SI) n>
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
REV. RICHARD BAXTER.
yr
THE I.
/'■
PRACTICAL WORKS
\
OF
THE REV. RICHARD BAXTER:
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF HIS WRITINGS.
DY THE
REV. WILLIAM ORME,
AUTHOR OF "the LIFE OF JOHN OWEN, D.D. : " *' BIBLIOTHECA BIBLICA," ETC.
IN TWENTY-THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXXX.
^^-"
•I r I
"Y
LONDON :
PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
OF THE
REV. RICHARD BAXTER,
VOLUME II.
CONTAINING
THE CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY.
P *ii'' 5. ;i ' 4f-
R, EDWARDS, CRANE COURTi FLEET STREET, LONDON.
CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY
OR, A SUM OF
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY,
CASES OF CONSCIENCE.
DIRECTING CHRISTIANS, HOW TO USE THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND
FAITH; HOW TO IMPROVE ALL HELPS AND MEANS, AND TO
PERFORM ALL DUTIES j HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS,
AND TO ESCAPE OR MORTIFY EVERY SIN.
IN FOUR PARTS.
I. CHRISTIAN ETHICS, (OR PRIVATE DUTIES.)
II. CHRISTIAN ECONOMICS, (OR FAMILY DUTIES.)
III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICS, (OR CHURCH DUTIES.)
IV. CHRISTIAN POLITICS, (OR DUTIES TO OUR RULERS AND NEIGHBOURS.
PART I.
CHRISTIAN ETHICS, (OR PRIVATE DUTIES.)
ADVERTISEMENT.
Readers,
1 HE Book is so big that I must make no longer Preface,
than to give you this necessary, short account, 1. Of the
Quality ; 2. and the Reasons of this work.
1. The Matter you will see in the Contents : As Amesius's
" Cases of Conscience" are to his " Medulla," the second and
practical part of Theology, so is this to a " Methodus Theolo-
gise" vi^hich I have not yet published. And 1. As to the
method of this, it is partly natural, but principally moral,
' secundum ordinem intentionis,' where our reasons of each
location are fetched from the end. Therefore unless I might
be tedious in opening my reasons * a fine' for the order of
every particular, I know not how to give you fulij satisfaction.
But in this practical part I am the less soUfiitous about the
accurateness of method, because it more betongeth to the for-
mer part (the theory), where I do it as well as; I am able.
2. This book was written in 1664 and 1665 (except the
ecclesiastic cases of conscience, and a few sheets since add-
ed). And since the writing of it, some invitations drew me
to publish my '* Reasons of the Christian Religion," my "Life
of Faith," and " Directions for Weak Christians;" by which
the work of the two first chapters here is more fully done ;
and therefore I was inclined here to leave them out; but for
the use of such families as may have this without the other, I
forbore to dismember it.
3. But there is a great disproportion between the several
parts of the book. 1. The first part is largest, because I
Vi ADVERTISEMENT.
thought that the heart must be kept with greatest diligence,
and that if the tree be good the fruit will be good ; and I re-
member Paul's counsel, " Take heed unto thyself, and unto
the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt
both save thyself, and them that hear thee *." Nothing is
well done by him that beginneth not at home : as the man is,
so is his strength, and work. 2. The two first chapters are
too coarse and tedious for those of the higher form, who may
pass them over. But the rest must be spoken to ; to whom
that is unprofitable which is most suitable and pleasant to
more exercised and accurate wits. The Grand Directions are
but the explications of the essentials of Christianity, or of
the baptismal covenant, even of our relation-duties to God
the Father, Son (in several parts of his relation), and of the
Holy Ghost, The doctrine of Temptations is handled with
brevity, because they are so numerous ; lest a due amplifica-
tion should have swelled the book too much ; when a small
part of their number maketh up so much of Mr, John Dow-
name's great and excellent treatise, called '* The Christian
W&rfare." The great radical sins are handled more largely
than geemeth proportionable to the rest, because all die when
they are dead. And I am large about Redeeming Time, be^
cause therein the sum of a holy, obedient life is included.
4. If any say, * Why call you that a Sum of Practical Theo-
logy which is but the directing part, and leaveth out the ex-
plication, reasons, various uses, marks, motives, &c. V I an-
swer, 1. Had I intended sermonwise to say all that might
well be said on each subject, it would have made many vor
lumes as big as this. 2. Where I thought them needful, the
explication of each duty and sin is added, with marks, con-
traries, counterfeits, motives, &c. And uses are easily added
by an ordinary reader, without my jiaming them.
6. I do especially desire you to observe, that the resolving
of practical cases of conscience, and the reducing of theore-
tical knowledge into serious Christian practice, and promot-
ing a skilful facility in the faithful exercise of universal
obedience, and holiness of heart and life, is the great work of
this treatise ; and that where I thought it needful, the cases
-HKi Bl » iTim. ir. 16.
ADVERTISEMENT. Vli
are reduced to express Questions and Answers. But had I
done so by all, many such volumes would have been too
little ; and therefore I thought the directing way most brief
and fit for Christian practice ; for if you mark them, you will
find few directions in the book, which may not pass for the
answer of an implied question or case of conscience ; and
when I have given you the answer in a direction, an ingenious
reader can tell what question it is that is answered. And so,
many hundred cases are here resolved, especially in the two
first parts, which are not interrogatively named. to
6. And I must do myself the right as to notify to the Te£^
der, that this treatise was written when I was (for not-sub-
scribing, declaring, &c.) forbidden by the law to preach, and
when I had been long separated far from my library and from
all books, saving an inconsiderable parcel which wandered
with me, where I went 5 by which means this book hath t^o
defects : 1 . It hath no cases of conscience, but what my bare
memory brought to hand : and cases are so innumerable,
that it is far harder, methinks, to remember them, than to an-
swer them ; whereby it came to pass that some of the eccle-
siastical cases, are put out of their proper place, because I
could not seasonably remember them. For I had no one ca-
auistbut Amesius with me. But (after about twelve years
separation), having received my library, I find that the very
sight of Sayrus, Fragoso, Roderiquez, Tolet, &c. might have
ftelped my memory to a greater number. But perhaps th^ise
will be enough for those that I intend them for. 2. And by
the same cause the margin is unfurnished of such citations
as are accounted an ornament, and in some cases are very use-
ful. The scraps inserted out of my few trivial books at hand
being so mean, as that I am well content (except about Mo^
narchy. Part IV.) that the reader pass them by as not worthy
of his notice.
And it is likely that the absence of books, will appear to
the reader's loss in the materials of the treatise ; but I shall
have this advantage by it, that he will not accuse me as a
plagiary. And it may be some little advantage to him, that
he hath no transcript of any man's books, which he had be-
iriil ADVERTISEMENT.
fore ; but the product of some experience, with a naked, un-
biassed perception of the matter or things themselves.
7. Note also, that the Third and Fourth Parts are very
defective of what they should contain, about the power and
government of God's officers in church and state ; of which
no readers will expect a reason but strangers, whose expecta-
tions I may not satisfy. But as I must profess, that I hope
nothing here hath proceeded from disloyalty, or disrespect
to Authority, Government, Unity, Concord, Peace or Order ;
or from any opposition to Faith, Piety, Love, or Justice ; so
if unknown to me, there be any thing found here that is con-
trary or injurious to any one of these, I do hereby renounce
it, and desire it may be taken as * non-scriptum.'
II. The Ends and Uses for which I wrote this book are
these: 1. That when I could not preach the Gospel as I
would, I might do it as I could. 2. That three sorts might
have the benefit, as foUoweth.
1. That the younger and more unfurnished, and unexpe-
rienced sort of ministers, might have a promptuary at hand,
for practical resolutions and directions on the subjects that
they have need to deal in. And though Sayrus and Fragoso
have done well, I would not have us under a necessity, of
going to the Romanists for our ordinary supplies. Long
have our divines been wishing for some fuller casuistical
tractate : Perkins began well ; Bishop Sanderson hath done
excellently *de juramento;' Amesius hath exceeded all,
though briefly : Mr. David Dickson hath put more of our
English cases about the state of sanctification, into Latin,
than ever was done before him. Bishop Jeremy Taylor hath
in two folios but begun the copious performance of the
work. And still men are calling for more, which I have at-
tempted : hoping that others will come after, and do better
than we all.
If any call it my pride, to think that any ministers or stu-
dents are so raw as to need any thing that I can add to them,
let him but pardon me for saying that such demure pleadings
for a feigned humility, shall not draw me to a confederacy
with blindness, hypocrisy, and sloth, and I will pardon him
for his charge of pride.
ADVERTISEMENT. IX
It is long ago since many foreign divines subscribed a re-
quest, that the English would give them in Latin a Sum of
our Practical Theology, which Mr. Dury sent over, and
twelve great divines of ours wrote to Bishop Usher (as Dr.
Bernard tells you in his Life), to draw them up a form or me-
thod. But it was never done among them all. And it is
said, that Bishop Downame at last undertaking it, died in the
attempt. Had this been done, it is like my labour might
have been spared. But being undone, I have thus made
this essay. But I have been necessitated to leave out much
(about Conversion, Mortification, Self-denial, Self-acquain-
tance, Faith, Justification, Judgment, Glory, &c.), because
I had written of them all before.
2. And I thought it not unuseful to the more judicious
masters of families, who may choose and read such parcels to
their families, as at any time the case requireth. And indeed
I began it rudely, with an intention of that plainness and
brevity which families require ; but finding that it swelled to
a bigger bulk than I intended, I was fain to write my '* Life of
Faith," as a breviate and substitute, for the families and per-
sons that cannot have and use so large a volume : presuppos-
ing, my " Directions for sound Conversion," for *' Weak Chris-
tians," and for *' Peace of Conscience," printed long ago.
3. And to private Christians I thought it not in vain, to
have at hand so universal a directory and resolution of doubts ;
not expecting that they remember all, but may on every oc-
casion, turn to such particulars as they most need.
But I must expect to be assaulted with these objections :
and it is not only profane deriders and malignant enemies,
that are used by satan to vilify and oppose our service of
God.
Object. L * You have written too many books already.
Who do you think hath so little to do as to read them all ? Is
it not pride and self-conceitedness to think that your scrib-
blings are worthy to be read ? and that the world hath need
of so much of your instructions, as if there were no wise men
but you ? You have given offence already by your writings ;
you should write less, and preach more.'
Answ. 1. I have seldom, if ever, in all my ministry, omit-
X ADVERTISEMENT.
ted one sermon for all my writings. I was not able to live in
London, nor ride abroad ; but through God's mercy I seldom
omitted any opportunities at home.
2. And if I preach the same doctrine that I write, why
should not men be as angry with me for preaching it, as for
writing it? But if it be good and true, why is it not as good
to preach by the press, to many thousands, and for many
years after I am dead, as to preach to a parlour full for a feW
hours ? Or why is not both as good as one ?
3. I will not take the reverend objector to be ignorant, that
writing, and publishing the word of God by it, is preaching
it, and the most public preaching ; and hath the example of
the Apostles and Evangelists, as well as speaking. And one
is no more appropriate to them than the other : though the
extraordinaries of both be proper to them. And do you not
perceive what self-condemning contradiction it is, at the same
time to cry out against those that dissuade you from preach-
ing, or hinder you, and tell you it is needless, and you are
proud to think the world needeth your preaching, and yet
yourselves to say the very same against your brethren's
preaching by the press ? I know an ignorant, illiterate secta-
ry might say, * Writing is no preaching ; and you are called to
preach, and not to write.' But I must reverence you more
than to suppose you so absurd. Other men forbid you but
less public preaching, and you reproach me for more public
preaching : that is the difference. How hard is it to know
what spirit we are of? Did you think that you had been pa-
trons of idleness, and silencers of ministers, while you declaim
so much against it ? Your pretence that you would have me
preach more, is feigned. And are you sure that you preach
oftener than I do ? When I persuaded ministers heretofore to
catechise and instruct all their parishes personally, family by
family, you said it was more toil than was our duty. And
now you are against much writing too ; and yet would be
thought laborious ministers.
And as to the number and length of my writings, it is my
own labour that maketh them so, and my own great trouble,
that the world cannot be sufficiently instructed and edified in
fewer words. But 1. Would not all your sermons set toge-
ADVERTISEMENT. XI
ther be as long ? And why is not much and long preaching
blamable, if long writings be ? 2. Are not the works of Au-
gustine, and Chrysostom, much longer ? Who yet hath re-
proached Aquinas or Suarez, Calvin or Zanchy, &c. for the
number and greatness of the volumes they have written?
Why do you contradict yourselves by affecting great libra-
ries ? 3. When did I ever persuade any one of you, to buy or
read any book of mine ? What harm will they do to those
that let them alone ? Or what harm can it do you for other
men to read them ? Let them be to you as if they had never
been written; and it will be nothing to you how many they
are. And if all others take not you for their tutors, to choose
for them what books they must read, that is not my doing,
but their own. If they err in taking themselves to be fitter
judges than you, what tendeth most to their own edification,
why do you not teach them better? 4. Either it is God's
truth, or error, which I write. If error, why doth no one of
you shew so much charity, as by word or writing to instruct
me better, nor evince it to my face, but do all to others by
backbiting ? If truth, what harm will it do ? If men had not
leisure to read our writings, the booksellers would silence us,
and save you the labour ; for none would print them. 5. But
who can please all men ? Whilst a few of you cry out of too
much, what if twenty or a hundred for one be yet for more ?
How shall I know whether you ox th^y be the wiser and the
better men? ' - '^^' ^r'u.n c^^l^ {d If.io vissiBt ^sr:t i-,ff|v?
Readers, you see on what terms we must do the work of
God. Our slothful flesh is backward, and weary of so much
labour: malignant enemies of piety are against it all. Some
slothful brethren think it necessary to cloke their fleshly ease
by vilifying the diligence of others. Many sects whom we
oppose, think it the interest of their cause (which they call
God's cause), to make all that is said against them seem vain,
contemptible, and odious ; which because they cannot do by
confutation, they will do by backbiting and confident chat.
And one or two reverend brethren, have, by the wisdom des-
cribed exactly, James iii. 15, 16, arrived at the liberty of
backbiting and magisterial sentencing the works of others
(which they confess they never read), that their reputation of
Xii ADVERTISEMENT.
being most learned, orthodox, worthy divines, may keep the
chair at easier rates, than the wasting of their flesh in un-
wearied labours to know the truth, and communicate it to the
world. And some are angry, who are forward to write, that
the booksellers and readers silence not others as well as them.
Object. II. * Your writings differing from the common
judgment, have already caused offence to the godly.'
Answ. 1. To the godly that were of a contrary opinion
only. Sores that will not be healed, use to be exasperated
by the medicine. 2. It was none but healing, pacificatory
writings, that have caused that offence. 3. Have not
those dissenters' writings more offended the godly that were
against them ? They have but one trick, to honour their de-
nial, which more dishonoureth it, even by unsanctifying
those that are not of their minds. 4. If God bless me with
opportunity and help, I will offend such men much more, by
endeavouring further than ever I have done, the quenching
of that fire which they are still blowing up ; and detecting
the folly and mischief of those logomachies by which they
militate against love and concord, and inflame and tear the
church of God. And let them know that I am about it.
But some pastors as well as people, have the weakness to
think that all our preachings and writings must be brought
under their dominion, and to their bar, by the bare saying
that * We offend the godly,' that is, those of their opinion,
which they falsely call by the name of scandal. 5. But I
think they will find little controversy to offend them in this
book.
Object. III. ' You should take more leisure, and take
other men's judgment of your writings before you thrust
them out so hastily.' v ?
Answ. 1 . I have but a little while to live, and therefore
must work while it is day. Time will not stay. 2. I do
shew them to those that I take to be most judicious, and
never refused any man's censure ; but it is not many that
have leisure to do me so great a kindness. But that I cona-
mitthem not to the perusal of every objector, is a fault un-
curable, by one that never had an amanuensis, and hath but
one copy, usually. 3. And if I could do it, how should I
ADVERTISEMENT. Xlll
be sure that they would not differ as much among them-
selves, as they do from me? And my writings would.be
like the picture which the great painter exposed to the cen-
sure of every passenger, and made it ridiculous to all, when
he altered all that every one advised him to alter. And, to
tell you the truth, I was never yet blamed by one side as not
sufficiently pleasing them ; but I was blamed also by the
contrary side, for coming so near them : and I had not wit
enough to know which party of the accusers was the wiser ?
And therefore am resolved to study to please God and con-
science, and to take man-pleasing, when inconsistent, for an
impossible and unprofitable work ; and to cease from man
whose breath is in his nostrils, whose thoughts all perish as
he passeth off the judicature of his stage, to the judicature
of God. q f'Tft&l
Object. IV. * Your ecclesiastical cases are dangerously
reconciling, tending to abate men's zeal against error.'
Answ. The world hath long enough escaped the danger
of peace and reconciliation. It had been well if they had
as long escaped the danger of your conceited, orthodox strife,
which hath brought in confusion and all evil works. I take
it to be a zeal effectively against love, and against unity,
and against Christ, which, with the preachers of extremes,
goeth under the name of a zeal against error, and for truth.
Object. V. 'Are all these numerous Directions to be found
in Scripture ? Shew us them in Scripture, or you trouble
the church with your own inventions.*
Answ. 1. Are all your sermons in the Scripture? And all
the good books of your library in the Scripture? 2. Will
you have none but readers in the church, and put down
preachers ? Sure it is the reader that delivereth all and only
the Scripture. 3. Are we not men before we are Christians ?
And is not the light and law of nature, divine ? And was
the Scripture written to be instead of reason, or of logic,
or other subservient sciences ? Or must they not all be sanc-
tified and used for divinity ? 4. But I think that as all good
commentaries, and sermons, and systems of theology, are in
Scripture, so is the Directory here given, and is proved by
Xiv ADVERTISEMENT.
the evidence of the very thing discoursed of, or by the plain-
est textis.
Object. VI. * You confound your reader by curiosity of
distinctions.^ - -•' --'^ ^ ^--- - j'^^- . -■^ii'^i-^^.^^;^^' ^^ r.- ^a^^^.
> Attsw. 1 . If they are rain bt false, thame iheto by d€?tect-
ing it, or you shame yourselves by blaming them, when you
cannot shev^r the error. Expose not yourselves to laughter
by avoiding just distinction to escape confusion ; that is,
avoiding knowledge ta escape ignorance, or light to escape
darkness. 2. It is ambiguity and confusion that breedeth
and feedeth almost all our pernicious controversies; and
even those that bring in error by vain distinction, must be
confuted by better distinguishers, and not by ignorant con-
founders. I will believe the Holy Ghost, 2 Tim. ii. 14, 15,
16. that logomachy is the plague by which the hearers are
subverted, and ungodliness increased ; and that orthotomy,
or right dividing the Word of Truth is the cure. And Heb.
V. 15. Discernting both good and evil, is the work of long and
well exercised senses.
Object. VII. ' Is this your reducing our faith to the primi-
tive simplicity, and to the creed ? What a toilsome task
do you make religion by overdoing ? Is any man able to
remember all these numberless Directions ?' ■^^■
Answ. 1. I pray mistake not all these for articles of faitb.
I atft more zealous than ever I was for the reduction of the
Christian faith to the primitive simplicity ; and more con-
fident that the church will never have peace and concord,
tin it be so done, as to the test of men's faith and commu-
nion. But he that will have no books but his creed and
Bible, may follow that sectary, who when he had burnt all
his other books as human inven1;ion«, at last burnt the Bible,
when he grew learned enough to understand, that the trans-
lation of that was human too.
.2. If men think not all the tools in their shops, and all the
fufniture of their houses, or the number of their sheep, or cat-
tle, or lands, nor the number of truths received by a learning
intelliect, 8tc. to be a trouble and toil, why should they think
so of the number of helps to facilitate the practice of their du-
ADVERTISEMENT. XV
ty *? If all the books in yowt libraries make yom* studies or reli-
gion toilsome, why do you keep them ? and do not come to
the vulgar religion, that would hear no more but * Think well,
S:peak well, and do well,' or * Love God and your neighbour,
and do as you would be done by/ He that doth this truly,
shall be saved. But there goeth more to the building of a
house, than to say. Lay the foundation, and raise the super-
structure : universals exist not but in individuals ; and the
whole consisteth of all the parts.
3. It is not expected that any man remember all these
Directions. Therefore I wrote them, because men cannot
remember them, that they may upon every necessary occa-
sion, go to that which they have present use for, and cannot
otherwise remember.
In sum, to my quarrelsome brethren I have two requests,
1. That instead of their unconscionable, and yet unreformed
custom of backbiting, they would tell me to my face of my
offences by convincing evidence, and not tempt the hearers
to think them envious. And 2. That what I do amiss they
would do better : and not be such as will neither laboriously
serve the church themselves, nor suffer others; and that
they will not be guilty of idleness themselves, nor tempt me
to be a slothful servant, who have so little time to spend ;
for I dare not stand before God under that guilt. And that
they will not join with the enemies and resisters of the pub-
lication of the Word of God.
And to the Readers my request is, 1. That whatever for
quantity or quality in this book is an impediment to their
regular, universal obedience, and to a truly holy life, they
would neglect and cast away. 2. But that which is truly
instructing and helpful, they would diligently digest and
practise ; and I encourage them by my testimony, that by
long experience I am assured, that this PRACTICAL
RELIGION will afford both to church, state, and conscience,
more certain and more solid peace, than contending dispu-
ters, with all their pretences of orthodoxness and zeal against
errors for the truth, will ever bring, or did ever attain to.
I crave your pardon for this long apology : it is an age
XVI ADVERTISEMENT.
where the objections are not feigned, and where our greatest
and most costly services of God, are charged on us as oiir
greatest sins ; and where at once I am accused of conscience
for doing no more, and of men for doing so much. Being
really
A most unworthy servant of so good a Master,
RICHARD BAXTER.
CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
PAGE
The Introduction 1
CHAPTER I.
DIRECTIONS TO UNCONVERTED, GRACELESS SINNERS, FOR THE
ATTAINMENT OF SAVING GRACE.
PART I.
What is presupposed in the reader of these Directions 6
Twenty Directions. 13
PART H.
Thirty Temptations whereby the Devil hindereth Men's Con-
version, with the proper Remedies against them 62
Ten Temptations by which he would persuade men, that their
heinous, mortal Sins, which prove them unconverted, are
but the pardoned infirmities of the Penitent SI
VOL. II. b
xviii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
DIRECTIONS TO WEAK CHRISTIANS FOR THEIR ESTABLISHMENT
AND GROWTH.
PAGE
Direct, i. Against receiving Religion merely for the novelty
or reputation of it ^9
Direct, ii. Let Judgment, Zeal/ and Practice go equally to-
gether 95
Direct, in. Keep a short Method of Divinity, or a Catechism
Still in your memory 97
Direct, iv. Certain Cautions about Controversies in Religion.
Heb. vi. 1. opened 99
Direct, v. Think not too highly of your first degrees of Grace
or Gifts. Time and diligence are necessary to growth.
How the Spirit doth illuminate. The danger of this sin . . 102
Direct, vi. Let neither Difficulties nor Oppositions, in the be-
ginning, discourage you. Reasons 108
Direct, vii. Value, and use a powerful, faithful Ministry.
Reasons. Objections answered 113
Direct, viii. For Charity, Unity, and Catholicism, against
Schism. Pretences for Schism confuted 118
Direct, ix. Let not Sufferings make you sin by passion, or
dishonouring authority 123
Direct, x. Take heed of running from one extreme into another 126
Direct, xi. Be not too confident in your first apprehensions or
opinions, but modestly suspicious of them 127
Direct, xii. What to do when Controversies divide the Church.
Of silencing Truth 130
O^ireci. XI 11. What Godliness is. The best life on earth. How
Satan would make it seem troublesome and ungrateful. 1 .
By difficulties. 2. By various sects. 3. By scrupulosity,
4. By your overdoing in your own inventions. 5. By per-
plexing fears and sorrows. 6. By unmortified lusts. ?• By
^ actual sins. 8. By ignorance of the Covenant of Grace. . . . 134
^irect. XIV. Mortify the Flesh, and rule the Senses, and the
Appetite 143
4*
CONTENTS. xix
PAGE
Direct, xv. Be wary in choosing not only your Teachers, but
your Company also. Their characters X45
L/Direct. xvi. What Books to prefer and read, and what to reject 150
^Direct, xvii. Take not a doctrine of Libertinism for Free Grace 153
Direct, xviii. Take heed lest Grace d^enerate into Counter-
feits, Formality, &c 157
'^irect. XIX. Reckon not on Prosperity or long life ; but live
as dying i 161
J)irect. XX. See that your Religi(m be purely Divine. That
God be your First, and Last, and All : Man nothing 164
CHAPTER in.
THE GENERAL GRAND DIRECTIONS FOR WALKING WITH GOD, IN
A LIFE OF FAITH AND HOLINESS : CONTAINING THE ESSEN-
TIALS OF GODLINESS AND CHRISTIANITY.
Grand Direct, i. Understand well the Nature, Grounds, Reason>
and Order of Faith and Godliness. Propositions opening
somewhat of them. The reader must note, that here I
blotted out the Method and Helps of Faith, having more
fully opened them in a Treatise called '' The Reasons of the
Christian Religion :" and another of the *' Unreasonableness
of Infidelity." 170
Grand Direct, ii. How to live by Faith on Christ, How to
make use of Christ, in Twenty Necessities 175
Grand Direct, in. How to believe in the Holy Ghost, and live
by his Grace. His Witness, Seal, Earnest, &c. Q. When
good Effects are from Means, from our Endeavour, and
when from the Spirit ? 188
y' Grand Direct, iv. For a true, orderly, and practical Knowledge
of God. A Scheme of his Attributes 199
Grand Direct, v. Of Self-Resignation to God as our Owner.
Motives, Marks, Means ^03
Grand Direct, vi. Of Subjection to God as our Sovereign King.
What it is ? How to bring the soul into subjection to God.
How to keep up a ready and constant obedience to him . . 207
^>
XX CONTENTS.
pAGe
Grand Direct, vii. To learn of Christ as our Teacher. How?
The Imitation of Christ 221
Grand Direct, viii. To obey Christ our Physician or Saviour,
in his repairing, healing work 234
How each Faculty is diseeised or depraved ? The Intellect :
its acts and maladies. The Will. Q. Whether the Loco-
motive and Sense can move us to sin, without the consent of
the Will, (or Reason) upon its bare omission ? The sin of
the Memory, Imagination, Affections, Sensitive Appetite,
Exterior Parts, which needs a cure. Forty intrinsical evils
in sin, which make up its Malignity. The common Aggra-
vations of sin. Special Aggravations of the sins of the Re-
generate. Directions to get a hatred of sin. How to cure it ibid.
Grand Direct, ix. Of the Christian Warfare under Christ. Who
are our Enemies. Of the Devil. The State of the Armies,
and of the War between Christ and Satan. The Ends,
Grounds, Advantages, Auxiliaries, Instruments, and Me-
thods of the Tempter 258
How Satan keepeth off the Forces of Christ, and frustrateth all
Means 271
Christ's contrary methods 274
Temptations to particular Sins, with Directions for preserva-
tion and remedy. 1. How Satan prepareth his Baits of
Temptation. 2. How he applieth them 276
Temptations to draw us off from Duty 309
Temptations to frustrate holy Duties 314
Grand Direct, x. How to work as servants to Christ our
Lord. The true doctrine of Good Works 320
Directions for our serving Christ in well-doing. Where are
many Rules to know what are Good Works, and how to do
them acceptably and successfully 324
Quest. Is doing good, or avoiding sin to be most looked at, in
the choice of a Calling or Employment of life ? 332
Quest. May one change his Calling, for advantages to do good ? 333
Quest. Who are excused from living in a Calling, or from Work ? ibid.
Quest. Must I do a thing as a Good Work, while I doubt
whether it be good, indifferent, or sin ? 337
Quest. Is it not every man's Duty to obey his Conscience ?. . . . ibid.
Quest. Is it not a sin to go against Conscience ? 338
CONTENTS. xxi
PAGE
Quest. Whether the formal cause alone do constitute obedience 339
Quest. How Sin must be avoided by one that hath an Erro-
neous Conscience } 339
Quest. How can a man lawfully resist or strive against an Erring
Conscience, when he striveth against a supposed Truth ? . . ibid.
Quest. Is not going against Conscience, sinning against Know-
ledge? ibid.
Quest. When the information of Conscience requireth a long
time, is it not a Duty to obey it at the present ? 340
Quest. May one do a Great Good when.it cannot be done but
by a Little Sin (as a lie) ? 341
Quest. Must I not forbear all Good Works, which I cannot do
without sin? ibid.
Quest. Must I forbear a certain, great Duty (as preaching the
Gospel) for fear of a small, uncertain Sin ? 342
Quest. What shall a man do that is in Doubt, after all the
Means that he can use ? 343
Sixteen Rules to guide a Doubting Conscience, and to know,
among many seeming Duties, which is the greatest, and to
be preferred 344
Grand Direct, xi. To Love God as our Father, and Felicity,
and End 352
The Nature of Holy Love. God must be loved as the Univer-
sal, Infinite Good. Whether passionately? What of God
must be loved ? 353
What must be the Motive of our first Love ? Whether God's
Special Love to us ? The sorts of Holy Love. Why Love
is the highest Grace 357
The Contraries of Holy Love. How God is Hated? The
Counterfeits of Love 369
Directions how to excite and exercise Divine Love 361
How to see God. Signs of True Love 378
Grand Direct, xii. Absolutely to trust God with soul, body,
and all, with full acquiescence. The Nature of Trust (of
which see more in my "'Life of Faith," and '' Display of
Saving Faith.") 395
The Contraries. The Counterfeits. Q. Of a Particular
Faith. The Uses of Trust 397
Fifteen Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God 400
xxii CONTENTS.
PAGE
Grand Direct, xnl. That the Temperament of our Religion
may be a Delight in God and Holiness. Twenty Directions
to procure it: with the Reasons of it . . . . . . . . .... . 408
Grand Direct, xiv. Of Thankfulness to God;, our Grand Bene-
factor. The Signs of it. Eighteen Directions how to ob-
tain and exercise it 421
Grand Direct, xv. For Glorifying God. Ten Directions how
the Mind must Glorify God. Ten Directions for Praising
God, or Glorifying him with our Tongues. Where are the
Reasons for Praising God. Twelve Directions for Glorify-
ing God by our Lives 434
Grand Direct, xvi. For Heavenlymindedness 457
Grand Direct, xvii. For Self-denial. Only named, as being
formerly written of at large ibid.
An Appendix of the Reasons and Measure of Divine and
Self-Love 458
CHAPTER IV.
SUBORDINATE DIRECTIONS AGAINST THE GREAT SINS MOST
DIRECTLY CONTRARY TO GODLINESS.
PARTL
Directions against Unbelief. Q. Whether it be Unbelief, not
to believe that our sins are pardoned, and we elected ? Can
a man be surer that he believeth, than he is that the thing
believed is True } The article of Remission of Sin is to be
believed applyingly 495
Thirty-six Directions or Helps against Unbelief 498
Quest. Why the Prophets were to be believed ? 510
PARTH.
Directions against Hardness of Heart. What it is. The Evil
and Danger of it 513
CONTENTS. xxiii
PART III.
PAGE
Directions against Hypocrisy. What it is ; and who are Hy-
pocrites. The Helps 5^7
PART IV.
Directions against inordinate Man-pleasing, or Idolizing Man ;
or that overvaluing man's Favour, which is the Fruit of
Pride and Cause of Hypocrisy. What the Sin is and is not.
The Difficulty of Man-pleasing. Pleasing God is our Busi-
ness and End. The Motives to it. The Signs of it 548
A
CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY
PART I.
CHRISTIAN ETHICS:
DIRECTIONS FOR THE ORDERING OF THE PRIVATE ACTIONS OF
OUR HEARTS K^ND LIVES, IN THE WORK OF HOLr SELF-
GOVERNMENT UNTO AND UNDER GOD.
THE INTRODUCTION.
1 HE eternal God having made man an intellectual and
free agent, able to understand and choose the good, and re-
fuse the evil ; to know, and love, and serve his Maker, and
by adhering to him in this life of trial, to attain to the bles-
sed sight and enjoyment of his glory in the life to come,
hath not been wanting to furnish him with such necessaries,
without which these ends could not successfully be sought.
When we had lost our moral capacity of pleasing him, that
we might enjoy him, he restoreth us to it by the wonderful
work of our redemption. In Christ he hath reconciled the
world unto himself; and hath given them a general act of
oblivion, contained in the covenant of grace, which nothing but
men's obstinate and final unwillingness can deprive them of.
To procure their consent to this gracious covenant, he hath
** committed" to his ministers the " word of reconciliation ;"
commanding us " to beseech men, as in the stead of Christ,
and as though God himself did beseech them by us, to be
VOL. II. B
2 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
reconciled unto God^ ;" and to shew them first their sin and
misery, and proclaim and offer the true remedy, and to let
them know, that all things are now ready, and by pleading
their duty, their necessity, and their commodity, to compel
them to come in **.
But so great is the blindness and obstinacy of men, that
the greatest part refuse consent : being deceived by the plea-
sures, and profits, and honours of this present world ; and
make their pretended necessities or business the matter of
their excuses, and the unreasonable reasons of their refusal,
negligence and delays, till death surprise them, and the door
is shut ; and they knock, and cry for mercy and admittance,
when it is too late ^
Against this wilful negligence and presumption, which
is the principal cause of the damnation of the ungodly world,
I have written many books already. But because there are
many that profess themselves unfeignedly willing, not only
to be saved, but also to be Christ's disciples*, to learn of him,
to imitate him, and be conformed to him, and to do the will
of God, if they could but know it ; I have determined, by
God's assistance, to write this book for the use of such, and
to give them from God's Word those plain Directions, which
are suited to the several duties of their lives, and may guide
them safely in their walk with God, to life eternal. Expect
not here copious and earnest exhortations, for that work I
have done already ; and have now to do with such, as^say they
are made willing, and desire help against their ignorance, that
skill and will may concur to their salvation. I shall labour
to speak as plainly as I can, because I specially intend it for
the ignorant ; and yet to be competently exact in the Direc-
tions, lest such readers lose the benefit by mistakes ; and I
must speak to many cases* because I speak to families, wherQt
all are not in the same condition, and the same persons are not
still the same. And therefore if I should not be brief in the
particulars, I should be too long in the whole ; and tedious-
ness might deprive some readers of the benefit.
In families sonie are (too ordinarily) ungodly : in a carnal^
unrenewed state ; and some are godly, in a state of grace**.
a 2 Cor. V. 18—20. •> Matt. xxii. 4. Luke xi. 17. 23. ^ Matt. xxV, 10—12.
^ Ita enira censebat, itaque disseruit : dnas essevias, duplicesque cursusaniraorum
a corpore excedentium, nam qui se humanis vitiis contaminavissent, et se totos liWdi-
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. ^
These are considerable as Christians simply, tv^ith respect tb
God, or in their relations to others : these relations are either
ecclesiastical, civil, or domestical.
Accordingly, my intended method is, 1. To direct ungod-
ly, carnal minds, how to attain to a state of grace. 2. To di-
rect those that have saving grace, how to use it ; both in
the contemplative and active parts of their lives ; in their
duties of religion,, both private and public ; in their duties to
men, both in their ecclesiastical, civil, and family relations.
And, by the way, to direct those that have grace, how to
nibusdedidissent,. .. .lis devium quoddam iter esse, seclusuna a concilio deorura. Qui
autem seintegros, castosque servavissent, quibusquefuisset minima cumcorporibus con-
tagio, seseque ab his semper sevoc^ssent, essentque in corporibus humanis vitam imi-
tati deorum : liis ad illos, a quibus essent profecti, reditum facilem patere. Soc.
in Cic. Tusc. I. 72*. Improbo nemini bene esse potest. Cic. Parad. 1. vol. 7.
p. 849. Quod si inest in hominum genere mens, fides, virtus, Concordia : unde
haec in terras, nisi a superis, defluere potuerunt ? cumque sint in nobis consilium,
ratio, prudentia, necesse est, deos hsec ipsa habere majora, nee habere solum,
sed etiam his uti in maximis, et optimis rebus. Cic. Nat. D. ii. 79> Quod si poens,
si metus supplicii, non ipsa lurpitudo, deterret ab injuriosa facinorosaque vita : nemO
est injustus ; aut incauti potius habendi sunt iroprobi. Turn autem qui non ipso
honesto movemur; ut boni viri simus, sed utilitate aliqua atquefructu, calidi suraus,
non boni. Nam quid faciet is homo intenebris, qui nihil timet nisi testem, et judicem ?
Cic. Leg. i. 40, 41. Nam ut nihil interest, utrum nemo valeat, an nemo possit valere :
sic non intelligo, quid intersit, utrum nemo sit sapiens, an nemo esse possit. Cic. Leg.
iii. 79. Cicero was afraid to speak what he knew of the Unity of the Eternal God the
Maker of all t : Ilium qiiidem quasi parentem huj us universitatis invenire, difficile : et
cum jam inveniris indicate in vulgus, nefas. Cic. Univ. Op. vol. vii. p. 923.
* The edition of Cicero's Works, by which the quotations are verified and corrected,
isCollingwood's, Oxford, 1810, in eight volumes 8vo. (T.C.)
t Very diiFerent estimates have been formed of the nature and extent of Cicero's
knowledge of God and the truths of natural religion. See Leland's Christian Revela-
tion, vol. i. pp. 274, 297, 298, 330, et seq. 4to. Ed. 1764. Middleton's Life of
Cicero, vol. iii. pp. 340, 341, 5th Edit. 1755- Enfield's Hist. Philosophy, vol ii. p.
20, 4to. Edit. Campbell on the Necessity of Divine Revelation ; with remarks on that
work by Dr. Erskine, in his fourth dissertation, entitled " The Law of Nature suffi-
ciently propagated to Heathens." I beg the reader's attention to the matured senti-
-ments of this learned and excellent man, whom Bp. Warburton, in his correspondence
with Bp. Hurd, calls a deep divine. "The concluding paragraph of the preface to
this volume," observes Sir H. Moncreiff Wellwood, in his life of Dr. Erskine, "in ans-
wer to Dr. Campbell, deserves to be inserted here, as it contains Dr. Erskines's later
thoughts of the subject of that dissertation." ** The general argument," he says,
" of the fourth dissertation, appears to me in the same light as it did three and twenty
years ago, when I first published it. But since that time I have been fully convinced
that many of the most celebrated philosophers entertained sentiments absolutely in-
consistent with the belief of the soul's immortality, and of future rewards and punish-
ments ; and have seen considerable cause to suspect, that, under the devout expres-
sions of the Stoic philosophers, a system was disguised, nearly allied to that of Spi-
nosa." Ersk. Diss, preface, p. 10.— Life of Dr. Erskine, p. 242. (T. C.)
4 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
^discern it/ and take the comfort of it; and to direct them
how to grow in grace, and persevere unto the end.
And if any reader should be discouraged at the number
. of duties and directions set before him, I entreat him to con-
,sider, 1. That it is God, and not I, that imposeth all these du-
ties on you : and who will question his wisdom, goodness, or
power to make laws for us and all the world ? 2. That every
duty and direction is a mercy to you; and therefore should
not be matter of grief, but of thanks. They are but like the
commands of parents to their children, when they bid them
' eat their meat, and wear their clothes, and go to bed, and eat
not poison, and tumble not in the dirt ; and cut not your fin-
gers, and take heed of fire and water, &c.' To leave out any
such law or duty, were but to deprive you of an excellent
mercy ; you will not cut off or cast away any member of your
body ; any vein, or sinew, or artery, upon pretence that the
number maketh them troublesome, when the diminishing of
that number would kill or maim you. A student is not of-
fended that he hath many books in his library ; nor a trades-
man that he hath store of tools ; nor the rich at the number of
his farms or flocks. Believe it, reader, if thou bring not a
malignant quarrelsome mind, thou wilt find that God hath not
burdened, but blessed thee with his holy precepts, and that
he hath not appointed thee one unnecessary or unprofitable
duty ; but only such as tend to thy content, and joy, and hap-
piness ®.
O let it be the daily, earnest prayer of me and thee, that
our hearts prove not false and unwilling to follow the Di-
rections which are given us, lest we condemn ourselves in
the things which we allow. Your practice now will shew,
whether it be through want of will or skill, if henceforth you
, unfaithfully neglect your duty. If you are willing, obey
now what is plainly taught you, and shew by your diligence
that you are willing.
e Vult Deus qaodammodo pati vim ; et hoc summae est beneficentia;, ut ad
benefaciendum se pulsari solligitarique velit, Jos. Acosta, 1.4. c. 12. p, 396.
CHAP. I.] CHRISXrAN ETHICS. 5
CHAPTER I.
PART I.
Directions to unconverted, graceless Sinners, for the attaining
of true saving Grace.
If ungodly, miserable sinners were as few, as the devil
and their self-love would make themselves believe, I might
forbear this part of my work as needless. For the whole
need not the physician, but the sick. If you go into twenty
families, and ask them all. Whether any of them are in an
unsanctified state, unrenewed and unpardoned, and under the
wrath and curse of God ? you will meet with few that will
not tell you, they hope it is better with them than so ; and
though they are sinners, as all are, yet that they are repent-
ing, pardoned sinners. Nay, there is scarce one of many of
the most wicked and notoriously ungodly, but hope they are
in a penitent, pardoned state. Even the haters of God will
say they love him ; and the scorners at godliness will say.
that they are not ungodly ; and that it is but hypocrisy and
singularity that they deride : and it were well for them, if
saying so would go for proof, and he that will be their judge
would take their words. But God will not be deceived,
though foolish men are wise enough to deceive themselves.
Wickedness will be wickedness when it hath clothed itself
with the fairest names : God will condemn it when it hath
found out the most plausible pretences and excuses. Though
the ungodly think to bear it out in pride and scorn, and
think to be saved by their hypocritical lip-service, as soon
as the most holy worshippers of the Lord, yet " shall they
be like chaff which the wind driveth away : they shall not
be able to stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congrega-
tion of the righteous ^." And if God know better than fool-
ish men, then certainly the flock is little to whom the " Fa-.
ther will give the kingdom^." And " wide is the gate, and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many,
there be that go in thereat '^ : because strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there
» Paal. i. 4, 5, 6. ^ Luke xii. 32. « Matt. vii. 13, 14.
6 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
be that find it." When Christ was asked, " Lord, are there
few that be saved ?" he answered, " Strive to enter in at the
strait gate ; for many I say unto you, will seek to enter in,
and shall not be able." But, alas ! we need no other infor-
mation than common experience, to tell us whether the
greatest part of men be holy and heavenly, and self-denying ;
that seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and love God above all, and will forsake all they have for
the sake of Christ : and undoubtedly none but such are
saved; as you may see Heb. xii. 14. Matt. vi.20, 21. 33.
Seeing then the godly are so few, and the ungodly so
many ; and that God will take nothing for holiness that is
not such indeed ; and seeing it is so terrible a thing to any
man that hath his wits about him, to live one day in an un-
converted state, because he that dieth so, is lost for ever;
methinks it should be our wisdom to be suspicious of our-
selves, and careful lest we be deceived in so great a business,
and diligent in searching and examining our hearts, whether
they are truly sanctified or not ; because it can be no harm
to make sure work for our salvation ; whereas presumption,
carelessness, and negligence, may betray us to remediless
misery and despair.
I do not here suppose the reader to have any such ac-
quaintance with his heart, or care of his salvation, or obe-
dient willingness to be taught and ruled by Jesus Christ, as
is proper to those that are truly sanctified ; for it is ungodly
persons to whom I am now speaking. And, yet, if I should
not suppose them to have some capacity and disposition to
make use of the Directions which I give them, I might as
well pass them by, and spare my labour. I tell thee there-
fore, reader, what it is that I presuppose in thee, and expect
from thee, and I think thou wilt not judge me unreasonable
in my suppositions and expectations.
1. I suppose thee to be a man, and therefore that thou
hast reason and natural free-will (that is, the natural faculty
of choosing and refusing), which should keep thy sensitive
appetite in obedience; and that thou art capable of loving
and serving thy Creator, and enjoying him in everlasting life.
2. I suppose that thou knowest thyself to be a man ;
and therefore that thy sensitive part, or flesh, should no more
rule thee, or be ungoverned by thee, than the horse should
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 7
nile the rider, or be unruled by him : and that thou under-
standest that thou art made on purpose to love and serve
thy Maker, and to be happy in his love and glory for ever.
If thou know not this much, thou knowest not that thou art
a man, or else knowest not what a man is.
3. I suppose thee to have a natural self-love, and a
desire of thy own preservation and happiness ; and that thou
hast no desire to be miserable, or to be hated of God, or to
be cast out of his favour and presence into hell, and there
to be tormented with devils everlastingly : yea, I will sup-
pose that thou art not indifferent whether thou dwell in hea-
ven or hell, in joy or torment ; but would fain be saved and
be happy ; whether thou be godly or ungodly, wise or fool-
ish, I will be bold to take all this for granted : and I hope in
all this I do not wrong thee.
4. I suppose thee to be one that knowest that thou
didst not make thyself; nor give thyself that power or wis-
dom which thou hast ; and that he that made thee and all
the world, must needs be before all the world ; and that he
is eternal, having no beginning (for if ever there had been
a time when there was nothing, there never would have been
any thing ; because nothing can make nothing) ; and I sup-
pose thou dost confess that all the power, and wisdom, and
goodness of the whole creation set together, is less than the
power, and wisdom, and goodness of the Creator ; because
nothing can give more than it hath to give. I suppose, there-
fore, that thou dost confess that there is a God ; for to be
the eternal, infinite Being, and the most powerful, wise, and
good, and tlie first cause of all created being, and power,
and wisdom, and goodness, this (with the subsequent rela-
tions to the creature) is to be GOD. If thou wilt deny that
there is a God, thou must deny that thou art a man, and
that there is any man, or any beings.
« See the proof of the Godhead, and that God is the Governor of the world, and
that there is another life for man, in the beginning of ray ' Holy Commonwealth,' chap.
1, 2, 3. Comraoda quibus utiraur, lucemque qua fruimur, spirituraque quera duci-
mus, ab eo nobis dari alque impertiri videraus. Cic. Pro, S.Hos. 131. vol. ii. p. 65.
Read Galen's Hymns to the Creator, 1. i. de usu partium, praecipue, 1. iii. cap. 10.
Nulla gens est tam immansueta, neqne tarn fera, qu2B non, etiarosi ignoret, qualera
habere Deum deceat, tamen habendum sciat. Cic. Leg. i. 24. Omnibus enim inna-
tum est, et in animo quasi insculptura, esse deos. Cic. Nat. D. il 12. Deum agnos-
cis ex operibus ejus. Cic. Tusc. i. 70. Nullum est animal praeter hominem, quod ha-
8 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
5. I suppose thou knowest that God, who gave a
being unto all things, is by this title of creation, the abso-
lute Owner or Lord of all : and that he that made the reason-
able creatures, with natures to be governed, in order to a
further end, is by that title, their supreme Governor ; and
therefore hath his laws commanding duty, and promising
reward, and threatening punishment; and therefore will
judge men according to these laws, and will be just in judg-
ment, and in his rewards and punishments. And that he
that freely gave the creature its being, and all the good it
hath, and must give it all that ever it shall have, is the Father
or most bountiful Benefactor to his creatures. Surely I
screw thee not too high in supposing thee to know all this ;
for all this is no more than that there is a God. For he is
not God, if he be not the creator, and therefore our owner,
our ruler, and benefactor, our absolute Lord, our most righ-
teous governor, and our most loving father, or benefactor.
6. I suppose therefore that thou art convinced, that
God must be absolutely submitted to, and obeyed before all
others in the world, and loved above all friends, or pleasures,
or creatures whatsoever. For to say, ' He is my Owner,'
is to say, ' I must yield myself to him as his own :' to say,
* I take him for my supreme Governor,' is to say, that * I will
absolutely be ruled by him :' and to say, * I take him as my
dearest Father or chief Benefactor/ is to say, that ' I am ob-
liged to give him my dearest love, and highest thanks :'
otherwise you do but jest, or say you know not what, or
contradict yourselves, while you say, * He is your God.'
7. I suppose that thou art easily convinced, that in
all the world there is no creature that can shew so full a title
to thee as God ; or that hath so great authority to govern
tfiee, or that can be so good to thee, or do so much for thee,
as God can do, or hath done, and will do, if thou do thy
part ; and therefore that there is nothing to be preferred be-
fore him, or compared with him in our obedience or love :
beat nothiam aliqaam dei. Cic Xeg. i, 25. Nulla gens tam fera, nemo omnium tarn
sit imnianis, cujus meutem non imbueril: deorum opinio. Cic. Tusc. i. 20. " I liad
rather believe all the fables iu the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than
that this universal frame is without a mind." Lord Bacon, Essay 16. " A little
philosophy inclincth a man's mind to atheism : but depth in philosophy bringeth
men's mhids about to religion." Lord Bacon, Essay 16. . ,• i^'
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 9
nor is there any that can save us from his justice, if we stand
out against him. . U
8. I suppose that as thou knowest God is just, in hi»
laws and judgments, so that he is so faithful that he will
not, and so all-sufficient, that he need not deceive mankind,
and govern them by mere deceit : this better beseems the
devil, than God : and therefore that as he governeth man
on earth by the hopes and fears of another life, he doth not
delude them into such hopes or fears : and as he doth not
procure obedience by any rewards or punishments in this
life, as the principal means (the wicked prospering, and the
best being persecuted and afflicted here), therefore his re-
wards or punishments, must needs be principally hereafter
in the life to come. For if he have no rewards and punish-
ments, he hath no judgment; and if he have no judgment,
he hath no laws (or else no justice) ; and if he have no laws
(or no justice), he is no governor of man (or not a righteous,
governor) ; and if he be not our governor (and just), he is not
our God ; and if he were not our God, we had never been
his creatures, nor had a being, or been men ^
9. I suppose thou knowest that if God had not dis-
covered what he would do with us, in the life to come,
yet man is highliest bound to obey and love his Maker, be-
cause he is our absolute Lord, our highest ruler, and our
chief benefactor ; and all that we are or have is from him.
And that if man be bound to spend his life in the service of
his God, it is certain that he shall be no loser by him, no
not by the costliest obedience that we can perform ; for God
cannot appoint us any thing that is vain ; nor can he be
worse to us than an honest man, that will see that we lose
not by his service. Therefore that God for whom we must
spend and forsake this life, and all those pleasures which
sensualists enjoy, hath certainly some greater thing to give
us, in another life.
f Mundum autem censent regi numine deorurn, eumque esse quasi comraunem ur-
bem, et civitatem honiinum, et deorum. Cic. Fin. iii. 64. Impiis apud inferos pcenas
esse praeparatas. Cic. Inv. i. 46. Vero et Jovem, et dorainatorem rerum, et omnia
nutu regentera, et, ut idem Ennius,
— patrem divumque, kominumque,
et praesentcra ac praepotentem deum. Quod qui dubitet, haud sane intelligo, cur
non idem, sol sit, an ullus sit, dubitare possit. Cic. Nat. D. ii. 4.
10 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
10. I may take it for granted at the worst, that neither
thyself, nor any infidel in the world, can say that you are
sure that there is not another life for man, in which his pre-
sent obedience shall be rewarded, and disobedience punish-
ed. The worst that ever infidel could say was, that * He
thinketh that there is no other life.' None of you dare deny
the possibility of it, nor can with any reason deny the pro-
bability. Well, then, let this be remembered while we pro-
ceed a little further with you.
11. I suppose or expect that you have so much use of
sense and reason, as to know the brevity and vanity of
all the glory and pleasures of the flesh; and that they are
all so quickly gone, that were they greater than they are,
they can be of no considerable value. Alas, what is time !
How quickly gone, and then it is nothing ! and all things
then are nothing which are passed with it 1 So that the
joys or sorrows of so short a life, are no great matter of gain
or loss.
I may therefore suppose that thou canst easily conclude,
that the bare probability or possibility of an endless happi-
ness, should be infinitely preferred before such transitory
vanity, even the greatest matters that can be expected here ;
and that the probability or possibility of endless misery in
hell, should engage us with far greater care and diligence to
avoid it, than is due for the avoiding any thing that you can
think to escape by sinning; or any of the sufferings of this
momentary life. If you see not this, you have lost your
reason ; that the mere probability or possibility of a heaven
and hell, should much more command our care and dili-
gence, than the fading vanities of this dreaming, transitory
life.
12. Well, then ; we have got thus far in the clearest
light. You see that a religious, holy life, is every man's du-
ty, not only as they owe it to God as their creator, their
owner, governor, and benefactor ; but also, because as lovers
of ourselves, our reason commandeth us to have ten thou-
sandfold more regard of a probable or possible joy and tor-
ment which are endless, than of any that is small and of
short continuance. And if this be so, that a holy life is
every man's duty, with respect to the life that is to come,
then it is most evident, that there is such a life to come in-
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 11
deed, and that it is more than probable or possible, even cer-
tain. For if it be but man's duty to manage this life, by
the hopes and fears of another life, then it must follow, that
either there is such a life to come, or else that God hath
made it man's duty to hope, and fear, and care, and labour,
and live in vain ; and that he himself doth tantalize and
cheat his creatures, and rule the w^orld by motives of deceit,
and make religion and obedience to our Maker to be a life
of folly, delusion, and our loss. And he that believeth this
of God, doth scarcely believe him to be God. Though I
have mentioned this argument in another treatise, I think it
not unmeet here to repeat it for thy benefit.
13. And seeing I suppose thee to be convinced of
the life to come, and that man's happiness and misery is
there, I must needs suppose that thou dost confess, that all
things in this life, v^hether prosperity or adversity, honour
or dishonour, are to be esteemed and used as they refer to
the life to come. For nothing is more plain, than that the
means are to have all their esteem and use in order to their
end. That only is good in this life, which tendeth to the
happiness of our endless life ; and that is evil indeed in this
life, that tendeth to our endless hurt, and to deprive us of
the everlasting good. And therefore no price or motive
should hire us to sin against God, and to forfeit or hinder
our endless happiness.
14. I may suppose, if thou have reason, that thou wilt
confess that God cannot be too much loved, nor obeyed
too exactly, nor served too diligently (especially by such
backward sinners, that have scarce any mind to love or wor-
ship him at all) ; and that no man can make too sure of
heaven, or pay too dear for it, or do too much for his sal-
vation, if it be but that which God hath appointed him to do.
And that you have nothing else that is so much worth your
time, and love, and care, and labour. And therefore though
you have need to be stopped in your love, and care, and la-
bour for the world, because for it you may easily pay too
dear, and do too much ; yet there is no need of stopping
men in their love, and care, and labour for God and their
salvation ; which is worth more than ever we can do, and
where the best are apt to do too little s.
« Non enitn temere, hec fortuito sati, et creati sumus, sed profectO fuit quaedam
12 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
15. I also suppose thee to be one that knowest, that
this present life is given us on trial, to prepare for the
life that shall come after; and that as men live here, they
shall speed for ever ; and that time cannot be recalled, when
it is gone ; and therefore that we should make the best of it •
while we have it.
16. I suppose thee also to be easily convinced, that
seeing man hath his reason and life for matters of everlast-
ing consequence, his thoughts of them should be frequent
and very serious, and his reason should be used about these
things, by retired, sober deliberation.
17. And I suppose thee to be a man, and therefore so
far acquainted with thyself, as that thou mayst know, if
thou wilt, whether thy heart and life do answer thy convic-
tions, and whether they are more for heaven or earth ; and
therefore that thou art capable of self-judging in this case.
Perhaps you will say, that while I am directing you to be
holy, I suppose you to be holy first ; for all this seemeth to
go far towards it. But I must profess that I see not any
thing in all these suppositions, but what I may suppose to
be in a heathen; and that I think all this is but supposing
thee to have the use of thy reason, in the points in hand.
Speak freely : Is there any one of all these points that thou
canst or darest deny ? I think there is not. And therefore if
heathens and wicked men deny them in their practice, that
doth but shew that sin doth brutify them, and that, as men
asleep, or in a crowd of business, they have not the use of the
reason which they possess, in the matters which their minds
are turned from.
18. Yea, one thing more I think I may suppose in all .
or most that will read this book ; that you take on you
also to believe in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost the
Sanctifier, and that the Scriptures are the Word of God.
And if you do so indeed, I may then hope that my work is in
a manner done, before I begin it: but if you do it but
opinionatively and unefFectually, yet God and man may
plead with you the truths which you profess.
Having told you what I presuppose in you, I proceed
now to the Directions. But I again entreat and charge thee,
vis, quae generi consuleret humano : nee id gigneret, aut aleret, quod, cum exant'-
lavissct omnes labores, tuni incideret in mortis malum serapiternum. Cic.Tusc.i. 118.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 13
reader, as thou lovest thy soul/and wouldst not be condemn-
ed for hypocrisy and sloth, that thou dost not refuse to put
in practice what is taught thee, and shew thereby, that what-
ever thou pretendest, thou art not willing to do thy part for
thy own salvation, no not in the most reasonable, necessary
things''.
Direction i. * If thou be truly willing to be sanctified and
a child of God, remain not in a state of ignorance ; but do thy
best to come into the light, and understand the Word of God,
in the matters of salvation.'
If knowledge be unnecessary, why have we understand-
ing^? and wherein doth a man excel a beast? If any know-
ledge at all be necessary, certainly it must be the knowledge
of the greatest and most necessary things : and nothing is so
great and necessary as to obey thy Maker, and to save thy
soul. Knowledge is to be valued according to its useful-
ness. If it be a matter of as great concernment to know how
to do your worldly business, and to trade and gather worldly
wealth, and to understand the laws, and to maintain your
honour, as it is to know how to be reconciled unto God, to
be pardoned and justified, to please your Creator, to prepare
in time for death and judgment, and an endless life, then let
worldly wisdom have the pre-eminence. But if all earthly
things be dreams and shadows, and valuable only as they
serve us in the way to heaven, then surely the heavenly wis-
dom is the best. Alas, how far is that man from being wise,
that is acquainted with all the punctilios of the law, that is
i» Abeunt enim illuc omnia unde orta sunt. Cic. Sen. 80. vol. 7, p. 816. Bed
credo, deosimmortales sparsisse animos in corpora humana, ut essent, qui terras tueren-
tur, quique ccelestium ordinera couteraplantes, imitarentur eum vilae modo atque con-
stantly. Cic. Sen. 77. vol. 7. p. 815. Sunt enim e terra homines non ut incobo atque
habitatores, sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque ccelestium, quarura spec-
taculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet. Cic. Nat. Deo. ii. 140. Nam
cum caeteras animantes abjecisset ad pastum, solum hominem erexit, ad coelique, quasi
cognationis domiciliique pristini, conspectum excitavit : tum speciem ita formavit oris,
Tjtin ea penitus recondilos mores effingeret. Cic. Leg. 1. 26. Nisi Deus. . . .istis te cor-
poris custodiis liberaverit, hue tibi aditus pat^re non potest. Cic. Som. Scip. 3, vol. 7.
p. 915. Virorum sapientissimorum ac fortissimorura civium mentes, quaj mihi viden-
tur ex hominura vita ad deorum religionem et sanctimoniam demigrasse. Cic. Pro. Rab.
30. Aniraum lamen esse ingeneratum a Deo : ex quo vere vel agnatio nobis cum
coelestibus, vel genus, vel stirps appellari potest. Cic. Leg. 1. 24.
' Qui seipsum cognoverit, cognoscet in se omnia : Deum, ad cujus imaginem factus
est: mundum, cujus similachrum gerit; creaturasomnescum quibus symbolumhabet.
Paul. Scaliger. Thes. p. 722.
14 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
excellent in the knowledge of all the languages, sciences, and
arts, and yet knoweth not how to live to God, to mortify the
flesh, to conquer sin, to deny himself, nor to answer in judg*
ment for his fleshly life, nor to escape damnation ! As far is
such a learned man from being wise, as he is from being
happy.
Two sorts among us do quietly live in damning igno-
rance. First, abundance of poor people, who think they
may continue in it, because they were bred in it; and that
because they are not book-learned, therefore they need not
learn how to be saved; and because their parents neglected to
teach them when they were young, therefore they may neglect
themselves ever after, and need not learn the things they were
made for. Alas, sirs, what have you your lives, your time,
and reason for? Do you think it is only to know how to do
your worldly business ? Or is it to prepare for a better world ?
It is better that you knew not how to eat, or drink, or speak,
or go, or dress yourselves, than that you know not the will
of God, and the way to your salvation* Hear what the Holy
Ghost saith, " But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost : in whom the god of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them ^" Darkness is unsafe and full of fears ; the light is
safe and comfortable. A man in ignorance is never like to
hit his way: nor can he know whether he be in or out; nor
what enemy or danger he is near. It is the devil that is the
prince of darkness, and his kingdom is a kingdom of dark-
ness, and his works are works of darkness*. Grace turneth
men from darkness to light™, and causeth them to cast off* the
works of darkness''. Because we are the children of light
and of the day, and not of darkness or of night ®. They that
were sometime darkness, are light in the Lord, when they are
converted, and must walk as the children of the light?. In
the dark the devil and wicked men may cheat you, and do al-
most what they list with you. You will not buy your wares
in the dark, nor travel, or do your work in the dark : and will
you judge of the state of your souls in the dark? and do the
work of your salvation in the dark ? I tell you the devil could
^ 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. » Ephes^ vi. 12. Col. i. 13- 1 John ii. xi. Luke xi. 34, 35.
» Acts xxvi. 18. n Rom. jclii, 12. <> i Thcs. v. 5. p Ephes. v. 8. '
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 15
never entice so many souls to hell, if he did not first put out
the light, or put out their eyes. They would never so follow
him by crowds, to everlasting torments, by daylight, and with
open eyes. If men did but know well what they do when
they are sinning, and whither they go in a carnal life, they
would quickly stop, and go no further. All the devils in hell
could never draw so many thither, if men's ignorance were
not the advantage of temptations.
Another sort among us that are ignorant of the things
of God, are sensual gentlemen, and scholars, that have so
much breeding as to understand the words, and speak some-
what better than the ruder sort, but indeed never knew the
nature, truth, and goodness of the things they speak of: they
are many of them as ignorant of the nature of faith, and
sanctification, and the working of the Holy Ghost in planting
the image of God upon the soul, and of the saint's commu-
nion with God, and the nature of a holy life, as if they had
never heard or believed, that there is such a thing as any of
these in being. Nicodemus is a lively instance in this case :
a ruler in Israel, and a Pharisee, and yet he knew not what it
was to be born again. And the pride of these gallants mak-r
eth their ignorance mUch harder to be cured, than other
men's ; because it hindereth them from knowing and confess-
ing ifJ. If any one would convince them of it, they say with
1 Cum quera poenitet pecc^sse pene innocens est : maxima pargationum pars est
voluntaria poenitentia delictonim. Seal. Thes. p. 742. Facilius iis ignoscitur qui non
perseverare sed ab errato se revocare moliuntur ; est enim huraanum peccare, sed
belluinum in crrore perseverare. Cic. in Vat. Nullus enim suavior animo cibusest,
quam cognitio veritatis. Lactant. Instit. lib. 1. c. 1. Bunemann, p. 11. It is a mar-
vellous and doleful case to think how ignorant some people live, even to old age, under
constant and excellent teaching. Some learn neither words nor sense, but hear as if
they heard not : some learn words, and know the sense no more than if they had
learned but a tongue unknown ; and will repeat their creed and catechism, when they
know not what it is that they say. A w6rthy minister of Helvetia told me, that their
people are very constant at their sermons, and yet most of them grossly ignorant of the
things which they most frequently hear. It is almost incredible what ignorance some
ministers report that they have found in some of the eldest of their auditors. Nay,
when I have examined some that have professed strictness in religion, above the com-
mon sort of people, I have found some ignorant of some of the fundamentals of the
Christian faith. And I remember what an ancient bishop about twelve hundred
years ago saith, Maximus Taurinensis in his homilies, thai whenhehad long preached
to his people, even on an evening after one of his sermons, be heard a cry or noise
among the people, and hearkening what it was, they were by their outcry helping to
deliver the moon, that was in labour and wanted help. This is cited also by Papirius
Massonus, in vita Hilarii Papae. p. 6T. ,
'W CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
scorn, as the Pharisees to Christ, " Are we blind also "" V Yea,
they are ready to insult over the children of the light, that
are wise to salvation, because they differ from the loose or
hypocritical opinions of these gentlemen, in some matters of
God's worship ; of which their worships are as competent
judges, as the Pharisees, of the doctrine of Christ, or as Ni-
codemus of regeneration, or as Simon Magus, or Julian, or
Porphyry, of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These honourable,
miserable men, will bear no contradiction or reproof: who
dare be so unmannerly, disobedient, or bold, as to tell them
that they are out of the way to heaven, and strangers to it
(that I say not, enemies) ; and to presume to stop them in
the way to hell, or to hinder them from damning themselves,
and as many others as they can ? They think this talk of
Christ, and grace, and life eternal, if it be but serious (and
not like their own, in form, or levity, or scorn), is but the
troublesome preciseness of hypocritical, humorous, crack-
brained fellows : and say of the godly, as the Pharisees,
'.* Are ye also deceived ? Have any of the rulers, or of the
Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth
not the law are cursed ^"
Well, gentlemen or poor men, whoever you be that sa-
vour not the things of the Spirit*, but live in ignorance of
the mysteries of salvation, be it known to you, that heavenly
truth and holiness are works of light, and never prosper in
the dark ; and that your best understanding should be used
for God and your salvation, if for any thing at all. It is the
devil and his deceits that fear the light. Do but understand
well what you do, and then be wicked if you can ; and then
set light by Christ and holiness if you dare ! O come but out
of darkness into the light, and you will see that which will
make you tremble to live ungodly and unconverted another
day : and you will see that which will make you with peni-
tent remorse lament your so long neglect of heaven, and
wonder that you could live so far, and so long besides your
wits, as to choose a course of vanity and bestiality in the
chains of satan, before the joyful liberty of the saints : and,
though we must not be so uncivil as to tell you where you
are, and what you are doing, you will then more uncivilly
call yourselves, " exceedingly mad, and foolish, disobedient,
^ John ix. 40. » John vii. 47—49. * Rom. viii. 5—7. 13.
CHAP. I.] . CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 17
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures "," as one did that
thought himself before as wise and good as any of you.
Live not in a sleepy state of ignorance, if ever you would
have saving grace.
Direct, ii. * Especially labour first to understand the true
nature of a state of sin, and a state of grace.'
It is like you will say, that all are sinners; and that
Christ died for sinners ; and that you were regenerate in your
baptism ; and that for the sins that since then you have com-
mitted, you have repented of them, and therefore you hope
they are forgiven.
But, stay a little, man, and understand the matter well
as you go ; for it is your salvation that lieth at the stake. It
is very true that all are sinners : but it is as true, that some
are in a state of sin, and some in a state of grace : some are
converted sinners, and some unconverted sinners : some live
in sins inconsistent with holiness (which therefore may be
called mortal), others have none but infirmities which con-
sist with spiritual life (which in this sense may be called ve-
nial) : some hate their sin, and long to be perfectly delivered
from it : and others so love it, as they are loath to leave it.
And is there no difference, think you, between these ?
It is as true also, that Christ died for sinners : (or else
where were our hope ?) But it is true also, that he died to
" save his people from their sins %" and " to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto GodV'
and " to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself
a peculiar people zealous of good works'," and that " except
a man be born again, and converted, and becomie as a little
child (in humility and beginning the world anew), he cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven %" and that even he that
died for sinners, will at last condemn the workers of iniquity,
and say, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire^"
" I never knew you*^ "
It is very true, that you were sacramentally regenerate
in baptism, and that he that believeth and is baptised, shall
be saved, and all that are the children of promise, and have
that promise sealed to them by bapti^sm, are regenerate. The
ancients taught that baptism puts men into a state of grace ;
. « Acts xxvi.ll. Tit. iii. 3. "<■ Matt. i. 21. y Acts xxvi. 18. ' Tit. li. 14.
a John iii. 3. 5. Matt, xviii- 3- »> Matt. xxv. 41. •= Matt. vii. 23.
VOL. II. C
^^ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1\
that is, that all that sincerely renounce the world, the devil,
and the flesh, and are sincerely given up to God the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the covenant of grace,
and profess and seal this by their baptism, shall be pardoned,
and made the heirs of life. But as it is true, that baptism
thus saveth, so is it as true, that it is not the ** outward
washing only the filth of the flesh" that will suffice, but the
"answer of a good conscience towards God^." And that
" no man can enter into the kingdom of God, that is not bom
of the Spirit, as well as of water*=." And that Simon Magus
and many another have had the water of baptism, that never
had the Spirit, but still remain in the " gall of bitterness, and
bond of iniquity, and had no part nor lot in that business,
their hearts being not right in the sight of God*^." And no-
thing is more sure, than that " if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ (notwithstanding his baptism) he is none of his* !"
And that if you have his Spirit, you " walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit :" and are " not carnally but spi-
ritually minded," and are " alive to God," and as " dead to the
world ^" Whether all that were baptised are such as the^e^
when they come to age, judge you.
It is true also, that if you truly repent, you ar^ for-
given ; but it is as true, that true repentance is the very con-
version of the soul from sin to God, and leave^th not any man
in the power of sin. It is not for a man when he hath had
all the pleasure that sin will yield him, to wish then that he
had not committed it, (which he may do then at an easy rate)
and yet to keep the rest that are still pleasant and profitable
to his flesh. Like a man that casts away the bottle which he
hath drunk empty, but keeps that which is full j or as men
sell off" their barren kine, and buy milch ones in their stead :
this kind of repentance is a mockery, and not a cure for th§
soul. If thou have true repentance, it hath so far turned thy
heart from sin, that thou wouldst not commit it, if it were to
do again, though thou hadst all the same temptations j and
it hath so far turned thy heart to God and holiness, that
thou wouldst live a holy life, if it were all to do again, though
thou hadst the same temptations as afore against it. This
is the nature of true repentance : such a repentance indeed
•> 1 Petii. 21. * John iii. 5. ^ Acts viii- 13. 21. 23. « Rom. viii. 9.
' Rom. viii. 1. 5— Q. 10. 13. 14.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. , 19
is never too late to save : but I am sure it never comes to6
soon. '
Mart, nov^^, I beseech you, w^hat a state of sin, and
what a state of holiness is.
He that is in a state of sin, hath habitually and predomi-
nantly a greater love to some pleasures, or profits, or honours
of this world, than he hath to God and to the glory which he
hath promised ; he preferreth, and seeketh, and holdeth (if
he can) his fleshly prosperity in this world, before the favour
of God and the happiness of the world to come. His heart
is turned from God unto the creature, and is principally set
on things on earth. Thus his sin is the blindness, and mad-
ness, and perfidiousness, and idolatry of his soul, and his for-
saking of God, and his salvation, for a thing of naught. It
is that to his soul, which poison, and death, and sickness,
and lameness, and blindness are to his body: it is such
dealing with God, as that man is guilty of to his dearest
friend or father, who should hate him and his company, and
love the company of a dog or toad much better than his ; and
obey his enemy against him : and it is like a madman's
dealing with his physician, who seeks to kill him as his ene-
my, because he crosseth his appetite or will, to cure him.
Think of this well, and then tell me, whether this be a state
to be continued in. This state of sin, is something worse
than a mere inconsiderate act of sin, in one that otherwise
liveth an obedient, holy life.
On the other side, a state of holiness, is nothing els6
but the habitual and predominant devotion and dedication
of sOul, and body, and life, and all that we have to God : an
esteeming, and loving, and serving, and seeking him, before
all the pleasures and prosperity of the flesh : making his fa-
vour, and everlasting happiness in heaven our end, and Jesus
Christ our way, and referring all things in the world unto
that end, and making this the scope, design, and business of
our lives. It is a turning from a deceitful world to God ;
and preferring the Creator before the creature, and heaven
before earth, and eternity before an inch of time, and our
souls before our corruptible bodies, and the authority and
laws of God, the universal Governor of the world, before the
word or will of any man, how great soever ; and a subjecting
our sensitive faculties to our reason, and advancing this rea-
^0 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PARTI.
son by Divine revelation ; and living by faith, and not by
sight : in a word, it is a laying up our treasure in heaven, and
setting' our hearts there, and living in a heavenly conversa-
tion, setting our affections on the things above, and not on
.the things that are on earth : and a rejoicing in hope of the
rglory to come, when sensualists have nothing but transitory,
brutish pleasures to rejoice in.
This is a state and life of holiness: when we persuade you
.to be holy^ we persuade you to no worse than this : when we
commend a life of godliness to your choice, this is the life
we mean, and that we commend to you. And can you un-
derstand this well, and yet be unwilling of it ? It cannot be.
Do but know well what godliness and ungodliness, what
grac.e and sin are, and the work is almost done.
Direct, in. * To know what a life of holiness is, believe the
Word of God, and those that have tried it ; and believe not
the slanders of the devil and of ungodly men, that never
tried or knew the things which they reproach.'
Reason cannot question the reasonableness of this ad-
vice. Who is wiser than God? or who is to be believed
before him ? And what men are more likely to know what
they talk of, than such as speak from their own experience ?
I"fothiiig more familiar with wicked men, than to slander
and reproach the holy ways and servants of the Lord.
Jf o wisdom, no measure of holiness or righteousness will
exempt the godly from their ma,lice ; otherwise, Christ him-
self at least would have been exempted, if not his apostles
and other saints, whom they have slandered and put to
death. Christ hath foretold us what to expect from them,
f* If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it
hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love
his own : but because ye are not of the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you. The servant is
not greater than the Lord. If they havejpersecuted me, they
will also persecute you ; if they have kept my sayings, they
will keep yours also^."
The truth is, wicked men are the seed and children
of the devil, and have his image, and obey him, and think,
and speak, and do as he would have them. And the godly
« John XV. 18—20.
GHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. > 21
are the seed and members of Christ, and bear his imap;e,
and obey him : and do you think that the devil will bid his
children speak well of the ways or followers of Christ ? I
must confess, till I had found the truth of it by experience,
I was not sensible how impudent in belying, and cruel in
abusing the servants of Christ, his worldly, malicious ene-
mies are. I had read oft how early an enmity was put between
the woman's and the serpent's seed, and I had rea($iand/Won-
dered, that the first man that was born into the world did
murder his brother for worshipping God more acceptably
than himself; " because his own works were evil, and his
brother's righteous ^." I had read the inference, ** Marvel
not, my brethren, if the world hate you' ;" but yet I did not
so fully understand, that wicked men and devils are so very
like, and so near of kin ; till the words of Christ, expounded
by visible demonstrations, had taught it me. Indeed the
apostle saith*", that Cain was of that wicked one, that is,
the d€vil : but Christ saith more plainly, " Ye are of your
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do : he
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him : when he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the father
of it^" Here note, that cruel murdering and lying, are the
principal actions of a devil; and that as the father of these,
he is the father of the wicked, who are most notoriously ad-
dicted to these two courses against the most innocent ser-
vants of the Lamb. How just it is that they dwell together
hereafter, that are here so like in disposition and action :
even as the righteous shall dwell with Christ, who^bore his
image, and imitated his holy, suifering life.
I conclude, then, that if thou wilt never turn to God
and a holy life, till wicked men give over belying, and re-
proaching them, thou mayst as well say, that thou wilt never
be reconciled to God, till the devil be first reconciled to him;
and never love Christ, till the devil love him, or bid thee
love him ; or never be a saint, till the devil be a saint, or will
give thee leave ; and that thou wilt not be saved, till the de-
vil be willing that thou be saved.
••1 Johniii. 12. ' 1 John iii. 13. ''1 Jphn iii- 12.
' John viii, 44.
%% CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct. IV. ' That thy understanding may be enlightened,
and thy heart renewed, be much and serious in reading the
Word of God, and those books that are fitted to men in an
unconverted state, and especially in hearing the plain and
searching preaching of the word.'
There is a heavenly light, and power, and majesty in
the Word of God, which in the serious reading or hearing of
it, may pierce the heart ; and prick it, and open it, that cor-
ruption may go out, and grace come in. " The law of the
Lord is perfect, converting the soul : the testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise tlie simple : the statutes of the
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart"." Moreover, " by them
it is that we are warned : and in keeping of them there is gi-eat
reward °." The eunuch was reading the Scripture, when
Philip was sent to expound it to him for his conversion p.
The preaching of Peter did prick many thousands to the
heart to their conversion*'. The heart of Lydia was opened
to attend to the preaching of Paul ^. ** The word of God is
quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit ^" These
*' weapons are mighty through God, to the pulling down of
strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
'bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ*." Hast thou often read and heard already, and yet
findest no change upon thy heart ? Yet read and hear again
and again : ministers must not give over preaching, when
they have laboured without success : why then should you
give over hearing or reading ? As the husbandman laboureth,
and looketh to God for rain, and for this blessing, so must we,
and so must you. Look up to God: remember it is his
word, in which he calleth you to repentance, and offereth
you mercy, and treateth with you concerning your everlast-
,ing happiness : lament your former negligence and disobe-
dience, and beg his blessing on his word, and you shall find
.it will not be in vain.
- ^ And the serious reading of books which expound and
apply the Scriptures, suitable to your case, may, by the bles-
sing of God, be effectual to your conversion. I have written
■ Psal. xix. r, 8. * Psal- xix. 11. P Actsviii. q Acts ii. 37.
«■ Acts xv'u 14. • Heb. iv. 12. » « Cor. x. 4, 3.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN EtHIGS. 23
SO many to this use myself, that I shall be the shorter on this
subject now, and desire you to read them, or some of them,
if you have not fitter at hand ; viz. A Call to the Unconvert-
ed;— A Treatise of Conversion; — -Now or Never; — Direc-
tions for a sound Conversion; — A Saint or a Brute; — -A
Treatise of Judgment ; — A Sermon against making light of
Christ ; — A Sermon of Christ's Dominion ; — Another of his
Sovereignty, &c.
jD/rec^ V. 'Ifthouwouldst not be destitute of saving grace,
let thy reason be exercised about the matters of thy salvation,
in some proportion of frequent, sober, serious thoughts, as
thou art convinced the weight of the matter doth require/
To have reason is common to all men, even the sleepy
and distracted : to use reason is common to all that have
their senses awake, and fit to serve their minds : to use rea-
son in the greatest matters, is proper to wise men, that know
for what end God made them reasonable ". Inconsiderate
men are all ungodly men ; for reason not used is as bad as
no reason, and will prove much worse in the day of reckon-
ing. The truth is, though sinners are exceeding bliiid and
erroneous about the things of God, yet all God's precepts
are so reasonable, and tend so clearly to our joy and happi-
ness, that if the devil did not win most souls by silencing
reason, and laying it asleep, or drowning its voice, with the
" The word itself exciteth reason, and preachers are by reason to shame all sin as
a thing unreasonable. And the want of such excitation, by powerful preaching, and
plain instructing, and the persons considering, is a great cause of the world's undoing.
For those preachers that lay all the blame on the people's stupidity or malignity, I
desire them to read a satisfactory answer in Acosta the Jesuit*, lib. iv. c. 2, 3 & 4.
Few souls perish, comparatively, where all the means are used which should be used
by their superiors for their salvation: if every parish had holy, skilful, laborious pas-
tors, that would publicly and privately do their part, gi-eat things might be expected
in the world. But, saith Acosta, Itaque praecipua causa ad miuistros parum idoneos
redit. Quae namque est praedicatio nostra? quae fiducia? signa certe non edimus:
vitaB sanctitate noneminemus ; beneficentia non invitamus ; verbi ac spiritus efficacia
non persuaderaus ; lachrymis ac precibus a Deo non impetramus ; inimo ne magno-
pere quidem cnramus. Quae ergo nostra querela est? quae tanta Indorum accusatio?
lib. iv. p. 365. An ingenuous confession of the Roman priesthood. And such priests
can expect no better success. But having seen another sort of ministefs, through God'ft
mercy, I have seen an answerable fruit of their endeavours.
* Joseph Acosta was a celebrated Spanish author, born at Medina del Carapo,
about the year 1 540. He was a missionary and provincial of the Jesuits in Peru, and
died in Salamanca, 1600. Among other works, he wrote a treatise "De procuranda
Indorum Salute." 8vo. Salam. 1 588. Also, " De Christo Revelato," 4to. Rom. 1590.
•See Rees's Cyclo. art. Acosta.— (T. G.)
24 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
noise and crowd of worldly business, hell would not have so
many sad inhabitants. I scarce believe that God will con-
demn any sinner that ever lived in the world, that had the
use of reason ; no, not the heathens that had but one talent,
but he will be able to say to them as Luke xix. 22. " Out
of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant :
Thou knewest," 8cc. To serve God and labour diligently
for salvation, and prefer it before all worldly things, is so
reasonable a thing, that every one that repenteth of the con-
trary course, doth call it from his heart an impious madness.
Reason must needs be for ,God that made it. Reason must
needs be for that which is its proper end and use. Sin, as it
is in the" understanding, is nothing but unreasonableness ;
a blindness and error ; a loss and corruption of reason in
the matters of God and our salvation. And grace, as in the
understanding, doth but cure this folly and distraction, and
make us reasonable again ; it is but the opening of our eyes,
and making us wise in the greatest matters. It is, not a
more unmanly thing to love and plead for blindness, mad-
ness, and diseases, and to hate both sight, and health, .and
wit, than it is to love and plead for sin, and to hate and vi-
lify a holy life.
Grant me but this one thing, that thou wilt but so^
berly exercise thy reason, about these great, important ques-
tions ; Where must I abide for ever ? What must I do to be
saved ? What was I created and redeemed for ? and I shall
hope that thy own understanding, as erroneous as it is, will
work out something that will promote thy good. Do but
withdraw thyself one hour in a day from company and other
business, and consider but as soberly and seriously of thy
end and life, as thou knowest the nature and weight of the
matter doth require, and I am persuaded thy own reason
and conscience will call thee to repentance, and set thee, at
least, in a far better way than thou wast in before. When
thou walkest alone, or when thou wakest in the night, re-
member soberly that God is present, that time is hasting to
an end, that judgment is at hand, where thou must give ac-
count of all thy hours, of thy lusts, and passions, and de-
sires ; of all thy thoughts, and words, and deeds ; and that
thy endless joy or misery dependeth wholly and certainly on
this little time. Think but soberly on such things as these.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 25
but one hour in a day or two, and try whether it will not
once recover thee to wit and godliness ; and folly and sin
will vanish before the force of considering reason, as the
darkness vanisheth before the light. I entreat thee now as
in the presence of God, and as thou wilt answer the denial
of so reasonable a request at the day of judgment, that thou
wilt but resolve to try this course of a sober, serious consi-
deration,' about thy sin, thy duty, thy danger, thy hope, thy
account, and thy everlasting state : try it sometimes ; espe-
cially on the Lord's days; and do but mark the result of
all ; and whither it is that such sober consideration doth
point or lead thee? whether it be not towards a diligent, ho-
ly, heavenly life ? If thou deny me thus much, God and
thy conscience shall bear witness, that thou thoughtest thy
salvation of little worth, and therefore mayst justly be de-
nied it.
Would it not be strange that a man should be peni-
tent and godly, that never once thought of the matter with
any seriousness in his life ? Can so many and great diseases
of soul be cured, before you have once soberly considered
that you have them, and how great and dangerous they are,
and by what remedies they must be cured ? Can grace be
obtained and exercised, while you never so much as think
of it? Can the main business of our lives be done without
any seiious thoughts ; when we think it fit to bestow so ma-
ny upon the trivial matters of this world ? Doth the world
and the flesh deserve to be remembered all the day, and
week, and year? and doth not God and thy salvation de-
serve to be thought on one hour in a day, or one day in a
week? Judge of these things, but as a man of reason. If
thou look that God, who hath given thee reason to guide
thy will, and a will to command thy actions, should yet
carry thee to heaven like a stone, or save thee against or
without thy will, before thou didst ever once soberly think
of it, thou mayst have leisure in hell to lament the folly of
such expectations. -stfns
Direct, vi. * Suffer not the devil by company, pleasure, or
worldly business, to divert or hinder thee from these serious
considerations.'
The devil hath but two ways to procure thy damna-
tion. The one is, by keeping 'thee from any sober remem-
26 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
brance of spiritual and eternal things ; and the other is, if
thou wilt needs think of them, to deceive thee into false,
erroneous thoughts. To bring to pass the first of these
(which is the most common, powerful means), his ordinary
way ife by diversion * : finding thee still something else to do :
putting some other thoughts into thy mind, and some other
work into thy hand ; so that thou canst never have leisure
for any sober thoughts of God : whenever the Spirit of God
knocks at thy door, thou art so taken up with other com-
pany, or other business, that thou canst not hear, or wilt
not open to him. Many a time he hath been ready to teach
thee, but thou wast not at leisure to hear and learn. Many
a time he secretly jogged thy conscience, and checked thee
in thy sin, and called thee aside to consider soberly about
thy spiritual ahd everlasting state, when the noise of foolish
mirth and pleasures, or the bustles of encumbering cares
and business have caused thee to stop thy ears, and put him
off, and refuse the motion. And if the abused Spirit of God
depart, and leave thee to thy beloved mirth and business,
and to thyself, it is but just; and then thou wilt never have
a serious, effectual thought of heaven, perhaps, till thou hkve
lost it ; nor a sober thought of hell, till thou art in it ; un-
less it be some despairing, or some dull ineffectual thought.
O therefore, as thou lovest thy soul, do not love thy
pleasure or business so well as to refuse to treat with the
Spirit of God, who comes to offer thee greater pleasures,
and to engage thee in a more important business. O lay by
all, to hear awhile what God and conscience have to say to
thee. They have greater business with thee, than any others
that thou conversest with. They have better offers and
motions to make to thee, than thou shalt hear from any of
thy old companions. If the devil can but take thee up a
while, with one pleasure one day, and another business an-
other day, and keep thee from the work that thou camest
into the world for, till time be gone, and thou art slipt un-
awares into damnation, then he hath his desire, and hath the
* Even learning and honest studies may be used as a diversion from more necessary
things. Saith Petrarch in vita sua, Ingenio sui ad crane bonum et salubre studium
aplo ; sed ad moralera praecipue philosophiam, et ad poeticam prono. Quam ipsam
processu temporis neglexi, sacris Uteris delectatus, in quibus sensi dulcedinem ab-
ditara, quam aliquando contempseram ; poeticis Uteris non nisi ad omamentura reser-
vatisi .
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 27
end he aimed at, and hath won the day, and thou art lost for
ever.
It is like thou settest some limits to thy folly, and
purposest to do thus but a little while : but when one plea-
sure withereth, the devil will provide a fresh one for thee ;
and when one business is over, which causeth thee to pre-
tend necessity, another, and another, and another will suc-
ceed, and thou wilt think thou hast such necessity still, till
time is gone, and thou see, too late, how grossly thou wast
deceived. Resolve, therefore, that whatever company, or
pleasure, or business would divert thee, that thou wilt
not be befooled out of thy salvation, nor taken off from
minding the one thing necessary. If company plead an in-
terest in thee, know of them whether they are better com-
pany than the Spirit of God and thy conscience ; — if pleasure
would detain thee, inquire whether it be more pure and du-
rable pleasures, than thou mayst have in heaven, by hear-
kening unto gi-ace ; — if business still pretend necessity, in-
quire whether it be a greater business than to prepare thy
soul and thy accounts for judgment, and of greater neces-
sity than thy salvation. If not, let it not have the preceden-
cy : if thou be wise, do that first that must needs be done ;
and let that stand by, that may best be spared. What will
it profit thee to win all the world, and lose thy soul ? At
least, if thou durst say that thy pleasure and business are bet-
ter than heaven, yet might they sometime be forborn, while
thou seriously thinkest of thy salvation.
Direct, vn. 'If thou wouldst be converted and saved, be
not a malicious or peevish enemy to those that would
convert and save thee : be not angry with them that tell
thee of thy sin or duty, as if they did thee wrong or hurt.*
God worketh by instruments : when he will convert a
Cornelius, a Peter must be sent for, and willingly heard.
