, or drink, or instrument, or company, or action, when they are equal, and it is no matter of rational (or obediential) choice, &c. But every act that is to be done deliberately and rationally as matter of choice, must be moralized, or made good, by doing it, 1. To a • ight end, and 2. According to the rule. Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do (that is matter of rational choice. ) must be done by us to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10. 31. All works tend not alike to his glory: but some more immediately and directly, and others remotely: But all must ultimately have this end: Even Servants that labor in their painful work, must do it as to the Lord, and not only or ultimately) to men, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, from whom they must have their greatest reward or punishment, Ephes. 6. 5, 6, 7, 8. Col. 3. 22, 23, 24, 25. All the comforts of food, or rest, or recreation, or pleasure which we take should be intended to fit us for our Masters work or strengthen, cheer and help us in it. Do nothing (deliberately, that belongs to the government of Reason) but God's service in the world; which you can say, he set you on.

§. 7. Direct. 4. Set not duties of Piety, Justice or Charity against each other, as if they had an enmity to each other; but take them as inseparable, as God hath made them. Think not to offer God a Sacrifice of injury, bribery, fraud, oppression, or any uncharitable work. And pretend not the benefit of men, or the safety of Societies or Kingdoms, for impiety against the Lord.

§. 8. Direct. 5. Acquaint yourselves with all the talents which you receive from God, and what is the use to which they should be improved. Keep thus a just account of your Receivings, and what Goods of your Masters is put into your hands: And make it a principal part of your study, to know what everything in your hand is good for to your Masters use; and how it is that he would have you use it.

§. 9. Direct. 6. Keep an account of your expenses; at least, of all your most considerable talents; and bring yourselves daily or frequently to a reckoning, what good you have done, or endeavored to do. Every day is given you for some good work. Keep therefore accounts of every day: (I mean, in your conscience; not in papers. ) Every mercy must be used to some good: Call yourselves therefore to account for every mercy, what you have done with it for your Masters use. And think not hours and minutes, and little mercies may be past without coming into the account: The servant that thinks he may do what his list with Shillings and Pence, and that he is only to lay out greater sums for his Masters use, and lesser for his own, will prove unfaithful, and come short in his accounts: Less sums than pounds must be in our reckonings.

§. 10. Direct. 7. Take special heed that the common Thief, your carnal-self either Personal or in your Relations, do not rob God of his expected due, and devour that which he requireth. It is not for nothing that God calleth for the first fruits: Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy Barns be filled with plenty, and thy Presses shall burst forth with new wine, Prov. 3. 9, 10. So Exod. 23. 16, 19. & 34. 22, 26. Lev. 2. 12, 14. Nehem. 10. 35. Ezek. 20. 40. & 44. 30. & 48. 14. For if carnal self might first be served, its devouring greediness would leave God nothing: Though he that hath Godliness with contentment hath enough, if he have but food and raiment, yet there will be but enough for themselves and children where men have many hundreds or thousands a year, if once it fall into this Gulf. And indeed as he that begins with God, hath the promise of his bountiful supplies, so he whose flesh must first be served, doth catch such an hydropick thirst for more, that all will but serve it: And the Devil contriveth such necessities to these men, and such Uses for all they have, that they have no more to spare, than poorer men: (and they can allow God no more but the leavings of the flesh, and what it can spare, which commonly is next to nothing.) Indeed though Holy uses in particular were satisfied with first fruits and limited parts yet God must have all, and the flesh (inordinately or finally ) have none. Every penny which is laid out upon your selves, and children, and friends, must be done as by God's own appointment, and to serve and please him. Watch narrowly, or else this thievish carnal self will leave God nothing.

§. 11. Direct. 8. Prefer greater duties (caeteris paribus) before lesser: and labor to understand well which is the greater, and to be preferred. Not that any real duty is to be neglected: But we call that by the name of Duty which is materially good, and a duty in its season: But formally indeed it is no duty at all, when it cannot be done without the omission of a greater. As for a Minister to be praying with his family, or comforting one afflicted soul, when he should be preaching publicly, is to do that which is a duty in its season; but at that time, is his sin. It is an unfaithful servant that is doing some little char • , when he should be saving a Beast from drowning, or the house from burning, or doing the greater part of his work.

§. 12. Direct. 9. Prudence is exceeding necessary in doing good, that you may discern good from evil, discerning the season, and measure, and manner, and among divers duties, which must be preferred. Therefore labor much for Wisdom, and if you want it yourself, be sure to make use of theirs that have it, and ask their counsel in every great and difficult case. Zeal without Judgment hath not only entangled souls in many heinous sins, but hath ruined Churches and Kingdoms, and under pretence of exceeding others in doing good, it makes men the greatest instruments of evil. There is scarce a sin so great and odious, but ignorant zeal will make men do it as a good work: Christ told his Apostles, that those that killed them, should think they did God service. And Paul bare record to the the murderous persecuting Jews, that they had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, Rom. 10. 2. The Papists murders of Christians under the name of Heretics, hath recorded it to the world, in the blood of many hundred thousands, how ignorant carnal zeal will do good, and what Sacrifice it will offer up to God.

§. 13. Direct. 10. In doing good prefer the souls of men before the body, caeteris paribus. To convert a sinner, from the error of his way, is to save a soul from death, and to cover a multitude of sins. Jam. 5. 20. And this is greater than to give a man an alms. As cruelty to souls is the most heinous cruelty (as persecutors and soul-betraying Pastors will one day know to their remediless woe;) so mercy to souls is the greatest mercy. Yet sometime Mercy to the Body is in that season to be preferred: (For everything is excellent in its season). As if a man be drowning or famishing, you must not delay the relief of his body, while you are preaching to him for his conversion; but first relieve him, and then you may in season afterwards instruct him. The greatest duty is not always to go first in time: Sometimes some lesser work is a necessary preparatory to a greater. And sometimes a corporal benefit may tend more to the good of souls, than some spiritual work may: Therefore I say still, that PRUDENCE and an HONEST HEART are instead of many Directions: They will not only look at the immediate benefit of a work, but to its utmost tendency and remote effects.

§. 14. Direct. 11. In doing good prefer the good of many, especially of Church or Common-wealth before the good of one or few. For many are more worth than one: And many will honor God and serve him more than one: And therefore both piety and charity requireth it. Yet this also must be understood with a caeteris paribus: For its possible, some cases of exception may be found. Paul's is a high instance that could have wished himself accursed from Christ, for the sake of the Jews, as judging God's honor more concerned in all them, than in him alone.

§. 15. Direct. 12. Prefer a durable good that will extend to posterity, before a short and transitory good. As to build an Alms-house is a greater work than to give an Alms, and to erect a School, than to teach a Scholar; so to promote the settlement of the Gospel and a faithful Ministry, is the greatest of all, as tending to the good of many, even to their everlasting good: This is the preeminence of 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 Good Books before a transient speech, that they may be a more durable help and benefit. Look before you with a judicious foresight: and as you must not do that present Good to a particular person, which bringeth greater hurt to many, so you must not do that present good to one or many which is like to produce a greater and more lasting hurt. Such blind reformers have used the Church, as ignorant Physicians use their patients, who give them a little present ease, and cast them into greater misery, and seem to cure them with a dose of opium or the Jesuits powder, when they are bringing them into a worse disease than that which they pretend to cure: O when shall the poor Church have wiser and foreseeing helpers?

§. 16. Direct. 13. Let all that you do for the Churches good be sure to tend to HOLINES and PEACE; and do nothing under the name of a good work which hath an enmity to either of these. For these are to the Church as Life and Health are to the body; and the increase of its welfare is nothing else but the increase of these. What ever they pretend, believe none that say, they seek the good and welfare of the Church, if they seek not the promoting of Holiness and Peace: If they hinder the powerful preaching of the Gospel, and the means that tendeth to the saving of souls, and the serious spiritual worshiping of God, and the unity and peace of all the faithful, and if they either divide the faithful into sects and parties, or worry all that differ from them, and humor them not in their conceits, take all these for such benefactors to the Church, as the wolf is to the flock, and as the plague is to the City, or the fever to the body, or the fire in the thatch is to the house. The wisdom from above is first PURE, then PEACEABLE, gentle, &c. But if ye have bitter envying, and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth: this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish: For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work. • am. 3. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

§. 17. Direct. 14. If you will do the good which God accepteth, do that which he requireth; and put not the name of good works upon your sins, nor upon unnecessary things of your own invention; nor think not that any Good must be accomplished by forbidden means. None know what pleaseth God so well as himself. Our ways may be right in our own eyes, and carnal wisdom may think it hath devised the fittest means to honor God, when he may abominate it, and say, who required this at your hand? And if we will do good by sinning, we must do it in despite of God, who is engaged against our sins and us. Rom. 3. 8. God needeth not our lie to his glory: If Papists think to find at the last day, their foppish ceremonies, and superstition, and will-worship, their, touch not, taste not, handle not, to be reckoned to them as Good works; or if Jesuits or Enthusiasts think to find their Perjurie, Treasons, Rebellions, or conspiracies numbered with good works; or the persecuting of the Preachers and faithful professors of Godliness to be good works, how lamentably will they find their expectations disappointed?