When he will recall and save a sinner, he hath usually some
public minister or private friend, that shall be a messenger
of that searching and convincing truth, which is fit to awa-
ken them, enlighten them, and recover them. If God fur-
nish these instruments with compassion to your souls, and
willingness to instruct you, and you will take them for your
enemies, and peevishly quarrel with them, and contradict
them, and perhaps rfeproach them, and do them a mischief
28 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
for their good will, what an inhuman, barbarous course of in-
gratitude is this ? Will you be angry with men for endeavour-
ing to save you from the fire of hell ? Do they endeavour to
make any gain or advantage by you? or only to help your
souls to heaven ? Indeed, if their endeavours did serve any
ambitious design of their own, to bring the world (as the
pope and his clergy would do) under their own jurisdiction,
you had reason then to suspect their fraud. But the truth
is, Christ hath purposely appointed his greatest church-offi-
cers to be but ministers, even the servants of all, to rule and
save men as volunteers, without any coercive power, by the
management of his powerful word upon their consciences ;
and to beseech and entreat the poorest of the flock, as those
that are not lords over God's heritage, nor masters of their
faith, but their servants in Christ, and helpers of their joy ;
that so whenever we deliver our message to them, they may
see that we exercise not dominion over them, and aim at no
worldly honours, or gain, or advantage to ourselves, but at
the mere conversion and saving of their souls. Whereas, if
he had allowed us to exercise authority as the kings of the
Gentiles, and to be called gracious lords, and to encumber
ourselves with the affairs of this life, our doctrine would
have been rejected by the generality of the world, and we
should always have come to them on this great disadvantage,
that they would have thought we sought not them, but
theirs ; and that we preached not for them, but for ourselves,
to make a prize of them" : as the Jesuits, when they attempt
the conversion of the Indians, do still find this their great
impediment, the princes and people suppose them to pre-
tend the Gospel, but as a means to subjugate them and their
dominions to the pope ; because they tell them that they must
be all subject to the pope, if they will be saved. Now when
Christ hath appointed a poor, self-denying, entreating minis-
try, against whom you can have none of these pretences, to
stoop to your feet, with the most submissive entreaties, that
you would but turn to God and live, you have no excuse for
your own barbarous ingratitude, if you will fly in their faces,
and use them as your enemies, and be offended with . them
" 1 Peter v. 2, 3, 4. 2 Cor. x. 4. 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. 2 Cor. i. 24. 1 Cor. iv. 1.
2 Cor. iii. 6. xi. 23. Joel i. 9, 13. 2 <*Jor. iv. .«>. Mark x,44. Matt. xx. 27. Luke
xxii, 24, 26, 26. . ■ •
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 29
for endeavouring to save you. You know they can hold
their tithes and livings by smoothing, and cold, and gene-
ral preaching, as well as by more faithful dealing (if not bet-
ter) : you know they can get no worldly advantage by deal-
ing so plainly with you : you know that they hazard by it,
their reputation with such as you ; and they cannot be ig-
norant that it is like to expose them to your ill will and in-
dignation.
And they are men as well as you, and therefore, un-
doubtedly, desire the good will and the good word of others,
and take no pleasure to be scorned or hated : undoubtedly
they break through much temptation and reluctancy of the
flesh, before they can so far deny themselves as to endea-
vour your salvation on such terma : and seeing it is all for
you, methinks you should be their chief encouragers : if
others should oppose them, you should be for them, because
they are for you. If I go with a convoy to relieve a besieg-
ed garrison, I shall expect opposition from the enemy that
besiegeth them ; but if the besieged themselves shall shoot
at us, and use us as enemies for venturing our lives to relieve
them, it is time to be gone, and let them take what they get
by it.
Perhaps you think that, the preacher, or private ad-
monisher, is too plain with you ; but you should consider
that self-love is like to make you partial in your own cause,
and therefore a more incapable judge than they''. And you
should consider that God hath commanded them to deal
plainly, and told them that else the people's blood shall be
required at their hands y. And that God best knoweth what
medicine and diet is fittest for your disease ; and that the
case is of such grand importance (whether you shall live in
heaven or hell for ever?) that it is scarce possible for a mi-
nister to be too plain and serious with you : and that your
disease is so obstinate, that gentler means have been too
long frustrate, and therefore sharper must be tried: else
why were you not converted by gentler dealing until now?
If you fall down in a swoon, or be ready to be drowned, you
. ^ Seneca scribit, Tarn necessarium fuisse Roniano populo nasci Catouem, quam
Scipionera : alter enira cum hostibus nostris bellum, alter cum moribus gessit. Sen.
Phi.Epist. 88. jp. 288. Elz. 1649.
I y Isa. Iviii. 1. Estekriviii. :J :• *
00 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART n
will give leave to the standers-by to handle you a little more
roughly than at another time, and will not bring your action
against them for laying hands on you, or ruffling your silks
or bravery ; if your house be on fire, you will give men leave
to speak in another manner, than when they modulate their
voices into a civil and complimenting tone.
It may be you think that they are censorious in judging
you to be unconverted, when you are not ; and to be worse
and in more danger than you are, and speaking harder of you
than you deserve. But it is you that should be most sus-
picious of yourselves, and afraid in so great a matter of being
deceived. A stander-by may see more than a player : I am
sure he that is awake may see more of you, than you of your-
selves when you are asleep.
But suppose it were as you imagine; it is his love
that mistakingly attempteth your good : he intendeth you
no harm : it is your salvation that he desireth : it is your
damnation that he would prevent. You have cause to love
him, and be thankful for his good-will, and not to be angry
with him, and reproach him for his mistakes. He is none of
those that brings you into the inquisition, and would fine, or
imprison, or banish, or burn, or hang, or torment you, in or-
der to convert and save you ; the worst he doth, is but to
speak those words, which, if true, you are deeply concerned
to regard ; and if mistaken, can do you no hurt, unless you
are the cause yourself. If it be in public preaching, he
speaketh generally by descriptions, and not by nomination ;
no more of you, than of others in your case: nor of you at
all, if you are not in that case. If he speak privately to you,
there is no witness but yourself ; and therefore it ia no mat-
ter of disgrace. Never, for shame, pretend that thou art
willing to be converted and saved, when thou hatest those
that would promote it ; and art angry with every one that
tells thee of thy case, and couldst find in thy heart to stop
their mouths, or do them a mischief.
Direct, viii. * If thou art willing indeed to be converted, do
thy best to discover that yet thou art unconverted, and in a
lost and miserable state.*
Who will endeavq|ir to cure a disease which he thinks
he hath not? or to vomit up the poison which he thinks he
never took, or taketh to be no poison? or to come out of
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS, v 31
the ditch, that thinks he is not in it? or who will turn back
again, that will not believe but he is in the right way ? Who
will labour to be converted, that thinks he is converted al-
ready ? Or who will come to Christ as the physician of his
soul, that thinks he is not sick, or is cured already ? The
common cause that men live and die without the grace of re-
pentance, sanctification, and justification, which should save
them, is because they will not believe but that they have it,
when they have it not ; and that they are penitent, and jus-
tified, and sanctified already. It is not my desire to make
any of you think worse of your condition than it is ; but if
you will not know what it is, you will not be fit for recovering
grace, nor use the means for your own recovery : you think
it is so sad a conclusion, to find yourselves in a state of con-
demnation, that you are exceeding unwilling to know it or
confess it.
But I beseech you consider but these two things ; first,
either it is true that you are in so miserable a state, or it is
not true : if it be not true, the closest trial will but comfort
you, by discovering that you are sanctified already : but if
it be true, then do you think it will save you to be ignorant
of your danger ? Will it cure your disease, to believe that you
have it not? Will thinking well of yourselves falsely, prove
that you are well indeed ^1 Is it the way to grace, to think
you have it, when you have it not? Will it bring you to
heaven, to think that you are going thither, when you are in
the way to hell ? Nay, do you not know, that it is the prin-
cipal temptation of the devil, to keep men from a state of re-
pentance and salvation, to deceive them thus, and persuade
them that they are in such a state already ? Judge soberly
of the case. Do you think if all the impenitent, unconverted
sinners in the world were certain that they are indeed in a
graceless state, in which if they died, they were past all
hope, that they would not quickly look about them, and
better understand the offers of a Saviour, and live in conti-
nual solicitude and fear, till they found themselves in a safer
state ? If you were sure yourselves, that you must yet be
* Bernard, de grad. humil. grad. 8. describeth men's excusing their sins thus " If
it may be, they will say, I did not do it; or else. It was no sin, but lawful ; or else,
I did it not oft or much ; or else, I meant no harm : or ehe- I was Dersuaded by
another, and drawn to it by temptation."
32 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
made new creatures, or be damned, would it not set you on
work to seek more diligently after grace than ever you have
done ? The devil knoweth this well enough ; that he could
scarce keep you quiet this night in his snares, but you would
be ready to repent and beg for mercy, and resolve on a new
life, before to-morrow, if you were but sure that you are yet
in a state of condemnation. And therefore he doth all that
he can to hide your sin and danger from your eyes, and to
quiet you with the conceit, that though you are sinners, yet
you are penitent, pardoned, and safe.
Well, sirs, there can be no harm in knowing the truth.
And therefore will you but try yourselves, whether you are
unsanctified or not ? You were baptised into the name of
the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier ; and if now you neglect
or mock at sanctification, what do you but deride your bap-
tism, or neglect that which is its sense and end ? It doth
not so much concern you to know that you live the life of
nature, as to know whether sanctification have made you
spiritually alive to God. , .
And let me tell you this for your encouragement, that we do
not call you to know that you are unconverted, and unpardon-
ed, and miserable, as men that have no remedy, but must sit
down in despair, and be tormented with the fore-knowledge
of your endless pains before the time. No; it is but that you
may speedily and thankfully accept of Christ, the full remedy,
and turn to God, and quickly get out of your sin and terror,
and enter into a life of safety and of peace. We desire not
your continuance in that life which tendeth to despair and
horror : we would have you out of it, if it were in our power
before to-morrow ; and therefore it is that we would have
you understand what danger you are in, that you may go no
further, but speedily turn back, and seek for help. And I
hope tjiere is no hurt, though there be some present trouble,
in such a discovery of your danger as this is. ^^ * 1
Well, if you are but willing to know, I shall help you a
little to know what you are.
1. If you are persecutors, or haters,"or deriders of men,
for being diligent and serious in the 'service of God, and
fearful of sinning, and because they go not with the multi-
tude to do evil, it is a certain sign that you are in a state of
death : yea, if you love not such men, and desire not rather
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 33
to be such yourselves, than to be the greatest of the un-
godly ^
2. If you love the world best, and set your affections
most on things below, and mind most earthly things ; nay,
if you seek not first God's kingdom, and the righteousness
thereof; and if your hearts be not in heaven, and your affec-
tions set on the things that are above ; and you prefer not
your hopes of life eternal before all the pleasures and pros-
perity of this world, it is a certain sign that you are but
worldly and ungodly men''.
3. If your estimation, belief and hopes, of everlast-
ing life through Christ, be not such, as will prevail with you
to deny yourselves, and forsake father, and mother, and the
nearest friends ; and house, and land, and life, and all that
you have, for Christ, and for these hopes of a happiness
hereafter, you are no true Christians, nor in a state of saving
grace *^.
4. If you have not been converted, regenerated, and
sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, making you spiritual,
and causing you to mind the things of the Spirit above the
things of the flesh. If this Spirit be not in you, and you
walk not after it, but after the flesh ; making provision for
the flesh, to satisfy its desires, and preferring the pleasing
of the flesh, before the pleasing of God, it is certain that you
are in a state of death ^.
5. If you have any known sin which you do not hate,
and had not rather leave it than keep it, and do not pray,
and strive, and watch against it, as far as you know and ob-
serve it ; but rather excuse it, plead for it, desire it, and are
loath to part with it, so that your will is habitually more for it
J than against it, it is a sign of an impenitent, unrenewed
heart*.
a See Gal. iv. 29. Actsxxvi. 11. 1 Tim. i. 13. 1 Pet. iv. 2 — 5. Psal. xv. 4.
1 Johniii. 8 — 15. John xiii. 35. Psal. Ixxxiv. 10.
, •» See this in Matt. vl. 19—21. 33. Phil, iii- 18—20. Col. iii. 1—4. Psal.
Ixxiii. 25. 1 John ii. 15 — 17. James i. 27. Luke xii. 20, 21. xvi. 25.
" c See Luke xiv. 26. 33- Matt. x. 37—39. xiii. 21, 22.
d See Matt, xviii. 3. John iii. 3. 5, 6. Ileb. xii. 14. Rom. viil.i. 5 — 13. xiii. 13,
14. Luke xvi. 19. 25. xii. .20, 21. Heb. xi. 25, 26. 2 Cor. iv. 16— 18. v. 7.
Rom. viii. 17, 18.
e 1 Johniii. 3, 4.6—10. 24. Gal. v. 16. 19—25. Rom. vii. 22. 24. viii., 13.
Luke xiii. 3. 5. Matt, v. 19, 20. 2 Tim. ii. 19. Psal. v. 5. Luke xiii. 27.
VOL. II. D
'34 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAKT I.
6. If you love not the Word, as it is a light dis-
covering your sin and duty, but only as it is a general truth,
or as it reproveth others : if you love not the most searching
preaching, and would not know how bad you are, and come
not to the light, that your deeds maybe manifest, it is a
sign that yon are not children of the light, but of the dark-
nesa^.
l: If the laws of your Creator and Redeemer be not
of greatest power and authority with you, and the will and
word of God cannot do more with you, than the word or will
of any man ; and the threatenings and promises of God be
not more prevalent with you, than the threats or promises of
any men, it is a sign that you take not God for your God,
but in heart are atheists and ungodly men^. "^ if an
8. If you have not, in a deliberate covenant or reso-
lution, devoted and given up yourselves to God as your Father
and felicity, to Jesus Christ as your only Saviour, and your
Lord and King, and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier, to
be made holy by him, desiring that your heart and life should
be perfectly conformed to the will of God, and that you
might know him, and love him, and enjoy him more; you
are void of godliness and true Christianity : for this is the
very covenant which you make in baptism, which you call
your christening ''.
I have now plainly shewed you, and fully proved, from
the Word of God, by what infallible signs an ungodly man
may know that he is ungodly, if he will. May you not know
whether it be thus with you, if you are willing to know 1
May you not know, if you will, whether your desire and de-
sign of life, be more for this world, or that to come? and
whether heaven or earth be preferred and sought first? and
whether your fleshly prosperity and pleasure, or your souls
be principally cared for and regarded ? May you not know,
if you will, whether you love or loathe the serious worship-
pers of God ' ? and whether you had rather be delivered from
' Johniu.19— 21-
« Luke xix. 27. Matt. vii. 21—23. 26. Dan- iii. 16—18. vi. 5. 10. Jer. xvii-
5, 6. Luke xii. 4. Acts v, 29. Psal. xiv. 1, &c.
•> Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. 2 Cor. viii. 5. 1 Cor. vi. 17. John i. 10—12. Gal. iv. 6.
Rom. viii. 14, 15.
' Atque hand scio, an pietate adversus Deos sublata, fides etiam, et societas humani
generis, et una excellentissima virtus, justttia, tollatur. Cic. Nat, D, i. 4.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS, 35
your sins or keep them? and whether your wills be more
against them, or for them ? and whether you love a holy life
or not ? and whether you had rather be perfect in holiness
and obedience to God, or be excused from it, and please the
flesh ? and whether you had rather be such a one as Paul, or
as Caesar? a persecuted saint in poverty and contempt, or
a persecuting conqueror or king ? May you not know, if you
will, whether you love a searching ministry, that telleth you
of the worst, and would not deceive you ? May you not
know, whether you are resolvedly devoted and given up to
God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as your Father and
felicity, your Saviour and your Sanctifier ; and whether the
scope, design and business of your lives is more for God, of
for the flesh, for heaven or earth ; and which it is that bears
the sway, and which it is that comes behind, and hath but
the leavings of the other, or only so much as it can spare?
Certainly these are things so neaf you, and so remarkable
in your hearts, that you may come to the knowledge of them
if you will. But if you will not, who can help it?
What a sottish cavil is it then of those ignorant men,
that ask us, when we tell them of these things. Whether ever
we were in heaven ? — or ever saw the book of life ? — and how
we can tell who shall be saved, and who shall be damned ? If
it were about a May-game this jesting were more seasonable ;
but to talk thus distractedly about the matters of salvation
and damnation, and to make such a jest of the damning of
souls, is a kind of foolery that hath no excuse. What though
we never were in heaven? and never saw the book of life?
dost thou think I never saw the Scriptures? Why, wretched
sinner, dost thou not know, that Christ came down from
heaven, to tell us who they be that shall come thither, and
who they be that shall be shut out'? And did he not know
what he said ? Is God the Governor of the world, and hath
he not a law by which he governeth them ? and can I not tell
by the law, who they be that the Judge will condemn or saye ?
What else is the law made for, but to be the rule of life, and
the rule of judgment ? Read Psal. i. and xv. Matt. v. vii. and
XXV., and all the texts which I even now cited, and see in
them whether God hath not told you who they be that shall
be saved, and who they be that shall be condemned ? Nay, see
whether this be not the very business of the Word of God ?
36 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
And do you think that he hath written in vain ? But some
men have loved ignorance and ungodliness so long, till the
Spirit of grace hath cast them off, and left them to the sot-
tishness of their carnal minds, so that " they have eyes and see
not, and ears and hear not, and hearts and understand not."
But those that are willing and diligent to know their sin and
duty, in order to their recovery, God will not let them search
in vain, nor hide the remedy from their eyes.
Direct, ix. * When you have found yourselves in a state of
sin and death, understand and consider what a state that is.'
It may be you will think it a tolerable condition, and
linger in it, as if you were safe ; or delay your repentance, as
if it were a matter of no great haste ; unless you open your
eyes, and look round about you, and see in how slippery a
place you stand. Let me name some instances of the misery
of anunregenerate, graceless state, and then judge of it as the
Word of God directs you.
1. As long as you are unconverted, you must needs be
loathsome and abominable to God ^. His holy nature is un-
reconcileable to sin, and would be unreconcileable to sinners,
if it were not that he can cleanse and purify them. Did you
know what sin is, and know God's holiness, you would un-
derstand this much better. Your own averseness to God,
and your dislike of the holiness of his laws and servants,
might tell you what thoughts he hath of you. " He hateth all
the workers of iniquity ^" Indeed he taketh you for his
enemies, and as such he will handle you, if you be not con-
verted. I know many persons that are most deeply guilty,
especially men of Tionour and esteem in the world, would
scorn to have this title given to themselves ; but verily God
is not fearful of offending them, nor so tender of their defiled
•' Mita Ciceronis fictio in Lib. 1. de Univers. Atque ille, qui recte et honeste cur-
riculum Vivendi a natura datum confecerit, ad illud astrura, quo cum aptus fuerit, re-
vertetur. Qui autem immoderate et intemperate vixerit, eum secundusortus in figurara
muliebrem transfcret. Et si ne turn quidem finem vitiorum faciet : gravius etiam
jactabitur, et in suis^ moribus siraillimas figuras pecudum, et ferarura transferetur :
neque malorum terminum prius adspiciet, quam illam sequi coeperit conversionem
quamhabebat in se ipse, ejusdem et unius, simul innatam. Quod turn eveniet cum
lla, quae exigne,aere, atque terra, turbulenta, et rationis expertia insederiant, denique
iratione depulerit, et ad primam, ut optimara affectioiiem animi pervenerit. Op,
vol. vii. p.- 941.
1 Psal. V. 5. - ~
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 37
honour, as they are of their own, or as they expect the
preacher should be. If those be the king's enemies that re-
fuse his government and set up another, then those are the
enemies of God, and of the Redeemer, and of the Holy
Ghost, that set up the base concupiscence of their flesh, and
th,e honour and prosperity of this world, and the will of man,
and refuse the government of God their Creator and Re-
deemer, and refuse the sanctifying teachings and operations
of the Holy Ghost. Read Luke xix. 27.
Some think it strange that any men should be called
*' haters of God ;" and I believe you will find it hard to meet
with that man that will confess it by himself, till converting
grace or hell constrain him. And indeed if God himself had
not charged men with that sin, and called them by that name,
we should scarce have found belief or patience when we had
endeavoured to convince the world of it. Entreat but the
worst of men to repent of hating God, and try how they will
take it. Yet they may read that name in Scripture ™. Did
not the Jews hate Christ, think you, when they murdered him?
and when they hated all his followers for his sake " ? And
doth not Christ say," that they shall be hated for his sake," not
only of the Jews, but also of* all nations, and all men°." Even
by the " world p." And this was abating *' both Christ and his
Father "1." But you will say. It is not possible that any man
can hate God. I answer, how then came the devils to hate
him? Yea, every ungodly man hateth God : indeed no man
hateth him as good, or as merciful to them ; but they hate
him as holy and just, as one that will not let him have the
pleasure of sin, without damning them : as one engaged in
justice to cast them into hell, if they die without conversion :
and as one that hath made so pure and precise a law to go-
,vern them, and convinceth them of sin, and calls them to
that repentance and holiness which they hate. Why did
the world hate Christ himself? He tells you, " The world
cannat hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify against
it, that the works thereof are evil^" " This is the condemn-
ation, that light is come into the world, and men loved dark-
ness rather than light, because their deeds were evil^"
"» Rom. i. 30i Psal. Ixxxi. 15- Luke xix. 14. « Matt. x. 22. Mark xiii. 13.
0 Matt. xxiv. 9. x." 22. , p John xvii. 14. xv. 17 — 19, &c.
1 John XV. 23, 24. "" John vii. 7. . * John iii. 19. f
3^ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Nay, it is a wonder of blindness, that this God-hating world
and age, should not perceive that they are God-haters, while
they hate his servants to the death, and implacably rage
against them, and hate his holy ways and kingdom, and
bend all their power and interest in most of the kingdoms
of the world, against his interest and his people upon earth :
while the devil fighteth his battles against Christ through
the world, by their hands, they will yet confess the devil's
malice against God, but deny their own ; as if he used their
hands without their hearts. Well ! poor, wretched worms !
instead of denying your enmity to him, lament it, and know
that he also taketh you for his enemies, and will prove too
hard for you when you have done your worst. Read Psal. ii.,
and tremble, and submit. This is especially the case of per-
secutors and open enemies ; but in their measure also of all
that would not have him to reign over them. And therefore
Christ came to reconcile us unto God, and God to us ; and
it is only the sanctified that are reconciled to him *. " The
carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to
the law of God ; nor indeed can be"." Mark that text well.
2. As long as you are unsanctified, you are unjustified
and unpardoned : you are under the guilt of all the sins that
ever you committed : every sinful thought, word and deed,
of which the least deserveth hell, is on your score, to be
answered for by yourself: and what this signifieth, the
threatenings of the law will tell you'^. There is no sin for-
given to an impenitent, unconverted sinner.
3. And no wonder, when the unconverted have no special
interest in Christ. The pardon and life that is given by God,
is given in and with the Son^ : " God hath given to us eter-
nal life, and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son,
hath life ; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life^" Till
we are members of Christ, we have no part in the pardon and
salvation purchased by him : and ungodly sinners are not his
members. So that Jesus Christ, who is the hope and life of
all his own, doth leave thee as he found thee : and that is not
the worst: for, %i h ^a
4. It will be far worse with the impenitent rejecters of
* See Col. i. 21. Phil. iii. 18. 1 Cor. xv. 25. Rora. v.'.lO. « Rom. viii. 7.
^ See Acts xxvi. 18. Mark iv, 12. Col. i. 14. > Rom. viiL 9.
^ 1 John V. 10—12.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. ' 39
the grace of Christ, than if they had never heard of a Re-
deemer. For it cannot be, that God having provided so
precious a remedy for sinful, miserable souls, should suffer
it to be despised and rejected, without increased punish-
ment. Was it not enough that you had disobeyed your
great Creator, but you must also set light by a most gracious
Redeemer, that offered you pardon, purchased by his blood,
if you would but have come to God by him? Yea, the
Saviour that you despised shall be himself your Judge, and
the grace and mercy which you set so light by, shall be the
heaviest aggravation of your sin and misery. For **how
shall you escape, if you neglect so great salvation * V " And
of how much sorer punishment (than the despisers of Moses'
law) shall they be thought worthy, who have trodden under
foot the Son of God, &c.^"
5. The very prayers and sacrifice of the wicked are
abominable to God (except such as contain their returning
from their wickedness). So that terror ariseth to you from
that which you expect should be your help ''.
6. Your common mercies do but increase your sin and
misery (till you return to God) : your carnal hearts turn all
to sin ; '* Unto the pure all things are pure : but unto them
that are defiled, and unbelieving, is nothing pure : but even
their mind and conscience is defiled "^.^
7. While you are unsanctified, you are impotent, and
dead to any holy, acceptable work : when you should redeem
your time, and prepare for eternity, and try your states, or
pray, or meditate, or do good to others, you have no heart to
any such spiritual works : your minds are biassed against
them®. And it is not the excusable impotency of such, as
would do good, but cannot : but it is the malicious impotency
of the wicked (the same with that of devils), that cannot do
good, because they will not ; and will not, because they have
blind, malicious, and ungodly hearts, which makes their sin
so much the greater ^
8. While you have unsanctified hearts, you have at all
times the seed and disposition unto every sin ; and if you
commit not the worst, it is because some providence res-
training the tempter hindereth you. No thanks to you that
* Heb. ii- 3. ^ Heb. x. 29. •= Prov. xv. 8. xxi- 27. Isa. i- 13.
d Tit. i. 15. « Rom. viii. 7. ^ Tit. i. 16.
40 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
you do not daily commit idolatry, blasphemy, theft, murder,
adultery, &c. It is in your hearts to do it, when you have
but temptation and opportunity ; and will be, till you are
renewed by sanctifying grace.
9. Till you are sanctified you are heirs of death and hell ^,
even under the curse, and condemned already in point of law,
though judgment have not passed the final sentence ^. And
nothing is more certain, than that you had been damned and
undone for ever, if you had died before you had been renewed
by the Holy Ghost ; and that yet this will be your miserable
portion, if you should die unsanctified. Think, then, what a
life you have lived until now? and think what it is to live
any longer in such a case, in which if you die, you are cer-
tain to be damned. Conversion may save you, but unbelief
and self-flattery will not save you from this endless misery*.
10. As long as you are unsanctified, you are hasting to
this misery : sin is like to get more rooting ; and your hearts
to be more hardened, and at enmity with grace ; and God
more provoked 4 and the Spirit more grieved; and you are
every day nearer to your final doom, when all these things
will be more sensibly considered, and better understood''.
Thus I have given you a brief account of the case of un-
renewed souls, and but a brief one, because I have done it
before more largely ^
Direct, x. * When you have found out how sad a condition
you are in, consider what there is in sin to make you amends
or repair your loss, that should be any hindrance to your
conversion.'
Certainly yoii will not continue for nothing (if you know
it to be nothing), in so dangerous and doleful a case as this.
And yet you do it for that which is much worse than nothing,
not considering what you do. Sit down sometimes and well
bethink you, what recompence the world or sin will make
you, for your God, your souls, your hopes, and all, when they
« Unus gehennae ignis est in inferno, sed non uno modoomnes excruciat peccatores.
Uniuscujusque enim quantum exigit culpa, tantum illic sentitur et paena : nam sicut
hie unus sol non omnia corpora aequalitur calefacit, ita iilic unus ignis animas pro
qualitate criminum dissimiliter exurit. Hugo Etherianus de Anim. regres. cap. 12.
" Similis enim undique in infernum descensus est," saith Anaxagoras(inLaert.)to one
that only lamented that he must die in a strange country. Diog. Laert. lib. ii. Segra.
ll.Amst. 1692. p. 86.
h See John iii. 18, 19. 36. * Heb. xii. 14. Heb. ii. 3. Matt. xxv. ult.
*' 2 Tim. iii. 1. 3. 2Pet. ii.3. > Treatise of Conversion.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 41
are lost and past recovery ? Think what it will then avail
or comfort you, that once you were honoured, and had a
great estate ; that once you fared of the best, and had your
delicious cups, and merry hours, and sumptuous attire, and
all such pleasures. Think whether this will abate the horrors
of death, or put by the wrath of God, or the sentence of your
condemnation ; or whether it will ease a tormented soul in
hell ? If not, think how small, and short, and silly a com-
modity and pleasure it is, that you buy so dear ; and what a
wise man can see in it, that should make it seem worth the
joys of heaven, and worth your enduring everlasting torments.
What is it that is supposed worth all this? Is it the snare of
preferment? Is it vexing riches ? Is it befooling honours ? Is
it distracting cares ? Is it swinish luxury or lust ? Is it beastly
pleasures? Or what is it else that you will buy at so wonder-
ful dear a rate ? O lamentable folly of ungodly men ! O
foolish sinners ! unworthy to see God ! and worthy to be
miserable ! O strangely corrupted heart of man, that can sell
his Maker, his Redeemer, and his salvation, at so base a
price! t
Direct, xi. ' And when you are casting up your account,
as you put all that sin and the world will do for you in the
one end of the scales, so put into the other the comforts both
of this life, and of that to come, which you must part with
for your sins.'
Search the Scriptures, and consider how happy the saints
of God are there described. Think what it is, to have a
purified, cleansed soul ; to be free from the slavery of the
flesh and its concupiscence ; to have the sensitive appetite in
subjection unto reason, and reason illuminated and rectified
by faith ; to be alive to God, and disposed and enabled to love
and serve him ; to have access to him in prayer, with bold-
ness and assurance to be heard ; ,to have a sealed pardon of
all our sins, and an interest in Christ, who will answer for
them all and justify us ; to be the children of God, and the
heirs of heaven ; to have peace of conscience, and the joyful
hopes of endless joys; to have communion with the Father,
through the Son, by the Spirit, and to have that Spirit
dwelling in us, and working to our further holiness and joy ;
to have communion with the saints ; and the help and com-
fort of all God's ordinances, and to be under his many pre-
42 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
cious promises, and under his protection and provision in
his family, and to cast all our care upon him ; to delight our-
selves daily in the remembrance and renewed experiences of
his love, and in our too little knowledge of him, and love
to him, and in the knowledge of his Son, and of the mys-
teries of the Gospel ; to have all things work together for
our good, and to be able with joy to welcome death, and to
live as in heaven in the foresight of pur everlasting happiness.
I would have orderly here given you a particular account of
the privileges of renewed souls, but that I have done so
much in that already in my " Treatise of Conversion," and
** Saints' Rest." This taste may help you to see what you
lose, while you abide in an unconverted state.
Direct, xii. * When you have thus considered of the con-
dition you are in, consider also whether it be a condition to
be rested in one day.' .::, .
If you die unconverted, you are past all hope; for
out of hell there is no redemption : and certain you are to
die ere long ; and uncertain whether it will be this night"".
You never lay down with assurance that you should rise
again ; you never went out of doors with assurance to re-
turn ; you never heard a sermon with assurance that you
should hear another ; you never drew one breath with as-
surance that you should draw another: a thousand acci-
dents and diseases are ready to stop your breath, and end
your time, when God will have it so. And if you die this
night in an unregenerate state, there is no more time, or help,
or hope. And is this a case then for a wise man to conti-
nue in a day, that can do any thing towards his own reco-
very ? Should you delay another day or hour, before you
fall down at the feet of Christ, and cry for mercy, and return
to God, and resolve upon a better course ? May I not well
say to thee, as the angels unto Lot, " Arise, lest thou be
consumed : escape for thy life ; look not behind thee "i^i^ ■ ' •
Direct. XIII. * When thou art resolved, past thy waverings
and delays, give up thyself entirely and unreservedly to
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as thy happiness,
"> Luke xH. 20. Alienus est a fide qui ad agendam poenitentiain lempus expectat
senectutis. Jo. Benedictus Paris, in Annot. iu Lijc. xii» Multos vilam differentes
mors inccrta praevenit. Id. ib. ex Seuec.
n Gen. xix. 15. 17. 22. " -
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 43
thy Saviour, and thy Saiictifler, in a hearty consent to the
covenant of grace.'
This is thy Christianity ; thy espousals with Christ. It
is sacramentally done in baptism ; but till it be personally
owned, and heartily renewed by men at age, they have no
reason to be numbered with adult believers, nor to dream of
a part in the blessings of the covenant. It is a pity it is not
made a more serious, solemn work, for men thus to renew
their covenant with God. (For which I have written in a
" Treatise of Confirmation," but hitherto in vain.) However,
do it seriously thyself: it is the greatest and weightiest ac-
tion of thy life.
To this end, peruse well the covenant of grace which
is offered thee in the gospel : understand it well. In it God
offereth, notwithstanding thy sins, to be thy reconciled God
and Father in Christ, and to accept thee as a son, and an
heir of heaven.
The Son offereth to be thy Saviour, to justify thee by his
blood and grace, and teach thee, and govern thee as thy
Head, in order to thy everlasting happiness. The Holy
Spirit offereth to be thy Sanctifier, Comforter, and Guide, to
overcome all the enmity of the devil, the world, and the
flesh, in order to the full accomplishment of thy salvation ;
nothing is expected of thee, in order to thy title to the be-
nefits of this covenant, but deliberately, unfeignedly, entire-
ly to consent to it, and to continue that consent, and per-
form what thou consentest to perform, and that by the help
of the grace which will be given thee. See, therefore, that
thou well deliberate of the matter, but without delay ; and
count what thou shouldst gain or lose by it. And if thou
find that thou art like to be a loser in the end, and knowest
of any better way, even take it, and boast of it, when thou
hast tried the end ; but if thou art past doubt, that there is
no way but this, dispatch it resolutely and seriously.
And take heed of one thing, lest thou say, " Why, this
is no more than every body knoweth, and than I have done
a. hundred times, to give up myself in covenant to God the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Dost thou know it, and yet
hast thou not done it ? Or hast thou done it with thy lips,
and not unfeignedly with thy heart ? Lament it as one of
thy greatest sins, that thou hast thus provokingly dallied
44 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
with God ; and admire his mercy, that he will yet vouchsafe
to enter into covenant with one, that hath hypocritically
profaned his covenant. If thou hadst ever seriously thus co-
venanted and given up thyself to God, thou wouldst not
have neglected him by an ungodly life, nor lived after to the
devil, the world, and the flesh, which were renounced. I
tell you, the making of this Christian vow and covenant with
God in Christ, is the act of greatest consequence of any in
all thy life, and to be done with the greatest judgment, and
reverence, and sincerity, and foresight, and firm resolution,
of any thing that ever thou dost. And if it were done sin-
cerely, by all that do it ignorantly, for fashion, only with
the lips, then all professed Christians would be saved;
whereas now, the abusers of that holy name and covenant
will have the deepest place in hell. Write it out on thy
heart, and put thy heart and hand to it resolvedly, and stand
to thy consent, and all is thine own : conversion is wrought
when this is done.
Direct, xiv. * In present performance of thy covenant with
God, away with thy former sinful life ; and see that thou
sin wilfully no more ; but as far as thou art able, avoid the
temptations which have deceived thee.'
God will never be reconciled to thy sins : if he be recon-
ciled to thy person, it is as thou art justified by Christ, and
sanctified by the Spirit : he entertaineth thee as one that
turneth with repentance from sin to him. If thou wilfully
or negligently go on in thy former course of sin, thou shew-
est that thou wast not sincerely resolved in thy covenant
with God.
I know infirmities and imperfections will not be so easily
cast off, but will cleave to thee in thy best obedience, till
the day of thy perfection come. But I speak of gross and
wilful sin ; such as thou canst forbear, if thou be but sin-
cerely, though imperfectly, willing**.
Hast thou been a profane swearer or curser, or used to
take God's name in vain, or used to backbiting, slandering,
lying, or to ribald, filthy talk ? It is in thy power to forbear
these sins, if thou be but willing. Say not, I fall into them
through custom before I am aware ; for that is a sign that
° Nae illi falsi sunt, qui diversissimas res pariter expectant, ignavize voluptateni. et
praaraia virtutis. Sallust. Delph. Lond. 1776. p. 131.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS, 45
thou art not sincerely willing to forsake them. If thou
wert truly penitent, and thy will sincerely opposite to these
sins, thou wouldst be more tender and fearful to offend, and
resolved against them, and make a greater matter of them,
and abhor them, and not commit them, and say, I did it be-
fore I was aware ; no more than thou wouldst spit in the
face of thy father, or curse thy mother, or slander thy dear-
est friend, or speak treason against the king, and say, I did
it through custom before I was aware. Sin will not be so
played with by those that have been soundly humbled for it;
and resolved against it.
Hast thou been a drunkard, or tipler, spending thy pre-
cious hours in an ale-house, prating over a pot, in the com-
pany of foolish, tempting sinners ? It is in thy power, if
thou be truly willing, to do so no more. If thou love and
choose such company, and places, and actions, and dis-
course, how canst thou say thou art willing to forsake them,
or that thy heart is changed? If thou do not love and
choose them, how canst thou commit them, when none com-
pels thee ? No one carrieth thee to the place ; no one for-
ceth thee to sin ; if thou do it, it is because thou wilt do it, and
iovest it. If thou be in good earnest with God, and wilt
be saved indeed, and art not content to part with heaven for
thy Cups and company, away with them presently, without
delay.
Hast thou lived in wantonness, fornication, uncleanness,
gluttony, gaming, pastimes, sensuality, to the pleasing of
thy flesh, while thou hast displeased God ? O bless the pa-
tience and mercy of the Lord, that thou wast not cut off all
this while, and damned for thy sin before thou didst repent !
And, as thou Iovest thy soul, delay no longer ; but make a
stand, and go no further, not one step further in the way
which thou knowest leads to hell. If thou knowest that
this is the way to thy damnation, and yet wilt go on, what
pity dost thou deserve from God or man ?
If thou have been a covetous worldling, or an ambitious
seeker of honour or preferment in the world, so that thy
gain, or rising, or reputation, hath been the game which thou
hast followed, and hath taken thee up instead of God and
life eternal ; away now with these known deceits, and hunt
not after vanity and vexation. Thou knowest beforehand
46 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
what it will prove when thou hast overtaken it, and hast en-
joyed all that it can yield thee ; and how useless it will be
as to thy comfort or happiness at last.
Surely, if men were willing, they are able to forbear such
sins, and to make a stand, and look before, to prevent their
misery : therefore God thus pleads with them, " Wash you,
make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from be-
fore mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well^," &c.
** Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not
bread ? and your labour for that which satisfieth not ? Hear-
ken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and
let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and
come unto me : hear, and your soul shall live, andl will make
an everlasting covenant with you. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found ; call ye upon him while he is near. Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have
mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon*!." Christ supposeth that the foresight of judgment
may restrain men from sin, when he saith, " Sin no more,
lest a worse thing come upon thee"^." Can the presence of
men restrain a fornicator ; and the presence of the judge
restrain a thief, yea, or the foresight of the assizes ? And
shall not the presence of God, with the foresight of judg-
ment and damnation restrain thee ? Remember, that impe-
nitent sin and damnation are conjoined. If you will cause
one, God will cause the other. Choose one, and you shall
not choose whether you will have the other. If you will
have the serpent, you shall have the sting.
Direct, xv. * If thou have sincerely given up thyself to God,
and consented to his covenant, shew it, by turning the face
of thy endeavours and conversation quite another way, and
by seeking heaven more fervently and diligently than ever
thou soughtest the world, or fleshly pleasures.'
Holiness consisteth not in a mere forbearance of a sen-
sual life, but principally in living unto God. The principle,
or heart of holiness is within, and consisteth in the love of
God, and of his word, and ways, and servants, and honour,
and interest in the world, and in the soul's delight in God,
and the word and ways of' God, and in its inclination
P Isa. i. 16,-18. 9 Isa. Iv. ^, 3. 6, 7, ' John v. 14. viii. 11.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 47
towards him, and desire after him, and care to please him,
and loathness to oiFend him. The expression of it in
our lives, consisteth in the constant, diligent exercise of
this internal life, according to the directions of the Word
of God. If thou be a believer, and hast subjected thy-
self to God, as thy absolute sovereign, king, and judge, it
will then be thy work to obey and please him, as a 6hild his
father, or a servant his master ^ Do you think that God
will have servants, and have nothing for them to do? Will
one of you commend or reward your servant for doing no-
thing, and take it at the year's end for a satisfactory answer
or account, if he say, I have done no harm ? God calleth
you not only to do no harm, but to love and serve him with
all your heart, and soul, and might. If you have a better
master than you had before, you should do more work than
you did before. Will you not serve God more zealously
than you served the devil ? Will you not labour harder to
save your souls than you did to damn them ? Will you not
be more zealous in good, than you were in evil ? " What
fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed ? for the end of those things is death. But now
being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye
have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life*."
If you are true believers, you have now laid up your hopes
in heaven, and will therefore set yourselves to seek it, as
worldlings set themselves to seek the world. And a slug-
gish wish, with heartless, lazy, dull endeavours, is no fit
Seeking of eternal joys. A creeping pace beseemeth not a
man that is in the way to heaven ; especially who went fas-
ter in the way to hell. This is not running as for our lives.
You may well be diligent and make haste, where you have
so great encouragement and help, and where you may ex-
pect so good an end, and where you are sure you shall ne-
ver, in life or death, have cause to repent of any just endea-
vours, and where every step of your way is pure, and clean,
and delectable, and paved with mercies, and fortified and
secured by Divine protection; and where Christ is your
Conductor, and so many have sped so well before you, and
the wisest and best in the world are your companions. Live
thqn as men that have changed their master, their end, their
* Mai. i. 6. ' Rom. vi. 21, 22.
48 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
hopes, their way and work. Religion layeth not men to
sleep, though it be the only way to rest. It awakeneth the
sleepy soul to higher thoughts, and hopes, and labours,
than ever it was well acquainted with before. " He that is
in Christ, is a new creature ; old things are past away, be-
hold, all things are become new"." You never sought which
would pay for all your cost and diligence till now ; you ne-
ver were in a way that you might make haste in, without
repenting of your haste, till now. How glad should you be
that mercy hath brought you into the right way, after the
wanderings of such a sinful life ? And your gladness and
thankfulness should now be shewed, by your cheerful dili-
gence and zeal. As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from
the dead, to do nothing, or live to little purpose (though the
Scripture giveth us not the history of his life) ; so did he
not raise you from the death of sin, to live idly, or to be un-
profitable in the world. He that giveth you his Spirit, to
be a principle of heavenly life within you, expecteth that
you stir up the gift that he hath given you, and live accord-
ing to that heavenly principle.
Direct, xvi. ' Engage thyself in the cheerful, constant use
of the means and helps appointed by God, for thy confir-
mation and salvation.'
He can never expect to attain the end, that will not be
persuaded to use the means. Of yourselves you can do no-
thing. God giveth his help, by the means which he hath
appointed and fitted to your help. Of the use of these, I
shall treat more fully afterwards; I am now only to name
them to thee, that thou mayst know what it is thou hast
to do.
1. That you must hear or read the Word of God, and
other good books which expound it and apply it, I shewed
you before. The new-born Christian doth incline to this,
as the new-born child doth to the breast, " Laying aside all
malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil
speakings, as new-born babes that desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby*." The blessed man's
" delight is in the law of the Lord, and therein doth he
meditate day and night y."
2. Another means is the public worshipping of God in
" 2 Cor. V. 17. * 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2. y Psal. i. 2, 3. .
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 49
communion with his church and people. Besides the bene-
fit of the word there preached, the prayers of the church are
effectual for the members; and it raiseth the soul to holy
joys, to join with well ordered assemblies of the saints, in
the praises of the Almighty. The assemblies of holy wor-
shippers of God, are the places of his delight, and must be
the places of our delight. They are most like to the celes-
tial society, that sound forth the praises of the glorious Je-
hovah, with purest minds and cheerful voice. " In his tem-
ple doth every one speak of his glory''." In such a choir,
what soul will not be rapt up with delight, and desire to join
in the concert and harmony ? In such a flame of united de-
sires and praises, what soul so cold and dull that will not be
inflamed, and with more than ordinary facility and alacrity
fly up to God?
3. Another means is private prayer unto God. When
God would tell Ananias that Paul was converted, he saith
of him, " Behold, he prayeth''." Prayer is the breath of the
new creature. The spirit of adoption given to every child
of God is a spirit of prayer, and teacheth them to cry " Abba,
Father," and helpeth their infirmities, when they know not
what to pray for as they ought, and when words are wanting,
it (as it were) intercedeth for them with groans, which they
cannot express in words. And God knoweth the meaning
of the Spirit in those groans ''. The first workings of grace
are in desires after grace, provoking the soul to fervent
prayer, by'which more grace is speedily obtained. "Ask,"
then, " and ye shall have ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock,
and it shall be opened to you^."
4. Another means to be used is confession of sin ; not
only to God (for so every wicked man may do, because he
knoweth that God is already acquainted with it all, and this
is no addition to his shame : he so little regardeth the eye of
God, that he is more ashamed when it is known to men) :
but in three cases, confession must be made also to man.
1. In case you have wronged man, and are thus bound to
make him satisfaction : as if you have robbed him, defraud-
ed him, slandered him, or borne false witness against him.
^ Psalm xxix. 9. "^ Acts ix. 11. «> Gal ir. 6. Rpm. viii. 15. 26, 27.
<= Luke xi. 9.
VOL. II. E
50 CHRISTIAN DIRECTOBY. [PART 1.
2. In case you are <ihil<lren, or servants, that are under the
government of parents and masters, and are called by them
to give an account of your actions : you are bound then to
give a true account. 3. In case you have need of the coun-
sel or prayers of others, for the settling of your consciences
in peace : in this case, you must so far open your case to
them, as is necessary to their effectual help for your reco-
very. For if they know not the disease, they will be unfit
"to apply the remedy. In these cases, it is true, that " he
that covereth his sins shall not prosper : but he that con-
fesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy *^."
5. Another means to be used, is the familiar company,
and holy converse with humble, sincere, experienced Chris-
tians. The Spirit that is in them, and breatheth, and acteth
by them, will kindle the like holy flames in you. Away with
the company of idle, prating, sensual men, that can talk of
nothing but their worldly wealth, or business, or their repu-
tations, or their appetites and lusts ; associate yourselves
with them that go the way to heaven, if you resolve your-
selves to go in it. O what a deal of difference will you find
between these two sorts of companions ! The one sort, if
you have any thoughts of repentance, would stifle them, and
laugh you out of the use of your reason, into their own dis-
tracted mirth and dotage : and if you have any serious
thoughts of your salvation, or any inclinations to repent
and be wise, they will do much to divert them, and hold you
in the power and snares of satan, till it be too late : if you
'have any zeal, or heavenly-mind^dness, they will do too
much to quench it, and fetch down your minds to earth
again. The other sort will speak of things of so great
weight and moment, and that with seriousness and reve-
rence, as will tend to raise and quicken your souls ; and
possess you with a taste of the heavenly things which they
discourse of; they will encourage you by their own expe-
riences, and direct you by that truth which hath directed
them, and zealously communicate what they have received :
they will pray for you, and teach you how to pray : they
will give the example of holy, humble, obedient lives ; and
lovingly admonish you of your duties, and reprove your
sins. In a word, as the carnal mind doth savour the things
^ Prov. xxviii. 13.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. ^i
of the flesh, and is enmity against God, the company of such
will be a powerful means to infect you with their plague,
and make you such, if you were escaped from them ; much
more to keep you such, if you are not escaped : and as they
that are spiritual, do mind the things of the Spirit^ so their
converse tendeth to make you spiritually-minded, as they
are®. Though there are some useful qualities and gifts in
some that are ungodly, and some lamentable faults in many
that are spiritual ; yet experience will shew you so great a
difference between them in the main, in heart and life, as
will make you the more easily believe the difference that
will be between them in the life to come.
6. Another means is serious meditation on the life to
come, and the way thereto : which though all cannot ma-
nage so methodically as some, yet all should in some mea-
sure and season be acquainted with it.
7. The last means is, to choose some prudent, faithful
guide and counsellor for your soul, to open those cases,
which are not fit for all to know ; and to resolve and advise
you in cases that are too hard for you : not to lead you
blindfold after the interest of any seduced or ambitious men,
nor to engage you to his singular conceits, against the Scrip-
ture or the church of God ; but to be to your soul, as a phy-
sician to your body, or a lawyer to your estates, to help you
where they are wiser than you, and where you need their
helps.
Resolve now, that instead of your idle company and pas-
time, your excessive cares and sinful pleasures, you will
wait on God in the seasonable use of these his own appoint-
ed means ; and you will find, that he appointed them not in
vain, and that you shall not lose your labour.
Direct, xvii, *That in all this you may be sincere, and
not deceived by an hypocritical change, be sure that God
be all your confidence, and all your hopes be placed in hea-
ven ; and that there be no secret reserve in your hearts, for
the world and flesh ; and that you divide not your hearts
between God and the things below, nor take not up with the
religion of an hypocrite, which giveth God what the flesh
can spare.'
When the devil cannot keep you from a change and re-
« Rom, TJii. 7, 8.
52 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
formation, he will seek to deceive you with a superficial
change and half reformation, which goeth not to the root,
nor doth recover the heart to God, nor deliver it entirely
to him. If he can by a partial, deceitful change, persuade
you that you are truly renewed and sanctified, and fix you
there that you go no further, you are as surely his, as if you
had continued in your grosser sins. And, of all other, this is
the most common and dangerous cheat of souls, when they
think to halve it between God and the world, and to secure
their fleshly interest of pleasure and prosperity, and their
salvation too ; and so they will needs serve God and mam-
mon.
This is the true character of a self-deceiving hypocrite.
He is neither so fully persuaded of the certain truth of the
Scripture and the life to come, nor yet so mortified to the
flesh and world, as to take the joys of heaven for his whole
"portion, and to subject all his worldly prosperity and hopes
thereunto, and to part with all things in this world, when it
is necessary to the securing of his salvation: and therefore
he will not lose his hold of present things, nor forsake his
worldly interest for Christ, as long as he can keep it. Nor
will he be any further religious, than may stand with his
bodily welfare ; resolving never to be undone by his godli-
ness ; but in the first place to save himself, and his prospe-
rity in the world, as long as he can : and therefore he is tru-
ly a carnal, worldly-minded man ; being denominated from
what is predominant in him. And yet, because he knoweth
that he must die, and for aught he knows, he may then find,
against his will, that there is another life which he must en-
ter upon ; lest the Gospel should prove true, he must have
some religion : and therefore he will take up as much as
will stand with his temporal welfare, hoping that he may
have both that and heaven hereafter ; and he will be as reli-
gious as the predominant interest of the flesh will give him
leave. He is resolved rather to venture his soul, than to be
here undone : and that is his first principle. But he is re-
solved to be as godly as will stand with a worldljt fleshly
life : that is his second principle. And he will hope for
heaven as the end of such a way as this : that is his third.
Therefore he will place most of his religion in those things
which are most consistent with worldliness and carnality.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN KTHICS. 53
and will not cost his flesh too dear ; as being of this or that
opinion, church, or party (whether Papist, Protestant, or
some smaller party), in adhering to that party, in being
zealous for them, in acquiring and using such parts and
gifts, as may make him highly esteemed by others ; and
in doing such good works as cost him not too dear ; and
in forbearing such sins as would procure his disgrace
and shame, and cost his flesh dearer to commit them,
than forbear them ; and such other as his flesh can
spare: this is his fourth principle. And he is resolved,
when trial calleth him to part with God and his conscience,
or with the world, that he will rather let go God and con-
science, and venture upon the pains hereafter, which he thinks
to be uncertain, than to run upon a certain calamity or un-
doing here : at least, he hath no resolution to the contrary,
which will carry him out in a day of trial : this is his fifth
principle. And his sixth principle is. That yet he will not
torment himself, or blot his name, with confessing himself
a temporizing worldling, resolved to turn any way to save
himself. And therefore he will be sure to believe nothing
to be truth and duty that is dangerous ; but will furnish him-
self with arguments, to prove that it is not the will of God ;
and that sin is no sin: yea, perhaps, conscience. and duty
shall be pleaded for his sin : it shall be out of tenderness,
and piety, and charity to others, that he will sin ; and will
charge them to be the sinners, that comply not, and do not
wickedly as well as he. He will be one that shall first make
a controversy of every sin which his flesh calls necessary,
and of every duty which his flesh counts intolerably dear :
and then, when it is a controversy, and many reputed wise,
5ind some reputed good, are on his side, he thinks he is on
equal terms with the most honest and sincere : he hath got
a burrow for his conscience and his credit : he will not be-
lieve himself to be an hypocrite, and no one else must think
him one, lest they be uncharitable ; for then the censure
must fall on the whole party ; and then it is sufficient to de-
fend his reputation of piety to say. Though we differ in opi-
nion, we must not differ in affection, and must not condemn
each other for such differences (a very great truth where
rightly applied). But what is it, O hypocrite, that makes
thee differ in cases where thy flesh is interested, rather than
$4 CHRlStlAl^ DIRECTORY. [PART I.
in any other ? and why wast thou never of that mind till
now that thy worldly interest requireth it ? and how cometh
it to pass, that thou art always on the self-saving opinion ?
and whence is it that thou consultest with those only that
are of the opinion that thou desirest should be true, and ei-
ther not at all, or partially and slightly, with those that are
against it ? Wast thou ever conscious to thyself, that thou
hast accounted what it might cost thee to be saved, and
reckoned on the worst, and resolved in the strength of grace
to go through all? Didst thou ever meddle with much of
the self-denying part of religion, or any duties that would
cost thee dear? May not thy conscience tell thee, that
thou never didst believe that thou shouldst suffer much for
thy religion ; that is, thouhadst a secret purpose to avoid it?
O sirs ! take warning from the mouth of Christ, who hath
so oft and plainly warned you of this sin and danger ! and
told you how necessary self-denial, and a suffering disposi-
tion is, to all that are his disciples ; and that the worldly,
fleshly principle, predominant in the hypocrite, is manifest
by his self-saving course : he must take up his cross, and
follow him in a conformity to his sufferings, that will indeed
be his disciple. We must suffer with him, if we will reign
with him^ ** He that received the seed into stony places, the
same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiv-
eth it, yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a
while ; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because
of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that receiv-
ed seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and
the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke
the word, and he becometh unfruitful s." If thou have not
taken heaven for thy part, and art not resolved to let go all
that would keep thee from it, I must say to thy conscience,
as Christ to one of thy predecessors, " Yet lackest thou one
thing''," and such a one, as thou wilt find of flat necessity
to thy salvation. And it is likely some trying time, even in
this life, will detect thine hypocrisy, and make thee " go
away sorrowful," for thy riches' sake, as he did'. If godliness
with contentment seem not sufficient gain to thee, thou wilt
make thy gain go instead of godliness ; that is, thy gain shall
be next thy heart, and have the precedency which godliness
f Rom. viii. 17, 18. « Matt. xiii. 20—22. ^ Luke xviii. 22.
* Ver. 33.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. > 55
should have, and thy gain shall chooae thee thy religion, and
overrule thy conscience, and sway thy life.
O sirs ! take warning by the apostates, and temporizing
hypocrites, that have looked behind them; and with Detnas^
for the world forsaken their duty, and are set up by justice
as pillars of salt, for your warning and remembrance. And
as ever you would make sure work in turning to God, and
escape the too late repentance of the hypocrite, see that you
go to the root, and resign the world to the will of God, — and
reckon what it may cost you to be followers of Christ, — and
look not after any portion, but the favour of God, and life
eternal, — and see that there be no secret reserve in your hearts
for your worldly interest or prosperity, — and think not of halv-
ing it between God and the world, nor making your religion
compliant with the desires and interest of the flesh. Take
God as enough for you ; yea, as all, or else you take him not
as your God.
Direct, xviii. * If you would prove true converts, come
over to God as your Father and felicity, with desire and de-
light, and close with Christ, as your only Saviour, with
thankfulness and joy ; and set upon the way of godliness
with pleasure and alacrity, as your exceeding privilege, and
the only way of profit, honour, and content : and do it not
as against your wills, as those that had rather do otherwise
if they durst, and account the service of God an unsuitable
and unpleasant thing.
You are never truly changed, till your hearts be changed :
and the heart is not changed, till the will or love be changed.
Fear is not the man : but usually is mixed with unwilling-
ness and dislike, and so is contrary to that which is indeed
the man. Though fear may do much for you, it will not do
enough : it is oft more sensible than love, even in the best*
as being more passionate and violent : but yet there is no
more acceptableness in all, than there is will or love''. God
sent not soldiers, or inquisitors, or persecutors, to convert
the world by working upon their fear, and driving them
J' Passibilis timor est irratioaabilis, et ad irrationabilia constitutis, sed eura praedpit
qui cum disciplina et recta ratione consistit, cujus proprium est reverentia. Qui
enim propter Christum et doctrinara ejus Deum timet, cum reverentia ei subjectiis
est ; cum ille qui per verbera aliaque tormenta timet Deum, passibilem timorem Im-
berevidetur. Didymus Alex, in Pet. 1, . f .t r '<■ ..< '
56 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. . [PART I.
Upon that which they take to be a mischief to them : but
he sent poor preachers, that had no matter of worldly fears
or hopes to move their auditors with ; but had authority
from Christ to offer them eternal life ; and who were to con-
vert th(5 world, by proposing to them the best and most de-
sirable condition, and shewing them where is the true feli-
city ; and proving the certainty and excellency of it to them,
and working upon their love, desire, and hope. God will
not be your God against your wills, while you esteem him as
the devil, that is, only terrible and hurtful to you ; and take
his service for a slavery, and had rather be from him, and
serve the world and the flesh, if it were not for fear of being
damned. He will be feared as great, and holy, and just :
but he will also be loved as good, and holy, and merciful,
and every way suited to the felicity and rest of souls. If
you take not God to be better than the creature, (and bettef
to you,) and heaven to be better for you than earth, and ho-
liness than sin, you are not converted : but, if you do, then
shew it by your willingness, alacrity, and delight. Serve
him with gladness and cheerfulness of heart, as one that
hath found the way of life, and never had cause of gladness
until now. If you see your servant do all his work with
groans, and tears, and lamentations, you will not think he is
well pleased with his master and his work. Come to God
willingly, with your hearts, or you come not to him indeed
at all. You must either make him and his service your de-
light, or at least your desire, as apprehending him most fit
to be your delight, so far as you enjoy him.
Direct, xix. * Remember still that conversion is the
turning from your carnal selves to God ; and therefore that
it engageth you in a perpetual opposition to your own cor-
rupt conceits and wills, to mortify and annihilate them, and
captivate them wholly to the holy word and will of God.'
Think not that your conversion dispatcheth all that is to
be done in order to your salvation. No : it is but the be-
ginning of your work (that is, of your delight and happi-
ness) ; you are but engaged by it, to that which must be per-
' formed throughout all your lives ; it entereth you into the
right way, not to sit down there, but to go on till you come
to the desired end. It entereth you into Christ's army, that
afterwards you may there win the crown of life ; and the
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 57
great enemy that you engage against, is yourselves. There
will still be a law in your members, rebelling against the
law that the Holy Ghost hath put into your minds : your
own conceits and your own wills are the great rebels against
Christ, and enemies of your sanctification. Therefore it
must be your resolved, daily work to mortify them, and
bring them clean over to the mind and will of God, which is
their rule and end. If you feel any conceits arising in you
that are contrary to the Scripture, and quarrel with 'the word
of God, suppress them as rebellious, and give them not li-
berty to cavil with your Maker, and malapertly dispute with
your Governor and Judge, but silence them, and force them re-
verently to submit. If you feel any will in you contrary to your
Creator's will, and that there is something which you would
have or do, which God is against, and hath forbid you, re-
member now how great a part of your work it is, to fly for
help to the Spirit of grace, and to destroy all such rebellious
desires. Think it not enough, that you can bear the denial
of those desires ; but presently destroy the desires them-
selves. For if you let alone the desires, they may at last
lay hold upon their prey, before you are aware : or if you
should be guilty of nothing but the desires themselves, it is
no small iniquity ; being the corruption of the heart, and
the rebellion and adultery of the principal faculty, which
should be kept loyal and chaste to God. The crossness of
thy will to the will of God, is the sum of all the impiety and
evil of the soul; and the subjection and conformity of thy
will to his, is the heart of the new creature, and of thy rec-
titude and sanctification. Favour not, therefore, any self-con-
ceitedness or self-willedness, nor any rebelliousness against
the mind and will of God, any more than you would bear
with the disjointing of your bones, which will be little for
your ease or use, till they are reduced to their proper place.
Direct, xx. Lastly, 'Be sure that you renounce all con-
ceit of self-sufficiency or merit, in any thing you do, and
wholly rely on the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Head, and
Life, and Saviour, and Intercessor with the Father.'
Remember that " without him ye can do nothing ^"
Nor can any thing you do be acceptable to God, any other
way than in him, the beloved Son, in whom he is well pleas-
^ • John XV. 5.
58 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
ed. As your persons had never been accepted but in him,
no more can any of your services. All your repentings, if
you had wept out your eyes for sin, would not have satis-
fied the justice of God, nor procured you pardon and justi-
fication, without the satisfaction and merit of Christ. If he
had not first taken away the sins of the world, and recon-
ciled them so far to God, as to procure and tender them the
pardon and salvation contained in his covenant, there had
been no place for your repentance, nor faith, nor prayers>
nor endeavours, as to any hope of your salvation. Your be-
lieving would not have saved you, nor indeed had any justi-
fying object, if he had not purchased you the promise and
gift of pardon and salvation to all believers.
Objection. But, perhaps, you will say, * That if we had
loved God, without a Saviour, we should have been saved ;
for God cannot hate and damn those that love him/ To
which I answer, You could not have loved God as God,
without a Saviour : to have loved him as the giver of your
worldly prosperity, with a love subordinate to the love of
sin and your carnal selves, and to love him as one that you
imagine so unholy and unjust, as to give you leave to sin
against him, and prefer every vanity before him, this is not
to love God, but to love an image of your own fantasy *, nor
will it at all procure your salvation. But to love him as
your God and happiness, with a superlative love, you could
never have done without a Saviour. For, 1. Objectively j
God being not your reconciled father, but your enemy, en-
gaged injustice to damn you for ever, you could not love
him as thus related to you, because he could not seem
amiable to you ; and therefore the damned hate him as
their destroyer, as the thief or murderer hates the judge.
2. And as to the efficiency ; your blinded minds, and de-
praved wills could never have been restored so far to their
rectitude, as to have loved God as God, without the teach-
ing of Christ, and the reneiwing, sanctifying work of his
Spirit. And without a Saviour, you could never have ex-
pected this gift of the Holy Ghost. So that your supposi-
tion itself is groundless.
3. Indeed conversion is your implanting into Christ, and
your uniting to him, and marriage with him, that he may be
your life, and help, and hope. " He is the way, the truth.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 59
and the life : and no man cometh to the Father, but by him"."
** God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son :
he that hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath not the
Son, hath not life "." *' He is the Vine, and ye are the
branches : as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it
abide in the Vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in him :
he that abideth not in Christ, is cast forth as a branch, and
withered, to be burned °." All your life and help is in him,
and from him : without Christ, you cannot believe in the
Father, as in one that will shew you any saving mercy, but
only as the devils, that believe him just, and tremble at his
justice. Without Christ, you cannotlove God, nor have any
lively apprehensions of his love. Without Christ, you can
have no hope of heaven, and therefore no endeavours for it.
Without him, you cannot come near to God in prayer, as
having no confidence, because no admittance, acceptance,
or hope. Without him, how terrible are the thoughts of
death, which in him we see as a conquered thing : and when
we remember that he was dead, and is now alive, and the Lord
of life, and hath the keys of death and hell, with what bold-
ness may we lay down this flesh, and suffer death to undress
our souls ! It is only in Christ that we can comfortably think
of the world to come ; when we remember that he must be
our Judge, and that in our nature, glorified, he is now in the
highest. Lord of all ; and that he is " preparing a place for
us, and will come again to take us to himself, that where he
is, there we may be also p." Alas ! without Christ, we know
not how to live an hour ; nor can have hope or peace in any
thing we have or do ; nor look with comfort either upward
or downward, to God, or the creature ; nor think, without
terrors of our sins, of God, or of the life to come. Resolve,
therefore, that as true converts, you are wholly to live upon
Jesus Christ, and to do all that you do by his Spirit and
strength; and to expect all your acceptance with God, upon
his account. When other men are reputed philosophers, or
wise, for some unsatisfactory knowledge of these transitory
things, do you desirs to know nothing but a crucified, and
glorified Christ : study him, and take him (objectively) for
your wisdom. When other men have confidence in the flesh,
and in their shew of wisdom, in will-worship, and humility,
"> John xiv. 6. "1 John v. 11, 12. *> John xv. 4—6. p John xiv. 3.
60 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
after the commandments and doctrines of men ^, and would
establish their own righteousness, do you rejoice in Christ
your righteousness ; and set continually before your eyes,
his doctrine and example, as your rule: look still to Jesus,
the author and finisher of your faith, who contemned all the
glory of the world, and trampled upon its vanity, and sub-
jected himself to a life of suffering, and made himself of no
reputation, but " for the joy that was set before him, endured
the cross, despising the shame," and underwent the contra-
diction of sinners against himself. Live so, that you may
truly say as Paul, " I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless
I live : yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me ^."
Having ^iven you these directions, I most earnestly be-
seech you to peruse and practise them, that my labour may
not rise up as a witness against you, which I intend for your
conversion and salvation. Think on it, whether this be an
unreasonable course, or an unpleasant life, or a thing un-
necessary ? and what is reasonable, necessary and pleasant,
if this be not?
And if you meet with any of those distracted sinners, that
would deride you from Christ and your salvation, and say,
* this is the way to make men mad,' or, ' this is more ado
than needs ; ' I will not stand here to manifest their brutish-
ness and wickedness, having largely done it already, in my
book called, " A Saint or a Brute," and " Now or Never,"
and in the third part of the " Saints' Rest :" but only I desire
thee, as a full defensative against all the pratings of the
enemies of a holy, heavenly life, to take good notice but of
these three things.
1. Mark well, the language of the holy Scriptures, and see
whether it speak not contrary to these men : and bethink thee
whether God or they be wiser, and whether God or they must
be thy Judge ?
2. Mark, whether these men do not change their minds,
and turn their tongues when they come to die ? Or think
whether they will not change their minds, when death hath
sent them into that world where there is none of these deceits ?
And think whether thou shouldst be moved with that man's
q Col. ii. 20— i3. ' Gal. ii. 20.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 61
words, that will shortly change his mind himself, and wish he
had never spoke such words * ?
3. Observe well, whether their own profession do not
condemn them ; and whether the very thing that they hate
the godly for, be not that they are serious in practising that
which these malignants themselves profess as their religion ?
And are they not then notorious hypocrites, to profess to
believe in God, and yet scorn at those that " diligently seek
him ? to profess faith in Christ, and hate those that obey
him? to profess to believe in the Holy Ghost as the sanctifier,
and yet hate and scorn his sanctifying work ? To profess to
believe the day of judgment and everlasting torment of the
ungodly, and yet to deride those that endeavour to escape it?
to profess to believe that heaven is prepared for the godly,
and yet scorn at those that make it the chief business of
their lives to attain it? to profess to take the holy Scriptures
for God's word and law, and yet to scorn those that obey it?
to pray after each of the ten commandments, " Lord have
mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law," and
yet to hate all those that desire and endeavour to keep them?
What impudent hypocrisy is joined with this malignity !
Mark, whether the greatest diligence of the most godly be
not justified by the formal profession of those very men that
hate and scorn them ? The difference between them is, that
the godly profess Christianity in good earnest, and when they
say whai^ they believe, they believe as they say : but the un-
godly customarily, and for company, take on them to be
Christians when they are not, and by their own mouths
condemn themselves, and hate and oppose the serious
practice of that which they say they do themselves believe *.
8 As the Athenians, that condemned Socrates to'death, and then lamented it, and
erected a brazen statue for his memorial.
t Acosta saith, that he that will be a pastor to the Indians, must not only resist the
devil and the flesh, but must resist the custom of men which is grown powerful by
time and multitude : and must oppose his breast to receive the darts of the envious
and malevolent, who, if they see any thing contrary to their profane fashion, they cry
out, a traitor! an hypocrite I an enemy ! lib. 4. c. 15. p. 404. It seems among papists
and barbarians, th6 Serpent's seed do hiss in the same manner against the good
* among themselves, as they do against us.
62 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
PART II.
The Temptations whereby the Devil hindereth Men's Conversion :
with the proper Remedies against them.
The most holy and righteous Governor of the world, hath
so restrained satan and all our enemies, and so far given us
free-will, that no man can be forced to sin against his will :
it is not sin if it be not (positively or privatively) voluntary.
All our enemies in hell or earth, cannot make us miserable
without ourselves ; nor keep a sinner from true conversion,
and salvation, if he do it not himself; no, nor compel him to
one sinful thought, or word, or deed, or omission, but by
tempting and enticing him to be willing : all that are grace-
less, are willfully graceless. None go to hell, but those that
choose the way to hell, and would not be persuaded out of it;
none miss of heaven, but those that did set so light by it,
as to prefer the world and sin before it, and refused the holy
way that leadeth to it. And surely man that naturally
loveth himself, would never take so mad a course, if his
reason were not laid asleep, and his understanding were not
wofully deluded : and this is the business of the tempter, who
doth not drag men to sin by violence, but draw and entice
them by temptations. I shall therefore take it for the next
part of my work, to open these Temptations, and tell you the
remedies.
Temptation i. 'The first endeavour of the tempter is, in
general, to keep the sinner asleep in sin : so that he shall be
as a dead man, that hath no use of any of his faculties ; that
hath eyes and seeth not, and ears but heareth not, and a
heart that understandeth not, nor feeleth any thing that con-
cerneth his peace. The light that shineth upon a man asleep,
is of no use to him : his worklieth undone : his friends, and
wealth, and greatest concernments are all forgotten by him,
as if there were no such things or persons in the world : you
may say what you will against him, or do what you will
against him, and he can do nothing in his own defence.
This is the case that the devil most laboureth to keep the
world in ; even in so dead a sleep, that their reason, and their
wills, their fear, and hope, and aU their powers shall be of no
(CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 63
use to them. That when they hear a preacher, or read the
Scripture, or good books, or see the holy examples of the
godly ; yea, when they see the grave, and know where they
must shortly lie, and know that their souls must stay here
but a little while, yet they shall hear, and see, and know all
this, as men asleep, that mind it not, as if it concerned not
them at all ; never once soberly considering and laying it to
heart.'
Direct, i. For the remedy against this deadly sin, 1, Take
heed of sleepy opinions, or doctrines and conceits which tend
to the lethargy of security. 2. Sit not still, but be up and
doing : stirring tends to shake off drowsiness. 3. Come into
the light : live under an awakening minister, and in wakening
company, that will not sleep with you, nor easily let you
sleep : agree with them to deal faithfully with you, and
promise them to take it thankfully. 4. And meditate oft on
wakening considerations. Think whether a sleepy soul
beseem one in thy dangerous condition. Canst thou sleep
with such a load of sin upon thy soul ? Canst thou sleep
under the thundering threatenings of God ? and the curse of
his law ; with so many wounds in thy conscience, and ulcers
in thy soul ? If thy body were sick, or in the case of Job ;
yea, if thou hadst but an aching tooth, it would not let thee
sleep ; and is not the guilt of sin, a thing more grievous ? If
thorns, or toads and adders were in thy bed, they would
keep thee waking ! and how much more odious and dangerous
a thing is sin ! If thy body want but meat, or drink, or covering,
it will break thy sleep ; and is it nothing for thy soul to be
destitute of Christ and grace ? A condemned man will be
easily kept awake : and if thou be unregenerate, thou art
already condemned *. Thou sleepest in irons ; in the captivity
of the devil; among the walking judgments of God; in a
life that is still expecting an end ; in a boat that is swiftly
carried to eternity; just at the entrance of another world ;
and that world will be hell, if grace awake thee not. Thou
art going to see the face of God ; to see the world of angels
or devils, and to be accompanied with one of them for ever :
and is this a place or case to sleep in ? Is thy bed so soft ? thy
dwelling so safe ? God standeth over thee, man ; and dost
thou sleep? Christ is coming, and death, and judgment
a John iii, 18.
64 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
coming, and dost thou sleep? Didst thou never read of the
foolish virgins, that slept out their time, and knocked and
cried in vain vi^hen it was too late''? Thou mightest more
wisely sleep on the pinnacle of a steeple in a storm, than have
a soul asleep in so dangerous a case as thou art in. The
devil is awake, and is rocking thy cradle ! How busy is he
to keep off ministers, or conscience, or any that would awake
thee ? None of thy enemies are asleep ; and yet wilt thou
sleep, in the thickest of thy foes? Is the battle a sleeping
time ; or thy race a sleeping time, when heaven or hell must
be the end? While he can keep thee asleep, the devil can
do almost what he list with thee. He knows that thou hast
now no use of thy eyes, or understanding, or power to resist
him : the most learned doctor in his sleep, is as unlearned,
actually, as an idiot, and will dispute no better than an un-
learned man. This makes many learned men to be ungodly :
they are asleep in sin. The devil could never have made
such a drudge of thee, to do his work, against Christ and thy
soul, if thou hadst been awake. Thou wouldst never have
followed his whistle to the ale-house, the play-house, the
gaming-house, and to other sins, if thou hadst been in thy
wits, and well awake *". I cannot believe that thou longest to
be damned, or so hatest thyself, as to have done as thou hast
done, to have lived a godless, a graceless, a prayerless, and
yet a merry, careless life, if thy eyes had been opened, and
thou hadst known, and feelingly known, that this was the
way to hell. Nature itself will hardly go to hell awake.
But it is easy to abuse a man that is asleep. Thou hast
reason; but didst thou ever awake it to one hour's serious
consideration of thy endless state and present case? O
dreadful judgment, to be given over to the spirit of slumber*^ !
Is it not high time now to awake out of sleep ^ ? When the
light is arisen and shines about thee ! When others that care
for their souls, are busily at work ! When thou hast slept out
so much precious time already ! Many a mercy, and perhaps
some ministers, have been as candles burnt out to light thee
while thou hast slept ! How oft hast thou been called already !
" How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard H" Yet thou hast
thundering calls and alarms to awake thee. God calls, and
* Matt. XXV. 5. ^ «^ Prov. vH. 23, «4. "iRoin.xi. 8.
* Rom. xiii. 1 1. f Prov. vi. 9, 10.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 65
Ministers call ! Mercies call, and judgments call ! and yet
wilt thou not awake? " The voice of the Lord is powerful :
full of majesty ; breakeththe cedars ; shaketh the wilderness :"
and yet cannot it awake thee ? Thou wilt not sleep about far
smaller matters ! at meat, or drink, or in common talk, or
market. But O ! how much greater business hast thou to
keep thee awake ? Thou hast yet an unholy soul to be renewed ;
an ungodly life to be reformed ; an offended God to be re-
conciled to ; and many thousand sins to be forgiven ! Thou
hast death and judgment to prepare for; thou hast heaven
to win, and hell to escape ! Thou hast many a needful truth
to learn, and many a holy duty to perform ; and yet dost
thou think it time to sleep ? Paul, that had less need than thou,
did watch, and pray, and labour, day and night s. O that
thou knewest how much better it is to be awake ! While
thou sleepest, thou losest the benefit of the light, and all the
mercies that attend thee : the sun is but as a clod to a man
asleep ; the world is as no world to him ; the beauty of
heaven and earth are nothing to him ; princes, friends, and
all things are forgotten by him ! So doth thy sleep in sin
make nothing of health, and patience, time, and help, minis-
ters, books, and daily warnings. O what a day hast thou
for everlasting, if thou hadst but a heart to use it ! What a
price hast thou in thine hand '' ! Sleep not out thy day, thy
harvest time, thy tide time ! " They that sleep, sleep in the
night '." " Awake, and Christ will give thee light ^ !" ** Awake
to righteousness, and sin not M'^ O, when thou seest the light
of Christ, what a wonder will it possess thee with, at the
things which thou now forgettest! What joy will it fill thee
with ; and with what pity to the sleepy world ! But if thou
wilt needs sleep on, be it known to thee, sinner, it shall not be
long. If thou wilt wake no sooner, death and vengeance
will awake thee. Thou wilt wake when thou seest the other
world ; and seest the things which thou wouldst not believe,
and comest before thy dreadful Judge ! " Thy damnation
slumbereth not""." There are no sleepy souls in heaven or
hell ; all are awake there ; and the day that hath awakened
so many, shall wajcen thee. Watch, then, if thou love thy
s Acts XX. 31. 1 Thes. iii. 10. ^ Prov. x. 5. * 1 The?, v.7.
^ Rom. xiii. 12. Ephes. v. 14. ' 1 Cor. xv. 34- "' % Pet. ii. 3. •
. VOL. II. F
66 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
soul, lest thy Lord come /* suddenly and find thee sleeping."
" What I say to one, I say to all. Watch"'."
Tempt, 11. 'If Satan cannot keep the soul in a sleepy,
careless, inconsiderate forgetfulness, he would make the un-
regenerate soul believe, that there is no such thing as re-
generating grace ; but that it is a fancied thing, which no
man hath experience of, and he saith, as Nicodemus, " How
can these things be"?" He thinks that natural conscience is
enough.'
Direct, ii. But this may be easily refuted by observing,
that holiness is but the very health and rectitude of the soul ;
and is no otherwise supernatural, than as health to him that
is born a leper. It is the rectitude of nature, or its disposition
to the use and end that it was made for. Though grace be
called supernatural, 1 . Because it is not born with us : and
2. Corrupted nature is against it : 3. And the end of it is the
God of nature, who is above nature : 4. And the revelation
and other means are supernatural (as Christ's incarnation,
resurrection, &c.) : yet both nature, and Scripture, and ex-
perience tell you, that man is made for another life, and for
such works which he is utterly unfit for, till grace have
changed and renewed him, as it doth by many before your
eyes °.
Tempt. III. ' But, saith the tempter, if supernatural grace
be necessary, yet it may be born in you. Infants have no sin ;
Christ saith, " Of such is the kingdom of God : Abraham is
your Father ; yea, God p." You are born of Christian parents '
Direct, m. See the full proof of original sin in all
infants, in my " Treatise of the Divine Life," Part 1. Chap,
xi. xii. Grace may indeed be put betimes into nature, but
comes not by nature "i. " Except you be born again, you
cannot enter into the kingdom of God ■"." " If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature : old things are passed away :
behold, all things are become new ^" But how vain is it for
him to boast that he was born holy, who finds himself at the
present unholy. Shew that you have a holy, heavenly heart
and life, and then you are happy, whenever it was wrought.
"» Mark xiii. 34—37. " John iii. 4.
" See 2 Cor. V. ir. Gal.ti. 15. ir. 19. John iii. 3.5,6. Matt, xviii. 3. lPet.i.23.
P John viii. 39. 41. q Rom. viH. 9. 16. ix, 8. Eph. ii. 3.
■■John iii. 3. 5. '2 Cor. 5. 17-
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 67
Tempt. IV. * But, saith the tempter, baptism, is the laver
of regeneration : you are baptized, and therefore you are re-
generated. The ancients taught that all sins were washed
away in baptism, and grace conferred/
I)irect. IV. Answ. The ancients by baptism, meant the
internal and external acts conjunct : the soul's delivering up
itself to God in the covenant, and sealing it by baptism * :
JEind so it includeth conversion, and true repentance, and faith :
and all that are thus baptized are pardoned, justified, and
holy. But they that have only sacramental regeneration, or
the external ordinance, are not for that in a state of life ; for
Christ expressly saith, that *' except you are born of the
Spirit" as well as ** water, you cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven"." And Peter told Simon Magus, after he was
baptized, that he was ** yet in the gall of bitterness, and bond
of iniquity "." It is not the " putting away the filth of the
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience^." Christ
cleanseth his church "by the washing of water by the word ^.'-
But if you had been cleansed in baptism, if at present you
are unclean, and unholy, can you be saved so ?
Tempt. V. 'When this faileth, the tempter would per-
suade them, that godliness i? nothing but a matter of mere
opinion or belief: to believe all the articles of the faith, and
to be no papist nor heretic, but of true religion, and to be
confident of God's mercy through Christ: for " he that b^-
lieveth shall be saved *."
Direct, v. To this you must answer, that it will not save
a man, that his religion is true, unless he be true to it ! Read
James ii. against such a dead faith. Saving faith is the
hearty entertainment of Christ, as our Lord and Saviour, and
the delivering up the soul to him to be sanctified and ruled,
as well as pardoned. " Knowledge pufFeth up, but charity
edifieth. He that knoweth his master's will and doth it
not, shall be beaten with many stripes ^." It is sad that men
should think to be saved by that which will condemn them !
by being of a right opinion, and a wrong conversation ; by
believing their duty, instead of doing it ; and then presuming
that Christ forgiveth them, and that their state is good.
Opinion and presumption are not faith.
' Matt, xxviii, 19, 20. "John iii. 5, 6. * Ac4^s viii. 13. ^ 1 Pet. iii, 21.
» Eph. V. 26. * Mark xvi. 16. •> Luke xii. 47.
68 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Tempt. VI. ' But, saith the tempter, holiness is the ex-
cellency of holy persons ; but vulgar, unlearned people may
be saved, without such high matters, which are above them.'
Direct, vi. But God telleth you, that "without holiness
none shall see him *=." The unlearned may be saved ; but the
ungodly cannot '^. Holiness is to the soul, as life to the body :
he that hath it not, is dead ; though all have not the same
degree of health : sin is sin, and hated of God in learned and
unlearned. All men have souls that need regenerating at
first : and as all bodies that live, must live on the earth, by
the air, and food, 8ic., so all souls that live, do live upon the
same God, and Christ, and heaven, by the same Word and
Spirit ; and all this may be had by the unlearned.
Tempt. VII. ' But, saith the tempter, God is not so un-
merciful as to damn all that are not holy : this is but talk to
keep men in awe ; and not to be believed.'
Direct, vii. But if God's threatenings be necessary to
keep men in awe, then are they necessary to be executed.
For God needs not awe men by a lie. He best knows to
whom he will be merciful, and how far ! Did you never read,
Isa. xxvii. 11. " It is a people of no understanding : therefore
he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that
formed them, will shew them no favour." And Psal. lix. 5.
'* Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors." Is he not
just, as well as merciful^? Do you not see that men are
sick, and pained, and die, for all that God is merciful ? And
do not merciful j udges condemn malefactors ? Are not angels
made devils by sin, for all that God is merciful ? The devil
knoweth this to his sorrow. " And if God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell," will he be
unjust for you?
Tempt, viii. * But Christ died for all: and God will not
punish him and you both, for the same fault.'
Direct, viii. Christ died so far for all that have the
Gospel, as to procure and seal them a free and general par-
don of all their sins, if they will repent, and take him for their
Saviour, and so to bring salvation to their choice. But will
this save the imgodly, obstinate refusers? Christ died to
sanctify, as well as to forgive \ and to " purify to himself a
t Heb. xii. 14. ^ Psal. i. 6. « Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. f Eph, y, 27.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 69
peculiar people, zealous of good works ^" and " to destroy
the works of the devil ^/^ and to bring all men under his
dominion and government \ " If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, the same is none of his ''."
Tempt. IX. ' No man can be certain of his salvation ; but
all must hope well: and to raise doubts in men's hearts,
whether they shall be saved or no, will not help them ; but
puzzle them, and cast them into despair.'
Direct. IX. But is there so little difference between a
child of God, and of the devil, and between the way to
heaven, and the way to hell, that they cannot be known
asunder? Hath not Christ taught us plainly how to know
them^ ? and bid us " give diligence to make our calling and
election sure ™ ?" If all men must hope that they shall be
saved, then most must hope for that which they shall never
have : but it is no hope of God's making, which deceiveth
men. Should so great a matter as our everlasting joy, or
misery, be cast out of our care, and ventured so regardlessly
in the dark, when it is it that we have life, and time, and all
for, to make it sure ? And what hurt can it do you, to find
out the truth of your own condition ? If you are indeed un-
regenerate, and unholy, discover it now in time, and you have
time to be recovered. You must despair of being saved,
without conversion ; but that preventeth absolute, final des-
pair. Whereas, if you find not out your case till time is
past, then hope is past ; and the devil hath you in endless
desperation, where he would.
Tempt. X. * If this prevail not, the devil will seek to carry
it by noise instead of reason ; and will seek to keep you in
jovial, merry, voluptuous company, that shall plead by pots,
and plays, and pleasures ; and shall daily make a jest of god-
liness, and speak of the godly with scorn, as a company of
fanatic hypocrites.'
Direct, x. But consider, that this is but the rage of fools,
that speak of what they never understood. Did they ever
try the way they speak against? Are they to be believed
before God himself? Will they not eat their words, at last,
themselves ? Will their merry lives last always ? Do they die
as merrily as they live ? and bring off themselves as well as
gTit. ii. 14. »» I John iii. 8. * Rora. xiv. 9. Lukexix. 27.
^ Rom. viii. 9. » Psal. i. & xv. 1 John iii. «» 2 Pet. i. 10.
'ft^ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
they promiBed to bring off you**? He that will be cheated of
his salvation, and forsake his God for the ranting scorns of
a distracted sinner, is worthy to be damned.
Tempt: XI. ' Next, he telleth them, that a godly life is so
hard and tedious, that if they should begin, they should
never endure to hold on ; and therefore it is in vain to try it.'
Direct, xi. But this pretence is compounded of wicked-
ness, and madness. What, but a wicked heart, can make it
80 hard a thing to live in the love of God, and holiness, and
in the hope and seeking of eternal life ? Why should not
this be a sweeter and pleasanter life, than drinking, and
roaring, and gaming, and fooling away time in vain ; or than
the enjoying of all the delights of the flesh ? There is nothing
but a sick, distempered heart against it, that nauseateth that
which in itself is most delightful. When grace hath changed
your hearts, it will be easy. Do you not see that others can
hold on in it, and would not be as they were, for all the
world ? And why may not you ? God will help you : it is the
office of Christ, and the Spirit to help you : your encourage-
ments are innumerable. The hardness is most at first : the
longer it is the easier. But what if it were hard ? Is it not
necessary ? Is hell easier, and to be preferred before it ? And
will not heaven pay for all your cost and labour ? Will you
sit down in desperation, and resolve to let your salvation go,
upon such silly bug-bear words as these ?
Tempt. XII. * Next, the devil's endeavour will be, to find
them so much employment with worldly cares, or hopes, or
business, that they shall find no leisure to be serious about
the saving of their souls.'
Direct. XII. But this is a snare, though frequently pre-
valent, yet so irrational, and against so many warnings and
witnesses, even of all men in the world, either first or last, at
conversion, or at death, that he, who after all this will neg-
lect his God, and his salvation, because he hath worldly
things to mind, is worthy to be turned over to his choice, and
have no better help or portion in the hour of his necessity
and distress. Of this sin I have spoken afterward. Chap,
iv. Part 6.
Tempt. XIII. ' Lest the soul should be converted, the
devil will do all that he can, to keep you from the acquaint-
« See Ptov. xiii. 20. xxviii.7- Eph. v.lT, 11.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 71
ance and company of those, whose holiness, and instructions
might convince, and strengthen you ; and especially from a
lively, convincing minister; and to cast you under some
dead-hearted minister and society.'
Direct, xiii. Therefore, if it be possible, though it be to
your loss or inconvenience in the world, live under a search-
ing, heavenly teacher ; and in the company of them that are
resolved for heaven. It is a dead heart indeed, that feeleth
not the need of such assistance, and is not the better for it
when it has it. If ever you be fair for heaven, and like-
to be converted, it will be among such helps as these.
Tempt. XIV. * But one of the strongest temptations of
satan is, by making their sin exceeding pleasant to them,
for the gain, or honour, or fleshly satisfaction ; and so in-
creasing the violence of their sensual appetite and lust, and
making them so much in love with their sin, that they cannot
leave it. Like the thirst of a man in a burning fever, which
makes him cry for cold drink, though it would kill him': the
fury of the appetite conquering reason. So we see many
drunkards, fornicators, worldlings, that are so deeply in love
with their sin, that come on it what will, they will have it,
though they have hell with it.'
Direct, xiv. Against this temptation, I desire you to
rej^d what I have said after. Chap. iv. Part 7. Chap. iii.
Direct. 6. 8. O that poor sinners knew what it is that they
so much love ! Is the pleasing of the flesh so sweet a thing
to you? and are you so indifferent to God, and holy things?
Are these less amiable ? Do you foresee what both will be at
last ? Will your sin seem better than Christ, and grace, and
heaven, when you are dying? O be not so in love with
damning folly, and the pleasure of a beast, as for it to des-
pise the heavenly wisdom and delights !
Tempt. XV. * Another great temptation is, the prosperity
of the wicked in this life ; and the reproach and suffering
which usually falls upon the godly : if God did strike every
notorious sinner dead in the place, as soon as he had sinned,
or struck him blind, or dumb, or lame, or inflicted presently
some such judgment, then many would fear him, and forbear
their sin ; but when we see no men prosper so much as \ht
most ungodly, and that they are the persecutors of the holy
72 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAHT I.
seed, and that sentence against an evil work is not speedily
executed, then are their hearts set in them to do evil*'.'