§. 18. Direct. 15. Keep in the way of your Place and calling, and take not other men's works upon you, without a call, under any pretense of doing good. Magistrates must do good in the place and work of Magistrates: and Ministers in the place and work of Ministers: and private men in their private place and work: and not one man step into another's place, and take his work out of his hand, and say, I can do it better: For if you should do it better, the disorder will do more harm than you did good by bettering his work. One Judge must not step into another's Court and Seat, and say, I will pass more righteous judgment. You must not go into another man's School, and say, I can teach your Scholars better: nor into another's charge or Pulpit, and say, I can preach better; The servant may not rule the Master, because he can do it best: no more than you may take another man's Wife, or House, or Lands, or Goods, because you can use them better than he. Do the Good that you are called to.

§. 19. Direct. 16. Where God hath prescribed you some particular Good work or way of service, you must prefer that before another which is greater in its self. This is explicatory or limiting of Dir. 8. The reason is because God knoweth best what is pleasing to him, and Obedience is better than Sacrafice. You must not neglect the necessary maintenance of Wife and Children, under pretense of doing a work of piety or greater good: because God hath prescribed you this order of your duty, that you begin at home (though not to stop there) Another Minister may have a greater or more needy flock; but yet you must first do good in your own, and not step without a call into his charge. If God have called you to serve him in a low and mean employment, he will better accept you in that work, than if you undertook the work of another man's place, to do him greater service.

§. 20. Direct. 17. Lose not your resolutions or opportunities of doing good by unnecessary▪ delays. Prov. 3. 27, 28. With-hold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it: Say not to thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee. Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. It's two to one, but delay will take away thine opportunity, and raise such unexpected diversions or difficulties as will frustrate thine intent, and destroy the work: Take thy Time, if thou wilt do thy service. It is beautiful in its season.

§. 21. Direct. 18. Yet present necessity may make a lesser work to be thy duty, when the greater may better bear delay. As to save a man's life in sickness or danger, when you may after have time to seek the saving of his soul. Not only works of mercy may be thus preferred, before sacrifice, but the ordinary conveniences of our lives; as to rise, and dress us, and do other business, may go before prayer, when Prayer may afterwards be done as well or better, and would be hindered, if these did not go before.

§. 22. Direct. 19. Though caeteris paribus the duties of the first table are to be preferred before those of the second, yet the Greater duties of the second table must be preferred before the lesser duties of the first. The Love of God is a greater duty than the Love of man: (and they must never be separated): But yet we must prefer the saving a man's life, or the quenching of a fire in the Town, before a Prayer, or Sacrament, or observation of a Sabbath: David eat the show bread, and the Disciples rubbed out the corn on the Sabbath day, because the preserving of Life was a greater duty than the observing of a Sabbath or a positive ceremonial law. And Christ bids the Pharisees, Go learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice: The blood of our brethren is an unacceptable means of pleasing God, and maintaining piety, or promoting men's several opinions in religion.

§. 23. Direct. 20. Choose that employment or calling, (so far as you have your choice) in which you may be most serviceable to God. Choose not that in which you may be most Rich or Honorable in the world; but that in which you may do most good, and best escape sinning.

§▪ 24. Quest. But what if in one calling I am most serviceable to the Church, but yet have most temptations to sin? And in another I have least temptations to sin, but am least serviceable to the Church (which is the ordinary difference between men in Public places and men in solitude) which of these should I choose?

Answ. 1. Either you are already engaged in your Calling, or not: If you are, you must have greater reasons to desert it, than such as might require you at first not to choose it. 2. Either the Temptations to sin are such as good men ordinarily overcome, or they are extraordinarily great. You may more warrantably avoid such great ones as you are not like to overcome, than small or ordinary ones. 3. Either you are well furnished against these temptations, or not: If not, you must be more cautelous in approaching them: But if you are, you may trust God the boldlier to help you out. 4. Either they are temptations to ordinary human frailties in the manner of duty, or temptations to more dangerous sin: The first will not so much warrant you to avoid doing good for to escape them, as the latter will. 5. The service that you are called to (being supposed great and necessary to be done by somebody) is either such as others will do better or as well if you avoid it, or not. If the Church or common good receive no detriment by your refusal, you may the more insist on your own preservation: But if the necessities of the Church or State, and the want of fitter instruments, or any apparent call of God, do single you out for that service, you must obey God whatever the difficulties and temptations are: For no temptation can necessitate you to sin; and God that calleth you, can easily preserve you: But take heed what you thrust yourselves upon.

§. 25. Quest. But may I change my calling for the service of the Church, when the Apostle bids every man abide in the calling in which he was called? Cor. 7. 20.

Answ. The Apostle only requireth men to make no unlawful change (such as is the forsaking of a Wife or Husband) nor no unnecessary change as if it were necessary (as in the case of circumcision): But in the next words he saith [ Art thou called being a servant? Care not far it: But if thou mayest be made free use it rather. He bids every man abide with God in the place he is called to, but forbids them not to change their state when they are called to change it. verse 24. He speaks more of relations (of single persons and married, servants and free, &c. ) than o • trades or offices: And yet no doubt but a single person may be married, and the married must be separated; and servants may be free. No man must take up or change any calling without sufficient cause to call him to it: But when he hath such cause, he sinneth if he change it not. The Apostles changed their Callings, when they became Apostles; and so did multitudes of the Pastors of the Church in every age. God nowhere forbids men to change their employment for the better, upon a sufficient cause or call.

§. 26. Direct. 21. Especially be sure that you live not out of a calling, that is, such a stated course of employment, in which you may best be serviceable to God. Disability indeed is an unresistible impediment. Otherwise no man must either live idly, or content himself with doing some little charres as a recreation or on the by: But everyone that is able, must be statedly, and ordinarily employed in such work, as is serviceable to God, and the common Good. Quest. But will not wealth excuse us? Answ. It may excuse you from some sordid sort of work, by making you more serviceable in other: but you are no more excused from service and work of one kind or other, than the poorest man: Unless you think that God requireth least, where He giveth most. Quest. Will not age excuse us? Answ. Yes, so far as it disableth you; but no further. Object. But I am turned out of my calling. Answ. You are not turned out of the service of God: He calleth you to that▪ or to another. Quest. But may I not cast off the world, that I may only think of my salvation▪ Answ. You may cast off all such excess of worldly cares or business as unnecessarily hinder you in spiritual things: But you may not cast off all bodily employment and mental labor in which you may serve the common Good. Everyone that is a member of Church or common-wealth must employ their parts to the utmost for the good of the Church and common-wealth: Public service is God's greatest service. To neglect this, and say, I will pray and meditate, is as if your servant should refuse your greatest work, and tie himself to some lesser easy part: And God hath commanded you some way or other to labor for your daily bread and not to live as drones on the sweat of others only. Innocent Adam was put into the Garden of Eden to dress it: And fallen man must eat his bread in the sweat of his brows: Gen. 3. 19. And he that will not work must be forbidden to eat, 2 Thes. 3. 6, 10, 12. And indeed it is necessary to ourselves, for the health of our bodies, which will grow diseased with idleness; and for the help of our souls, which will fail if the body fail: And man in flesh must have work for his body as well as for his soul: And he that will do nothing but pray and meditate, it's like will (by sickness or Melancholy) be disabled e're long either to pray or meditate: Unless he have a body extraordinary strong.

§. 26. Direct 22. Be very watchful redeemers of your Time, and make conscience of every hour and minute, that you l • se it not, but spend it in the best and most serviceable manner that you can. Of this I intend to speak more particularly anon; and therefore shall here add no more.

§. 27. Direct. 23. Watchfully and resolutely avoid the entanglements and diverting occasions, by which the tempter will be still endeavoring to waste your time and hinder you from your work. Know what is the principal service that you are called to, and avoid avocations: especially Magistrates and Ministers, and those that have great and public work, must here take heed. For if you be not very wise and watchful, the Tempter will draw you before you are aware, into such a multitude of diverting cares or businesses, that shall seem to be your duties, as shall make you almost unprofitable in the world. You shall have this or that little thing that must be done, and this or that friend that must be visited or spoke to, and this or that civility that must be performed; so that • rif • es shall detain you from all considerable works. I confess friends must not be neglected, nor • ivilities be denied: but our Greatest duties having the Greatest necessity, all things must give place to them in their proper season. And therefore that you may avoid the offense of friends, avoid the place or occasions of such impediments: And where that cannot be done, whatever they judge of you, neglect not your most necessary work. Else it will be at the will of men and Satan, whether you shall be serviceable to God, or not.

§. 28. Direct. 24. Ask yourselves seriously how you would wish at death and judgment that you had used all your wit, and time, and wealth; and resolve accordingly to use them now. This is an excellent Direction and Motive to you, for doing good and preventing the condemnation which will pass upon unprofitable servants. Ask yourselves, will it comfort me more at death or judgment, to think or hear, that I spent this hour in plays or idleness, or in doing good to myself or others? How shall I wish then I had laid out my estate, and every part of it? Reason itself condemneth him that will not now choose the course which then he shall wish that he had chosen, when we foresee the consequence of that day.

§. 29. Direct. 25. Understand how much you are beholden to God (and not be to you) in that he will employ you in doing any good: and how it is the way of your own receiving; and know the excellency of your work and • nd, that you may do it all with Love and Pleasure. Unacquaintedness with our Master, and with the nature and tendency of our work, is it that maketh it seem tedious and unpleasant to us: And we shall never do it well, when we do it with an ill will, as merely forced. God loveth a cheerful servant; that Loveth his Master and his work. It is the main policy of the Devil to make our duty seem grievous, unprofitable, undesirable and wearisome to us: For a little thing will stop him that go • th unwillingly and in continual pain.

§. 30. Direct. 26. Expect your Reward from God alone, and look for unthankfulness and abuse from men, or wonder not if it befall you: If you are not the servants of Men, but of God, expect your recompense from him you serve. You serve not God indeed, if his Reward alone will not content you, unless you have also man's reward. Verily you have your reward, if with the Hypocrite you work for man's approbation. Mat. 6. 2, 5. Expect especially if you are Ministers or others that labor directly for the good of souls, that many prove your enemies for your telling them the truth, and that if you were as good as Paul and as unwearied in seeking men's salvation, yet the more you love, the less you will (by many) be loved: and those that he could have wisht himself accursed from Christ to save, did hate him and pers • cute him, as if he had been the most accursed wr • tch: A pe •• ilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among the people, and one that turneth the world upside down, were the names they gave them; and where ever he came, bonds and imprisonment did attend him, and slandering, and reviling, and whipping, and stocks, and vowing his death, are the thanks and requital which he hath from those, for whose salvation he spared no pains, but did spend and was spent. If you cannot do good upon such terms as these, and for those that will thus requite you, and be contented to expect a reward in Heaven, you are not fit to follow Christ, who was worse used than all this, by those to whom he shown more love, than any of his servants have to show. Take up your cross, and do good to the unthankful, and bless them that curse you, and love them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, if you will be the children of God. Mat. 5.

§. 31. Direct. 27. Make not your own judgments or Consciences your Law or the maker of your duty; which is but the Discerner of the Law of God, and of the duty which he maketh you, and of your own obedience or disobedience to him. There is a dangerous error grown too common in the world, that a man is bound to do everything which his Conscience telleth him is the will of God; and that every man must obey his Conscience, as if it were the Law-giver of the world: whereas indeed it is not our selves but God that is our Law-giver. And Conscience is not appointed or authorised, to make us any duty, which God hath not made us; but only to discern the Law of God, and call upon us to observe it: And an erring Conscience is not to be obeyed, but to be better informed, and brought to a righter performance of its office.

§. 32. In prosecution of this Direction, I shall here answer several cases about doubting.

Quest. 1. What if I doubt whether a thing be a duty and good work or not? Must I do it while I doubt? Nay what if I am uncertain whether it be duty or sin?

Answ. 1. In all these cases about an erring or a doubting Conscience, forget not to distinguish be tween the Being of a duty, and the Knowledge of a duty: and remember that the first Question is whether this be my duty? and the next, How I may discern it to be my duty: And that God giveth it the Being by his Law, and Conscience is but to know and use it: And that God changeth not his Law and our duty, as oft as our opinions change about it. The obligation of the Law is still the same, though our Consciences err in apprehending it otherwise. Therefore if God command you a duty and your opinion be that he doth not command it, or that he forbids it, and so that it is no duty or that it is a sin, it doth not follow that indeed God commands it not because you think so: Else it were no error in you, nor could it be possible to err, if the thing become true, because you think it to be true. God commandeth you to Love him, and to worship him, and to nourish your children, and to obey the higher powers, &c. And do you think you shall be discharged from all these duties, and allowed to be profane, or sensual, or to resist authority, or to famish your children, if you can but be blind enough to think that God would have it so? 2. Your error is a sin itself: And do you think that one sin must warrant another? or that sin can discharge you from your duty, and disannul the Law? 3. You are a subject to God and not a King to yourself: and therefore you must obey his Laws, and not make new ones.

§. 33. Quest. 2. But is it not every man's duty to obey his Conscience?

Answ. No: It is no man's duty to obey his Conscience in an error, when it contradicteth the command of God: Conscience is but a Discerner of God's command, and not at all to be obeyed strictly as a Commander but it is to be obeyed in a larger sense, that is, to be followed where ever it truly discerneth the command of God. It is our duty to lay by our error and seek the cure of it till we attain it, and not to obey it.

§. 34. Quest. 3. But is it not a sin for a man to go against his Conscience?

Answ. Yes: Not because Conscience hath any authority to make Laws for you; but because interpretatively you go against God. For you are bound to obey God in all things: and when you think that God commandeth you a thing, and yet you will not do it, you disobey formally though not materially: The Matter of Obedience is the thing commanded: The form of obedience is our doing the thing, because it is commanded; when the Authority of the Commander causeth us to do it. Now you reject the Authority of God when you reject that which you think he commandeth, though he did not.

§. 35. Quest. 4. Seeing the form of obedience is the being of it, and denominateth, which the Matter doth not without the form, and there can be no sin which is not against the authority of God, which is the formal cause of obedience, is it not then my duty to follow my Conscience?

Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes, or concurrence of all necessaries to make up Obedience, though the want of any one will make a sin: If you will be called Obedient, you must have the matter and form, because the true form is found in no other matter: You must do the thing commanded because of his Authority that commandeth it. If it may be called really and formally Obedience, when you err, yet it is not that obedience which is acceptable: For it is not any kind of obedience, but obedience in the thing commanded that God requireth. 2. But indeed as long as you err sinfully, you are also wanting in the form as well as the matter of your obedience, though you intend Obedience in the particular act. It is not only a willful opposing, and positive rejecting the Authority of the Commander, which is formal disobedience: but it is any Privation of due subjection to it; when his Authority is not so regarded as it ought to be; and doth not so powerfully and effectually move us to our duty as it ought. Now this formal disobedience is found in your erroneous Conscience: For if God's Authority had moved you as it should have done, to diligent enquiry and use of all appointed means, and to the avoiding of all the causes of error, you had never erred about your duty. For if the error had been perfectly involuntary and blameless, the thing could not have been your particular duty, which you could not possibly come to know.

§. 36. Quest. 5. But if it be a sin to go against my Conscience, must I not avoid that sin by obeying it? Would you have me sin?

Answ. You must avoid the sin, by changing your judgment, and not by obeying it: For that is but to avoid one sin by committing another. An erring judgment is neither obeyed nor disobeyed without sin: It can make you sin, though it cannot make you duty: It doth ensnare, though not oblige. If you follow it you break the Law of God in doing that which he forbids you: If you forsake it and go against it, you reject the authority of God in doing that which you think he forbids you. So that there is no attaining to innocence any other way, but by coming first to Know your duty, and then to do it. If you command your servant to weed your corn, and he mistake you and verily think, that you bid him pull up the corn, and not the weeds; what now should he do? Shall he follow his judgment, or go against it? Neither, but change it, and then follow it; and to that end inquire further of your mind till he be better informed: and no way else will serve the turn.

§. 37. Quest. 6. Seeing no man that erreth doth know or think that he erreth (for that's a contradiction) how can I lay by that opinion, or strive against it, which I take to be the truth?

Answ. It is your sin, that you take a falsehood to be a truth: God hath appointed means for the cure of blindness and error as well as other sins; or else the world were in a miserable case. Come into the light, with due self-suspicion, and impartiallity, and diligently use all God's means, and avoid the causes of deceit and error, and the Light of Truth will at once show you the Truth, and show you that before you erred. In the mean time sin will be sin though you take it to be duty, or no sin.

§. 38. Quest. 7. But seeing he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not, shall be beaten with 〈…〉 • e that knoweth it not, with few; is it not my duty chiefly to avoid the many 〈…〉 against my Conscience or Kn • wledge?