Direct, xv. But, alas! how short is the prosperity of the
wicked! Read Psal. Ixxiii. xxxvii. Delay is no forgiveness :
they stay but till the assize : and will that tempt you to do
as they ? How unthankfully do sinners deal with God ! If he
should kill you, and plague you, that would not please you ;
and yet if he forbear you, you are emboldened by it in your
sin. Thus his patience is turned against him ; but the stroke
will be the heavier when it falls. Dost thou think those men
will always flourish ? Will they always domineer and revel 7
Will they always dwell in the houses where they now dwell,
and possess those lands, and be honoured and served as now
they are? O how quickly, and how dreadfully will the case
be changed with them ! O could you but foresee now, what
faces they will have, and what heavy hearts, and with what
bitter exclamations they will at last cry out against them-
selves, for all their folly, and wish that they had never been
deceived by prosperity ; but rather had the portion of a
Lazarus ! If you saw how they are but fatted for the slaugh-
ter, and in what a dolorous misery their wealth, and sport,
and honours will leave them, you would lament their case,
and think bo great a destruction were soon enough, and not
desire to be partners in their lot !
Tempt. XVI. ' Another temptation is, their own pros-
perity. They think God, when he prospereth them, is not
so angry with them as preachers tell them : and it is a very
hard thing, in health and prosperity, to lay to heart either
sin or threatenings, and to have such serious, lively thoughts
of the life to come, as men that are wakened by adversity
have : and especially men that are familiar with death.
Prosperity is the greatest temptation to security, and delay-
ing repentance, and putting off preparation for eternity.
Overcome prosperity, and you overcome your greatest
snare.'
Direct, xvi. Go into the sanctuary; yea, go into the
church-yard, and see the end : and judge by those skulls,
and bones, and dust, if you cannot judge by the forewarnings
of God, what prosperity is p ! Judge by the experience of all
° Eccles. viii. 11. > i
P See my Sermon on Prov. i. 32. in the end of *' The Vain Religion of the Formal
Hypocrites"
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 73
the world! Doth it not leave them all in sorrow at last?
Wo to the man that hath his portion in this life ! O miserable
health, and wealth, and honour, which procureth the death,
and shame, and utter destruction of the soul ! Was not he
in as prosperous a case as you, that quickly cried out in
vain, for a drop of water to cool his tongue 'i? There is none
of you so senseless as not to know that you must die. And
must you die ? Must you certainly die ? and shall that day
be no better prepared for? Shall present prosperity make you
forget it, and live as if you must live here for ever ? Do you
make so great difference between that which is, and that
which will be, as to make as great a matter of it as others,
when it comes ; and to make no more of it when it is but
coming ? O man, what is an inch of hasty time ! How quickly
is it gone ! Thou art going hence apace, and almost gone I
Doth God give thee the mercy of a few days or years of
health, to make all thy preparations in for eternity, and doth
his mercy turn to thy deceit, and dost thou turn it so much
contrary to the ends for which it was given thee ? Wilt
thou surfeit on mercy, and destroy thy soul with it ? Sense
feeleth and perceiveth what now is, but thou hast reason to
foresee what will be ? Wilt thou play in harvest, and forget
the winter !
Tempt. XVII. * Another great temptation to hinder con-
version, is the example and counsel of the great ones that
are ungodly ; when landlords, and men in power, are sen-
sual, and enemies to a holy life, and speak reproachfully of
it, their inferiors, by the reverence which they bear to world-
ly wealth and greatness, are easily drawn to say as they.
Also, when men reputed learned and wise, are of another
mind : and especially when subtle enemies speak that re-
proach against it, which they cannot answer.*
Direct, xvii. To this I spake in the end of the first part
of this chapter. No man is so great and wise as God.
See whether he say as they do in his Word ! The greatest
that provoke him can no more save themselves from his ven-
geance, than the poorest beggars ! What work made he
with a Pharaoh ! and got himself a name by his hard-heart-
edness and impenitency ! He can send worms to eat an ar-
1 Lute xvi.
t4 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
rogant Herod, when the people cry him up as a god ! Where
are now the Caesars and Alexanders of the world ? The ru-
lers and pharisees believed not in Christ ^ Wilt thou not
therefore beliere in him? The governor of the country
condemned him to die ; and wilt thou condemn him ? " The
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take coun-
sel together, against the Lord and his anointed, saying. Let
us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us*." Wilt thou therefore join in the conspiracy?
When " he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh j the Lord
shall have them in derision." — " He will break them with an
iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel," un-
less they " be wise, and kiss the Son, and serve the Lord with
fear, before his wrath be kindled, and they perish*." If thy
landlord, or great ones, shall be thy god, and be honoured
and obeyed before God and against him, trust to them, and
call on them in the hour of thy distress, and take such a
salvation as they can give thee. Teach not God what choice
to make, and whom to reveal his mysteries to : he chooseth
not always the learned scribe, nor the mighty man ; Christ
himself saith, ** I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them to babes : even so. Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight" !" If this reason satisfy
you not, follow them, and speed as they. If they are greater
and wiser than God, let them be your gods''. " You see
your calling, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called : but God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise ;
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con-
found the things that are mighty ; and base things of the
world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen,
and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are y."
It is another kind of greatness, honour, and wisdom, which
God bestoweth on the poorest saints, than the world can
give. Worldlings will shortly be weary of their portion : in
your baptism you renounced the world, with its pomps and
vanity ; and now do you deify, what you then defied ?
Tempt. XVIII. * Another temptation is, to draw on the
»■ John vii. 48. • Psal. ii. 2, 3. * Psal. ii. 4. 9. 10—12, " Matt. xi. 25. 26.
* Read Mr. Bolton's Assize Sermon, on 1 Cor. i. 26 — 28. y 1 Cor. i. 26.
ChAP. I.] CttttlSTIAN ETHICS. t5
sinner into euch a custom in sin, and long neglect of the
means of his recovery, till his heart is utterly hardened/
Direct, xviii. Against this, read after. Chap. iv. part 2.
against hardness of heart.
Tempt. XIX. * Another temptation is,, to delay repen-
tance, and purpose to do it hereafter.*
Direct, xix. Of this I entreat you to read the many rea-
sons which I have given, to shame and waken delayers, in
my book of " Directions for a Sound Conversion."
Tempt. XX. * The worst of all is, to tempt them to flat
unbelief of Scripture, and the life to come.'
Direct, xx. Against this, read here. Chap. iii. Direct. 1.
Chap. iv. Part 1. and my " Treatise against Infidelity."
Tempt. XXI. ' If they will needs look after grace, he will
do all he can to deceive them with counterfeits, and make
them take a seeming, half conversion for a saving change.'
Direct. XXI. Of this read my " Directions for Sound
Conversion," and the " Formal Hypocrite," and " Saints'
Rest," Part iii. Chap. 10.
Tempt. XXII. ' If he cannot make them flat infidels, he
will tempt them to question and contradict the sense of all
those texts of Scripture which are used to convince them,
and all those doctrines which grate most upon their galled
consciences ; as, of the necessity of regeneration, — the fewness
of them that are saved, — the difficulty of salvation, — the tor-
ments of hell, — the necessity of mortification, — and the sinful-
ness of all particular sins : they will hearken what cavillers
can say for any sin, and against any part of godliness ; and
with this they wilfully delude themselveis.'
Direct, xxii. But if men are resolved to join with the
devil, and shut their eyes, and cavil against all that God
speaketh to them to prevent their misery^ and know not,
because they will not know ; what remedy is left, or who
can save men against their wills ? " This is the condemna-
tion, that light is come into the world, and men love dark-
ness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. He that
doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved ^." In Scripture, " some things
are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
» John iii. 19. 20.
76 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and unstable, wrest to their own destruction*." Of particu-
lars read the end of my " Treatise of Conversion."
Tempt, xxiii. * Yea, satan will do his worst to make
them heretics, and teach them some doctrine of licentious-
ness suitable to their lusts : it is hard being wicked still
against conscience in the open light : this is kicking against
the pricks : too smarting work to be easily borne. There-
fore the devil will make them a religion which shall please
them, and do their sins no harm : either a religion made up
of loose opinions, like the Familists, Ranters, Libertines,
and Antinomians (and the Jesuits too much) ; or else made
up of trifling formalities, and a great deal of bodily exercise,
and stage-actings, and compliment, as much of the Popish
devotion is : and a little will draw a carnal heart to believe
a carnal doctrine : it is easier to get such a new religion,
than a new heart. And then, the devil tells them that now
they are in the right way, and therefore they shall be saved.
A great part of the world think their case is good, because
they are of such a sect or party, and of that, which they are
told by their leaders, is the true church and way.'
Direct, xxiii. But remember, that whatever law you
make to yourselves, God will judge you by his own law.
Falsifying the king's coin, is no good way to pay a debt,
but an addition of treason to your former misery. It is a
new and holy heart and life, and not a new creed, or a new
church or sect, that is necessary to your salvation. It will
never save you, to be in the soundest church on earth, if you
be unsound in it yourselves ; and are but the dust in the
temple that must be swept out : much less will it save you,
to make yourselves a rule, because God's rule doth seem too
strict.
Tempt. xxTv. ' Another way of the tempter is, to draw
men to take up with mere convictions, instead of true con-
version : when they have but learned that it is necessary to
salvation, to be regenerate, and have the Spirit of Christ,
they are as quiet, as if this were indeed to be regenerate,
and to have the Spirit. As some think they have attained
to perfection, when they have but received the opinion that
perfection may here be had ; so abundance think they have
sanctification and forgiveness, because they now see that
» 2 Pet. iii. 16.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 77
they must be had, and without sanctification, there is no
salvation : and thus the knowledge of all grace and duty,
shall go with them for the grace and duty itself; and their
judgment of the thing, instead of the possession of it : and
instead of having grace, they force themselves to believe
that they have it.'
Direct, xxiv. But remember, God will not be mocked :
he knoweth a convinced head, from a holy heart. To think
you are rich, will not make you rich ; to believe that you
are well, or to know the remedy, is not enough to make you
well. You may dream that you eat, and yet awake hungry.
All the land and money which you see, is not therefore your
own. To know that you should be holy, maketh your unho-
liness to have no excuse. Ahab did not escape by believing
that he should return in peace : self-flattery in so great and
weighty a case, is the greatest folly. ** If you know these
things, happy are ye if ye do them**."
Tempt. XXV. ' Another great temptation is, by hiding
from men the intrinsic evil and odiousness of sin. What
harm, saith the drunkard, and adulterer, and voluptuous sen-
sualist, is there in all this, that preachers make so great ado
against? What hurt is this, to God or man? that they
would make us believe that we must be damned for it; and
that Christ died for it ; and that the Holy Ghost must mor-
tify it? " Wherefore," say the Jews% " hath God pronounced
all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or
what is our sin, that we have committed V — He that know-
eth not God, knoweth not what sin against God is : espe-
cially when the love of it, and delight in it, blindeth them.'
Direct, xxv. Against this, I entreat you to ponder on
those forty intrinsical evils in sin, which I have after named.
Chap. iii. Direct. 8. and the aggravations. If the devil can
but once persuade you, that sin is harmless, all faith, all re-
ligion, all honesty, and your souls and all, are gone. For
then, all God's laws and government must be fictions : then,
there is no work for Christ as a Saviour, or the Spirit as a
Sanctifier, to do ; then, all ordinances and means are trou-
blesome vanities; and godliness and obedience deserve to
be banished from the earth, as unnecessary troublers of
mankind ; then, may this poison be safely taken, and made
»> John xui. 17. " Jer. xvi. 10.
76 CHRISTIAN DIRECTQKY. [PART J^
your food. But O how mad a conceit is this ! How quick-
ly will God make the proudest know, what harm it was to
refuse the government of his Maker, and set up the govern-
ment of his beastly appetite, and misguided will I and that
sin is bad, if hell be bad.
Tempt. XXVI. * The devil also tempteth them to think,
that though they sin, yet their good works are a compensa-
tion for their bad ; and therefore they pray, and do some
acts of Pharisaical devotion, to make God amends for what
they do amiss.'
Direct. XXVI. Against this consider, that if you had
never so many good works, they are all but your duty, and
make no satisfaction for your sin. But what good works
can you do, that shall save a wicked soul ? and that God
will accept without your hearts ? Your hearts must be first
cleansed, and yourselves devoted and sanctified to God : for
an evil tree will bring forth evil fruit : first make the tree
good, and the fruit will be good ! It is the love of God, and
the hatred of sin, and a holy and heavenly life which are the
good works that God chiefly calleth for ; and faith, and re-
pentance, and conversion, in order to these. And will God
take your lip-labour, or the leaving of your flesh by way of
alms, while the world and fleshly pleasure have your hearts ?
Indeed, you do no work that is truly good ! The matter may
be good : but you poison it with bad principles and ends.
** The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, nor in-
deed can be ; but is enmity against God^."
Tempt. XX VI I. ' Some are tempted to think, that God
will not condemn them because they are poor and afflicted
in this life, and have their sufferings here : and that he that
condemneth the rich, for not shewing mercy to the poor,
will himself shew them mercy.' J
Direct. XXVII. Hath he not shewed you mercy? and is ^
it not mercy which you vilify and refuse ? even Christ, and
his Spirit, and holy communion with God ? or must God
shew you the mercy of glory, without the mercy of grace ?
which is a contradiction. Strange! that the same men
that will not be entreated to accept of mercy, nor let it save
them, are yet saying, that God will be merciful and sav4
them.
* Rom. viii.7.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS, 79
And for your poverty and suffering, is it not against your
will ? you cannot deny it : and will God save any man for
that which is against his will ? You would have riches, and
honour, and pleasure, and your good things in this life a^
well as others, if you could tell how : you love the world as
well as others, if you could get more of it. And to be car-
nal and worldly for so poor a pittance, and to love the
world when you suflfer in it, doth make you more inexcus-
able than the rich. The devils have suffered more than you,
and so have many thousand souls in hell ; and yet they
shall be saved never the more. If you are poor in the world,
but rich in faith and holiness, then you may well expect
salvation*. But if your sufferings make you no more holy^
they do but aggravate your sin.
Tempt. XXVIII. * Also the devil blindeth sinners, by
keeping them ignorant of the nature and power of holiness
of heart and life ! They know it not by any experience :
and he will not let them see it and judge of it in the Scrip-
ture, where it is to be seen without any mixed contraries j
but he points them only to professors of holiness, and com-
monly to the weakest and the worst of them, and to that
which is worst in them, and sheweth them the miscarriages
of hypocrites, and the falls of the weaker sort of Christians,
and then tells them, this is their godliness and religion ;
they are all alike.'
Direct, xxviii. But it is easy to see, how these men de-
ceive and condemn themselves. This is as if you should
plead that a beast is wiser than a man, because some men
are drunk, and some are passionate, and some are mad.
Drunkenness and passions, which are the disturbers of rea-
son, are no disgrace to reason, but to themselves : nor were
they a disgrace themselves, if reason which they hinder were
not honourable. So no man's sins are a disgrace to holi-
ness, which condemneth them : nor were they bad them-
selves, if holiness were not good, which they oppose. It is
no disgrace to the day-light or sun, that there is night and
darkness : nor were darkness bad, if light were not good.
Will you refuse health, because some men are sick ? nay,
will you rather choose to be dead, because the living have
infirmities ? The devil's reasoning is more foolish than this !
* James ii. 5.
80 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I,
Holiness is of absolute necessity to salvation. If many that
do more than you, are as bad as you imagine, what a case
then are you in, that have not near so much as they ? If
they that make it their greatest care to please God, and be
saved, are as very hypocrites as the devil would persuade
you, what a hopeless case then are you in, that come far
short of them? If so, you must do more than they, and not
less, if you will be saved: or else out of your own mouths
will you be condemned.
Tempt. XXIX. * Another way of the tempter is, by draw-
ing them desperately to venture their souls ; come on them
what will, they will put it to the venture, rather than live
so strict a life.'
Direct, xxix. But, O man, consider what thou dost, and
who will have the loss of it ! and how quickly it may be too
late to recall thy adventure ! What should put thee on so
mad a resolution ? Is sin so good ? — is hell so easy ? — is thy
soul so contemptible ? — is heaven such a trifle? — is God so
hard a master? — is his work so grievous, and his way so bad ?
— doth he require any thing unreasonable of you? — hath God
set you such a grievous task, that it is better to venture on
damnation than perform it? You cannot believe this, if you
believe him to be God. Come near, and think more deli-
berately on it, and you will find you might better run from
your food, your friend, your life, than from your God, and
from a holy life, when you run but into sin and hell.
Tempt, xxx. * Another great temptation is, in making
them believe that their sins are but such common infirmities
as the best have ; they cannot deny but they have their
faults ; but are not all men sinners ? They hope they are not
reigning, unpardoned sins.'
Direct, xxx. But, O liow great a difference is between
a converted and an unconverted sinner ! — between the fail-
ings of a child and the contempt of a rebel ! — between a
sinner that hath no gross or mortal sin, and hateth, bewail-
eth, and striveth against his infirmities ;— and a sinner that
loveth his sin, and is loath to leave it, and maketh light of
it, and loveth not a holy life. God will one day shew you
a difference between these two, when you see that there are
sinners that are justified and saved, and sinners that are
condemned.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 81
Temptations to take Mortal Sim for Infirmities.
Tempt. I. * But here are many subordinate temptations,
by which satan persuades them that their sins are but infir-
mities : one is, because their sin is but in the heart, and ap-
peareth not in outward deeds : and they take restraint for
sanctification.*
Direct, i. Alas ! man, the life and reign of sin is in the
heart : that is its garrison and throne : the life of sin lieth
in the prevalence of your lusts within, against the power of
reason and will. All outward sins are but acts of obedience
to the reigning sin within ; and a gathering tribute for this,
which is the king. For this it is that they make provision ^
On this all is consumed^. Original sin may be reigning sin
(as a king may be born a king) : sin certainly reigneth, un-
til the soul be (Converted and born again.
Tempt. II. * The devil tells them it is but an infirmity,
because it is no open, gross, disgraceful sin : it is hard to
believe that they are in danger of hell, for sins which are
accounted small.'
Direct, ii. But do you think it is no mortal, heinous siri,
to be void of the love of God and holiness? — to love the flesh
and the world above him ? — to set more by earth than heaven,
and do more for it? However they shew themselves, these
are the great and mortal sins. Sin is not less dangerous for
lying secret in the heart. The root and heart are usually
unseen. Some kings (as in China, Persia, &c.) keep out of
sight for the honour of their majesty. Kings are the spring
of government ; but actions of state are executed by officers.
When you see a man go, or work, you know that it is some-
thing within which is the cause of all. If sin appeared with-
out, as it is within, it would lose much of its power and ma-
jesty. Then ministers, and friends, and every good man
would cast a stone at it ; but its secresy is its peace. The
devil himself prevaileth by keeping out of sight. If he were
seen, he would be less obeyed. So it is with the reigning
sins of the heart. Pride and covetousness may be reigning
sins, though they appear not in any notorious, disgraceful
course of life. David's hiding his sin, or Rachel her idol,
made them not the better. It is a mercy to some men, that
God permitteth them to fall into some open, scandalous sin,
f Rom. xiii. 14. » James iv. '^.
VOL. II. G
82 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART I,
which may tend to humble them, who would not have been
humbled nor convinced by heart-sins alone ^. An oven is
hottest when it is stopped.
Tempt. III. ' Satan tells them, they are not unpardoned,
reigning sins, because they are common in the world. If
all that are as bad as I, must be condemned, say they, God
help a great number.'
Direct, iiu But know you not that reigning sin is much
more common than saving holiness ? and that the gate is
wide, and the way is broad that leadeth to destruction, and
many go in at it ? Salvation is as rare as holiness ; and
damnation as common as reigning sin, where it is not cured.
This sign therefore makes against you.
Tempt. IV. ' But, saith the tempter, they are such sins as
you see good men commit : you play at the same games as
they : you do but what you see them do ; and they are par-
doned.'
Direct, iv. You must judge the man by his works, and
not the works by the man. And there is more to be looked
at, than the bare matter of an act. A good man and a bad
may play at the same game, but not with the same end, nor
with the same love to sport, nor so frequently and long to
the loss of time. Many drops may wear a stone : many
stripes with small twigs may draw blood. Many mean men
in a senate have been as great as kings : you may have many
of these little sins set all together, which plainly make up
a carnal life. The power of a sin is more considerable than
the outward shew. A poor man, if he be in the place of a
magistrate, may be a ruler. And a sin materially small, and
such as better men commit, may be a sin in power and rule
with you, and concur with others which are greater.
Tempt, v. * But, saith the tempter, they are but sins of
omission, and such as are not reigning sins.'
Direct, v . Sins of omission are always accompanied with
some positive, sensual affection to the creature, which di-
verteth the soul, and causeth the omission : and so omission
is no small part of the reigning sin. The not using of rea-
son and the will for God, and for the mastering of sensua-
lity, is much of the state of ungodliness in man. Denying
God the heart and life is no small sin. God made you to'
•» See Jer. iv. 14. Hosea vH. 6, 7,
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS.. » 83
do good, and not only to do no harm : else a stone or corpse
were as good a Christian as you, for they do less harm than
you. If sin have a negative voice in your religion, whether
God shall be worshipped and obeyed or not, it is your king :
it may shew its power as well by commanding you not to
pray, and not to consider, and not to read, as in command-
ing you to be drunk or swear. The wicked are described
by omissions : — Such as " will not seek after God : God is
not in all his thoughts*;" — such as " know not God, and
call not on his name'';" — that have "no truth, or mercy, or
knowledge of God^ ;" — that " feed not, clothe not, visit
not" Christ in his members™ ; — that hide their talents". In-
deed, if God have not your hearts the creature hath it ; and
so it is omission and commission that go together in your
reigning sin.
Tempt. VI. ' But, saith the tempter, they are but sins of
ignorance, and therefore they are not reigning sins : at least
you are not certain that they are sins.
Direct, vi. And, indeed, do you not know that it is a
sin to love the world better than God? and fleshly plea-,
sure better than God's service ? and riches better than grace
and holiness? and to do more for the body than for the
soul, and for earth than for heaven? Are you uncertain whe-
ther these are sins? And do you not feel that they are your
sins? You cannot pretend ignorance for these. But what
causeth your ignorance ? Is it because you would feign
know, and cannot ? Do you read, and hear, and study, and
inquire, and pray for knowledge, and yet cannot know ? Or
is it not because you would not know, or think it not worth
the pain to get it ; or because you love your sin ? And will
such wilful ignorance as this excuse you ? No ; it doth make
your sin the greater. It sheweth the greater dominion of
sin^ when it can use thee as the Philistines did Samson, put
out thine eyes, and make a drudge of thee ; and conquer thy
reason, and make thee believe that evil is good and good
is evil. Now it hath mastered the principal fortress of thy
soul, when thine understanding is mastered by it. He is
reconciled indeed to his enemy, who taketh him to be a
friend. Do you not know, that God should have your
heart, and heaven should have your chiefest care and dili-
» Psal. X. 4. ^ Jer. x. 25. • Hos. iv. 1. ^ Matt. xxv. » Matt. xxv.
84 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
gence ; and that you should make the Word of God your
rule, and your delight, and meditation day and night? If
you know not these things, it is because you would not
know them : and it is a miserable case to be given up to a
blinded mind ! Take heed, lest at last you commit the hor-
ridest sins, and do not know them to be sins. For such
there are that mock at godliness, and persecute Christians
and Ministers of Christ, and know not that they do ill ; but
think they do God service °. If a man will make himself
drunk, and then kill, and steal, and abuse his neighbours, and
say, I knew not that I did ill, it shall not excuse him. This
is your case. You are drunken with the love of fleshly
pleasure and worldly things, and these carry you so away,
that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures,
and hear, and think what God saith to you, and then say
that you did not know.
Tempt. VII. * But, saith the tempter, it cannot be a mor-
tal, reigning sin, because it is not committed with the whole
heart, nor without some struggling and resistance : dost
thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh? and so it
is with the regenerate p. The good which thou dost not do,
thou wouldst do ; and the evil which thou dost, thou
wouldst not do : so then it is no more thou that dost it, but
sin that dwelleth in thee. In a sensual, unregenerate per-
son there is but one party, there is nothing but flesh ; but
thou feelest the combat between the flesh and the Spirit
within thee."
Direct, y II. This is a snare so subtle and dangerous,
that you have need of eyes in your head to escape it. Un-
derstand, therefore, 1. That as to the two texts of Scripture,
much abused by the tempter, they speak not at all of mor-
tal, reigning sin, but of the unwilling infirmities of such as
had subdued all such sin, and walked not after the flesh
but after the Spirit ; and whose wills were habitually bent
to good, and fain would have been perfect, and not have
been guilty of an idle thought or word, or of any imperfec-
tion in their holiest service, but lived up to all that the law
requireth : but this they could not do, because the flesh did
cast many stops before the will in the performance. But
this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin and
o John xvi. 2. p Gal. v. 17. Rom. vii. 20— 23.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 85
an ungodly life, and hath strivings and convictions, and in-
effectual wishes to be better, and to turn, but never doth it.
This is but sinning against conscience, and resisting the
Spirit that would convert you ; and it maketh you worthy
of many stripes, as being rebellious against the importu-
nities of grace. Sin maybe resisted, where it is never con-
quered : it may reign nevertheless for some contradiction.
Every one that resisteth the king doth not depose him from
his throne. It is a dangerous deceit to think that every
good desire that contradicteth sin doth conquer it, and is a
sign of saving grace. It must be a desire after a state of
saving grace. It must be a desire after a state of godliness,
and an effectual desire too. There are degrees of power :
some may have a less and limited power, and yet be rulers.
As the evil spirits that possessed men's bodies were a legion
in one, and but one in others, yet both were possessed ; so
is it here. Grace is not without resistance in a holy soul :
there are some remnants of corruption in the will itself, resist-
ing the good ; and yet it followeth not, that grace doth not
rule : so it is in the sin of the unregenerate. No man in
this life is so good as he will be in heaven, or so bad as he
will be in hell : therefore none is void of all moral good.
And the least good will resist evil in its degree, as light doth
darkness. As in these cases :
1. There is in the unregenerate, a remnant of natural
knowledge and conscience : some discoveries of God and
his will there are in his works : God hath not left himself
without witness "i. This light and law of nature governed
the heathens : and this, in its measure, resisteth sin and
assisteth the conscience.
2. When supernatural, extrinsic revelation in the Scrip-
ture is added to the light and law of nature, and the ungodly
have all the same law as the best, it may do more.
3. Moreover, an ungodly man may live under a most
powerful preacher, that will never let him alone in his sins,
and may stir up much fear in him and many good purposes,
and almost persuade him to be a true Christian ; and not
only to have some ineffectual wishings and strivings against
sin, but to do many things after the preacher, as Herod did
q See Acta xiv. 17. xvii. 27. Rom. i. 19, 20. ii. 7, 8, 9.
86 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
after John, and to escape the common pollutions of the
world'".
4. Some sharp affliction, added to the rest, may make
him seem to others a true penitent : when he is stopped in
his course of sin, as Balaam was by the angel, with a drawn
sword, and seeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his
life ; and that God is still meeting him with some cross,
and hedging up his way with thorns (for such mercy he
sheweth to some of the ungodly) : this may not only breed
resistance of sin, but some reformation. When the Baby-
lonians were planted in Samaria they feared not God, and
he sent lions among them ; and then they feared him, and
set up some kind of service to him, performed by a base sort
of priests ; ** they feared the Lord, and served their own
gods," thinking it was safest to please all\ Affliction
maketh bad men most like to the good.
5. Good education and company may do very much : it
may help them to much knowledge, and make them profes-
sors of strict religion ; and constant companions with those
that fear sin, and avoid it ; and therefore they must needs
go far then, as Joash did all the days of Jehoiada *. As
plants and fruits change with the soil by transplantation,
and as the climate makes some blackmoors and some white,
so education and converse have so great a power on the
mind that they come next to grace, and are often the means
of it. ; • ^•. c}y/:-''!\i.i:-\
6. And God giveth to many, internally, some grace of
the Spirit, which is not proper to them that are saved, but
common or preparatory only. And this may make much
resistance against sin, though it do not mortify it. One that
should live but under the convictions that Judas had when
he hanged himself, I warrant he would have strivings and
combats against sin in him, though he were unsanctified.
7. Yea, the interest and power of one sin may resist
another : as covetousness may make much resistance against
sensuality and pride of life, and pride may resist all dis-
graceful sin.
Tempt. VIII. ' But, saith the tempter, it is not unpar-
doned sin, because thou art sorry and dost repent for it
' 2 Pet. ii. 20. • 2 Kings xvii. 25. 32, 33. *■ 2 Chron. xxiv. 2.
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 87
when thou hast committed it : and all sin is pafdbtied that
is repented of.'
Direct, will. All the aforesaid causes which may make
some resistance of sin in the ungodly, may cause also some
sorrow and repenting in them. There is repenting and sor-
row for sin in hell. All men repent and are sorry at last ;
but few repent so as to be pardoned and saved. When a
sinner hath had all the sweetness out of sin that it can yield
him, and seeth that it is all gone, and the sting is left behind,
no marvel if he repent. I think there is scarcely any
drunkard, or whoremonger, or glutton (that is not a flat in-
fidel), but he repenteth of the sin that is past, because he
hath had all out of it that it can yield him, and there is no-
thing left of it that is lovely : but yet he goeth on still,
which sheweth that his repentance was unsound. True re-
pentance is a thorough change of the heart and life ; a
turning from sin to a holy life, and such a sorrow for what is
past as would not let you do it, if it were to do again. If
you truly repent, you would not do so again, if you had all
the same temptations.
Tempt. IX. * But, saith the tempter, it is but one sin, and
the rest of thy life is good and blameless ; and God judgeth
by the greater part of thy life, whether the evil or the good
be most.'
Direct, ix. If a man be a murderer, or a traitor, will you
excuse him, because the rest of his life is good, and it is but
15iie sin that he is charged with ? One sort of poison may
kill a man ; and one stab at the heart, though all his body
else be whole : you may surfeit on one dish : one leak may
sink a ship. " Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offend in one point, is guilty of all"." Indeed God doth
judge by the bent of thy heart, and the main drift and en-
deavour of thy life. But canst thou say, that the bent of thy
heart, and the main endeavour of thy life is for God, and
heaven, and holiness ? No : if it were, thou wert regenerate ;
and this would not let thee live in any one beloved, chosen,
wilful sin. The bent of a man's heart and life may be sinful,
earthly, fleshly, though it run but in the channel of one way
of gross sinning ! As a man may be covetous, that hath but
one trade; and a whoremonger, that hath but one whore ;
u Jam. ii. 10. See Ezek. xviii. 10, 11.
86 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and an idolater, that hath but- one idol. If thou lovedst
' God better, thou wouldst let go thy sin ; and if thou love
any one sin better than God, the whole bent of thy heart
and life is wicked : for it is not set upon God and heaven,
and therefore is ungodly.
Tempt. X. *Eut, saith the tempter, it is not reigning, un-
pardoned sin, because thou believest in Jesus Christ ; and
all that believe,' are pardoned, and justified from all their sin."
Direct, x. He that savingly believeth in Christ, doth
take him entirely for his Saviour and Governor ; and giveth
up himself to be saved, sanctified, and ruled by him : as
trusting your physician, implieth that you take his medicines,
and follow his advice, and so trust him ; and not that you
trust to be cured while you disobey him, by bare trusting :
so is it as to your faith and trust in Christ ; it is a belief or
trust, that he will save all those that are ruled by him in or-
der to salvation. ** He is the author of eternal salvation to
all them that obey him ^." If you believe in Christ, you be-
lieve Christ : and if you believe Christ, you believe, " that
except a man be converted, and born again, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of heaven ^ ;" and that he that is ** in
Christ, is a new creature ; old things are past away, and all
is become new ^ ;" and that " without holiness none shall
see God **." And that " no fornicator, effeminate, thieves,
covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, murderers, liars,
shall enter into, or have any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ^." If you believe Christ, you must believe that you
cannot be saved, unless you be converted. It is the devil,
and not Christ, that telleth you you may be pardoned and
saved in an unholy, unregenerate state : and it is sad, that
men should believe the devil, and call this a believing in
Christ, and think to be saved for so believing ; as if false
faith and presumption pleased God ! Christ will not save
m.en for believing a lie, and believing the father of lies before
him : nor will he save all that are confident they shall be
saved. If you think you have any part in Christ, remember
Rom. viii. 9. " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he
is none of his *'.*'
» Heb. V. 9. y John ill. 3. 5. Matt, xviii. 3. ^ 2 Cor. v. 17.
* Heb. xij. 11. ''1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Ephes. v. 4 — 6. Rev. xxi. 27.
• See more of Temptations, Chap. iii. Direct. 9.
CHAP. H.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 89
CHAPTER II.
Directions to Young Christians, or Beginners in Religion,
for their Establishment and Safe Proceeding **.
Before I come to the common Directions, for the exercise
of grace, and walking with God, containing the common
duties of Christianity, I shall lay down some previous in-
structions, proper to those that are but newly entered into
religion ; presupposing what is said in my book of Directions
to those that are yet under the work of conversion, to ]^re-
vent their miscarrying by a false or superficial change.
Direction i . * Take heed, lest it be the novelty or reputation
of truth and godliness, that takes with you, more than the
solid evidence of their excellency and necessity : lest, when
the novelty and reputation are gone, your religion wither and
consume away.'
It is said of John and the Jews, by Christ, "He was a
burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season
to rejoice in his light''." All men are affected most, with
things that seem new and strange to them. It is not only
the infirmity of children, that are pleased with new clothes,
and new toys and games ; but even to graver, wiser persons,
new things are most affecting, and commonness and custom
dulls delight. Our habitations, and possessions, and ho-
nours, are most pleasing to us at the first; and every con-
dition of life, doth most affect us at the first. If nature were
not much for novelty, the publishing of news-books would
not have been so gainful a trade so long, unless the matter
had been truer, and more desirable. Hence it is, that
changes are so welcome to the world, though they prove,
ordinarily, to their cost. No wonder then, if religion be the
more acceptable, when it comes with this advantage. When
men first hear the doctrine of godliness, and the tidings of
another world, by a powerful preacher opened and set home,
no wonder if things of so great moment affect them for a
time. It is said of them that received the seed of God's
» I have since written a book on this subject, to which I refer the reader for fuller
direction,
b John V. 35.
90 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Word as into stony ground, that " forthwith it sprung up"
and they "anon with joy received it^;" but it quickly
withered for want of rooting. These kind of hearers can no
more delight, still in one preacher, or one profession, or way,
than a glutton in one dish, or an adulterer in one harlot ;
for it is but a kind of sensual or natural pleasure that they
have in the highest truths ; and all such delight must be fed
with novelty, and variety of objects. The Athenians were
inquisitive after Paul's doctrine, as novelty, though after,
they rejected it, as seeming to them incredible. " May we
know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest, is ? for
thou bringest certain strange things to our ears : we would
know therefore, what these things mean. (For all the
Athenians and strangers which were there, spent their time in
nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing**)."
To this kind of professors, the greatest truths grow out
of fashion, and they grow weary of them, as of dull and or-
dinary things : they must have some new light, or new way
of religion, that lately came in fashion : their souls are weary
of that manna, that at first was acceptable to them, as angel's
food. Old things seem low, and new things high to them ;
and to entertain some novelty in religion, is to grow up to
more maturity : and too many such, at last so far overthrive
their old apparel, that the old Christ, and old Gospel are left
behind them.
The light of the Gospel is more speedily communicated,
than the heat : and thi§ first part being more acceptable to
them, is soon received : and religion seemeth best to them at
first. At first they have the light of knowledge alone : and
then they have the warmth of a new and prosperous pro-
fession. There must be some time for the operating of the
heat, before it burneth them : and then they have enough,
and cast it away in as much haste as they took it up. If
preachers would only lighten, and shoot no thunderbolts,
even a Herod himself would " hear them gladly, and do many
things after them :" but when their Herodias is meddled
with, they cannot bear it. If preachers would speak only
to men's fancies or understandings, and not meddle too
smartly with their hearts, and lives, and carnal interests, the
world would bear them, and hear them as they do stage-
<= Matt. xiii. 5. 20. ^ Actsxvii, 19— 21.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 01
players, or at least as lectures in philosophy, or physic. A
sermon that hath nothing but some general, toothless notions,
in a handsome dress of words, doth seldom procure offence
or persecution. It is rare that such men's preaching is dis-
tasted by carnal hearers, or their persons hated for it. ** It
is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun ^ ;" but not
to be scorched by its heat. Christ himself at a distance, as
promised, was greatly desired by the Jews ; but when he
came, they could not bear him : his doctrine and life wer£
so contrary to their expectations. "The Lord whom ye
seek, shall suddenly come to his temple even the Messen-
ger of the Covenant whom ye delight in : behold, he shall
come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide the day
of his coming ? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for
he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap ^" Many
when they come first (by profession) to Christ, do little think
that he would cast them into the fire, and refine them, and
purge away their dross, and cast them anew into the mould
of the Gospel s. Many will play awhile by the light, that
will not endure to be melted by the fire. When the preacher
cometh once to this, he is harsh, and intolerable, and loseth
all the praise which he had won before, and the pleasing no-
velty of religion is over with them. The Gospel is sent to
make such work in the soul and life, as these tender persons
will not endure. It must captivate every thought to Christ,
and kill every lust and pleasure which is against his will ; and
put a new and heavenly life into the soul. It must possess
men with deep and lively apprehensions of the great things
of eternity. It is not wavering, dull opinions, that will raise
and carry on the soul, to such vigorous, constant, victorious
i action, as is necessary to salvation. When the Gospel
'*• ' cometh to the heart, to do this great, prevailing work, then
these men are impatient of the search and smart, and pre-
sently have done with it. They are like children, that love
the book, for the gilding and fineness of the cover, and take
it up as soon as any ; but it is to play with, and not to learn :
they are weary of it when it comes to that. At first many
come to Christ with wonder, and will needs be his servants,
for something in it that seemeth fine : till they hear that the
Son of Man hath not the accommodation of the birds or
e Eccles. xi. 7. ^ Mai. iii. 1—3. » Rom. vi 17.
92 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
foxes ; and that his doctrine and way hath an enmity to their
worldly, fleshly interest, and then they are gone. They first
entertained Christ, in compliment, thinking that he would
please them, or not much contradict them ; but when they
find that they have received a guest, that will rule
them, and not be ruled by them, that will not suffer them
to take their pleasure, nor enjoy their riches, but hold them
to a life which they cannot endure, and even undo them in
the world, he is then no longer a guest for them. Whereas,
if Christ had been received as Christ, and truth and godli-
ness deliberately entertained, for their well discerned excel-
lency and necessity, the deep rooting would have prevented
this apostasy, and cured such hypocrisy.
But, alas ! poor Ministers find, by sad experience, that
all prove not saints that flock to hear them, and make up
the crowd; nor that " for a season rejoice in their light,"
and magnify them, and take their parts. The blossom hath
, its beauty and sweetness ; but all that blossometh, or ap-
peareth in the bud, doth not come to perfect fruit: some
will be blasted, and some blown down ; some nipt with
frosts ; some eaten by worms ; some quickly fall ; and some
hang on, till the strongest blasts do cast them down : some
are deceived and poisoned by false teachers ; some by world-
ly cares, and the deceitfulness of riches become unfruitful,
and are turned aside : the lusts of some had deeper rooting
than the Word ; and the friends of some had greater iiite-
rest in them than Christ, and therefore they forsake him to
satisfy their importunity : some are corrupted by the hopes
of preferment, or the favour of man : some feared from Christ
by their threats and frowns, and choose to venture on dam-
nation, to escape persecution : and some are so worldly
wise, that they can see reason to remit their zeal, and can
save their souls and bodies too ; and prove that to be their
duty, which other men call sin (if the end will but answer
their expectations) : and some grow weary of truth and du-
ty, as a dull and common thing, being not supplied with
that variety, which might still continue the delights of no-
velty.
Yet mistake not what I have said, as if all the affection
furthered by novelty, and abated by commonness and use,
were a sign that the person is but an hypocrite. I know
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 03
that there is something in the nature of man, remaining in
the best, which disposeth us to be much more passionately-
affected with things, when they seem new to us, and are
first apprehended, than when they are old, and we have
\nown or used them long. There is not, I believe, one man
of a thousand, but is much more delighted in the light of
truth, when it first appeareth to him, than when it is trite,
and familiarly known ; and is much more affected with a
powerful Minister at first, than when he hath long sat under
him. The same sermon, that even transported them at the
first hearing, would affect them less, if they had heard, it
preached an hundred times. The same books, which greatly
affected us at the first or second reading, will affect us less
when we have read them over twenty times. The same words
of prayer, that take much with us when seldom used, do less
move our affections, when they are daily used all the year.
At our first conversion, we have more passionate sorrow for
our sin, and love to the godly, than we can afterwards retain.
And all this is the case of learned and unlearned, the sound
and unsound, though not alike. Even heaven itself is spo-
ken of by Christ, as if it did participate of this, when he
saith, that *' joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that re-
penteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, that
need no repentance^." And I know, it is the duty of Minis-
ters to take notice of this disposition in their hearers, and
not to dull them with giving them still the same, but to pro-
fit them by a pleasant and profitable variety : not by preach-
ing to them another Christ, or a new Gospel : it is the same
God, and Christ, and Spirit, and Scripture, and the same
heaven, the same church, the same faith, and hope, and
repentance, and' obedience, that we must preach to them,
as long as we live : though they say, we have heard this an
hundred times, let them hear it still, and bring them not a
new creed. If they hear so oft of God, and Christ, and
heaven, till by faith, and love, and fruition, they attain them
as their end, they have heard well. But yet there is a grate-
ful variety of subordinate particulars, and of words, and
methods, and seasonable applications, necessary to the
right performance of our ministry, and to the profiting
? Luke XV. 7. 10.
94 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
of the flocks : though the physician use the same apothe-
cary's shop, and dispensatory, and drugs, yet how great a
variety must he use of compositions, and times, and manner
of administration ?
But for all this, though the best are affected most with
things that seem new, and are dulled with the long and fre-
quent use of the same expressions, yet they are never weary
of the substance of their religion, so as to desire a change.
And though they are not so passionately affected with the
same sermons, and books, or with the thoughts, or men-
tion of the same substantial matters of religion, as at first
they were ; yet do their judgments more solidly and tena-
ciously embrace them, and esteem them, and their wills as
resolvedly adhere to them, and use them, and in their live*
they practise them, better than before. Whereas, they that
take up their religion but for novelty, will lay it down when
it ceaseth to be new to them, and must either change for a
newer, or have none at all ^.
And as unsound are they, that are religious, only because
their education, or their friends, or the laws, or judgment
of their rulers, or the custom of the country, hath made it
necessary to their reputation. These are hypocrites at the
first setting out, and therefore cannot be saved by continu-
ance in such carnal religiousness as this. I know law, and
custom, and education, and friends, when they side with
godliness, are a great advantage to it, by affording helps,
and removing those impediments that might stick much with
carnal minds. But truth is not your own, till it be received
in its proper evidence ; nor your faith divine, till you believe
what you believe, because God is true who doth reveal it ;
nor are you the children of God, till you love him for him-
self ; nor are you truly religious, till the truth and goodness
of religion itself, be the principal thing that makethyou re-
ligious. It helpeth much to discover a man's sincerity,
when he is not only religious among the religious, but among
the profane, and the enemies, and scorners, and persecutors
of religion : and when a man doth not pray only in a pray-
ing family, but among the prayerless, and the deriders of
fervent, constant prayer : and when a man is heavenly among
h Fere idem itaque eritus est odii et amoris insani. Senec. de Ben. lib. vi. c. 25.
EIz. 1649. p. 511.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 95
them that are earthly ; and temperate among the intempe-
rate and riotous ; and holdeth the truth among those that
reproach it, and that hold the contrary : when a man is not
carried only by a stream of company, or outward advantages
to his religion ; nor avoideth sin for want of a temptation ;
but is religious, though against the stream, and innocent
when cast, unwillingly, upon temptations; and is godly
where godliness is accounted singularity, hypocrisy, fac-
tion, humour, disobedience, or heresy : and will rather let
go the reputation of his honesty, than his honesty itself.
Direct, ii. 'Take heed of being religious only in opi-
nion, without zeal, and holy practice ; or only in zealous
affection, without a sound, well-grounded judgment : but
see that judgment, zeal, and practice be conjunct.
Of the first part of this advice (against bare opinionative
religion), I have spoken already, in my " Directions for a
Sound Conversion." To change your opinions, is an easier/
matter than to change the heart and life. A holding of the
truth, will save no man, without a love and practice of the
truth. This is the meaning of St. James, where he speaketh
so much of the unprofitableness of a dead, ineffectual belief,
that worketh not by love, and commandeth not the soul to
practice and obedience. To believe that there is a God,
while you neglect him, and disobey him, is unlike to please
him. To believe that there is a heaven, while you neglect
it, and prefer the world before it, will never bring you thi-
ther. To believe your duty, and not to perform it ; and to
believe that sin is evil, and yet to live in it ; is to sin with
aggravation, and have no excuse, and not the way to be ac-
cepted or justified with God. To be of the same belief with
holy men, without the same hearts and conversations, will
never bring you to the same felicity. " He that knoweth his
master's will, and doth it not, shall be" so far from being ac-
cepted for it, that he shall be " beaten with many stripes." To
believe that holiness and obedience is the best way, will ne-
ver save the disobedient and unholy.
And yet if judgment be not your guide, the most zeal-
ous affections will but precipitate you ; and make you run,
though quite out of the way, like the horses when they haye
cast the coachman or the riders ^ To ride post when you
^ Scientia quae est remota a jasticia, calliditas potius quara sapientia appellanda
96 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
are quite out of the way, is but laboriously to lose your
time, and to prepare for further labour. The Jews that per-
secuted Christ and his apostles, had the testimony of Paul
himself, that they had a " zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge." And Paul saith of the deceivers andtroublers
of the Galatians (whom he wisheth even cut off), that they
did zealously affect them, but not welP. And he saith of
himself, while he persecuted the Christians to prison and to
death, " I was zealous towards God as ye are all this day^"
Was not the Papist, St. Dominick, that stirred up the per-
secution against the Christians in France and Savoy, to the
murdering of many thousands of them, a very zealous man?
And are not the butchers of the Inquisition zealous men ?
And were not the authors of the third Canon of the General
Council at the Lateran, under Pope Innocent the Third, very
zealous men, who decreed that the Pope should depose tem-
poral lords, and give away their dominions, and absolve
their subjects, if they would not exterminate the godly,
called heretics ? Were not the Papists' powder-plotters zeal-
ous men? Hath not zeal caused many of later times, to rise
up against their lawful governors ? and many to persecute
the church of God, and deprive the people of their faithful
pastors without compassion on the people's souls ? Doth
not Christ say of such zealots, . " The time cometh, when
whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service ™',"
(or offereth a service acceptable to God.) Therefore Paul
saith, " It is good to be zealously affected always in a good
thing "." Shewing you that zeal indeed is good, if sound
judgment be its guide. Your first question mustbe. Whe-
ther you are in the right way ? and your second. Whether
you go apace ? It is sad to observe what odious actions are
committed, in all ages of the world, by the instigation of
misguided zeal ? And what a shame an imprudent zealot is
to - his profession, while making himself ridiculous in the
est, P. Scalig. The imprudencies of well-meaning men, have done as much hurt to
the church sometimes, as the persecution of enemies, e. g. When Constantiue, the son
of Constans, was emperor, some busy men would prove, from the orthodox doctrine
of the Trinity, that liis 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. Melanct. p. 162. ,
•'Rom. X. 2. Gal, iv. 17. ' Acts xxii, 3, 4.- °» John xvi, 2.
"Gal.iv. 18.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 97
»
eyes of the adversaries, he brings his profession itself into
contempt, and maketh the ungodly think that the religious
are but a company of transported, brain-sick zealots ; and
thus are hardened to their perdition. How many things
doth unadvised affection provoke well-meaning people to,
that afterwards will be their shame and sorrow.
Labour therefore for knowledge, and soundness of un-
derstanding ; that you may know truth from falsehood,
good from evil ; and may walk confidently, while you walk
safely ; and that you become not a shame to your profes-
sion, by a furious prosecution of that which you must af-
terwards confess to be an error ; by drawing others to that
which you would afterwards wish that you had never known
yourselves. And yet see that all your knowledge have its
efficacy, upon your heart and life ; and take every truth as
an instrument of God, to reveal himself to you, or to draw
your heart to him, and conform you to his holy will.
Direct, iii. * Labour to understand the true method of di-
vinity, and see truths in their several degrees and order ;
that you take not the last for the first, nor the lesser for
the greater. Therefore see that you be well grounded in
the catechism ; and refuse not to learn some catechism that
is sound and full, and keep it in memory while you live.'
Method, or right order, exceedingly helpeth understand-
ing, memory, and practice **. Truths have a dependence on
each other ; the lesser branches spring out of the greater,
and those out of the stock and root. Some duties are but
means to other duties, or subservient to them, and to be
measured accordingly ; and if it be not understood which is
the chief, the other cannot be referred to it. When two
things, materially good, come together, and both cannot be
done, the greater must take place, and the lesser is no duty
at that time, but a sin, as preferred before the greater.
Therefore it is one of the commonest difficulties among
cases of conscience, to know which duty is the greater, and
to be preferred. Upon this ground, Christ healed on the
sabbath-day, and pleaded for his disciples rubbing the ears
o Opus est imprimis duplici catechismo : uno compendario et brevi quem raerao-
riter addiscant ; ubi summa sit eorum omnium quae ad fidem et mores Christiano
sunt necessaria : altero uberiore, ubi eadem araplius, dilucidiusque dicantur, et copiosus
confirmentur: ul ille prior discipulis potius, hie posterior ipsis praceptoribus usu sit.
Acosta, lib.v. c. 14. p. 490.
VpL. IT. H
96 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
of corn, tktid for David's eating the shew-bread, and telleth
them, that " the sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the Sabbath, and that God will have mercy, and not
sacrifice."
Divinity is a curious, well-GompoBed frame. As it is not
enough that you have all the parb of your watch or clock,
but you must see that every part be in its proper place, or
else it will not go or answer its end ; so it is not enough that
you know the several parts of Divinity or duty, unless you
know them in their true order and place. You may be con-
founded before you are aware, and led into many dangerous
errors, by mistaking th6 order of several truths ; and you
may be misguided into heinous sins, by mistaking the de-
grees and order of duties. As when duties of piety and
charity seem to be competitors : and when you think that
the commands of men contradict the commands of God :
and when the substance and the circumstances or modes of
duty are in question before you as inconsistent : or when
the means seemeth to cease to be a means, by crossing of
the end : and in abundance of such cases, you cannot easily
conceive what a snare it may prove to you to be ignorant
of the methods and ranks of duty.
Objection. If that be so, what man can help being con-
founded in his religion, when there be so few that observe
any method at all, and few that agree in method, and none
that hath published a scheme or method so exact and clear
as to be commonly approved by Divines themselves. What
then can ignorant Christians do ?
Answer. Divinity is like a tree that hath one trunk?,
and thence a few greater arms or boughs, and thence a
thousand smaller branches : or like the veins, or nerves, or
arteries in the body, that have first one or few trunks di-
vided into more, and those into a few more, and those into
more, till they multiply at last into more than can easily be
seen or numbered. Now it is easy for any man to begin at
the chief trunk, and to discern the first divisions, and the
next, though not to comprehend the number and order of
all extreme and smaller branches. So is it in Divinity : it
is not very hard to begin at the unity of the eternal God-
P Stoicidicunt virtutes sibiinvicem ita esse connexa»,utqui uuam habaerit, omnes
habeat. Diog. Laert. in Zenone, lib. vii, 8egm.l25. p.444.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 99
head, and see there a trinity of persons, and of primary at-
tributes, and of relations ; and to arise to the principal
attributes and works of God as in these relations, and to the
relations of man to God, and to the great duties of these re-
lations, to discern God's covenants and chiefest laws, and
the duty of man in obedience thereto, and the judgment of
God in the execution of his sanctions i though yet many
particular truths be not understood. And he that begin-
neth and proceedeth as he ought, doth know methodically
so much as he knoweth ; and he is in the right way to the
knowledge of more : and the great mercy of God hath laid
so great a necessity on us to know these few points that are
easily known, and so much less need of knowing the many
small particulars, that a mean Christian may live uprightly,
and holy, and comfortably, that well understandeth his ca-
^techism, or the cr^ed, Lord's prayer, and ten command*
ments, and may find daily work and consolation in the use
of these.
A sound and well-composed catechism, studied well and
kept in memory, would be a good measure of knowledge to
ordinary Christians, and make them solid and orderly in
their understanding, and in their proceeding to the smaller
points ; and would prevent a great deal of error and mis-
carriage, that many by ill teaching are cast upon, to their
own and the churches' grief! Yea, it were to be wished,
that some teachers of late had learned so much and Orderly
4;hemselves.
Direct, iv. * Begin not too early with controversies in
religion : and, when you come to them, let them have but
their due proportion of your time and zeal : but live daily
upon these certain, great substantials, which all Christians
are agreed in.' ^^
1. Plunge not yourselves too soon into controversies :
for, (1.) It will be exceedingly to your loss, by diverting
your souls from greater and more necessary things : you
may get more increase of holiness, and spend your time
more pleasingly to God, by drinking in deeper the substan-
tials of religion, and improving them on your hearts and
Hves.
(2.) It will corrupt your minds, and instead of humility,
charity, holiness, and heavenly-mindednes«, it will feed
100 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
your pride, and kindle faction and a dividing zeal, and
quench your charity, and possess you with a wrangling,
contentious spirit, and you will make a religion of these
sins and lamentable distempers.
(3.) And it is the way to deceive and corrupt your judg-
ments, and make you erroneous or heretical, to your own
perdition, and the disturbance of the church : for it is two
to one but either you presently err, or else get such an itch
after notions and opinions that will lead you to error at the
last. Because you are not yet ripe and able to judge of
those things, until your minds are prepared by those truths
that are first in order to be received. When you undertake
a work that you cannot do, no wonder if it be ill done, and
must be all undone again, or worse.
Perhaps you will say, that you must not take your reli-
gion upon trust, but must " prove all things, and hold fast
that which is good."
Answer. Though your religion must not be taken upon
trust, there are many controverted, smaller opinions that you
must take upon trust, until you are capable of discerning
them in their proper evidence. Till you can reach them your-
selves, you must take them on trust, or not at all. Though
you must believe all things of common necessity to salva-
tion with a divine faith ; yet many subservient truths must
be received first by a human faith, or not received at all un-
til you are more capable of them. Nay, there is a human
faith necessarily subservient to the Divine faith, about the
substance of religion ; and the officers of Christ are to be
trusted in their office, as helpers of your faith. Nay, let me
tell you, that while you are young and ignorant, you are
not fit for controversies about the fundamentals of religion
themselves. You may believe that there is a God, long be-
fore you are fit to hear an atheist proving that there is no
God : you may believe the Scripture to be the word of God,
and Christ to be the Saviour, and the soul to be immortal,
long before you will be fit to manage or study controversies
hereupon. For nothing is so false or bad, which a wanton
or wicked wit may not put a plausible gloss upon : and
your raw, unfurnished understandings will scarcely be able to
see through the pretence, or escape the cheat. When you
cannot answer the arguments of seducers, you will find them
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. V 101
leave a doubting in your minds ; for you know not how
plain the answer of them is to wiser men. And though you
must prove all things, you must do it in due order, and as
you are able : and stay till your furnished minds are capable
of the trial. If you will needs read before you know your
letters, or pretend to judge of Greek and Hebrew authors
before you can read English, you will but become ridicu-
lous in your undertaking.
2. When you do come to smaller controverted points, let
them have but their due proportion of your time and zeal.
And that will not be one hour in many days, with the gene-
rality of private Christians. By that time you have well
learned the more necessary duties, you will find that there
will be but little time to spare for lesser controversies. Opi-
nionists that spend most of their time in studying and talk-
ing of such points do steal that time from greater matters,
and therefore from God and from themselves : better work
is undone the while. And they that here lay. out their
chiefest zeal divert their zeal from things more necessary,
and turn their natural heat into a fever.
3. The essential, necessary truths of your religion, must
imprint the image of God upon your hearts, and must dwell
there continually, and you must live upon them as your
bread, and drink, and daily necessary food : all other points
must be studied in subserviency to those. All lesser duties
must be used as the exercise of the love of God or man, and
of a humble, heavenly mind. The articles of your creed,
and points of catechism are fountains ever running, afford-
ing you matter for the continual exercise of grace : it is both
plentiful and solid nourishment of the soul, which these
great, substantial points afford. To know God the Creator,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier, the laws and covenant of God, and
his judgment, and rewards and punishments, with the parts
and method of the Lord's prayer, which must be the daily
exercise of our desires and love : this is the wisdom of a
Christian, and in these must he be continually exercised.
You will say, perhaps, that the apostle saith, *' Leaving
the pjinciples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to per-
fection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works %" &c. ,
Answer, 1. By " leaving" he meaneth not passing over the
, q Heb. vi, 1.
102 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
practice of them^ as men that have done with them and
are past; but his leaving at that time to discourse of
them, or his supposing them taught already : though he
lay not the foundation again, yet he doth not pluck it up.
2. By " principles" he meaneth the first points to be taught,
and learned, and practised : and, indeed, regeneration and
baptism is not to be done again : but the essentials of re-
ligion, which I am speaking of, contain much more ; espe-
cially to live in the love of God, vv^hich Paul calls " the
more excellent way ^" 3. " Going on to perfection," is not
by ceasing to believe and love God, but by a more distinct
knowledge of the mysteries of salvation, to perfect our faith,
and love, and obedience.
The points that opinionists call higher, and think to be
the principal matter of their growth, and advancement in
understanding, are usually but some smaller, less necessary
truths, if not some uncertain, doubtful questions*.
Direct, v. ' Be very thankful for the great mercy of your
conversion : but yet overvalue not your first degrees of
knowledge or holiness; but remember that you are yet but
in your infancy, and must expect your growth and ripeness,
as the consequent of time and diligence.'
You have great reason to be more glad and thankful, for
the least measure of true grace, than if you had been made
the rulers of the earth : it being of a far more excellent na-
ture, and entitling you to more than all the kingdoms of the
world. See my sermon called " Right Rejoicing," on those
words of Christ, " Rejoice not that the spirits are subject
to you ; but rather rejoice because your names are written in
heaven*." Christ will warrant you to rejoice, though ene-
mies envy you, and repine both at vour victory and triumph.
If there be " joy in heaven in the presence of the angels" at
your conversion, there is great reason you should be glad
yourselves. If the prodigal's father will needs have the best
robe and ring brought forth, and the fat calf killed, and the
music to attend the feast, that they may eat and be merry °,
there is great reason that the prodigal son himself should
not have the smallest share of j oy : though his brother repine.
r 1 Cor. xii. xiii. « Mark well 1 Tim. i. 4. and iv. 4. 2 Tidi.ii. 23. Tit. iil. 9.
compared with John xvii. 3. Rom. xiii. 8 — 10. 1 Cor. xiii. 1 John Ki. 1 Cor*
i. 23. XV. 1—3. ii. 2. Gal. ri 14. James ii. iii. 1.
*■ Luke X. 20. " Luke xv. 23.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 103
But yet, take heed lest you think the measure of your
first endowments to be greater than it is ''. Grace imitateth
nature, in beginning, usually, with small degrees, and grow-
ing up to maturity by leisurely proceeding. We are not
new born in a state of manhood, as Adam was created.
Though those texts that liken the kingdom of God to a grain
of mustard-seed, and to a little leaven y, be principally
meant of the small beginnings, and great increase of the
church or kingdom of Christ in the world ; yet it is true
also of his grace, or kingdom in the soul. Our first stature
is but to be " new-born babes desiring the sincere milk of
the Word, that we may grow by it*." Note here, that the
new birth bringeth forth but babes, but growth is by degrees,
by feeding on the Word. The Word is received by the heart,
as seed into the ground *. And seed useth not to bring forth
the blade and fruit, to ripeness, in a day.
Yet I deny not, but that some men (as Paul) may have
more grace at their first conversion, than many others have
at their full growth. For God is free in the giving of his own,
and may give more or less as pleaseth himself. But yet in
Paul himself, that greater measure is but his smallest measure,
and he himself is capable of increase to the last. And so
great a measure at first is as rare, as his greater measure, at
last, '}ji its full growth, is rare, and scarce to be expected now.
And if God should give a great measure of holiness at
first, to any now, as possibly he may, yet their measure of
gifts is never great at iirst, unless they had acquired or re-
ceived them before conversion. If grace find a man of great
parts and understanding, which by study and other helps,
he had attained before, no wonder if that man, when his parts
are sanctified, be able in knowledge the first day i for he had
it before, though he had not a heart to use it. But if grace
find a man ignorant, unlearned, and of mean abilities, he
must not expect to be suddenly lifted up to great understand-
ing, and high degrees of knowledge by grace. Fof this
knowledge is not given, now, by sudden infusion, as gifts
were, extraordinarily, in the primitive church. You need
no other proof of this but experience, to stop the mouth of
" Laertius saith of Cleanthus, " Cum aliquando probro ille daretur, quod essettimi-
dus. At ideo, inquit, pas-umpecco." Diog. Laert. lib. vii. Segm. 171 . p. 473.
y Matt. xui. 31.33. 'iPet.ii. 2. * Matt. xiu.
104 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
any gainsayer. Look about you, and observe whether those
that are n^en of knowledge, did obtain it by infusion, in a
moment ? or whether they did not obtain it by diligent study,
by slow degrees ? though I know God blesseth some men's
studies more than others. Name one man that ever was
brought to great understanding, but by means and labour,
and slow degrees ; or that knoweth any truth, in nature, or
Divinity, but what he read, or heard, or studied for, as the
result of what he read or heard. The person that is proud-
est of his knowledge, must confess that he came to it in this
way himself.
But you will afek, ' What then is the illumination of the
Spirit, and enlightening the mind, which the Scripture as-
cribeth to the Holy Ghost? Hath not our understanding
need of the Spirit for light, as well as the heart or will for
life?'
Answ. Yes, no doubt ; and it is a great and wonderful
mercy : and I will tell you what it is. 1. The Holy Spirit,
by immediate inspiration, revealed to the apostles the doc-
trine of Christ, and caused them infallibly to indite the
Scriptures. But this is not that way of ordinary illumination
now. 2. The Holy Spirit assisteth us in our hearing, read-
ing, and studying the Scriptures, that we may come, by di-
ligence, to the true understanding of it ; but'doth not give us
that understanding, without hearing, reading, or study.
" Faith Cometh by hearing ^." It blesseth the use of means
to us, but blesseth us not in the neglect of means. 3. The
Holy Spirit doth open the eyes and heart of a sinner, who
hath heard, and notionally understood the substance of the
Gospel, that he may know that piercingly, and eifectually,
and practically, which before he knew but notionally, and
ineffectually : so that the knowledge of the same truth, is
now become powerful, and, as it were, of another kind.
And this is the Spirit's sanctifying of the mind, and princi-
pal work of saving illumination : not by causing us to know
any thing of God, or Christ, or heaven, without means ; but
by opening the heart, that, through the means, it may take
in that knowledge deeply, which others have but notionally,
and in a dead opinion : and, by making our knowledge clear,
and quick, and powerful, to affect the heart, and rule the
»» Rom. X. 17.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 105
life. 4. The Holy Spirit sanctifieth all that notional know-
ledge which men had before their renovation. All their
learning and parts are now made subservient to Christ, and
to the right end, and turned into their proper channel. 5.
And the Holy Ghost doth, by sanctifying the heart, possess
it with such a love to God, and heaven, and holiness, and
truth, as is a wonderful advantage to us, in our studies for
the attaining of further knowledge. Experience telleth us,
how great a help it is to knowledge, to have a constant love,
delight and desire to the thing which we would know. All
these ways the Spirit is the enlightener of believers.
The not observing this Direction, will have direful
effects ; which I will name, that you may see the necessity
of avoiding them.
1. If you imagine that you are presently men of great
understanding, and abilities, and holiness, while you are
young beginners, and but new-born babes, you are entering
into the snare and condemnation of the devil, even into the
odious sin of pride ; yea, a pride of those spiritual gifts
which are most contrary to pride ; yea, and a pride of that
which you have not, which is most foolish pride. Mark the
words of Paul% when he forbids to choose a young beginner
in religion to the ministry, '* Not a novice, (that is, a young,
raw Christian) " lest being lifted up," (or besotted) " with
pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil." Why are
young beginners more in danger of this, than other Chris-
tians ? One would think their infancy should be conscious
of its own infirmity. But Paul knew what he said. It is
(1.) Partly because the suddenness of their change, coming
out of darkness, into a light which they never saw before,
doth amaze them, and transport them, and make them think
they are almost in heaven, and that there is not much more
to bejattained. Like the beggar that had an hundred pounds
given him, having never seen the hundredth part before,
imagined that he had as much money as the king. (2.) And
it is partly because they have not knowledge enough to
know, how many things there are, that yet they are ignorant
of ^. They never heard of the Scripture-difficulties, and the
«= 1 Tim. iii. 6.
^ Quidiscipulumrudem et elatura habet, contra ventum adverso flumine navigat,
serpcntem niitrit, aconitum excolet, hostem docet. Petrarch, Dial. 41. lib. S.
106 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
knots in school divinity, nor the hard cases of conscienoe ;
whereas, one seven year's painful studies, will tell them of
many hundred difficulties which they never saw : and forty
or fiifty year's study more, will clothe them with shame and
humility, in the sense of their lamentable darkness. (3.) And
it is, also, because the devil doth with greatest industry, lay
this net to entrap young converts, it being the way in which
be hath the greatest hope.
2. Your hasty conceits of your own goodness, or ability,
will make you presumptuous of your own strength, and so to
venture upon dangerous temptations, which is the way to
ruin.j You will think you are not so ignorant, but you may
venture into the company of Papists, or any heretics or de-
ceivers, or read their books, or be present at their worship.
And I confess you may escape ; but it may be otherwise, and
God may leave you, to " shew you all that was in your hearts,''
as it is said of Hezekiah ^.
3. And your overvaluing your first grace, will make you
too secure, when your souls have need of holy awfulness and
care, " to work out your salvation with fear and trembling V
and to " serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly
fear, as knowing that he is a consuming fire s," and security
is the forerimner of a fall.
4. It will make you neglect the due labour and patience
in the use of means for further knowledge and increase of
grace, while you think you are so well already. And so you
will be worse than those that are ever learning, and never
come to any ripe knowledge ; for you will think you are fit
to be teachers, when you have need to be taught that which
you will not submit to learn. And then ** When for the time
ye ought to have been teachers, you will have need to be
catechised, or taught again which be the first principles of
the oracles of God, as havingneedofmilk, and not of strong
meat." Mark here, how the Holy Ghost maketh time and
exercise, necessary to such growth as must enable you to be
teachers. Therefore he addeth, " But strong meat belongeth
to them that are of full age ; ^those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil''."
Mark here, how wisdom and strength are to be expected.
•* 2 Chron. xxxii. 31 . 25, «6. * Phil. ii. 12. « Heb. xiL 28, 29.
*• Heb. V. 12—14.
CHAP. U.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 107
5. This over-hasty eonceit of your own ability, will
tempt you to run into controversies, and matters that you
are not fit for ; and so divert you from necessary and sea*
sonable studies.
6. It will make you over confident of all your own
opinions, and stiff in ail your own conceits : too like him,
Prov. xiv. IG. " The fool rageth and is confident." How
many, and many a time have I heard a man, that understood
not what he talked of, and could scarce speak sense, to
plead for his opinion so confidently, as to scorn or pity the
wisest contradictor, when his ignorance, and phrenetic con-
fidence and rage, did make him a real object of pity, to men
of ordinary understandings. There is a kind of madness in
this disease, that will not leave you wit enough to know
that you are mad.
7. It will make you also very censorious of others : this
ignorant pride will make you think other men's knowledge
to be ignorance, if they be not just of your fond opinions :
and other men's graces to be none, if they be not of your
mind and way. None are so ready as such, to censure those
that are better than themselves, or that they have no acquain-
tance with, as being but civil, moral men, or being erroneous
or deluded. It is a very loathsome thing, to hear an igno-
rant, self-conceited fellow to talk of those that are an hun-
dred times wiser and much better than himself, as magis-
terially, with a proud compassion or contempt, as if he were
indeed the wise man, that knoweth not what he saith.
8. And it will make you rebellious against your governors
and teachers, and utterly unteachable, as despising those that
should instruct and rule you. You will think yourselves
wiser than your teachers, while you are but in the lowest form.
It is such that James speaks to, chap. iii. 1 . " My brethren, be
not many masters (or teachers), knowing that ye shall receive
the greater condemnation." And that whole chapter, well
worth your studying, is spoke to such.
9. And thus it will entangle you in heretical opinions,
to which there is no greater preparatory, than pride posses-
sing half-witted, young beginners in religion.
10. And so it will make you troublers of the church, con-,
tending unpeaceably for that which you understand not.
108 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
11. And it tendeth to hypocrisy, making you give thanks
for that which you never had, as puffed up with a knowledge
that is not enough to keep you humble, and wanting the
charity which would edify yourselves and others ^
12. And it tendeth to delude you in point of assurance of
salvation, taking your own over-valuing self-esteem, for
true assurance ; which is not ordinarily to be expected, till,
grace be come to greater strength.
13. Lastly, It tendeth to corrupt your apprehensions of
the nature of Christianity itself; while you will judge of it
in others, according to your own over- valued measure : when,
if you knew it as it is, in the heart and practice of the sober,
wise, humble, charitable, peaceable, mortified, heavenly be-
liever, you would see that it hath a higher glory, than any
that is manifested by you.
I have named to you all these sad effects of overvaluing
your beginnings in religion, that as you love your souls, you
may avoid them. I take it to be a matter of exceeding great
moment, for your safety and perseverance, that while you
are infants in grace, you know yourself to be such ; that you
may keep your form, and learn first, the lessons that must
first be learned, and " walk thumbly with your God, and
obey those that are over you in the Lord ™," and may wait
on the Spirit, in the use of means, and may not rejoice the
tempter, by corrupting all that you have received, and imita-
ting him, in falling from your state of hope.
Direct, vi. 'Be not discouraged at the difficulties and
oppositions which will rise up before you, when you begin
resolvedly to walk with God.'
As discouragements keep off multitudes from religion,
so they are great temptations to many young beginners to
turn back, and as the Israelites in the wilderness, ready to
wish themselves again in Egypt. Three sorts of discourage-
ments arise before them. 1. Some from the nature of the
work. 2. Some from God's trials. 3. And some from the
malice of the devil and his instruments : or all these.
1 . It cannot be expected but that infants and weaklings
should think, a little burden heavy, and an easy work or
journey to be wearisome: young beginners are ordinarily
puzzled, and at a loss, in every trade, or art, or science.
' i Cor. viii. 1. m Heb. xiii. 7. 17. 1 Thes. i. 5. 12.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 109
Young scholars have a far harder task, than when they are
once well entered. Learning is wondrous hard and unplea-
sant to them, at the first ; but when they are once well en-
tered, the knowledge of one thing helps another, and they
go on with ease. So a young convert, that hath been bred
up in ignorance, and never used to hear prayer, or to hea-
venly discourse ; nor to hear^ or join with any that did, will
think it strange and hard at first. And those that were used
to take their pleasure, and fulfil the desires of the flesh,
and perhaps to swear, and talk filthily, or idly, or to lie, will
find, at first, some difficulty to overcome their customs, and
live a mortified, holy life : (yet grace will do it, and prevail.)
Especially in point of knowledge, and ability of expression,
be not too hasty in your expectation, but wait with patience,
in a faithful, diligent use of the means, and that will be easy
and delightful to you afterwards, which before discouraged
you with its difficulties.
2. And God himself will have his servants, and his gra-
ces, tried and exercised by difficulties. He never intended
us the reward for sitting still ; nor the crown of victory,
without a fight ; nor a fight, without an enemy and opposi-
tion. Innocent Adam was unfit for his state of confirma-
tion and reward, till he had been tried by temptation.
Therefore the martyrs have the most glorious crown, as
having undergone the greatest trial. And shall we presume
to murmur at the method of God?
3. And satan, having liberty to tempt and try us, will
quickly raise up storms and waves before us, as soon as we
are set to sea ; which make young beginners often fear, that
they shall never live to reach the haven. He will shew thee
the greatness of thy former sins, to persuade thee that they
shall not be pardoned. He will shew thee the strength of
thy passions and corruptions, to make thee think that they
will never be overcome. He will shew thee the greatness
of the opposition and suffering which thou art like to un-
dergo, to make thee think thou shalt never persevere. He
will do his worst to meet thee with poverty, losses, crosses,
injuries, vexations, persecutions, and cruelties, yea, and un-
kindness from thy dearest friends, as he did by Job, to make
thee think ill of God, or of his service. If he can, he will make
them thy enemies that are of thine own household. He
no CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
will stir up thy own father, or mother, or husband, or wife,
or brother, or sister, or children, against thee, to persuade
or persecute thee from Christ : therefore Christ tells us,
that if we hate not all these, that is, cannot forsake them,
and use them as men do hated things ; when they would
turn us from him, we cannot be his disciples". Look for
the worst that the devil can do against thee, if thou hast
once lifted thyself against him, in the army of Christ, and
resolvest, whatever it cost thee, to be saved. Read Heb. xi.
But how little cause you have to be discouraged, though
earth and hell should do their worst, you may perceive by
these few considerations.
(1 .) God is on your side, who hath all your enemies in his
hand, and can rebtike them, or destroy them In a moment.
O what is the breath or fury of dust or devils, against the
Lord Almighty ? " If God be for us, who can be against
us°?" Read often that chapter, Rom. viii. In the day
when thou didst enter into covenant with God, and he with
thee, thou didst enter into the most impregnable rock and
fortress, and house thyself in that castle of defence* where
thou mayst (modestly) defy all adverse powers of earth or
hell. If God cannot save thee, he is not God. And if he
will not save thee, he must break his covenant. Indeed, he
may resolve to save thee, not from affliction and persecution,
but in it, and by it. But in all these sufferings you will ** be
more than conquerors, through Christ that loveth you :"
that is, it is far more desirable and excellent, to conquer by
patience, in suffering for Christ, than to conquer our perse-
cutors in the field, by force of arms. O think on the saints*
triumphant boastings in their God : " God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble : therefore will
not we fear, though the earth be removed, aiid though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea?." When
his " enemies were many" and " wrested his words daily,*'
and " fought against him, and all their thoughts were against
him," yet he saith, " What time I am afraid, I will trust in
thee. In God I will praise his word ; in God I have put
my trust : I will not fear what flesh can do unto me^i.** Re-
member Christ's charge, " Be not afraid of them that kill
«» Luke XIV. 26. Matt. x. » Rom. v'vu 31. P Psal. xlvL 1—3.
1 Psal. Ivi. 1—5. ^K.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. Ill
the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But
I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : fear him, which af-
ter he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say
unto you. Fear him^" If all the world were on thy side,
thou might yet have cause to fear ; but to have God on thy
side, is infinitely more.
(2.) Jesus Christ is the Captain of thy salvation%and hath
gone before thee this way himself, and hath conquered for
thee I and now is engaged to make thee conqueror: and
darest thou not go on where Christ doth lead the way ? He
was perfected through suffering himself, and will see that
thou be not destroyed by it. Canst thou draw back, when
thou seest his steps, and his blood ?
(3.) Thou art not to conquer in thy own strength, but by
the Spirit of God, and the power of that grace, which is suf-
ficient for thee, and his strength, which appeareth most in
our weakness*. And you " can do all things through Christ
that strengtheneth" you" : " be of good cheer, he hath over-
come the world''."
(4.) All that are in heaven have gone this way, and over^
come such oppositions and difficulties as these. They were
tempted, troubled, scorned, opposed, as well as you ; and
yet they now triumph in glory. '* These are they that come
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are
they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
in his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne, shall dwell
among them^. And all that ever come to heaven, at age,
are like to come this way. And doth not the company en-
courage you? and the success of those that have overcome
before you? Will you have the end, and yet refuse the
way?
(5.) Consider how much greater difficulties ungodly men
go through to hell. They have stronger enemies than you
have: the devil and wicked men are your enemies ; but God
himself is theirs, and yet they will go on. Men threaten
but death, to discourage you ; and God threateneth damna-
tion, to discourage them ; and yet they go on, and are not
discouraged. And will you be more afraid of man, than
' Luke xii. 4 5. • Heb. ii. 10. * 2 Cor. xii. 9. " Phil. iv. 13.
« JohnxvLSS. T Rev. vii. 14. 15.
112 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
sinners are of God? and of death or scorns, than they are
of hell?
(6.) Yea, and you yourselves must cast your souls on
these greater evils, if by discouragement you turn from the
way of godliness. You must run into hell, for fear of burn-
ing ; and upon everlasting death, to escape a temporal death,
or less : you will choose God for your enemy, to escape the
enmity of man : and how wise a course this is, judge you ;
when, if you do but see that " your ways please God," he
can " make your enemies be at peace with you," if he see it
for your good^. If you will fear, fear him that can damn
the soul.
(7.) Lastly,. Remember what abundance of mercies you
have to sweeten your present life, and to make your burden
easy to you : you have all that is good for you in this life,
and the promise of everlasting joy : "for godliness" thus
** is profitable to all things^." What abundance of mercy,
have you in your bodies, estates, friends, names, or souls,
which are the greatest ! What promises and experiences to
refresh you ! What liberty of access to God ! A Christ to
rejoice in ! A heaven to rejoice in ! and yet, shall a stony or
dirty way, discourage you more, than these shall comfort
you?
The sum of all is, your work will grow easier and sweeter
to you, as your skill and strength increase. Your ene-
mies ai*e as grasshoppers before you : the power of the Al-
mighty is engaged, by love and promise, for your help : and
do you pretend to trust in God, and yet will fear the face of
man? " I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to
them that plucked oflP the hair : I hid not not my face from
shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me ; there-
fore shall I not be confounded : therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us
stand together : who is mine adversary ? let'him come near to
me. Behold, the Lord God will help me ; who is he that shall
condemn me ? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment ; the
moth shall eat them up*." "Hearken unto me, ye that
know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law ;
fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their
y Prov. xvi. r. « 1 Tim. iv. Qm£, * Isa. 1. 6—9.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 113
revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
and the worm shall eat them like wool : but my righteous-
ness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to
generation''." He is no soldier for Christ, that will turn
back for fear of scorns, or of any thing that man can do
against him.
And consider, whether heaven should be more easily
come to ? They are things of unspeakable glory that you
strive for : and they are unworthily despised, if any thing
be thought too good to part with for them, or any labour,
or difficulties, or sufferings too great to undergo to procure
them.
Direct. VII. * If it be in your power, live under a judi-
cious, faithful, serious, searching, powerful minister*'; and
diligently attend his public teaching, and use his private
counsel, for more particular directions and application, for
the settling and managing the affairs of your souls ; even
as you take the advice of physicians for your health, and of
lawyers for your estates, and tutors for your studies.*
I give this direction only to those that may enjoy so
^reat a mercy, if they will. Some live where no such mi-
nister is. Some are children, or servants, or wives, that are
bound, and cannot remove their habitations, or enjoy such
liberty, by reason of the unwillingness and restraint of others.
Some are so poor, that they cannot remove their dwelling,
for such advantages. And some are so serviceable in their
places, that they may be bound to stay under a very weak
minister, that they may do good to others, where they have
best opportunity. But let him that can be free, and pos-
»> Isa. li. 7, 8.
*= His maxirae utile est nSsse ita esse prmponendas verbis sententias, ut praepo-
nitur animus corpori: ex quo fit, ut ita malle debeant veriores quara disertiores audire
sermones, sicut malle debent prudentiores quam formosiores habere amicos. Nove-
rint etiara nou esse vocera ad aures Dei nisi animi affectum : ita enim non irridebunt
si aliquos antistites et ministros forte animadverterint vel cum barbarismis et soloecis-
mis Deum invocare, vel eadem verba quae pronunciant, non intelligere, perturbateque
distinguere. Vid. Filesacum de Episc. autorit. p. 103. Poenituit multos vanae ste-
rilisque, cathedrae. Juven. Sat. 7. 203. Ruperti. p. 195. Ttalis Ciceronianis sum
iniquior, quia tantum loquuntur verba, non res, et rhetorica ipsoram pleruraque est
Kohcouvrtxii: est glossa sine textu : nux sine nucleo: nubessine pluvi^. Plumas sunt
meliores quam avis ipsa. Bucholtzer, 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. libt 10.
Coiitrov.
VOL. II. I
114 CHRI8TIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
sess so great a mercy, accept it thankfully, though to his
cost. As Christ said in another case, " Every man cannot
receive the saying ; but he that can receive it, let him."
There is abundance of diflPerence betv^een a weak, un-
skilful, inexperienced, dead-hearted, formal teacher, and
such a one as is described in the Direction. Some that are
senseless or indifferent, in such matters as these, themselves,
would persuade you to be so too, and look first in your set-
tlement to your bodily conveniences, and be content with
such a teacher as accidentally you are cast upon. And
they will tell you, that the work of grace dependeth not on
the preacher's gifts, but on the gift, and blessing of the Spi-
rit of God. The Formalists and the Enthusiasts concur in
this, though from different principles. But though God
can frustrate the fittest means, and can work without means,
or by that which is least fitted to the end, yet it is his ordi-
nary way to work by means, and that for the soul, as well as
for the body ; and to work most by the aptest means. And,
I am sure, it is the duty of every teacher, to preach in the
fittest manner that he can, for the people's edification ; and
not to do God's work deceitfully, and inaptly, because God
can bless the unfittest means : audit is the people's duty to
attend upon the best they can enjoy, though God can equally
,work by the weakest, or by none. As that pretence will not
excuse the contemners of God's ordinances, that upon every
little business stay at home, and attend upon no ministry
at all ; no more will it excuse them, that refuse that help
that is most suited to their edification, and take up with a
worse, when they might have a better. We are not to neg-
lect duty, upon a presumptuous expectation of miraculous
or extraordinary works. When we Can have no better, we
may hope for the greater benefit from the weakest ; but not
when it is the choice of our own presumptuous, irreligious
hearts. God can make Daniel and his companions to thrive
better by eating pulse, than others that fed at the table of
the king : and rather than sin against God, we must cast
ourselves on him for unusual supplies, or leave all to his
will. But few would therefore be persuaded causelessly
to live on pulse, when they may have better. And one
would think this truth, should have no contradiction, espe-
cially from those men, that are apt to obscure and extenuate
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 115
the Spirit's operations on the soul, and to confess no gra'ce,
but what consisteth in a congruous ordination of means
and circumstances. When their doctrine layeth all a man'*
hopes of salvation, upon this congruity of means and cir-
cumstances, should they afterwards teach men to underva-
lue, or neglect the fittest, and wilfully cast their souls upon
the most unfit and unlikely means ? But ungodliness first
resolveth what to speak against, before it resolveth what to
say ; and will contradict God's word, though it contradict
its own ; and will oppose holiness, though by a self-op-
posing.
But the spiritual relish and experience of the godly, is a
very great preservative to them, against such deluding rea-
sonings as these. It is harder for a sophister, of greatest
subtlety or authority, to persuade him that hath tasted them,
that sugar is bitter, or wormwood sweet, than to persuade
him to believe it, that never tasted them. And it is hard to
make a healthful man believe, it is best for him to eat but
once a week, or best to live on grass, or snow. I doubt not,
but those that now I speak to, have such experience and per-
ception of the benefit of a judicious and lively ministry, in
comparison of the ignorant, cold, and lifeless, that no words
will make them indifferent herein. Have you not found the
ministry of one sort enlighten, and warm, and quicken, and
comfort, and strengthen you, much more than of the other ?
I am sure I have the common sense and experience of the
faithful on my side, in this, which were enough of itself,
against more than can be said against it. Even new-born
babes in Christ, have in their new natures, a desire, not to
senseless or malicious pratings, but to the rational, sincere
milk, {t6 \oyiKov aSoXov yaXa,) that they may grow by it, and
to perform to God a rational service **.
And it must needs be a very proud and stupid heart, that
can be so insensible of its own infirmity, sinfulness, and ne-
cessity, as to think the weakest, dullest Minister may serve
their turns ; and that they are able to keep up their life, and
vigour, and watchfulness, and fruitfulness, with any little,
ordinary help. I cannot but fear, such men know not what
the power and efficacy of the Word upon the heart and con-
science mean ; nof what it is, to live a life of faith and
^ Rom. xii. 1.
♦ 116 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
holiness, and to watch the heart, and walk with God. If they
did, they could not but find so much difficulty herein, and
so much backwardness and unskilfulness in themselves,
hereto, as would make them feel the necessity of the greatest
helps ; and, it could not be but they must feel the difterence,
between a clear and quickening sermon, and an ignorant,
heartless, dead discourse, that is spoken as if a man were
talking in his sleep, or of a matter that he never understood,
nor had experience of.
Alas ! how apt are the best to cool, if , they be not kept
warm by a powerful ministry ! How apt to lose the hatred
of sin, the tenderness of conscience, the fervency in prayer,
the zeal and fulness in edifying discourse, and the delights
and power of heavenly meditations, which before we had !
How apt is faith to stagger if it be not powerfully under-prop-
ed, by the helpers of our faith ! How hardly do we keep up
the heat of love, the confidence of hope, the resolution and
fulness of obedience, without the help of a powerful ministry !
Nay, how hardly do we do our part in these, in any tolerable
sort, even while we have the clearest, liveliest helps, that are
ordinarily to be had ! And can any, that are not blind, and
proud, imagine that they are so holy and good, that they are
above the necessity of such assistance ; and that the weakest
breath is enough to kindle the fire of holy love and zeal, and
keep them in the fear and obedience of God ? Alas ! we are
under languishing weakness, and must be dieted with the
best, or we shall soon decay ; we are cripples, and cannot go
or stand without our crutches. And there must be some sa-
vour of the Spirit in him, that will be fit to make us spiritual,
and some savour of faith and love in him, that would kindle
feith and love in us ; and he must speak clearly and con-
vincingly, that will be understood, and will prevail with such
as we ; and he must speak feelingly, that would make us
feel, and speak seriously, that would be much regarded by us,
and would make us serious.
And ministers are not set up only for public preaching,
but for private counsel also, according to our particular needs.
As physicians are not only to read you instructions for the
dieting and curing of yourselves ; but to be present in your
sickness, to direct you in the particular application of re-
medies. And as lawyers are to assist you in your particular
CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 117
cases, to free your estates from encumbrances/ and preserve
or rescue them from contentious men. Choose, therefore,
some able minister to be your ordinary counsellor in the
matters of God. And let him be one. that is humble, faith-
ftil, experienced, and skilful; that hath leisure, ability, and
willingness to assist you •.
As infants in a family are unable to help themselves, and
need the continual help of others, and therefore God hath put
into the hearts of parents a special love to them, to make
them diligent and patient in helping them : so is it in the
family of Christ ; most Christians, by far, are young or weak
in understanding and in grace. It is long before you will be
past'the need of others* help, if ever, in this life. If you feel
not this your infirmity and need, it is so much the greater.
God will have no men to be self-sufficient : we shall all have
need of one another, that we may be useful to one another ;
and God may use us as his messengers and instruments of
conveying his mercies to each other ; and that even self-love
may help us to be sociable, and to love one another. And
our souls must receive their part of mercy, by this way of
communication, as well as our bodies : and therefore, as the
poor, above all men, should not be against charity, and com-
municating, that need it most ; so young Christians that are
weak and unexperienced, above all others, should be mosjl
desirous of help, especially from an able, faithful guide. . ,
But be sure you deal sincerely, and cheat not yourselves,
by 'deceiving your counsellor, and hiding your case. To do
so by your lawyer, is the way to lose your suit ; and to do so
by your physician is tlie way to lose your life ; and to do so
with your pastor, and soul-counsellor is the way to lose your
souls. And let the judgment of your pastor or judicious
* Acosta noteth it as a great hiudrance of the Indians* conversion, that their
Teachera shift for belter livings, and stay not till they are well acquainted with the
people, and that the Bishops are of thesame temper : Hate tauta clades est aiuiuamiu,
ut satis deplorari non possit ; nihil sacerdos Christl prteclari profidet in salute Indo-
rum, sine familiari et hoiiiinum et rerum notititk. lib. iv, c 10. p. 390. Sunt auteni
inulti qui iojuncto munerc copiose se satis tacere esistiinant, orationem dominicau) el
sy wbolum et salutationem angelicam, tuni pnecepta decalogi Hispan. idiomate iden-
tideiu Indis recitnutes, eorum intantes baptixantes, mortuus se|>elientes, matriiiKmio
juvcnescollocantes, et rem sacram festis diebus facientes.— Neque coivscJenti^, quain
utiuain cauterixatam non habeant, mordentur quod dispersaa sint oves dornini, ^c
c T. p. 373.
118 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. " [PART I.
friend about the state of your souls, be much regarded by you,
though it be not infallible. How far such must be trusted,
1 am afterward to open to you, with other of your duties be-
longing to you in this relation, I now only proceed to ge-
neral advice.
Direct, viii. * Keep right apprehensions of the excel-
lency of charity and unity among believers, and receive no-
thing hastily that is against them ; especially take heed lest
under pretence of their authority, their number, their sound-
ness, or their holiness, you too much addict yourselves
to any sect or party, to the withdrawing of your special
love and just communion from other Christians, and turn-
ing your zeal to the interest of your party, with a neglect
of the common interest of the church ; but love a Chris-
tian as a Christian, and promote the unity and welfare of
them alls.*
Use often to read and well consider the meaning and
reason of those many urgent passages in Scripture, which
exhort all Christians to unity and love. Such as John xi.
62. xvii. 11. 21— 23. 1 Cor. iii. 10. 17. andxii. throughout:
2 Cor. xiii. 11. 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. Phil. ii. 1—3. 1 Pet.
iii. 8. Rom. xvi. 17. 1 Cor. i. 10. iii. 3. and xi. 18.
And John xiii. 35. Rom. xii. 9, 10. xiii. 10. 2 Cor. xiii.
11, Gal. V. 6, 13, 22. Col. i. 4. 1 Thess. iv. 9. 1 John
iii. 14. 23. and iv. 7, U. 16. 19, 20, 21. Surely, if the very
life of godliness lay not much in unity and love, we should
never have had such words spoken of it, as here you find.
Love is to the soul, as our natural heat is to the body :
whatever destroyeth it destroyeth life ; and therefore cannot
be for our good. Be certain, that opinion, course, or mo-
tion tends to death, that tends to abate your love to your
brethren, much more which under pretence of zeal, provok-
eth you to hate and hurt them. To divide the body is to
kill it, or to maim it : dividing the essential, necessary parts
is killing it : cutting off any integral part is maiming it.
The first can never be an act of friendship, which is the
worst that an enemy can do : the second is never an act of
friendship, but when the cutting off a member which may
be spared is of absolute necessity to the saving of the whole
man, from the worse division between soul and body. By
? Against uncharhableness and schism, see more in part ii. ch. 23.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 119
this judge what friends dividers are to the church, and how
well they are accepted of God.
He that loveth any Christian aright must needs love all
that appear to him as Christians. And when malice will
not sutifer men to see Christianity in its profession, and
credible appearance in another, this is as well contrary to
Christian love, as hating him when you know him to be a
true Christian. Censoriousness (not constrained by just
evidence) is contrary to love, as well as hatred is.
There is an union and communion with Christians as
such : this consisteth in having one God, one head, one
spirit, one faith, one baptismal covenant, one rule of holy
living, and in loving and praying for all, and doing good to
as many as we can. This is an union and communion of
mind, which we must hold with the catholic church through
the world. And there is a bodily, local union and commu-
nion, which consisteth in our joining in body, as well as
mind, with particular congregations : and this, as we can-
not hold it with all, nor with any congregation, but one at
once ; so we are not bound to hold it with any that will
drive us from it, unless we will commit some sin : statedly
we must hold it, with the church which regularly we are
joined to and live with ; and occasionally we must hold it
with all others, where we have a call and opportunity, wha
in the substance worship God according to his Word, and
force us hot to sin in conformity to them. It is not schism
to lament the sins of any church, or of all the churches in
the world : the catholic church on earth consists of sinners.
It is not schism to refuse to be partaker in any sin of the
purest church in the world : obedience to God is not schism.
It is not schism that you join not bodily with those congre-
gations where you dwell not, nor have any particular call to
join with them ; nor that you chuse the purest and most
edifying society, rather than one that is less pure and pro-
fitable to you ; * csBteris paribus,' supposing you are at li-
berty : nor that you hold not bodily communion with that
church, that will not suffer you to do it, without sinning
against God ; nor that you join not with the purest church,
when you are called to abide with one less pure.
But it is worse than schism to separate from the uni-
versal church: to separate from its faith is^ apostasy to
120 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
infidelity. To separate from it in some one or few essential
articles, while you pretend to hold to Christ the head is he-
resy : to separate from it in spirit, by refusing holiness, and
not loving such as are truly holy, is damning ungodliness
or wickedness : to differ from it by any error of judgment or
life, against the law of God, is sin. To magnify any one
church or party, so as to deny due love and communion to
the rest, is schism. To limit all the church to your party,
and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians, and parts
of the universal church, is schism by a dangerous breach of
charity ; and this is the principal schism that I here admo-
nish you to avoid. It is schism also to condemn unjustly
any particular church, as no church : and it is schism to
withdraw your bodily communion from a church that you
were bound to hold that communion with, upon a false
supposition that it is no church, or is not lawfully to be com-
municated with. And it is schism to make divisions or par-
ties in a church, though you divide not from that church.
Thus I have (briefly) told you what is schism.
1. One pretence for schism is (usurped) authority, which
some one church may claim to command others that owe
them no subjection. Thus pride, which is the spirit of hell,
having crept into the church of Christ, and animated to
usurpations of lordship and dominion, and contending for
superiority, hath caused the most dangerous schisms in
the church, with which it was ever infested. The bishop
of Rome (advantaged by the seat and constitution of that
empire) having claimed the government of all the Christian
world, condemneth all the churches that will not be his
subjects ; and so hath made himself the head of a sect, and
of the most pernicious schism that ever did rend the church
of Christ: and the bishop of Constantinople, and too
many more, have followed the same method in a lower de-
gree, exalting themselves above their brethren, and giving
them laws, and then condemning and persecuting them that
obey them not. And when they have imposed on other
churches their own usurped authority and laws, they have
laid the plot to call all men schismatics and sectaries, that
own not their tyrannical usurpation, and that will not be
schismatics and sectaries with them : and the cheat lieth in
this, that they confound the churches' unity with their pre-
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 121
tended authority, and schism with the refusal of subjection
to them. If you will not take them for your lords, they cry
out that you divide from the church : as if we could hold
communion with no churches, but those whose bishops we
obey ? Communion with other churches is maintained by
faith and charity, and agreement in things necessary, with-
out subjection to them. As we may hold all just commu-
nion with the churches in Armenia, Arabia, Russia, without
subjection to their bishops, so may we with any other
church besides that of which we are members. Division or
schism is contrary to unity and concord, and not to an
usurped government : though disobedience to the pastors
which God hath set over us is a sin, and dividing from them
is a schism. Both the Pope and all the lower usurpers
should do well first to shew their commission from God to
be our rulers, before they call it schism to refuse their go-
vernment. If they had not made better advantage of fire
and sword, than of Scripture and argument, the world would
not have laughed them to scorn, when they had heard them
to say, 'AH are schismatics that will not be our subjects :
our dominion and will shall be necessary to the unity of the
church.' The universal church indeed is one; united under
one head and governor : but it is only Jesus Christ who is
that head, and not any usurping vicar or Vice-Christ. The
bishops of particular churches are his ofl&cers ; but he hath
deputed no vicar to his own office, as the universal head.
Above all sects, take heed of this pernicious sect, who pre-
tend their usurped authority for their schism, and have no
way to promote their sect, but by calling all sectaries that
will not be sectaries and subjects unto them.
2. Another pretence for schism is the numbers of the
party. This is another of the Papists' motives : as if it
were lawful to divide the church of Christ, if they can but
get the greater party ? They say, * We are the most, and
therefore you should yield to us :' (and so do others, where
by the sword they force the most to submit to them.) But
we answer them. As many as they are, they are too few to
be the universal church. The universal church, containing
all true, professing Christians, is much more than they.
The Papists are not a third part, if a fourth, of the whole
church. Papists are a corrupted sect of Christians : I will
12^ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAfiT I.
be against dividing the body of Christ into any sects,
rather than to be one of that sect or divided party, which is
the greatest.
3. Another pretence for schism is the soundness or or-
thodoxness of a party. Almost all sects pretend that they
are wiser and of sounder judgment than all the Christian
world besides : yea, Ihose that most palpably contradict the
Scriptures (as the Papists in their half-communion and un-
intelligible service), and have no better reason why they so
believe or do, but because others have so believed and done
already.
But (1.) the greatest pretenders to orthodoxness are not
the most orthodox : (2.) and if they were, I can value them
for that which they excel, without abating my due respect
to the rest of the church. (3.) For the whole church is ortho-
dox in all the essentials of Christianity, or else they were
not Christians : and I must love all that are Christians with
that special love that is due to the members of Christ, though
I must superadd such esteem for those that are a little wiser
or better than others, as they deserve.
4. The fourth pretence for schism, is the holiness of the
party that men adhere to. But this must make but a gra-
dual difference, in our esteem and love to some Christians
above others : if really they are most holy, I must love them
most, and labour to be as holy as they ; but I must not
therefore unjustly deny communion, or due respect, to other
Christians that are less holy ; nor cleave to them as a sect
or divided party, whom I esteem most holy. For the ho-
liest are most charitable, and most against the divisions
among Christians, and tenderest of their unity and peace.
The sum of this direction is : 1 . Highly value Christian
love and unity: 2. Love those most that are most holy,
and be most familiar with them, for your own edification :
and if you have your choice, hold local personal commu-
nion, with the soundest, purest, and best qualified church.
3. But entertain not hastily any odd opinion of a divided
party ; or, if you do hold it as an opinion, lay not greater
weight on it, than there is cause. 4. Own the best as best,
but none as a divided sect ; and espouse not their dividing
interest. 5. Confine not your special love to a party ; es-
pecially for agreeing in some opinions with you ; but extend
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 123
it'to all the members of Christ. 6. Deny not local commu-
nion, when there is occasion for it, to any church that hath
the substance of true worship, and forceth you not to 'sin.
7. Love them as true Christians and churches, even when
they thus drive you from their communion.
It is a most dangerous thing to a young convert, to be
ensnared in a sect : it will, before you are aware, possess
you with a feverish, sinful zeal, for the opinions and inte-
rest of that sect ; it will make you bold in bitter invectives
and censures, against those that differ from them ; it will
corrupt your church-communion, and fill your very prayers
with partiality and human passions ; it will secretly bring
malice, under the name of zeal, into your minds and words :
in a word, it is a secret, but deadly enemy to Christian love
and peace. Let them that are wiser, and more orthodox and
godly than others, shew it, as the Holy Ghost directeth
them : ** Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge
among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his
works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter en-
vying (or zeal) 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 (or tumult), and every evil
work. But the wisdom that is from above, is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mer-
cy and good fruits, without partiality (or wrangling), and
without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown
in peace of them that make peace''."
Direct, ix. ' Take heed lest any persecution or wrong
from others, provoke you to any unwarrantable passions and
pjaoticps, and deprive you of the charity, meekness, and
innocency of a Christian ; or make you go beyond your
bounds, in censuring, reviling, or resisting your rulers, who
are the officers of God.'
Persecution and wrongs are called temptations in Scrip-
ture, because they try you, whether you will hold your in-
tegrity. As many fall in such trials, through the fear of
men, and the love of the world, and their prosperity ; so
when you seem most confirmed against any sinful com-
pliance, there is a snare laid for you on the other side, to
h James iii. l3 — 18.
124 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
draw you into passions and practices, that are unwarran-
table.
Those that are tainted with pride, uncharitableness, and
schism, will itch to be persecuting those that comply not
with them in their way : and yet, while they do it, they will
most cry out against pride, uncharitableness, and schism
themselves. This is, and hath been, and will be too ordina-
ry in the world. You may think that schism should be far
from them, that seem to do all for order and unity. But
never look to see this generally cured, when you have said
and done the best you can : you must, therefore, resolve,
not only to fly from church-division yourselves, but also to
undergo the persecutions or wrongs of proud or zealous
church-dividers. It is great weakness in you, to think such
usage strange : do you not know that enniity is put, from
the beginning, between the woman's and the serpent's seed ?
And do you think the name, or dead profession of Christiani-
ty, doth extinguish the enmity in the serpent's seed ? Do
you think to find more kindness from proud, ungodly Chris-
tians, than Abel might have expected from his brother
Cain ? Do you not know that the Pharisees (by their
zeal for their pre-eminence, and traditions, and cere-
monies, and the expectation of worldly dignity and rule
from the Messiah,) were more zealous enemies of Christ,
than the heathens were ? and that the carnal members of
the church, are oft the greatest persecutors of the spiritual
members ? "As then he that was born after the flesh, did
persecute him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is
now'" (and will be). It is enough for you, that you shall
have the inheritance, when the sons of the bondwoman shall
be cast out. It is your taking the ordinary case of the god-
ly for a strange thing, that makes you so disturbed and pas-
sionate, when you suffer : and reason is down, when passion
is up. It is by overwhelming reason with passion and dis-
content, that '* oppression maketh" some " wise men mad'' :"
for passion is a short, imperfect madness. You will think
in your passion, that you do well, when you do ill ; and you
will not perceive the force of reason, when it is ever so
plain and full against you. Remember, therefore, that the
great motive that causeth the devil to persecute you is not
♦ Gal. iv. 29. k Eccles. vii. 7.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 125
to hurt your bodies^ but to tempt your souls to impatiency
and sin : and if it may be said of you as of Job, ** In all
this Job sinned notV' you have got the victory, and are
" more than conquerors ™."
Doth it seem strange to you, that " few rich men are
saved,'^ when Christ telleth you it is *' so hard," as to be
*' impossible with men " ?" Or is it strange, that rich men
should be the ordinary rulers of the earth ? Or is it strange,
that the wicked should hurt the godly, and the world hate
them that are " chosen out of the world ?" What of all this
should seem strange ? Expect it as the common lot of the
faithful, and you will be better prepared for it.
See therefore that you " resist not evil ^''^ (by any re-
vengeful, irregular violence) : *' Let every soul be subject
to the higher powers, and not resist lest they receive dam-
nation p." Imitate your Lord, that " when he was reviled,
reviled not again ; when he suffered he threatened not, but
committed all to him that judgeth righteously ; leaving us
an ensample, that we should follow his steps •!." An angry
zeal against those that cross and hurt us is so easily kindled
and hardly suppressed, that it appeareth there is more in it
of corrupted nature than of God. We are very ready to
think that we may " call for fire from heaven " upon the ene-
mies of the Gospel : but ** you know not what manner of
spirit ye are then of '^.^ But Christ saith unto you, " Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use
you, and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven \" You find no such prohibition
against patient suffering wrong from any. Take heed of
giving way to secret wishes of hurt to your adversaries, or
to return reproachful words against them : take heed of
hurting yourself by passion or sin, because others hurt you
by slanders or persecutions. Keep you in the way of your
duty, and leave your names and lives to God. Be careful
that you keep your innocency, and in your patience possess
your souls, and God will keep you from any hurt from
enemies, but what he will cause to work for your good.
1 Job i. 22. "* Rom. viii. 37—39. " Luke xviii. 27.
« Matt. V. 39. P Rom. xiii. 1—3. i 1 Pet. ii. 21. 23.
r Luke ix. 55: * Matt. v. 44, 45.
126 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Read Pslam xxxvii. " Commit thy way unto the Lord ;
trust also in him ; and he shall bring it to pass. And he
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy
judgment as the noon-day. Rest in the Lord, and wait pa-
tiently for him : fret not thyself because of him who pros-
pereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth
wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake
wrath : fret not thyself in anywise to do evil*."
Direct, x. * When you are repenting of, or avoiding any
extreme, do it not, without sufficient fear and caution of the
contrary extreme.'
In the esteem and love of God, your ultimate end, you
need not fear overdoing : nor any where, when impediments
and backwardness or impotency, do tell you that you can
never do too much. But sin lieth on both sides the rule
and way : and nothing is more common, than to turn from
one sin to another, under the name of duty or amendment.
Especially this is common in matter of opinion : some will
first believe, that God is nothing else but mercy, and after,
take notice of nothing but his justice. First, they believe
that almost all are saved, and afterwards, that almost none :
fitst, that every profession is credible, and next, that none
is credible without some greater testimony : first, that Christ
satisfied for none at all that will not be saved, and next, that
he died for all alike : first, that none are now partakers of
the Holy Spirit ; and next, that all saints have the Spirit, not
only to illuminate and sanctify them, by transcribing the
written Word upon their hearts ; but also to inspire them
with new revelations, instead of Scripture. First, they think
that all that Papists hold or do, must be avoided ; and after,
that there needed no reformation at all. Now, they are for
legal bondage, and anon for libertinism : to-day, for a liberty
in religion to none, that agree not with them in every circum-
stance ; and to-morrow, for a liberty to all : this year, all
things are lawful to them ; and the next year, nothing is
lawful, but they scruple all that they say or do. One while,
they are all for a worship of mere show and ceremony ; and
another while, against the determination of mere circum-
stances of order and decency, by man. One while, they cry
up nothing but free grace ; and another while, nothing but
t Psal. xxxvii. 5—8.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 127
free will. One while, they are for a discipline stricter than
the rule ; and another while, for no discipline at all. First,
for timorous compliance with evil; and afterwards, for
boisterous contempt of government. Abundance of such
instances we might give you.
The remedy against this disease, is, to proceed delibe-
rately, and receive nothing, and do nothing rashly and un-
advisedly in religion. For, when you have found out your
first error, you will be affrighted from that, into the contrary
error. See that you look round about you ; as well to the
error that you may run into on the other side, as into that
which you have run into already. Consult also with wise,
experienced men : and mark their unhappiness, that have
fallen on both sides ; and stay not to know evil by sad ex-
perience. True mediocrity is the only way that is safe :
though negligence and lukewarmness be odious, even when
cloaked with that name.
Direct, xi. * Let not your first opinions, about the con-
troverted difficulties in religion, where Scripture is not very
plain, be too peremptory, confident, or fixed ; but hold them
modestly, with a due suspicion of your unripe understand-
ings, arid with room for further information, supposing it
possible, or probable, that upon better instruction, evidence,
and maturity, you may, in such things, change your minds.'
I know, the factious, that take Up their religion on the
credit of their party, are against this Direction : thinking
that you must first hit on the right church, and then hold,
all that the church doth hold ; and therefore change your
mind in nothing, which you this way receive. I knoW, also,
that some libertines and half believers, would corrupt this
Direction, by extending it to the most plain and necessary
truths ; persuading you to hold Christianity itself, but as an
uncertain, probable opinion.
But, as God's foundation standeth sure, so we must be
surely built on his foundation. He that believeth not the
essentials of Christianity, as a certain, necessary revelation
of God, is not a Christian, but an infidel. And he that be-
lieveth not all that he understandeth in the Word of God,
believeth nothing on the credit of that Word. Indeed faith
hath its weakness, on those that are sincere ; and they are
fain to lament the remnants of unbelief, and cry, " Lord in-
128 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
crease our faith : help thou our unbelief." But he that ap-
proveth of his doubting, and would have it so, and thinks the
revelation is uncertain, and such as v^^ill warrant no firmer a
belief, I should scarcely say, this man is a Christian. Chris-
tianity must be received as of divine, infallible revelation.
But controversies about less necessaiy things, cannot be de-
termined peremptorily, by the ignorant or young beginners,
without hypocrisy, or a human faith going under the name
of a Divine. I am far from abating your Divine belief of
all that you can understand in Scripture, and implicitly of
all the rest in general. And I am far from diminishing the
credit of any truth of God. But the reasons of this Direc-
tion, are these,
1 . When it is certain that you have but a dark, uncertain
apprehension of any point, to think it is clear and certain,
is but to deceive yourselves by pride. And, to cry out
against all uncertainty, as scepticism, which yet you cannot
lay aside, is but to revile your own infirmity, and the common
infirmity of mankind, and foolishly to suppose that every
man can be as wise and certain, when he list, as he should be.
Now reason and experience will tell you, that a young, un-
furnished understanding, is not like to see the evidence of
difficult points, as, by nearer approach, and better advantage
it may do.
2. If your conclusions be peremptory, upon mere self-
conceitedness, you may be in an error for aught you know :
and so you are but confident in an error. And then how far
may you go in seducing others, and censuring dissenter's, and
come back when you have done, and confess that you were
all this while mistaken yourselves.
3. For a man to be confident that he knoweth what he
knoweth not, is but the way to keep him ignorant, and shut
the door against all means of further information. When
the opinion is fixed by prejudice and conceit, there is no
ready entrance for the light.
4. And, to be ungroundedly confident, so young, is not
only to take up with your teacher's word, instead of a faith
and knowledge of your own, but also to forestall all diligence
to know more : and so you may lay by all your studies, save
only to know what those men hold, whose judgments are
your religion : too popish and easy a way to be safe.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 129
5. If. you must never change your first opinions or ap-
prehensions, how will you grow in understanding? Will
you be no wiser at age, than you were at childhood, and
after long study and experience, than you were before ? Na-
ture and grace do tend to increase. -i oih 'io
Indeed, if you should be never so peremptory in your
opinions, you cannot resolve to hold them to the end : for
light is powerful, and may change you whether you will or
no : you cannot tell what that light will do, which you never
saw. But prejudice will make you resist the light, and make
it harder for you to understand.
I speak this upon much experience and observation.
Our first, unripe apprehensions of things, will certainly be
greatly changed, if we are studious, and of improved under-
standings. Study the controversies about grace and free-
will, or about other such points of difficulty, when you are
young, and it is two to one that ripeness will afterward make
them quite another thing to you. For my own part, my
judgment is altered from many of my youthful, confident
apprehensions : and where it holdeth the same conclusion,
it rejecteth abundance of the arguments, as vain, which once
it rested in. And where I keep to the same conclusions and
aro-uments, my apprehension of them is not the same, but I
see more satisfying light in many things, which I took but
upon trust before. And if I had resolved to hold to all my
first opinions, I must have forborne most of my studies, and
lost much truth, which I have discovered, and not made that
my own, which I did hold : and I must have resolved to live
and die a child.
The sum is. Hold fast the substance of religion, and every
clear and certain truth, which you see in its own evidence :
and also reverence your teachers ; especially the universal
church, or the generality of wise and godly men ; and be not
hasty to take up any private opinion : , and especially to con-
tradict the opinionof your governors and teachers, in small
and controverted things. But yet, in such matters, receive
their opinions but with a human faith, till indeed you have
more, and therefore, with a supposition, that time and study
is very like to alter your apprehensions ; and with a reserve,
impartially to study, and entertain the truth, and not, to sit
still just where you were born.
VOL. II. K
130 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAKT I.
Direct, xii. 'If controversies occasion any divisions
where you live, be sure to look first to the interest of common
truth and good, and to the exercise of charity. And become
not passionate contenders for any party in the division, or
censurers of the peaceable, or of your teachers, that will not
over-run their own understandings, to obtain with you the
esteem of being orthodox or zealous men ; but suspect your
own unripe understandings, and silence your opinions till
you are clear and certain ; andjoin rather with the moderate
and the peacemakers, than vdth the contenders and dividers.'
You may easily be sure, that division tendeth to the ruin
of the church, and the hindrance of the Gospel, and the in-
jury of the common interest of religion". You know it is
greatly condemned in the Scriptures. You may know that
it is usually the exercise, and the increase of pride, unchari-
tableness, and passion ; and that the devil is best pleased
with it, as being the greatest gainer by it. But, on the other
side> you are not easily certain which party is in the right :
and if you were, you are not sure that the matter will be
worth the cost of the contention : or if it be, it is to be con-
sidered, whether the truth is not like to get more advantage
by managing it in a more peaceful way, that hath no conten-
tion, nor stirreth up other men so much against it, as the
way of controversy doth. And whatever it prove, you may
and should know> that young Christians, that want both
parts, and helps, and time, and experience to be thoroughly
seen in controversies, are very unfit to make themselves
parties ; and that they are yet more unfit to be the hottest
leaders of these parties, and to spur on their teachers, that
know more than they. If the work be fit for another to do,
that knoweth on what ground he goeth, and can foresee the
end, yet certainly it is not fit for you. And therefore for-
bear it till you are more fit.
I know those that would draw you into such a conten-
tious zeal, will tell you, that their cause is the cause of God,
and that you desert him and betray it, if you be not zealous
in it : and that it is but the counsel of flesh and blood which
maketh you pretend moderation and peace : and that it is a
sign that you are hypocrites, that are so lukewarm, and car-
^ Stoici dicunt cum nemine stultorum esse litigandum : oranesque stultos insa-
nire. Diog. Laert, in Zenone, lib. viii^ Segm. 124.~ p. 444.
CHAP, ir] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. J31
nally comply with error : and that the cause of God is to be
followed with the greatest zeal and self-denial. And all
this is true, if you be but sure that it is indeed the cause of
God ; and that the greater works of God be not neglected
on such pretences ; and that your zeal be much greater for
faith, and charity, and unity, than for your opinions. But
upon great experience, I must tell you, that of the zealous
contenders * in the world, that cry up * The cause of God, and
Truth,' there is not one of very many, that understandeth
what he talks of; but some of them cry up the cause of God,
when it is a brat of a proud and ignorant brain, and such as
a judicious person would be ashamed of. And some of them
are rashly zealous, before they have parts or time to come to
any judicious trial. And some of them are misguided by
some person or party, that captivateth their minds. And
some of them are hurried away by passion and discontent.
And many of the ambitious and worldly are blinded by their
carnal interests. And many of them in mere pride, think
highly of an opinion, in which they are somewhat singular,
and which they can, with some glorying, call their own, as
either invented by them, or that, in which they think they
know more than ordinary men do. And abundance, after
long experience, confess that to have been their own erro-
neous cause, which they before entitled the cause of God.
Now when this is the case, and one crieth, * Here is Christ,'
and another, * There is Christ ;' one saith, * This is the cause
of God,' and another saith, * That is it ;' no man that hath
any care of his conscience, or of the honour of God and his
profession, will leap before he looketh where he shall alight ;
* Consuming zeal, doth use at lasttoburn up the ownerj of jU. Whatever they
say or do against others, in their intemperate violence, they teacb others at la^t to
say and do against tliera, when they have opportunity. How the orthodox tauglit
the Arians to use severity against them, may be seen in Victor. Utic. p. 447 — 449.
in the edict of Hannerychus : Legem quam dudum Caristiani Imperatores nostri
contra eos et alios hzereticos pro honorificentia JEcclesiaj Catholicae dederunt, advcr-
sas nos illi proponere non erubuerunt. v. g. Rex Hun.&c. TriumphalisetMajes-
tatis Regiae probatur esse virtutis, mala in autores consilia retorquere : quisquis
enim pravitatis aliquid invenerit, sibi imputet quod inpurret. Nullos conventus ho-
mousion Sacerdotes assumant, nee aliqujd raysteriorum, quae magis polluunt, sibi
vindicent. Nullam habeant ordinandi licentiam. Quod ipsaruralegura continentia
demonstratur quas induxisse Imperatoribus, &c. viz. ut nulla, exceptis superstilionis
suae antistitibus, Ecclesia pateret; nuUis liceretaliisaut convictusagere, autexercerc
conventus, nee Ecclesias, aut in urbibus, aut in quibusdam minimb locis.
132 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
or run after every one, that "will whistle him with the name
or pretence of truth or a good cause. It is a sad thing to go
on many years together in censuring, opposing, and abusing
those that are against you, and in seducing others, and mis-
employing your zeal, and parts, and time, and poisoning all
your prayers and discourses, and in the end to see what mis-
chief you have done for want of knowledge, and with Paul
to confess, that you were mad in opposing the truth and ser-
vants of God, though you did it in a zeal of God through
ignorance. Were it not much better to stay till you have
tried the ground, and prevent so many years grievous sin,
than to escape by a sad repentance, and leave behind you
stinking and venomous fruits of your mistake ? And worse,
if you never repent yourselves. Your own and your brethren's
souls, are not so lightly to be ventured upon dangerous, un-
tried ways. It will not make the truth and church amends,
to say at last, * I had thought I had done well.' Let those
go to the wars of disputing, and contending, and censuring,
and siding with a sect, that are riper, and better understand
the cause : wars are not for children. Do you suspend your
judgment till you can solidly and certainly inform it; and
serve God in charity, quietness, and peace, and it is two to
one, but you will live to see the day, that the contenders
that would have led you into their wars, will come off with
so much loss themselves, as will teach them to approve your
peaceable course ; or teach you to bless God that kept you
in your place and duty.
In all this, I deny not, but every truth of God is to be
valued at a very high rate : and that he that shall carry him-
self in a neutrality, when faith or godliness is the matter in
controversy, or shall do it merely for his worldly ends, to
save his stake by temporizing, is a false-hearted hypocrite,
and at the heart, of no religion. But withal I tell you, that
all is not matter of faith or godliness, that the Autonomian-
Papist, the Antinomian-Libertine, or other passionate parties
shall call so.' And, that as we must avoid contempt of the
smallest truth, so we must much more avoid the most heinous
sins, which we may commit for the defending of an error.
And, that some truths must be silenced for a time, though
not denied, when the contending for them is unseasonable,
and tendeth to the injury of the church. If you were mas-
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 133
ters in the church, you must not teach your scholars to their
hurt, though it be truth you teach them. And if you were
physicians, you must not cram them, or medicate them to
their hurt. Your power and duty is not to destruction, but
to edification. The good of the patient is the end of your
physic. All truth is not to be spoken, nor all good to be
done, by all men, nor at all times. He that will do contrary,
and take this for a carnal principle, doth but call folly and
sin by the name of zeal and duty, and set the house on fire
to roast his egg, and with the Pharisees, prefer the outward
rest of their sabbath, before his brother's life or health.
Take heed what you do when God*s honour, and men's souls,
and the church's peace are concerned in it.
And let me tell you my own observation. As far as my
judgment hath been able to reach, the men that have stood
for pacification and moderation, have been the most judi-
cious, and those that have best understood themselves, in
most controversies that ever I heard under debate among
good Christians : and those that furiously censured them as
lukewarm or corrupted, have been men that had least judg-
ment, and most passion, pride, and foul mistakes in the
points in question.
Nay, I will tell you more of my observation, of which
these times have given us too much proof. Profane and for-
mal enemies on the one hand, and ignorant, self-conceited
wranglers on the other hand, who think they are champions
for the truth, when they are venting their passions and fond
opinions, are the two thieves, between whom the church hath
suffered, from the beginning to this day. The first are the
persecutors, and the other the dividers and disturbers of the
church. Mark what the Holy Ghost saith in this case,
" But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that
they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must
not strive ; but be gentle unto all men y." " Do all things
without murmurings and disputings : that ye may be blame-
less and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the
midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom
ye shine, as lights in the world V " If any man teach other-
wise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is ac-
y 2 Tim. ii. 23, 24. * Phil. ii. 14, 15.
134 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART T,
cording to godliness ; he is proud, knowing nothing, but
doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh
envy, strife, railings, evil-surmisings, perverse disputings of
men of corrupt minds, &,c. ^" " Neither give heed to fables
and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather
than godly edifying, which is in faith : now the end of the
commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good
conscience, and faith unfeigned ^"
Yet I must here profess, that if any false-hearted, worldly
hypocrite, that resolveth to be on the saving side, and to
hold all to be lawful, thelt seemeth necessary to his safety or
preferments, shall take any encouragement from what I have
here said, to debauch his conscience, and sell his soul, and
then call all those furious zealots that will not be as felse to
God as he ; let that man know, that I have given him no
cloak for so odious a sin, nor will he find a cover for it at
the bar of God, though he may delude his conscience, and
bear it out by his carnal advantages before the warld.
Direct, xiii. * Know that true godliness is the best life
upon earth, and the only way to perfect happiness. Still
apprehend it therefore, and use it as the best : and with great
diligence resist those temptations which would make it
seem to you a confounding, grievous, or unpleasant thing/
There are all things concurrent in a holy life, to make it
the most delectable life on earth, to a National, purified mind,
that is not captivated to the flesh, and liveth not on air or
dung. The object of it is the eternal God himself ; the in-
fallible Truth, the only satisfactory good ; and all these
condescending and appearing to us, in the mysterious, but
suitable glass of a Mediatot ; redeeming, reconciling, teach-
ing, governing, sanctifying, justifying and glorifying all
that are his own. The end of it is the pleasing and glorify-
ing our Maker, Redeemer and Sanctifier ; and the everlast-
ing happiness of ourselves and others. The rule of it is the
infallible Kevelation of God, delivered to the church by his
Prophets, and his Son, and his Apostles, and comprised in
the Holy Scriptures, and sealed by the miracles and opera-
tions of the Holy Ghost that did indite them. The work
of godliness is a living unto God, and preparing for ever-
lasting life, by foreseeing, foretasting, seeking, and rejoicing
• 1 Tim.iU. 3-6. •'1 Tira. i. 4, 5.
CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 135
in that endless happiness which we shall have with God ;
and by walking after the Spirit; and avoiding the filthiness,
delusions and "Taxations of the world and the flesh. The
nature of man is not capable of a more noble, profitable and
delectable life, than this which God hath called us to by his
Son. And if we did but rightly know it, we should follow
it with continual alacrity and delight. Be sure, therefore,
to conceive of godliness as it is, and not as it is misrepre-
sented by the devil and the ungodly. Read what I have
written of this in my " A Saint or a Brute."
As long as a man conceiveth of religion as it is, even
the most sweet and delectable life, so long he will follow it
willingly and with his heart, and despise the temptations
and avocations of fleshly gain and pleasure. He will be
sincere, as not being only drawn by other men, or outward
advantages, nor frightened into it by a passion of fearful-
ness, but loving religion for itself, and for its excellent
ends ; and then he will be cheerful in all th^ duties of it ;
and he will be most likely to persevere unto the end. We
cannot expect that the heart or will should be any more for
God and godliness, than the understanding practically ap-
prehendeth them as good. Nay, we must always perceive
in them a transcendant goodness, above all that is to be
Jound in a worldly life ; or else the appearing goodness of
the creature, will divert us, and carry away our minds. We
may see in the very brutes, what a power apprehension hath
upon their actions. If your horse be but going to his home
or pasture, how freely will he go through thick and thin !
But if he go unwillingly, his travel is troublesome and slow,
and you have much ado to get him on. It will be so with
you in your way to heaven.
It is therefore the principal design of the devil, to hide
the goodness and pleasantness of religion from you ; and to
make it appear to you as a terrible or tedious life. By this
means it is that he keeps men from it : and by this means
he is still endeavouring to draw you back again, and frus-
trate your good beginnings and your hopes. If he can thus
misrepresent religion to vyour understandings, he will sud-
denly alienate your will and corrupt your lives, and make
you turn to the world again, and seek for pleasure some-
where else, and only take up with some heartless lip-service.
136 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
to keep up some deceitful hope of being saved. And the
means which satan useth to these ends are such as these :
1 . He will do his worst to overwhelm you with appear-
ing doubts and difficulties, and bring you to a loss, and to
make religion seem to you a confounding, and not a satisfy-
ing thing. This is one of his most dangerous assaults upon
the weak and young beginners. Difficulties and passions
are the things which he makes use of to confound you, and
put you out of a regular, cheerful seeking of salvation.
When you read the Scriptures, he will mind you of abun-
dance of difficulties in all you read or hear. He will shew
you seeming contradictions ; and tell you that you will
never be able to understand these things. He will cast in
thoughts of unbelief and blasphemy, and cause you, if he
can, to roll them in your mind. If you cast them not out
with abhorrence, but dispute with the devil, he hopes to
prove too hard, at least, for such children and unprovided
soldiers as you : and if you do reject them, and refuse to dis-
pute it with him, he will sometime tell you that your
cause is naught, or else you need not be afraid to think of
all that can be said against it ; and this way he gets advan-
tage of you to draw you to unbelief: and if you escape
better than so, at least he will molest and terrify you with
the hideousness of his temptations ; and make you think
that you are forsaken of God, because such blasphemous
thoughts have been so often in your minds : and thus he
will one while tempt you to blasphemy, and another while
affiright and torment you with the thoughts of such temp-
tations.
So, also, in the study of other good books, he will tempt
you to fix upon all that seems difficult to you, and there to
confound and perplex yourselves : and in your meditations,
he will seek to make all to tend, but to confound and
overwhelm you ; keeping still either hard or fearful things
before yaur eyes ; or breaking and scattering your thoughts
in pieces, that you cannot reduce them to any order,
nor set them together, nor make any thing of them,
nor drive them to any desirable end. So in your prayers
he would fain confound you, either with fears, or with
doubtful or distracting thoughts about God, or your sins,
or the matter or manner of your duty, or questioning whe-
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 137
ther your prayers will be heard. And so in your self-ex-
mination, he will still seek to puzzle you, and leave you
more in darkness than you began, and make you afraid of
looking homeward, or conversing with yourselves : like a
man that is afraid to lie in his own house when he thinks it
haunted with some apparitions. And thus the devil would
make all your religion to be but like the unwinding of the
bottom of yarn, or a skein of silk that is ravelled ; that you
may cast it away in weariness and despair.
Your remedy against this dangerous temptation is, to '
remember that you are yet young in knowledge, and that
ignorance is like darkness that will cause doubts, and diffi-
culties, and fears ; and that all these will vanish as your
light increaseth : and therefore you must wait in patience,
till your riper knowledge fit you for satisfaction. And in
the mean time, be sure that you take up your hearts most
with the great, fundamental, necessary, plain and certain
points, which your salvation is laid upon, and which are
more suited to your state -and strength. ' If you will be
gnawing bones, when you should be sucking milk, and
have not patience to stay till you are past your childhood,
no marvel if you find them hard, and if they stick in your
throats, or break your teeth. See that you live upon God
in Christ, and love and practise what you know, and think
of the excellency of so much as is already revealed to you.
You know already what is the end that you must seek, and
where your happiness consisteth; and what Christ hath
done to prepare it for you, and how you must be justified,
and sanctified, and walk with God. Have you God, and
Christ, and heaven to think on, and all the mercies of the
Gospel to delight in ; and will you lay by these as common
matters. Or overlook them, and perplex yourselves about
every difficulty in your way ? Make clean work before you /
as you go, and live in the joyful acknowledgment of the
mercies which you have received, and in the practice of the
things you know, and then the difficulties will vanish as
you go on.
2. Another of satan's wiles is, to confound you with the
noise of sectaries, and divers opinions in religion ; while
the Popish sect tells you, that if you will be saved, you
must be of their church ; and others say, you must be of
138 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
theirs : and when you find that the sects are many, and
their reasonings such as you cannot answer, you will be in
danger either to take up some of their deceits, or to be
confounded among them all, not knowing which church
and religion to choose.
But here consider, that there is but one universal church
of Christians in the world, of which Christ is the only king
and head, and every Christian is a member. You were sa-
cramentally admitted into this catholic church by baptism,
and spiritually by being " born of the Spirit." You have
all the promises of the Gospel, that if you believe in
Christ you shall be saved ; and that all the living members
of this church are loved by Christ as members of his body,
and shall be presented unspotted to the Father, by him who
is the Saviour of his body *= ; " and that by one Spirit we
are all baptized or entered into this one body ^" If then
thou hast faith, and love, and the Spirit, thou art certainly
a Christian, and a member of Christ, and of this universal
church of Christians. And if there were any other church,
but what are the parts of this one, then this were not uni-
versal, and Christ must have two bodies. Thou art not
saved for being a member 6f the church of Rome, or Corinth,
or Ephesus, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, or of any other
such ; but for being a member of the universal church or
body of Christ ; that is, a Christian. And as thou art a
subject of the king, and a member of this kingdom, what-
ever corporation thou be a member of (perhaps sometime of
one, and sometime of another) ; so thou art a subject of
Christ, whatever particular church thou be of : for it is no
church if they be not Christians, or subjects of Christ. For
one sect then to say, Ours is the true church, and another to
say. Nay, but ours is the true church, is as mad as to dis-
pute whether your hall, or kitchen, or parlour, or coal-house
is your house ; and for one to say. This is the house, and
another. Nay, but it is that : when a child can tell them,
that the best is but a part, and the house containeth them
all. And for the Papists that take on them to be the
whole, and deny all others to be Christians and saved, ex-
cept the subjects of the Pope of Rqme, it is so irrational,
anti christian a fiction and usurpation, and odious, cruel,
c Ephes. V. 23—27, <> 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 139
and groundless a damnation of the far greatest part of the
body of Christ, that it is fitter for detestation than dispute.
And if such a crack would frighten the world out of their
wits, no doubt but other bishops also would make use of it,
and say. All are damned that will not be subject to us. But
if you would see the folly and mischief of Popery, both in
this and other points, I refer you to my " Treatise of the Ca-
tholic Church f my " Key for Catholics ;" my " Safe Re-
ligion;" my ** Disputations against Johnson;" and my
" Winding-Sheet for Popery."
3. Another temptation to confound you in your religion,
is, by filling your heads with practical scrupulosity ; so that
you cannot go on for doubting every step whether you go
right : and when you should cheerfully serve your Master,
you will do nothing but disquiet your minds with scruples,
whether this or that be right or wrong. Your remedy here
is, not by casting away all care of pleasing God, or fear of
sinning, or by debauching conscience ; but by a cheerful
and quiet obedience to God, so far as you know his will, and
an upright willingness and endeavour to understand it bet-
ter, and a thankful receiving the Gospel pardon for your
failings and infirmities. Be faithful in your obedience ; but
live still upon Christ, and think not of reaching to any such
obedience, as shall set you above the need of his merits, and
a daily pardon of your sins. Do the best you can to know
the will of God and do it. But when you know the essen-
tials of religion, and obey sincerely, let no remaining wants
deprive you of the comfort of so great a mercy, as proves
your right to life eternal. In your seeking further for more
knowledge and obedience, let your care be such as tendeth
to your profiting, and furthering you to your end, and as^
doth not hinder your joy and thanks for what you have re-
ceived : but that which destroyeth your joy and thankful-
ness, and doth but perplex you, and not further you in your
way, is but hurtful scrupulosity, and to be laid by. When /
you are right in the main, thank God for that, and be fur-
ther solicitous so far as to help you on, but not to hinder
you. If you send your servant on your message, you had
rather he went on his way as well as he can, than stand scru-
pling every step whether he should set the right or left foot
forward ? and whether he should step so far, or so far, at a
time, &c. , Hindering scruples please not God.
140 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
4. Another way to confound you in your religion, is, by
setting you upon overdoing by inventions of your own :
when a poor soul is most desirous to please God, the devil
will be religious, and set him upon some task of voluntary
humility or will-worship, as the apostle speaks of. Col. ii.
18. 20—23., or set him upon some ensnaring, unnecessary
vows or resolutions, or some Popish works of conceited su-
pererogation, which is that which Solomon calleth being
" righteous over-much ^" Thus many have made duties to
themselves, which God never . made for them ; and taken
that for sin, which God never forbad them. The Popish
religion is very much made up of such commandments of
their own, and traditions of men. As if Christ had not
made us work enough, men are forward to make much more
for themselves. And some that should teach them the laws
of Christ, do think that their office is in vain, unless they
may also prescribe them laws of their own, and give them
new principles of religion. Yea, some that are the bitterest
enemies to the strict observance of the laws of God, as if it
were a tedious, needless thing, must yet needs load us with
abundance of unnecessary precepts of their own. And thus
religion is made both wearisome and uncertain, and a door
set open for men to enlarge it, and increase the burden at
their pleasure. Indeed, Popery is fitted to delude and
quiet sleepy consciences, and to torment with uncertainties
the consciences that are awaked.
And there is something in the corrupted nature of man,
that inclineth him to some additions and voluntary service
of his own inventions, as an offering most acceptable unto
God. Hence it is that many poor Christians do rashly en-
tangle their consciences with vows, of circumstances and
things unnecessary, as to give so much, to observe such
days or hours, in fasting and prayer ; not to do such or
such a thing that in itself is lawful ; with abundance of such
things, which perhaps some change of providence may
make accidentally their duty afterwards to do : or disable
them to perform their vows : and then these snares are fet-^
ters on their perplexed consciences, perhaps, as long as they
live. Yea, some of the Autonomians teach the people, that
these things indifferent are the fittest matter of a vow ; as
«^ Eccles. vii. i6. .
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 141
to live single, to possess nothing, to live in solitude, and the
like : indeed all things lawful, when they are vowed, must be
performed : but it is unfit to be vowed if it be not first pro-
fitable and best, for ourselves or others ; and that which is
best is not indifferent, it being every man's duty to choose
what is best. Vows are to bind us to the performance of
that which God had bound us to be by his laws before :
they are our expression of consent and resolution by a self-
obligation to obey his will : and not to make new duties of
religion to ourselves, which else would never have been our
duty. .
To escape these snares, it is necessary that -you take
heed of corrupting your religion by burdens and mixtures
of your own devising. You are called to obey God's laws,
and not to make laws for yourselves. You may be sure that
his laws are just and good, but your's may be bad and fool-
ish. When you obey him, you may expect your reward and
encouragement from him : but when you will obey your-
selves, you must reward yourselves. You may find it enough
for you to keep his laws, without devising more work for
yourselves ; or feigning duties which he commanded not,
or sins which he forbad not. Be not rash in making vows :
let them reach but unto necessary duties ; and let them
have their due exceptions when they are about alterable
things. Or, if you are entangled by them already, consult
with the most judicious, able, impartial men, that you may
come clearly off without a wound. There is a great deal of
judgment and sincerity necessary in your counsellors, and a
great deal of submission and self-denial in yourselves, to
bring you safely out of such a snare. Avoid sin whatever
you do : for sinning is not the way to your deliverance.
And, for the time to come, be wiser, and lay no' more snares
for yourselves ; and clog not yourselves with your own in-
ventions, but cheerfully obey what God commandeth you,
who hath wisdom and authority sufficient to make you per-
fect laws. Christ's "yoke is easy," and his " burden
light ^" and " his commandments are not grievous s." But
if your mixtures and self-devised snares are grievous to you,
blame not God, but yourselves that made them.
Another of satan's ways to make religion burdensome
' Matt. xi. 30. (f 1 John v, 3.
142 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART li
and grievous to you is, by overwhelming you with fear and
sorrow. Partly, by persuading that religion consisteth in
excess of sorrow, and so causing you to spend your time
in striving to trouble and grieve yourselves unprofitably, as
if it were the course most acceptable to God : and partly,
by taking the advantage of a timorous, passionate nature ;
and so making every thought of God, or serious exercise of
religion, to be a torment to you, by raising some overwhelm-
ing fears : for " fear hath torment, ''" In some feminine,
weak and melancholy persons, this temptation hath so
much advantage in the body, that the holiest soul can do
but little in resisting it ; so that though there be in such a
sincere love to God, his ways and servants, yet fear so
playeth the tyrant in them, that they perceive almost nothing
else. And it is no wonder if religion be grievous and unr
pleasant to such as these.
But, alas \ it is you yourselves that are the causes of this,
and bring the matter of your grievance with you. God hath
commanded you a sweeter work. It is'a life of love, and joy,
and cheerful progress to eternal joy that he requireth of you ;
and no more fear or grief, than is necessary to separate you
from sin, and teach you to value and use the remedy. The
Gospel presenteth to you such abundant matter of joy and
peace, as would make these the very complexion and tem-
perature of your souls, if you received them as they are
propounded. Religious fears when they are inordinate and
hurtful, are sinful, and indeed against religion ; and must
be resisted as other hurtful passions. Be better acquainted
with Christ and his promises, and you will find enough in
him to pacify the soul, and give you confidence and holy
boldness in your access to God *. The spirit which he.giveth /
is not the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption, of
love, and confidence ^.
6. Another thing that maketh religion seem grievous is,
retaining unmortified, sensual desires. If you keep up your
lusts, they will strive against the Gospel, and all the works
of the Spirit will strive against them K And every duty will
be so far unpleasant to you, as you are carnal, because it is
against your carnal inclination and desire. Away, therefore,
h 1 John iv. 18. * Heb. iv. 16. Ephes. iii. 12. Heb. x. 19.
'' Rom. viii. 15. Heb. ii. 15.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 143
with your beloved sickness, and then both your food and
your physician will be less grievous to you. " Mortify the
flesh, and you will less disrelish the things of the Spirit.
For the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not
subject to his law, nor can be "^." iJ eliicxs (^iaH
7. Another cause of confounding and wearying is, the
mixture of your actual sins, dealing unfaithfully with God,
and wounding your consciences by renewed guilt, especially
of sins against knowledge and consideration. If you thus
keep the bone out of joint, and the wound unhealed, no
marvel if you are loath to work or travel. But it is your
sin and folly that should be grievous to you, and not that
which is contrary to it, and would remove the cause of all
your troubles. Resolvedly forsake your wilful sinning, and
come home by ** repentance towards God, and faith towards
our Lord Jesus Christ"," and then you will find, that when
the thorn is out, your pain will cease ; and that the cause of
your trouble was not in God or religion, but in your sin.
8. Lastly, To make religion unpleasant to you, the
tempter would keep the substance of the Gospel unknown to,
or unobserved by you. He would hide the wonderful love
of God revealed in our Redeemer, and all the riches of saving
grace, and the great deliverance and privileges of believers,
and the certain hopes of life eternal : and the kingdom of
God, which consisteth in righteousness, and peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost, shall be represented to you as consisting
in errors only, or in trifles ; in shadows and shews, and bo-
dily exercise, which profiteth little**. If ever you would
know the pleasures of faith and holiness, you must labour
above all to know God, as revealed in his infinite love in the
Mediator ; and read the Gospel as God's act of oblivion, and
the New Testament and Covenant of Christ, in which he
giveth you life eternal. And in every duty draw near to God
as a reconciled Father, the object of your everlasting love
and joy. Know and use religion as it is, without mistaking
or corrupting it, and it will not appear to you as a grievous,
tedious, or confounding thing.
Direct, xiv. ' Be very diligent in mortifying the desires
and pleasures of the flesh ; and keep a continual watch upon
your senses, appetite, and lusts ; and cast not yourselves
'ii' ,- la Rora. vm.7, 8. » Aet8 xx. 21. ° 1 Tim.iv. 8.
144 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
upon temptations, occasions, or opportunities of sinning,
remembering that your salvation lieth on your success.'
The lusts of the flesh, and the pleasures of the world, are
the common enemies of God and souls, and the damnation
of those souls that perish. And there is no sort more liable
to temptations of this kind, than those that are in the flower
of their youth and strength. When all the senses are in
their vigour, and lust and appetite are in their strength and
fury, how great is the danger ! and how great must your di-
ligence be if you will escape ! The appetite and lust of the
weak and sick, are weak and sick as well as they ; and
therefore they are no great temptation or danger to them.
y^The desire and pleasure of the senses do abate, as natural
strength and vigour doth abate. To such there is much less
need of watchfulness : and where nature hath mortified the
flesh, there is somewhat the less for grace to do. There
needs not much grace to keep the aged and weak from for-
nication, uncleanness, excessive sports, and carnal mirth :
and gluttony and drunkenness also, are sins which youth is
much more liable to. Especially some bodies that are not
only young and strong, but have, in their temperature and
complexion, a special inclination to some of these, as lust,
or sport, or foolish mirth ; there needeth a great deal of dili-
gence, resolution, and watchfulness for their preservation.
Lust is not like a corrupt opinion, that surpriseth us through
a defect of reason, and vanisheth as soon as truth appeareth ;
but it is a brutish inclination, which, though reason must
subdue and govern, yet the perfectest reason will not extir-
pate, but there it will still dwell. And, as it is constantly
with you, it will be stirring, when objects are presented by
the sense or fancy, to allure. And it is like a torrent or a
head-strong horse, that must be kept in at first, and is hardly
restrained if it once break loose and get the head. If you
are bred up in temperance and modesty, where there are no
great temptations to gluttony, drinking, sports, or wanton-
ness, you may think awhile that your natures have little or
none of this concupiscence, and so may walk without a guard ;
but when you come where baits of lust abound, where women,
and plays, and feasts, and drunkards are the devil's snares,
and tinder, and bellows, to inflame your lusts, you may then
find to your sorrow, that you had need of watchfulness, and
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 145
that all is not mortified that is asleep, or quiet in you. As
a man that goeth with a candle among gunpowder, or near
thatch, should never be careless, because he goeth in con-
tinual danger ; so you that are young, and have naturally
eager appetites and lusts, should remember, that you carry
fire and gunpowder still about you, and are never out of
danger while you have such an enemy to watch.
And if once you suffer the fire to kindle, alas ! what
work may it make, ere you are aware ! ** Every man is tempt-
ed when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin : and
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death?." Little
knoweth the fish, when he is catching, or nibbling at the
bait, that he is swallowing the hook which will lay him pre-
sently on the bank. When you are looking on the cup, or
gazing on alluring beauty, or wantonly dallying and pleas-
ing your senses with things unsafe, you little know how far
beyond your intentions you may be drawn, and how deep
the wound may prove, how great the smart, or how long
and difficult the cure. As you love your souls, observe
Paul's counsel, ** Flee youthful lusts 'i V Keep at a full dis-
tance : come not near the bait. If you get a wound in your
consciences, by any wilful, heinous sin, O what a case will
you be in ! How heartless unto secret duty ! afraid of God,
that should be your joy; deprived of the comforts of his
presence, and all the pleasure of his ways ! How miserably
will you be tormented, between the tyranny of your own
concupiscence, the sting of sin, the gripes of conscience,
and the terrors of the Lord ! How much of the life of faith,
and love, and heavenly zeal, will be quenched in a moment !
I am to speak more afterwards of this ; and therefore shall
only say, at present, to all young converts that care for
their salvation ; " Mortify the flesh," and " always watch,
and avoid temptations."
Direct, xv. ' Be exceeding wary, not only what teachers
you commit the guidance of your souls unto, but also with
what company you familiarly converse ; that they be neither
such as would corrupt your minds with error, or your hearts
with viciousness, profaneness, lukewarmness, or with a fe-
verish, factious zeal : but choose, if possible, judicious,
P James i. 14, 15. i 2 Tim. ii. 32.
VOL. II. %
146 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
holy, heavenly, humble, unblamable, self-denying persons, to
be your ordinary companions, and familiars ; but especially
for your near relations/
It is a matter of very great importance, v^hat teachers
you choose, in order to your salvation. In this the free
grace of God much difFerenceth some from others : for, as
poor heathens and infidels have none that know^ more, than
what the book of nature teacheth (if so much) ; so in the se-
veral nations of Christians, it is hard for the people to have
any, but such as the sword of the magistrate forceth on
them, or the stream of their country's custom recommendeth
to them. And it is a wonder, if pure truth and holiness be
countenanced by either of these. But, when and where his
mercy pleaseth, God sendeth wise and holy teachers, with
compassion and diligence to seek the saving of men's souls ;
so that none but the malignant and obstinate are deprived
of their help.
Ambitious, proud, covetous, licentious, ungodly men,
are not to be chosen for your teachers, if you have your
choice. In a nation where true religion is in credit, and
hath the magistrate's countenance, or the major vote, some
graceless men may join with better, in preaching and de-
fending the purity of doctrine, and holiness of life : and
they may be very serviceable to the church herein ; es-
pecially in expounding and disputing for the truth. But
even there, more experienced, spiritual teachers are much
more desirable: they will speak most feelingly, who feel
what they speak : and they are fittest to bring others to
faith and love, who believe, and love God and holiness them-
selves. They that have life, will speak more lively than the
dead. And in most places of the world, the ungodliness of
such teachers makes them enemies to the truth, which is ac-
cording to godliness : their natures are at enmity to the life
and power of the doctrine, which they should preach : and
Lhey will do their worst to corrupt the magistrates, and
make them of their mind : and, if they can but get the sword
to favour them, they are, usually, the cruellest persecutors
of the sincere. As it is notorious among the Papists, that
the baits of power, and honour, and wealth, have so vitiated
the body of their clergy, that they conspire to uphold a
worldly government and religion ; and, in express contra-
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 147
diction to sense and reason, and to antiquity, and the judg-
ment of the church, and to the Holy Scriptures, they cap-
tivate the ignorant and sensual, to their tyranny and false
worship, and use the seduced magistrates and multitude,
to the persecuting of those that will not follow them, to sin
and to perdition. Take heed of proud and worldly guides.
And yet it is not every one that pretendeth piety and
zeal, that is to be heard, or taken for a teacher. But 1.
Such as preach, ordinarily, the substantial truths which all
Christians are agreed in. 2. Such as make it the drift of
their preaching, to raise your souls to the love of God, and
to a holy, heavenly life, and are zealous against confessed
sins. 3. Such as contradict not the essential truths, by er-
rors of their own : nor the doctrine of godliness, by wicked,
malicious applications. 4. Such as drive not on any ambi-
tious, tyrannical designs of their own, but deny themselves,
and aim at your salvation. 6. Such as are not too hot in
proselyting you to any singular opinion of their own: it
being the prediction of Paul to the Ephesians, " of your
ownselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away disciples after them''." 6. Such as are judi-
cious with holy zeal, and zealous with judgment. 7. Such
as are of experience in the things of God, and not young
beginners, or novices in religion. 8. Such as bear reve-
I'ence to the judgments of the generality of wise and
godly men, and are tender of the unity of the church ; and
not such as would draw you into a sect or party, to the con-
tempt of other Christians ; no, not to a party that hath the
favour of rulers and the people, to promote them. 9. Such
as are gentle, peaceable, and charitable ; and not such as burn
with hellish malice against their brethren, nor with an un-
godly, or cruel, consuming zeal. 10. Such as live not sen-
sually and wickedly, contrary to the doctrines which they
preach ; but shew by their lives, that they believe what they
say, and feel the power of the truths which they preach.
And your familiar companions have great advantage to
help or hinder your salvation, as well as your teachers'.
' Acts XX. 30.
• Magnum virtutis preesidium societas bonorum, socius exemplo excitat, sermone
recreat, consilio instruit, orationibus adjuvat, autoritate continet, quae omnia solitudini
desunt. Jos. Acosta, lib. iv. c. 13. Dicunt Stoici Amicitiam solos inter bonos, quos siW
148 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [fART I,
The matter is not so great, whom you meet by the way, o^
travel with, or trade, and buy and sell with, as whom yoii
make your intimate, or familiar friends. For such have both
the advantage of their interest in your affections, and also
the advantage of their nearness and familiarity ; and, if they
have but also the advantage of higher abilities than you,
they may be powerful instruments of your good or liurt. If
you have a familiar friend, that will defend you from error^
and help you against temptations, and lovingly reprove your
sin, and feelingly speak of God, and the life to come, indit-
ing his discourse from the inward power of faith, and holy
experience ; the benefit of such a friend may be more to
you, than of the learnedest or greatest in the world. How
sweetly will their speeches relish of the Spirit from which
they come! How deeply may they pierce a careless heart!
How powerfully may they kindle in you, a love and zealto
God and his commandments ! How seasonably may they
discover a temptation, prevent your fall, reprove an error,
and recover your souls ! How faithfully will they watch
over you ! How profitably will they provoke, and put you
on ; and pray with you fervently when you are cold ; and
mind you of the truth, and duty, and mercy, which you for-
get ! It is a very great mercy to have a judicious, solid, and
faithful companion in the way to heaven.
But if your ears are daily filled with froth and folly, with
ribaldry, or idle stories, with oaths and curses, with furious
words, or scorns and jeers against the godly, or with
the sophistry of deceivers, is it likely this should leave a
pleasant, or wholesome relish on your minds ? Is it likely
that the effect should not be seen, in your lean or leprous
hearts and lives, as well as the effects of an infected, or un-
wholesome air or diet, will be seen upon your diseased bo-
dies? He is ungodly, that liketh such company best: and
he is proud and presumptuous, that will unnecessarily cast
himself upon it, in confidence that he shall receive no hurt :
and he is careless of himself, that will not cautiously avoid
it : and few that long converse with such, come off without
invicemstudiorum similitudo conciliet, posse consislere. Porro amicitiara ipsam so-
cietatem quandarn esse dicuiit omnium, quae sunt ad vitam necessaria, cum amicis ut
nobis ipsis utamur : atque propter seipsum amicum eligendum pronuntiant, amicorum-
que raultitudinem inter expetenta ponunt : inter malos non posse constare araicitiam.
Laert. in Zenone, lib. vii. segra, 124'. p. 443.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 149
some notable loss ; except when we live with such, as Lot
did in Sodom, grieving for their sin and misery; or, as
Christ conversed with publicans and sinners, with a holy,
zeal and diligence to convert and save them ; or, as those
that have not liberty, who bear that which they have not
power to avoid.
Among the rest, your danger is not least from them
that are eager to proselyte you to some party, or unsound
opinion. That they think they are in the right, and that
they do it in love, and that they think it necessary to your
salvation, and that truth and godliness are the things which
they profess, — all this makes the danger much greater to
you, if it be not truth and godliness indeed, which they
propose and plead for. And none are in more danger than
the ungrounded and unexperienced, that yet are so wise in
their own esteem, as to be confident that they know truth
from error, when they hear it, and are not afraid of any de-
ceit, nor much suspicious of their own understandings.
But of this before.
The like danger there is of the familiar company of luke-
warm ones, or the profane. At first, you may be troubled
at their sinful or unsavoury discourse, and make some resis-
tance against the infection ; but, before you are aware, it
may so cool and damp your graces, as will make your decay
discernible to others ! First, you will hear them with less
offence ; and then, you will grow indifferent what company
you are in ; and then, you will laugh at their sin and folly ;
and then, you will begin to speak as they ; and then, you
will grow cold and seldomer in prayer, and other holy du-
ties ; and, if God prevent it not, at last, your judgments will
grow blind, and you will think all this allowable.
But of all bad company, the nearest is the worst. If
you choose such into your families, or into your nearest,
conjugal relations, you cast water upon the fire ; you impri-
son yourselves in such fetters, as will gall and grieve you,
if they do not stop you ; you choose a life of constant, close,
and great temptations : whereas, your grace, and comfort,
and salvation, might be much promoted, by the society of
such as are wise, and gracious, and suitable to your state.
To have a constant companion to open your heart to, and
join with in prayer, and edifying conference, and faithfully
150 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
help you against your sins, and yet to be patient with you
in your frailties, is a mercy, which worldlings neither de-
serve nor value.
Direct. XVI. ' Make careful choice of the books which
you read. Let the Holy Scriptures ever have the pre-emi-
nence, and next them, the solid, lively, heavenly treatises,
which best expound and apply the Scriptures ; and next
those, the credible histories, especially of the church, and
tractates upon inferior sciences and arts : but take heed of
the poison of the writings of false teachers, which would
corrupt your understandings : and of vain romances, play-
books, and false stories, which may bewitch your fantasies,
and corrupt your hearts.'
As there is a more excellent appearance of the Spirit
of God in the Holy Scriptures, than in any other book
whatever, so it hath more power and fitness to convey the
Spirit, and make us spiritual, by imprinting itself upon our
hearts. As there is more of God in it, so it will acquaint us
more with God, and bring us nearer him, and make the rea-
der more reverent, serious, and divine. Let Scripture be
first and most in your hearts and hands, and other books be
used as subservient to it. The endeavours of the devil and
Papists to keep it from you, doth shew that it is most neces-
sary and desirable to you. And when they tell you, that
all heretics plead the Scripture, they do but tell you, that it
is the common rule or law of Christians, which, therefore,
all are fain to pretend : as all lawyers and wranglers plead
the laws of the land, be their cause never so bad, and yet
the laws must not be therefore concealed or cast aside : and
they do but tell you, that, in their concealment or disho-
nouring the Scriptures, they are worse than any of those he-
retics. When they tell you, that the Scriptures are misun-
derstood, and abused, and perverted to maintain men's errors,
they might also desire that the sun might be obscured, be-
cause the purblind do mistake, and murderers and robbers
do wickedly by its light : and that the earth might be sub-
verted, because it bears all evil doers : and highways stopt
up, because men travel in them to do evil : and food prohi-
bited, because it nourisheth men's diseases. And when
they have told you truly of a law or rule (whether made by
pope or council), which bad men cannot misunderstand or
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 151
break, or abuse and misapply, then hearken to them, and
prefer that law, as that which preventeth the need of any
judgment.
The writings of Divines are nothing else but a preaching
the Gospel to the eye, as the voice preacheth it to the ear.
Vocal preaching hath the pre-eminence in moving the afFec^
tions, and being diversified according to the state of the
congregations which attend it : this way the milk cometh
warmest from the breast. But books have the advantage in
many other respects : you may read an able preacher, when
you have but a mean one to hear. Every congregation can-
not hear the most judicious or powerful preachers ; but
every single person may read the books of the most power-
ful and judicious. Preachers may be silenced or banished,
when books may be at hand : books may be kept at a
smaller charge than preachers : we may choose books which
treat of that very subject which we desire to hear of; but
we cannot choose what subject the preacher shall treat of.
Books we may have at hand every day and hour ; when we
can have sermons but seldom, and at set times. If sermons
be forgotten, they are gone. But a book we may read over
and over until we remember it ; and, if we forget it, may
again peruse it at our pleasure, or at our leisure. So that
good books are a very great mercy to the world. The Holy
Ghost chose the way of writing, to preserve his doctrine
and laws to the church, as knowing how easy and sure a
way it is of keeping it safe to all generations, in comparison
of mere verbal tradition, which might have made j^s many
controversies about the very terms, as there be memories or
persons to be the preservers and reporters.
Books are (if well chosen) domestic, present, constant,
judicious, pertinent, yea, and powerful sermons : and always
of very great use to your salvation : but especially when
vocal preaching faileth, and preachers are ignorant, un-
godly, or dull, or when they are persecuted, and forbid to
preach.
You have need of a judicious teacher at hand, to direct you
what books to use or to refuse. For among good books there
are some very good that are sound and lively : and some are
good, but mean, and weak, and somewhat dull : and some
are very good in part, but have mixtures of error, or else of
152 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART I.
incautious, injudicious expressions, fitter to puzzle than
edify the weak. I am loath to name any of these latter
sorts (of which abundance have come forth of late) : but
to the young beginner in religion, I may be bold to recom-
mend (next to a sound catechism) Mr. Rutherford's Letters ;
—Mr. Robert Bolton's Works ;— Mr. Perkins's ;— Mr.
Whateley's;— Mr. Ball, of Faith ;~Dr. Preston's ;— Dr.
Sibbs's ;— Mr. Hildersham's :— Mr. Pink's Sermons ;—
Mr. Jos. Rogers's ;— Mr. Rich. Allen's;— Mr. Gurnall's ;
— Mr. Swinnock's ;— Mr. Jos. Simonds's. And to establish
you against Popery, Dr. Challoner's Codex Credo Eccles.
Cathol. ;— Dr. Field, of the Church ;— Dr. White's Way to
the Church, with the Defence ; — Bishop Usher's Answer
to the Jesuit ; and Chillingworth, with Drelincourt's Sum-
mary. And for right principles about Redemption, &c.
Mr. Truman's Great Propitiation ; and of Natural and Moral
Impotency; — and Mr. William Fenner, of Wilful Impeni-
tency ; — Mr. Hotchkis, of Forgiveness of Sin. To pass by
many other excellent ones, that I may not name too many.
To a very judicious, able reader, who is fit to censure
all he reads, there is no great danger in reading the books
of any seducers : it doth but shew him how little and thin a
cloak is used to cover a bad cause. But, alas! young sol-
diers, not used to such wars, are startled at a very sophism,
or at a terrible threatening of damnation to dissenters
(which every censorious sect can use), or at every confident,
triumphant boast, or at every thing that hath a fair pretence
of truth or godliness. Injudicious persons can answer al-
most no deceiver which they hear : and when they cannot
answer them they think they must yield, as if the fault were
not in them but in the cause, and as if Christ had no wiser
followers, or better defenders of his truth than they. Med-
dle not, therefore, with poison, till you better know how to
use it, and may do it with less danger, as long as you have
no need.
As for play -books, and romances, and idle tales, I have
already shewed in my " Book of Self-Denial," how per-
nicious they are, especially to youth, and to frothy, empty,
idle wits, that know not what a man is, nor what he hath to
do in the world. They are powerful baits of the devil, to
keep more necessary things out of their minds, and better
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 153
books out of their hands, and to poison the mind so much
the more dangerously, as they are read with more delight
and pleasure : and to fill the minds of sensual people with
such idle fumes, and intoxicating fancies, as may divert
them from the serious thoughts of their salvation: and
(which is no small loss) to rob them of abundance of that
precious time, which was given them for more important
business ; and which they will wish and wish again at last
that they had spent more wisely. I know the fantastics
will say, that these things are innocent, and may teach men
much good (like him that must go to a whore-house to learn
to hate uncleanness ; and him that would go out with rob-
bers to learn to hate thievery) : but I shall now only ask
them as in the presence of God, 1. Whether they should spend
that time no better ? 2. Whether better books and prac-
tices would not edify them more. 3. Whether the greatest
lovers of romances and plays be the greatest lovers of the
book of God, and of a holy life ? 4. Whether they feel in
themselves that the love of these vanities, doth increase
their love to the W^ord of God, and kill their sin, and pre-
pare them for the life to come ? or clean contrary ? And I
would desire men not to prate against their own experience
and reason, nor to dispute themselves into damnable impe-
nitency, nor to befool their souls by a few silly words, which
any but a sensualist may perceive to be mere deceit and
falsehood. If this will not serve, they shall be shortly con-
vinced and answered in another manner.
Direct, xvii. * Take heed that you receive not a doctrine
of libertinism as from the Gospel ; nor conceive of Christ as
an encourager of sin : nor pretend free grace for your carnal
security or sloth : for this is but to set up another Gospel,
and another Christ, or rather the doctrine and works of the
devil against Christ and the Gospel, and to turn the grace
of God into wantonness.'
Because the devil knoweth that you will not receive his
doctrine in his own name, his usual method is, to propound
and preach it in the name of Christ, which he knoweth you
reverence and regard. For, if satan concealed not his own
name and hand in every temptation, it would spoil his game,
and the more excellent and splendid is his pretence, the
more powerful the temptation is*. They that gave heed to
* Ego, si qui, judices, hoc robere animi, atque hac indole virlutis ac continentiaB
154 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, no doubt thought
better of the spirits and the doctrines, especially seeming
strict (for the devil hath his strictnesses), " as forbidding to
marry, and abstinence from meats which God hath created
to be received with thanksgiving"." But the strictnesses
of the devil are always intended to make men loose. They
shall be strict as the Pharisees in traditions and vain cere-
monies, and building the tombs of the prophets, and gar-
nishing the sepulchres of the righteous, that they may hate
and murder the living saints that worship God in spirit and
in truth. Licentiousness is the proper doctrine of the devil,
which all his strictness tendeth to promote. To receive
such principles is pernicious : but to father them upon
Christ and the Gospel is blasphemous.
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 worship,
(as at the Mass,) you need not suffer to avoid the speaking
of a word, or subscribing to an untruth or error, or doing
some little thing ; but, so long as you keep your hearts to
God, 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 your-
selves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds, or com-
ply with any outward actions or customs to avoid offence
and save yourselves."
^ The Antinomians tell you, that " The moral law is abro-
gated, and that the Gospel is no law ; (and if there be no
law, there is no governor or government, no duty, no sin, no
judgment, no punishment, no reward ;) that the elect are
justified before they are bom, or repent, or believe ; that
their sin is pardoned before it is committed, that God 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
fuit, ut respueret omnes voluptates, omnemqne vttae suae cursum conficeret: quem
non quies, non remissio, non aequalium studia, non ludi, noa convivla delectarent ;
nihil in vita expetendum putaret, nisi quod esset euro lande et cum dignitate conjunc-
tuiu : hunc mea sententia divinis quibusdam bonis instructum atque ornatum puto
Cic. pro M. Coel. 39. Op. vol. iii. p. 1054.
" iTim.iv. J,3.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 155
the believing that we are justified : that every man must be-
lieve 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 hell must have no hand in our obedience, or re-
straint from sin. And some add, that he that cannot repent
or believe, must comfort himself that Christ repented and
believed for him : (a contradiction.)" Many such doctrines
of licentiousness the abusers of grace have brought forth''.
And the sect which imitateth the father of pride in af-
fecting to be from under the government of God, 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 blood-
shed, oppression, and cruelty ; and the ears of God 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 center,
and pillars, and law-givers of the church, and the con-
sciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or
fears of offending God, 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 God, and take
those that fear his judgments to be men affrighted out of
their wits ; and that to obey him exactly (which, alas ! who
^ For sound principles in these points, read Mr. Gibbon's Sermon ou Juslifi-
cation, in the Morning Exercises at St. Giles's ; and Mr. Truman's two books before
named, and Le Blank's Theses in Latin, with Thes. Sahnuriens, &c.
156 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
can do that doeth 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 with-
out any authority), this must be taken for heresy, schism, or
a rebellion like that of Corah and his company. This lu-
ciferian 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 hin-
dering and persecuting the Gospel, and setting up a Phari-
saical religion in the world : it hath fought against the
Gospel, and filled with blood, the countries of France,
Savoy, Rhsetia, Bohemia, Belgia, Helvetia, Polonia, Hun-
gary, 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 damnable heresies : nothing more natural to lapsed
man, than to shake off the government of God, and to be-
come a lawgiver to himself, and as many others as he can ;
and to turn the grace of God into wantonness. Therefore
the profane, that never heard it from any heretics but them-
selves, do make themselves such a creed as this; that " God
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. God is stronger than the
devil, and, therefore, the devil shall not have the most. That
which pleaseth the flesh, and doth God no harm, can never
be so great a matter, or so much offend him, as to procure
our damnation. What need of so much ado to be saved, or
so much haste to turn to God, when any one that at last doth
but repent, and cry God mercy, and believe that Christ died
for him, shall be saved ? Christ is th-e Saviour of the world,
and his grace is very great and free ; and, therefore, God
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 ;
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 157
and, therefore, it is the wisest way, to do nobody any harm,
and to live merrily, and trust God with our souls, and put
our salvation upon the venture ; nobody 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 ungodly; by which you may see how na-
tural it is to them, to abuse the Gospel, and plead God's
grace, to quiet and strengthen them in their sin, and to em-
bolden themselves on Christ to disobey him.
But this is but to set Christ against himself: even his
merits and mercies, 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 God and
rebel against him, because Christ died to recover us to God,
and to give us repentance unto life : and to sin, because he
died to save his people from their sins, " and to purify a pe-
culiar people to himself, zealous of good works *." " He
that committeth sin, is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth
from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil ''."
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 prone 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 sto-
mach 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 your labour.
» Matt. i. 21. Tit. ii. 14. ^ 1 John iii. 8. John viii. 44.
|58 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
The degenerating of grace, is a way of backsliding, very
common, and too little observed. It is, when good affec-
tions do not directly cool, but turn into some carnal affec-
tions 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 : (1.0 Have you believed in God, and in Jesus
Christ, and loved them accordingly ? You shall seem to do
so still as much as formerly, when your corrupted minds
have received some false representation of them ; 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 cor-
rupting your judgments or affections, and get you to think
that to be the cause of God 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 faithful
members : turn but your prayers against the cause and
people of God, by your mistake, and you may pray as fer-
vently against them as you will. The same I may say of
preaching, and conference, and zeal : corrupt them once,
and turn them against God, 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 cautious 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
sexes, 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 and trouble. Many have honoured them that fear
the Lord, who insensibly have 4eclined to honour only those
of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour, or
that were esteemed for their parts, or places by others, and
little honoured the humble, poor, obscure Christians, who
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 159
were at least as good as they. Forgetting that the " things
that are highly esteemed among men, are abomination in the
sight of God ^ ;" and that God 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 they, 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 godly as much as ever, when it
was degenerate into a factious love. (6.) Are you zealous for
God, and truth, and holiness, and against the sins and errors
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 des-
troying 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 af-
fliction ; 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 re-
ligion, 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 Abassines, and too many others, (though the essentials
of religion through God'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 them-
selves what a Christian is, and who is to be esteemed a
c Luke xvi. 15.
160 CHRISTIAN DIJRECTORY. [PART I.
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, ex-
ercised to advance one man above others, and to satisfy his
will and lusts, 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 worship, 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 ex-
ercised 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 principal hindrance of the conversion
of heathens, Mahometans, and other unbelievers is, the cor-
ruption and deformity of the churches that are near them, or
should be the instruments of their conversion. And the
most probable 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, ra- . '
tionality, and simplicity of doctrine, discipline, and worship,
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 illustrious 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 shine 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 reli-
gion. 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.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 161
and make much ado with outward actions, words and beads ;
and you shall have as much zeal for a dead religion, or the
corpse of worship as will make you think that it is indeed
alive. By all means take heed of this turning the worship
of God into lip-service. The commonest cause of it is, a
carnality of mind (fleshly men will thiiik 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 re-
gularly and vigorously employed with God. 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 worship, 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 worship God as well as the soul, or
that the decent and edifying determination of the outward
circumstances of religion, and the right ordering of worship,
is a needless thing, or sinful ; or that a form of prayer in it-
self, 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 pros-
perity 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 God,
and destroy all your serious apprehensions of eternity.*
Our own experience, and the alterations which the ap-
proach of death makes upon the most, do sensibly prove
that the expectation of a speedy change, and reckoning
upon a short life, do 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 lust, 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,
VOL. II. M
162 CHRISTIAN DIRECTQRY. [PART I,
you shall see that he will more easily vilify such temptations,
than many religious persons will do, in their prosperity and
health. 0 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 God
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
more easily be in the right, than learning or arguments before
could make it. In a word, the expectation of the speedy
approach of the soul into the presence of the eternal God,
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 God, 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. ^
'1 Quaniquam, O Dii boni ! Quid est in hominis vita diu? da enim suprernum
tempus : expectemu8 Tariessiorum regis aetatera : fuit cnim (ut scriptura video).
Arga^ilbonius quidara Gadibus, qui octoginta rggnavit annos, centum et viginti vixit :
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 163
But, if youth or health do once make you reckon of
living long, and make you put away the day of your depar- "
ture, as if it were far off; this will do much to deceive and
dull 4h.e 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 think still
of death and judgment, as near at hand. The greatest cer-
tainty of thy 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 mourn-
ing; 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 trans-
gress : when they think that they have yet many years to
live, it tempteth them to pass away time in idleness, and to
loiter in their race, and trifle in all their work, and to over-
value 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 be-
stow 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 pleasings of his
flesh, will seem great matters to him, and will do much witH
him, and will make self-denial a very hard work.
sed mihi ne diuturnum quidem quidquam videtur, in quo est aliquid extremum. Cum'
enimid advenit; tunc illud quod praeteriit, effluxit: tantum remanet, quod virtute^^et-
recte f^ctis consecutus sis. Horae quidem cedunt, et dies, et menses, et anni : nee
praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur, nee quid sequatur, sciri potest. Cic. Sen. 69.
vol. vii. p. 8 is.
164 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
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 small-
est interest to set up and plead against the Spirit. Not but
that the largest stock must be accepted, and used for God,
when he trusteth us with it ; for when he setteth us the hard-
est work, we may expect his greatest help. But a dwelling
as in tents, in a constant unsettledness, in a moveable condi-
tion, 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 ad-
vantages 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 pro-
secution of these things, for then you are in the readiest way
to perdition ; even to idolatrous worldliness, and apostasy
of heart from God, 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. 18, 19.
" I will pull down my barns, and build greater ; and there
will I bestow all my fruits and my 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 be-
fooling yourselves, and near being called away, as fools, by
death, verses 20, 21. And when, without a sense of the un-
certainty 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 shall be on the morrow :"
You forget what your lives are, that they are " a vapour,
appearing a little while, and then vanishing away," verse 14.
" Boast not thyself therefore of to-morrow ; for thou know^
est not what a day may bring forth ^."
Direct, xx. ' See that your religion be purely divine,
^ Prov. xxvii. 1. '
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 165
and animated all by God, 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 K'
To be holy, is to be divine, or devoted to God, and ap-
propriated to him, and his will, and use ; and that our hearts
and lives be not common and unclean. To be godly, is to
live to God ; as those that from their hearts believe, that he
is God indeed, and that '* he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him,'' that he is " our God all-sufficient, our
shield and exceeding great rewards." ''And that of Him,
and through Him, and to Him are all things ^," that all may
give the glory for ever unto him. As God is infinitely above
all creatures, so living upon God and unto God, must needs
advance us above the highest sensual life : and therefore re-
ligion is transcendently above all sciences or arts. So much
of God as is in you and upon you, so much you are more
excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance
you to. God should be the first, and last, and all in the
mind, and mouth, and life of a believer. God must be the
principal matter of your religion. The understanding and
will must be exercised upon him. When you awake you
should be still with him \ Your meditations of him should
be sweet, and you should be glad in the Lord. Yet, crea-
tures under him, may be the frequent, less principal matter
of your religion ; but still as referred unto him. God must
be the author of your religion : God must institute it, if you
expect he should accept it and reward it. God must be the
rule of your religion, as revealing his will concerning it in
his Word. God must be the ultimate end of your religion :
it must be intended to please and glorify him. God must
be the continual motive and reason of your religion, and of
all you do : you must be able truly to fetch your reason
^ De bonis et raalis ita disserebat Plato : Flnera esse, Deo sirailem fieri. Virtu-
tera sufficere quidem ad bene beateque vivendum : caeteruni instrumentis indigere,
corporis bonis; robore, saninate, integritatesensuum,etcaeterisid genus. Exteriori-
bus item, puta opibus, generis claritate, gloria. Ea et si non afFuerint, nihilominus
tamen beatura fore sapientem. Arbitrator et Deos hnmana cernere atque curare,-
et dsmones esse. Porro in dialogis jusfitiam divinam legem arbitratus est, uL ad
juste agendum potentiiis persuaderet, ne post mortem poenas improbi luerent. Laert.
in Plat. lib. iii. sect. 78, 79. pp. 213, 214.
8f Heb. xi. 6. Gen. xv. 1. xvii. 1. •> Rom. xi. 36. ' Psal. cxxxix. 18.
iQ6 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
from heaven, and to say, * I do it because it is his will ; I do
it to please, and glorify, and enjoy him/ God 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 God for your Owner, your Sovereign, your Saviour,
your sufficient Protector, your Portion, your all ? If not, you
cannot be godly, 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 re-
ligious, whatever you pretend. If '' HOLINESS TO THE
LORD," be written upon you, and all that is your's, 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 an-
other should take them, * They are mine ; do you not see
my mark upon them V Slavery to the flesh, the world,
and the devil, is the mark that is written upon the ungodly
(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 God, 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 God be the very life, and sense, and end of all you do.
When once man hath too much of your regard and ob-
servation, 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 dis-
pleasure 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
God, and are becoming the servants of men, and friends of
the world, and turning back to bondage, and forsaking your
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 God, and
be preferred and set above him, in your hearts or lives, and
feared, trusted, and obeyed before him, you are then dead
to God, and alive to the world ; and, as men are taken for
your gods, you must take up with snch a salvation as they
can give you. If your alms and prayers are done to be seen
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 167
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 ^"
Not that man is absolutely to be contemned or disre-
garded. No ; under God, 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 God, have so much regard to men, as to " be-
come all things to all men, for their salvation." But if once
you set them above their rank, and turn yourselves to an
inordinate dependance on them, and make too great a mat-
ter of their opinion or words concerning you, you are losing
your godliness or divine disposition ; and turning it into
man-pleasing and hypocrisy"*. When man stands in com-
petition with God, for your first and chief regard, or in op- >
position to him, or 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 God, and corrupt-
ing your religion at the very heart. And you may fall
among those, that, how holy soever, may have great mis-
takes 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 avoid-
ing of their censures, may become one of the greatest temp-
tations 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 ap-
probation as it agreeth with Christ's : but O ! see that you
» Matt. vi. 1—3.
™ Igitur alte spectare si voles, atque banc sedem, et aaternara domura contueri :
neque te serraonibus vulgi dederis, nee in praemiis humanis spem posueris rerura tua-
rum : suis te oportet illecebris ipsa virtus trahat ad verura decus. Cic. Somn. Scip.
7. op. vol. vii. p. 918. Hsec coelestia semper spectato : ilia humana contemnita. Id.
Ibid. p. 917.
168 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
are able to live upon the favour of God alone, and to be
quieted in his acceptance, though man despise you ; and to
be pleased, so far as God is pleased, though man be dis-
pleased with you; and to rejoice in his justification, though
men condemn you with the most odious slanders, and the great-
est infamy, and cast out your names as evil doers. See
that God be taken as enough for you, or else you take him
not as God : even as enough without man, and enough
against man ; that you may be able to say, " If God be for
us, who can be against us ? Who is he that condemneth ? it
is God that justifieth"." " Do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ*"."
** 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 coraeth. — 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 com-
eth, but her leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful in
the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruitP."
" Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils : for
wherein is he to be accounted of *i ?"
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 no-
vices in religion : it will require humility to perceive the
need of them ; and labour to learn, digest, and practice
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 remem-
ber them, as things that must be done. If either a sense-
lessness of your necessity, or a conceit that the Spirit must
" Rom. viii. 31. 33, 34. ° Gal, i. 10. p Jer. xvii. 5—8.
n Isa. ii. 22.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 169
do it, without so much labour and diligence of your own,
do prevail with you, to put off all these with a mere appro-
bation, 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 trouble-
some to the church, or full of doubts, and fears, and pas-
sions, and to be burdensome to others and yourselves I 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 pru-
dent, strong, and comfortable Christians, and would escape
the misery of those grievous diseases, which would turn your
lives into languishing, 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. ,
CHAPTER III
The General Grand Directions for Walking with God, in a
Life of Faith and Holiness : containing the Essentials of
Godliness and Christianity . v
I AM next to direct you in that exercise of grace, which is
common to all Christians. Habits are for use : grace is gi-
ven you, not only that you may have it, but also that you
may use it. And it is fit that we direct you how to use it,
before we direct you how to know that you have it ; because
it is grace in exercise that you must discern ; and habits are
not perceived in themselves, but by their acts : and the
more lively and powerful the exercise is, the more easily is
grace perceived : so that this is the nearest and surest way
170 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
to a certainty of our own sincerity : —he that useth grace
most and best, hath most grace ; and he that hath most, and
useth it most, may most easily be assured that he hath it in
sincerity and truth.
In these Directions, I shall begin with those great inter-
nal duties, in which the very life of all religion doth consist ;
and the general practice of these principles and graces : and
all these generals shall be briefly set together, for the easi-
ness of understanding and remembering them. And then
I shall give you such particular Directions, as are needful,
in subordination to those generals.
Grand Direction i. * Labour to understand well the na-
ture, grounds, reason, and order of faith and godliness : and
to believe upon such grounds, so well understood, as will
not suffer you to stagger, or entertain a contrary belief.'
Ignorance and ungrounded, or ill-grounded persuasions in
matters of religion, are the cause that abundance of people
delude themselves, with the empty name and dead profession
of a faith and religion which they never were indeed posses-
sors of. I know there are low degrees of knowledge, compara-
tively, in many that are true believers : and that there may be
much love and holiness, where knowledge is very small or nar-
row, as to the objective extent of it : and that there is a know-
ledge that puffeth up, while charity edifieth : and that in many
that have the narrower knowledge, there may be the fastest
faith and adherence to the truth, which will conquer in the time
of trial. But yet I must tell you, that the religion which
you profess, is not, indeed, your own religion, if you know
not what it is, and know not in some measure the true
grounds and reasons why you should be of that religion. If
you have only learned to say your creed, or repeat the words
of Christian doctrine, while you do not truly understand the
sense ; or if you have no better reasons why you profess the
Christian faith, than the custom of the country, or the com-
mand of princes or governors, or the opinion of your teachers,
or the example of your parents, friends, or neighbours, you
are not Christians indeed. You have a human belief or
opinion, which objectively is true ; but subjectively in your^
selves, you have no true, divine belief. I confess, there may
be some insufficient, yea, and erroneous reasons, which a
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 171
true believer may mistakingly make use of, for the proof of
certain fundamental truths ; but then that same man hath
some other reason for his reception of that truth, which is
more sound : and his faith is sound, because of those sound,
infallible principles, though there be a mixture of some other
reasons that are unsound. The true believer buildeth on
the rock, and giveth deep rooting to the holy seed *. Though
some deluded men- may tell you, that faith and reason are
such enemies, that they exclude each other as to the same
object, and that the less reason you have to prove the truth
of the things believed, the stronger and more laudable is
your faith ; yet, when it cometh to the trial, you will find,
that faith is no unreasonable thing ; and that God requireth
you to believe no more, than you have sufficient reason for,
to warrant you, and bear you out ; and that your faith can
be no more, than is your perception of the reasons why you
should believe ; and that God doth suppose reason, when he
infuseth faith, and useth reason in the use of faith. They
that believe, and know not why, or know no sufficient reason
to warrant their belief, do take a fancy, an opinion, or a
dream for faith. I know that many honest hearted Christians
are unable to dispute for their religion, or to give to others
a satisfactory account of the reasons of their faith or hope ;
but yet they have the true apprehension of some solid reasons
in themselves ; and they are not Christians they know not
why : and though their knowledge be small as to the number
of propositions known, yet it doth always extend to all that
is essential to Christianity and godliness, and they do .not
believe they know not what : and their knowledge is greater
intensively, and in its value and operation, than the know-
ledge of the most learned ungodly man in the world.