Answ. 1. Your duty is to avoid both: and if both were not sinful, they would not both be 〈…〉 ish • d w • th 〈…〉 : 2. Your Conscience is not your Knowledge when you err, but your Igno 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 •• it signifieth the faculty of Knowing may be said to be Conscience when it erreth; as 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 in the •••• ulty when we err. And Conscience as to an erring act, may be called 〈◊〉 so far as there is any true Knowledge in the act; (as a man is said to see when he misjudgeth of 〈◊〉 , or to Reas • n when he argueth amiss) But so far as it erreth it is no Conscience in act at all: • or Conscience is science, and not nescience. You sin against your Knowledge, when you sin against a well in •• rmed Conscience; but you sin in ignorance when you sin against an erring 〈◊〉 ▪ 3. And if the Question be not, what is your duty, but which is the smaller sin, then it is true, that 〈◊〉 •••• bus it is a greater sin to go against your judgment, than to follow it. But 〈…〉 impa • ities in matter and circumstances, may be an exception against this rule.

§. 〈◊〉 . Quest. 8. But it is not possible for every man presently to know all his duty and to avoid all 〈…〉 : Knowledge must be got in time: All men are ignorant in many things: should 〈…〉 in the mean time follow my Conscience?

Answ. 1. Your ignorance is culpable or not culpable. If it be not culpable, the thing which you 〈…〉 of is not your duty. If culpable (which is the case supposed) as you brought yourself in •••• difficulty of knowing, so it will remain your sin till it be cured; and one sin will not war 〈…〉 . And all that time you are under a double command, the one is to Know (and use the 〈…〉 Knowledge ) and the other is to do the thing commanded. So that how long soever you •• main i 〈…〉 you remain in sin, and are not under an obligation to follow your error, but first to K •• w and then to D • the contrary duty. 2. And as long as you keep yourself in a necessity, or way • f 〈◊〉 , you must call it sin as it is, and not call it duty: It is not your duty to choose a 〈…〉 a greater, but to refuse and avoid both the lesser and the greater: And if you say, [ 〈…〉 ▪ ] yet remember that it is only your sin that is your impotency, or your impotency is 〈◊〉 : But it is true that you are most obliged to avoid the greatest sin: Therefore all that re 〈…〉 in the resolving, of all such cases is but to • now of two sins which is the greatest.

§. 〈◊〉 . Quest. 9. What if there be a Great duty which I cannot perform without committing a little the sin? Or a very great Good which I cannot do, but by an unlawful means? As to save the lives of many by a li • ?

Answ. 1. It is no duty to you, when you cannot do it without willful sin, be it never so little. Deliberately to choose a sin, that I may perform some service to God, or do some Good to others, is to run before we are called, and to make work for ourselves which God never made for us; and to offer sin for a sacrifice to God; and to do evil that good may come of it; and abuse God and reject his government, under pretence of serving him: The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind. Prov. 21. 27. & 15. 8. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Prov. 28. 9. Be more ready to hear, than to offer the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Eccles. 5. 1. 2. If you will do Good by sinning, you must do Good in opposition to God: and how easily can he disappoint you, and turn it into Evil? It is not Good indeed, which must be accomplished by sin. The final Good is never promoted by it: And all other Good is to be estimated by its tendency to the End: You think that G •• d which is not so, because you judge by the present feeling of your flesh, and do not foresee how it stands related to the everlasting Good.

§. 41. Quest. 10. Seeing then that I am sure before hand that I cannot Preach, or Hear, or Pray, or do any good action without sin, must I not, by this rule, forbear them all?

Answ. No: because your infirmities in the performance of your duty, which you would avoid and cannot, are not made the condition of your action, but are the diseases of it; They are not chosen and approved of: The duty is your duty notwithstanding your infirmities; and may be accepted of: for you cannot serve God in perfection till you are perfect: and to cast away his service is a far greater sin, than to do it imperfectly. But you may serve him without such willful chosen sin; if not in one way, yet in another. The imperfection of your service is repented of while it is committed: but so is not your approved chosen sin. For a man to make a bargain against God, that he will commit a sin against him, though the action be the same which he hath often done before in pardonable weakness, this is to turn it to a presumptuous heinous sin. If he do it for worldly gain or safety, he selleth his obedience to God for trifles. If he do it to serve God by, he bl • sphemeth God, declaring him to be Evil and a lover of sin, or so Impotent as not to be able to do good, or attain his ends by lawful means. It is most dangerous to give it under our hands to the Devil that we will sin, on what pretence soever.

§. 42. Quest. 11. What if I am certain that the duty is great, and uncertain whether the thing annexed to it be a sin or not? Must I forbear a certain duty for an uncertain sin? Or forbear doing a great and certain good, for fear of a small uncertain evil?

Answ. 1. The Question de esse must go before the Question de apparere. Either that which you say you are uncertain of, is indeed a sin, or it is none. If it be no sin, then you are bound both to search till you know that it is no sin, and not to forbear your duty for it. But if really it be a sin, then your uncertainty of it is another sin: And that which God bindeth you to, is to forsake them both. 2. Your Question containeth a contradiction: you cannot be certain that it is a duty at all to you, any further than you are certain whether the Condition or means be lawful or a sin. What if an auditor in Spain or Italy say, I am certain that it's a duty to obey my Teachers; but I am uncertain whether their doctrines of the Mass, Purgatory, and the rest have any untruth or sin in them; therefore I must not forbear certain obedience for uncertain sin: Or if a Priest among them say, I am certain that it is a duty to preach God's word, but I am not certain that the Trent- Articles which I must swear or subscribe are sinful or false; therefore I must not leave a great and certain duty for an uncertain sin. The answer to them both is easy: 1. It is your sin that you are uncertain of the sinfulness of those things which God hath forbidden: And God biddeth you first to search the Scriptures, and cure that error: He made his Law before your doubts arose, and will not change it, because you doubt. 2. You contradict yourselves by a mistake: you have no more certainty that you should obey your Teachers in these particulars, than you have that the things which they teach or command you are not against that Law of God. You are certain that you must obey them in all things not forbidden by God, (and within the reach of their office to require). And you are as certain that it is unlawful to obey them against the Law of God, and that God must be obeyed before man: But whether you must obey them in this particular case, you cannot be certain while you are uncertain whether it be forbidden of God. And the Priest must be as uncertain whether it be any duty of his at all, to preach God's word, as he is uncertain of the lawfullness of the Trent-Oath or subscription, unless he can do it without. If a subject say, I am certain that to Govern the Kingdom well is a great good work and duty, but I am uncertain whether to depose the King if he Govern not well, and set up myself, be a sin: therefore the Certain good must overrule the uncertain evil. I give him the same answer, It is your sin to be uncertain whether Rebellion be a sin: and God bindeth you to lay by the sin of your judgment, and not to make it a shooing-horn to more. 2. You are sure that Governing well is a Good work; but you should be as sure that it is no duty of yours, nor no Good work for you to do, as you are sure that you are but a private man and a subject, and never called to do the Good of another's office. A private man may say, I am sure preaching is a good work, but I am not sure that a private unordained man may not statedly separate himself to do it. But he can be no surer that it is a duty to him, than he is that he is called to it.

§ 43. Quest. 12. Well: suppose my ignorance be my sin, and suppose that I am equally uncertain of the duty and of the sin annexed; yet if I have done all that I am able and remain still unresolved, and after my most diligent enquiry am as much in doubt as ever, what should I then do?

Answ. 1. If you had by any former sin so forfeited God's assistance, as that he will leave you to your blindness, this altereth not his Law and your obligations which are still the same (to Learn, understand and practice ) 2. But if you are truly willing to understand, and practice, and use his means, you have no cause to imagine that he will thus forsake you: undoubtedly he appointeth you no means in vain: If you attain not sufficient resolution to guide you in your duty, it is either because your hearts are false in the enquiry, and biased, or unwilling to know the truth; or do it: or because you use not the true appointed means for resolution, but in partiality or laziness neglect it.

§. 44. Quest. 13. Suppose still my ignorance be my sin, which is the Greater sin, to neglect the good work or to venture on the feared evil that is annexed? I am not conscious of any unfaithfullness but human frailty, that keepeth me from certainty: And no man is so perfect as to have no culpable ignorance, and to be certain in every point of duty: Therefore I must with greatest caution avoid the greatest sin, when I am out of hope of avoiding all. On one side it is a common Rule that I must do nothing against Conscience (no not a doubting Conscience) though I must not always do what it biddeth me: For he that doubteth is condemned if he eat: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin: Rom. 14. 23. On the other side, if all duty be omitted which conscience doubteth of, I may be kept from almost every duty.

Answ. The heart is so deceitful that you have great cause to watch, lest human frailty be pretended for that error which a corrupted biased partial mind, or willful lazyness is the cause of. Diligent study, and enquiry, and prayer, with a sincere desire to know the truth, may succeed at least to so much satisfaction, as may keep your minds in quietness and peace, and give you comfort in your way, and preserve you from all such sin as is inconsistent with this your safety and acceptance with God. But yet it is true that human frailty will occasion in the best uncertainties in some particular cases; and though God make it not our duty of two sins to choose the less, (but to refuse both), yet he maketh it our duty more diligently to avoid the greater than the less. And oft times the case is so sudden that no enquiry can be made: And therefore I confess a Christian should know which sins are greatest and to be most avoided. At present I shall lay down these following Rules, premising this, that where accidents and circumstances which make sins Great or Small. are to be compared, they are oft times so numerous and various, that no Rules can be laid down before hand that will serve all turns, no more than in Law and Physic any Law-books or Physic-books will serve all cases without a present experienced judicious Counselor: Present PRUDENCE and SINCERITY must do most.