Though I may not here digress, or stay so long, as largely
to open to you the nature, grounds, reason, and method of
faith and godliness which I am persuading you to understand,
yet I shall first lay before you a few propositions, which will
be useful to you, when you are inquiring into these things,
and then a little open them unto you.
Prop. 1. A life of godliness is our living unto God as
God, as being absolutely addicted to him.
2. A life of faith is a living upon the unseen, everlasting
a Matt. vii. 24, xiii. 5—8.
172 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
happiness as purchased for us by Christ (with all the neces-
saries thereto), and freely given us by God.
3. The contrary life of sense and unbelief, is a living, in
the prevalency of sense or flesh, to this present w^orld, for
want of such believing apprehensions of a better, as should
elevate the soul thereto, and conquer the fleshly inclination
to things present.
4. Though man in innocency, needing no Redeemer,
might live to God without faith in a Redeemer ; yet lapsed
man is not only unable to redeem himself, but also unable
to live to God without the grace of the Redeemer. It was
not only necessary that he satisfy God's justice for us, that
he may pardon and save us without any wrong to- his holi-
ness, wisdom, or government ; but also that he be our
teacher by his doctrine and his life, and that he reveal from
heaven the Father's will, and that objectively in him we
may see the wonderful, condescending love and goodness
of a reconciled God and Father, and that eflectually he il-
luminate, sanctify, and quicken us by the operations of his
Word and Spirit, and that he protect and govern, justify,
and glorify us ; and be the Head of restored man, as Adam
was the root of lapsed man, and as the lapsed spirits had
their head : and therefore we must wholly live upon him as
the Mediator between God and man, and the only Saviour
by merit and by efficacy.
5. Faith is a knowledge by certain credible testimony
or revelation from God, by means supernatural or extraor-
dinary.
6. The knowledge of things naturally revealed (as the
cause by the effect, &c.) is in order before the knowledge or
belief of things revealed supernaturally.
7. It is matter of natural revelation that there is a God ;
that he is infinite in his immensity and eternity, in his power,
wisdom, and goodness ; that he is the first cause and ulti-
mate end of all things ; that he is the preserver and over-
ruling disposer of all things, and the supreme governor of
the rational world, and the great benefactor of all mankind,
and the special favourer and rewarder of such as truly love
him, seek him, and obey him : also that the soul of man is
immortal ; and that there is a life of reward or punishment
to come, and that this life is but preparatory unto that : that
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 173
man is bound to love God his Maker, and serve him, with
all his heart and might, and to believe that his labour is not
vain : that we must do our best to know God's will, that we
may do it. This, with much more, is of natural revelation,
which infidels may know ''.
8. There is so admirable a concord and correspondency
of natural divinity with supernatural, the natural leading
towards the supernatural, and the supernatural falling in so
meet where the natural endeth, or falls short, or is defective,
that it greatly advantageth us in the belief of supernatural
divinity *=. Nay, as the law of nature was exactly fitted to
man in his natural innocent estate ; so the law and way of
grace in Christ is so admirably and exactly fitted to the
state of lapsed man for his recovery and salvation, that the
experience which man hath of his sin and misery may
greatly prepare him to perceive and believe this most suit-
able Gospel or doctrine of recovery. And though it may
not be called natural, as if it were fitted to innocent nature,
or as if it were revealed by natural, ordinary means, yet
may it be so called, as it is exactly suited to the restoration
of lapsed, miserable nature ; even as Lazarus's restored soul,
though supernaturally rjestored, was the most natural asso-
ciate of his body ; or as the bread, or milk, or wine, though
it should fall from heaven, is in itself the most natural food
for man.
9. The same things in divinity, which are revealed na-
'' Laertius saith of the Magi, that they did Deorum vacare cultui : signa statuas-
que repudiare, et eorura in primis, qui mares esse Deos et foeminas dicunt, opinionetn
improbare. Prooeraiura, sect. 6. p. 5. He saith also, that the said Magi held,
and Theopompus with them, that men should live again, and become immortal.
The like he saith of many other sects. It is a thing most irrational to doubt of the
being of the unseen worlds, and the more excellent inhabitants thereof, when we
consider that this low and little part of God's creation is so full of inhabitants. If
a microscope will shew j'our very eyes a thousand visible creatures which you could
never see without it, nor know that they had any being, will you not allow the pure
intellectual sight to go much further beyond your microscope ?
•= Thales' sayings in Laerlius are, Pulcherriraura, raundus ; a Deo enim factus est.
Maximum, locus j capit enim omnia. Velocissimum, mens ; nam per universa dis-
currit. Fortissimum, necessitas ; cuncta enim superat. Sapientissimum, tempus ;
invenit namque omnia. Sciscitanti cuidam, utrum prius factum esset, nox an dies :
nox ait, una prius die. Interrogatus, lateret ne Deos homo male agens : ne cogitans
qudera, inquit. Interrogatus quidnam esse difficile ; se, inquit, ipsuni noscere : quid
contra facile ; alteri consilium dare. Quid suavissimam ; conscqui quod velis. Quid
Dens ; quod initio et fine caret. Diog. Laert. lib. i. sect. 35, 36. pp. 21, 22.
174 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
turally to all, are again revealed supernaturally in the Gos-
pel ; and therefore may, and must be the matter both of
natural knowledge and of faith.
10. When the malicious tempter casteth in doubts of a
Deity, or other points of natural certainty, it so much dis-
crediteth his suggestions, as may help us much to reject
them when withal he tempteth us to doubt of the truth of
the Gospel.
11. There are many needful appurtenances to the ob-
jects of a Divine faith, which are the matter of a human
faith. (Of which more anon.)
12. Christ, as Mediator, is the way or principal means
to God, as coming to restore man to his Maker. And so
faith in Christ is but the means to bring us to the love of
God (though in time they are commixed).
13. Knowledge and faith are the eye of the new creature,
and love is in the heart :- there is no more spiritual wisdom
than there is faith ; and there is no more life or accept-
able qualification, or amiableness, than there is love to God.
14. All truths in divinity are revealed in order to a holy
life : both faith and love are the principles and springs of
practice.
15. Practice affordeth such experience to a believing
soul, as may confirm him greatly in the belief of those su-
pernatural revelations, which he before received without
that help.
16. The everlasting fruition of God in glory being the
end of all religion, must be next the heart and most in our
eye, and must objectively animate our whole religion, and
actuate us in every duty.
17. The pleasing of God being also our end, and both of
these (enjoying him and pleasing him), being in some small
foretastes attainable in this life, the endeavour of our souls
and lives must be by faith to exercise love and obedience ;
for thus God is pleased and enjoyed.
18. All things in religion are fitted to the good of man,
and nothing to his hurt: God doth not command us to
honour him by any thing which would make us mi-
serable, but by closing with, and magnifying his love and
grace**.
<l Conjungi vult nos inter nos, atque connect! per mutua beneficia charitatis : adeo
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHIC3. 175
19. But yet it is his own revelation by which we must
judge what is finally for our good or hurt ; and we may not
imagine that our shallow or deceivable wit is sufficient to
discern without his Word what is best or worst for us : nor
can we rationally argue from any present temporal adversity
or unpleasing bitterness in the means, that * This is worst
for us, and therefore it is not from the goodness of God ;'
but we must argue in such cases, ' This is from the good-
ness and love of God, and therefore it is best."
20. The grand impediment to all religion and our sal-
vation, which hindereth both our believing, loving, and
obeying, is the inordinate, sensual inclination to carnal self
and present transitory things, cunningly proposed by the
tempter to ensnare us, and divert and steal away our hearts
from God and the life to come. The understanding of these
Propositions will much help you in discerning the nature
and reason of religion.
Grand Direct, ii. ' Diligently labour in that part of the
life of faith which consisteth in the constant use of Christ
as the means of the soul's access to God, acceptance with
him, and comfort from him : and think not of coming to
the Father, but by him.'
To talk and boast of Christ is easy, and to use him for
the increase of our carnal security, and boldness in sinning :
but to live in the daily use of Christ to those ends of his
office, to which he is by us to be made use of, is a matter
of greater skill and diligence than many self-esteeming pro-
fessors are aware of. What Christ himself hath done, or
will do, for our salvation, is not directly the thing that we
are now considering of; but what use he require th us to
make of him in the life of faith. He hath told us, that his
flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed ; and that
except we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we have no life
in us. Here is our use of Christ, expressed by eating and
drinking his flesh and blood, which is by faith. The ge-
neral parts of the work of redemption, Christ hath himself
ut tota justicia et praeceptutn lioc Dei, communis sit utilitas hominum. O miram cle-
mentiam Domini ! O ineffabilem Dei benignitatem ! praemium nobis pollicetur, si
nos invicem diligamus ; id est, si nos ea praestemus inviceni, quorum vicissim indi-
gemus: et nos superbo et ingralo animo, ejus remittiraur voluntati, cujus etlamim-
perium beneficium est. Hieron. ad Celant. See my book of the " Reasons of the
Christian Religion."
176 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
performed for us, without asking our consent, or imposing
upon us any condition on our parts, without which he
would not do that work : as the sun doth illustrate and
warm the earth whether it will or not, and as the rain fall-
eth on the grass without asking whether it consent Or will
be thankful ; so Christ, without our consent or knowledge,
did take our nature, and fulfil the law, and satisfy the of-
fended Law-giver, and merit grace, and conquer satan, death,
and hell, and became the glorified Lord of all^ : but for the
exercise of his graces in us, and our advancement to com-
munion with God, and our living in the strength and joys
of faith, he is himself the object of our duty, even of that
faith which we must daily and diligently exercise upon him :
and thus Christ will profit us no further than we make use
of him by faith. It is not a forgotten Christ that objectively
comforteth or encourageth the soul ; but a Christ believed
in, and skilfully and faithfully used to that end. It is ob-
jectively (principally) that Christ is called our wisdom,
1 Cor. i. 30. The knowledge of him, and the mysteries of
grace in him, is the Christian or Divine philosophy or wis-
dom, in opposition to the vain philosophy which the learned
heathen boasted of. And therefore Paul determined to
know nothing but Christ crucified, that is, to make osten-
tation of no other knowledge, and to glory in nothing but
the cross of Christ, and so to preach Christ as if he knew
nothing else but Christ ^ And it is objectively that Christ
is said to dwell in our hearts by faith s. Faith keepeth him
still upon the heart by continual cogitation, application,
and improvement : as a friend is said to dwell in our hearts
whom we continually love and think of.
Christ himself teacheth us to distinguish between faith in
God (as God), and faith in himself (as Mediator) : " Let not
your heart be troubled : ye believe in God^:" (or, believe
ye in God ?) *' believe also in me." These set together are
« Vel propter unionem inter creaturam et creatorem necessaria fuit incarnatio-
Sicut in Diviuitate una est essentia et tres personae ; ita in Christo una persona et tres
essentiae ; Deltas, aiiima, et caro. Christus secundum naturam diviuitatis est genitus ;
secundum animam creatus ; et secundum camera factus. Unio in Christo triplex est ;
Deitatis ad animam J Deitatis ad carnem; et aniinae ad camera. Paul. Scaliger.
Thes. p. 725. Christus solus, et quidem secundum utramque naturam dicitur Caput
ecclesiae. Id. p. 726.
f See 1 Cor. i. 23. ii. % Gal. vi. 14. f Ephes. iii. 17. *• John xiv. 1.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 177
the sufficient cure of a troubled heart- It is not * Faith in
God, as God/ but ' Faith in Christ as Mediator/ that I
am now to speak of: and that not as it is inherent in the
understanding, but as it is operative on the heart and in the
life : and this is not the smallest part of the life of faith, by
which the just are said to live. Every true Christian must
in his measure be able to say with Paul, '' I am crucified
with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liv-
eth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith o;f the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me'." The pure Godhead is the beginning and
the end of all. But Christ is "the image of the invisible
God, the first-born of every creature ; and by him all things
were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visi-
ble and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or
principalities or powers, all things were created by him and
for him : and he is before all things, and by him all things
do consist. And he is the head of the body, the church ;
who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead ; that in
all things he might have the pre-eminence^." " In him it
is that we who were sometime afar off are made nigh, even
by his blood. For he is our peace, who hath reconciled
both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby : and came and preached
peace to them that were afar off", and to them that were nigh.
For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto
the Father : so that now we are no more strangers and fo-
reigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the
household of God^" *' In him" it is " that we have bold-
ness and access with confidence through faith in him"" ; he
is the way, the truth, and the life : and no man cometh to
the Father, but by him"." It is " by the blood of Jesus that
we have boldness " (and liberty) " to enter into the holiest :
by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us
through the vail, that is to say, his flesh." Because *' we
have so great a Priest over the house of God, we may draw
near, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith °." " By
him it is that we have access by faith into this grace wherein
■ iGal.ii.20.
k Col. i. 16—19.
' Eph.ii. 13—18.
»»Eph.iii.l2.
njohnxiv. 6. /.,
.. oHeb. X. 19— 22.
VOL. n.
N
#
J78 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART T.
we stand, and boast in hope of the glory of God**." So
that we must have ** all our communion with God through
himV^
Supposing what I have said of this subject in my " Di-
rections for a sound Conversion," Direct. 5., (which I hope
the reader will peruse,) I shall here briefly name the uses
which we must make of Christ by faith, in order to our holy
converse with God"^. But I must tell you, that it is a doc-
trine which requireth a prepared heart, that hath life within
to enable it to relish holy truth, and to dispose it to dili-
gence, delight, and constancy in practice. A senseless
reader will feel but little savour in it, and a sluggish reader,
that suffereth it to die as soon as it hath touched his ears
or fantasy, will fall short of the practice and the pleasure of
this life. He must have faith that will live by faith : and
he must have the heart and nature of a child, that will take
pleasure in loving, reverent, and obedient converse with a
father.
1. The darkness of ignorance and unbelief is the great
impediment of the soul that desireth to draw near to God.
When it knoweth not God, or knoweth not man's capacity
of enjoying him, and how much he regardeth the heart of
man ; or knoweth not by what way he must be sought and
found : or when he doubteth of the certainty of the word
pRom. V. 1,2.
1 Ex apostolica et veteri traditione, nemo baplizatur in ecclesia Christi, nisi prius
rogatus, an credat in Deura Patrem, et in Jesum Christum Dei Filium, et in Spiritum
sanctum, respondent, firmiter se credere : quantum vis ergo hebes sit, si judicii ali-
quid habet, et ita rogatur et ita respondet, prorsusque ita expresse credere jubetur :
naraque implicite et involute non isthasc solum, sed quaecunque Divinae literae produnt,
credit, de quibus tamen non omnibus interrogatur, quod ea expresse scire omnia,
illi minime opus sit. Acosta lib. v. c. 6. p. 461. Christian religion beginneth not at
the higliest, but the lowest : with Christ incarnate, teaching, dying, &c. Dr. Boy's
postil. p. 121 . out of Luther.
' Sane omnium virtutum radix et fundamentum fides est ; quae certantes adjuvat,
vincentes coronat, et coelesti dono quosdam defectu signorum remunerat : nihil enim
quod sincerae fidei denegetur, quia nee aliud a nobis Deus, quam fidem exigit : banc
diligit, banc requirit, huic cuncta promittit et tribuit. S. Eulogius Mart. Arch. Tolet.
Memorial. Sanct. p. 4. Notandum, quod cum fides mortua sit praeter opera, jam ne-
que fides est : nam neque homo mortuus, homo est. Non enim sicut spiritum corpore
meliorem, ita opera fidei praeponenda sunt, quando gratia salvatur homo, non exope-
ribus sed ex fide : nisi forte et hoc in quffistione sit, quod salvet fides quae cum operibus
propriis vivit; tanquam aliud genus operum sit, praeter quae salus ex fide proveniat :
nee autem sunt opera quae sub umbra legis observantur. Didymus Alexand. in Jac. c. 2.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. I7d
which declareth the duty of the hopes of man ; all this, or
any of this, will suppress the ascending desires of the soul,
and clip its wings, and break the heart of its holy aspirings
after God, by killing or weakening the hopes of its success.
Here, then, make use of Jesus Christ, the great revealer
of God and his will to the blind world, and the great con-
firmer of the Divine authority of his word. Life and immorta-
lity are brought more fully to light by the Gospel, than ever
they were by any other means. Moses and the prophets
did bring with their doctrine sufficient evidence of its cre-
dibility. But Christ hath brought both a fuller revelation,
and a fuller evidence to help belief. An inspired prophet
which proveth his inspiration to us, is a credible messenger ;
but when God himself shall come down into flesh, and con-
verse with man, and teach him the knowledge of God, and
the way to life, and tell him the mysteries of the world to
come, and seal his testimony with unquestionable proofs,
who will not learn of such a teacher ? and who will deny
belief to such a messenger, except absurd, unreasonable
men ? Remember then, when ignorance or unbelief would
hinder your access to God, that you have the ablest teacher
and the surest witness to acquaint you with God in all the
world. If God had sent an angel from heaven, to tell you
what he is, and what he requireth of you, and what he will
do for you, would it not be very acceptable to you ? But
he hath done much more ; he hath sent his Son * : the Deity
itself hath appeared in flesh : he that hath seen God, and
he that is God, hath come among men to acquaint them
with God : his testimony is more sure and credible than any
angel's : " God who at sundry times, and in divers manners,
spake in times past to the fathers by the prophets, hath in
these last days spoken to us by his Son *. No man hath
seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the
bosom of the Father, he hath declared him "." We have
** neither heard the voice of God, nor seen his shape *. No
man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God ; he hath
seen the Father y. No man knoweth the Father save the
^ Dilectio Dei misit nobis salvatorem : cujos gratia salvati sumus : ut possi*-
(karaus banc gratiam, communicatio facit spiritus. Ambros. ia 2 Cor. xiiit. J.3.
t Heb. i. 1—3. " John i. 18. '^ John v. 37. v John vi. 46.
180 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him''."
What more can we desire, that is short of the sight of the
glory of God, than to have him revealed to us by a messen-
ger from heaven, and such a messenger as himself hath seen
him, and is God himself? Plato and Plotinus may describe
God to us according to their dark conjectures : something
we may discern of him by observing his works : but Christ
hath declared what he saw, and what he knew beyond all
possibility of mistake. And lest his own testimony should
seem questionable to us, he hath confirmed it by a life of
miracles, and by rising from the dead himself, and ascend-
ing visibly to heaven, and by the Holy Ghost, and his mira-
culous gifts which he gave to the messengers of his Gospel.
Had it been no more than his resurrection from the dead, it
had been enough to prove the utter unreasonableness of
unbelief.
2. It is also a great impediment to the soul in its approach
to God, that infinite distance disableth us to conceive of
hiiii aright. We say as Elihu, " Behold, God is great, and
we know him not ^" And indeed it is impossible that mor-
tal man should have any adequate apprehensions of his
essence. But in his Son he" hath come down to us, and
shewed himself in the clearest glass that ever did reveal him.
Think of him, therefore, as he appeared in our flesh : as he
shewed himself in his holiness and goodness to the world.
You may have positive thoughts of Jesus Christ : though
you may not think that the Godhead was flesh, yet you
may think of it as it appeared in flesh. It may quiet the
understanding to conceive of God as incarnate, and to know
that we cannot yet " know him as he is," or have any ade-
quate conceptions of him : these may delight us till we
reach to more.
3. It hindereth the soul's approach to God, when the
infinite distance makes us think that God will not regard
or take notice of such contemptible worms as we ; we are
ready to think that he is too high for our converse or de-
light. In this case the soul hath no such remedy, as to
look to Christ ; and we see how the Father hath regarded
us, and set his heart upon us, and sent his Son to seek and
save us. O wonderful, astonishing condescension of eternal
-'■ Matt. xi. 27. » Job xxxiv. 26.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 181
love ! Believe that God assumed flesh to make himself fa-
miliar with man ; and you can never question whether he
regard us, or will hold communion with us.
4. It hindereth our comfortable access to God, when we
are deterred by the glory of his infiniteness and majesty.
As the eye is not able to gaze upon the sun unless it be
overshadowed ; so the soul is afraid of the majesty of God,
and overwhelmed by it when it should be delighted in it.
Against this there is no such remedy, as to behold God
appearing to us in his Son, where his majesty is veiled,
and where he approacheth us familiarly in our nature,
to invite us to him with holy confidence and reverent
boldness. Christ did not appear in a terrible form : women
durst discourse with him : beggars, and cripples, and dis-
eased people durst ask his help : sinners durst eat with him.
The proud contemned him, but the lowly were not frighted
from him. He took upon him the " form of a servant," and
made himself of no reputation, that he might converse fa-
miliarly with the meanest and those of no reputation.
Though we may not debase the Godhead, to imagine that
it is humbled in glory, as it was on earth, in the flesh of
Christ ; yet this condescension is unspeakable encourage-
ment to the soul to come with boldness unto God, that was
frighted from him.
5. When the guilt of sin affrighteth us from God, and
we are thinking that God will not accept such great offen-
ders as we have been, then Christ is our remedy, who hath
paid our debt, and borne our stripes, and procured and
sealed us a pardon by his blood ^. Shall pardoned sins
drive us from him that pardoned them ? He hath justified
us by his righteousness. The curse and condemnation are
terrible indeed ; but he hath taken them away, and given us
a free discharge.
6. The infirmities also of our souls, in duty, are often-
times a great discouragement to us, in our approaches to
the most holy, jealous God. To find so little knowledge of
God, so little love to him, such cold desires, such wander-
ing and distracted thoughts, such dull requests : it is hard
•> O Domiue Jesu doles non tua seel mea vulnera! Ambros. de fide ad Grat.
lib. ii. c. 3. Nos immortalitate male usi sumus ut moreremur : Christxis mortalitate
bene usus est ut viveremus. August, de Doct. Christ, lib. i. c. 14.
Jt^2 CHRISTIAN directory! [pART I.
to have lively and thankful apprehensions of God's accep-
tance of such defective, lame meditations or prayers ; but
we are apt to think that he will abhor both them and us, and
that he can take no pleasure in them, yea, that it is as good
not to pray at all. Here faith hath full relief in Christ :
two things it can say from him to encourage the fearful soul :
(1.) That our acceptance with the Father is through the
merits of his Son : and he is worthy, though we are unwor-
thy. If we have but the worthiness of faith, and repentance,
and sincere desire, Christ hath the worthiness of perfect ho-
liness and obedience for us. We go not to the Father in our
own names, but in his : and whatever we ask the Father in
the name of Christ according to his will, he will give it us *=.
(2.) That all the infirmities of our souls and services are
forgiven us through Christ: he hath undertaken to answer
for them all, and to justify us from all such accusations. By
faith thou mayst, as it were, hear Christ thus speaking for
thine encouragement: ' Go boldly, poor sinner, into my
Father's presence: fear not the guilt of thy sins, nor the
imperfection of thy prayers ; as long as thou truly repentest
of them, and desirest to be delivered from them, and trustest
in me, I am thy worthiness; my righteousness is perfect
without spot ; I have taken all thy faults and failings upon
me : I have undertaken to answer for all the imperfections
of thy holy things : sincerity is thy endowment ; perfection
is mine : trust me in the performance of the trust which I
have undertaken.'
7. Sometimes, the soul that would draw near to God, is
overwhelmed with grief and terror, so that the sense of sin,
and danger, and misery, do even distract men, and cast them
into an agony ; so that they say with David, " My soul re-
fused to be comforted : I remembered God and was troubled :
I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Thou bold-
est mine eyes waking : I am so troubled that I cannot
speak ^.'' Yea, they think they feel God thrust them from
him, and tell them that he hath utterly forsaken them. In
this case, faith must look to Christ, ana remember that he
was in an agony when he prayed, and in a greater agony
than ever you were, so that he sweat even drops of blood :
and yet in that agony he prayed more earnestly ^. He him-
•^ John xvi. 23. xiv. 13. xv. 16. ^ Psal. Jxxvii. 2—4. * Luke xxii. 44.
CHAP, in.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 183
self once cried out upon the cross, ** My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me :" and yet he was the beloved of the
Father, and is now at his right hand in glory : and all this
he did that we might not be forsaken. He hath removed the
enmity : he hath reconciled us to God : by grief he passed
himself to joy, and he will wipe away his servants' tears, and
cause their griefs to end in joy.
8. Sometimes, the soul that would draw near to God, is
molested with a storm of hideous temptations, and even con-
founded with a swarm of disordered, perplexed thoughts.
Satan assaulteth it with temptations to despair, temptations
to horrid blasphemous thoughts ; temptations to entangle,
intermit, corrupt, or pervert the duty which they are about ;
so that the soul is discouraged, overwhelmed, and broken
with the inward assaults, and troubles, and distractions
which it undergoeth. In this case, faith hath a Saviour
suitable to our relief. It can look to him that was tempted
in all points like as we are, without sin, and is now such an
High Priest as can be touched with the feeling of our infir-
mities ; and, therefore, we may come boldly to the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in
time of need. " In all things it behoved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful
High Priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconci-
liation for the sins of the people : for he himself having
suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are
tempted ^" He submitted not only to be tempted by satan,
but tempted in a wilderness, where he had no man to comfort
him ; and to be tempted to the most horrid blasphemy and
wickedness, even to fall down and worship the devil him-
self : and he suffered the tempter violently to carry him to
the pinnacle of the temple. Matt. iv. What should we think
of ourselves, if we had been used thus ? Should we not think
that God had utterly forsaken us ? He suffered himself to
be tempted also by men : by the abuses and reproaches of
his enemies ; by the desertion of his followers ; by the car-
nal counsel of Peter, persuading him to put by the death
which he was to undergo. And he that made all tempta-
tions serve to the triumph of his patience, and conquering
f Heb. iv. 14—16. ii. 17, 18.
184 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
power, will give the victory also to his grace, in the weak-
est soul.
9. It would be the greatest attractive to us to draw near to
God, and make the thoughts of him pleasant to us, if we
could but believe that he dearly loveth us, that he is recon-
ciled to us, and taketh us for his children, and that he taketh
pleasure in us, and that he resolveth for ever to glorify us
with his Son, and that the dearest friend that we have in the
world, doth not love us the thousandth part so much as he.
And all this in Christ, is clearly represented to the eye of
faith. All this is procured for believers, by him: and all
this is given to believers in him. In him God is reconciled
to us. He is our Father, and dwelleth among us, and in us,
and walketh in us, and is our God s. Light and heat are
not more abundant in the sun, than love is in Jesus Christ.
To look on Christ, and not perceive the love of God, is as
to look on the sun, and not to see and acknowledge its light.
Therefore, whenever you find your hearts averse to God, and
to have nO pleasure in him, look then to Jesus, and observe
in him the unmeasurable love of God : that you maybe able
to comprehend with all the saints, " what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled
with all the fulness of God ''." Love and goodness are that
to the will, which delicious sweetness is to the sensitive ap-
petite. Draw near then, and taste the feast of love which
God hath prepared and proposed by his Son. Dost thou
not see or feel the love of God ? Come near, and look upon
God incarnate ; upon a crucified Christ ; upon the Covenant
sealed in his blood ; upon all the benefits of his Redemption ;
upon all the privileges of the saints ; and upon the glory
purchased, possessed, and promised by him. Put thy hand
into his wounded side, and be not faithless, but believing :
and then thou wilt cry out, " My Lord, and my God."
10. So. also, when the soul would fain perceive in itself
the flames of love to God, it is the beholding of Christ by
faith, which is the striking of fire, and the effectual means
of kindling love. And this is the true approach to God, and
the true communion and converse with him : so far as we
s 2 Cor. vi. 16—18. »" Ephes. iii. 18, 19.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 185
love him, so far do we draw near him, and so far have we
true communion with him. O what would the soul of a be-
liever give, that it could but burn in love to God, as oft as in
prayer, or meditation, or conference, his name and attri-
butes are mentioned or remembered ! For this, there is no
such powerful means, as believingly to look on Christ, in
whom such glorious love appeareth, as will draw forth the
love of all, that by a lively faith discern it. Behold the love
that God hath manifested by his Son, and thou canst not
but love him, who is the spring of this transcendent love.
In the law, God sheweth his frowning wrath : and therefore
it breedeth the " spirit of bondage unto fear :" but in Christ
God appeareth to us, not only as loving us, but as love
itself; and therefore as most lovely to us, giving us the
spirit of adoption, or of filial love, by which we fly, and cry
to him as our Father.
1 1 . The actual undisposedness and disability of the soul
to prayer, meditation, and all holy converse wuth the blessed
God, is the great impediment of our walking with him : and
against this, our relief is all in Christ. He is filled with the
Spirit, to communicate to his members : he can quicken us
when we are dull : he can give us faith when we are unbe-
lieving : he can give us boldness when we are discouraged :
he can pour out upon us the Spirit of supplication, which
shall help our infirmities, when we know not what to pray
for as we ought. Beg of him then, the spirit of prayer :
and look to his example, who prayed with strong cries and
tears, and continued all the night in prayer, and spake a
parable to this end, that we should always pray, and not
wax faint. Call to him, and he that is with the Father will
reach the hand of his Spirit to you, and will quicken your
desires, and lift you up.
12. Sometimes, the soul is hearkening to temptations of
unbelief, and doubting whether God observe our prayers,
or whether there is so much to be got by prayer as we are
told. In such a case faith must look to Christ, who hath not
only commanded it, and encouraged us by his example ; but
also made us such plentiful promises of acceptance with
God, and the grant of our desires. Recourse to these pro-
mises will animate us to draw nigh to God.
13. Sometimes the present sense of our vileness, who are but
186 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
dust and despicable worms, doth discourage us, and weaken
our expectations from God. Against this, what a wonder-
ful relief is it to the soul, to think of our union with Christ,
and of the dignity and glory of our Head ! Can God de-
spise the members of his Son ? Can he trample upon them
that are as his flesh and bone ? Will he cut off, or forsake,
or cast away the weakest parts of his body ?
14. Sometimes, the guilt of renewed infirmities or decays
doth renew distrust, and make us shrink ; and we are like
the child in the mother's arms, that feareth when he loseth
his hold, as if his safety were more in his hold of her, than
in her hold of him. Weak duties have weak expectations
of success. In this case, what an excellent remedy hath
faith, in looking to the perpetual intercession of Christ. Is
he praying for us in the heavens, and shall we not be bold
to pray, and expect an answer ? O remember that he is not
weak, when we are weak ; and that it concerneth us, that he
prayeth for us : and that we have now an unchangeable
priest, who is able to save them to the uttermost, or to per-
petuity, " that come (sincerely) to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them K" If you heard
Christ pray for you, would it not encourage you to pray,
and persuade you that God would not reject you? Un-
doubtedly it would.
15. Sometimes, weak Christians, that have not the gifts
of memory or utterance, are apt to think that ministers in-
deed and able men, are accepted of God, but that he little
valueth such as them. It is here a great encouragement to
the soul, to think that Jesus our great High Priest, doth
make all his children priests to God. They are " a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar peo-
ple ; that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath
called them out of darkness into his marvellous light : an
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God by Jesus Christ^." Even their " broken hearts and
contrite spirits, are a sacrifice which God will not despise ^"
He knoweth the meaning of the Spirit's groan.
16. The strength of corruptions which molest the soul,
and are too often struggling with it, and too much prevail,
doth greatly discourage us in our approach to that God that
* Hcb. vii. 24, 25. '' 1 Pet. ii. 5.9. ' Rom. viii. 26, 27.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 187
hateth all the workers of iniquity. And here faith may find
relief in Christ, not only as he .pardoneth us, but as he hath
conquered the devil and the world himself, and bid us be
of good cheer, because he hath conquered, and hath all the
power given him in heaven and earth, and can give us vic-
torious grace, in the season and measure which he seeth
meetest for us. We can do all things through Christ that
strengtheneth us. Go to him then by faith and prayer, and
you shall find that his grace is sufficient for you.
17. The thoughts of God are the less delightful to the
soul, because that death and the grave do interpose, and we
must pass through them before we can enjoy him : and it is
unpleasing to nature, to think of a separation of soul and
body, and to think that our flesh must rot in darkness. But
against this, faith hath wonderful relief in Jesus Christ.
*' Forasmuch as we were partakers of flesh and blood, he
also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of
death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage ""." What
an encouragement it is to faith, to observe that Christ once
died himself, and that he rose from the dead, and reigneth
with the Father : it being impossible that death should hold
him. And having conquered that which seemed to conquer
him, it no more hath dominion over him, but he hath the
keys of death and hell. We may now entertain death as a
disarmed enemy, and say, " O death, where is thy sting? O
grave where is thy victory ?" Yea, it is sanctified by him
to be our friend, even an entrance into our Master's joy : it
being best for us to depart and be with Christ". And, there-
fore, death is become our gain **. O what abundance of
strength and sweetness may faith perceive from that promise
of Christ, " If any man serve me, let him follow me, and
where I am, there shall also my servant be p." As he was
dead, but now liveth for evermore, so hath he promised, that
" because he liveth, therefore shall we live also *i." But of
this, I have written two treatises of death already.
18. The terror of the day of judgment, and of our parti-
cular doom at death, doth make the thoughts of God less
■n Heb. ii. 14, 15. " Phil. i. 23. ° Phil. i. 21.
P John xii. 26. i John xiv. 19.
188 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART I.
pleasing and delectable to us. And here, what a relief is it
for faith to apprehend that Jesus Christ must be our Judge.
And will he condemn the members of his body ? Shall we be
afraid to be judged by our dearest friend ? — by him that hath
justified us himself already, even at the price of his own
blood?
19. The very strangeness of the soul to the world un-
seen, and to the inhabitants and employments there, doth
greatly stop the soul in its desires, and in its delightful ap-
proaches unto God. Had we seen the world where God
must be enjoyed, the thoughts of it would be more familiar
and sweet. But faith can look to Christ, and say, ' My
Head is there : he seeth it for me : he knoweth what he pos-
sesseth, prepareth, and promiseth to me : and I will quietly
rest in his acquaintance with it.'
20. Nay, the Godhead itself is so infinitely above us,
that, in itself, it is inaccessible ; and it is ready to amaze and
overwhelm us, to think of coming to the incomprehensible
Majesty : but it emboldeneth the soul, to think of our glo-^
rifled nature in Christ, and that, even in heaven, God will
everlastingly condescend to us in the Mediator. For the
mediation of redemption and acquisition shall be ended,
(and thus he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father,)
yet it seems that a mediation of fruition shall continue : for
Christ said to his Father, *' I will that they also whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory '^." We shall "rejoice," when the '* marriage of
the Lamb is come^" " They are blessed that are called to
his marriage supper*." '' The Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are the temple and the light of the new Jerusalem"."
Heaven would not be so familiar, or so sweet to my thoughts,
if it were not that our glorified Lord is there, in whose love
and glory we must live for ever.
O Christian! as ever thou wouldst walk with God, in
comfortable communion with him, study and exercise this
life of faith, in the daily use and improvement of Christ,
who is our life, and hope, and all.
Grand Direct, iii. ' Understand well what it is to believe
in the Holy Ghost : and see that he dwell and operate in
' John xvii. !24. * Rev. xix. 7. ' Ver. 9.
" Rev. xxi. 22, 23.
CHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 189
thee, as the life of thy soul, and that thou do not resist or
quench the Spirit, but thankfully obey him.'
Each person in the Trinity, is so believed in by Chris-
tians, as that in baptism, they enter distinctly into covenant
with them ; which is, to accept the mercies of, and perform
the duties to, each person distinctly y. As to take God for
our God, is more than to believe that there is a God ; and
to take Christ for our Saviour, is more than barely to believe
that he is the Messiah : so to believe in the Holy Ghost, is to
take him for Christ's agent or advocate with our souls, and
for our guide, and sanctifier, and comforter, and not only to
believe that he is the third person in the Trinity. This,
therefore, is a most practical article of our belief.
If the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be the unpar-
donable sin, then all sin against the Holy Ghost, must needs
have a special aggravation by being such : and if the sin
against the Holy Ghost be the greatest sin, then our duty
towards the Holy Ghost, is certainly none of our smallest
duties. Therefore the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and our
duty towards him, and sin against him, deserve not the least,
or last place in teaching, learning, and most serious consi-
deration.
Two sorts do most dangerously sin against, or abuse the
Holy Ghost. The first are the profane, who through cus-
tom and education, can say * I believe in the Holy Ghost,'
and say, that * he sanctifieth them and all the elect people
of God ;' but hate or resist all sanctifying works and mo-
tions of the Holy Ghost, and hate all those that are sancti-
fied by him, and make them the objects of their scorn, and
deride the very name of sanctification, or at least the things.
The second sort are the enthusiasts, or true fanatics,
who advance, extol, and plead for the Spirit, against the
Spirit ; covering their greatest sins against the Holy Ghost,
by crying up, and pretending to the Holy Ghost*. They
y Scrutari temeritas est, credere pietas, nosse vita. Bernard, de consid. ad Eu-
gen. lib. 5.
* Deus est principium effectivum in creatione, refectivura in rederaptione, per-
fectivum in sdnctificatione. Job. Combis comp. Theol. lib. iv. c. 1.
* Rejectis propheticis et apostolicis scriptis, Manichaei novum Evangelium
scripserunt : ei ut antecellere communi bominum multitudini et semidei viderentur,
simularunt entbusiasmos seu afflatus, subito in turba se in terram objicientes, et velut
attoniti diu tacentes ; deinde tanquara redeuntes ex specu Trophonio et plorantes,
190 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
plead the Spirit in themselves, against the Spirit in their
brethren, yea, and in almost all the church : they plead the
authority of the Spirit in them, against the authority of the
Spirit in the Holy Scriptures ; and against particular truths
of Scripture ; and against several great and needful duties,
which the Spirit hath required in the word ; and against
the Spirit in their most judicious, godly, faithful teachers.
But can it be the Spirit that speaks against the Spirit ? Is
the Spirit of God against itself? Are we " not all baptized
by one Spirit" (and not divers or contrary) " into one bo-
dy^?" But it is "no marvel, for satan to be transformed
into an angel of light, or his ministers into the ministers of
Christ, and of righteousness, whose end shall be according
to their works *=.'* The Spirit himself, therefore, hath com-
manded us, that we " believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they be of God ; because many false pro-
phets are gone out into the world '^t^' '* Yea, the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall de-
part from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doc-
trines of devils*." Therefore take heed that you neither
mistake nor abuse the Holy Spirit.
I. The doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost, to be be-
lieved, is briefly this: — 1. That the Holy Ghost, as given
since the ascension of Christ, is his agent on earth, or his
advocate with men (called by him the Paraclete). Instead
of his bodily presence, which, for a little space, he vouch-
safed to a few, being ascended, he sendeth the Holy Spirit,
as better for them, to be his agent continually to the end,
and unto all, and in all that do believe ^ 2. This Holy Spi-
rit, so sent, infallibly inspired the holy apostles and evange-
lists, first to preach, and then to write the doctrine, of Christ,
contained (as indited by him) in the Holy Scriptures; per-
fectly imprinting therein the holy image of God s. 3. The
same Spirit in them, sealed this holy doctrine, and the testi-
mony of these holy men, by many miracles and wonderful
gifts, by which they did actually convince the unbelieving
multa vaticinati sunt; prorsus ut AnabaptistSB recens fecerunt in seditione Monaste-
riensi. Etsi autetn in quibusdam raanifesta simulatio fuit, tamen aliquibus veipsa a
Diabolis furores immissos esse certura est. Carion. Chron. lib. iii. p. 54.
b 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. <= 2 Cor. xi. 13—15. ^ 1 JohqLv. 1.
« I Tim. ir. 1. ^ John xvi, 7, 8.
K Jobn XV. ?6. John xvi. 13. Gal. iii. 1—4* H^b-ii. 3, 4-
CHAP. III.] CHRII^TIAN ETHICS. 191
world, and plant the churches. 4. The same Spirit (having
first by the apostles, given a law or canon to the universal
church, constituting its offices, and the duty of the officers,
and the manner of their entrance,) doth qualify and dispose
men, for the stated, ordinary, ministerial work (which is to
explain and apply the aforesaid Scriptures), and directeth
those that are to ordain and choose them (they being not
wanting on their part) ; and so he appointeth pastors to the
church •*. 5. The same Spirit assisteth the ministers (thus
sent in their faithful use of the means,) to teach and apply
the Holy Scriptures, according to the necessities of the peo-
ple, the weight of the matter, and the majesty of the word
of God. 6. The same Spirit doth, by this word (heard or
read), renew and sanctify the souls of the elect ; illuminating
their minds ; opening and quickening their hearts ; prevail-
ing with, changing, and resolving their wills, thus writing
God's word, and imprinting his image by his word, upon
their hearts ; making it powerful to conquer and cast out
their strongest, sweetest, dearest sins ; and bringing them
to the saving knowledge, love, and obedience of God in
Jesus Christ'. The same Holy Spirit assisteth the sancti-
fied, in the exercise of this grace, to the increase of it, by
blessing and concurring with the means appointed by him
to that end ; and helpeth them to use those means, perform
their duties, conquer temptations, oppositions, and difficul-
ties, and so confirmeth and presei^veth then^ to the end. 8. The
same Spirit helpeth believers, in the exercise of grace, to feel
it, and discern the sincerity of it in themselves, in that mea-
sure as they are meet for, and in these seasons when it is
fittest for them. 9. The same Spirit helpeth them, here-
upon, to conclude that they are justified and reconciled to
God, and have right to all the benefits of his covenant.
10. Also, he assisteth them actually to rejoice in the dis-
cerning of this conclusion. For though reason of itself
may do something in these acts, yet, so averse is man to all
that is holy, and so many are the difficulties and hindrances
in the way, that, to the effectual performance, the help of
the Spirit of God is necessary.
By this enumeration of the Spirit's operations, you may
see the errors of many detected, and many common ques-
h Eph. iii. 2—4. 8. 13. * Acts xxvi. 18. John xiv. 16, 26.
192 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
tions answered. 1. You may see their blindness, that pre-
tend the Spirit within them, against Scripture, ministry, or
the use of God's appointed means : when the same Spirit
first indited the Scripture, and maketh it the instrument to
illuminate and sanctify our souls. God's image is, (1.) Pri-
marily, in Jesus Christ his Son. (2.) Derivatively, by his
Spirit, imprinted perfectly in the Holy Scriptures. (3.) And
by the Scripture, or the holy doctrine of it, instrumentally
impressed on the soul. So that the image of God in Christ,
is the cause of his image in his holy word or doctrine, and
his image in his word, is the cause of his image on the heart.
So a king may have his image, (1.) Naturally, on his son,
who is like his father. (2.) Expressively, in his laws, which
express his wisdom, clemency, and justice. (3.) And ef-
fectively, on his subjects and servants, who are by his laws
reduced to a conformity to his mind. As a man may first
cut his arms or image on his seal, and then by that seal im-
print it on the wax ; and though it be perfectly cut on the
seal, it may be imperfectly printed on the wax ; so God's
image is naturally perfect in his Son, and regularly or ex-
pressively perfect on the seal of his holy doctrine and laws ;
but imperfectly on his subjects, according to their reception
of it in their several degrees.
Therefore, it is easy to discern their error, that tell men
the light or Spirit within them, is their rule, and a perfect
rule, yea, and that it is thus in all men in the world ; when
God's Word and experience flatly contradict it, telling us
that infidels and enemies of God, and all the ungodly are in
darkness, and not in the light ; and that all that speak not ac-
cording to this Word, (the law and testimony) have "no light
in them;" and therefore no " perfect light to be their rule ''."
The Ministry is sent, to bring them from darkness to light :
therefore, they had not a sufficient light in them before'.
" Wo to them that put darkness for light, and light for dark-
ness ^ :" telling the children of darkness, and the haters of
the light, that they have a perfect light and rule within them,
when God saith, " They have no light in them ".'^ " He that
saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in dark-
ness even till now''," The light within a wicked man, is
•^ Isa. viii. so.' i**^" ' ' * Acts xxvi. 17, 18. *» Isa. v. 20.
n 1 John i. 4— 8,vl n • , » 1 Jolm ii. 9—11. 0 - .
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 193
"darkness" and ** blindness," and therefore not his rule.
Even the light that is in godly men, is the knowledge of the
rule, and not the rule itself at all, nor ever called so by God.
Our rule is perfect ; our knowledge is imperfect : for Paul
himself saith, " We know in part : but when that which is
perfect is come, then that which is in part, shall be done
away : now we see through a glass darkly p." " The Gospel
is hid to them that are lost," being '* blinded by satan *i."
There is an admirable, unsearchable concurrence of the
Spirit, and his appointed means, and the will of man, in the
procreation of the new creature, and in all the exercises of
grace, as there is of male and female in natural generation ;
and of the earth, the sun, the rain, the industry of the gar-
dener, and the seminal virtue of life and specification, in the
production of plants with their flowers and fruits. And as
wise as it would be to say, it is not the male but the female, or
not the female but the male that generate th ; or to say, it is not
the earth but the sun, or not the sun but the rain, or not the
rain but the seminal virtue, that causeth plants with flowers
and fruits : so wise is it to say, it is not the Spirit but the
word and means, or it is not the word and means but the
Spirit, or it is not the reason, and will and industry of man,
but the Spirit : or, if we have not wisdom enough to assign
to each cause its proper interest in the effect, that therefore
we should separate* what God hath conjoined, or deny the
truth of the causation, because we comprehend not the man-
ner and influence — this is but to choose to be befooled by
pride, rather than confess that God is wiser than we.
2. You may here discern also, how the Spirit assureth and
comforteth believers : and how palpably they -err, that think
the Spirit comforteth or assureth us of our salvation with-
out the use of its evidencing grace. The ten things men-
tioned pp. 190, 191, is all that the Spirit doth herein. But to
expect his comforts without any measure of discerning his
graces, which can only rationally prove our right to the bles-
sings of the promise, this is to expect that he should comfort
a rational creature not as rational, but darkly cause him to
rejoice he knoweth not why : and that he should make no
use of faith to our comfort: for faith restesth understand-
ingly upon the promise, and expecteth the performance of
P 1 Cor.xiii. 9. 10. 12. i 2 Cor.iv. 5, 4.
VOL, TI. O
194 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
it to those that it is made to, and not to others. Indeed
there is a common encouragement and comfort, which all
men, even the worst, may take from the universal, condi-
tional promise ; and there is much abatement of our fears
and troubles that may be fetched from probabilities and un-
certain hopes of our own sincerity and interest in the pro-
mise. But to expect any other assurance or comfort from
the Spirit, without evidence, is but to expect immediate
revelations or inspirations to do the work, which the Word
of promise and faith should do. The soul's consent to the
covenant of grace, and fiducial acceptance of an offered
Christ, is justifying, saving faith/, every man hath an object
in the promise and offer of the Gospel for this act, and
therefore may rationally perform it. (Though all have not
hearts to do it.) This may well be called, faith of adherence :
and is itself our evidence, from which we must conclude,
that we are true believers ; the discerning of this evidence,
called by some, ' the reflex act of faith,' is no act of faith at
all, it being no believing of another, but the act of conscience,
knowing what is in ourselves. The discerning and conclude
ing that we are the children of God, participateth of faith
and conscientious knowledge, which gave us the premises
of such a conclusion,
3. You may hence perceive also how we are said to be
" sealed " by the Spirit '^ : even as a man's seal doth signify
the sealed to be his own : so the " Spirit of holiness in us, "
is God's seal upon us, signifying that we are his\ Every
one that " hath the Spirit," is sealed by having it : and this
is his evidence, which, if he discern, he may know that he
is thus sealed.
4. Hereby also you may see what the *' earnest and
first fruits of the Spirit" is* : the Spirit is given to us by God,
as the earnest of the glory which he will give us. To whom-
soever he giveth the spirit of faith, and love, and holiness,
he giveth the seed of life eternal, and an inclination thereto,
which is his earnest of it.
5. Hereby also you may see how the Spirit witnesseth
that we are the children of God : the word * witness ' is put
here principally for evidence : if any one question our adop-
tion, the witness or evidence which we must produce to
' Eph. i. 13. Rom. viii. 9. Eph. iv, 30. <• 3 Tim. ii. 19. » g Cor. i. 22.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 196
prove it, is the " Spirit of Jesus sanctifying us," and dwelling
in us : this is the chief part (at least) of the sense of the
text, Rom. viii. 16. Though it'is true, that the same Spirit
witnesseth by (1.) Shewing us the grace which he hath given
us ; (2.) And by shewing us the truth of the promise made
to all believers : (3.) And by helping us from those promises
to conclude with boldness, that we are the children of God :
(4.) And by helping us to rejoice therein.
II. I have been the longer (though too short) in acquaint-
ing you with the office of the Holy Ghost (supposing your
belief that he is the third person in the Trinity) because it is an
article of grand importance, neglected by many that profess
it, and because there are so many and dangerous errors in
the world about it. Your great care now must be, L To
find this Spirit in you, as the principle of your operations :
and, 2. To obey it, and follow its motions, as it leadeth you
to communion with God. Of the first I have spoken in the
first chapter. For the second, observe these few Direc-
tions.
Direct, i. * Be sure you mistake not the Spirit of God
and its motions, nor receive, instead of them, the motions
of satan, or of your passions, pride, or fleshly wisdom.* — It
is easy to think you are obeying the Spirit, when you are
obeying satan and your own corruptions against the Spirit.
By these fruits the Spirit of God is known. 1. The Spirit
of God is for heavenly Wisdom, and neither for foolishness
nor treacherous craftiness". The Spirit of God is a spirit of
Love, delighting to do good ; its doctrine and motions are
for love, and tend to good ; abhorring both selfishness and
hurtfulness to others ''. 3. He is a Spirit of Concord, and is
ever for the unity of all believers ; abhorring both divisions
among the saints, and carnal compliances and confederacies
with the wicked y, 4. He is a Spirit of Humility and self-
denial, making us, and our knowledge, and gifts, and worth,
to be very little in our own eyes'"; abhorring pride, am-
bition, self-exalting, boasting, as also the actual debasing
of ourselves by earthliness or other sin*. 5. He is a Spirit
" Psal. xix. 7. xciv. 8. Jer. iv. 22. I Cor. H. 4—7. =« Gal. v. 21, 22.
yiCor.xn. Eph. iv. 3— 6. 13. iCor.i.lO. iii.3. Rom. vi. 17, 18.
* Nemo igitur vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu Divino unquara fuit. Ciq. Naf.
D. ii. 166. * Matt, xviii 3. Ephes. iv. 2.
196 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
of Meekness, and patience, and forbearance ; abhorring stu-
pidity, and inordinate passion, boisterousness, tumult, envy,
contention, reviling, and revenge'^. 6. He is a Spirit of
Zeal for God, resolving men against known sin, and for
known truth and duty ; abhorring a furious, destroying
zeal, and also an indifferency in the cause of God, and a
yielding compliance with that which is against it''. 7. He
is a Spirit of Mortification, crucifying the flesh, and still
contending against it, and causing men to live above all the
glory, and riches, and pleasures of the world : abhorring
both carnal licentiousness and sensuality, and also the de-
stroying and disabling of the body, under the pretence of
true mortification*^. 8. The Spirit of Christ contradicteth
not the doctrine of Christ in the holy Scripture, but moveth
us to an exact conformity thereto^. This is the sure rule
to try pretences and motions of every spirit by : for we are
sure that the Spirit of Christ is the author of that Word ;
and we are sure he is not contrary to himself. 9. The mo-
tions of the Spirit do all tend to our good, and are neither
ludicrous, impertinent, or hurtful finally : they are all for
the perfecting of sanctification, obedience, and for our sal-
vation. Therefore unprofitable trifles, or despair, and hurt-
ful distractions and disturbances of mind, which drive from
God, unfit for duty, and hinder salvation, are not the mo-
tions of the Spirit of God^ 10. Lastly, The Spirit of God
subjecteth all to God, and raiseth the heart to him, and
maketh us spiritual and divine, and is ever for God's glory s.
Examine the texts here cited, and you will find that by all
these fruits the Spirit of God is known from all seducing
spirits, and from the fancies or passions of self-conceited
men. - ' : ,
Direct, ii. ' Quench not the Spirit, either by wilful sin
b Matt. xi. 28, 29. Eph.iv. 2. James iii. 1 Pet. ii. 20— 23. Gal, v. 20.
Rom. xii. 18—20. Ephes. iv. 31. Col. iii. 8.
' Gal. iv. 18. Numb. xxv. 11, 13- Titus ii. 14. James iii. 15. It. Lukeix. 55.
Rev. iii. 16.
d Rom. viii, 1. 13. Gal. v. 17. Rom. xiii. 13, 14. 1 Cor.ix. 27. 2 Pet. ii. 19.
Col. ii. 18. 21. 23. e isa. viii- 20.
'2Tim. i. 7. Rom.viii. 15. Isa. xi. 2. Gal. v. 22. Zech.xii.lO- iPet.iv.
14. 2 Cor. iii. 6.
s 1 John iv. 5, 6. 1 Cor. vi. 11. 17- 20. Eplies. ii. 18. 22. Phil. iii. 3. 19,
20- 1 Pet. i. 2. iv. 6.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 197
or by your neglecting of its offered help.' — It is as the spring
to all your spiritual motions ; as the wind to your sails : you
can do nothing without it. Therefore reverence and regard
its help, and pray for it, and obey it, and neglect it not.
When you are sure it is the Spirit of God indeed, that is
knocking at the door, behave not yourselves as if you heard
not. 1. Obey him speedily : delay is a present, unthank-
ful refusal, and a kind of denial. 2. Obey him thoroughly :
a half obedience is disobedience. Put him not off with
Ananias and Sapphira's gift ; the half of that which he re-
quireth of you. 3. Obey him constantly: not sometime
hearkening to him, and more frequently neglecting him ;
but attending him in a learning, obediential course of life.
Direct, iii. * Neglect not those means which the Spirit
hath appointed you to use, for the receiving of its help, and
which he useth in all his holy operations.' — If you will meet
with him, attend him in his own way, and expect him not in
by-ways where he useth not to go. Pray, and meditate,
and hear, and read, and do your best, and expect his' bless-
ing. Though your ploughing and sowing will not give you
a plentiful harvest without the sun, and rain, and the bless-
ing of God, yet these will not do it neither, unless you
plough and sow. God hath not appointed a course of
means in nature or morality in vain, nor will he use to meet
you in any other way.
Direct, iv. * Do most when the Spirit helpeth you
most.' — Neglect not the extraordinary measures of his as-
sistance : if he extraordinarily help you in prayer, or medi-
tation, improve that help, and break not off so soon as at
other times (without necessity) : not that you should omit
duty till you feel his help : for he useth to come in with
help in the performance, and not in the neglect of duty : but
tire not yourself with affected length, when you want the
life.
Direct. \. ' Be not unthankful for the assistance he hath
given you.' — Deny not his grace : ascribe it not to nature :
remember it to encourage your future expectations : un-
thankfulness and neglect are, the way to be denied further
help.
Quest. ' But how shall I know whether good effects be
198 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
from the meians, or from my reason and endeavour, and when
from the Spirit of God V
Ans. It is as if you should ask. How shall I know whe-
ther my harvest be from the earth, or sun, or rain, or God,
or from my labour ? I will tell you how. They are all con-
causes : if the effect be there, they all concur : if the effect
be wanting, some of them are wanting. It is foolish to ask,
which is the cause, when the effect is not produced but by
the concurrence of them all. If you had asked, which cause
did fail, when the effect faileth ? there were reason in that
question : but there is none in this. The more to blame
those foolish atheists, that think God or the Spirit is not
the cause, if they can but find that reason and means are
in the effect. Your reason, and conscience, and means
would fall short of the effect, if the Spirit put not life
into all.
Obj. * But I am exceedingly troubled and confounded
with continual doubts about every motion that is in my mind,
whether it be from the Spirit of God, or not.'
Answ. The more is your ignorance, or the malice of
satan causing your disquiet. In one word, you have suf-
ficient direction to resolve those doubts, and end those
troubles. Is it good, or evil, or indifferent, that you are moved
to? This question must be resolved from the Word of God,
which is the rule of duty. If it be good, in matter, and
manner, and circumstances, it is from the Spirit of God,
(either its common or special operation) : if it be evil or in-
different, you cannot ascribe it to the Spirit. Remember
that the Spirit cometh not to you, to make you new duty
which the Scripture never made your duty, and so bring an
additional law ; but to move and help you in that which
was your duty before. (Only it may give the matter, while
Scripture giveth the obligation by its general command.)
If you know not what is your duty, and what not, it is your
ignorance of Scripture that must be cured : interpret Scrip-
ture well, and you may interpret the Spirit's motions easily.
If any new duty be motioned to you, which Scripture com-
mandeth not, take such motions as not from God : (unless
it were by extraordinary, confirmed revelation.)
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 109
Grand Direct, iv. * Let it be your chiefest study to attain
to a true, orderly, and practical knowledge of God, in his
several attributes and relations ; and to find a due impressiort
from each of them upon your hearts, and a distinct, effectual
improvement of them in your lives/
Because I have written of this point more fully in ano-
ther treatise^ ** Of the Knowledge of God, and Converse
with Him," I shall but briefly touch upon it here, as not will-
ing to repeat that which there is delivered : Only, let me
briefly mind you of these few things : 1. That the true know-
ledge of God is the sum of godliness, and the end of all our
other knowledge, and of all that we have or do as Christians,
As Christ is a teacher that came from God, so he came to*
call and lead us unto God ; or else he had not come as a Sa-
viour. It -is from God that we fell by sin, and to God that
we must be restored by grace. To save us, is to restore us
to our perfection, and our happiness ; and that is to restore
us unto God\
2. That the true knowledge of God, is powerful and ef-
fectual upon the heart and life : and every attribute and re-
lation of God, is so to be known, as to make its proper im-
press on us : and the measure of this saving knowledge, id
not to be judged of, by extensiveness, or number of truths
concerning God which we know, so much as by the cleai-
ness, and intensivenesss, and the measure of its holy effects
upon the heart.
3. This is it that denominateth both ourselves, and all
•* Laertius in Zenone, saith, Dicunt Stoici Deum esse animal imniortale, ratio-
nale, perfectum ac beatum, a raalo omni remotissimum, providentia sua mundum et
quce sunt in mundo administrans omnia: non tamen inesse illi humanae formae linea-
menta. Caetenun esse opificem immensi hujus operis, sicut et patreni omnium.
Eumque mullis appellari nominibus juxta proprielates suas. — Quosdam item esse dae-
mones dicunt quibus insit hominum miseratio, inspectores rerura humanarum; heroas
quoque solutas corporibus, sapientum animas. Bonos aiunt esse divinos, quod in
Seipsis quasi habeant Deum. Malum vero impium et sine Deo esse, quod duplici
ratione accipitur, sive quod Deo contrarius dicatur, sive quod aspernetur Deum : id ta-
men malis omnibus non convenire. Pios autem et religiosos esse sapientes, peritos
divini juris omnes. Pietatem esse scientiam divini cultus. Diis item eos sacrificia
facturos, castosque futuros. Quippe ea quae in Deos admittuntur peccata detestari,
Diisque charos ac gratos fore quo sancti justique in rebus divinis sint.*
* Vide Diog.Laert. lib. vii. sect. 147, &c. Mr. Baxter'scitations from Laertius,
tend to convey too favourable an opinion of the principles of the Stoics, if they are
taken thus detached from their context. The reader should peruse the whole of the
seventh book. (T. C) ^
200 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART I.
our duties HOLY : when God's image is thus imprinted on
us ; and we are like him by the new birth, as children to
their father^ and by his knowledge, both our hearts and
lives are made divine ; being disposed unto God, devoted to
him and employed for him ; he being our life, and light,
and love.
4. This is the sum of the covenant of God with man,
" I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people." And
the other parts of the covenant, " that Christ be our Sa-
viour, and the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier," are both subser-
vient unto this ; there being now no coming unto God, but
as reconciled in Christ our Mediator, and by the teaching
and drawing of the Holy Ghost. To be our God, is to be to
us an absolute Owner, a most righteous Governor, and a most
bountiful Benefactor or Father ; as having created us, re-
deemed and regenerated us ; and this according to his most
blessed nature, properties, and perfections.
5. It is not only a loose and inconstant effect of your
particular thoughts of God, that is the necessary impress
of his attributes (as to fear him, when you remember his
greatness and justice) : but it must be a habit or holy na-
ture in you, every attribute having made its stated image
upon you ; and that habit or image being in you, a constant
principle of holy, spiritual operations. A habit of reverence,
belief, trust, love, &c. should be, as it were, your nature.
6. Not that the knowledge of God in his perfections,
should provoke us to desire his properties and perfections :
for to have such an aspiring desire to be gods, were the
greatest pride and wickedness. But only we must desire,
(1.) To be as like God, in all his communicable excellencies,
as is agreeable to our created state and capacity. (2.) And
to have as near and full communion with him, as we can at-
tain to and enjoy.
7. The will of God, and his goodness, and holiness, are
more nearly propounded to us, to be the rule of our con-
formity, than his power, and his knowledge. Therefore his
law is most immediately the expression of his will ; and our
duty and goodness lie in our conformity to his law : being
holy as he is holy.
Because I may not stand on the particulars, I shall give
you a brief, imperfect scheme of that of God, which you
must thus know.
CHAP. III.]
I. In his
BEING,
Quod sit.
s:
CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
One; and indivisible : C » 1. Tiie FATHER,
In Three Persons.*
Immense : and in- <( 2. The SON,
comprehensible.
201
Necessary,
3. Eternal. ^
f^t' Necessary, '\
■^ 2. Independent, V
V. 3. Immutable. J
immortal.
II. In his
( NATURE :
Quid sit.
III. In his
PERFEC-
TIONS.
Quails sit.
^
3. The HOLY GHOST. L3. Immutable,
1. Simple : uncompounded.
2. Impassionate, incorruptible
3. Invisible, intactable, &c.
1. POWER,
2. UNDERSTANDING,
3. WILL.
1. OMNIPOTENT, /^ i. MOST GREAT,
2. MOST WISE,
A SPIR[T
and LIFE
itself.
2. OMNISCENT.
3. MOST GOOD
I
3. MOST HOLY
and HAPPY.
1. BEING HIM-
SELF.
2. KNOWING
HIMSELF.
3. LOVING and
Enjoying Himself.
]
I. The EFFI-
CIENT Cause
of all things :
Rom. ix. 36.
'OF HIM,"
II. The DIRI-
GENT Cause:
" THROUGH
HIM ;"
III. The FI-
NAL Cause :
"TO HIM,"
are all things :
To him beGlory
for ever : Amen
1. CREATOR
and Conserver.
2. REDEEM-
ER and Sa-
viour.
3. REGENE-
RATOR and
Sanctifier.
l.OurOWNER^
or LORD : most
Absolute, Free,
and Irresistible.
2. Our RULER
or KING :
l.By Legislation:
2. Judgment :
3. Execution :
Absolute, Per-
fect, True, Ho-
ly, Just, Mer-
ciful, Patient,
TeiTible.
3. Our BENE-
FACTOR or
FATHER ;
l.Most Loving:
2.MostBountiful
3. Most Amiable:
(Patient, Merci-
ful, Constant.)
Causally and
Objectively
^
y
V.
(d)
(d)
1. Our Life,
and Strength,
and Safety.
2. Our Light,
and Wisdom.
3. Our Love
and Joy :
and so our
End&c Rest,
& Happiness
hereafter
(e)
1. Perfecting
our Natures in
Heavenly Life.
2. Whom we
shall behold in
Glorious Light.
3. Whom we
siiall Please and
Love ; and be
Pleased in him,
and Loved by
him ; Rejoice in
him,Praisehim,
and so Enjoy
him. Perfectly
& Perpetually,
See these practically opened and improved, in the First Part of my " Divine Life."
The more full Explication of the Attributes fit for the more capacious, is reserved for another
Tractate.
202 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
For the right improvement of the knowledge of all these
attributes of God, I must refer you to, the forementioned
treatise. The acts which you are to exercise upon God,
are these : 1 . The clearest knowledge you can attain to ' :
2. The firmest belief : 3. The highest estimation: 4. The
greatest admiration : 5. The heartiest and sweetest compla-
cency jor love : 6. The strongest desire : 7. A filial awful-
ness, reverence, and fear : 8. The boldest, quieting trust and
confidence in him : 9. The most fixed waiting, dependance,
hope, and expectation : 10. The niost absolute self-resig-
nation to him : 11. The fullest and quietest submission to
his disposals : 12. The humblest and most absolute subjec-
tion to his governing authority and will, and the exactest
obedience to his laws . 13. The boldest courage and forti-
tude in his cause, and owning him before the world in the
greatest sufferings. 14. The greatest thankfulness for his
mercies. 15. The most faithful improvement of his talents,
and use of his means, and performance of our trust. 16. A
reverent and holy use of his name and word : with a reve-
rence of his secrets ; forbearing to intrude or meddle with
them. 17. A wise and cautious observance of his provi-
dences, public and private ; neither neglecting them, nor
mis-interpreting them ; neither running before them, nor
striving discontentedly against them. 18. A discerning,
loving, and honouring his image in his children, notwith-
standing their infirmities and faults ; without any friendship
to their faults, or over-magnifying, or imitating them in any
evil. 19. A reverent, serious, spiritual adoration, and wor-
shipping, in public and private, with soul and body, in the
use of all his holy ordinances ; but especially in the joyful
celebration of his praise, for all his perfections and his mer-
cies. 20. The highest delight, and fullest content and com-
fort in God, that we can attain : especially a delight in
knowing him, and obeying and pleasing him, worshipping
and praising him, loving hiin, and being beloved of him,
through Jesus Christ ; and in the hopes of the perfecting of
' De'diis ita ut sunt loquere. Bias in Laert. Leg. Pauli Scaligeri Theses de Ar-
chetype Mundo, Ep. Cath. 1. 14. God never wrought miracle to convince Atheism,
because his ordinary works convince it. Lord Bacon, Essay 16. Nee vero Deos
ipse, qui intelligitur a nobis, alio modo intelligi potest, nisi mens soluta quaedam et
libera, segrcgata ab onini concretione mortaii, oraniaquc scutiens et raovens, ipsaque
pradiia motu sempiterno. Cic. Tuse. I. 66,
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 203
all these, in our everlasting fruition of him in heavenly glory.
All these are the acts of piety towards God ; which I
lay together for your easier observation and memory : but
some of them must be more fully opened, and insisted on.
Grand Direct, v. * Remember that God is your Lord,
or Owner : and see that you make an absolute resignation
of yourselves, and all that you have, to him as his own ; and
use yourselves and all accordingly : trust him with his own,
and rest in his disposals.'
Of this, I have already spoken in my '* Sermon of Christ's
Dominion," and in my " Directions for a sound Conver-
sion :" and therefore must but touch it here. It is easy,
notionally to know and say that God is our Owner, and we
are not our own : but if the habitual, practical knowledge of
it, were as easy, or as common, the happy effects of it would
be the sanctification and reformation of the world. I shall
first tell you, what this duty is, and how it is to be perform-
ed ; and then, what fruits and benefits it will produce, and
what should move us to it.
I. The duty lieth in these acts: 1. That you consider
the ground of God's propriety in you; (1.) In making you
of nothing, and preserving you. (2.) In redeeming you
by purchase. (3.) In regenerating you, and renewing you
for himself. The first is the ground of his common natural
propriety, in you and all things. The second is the ground
of his common, gracious propriety in you and all men, as.
purchased by Christ, Rom. xiv. 9. John xiii. 3. The third
is the ground of his special, gracious propriety in you, and
all his sanctified, peculiar people. Understand and ac~
knowledge what a plenary dominion God hath over you^
and how absolutely and wholly you are his. 2. Let it ex-
ceedingly please you, to think that you are wholly his : it
being much better for you, as to your safety, honour, and
happiness, than to be your own, or any's dse. 3. As God
requireth it in his covenant of grace, that he have his right,,
by your consent, and not by constraint; so you must thank-
fully accept the motion, and with hearty and full consent of
will, resign yourselves to him, as his own, even as his crea-
tures, his ransomed ones, and his regenerate children, by a
covenant never to be violated. 4. You must carefully
watch against the claim and reserves of carnal selfishness ;
204 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
lest while you confess you are God's, and not your own,
you should secretly still, keep possession of yourselves
against him, or re-assume the possession which you surren-
dered. 5. You must use yourselves ever after, as God's,
and not your own*".
II. In this using yourselves as wholly God's, consisteth
both your further duty, and your benefits. 1. When God's
propriety is discerned and consented to, it will make you
sensible how you are obliged to employ all your powers of
soul and body to his service ; and to perceive that nothing
should be alienated from him, no creature having any co-
ordinate title to a thought of your hearts, or a glance of your
affection, or a word of your mouths, or a minute of your
time. The sense of God's propriety, must cause you to keep
constant accounts between God and you ; and to call your-
selves to a frequent reckoning, whether God have his own,
and you do not defraud him ; whether it be his work that
you are doing ; and for him that ypu think, and speak, and
live? And all that you have, will be used as his, as well as
yourselves : for no man can have any good thing, that is
more his own, than he is his own himself.
2. Propriety discerned, doth endear us in affection to
our owner. As we love our own children, so they love their
own fathers. Our very dogs love their own master's better
than another. When we can say with Thpmas, " My Lord,
and my God," it will certainly be the voice of love. God's
common p^ropriety in us, as his created and ransomed ones,
obligeth us to love him with all our heart; but the know-
ledge of his peculiar propriety, by regeneration, will more
eflfectually command our love.
3. God's propriety perceived, will help to satisfy us of
his love and care of us : and will help us to trust him in
every danger; and so take off our inordinate fear, and
anxieties, and caring for ourselves ^ The apostle proveth
Christ's love to his church, from his propriety, " No man
•' Sit igitur hoc a principio persuasum civibus, dominos esse omnium rerum ac
moderalores Deos, eaque, quae gerantur eorum ger ditione ac numine eosdemque op-
time de genera homiuum mereii, et, qualis quisque sit, quid agat, qnid in se admittat,
qua mente, qua pietate cylat religiones, intuerl, pioruraque et impiorum liabere ra-
tionem. Cic.Leg. ii. 15, 16.
• Esse Deos et eorum providentia mundus administrari, eosdemque consulere
rebus humanis nee solum vuiiversis, verum etiam singulis. Cic. de Divin. I, 117.^
CHAP, ill] CHRISTIAN feTHICS. 205
ever yet hated his own flesli'"." God is not regardless of
his own. As we take care of our cattle, to preserve them,
and provide for them, more than they do for themselves, for
they are more ours than their own ; so God is more concern-
ed in the welfiE«*e of his children, than they are themselves,
they being more his than their own. Why are we afraid of
the wrath and cruelty of man ? Will God be mindless and
negligent of his own ? Why are we over-careful and dis-
trustful of his providence ? Will he not take care of his
own, and make provision for them? '' God, even our own
God shall bless us "." God's interest in his church, and
cause, and servants, is an argument which we may plead
with him in prayer, and with which we may greatly encou-
rage our confidence. *' For my name's sake will I defer
mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I
cut thee not off. For mine own sake, even for mine own
sake, will I do it : for how should my name be polluted ?
and I will not give my glory to another °." " But now, thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that form-
ed thee, O Israel ; Fear not : for I have redeemed thee , I
have called thee by thy name ; thou art mine. When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee, &c. p." If
God should neglect our interest, he will not neglect his own.
God's propriety in us discerned, doth so much aggravate
our sin against him, that it should greatly restrain us ; and
further, our humiliation and recovery when we are fallen :
" Ye shall be holy unto me : for I the Lord am holy, and
have severed you from other people, that ye should be
mine*!." " I sware unto thee, and entered .into a covenant
with thee, and thou becamest mine, saith the Lord''," when
he is aggravating Jerusalem's sin. " Ye are not your own :
for ye are bought with a price : therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods^" Justice
requireth, that every one have his own.
5. It should silence all murmurings and repinings against
the providence of God, to consider that we are his own.
Doth he afflict you ? and are you not his own ? Doth he
kill you ? are you not his own ? As a • ruler, he will shew
you reason enough for it in your sins : but as your absolute
^ n» Ephes. V. 29. " Psal. Ixvii. 6. <» 1 Chron, xvii. 21, 22. Isa. xlviii. 9. 11.
^ P Isa. xHii. 1,- 2. i Lev. xx. t6. ' Ezek. xvi. 8. » 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.
^06 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Lord and owner, he need not give you any other reason, than
that he may do with his own as he list. It is not possible
that he can do any wrong to that, which is absolutely his
own. If he deny you health, or wealth, or friends, or take
them from you ; he denieth you, or taketh from you nothing
but his own. Indeed, as a governor and a father, he hath
secured the faithful of eternal life : otherwise, as their owner,
he could not have wronged them, if he had made the most
innocent, as miserable as he is capable to be. Do you la-
bour, and beat, and kill your cattle, because they are your
own (by an imperfect propriety) ? and dare you grudge at
God for afflicting his own, when their consciences tell them,
that they have deserved it, and much more ?
And that you may not think that you have resigned your-
selves to God entirely, when you do but hypocritically pro-
fess it, observe : 1 . That man is not thus resigned to God,
that thinketh any service too much for God that he can do.
2. Nor he that thinketh any cost too great for God, that he
is called to undergo. 3. Nor he that thinketh that all is
won, of his time, or wealth, or pleasure, or any thing which
he can save or steal from God : for all is lost that God hath
not. 4. Nor he that must needs be the disposer of himself,
and his condition and affairs, and God must humour him,
and accommodate his providence to his carnal interest and
will, or else he cannot bear it, or think well of it. 5. Re-
member that all that is bestowed in sin upon God's enemies
is used against him, and not as his own. 6. And that he
that hideth his talent, or useth it not at all, cannot be said
to use it for God. Both idleness, and alienating the gifts
of God, are a robbing him of his own.
III. To help you in this work of self-resignation, often
consider: 1. That if you were your own, you were most
miserable. You could not support, preserve, or provide for
yourselves : who should save you in the hour of temptation
or distress ? Alas ! if you are humbled Christians, you
know so much of your own insufficiency, and feel yourselves
such a daily burden to yourselves, that you have surd,
enough of yourselves ere now. And beg of God, above all
your enemies, to save you from yourselves ; and of all
judgments, to save you from being forsaken of God, and
given up to yourselves. 2. Remember that none in the world
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 207
hath sufficient power, wisdom, and goodness, to take the
full care and charge of you but God : none else can save
you, or sanctify you, or keep you alive one hour : and
therefore it is your happiness and honour that you are his.
3. His right is absolute, and none hath right to you but he.
None else did create you, redeem you, or regenerate you.
4. He will use you only in safe and honourable services,
and to no worse an end, than your endless happiness. 5.
What you deny him, or steal from him, you give to the
devil, the world, and the flesh. And do they better de-
serve it ? 6. You are his own in title, whether you will or
not; and he will fulfil his will upon you. Your consent
and resignation is necessary to your good, to ease you of
your cares, and secure you from present and eternal misery.
Grand Direct, vi. ' Remember that God is your Sove-
reign King, to rule and judge you : and that it is your rec-
titude and happin'fess to obey and please him. Labour
therefore to bring your souls and bodies into the most ab-
solute subjection to him, and to make it your delight and
business sincerely and exactly to obey his will.'
Having resigned yourselves absolutely to God, as your
owner, you are next to submit yourselves absolutely to God,
as your governor or king. How much of our religion con-
sisteth in this, you may see in the nature of the thing, in the
design of the law and Word of God, in the doctrine and ex-
ample of Jesus Christ, in the description of the last judg-
ment, and in the common consent of all the world *. Though
love is the highest work of man, yet is it so far from dis-
charging us from our subjection and obedience, that it con-
straineth us to it most powerfully and most sweetly, and
must itself be j udged of by these effects. " If ye love me,
keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. If any man love
me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings "." " If ye
keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even
as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in
* Aristippus rogatus aliquando quid habeant exunium Philosophi? " Siomnes,"
inquit, " leges intereant, aequabiliter vivemus. Diog. Laert. lib. ii. sect. 69. p. 120.
«• Johiixiv. 15. 21 23,24.
208 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
his love. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I com-
mand you """ " If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye
do them y." " For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments, and his commandments are not grievous ''."
'' He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his command-
ment, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso
keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfect-
ed : hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he
abideth in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walk-
ed. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every
one that doth righteousness is born of him *." " Whosoever
abideth in him, sinneth not : whosoever sinneth, hath not
seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man
deceive you : he that doth righteousness is righteous, even
as he is righteous. He that committeth sin, is of the devil ;
for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the
works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God
are manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doth
not righteousness is not of God. And whatsoever we ask,
we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and
do those things that are pleasing in his sight ^." " Blessed
are they that do his commandments, that they may have
•right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city *=."
I set together these teBtiijionies of the Scripture, that
the stream of Divine authority may carry you to a lively
sense of the necessity of obedience.
I shall here first tell you what this full subjection is, and
then I shall direct you how to attain it.
I. As in God there is first his relation of our King, and
4^en his actual government of us, by his laws and judgment :
so in us, there is first our relation of subjects to God, and
then our actual obedience. We are subjects by divine ob-
ligation, before we consent (as rebels are) : but our consent
or self-obligation is necessary to our voluntary obedience,
and acceptation with God. Subjection is our stated obliga-
'^ John XV. 10. 14. y Johnxiii. 17. ' l John v. 3.
» 1 John ii. 4. ^ i John iii. 6—10. 22. « Rev. xxii. 14.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 209
tion to obedience. This subjection and habit of obedience,
is then right and full, 1 . When the sense of God's au-
thority over us, is practical, and not notional only. 2.
And when it is deep rooted and fixed, and become as a na-
ture to us : as a man's intention of his end is, that hath a
long journey to go, which carrieth him on to the last step :
or as a child's subjection to his parents, or a servant's to his
master, which is the habit or principle of his daily course of
life. 3. When it is lively, and ready to put the soul upon
obedience. 4. When it is constant, keeping the soul in a
continual attendance upon the will of God. 5. When it
hath universal respect to all his commandments. 6. When
it is resolute, powerful, and victorious against temptations
to disobedience. 7. When it is superlative, respecting
God as our supreme King, and owning no authority against
him, nor any but what is subordinate to him. 8. When it
is voluntary, pleasant, cheerful, and delectable to us to obey
him to the utmost of our power.
II. To bring the soul to this full subjection and
obedience to God, is so difficult, and yet so reasonable,
so necessary, and so excellently good, that we should not
think any diligence too great, by which it is to be attained.
The Directions that I shall give you, are, some of them to
habituate the mind to an obediential frame, and some of them
also, practically to further the exercise of obedience in par-
ticular acts.
Direct, i. * Remember the unquestionable, plenary title
that God hath, to the government of you, and of all the
world.' — The sense of this will awe the soul, and help to
subject it to him, and to silence all rebellious motions.
Should not God rule the creatures which he hath made ?
Should not Christ rule the souls which he hath purchased ?
Should not the Holy Ghost rule the souls which he hath re-
generated and quickened ?
-Direct, ii. * Remember that God is perfectly fit for thq
government of you, and all the world.'— You can desire no-
thing reasonably in a governor, which is not in him. He
hath perfect wisdom, to know what is best : he hath perfect
goodness, and therefore will be most regardful of his sub-
jects' good, and will put no evil into his laws. He is al-
mighty, to protect his subjects, and see to the execution of
VOL. II. p
210 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
his laws. He is most just, and therefore can do no wrong,
but all his laws and judgments are equal and impartial. He
is infinitely perfect and self-sufficient, and never needed a
lie, or a deceit, or unrighteous means to rule the world ; nor
to oppress his subjects to attain his ends. He is our very
end, and interest, and felicity ; and therefore hath no interest
opposite to our good, which should cause him to destroy
the innocent. He is our dearest Friend and Father, and
loveth us better than we love ourselves ; and therefore we
have reason confidently to trust him, and cheerfully and
gladly to obey him, as one that ruleth us in order to our own
felicity.
Direct, in. * Remember how unable and unfit you are
to be governors of yourselves.' — So blind and ignorant ; so
biassed by a corrupted will ; so turbulent are your passions ;
so incessant and powerful is the temptation of your sense
and appetite ; and so unable are you to protect and reward
yourselves, that methinks you should fear nothing in this
world more, than to be given up to " your own heart's lusts,
to walk in your own (seducing) counsels'^." The brutish
appetite and sense, hath got such dominion over the reason
of carnal, unrenewed men, that for such to be governed by
themselves, is for a man to be governed by a swine, or the
rider to be ruled by the horse.
Direct, iv. * Remember how great a matter G6d maketh
of his kingly prerogatives, and of man's obedience.' — The
whole tenor of the Scripture will tell you this. His pre-
cepts, his promises, his threatenings, his vehement exhor-
tations, his sharp reproofs, the sending of his Son and Spirit,
the example of Christ and all the saints, the reward prepared
for the obedient, and the punishment for the disobedient ; —
all tell you aloud, that God is far from being indifferent
whether yon obey his laws or not. It will teach you to re-
gard that, which you find is so regarded of God.
Direct, v. * Consider well of the excellency of full
obedience, and the present benefits which it bringeth to
yourselves and others.'— Our full subjection and obedience
to God, is to the world and the soul, as health is to the
body. When all the humours keep their due temperament,
proportions^ and place, and every part of the body is placed
J Psal. Ixxxi. 11, J 2.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS, 211
and used according to the intent of nature, then all is at
ease within us : our food is pleasant ; our sleep is sweet ;
our labour is easy : and our vivacity maketh life a pleasure
to us : we are useful in our places, and helpful to others
that are sick and weak. So is it with the soul that is fully
obedient : God giveth him a reward, before the full reward :
he findeth that obedience is a reward to itself; and that it
is very pleasant to do good ; God owneth him, and con-
science speaketh peace and comfort to him : his mercies are
sweet to him : his burdens and his works are easy : he hath
easier access to God than others. Yea, the world shall find,
that there is no way to its right order, unity, peace, and
happiness, but by a full subjection and obedience to God.
Direct, vi. ' Remember the sad effects of disobedience,
even at present, both in the soul and in the world.' — ^When
we rebel against God, it is the confusion, ruin, and death
of the soul, and of the world. When we disobey him, it is
the sickness or disordering of the soul, and will make us
groan : till our bones are set in joint again, we shall have no
ease : God will be displeased, and hide his face : con-
science will be unquiet : the soul will lose its peace and joy :
its former mercies will grow less sweet : its former rest will
turn to weariness : its duty will be unpleasant, : its burden
heavy. Who would not fear such a state as this ?
Direct, vii. * Consider, that when God doth not govern
you, you are ruled by the flesh, the world, and the devil.* —
And what right or fitness they have to govern you, and what
is their work, and final reward, methinks you should easily
discern. " If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ^." *' And
if ye sov*^ to the flesh, of the flesh ye shall reap corruption ^"
It will strike you with horror, if in the hour of temptation,
you would but think : * I am now going to disobey God, and
to obey the flesh, the world, or the devil, and to prefer their
will before his will.'
Direct, viii. * Turn your eye upon the rebellious na-
tions of the earth, and upon the state of the most malignant
and ungodly men ; and consider, that such madness and
misery as you discern in them, every wilful disobedience to
God doth tend to, and partaketh of in its degree.' — To see
-a swinish drunkard in his vomit ; to hear a raging bedlam
• Rom. viii. IS. ^ Gal. vi, 8.
212 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
curse and swear; or a malignant wretch blaspheme and
scorn at a holy life : to hear how foolishly they talk against
God ; and see how maliciously they hate his servants, one
would think should turn one's stomach against all sin for
ever. To think what beasts or incarnate devils many of the
ungodly are. To think what confusion and inhumani-
ty possess most of those nations that know not God, one
would think should make the least degree of sin seem
odious to us, when the dominion and ripeness of it are so
odious.
Direct, ix. ' Mark what obedience is expected by men :
and what influence government hath upon the state and af-
fairs of the world, and what the world would be without it.' —
And sure this will make you think honourably and delight-
fully of the government of God. What would a nation be
without government, but like a company of thieves and law-
less murderers ? or like the pikes in a pond, that first eat up
the other fish, and then devour one another : the greater
living upon the less. Bears and wolves would live more
quietly together, than ungoverned men, (except those few
that are truly subject to the government of God.) Govern-
ment maintaineth every man in his propriety ; and keepeth
lust and madness from breaking out; and keepeth peace
and order in the world. What would a family be without
government ? Children and servants are kept by it in their
proper place and work. Think then how necessary and ex-
cellent is the universal government of God.
Direct, x. * Think well of the endless rewards and pu-
nishments, by which God will procure obedience to his
laws, or vindicate the honour of his government, on the
disobedient.' — That the world may see that he giveth suffi-
cient motives for all that he requireth, he will reward the
obedient with everlasting blessedness, and punish the rebels
with endless misery. You shall not say that he bids yoti
work for nothing. Though you can give him nothing but
his own, and therefore can merit nothing of him, in
point of commutative justice ; yet, as he is a Governor and
a Father, he will put so wide a difference between the
obedient and the rebellious, that one shall be judged to
everlasting joy, with a '' Well done, good and faithful ser-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 213
vant," and the other, to "everlasting punishment «." Is
there not enough in heaven, in a life of endless joys with
God, to make obedience lovely to you, and to make sin
loathsome ? Is there not enough in hell, to deter you from
disobedience, and drive you unto God ? God v^^ill rule
vi^hether you will or not. Consent to be obedient, or he will
punish you without asking your consent.
The Directions for the nearer exciting of your Obedience^ and
confirming your full Subjection, are these :
Direct, i. ' Keep still the face of your souls upon God,
and in the sense of his greatness, and of his continual pre-
sence, and of his particular providence.' — And this will
keep you in an obediential frame. You will easily then per-
ceive, that so great a God cannot be disobeyed, without
great iniquity and guilt. And, that a God that is conti-
nually with you, must be continually regarded. And, that
a God that exactly observeth and mindeth the thoughts and
words of every man, should by every man be exactly minded
and observed. This will help you to understand the mean-
ing of the tempter, when you perceive that every temptation
is an urging of you to offend, for nothing, so great a God,
that is just then observing what you do.
Direct, ii. * Always remember whither you are going ;
that you are preparing for everlasting rest and joy, and
must pass through the righteous judgment of the Lord : and
that Christ is your guide and governor, but to bring you
safely home, as the Captain of your salvation : and that sin
is a rejecting of his help, and of your happiness.' — Think
not that God doth rule you as a tyrant, to your hurt or ruin,
to make his own advantage of you ; or by needless laws,
that have no respect to your good and safety ; but think of
him, as one that is conducting you to eternal life, and would
now guide you by his counsel, and afterwards take you to
his glory. Think that he is leading you to the world of
light, and life, and love, and joy, where there are rivers of
pleasure, and fulness of delight for evermore, that you may
see his face, and feel his love, among a world of blessed
spirits ; and not be weeping, and gnashing the teeth, with
g Matt. XXV.
fl4 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
impious, impenitent souls. And is not such a government
as this desirable ? It is but like the government of a phy-
sician, to save his patient's life. Or like your government
of your children, which is necessary to their good, that
cannot feed or rule themselves. Or like a pilot's governing
the ship, which is conveying you to possess a kingdom ; if
the mariners obey him, they may safely arrive at the desired
port; but if they disobey him, they are all cast away and
perish. And should such a government as this is, seem
grievous to you? or should it not be most acceptable, and
accurately obeyed?
Direct, in. * Still think, what dangers, difficulties, and
enemies you must pass through to this rest, and that all
your safety dependeth upon the conduct and assistance of
your guide.' — And this will bring over self-love to command
your strict obedience. You are to pass through the army
of your enemies ; and will you here disobey the Captain of
your salvation ? or would you have him leave you to your-
selves ? Your disease is mortal, and none but Jesus Christ
can cure it ; and if he cure it not, you are lost for ever. No
pain of gout or stone is comparable to your everlasting
pain ! and yet will you not be obedient to your physician ?
Think, when a temptation comes, ' If there were a narrow
bridge over the deepest gulf or river, and all my friends and
happiness lay on the further side, and I must needs go over
whether I will or not ; if Christ would take me by the hand
and lead me over, would I be tempted to refuse his help, or
to lose his hand ? or if he should offer to lose me, and leave
me to myself, should I not tremble, and cry out as Peter,
** Lord, save me ^," or as the disciples, " Save, Master, we
perish V And should I not then hold him fast, and most
accurately obey him, when he is leading me to life eternal,
that I may escape the gulf of endless misery V
Direct, iv. * Remember still, how bad, and blind, and
backward, and deceitful, and weak you are yourselves, and
therefore what need you have of the greatest watchfulness,
lest you should disobey your pilot, and lose your guide, be-
fore you are aware.' — O what a heart have we to watch ! A
lazy heart, that will be loitering or sitting down, when we
should be following our Lord. A foolish heart, that will
*» Malt. xiv. 30.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 215
let him go, while we play with every play-fellow in our way.
A cowardly heart, that will steal away, or draw back in
danger, when it should follow our general. A treacherous
heart, that will give us the slip, and deceive us, when we
seemed surest of it. A purblind heart, that even when it
followeth Christ, our guide, is hardly kept from missing the
bridge, and falling into the gulf of misery. Think well of
these, and you will obey your governor.
Direct, v. ' Forget not the fruits of your former obedi-
ence and disobedience ;* — if you would be kept in an obedient
frame. Remember, that obedience hath been sweetest after-
ward : and that you never yet found cause to repent or be
ashamed of it. Remember, that the fruit of sin was bitter,
and that when your eyes were opened, and you saw your
shame, you would fain have fled from the face of God ; and
that then it appeared another thing to you, than it seemed
in the committing. Remember what groans, and heart's
grief it hath cost you : and into what fears it brought you
of the wrath of God : and how long it was before your
broken bones were healed : and what it cost both Christ
and you. And this will make the very name and first ap-
proach of sin, to cast you into a preventing fear. A beast
that hath once fallen into a gulf or quick-sand, will hardly
b6 driven into the same again. A fish that was once stricken
and escaped the hook, will fear and fly from it the next time.
A bird that hath once escaped the snare, or the talons of
the hawk, is afterwards afraid of the sight or noise of such
a thing. Remember where you fell, and what it cost you,
and what you escaped which it might have cost you, and
you will obey more accurately hereafter.
Direct, vi. * Remember, that this is your day of trial,
and what depends upon your accurate obedience.' — God
will not crown untried servants. Satan is purposely suffer-
ed to tempt you, to try whether you will be true to God or
not. All the hope that his malice hath of undoing you for
ever, consisteth in his hope to make you disobedient to God.
Methinks these consderations should awaken you to the
most watchful and diligent obedience. If you were told
beforehand, that a thief or cut-purse had undertaken to
rob you, and would use all his cunning and industry to do
it, you would then watch more carefully than at another
2J6 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
time. If you were, in a race to run for your lives, you
would not go then in your ordinary pace. Doth God tell
you before, that he will try your obedience by temptation,
and as you stand or fall, you shall speed for ever ; and will
not this keep you watchful and obedient?
Direct vi. * Avoid those tempting and deluding objects,
which are still enticing your hearts from your obedience ;
and avoid that diverting crowd and noise of company or
worldly business, which drowns the voice of God's com-
mands.'— If God call you into a life of great temptations,
he can bring you safely through them all : but if you rush
into it wilfully, you may soon find your own disability to
resist. It is dangerous to be under strong and importunate
temptations, lest the stream should bear us down : but espe-
cially to be long under them, lest we be weary of resisting.
They that are long solicited do too often yield at last : it is
hard to be always in a clear, and ready, and resolute frame :
few men have their wits, much less their graces, always at
hand, in a readiness to use. And if the thief come when
you are dropped asleep, you may be robbed before you can
awake. The constant drawings of temptations do oft-times
abate the habit of obedience, and diminish our hatred of sin
and holy»resolutions, by slow, insensible degrees, before we
yield to commit the act. And the mind that will be kept
in full subjection, must not be so diverted in a crowd of
distracting company or business, as to have no time to
think on the motives of his obedience. This withdrawing
of the fuel may put out the fire.
Direct, viii. * If you are unavoidably cast upon strong
temptation take the alarm ; and put on all the armour of
God, and call up your souls to watchfulness and resolution,
remembering that you are now among your enemies, and
must resist as for your lives.' — Take every temptation in its
naked, proper sense, as coming from the devil, and tending
to your own damnation, by enticing your hearts from your
subjection unto God : suppose you saw the devil himself
in his instruments, offering you the bait of preferment, or
honour, or riches, or fleshly lusts, or sports, or of delight-
ful meats or drinks, to tempt you to excess ; and suppose
you heard him say to you plainly, * Take this for thy sal-
vation ; sell me for this thy God, and thy soul, and thy ever-^
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 217
lasting hopes ; commit this sin, that thou mayst fall under
the judgment of God, and be tormented in hell with me for
ever. Do this to please thy flesh, that thou mayst displease
thy God, and grieve thy Saviour : I cannot draw thee to
hell, but by drawing thee to sin : and I cannot make thee
to sin against thy will ; nor undo thee, but by thy own con-
sent and doing : therefore, I pray thee, consent and do it
thyself, and let me have thy company in torments.' This is
the naked meaning of every temptation : suppose, there-
fore, you saw and heard all this, with what detestation then
would you reject it ? With what horror would you fly from
the most enticing bait? If a robber would entice you out
of your way and company, with flattering words, that you
might fall into the hands of his companions, if you knew
all his meaning and design beforehand, would you be en-
ticed after him ? Watch, therefore, and resolve when you
know beforehand the design of the devil, and what he in-
tendeth in every temptation.
Direct, ix. * Be most suspicious, fearful, and watchful
about that, which your flesh doth most desire, or finds
the greatest pleasure in.' — Not that you should deny your
bodies all delight in the mercies of God : if the body
have none, the mind will have the less : mercy must be dif-
ferenced from punishment ; and must be valued and relished
as mercy : mere natural pleasing of the senses is in itself no
moral good or evil. A holy improvement of lawful plea-
sure is a daily duty : inordinate pleasure is a sin : all is in-
ordinate which tendeth more to corrupt the soul, by enticing
it to sin, and turning it from God, than to fit and dispose it
for God and his service, and preserve it from sinning. But
still remember, it is not for sorrow, but delight that draweth
away the soul from God, and is the flesh's interest which it
sets up against him. Many have sinned in sorrow and dis-
contents : but none ever sinned for sorrows and discontents :
their discontents and sorrows are not taken up and loved
for themselves ; but are the effects of their love to some
pleasure and content, which are denied them, or taken from
them. Therefore though all your bodily pleasures are not
sin J yet seeing nothing but the pleasures of the flesh and
carnal mind are the end of sinners, and the devil's great and
ehiefest bait, and this only causeth men's perdition, you
218 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
have great reason to be most afraid of that which is most
pleasing to your flesh, and to the mind as it is corrupt and
carnal : escape the delusions of fleshly pleasure, and you
escape damnation : you have far more cause to be afraid of
prosperity than of adversity ; of riches than of poverty ; of
honour than of obscurity and contempt ; of men's praises and
applause than of their dispraises, slanders, and reproach ;
of preferment and greatness than of a low and mean con-
dition ; of a delicious than of less tempting meats and drinks ;
of curious, costly, than of mean, and cheap, and plain attire.
Let those that have hired out their reason to the service of
their fleshly lusts, and have delivered the crown and sceptre
to their appetites, think otherwise. No wonder if they that
have sold the birthright of their intellects to their senses,
for a mess of pottage, for a whore, or a high place, or a do-
mineering power over others, or a belly-full of pleasant meats
or liquors, do deride all this, and think it but a melancholy
conceit, more suitable to a hermit or anchorite than to men
of society and business in the world. As heaven is the
portion of serious believers and mortified saints alone,
so it shall be proper to them alone, to understand the
doctrine and example of their Saviour, and practically to
know what it is to deny themselves, and forsake all they
have, and take up their cross and follow Christ, and
by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body'. Such
know that millions part with God for pleasures, but none
for griefs ; and that hell will be stored with those that pre-
ferred wealth, and honour, and sports, and gluttony, drink,
and filthy lusts, before the holiness and happiness of be-
lievers ; but none will be damned for preferring poverty,
and disgrace, and abstinence, hunger, and thirst, and chas-
tity, before them. It must be something that seemeth good,
that must entice men from the chiefest good : apparent evil
is no fit bait for the devil's hook. Men will not displease
God, to be displeased themselves ; nor choose present sor-
row instead of everlasting joys : but for the " pleasures of
sin for a season" many will despise the endless pleasures.
Direct, x. 'Meet every motion to disobedience with an
army of holy graces, with wisdom, and fear, and hatred,
and resolution, with love to God, with zeal and courage :
* Luke xiv. 26—29. 33. Rom. viii. 5—7. 13. Col. iii. 1—4.
CHAP. lit.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 219
and quench every spark that falls upon your hearts before
it breaks out into a flame.' — When sin is little, and in its in-
fancy, it is weak and easily resisted : it hath not then turned
away the mind from God, nor quenched grace, and disabled
it to do its office. But when it is grown strong, then gracis
grows weak and we want its help, and want the sense of the
presence, and attributes, and truths of God, to rebuke it.
O stay not till your hearts are gone out of hearing, and
straggled from God beyond the observance of his calls.
The habit of obedience will be dangerously abated, if you
resist not quickly the acts of sin.
Direct, xi. ' Labour for the clearest understanding of
the will of God, that doubtfulness about your duty do not
make you flag in your obedience, and doubtfulness about
sin, do not weaken your detestation and resistance, and
draw you to venture on it.' — When a man is sure what is
his duty, it is a great help against all temptations that would
take him oif ; and when he is sure that a thing is sinful, it
makes it easier to resist. And therefore it is the devil's
method to delude the understanding, and make men believe
that duty is no duty, and sin is no sin ; and then no won-
der if duty be neglected, and sin committed : and therefore
he raised up one false prophet or other to say to Ahab, ' Go,
and prosper ;' or to say, * There is no hurt in this :' to dis-
pute for sin, and to dispute against duty. And it is almost in-
credible, how much the devil hath got when he hath once
made it a matter of controversy. Then every hypocrite hath
a cloak for his sin, and a dose of opium for his conscience,
when he can but say, * It is a controversy ; some are of one
mind, and some of another : you are of that opinion, and I
am of this.' Especially if there be wise and learned on both
sides ; and yet more, if there be religious men on both sides ;
and more yet, if he have an equal number on his side ; and
most of all, if he have the major vote (as error and sin have
commonly in the world). If Ahab have but four hundred
lying, flattering prophets to one Micaiah, he will think he
may hate him, reproach him, and persecute him, without
any scruple of conscience. If it be made a controversy,
whether bread be bread, and wine be wine, when we see and
taste it ; some will think they may venture to subscribe or
swear that they hold the negative, if their credit, or livings,
or lives lie upon it ; much more if they can say. It is the
220 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
judgment of the Church ! If it be once made a controversy,
whether perjury be a sin, or whether a vow materially law-
ful bind, or whether it be lawful to equivocate, or lie with
a, mental reservation for the truth, or to do the greatest evil,
or speak the falsest thing with a true and good intent and
meaning, almost all the hypocrites in the country will be
for the sinful part, if their fleshly interest require it ; and
will think themselves wronged, if they are accounted hypo-
crites, liars, or perjured, as long as it is but a point of con-
troversy among learned men. If it be once made a contro-
versy, whether an excommunicated king become a private
man and it be lawful to kill him, and whether the pope may
absolve the subjects of temporal lords from their allegiance
(notwithstanding all their oaths) ; and if such learned men
as Suarez, Bellarmine, Perron, &c., are for it (to say nothing
of Santarellus, Mariana, &c.), you shall have a Clement, a
Ravilliac, a Faux, yea, too great choice of instruments,
that will be satisfied to strike the blow. If many hold it
may, or must be done, some will be found too ready to do it,
especially if an approved General Council (Lateran. sub
Innoc. III. can. 3.) be for such Papal absolution. We have
seen at home, how many will be emboldened to pull down
Government, to sit in judgment on their King, and condemn
him, and to destroy their brethren, if they can but say that
such men think it lawful. If it were but a controversy once,
whether drunkenness, whoredom, swearing, stealing, or any
villany be a sin or not, it would be committed more com-
monly, and with much less regret of conscience. Yea, good
men will be ready to think that modesty requireth them to
be less censorious of those that commit it, because in con-
troverted cases they must suspect their own understandings,
and allow something to the judgment of dissenters : and so
all the rules of love, and peace, and moderation, which are
requisite in controversies that are about small and difficult
points, the devil will make use of and apply them all to the
patronage of the most odious sins, if he can but get them
once to have some learned, wise, or religious defenders.
And from our tenderness of the persons, we easily slide to
an indulgent tenderness in censuring the sin itself: and
good men themselves, by these means, are dangerously dis-
abled to resist it, and prepared to commit it.
, Direct. XII. * Take heed lest the devil do either cast you
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 221
into the sleep of carnal security, or into such doubts, and
fears, and perplexing scruples, as shall make holy obe-
dience seem to you an impossible or a tiresome thing/ —
When you are asleep in carelessness, he can use you as he
list : and if obedience be made grievous and ungrateful to
you,** your heart will go against it, and you will go but like
a tired horse, no longer than you feel the spur : you are
half conquered already, because you have lost the love and
pleasure of obedience ; and you are still in danger lest dif-
ficulties should quite tire you, and weariness make you yield
at last. The means by which the tempter effecteth this must
afterward be spoken of, and therefore I shall omit it here.
By the faithful practice of these Directions, obedience
may become, as it were, your nature ; a familiar, easy, and
delightful thing : and may be like a cheerful servant or child,
that waiteth for your commands, and is glad to be employed
by you. Your full subjection of your wills to God will be
as the health, the ease, and quietness of your wills : you
will feel that it is never well' or easy with you, but when you
are obedient and pleasing to your Creator's will. Your
" delight will be in the law of the Lord ^," It will be sweeter
than honey to you, and better thgji thousands of gold and
silver: and this not for any by respect, but as it is the " law
of God ;" a " light unto your feet," and an infallible guide
in all your duty. You will say with David, '* I will delight
myself in thy statutes ; I will not forget thy word. Thy
testimonies are my delight and my counsellors. Make me
to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I
delight ^" And, " I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea,
thy law is within my heart™." And, " Blessed is the man
that feareth the Lord ; that delighteth greatly in his com-
mandments °."
Grand Direct. \ II. 'Continue as Ihe covenanted scho-
lars of Christ, the Prophet and Teacher of his church, to
learn of him, by his Spirit, word, and ministers, the farther
knowledge of God, and the things that tend to your salva-
tion ; and this with an honest, willing mind ; in faith, hu-
mility, and diligence ; in obedience, patience, and peace.' -
^ Esal. i. 2. ' Psal. cxix. 16. 24. 35. 47- TO. 77. 174. •
«Psal.xl. 8. "Psal. cxii. 1.
222 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Though I spake before, of our coming to God by Jesus
Christ, as he is the way to the Father ; it is meet that we
distinctly speak of our relation and duty to him, as he is
our teacher, our captain, and our master; as well as of
our improving him, as Mediator immediately unto God.
The necessity of believers, and the office and work of Christ
himself, doth tell us, how much of our religion doth consist
in learning of him, as his disciples. " A prophet shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like '
unto me, him shall you hear°." This was the voice that
came out of the cloud in the holy mount, " This is my be-
loved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him p." There-
fore is the title of disciples commonly given to believers.
And there is a twofold' teaching, which Christ hath sent his
ministers to perform ; both mentioned in their commission.
Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. The one is, to " teach the nations ;"
so as to make disciples of them, by persuading them into the
school of Christ, which containeth the teaching of faith and
repentance, and whatever is necessary to their first admis-
sion, and to their subjecting themselves to Christ himself,
as their stated and infallible Guide. The other is, the
teaching them further to know more of God, " and to ob-
serve all things whatsoever he commanded them." And
this last is it we are now to speak of, and I shall add some
sub-directions for your help.
Directions for Learning of Christ, as our Teacher.
Direct, i. ' Remember who it is that is your teacher :
that he is the Son of God, that knoweth his Father's will,
and is the most faithful, infallible Pastor of the church.'-^
There is neither ignorance, nor negligence, nor ambition,
nor deceit in him, to cause him to conceal the mind of God.
There is nothing which we need to know, which he is not
both able and willing to acquaint us with.
Direct, ii. * Remember what it is that he teacheth you,
and to what end.' — That it is not how to sin, and be damn-
ed, as the devil, the world, and the flesh would teach you ;
nor how to satisfy your lusts, or to know, or do, or attain
the trifles of the world : but it is how to be renewed to the
" Acts vii. 37. p Matt. xvii. 5 .
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 223
image of God, and how to do his will, and please him, and
how to be justified at his bar, and how to escape everlasting
fire, and how to attain everlasting joys : consider this well,
and you will gladly learn of such a teacher.
Direct. III. ' Let the book which he himself hath indited
by his Spirit, be the rule, and principal matter of your learn-
ing.'— The Holy Scriptures are of Divine inspiration : it is
them that we must be j udged by, and them that we must be
ruled by ; and, therefore, them that we must principally
learn. Men's books and teachings, are but the means for
our learning this infallible word.
Direct, iv. * Remember that, as it is Christ's work to
teach, it is your's to hear, and read, and study, and pray,
and practise what you hear.' — Do your part, then, if you ex-
pect the benefit. You come not to the school of Christ to
be idle. Knowledge droppeth not into the sleepy dreamer's
mouth. Dig for it, as for silver, and search for it in the
Scriptures, as for a hidden treasure. Meditate in them day
and night. Leave it to miserable fools, to contemn the
wisdom of the Most High.
Direct, v. * Fix your eye upon himself, as your pattern
and study, with earnest desire to follow his holy example,
and to be made conformable to him.' — Not to imitate him
in the works which were proper to him as God, or as Media-
tor ; but in his holiness, which he hath proposed to his dis-
ciples for their imitation. He knew how effectual a perfect
example would be, where a perfect doctrine alone would be
less regarded. Example bringeth ^doctrine nearer to our
eye and heart; it maketh it more observable, and telleth us
with more powerful application, * such you must be, and
thus you must do.' The eye maketh an easier and deeper
impression on the imagination and mind, than the ear doth :
therefore Christ's example, should be much preached and
studied. It will be a very great help to us, to have still up-
on our minds, the image of the holy life of Christ ; that we
be affected, as if we always saw him doing the holy actions
which once he did. Paul calls the Galatians, '* foolish,"
and " bewitched," that *' obeyed not the truth, when Christ
had been set forth as crucified among thfem, evidently before
their eyes *i." Papists think that images serve well for this
1 Gel. iii. 1.
2^4 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
turn : but the records of Scripture, and the living images of
Christ, whom they persecute and kill, are far more useful.
How much example is more operative than doctrine alone,
you may perceive by the enemies of Christ, who can bear
his holy doctrine, when they cannot bear his holy servants,
that practise that doctrine before their eyes. And that
which most stirs up their enmity, hath the advantage for
exciting the believer's piety.
Let the image of Christ, in all his holy examples, be al-
ways lively written upon your minds. 1. Let the great ones
of the world remember, that their Lord was not born of such
as bore rule, or were in worldly pomp and dignity, but of
persons that lived but meanly in the world (however, they
were of the royal line) : how he was not born in a palace,
but a stable, and laid in a manger, without the attendance
or accommodation of the rich.
2. Remember how he subjected himself unto his reputed
father, and his mother, to teach all children subjection and
obedience \
3. And how he condescended to labour at a trade, and
mean employment in the world ; to teach us that our bodies,
as well as our minds, must express their obedience, and have
their ordinary employment ; and to teach men to labour and
live in a calling ; and to comfort poor labourers, with as-
surance that God accepteth them in the meanest work, and
that Christ himself lived so before them, and chose their
kind of life, and not the life of princes and nobles, that live
in pomp, and ease, and pleasure.
4. Remember how he refused not to submit to all the
ordinances of God, and to fulfil all righteousness, and to be
initiated into the solemn administration of his office by
the baptism of John% which God approved, by sending
down upon him the Holy Ghost : to teach us all to expect
his Spirit in the use of his ordinances.
6. Remember how he voluntarily begun his work, with an
encounter with the tempter in the wilderness, upon his fast-
ing : and suffered the tempter to proceed, till he moved him
to the most odious sin, even to worship the devil himself:
to teach us that God loveth tried servants, and expecteth
that we be not turned from him by temptations ; especially
>• Luke ii. 51. • Matt. iii. 15— 17.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 225
those that enter upon a public ministry, must be tried men,
that have overcome the tempter : and to comfort tempted
Christians, who may remember, that their Saviour himself
was most blasphemously tempted, to as odious sins as ever
they were ; and that to be greatly tempted, without con-
senting or yielding to the sin, is so far from being a sin in
itself, that it is the greatest honour of our obedience; and
that the devil, who molesteth and haunteth us with his temp-
tations, is a conquered enemy, whom our Lord in person
hath overcome.
6, Remember how earnestly and constantly he preached ;
not stories, or jingles, or subtle controversies, but repen-
tance, and faith, and self-denial, and obedience. So great
was his love to souls, that, when he had auditors, he preach-
ed, not only^in the temple and synagogues, but in mountains,
and in a ship, and any other convenient place ; and no fury
of the rulers or Pharisees could silence him, till his hour
was come, having his Father's commission. And even to
particular persons, he vouchsafed, by conference, to open
the mysteries of salvation * : to teach us to love and attend
to the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel, and not
to forbear any necessary means for the honour of God, and
the saving of souls, because of the enmity, or opposition of
malicious men, but to '* work while it is day, seeing the
night is coming when none can work "."
7. Remember how compassionate he was to men's bo-
dies, as well as to their souls ; going up and down with un-
wearied diligence, doing good ; healing the blind, and lame,
and deaf, and sick, and possessed ; and how all his miracles
were done in charity, to do good : and none of them to do
hurt : so that he was but living, walking LOVE and MERCY.
To teach us to know God, in his love and mercy ; and
to abound in love and mercy to our brethren ; and to hate
' the spirit of hurtfulness, persecution, and uncharitableness ,•
and to lay out ourselves in doing good ; and to exercise
our compassion to the bodies of men, as well as to their souls ^
according to our power.
8. Remember how his zeal and love endured the re-
proach, and resisted the opposition of his friends, who went
to lay hold on him as if he had been beside himself'' : and
*■ John iii, and iv. " John ix. 4. *^ Mark ui.20, 21.
VOL. II. Q
226 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
how he bid Peter ** Get behind me satan ; thou art an offence
unto me : for thou savourest not the things of God, but
those of men," when in carnal love and wisdom he rebuked
him for resolving to lay down his life, saying, " Be it far
from thee, this shall not be unto thee y." To teach us to
expect that carnal love and wisdom in our nearest friends,
will rise up against us in the work of God, to discourage
us both from duty and from sufferings : and that all are to
be shaken off; and counted as the instruments of satan,
that would tempt us to be unfaithful to our trust and duty,
and to favour ourselves by a sinful avoiding of the suffer-
ings which God doth call us to undergo.
9. Remember how through all his life, he despised the
riches of the world, and chose a life of poverty, and was S
companion of the meanest, neither possessing sumptuous
houses, or great attendance, or spacious lands, or a large
estate. He lived in a visible contempt of all the wealth and
splendor, and greatness of the world : to teach us how lit-
tle these little things are to be esteemed ; and that they are
none of the treasure and portion of a saint ; and what a folly
it is to be fond of such snares, and diversions, and tempta-
tions which make the way to heaven to be to us, as a
needle's eye.
10. Observe, how little he regardeth the honour and
applause of men ; how *' he made himself of no reputation,
but took upon him the form of a servant," refusing to be
" made a king," or to have a " kingdom of this world."
Though he told malignant blasphemers how greatly they
sinned in dishonouring him, yet did he not seek the honour
of the world : to teach us how little the thoughts or words
of ignorant men do contribute to our happiness, or are to
be accounted of ; and to turn our eyes from the impenitent
censures of flesh and blood, to the judgment of our Al-
mighty Sovereign, to whom it is that we stand or fall.
11. Remember, how little he made provision for the
flesh, and never once tasted of any immoderate, sinful plea-
sure. How far was he from a life of voluptuousness and
sensuality ? Though his avoiding the formal fastings of the
Pharisees, made them slander him as a " gluttonous per-
son," and " a wine-bibber ^" as the sober Christians were
y Matt. xvl. 22, 23. =» Phil. ii. 7. ^ John vi. 15. ^ Matt.xi. 19.
CHAP, in.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 227
called * carnivori', by those that thought it unlawful to eat
flesh J yet so far was he from the guilt of any such sin, that
never a desire of it was in his heart. You shall neyer find
in the Gospel that Christ spent half the morning in dres-
sing him, choosing rather to shorten his time for prayer,
than not to appear sufficiently neatified, as our empty,
worthless, painted gallants do : nor shall you ever read
that he wasted time in idle visitations, or cards, or dice, or
in reading romances, or hearing stage-plays : it was ano-
ther kind of example that our Lord did leave for his disciples.
12. Mark also, how far Christ was from being guilty of
any idle, or lascivious, or foolish kind of talk : and how
holy and profitable all his speeches were. To teach us also
to speak as the oracles of God, such words as tend to edi-
fication, and to administer grace unto the hearers, and to
keep our tongues from all profane, lascivious, idle speeches.
13. Remember that pride, ^and passion, are condemned
by your pattern. Christ bids you " Learn of me ; for I am
meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your
souls *"." Therefore he resolveth that " except" men " be
converted and become as little children, they shall not ente^
into the kingdom of heaven ^." Behold therefore the Lamb
of God, and be ashamed of your fierce and ravenous natures.
14. Remember that Christ your Lord and pattern did
humble himself to the meanest office of love, even to wash
the feet of his disciples : not to teach you to wash a few
poor men's feet, as a ceremony once a year, and persecute
and murder the servants of Christ the rest of the year, as
the Roman Vice-Christ doth ; but to teach us, that if he
their Lord and Master washed his disciples* feet, we also
should stoop as low in any office of love, for one another '.
1^. Remember also that Christ your pattern spent whole
nights in prayer to God ; so much was he for this holy at-
tendance upon God^: to teach us to "pray always and
not wax faint s." And not to be like the impious God-haters,
that love not any near or serious addresses unto God, nor
those that use them, but make them the object of their
cruelty or scorn.
« Matt. xi. 28, 29. ^ Matt, xviii. 3. ^ John xii. 14.
^ If irfo«ux^ in Luke vi. 12, do signify an oratory, it yet iniporteth that he con-
tinued for prayer in it. ^ Luke xviii. 1.
228 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
16. Remember also that Christ was against the Pharisees'
outside, hypocritical, ceremonious worship, consisting in
lip-labour, affected repetitions, and much babbling ; their
* touch not, taste not, handle not,' and worshipping God in
vain, according to their traditions, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men. He taught us a serious, spirit-
ual worship : not " to draw nigh to God with our mouth,
and honour him with our lips, while our hearts are far from
him f but to " worship God who is a Spirit, in spirit and
truth ^"
17. Christ was a sharp reprover of hypocritical, blind,
ceremonious, malicious Pharisees ; and warneth his disci-
ples to take heed of their leaven. When they are offended
with him, he saith, " Every plant which my heavenly Fa-
ther hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone,
they be blind leaders of the blind '\" &c. To teach us to
take heed of Autonomous, supercilious, domineering formal
hypocrites, and false teachers, and to difference between
the shepherds and the wolves.
18. Though Christ seems cautiously to avoid the owning
of the Roman usurpation oyer the Jews, yet rather than of-
fend them he payeth the tribute himself", and biddeth them
" render to Caesar the things that are Csesar's, and to God
the things that are God's ^" The Pharisees bring their
controversy to him hypocritically, "Whether it be lawful to
give tribute to Caesar or not?" (For that Caesar was an
usurper over them, they took to be past controversy.) And
Christ would give them no answer, that should either en-
snare himself, or encourage usurpation, or countenance their
sedition : teaching us much more to pay tribute cheerfully to
our lawful Government, and to avoid all sedition and offence.
19. Yet is he accused, condemned, and executed among
malefactors, as aspiring to be " King of the Jews," and the
judge called, '* none of Caesar's friend," if he let him go :
teaching us to expect, that the most innocent Christians
should be accused, as enemies to the rulers of the world, and
mistaken governors be provoked and engaged against them,
by the malicious calumnies of their adversaries ; and that
we should, in this unrighteous world, be condemned of those
^ Malt. XV, 6—9. John iv. 23, 24. Matt, xxiii. * Matt. xv. 12 — 14.
k Matt. xvii. 25—27. • Matt. xxii. 21.
CHAP. Ill] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 229
crimes of which we are the most innocent ; and which we
most abhor, and have borne the fullest testimonies against.
20. The furious rout of the enraged people deride him
by their words and deeds, with a purple robe, a sceptre of
reed, a crown of thorns, and the scornful name of '* King
of the Jews ;" they spit in his face, and buffet him, and then
break jests upon him : and in all this, "being reviled he
reviled not again, but committed all to him that judge th
righteously ^" Teaching us to expect the rage of the ig-
norant rabble, as well as of deluded governors ; and to be
made the scorn of the worst of men : and all this without
impatience, reviling, or threatening words ; but quieting
ourselves in the sure expectation of the righteous judg-
ment, which we and they must shortly find.
21. When Christ is urged at Pilate's bar to speak for
himself, he holds his peace : teaching us to expect to be
questioned at the judgment-seat of man ; and not to be
over careful for the vindicating of our names from their most
odious calumnies, because the judgment that will fully jus-
tify us is sure and near.
22. When Christ is in his agony, his disciples fail him ;
when he is judged and crucified, they "forsook him and
fled ™ : to teach us not to be too confident in the best of
men; not to expect much from them in a time of trial, but to
take up our comfort in God alone, when all our nearest
friends shall fail us.
23. Upon the cross he suffered the torments and igno-
miny of death for us, praying for his murderers : " leaving
us an example that we should follow his steps " ; and that
we should think not life itself too dear to part with, in obe-
dience to God, and for the love of Christ and one another %
and that we forgive and pray for them that persecute us.
24. In all this suffering from men, he feels also so much
of the fruit of our sin upon his soul, that he crieth out,
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me V To teach
us, if we fall into such calamity of soul as to think that God
himself forsaketh us, to remember, for our support, that the
Son of God himself before us cried out. My God, why hast-
thou forsaken me ? And that in this also we may expect
» 1 Pet. ii. 21—23, •» Matt. xxvi. 56. » 1 Pet.ii. %i. <> 1 John iii. i6.
!iSO CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. {PART I.
a trial to seem of ourselves forsaken of God, when our
Saviour underwent the like before us.
I will instance in no more of his example, because I
would not be tedious. Hither, now, let believers cast their
eyes : if you love your Lord you should love to imitate him,
and be glad to find yourselves in the way that he hath gone
before you. If he lived a worldly and sensual life, do yOu
do so ; if he was an enemy to preaching, and praying, and
holy living, be you so : but if he lived in the greatest con-
tempt of all the wealth, and honours, and pleasures of the
world, in a life of holy obedience to his Father, wholly pre-
ferring the kingdom of heaven, and seeking the salvation of
the souls of others, and patiently bearing persecution, deri-
sion, calumnies and death, then take up your cross, and
follow him in joyfully to the expected crown.
Direct, vi. ' If you will learn of Christ, you must learn
of his ministers, whom he hath appointed to be the teachers
of his church.* — He purposely enabled them,inclineth them
and sendeth them to instruct you : not to have dominion
over your faith, but to be your spiritual fathers, and " the
ministers by whom you believe, as God shall give" (ability
and success) " to every one" as he pleases, ** to plant and
water," while ** God giveth the increase, to open men^s
eyes, and turn them from darkness to light," and to be " la-
bourers together with God, whose husbandry and building
you are," and to be "helpers of your joy?." Seeing there-
fore Christ hath appointed them under him, to be the ordi-
nary teachers of his church, he that " heareth them" (speak-
ing his message) " heareth him," and he " that despiseth
them despiseth him'^." And he that saith, *I will hear
Christ but not you,' doth say in effect to Christ himself, *I
will not hear thee, nor learn of thee, unless thou wilt dis-
miss thy ushers, and teach me immediately thyself.'
Direct, vii. * Hearken also to the secret teachers of his
Spirit and your consciences, not as making you any new
law or duty, or being to you instead of Scriptures or minis-
ters ; but as bringing that truth into your hearts and prac-
tices, which Scriptures and ministers have first brought to
your eyes and ears,' — If you understand not this, how the
P See 2 Cor.ii 4. Actsxxvi. 17, 18. 1 Cor. iii. 5. iv. 15. "i Luke x. 16.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 231
office of Scripture and ministers differ from the office of the
Spirit and your consciences, you will be confounded as the
sectaries of these times have been, that separate what God
hath joined together, and plead against Scripture or mi-
nisters, under pretence of extolling the Spirit, or the light
within them. As your meat must be taken into the stomach,
and pass the first concoction before the second can be per-
formed, and chylification must be before sanguification ; so
the Scripture and ministers must bring truth to your eyes
and ears, before the Spirit or conscience bring them to your
hearts and practice. But they lie dead and ineffectual in
your brain or imagination, if you hearken not to the secret
teachings of the Spirit and conscience, which would bring
them furtber. As Christ is the principal teacher without,
and ministers are but under him ; so the Spirit is the prin-
cipal teacher within us, and conscience is but under the
Spirit, being excited and informed by it. Those that learn
only of Scriptures and ministers (by reading or hearing),
may become men of learning and great ability, though they
hearken not to the sanctifying teachings of the Spirit or to
their consciences : but it is only those that hearken first to
the Scriptures and ministers, and next to the Spirit of God
and to their consciences, that have an inward, sanctifying,
saving knowledge, and are they that are said to be taught
of God. Therefore, hearken, first with your ears what Christ
hath said to yOti without, and then hearken daily and dili-
gently with your hearts, what the Spirit and conscience say
within. For it is their office to preach over all that again
to your hearts, which you have received.
Direct, viii. * It being the office of the present ordinary
ministry, only to expound and apply the doctrine of Christ,
already recorded in the Scriptures, believe not any man that
contradicteth this recorded doctrine, what reason, autho-
rity, or revelation soever he pretend. ' To the law and to
the testimony ; if they speak not according to these, it is
because there is no light in them^' — No reason can be reason
indeed, that is pretended against the reason of the Creator
and God of reason. Authority pretended against the highest
authority of God is no authority : God never gave authority
to any against himself; nor to deceive men's souls ; nor to
»" Isa. viii. 20.
23*2 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [iPART I.
dispense with the law of Christ ; nor to warrant men to sin
against him ; nor to make any supplements to his law or
doctrine. The apostles had their * power only to edification,
but not to destruction ^' There is no revelation from God,
that is contrary to his own revelation already delivered as
his perfect law and rule unto the church ; and therefore
none supplemental to it. If an *' apostle or an angel from
heaven ' per possibile vel impossibile ' shall evangelize to us
besides what is evangelized," and we " have received," he
must be held *' accursed*."
Direct, ix. ' Come not to learn of Christ with self-con-
ceitedness, pride, or confidence in your prejudice and errors :
but as little children, with humble, teachable, tractable
minds.' — Christ is no teacher for those that in their own
eyes are wise enough already : unless it be first to teach
them to " become fools" (in their own esteem, because they
are so indeed) " that they may be wise "." They that are
prepossessed with false opinions, and. resolve that they will
never be persuaded of the contrary, are unmeet to be scho-
lars in the school of Christ. " He resisteth the proud, but
giveth more grace unto the humble ^." Men that have a high
conceit of their own understandings, and think they can
easily know truth from falsehood as soon as they hear it,
and come not to learn, but to censure what they hear or
read, as being able to judge of all, these are fitter for the
school of the prince of pride and father of lies and error,
than for the school of Christ. " Except conversion" make
men as " little children," that come not to carp and cavil,
but to learn, they are not '' meet for the kingdom of Christ^."
Know how blind and ignorant you are, and how dull of
learning, and humbly beg of the Heavenly Teacher, that he
will accept you and illuminate you ; and give up your un*
derstandings absolutely to be informed by him, and your
hearts to be the tables in which his Spirit shall write his
law, believing his doctrine upon the bare account of his in-
fallible veracity, and resolving to obey it ; and this is to be
the disciples of Christ indeed, and such as shall be taught
of God.
Direct, x. ' Come to the school of Christ with honest,
• 1 Cor. X. 8. 2 Cor. xiii. 10. ' Gal. i. 6- 8.
« 1 Cor. iii. 18. * 1 Pet. v. 5. ^ Matt, xnii. 3. John ii. 3—5.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 233
willing hearts, that love the truth, and feign would know it
that they may obey it ; and not with false and biassed
hearts, which secretly hinder the understanding from enter-
taining the truth, because they love it not, as being con-
trary to their carnal inclinations and interest.' — The word
that was received into " honest hearts " was it that was
as the seed that brought forth plentifully ^. When the heart
saith unfeignedly, ' Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth ;
teach me to know and do thy will ;' God will not leave such
a learner in the dark. Most of the damnable ignorance and
error in the world is from a wicked heart, that perceiveth
that the truth of God is against their fleshly interest and
lusts, and therefore is unwilling to obey it, and unwilling
to believe it, lest it torment them because they disobey it.
A will that is secretly poisoned with the love of the world,
or of any sinful lusts and pleasures, is the most potent im-
pediment to the believing of the truth.
Direct, xi. * Learn with quietness and peace in the school
of Christ, and make not divisions, and meddle not with
others' lessons and matters, but with your own.' — Silence,
and quietness, and minding your own business, is the way
to profit. The turbulent wranglers that are quarrelling with
others, and are religious contentiously, in envy and strife,
are more likely to be corrected or ejected than to be edified.
Kead James iii.
Direct, xii. * Remember that the school of Christ hath a
rod; and therefore learn with fear and reverence "*.' — Christ
will sharply rebuke his own, if they grow negligent and of-
fend : and if he should cast thee out and forsake thee, thou
art undone for ever. " See," therefore, that " ye refuse not
him that speaketh : for if they escaped not, who refused him
that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we
refuse him that speaketh from heaven^." '* For how shall
we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at first
began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us
by them that heard him : God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts
of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will*'." " Serve
the Lord therefore with fear, and rejoice with trembling:
« Matt. xiii. 23. * Heb. xii. 28, 29. Phil. ii. 12.
'' Heb. xii. 25. «= Heb. ii. 3, 4.
234 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish, in the kind-
ling of his wrath ^."
Grand Direct, viii. ' Remember that you are related to
Christ, as the Physician of your souls, and to the Holy
Ghost, as your Sanctifier : make it therefore your serious
study, to be cured by Christ, and cleansed by his Spirit, of
all the sinful diseases and defilements of your hearts and
lives/
Though I did before speak of our believing in the Holy
Ghost, and using his help for our access unto God, and con-
verse with him ; yet I deferred to speak fully of the cleans-
ing and mortifying part of his work of sanctification till
.now ; and shall treat of it here, as it is the same with the
curing work of Christ, related to us as the physician of our
souls : it being part of our subjection and obedience to him, to
be ruled by him, in order to our cure. And what I shall here
write against sin, in general will be of a twofold use. The one
is, to help us against the inward corruptions of our hearts, and
for the outward obedience of our lives, and so to further the
work of sanctification, and prevent our sinning. The other
is, to help us to repentance and humiliation, habitual and
actual, for the sins which are in us, and which we have al-
ready at any time committed.
The general Directions for this curing and cleansing of
the soul from sin, are contained, for the most part, in what
is said already : and many of the particular Directions also
may be brought from the sixth Direction before going. I
shall now add but two general Directions, and many more
particular ones.
Direct, i. I. The two General Directions are these :
1. ' Know what corruptions the soul of man is naturally de-
filed with : and this containeth the knowledge of those fa-
culties, that are the seat of these corruptions, and the
knowledge of the corruptions that have tainted and per-
verted the several faculties.'
Direct, ii. 2. ' Know what sin is, in its nature or intrin-
sic evil, as well as in the effects.'
1. The parts or faculties to be cleansed and cured, are
both the superior and inferior. 1. The Understanding,
^ Psal. ii. 11, 12.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 235
though not the first in the sin, must be first in the cure : for
all that is done upon the lower faculties, must be by the
governing power of the will : and all that is done upon the
will, according to the order of human nature, must be done
by the understanding. But the understanding hath its own
diseases, which must be known and cured. Its malady in
general is ignorance ; which is not only a privation of ac-
tual knowledge, but an undisposedness also of the under-
standing to know the truth. A man may be deprived of
some actual knowledge, that hath no disease in his mind
that causeth it : as in a case that either the object be ab-
sent, and out of reach, or that there may be no sufficient re-
velation of it, or that the mind be taken up wholly upon
some other thing, or in case a man shut out the thoughts of
such an object, or refuse the evidence, which is the act of
the will, even as a man that is not blind, may yet not see a
particular object, 1. In case it be out of his natural reach :
2. Or if it be night, and he want extrinsic light : 3. Or in
case he be wholly taken up with the observation of other
things : 4. Or in case he wilfully, either shut or turn away
his eyes.
It is a very hard question to resolve, how far and where-
in the diseases of the understanding may be called sin. Be-
cause the understanding is not a free, but a necessitated
faculty : and there can be no sin, where there is no liberty.
But to clear this, it must be considered, 1 . That it is not
this or that faculty that is the full and proper subject of sin,
but the man : the fulness of sin being made up of the vice
of both faculties, understanding and will, conjunct. It is
more proper to say. The man sinned, than. The intellect or
will sinned, speaking exclusively as to the other. 2. ' Li-
berum arbitrium,' free choice is belonging to the man, and
not to his will only, though principally to the will. 3.
Though the will only be free in itself, originally, yet the in-
tellect is free by participation, so far as it is commanded by
the will, or dependeth on it for the exercise of its acts. 4.
Accordingly, though the understanding primitively and of
itself, be not the subject of morality, of moral virtues, or of
moral vices, which are immediately and primarily in the
will, yet participatively its virtues and vices are moralized.
236 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and become graces or sins, laudable and rewardable, or vi-
tuperable and punishable, as they are imperate by the will,
or depend upon it.
Consider then, the acts, and habits, and disposition of
the understanding: and you will find, 1. That some acts,
and the privation of them, are necessary, naturally, origi-
nally, and unalterably : and these are not virtues or sinful
at all, as having no morality. As, to know unwillingly as
the devils do, 4nd to believe, when it cannot be resisted,
though they would ; this is no moral virtue at all, but a
natural perfection only. So 1. To be ignorant of that
which is no object of knowledge, or which is naturally be-
yond our knowledge, as of the essence of God, is no sin at
all. 2. Nor, to be ignorant of that which was never reveal-
ed, when no fault of ours hindered the revelation, is no sin.
3. Nor, to be without the present, actual knowledge or
consideration of one point, at that moment, when our
thoughts are lawfully, diverted, as in greater business, or
suspended, as in sleep. 4. But to be ignorant, wilfully, is
a sin, participatively in the intellect, and originally in the
will. 5. And to be ignorant for want of revelation, when
ourselves are the hinderers of that revelation, or the merito-
rious cause that we want it, is our sin : because, though
that ignorance be immediately necessary, and hypothe-
tically, yet, originally and remotely it is free and voluntary.
So, as to the habits and disposition of the intellect : it
is no sin to want those, which man's understanding in its
entire and primitive nature was without. As, not to be
able to know without an object, or to know an unrevealed
or too distant object, or actually to know all things know-
able, at once. But there are defects or ill dispositions,
that are sinfully contracted ; and though these are now im-
mediately natural ® and necessary, yet being originally and
remotely voluntary or free, they are participatively sinful.
Such is the natural man's disability or undisposedness to
know the things of the Spirit, when the Word revealeth
them. This lieth not in the want of a natural faculty to
know them, but, 1. Radically in the will. 2. And thence
in contrary, false apprehensions which the intellect is pre-
posessed with, which resisting the truth, may be called, its
« Maxima pars honiinura morbo juctatur eodem. Hor. lib. ii. Sat. 3. v. 121.
CHAP. II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 237
blindness or impotency to know them. And 3. In a strange-
ness of the mind to those spiritual things which it is utter-
ly unacquainted with.
Note here, 1 . That the will may be guilty of the under-
standing's ignorance, two ways : either, by positive averse-
ness prohibiting or diverting it from beholding the evidence
of truth : or, by a privation and forbearance of that com-
mand or excitation which is necessary to the exercise of the
acts of the understanding. This last is the commonest way
of the sin in the understanding ; and that may be truly
called voluntary which is from the will's neglect of its office,
or suspension of its act, though there be no actual violation
or nolition.
2. That the will may do more in causing a disease in the
understanding, than it can do in curing it. I can put out a
man's eyes, but I cannot restore them.
3. That yet for all that, God hath so ordered it in his
gracious dispensation of the grace of the Redeemer, that
certain means are appointed by him, for man to use, in order
to the obtaining of his grace, for his own recovery : and so,
though grace cure not the understanding of its primitive,
natural weakness, yet it cureth it of its contracted weakness,
which was voluntary in its original, but necessary, being
contracted. And, as the will had a hand in the causing
of it, so must it have, in the voluntary use of the aforesaid
means, in the cure of it. So much to shew you how the
understanding is guilty of sin.
Though no actual knowledge be so immediate as to be
without the mediation of the sense and fancy, yet supposing
these, knowledge is distinguished into immediate and me-
diate. The immediate is when the being, quality, &c. of a
thing, or the truth of a proposition is known, immediately,
in itself, by its proper evidence. Mediate knowledge is,
when the being of a thing, or the truth of a proposition is
known by the means of some other intervenient thing or pro-
position, whose evidence afFordeth us a light to discern it.
The understanding is much more satisfied when it can
see things and truths immediately, in their proper evidence.
But when it cannot, it is glad of any means to help it.
The further we go in the series of means (knowing one
thing by another, and that by another, and so on) the more
238 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
unsatisfied the understanding is, as apprehending a possi?
bility of mistake, and a difficulty in escaping mistake in the
use of so many 'media/
When the evidence of one thing, in its proper nature,
sheweth us another, this is to know by mere discourse or
argument.
When the medium of our knowing one thing, is the cre-
dibility of another man's report that knoweth it, this is
(though a discourse or argument too, yet) in special, called,
belief: which is strong or weak, certain or uncertain, as the
evidence of the reporter's credibility is certain or uncertain,
and our apprehension of it strong or weak.
In both cases, the understanding's fault is either an
utter privation of the act, or disposition to it ; or else a
privation of the rectitude of the act. When it should know
by the proper evidence of the thing, the privation of its act
is called ignorance or nescience, and the privation of its rec-
titude is called, error (which differ as not seeing, and seeing
falsely). When it should know by testimony, the privation
of its act is simple unbelief, or not-believing ; and the pri-
vation of its rectitude is, either disbelief, when they think
the reporter erreth, or misbelief, when it believeth a testi-
mony that is not to be believed.
So that you see by what is said, that the diseases of the
mind to be cured, are 1. Mere ignorance. 2. Error ; think-
ing truth to be falsehood, and falsehood truth. 3. Unbe-
lief. 4. Disbelief. Ajid 5. Misbelief.
But as the goodness is of chief regard, in the object ; so
the discerning of the truth about good and evil, is the chief-
est office of the understanding. And therefore, its dises-
teem of God, and glory, and grace, and its misesteem of the
fleshly pleasure, and worldly prosperity, wealth, and ho-
nour, is the principal malady of the mind.
2. The diseases of the Will, are in its inclination, and
in its acts. 1. An inordinate inclination to the pleasing of
the fleshly appetite and fantasy, and to all carnal baits and
temporal things, that tend to please it; and inordinate acts
of desire accordingly. 2. An irrational backwardness to
God, and grace, and spiritual good, and a refusal, or noli-
tion in act accordingly. These are in the will, 1 . Because
it is become much subject to the sensitive appetite, ftnd
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 239
hath debased itself, and contracted, by its sinful acts, a sen-
sual inclination, the flesh having the dominion in a corrupt-
ed soul. 2. Because the intellect, being also corrupted,
oft-times misleadeth it, by over-valuing transient things.
3. Because the will is become destitute (in its corrupted
state) of the power of Divine love, or an inclination to God
and holy things, which should countermand the seduction
of carnal objects. 4. And the understanding is much des-
titute of the light that should lead them higher. 5. Because
the rage of the corrupted appetite is still seducing it. Mark
therefore, for the right understanding of this, our greatest
malady : •
1. That the will never desireth evil, as evil, but as a car-
nal, or a seeming good. 2. Nor doth it hate good, as good,
but as a seeming evil, because God and grace do seem to
be his enemies, and to hurt him, by hindering him of the
good of carnal pleasure, which he now preferreth. 3. Nay,
at the same time that he loveth evil as it pleaseth the flesh,
he hath naturally, as a man, some averseness to it, so far as
he apprehendeth it to be evil : and when he hateth God and
holiness as evil, for hindering him of his carnal pleasure, he
naturally loveth them, so far as he apprehendeth them to be
good. So that there is some love to God and good, and
some hatred to evil in the ungodly : for while man is man,
he will have naturally an inclination to good as good, and
against evil as evil. 4. But the apprehension of sensitive
good is the strongest in him, and the apprehension of spi-
ritual good is weakest ; and therefore, the will, receiving a
greater impress from the carnal appetite and mind, than
from the weak apprehensions of spiritual good, is more in-
clined to that which indeed is worst : and so, things car-
nal have got the dominion, or chief, commanding interest
in the soul. 5. Note also," that sin receiveth its formality,
or moral evil first in the will, and not in the intellect or sen-
sitive appetite : (for it is not sin, till it be positively or pri-
vately, immediately or mediately voluntary.) But the first
motions to sin are not in the will, but in the sensitive ap-
petite : though there, at first, it be not formally sin. 6.
Note, that neither intellect, object, appetite, or sense, ne-
cessitate naturally the will to sin, but it remaineth the first
in the sin and guilt.
240 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
It is a matter of great difficulty to understand, how sin
first entered into the innocent soul : and it is of great im-
portance, because an error here is of dangerous consequence.
Two sorts seem to me to make God so much the necessi-
tating cause of Adam's first sin (and so of all sin), as that it
was as naturally impossible for Adam to have forborne it,
according to their doctrine, as to have conquered God : —
1. Those that assert the Dominican, immediate, physical,
pre-determining pre-motion j (which no created power can
resist.) 2. And those that say the will acts as necessitated
by the intellect, in all its acts (and so is necessitated in all
its omissions) ; and that the intellect is necessitated by ob-
jects (as, no doubt, it is, unless as its acts are * sub imperio
voluntatis') ; and all those objects are caused and disposed
of by God. But, it is certain that God is not the cause of
sin; and therefore, this certainty over-ruleth the case
against these tenets.
At present it seemeth to me, that sin entered in this me-
thod. 1. Sense perceiveth the forbidden thing. 2. The
appetite desireth it. 3. The imagination thinketh on its
desirableness yet further. 4. The intellect conceiveth of it
(truly) as good, by a simple apprehension. 5. The will ac-
cordingly willeth it, by a simple complacency or volition.
Thus far there was no sin : but 6. The will here adhered to
it too much, and took in it an excess of complacency, when
it had power to do otherwise : and here sin begun. 7. And
so, when the cogitations should have been called off : 8.
And the intellect should have minded God, and his com-
mands, and proceeded from a simple apprehension, to the
comparing act, and said, * The favour of God is better, and
his will should rule,' it omitted all these acts, because the
will omitted to command them ; (yea, and hindered them.)
9. And so, the intellect was next guilty of a ' non-renuo,' —
* I will not forbid or hinder it' (and the will accordingly).
10. And next of a positive deception, and the will of con-
sent unto the sin, and so it being ** finished, brought forth
death."
If you say. The will's first sinful adhesion in the sixth
instance, could not be, unless the intellect first directed it
so to do ; I deny that, because the will is the first principle
in men's actions ' quoad exercitium,' though the intellect be
CHAP. III.l CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 241--
the first as to specification : and therefore, the will could
suspend its exercise, and its excitation of the mind. In
all this I go upon common principles : but I leave it to fur-
ther inquiry: 1. How far the sensitive appetite may move
the locomotive faculty, without the wilFs command, while
the will doth not forbid ? And whether reason be not given
man, as the rider to the horse, not to enable him to move,
but to rule his motion : so that as the horse can go, if the
rider hinder not, so the sensitive appetite caii cause the ac-
tions of eating, drinking, thinking, speaking sensually, if
reason do but drop asleep, or not hinder. 2. And so, whe-
ther in the first sin, (and ordinarily) the sensitive appetite,
fantasy, and passion, be not the active movers, and the ra-
tional powers first guilty only by omitting their restraining
government, which they were a;ble to have exercised ? 3.
And so, whether sin be not (ordinarily) a brutish motion,
or a voluntary unmanning of ourselves ; the rational powers
in the beginning, being guilty only of omission or privation
of restraint ; but afterwards brought over to subserve the
sensitive appetite actively ? 4. And so, whether the will,
which is the * principium actus quoad exercitium,* were not
the first in the omission ? The intellect having before said,
* This must be further considered,' the will commanded not
that further consideration, when it could and should ?
However, if it be too har^ for us to trace our own souls
in all their motions, it is certain, that the will of man is the
first subject of moral good and evil : and uncertainties must
not make us deny that which is certain.
The reader who understandeth the importance and con-
sequence of these points, I am sure will pardon me, for this
interposition of these difficult, controverted points, (which I
purposely avoid, where I judge them not very needful in Or-
der to the defence or clearing of the plainer, common truths :)
and as for others, I must bear their censure.
The degree of sinfulness in the will, lieth in a stiffness,
and obstinacy, a tenaciousness of deceitful, temporal good,
and an eagerness after it ; and stubborn averseness to spi-
ritual good, as it is against that temporal, fleshly good.
This is the will's disease^.
3. The sinfulness of the memory, is in its retentiveness
f Aniiui labes nee diutumitate evanescit, nee manibus allis elui potest.
VOL. II. R
242 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
of evil, or things hurtful and prohibited » ; and its looseness,
and neglect of better, spiritual, necessary things. If this
were only as things present have the natural advantage to
make a deeper impress on the fantasy, and things unseen
and absent have the disadvantage, it were then but a natu-
ral, innocent infirmity : or, if in sickness, age, or weakness,
all kind of memory equally decay. But it is plain, that if
the Bible be open before our eyes, and preaching be in our
ears, and things unseen have the advantage of their infinite
greatness, and excellency, and concernment to us, yet our
memories are like walls of stone, to any thing that is spiri-
tual, and like walls of wax, on which> you may write any
thing, of that which is secular or evil. Note here, also,
that the faultiness of the memory, is only so far sinful, as it
is voluntary : it is the will, where the sin is as in its throne,
or chiefest subject. Because men love carnal things, and
love not spiritual things, therefore it is that they mind, and
understand, and remember the one, and not the other. So
that it is but as imperate, and participatively, that the me-
mory is capable of sin.
4. The sinfulness of the imagination, consisteth in its
readiness to think of evil, and of common, earthly things,
and its inaptness to think of any thing that is holy, and
good : and when we do force ourselves to holy thoughts,
they are disorderly, confused, unskilfully managed, with great
averseness. — Here, also, voluntariness is the life of the sin.
5. The sin of the affections, or passions, consisteth in
this : — That they are too easily and violently moved, by the
sensitive interest and appetite ; and are habitually prone to
such carnal, inordinate motions, running before the under-
standing and will (some of them), and soliciting and urging
them to evil ; and resisting and disobeying the commands
of reason and the will : but dull and backward to things
K Non incestum vel aspersione nquse vel dierum numerotoUitur.*
* The first of these quotations is incorrect; and in the second, the sense is alter-
ed by writing "non," for <' nam." The words of Cicero are as follows: — Caste
jubet lex adire ad deos, animo videlicet, in quo sunt or^inia: nee tollit castimoniam
corporis : sed hoc oportet inlelligi, cum multum animus corpori praestet ; observe-
turque, ut casta corpora adhibcantur, multo esse in animis id servandum magis. Nam
incestum vel aspersione aquae, vel dierum numero tollitur : animi labes nee diuturni-
tate evanescere, nee ariinibus uUis elui potest. Cic. Leg. ii. 24. - (T. C.)
1
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 243
spiritually good, and to execute the right dictates of the
mind and will.
6. The sin of the sensitive appetite, consisteth in the in-
ordinate rage or immoderateness to its object, which causeth
it to disobey the commands of - reason, and to become the
great inciter of rebellion in the soul ; violently urging
the mind and will to consent to its desires. Materially,
this dependeth much on the temper of the body : but for-
mally, this also is so far sinful as (positively or privatively,
mediately or immediately) it is voluntary. To have an ap-
petite simply to the object of appetite, is no sin ; but to
have a diseased, inordinate, unruly appetite, is a sin : not
primarily in itself considered ; but as it is voluntary, as it is
the appetite of a rational free agent, that hath thus disor-
dered the frame of its own nature.
7. The sin of the exterior parts, tongue, hand, eyes, feet,
&c. is only in act, and not in habit ; or, at least, the habits
are weak, and subject to the will. And it is in the execu-
tion of the sinful desires of the flesh, and commands of the
will, that the same consisteth. These parts also are not the
primary subjects of the guilt, but the will, that either posi-
tively puts them upon evil, or doth not restrain them when
it ought : and so they are guilty but participatively and ser
condarily, as the other imperate faculties are. It is not good
or evil, merely as it is the act of the tongue, or hand; but as
it is the tongue or hand of a rational free agent (agreeable or
disagreeable to the law). If a madman should speak blas-
phemy, or should kill, or steal, it were no further sin, than
as he had voluntarily contracted the ill disposition which
caused it, while he had the use of reason. If a man's hand
were held and forced by another, to do mischief utterly
against his will, it is the sin of the chief agent, and not of
the involuntary instrument. But no force totally excuseth
us from guilt, which leaveth the act to our rational choice.
He that saith, * Take this oath, or I will kill thee or tor-
ment thee,* doth use force, as a temptation which may be
resisted, but doth not constrain a man to swear : for he
leaveth it to his choice, whether he will swear, or die, or
be tormented: and he may, and ought to choose death, ra-
ther than the smallest sin. The will may be tempted, but
not constrained.
244 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct, ii. ' Labour clearly to understand the evil of sin,
both intrinsical in itself, and in its aggravations and effects/
— When you have found out where it is, and wherein it doth
consist, find out the malignity and odiousness of it. I have
heard some Christians complain, that they read much to
shew them the evil of sin in its effects, but meet with few
that shew them its evil in itself suflSciently. But, if you see
not the evil of sin in itself, as well as in the effects, it will
but tempt you to think God unjust in over-punishing it ; and
it will keep you from the principal part of true repentance
and mortification ; which lieth in hating sin, as sin. I shall
therefore shew you, wherein the intrinsical malignity of sin
consisteth.
1. Sin is (formally) the violation of the perfect, holy,
righteous law of God.
2. It is a denial or contempt of the authority, or govern-
ing-power of God : as if we said, ' Thou shalt not be our
Governor in this.'
3. It is an usurping the sovereign power to ourselves of
governing ourselves, in that act : for when we refuse God's
government, we set up ourselves in his stead ; and so make
gods of ourselves as to ourselves, as if we were self-sufficient,
independent, and had right hereto.
4. It is a denying or contempt of the wisdom of God,
as if he had unwisely made us a law which is unmeet to
rule us.
6. It is a setting up of our folly in the place of God's
wisdom, and preferring it before him ; as if we were wiser
to know how to govern ourselves, and to know what is fit-
test and best for us now to do, than God is.
6. It is a contempt of the goodness of God, as he is the
maker of the law : as if he had not done that which is best,
but that which may be corrected or contradicted, and there
were some evil in it to be avoided**.
7. It is a preferring our naughtiness before his goodness,
as if we would do it better, or choose better what to do.
8. It is a contempt or denial of the holiness and purity
•» See Plutarch's Tract, entitled, " That Vice is sufficient to make a man wretched."
Si non ipso honesto raovemur ut viri boni simus, sed utilitate aliqua, atque fructu,
callidi sumus, non l)oni j si emolumentis, non suapte natura, virtus expetitur, vana
erit virtus, quae malitia recte dicitur. P. Seal. p. 744.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 245
of God, which sets him against sin, as light is against
darkness.
9. It is a violation of God's propriety or dominion,
robbing him of the use and service of that which is absolutely
and totally his own.
10. It is a claiming of propriety in ourselves, as if we
were our own, and might do with ourselves as we list.
11. It is a contempt of the gracious promises of God,
by which he allured and bound his obedience.
12. It is a contempt of the dreadful threatenings of God,
by which he would have restrained us from evil.
13. It is a contempt or denial of the dreadful day of
judgment, in which an account must be given of that sin.
14. It is a denying of God's veracity, and giving him
the lie : as if he were not to be believed in all his predictions,
promises, and threats.
15. It is a contempt of all the present mercies, (which
are innumerable and great) by which God obligeth and en-
couxageth us to obey.
16. It is a contempt of our own afflictions, and his
chastisements of us, by which he would drive us from our
sins.
17: It is a contempt of all the examples of his mercies on
the obedient, and his terrible judgments on the disobedient,
(men and devils) by which he warned us not to sin.
18. It is a contempt of the person, office, sufferings, and
grace of Jesus Christ, who came to save us from our sins,
and to destroy the works of the devil ; being contrary to his
bloodshed, authority, and healing work.
19. It is a contradicting, fighting against, and in that
act prevailing against the sanctifying office and work of
the Holy Ghost, that moveth us against sin, and to
obedience.
20. It is a contempt of holiness, and a defacing, in
that measure, the image of God upon the soul, or a reject-
ing it. A vilifying of all those graces which are contrary to
the sin.
21. It is a pleasing of the devil, the enemy of God and
us, and an obeying him before God.
22. It is the fault of a rational creature, that had reason
given him to do better.
:24S CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
23. It IS all willingly 4one and chosen by a free agent,
that could not be constrained to it \
24. It is a robbing God of the honour and pleasure which
he should have had in our obedience ; and the glory which
we should bring him before the world.
25. It is a contempt of the omnipresence and omniscience
of God, when we will sin against him before his face, when
he stands over us, and seeth all that we do.
26. It is a contempt of the greatness and almightiness
of God, that we dare sin against him who is so great, and
able to be avenged on us.
27. It is a wrong to the mercifulness of God, when
we go out of the way of mercy, and put him to use the
way of justice and severity, who deli ghteth not in the death
of sinners, but rather that they obey, repent, and live.
28. It is a contempt of the attractive love of God, who
should be the end, and felicity, and pleasure of the soul.
As if, all that love and goodness of God, were not enough
to draw or keep the heart to him, and to satisfy us and
make us happy ; or, he were not fit to be our delight. And
it sheweth the want of love to God : for if we loved him
rightly we should willingly obey him.
29. It is a setting up the sordid creature before the
Creator, and dung before heaven, as if it were more worthy
of our love and choice, and fitter to be our delight; and,
the pleasure of sin were better for us than the glory of
heaven.
30. In all which it appeareth, that it is a practical atheism,
in its degree ; a taking down God, or denying him to be
God : and a practical idolatry, setting up ourselves and
other creatures in his stead.
31. It is a contempt of all the means of grace, which are
all to bring us to obedience, and keep us or call us from our
sins : prayer, sacraments, &c.
32. It is a contempt of the love and labours of the minis-
ters of Christ ; a disobeying them, grieving them, and. frus-
trating their hopes and the labours of their lives.
33. It is adebasingof reason, the superior faculty of the
* Voluntariura est orone peccatura. ToUe excusationera : nemo peccat invitus.
Martin, DuniJens. de Morib. Nihil interest quo animo facias, quod fecisse vitiosiuw
est, quia acta cernuntur, animus non vidctur. Id. ibid.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 247
soul, and a setting up of the flesh or inferior faculties, like
setting dogs to govern men, or the horse to rule the rider. '
34. It is a blinding of reason, and a misusing the noblest
faculties of the soul, and frustrating them of , the use and
ends which they were made for : and so it is the disorder,
monstrosity, sickness, or death of the souP.
35. It is, in its measure, the image of the devil upon the
soul, who is the father of sin : and, therefore, the most
odious deformity of the soul ; and this, where the Holy
Ghost should dwell, and the image and delight of God
should be.
36. It is the moral destruction not only of the soul, but
of the whole creation, so far as the creatures are appointed
as the means, to bring or keep us unto God : for the means,
as a means, is destroyed when it is not used to its end. A
ship is useless if no one be carried in it. A watch, as such,
is useless, when not used to shew the hour of the day. All
the world, as it is the book that should teach us the will of
God, is cast by, when that use is cast by. Nay, sin useth
the creature against God, which should have been used for
him.
37. It is a contradicting of our own confessions and pro-
fessions : a wronging of our consciences : a violation of our
covenants and self obligations to God.
38. It is a preferring of time before eternity, and regard-
ing things of a transitory nature, and a moment's pleasure,
before that which never shall have end.
39. It is a making a breach in the harmony and order of
the world : as the dislocation or deformity of a particular
member, is the trouble and deformity of all the body ; be-
cause the comeliness and welfare of the whole, containeth
the comeliness, proportion, and welfare of all the parts.
And as the dislocation or breaking of one part in a watch
or clock, is against the use of all the engine; so every man
being a part of the kingdom of God, doth, by sin, make a
breach in the order of the whole : and also giveth an ill ex-
ample to other parts, and makes himself unserviceable to
the body : and dishonoureth the whole body with the blot of
rebellion : and lets in j udgment on the world ; and kindleth
•^ Sick bodies only suffer ill j but sick souls both suffer ill, and do ill. Plutarch's
Morals, p. 314.
?48 CHJSISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
a consuming fire in the place where he liveth ; and is cruel
and injurious to others.
40. Sin is not only a preferring the body before the soul,
but it is also an unmercifulness, or cruelty against ourselves,
both soul and body, and so is contrary to the true use of the
indelible principle of self-love : for it is a wounding and
abusing the soul, and defiling the body in this life, and a
easting both on the wrath of God, and into the flames of hell
hereafter, or a dangerous venturing them into the way of
endless damnation and despair, and a contempt of those in-
sufferable torments. All these parts of malignity and poi-
son are intrinsical to sin, and found in the very nature of it.
The common aggravations of sin being written of by
many, and easily gathered from what is said of the nature of
it : I shall briefly name only a few.
1 . The infinite perfection of God in all those blessed at-
tributes and relations, which sin is against, is the greatest
aggravation of sin.
2. The inconceivable glory of heaven, which is despised,
is a great aggravation of sin.
3. So is the greatness of the torments of hell, which sin-
ners despise and venture on.
4. So is the great opposition that God hath made against
sin, having said and done so much against it, and declared
himself to hate nothing else immediately in the world,
6. The clearness of evidence against it, the nothingness
of all that can be said for it, is also a great aggravation of it.
G. So is the fulness, and fitness, and power of all the
means in creatures, providences, and Scriptures that is vouch-
safed the world against it.
7. So is the experience and warning of all ages, the re-
pentings of the converted, and the disowning it by almost
all> when they come to die. Wonderful ! that the ex-
perience of the world for above five thousand years, will
teach them no more effectually to avoid so mortal, pernicious
a thing.
8. The nearness to us, also, is an aggravation. It is not
a distant evil, but in our bowels, in our very hearts : we are
bound so strictly to love ourselves, that it is a great aggra-
vation to do ourselves so great a mischief.
9. The constant inhesion of sin, is a great aggravation :
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 249
that it is ever with us, lying down and rising up, at home and
abroad ; we are never free from it.
10. That it should poison all our common mercies, and
corrupt all our duties, is an aggravation. But we shall take
up some of these anon.
The special aggravations of the sins of God's own chil-
dren are these ^
1. They sin against a nearer relation than others do;
even against that God that is their Father by the new birth,
which is more heinous than if a stranger did it.
2. They are Christ's own members ; and it is most un-
natural for his members to rebel against him, or do him
wrong. ■') 'n ty?
3. They sin against more excellent operations of the
Spirit than others do, and against a principle of life with-
in them.
4. They sin against the differencing grace, which ap-
peared in their conversion. God took them out of a world
of sinners, whom he passed by when he could as well
have sanctified them. And should they so quickly thus re-
quite him ?
5. They sin against the pardon and justification which
they have already received. Did God so lately forgive them
all their former debts ; so many, so great, and heinous sins,
and that so freely to them, when the procurement was so
dear to Christ ? and should they so soon forget, or so ill
requite so great a mercy ?
6. They sin against a more serious covenant, which at
their conversion they entered into with God, than other
men do.
7. They sin against all the heart-breaking or humbling
sorrows which they have tasted of at their conversion, and
since. They have known more of the evil of sin than others,
in their sad experience of its sting.
8. They sin against more knowledge than other men.
They have known more what sin is, and what Christ is, and
what the will of God is than others ; and therefore deserve
to be beaten with many stripes.
9. They have oftener confessed sin than others, and spoke
' See the Assemblies larger Catechism about Aggravations of Sin.
250 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
odiously of it, as the vilest thing, and aggravated it to God
and man.
10. Their many prayers against it, and all their labour
in hearing, and reading, and sacraments, and other means,
do aggravate it.
11. They make a greater profession of strict obedience,
and therefore sin against their own profession.
12. They have renewed their promises of obedience to
God, in prayer, at sacraments, and at other times, much
more than others.
13. They have had more experience than others, of the
goodness of obedience, and of the comforts and benefits
that attend it, in the favour of God, and communion with
him therein.
14. Their sins are aggravated, by all the reproofs and ex-
hortations which they have used to others, to tell them how
unreasonable and bad it is to- provoke the Lord.
15. They sin under greater hopes of glory than others
do ; and provoke that God with whom they hope to live
for ever.
16. The high titles of love and praise which God doth
give them in his Word, do aggravate their sin. That he
should call them his treasure, his peculiar people, his
jewels, and the apple of his eye, his sons and daughters,
and a holy people, and priests to God, and boast of them as
a people more excellent than their neighbours ; and after
this they should sin against him.
17. They have had audience with God, the answer of
prayers, and many a deliverance and mercy in this life,
which others have not, which aggravate their sins, as
being thus contemned, and as obliging them more to God
than others.
18. They dishonour God, more than any others, by their
sins. His honour lieth not so much upon the actions of the
ungodly, as on those that are nearest to him.
19. They harden the wicked more, than such sins in
other men would do. They cause them to blaspheme, and
reproach the godly for their sakes, and say ' These are your
religious men ! You see now what their strictness is.' And
they hinder the conversion and salvation of others : they
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 251
grieve the godly, and wrong the church and cause of God,
much more than the sins of others do.
20. Lastly, They please the devil more than the sins of
other men. How busy is he to have drawn a Job to sin !
and how would he have boasted against God, and his grace,
and his servants, if he had prevailed ? when he boasted so
much before, in the false presumption of his success? As
if he could make the godly forsake God, and be as bad as
others, if he have leave to tempt them.
II. I shall next give you some particular Directions, be-
sides those foregoing, to help you to think of sin as it is, that
you may hate it : for your cleansing and cure consist in
this : so far as you hate sin it is mortified, and you are
cured of it. And therefore as I have anatomized it, that you
may see the hatefulness of it, I shall direct you to improve
this for your cure.
Direct, i. ' Labour to know God, and to be affected with
his attributes, and always to live as in his sight.' — No man
can know sin perfectly, because no man can know God per-
fectly. You can no further know what sin is than you
know what God is, whom you sin against. For the formal
malignity of sin is relative, as it is against the will and at-
tributes of God. The godly have some knowledge of the
malignity of sin, because they have some knowledge of
God that is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical,
prevalent knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they
have no such knowledge of God. They that fear God will
fear sinning ; they that in their hearts are bold, irreverently
with God will, in heart and life, be bold with sin : the atheist
that thinketh there is no God thinks there is no sin against
him. Nothing in the world will tell us so plainly and
powerfully of the evil of sin, as the knowledge of the great-
ness, wisdom, goodness, holiness, authority, justice, truth,
&c. of God. The sense of his presence, therefore, will
revive our sense of sin's malignity.
Direct. 11. * Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and
the holy life of Christ.' — His office is to expiate sin, and to
destroy it. His blood was shed for it : his life condemned
it. Love Christ, and thou wilt hate that which caused his
death. Love him, and thou wilt love to be made like him.
252 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and hate that which is contrary to Christ. These two great
lights will shew the odiousness of darkness.
Direct, in. ' Think well both how holy the office and
work of the Holy Ghost is, and how great a mercy it is to
us.'— Shall God himself, the heavenly light, come down into
a sinful heart, to illuminate and purify it ? And yet shall I
keep my darkness and defilement, in opposition to such
wonderful mercy ? Though all sin against the Holy Ghost
be not the unpardonable blasphemy, yet all is aggravated
hereby.
Direct, iv. ' Know and consider the wonderful love and
mercy of God, and think what he hath done for you ; and you
will hate sin, and be ashamed of it.'— It is an aggravation
which makes sin odious even to common reason and inge-
nuity, that we should offend a God of infinite goodness, who
hath filled up our lives with mercy. It will grieve you if you
have wronged an extraordinary friend : his love and kindness
will come into your thoughts, and make you angry with
your own unkindness. Here look over the catalogue of
God's mercies to you, for soul and body. And here ob-
serve that satan, in hiding the love of God from you, and
tempting you under pretence of humility to deny his great-
est, special mercy, doth seek to destroy your repentance
and humiliation also, by hiding the greatest aggravation of
your sin.
Direct, v. ' Think what the soul of man is made for, and
should be used to, even to love, obey, and glorify our
Maker : and then you will see what sin is, which disableth
and perverteth it.' — How excellent, and high, and holy a
work are we created for and called to ? And should we de-
file the temple of God ? and serve the devil in filthiness and
folly, where we should entertain, and serve, and magnify our
Creator?
Direct, vi. * Think well what pure and sweet delights
a holy soul may enjoy from God, in his holy service : and
then you will see what sin is, which robbeth him of these
delights, and preferreth fleshly lusts before them.* — O how
happily might we perform every duty? and how fruitfully
might we serve our Lord ? and what delight should we find
in his love and acceptation, and the foresight of everlasting
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 253
blessedness, if itwetenot for sin? which bringeth down the
soul from the doors of heaven, to wallow with swine in a
beloved dunghill.
• Direct, vii. * Bethink you what a life it is which you
must live for ever, if you live in heaven; and what a life the
holy ones there now live : and then think whether sin, which
is so contrary to it, be not a vile and hateful thing ?'^Either
you would live in heaven, or not. If not, you are not those
I speak to. If you would, you know that there is no sin-
ning ; no worldly mind ; no pride ; no passion ; no fleshly
lust or pleasures there. Oh, did you but see and hear one
hour, how those blessed spirits are taken up in loving and
magnifying the glorious God in purity and holiness, and
how far they are from sin, it would make you loathe sin
ever after, and look on sinners as on men in Bedlam wal-
lowing naked in their dung. Especially, to think that you
hope yourselves to live for ever like those holy spirits ; and
therefore sin doth ill beseeiti you.
Direct, vm. * Look but to the state and torment of the
damned, and think well of the diflference betwixt angels
and devils, and you may know what sin is.' — Angels are
pure ; devils are polluted : holiness and sin do make the
difference. Sin dwells in hell, and holiness in heaven. Re-
member that every temptation is from the devili to make
you like himself; as eveiy holy motion is from Christ, to
make you like himself. Remember when you sin, that you
are learning and imitating of the devil, and are so far like
him™. And the end of all is, that you may feel his pains.
If hell-fire be not good, then sin is not good.
Direct, ix. * Look always on sin as one that is ready to
die, and consider how all men judge of it at the last.' — What
do men in heaven say of it? and what do men in hell say of
it ? and what do men at death say of it ? and what do con-
verted souls, or awakened consciences, say of it ? Is it then
followed with delight and fearlessness as it is now ? is it
then applauded ? will any of them speak well of it ? Nay,
all the world speaks evil of sin in the general now, even
when they love and commit the several acts. Will you sin
when you are dying?
Direct, x. ' Look always on sin and judgment together/
n> John viii. 44.
254 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
— Remember that you must answer for it before God,
and angels, and all the world; and you will the better
know it.
Direct, xi. ' Look now but upon sickness, poverty,
shame, despair, death, and rottenness in the grave, and it
may a little help you to know what sin is.' — These are
things within your sight or feeling ; you need not faith to
tell you of them. And by such effects you might have
some little knowledge of the cause.
Direct, xii. ' Look but upon some eminent, holy persons
upon earth, and upon the mad, profane, malignant world;
and the difference may tell you in part what sin is.' — Is
there not an amiableness in a holy, blameless person, that
liveth in love to God and man, and in the joyful hopes of
life eternal? Is not a beastly drunkard or whoremonger,
and a raging swearer, and malicious persecutor, a very de-
formed, loathsome creature ? Is not the mad, confused, ig-
norant, ungodly state of the world a very pitiful sight?
What then is the sin that all this doth consist in?
Though the principal part of the cure is in turning the
will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of
its malignity ; yet I shall add a few more Directions for the
executive part, supposing that what is said already has
had its effect. ,
Direct, i. ' When you have found out your disease and
danger, give up yourselves to Christ as the Saviour and
Physician of souls, and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier,
remembering that he is sufficient and willing to do the work
which he hath undertaken.' — It is not you that are to be
Saviours and Sanctifiers of yourselves (unless as you work
under Christ). But he that hath undertaken it, doth take
for his glory to perform it.
Direct, ii. * Yet must you be willing and obedient in
applying the remedies prescribed you by Christ, and ob-
serving his directions in order to your cure.' — And you must
not be tender, and coy, and finical, and say. This is too bit-
ter, and that is too sharp ; but trust his love, and skill, and
care, and take it as heprescribeth it, or giveth it you, with-
out any more ado. Say not. It is grievous, and I cannot
take it: for he commands you nothing but what is safe, and
wholesome, and necessary ; and if you cannot take it, you
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 255
must try whether you can bear your sickness, and death,
and the fire of hell ! Are humiliation, confession, restitution,
mortification, and holy diligence worse than hell ?
Direct, iii. ' See that you take not part with sin, and
wrangle not, or strive not against your Physician, or any
that would do you good.' — Excusing sin, and pleading for
and extenuating it, and striving against the Spirit and con-
science, and wrangling against ministers and godly friends,
and hating reproof, are not the means to be cured and
sanctified.
Direct, iv. ' See that malignity in every one of your
particular sins, which you can see and say is in sin in
general.' — It is a gross deceit of yourselves, if you will
speak a great deal of the evil of sin, and see none of this
malignity in your pride, and your worldliness, and your
passion, and peevishness, and your malice, and uncharita-
bleness, and your lying, backbiting, slandering, or sinning
against conscience for worldly commodity or safety. What
self-contradiction is it for a man in prayer to aggravate sin,
and when he is reproved for it, to justify or excuse it?
For a popish priest to enter sinfully upon his place, by sub-
scribing or swearing the Trent Confession, and then to
preach zealously against sin in the general, as if he had
never committed so horrid a crime ? This is like him that
will speak against treason, and the enemies of the king,
but because the traitors are his friends and kindred, will
protect, or hide them, and take their parts.
Direct, v. * Keep as far as you can from those tempta-
tions which feed and strengthen the sins which you would
overcome.' — Lay siege to your sins, and starve them out, by
keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance
and life.
Direct, vi. * Live in the exercise of those graces and
duties which are contrary to the sins which you are most in
danger of.' — For grace and duty are contrary to sin, and
killeth it, and cureth us of it, as the fire cureth us of cold,
or health of sickness.
Direct, vii. ' Hearken not to weakening unbelief and
distrust, and cast not away the comforts of God, which are
your cordials and strength.' — It is not a frightful, dejected,
despairing frame of mind, that is fittest to resist sin ; but it
256 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
is the encouraging sense of the love of God, and thankful
sense of grace received (with a cautelous fear).
Direct. VIII. 'Be always suspicious of carnal self-love,
and watch against it.' — For that is the burrow or fortress of
sin ; and the common patron of it ; ready to draw you to it,
and ready to justify it. We are very prone to be partial in
our own cause ; as the case of Judah with Tamar, and
David when Nathan reproved him in a parable, shew. Our
own passions, our own pride, our own censures, or back-
bitings, or injurious dealings ; our own neglects of duty,
seem small, excusable, if not justifiable things to us ;
whereas we could easily see the faultiness of all these in
another, especially in an enemy : when yet we should be
best acquainted with ourselves and we should most love
ourselves, and therefore hate our own sins most.
Direct, IX. * Bestow your first and chiefest labour to kill
sin at the root : to cleanse the heart, which is the fountain ;
for out of the heart cometh the evils of the life.* — Know
which are the master-roots ; and bend your greatest care
and industry to mortify those : and they are especially these
that follow; 1. Ignorance. 2. Unbelief. 3. Inconsiderate-
ness. 4. Selfishness and Pride. 5. Fleshliness, in pleasing
a brutish appetite, lust or fantasy. 6. Senseless hardheart-
edness and sleepiness in sin.
Direct, x. 'Account the world and all its pleasures,
wealth and honours, no better than indeed they are, and
then satan will find no bait to catch you.' — Esteem all as
dung with Paul ; and no man will sin, and sell his soul, for
that which he accounteth but as dung.
Direct, xi. * Keep up above in a heavenly conversation,
and then your souls will be always in the light, and as in
the sight of God, and taken up with those businesses and
delights, which put them out of relish with the baits of sin.'
Direct, xii. ' Let Christian watchfulness be your daily
work ; and cherish a preserving, though not a distracting
and discouraging fear,'
Direct, xiii. 'Take heed of the first approaches and
beginnings of sin. Oh how great a matter doth a little of
this fire kindle ! And if you fall, rise quickly by sound
repentance, whatever it may cost you.'
CHAP. III.] CHKISTIAN ETHICS. 257
Direct. XIV. * Make God's Word your only rule : and
labour diligently to understand it.'
Direct, xv. ' And in doubtful cases, do not easily depart
from the unanimous judgment of the generality of the most
wise and godly of all ages.'
Direct, xvi. ' In doubtful cases be not passionate or
rash, but proceed deliberately, and prove things well, before
you fasten on them.*
Direct, xvii. 'Be acquainted with your bodily temper-
ature, and what sin it most inclineth you to, or what sin
also your calling or converse doth lay you most open to,
that there your watch may be the stricter. (Of all which 1
shall speak more fully under the next Grand Direction.)
Direct, xviit. ' Keep in a life of holy order, such as
God hath appointed you to walk in. For there is no pre-
servation for stragglers that keep not rank and file, but for-
sake the order which God commanded them.* — And this
order lieth principally in these points : 1. That you keep in
union with the universal church. Separate not from Christ's
body upon any pretence whatever. With the church as
regenerate, hold spiritual communion, in faith, love and
holiness : with the church as congregate and visible, hold
outward communion in profession, and worship. 2. If you
are not teachers, live under your particular, faithful pastors,
as obedient disciples of Christ. 3. Let the most godly, if
possible, be your familiars. 4. Be laborious in an outward
calling. /
Direct, xix. ' Turn all God's providences, whether of
prosperity or adversity, against your sins.' — If he give you
health and wealth, remember he thereby obligeth you to
obedience, and calls for special service from you. If he
afflict you, remember that it is sin that he is offended at,
and searcheth after ; and therefore take it as his physic, and
see that you hinder not, but help on its work, that it may
purge away your sin.
Direct, xx. * Wait patiently on Christ till he have
finished the cure, which will not be till this trying life be
finished.* — Persevere in attendance on his Spirit and means ;
for he will come in season, and will not tarry. " Then shall
we know, if we follow on to know the Lord : his going forth
is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as
VOL. II. _ s
258 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
the rain : as the latter and former rain upon the earth"."
Though you have oft said, *' There is no healing ^ he will
heal your backslidings, and love you freely p. Unto you
that fear his name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise
with healing in his wings "^ : and blessed are all they that
wait for him •"."
Thus I have given such Directions as may help for hu-
miliation under sin, or hatred of it, and deliverance from it.
Grand Direction ix. * Spend all your days in a skilful,
vigilant, resolute, and valiant war against the flesh, the world
and the devil, as those that have covenanted to follow Christ
the Captain of your Salvation.'
The flesh is the end of temptation, for all is to please it%
and therefore is the greatest enemy. The world is the mat-
ter of temptation : and the devil is the first mover, or
efficient of it ; and this is the trinity of enemies to Christ
and us, which we renounce in baptism, and must constantly
resist. Of the world and flesh, I shall speak chap. iv. Here
I shall open the methods of the devil. And first I shall
prepare your understanding, by opening some presupposed
truths.
1. It is presupposed, that there is a devil. He that
believeth not this, doth prove it to others, by shewing how
grossly the devil can befool him. Apparitions, witchcrafts,
and temptations, are full proofs of it to sense ; besides what
Scripture saith.
2. It is supposed that he is the deadly enemy of Christ
and us. He was once an angel, and fell from his first es-
tate by sin, and a world of evil spirits with him ; and it is
probable his envy against mankind might be the greater, as
knowing that we were made to succeed him and his follow-
ers, in their state of glory : for Christ saith, that we shall
" be equal with the angels." He shewed his enmity to man
in our innocency, and by his temptation caused our fall
and misery. But after the fall, God put an enmity into the
nature of man against devils, as a merciful preservative
against temptation : so that as the whole nature of man ab-
n Hosea vi. 3. *> Jer. xiv. 19. p Hosea xiv. 4.
q Mai. iv. 2. ■■ Isa. xxx. 18.
» See my Treatise of '^ Crucifying the World, and of Self- Denial."
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 259
horreth the nature of serpents, so doth the soul abhor and
dread the diabolical nature. And therefore so far as the
devil is seen in a temptation now, so far it is frustrated ;
till the enmity in nature be overcome by his deceits : and
this help nature hath against temptation, which it seems our
nature had not before the fall, as not knowing the nialice
of the devil against us *.
There is a natural enmity to the devil himself put into
all the woman's natural seed : but the moral enmity against
his sinful temptations and works, is put only into the spi-
ritual seed by the Holy Ghost (except what remnants are in
the light of nature). I will be brief of all this and the next,
having spoken of them more largely in my "Treatise
against Infidelity," Part iii.
The deviFs names do tell us what he is. In the Old
Testamenthe is called, 1. The * Serpent,' Gen. iii. 2. The
Hebrew word translated ' devils,' in LeviL xvii. 7. and Isa.
xiii. 21. signifieth hairy, as satyrs are described : and some-
times he-goats ; because in such shapes he oft appeareth.
3. He is called * Satan,' Zech. iii. 1. 4. 'An evil Spirit,'
1 Sam. xviii. 10. 5. ' A lying Spirit,' 1 Kings xxii. 22.
For he * is a liar, and the father of lies,' John viii. 44. 6.
His offspring is called * A Spirit of uncleanness,* Zach. xiii.
2. 7. And he (or his spawn) is called * A Spirit of fornica-
tion,' Hos. iv. 12. that is, idolatry. 8. ' A perverse Spirit,
causing staggering and giddiness as a drunken man,'
Isa. xix. 14.
In the New Testament, 1. He is sometimes called simply
' A Spirit,' Mark ix. 20, 26. Luke ix. 39. x. 20. 2. Some-
times TTvevfiara aKaOapra, ' unclean Spirits/ Luke vi. 18. as
contrary to the Holy Spirit ; and that from their nature and
effects. 3. And after AaifjLoviov, * Demons,' a word taken in a
good sense in heathen writers, but not in Scripture ; because
they worshipped devils under that name, (unless perhaps
Acts xvii. 18. 1 Tim. iv. 1.) And Aaifitjjv with respect to
their knowledge, and as some think to the knowledge pro-
mised to Adam, in the temptation. 4. Ilapa^wv, *the
t Of the Temptations to hinder Conversion, see before, chap. i.
" Vide Pool's Synopsis Critic, in Levit. i. 17. In these latter the word * Spirit'
signifieth the ill disposition, which satan as a tempter causeth, aud so he is known by
it as his offspring.
260 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Tempter/ Matt. iv. 6. ' Satan/ Matt. iv. 1 Pet. v. 8. 6.
eyfipo^> 'An Enemy/ Matt. xiii. 28. 39. 7. * The strong
man armed/ Matt. xii. 8. * Angels/ 1 Cor. vi. 3. 2 Pet. ii.
4. ' Angels which kept not their first state/ Jude vi. 9. * A
Spirit of divination/ Acts xvi. 16. 10. * A roaring lion/
1 Pet. V. 8. 11. ' A murderer/ John viii. 44. 12. ' Belial/
2 Cor. vi. 15. 13. ' Beelzebub/ Matt. xii. the ' god of flies.'
14. * The prince of this world/ John xii. 21., from his power
over wicked men. 15. ' The god of this world/ 2 Cor. iv.
5., because the world obey him. 16. * The prince of the
power of the air/ Ephes. ii. 2. 17. ' The ruler of the dark-
ness of this world.' Ephes. vi. 12. ' Principalities and
powers.' 18. * The father of the wicked/ John viii. 44.