§. 45. Rule 1. In things altogether indifferent nothing must be done that Conscience doubteth of, because there is a possibility or fear of sinning on the one side, but none on the other: And in that case it is a certain sin to venture on a feared sin. But then it is supposed that the thing be indifferent as clothed with all its circumstances, and that there be no accident that taketh away its indifferency.

§. 46. Rule 2. •• • a • e the thing be really unlawful, and I think it to be lawful, but with s • me 〈…〉 ing, • ut a •• clear that the forbearing it is no sin; there the sin is only in the doing it▪ because all • s cl •• r and s • s • on the other side.

§. 47. Rule 3. There are many sins which are always and to all pers • ns in all cases sins, and not d • u • te • •• •• any wit •• ut g •••• unfaithfullness or negligence: and • ere there is no room for any d • ubting whether we must do that •••• d which cannot be done without that sin: it being certain that n • s •••• Go • d can be a duty. As to commit Idolatry; to blaspheme God, to deny Christ, to deny •••• • cript • r •• ▪ to hat • , or r • proach, or oppose a holy life, to be perjured, to approve or justify the •••• o • • th • r • , &c. It can be no duty which cannot be done without the willful yielding to •• committing these or any known sin.

§. 48. Rule 4. There are some Duties so great, and clear, and cons •••• t to all, that none but a pr • f •• g •• e or 〈…〉 ne that is fearfully p • ys • ned with sin) can make a doubt of it deliberately: T •••• therefore come not within the case before us.

§. 49. Rule 5. I • M •• all evil be compared only with Natural Good, or Moral Good with Natu •••• Evil, there i • no d • ubt to be made of the case: the least sin having more evil in it than the Prospe •••• y or Lives of mi •••• ns of men have Good (considered in themselves as Natural good): and the least • u •• t • God having more good in it, than the death of millions of men (as such) hath evil: For the God of duty and the evil of sin are greatened by their respect to God, and the other lessened as being 〈…〉 only u • to men, and with respect to them.

§. 50. Rule 6. Where I am in an equal degree uncertain, of the Duty to be omitted, and of the sin 〈…〉 committed, it is a Greater sin to venture doubtfully up • n the committing of a positive sin that is Great (in case it prove a sin), than upon the omitting a duty which (in case it prove a • uty 〈…〉 ▪ A • d on the contrary it is worse to venture on the omitting of a Great duty, than on the committing of a small positive sin. As suppose my own or my neighbors house be on •• re, and I am in doubt whether I may take another man's water to quench it against his will. O • if my own, or my child's, or neighbors life be in danger by famine, and I doubt whether I may take another man's apples, or pears, or ears of corn, or his bread, against his will to save my own l •• e or another's. Really the thing is already made Lawful or Unlawful (which I now determine not) by the Law of God: But in my unavoidable uncertainty (if I be equally doubtful on both s • des) it is a far greater sin (if it prove a sin) to omit the saving of the House or Life, than to take • an • there man's water, or fruit, or bread that hath plenty (if this prove the sin): So if King and Nobles were in a ship which would be taken and all destroyed by Pirates, unless I told a lie, and said, They are other persons: If I were equally in doubt which course to take, to lie or not, (though sin have more evil than all our Lives have good) yet a sinful omitting to save all their lives is a greater sin, than a sinful telling of such a lie. Suppose I am in doubt whether I may lawfully save an Ox, or Ass, or a Mans life, by labor on the Sabbath day? Or David had doubted whether he might eat the consecrated show-bread in his necessity? It's clear that the sinful neglect of a man's life is worse than the sinful violation of a Sabbath, or the sinful use of the consecrated bread. If I equally doubt whether I may use a ceremony or disorderly defective form of prayer, and whether I should preach the Gospel to save men's souls, where there are not others enough to do it; it's clear that sinfully to use a ceremony or disorderly form of prayer is (caeteris paribus) a lesser sin, than sinfully to neglect to preach the Gospel and to save men's souls. On the other side, suppose I dwelt in Italy, and could not have leave to preach the Gospel there, unless, I would subscribe to the Trent confession, or the canon third of Council. Lateran. Sub Innocent 3. One of which requireth men to swear for Transubstantiation, and to interpret the Scriptures only according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers (who never unanimously consented in any exposition of the greatest part of the Scriptures at all): The other d •• r •• th the Popes deposing Temporal Lord's, and disobliging their subjects from their allegiance: On one side I doubt whether by subscribing I become not guilty of justifying Idolatry, Perjury and Rebellion, and making myself guilty of the perjury of many thousand others: On the other side I doubt whether I may disobey my Superiors who command me this subscription, and may forbear preaching the Gospel▪ when yet I apprehend that there are others to preach it, and that my worth is not so considerable as that there should be any great loss in putting me out and putting in another, and God needeth not me to do him service, but hath instruments at command, and that I know not how soon he may restore my liberty, or that I may serve him in another Country, or else in sufferings at home, in such a case the sinful justifying of Perjury or Rebellion in whole Countries is a far greater sin, than the sinful omission of my preaching: for he that justifieth Perjury destroyeth the bonds of all societies, and turneth loose the subjects against their Sovereigns. Or if I being a Minister were forbidden to preach the Gospel where there is necessity, unless I will commit some sin; if I doubt on one side whether I should disobey my Superiors, and on the other whether I should forbear my calling, and neglect the souls of • inners; it is a lesser sin ( caeteris paribus ) to disobey a man sinfully, than to disobey God and to be cruel to the souls of men to their perdition sinfully. Or if I have made a vow and sworn that I will cast away a penny or a shilling, and I am in doubt on one side whether I be not bound to keep it as a Vow, and on the other whether it be not a sin to keep it, because to cast away any of my talents is a sin, in this case, the sinful casting away of a penny or a shilling, is not so great a sin, as sinful Perjury. If Daniel and the three witnesses had been in equal doubt whether they should obey the King, or Pray to God (as Daniel 6.) and renounce the bowing to his Idol ( Daniel 3.) The sinful forbearance of prayer as then commanded, and the sinful bowing to the Idol, had been a greater sin, than a sinful disobeying the Kings command in such a case, if they had mistaken.

§. 51. Rule 7. If I cannot discern whether the Duty to be omitted: or the sin to be committed be mater • ally and in other respects the greater, then that will be ▪ to me the greater of the sins which my doubting Conscience doth most strongly suspect to be sin in its most impartial deliberation. For if other things be equal, certainly the sinning against more or less conviction or doubting must make an inequality. As if I could not discern whether my subscription to the Trent confession, or my forbearing to preach, or my preaching though prohibited, were the greater sin, in case they were all sinful; but yet I am most strongly suspicious of sinfulness in the subscription, and less suspicious of sinfulness in my forbearing in such a case to preach, and least of all suspicious of sinfulness in my preaching though prohibited: In this case to subscribe sinfully is the greatest sin, and to forbear sinfully to exercise my office is the next, and to preach unwarrantably is the least.

§. 52. Rule 8. If I could perceive no difference in the degrees of evil in the Omission and the Commission, nor yet in the degrees of my suspicion or doubting, then that is the greater sin which I had greater helps and evidence to have known, and did not.

§. 53. Rule 9. If both greater material evil be on one side than on the other, and greater suspicion or evidence of the sinfulness also, then that must needs be the greater sin.

§. 54. Rule 10. If the Greatness of the Material Evil be on one side, and the greatness of the suspicion and evidence be on the other, then the former (if sin) will be materially and in itself considered the worst▪ but the later will be formally the greater disobedience to God. But the comparison will be very difficult. As suppose that I swear to God that I will cast away a shilling, or that I will forbear to pray for a week together: Here I take perjury to be a greater sin, than my casting away a shilling, or forbearing to pray a week: But when I question whether the Oath should be kept or not, I have greater suspicion that it should not, than that it should, because no oath must be the bond of the least iniquity. Here if the not keeping it prove a sin, I shall do that which is the Greater sin in itself if I keep it not; but I shall show more disobedience in keeping it, if it be not to be kept.

§. 55. Rule 11. If it be a double sin that I suspect on one side, and but a single one on the other, it maketh an inequality in the case. As suppose that in my Fathers family there are Heretics, and Drunkards, and I swear that in my place and calling I will endeavor to cast them out. My Mother approveth my Vow: My Father is against it and dischargeth me of it, because I did it not by his advice. On one side I doubt whether I am bound, or may act against my Fathers will: On the other side I as much doubt whether I am not perjured, and disobedient to my Mother if I do it not, and whether I disobey not God, that made it my duty to endeavor the thing in my place and calling before I vowed it.