19. ' The dragon, and the old serpent/ Rev. xii. 20. Ata-
j3oAoc, 'the calumniator' or * false accuser/ often. 21.
o Trovr)pQq, * the evil one/ Matt, xxiii. 19. 22. * An evil
spirit/ Acts xix, 15. 23. AttoXXvwv, * the destroyer/ and
* Abaddon/ the * king of the locusts/ and * angel of the
bottomless-pit/ Rev. ix. 11., (unless that speak of anti-
christ.)
3. He is too strong an enemy for lapsed, sinful man
to deal with of himself. If he conquered us in innocency,
what may he do now? He is dangerous, (1.) By the great-
ness of his subtlety. (2.) By the greatness of his power.
(3.) By the greatness of his malice : and hence, (4.) By his
constant diligence ; watching when we sleep % and " seek-
ing night and day to devour ''."
4. Therefore Christ hath engaged himself in our cause,
and is become the ** Captain of our salvation *'." And the
world is formed into two armies, that lies in continual war :
the devil is the prince and general of one, and his angels and
wicked men are his armies : Christ is the king and general
of the other, and his angels ^, and saints are his army. Be-
tween these two armies, are the greatest conflicts in the
world ^
5. It is supposed also that this war is carried on, on
both sides, within us^ and without us ; by inward . solicita-
tions, and outward means, which are fitted thereunto.
a Matt. xiii. 25. ^ 1 Pet. v. 8. Rev. xii. 4.
^ Heb. ii. 10. d Heb. ii. 14.
^ See my Treatise against Infidelity, as before cited.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 261
6. Both Christ and satan work by officers, instruments,
and means. Christ hath his ministers to preach his Gos-
pel, and pull down the kingdom of satan. And satan hath
his ministers to preach licentiousness and lies, and to re-
sist the Gospel and kingdom of Christ ^ Christ hath his
church, and the devil hath his synagogue. Christ's soldiers
do every one, in their places, fight for him against the devil.
And the devil's soldiers do every one, in their places, fight
against Christ. The generals are both unseen to mortals :
and the unseen power is theirs : but their agents are visible.
The soldiers fight, not only against the generals, but against
one another ; but it is all, or chiefly, for the generals' sakes.
It is Christ that the wicked persecute in his servants s ; and
it is the devil whom the godly hate and resist in the wicked.
But yet here are [divers notable differences. 1. The
devil's servants do not what they do in love to him, but to
their own flesh ; but Christ's servants do what they do in
love to him, as well as to themselves. 2. The devil's army
are cheated into arms and war, not knowing what they do ;
but Christ doth all in the open light, and will have no ser-
vants, but those that deliberately adhere to him, when they
know the worst. 3. The devil's servants do not know that
he is their general ; but Christ's followers do all know their
Lord. 4. The devil's followers disown their master and
their work : they will not own that they fight against Christ
and his kingdom, while they do it ; but Christ's followers
own their Captain, and his cause, and work ; for he is not a
master to be ashamed of.
7. Both Christ and satan work persuasively, by moral
means, and neither of them by constraint and force. Christ
forceth not men against their wills to good, and satan can-
not force them to be bad ; but all the endeavour is, to make
men willing; and he is the conqueror that getteth and
keepeth our own consent.
8. Their ends are contrary, and therefore their ways are
also contrary. The devil's end is, to draw man to sin and
to damnation, and to dishonour God : and Christ's end is,
to draw men from sin, to holiness and salvation, and to ho-
nour God. But Christ maketh known his end, and satan
concealeth his end from his followers.
f 1 Cor. iii. 5. iv. 1. 2 Cor. ii. 15. Acts. xiii. 8—10. e Actsix. 4,
262 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
9. There is somewhat within the good and bad for the
contrary part to work upon : and we are, as it were, divided
in ourselves, and have somewhat in us that is on both sides.
The wicked have an honourable acknowledgment of God,
and of their greatest obligation to him ; a hatred to the de-
vil ; a love of themselves ; a willingness to be happy ; and,
an unwillingness to be miserable ; and a conscience which
approveth of more good than they do, and condemneth
much of their transgression. This is some advantage to the
persuasions of the ministers of Christ to work upon : and
they have reason capable of knowing more.
The soldiers of Christ have a fleshly appetite, and the
remnants of ignorance and error in their minds, and of earth-
liness, and carnality, and averseness to God in their wills ;
with a nearness to this world, and much strangeness to the
world to come. And here is too much advantage for satan
to work on by his temptations.
10. But it is the predominant part within us, and the
scope of our lives which shew which of the armies we be-
long to. And thus we must give up our names and hearts
to Christ, and engage, under his conduct, against the devil,
and conquer to the death, if we will be saved. Not to fight
against the bare name of the devil ; for so will his own sol-
diers, and spit at his name, and hang a witch that makes a
contract with him : but it is to fight against his cause and
work, which is by fighting against the world and the flesh,
and for the glory of God.
In opening to you this holy war, I shall First, Shew you
what we must do on the offensive part : Secondly, What on
the defensive part. And here I shall shew you, I. What it
is that the tempter aimeth at as his end. II. What matter
or ground he worketh upon. III. What are his succours
and assistance. IV. What kind of officers and instruments
he useth. V. What are his methods and actual temptations,
1, To actual sin : 2. Against our duty to God.
'First, Our offensive arms are to be used, 1. Against the
power of sin within us ; and all its advantages and helps :
for while satan ruleth and possesseth us within, we shall
never well oppose him without. 2, Against sin in others,
as far as we have opportunity. 3. Against the credit and
honour of sin in the world. As the devil's servants would
CHAP. HI.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 263
bring light and holiness into disgrace, so Christ's servants
must cast disgrace and shame upon sin and darkness. 4.
Against all the reasonings of sinners, arid their subtle fal-
lacies, whereby they would deceive. 5. Against the passions
and violent lusts, which are the causes of men's other sins.
6. Against the holds and helps of sin, as false teachers, pro-
fane revilers, ignoranc€, and deceit. Only take heed, that
on this pretence we st^p not out of our ranks and places, to
pull down the powers of the world by rebellions : " For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal."
Secondly, As to our defence, I. The ends of the tempter
which must be perceived, are these : 1. In general, his aim
is at our utter ruin and damnation, and to draw us here to
dishonour God as much as he can. But, especially, his aim
is, to strengthen the great heart-sins, which are most mor-
tal, and are the root, and life, and spawners of the rest : es-
pecially these, 1. Ignorance, which is the friend and cloak
to all the rest. 2. Error, which will justify them. 3. Un-
belief, which keeps off all that should oppose them. 4.
Atheism, profaneness, unholiness, which are the defiance of
God and all his armies. 6. Presumption, which embolden-
eth them, and hides the danger. 6. Hardness of heart,
which fortifieth them against all the batteries of grace. 7.
Hypocrisy, which maketh them serve him as spies and in-
telligencers in the army of Christ. 8. Disaffection to God,
and his ways and servants, which is the devil's colours. 9.
Unthankfulness, which tends to make them unreconcileable
and unrecoverable. 10. Pride, which commandeth many re-
giments of lesser sins. 11. Worldliness, or love of money
and wealth, which keepeth his armies in pay. 12. Sen-
suality, voluptuousness, or flesh-pleasing, which is the great
commander of all the rest**. For selfishness is the devil's
lieutenant-general, which consisteth chiefly in the three last
named ; but especially in pride and sensuality. Some think
that it is outward sins that bring all the danger ; but these
twelve heart-sins, which I have named to you, are the
twelve gates of the infernal city, which satan loveth above
all the rest.
II. The matter and grounds of his temptations are these,
1 . The devil first worketh upon the outward sense, and so •
h Animi raoUes et tetate fluxi, dolis baud difficulter capiuntur.
264 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART \.
upon the sensitive appetite. He sheweth the cup. to the
drunkard's eye ; and the bait of filthy lust to the fornicator ;
and the riches and pomp of the world to the covetous and
proud : the glutton tasteth the sweetness of the dish which
he loveth : stage-plays, and tempting sports, and proud at-
tire, and sumptuous buildings, and all such sensual things
are the baits by which the devil angleth for souls. Thus
Eve first saw the, fruit, and then tasted, and then did eat.
Thus Noah, and Lot, and David sinned. Thus Achansaith,
" I saw (the garments, silver, and gold) I coveted them, and
I took them '." The sense is the door of sin.
2. The tempter next worketh on the fantasy or imagina-
tion, and prints upon it the loveliest image of his bait that
possibly he can, and engageth the sinner to think on it, and
roll it over and over in his mind, even as God commandeth
us to meditate on his precepts.
3. Next he worketh by these upon the passions or affec-
tions : which fancy having inflamed, they violently urge the
will and reason ; and this according to the nature of the
passion, whether fear or hope, sorrow orjoy, loveor hatred,
desire or aversion ; but by none doth he work so danger-
ously as by delight, and love, and desire of things sensual.
4. Hence heproceedeth to infect the will (upon the sim-
ple apprehension of the understanding), to make it inordi-
nately cleave to the temporal good, and to neglect its duty
in commanding the understanding to meditate on preserving
objects, and to call off the thoughts from the forbidden
thing : it neglecteth to rule the thoughts and passions ac-
cording to its office and natural power.
5. And so he corrupteth the understanding itself, first
to omit its duty, and then to entertain deceit, and to ap-
prove of evil : and so the servant is put into the govern-
ment, and the commanding powers do but serve it. Reason
is blinded by sensuality and passion, and becomes their ser-
vant, and pleads their cause.
By all this it appeareth, 1. That satan's first bait is or-
dinarily some sensible or imaginary good, set up against
true spiritual good. 2. That his first assault of the reason
and will is to tempt them into a sluggish neglect and neu-
trality, to omit that restraint of sense, thought, and passion,
' Jos. vii. 21.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 265
which was their duty. 3. And that, lastly, he tempteth
them into actual compliance and committing of the sin :
and herein, 1 . The bait which he useth with the understand-^
ing is still * some seeming truth.' And, therefore, his art
and work is to colour falsehood, and make it seem truth ;
for this is the deceiving of the mind : and therefore for a sin-
ner to plead his mistake for his excuse, and say, * I thought
it had been so or so ; I thought it had been no sin, or no
duty ;' this is but to confess, and not to excuse : it is but
as much as to say, ' My understanding sinned with my will,
and was deceived by the tempter and overcome.' 2. And
the bait which he useth with the will is always some ap-
pearing good : and self-love and love of good is the prin-
ciple which he abuseth, and maketh his ground to work
upon ; as God also useth it in drawing us to good.
III. The succours and auxiliaries of the devil, and his
principal means are these : 1. He doth what he can to get
an ill-tempered body on his side ; for as sin did let in bo-
dily distempers, so do they much befriend the sin that
caused them. A choleric temper will much help him to
draw men to passion, malice, murder, cruelty, and revenge.
A sanguine and bilious temper mixed, will help him to draw
men to lust, and filthiness, and levity, and wantonness, and
time-wasting pleasures : a sanguine temper mixed with a pi-
tuitous, much helpeth him to make men blockish, and regard-
less, and insensible of the great concernments of the soul : a
phlegmatic temper helpeth him to draw people to drowsy
sluggishness, and to an idle, slothful life, and so to ill
means to maintain it, and to a backwardness to every work
that is good. A healthful temper much helpeth him to draw
people to gluttony, drunkenness, lust, ambition, covetous-
ness, neglect of life eternal • a sickly temper helpeth him to
tempt us to peevishness and impatiency : and a melancholy
temper helpeth him in all the temptations mentioned but
even now.
2. He useth his greatest skill to get the greatest fleshly
interest on his side : so that it may be a matter of great
pleasure, great advancement, and honour, and applause, or
great commodity to a man, if he will sin ; or a matter of
great suffering, and great disgrace, and great loss to him
that will not sin, or that will be holy and obedient to God :
866 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART f.
for fleshly interest being the common matter of all his temp-
tations, his main business is to magnify this as much as
may be.
3. He maketh very great advantage of the common cus-
toms of the country that men live in : this carrieth away
thousands and millions at once. When the common vote
and custom are for sin, and against Christ and holiness, par-
ticular persons think themselves excused, that they are no
wiser, or better than all the country about them. And they
think they are much the safer for sinning in so great a
crowd, and doing but as most men do ; and he that contra j
dicteth them cometh on great disadvantage in their eye,
when he is to oppose an army of adversaries, and seemeth
to think himself wiser than so many.
4. Also he is exceeding industrious to get education
on his side ; he knoweth how apt men are to retain the
form which they were moulded or cast into at first : if he
get the first possession, by actual as well as original sin, he
is not easily cast out. Especially when education doth
conspire with common custom, it delivereth most of the
people and kingdoms of the e^rth into his hands.
5. Also be is industrious to get the approved doctrine of
the teachers of the people on his side. If he can get it to
pass once for a revelation or command of God, he will
quickly conquer conscience by it, and take down all resist-
ance : he never doth war more successfully against God, than
when he beareth the name of God in his colours, and fighteth
against him in his own name. Mahometans, Jews, Papists,
and all heretics are the trophies and monuments of his vic-
tories by this way. Mischief is never so much reverenced,
nor proceedeth so successfully, as when it is made a reli-
gion ! When the devil can charge men to do his business in
the name of God, and upon pain of damnation, he hath got
the strongest weapons that ever he can make use of. His
ordinary bait is some fleshly pleasure ; but he goeth high in-
deed when he presumeth to offer the everlasting pleasures ;
he tempted Christ with all the kingdoms and glory of the
world ; but he tempteth many millions of souls with the
offers of the kingdom of heaven itself. For he will offer
it to them that he is endeavouring to keep from it, and
make it the bait to draw men from it into the way to hell.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 267
6. He is exceeding diligent to get the wealth and pros-
perity of the world on his side : that he may not seem to
flatter his servants with empty promises, but to reward
them with real felicity and wealth. And then he would
make the sinner believe that Christ is the deceiver, and pro-
miseth a kingdom which none of them ever saw, and which
he will not give them ; but that he himself will not deceive
them, but make good his promises even in this life without
delay : for they see with their eyes the things which he pro-
miseth, and they shall have them presently in possession, to
secure them from deceit.
7. He is exceeding industrious to get common fame and
reputation on his side: that he maybe able to keep his
cause in credit, and to keep the cause of Christ and holi-
ness in disgrace. For he knoweth how exceeding prone
men are to fall into the way of honour and esteem, and
which most men praise ; and how loath they are to go in
the way which is hated and evil spoken of by the most of
men.
8. He is very diligent to get the sword and government
of kingdoms, and states, and countries, and cities, and cor-
porations into his hands, or on his side ; for he knoweth
the multitude of the ignorant and vulgar people are exceed-
ing prone to be of the religion of those that are able to
help or hurt them, and to follow the stronger side : and that
the will and example of the ruler is as the first sheet or
stamp, which all the rest are printed after. Therefore he
will do his worst, to give the greatest power to the most un-
godly : if the Turk be the emperor, the most of the vulgar
are like quickly to be Turks ; if a Papist be their king, the
most of them are likely to be Papists. Look into the pre-
sent state of the Heathen, Infidel, Mahometan, Papal, and
profane parts of the world, and into the history of all agesi
past, and you will see with grief and admiration how much
the devil hath got by this.
9. Also he is very desirous to get our society and com^
panions on his side, who are near to us, and have frequent
opportunities to do us good or hurt. For he knoweth by
long and great experience how powerfully they draw, and
how frequently they speed.
10. And he is very industrious to get our friends that
268 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
have power over us, and greatest interest in us, on his side.
For then he hath won our outworks already.
11. Lastly, He is desirous sometimes to get the name
and appearance of virtue and piety on his side : that those
that are to do his work may have a winning carriage, and so
a venerable name, and the cloak of virtue may serve his
turn for the promoting of the destruction of piety itself.
IV. By what hath been said, you may understand what
kind of officers and instruments the tempter useth. 1. He
commonly useth men that are themselves first deceived and
corrupted, as fit instruments to deceive and corrupt others.
These will carry it on with confidence and violence ; the
employment seemeth natural to them, they are so fit for it :
they will be willing to make other men of their mind, and
to have the company of others in their way. A drunkard
is fit to make a drunkard ; and a filthy fornicator to entice
another into the sin ; and a gamester to make a gamester ;
and a wanton time-waster to draw another to waste his time
in wantonness and foolish sports : an ambitious or proud
person is fit to kindle that fire in others : a swearer is fittest
to make a swearer; and so of many other sins.
2. The devil usually chooseth for his instruments men
that have no great tenderness of conscience, or fear of sin-
ning, or of hurting souls. He would have no such cowards
in his army, as men fearing God are as to his ends : it must
be men that will venture upon hell themselves, and fear not
much the loss of their own souls ; and therefore must not
be too tender or fearful of destroying others. Butchers and
soldiers must not be chosen out of too tender or loving sort
of people ; such are not fit to go through his work.
3. He usually chooseth instruments that are most deeply
engaged in his cause ; whose preferment, and honour, and
gain, and carnal interest shall be to them, as nature is to a
dog, or wolf, or fox, or other ravenous creature : who think
it a loss, or danger, or suffering to them, if others be not
hindered in good, or inade as bad as they. Thus Demetrius
and the other craftsmen that lived upon the trade are the
fittest to plead Diana's cause, and stir up the people against
the apostles ^. And the Jews were the fittest instruments
to persecute Christ, who thought that if they " let him
alone, all men would believe on him, and the Romans
k Acts xix. 24. 38, 39.
CHAP. [II.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 269
would come and take away both their place and nation ;
and that it was expedient for them that one man die for the
people, and that the whole nation perish not^" And Pilate
was the fittest instrument to condemn him, who feared that
he should else be taken to" be none of Caesar's friend. And
Pharaoh was the fittest instrument to persecute the Israel-
ites, who was like to lose by their departure.
4. When he can he chooseth such instruments as are
much about us and nearest to us, who have an opportunity
to be often speaking to us, when others have no oppor-
tunity to help us : the fire that is nearest to the wood or
thatch is more likely to burn it than that which is far off* :
nearness and opportunity are very great advantages.
5. If it be possible, he will choose such instruments as
have the greatest abilities to do him service : one man of
great wit, and learning, and elocution, that is nimble in dis-
puting, and can make almost any cause seem good which
he defendeth, or bad which he opposeth, is able to do more
service for the devil than an hundred idiots.
6. If possible, he will choose the rulers of the world to
be his instruments ; that shall command men, and threaten
them with imprisonment, banishment, confiscation, or
death, if they will not sin : as the king of Babylon did by
the three witnesses and Daniel"" : and all persecutors have
done in all ages, against the holy seed. For he knoweth,
that (though not with a Job, yet with a carnal person) "skin
for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life.'*
And therefore, they that have the power of life, and liberty,
and estate, have carnal men by the handle that will rule them.
7. He maketh the rich his instruments ; that, having the
wealth of the world, are able to reward and hire evil doers ;
and are able to oppress those that will not please them.
Landlords and rich men can do the devil more service than
many of the poor : they are the Judas's that bear the bag.
As the ox will follow him that carrieth the hay, and the
horse will follow him that carrieth the provender, and the
dog will follow him that feedeth him, and the crow will be
where the carrion is ; so carnal persons will follow and obey
him that bears the purse.
8. The devil, if he can, will make those his instruments,
' John xi. 48, 50. «» Dan. iii. and vi.
270 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
whom he seeth we most esteem and reverence: persons
whom we think most wise and fit to be our counsellors : we
will take that from these, which we would suspect from
others.
9. He will get our relations, and those that have our
hearts most, to be his instruments. A husband, or a wife,
or a Delilah, can do more than any others : and so can a
bosom friend, whom we dearly 4ove : when all their interest
in our affections is made over for the deviPs service, it may
do much. Therefore we see that husbands and wives, if
they love entirely, do usually close in the same religion,
opinion, or way, though when they were first married, they
differed from each other.
10. As oft as he can, the devil maketh the multitude his
instrument : that the crowd and noise may carry us on, and
•make men valiant, and put away their fear of punishment.
11. He is very desirous to make the ambassadors of
Christ his prisoners, and to hire them, to speak against their
Master's cause ; that, in Christ's name, they may deceive
the silly flock, " speaking perverse things to draw away
disciples after them"." Sometimes by pretence of his au-
thority and commission, making poor people believe, that
not to hear them, and obey them in their errors, is to be dis-
obedient rejecters of Christ ; (and thus the Romish party
■carry it.) Sometimes by their parts, and plausible, persua-
sive speeches ; and sometimes by their fervency, frighten-
ing people into error : and by these two ways most here-
tics prevail. None so successfully serveth satan, as a false
or bribed minister of Christ.
12. He is exceeding desirous to make parents them-
selves his instruments for their children's sin and ruin ; and,
alas ! how commonly doth he succeed ! He knoweth that
parents have them under their hands, in the most ductile,
malleable age ; and that they have a concurrence of almost
all advantages. They have the purse, and the portion of
their children in their power : they have the interest of love,
and reverence, and estimation : they are still with them, and
can be often in their solicitings : they have the rod and can
compel them. Many thousands are in hell, through the
means of their own parents ; such cruel monsters will they
n Acts XX. 30.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 871
be to the souls of any others, that are first so to their own.
If the devil can get the parents to be cursers, swearers,
gamesters, drunkards, worldlings, proud, deriders, or railers
at a holy life, what a snare is here for the poor children !
V. In the method of satan, the next thing is to shew
you how he labours to keep off all the forces of Christ, which
should resist him, and destroy his work, and to frustrate
their endeavours, and fortify himself: and, among many
others, these means are notable : —
1. He would do what he can to weaken even natural
reason, that men may be blockish, and incapable of good.
And it is lamentable to observe, how hard it is to make
some people either understand or regard. And a beastly
kind of education doth much to this : and so doth custom
in sensual courses ; even turn men into brutes.
2. He doth what he can to hinder parents and masters
from doing their part, in the instructing and admonishing
of children and servants, and dealing wisely and zealously
with them for their salvation. Either he will keep parents
and masters ignorant and unable ; or he will make them
wicked and unwilling, and perhaps, engage them to oppose
their children in all that is good ; or he will make them like
Eli, remiss and negligent, indifferent, formal, cold, and
dull ; and so keep them from saving their children's or ser-
vant's souls.
3. He doth all that possibly he can to keep the sinner in
security, presumption, and senselessness, even asleep in sin ;
and, to that end, to keep him quiet, and in the dark, without
any light or noise which may awake him ; that he may live
asleep as without a God, a Christ, a heaven, a soul, or any
such thing to mind. His great care is to keep him from
considering : and therefore, he keeps him still in company,
or sport, or business, and will not let him be oft alone, nor
retire into a sober conference with his conscience, or serious
thoughts of the life to come.
4. He doth his best to keep soul-searching, lively minis-
ters out of the country, or out of that place ; and to silence
them, if there be any such : and to keep the sinner under
some ignorant or dead-hearted minister, . that hath not
himself that faitli, or repentance, or life, or love, or holiness,
or zeal, which he should be a means to work in others : and
^72 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
he will do his utmost to draw men to be a leader of men
to sin.
5. He doth his worst to make ministers weak, to dis-
grace the cause of Christ, and hinder his work, by their
bungling and unskilful management ; that there may be
none to stand up against sin, but some unlearned or half-
witted men, that can scarce speak sense, or will provoke
contempt, or laughter in the hearers.
6. He doth his worst to make ministers scandalous,
that, when they tell men of their sin and duty, they may
think such mean not as they speak, and believe not them-
selves, or make no great matter of it, but speak for custom,
credit, or for their hire. And that the people, by the wick-
ed lives of the preachers, may be emboldened to disobey
their doctrine, and to imitate them, and live without repen-
tance.
7. He will labour to load the ablest ministers with re-
proaches and slanders, which thousands shall hear, who ne-
ver hear the truth in their defence : and so making them
odious, the people will receive no good more by their preach-
ing, than from a Turk, or Jew, till the very truth itself, for
itself prevail. And to this end especially, he doth all that
he can to foment continual divisions in the church ; that
while every party is engaged against the other, the interest
of their several causes, may make them think it necessary to
make the chief that are against them seem odious, or con-
temptible to the people ; that so they may be able to do
their cause and them no harm : and so they disable them
from serving Christ and saving souls, that they may disable
them to hurt themselves, or their faction, or their impotent
cause.
^ 8. He doth what he can to keep the most holy minis-
ters under persecution; that they may be as the wound-
ed deer, whom all the rest of the herd will shun ; or like a
worried dog whom the rest will fall upon ; or that the peo-
ple may be afraid to hear them, lest they suffer with them ;
or may come to them only as Nicodemus did to Christ, by
night.
9. Or, if any ministers, or godly persons warn the sin-
ner, the devil will do what he can that they may be so small
a number, in comparison of those of the contrary mind, that
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 273
he may tell the sinner, ' Dost thou think these few self-con-
ceited fellows, are wiser than such, and such, and all the
country 'i Shall none be saved but such a few precise ones V
*' Do any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believe in him ?
But this people that knoweth not the law are cursed''."
That is, (as Dr. Hammond noteth,) " This illiterate multitude
are apt to be seduced, but the teachers are wiser."
10. The devil doth his worst to cause some falling out,
or difference of interest or opinion, between the preacher or
monitor, and the sinner ; that so he may take him for his
enemy. And how unapt men are to receive any advice
from an enemy, or adversary, experience will easily convince
you.
11. He endeavoureth that powerful preaching may be
so rare, aijd the contradiction of wicked cavillers so fre-
quent, that the sermon may be forgotten, or the impressions
of it blotted out, before they can hear another to confirm
them, and strike the nail home to the head ; and that the
fire may go out before the next opportunity come.
12. He laboureth to keep good books out of the sinner's
hands, or keep him from reading them, lest he speed as the
eunuch P, that was reading the Scripture, as he rode in his
chariot on the way. And, instead of such books, he put-
teth romances, and play-books, and trifling, or scorning,
contradicting writings into his hands.
13. He doth what he can to keep the sinner from . inti-
mate acquaintance with any that are truly godly ; that he
may know them no otherwise than by the image which igno-
rant or malicious slanderers or scorners do give of such :
and that he may know religion itself but by hearsay, and
never see it exemplified in any holy, diligent believers. A
holy Christian is a living image of God, a powerful convin-
cer and teacher of the ungodly ; and the nearer men come
to them, the greater excellency they will see, and the greater
efficacy they will feel. Whereas, in the devil's army, the
most must not be seen in the open light, and the hypocrite
himself must be seen, like a picture, but by a side-light, and
not by a direct.
14. Those means which are used, the devil labours to
fnistrate, 1. By sluggish heedlessness and disregard. 2,
" John vii. 48, 49. P Acts viii,
VOL. 11. T
374 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
By prejudice and false opinions, which prepossess the mind.
3. By diversions of many sorts. .4. By pre-engagements to
a contrary interest and way ; so that Christ comes too late
for them. . 5. By worldly prosperity and delights. 6. By
ill company. 7, And by molesting and frighting the sin-
ner, when he doth but take up any purpose to be converted ;
giving him -all content and quietness in sin, and raising
storms and terrors in his soul, when he is about to turn.
The Methods of Christ against the Tempter ^ i c j i : ah
Before I proceed to satan's particular temptations, I
will shew you the contrary methods of Christ, in the con-
duct of his army, and opposing satan.
I. Christ's ends are, ultimately, the glory and pleasing
of his Father and himself, and the saving of his church ;
and the destroying the kingdom of the devil ; and next,
the purifying his peculiar people, and calling home all that
are ordained to eternal life.
But more particularly, he looketh principally at the
heart to plant there, 1. Holy knowledge. 2. Faith. 3. God-
liness, or holy devotedness to God, and love to him above
all. ' 4. Thankfulness. 5. Obedience. 6. Humility. 7.
Heavenly-mindedness. 8. Love to others. 9. Self-denial,
and mortification, and contentment. 10. Patience. And
in all these., 1. Sincerity ; 2. Tenderness of heart; 3. Zeal,
ewid >holy strength, and resolution. And withal, to make
us actually serviceable, and diligent in our master's work,
for our own and others' salvation.
II. Christ's order in working is direct, and not back-
ward, as the devil's is. He first revealeth saving truth to
the understanding, and affecteth the will, by shewing the
goodness of the things revealed: and these employ the
thoughts, and passions, and senses, and the whole body ; re-
ducing the inferior faculties to obedience, and casting out
by degrees, those images which-had deceived and prepos-
sessed them. ; iiiii^iM.
The matter which Christ presenteth to the soul, is, 1.
Certain truth from the Father of lights, set up against the
prince and kingdom of darkness, ignorance, error, and
deceit. 2. Spiritual and everlasting good, even God him-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 276
self, to be seen, loved, and enjoyed for ever, against the
tempter's temporal, corporal, and seeming good. Christ*
kingdom and work are advanced by light : he is for the pro-
moting of all useful' knowledge ; and therefore, for clear
and convincing preaching, for reading the Scriptures in an
known tongue, and meditating in' them day and night, and
for exhorting one another daily ; which s^tan is against.
III. The means by which he worketh against satan^ are
such as these. 1. Sometimes he maketh use of the very
temper of the body as a preparative; and (being Lord of
all) he giveth such a temperature, as will be most service-
able to the soul : as a sober, deliberate, meek, quiet, and
patient disposition. But sometimes he honoureth his grace
by the conquest of such sins, as eVeft bodily disposition
doth entertain and cherish.
2. Sometimes by his providence, he withdraweth the
matter of temptations, that they shall not be too strong for
feeble souls : but sometimes his grace doth make advan-
tage of them all, and leave them for the magnifying 6f its
frequent victories. '
3. Sometimes he giveth his cause the major vote amoh^'
the people, so that it shall be a matter of dishonourable sin-
gularity, not to be a professed Christian : and sometimes,
but exceeding rarely, it is so with the life of godliness and
practice of Christianity also. But ordinarily, in the most
places of the world, custom and the ftiiiltitude are' aigainst
him, and his grace is honoured^ by prevailing against these
bands of satan.
vf 4. He maketh his niinisters his principal instruments,
qualifying, disposing, and calling them to his work, and
helping them in it, and prospering it in their hands.
5. He maketh i« the duty of every Christian, to do hU
part to carry on the work ; and furnisheth theih with love^^
audi coTnp£tssion, and knowledge, and zeal in their several
measures. j ) ^ ^ ; .
6. He giveth :« vei'y strict charge to parents tb devote
their children, with themselves, to God ; encouraging them
with the promise of his accepting and blessing them ; and
commandeth them to teach them the word of God, with'
greatest diligence; arid to bring them up in the nurture afid
fear of Go<L .^^ ^ - - '■■■■■ - - - -■■■-'
270! CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART I.
. 7,. He giveth princes and magistrates their power, to pro-
mote his kingdom, and protect his servants, and encourage
the good, and suppress iniquity, and further the obedience
of his laws: though, in most of the world, they turn his
enemies, and he carrieth on his work without them, and
against their cruel, persecuting opposition.
8. His light detecteth the nakedness of the devil's cause,
and among the sons of light, it is odious, and a common
shame. And as " wisdom is justified of her children," so
the judgment of holy men condemning sin, doth much to
keep it under in the world.
9. His providence usually caste th the sinner, that he
will do good to, into the bosom and communion of his holy
church, and the familiar company and acquaintance of the
godly, who may help him by instruction, affection, and ex-
ample.
10. His providence fitteth all conditions to their good ;
but especially helpeth by seasonable, quickening affliction^.
These are the means which ordinarily he useth. But the
powerful, inward operations of his Spirit, give efficacy to
them all.
Temptations to particular Sins ; with Directions for Preser-
vation and Remedy.
In Chapter i. Part 2. I have opened the temptations
which hinder sinners from conversion to God : I shall now
proceed to those which draw men to particular sins. Here
Satan's art is exercised, 1 . In fitting his baits to his particular
use : 2. In applying them thereto.
Tempt. I. ' The devil fitteth his temptations to the sin-
ner's age. The same bait is not suitable to all. Children
he tempteth to excess of playfulness, lying, disobedience,
unwillingness to learn the things that belong to their salva-
tion, and a senselessness of the great concernments of their
souls. He tempteth youth to wantonness, rudeness, gulo-
sity, unruliness, and foolish inconsiderateness. In the be-
ginning of manhood he tempteth to lust, voluptuousness,
and luxury ; or if these take not, to designs of worldliness
and ambition. The aged he tempteth to covetousness, and
unmoveableness in their error, and unteachableness and
CHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. ^7^7
obstinacy in their ignorance and sin i thus every age hath
its peculiar snare.'
Direct, i. The remedy against this hy 1.1 o be distinctly
acquainted with the temptations of your own a ^e : and watch
against them with a special heedfulness an 1 fear. 2. To
know the special duties and advantages of i our own ag^,
and turn your thoughts wholly unto those. S ^.ripture hath
various precepts for the various ages : study your own part.
The young have more time to learn their duty, and less care
and business to divert them ; let them therefore be taken up
in obedient learning. The middle age hath most vigour of
body and mind, and therefore should do their master's work,
with the greatest vigour, activity, and zeal. The aged should
have most judgment, and experience, and acquaintedness
with death and heaven ; and therefore should teach the
younger both by word and holy life.
Tempt. II. * The tempter also fitteth his temptations, to
men's several bodily tempers. The hot and strong he tempt-
eth to lust. The sad and fearful to discouragement and
continual self-vexations ; and to the fear of men and devils.
Those that have strong appetites, to gluttony and drunken-
ness. Children, and women, and weak-headed people, to
pride of apparel, and trifling compliment. And masculine,
wicked unbelievers, to pride of honour, parts, and grandeur,
and to an ambitious seeking of rule and greatness. The
meek and gentle he tempteth to a yieldingness unto the
persuasions and will of erroneous and tempting persons :
and those that are more stiff, to a stubborn resistance of all
that should do them good. He found it most suitable to
tempt a Saul to malice ; David, by a surprise, to lust ; Ab-
salom to ambition ; Peter to fearfulness, and after to com-
pliance and dissimulation, to avoid the offence and displea-
sure of the weak ; Luther to rashness ; Melancthon to fear-
fulness ; Carolostadius to unsettledness ; Illiricus to inor-
dinate zeal ; Osiander to self-esteem; (if historians have
given them their due.) One shoe fitteth not every foot.'
Direct, ii. Let your strictest watch be upon the sins of
your temperature ; far greater diligence and resolution are
here necessary than against other sins. And withdraw'the
fuel, and strive against the bodily distempers themselves.
Fasting and labour will do much against lust, which idle-
278 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I,
j^e^s axtd fuljiess continually feed ; and so the rest have their
several cures. Know also what good your temper doth give
you special advantage for j and let ...it be turned unto that,
,aii4 still employed in it, ^k^I^^ k iiv^^ u. a a vs.
J . Tempt. III.* The tempter suiteth his temptations to your
estates, of poverty or riches >; the poor he tempteth to mur-
mur a^nd be impatient under their wants, and distress them-
selves more with griefs and cares; and to think that their
SiUiferings may save them without holiness, and that, neces-
sary labour for their bodies may. excuse them from much
miftding the concernments of their souls ; and either to cen-
sure and hate the rich through envy, or to flatter them for
gain. The rich he tempteth to an idle, time-wasting, vo-
luptuous, fleshly, brutish life 5 to excess in sleep, and meat,
and. drink, and sport, and apparel, and costly ways of pride,
and idle discourse, and visits, and compliments ; to love the
wealth and honours of the world, and live in continual .pleas-
ing of the flesh ; to fare deliciously every day, and to waste
their time in unprofitableness without a constant calling ;
and to be unmerciful to the poor, and to tyrannize over their
inferiors 'I.' . (
Direct, iii. Here also observe regardfully where your
danger lieth, and there keep a continual watch. Let the
poor remember, that if they be not rich in grace, it is long
of themselves ; and if they be they have the chiefest riches,
ftnd have learnt in all estates to be content ; and have great
cause tp be thankful to God, that thus helpeth them against
the love and pleasures of the world. Let the rich remem-
ber, that they have not less to do than the poor, because
they have more committed to their trust ; nor may they ever
the more satisfy the inordinate desires of the flesh : but they
have more to do, and more dangers to fear and watch against,
as they hav€ more of their Master's talents to employ, and
give account for at the last.
Tempt. IV. ' The devil suiteth his temptations to men's
daily work and business. If it be low, to be ashamed of it
through pride ; if it be high,; to be proud of it ; if it be hard,
to be weary and unfaithful in it, or to make it take up all
their minds and time ; if it be about worldly things, he
tempteth them to be tainted by it with a worldly mind : if
1 Pfov. XXX, 8, 9. Luke xvi.
CHAP. HI.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. '279
they labour for themselves, he tempteth them to overdo ; if
for others, he tempteth them to deceitful, unfaithful negli*
gence and sloth. If they are ministers, he tempteth them
to be idle, and unfaithful, and senseless of the weight of
truth, the worth of souls, the brevity of time, that so their
sin may be the ruin or the loss of many. If rulers, the devil
useth his utmost skill to cause them to espouse an interest
contrary to the interest of truth and holiness ; and to cast
some quarrel against Christ into their minds, and to per-
suade them that his interest is against their's, and that his
servants are their enemies.'
Direct, iv. See that your work be lawful, and that God
have called you to it, and then take it as the service which he
liimself assigneth you, and do it as in his sight, and as pass^
ing to his judgment, in obedience to his will : and mind not
so much whether it be hard or easy, low or high, as whether
you are faithful in it. And if it be sanctified to you, by
your intending all to the pleasing of God, remember that he
loveth and rewardeth that servant that stoopeth to the low-
est work at his command, as much as he that is employed
in the highest : do all for God, and walk in holiness with
him, and keep out selfishness (the poison of your callingsX
and observe the proper danger of your places, and keep a
constant watch against them.
i Tempt, v. ' The devil suiteth his temptations to our
several relations. Parents he tempteth to be cold and re-
gardless of the great work of a wise and holy education of
their children. Children he tempteth to be disobedient^
unthankful, void of natural affection, irreverent dishonourers
of their parents. Husbands he tempteth to be unloving,
unkind, impatient with the weaknesses of their wives ; and
wives to be peevish, self-willed, proud, clamorous, passion-
ate, and disobedient. Masters he tempteth to use their ser-
vants only as their beasts, for their own commodity, without
any care of their salvation and God's service ; and servants
he tempteth to be carnal, untrusty, false, slothful, eye-ser-
vants, that take more care to hide a fault than not to commit
it. Ministers and magistrates he tempteth to seek them-
selves, and neglect their charge, and set up their own ends
instead of the common good ; or to mistake the common
good, or the means that tend to it. Subjects and people
he tempteth to dishonour and murmur against their gover-
280 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
nbrs, and to censure them unjustly, and to disobey them,
and rebel ; or else to honour, and fear, and serve them more
than God, and against God/ -^ -?
Direct, v. Here learn well the duties and dangers of
your own relations, and remember that it is much of your
work to be faithful and excellent in your relations. And
mind not so much what other men owe to you, as what you
owe to God and them. Let masters, and ministers, and ma-
gistrates first study and carefully practise their own duties,
and yet they must next see that their inferiors do their du-
ties, because that is their office : but they must be more
desirous that God be first served, and more careful to pro-
cure obedience to him, than that they be honoured or
obeyed themselves. Children, servants, and subjects must
be taken up in the well-doing of their proper work ; re-
membering that their good or hurt lieth far more upon that,
than upon their superior's dealings with them, or usage of
them. As it is your own body, and not your superiors',
which your soul doth animate, nourish, and use, and which
you have the continual sense and charge of; so it is your
own duty, and not your superiors', which you have to
do and to answer for, and therefore most to mind and
talk of.
Tempt, VI. ' The tempter also suiteth his temptations
to our advantages, and hopes of rising or thriving in the
world : he seeth which is our rising or thriving way ; and
there he layeth his snares, accommodated to our designs
and ends, making some sinful omission or commission
seem necessary thereto. Either Balaam must prophesy
against the people of God, or else God must keep him from
honour, by keeping him from sin. If once Judas be set on,
'What will you give me ?' The devil will teach him the way
to gain : his way is necessary to such sinful ends.'
Direct, vi. Take heed therefore of overvaluing the
world, and being taken with its honour, pleasure, or prospe-
rity : take heed, lest the love of earthly things engage you in
eager desires and designs to grow great or rich. For if once
your heart have such a design, you are gone from God : the
heart is gone, and then all will follow as occasion calls for
it. Understand these Scriptures, " Labour not to be rich.
-^He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent, — .He
that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye. — But they tjiat will
CHAP. HI.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 281
be rich fall into temptations and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
and perdition : for the love of money is the root of all evil ;
but godliness with contentment is great gain. — Seek not
great matters for yourselves ^"- Be dead to the world: fear
more the rising than the falling way. Love that condition
best, which fitteth thee for communion with God, or maketh
thee the most profitable servant to him ; and hate that most,
which is the greatest hinderance from these, and would most
enslave thee to the world. " vcq
Tempt. VII. * The tempter suiteth his temptations to our
company : if they have any error or sin, or are engaged in
any carnal enterprise, he will make them snares to us, and
restless until they have ensnared us : if they love us not
he will make them continual provocations, and set before
us all their wrongs, and provoke us to uncharitableness and
revenge. If they love us he will endeavour to make their
love to us to be the shoeing-horn or harbinger of their er-
rors and evil ways, to draw us to their imitation. He find-
eth something in all our company, to make the matter of
some temptation.'
Direct, vii. Converse most with God : let faith make
Christ and angels your most regarded and observed company;
that their mind and presence may more affect you than the
mind and presence of mortal men. Look not at any man's
mind, or will, or actions, without respect to God who go-
verneth, and to the rule by which they should all be suited,
and to the judgment which will open and reward them as
they are. Never see man without seeing God : see man
only as a creature dependant on his Maker's will. And then
you will lament and not imitate him when he sinneth ; and
you will oppose (and Christ saith **hate%") and not be se-
duced by him, when he would draw you with him to sin and
hell : had Adam more observed God than Eve he had not
been seduced by his helper. Then you will look on the
proud, and worldly, and sensual, as Solomon on the sloth-
ful man's vineyard, ** I saw and considered it well, I looked
on it, and received instruction'." You would not long for
the plague or leprosy, because it is your friend's disease.
Tempt. VIII. * The tempter maketh advantage of other
' Pi-ov. xxiii. 4. xxviii. 20 — 22. Phil, vi, 9. Jer.xlv. 5.
* Luke xiv. 26. * Prov. xxiv. 30 — o'L
282 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
men's opinions or speeches of you, or dealings by you ; and
by every one of them would ensnare you in some sin: if
they have mean thoughts of you, or speak despising or dis-
honouring words of you,; he tempteth you by it to hate
them, or love them less, or to speak contemptuously of
them.: If they applaud you, he tempteth you by it to be
proud ; if they wrong you, he tempteth you to revenge ; if
they enrich you, or are your benefactors, he would make
their benefits a price to hire you to some sin, and make you
pay as dear for them as your salvation cometh to. If they
scorn you for religion, he would make you ashamed of
Christ and his cause ; if they admire you, he would draw
you by it to hypocrisy. If they threaten you, he would
draw you to sin by fear, as he did Peter ; if they deal rudely
with you, he tempteth you to passion, and to requite them
with the like, and even to distaste religion itself, if men
professing religion be against you, or seem to do you any
wrong. Thus is every man a danger to his brother.' ,
.L Direct, viii. Discern in all men what there is of God to
be your help, and; that make use of ; and what there is of
satan, sin, and self, and that take heed of. Look upon every
man as a helper and a tempter; and be prepared still, to
draw forth his help, and resist his temptation. And remem-
ber, that man is but the instrument ; it is satan that tempt-
eth you, and God that trieth you by that man ! Saith David
of Shimei, " The Lord hath bidden him :" that is, he is but
God's rod to scourge me for my sin, as my son himself is.
As satan was his instrument in trying Job, not by God's ef-
fecting, but permitting the sin : observe God and satan in
it^more than men.
DLL.Tejnpt. IX. * His temptations also are suited to our fbre^
received opinions and thoughts. If you have but let in one
lustful thought, or one malicious thought, he can make great
advantage of that nest-egg to gather in more, as a little
leaven to leaven the whole lump : he can roll it up and
down, and do much to hatch it into a multitude. If you are
but tainted with any false opinion, or prejudice against
your teacher, your ruler, or your brother, he can improve
it to such increase, and raise such conclusions from it, and
more from them, and reduce them all to practice, as shall
make observers with astonishment say. Behold how great a
matter a little fire kindleth.'
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 283
Direct, ix. Take heed what thoughts you first admit in-
to ^ your mind: and especially cherish and approve none,
but upon very good trial and examination. And, if they
(pxove corrupt, sweep clean your fantasy and memory of them?,
.that they prove not inhabitants, and take not up their lodg-
ings in you, or have not time to spawn and breed. And fill
up the room with contrary thoughts, and useful truth, and
cherish them daily that they may increase and multiply :
and then your hearts will be like a well peopled kingdoja,,
able to keep their possession against all enemies. v*
Tempt. X. * Also he fitteth his temptations to your na-
tural and acquired parts : that if you are weak, he may
either discourage you, or, which is more usual and danger-
ous, make you think better of them than they are, and to
think you know much, when it is next to nothing ; and to
make you wise in your own eyes, and easily to receive an
error, and then to be confident in it : not to discern between
things that differ ; but to be: deceived into false zeal, and
false ways, by the specious pretences and shews of truth;
and then to be zealous for the deceiving of others. Also
that you may be a dishonour to truth and godliness, by your
weakness and ill management of good causes ; and may give
them away through your unskilfulness t:Q the adversary.. If
you are of stronger wits and parts, the tempter will draw you
to despise the weak ; to take common gifts for special grace,
or to undervalue holiness and humility, and overvalue learn-
ing and acuteiiess. He will tempt you, dangerously, to
loathe the simplicity of Christianity and of the Scriptures,
as to style and method, and to be offended at the cross of
Christ. So that such persons are usually in greater danger
of infidelity, heresy, pride, and insolent domineering over
the flock of Christ, than vulgar Christians that have lower
parts.'
Direct, x. Labour to be well acquainted with yourselves.
If you are weak, know your weakness, that yau may be hum-
ble, and fearful, and seek for strength and help. If you are
comparatively strong, remember how weak the strongest are ;
and how little it is that the wisest know ! And study well
the ends and use of knowledge ; and that all that you know
may be concocted into love and holiness ; and use it as re-
• membering that you have much to give account of.
284 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Tempt. XI. * Moreover the tempter will fetch advantage
against you from your former life and actions. If you have
gone out of the way to heaven, he would harden you by cus-
tom, and make you think it such a disgrace or trouble to
return, as that it is as good go on, and put it to the venture.
If you have done any work materially good, while your
heart and course of life are carnal and worldly, he would
quiet you in your sinful, miserable state, by applauding the
little good that you have done. If a good man have erred or
done ill, he will engage his honour in it, and make him
study to defend it, or excuse it, lest it prove his shame : and
tempt men, as he did David, to hide one sin with another.
If he get hold of one link, he will draw on all the chain
of sin.' - ,: .0
Direct, xi. Take heed, therefore, what you do; and
foresee the end. Let not the devil get in one foot : try
your way, before you enter it. But if you have erred, come
off, and that thoroughly and betime, whatever it cost, for
be sure it will cost more to go on. And if he would make
a snare of the good that you have done, remember that this
is to turn it into the greatest evil : and that there must be a
concurrence and integrity of good, to make you acceptable,
and to save you. Heart and life must be good to the end.
Tempt. XII. * Lastly, He fitteth his temptations to the
season. He will take the season just when an evil thought
is most likely to take with you ; and when the winds and
tide do serve him : that will take at one time, (when a man
hath his wits and heart to seek) which would be abhorred
at another. In afflicting times, he will draw you to deny
Christ with Peter, or shift for yourselves by sinful means.
In prosperous times, he will tempt you to security, world-
liness, and forgetfuliiess of the night and winter which
approacheth. The timing his temptations is his great ad-
vantage.
Direct. XII. Dwell as with God, and you dwell as in
eternity, and will see still that as time, so all the pleasure,
and advantages, and dangers, and sufferings of time, are
things, of themselves, of little moment. Keep your eye
upon judgment and eternity, where all the errors of time
will be rectified, and all inequalities of time will be levelled,
and the sorrows and joys that are transitory, will be no
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 285
more : and then, no reasons from the frowns or flatteries of
the times will seem of any force to you. And be still em-
ployed for God, and still armed and on your watch, that
satan may never find you disposed to take the bait.
The Tempter's Method in Applying his Prepared Baits.
Tempt. I. ' The devil's first work is, to present the tempt-
ing bait, in all its alluring, deceiving properties : to make it
seem as true as may be to the understanding : and as good
and amiable as may be to the will. To say as much as can
be said for an evil cause ; he maketh his image of truth and
goodness as beautiful as he can : sin shall be sugared, and
its pleasure shall be its strength " : sin shall have its wages
paid down in hand "" : he will set it out with full mouthed
praises. ' O what a fine thing it is to be rich, and please
the flesh continually ! to have command, and honour, and
lusts, and sports, and what you desire ! Who would refuse
such a condition that may have it V " All this will I give
thee," was the temptation which he thought fit to assault
Christ himself with. And he will corrupt the history of
time past, and tell you that it went well with those that
took his way y. And for the future, he will promise them,
that they shall be gainers by it, (as he did Eve) and shall
have peace, though they please their flesh in sinning ^.
Direct, i. In this case, first, inquire what God saith of
that which satan so commendeth. The commendations and
motions of an enemy are to be suspected : God is most to
be believed. 2. Then consider, not only whether it be good,
but how long it will be good ; and what it will prove at the
end ; and how we shall judge of it at the parting. And
withal, consider, what it tendeth to ; whether it tend to
good or evil : and, whether it be the greatest good that we
are capable of. And then you will see, that if there were
no good, or appearance of good in it, it could do a volun-
tary agent no hurt, and were not fit to be the matter of a
temptation. And you will see that it is temporal good set
up to deceive you of the eternal good, and to entice you
into the greatest evil and misery. Doth the devil shew thee
the world, and say, ''All this will I give thee?" Look to
" Heb. xi. !25. " 2 Pet. ii. 15. y Jer. xliv. 17. ^ Deut. xxix. 19.
286 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Christ who sheweth thee the glory of the world to come,
with all things good for thee ia this world, and saith more
truly, " All this will I give thee/' The world and hell are
in one end of the balance, and pardon^ holiness, and heaven
are in the other. Which now wilt thou prefer ? If the devil
have more to give thee and bid for thee than Christ, let him
take thee.
Tempt, II. * The tempter laboureth to keep God, and
Christ, and heaven out of sight, that they darken not the
splendour of his bait, and to hide those potent reasons
from them, by which they might easily repel the temptation :
so that though they are well known and sure, and Scripture
be full of them, they shall none of them be ready at hand to
use, when the temptatioiJ cometh ; so that to them they
shall be all as nothing: and this he doth by unbelief and in^
considerateness.* -i "''^ ■■■ -^ - ^
Direct, n. Live by? faith. 'See that God the Father,.'
the Redeemer, and the <:Hx)ly Spirit dwell within you, and
take up your hearts, and your hopes be placed all on heaven,
and that these be your very life and business ; and then yoti
will always have that at hand, which may repel the tempter.'
A heart taken up with God and Christ, conversing in heaven,,
is always fortified, and prepared to meet every temptation^
with abhorrence; ? Let your souls.be still possessed with
as constant apprehensions of the evil of sin, the danger of
sinning, the presence, authority, and holiness of God, the
wi'ong that sin doth him, the hurt it doth ourselves and?
others, and what it did to Jesus Christ, as you have of the'
danger of fire, and water, and poison ; and then the tempter
will not «peed. .f ; ■ •■ > ^ < • ■ '
. Tempts III, * Iti&the great care; of the devil to keep a«.t;
of sight, that he be not seen himself in the temptation. lAs?
the angler keepeth himself behind the bush, and the fowler
hideth himself from the birds; or else they would fear, antf.
fly, and escape; so doth the devil use all his art, to hide
himself from the sinner's observation;- that the deluded souli
shall little think that the devil is so near him, and; hath so-
great a hand in the business. If the ambitious or covetous,
worldling saw the devil offer him the bait, and heard him
say, "All this will I give thee;" he would have the smaller
list to take the bait. If the devil ^appeared to the whore-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 287
monger, and brought him his whore, and encouraged him to
his filthiness, it would coolhislust: or if he appeared to the
drunkard, and presented him the cup, he would have but
little list to drink?; if the proud. an-d the malicioxis saw Jthe
devil at their backs^ rejoicing -in their sin, and putting them
on, it might affright them half into their wits. Thereforef
the great endeavour of the devil is,^^ tb persuade men that it is
not he that makes the motion to them: it is such a friend;
or such a neighbour, or geatleman, or minister, or wise man ;
it is not the devil ! till the fish is caught, and the bird is in
the net'; and then the author of all appeareth to kill them,
and carry them away, without any concealment/
Direct, iii. Mark but the tendency and the manner of
the temptations, and you may perceive the author. Who
else is it that is so much against God^ and against your ever-
lasting happiness ? Who else is it that would so abuse your
reason, to prefer things temporal, before things eternal, and
the brutish pleasures of a corruptible flesh, before the interest
of immortal souls ? Who else so contradicteth all the Word
of God? Read God's warnings, and he will tell you who it
is. Take every temptation then, whoever be the messenger,
as if thou sawest the devil standing by, and making the
motion to thee, and heardest himself exhort thee to sin.,
Suppose you saw him conducting you to the whore-house,
the play-house, the ale-house,- and making you entertain-
ment as the master of the game ? How then would you
take it ? And what would you do ? Would you go and be
angry at the precise preacher that would hinder you ? And
would you take the devil's part ? No, nature hath possessed
you with a fear of him, and an enmity to him : use it for
your safety. It cannot be good for you that comes from
him ! He hath a fouler face to appear to you in than ever
yet you saw, when you have done his work and are where
he would have you. O know with whom you have to do !
Tempt. IV. ' The tempter is most careful also to hide
from men the nature and tendency of the temptation itself;
that they shall not know that it is a temptation when they
are tempted, but shall have nothing in sight but the bait
which they desire. The angler doth not only hide himself
from the fish, but also his rod, and line, and hook as much
as he can ; the fowler covereth his nets : so that either the
288 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
fish and bird shall not see the snare, or shall not know what
it is, and what it is there laid for. So when the bait of
pleasure, and honour, and wealth is presented by the devil,
to the fornicator, gamester, proud, or covetous, they shall
not see what the devil is doing now, and what a game he is
playing for their souls ! They shall not perceive the con-
nection that there is between the pleasure and the sin, and
the sin and the threatening, and the threatening and the
judgment, and the judgment and the everlasting punish-
ment. When Judas was bargaining with the Pharisees,
he knew not that the devil was in him, driving on the match.'
Direct, iv. Be wise and suspicious: blindness or fool-
hardiness will lead you into the snare. Be wise that you
may know the tendency of every thing that is presented to
your thoughts, and may be able to perceive a danger. Be
suspicious and cautelous, that you make a sufficient trial,
and go upon sure grounds, and avoid the very appearance
of evil : when it is hell that you fear, come not too near.
Play not as the fly about the candle ; salvation is necessary ;
but preferment, or wealth, or liberty, or credit, or life itself
are not necessary to you ! Prove all things : flatter not
yourselves into the snares by foolish hopes, [and judging of
things as the flesh would have them to be, rather than as
they are. If no danger appear, turn up all coverings, and
search and see that none be hidden. The devil hath his
gunpowder-plots, and mines which may blow you up before
you are aware. Not only lawfulness and indiflerency, but
great good is the pretence for greatest evil.
Tempt, v. * It is the tempter's care to bring the tempting
object near enough, or draw the sinner near enough to it :
the net must come to the fish, or the fish to the net : the
distant fire will not burn the wood. The devil's chief con-
fidence is in the sensitive appetite, which worketh strongest
at hand. If he get'the drunkard into the alehouse and shew
him the cup, he hath half conquered him already :, but if he
be scrupulous and modest, some one shall drink a health, or
importune him, and put the cup into his hand. The thief
with Achan shall see the bait, and the sight will work a
covetous desire. The glutton shall have the tempting dishes
before him, and be at a table which by variety of delicious
food, is fitted to become his snare ; whereas if he had nothing
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 289
set before him, but the poor man's simple food which hath
nothing in it fit to tempt him, he might easily have
escaped. The fornicator shall have his beautiful dirt
brought near him, and presented to him in a tempting dress ;
for at a sufficient distance there had been little danger. The
ambitious person shall have preferment offered him, or
brought so fair to his hand that v^^ith a little seeking it may
be attained. The fearful coward shall be threatened with
the loss of estate or life, and hear the report of the can-
nons, guns and drums of satan. Peter ; is half conquered
when he is got among questioning company in the high-
priest's hall. Thus David, thus Lot, thus ordinarily sinners
are drawn into the snare.'
Direct, v. As ever you would preserve your innocency
and your souls, fly as far from tempting objects as you can:
I say as you can, without distrusting God in the neglect of
a certain duty. A wife, or a servant that are bound cannot
fly : nor must we leave undone our certain duty upon an un-
certain danger, which may otherwise be avoided : but keep
off" from the temptation at as great a distance as you can :
the safest course is the best when your souls lie at the stake :
if it be not necessary, plead not the lawfulness of what you
do, when it is a temptation to that which is unlawful. You
say, it is lawful to wear such curious ornaments, and set out
yourselves in the neatest dress ; but is it lawful to be proud
or lustful, or to consume your time unprofitably ? If not,
tempt not yourselves or others to it. Keep away from the
place where the snare is laid. Look first to the end before
you meddle with the beginning. Why should I eat that
which I know I cannot digest, but must cast it up again ?
And why should I taste that which I must not eat?
And why should I desire to have that set before me, and to
look upon that which I must not taste ? Come not near if
thou wouldst not be taken. What dost thou at the alehouse
with a cup before thee, if thou wouldst not be drawn to ex-
cess of drink ? If thou be subject to excess in eating, make
not thy own table thy temptation. Fly from the temptation
as thou wouldst do from hell, or from the devil himself.
See not the bait of lust, or come not near, if thou be in-»
clinable to lust, saith Solomon, " Remove thy way far from
her, and come not nigh the door of her house ; for her end
yot. jj. V
290 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword : her
feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell. Her
house inclineth to death and her paths unto the dead : none
that go to her return again, neither take they hold of the
paths of life. Her house is the way to hell, going down to
the chambers of death. Whoso is simple let him turn in
hither : and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith
to him. Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret
is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there ;
and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Lust not after
her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her
eyelids. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes
not be burnt*? Remember that you pray daily, *' Lead us
not into temptation :" and if you will run into it yourselves,
are not your prayers hypocritical and an abuse of God ? If
you would be saved from sin, you must be saved in God's
way : and that is by flying from temptations ; and not draw-
ing near, and gazing on forbidden objects, and tempting your-
selves : even as God's holy means must be used by all that
would come to holiness and heaven ; so the devil's must be
avoided by him that would escape sin and hell. 2. But if
you cannot remove far enough from the snare, then double
your fear, and watchfulness, and resolution : fly with Joseph
from the sin, if you cannot go out of the house. How care-
fully should every foot be placed, when we know that every
step we tread is among snares ! Rule your senses, if you
cannot remove the bait : make Job*s covenant with your
eyes, that you look not on that which would allure ! Let
every sense have a constant watch.
Tempt. VI. * The next great work of the tempter is, to
give us the fairest opportunities to sin, and to remove all
impediments, and shew men encouraging hopes and invi-
tations. He will shew the thief which way he may steal ;
and shew the covetous man which way he may thrive, and
deceive, and over-reach ; and the ambitious man which way
he may rise ; and the fornicator how he may obtain his desire,
and sin unknown : and then he tells them how easy it is ; now
no one seeth you ; you may do it without fear or shame.
It is the devil's great care to take all things out of the way
that would affright, or hinder sinners ; that they may have
- "^ Prov. V. 8. IV. 5. ii. 18, 19. vii. 27. ix, 16. 18. vi. 25. S7, 28.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 291
full opportunity to invite them. Therefore he is very desi-
rous that public impediments should be all removed ;
especially in a godly magistrate and minister, and that the
common disgrace of sinning may be taken off, and, if it may
be, turned against religion, or fall on them that are the
greatest adversaries to sin.'
Direct, vi. It is therefore a principal part of your wis-
dom and watchfulness, to avoid the opportunities of sinning,
and keep out as many impediments as may be in your own
way. It is a most foolish and sinful thing in some men,
who think it a brave thing to have power to do hurt, though
they pretend they abhor the doing of it : he that saith he
hateth oppression, yet would have a power to oppress ; to
have all men at his will and mercy he thinks is brave : so
they that would not be gluttonous would have a tempting
table still before them, presuming that their own will is a
sufficient preservative against the sin : so they that would
not be ensnared with lust, have yet a desire to appear as
comely, and lovely, and desirable as may be, and to be as
much beloved, that they may have other affections at com-
mand ; and also to have opportunity offered them, that they
may sin if they will. And is thy will so well established,
mortified and unchangeable, as to be so far trusted ? O
foolish sinner that no better knowest thyself, nor observest
thy danger ? Nor perceivest that this very desire to have
the power to do evil sheweth a degree of the evil in thy
heart, and that thou art not yet so far from it as thou must
be, if thou wouldst be safe. Contrive thyself (if thou be
wise and love thyself) into the greatest difficulty of sinning
that thou canst. Make it impossible, if it may be done.
The power is for the act. Desire not to be able to sin, if
thou wouldst not sin ; not that natural power to do good
should be destroyed because it is also a power to do evil,
but cast as many blocks in the way of thy sinning as thou
canst, till it amount to a moral impossibility. Desire the
strictest laws and governors, and to be still in the eye of
others, and contrive it that thou mayst have no hope of
secrecy. Contrive it so that it may be utter shame and
loss to thee if thou sin. If thou be tempted to fornication,
never be private with her or him that is thy snare. If thou
be tempted to deceive and rob those that trust thee, avoid
292 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
the trust, or if ever thou have done it, restore and confess
that shame may preserve thee.
Tempt. VII. ' Next the tempter importunately soliciteth
our thoughts or fantasies, to feed upon the tempting thing :
that the lustful person may be thinking on the objects of
his lusts ; and the ambitious man thinking on his desired
honour ; and the covetous man of his desired wealth, his
house, or lands, or gainful bargains j and the malicious
man be thinking of all the real or imaginary wrongs, which
kindle malice.'
Direct. Nil. Keep a continual watch upon your thoughts.
Remember that this is the common entrance of the greatest
sins : and if they go no further, the Searcher of hearts will
judge thee for the adultery, murder, and other sins of thy
heart. But especially see that your thoughts be so em-
ployed on better things, that sin may never find them va-
cant.
Tempt. VIII. * The tempter also is diligent to keep the
end from the sinner's eye, and to persuade him, that there
is no danger in it, and that it will be as good at last as at
first. He cannot endure a thought, a word of death or
judgment, unless he can first fortify the sinner, by some
presumptuous hope, that his sins are pardoned, and his case
is good : either he will make him believe him, that there
is no such danger to the soul as should deter him; or else
he keepeth him from thinking of that danger. He is loath
a sinner should so much as look into a grave, or go to the
house of mourning, and see the end of all the living ; lest
he should lay it to heart, and thence perceive what worldly
pleasure, wealth, and greatness are, by seeing where they leave
sinners. If one do but talk of death, or judgment, and the
life to come, the devil will stir up some scorn, or weariness,
or opposition against such discourse. If a sinner do but
bethink himself in secret, what will become of him after
death, the devil will either allure him, or trouble him, and
never let him rest, till he have cast away all such thoughts
as tend to his salvation. He cannot endure, when you see
the pomp and pleasure of the world, that you should think
or ask. How long will this endure ? And what will it prove
in the latter end?'
Direct. VIII. Go to the Holy Scriptures, and see what
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 293
they foretel concerning the end of godliness and sin : God
knoweth better than the devil, and is more to be believed.
You may see in the Word of God, what will become of saints
and sinners, godly and ungodly, at the last, and what they
will think and say, when they review their present life ; and
what Christ will say to them, and how he will judge them,
and what will be their reward for ever. This is the infalli-
ble prognostication, where you may foresee your endless
state. In this glass continually foresee the end. Never
judge of any thing by the present gust alone. Ask not only
how it tasteth, but how it worketh, and what will be the
effects : remember that God's law hath inseparably con-
joined holiness and heaven; and sin unrepented of, and hell;
and seeing these cannot be separated indeed, let them never
be separated from each other in your thoughts. Otherwise
you will never understand Christ or Satan. When Christ
saith, " Wilt thou deny thyself, and take up the cross, and
follow me ;" his meaning is, shall I heal thy carnal, worldly
heart and life, and bring thee by grace to the sight of God
in endless glory ? You will never understand what prayer,
and obedience, and holy living mean, if you see not the end,
even heaven, conjoined to them. When the devil saith to
the glutton, * eat also of this pleasant dish ;' and to the
drunkard, * take the other cup ;' and to the fornicator, * take
thy pleasure in the dark ;' and to the voluptuous, * go to
the play-house, or the gaming-house ; come, play at cards
or dice ;' his meaning is, * Come, venture upon sin, and
fear not God's threatenings, and refuse his word, and Spirit,
and grace, that I may have thy company among the damn-
ed, in the fire which never shall be quenched.' This is the
true English of every temptation. Open thy ears then, and
whenever the devil, or any sinner, tempteth thee to sin,
hear him as if he said, * I pray thee leap into the flames of
hell.'
Tempt. IX. * If the tempter cannot quickly draw men to
the sin, he will move them at least to abate their resolution
against it, and to deliberate about it, and hear what can be
said, and enter into a dispute with satan, or some of his in-
struments ; telling them, that it is a sign of falsehood which
will not endure the trial, and that we must prove all things.
And while the sinner is deliberating and disputing, the ve-
294 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
nom is working itself into his veins, and sense is secretly
undermining and betraying him, and deceiving his mind,
bribing his reason, and seducing his will : just as an enemy
will treat with those that keep a garrison, that, during the
treaty, he may send in spies, and find out their weakness,
and corrupt the soldiers : so doth the devil with the sinner/
Direct, ix. Remember that it is Christ, and not satan,
that you are to hear. Truth is strong, and can bear the
trial, before any competent judge ; but you are weak, and
not so able to judge -as you may imagine. Ignorant, un-
skilful, and unsettled persons are easily deceived, be the
cause never so clear. If it be a cause untried by you, it is
not untried by all the godly, nor unknown to him that gave
you the Holy Scriptures. If it be fit to be called in ques-
tion and disputed, take the help of able, godly teachers or
friends, and hear what they can say : matters of endless life
or death, are not rashly to be ventured on. But if it be a
thing past dispute, in which you have been already convinc-
ed and resolved, reject the tempter, and tell him, that you
owe him not so much service, as to dispute with him, whe-
ther you should care for your salvation ? Else there will be
no end, till you are betrayed and undone : innocent Eve is
deceived, when once it comes to a dispute. Be not like
Balaam, that tempted God, and would not be satisfied with
his answer.
Tempt. X. * Also the tempter overcometh very many, by
making them presumptuously confident of their own strength :
saying. Thou art not so weak as not to be able to bear a
greater temptation than this. Canst thou not gaze on beau-
ty, or go among vain and tempting company, and yet choose
whether thou wilt sin ? It is a child indeed that hath no
more government of themselves. Cannot thy table, thy
cup, thy house, thy lands, be pleasing and delectable, but
thou must needs over-love them, and turn them to sin ?
Direct, x. O know thy own weakness! The treacherous
enemy which thou still carriest about thee, who is ready to
open the back-door to the devil. Remember that flesh is
on the tempter's side ; and how much it can do with thee
before thou art aware. Remember what an unsettled wretch
thou art: and how many a good purpose formerly hath
come to nothing ; ahd how oft thou hast sinned by as small
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 295
a temptation. Remember that without the Spirit of Christ,
thou canst do nothing, nor stand against any assault of sa-
tan ; and that Christ giveth his Spirit and help in his own
way, and not to those that tempt him to forsake them, by
thrusting themselves into temptations. Shall ever mortal
man presume upon his own strength, after the falls of an
Adam, a Noah, a Lot, a David, a Solomon, a Hezekiah, a
Josiah, a Peter ? and after such ruins of multitudes of pro-
<fessors, as our eyes have seen ? '' All these things hap-
pened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for
our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest
he fall V
Tempt. XI. * It is a great project of the devil, and suc-
cessful with many, to draw them to venture on the sin, by
shewing them first the effectual remedy, the abundant mer-
cy of God, the sufficient satisfaction made by Christ, the
full, and free, and universal promise ; that these are suffi-
cient to cleanse the soul of any sin : therefore you need not
fear.'
Direct, xi. But God is just, as well as merciful; and
there are ** vessels of wrath," as well as vessels of mercy.
Judge how God will use his mercy, and who shall have it,
by his own word : for he knoweth better than you, to whom,
and how far to shew mercy. Is the tempter himself saved.
Jot all God is merciful? And the Gospel hath far sorer
punishment than the law, to the abusers of grace. Christ
is the most dreadful Judge to the wicked, as well as the ten-
derest Saviour to his own. There is enough in his grace to
save the penitent : but if you will sin upon presumption that
grace will save you, you have small reason to think that you
are penitent, or ever will be, without a very merciful change.
How many can you name that ever were converted and for-
given, that lived wilfully in sin, because the remedy was
sufficient? I doubt not but many such have been recalled ;
but this is not the way to hope : it is a terrible thing to sin
deliberately and wilfully, because of the greatness of mercy,
or the sufficiency of the death of Christ ! No man but the
penitent convert is saved by Christ ; and this is clean con-
trary to penitence and conversion. Christ doth not as
b 1 Cor. X. li, 12.
296 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
mountebanks, that wound a man, to shew people how quick-
ly their balsams can cure him ; or make a man drink a toad,
to shew the power of their antidotes : but he cureth the
diseases which he findeth (in believers), but causeth none.
Tempt. XII. * Also the tempter telleth the sinner, how
certain, and easy, and speedy a remedy he hath in his own
power : it is but repenting, and all sin is pardoned.'
Direct. -Sill. 1. Is it in thy power ? If so, the greater is
thy sin, that sinnest more when thou shouldst repent : if it
be easy, what an inexcusable wretch art thou that wilt not
do it, but go on ? 2. But repentance is the gift of God *= ;
and is he like to give it to them that wilfully abuse him in
expectation of it ? 3. As easy as it is, it is but a few that
truly repent and are forgiven, in comparison of those that
go on and perish. 4. The easiest repentance is so bitter,
that it is far easier to forbear the sin : it is better not wound
yourselves, than have the b'est salve, if you were sure of it.
5. The repentance which is caused by mere fears of death
and hell, without the power of heavenly love to God and
holiness, is but the repentance of the damned, and never
procureth pardon of sin : the devil hath such a repentance,
as well as such a faith, which will not save him.
Tempt. XIII. * Satan also emboldeneth the sinner, by
telling him how many have repented and sped well, that sinned
as bad, or worse than this : he tells him of Noah, and Lot,
and David, and Peter, and the thief on the cross, and Paul,
a persecutor, yea, and Manasseh, &c.'
Direct, xiii. But consider whether any of those did thus
sin, because that others had escaped that sinned before
them. And think of the millions that never repented and
are condemned, as well as those few that have repented. Is
repentance better than sin ? why then will you sin ? Is sin
better than repentance? why then do you purpose to repent ?
Is it not base ingratitude to offend God wilfully, because he
hath pardoned many offenders, and is ready to forgive the
penitent ? And should a man of reason wilfully make work
for his own repentance ; and do that which he knoweth he
shall wish with grief that he had never done ? If some have
been saved that fell into the sea, or that fell from the top
of steeples, or that drunk poison, or were dangerously
c 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 297
wounded, will you therefore cast yourself into the same
case, in hope of being saved?
Tempt. XIV. * The tempter persuadeth the sinner, that
it cannot be that God should make so great a matter of sin ;
because the thoughts of a man's heart, or his words, or
deeds are matter of no great moment, when man himself is
so poor a worm : and whatever he doth, it is no hurt to
God. Therefore you need not make such a matter of it.'
Direct, xiv. If God so much regard us as to make us,
and preserve us continually, and to become our Governor,
and make a law for us and judge us, and reward his servants
with no less than heaven ; then you may easily see that he
80 much regardeth us, as to observe whether we obey or
break his laws. He that so far careth for a clock or watch,
as to make it and wind it up, doth care whether it go true
or false. What do these men make of God, who think he
cares not what men do ? Then he cares not if men beat you,
or rob you, or kill you, for none of this hurteth God ? And
the king may say, if any murder your friends or children,
why should I punish him? he hurt not me. But justice is
to keep order in the world, and not only to preserve the go-
vernor from hurt : God may be wronged, though he be not
hurt. And he will make you pay for it, if you hurt others ;
and smart for it, if you hurt yourself.
Tempt. XV. * The tempter laboureth to extenuate the sin,
and make it seem a little one ; and if every little sin must
be made such a matter of, you will never be quiet.'
Direct, xv. But still remember, 1. There is deadly poi-
son in the very nature of sin, as there is in a serpent be he
never so small : the least sin is worse than the greatest pain
that ever man felt ; and would you choose that, and say, it
is little? The least sin is odious to God, and had a hand in
the death of Christ, and will damn you if it be not par-
doned : and should such a thing be made light of? And
many sins counted small may have great aggravations, such
as the knowing, deliberate, wilful committing of them are.
To love a small sin is a great sin ; especially to love it so
well, that the remembrance of God's will and love, of Christ,
and heaven, and hell, will not suffice to resolve you against
it. Besides, a small sin is the common way to greater :
" When lust hath conceived it brings forth sin, and sin
298 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
when it is finished brings forth death ^." '* Behold how
great a matter a little fire kindleth^" The horrid sins of
David and Peter had small beginnings. Mortal sicknesses
seem little matters at the first. Many thousands have sin-
ned themselves to hell, that began with that which is ac-
counted small.
Tempt. XVI. * Also the devil draweth on the sinner, by
promising him that he shall sin but once, or but a very few
times, and then do so no more : he tells the thief and the
fornicator, that if they will do it but this once, they shall be
quiet.'
Direct, xvi. But, O consider, 1. That one stab at the
heart may prove incurable. God may deny thee time or
grace to repent. 2. That it is easier to forbear the first time
than the second ; for one sin disposeth the heart unto an-
other ; if you cannot deny the first temptation, how will you
deny the next ? When you have lost your strength, and
grieved your helper, and strengthened your enemy and your
snare, will you then resist better wounded, than now when
you are whole?
Tempt. XVII. * But when the devil hath prevailed for
once with the sinner, he makes that an argument for a
second : he saith to the thief, and drunkard, and fornicator,
it is but the same thing that thou hast done once already ;
and if once may be pardoned, twice may be pardoned ; and
if twice, why not thrice, and so on V
Direct, xvii. This it is to let the devil get in a foot : a
spark is easier quenched than a flame ; but yet remember
that the longer the worse : the oftener you sin, the greater
is the abuse of the Spirit of God, and the contempt of
grace, and the wrong to Christ, and the harder is repent-
ance ; and the sharper if you do repent, because the deeper is
your wound. Repent therefore speedily, and go no further,
unless you would have the devil tell you next, it is now too
late.
Tempt. XV III. ' The tempter maketh use of the greater
sins of others, to persuade men to venture upon less. Thou
hearest other men curse, and swear, and rail, and dost thou
stick at idle talk ? How many in the world are enemies to
Christ, and persecute his ministers and servants, and dost
^ James i. 14, 15. * James iii. 5.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 299
thou make so great a matter of omitting a sermon, or a
prayer. Or other holy duty V
Direct, xviii. As there are degrees of sin, so there are
degrees of punishment : and wilt thou rather choose the
easiest place in hell than heaven? How small soever
the matter of sin be, thy wilfulness and sinning against
conscience, and mercies, and warnings, may make it great
to thee. Are great sinners so happy in thy eyes, that thou
wouldst be as like them as thou darest ?
Tempt, XIX. ' Also he would embolden the sinner, be-
cause of the commonness of the sin, and the multitude that
commit either that or worse, as if it were not, therefore, so
bad or dangerous.'
Direct, xix. But remember, that the more examples
you have to take warning by, the more inexcusable is your
fall. It was not the number of angels that fell, that could
keep them from being devils and damned for their sin :
God will do justice on many as well as on one. The sin is
the greater, and therefore the punishment shall not be the
less. Make the case your own : will you think it a good
reason for any one to abuse you, beat you, rob you, because
that many have done so before ? He should rather think,
that you are abused too much already, and therefore he
should not add to your wrongs. If when many had spit in
Christ's face or bufFetted him, some one should have given
him another spit or blow, as if he had not enough before,
would you not have taken him to be the worst and cruel-
lest of them all ? If you do as the most, you will speed as
the most.
Tempt. XX. * It is a dangerous temptation when the
devil proposeth some very good end, and maketh sin seem
the fittest, or the necessary means to accomplish it : when he
blindeth men so far as to think that it is necessary to their sal-
vation, or to other men's, or to the welfare of the church, or
progress of the Gospel, or the pleasing of God, then sin will
be committed without regret, and continued in without
repentance ; on this account it is that heresy, and will-
worship, and superstition are kept up : " Having a shew of
wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting the
body^" It is for God that much of the wickedness of the
f Col. ii. 18 21- '^3.
300 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
world is done against God : it is for the church and truth,
that Papists have murdered and persecuted so many.'
Direct, xx. Remember that God needeth no sinful
means to attain his ends : he will not be beholden to the
devil to do his work ; he would not have forbad it, if he
would have had you done it. He is never at such a loss,
but he can find right means enough to perform his work
by : it is a great part of our wisdom which our salvation
lieth on to choose and use right means, when we are re-
solved on a right end. It is a horrible injury against God
to entitle him to sin, and make it seem necessary to his ends
and honour. Good ends will not justify evil actions. What
sin so odious that hath not had good ends pretended for it?
Even Christ was murdered as a malefactor for good ends,
at least pretended, even to vindicate God's honour from
blasphemy, and Caesar from injury, and the nation from ca-
lamity. And his disciples were killed that God might be
served by it, and pestilent troublers of the world taken
away ^.
Tempt. XXI. ' He would make us presume because we
are God's children, and special grace cannot be wholly
lost, and we have found that once we had grace, therefore
we may venture as being safe.'
Direct. XXI. But many thousands shall be damned, that
once thought they had the truth of grace. It is a hard
controversy among learned and godly men, whether some
in a state of saving grace do not fall from it and perish ;
but it is past controversy, that they shall perish that live
and die impenitently in wilful sin. To plead truth of grace,
for encouragement in sin, is so much against the nature and
use of grace, as may make you question the truth of it.
You can be no surer that you have true grace, than you are
that you hate all known sin, and desire to be free from it.
Christ teacheth you how to answer such a horrid tempta-
tion, '* If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down : for
it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee "
— " thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God*"." Sonship,
and promises, and truth of grace, are incongruous argu-
ments to draw you to sin, and heinous aggravations of
sin so committed.
e John xvi. 2. Acts xxiv. 5. xvii. 6- ^ Matt. iv. 6, 7.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 301
Tempt. XXII. ' The devil oft most dangerously imitateth
the Holy Ghost, and comes in the shape of an angel of
light : he will be for knowledge in the Gnostics ; for unity
and government in the Papists ; for mortification in the
Friars ; for free-grace and tenderness of our brethren's con-
sciences in the Libertines ; for peace and mutual forbear-
ance in the Socinians ; for zeal, self-denial, and fearlessness
of men, and pretended revelations and spirituality in the
Quakers. He will be against heresy, schism, error, dis-
obedience, hypocrisy, pretendedly, in haters and perse-
cutors of holiness and reformation ; and when he will seem
religious, he will be superstitious and seem to outgo Christ,
himself.
Direct, xxii. Keep close to Christ, that you may know
his voice from the voice of strangers ; and get holy wisdom
to try the spirits, and to discern between things that differ :
let the whole frame of truth and godliness be in your head and
heart, that you may perceive when any would make a breach
in any part of it. The devil setteth up no good but in or-
der to some evil. Therefore, examine whither it tendeth ;
and not only what it is, but what use he would have you
make of it. And love no evil, because of any good that is
pretended for it; and dislike or reject no good because-of
any evil use that is by others made of it. . And whatever
doctrine is brought you, try it thus : — 1. Receive, none that
is against the certain nature, attributes, and honour of God.
2, Nor any that is against the light or law of nature. 3.
Nor any that is against the Scripture. 4. Nor any that
is against holiness of heart and life. 5. Nor any against
charity and justice to men. 6. Nor any (about matters to
to be ordered by men) that is against order ; nor any against
government and the peace of church and state. 7. Nor any
that is against the true unity, peace, and communion of
saints. 8. Nor any that is certainly inconsistent with great
and certain truths. Thus try the spirits, whether they be
of God.
Tempt. XXIII. * The tempter usually draweth men to
one extreme, under pretence of avoiding another ; causing
men to be so fearful of the danger on one side, as to take
no heed of that on the other side.'
Direct, xxiii. Understand all your danger; and mark
302 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
the latitude or extent of God's commands ; and watch on
every side : and you must know in what duties you are in
danger of extremes and in what not. In those acts of the
soul that are purely rational about your ultimate end, you
cannot do too much : as in knowing God, and loving him,
and being willing and resolved to please him. But passions
may possibly go too far, even about God ; especially fear
and grief, for they may be such as nature cannot bear, with-
out distraction, death, or hindrance of duty. But few are
guilty of this ; but towards the creature, passions may easily
exceed : and in external actions towards God or man there
may be excess. But especially in point of judgment, it is
easy to slide from extreme into extreme. 2. And you
must know in every duty you do, and every sin which you
avoid, and every truth you receive, what is the contrary or
extreme to that particular truth, or sin, or duty ; and keep
it in your eye. If you do not thus watch, you will reel like
a drunken man from side to side, and never walk uprightly
with God. You will turn from prodigality to covetousness,
from cruel persecution to libertinism, or from libertinism
to persecuting cruelty, from hypocritical formality to hy-
pocritical pretended spirituality, or from enthusiasms and
faction to dead formality. But of this I have spoken at
large. Chap. v. Partii. " Directions to Students."
Tempt. XXIV. * On the contrary, the tempter usually
pleadeth moderation and prudence against a holy life, and
accurate, zealous obedience to God ; and would make you
believe, that to be so diligent in duty, and scrupulously
afraid of sin, is to run into an extreme ; and to be righteous
over-much, and to make religion a vexatious, or distracting
thing, and that it is more ado than needs.'
Direct, xxiv. This I have answered so oft, that I shall
here say but this : that God cannot be too much loved : nor
Jieaven too much valued, nor too diligently sought or obey-
ed : nor sin and hell be too much avoided : nor doth any
man need to fear doing too much, where he is sure, when he
hath done his best, to do too little. Hearken what men say
of this at death.
Tempt. XX v. * The tempter would persuade us, that one
sin is necessary to avoid another ; and that of two evils you
must choose the less, as if there were no other way. Thus
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 303
James and John did by sinful, uncharitable zeal, desire to
punish sin ' : Peter would sinfully fight against the sinful
Jews ^. Thus he bids men lie, to avoid some dishonour to
God and religion ; and persecute, to preserve the unity of
the church, and keep out sin ; and commit a lesser sin them-
selves, to escape a greater.'
Direct, xxv. This is to abuse God, as if he had made
that necessary which he forbids, and had not provided you
lawful means enough to use against every sin. This is wil-
fully to do that, which you pretend you are unwilling to do,
even to sin. Of two evils avoid both, but be sure you con-
sent to neither.
Tempt. XXVI. * He pleadeth Christian liberty, to entice
to sin, especially to sensuality. Hath not Christ purchased
you liberty to use the creatures ? All things are yours. No
men but the godly have just title to them.'
Direct, xxvi. He never purchased us liberty to abuse
the creature, as poison to hurt ourselves ; to hinder mortifi-
cation, and strengthen our enemy, and our snare, and to
steal away our hearts from God. It is a liberty from sin,
and not a liberty to sin, that Christ hath purchased us.
Tempt, xxvii. ' He pleadeth the necessity of wife,,
children, estate, life, &c. Necessity makes it lawful.'
Direct, xxvii. There is no necessity of sinning. He
cannot be Christ's disciple, that thinks it more necessary to
save his life, or provide for wife, and children than to obey
his Lord ; God must be trusted with these.
Tempt. XX VI II. * But, saith the tempter, it is natural
to lust, to love honour, ease, pleasure, &c. ; therefore it is
no sin.'
Direct, xxviii. Nature is corrupted and sinful ; and it
is natural to you to be rational, and to rule your sense and
appetite by reason, and not to do what lust or appetite de-
sireth : else man is but a beast.
Tempt. XXIX. * But, saith the tempter, authority com-
mandeth it : it is your parent's, or master's will, and you
must obey.'
Direct, xxix. There is no power but from God ; there-
fore none against him, or above him. They must be obeyed
' Luke ix. 54. k Matt, xxvi. 52.
304 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
in all things lawful, but not in sin. They cannot save you
nor themselves from the wrath of God.
Tempt. XXX. ' But, saith the tempter, you have promised
or vowed that you will do it, and are not at liberty.'
Direct, xxx. The vow of a lawful thing must be kept ;
but if you vow to sin, it is another sin to perform it, and to
wrong God or man because you have vowed to wrong him.
Tempt, xxxi. * But, saith the tempter, it is a controversy,
and many learned and good men think it is no sin.'
Direct, xxxi. You have the more reason to be fearful and
cautelous, when you see that the case is so obscure, and the
snare so subtle, and are sure that many learned and good
men on one side or other are deceived before you. Remem-
ber, God is your king and judge, who will not take it for an
excuse for sin, that learned or good men did it, or defended
it. Consult not with flesh and blood, but with God.
Tempt, xxxii. * But, saith the tempter, will you be sin-
gular, and be pointed or hooted at by all?'
Direct, xxxii. In doctrine I will not be singular from
the Holy Catholic Church of God : in worship I will not in
singularity or schism separate from the communion of
saints ; but in doctrine I will be singular from infidels and
heretics ; and in a holy life I will be singular from the un-
godly, and profane, and sensual ; lest if I do as they, to
avoid their scorns, I speed as they.
Tempt, xxx 1 1 1. * But you are weak, and you cannot help
it, till God will give you grace to do it.'
Direct, xxxiii. Therefore I must not be wilful, and neg-
ligent, and rash, and do that evil which I may forbear, nor
resist and refuse that grace, and help, and mercy, without
which I can do nothing.
Tempt, XX XIV. ' But you repent, and ask God forgive-
ness through Christ, every night, for the sins of the day.'
Direct, xxxi v. Repenting is a sorrowful turning of the
heart from sin to God. You repent not if you turn not. To
mock God with such hypocritical praying and repenting, is
itself a heinous sin. Will you take it for repenting, if a man
that spits in your face and beateth you, shall do it every
day, and ask your forgiveness at night, and purpose to do it
still, because he asked forgiveness ?
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 305
Tempt. XXXV. 'But every man sinneth daily : you do
but as the best men in the world do/
Direct, xxxv. No true Christian that is justified, hath
any sin, but what he hateth more than loveth, and would
fain be rid of, and striveth against in the use of holy means.
He hath no beloved sin which he would not part with, but
had rather keep than leave.
Tempt, XXXVI. * But those that seem strict and godly
are hypocrites, and secretly as bad as you.'
Direct, xxxvi. This is just hke the devil, the accuser of
those that are sancfified and justified by Christ : the father
of malice and lies: to charge that on them,' which he coh-
fesseth is secret and he cannot prove. So he said of Job,
that if he were touched in his estate or body, he would for-
sake his godliness : but he was found a liar. But be it how
it will, I am sure I must be holy or I shall not see God, and if
" I hve after the flesh I shall die ^ :" and other men's misery
will be no ease to me.
Tempt, xxxvu. * But, saith the tempter, if you will not
sin, come but near it, and do that which is lawful.*
Direct, xxxvii. Indeed we must not run into a con-
trary extreme, under pretence of flying far enough from sin :
but if you keep out of other sin, you cannot go too far from
any. To be near sin, is to be near God's wrath, and near
that which tendeth to hell fire. And to come near it is the
common way of coming to it. He that could wish he might
do it, is infected at the heart already. Keep a tender con-
science, and a constant sense of the danger of sinning.
Tempt. XXXVIII. * It is a great snare, when sin is got
into credit, 1 . By putting fair names upon it, calling luxury
and gluttony keeping a good house, and a good table ; tip*
pling is called, drinking a cup with a friend ; lust and filthi-
ness are called love ; worldliness is called thriftiness and
good husbandry ; idleness and loss of time are called the
leisure of a gentleman ; slothfulness is called a not being
too worldly ; time wasting sports are called recreations ;
pride is called decency and handsomeness ; proud revenge
is called honour and gallantry ; Romish cruelty, and per-
secution, and wasting the; church, are called keeping up
iorder, obedience, and unity ; disobedience to superiors is
' Heb. xii. 14. Rom. viii. 9. 13.