§. 56. Rule 12. There is a great deal of difference between omitting the substance of a duty for • ver, and the delaying it, or altering the time, and • place and manner. For instance that which will justify or excuse me for shortening my prayer, or for praying but once a day, or at noon rather than in the morning, or for defect in method, or fervency, or Expressions, may not justify or excuse me for denying, renouncing or long forbearing prayer. And that which may excuse an Apostle for not preaching in the Temple or Synagogues, or not having the Emperors, or the High-Priests allowance or consent; or for not continuing in one City or Country, would not excuse them if they had renounced their callings, or totally as to all times, and places, and manner of performance have ceased their work for fear of men.

§. 57. Rule 13. If the duty to be omitted, and the sin to be committed seem equal in greatness, and our doubt be equal as to both, it is commonly held safer to avoid the Commission more studiously than the • mission. For which there are many reasons given.

§. 58. Rule 14. There is usually much more matter for fear and suspicion caeteris paribus of sins to be committed, than of Duties to be omitted, when the Commission is made necessary to the doing of the duty. Both because it is there that the fear beginneth: For I am certain that the Good work is no Duty to me, if the act be a sin which is its necessary Condition. Therefore so far as I suspect the act to be sinful I must needs suspect the duty to be no duty to me at that time: It is not possible I should be rationally more persuaded that the Duty is my duty, than that the Condition is no sin: If it were the saving of the lives of all the men in the Country, I could no further take it to be my duty, than I take that to be no sin by which it must be done▪ it being a thing past controversy that we must not sin for the accomplishment of any good whatsoever. And also because the sin is supposed to be always sin; but few duties are at all time • duties: And the sin is a sin to every man: but the duty may be another man's duty and not mine. For instance: Charles the fifth imposeth the Interim upon Germany: Some Pa •••• rs yielded to it: Others refused it and were cast out: Those that yielded pleaded the Good of the Churches, and the prevention of their utter desolation; but yet confessed that if the thing imposed were sinful it was not their duty to do it for any Good whatsoever, but to seek the Good of the Church as well as they could without it: The other that were cast out argued that so far as they were confident the Interim was sinful, they must be confident that nothing was their duty that could not be done without it; and that God knew best what is Good for his Church, and there is no accomplishing its good by sin and God's displeasure; and that they did not therefore forsake their Ministry, but only lose the Rulers License; for they resolved to preach in one place or other till they were imprisoned; and God can serve himself by their imprisonment or death as well as by their preaching: And while others took their places that thought the Interim lawful, the Churches were not wholly destitute, and if God saw it meet, he could restore their fuller liberties again: In the mean time to serve him as all Pastors did for three hundred years after Christ (without the License of the Civil Magistrate) was not to cast away their office. Another instance: The zealous Papists in the Reign of Hen. 3. in France thought that there was a Necessity of entering the League and warring against the King, because Religion was in danger, the preservation whereof is an unquestionable duty: The Learned and moderate Lawyers that were against them said, that there being no question but the King had the total sovereignty over them, they were sure it was a sin to resist the Higher powers, and therefore no preservation of Religion could be a duty or lawful to them which must be done by such a certain sin. Sin is not the means to save Religion or the Common wealth.

§. 59. Rule 51. When a thing is not prohibited and sinful simply in itself, but because of some accidental or consequential evil that it tendeth to, there a Greater accidental or consequential Good, may preponderate the evil, and make the thing become no sin, but a Duty. It is a matter of exceeding difficulty to discern oft times whether a thing be simply and absolutely forbidden, or only by accident and alterably; and to discern which Accident doth preponderate. There are so many Observations that should here be taken in, and so much of a man's life and peace is concerned in it, that it deserveth a Treatise by itself: And therefore I shall not meddle with it any further here, lest an insufficient tractate be worse than none, in a case where error is so easy and p • rillous.

§. 60. Rule 16. As to the danger of the sinner himself, there is a great deal of difference between an error and sin of human frailty, when the service of God, and true obedience, and the comm • n good is sincerely intended, and an error and sin of falseheartedness and sloth, when selfishness is the secret spring of the error and carnal interest the real end, though God and his service be pretended. And usually the concomitants will sh • w something of this to others. For instance; Two Magistrates and two Ministers submit to some questioned imposition, all pretend that the Glory of God, and his service is it that prevaileth with them to submit: The one of the Magistrates faithfully serveth God afterward with his authority, and showeth thereby that he meant sincerely: The other doth no good in his place, and showeth his hypocrisy: One of the Ministers preacheth zealously and privately laboreth as one that thirsteth for the saving of souls: The other preacheth formally and coldly and heartlessly and never converteth a soul, and neglecteth the work which he pretended was his end.

Directions for Loving God as our Father and Felicity.

§. 2. Here I shall first give you these General Preparatives, (and then give you Directions for the exercise of holy Love.) 1. You must understand the Nature of Love to God: 2. You must understand the differences of this Love: 3. You must understand the Reasons of it: 4. And the Contraries of it: 5. And the Counterfeits of it.

§. 3. I. For the understanding of its Nature, observe these things: 1. It is not the Love of a particular good, but of the infinite Universal Good. The creature is a particular good, and our Love to it is a particular limited Love, confined as to a point. God is the Universal Good, and our Love to him is not limited by the object, but by the narrowness and imperfection of our faculties themselves. As suppose you had variety of Candles in your Room, and you had Diamonds and other refulgent things: You love each of these with a particular love, for their splendor and usefulness: and you more easily observe and feel the motion of this confined Love: But Light itself as Light, you love with a more Universal Love; which is greater, but not so sensibly observed. (Not as we speak of notional Universals in Logic, which have no existence but in particulars; but of the Natural, transcendent, infinite good, eternally existent, and arbitrarily appearing in some created particles) As the love of an infinite Light would differ from the Love of a Candle, and the love of an infinite Heat, from the love of a Fire, and the love of infinite Wisdom itself, from the love of a wise man; and the love of infinite Goodness itself from the love of a Good Man: So doth the love of God from the Love of a particular created good.

§. 4. 2. Our Love to God is not ordinarily so passionate, as our Love to Creatures: Because the nearness and sensibleness of the creature, promoteth such sensible operations: But God is not seen, or felt, or heard, but believed in by faith, and known by Reason: And the narrowness of the creature making resistances, stops and difficulties, occasioneth a turbulent passionatenes of love: when th • infiniteness of God hath no such occasion: Our love to creatures is like the running of a stream in a channel that is too narrow for it, where stops and bancks do make it go on with a roaring violence: But our love to God, is like the Brook that slideth into the Ocean where it is insensibly devoured. Therefore our Love to God must principally be perceived, not in violent passions, but in 1. A high estimation of him: 2. In the Wills adhaering to him: 3. And in the effects (to be mentioned anon). Yet when a Passionate Love is added to these, it may be the most excellent s • gnificati • ely and effectively. Some Philosophers think that God cannot at all be loved with a Passionate Love, because he is a pure immaterial being, and therefore cannot be the object of a material act or motion, such as our passions are; and therefore that it is some Idol of the imagination that is so loved: But 1. If they mean that his pure Essence in itself is not the immediate object of a passion, they may say the same of the Will itself: For man (at l • ast in flesh) can have no other V • liti • n of God, but as he is apprehended by the Intellect: And if by an Idol they mean the Image of God in the mind, gathered from the appearances of God in creatures, man in flesh hath no other knowledge of him: For here we know him but darkly, enigmatically, and as in a glass, and have no formal proper conception of him in his essence. So that the Rational powers themselves do no otherwise kn • w and will God's essence, but as represented to us in a glass. 2. And thus we may also love him passionately; it being God in his objective being as apprehended by the Intellect that we both Will and passionately Love. The Motion of the soul in flesh, may raise passions by the instrumentality of the corporeal Spirits, towards an immaterial object: which is called the object of those passions, not merely as Passions, but as the Passions of a Rational Agent; it being more nearly or primarily the object of the Intellect and Will, and then of the Passions, as first apprehended by these superior powers. A man may Delight in God, or else how is he our felicity: and yet we know of no Delight which is not Passion: A man may love his own soul with a passionate Love, and yet it is immaterial: when I passionately love my friend, it is his immaterial soul, and his wisdom, and holiness which I chiefly love.

§. 5. 3. It is not only for his Excellencies and Perfections in himself, nor only for his Love and benefit to us, that Grace doth cause a sinner to Love God; But it is for both conjunctly: as he is good, and doth good, especially to us, in the greatest things.

§. 6. 4. Our first special Love to God, is orderly and rationally to be raised, by the belief of his Goodness in himself, and his common Love and Mercy to sinners, manifested in his giving of his Son for the world, and giving men the Conditional promise of pardon and salvation, and offering them Christ and life eternal, and all this to us as well as others: and not to be caused by the belief or persuasion of his special peculiar electing, redeeming, or saving love to us above others, that have the same invitations and offers. It is the knowledge of Common Love and Mercy, and not of special Love and Mercy to us, as already possessed, that is appointed to be the motive of our first special Love to God: (Yet there is in it an apprehension that he is our only possible felicity, and that he will give us a special interest in his favor, if we return by faith in Christ unto him.) For 1. Every man is bound to Love God with a special Love: but every man is not specially beloved by him: And no man is bound to Love God as one that specially Loveth him, but those that indeed are so beloved by him: For else they were bound to believe a falsehood, and to Love that which is not; and grace should be an error and deceit. The object is before the act. God's special Love must in itself be before its Revelation: and as Revealed it must go before our belief of it; and as believed, it must go before our Loving it, or Loving him as such, or for it. 2. The first saving faith is inseparably conjunct with special Love: For Christ is believed in and willed, as the Way or Means to God as the End: (otherwise it is no true faith.) And the Volition of the End (which is Love ) is in order of nature before the choice or Use of the Means as such: And if we must Love God as one that specially Loveth us, in our first Love, then we must Believe in him as such by our first faith: And if so, it must be to us a Revealed Truth. But (as it is false to most that are bound to believe, so) it is not Revealed to the Elect themselves: For if it be, it is either by ordinary or extraordinary revelation: If by ordinary, either by Scripture directly, or by Evidences in ourselves which Scripture maketh the Characters of his Love. But neither of these: For Scripture promiseth not salvation to named, but described persons: And evidence of special Love there is none, before Faith and Repentance and the first Love to God. And extraordinary Revelations from Heaven by inspiration or Angel, is not the ordinary begetter of faith: For faith is the Belief of God speaking to us (now) by his written Word. So that where there is no Object of Love, there can be no Love: And where there is no Revelation of it to the understanding, there is no object for the will: And till a man first believe and Love God, he hath no Revelation that God doth specially Love him. Search as long as you will, you will find no other. 3. If the wicked were condemned for not Loving a false or feigned object, it would quiet their consciences in Hell when they had detected the deceit, and seen the natural impossibility and contradiction. 4. The first Love to God is more a Love of Desire, than of Possession: And therefore it may suffice to raise it, that we see a possibility of being forever happy in God, and enjoying him in special Love, though yet we know not that we possess any such Love. The Nature of the thing proclaimeth it most Rational and due, that we Love the Infinite Good, that hath done so much by the death of his Son to remove the impediments of our salvation, and is so far Reconciled to the world in his death, as by a message of Reconciliation, to entreat them to accept of Christ, and pardon, and salvation freely offered them 2 Cor. 5. 19, 20. and is himself the offered Happiness of the soul. He that dare say that this much hath not an Objective sufficiency to engage the soul in special Love, is a blind under-valuer of wonderful mercy. 5. The first special Grace bringeth no new Object for faith or Love, but causeth a new act upon the formerly revealed object.

§. 7. 5. But our Love to God is greatly increased and advantaged afterwards by the assurance or persuasion of his peculiar special Love to us. And therefore all Christians should greatly value such assurance, as the appointed means of advancing them to greater Love to God.

§. 8. 6. As we know God here in the glass of his Son, and Word, and Creatures, so we most sensibly Love him here, as his Goodness appeareth in his Works, and Graces, and his Word, and Son.

§. 9. 7. The nearer we come to perfection, the more we shall Love God for himself and his infinite Natural Goodness and perfections; not casting away the respects of his Goodness and Love as to ourselves; but highliest regarding himself for himself, as carried to him above ourselves.

§. 10. 11. Though Love in its own Nature be still the same; and is nothing but the Rational appetite of Good; or the Wills Volition of Good apprehended by the understanding; the first motion of the Will to Good, arising from that Natural inclination to Good which is the Nature of the Will, and the pondus animae, the poise of the soul; or from healing Grace, which repaireth the breach that is made in nature; Yet Love in regard of the state of the Lover, and the way of its imperate acting is thus differenced. 1. Either the Lover is in the Hopeful pursuit of the thing beloved: and then it is DESIRING SEEKING LOVE: 2 Or he is or seemeth to be denied, destitute, and deprived of his beloved (in whole or in part): and then it is a MOURNING LAMENTING LOVE. 3. Or he enjoyeth his beloved: and then it is ENJOYING DELIGHTING LOVE: 1. The ordinary Love which Grace causeth on Earth is a predominancy of seeking desiring Love, encouraged by some little fore-tastes of enjoying delighting Love, and in a great measure attended with Mourning Lamenting Love. 2. The state of deserted, dark, declining, relapsing, and melancholy tempted Christians, is, A predominance of Mourning Lamenting Love, assisted with some help of seeking desiring Love; but destitute of enjoying delighting Love. 3. The state of the Glorified is Perfection of enjoying delighting Love alone. And all the rest are to bring us unto this.

III. The Reasons why Love to God is so great, and high, and necessary a thing, and so much esteemed above other Graces, are: 1. It is the motion of the soul that tendeth to the End: And the End is more excellent than all the Means as such. 2. The Love, or Will, or Heart is the Man: where the Heart or Love is, there the Man is: It is the fullest resignation of the whole man to God, to Love him as God, or offer him the Heart. God never hath his Own fully, till we Love him. Love is the grand significant vital motion of the soul, such as the Heart, or Will, or Love is, such you may boldly call the man. 3. The Love of God is the perfection and highest improvement of all the faculties of the soul, and the End of all other Graces, to which they tend, and to which they grow up and in which they terminate their operations. 4. The Love of God is that Spirit or life of moral excellency in all other Graces in which (though not their form, yet) their acceptableness doth consist: without which they are to God as a lifeless Carrion is to us. And to prove any action sincere and acceptable to God, is to prove that it comes from a Willing Loving mind; without which you can never prove it. 5. Love is the commander of the soul: and therefore God knoweth that if he have our Hearts, he hath all: For all the rest are at its command: For it is as it were, the nature of the Will, which is the commanding faculty; and its Object is the Ultimate End which is the Commanding Object. Love settleth the mind on Thinking, the tongue on speaking, the hands on working, the feet on going, and every faculty obeyeth its command. 6. The obedience which Love commandeth participateth of its nature, and is a ready, cheerful, sweet obedience, acceptable to God, and pleasant to ourselves. 7. Love is a pure, chaste and cleansing grace; and most powerfully casteth out all creature pollution from the soul: The Love of God doth quench all carnal sinful love; and most effectually carrieth up the soul, to such high delights, as causeth it to contemn and forget the toys which it before admired. 8. The Love of God is the true acknowledging and honoring him as good. That blessed Attribute, his GOODNESS, is denied or despised by those that Love him not. The Light of the Sun would not be valued, honored or used by the world, if there were no eyes in the world to see it. And the Goodness of God is to them that Love him not, as the Light to them that have no eyes. If God would have had his Goodness to be thus unknown or neglected, he would never have made the Intellectual creatures. Those only give him the glory of his Goodness, that truly Love him. 9. Love (in its attainment) is the Enjoying and delighting Grace: It is the very content and felicity of the soul: Both as it maketh us capable to receive the most delightful communications of God's Love to us; and as it is the souls delightful closure with its most amiable felicitating object. 10. Love is the Everlasting Grace, and the work which we must be doing in Heaven forever. These are the the Reasons of Loves preeminence.

§. 12. IV. The Love of Creatures hath its Contraries on both extremes; in the excess and in the Defect: But the Love of God hath no contrary in excess: For infinite Goodness cannot possibly be Loved too much (unless as the passion may possibly be raised to a degree distracting or disturbing the brain.) The odious Vices contrary to the Love of God, are 1. Privative: Not loving him: 2. Positive: Hating him: 3. Opposite: Loving his creatures in his stead. All these concur in every unsanctified soul. That they are all void of the true Love of God, and taken up with creature Love, is past all doubt: But whether they are all Haters of God, may seem more questionable. But it is as certain as the other: Only the hatred of God in most, doth not break out into that open opposition, persecution or blasphemy, as it doth with some that are given up to desperate wickedness: Nor do they think that they hate him. But the Aversation of the Will, is the Hatred of God: And if men had not a great aversation to him, they would not forsake him, and refuse to be converted to him, notwithstanding all the arguments of Love that can be used to allure them. Displicency, N • liti • n and Aversation are Hatred.

§. 13. If you think it impossible that men can Hate God, whom they confess to be infinitely good; Consider for the true understanding of this Hatred; 1. That it is not as good that they hate him. 2. And it is not God simply in himself considered. 3. And therefore it is not all in God. 4. And it is not the name of God. 5. But it is 1. God as he seemeth unsuitable to them, and unfit for their delight and Love: which seeming is caused by their carnal inclination to things of another nature▪ and the sinful perverting of their appetites, and the blindness and error of their minds. 2. And it is God as he is an enemy to their carnal concupiscence; whose Holy nature is against their unholiness, and hateth their sin, and his Laws forbid them the things which they most love and take delight in: And so they hate God, as a mad man hateth his Keeper and Physician, and takes them for his enemies; and as a hungry Dog doth hate him that keepeth him from the meat which he loveth, or would take it out of his mouth: 3. And they hate God, as one that by his Holiness, Justice and Truth is engaged to condemn them for their sin, and so (consequently to their sin) is their enemy that will destroy them (unless they forsake it): when their Wills are enslaved to their sins, and they cannot endure to be forbidden them, and yet see that God will damn them in Hell fire, if they cast them not away, this filleth them with displicency against God, as Holy and Just. 4. And then consequently they hate him in the rest of his Attributes: As his Omniscience, that he always seeth them. His Omnipresence, that he is always with them: His Omnipotency, that he is unresistible, and able to punish them. His very mercy as expressed to others, when they must have no part in it: yea, his very immutability, eternity and being, as he is to continue an avenger of their iniquity: so that the wicked in despair do wish that there were no God; and in prosperity they wish he were not their Governor and Judge, or were unholy and unjust, allowing them to do what they list without account or punishment. Thus God is hated by the wicked according to the measure of their wickedness and carnal interest and concupiscence which he is against. Where you may note, 1. That the Hatred of God beginneth at the sensual Love of things temporal which he forbiddeth: 2. That the wicked great ones of the world, and those that have the strongest concupiscence, are usually the greatest haters of God, as having the greatest adverse interest, and being most in love with the things which he prohibiteth and will condemn.

§. 14. V. The Counterfeit of Love to God, is something that seemeth like it, and yet is consistent with prevalent hatred, or privation of true Love, and maketh self-deceiving Hypocrites. 1. One is when so much of God is Loved as men think hath no opposition to their lusts and carnal interest: (as his mercy and readiness to forgive); and then they think that they truly Love God, though they hate his Holiness and other attributes. 2. Another Counterfeit is, to Love God upon mistakes, imagining that he is of the sinners mind, and will bear with him, and not condemn him, though he continue sensual and ungodly: This is not indeed to Love God; but something contrary to God: If men's fantasies will take God to be like the Devil, a friend to sin, and no friend to holiness, and false in his threatenings, &c. and thus will Love him, this is so far from being indeed the Love of God, that it is an odious blaspheming of him. 3. Another counterfeit is to Love God only for his temporal mercies; as because he preserveth and maintaineth them; when yet he is resisted when he would give them things spiritual. 4. Another is, when the opinionative approbation of the mind, and honoring God with the lips and knee, is mistaken for true Love. In a word, whatever Love of God, respecteth him not as God indeed, and is not superlative, but is subservient to creature Love, is but a counterfeit.

§. 15. VI. The Directions for the exercise of the Love of God are these.

Direct. 1. Consider well that the Love of our Creator, Redeemer and Regenerater, is the very end for which we are Created, Redeemed and Regenerate, and how just it is that God should have the end of such excellent works; and that by neglecting or opposing the Love of God which is the end, we neglect or oppose the works of Creation, Redemption and Regeneration themselves. Let us plead these Works of God with our hearts, and say,

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§. 18. Direct. 2. Think of the perfect fitness of God to be the only Object of thy superlative Love; and how easy and necessary it should seem to us to do a work so agreeable to right Reason and uncorrupted Nature; and abhor all temptations which would make God seem unsuitable to thee. [

§. 19. Direct. 3. Imagine not God to be far away from thee, but think of him as always near thee and with thee, in whose present Love and Goodness thou dost subsist. Nearness of Objects doth excite the faculties: we hear no sound, nor smell no odour, nor taste no sweetness, nor see no colors, that are too distant from us: And the mind being limited in its activity, neglecteth or reacheth not things too distant, and requireth some Nearness of its object, as well as the sense. Especially to the excitation of affections and bodily action. A distant danger stirreth not up such fears, nor a distant misery such grief, nor a distant benefit such pleasure, as that which is at hand. Death doth more deeply affect us, when it seemeth very near, than when we think we have yet many years to live. So carnal minds are so drowned in flesh and captivated to sense, that they take little notice of what they see not, and therefore think of God as absent, because they see him not: They think of him as confined to Heaven, as we think of a friend that is in the East Indies, or at the Antipodes, who is, if not out of mind as well as out of sight, yet too distant for us delightfully to converse with. [

§. 20. Direct. 4. All other Graces must do their part in assisting Love, and all be exercised in subservience to it, and with an intention (directly or remotely) to promote it. Fear and watchfulness must keep away the sin that would extinguish it, and preserve you from that Guilt which would frighten away the soul from God: Repentance and mortification must keep away diverting and deceiving objects, which would steal away our Love from God: Faith must show us God as present, in all his blessed attributes and perfections: Hope must depend on him for nearer access and the promised felicity. Prudence must choose the fittest season, and means and helps from our special approaches to him; and teach us how to avoid impediments: And obedience must keep us in a fit capacity for communion with him. The mind that is turned loose to wander after vanity the rest of the day, is unfit in an hour of prayer or meditation to be taken up with the Love of God. It must be the work of the day, and of our lives, to walk in a fitness for it, though we are not always in the immediate lively exercise of it. To sin willfully one hour, and be taken up with the love of God the next, is as unlikely, as one hour to abuse our Parents, and provoke them to correct us, and the next to find the pleasure of their love; or one hour to fall and break ones bones, and the next to run and work as pleasantly as we did before.

§. 21. And we must see that all other Graces be exercised in a just subserviency to Love; and none of them degenerate into noxious extremes, to the hindrance of this which is their proper end. When you set yourselves to Repent and Mourn for sin, it must be from Love, and for Love: That by ingenuous lamentation of the injuries you have done to a gracious God, you may be cleansed from the filth that doth displease him, and being reconciled to him in Christ, may be fit to return to the exercises and delights of Love. When you Fear God, let it be with a Filial fear, that comes from Love, and is but a preservative or restorative for Love. Avoid that slavish fear as a sin, which tendeth to hatred, and would make you fly away from God. Love casteth out this tormenting fear, and freeth the soul from the Spirit of bondage. The Devil tempteth melancholy persons to live before God, as one that is still among Bears or Lions that are ready to devour him: For he knoweth how much such a fear is an enemy to Love. Satan would never promote such fears, if they were of God, and tended to our good. You never found him promoting your Love or Delight in God! But he careth not how much he plungeth you into distracting terrors: If he can, he will frighten you out of your Love, and out of your comforts, and out of your wits. A dull and sluggish sinner he will keep from fear, lest it should awaken him from his sin: But a poor melancholy, penitent soul he would keep under perpetual terrors: It is so easy to such to fear, that they may know it is a sinful inordinate fear: For gracious works are not so easy. And resist also all humiliation and grief, that doth not (immediately or remotely) tend to help your Love. A Religion that tendeth but to grief, and terminateth in grief, and goeth no further, hath too much in it of the malice of the enemy, to be of God. No tears are desirable, but those that tend to clear the eyes from the filth of sin, that they may see the better the loveliness of God.

§. 22. Direct. 5. Esteem thy want of Love to God, (with the turning of it unto the creature) to be the Heart of the old man; thy most comprehensive odious sin; and observe this as the life of all thy particular sins, and hate it above all the rest. This is the very death and greatest deformity of the soul; the absence of God's Image, and Spirit, and objectively of himself. I never loath my heart so much as when I observe how little it loveth the Lord. Methinks all the sins that ever I committed, are not so loathsome to me, as this want of Love to God. And it is this that is the venom and malignity of every particular sin: [

§. 23. Direct. 6. Improve the principle of self-love, to the promoting of the Love of God, by considering what he hath done for thee, and what he is and would be to thee. I mean not carnal inordinate self-love which is the chiefest enemy of the Love of God: But I mean that rational Love of Happiness and self-preservation which God did put into innocent Adam, and hath planted in man's nature as necessary to his Government. This natural innocent self-love is that remaining principle in the Heart of man which God himself doth still presuppose in all his Laws and Exhortations; and which he taketh advantage of in his works and word, for the conversion of the wicked, and the persuading of his servants themselves to their obedience. This is the common principle in which we are agreed with all the wicked of the world [ that all men should desire and seek to be happy, and choose and do that which is best for themselves; ] or else it were in vain for Ministers to preach to them, if we were agreed in nothing, and we had not this ground in them to cast our seed into, and to work upon. And if self-love be but informed and guided by understanding, it will compel you to Love God, and tell you that nothing should be so much Loved. Everyone that is a man must Love himself: We will not entreat him, nor be beholden to him for this: And everyone that Loveth himself, will Love that which he judgeth Best for himself: And every wise man must know, that he never had, nor can have any good at all, but what he had from God. Why do men Love lust, or wealth, or honor, but because they think that these are good for them? And would they not Love God, if they practically knew that he is the Best of all for them, and instead of all? [