VOL. II. . X
306 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
called aot fearing man ; church'divisions are called strict-
ness and zeal. 2. Especially if a sin be not in disgrace
among the stricter sort, it greatly prepareth men to commit
it : as breaking the Lord's day, beyond sea, in many reform-
ed churches : and at home, spiritual pride, censoriousness,
backbiting, disobedience, and church-divisions are not in
half that disgrace among many professors of strictness, as
they deserve, and as swearing, &c. are.'
Direct, xxxviii. Remember, that whatever be the name
or cloak, God judgeth righteously, according to the truth :
names may deceive us, but not our Judge. And sin is still in
disgrace with God, however it be with men. Remember, the
more comely the paint and cover are, the greater is the dan-
ger, and the more watchful and cautelous we should be. It is
not imperfect man, but the perfect law of God, which must
be our rule. The great success of this temptation should
deter us from entertaining it. What abundance of mischief
hath it done in the world !
Tempt. XXXIX. * Sometimes, the devil tempteth men to
some heinous sin, that, if he prevail not, at least he may
draw them into a less. As cheating chafferers will ask
twice the price of their commodity, that, by abating much,
they may make you willing to give too much. He that
would get a little, must ask a great deal. He will tempt you
to drunkenness, and if he draw you but to tippling or time-
wasting, he hath got something. If he tempt you to forni-
cation, and he get you but to some filthy thoughts or im-
modest, lascivious talk or actions, he hath done .much of
that which he intended. If he tempt you to some horrid
cruelty, and you yield but to some less degree, or to some
unjust or uncharitable censures, you think you have con-
quered, when it is he that conquereth.'
Direct, xxxix. Remember, that the least degree of sin
is sin, and '* death the wages of it." Think not that
you have escaped well, if your hearts have taken any of
the infection, or if you have been wounded any where,
though it might have been worse. If the tempter had
tempted you no further but to a lustful, malicious, or proud
thought or word, you would perceive that if he prevail, he
conquereth : so may you when he getteth this much, by a
shameless asking more.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 307
Tempt. XL. 'He tempteth us sometimes, to be so fearful
and careful against one sin, or about some one danger, as
to be mindless of some other, and lie open to his tempta-
tion. Like a fencer that will seem to aim all at one place,
that he may strike you in another while you are guarding
that. Or like an enemy, that giveth all the alarm at one
end of the city, that he may draw the people thither, while
he stormeth in another place. So satan makes some so
afraid of worldliness, that they watch not against idleness ;
or so fearful of hardheartedness, and deadness, and hypo-
crisy, that they watch not against passion, neglect of their
callings, or dejectedness ; or so fearful of sinning or being
deceived about their salvation, that they fear not the want
of love, and joy, and thankfulness for all the mercy they
have received, nor the neglect of holy praise to God.*
Direct, xl. Remember, that as obedience must be entire
and universal, so is satan's temptation against all parts of
our obedience ; and our care must extend to all if we will
escape. It would cure your inordinate fear in some one
point, if you extended it to all the rest.
Tempt. xLi. ' Sometimes, by the suddenness of a temp-
tation, he surpriseth men before they are aware/- f;^^ ^'*'''^
Direct, xli. Be never unarmed nor from your watch' : ^'^-
pecially as to thoughts, or sudden passions, or rash words,
which are used to be committed for want of deliberation.
Tempt. XLI I. ' Sometimes, he useth a violent earnest-
ness, especially when he getteth passion on his side. So
that reason is borne down ; and the sinner saith, ' I could
not forbear.*
Direct, xlii. But remember, that the very eager unruli-
ness of your passion, is a sin in itself: and that none can
compel you to«in: and that reason must deliberate and
rule ; or else any murder or wickedness may have the ex-
cuse of urgent passions.
Tempt. xLiii. ' Sometimes he useth the violence of
men : they threaten men, to frighten them into siii.*
Direct, xliii. But are not God and his threatenings more
to be feared ? Do men threaten imprisonment, or death, or
ruitii? And doth not God threaten everlasting misery ? And
can he not defend you from all that man shall threaten, if it
be best for you ? See the portion of the fearful. Rev. xxi. 8.
306 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Tempt. xLiv. * Sometimes variety of temptjitions dis-
tracteth men, that they do not look to all at once/
Direct, xliv. Remember, that one part of the city un-
guarded, may lose the whole in a general assault.
Tempt. XLv. * Sometimes he ceaseth, to make us secure,
and lay by our arms, and then surpriseth us.'
Direct, xlv. Take heed of security, and satan's ambush-
ments. Distinguish between cessation and conquest. You
conquer not every time that you have rest and quietness
from temptation. Till the sin be hated, and the contrary
grace or duty in practice, you have not at all overcome : and
when that is done, yet trust not the devil or the flesh ; nor
think the war will be shorter than your lives, for one assault
will begin where the other ended. Mak£ use of every ces-
sation but to prepare for the next encounter.
Tempt. XLV I. ' He will tempt you to take striving for
overcoming ; and to think because you pray and make some
resistance that sin is conquered ; and because your desires
are good, all is well.'
Direct, xlvi. But all that fight do not overcome : " If a
man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he
strive lawfully™." ** Many will seek to enter and shall
not be able "."
Tempt. XLVI I. ' He foUoweth the sinner with frequency
and importunity, till he weary him and make him yield.'
Direct, xlvii. 1. Remember, that Christ is as importu-
nate with thee to save thee, as the devil can be to damn thee ;
and which then should prevail ? 2. Be you as constant in
resistance : be as oft in prayer and other confirming means.
Do as Paul °, who prayed thrice (as Christ did in his agony),
when the prick in the flesh was not removed. 3. Tempt
not the tempter, by giving him encouragement : a faint de-
nial is an invitation to ask again. Give him qurckly a flat
denial, and put him out of hope, if you would shorten the
temptation.
Tempt. XLviii. * Lastly, The devil would sink the sinner
in despair, and persuade him now it is too late.'
Direct, xlviii. Observe his design, that it is but to
take off* that hope which is the weight to set the wheels of
the soul agoing. In all, he is against God and you : in
n'lTJm.ii. 5. « Luke xiii. 24. » 2 Cor. xii. r, 8.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 309
other sins he is against God's authority ; in this he is
against his love and mercy. Read the Gospel and you will
find, that Christ's death is sufficient, the promise is univer-
sal, full and free, and that the day of grace is so far continued
till the day of death, and no man shall be denied it that
truly desireth it : and, that the same God that forbid deth
thy presumption, forbiddeth also thy despair.
Temptations to draw us off from Duty.
Tempt. I. ' The greatest temptation against duty is, by
persuading men that it is no duty. Thus in our days we
have seen almost all duty cast off by this erroneous fancy.
One saith, * that the holy observation of the Lord's day is
not commanded of God in Scripture.' Another saith, * What
Scripture have you for family prayer, or singing psalms, or
baptising infants, or praying before and after sermon, or for
your office, ordination, tithes, churches, &c. Another saith,
* That church government and discipline are not of divine
institution.' Another saith, that ' baptism and the Lord's
supper were but for that age.' And thus all duty is taken
down instead of doing it.'
Direct, i. Read and fear. Matt. v. 19. " Whosoever shall
break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven ;
but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven." Denying duty, is
too easy a way of evading obedience, to serve turn. Deny-
ing the laws that bind you to public payments will not save
you from them ; but for all that if you deny, you must be
distrained on. And God will make it dearer to you, if you
put him to distrain on you for duty. Must he go to law
with you for it ? He will quickly shew you law for it, and
prove that it was your duty. Open your doubts to able
men, and you will hear more evidence than you know ; but
if pride and false-heartedness blind you, you must bear your
punishment.
Tempt. II. ' Saith the tempter, * it is a duty to weak
ones, but not for you : you must not be still under ordi-
nances, in the lower form : every day must be a Sabbath
310 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
to you, and every bit a sacrament, and every place as a
church : you must live above ordinances in Christ.'
Direct, ii. We must live against Mosaical ordinances?;
but not above Christ's ordinances : unless you will live
above obedience, and above the government of Christ 'K
Hath not Christ appointed the ministry, and church-helps,
" till we all come to a perfect man ' ?" and promised to " be
with them to the end of the world * ?" It is befooling pride
that can make you think you have no need of Christ's in-
stituted means.
Tempt. III. * But thou art unworthy to pray or receive
the sacrament : it is not for dogs.'
Direct, in. The wilful, impenitent refusers of grace, are
unworthy. The willing soul, that fain would be what
God would have him, hath an accepted worthiness in Christ.
Tempt. IV. * But while you doubt, you do it not in faith ;
and therefore to you it is sin.'
Direct, iv. But is it not a greater sin to leave it undone ?
Will doubting of all duty excuse you from it ? Then you
have an easy way to be free from all ! Do but doubt
whether you should believe in God, or Christ, or love him,
or live a godly life, and it seems you think it will excuse
you. But if you doubt whether you should feed your child,
you deserve to be hanged for murdering it, if you famish it.
If you dou-bt of duty, it is duty still, and you are first bound
to lay by your doubts. But things indifferent, left to your
ichoice, must not be done with a doubtful conscience : it
was of such things that Paul spake.
Tempts V. ' The devil puts somewhat still in the way, that
seemeth necessary, to thrust out duty.'
J Direct, v. God hath not set you work, which he alloweth
you no time for. Is all your time spent in better things ?
Is it not your carnal mind that makes you think carnal
things most needful? Christ saith, '* One thing is needful *."
*' Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you ".'1 Had you that
love and delight in holiness as you should, you would find
time for it. An unwelcome guest is put off with any excuse.
P Col. ii. 18. 21. 1 Scetny two sheets for the Ministry.
•■ Ephcs. iv. 13. * Matt, xxviii. 'iO.
I Luke X. 42. " Matt. vi. 33.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 311
Others, as poor as you, can find time for duty, because they
are willing. Set your business in order, and let every
thing keep its proper place, and you may have time for every
duty.
Tempt, VI. * But you are so unable and unskilful to pray,
to learn, that it is as good never meddle with it.'
Direct, vi. Set yourselves to learn, and mark those that
have skill : and do what you can. You must learn by prac-
tice : the unskilfullest duty is better than none. Unworded
groans come oft from the Spirit of God, and God under-
standeth and accepteth them \
Tempt. VII. * It will be so hard and long to learn, that
you will never overcome it.' i; ■
Direct, vii. Willingness and diligence have the promise
of God's help. Remember, it is a thing that must be done.
When your own disuse and sin have made it hard, will you
put God and your souls off with that as an excuse ? If you
had neglected to teach your child to speak or go when it is
young, should he therefore never learn ? Will you despair,
and let go all your hope on this pretence ? Or will you hope
to be saved without prayer and other holy duty ? How fool-
ish are both these ? Sick men must eat, though their sto-
machs be against it : they cannot live else. lu jyoii?
Tempt. VIII. 'But thou findest thou art but the worse
for duty, and never the better for it.'
Direct, viii. Satan will do what he can to make it go
worse with you after than before. He will discourage you
if he can, by hindering your success, that he may make you
think it is to no purpose : so, many preachers, because they
have fished long and catched nothing, grow cold and heart-
less, and ready to sit down and say, as Jeremiah, ** I will
not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name y."
So in prayer, sacrament, reproof, &c. the devil makes great
use of this. What good hath it done thee ? But patience
and perseverance win the crown. The beginning is seldom
a time to perceive success : the carpenter is long at work
before he rear a house ; nature brings not forth the plant or
birth the first day. Your life-time is your working time.
Do your part, and God will not fail on his part. It is hi»
part to give success ; and dare you accuse him, or suspect
* Rom. viii. 26, 27. y Jer. xx. 9.
312 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
him ? There is more of the success of prayer to be believed
than to be felt. If God have promised to hear he doth
hear, and we must believe it whether we feel it or not.
Prayers are often heard long before the thing is sent us
that we prayed for : we pray for heaven, but shall not be
there till death. If Moses's message to Pharaoh ten times
seem lost, it is not lost for all that. What work would ever
have been done, if on the first conceit of unsuccessfulness
it had been given off? Be glad that thou hast time to
plough and sow, to do thy part, and if God will give thee
fruit at last.
Tempt. IX. * But, saith the tempter, it goeth worse with
thee in the world, since thou settest thyself to read, and pray,
and live obediently : thou hast been poorer, and more
despised since, than ever before : Thou art ** a derision
daily, every one mocketh thee''." This thau gettest by it.
Direct, ix. He began not well, that counted not that it
might cost him more than this to be a holy Christian : if
God in heaven be not enough to be thy portion, never serve
him, but find something better if thou canst. He that can-
not lose the world cannot use it as he ought. If thou hadst
rather be at the devil's finding and usage than at God's,
thou art worthy to speed accordingly. Nay, if thou think
thy soul itself worse, remember that we are not worst when
we are troubled most : physic makes sick, when it works
aright.
Tempt. X. * Satan filleth many with abundance of scru-
ples about every duty, that they come to it as sick persons
to their meat, with a peevish, quarrelling disposition. This
aileth, and that aileth it ; something is still amiss, that they
cannot get it down ; this fault the minister hath in praying
or preaching ; or the other circumstance is amiss, or the
other fault is in the company that join with them : and all
IB to turn them off from all.'
Direct. X. But do you mend the matter by casting off
all, or by running into greater inconveniences ? Is not their
imperfect prayer and communion better than your idle
neglect of all, or unwarrantable division ? It is a sign of an
upright heart to be most about heart-observation, and quar-
relsome with themselves ; and the mark of hypocrites to be
* Jer. XX. 8.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 313
most quarrelsome against the manner of other men's per-
formances, and to be easily driven by any pretences from
the worship of God and communion of saints.
Tempt. XI. * The devil will set one duty against another :
reading against hearing ; praying against preaching ; pri-
vate against public ; outward and inward worship against
each other ; mercy and justice, piety and charity, against
each other ; and still labour to eject the greater.'
Direct, xi. The work of God is an harmonious and well-
composed frame : if you leave out a part you spoil the
whole, and disadvantage yourselves to all the rest ; place
them aright, and each part helpeth and not hindereth an-
other ; plead one for another, but cast by none.
Tempt. XII. ' The commonest and sorest temptation is
by taking away our appetite to holy duties, by abating our
feeling of our own necessity : when the soul is sleepy and
feeleth no need of prayer, or reading, or hearing, or medi-
tating, but thinks itself tolerably well without it ; or else
grows sick and is against it, and troubled to use it ; so that
every duty is like eating to a sick stomach, then it is easy
to tempt it to neglect or omit many a duty : a little thing
will serve to put it by, when men feel no need of it.'
Direct, xii. O keep up a lively sense of your necessities :
remember still that time is short, and death is near, and you
are too unready. Keep acquaintance with your hearts and
lives, and every day will tell you of your necessities, which
are greatest when they are least perceived.
Tempt. XIII. * The tempter gets much by ascribing the
success of holy means to our own endeavour, or to chance,
or something else, and making us overlook that present
benefit, which would greatly encourage us : as when we are
delivered from sickness or danger upon prayer, he tells you
so you might have been delivered if you had never prayed.
Was it not by the physician's care and skill, and by such an
excellent medicine ? If you prosper in any business. Was it
not by your own contrivance and diligence V
Direct, xiii. This separating God and means, when God
worketh by means, is the folly of atheists. When God hear-
eth thy prayer in sickness or other danger, he sheweth it by
directing the physician or thyself to the fittest means, and
blessing that means ; and he is as really the cause, and
314 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
prayer the first means, as if he wrought thy deliverance by
a miracle. Do not many use the same physician, and me-
dicine^ and labour, and diligence, who yet miscarry ? Just
observation of the answers of prayer might do much to cure
this. All our industry may say as Peter and John, " Why
look ye so earnestly on us, as if by our own power or holi-
ness we had done this^?" when God is glorifying his grace,
and owning his appointed means.
Tempt. XIV. * Lastly, the devil setteth up something else
in opposition to holy duty, to make it seem unnecessary.
In some he sets up their good desires, and saith, God know-
eth thy heart without expressing it ; and thou mayst have
as good a heart at home as at church. In some he sets up
superstitious fopperies of man's devising, instead of God's
institution. In some he pretendeth the Spirit against ex-
ternal duty, and saith. The Spirit is all ; the flesh profiteth
nothing. Yea, in some he sets up Christ himself against
Christ'<s ordinances, and saith. It is not these, but Christ,
that profits you.'
Direct, xiv. This is distracted contradiction : to set
Christ against Christ, and the Spirit against the ordinances
of the Spirit. Is it not Christ and the Spirit that appointed
them ? Doth he not best know in what way he will give his
grace? Can you not preserve the soul and life, without
killing the body? Cannot you have the water, and value the
cistern or spring, without cutting off the pipes that must
convey it ? O wonderful ! that satan could make men so
mad, as this reasoning hath shewed us that many are in our
days. And to set up superstition or pretend a good heart
against God's worship is to accuse him that appointed it
of doing he knew not what, and to think that we are wiser
than he ! And to shew a good heart by disobedience, pride,
contempt of God and of his mercies !
Temptations to frustrate holy Duties, and make them ineffectual.
The devil is exceeding diligent in this : 1 . That he may
make the soul despair, and say. Now I have used all means
in vain; there is no hope. 2. To double the sinner's misery,
by turning the very remedy into a disease. 3. To shew his
^ Acts iii. 1 2.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 315
malice against Christ, and say, I have turned thy own means
to thy dishonour.
Consider, therefore, how greatly we are concerned to do
the work of God effectually. Means well used are the way
to more grace, to communion with God, and to salvation ;
but ill used, they dishonour and provoke him, and destroy
ourselves : like children that cut their fingers with a knife,
when they should cut their meat with it.
Tempt. I. * Duty is frustrated by false ends : As 1. To
procure God to bear with them in their sin : (whereas it is
the use of duty to destroy sin.) 2. To make God satisfac-
tion for sin (which is the work of Christ). 3. To merit
grace (when the imperfection merits wrath). 4. To prosper
in the world and escape affliction ^ (and so they are but
serving their flesh, and desiring God to serve it). 6. To
quiet conscience in a course of sin (by sinning more in offer-
ing the sacrifice of fools). 6. To be approved of men (and
verily they have their reward*'). 7. To be saved when they
can keep the world and sin no longer, (that is, to obtain
that the Gospel may all be false and God unjust.)'
Direct, i. First see that the heart be honest, and God,
and heaven, and holiness most desired, else all that you do
will want right ends. \hihi^j(
Tempt. II. * When ignorance or error make men take
God for what he is not, thinking blasphemously of him, as
if he were like them, and liked their sins, or were no lover
of holiness ; they frustrate all their worship of him.'
Direct, ii. Study God in his Son, in his Word, in his
saints, in his works : know him as described before, Chap,
iii. Direct, iv., and see that your wicked, corrupted hearts,,
or wilful forgetting him, blind not your understandings, a .
Tempt. III. ' To come to God in ourselves and out of
Christ, and use his name but customarily, and not in faith
and confidence.'
Direct, in. Know well your sin, and vilenes8,and desert,
and the justice and holiness of God, and then you will see
that if Christ reconcile you not, and j ustify you not by his
blood, and do not sanctify and help you by his Spirit, and
make you sons of God, and intercede not for you, there is
no access to God, nor standing in his sight.
^ James iv. 3. e Matt. vi. 5.
316 * CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Tempt. IV. ' The tempter would have you pray hypocri-
tically, with the tongue only without the heart : to put off
God with a few customary words, with seeming to pray (as
they do the poor, James ii. with a few empty words) either
in a form of words not understood, or not considered, or
not felt and much regarded ; or in more gross hypocrisy,
praying for the holiness which they will not hjave, and
against the sin which they will not part with.'
Direct, iv. O fear the holy, jealous, heart-searching God
that hateth hypocrisy, and will be worshipped seriously in
spirit and truth, and will be sanctified of all that draw near
him '^, and saith they " worship him in vain, that draw nigh
him with the lips, when the heart is far from him ^." See
.God by faith, as present with thee, and know thyself, and
it will awaken thee to seriousness ^
Tempt. V. * He would destroy faith and hope, and make
you doubt whether you shall g6t any thing by duty.'
Direct, v. But, 1. Why should God command it, and
promise us his blessing if he meant not to perform it ?
2. Remember God's infiniteness, and omnipresence, and
allsufficiency : he is as verily with thee, as thou art ther€ :
he upholdeth thee : he sheweth by his mercies, that he re-
gardeth thee ; and by his regarding lower things : and if he
regard thee, he doth regard thy duties. It is all one with him
to hear thy prayers, as if he had never another creature to
regard and hear. Believe then, and hope and wait upon him.
Tempt. VI. * Sometimes the tempter will promise you
more by holy duty, than God doth, and make you expect
deliverance from every enemy, want and sickness, and
speedier deliverance of soul, than ever God promised ; and
all this is to make you cast away all as vain, and think
God faileth you, when you miss your expectations.'
i Direct, vi. But God will do all that he promiseth, but
not all that the devil and yourselves promise. See what
,God promiseth in his Word. That is enough for you.
Make that and no more the end of duties.
Tempt. VII. * The tempter usually would draw you from
the heart and life of duty, by ascribing too much to the
outside : laying too much on the bare doing of the work,
the giving of the alms, the hearing of the sermons, the say-
d Lev. X. 3. « Matt. xv. 8, 9. ^ See Heb. iv. 13. Hos. viU. 12, 13.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 317
ing of the words, the handsome expression, order, manner ;
which in their places are all good, if animated with spirit,
life and seriousness.' ' " .; »
Direct, vii. Look most and first to the soul in duty, and
the soul of duty. The picture of meat feedeth not ; the
picture of fire warmeth not : fire and shadows will not nou-
rish us. God loveth not dead carcasses instead of spiritual
worship ; we regard not words ourselves, further than they
express the heart. Let the outer part have but its due.
Tempt. VIII. 'He tempteth you to rest in a forced,
affected, counterfeit fervency, stirred up by a desire to take
with others,'
Direct, viii. Look principally at God and holy motives,
and less at men, that all your fire be holy, fetched from
heaven.
Tempt. IX. 'He would keep you in a lazy, sluggish cold-
ness to read, and hear, and pray as asleep, as if you did it not.'
Direct, ix. Awake yourselves with the presence of God,
and the great concernment of what you are about, and yield
not to your sloth.
Tempt. X. * He would make you bring a divided, distract-
ed heart to duty, that is half about your worldly business.'
Direct, x. Remember God is jealous, your business with
him is great, much lieth on it, call oif your hearts, and let
them not stay behind ; all the powers of your souls are little
enough in such a work «.
Tempt. XI. * Ignorance, unskilfulness, and unacquaint-
edness with duty, are a great impediment to most.'
Direct, xi. Learn by study joined with practice : be not
weary, and difficulties will be overcome.
Tempt. XII. * Putting duty out of its place, and neglect-
ing the season that is fittest, makes it oft done slightly.'
Direct, ^u. Redeem time, and dispatch other business,
that idleness deprive you not of leisure : and do all in order.
Tempt. XIII. * Neglecting one duty is the tempter's
snare to spoil another. If he can keep you from reading,
you will not understand well what you hear : if he keep you
from meditating, you will not digest what you hear or read.
If he keep you from hearing, you will want both matter and
life for prayer, and meditation, and conference : if he keep
K Ezek. xxxtii. 31.
318 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
you from godly company, you will be hindered in all, and
in the practice : no one is omitted, but you are disadvan-
taged by it in all the rest.'
Direct, xiii. Observe how one duty helpeth another,
and take all together each one in its place.
Tempt. XIV. ' Sometimes the tempter doth call you off
to other duty, and puts in unseasonable motions to that
which in its time is good : he interrupts prayer by medita-
tion, he sets seeming truth against love, and peace, and
concord.'
Direct, xiv. Still know which duties are greatest, and
which is the due season for each, and do all in order.
Tempt. XV. * He spoileth duty, by causing you to do
it only as a duty, and not as a means for the good of your
own souls, or only as a means, and not as a duty : if you do
it only as a duty, then you will not be quickened to it by
the ends and benefits, nor carried by hope, nor fit all to the
end, nor be so fervent or vigorous in it, as the sense of your
own good would make you be. And if you do it only as a
means, and not as a duty, then you will give over or faint,
when you want or question the success : whereas, the sense
of both would make you vigorous and constant.'
Direct, x v. Keep under the sense of God's authority,
that you may feel yourselves bound to obey him, whatever
be the success ; and may resolve to wait in an obedient
way. And withal, admire his wisdom in fitting all duties to
your benefit, and commanding you nothing but what is for
your own, or others' good, or to his honour : and mark the
reason and tendency of all ; and your own necessity.
Tempt. XVI. * The tempter hindereth you in duty, as
well as from duty, by setting you a quarrelling with the mi-
nister, the words, the company, the manner; the circimi-
stances; that these things may divert your thoughts from
the matter, or distract your mind with causeless scruples.'
i^^ Direct, xvi. Pray and labour for a clear judgment, and
ailtipright, self-judging, humble heart, which dwelleth most
at home, and looketh most atthe spiritual part, and affecteth
not singularity.
Tempt. XVII. * The tempter spoileth duty by your in-
constancy : while you read or pray so seldom, that you have
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 319
lost the benefit of one duty, before you come to another,
and cool by intermissions.'
Direct, xvii. Remember that it is not your divertise-
ment, but your calling, and is to your soul, as eating to your
bodies.
Tempt. XVIII. * Sometimes satan corrupteth duty by
men's private passions, interest, and opinions, making men,
in preaching and praying, to vent their own conceits and
spleen, and inveigh against those that differ from them, or
offend them, and profane the name and work of God : or
proudly to seek the praise of men.*
Direct, xviii. Remember that God is most jealous in his
worship, and hateth hypocritical profaneness, above all
profaneness. Search your hearts, and mortify your pas-
sions; and especially selfishness, remembering that it is a
poisonous and insinuating sin, and will easily hide itself
with a cloak of zeal.
Tempt. XIX. * False-hearted reservedness is a most ac-
cursed corrupter of holy duty : when the soul is not wholly
given up to God, but sets upon duty from some common
motive ; as, because it is in credit, or to please some friend,
purposing to try it awhile, and leave it, if they like it not.'
Direct, xix. Fear God, thou hypocrite, and halt not be-
tween two opinions. If the Lord be God, obey and serve
him with all thy heart : but, if the devil and the flesh be
better masters, follow them, and let him go.
Tempt. XX. Lastly, * The tempter hindereth holy duty
much, by wandering thoughts, and melancholy perplexities,
and a hurry of temptations, which torment and distract
some Christians, so that they cry out, * I cannot pray, I can-
not meditate ;' and are weary of duty, and even of their
lives.'
Direct, xx. This sheweth the malice of the tempter, and
thy weakness ; but, if thou hadst rather be delivered from
it, it hindereth not thy acceptance with God. Read for
this, what I have said Chap. v. Part 2. at large ; especially
in my Directions to the Melancholy,
I have been forced to put off many things briefly here,
which deserved a larger handling ; and I must now omit the
discovery of those temptations, by which satan keepeth
men in sin, when he hath drawn them into it. 2. And those
320 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
by which he causeth declining in grace, and apostacy. 3.
And those by which he discomforteth true believers ; be-
cause else this Direction would swell to a treatise ; and
most will think it too long and tedious already, though the
brevity which I use, to avoid prolixity, doth wrong the mat-
ter through the whole. Acquaintance with temptations is
needful to our overcoming them.
Grand Direct, x. ' Your lives must be laid out in doing
God service, and doing all the good you can, in works of
piety, justice, and charity, with prudence, fidelity, industry,
zeal, and delight ; remembering that you are engaged to
God, as servants to their Lord and master ; and are entrust-
ed with his talents, of the improvement whereof you must
give account.'
The next relation between Christ and us, which we are
to speak of, (subordinate to that of King and Subjects,) is
this of Master and Servants. Though Christ saith to the
apostles, "Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends'*;"
the meaning is not that he calleth them not servants at all,
but not mere servants, they being more than servants, hav-
ing such acquaintance with his counsels as his friends. For
he presently, verse 20. bids them " Remember that the ser-
vant is not greater than the lord." And John xiii. 13. "Ye
call me Master and Lord ; and ye say well, for so I am."
And Matt, xxiii. 8. " One is your Master, Christ ; and all
ye are brethren:" so ver. 10. And the apostles called
themselves the " servants of Jesus Christ' ;" and " of God''."
He is called our Master, and we his servants, because
he is our Rector, * ex pleno dominio' with absolute proprie-
ty, and doth not give us laws to obey, while we do our own
work, but giveth us his work to do, and laws for the right
doing of it : and it is a service under his eye, and in depend-
ance on him for our daily provisions, as servants on their
lord. God hath work for us to do in the world ; and the
performance of it he will require. God biddeth his sons,
" Go work to day in my vineyard' ;^' and expecteth that they
do it™. His " servants" are as " husbandmen," to whom
*' he entrusteth his vineyard, that he may receive the fruit"."
h John XV. 5. ^ Rom. i. 1. and 1 Cor. iv. 1. Phil. i. 1. ^ Tit. i. 1.
.' Matt. xxi. 28. «» Ver. 31. " Ver. 33, 34. 41, 43.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 321
" Faithful servants" shall be " made rulers over his house-
hold °." Christ delivereth to his servants his talents to im-
prove, and will require an account of the improvement at
his coming P. Good works, in the proper, comprehensive
sense, are all actions internal and external, that are morally
good : but in the narrower acceptation, they are works, not
only formally good, as acts of obedience in general, but
also materially good, such as a servant doth for his master,
that tend to his advantage, or the profit of some other, whose
welfare he regardeth. Because the doctrine of Good Works
is controverted in these times, I shall first open it briefly,
and then give you the Directions.
1 . Nothing is more certain, than that God doth not need
the service of any creature ; and that he receiveth no addi-
tion to his perfection or felicity from it ; and, consequently,
that on terms of commutative justice, (which giveth one thing
for another, as in selling and buying,) no creature is capa-
ble of meriting at his hands.
2. It is certain, that on the terms of the law of works,
(which required perfect obedience as the condition of life,)
no sinner can do any work so good, as in point of distribu-
tive, governing justice, shall merit at his hands.
3. It is certain, that Christ hath so fulfilled the law of
works, as to merit for us.
4. The redeemed are not masterless, but have still a Lord,
who hath now a double right to govern them : and this go-
vernor giveth them a law : and this law requireth us to do
good works, as much as we are able, (though not so terribly,
yet) as obligingly as the law of works : and by this (of
Christ) we must be judged : and thus we must be judged
accordmg to our works : and to be judged is nothing else
but to be justified or condemned. Such works, therefore,
are rewardable according to the distributive justice of the
law of grace, by which we must be judged. And the an-
cient fathers, who (without any opposition) spoke of good
works as meritorious with God, meant no more, but that
they were such as the righteous Judge of the world will re-
ward, according to the law of grace, by which he judgeth
us. And this doctrine being agreed on as certain truth,
there is no controversy left with them, but whether the
o Matt. xxiv. .45, 46. p Matt, xxv, 14.
VOL. II. Y
32^2 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
word 'merit' was properly or improperly used: and that
both Scripture, and our common speech, alloweth the fa-
thers' use of the word, I have shewed at large in my " Con-
fession."
6. Christ is so far from redeeming us from a necessity
of good works, that he died to restore us to a capacity and
ability to perform them, and hath new-made us for that end.
'* He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works '^." " For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus to good works, which God hath before ordain-
ed that we should walk in them''."
6. Good works opposed to Christ, or his satisfaction,
merit, righteousness, mercy, or free-grace, in the matter of
justification or salvation, are not good works, but proud
self-confidence and sin : but good works, in their due su-
bordination to God's mercy, and Christ's merits and grace,
are necessary and rewardable.
7. Though God need none of our works, yet that which
is good materially pleaseth him, as it tendeth to his glory,
and to our own and others' benefit, which he delighteth in.
8* It is the communicating of his goodness and excel-
lencies to the creature, by which God doth glorify himself
in the world : and in heaven, where is the fullest communi-
cation, he is most glorified : therefore the praise which is
given to the creature, who receiveth all from him, is his
own praise. And it is no dishonour to God, that his crea-
ture be honoured, by being good, and being esteemed good :
otherwise, God would never have created any thing, lest it
should derogate from himself: or, he would have made them
bad, lest their goodness were his dishonour ; and he would be
most pleased with the wicked, and least pleased with the
best, as most dishonouring him. But madness itself abhor-
reth these conceits.
9. Therefore, as an act of mercy to us, and for his own
glory, (as at first he made all things very good, so) he will
make the new creature according to his image, which is ho-
ly, and just, and good, and will use us in good works ; and
it is our honour, and gain, and happiness to be so used by ^
him. As he will not communicate light to the world, with-
q Tit. ii. 14. ' Ephes. ii. 10.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 323
out the sun, (whose glory derogateth not from his honour :)
so will he not do good works in the world, immediately by
himself only; but by his servants, whose calling and daily
business it must be, as that which they are made for, as the
sun is made to give light and heat to inferior things. " Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven*."
Christ was far from their opinion, that think all good works
that are attributed to good men, are dishonourable to God*.
10. He is most beholden to God, that is most exercised
in good works. The more we do, the more we receive from
him : and our very doing itself is our receiving ; for it is he
that " giveth us both to will and to do," by his operation in
us" ; even " he, without whom we can do nothing"."
11. The obligation to good works, that is, to works of
piety, justice, and charity, is essential to us as servants of
the Lord. We are practical atheists, if we do not the works
of piety to God : we are rebels against God, and enemies to
ourselves, and unmeet for human society, if we do not the
works which are good for ourselves, and for others, if we
have ability and opportunity. This is our fruit which God
expecteth ; and if we bear it not, he will hew us down, and
cast us into the fire.
12. Though doing no hurt will not serve turn, without
doing good, yet it is not the same works that are required of
all, nor in the same degree, but according to every man's
talent and opportunities y.
13. God looketh not only nor principally at the external
part of the work, but much more to the heartof him that
doth it : nor at the length of time, but at the sincerity and
diligence of his servants. And therefore, though he is so
just, as not to deny the reward which was promised th^^tt,
to those that have borne the burden and heat of the day ; yet
is he so gracious and bountiful, that he will give as much,
» Matt. V. 16.
t Vir bonus est qui prodest quibus potest, nocet autem uemini. P. Scalig. Ne
pigeat evangelicum rainistrum, aegrotum visitare, xenio aliquo recreare, famelicum
cibario saltern pane pascere, nudum operire, paupereni cui non est adjutor, a divituni
calumniis et potentia eripere, pro afflictis principem magistratumve convenire : rem
familiarem consilio augere, morientibus sedulo et benigne astare, lites et dissidia com-
ponere, &c. Acosta lib. iv. c. 18. p. 418.
» Phil. ii. 13. "" John xv. 5. > Matt, xxv, 14, 15, &c.
324 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
to those that he findeth as willing and diligent, and would
have done more if they had opportunity^. You see in all
this, what our doctrine is about good works, and how far
those Papists are to be believed, who persuade their igno-
rant disciples, that we account them vain and needless
things.
Directions for faithful serving Christ, and doing good.
Direct, i. * Be sure that you have the holiness, justice,
and charity within, which are the necessary principles of
good works.* —For "a good tree will bring 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 % so out of the heart must good
works come ^. Can the dead do the works of the living ?
or the unholy 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.
Direct, ii. ' Content not yourselves to do some good ex-
traordinarily 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 encou-
ragements, 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.
Direct, iii. * Before you do any work, consider, whether
you can truly say, it is a service of God, and will be ac-
« Matt. XX. 12—15. » Matt. xv. 19, 20. »> Matt. vii. 16—20.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. B^26
cepted by him. See therefore that it be done, 1. To his
glory, or to please him. 2. And in obedience to his com-
mand.'— Mere 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 ra-
tional (or at least of obediential) choice. Such as the wink-
ing of the eye, the setting of this foot forward first, the
taking of this or that meat, or drink, or instrument, or com-
pany, 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 moralised or made good, by doing it, 1. To a right
end ; and 2. According to the rule. " Whether we eat,
or drink, or whatsoever we do (that is matter of rational
choice), must be done by us to the glory of God "=." All
works tend not alike to his glory ; but some more imme-
diately and directly, and others remotely : but all must ul-
timately have this end. Even servants that labour 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 '^. All the comforts of
food, or rest, or recreation, or pleasure which we take,
should be intended to fit us for our master's work, or
strengthen, cheer, or 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.
Direct. IV. * 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 ^.
Direct, v. * Acquaint yourselves with all the talents
which you receive from God, and what is the use to which
«^ 1 Cor. X. 31. ^ Ephes. vi. 5—8. Col. iii. 22—25.
« Some think, they merit by curing the hurts 'which they have caused them-
selves. Nequitia est, ut extrahas raergere j evertere, ut suscites ; ut emittas, inclu-
dere. Non enim beneficium, injuriae finis: nee unquam id detraxisse meritum est,
quod ipse qui deiraxit, intulerat. Seneca de Bcnef. lib. vi. c. xxvi. Elz, p, 512.
326 CHRISTIAN DIRECTOUY. [PAllT I.
they should be improved.' — Keep thus a just account of
your receivings, and what goods of your master's is put into
your hands. And make it a principal part of your study,
to know what every thing in your hand is good for to your
master's use ; and how it is that he would have you use it.
Direct, vi. •' Keep an account of your expences ; at least
of all your most considerable talents : and bring yourselves
daily or frequently to a reckoning, what good you have done,
or attempted 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 ev«fy mercy, what you have done with it for your mas-
ter's use. And think not hours, and minutes, and little
mercies may be passed without coming into the account.
The servant that thinks he may do what he list with shillings
and pence, and that he is only to lay out greater sums for
his master's use, and lesser for his own, will prove unfaith-
ful, and come short in his accounts. Less sums than
pounds must be in our reckonings.
Direct. V 11, * 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 re-
quireth.' — It is not for nothing that God calleth for the
first fruits. *' Honour 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 out with
new wine ^" 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, in-
deed, 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 hydropic 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
f Prov. iii. 9, 10. So Exod. xxiii. 16. 19. xxxiv. 22. 26. Lev. ii. 12. 14.
^'ellem. x. 35. Ezek. xx. 40. xliv. 30. xlviii. 14.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 327
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
ourselves, 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.
Direct, viii. * Prefer greater duties (cseteris paribus)
before lesser : and labour 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.
Direct, ix. * 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 labour much for wis-
dom, 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 en-
tangled 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 apos-
tles, that those that killed them, should think they did (jod
service. And Paul bare record to the murderous, persecut-
ing Jews, " that they had a [zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge." The Papists' murders of Christians
under the name of heretics, hath recorded it to the world, in
328 CHRISTIAJ^ DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
the blood of many hundred thousands, how ignorant, carnal
zeal will do good, and what sacrifice it will offer up to God^.
Direct, x. * In doing good prefer the souls of men be-
fore the body, ' cseteris 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 ^,' — 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 sometimes mercy to the body is in that
season to be preferred (for every thing 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 some-
times 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 direc-
tions : they will not only look at the immediate benefit of a
work, but to its utmost tendency and remote eflTects.
Direct, xi. ' In doing good, prefer the good of many ; espe-
cially of the church or commonwealth, before the good of one
or few'.* — For many are more worth than one ; and many
will honour God and serve him more than one : and there-
fore both piety and charity require it. Yet this also must
be understood with a ' caeteris paribus ;' for it is possible,
some cases of exception may be found. Paul's is a high in-
stance, that " could have wished himself accursed from
Christ," for the sake of the Jews, as judging God's honour
more concerned in all them than in him alone.
Direct, xii. " Prefer a durable good that will extend to
posterity, before a short and transitory good.' — As to build
% ' Sell all and give to the poor, and follow mc' But sell not all, except tJiou
follow me : that is, except thou have a vocation, in which thou raayst do as much
good with littlo means, as with great. Lord Bacon's Essay 13.
•» Jam. V. 20.
• Absurdura est unum laute vivcre, cummuiti esuriunt. Quanto enim gloriosius
tsl raultis benefacere, quam niagnifice habitare? Quanto prudentius in homines
q\i;im in lapides, et in aurum impensas faccrc. Clem, Alexand. ii. Psedag. 12.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 329
an alms-house is a greater work than to give an alms, and to
epect 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 everlast-
ing good. This is the pre-eminence of 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 Jesuit's 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 !
Direct, xiii. * Let all that you do for the churches' good
be sure to tend to Holiness 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. Whatever they pre-
tend, 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 worshipping 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 humour 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 wis-
dom 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 de-
scendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish ;
for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and
every evil work." Jam. iii. 14— -18.
Direct, xiv. ' If you will do the good which God accept-
330 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
eth, do thUt which he requireth ; and put not the name of
good works upon your sins, nor upon unnecessary things ^f
your own invention : nor think that any good must be ac-
complished by forbidden means/ — None know what pleas-
eth 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 honour 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. Godneedethnot our lie
to his glory : if Papists think to find at the last day their fop-
pish ceremonies, and superstitions, 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 perjury, treasons, rebellions, or conspiracies numbered
with good works ; or the persecuting of the preachers and
faithful professors of godliness to be good works ; how la-
mentably will they find their expectations disappointed !
Direct, xv. ' Keep in the way of your place and calling,
and take not other men's works upon you without a call,
under any pretence 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 an-
other 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.
Direct, xvi. * Where God hath prescribed you some par-
ticular good work or way of service, you must prefer that
before another which is greater in itself.' — This is explica-
tory or limiting of Direct, viii. The reason is, because God
knoweth best what is pleasing to him, and " obedience is
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. . 331
better than sacrifice." You must not neglect the necessary
maintenance of wife and children, under pretence of doing
a work of piety or greater good : because God hath pre-
scribed 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 em-
ployment, he will better accept you in that work than if you
undertook the work of another man's place, to do him
greater service.
Direct, xvii. ' Lose not your resolutions or opportu-
nities of doing good by unnecessary delays.' — *' Withhold
not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the
power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour.
Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give ; when thou
hast it by thee''." — " Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth ^" It is 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.
Direct, xviii. * Yet present necessity may make a lesser
work to be thy duty, when the greater may better bear de-
lay.'— 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 sa-
crifice, 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.
Direct. XIX. ' Though ' cseteris 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 a fire in the town, before a prayer, or sa-
crament, or observation of a sabbath : David eat the shew-
bread, and the disciples of Christ rubbed out the corn on
^ Prov. iii. 27, 28. ' Prov. xxvii. 1.
S32 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
the sabbath-day, because the preserving of life was a greater
duty than the observing of a sabbath, or a positive, cere-
monial 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 pleas-
ing God, and maintaining piety, or promoting men's several
opinions in religion.
Direct. XX. * Choose that employment or calling (so far
as you have your choice) in which you may be most ser-
viceable to God.' — Choose not that in which you may be
most rich or honourable in the world ; but that in which
you may do most good, and best escape sinning.
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 ser-
viceable to the church (which is the ordinary difference be-
tween men in public places and men in solitude), which of
these should I choose V
. 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 ordi-
narily 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 cautious in approaching them ; but if
you are, you may trust God the more boldly 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 neces-
sities of the church or state, and the want of fitter instru-
ments, 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 temptations can necessitate you
CHAP. Ill] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 333
to sin, and God that calleth you can easily preserve you ;
but take heed what you thrust yourselves upon.
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""?'
Amw. The apostle only requireth men to make no
unlawful change, (such as is the forsaking of a wife or
husband) nor any unnecessary change as if it were neces-
sary (as in the case of circumcision): but in the next
words he saith, " Art thou called being a servant? care not
for it ; but if thou mayst 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 ". He speaks more of relations (of single
persons and married, servants and free, &c.) than of 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 no where forbids men to change their employment for
the better, upon a sufficient cause or call.
Direct, xxi. ' 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 chars, as a recreation, or on the by : but every one
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 V Answ. It may ex-
cuse 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 another, than the
poorest man : unless you think that God requireth least
where he giveth most. Quest. * Will not age excuse us V
Answ. Yes, so far as it disableth you; but no further.
Object. 'But I am turned out of my calling.' Answ. You are
«n 1 Cor. vii. 20. " lb. ver. 24.
334 CHRISTIAN DIRIi;CTORY. [PART I.
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 V Answ. You may
cast off all such excess of worldly cares or business as un-
necessarily hinder you in spiritual things : but you may not
cast off all bodily employment and mental labour in which
you may serve the common good. Every one that is a mem-
ber of the church or commonwealth, must employ their parts
to the utmost for the good of the church and commonwealth :
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 labour 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 brow " : and he
that " will not work must be forbidden to eat p." And in-
deed it is necessary to ourselves, for the health of our bodies,
which 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 is like will (by
sickness or melancholy) be disabled ere long either to pray
or meditate : unless he have a body extraordinary strong.
Direct, xxii. 'Be very watchful redeemers of your
time, and make conscience of every hour and minute, that
you lose it not, but spend it in the best and most service-
able manner that you can.' — Of this I intend to speak more
particularly anon ; and therefore shall here add no more.
Direct, xxiii. * Watchfully and resolutely avoid the en-
tanglements and diverting occasions, by which the tempter
will be still endeavouring 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
o Gen. iii. 19. p 2 Thess. iii. 6. 10. 12.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 335
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 spoken to, and this or that civility that must
be performed ; so that trifles shall detain you from all con-
siderable works. I confess friends must not be neglected,
nor civilities 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
offence 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.
Direct. XXIV. * 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.
Direct, xxv. ' Understand how much you are beholden
to God (and not he to you) in that he will employ you in
doing any good : and how it is the way of your own re-
ceiving ; and know the excellency of your work and end,
that you may do it all with love and pleasure.' — Unacquainted-
ness with our master, and with the nature and tendency of
our work, is it that maketh it seem tediouB 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
and wearisome to us : for a little thing will stop him that
goeth unwillingly and in continual pain.
Direct. XXVI. * Expect your reward from God alone, and
look for unthankfulness and abuse from men, or wonder not
336 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [pART I.
if it befal you.'— If you are not the servants of men but of
God, expect your recompence 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. Expect, especially if you are ministers or
others that labour 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 seek-
ing men's salvation, yet the more you love, the less you will
(by many) be loved : and those that he could have wished
himself accursed from Christ to save, did hate him and
persecute him, as if he had been the most accursed wretch :
a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among the people,
and one that turned the world upside down, were the names
they gave him ; and wherever he came, *' bonds and imprison-
ment 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 shewed more love
than any of his servants have to shew. " 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 despitefuUy use you and persecute you, if you will be
the children of God 'J."
Direct, xxvii. * Make not your own judgments or con-
sciences 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 every thing, which his con-
science telleth him is the will of God ; and that every man
must obey his conscience, as if it were the lawgiver of the
world ; whereas, indeed, it is not ourselves, but God that
is our lawgiver. And conscience is not appointed or autho-
rised, to make us any duty, which God hath not made us ;
1 Matt. V,
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 337
but only to discern the law of God, and call upon us to ob-
serve it : and an erring conscience is not to be obeyed, but
to be better informed, and brought to a righter performance
of its office.
In prosecution of this Direction, I shall here answer se-
veral cases about doubting;.
Quest. I. * 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?'
Ansiv. 1. In all these cases about an erring or a doubting
conscience, forget not to distinguish between 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 may I 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 du-
ty, as often as our opinions change about it. The obliga-
tion 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, be-
cause 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 pro-
fane, 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.
Quest. II. * But is it not every man's duty to obey his
conscience V
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
VOL. TI. z
338 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
at all to be obeyed strictly as a commander, but it is to be
obeyed in a larger sense, that is, to be followed, wherever 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.
Quest. III. * But is it not a sin for a man to go against
his conscience V
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 ma-
terially. 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.
Quest. IV. * 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 V
Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes, or con-
currence 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 obe-
dience in the particular act. It is not only a wilfully op-
posing and positive rejecting the authority of the comman-
der, 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 effectual-
ly move us to our duty as it ought. Now this formal disobe-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 339
dience is found in your erroneous conscience : for if God's
authority had moved you as it should have done, to diligent
inquiry and the use of all appointed means, and to the avoid-
ing 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 particu-
lar duty, which you could not possibly come to know.
Quest. V. * 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 V
Answ. You must avoid the sin, by changing your judg-
ment, 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 attain-
ing to innocence any other Way, but by coming first to know
your duty, and then to do it. If you command your ser-
vant 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 bet-
ter informed i and no way else will serve the turn.
Quest, VI. * Seeing no man that erreth, doth know or
think that he erreth, (for that is a contradiction) how can I
lay by that opinion, or strive against it, which I take to be
the truth V
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 impartiality, and diligently use all God's means, and
avoid the causes of deceit and error ; and the light of truth
will at once shew you the truth, and shew you that before
you erred. In the mean time, sin will be sin though you
take it to be duty, or no sin.
Quest. \u. * But seeing he that knoweth his master's
340 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
will and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes ;
and he that knoweth it not, with few ; is it not my duty
chiefly to avoid the many stripes, by avoiding sinning
against my conscience or knowledge V
Answ. 1. Your duty is to avoid both: and if both
were not sinful, they would not both be punished with
stripes. 2. Your conscience is not your knowledge when
you err, but your ignorance. Conscience, as it signifieth the
faculty of knowing, may be said to be conscience when it
erreth ; as reason is reason, in the faculty, when we err.
And conscience, as to an erring act, may be called con-
science, so far as there is any true knowledge in the act :
(as a man is said to see, when he misjudgeth of colours, or
to reason, when he argueth amiss.) But, so far as it erreth,
it is no conscience in act at all : for conscience is science,
and not nescience. You sin against your knowledge, when
you sin against a well-informed conscience, but you sin in
ignorance when you sin against an erring conscience. 3.
And if the question be not, what is your duty, but which is
the smaller sin, then it is true, that (cseteris paribus) it is a
greater sin to go against your judgments, than to follow it.
But yet, other imparities in matter and circumstances, may
be an exception against this rule.
Quest. VIII. * But it is not possible for every man pre-
sently to know all his duty, and to avoid all error about his
duty. Knowledge must be got in time. All men are igno-
rant in many things : should I not then in the mean time
follow my conscience V
Answ. 1. Your ignorance is culpable, or not culpable.
If it be not culpable, the thing which you are ignorant of is
not your duty. If culpable (which is the case supposed),
as you brought yourself to that difficulty of knowing, so it
will remain your sin till it be cured ; and one sin will not
warrant another. And all that time you are under a double
command, the one is to know, and use the means of know-
ledge ; and the other is to do the thing commanded. So
that how long soever you remain in error, you remain in
sin, and are not under an obligation to follow your error,
but first to know, and then to do the contrary duty. 2. And
as long as you keep yourselves in a necessity, or way of sin-
ning, you must call it sin as it is, and not call it duty. It is
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 341
not your duty to choose a lesser sin before a greater ; but
to refuse and avoid both the lesser and the greater. And if
you say, ' you cannot,' yet, remember, that it is only your
sin that is your impotency, or, your impotency is sinful.
But it is true, that you are most obliged to avoid the great-
est sin : therefore, all that remaineth in the resolving all
such cases, is but to know, of two sins, which is the
greatest.
Quest. IX. * What, if there be a great duty, which I can-
not perform, without committing a little sin? Or, a very
great good, which I cannot do, but by an unlawful means ?
As, to save the lives of many by a lie.'
Answ. 1. It is no duty to you, when you cannot do it
without wilful 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 govern-
ment, 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 *" ?" " He that
turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
shall be abomination ^'' " Be more ready to hear, than to
offer the sacrifice of fools : for they consider not that they
do evil*." 2. If you will do good by sinning, you must do
good in opposition to God : and how easily can he dis-
appoint 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 good which is
not so, because you judge by the present feeling of your
flesh, and do not foresee how it stands related to the ever-
lasting good.
Quest. X. ' Seeing then that I am sure beforehand that I
cannot preach, or hear, or pray, or do any good action with-
out sin, must I not, by this rule, forbear them all V
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.
' Prov. xxi. 27. xv. 8. * Prov. xxviii. 9. * Eccles. t. 1.
342 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
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 per-
fect : and to cast away his service, is a far greater sin, than
to do it imperfectly. But you may serve him without such
wilful, chosen sin, if not in one way, yet in another. The
imperfection of your service is rep6nted of while it is com-
mitted ; 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 blasphemeth 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.
Quest. XI. ' What, if 1 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 V
Answ. 1 . The question * de esse' must go before the ques-
tion * de apparere.' Either that which you say you are un-
certain 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 cer-
tain that it is a duty to obey my teachers ; but I am uncer-
tain 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 subsciibe, are sinful or false ; there-
CHAPv III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 343
fore I must not leave a great and certain duty for an un-
certain 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 be-
cause you doubt. 2. You contradict yourselves by a mis-
take. 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 un-
lawful 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 lawful-
ness 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 an-
swer, 1. It is your sin to be uncertain whether rebellion be a
sin : and God bindeth you to lay by the sin of your judg-
ment, and not to make it a shoeing-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 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.
Quest. XII. * 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 re-
344 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
main still unresolved, and after my most diligent inquiry,
am as much in doubt as ever, what should I then do V
Ansio. ] . 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 practise). 2. But
if you are truly willing to understand, and practise, 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
inquiry, and biassed, or unwilling to know the truth, or do
it ; or because you use not the true appointed means for re-
solution, but in partiality or laziness, neglect it.
Quest. XIII. ' 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 con-
scious of any unfaithfulness, but human frailty, that keep-
eth 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." 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, biassed, partial mind, or wilful
laziness is the cause of. Diligent study, and inquiry, and
prayer, with a sincere desire to know the truth, may suc-
ceed, 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, uncer-
tainties in some particular cases ; and though God make it
not our duty of two sins to choose the less, but to refuse
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 345
both, yet he maketh it our duty more diligently to avoid
the greater than the less. And ofttimes the case is so sud-
den, that no inquiry 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 circumstan-
ces, which make sins great or small, are to be compared,
they are ofttimes so numerous and various, that no rules
can be laid down beforehand, 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 counsellor. Present Prudence and Sincerity
must do most.
Rule I. * In things altogether indifferent, nothing must
be done that conscience doubteth of, because there is a pos-
sibility 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 in-
different, as clothed with all its circumstances, and that
there be no accident that taketh away its indifferency.
Rule II. * In case the thing be really unlawful, and I
think it to be lawful, but with some doubting, but am clear
that the forbearing of it is no sin ; there the sin is only in
the doing it:' because all is clear and safe on the other
side.
Rule m. * There are many sins which are always, and
to all persons, in all cases, sins ; and not doubted of by
any, without gross unfaithfulness or negligence ; and here
there is no room for any doubting, whether we must do that
good which cannot be done without that sin ; it being cer-
tain that no such good can be a duty.* As, to commit ido-
latry; to blaspheme God; to deny Christ; to deny the
Scriptures ; to hate, or reproach, or oppose a holy life ; to
be perjured ; to approve, or justify the sin of others, &c. It
can be no duty which cannot be done without the wilful
yielding to, or committing these, or any known sin.
Rule IV. * There are some duties so great, and clear,
and constant to all, that none but a profligate or graceless
conscience (or one that is fearfully poisoned with sin), can
make a doubt of it deliberately.' These, therefore, come
not within the case before us.
346 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
liule V. * If moral evil be compared only with natural
good, or moral good with natural evil, there is no doubt to
be made of the case : the least sin having more evil in it
than the prosperity or lives of millions of men have good
(considered in themselves as natural good) : and the least
duty to God having more good in it than the death of mil-
lions of men (as such) hath evil/ For the good of duty and
the evil of sin are greatened by their respect to God, and
the other lessened as being good or evil only unto men, and
with respect to them.
Rule VI. * Where I am in an equal degree uncertain of
the duty to be omitted, and of the sin to be committed, it is
a greater sin to venture doubtfully upon 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 duty) is
less ; and 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 neighbour's house
be on fire, and I am in doubt whether I may take another
man's water to quench it against his will : or if my own, or
my child's, or neighbour's 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 life 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 sides), it is a far greater sin (if it prove a
sin) to omit the saving of the house or life than to take an-
other 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 man's life, by labour
on the sabbath-day ? or David had doubted, whether he
might eat the consecrated shew-bread in his necessity ? it
is clear, that the sinful neglect of a man's life is worse
than the sinful violation of a sabbath, or the sinful use of
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 347
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 is 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 3d of Concil. Lateran sub
Innocent III., one of which requireth men to swear for
transubstantiation, and to interpret the Scriptures only ac-
cording to the unanimous consent of the fathers (who never
unanimously consented to any exposition of the greatest
part of the Scriptures at all) , the other decreeth the pope's
deposing temporal lords, and disobliging their subjects from
their allegiance ? On the one side, I doubt whether by sub-
scribing 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 sub-
scription, 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 justify-
ing of perj ury or rebellion in whole countries is a far greater
sin than the sinful omission of my preaching : for he thai
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 sinners ; it is a lesser sin ' caeteris pa-
ribus' 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
348 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
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 whe-
ther 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 per-
jury. If Daniel and the three witnesses had been in equal
doubt, whether they should obey the king or pray to God
(as Dan. vi.), and renounce the bowing to his idol (Dan. iii.),
the sinful forbearance of prayer as then commanded, and the
sinful bowing to the idol, had been a greater sin than a sin-
ful disobeying the king's command in such a case, if they had
been mistaken.
Rule VII. ' If I cannot discern whether the duty to be
omitted, or the sin to be committed be materially 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 delibera-
tion.' 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 subscrip-
tion 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 sus-
picious 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.
Rule VIII. * If I could perceive no difference in the de-
grees 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.'
Rule IX. * If both greater material evil be on one side
than the other, and greater suspicion or evidence of the sin-
fulness also, then that must needs be the greater sin '
Rule X. * 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 j but the latter will be formally
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 349
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 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 shew more disobedience in keeping it, if it be not to
be kept.
Rule XI. * If it be a doubtful sin that I suspect on one
side, and but a single one on the other, it maketh an in-
equality in the case.' As suppose that in my father's family
there are heretics and drunkards, and I swear that in my
place and calling I will endeavour to cast them out. My
mother approveth my vow ; my father is against it, and dis-
chargeth 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 father's 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 endeavour the thing in my place and calling
before I vowed it.
Rule XII. * There is a great deal of difference between
omitting the substance of a duty for ever, and the delaying
it, or altering the time, and place, and manner.' For in-
stance, 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, re-
nouncing, or long forbearing prayer. And that which may
excuse an apostle for not preaching in the temple or syna-
gogues, or not having the emperor's or the high-priest's al-
lowance 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.
Rule XIII. ' If the duty to be omitted, and the sin to be
committed, seem equal in greatness, and our doubt be equal
350 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
as to both, it is commonly held safer to avoid the commis-
sion more studiously than the omission.' For which there
are many reasons given.
Rule XIV. ' 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 neces-
sary 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 ne-
cessary 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 times 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 V. imposeth the Interim upon Ger-
many : some pastors 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 ruler's licence, 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 meet, he could restore
their fuller liberties again : in the mean time, to serve him
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 351
as all pastors did for three hundred years after Christ (with-
out the licence of the civil magistrate) was not to cast
away their office. Another instance : the zealous Papists,
in the reign of Henry III. 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 mo-
derate 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
commonwealth.
Rule XV. ' When a thing is not prohibited and sinful,
simply in itself, but because of some accidental, or conse-
quential 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 ex-
ceeding difficulty to discern ofttimes, 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 trac-
tate be worse than none, in a case where error is so easy and
perilous.
Rule XVI. * As to the danger of the sinner himself, there
is a great deal of difference between an error and sin of hu-
man frailty, when the service of God, and true obedience,
and the common good, are sincerely intended ; and an error
and sin of false-heartedness 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 usual-
ly, the concomitants will shew 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 sheweth thereby that he
352 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
meant sincerely : the other doth no good in his place, and
sheweth his hypocrisy. One of the ministers preacheth
zealously, and privately laboureth as one that thirsteth for
the saving of souls : the other preacheth formally, and cold-
ly, and heartlessly, and never converteth a soul, and neg-
lecteth the work which he pretended was his end.
Grand Direct, xi. * Let it be most deeply engraven on
thy heart, that God is infinitely good, and amiable : thy
grand benefactor and father in Christ ; the end of all thou
art and hast; and the everlasting rest and happiness of thy
soul : see therefore that thy inflamed heart be entirely and
absolutely offered up unto him by the mediation of his Son,
to love him, to trust him, to delight in him, to be thank-
ful to him, to glorify him, and through faith to long for
the heavenly glory, where all this will be perfectly done
for ever. And first let us speak of Love.'
I did in the first Direction persuade you to lay a good
foundation in faith and knowledge. In the second, I direct-
ed you how to live upon Christ. In the third, how to believe
practically in the Holy Ghost. In the fourth, I directed you
to the orderly and practical knowledge of the attributes of
God. In the fifth, how to know God practically in his first
grand relation, as he is your owner. In the sixth, how to
know him practically in his second grand relation, as he is
your king and governor : and in subordination to his govern-
ing relation. In the seventh, I directed you in your relation
of disciples to Christ your teacher. And in the eighth, I
directed you in your relation of patients to Christ your
physician, and the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier. In the
ninth, I directed you in your relation of soldiers to Christ
the captain of your salvation. In the tenth, I directed you
in the relation of servants to Christ your master. And now
being past those subordinate relations (to the second), I
proceed to direct you in your third grand relation to God as
your Benefactor, Father, and Felicity. And because there
are divers great duties in this General, I shall first begin
with this of Love : and afterwards speak distinctly of the
rest.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 353
Directions for loving God as our Father and Felicity.
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.
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 splendour 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 uni-
versal 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, transcen-
dent, infinite good, eternally existent, and arbitrarily ap-
pearing in some created particles.) As the love of an infi-
nite 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.
2. Our love to God is not ordinarily so passionate, as
our love to creatures : because the nearness and sensible-
ness 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, occa-
sioneth a turbulent passionateness of love ; when the infi-
niteness of God hath no such occasion. Our love to crea
tures is like the running of a stream, in a channel that is
VOL. II. A A
354 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
too narrow for it, where stops and banks 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 de-
voured. Therefore our love to God must principally be per-
ceived, not in violent passions, but in 1. A high estimation
of him. 2. In the will's adhering 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 significatively
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 there-
fore, 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 least in flesh,) can have no
other volition of God, but as he is apprehended by the in-
tellect. 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
know 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 mo-
tion of the soul in flesh, may raise passions, by the instru-
mentality of the corporeal spirits, towards an immaterial
object: which is called the object of those passions, not
merely as the passions of a rational agent j 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 ho-
liness, which I chiefly love.
3. It is not only for his excellencies and perfections in
himself, nor only for his love and benefit to us, that grace
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 355
doth cause a sinner to love God ; but it is for both conjunct-
ly : as he is good, and doth good, especially to us, in the
greatest things.
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 condi-
tional 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 spe-
cial, 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 pos-
sible felicity, and that he will give us a special interest in
his favour, 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 be-
fore 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 in-
separably 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 be-
lieve 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 them-
selves : 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 cha-
racters of his love. But neither of these : for Scripture pro-
356 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
miseth not salvation to named, but described persons : and
evidence of special love there is none, before faith and re-
pentance, and the first love to God. And extraordinary re-
velation from heaven, by inspiration or angel, is not the or-
dinary begetter of faith : for faith is the belief of God speak-
ing 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 wick-
ed were condemned for not loving a false or feigned object,
it would quiet their consciences in hell, when they had de-
tected 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 for ever hap-
py 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, and is him-
self the offered happiness of the soul. He that dare say
that this much hath not an objective sufficiency to en-
gage the soul in special love, is a blind under-valuer of won-
derful mercy. 5. The first special grace bringeth no new
object for faith or love, but causeth a new act upon the for-
merly revealed object.
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 ad-
vancing them to greater love to God.
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.
7. The nearer we come to perfection, the more we shalJ
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN E'fHICS. 357
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.
II. Though love, in its own nature, be still the same ;
and is nothing but the rational appetite of good : or the
will's 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 impe-
rate acting, is thus differenced. I. Either the lover is in
the hopeful pursuit of the thing beloved : and then it is De-
siring, 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 Mourning, Lamenting Love. 3. Or he en-
joyeth 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, encou-
raged by some little foretastes 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 seek-
ing, desiring love; but destitute of enjoying, delighting
love. 3. The state of the glorified is perfection of enjoy-
ing, 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 : Litis 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 re-
" Nobilius et prjestantius est charitatem exercere in Deo, quam virtutes propter
Deum. Charhas compendiosissima ad Deum via est per quam celerrime in Deum
pervenitur j nee sine charitate aliqua virtus supernaturaliter hoinini sapit : charitas
enim rorma omnium virtutum est. Per hoc charitatis exercitium, homo ad tantam sui
abominationem venit, ul non solum seipsum conteranat, verura etiam se ab aliis con.
temni aequo animo ferat j imo etiam ab aliis contemptusgaudeat. Thaulerus, flor.
c, r. p.lt4.
S5& CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
signation 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,
anxi the end of all other graces, to which they tend, and to
which they grow up, and in which they terminate their ope-
rations. 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 acceptablenessi doth consist, without which
they are to God as a lifeless carrion is to U8. 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 his command ; for it is, as it
were, the nature of the will, which is the conunanding fa-
culty, and its object is the ultimate end which is the com-,
manding object. Love setteth the mind on thinking, the
tongue on speaking, the hands on working, the feet on go-^
ing, and every faculty obeyeth its command. 6. The obe-
dience 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 carri-
eth up the soul to such high delights, as causeth it to con-
temn and forget the toys which it before admired. 8. The
love of God is the true acknowledging and honouring him
as good. That blessed attribute, his Goodness, is denied or
despised by those who love him not. The light of the sun
would not be valued, honoured, 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 at-
tainment) is the enjoying and delighting grace : it is the
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 350
very content and felicity of the soul, both as it maketh us ca-
pable to receive the most delightful communications of God's
love to us, and as it is the soul's delightful closure with its
most amiable, felicitating object. 10. Love is the everlast-
ing grace, and the work which we must be doing in heaven
forever. These are the reasons of love's pre-eminence y.
IV. The love of creatures hath its Contraries on both ex-
tremes, 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 pos-
sibly 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 con-
cur 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 aver-
sation 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, nolition, and
aversation are hatred.
If you think it impossible, that men can hate God, whom
they confess to be infinitely good, consider for the true un-
derstanding of this hatred, 1. That it is not as good that
they hate him ; 2. and it is not God simply in himself con-
sidered ; 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 unsuit-
able 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,
y Austin, (Tract. 9. in Johan.) having shewed that among men, it maketh no one
beautiful to love one that is beautiful, saith, Anima nostra foeda est per iniquitatera:
atnando Deum pulchra efficitur: qualis amor qui reddat pulchrura amantem? Deus
semper Pater est : amavit nos foedos, ut ex fcedis faceret pulchros : pulchri erimus
amando eum qui pulcher est. Quantum in te crescit amor, tantum crescit pulchri-
tude ; quia ipsa charitas animae pulchritudo est.
360 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and the blindness and error of their minds. 3. 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 madman
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 out of
his mouth. 3. And they hate God, as one 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 forbid-
den them, and yet see that God will damn them in hell-fire if
they cast them not away : this filleth them with displacency
against God, as holy and just. 4. And then, consequently,
they hate him in the rest of his attributes : as his omni-
science, that he always seeth them ; his omnipresence, that
he is always with them ; his omnipotency, that he is irresist-
ible 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 accord-
ing to the measure of their wickedness, and carnal interest,
and concupiscence which he is against. Where you may
note, l.that the hatred ofGodbeginneth at the sensual love
of things temporal which he forbiddeth ; 2. that the wicked
great ones of the v/orld, and those that have the strongest
concupiscence, are justly 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.
. 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 hypo-
crites. 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
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 361
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 sinner's 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 honouring God with the lips and knee, are
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.
VI. The Directions for the exercise of the love of God
are these.
Direct. I. ' Consider well that the love of our Creator,
Redeemer, and Regenerator, is the very end for which we
are created, redeemed, and regenerated; 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, [' O sluggish soul ! dost thou
forget the use for which thou wast created, and for which
thou wast endued with rational faculties ? Dost thou repent
that thou art a man, and refuse the employment of a man ?
What is the means or instrument good for, but its proper
end and use of action? God made the sun to shine, and it
shineth ; he made the earth to support us and bear fruit,
and it doth accordingly : and he made thee to love him,
and wilt thou refuse and disobey ? How noble and excel-
lent is thy employment in comparison of their's ? Is the
fruit of the earth, or the labour of thy beast, or the service
of any inferior creature, so sweet and honourable a work as
thine, to know and love thy bountiful, glorious Creator ?
How happy is thy lot ! how blessed is thy portion in com-
362 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
parison of their's ? And dost thou forsake thy place, and
descend to more ignoble objects, as if thou hadst rather been
some silly, sordid animal ? If thou hadst not rather be a beast
than a man, why choosest thou the love and pleasures of a
beast, and refusest the love and pleasures of a man? Is
creation, and the image of God in a rational, free soul, a
thing to be thus contemned for nothing ? What is the sun
good for, if it should yield no light or heat ? And v^rhat art
thou good for more than the beasts that perish, if thou
knov^^ not and love not thy Creator ? If God should offer to
unman thee and turn thee into a horse or dog, thou M^ouldst
think he thrust thee into misery ; and yet thou canst vo-
luntarily and wilfully unman thyself, and take it as thy ease
and pleasure. If death came this night to dissolve thy na-
ture it would not please thee : and yet thou canst daily de-
stroy thy nature, as to its use and end, and not lament it !
It were better I had never been a man, nor ever had a heart
or love within me, if I use it not in the holy love of my
Creator. It is true, I have a body that is made to eat, and
drink, and sleep ; but all this is but to serve my soul in the
love of him that giveth me all. Life is not for meat, or
drink, or play; but these are for life, and life for the higher
ends of life.
* 2. Look unto thy Redeemer, drowsy soul ! and consi-
der for what end he did redeem thee : Was it to wander a
few years about the earth, and to sleep, and sport a while in
flesh ? Or was it to crucify thee to the world, and raise
thee up to the love of God ? He came down to earth from
love itself, being full of love, to shew the loveliness of God,
and reconcile thee to him, and take away the enmity, and
by love to teach thee the art of love. His love constrained
him to offer himself a sacrifice for sin, to make thee a priest
thyself to God, to offer up the sacrifice of an inflamed heart
in love and praise ; and wilt thou disappoint thy Redeemer,
and disappoint thyself of the benefits of his love ? The
means is for the end ; thou mayst as well say, I would not
be redeemed, as to say, I would not love the Lord.
* 3. And bethink thyself, O drowsy soul, for what thou
wast regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit ? Was it not
that thou mightst know and love the Lord ? What is the
Spirit of Adoption that is given to believers, but a Spirit of
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 363
predominant love to God'? Thou couldst have loved
vanity, and doted on thy fleshly friends and pleasures,
without the Spirit of God ; it was not for these, but to
destroy these, and kindle a more noble, heavenly fire
in thy breast that the Spirit did renew thee. Examine,
search, and try thyself, whether the Spirit hath sanctified
thee or not. Knowest thou not, that if " any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his*?" And if
Christ and his Spirit be in thee, thy love is dead to earthly
vanity, and quickened and raised to the most holy God.
Live then in the Spirit, if thou have the Spirit : to walk in
the Spirit is to walk in love. Hath the regenerating Spirit
given thee on purpose a new principle of love, and done so
much to excite it, and been blowing the coals so oft, and
shall thy carnality or sluggishness yet extinguish it? As
thou wouldst not renounce or contemn thy creation, thy
redemption, and regeneration, contemn not and neglect not
the love of thy Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator, which
is the end of all.']
Direct, ii. ' 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 temp-
tations which would make God seem unsuitable to thee.' —
[' O sluggish and unnatural soul ! should not an object so
admirably fit, allure thee ? Should not such attractive good-
ness draw thee ? Should not perfect amiableness win thee
wholly to itself? Do but know thyself and God, and then
forbear to love him if thou canst ! Where should the fish
live, but in the water ? And where should birds fly, but in
the air? God is thy very element : thou diest and sinkest
down to brutishness, if thou forsake him or be taken from
him. What should delight the smell, but odours ? or the
appetite, but its delicious food ? or the eye, but light, and
what it sheweth ? and the ear, but harmony ? and what
should delight the soul, but God ? If thou know thyself,
thou knowest, that the nature of thy mind inclineth to know-
ledge ; and by the knowledge of effects, to rise up to the
cause, and by the knowledge of lower and lesser matters, to
ascend to the highest and greatest. And if thou know God,
« Gal. iv. 6. * 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Rom. viii. 9.
CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
thou knowest, that he is the cause of all things, the maker,
preserver, and orderer of all, the Being of beings, the most
great, and wise, and good, and happy; so that to know
him, is to know all ; to know the most excellent, indepen-
dent, glorious being, that will leave no darkness nor unsa-
tisfied desire in thy soul. And is he not then most suitable
to thy mind ? If thou know thyself then, thou knowest that
thy will, as free as it is, hath a natural, necessary inclination
to goodness. Thou canst not love evil, as evil ; nor canst
thou choose but love apprehended goodness, especially the
chiefest good, if rightly apprehended. And if thou know
God, thou knowest that he is infinitely good in himself, and
the cause of all the good that is in the world, and the giver
of all the good thou hast received, and the only fit and sui-
table good, to satisfy thy desires for the time to come. And
yet, shall it be so hard to thee to love, so agreeably to per-
fect nature, so perfect, and full, and suitable a good ? even
Goodness and Love itself, which hath begun to love thee ?
Are any of the creatures which thou lovest so suitable to thee?
Are they good, and only good, and perfectly good, and un-
changeably and eternally good ? Are they the spring of com-
fort, and the satisfying happiness of thy soul ? Hast thou found
them so? or dost thou look to find them best at last? Foolish
soul ! canst thou love the uneven, defective, troublesome
creature, if to some one small, inferior use it seemeth suita-
ble to thee ? and canst thou not love Him, that is all that ra-
tional love can possibly desire to enjoy? What, though
the creature be near thee, and God be infinitely above thee ?
He is nearer to thee than they. And, though in glory he
be distant, thou art passing to him in his glory, and wilt
presently be there. Though the sun be distant from thee,
it communicateth to thee its light and heat, and is more
suitable to thee, than the candle, that is nearer thee. What,
though God be most holy, and thou too earthly and un-
clean? is he not the fitter to purify thee, and make thee
holy ? Thou hadst rather, if thou be poor, have the com-
pany and favour of the rich that can relieve thee, than of
beggars that will but complain with thee. And if thou be
unlearned and ignorant, thou wouldst have the company of
the wise and learned that can teach thee, and not of those
that are as ignorant as thyself. Who is so suitable to thy
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 365
desires, as he that hath all that thou canst wisely desire ;
and is willing and ready to satisfy thee to the full ?
Who is more suitable to thy love, than he that loveth thee
most, and hath done most for thee, and must do all that ever
will be done for thee, and is himself most lovely in his infi-
nite perfections ? O poor, diseased, lapsed soul ! if sin had
not corrupted, and distempered, and perverted thee, thou
wouldst have thought God as suitable to thy love, as meat
to thy hunger, and drink to thy thirst, and rest to thy
weariness, and as the earth, and water, the air, and sun are
to the inhabitants of the world ! O whither art thou fallen?
and how far, how long hast thou wandered from thy God,
that thou now drawest back from him as a stranger to thee,
and lookest away from him, as an unsuitable good V]
Direct, iii. * 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 any odour, nor taste any sweetness, nor see any colours,
that are too distant from us. And the mind being limited
in its activity, neglecteth, or reacheth not things too dis-
tant, 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 n^isery 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 him. [' Remember always, O my soul, that
none is so near thee as thy God. A Seneca could say, of
good men, that * God is with us, and in us.' Nature taught
heathens, that * in him we live, and move, and have our
being.' Thy friend may be absent, but God is never absent
from thee: he is with thee, when, as to men, thou art alone.
The sun is sufficient to illuminate but one part of the earth
366 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
at once ; and therefore must leave the rest in darkness. But
God is with thee night and day ; and there is no night to
the soul, so far as it enjoyeth him. Thy life, thy health,
thy love, and joy, are not nearer to thee than thy God : he
is now before thee, about thee, within thee, moving thee to
good, restraining thee from evil, marking and accepting all
that is well, disliking and opposing all that is ill. The light
of the sun doth not more certainly fill the room, and com-
pass thee about, than God doth with his goodness. He is
as much at leisure to observe thee, to converse with thee, to
hear and help thee, as if thou wert his only creature : as
the sun can as well illuminate every bird and fly, as if it
shined unto no other creature. Open the eye of faith and
reason, and behold thy God ! Do not forget him, or unbe-
lievingly deny him, and then say, * he is not here.' Do not
say, 'that the sun doth not shine,' because thou winkest.
O do not quench thy love to God, by feigning him to be out
of reach, and taken up with other converse ! Turn not to in-
ferior delights, by thinking that he hath turned thee off to
these : and love him not as an absent friend ; but as the
friend that is always in thy sight, in thy bosom, and in thy
heart ; the fuel that is nearest to the flames of love.']
Direct, iv. ' All other graces must do their part in as-
sisting love, and all be exercised in^ subservience to it, and
with an intention, directly or remotely, ta 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 morti-
fication must keep away diverting and deceiving objects,
'which would steal away our love from God. Faith must
shew us God as present, in all his blessed attributes and per-
fections. 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, anxi 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 iji the immediate, lively ex.-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 367
ercise of it. To sin wilfully 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 one's bones, and the next to run and work, as
pleasantly as we did before.
And we must see that all other graces be exercised in a
just subserviency to love ; and none of them degenerate in-
to 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 in-
genuous 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
4ove, 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 bon-
dage. 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 ter-
rors. 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 humi-
liation and grief, that do 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.
368 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct, v. ' 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 ob-
jectively of himself. [* I never loathe 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. I never so much
hate myself, as when I observe how little of God is within
me, and how far my heart is estranged from him. I never
do so fully approve of the justice of God, if it should con-
demn me, and thrust me for ever from his presence, as when
I observe how far I have thrust him from my heart. If there
were any sin, which proceeded not from a want of love to
God, I could more easily pardon it to myself, as knowing
that God would more easily pardon it. But not to love the
God of love, the fountain of love, the felicity of souls, is a
sin, unfit to be pardoned to any till it be repented of, and
partly cured : Christ will forgive it to none that keep it :
and when it is incurable, it is the special sin of hell,
the badge of devils and damned souls. If God will not
give me a heart to love him, I would I had never had a
heart. If he will give me this, he giveth me all. Happy are
the poor, the despised, and the persecuted, that can but live
in the love of God. O miserable emperors, kings, and
lords, that are strangers to this heavenly love, and love their
lusts above their Maker ! Might I but live in the fervent
love of God, what matter is it in what country, or what cot-
tage, or what prison I live ? If I live not in the love of
God, my country would be worse than banishment ; a pa-
lace would be a prison ; a crown would be a miserable com-
fort, to one that hath cast away his comfort, and is going to
everlasting shame and woe.'] Were we but duly sensible of
the worth of love, and the odiousness and malignity that are
in the want of it, it would keep us from being quiet in the
daily neglect of it, and would quicken us to seek it, and to
stir it up.
Direct, vi. * Improve the principle of self-love, to the
CHAP, III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 369
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 in-
nocent Adam, and hath planted in man's nature as neces-
sary 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 exhorta-
tions : 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 wick-
ed of the world, * that all men should desire and seek to be
happy, and choose and do that which is best for them-
selves ;' 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 understand-
ing, it will compel yoa to love God, and tell you that no-
thing should be so much loved. Every one that is a man
must love himself: we will not entreat him, nor be beholden
to him for this : and every one 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 honour, but because they think that these are
good for them ? And would they not love God, if they prac-
tically knew that he is the best of all for them, and instead
of all ? [* Unnatural, unthankful heart ! canst thou love
thyself, and not love him that gave thee thyself, and gives
thee all things ? Nature teacheth all men to love their most
entire and necessary friends : do we deserve a reward by
loving those that love us, when publicans will do the like ?
Art thou not bound to love them that hate thee, and curse,
and persecute thee ? What reward then is due to thy un-
natural ingratitude, that canst not love thy chiefest friend ?
All the friends that ever were kind to thee, and did thee
good, were but his messengers to deliver what he sent thee.
And canst thou love the bearer, and not the giver ? He
made thee a man, and not a beast. He cast thy lot in his
VOL. II. B B
370 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
visible church, and not among deluded infidels, or miserable
heathens that never heard, unless in scorn, of the Redeemer's
name. He brought thee forth in a land of light, in a reform-
ed church, where knowledge and holiness have as great ad-
vantage, as any where in all the world : and not among de-
luded, ignorant Papists, where ambition must have been thy
governor, and pride and tyranny have given thee laws ; and
a formal, ceremonious image of piety must have been thy
religion. He gave thee parents that educated thee in his
fear, and not such as were profane and ignorant, and would
have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life. He
spoke to thy conscience early in thy childhood, and pre-
vented the gross abominations which else thou hadst com-
mitted. He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth.
He seasonably gave thee those books, and teachers, and
company, and helps, which were fittest for thee ; and blest
them to the further awakening and instructing of thee, when
he passed by^others, and left them in their sins. He taught
thee to pray, and heard thy prayer. He turned all thy fears
and groans to thy spiritual good. He pardoned all thy
grievous sins : and since that, how much hath he endured
and forgiven! He gave thee seasonable and necessary
stripes, and brought thee up in the school of affliction ; so
moderating them, that they might not disable or discourage
thee, but only correct thee, and keep thee from security,
wantonness, stupidity, and contempt of holy things, and
might spoil all temptations to ambition, worldliness, volup-
tuousness, and fleshly lust. By the threatenings of great ca-
lamities and death, he hath frequently awakened thee to cry
to Heaven : and by as frequent and wonderful deliverances>
he hath answered thy prayers, and encouraged thee still to
wait upon him. He hath given thee the hearty prayers of
many hundreds of his faithful servants, and heard them for
thee in many a distress. He hath strangely preserved thee
in manifold dangers. He hath not made thee of the basest
of the people, whose poverty might tempt them to discon-
tent; nor set thee upon the pinnacle of worldly honour,
where giddiness might have been thy ruin, and where temp-
tations to pride, and lust, and luxury, and enmity to a holy
life, are so violent that few escape them. He hath not set
thee out upon a sea of cares and vexations, worldly busi-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 371
nesses and encumbrances; but fed thee with food con-
venient for thee, and given thee leisure to walk with God.
He hath not chained thee to an unprofitable profession, nor
used thee as those that live like their beasts, to eat, and
drink, and sleep, and play, or live to live ; but he hath
called thee to the noblest and sweetest work ; when that
hath been thy business, which others were glad to taste of
as a recreation and repast. He hath allowed thee to con-
verse with books, and with the best and wisest men, and to
spend thy days in sucking in delightful knowledge : and
this is not only for thy pleasure, but thy use ; and not only
for thyself, but many others. O how many sweet and pre-
cious truths hath he allowed thee to feed on all the day,
when others are diverted, and commonly look at them
sometimes afar off! O how many precious hours hath he
granted me, in his holy assemblies, and in his honourable
and most pleasant work ! How oft hath his day, and his
holy, uncorrupted ordinances, and the communion of his
saints, and the mentioning of his name and kingdom, and
the pleading of his cause with sinners, and the celebrating
of his praise, been my delight ! O how many hundreds
that he hath sent, have wanted the abundant encourage-
ment which I have had ! When he hath seen the disease of
my despondent mind, he hath not tried me by denying me
success, nor suffered me, with Jonas, according to my in-
clination, to overrun his work ; but hath enticed me on by
continual encouragements, and strewed all the way with
mercies: but his mercies to me in the souls of others, have
been so great, that I shall secretly acknowledge them,
rather than here record them, where I must have respect to
those usual mercies of believers, which lie in the common
road to heaven. And how endless would it be to mention
all ! All the good that friends and enemies have done me !
All the wise and gracious disposals of his providence ; in
every condition, and change of life, and change of times,
and in every place wherever he brought me ! His every
day's renewed mercies ! His support under all my languish-
ings and weakness ; his plentiful supplies ; his gracious
helps ; his daily pardons ; and the glorious hopes of £i
blessed immortality which his Son hath purchased, and his
covenant and Spirit sealed to me ! O the mercies that are
372 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
in one Christ, one Holy Spirit, one Holy Scripture, and in
the blessed God himself! These I have mentioned, unthank-
ful heart, to shame thee for thy want of love to God. And
these I will leave upon record, to be a witness for God
against 'thy ingratitude, and to confound thee with shame, if
thou deny thy love to such a God. Every one of all these
mercies, and multitudes more, will rise up against thee, and
shame thee, before God and all the world, as a monster of
unkindness, if thou love not him that hath used thee thus.']
Here also consider what God is for your future good, as
well as what he hath been hitherto : how allsufficient, how
powerful, merciful and good. But of this more anon.
Direct, vii. ' Improve the vanity and vexation of the
creature, and all thy disappointments, and injuries, and
afflictions, to the promoting of thy love to God.' — And this
by a double advantage : First, by observing that there is
nothing meet to divert thy love, or rob God of it ; unless
thou wilt love thy trouble and distress ! Secondly, that thy
love to God is the comfort by which thou must be supported
under the injuries and troubles which thou meetest with in
the world : and therefore to neglect it, is but to give up thy-
self to misery. [* Is it for nothing, O my soul, that God
hath turned loose the world against thee ? That devils rage
against thee ; and wicked men do reproach and slander thee,
and seek thy ruin^ and friends prove insufficient, and as
broken reeds? It had been as easy to God, to have pros-
pered thee in the world, and suited all things to thy own
desires, and have strewed thy way with the flowers of
worldly comforts and delights ; but he knew thy proneness
to undo thyself with carnal loves, and how easily thy heart
is enticed from thy God :- and therefore he hath wisely and
mercifully ordered it, that thy temptations shall not be too-,
strong, and no creature shall appear to thee in an over ami-, -
able, tempting dress. Therefore he hath suffered them to
become thine enemies i and wilt thou love an enemy better
than thy God ? What! an envious and malicious world ! a
world of cares, and griefs, and pains ! a weary, restless,
empty vrorld ! How deep and piercing are its injuries !
How superficial and deceitful is its friendship ! How seri-
ous are its sorrows ! What to yish shews and dreams are its
delights ! How constant are its cares and labours ! How
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 373
seldom and short are its flattering smiles ! Its comforts are
disgraced by the certain expectation of succeeding sorrows :
its sorrows are heightened by the expectations of more : in
the midst of its flatteries, I hear something within me say-
ing, ' Thou must die ; this is but the way to rottenness and
dust.' I see a winding-sheet and a grave still before me : I
foresee how I must lie in pains and groans, and then become
a loathsome corpse. And is this a world to be more de-
lighted in than God ? What have I left me for my support
and solace, in the midst of all this vanity and vexation, but
to look to him that is the allsufficient, sure, never-failing
good ? I must love him, or I have nothing to love, but en-
mity or deceit. And is this the worst of God's design, in
permitting and causing my pains and disappointments here ?
Is it but to drive my foolish heart unto himself, that I mjay
have the solid delights and happiness of his Irove ? O then
let his blessed will be done ! Come home my soul ; my
wandering, tired, grieved soul ! Love, where thy love shall
not be~lost : love Him that will not reject thee, or deceive
thee ; nor requite thee as the world doth, with injuries and
abuse : despair not of entertainment, though the world deny
it thee. The peaceable region is above. In the world thou
must have trouble, that in Christ thou mayst have peace.
Retire to the harbour, if thou wouldst be free from storms.
God will receive thee, when the world doth cast thee off", if
thou heartily cast off" the world for him. O what a solace is
it to the soul, to be driven clearly from the world to God,
and there to be exercised in that sacred love, which will ac-
company us to the world of love.']
Direct, viii. * Labour for the truest and- fullest concep-
tions of the goodness and excellencies of God, which are
his amiableness ; and abhor all misrepresentations of him
as unlovely.' — That which is apprehended as unlovely can-
not be loved : and that which is apprehended as evil, is ap-
prehended as unlovely. Therefore, it is the grand design of
satan to hide God's goodness, and misrepresent him as evil :
not to deny him to be good in himself, for in that he hath
no hope to be believed ; but to persuade men that he is not
good to them, or to make them forget or overlook his good-
ness. Not to persuade them that God is evil in himself;
but that he is evil to them, by restraining them from their
374 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
beloved sins, and hating them as sinners, and resolving to
damn them if they go on impenitently. This, which is part
of the goodness of God, he maketh them believe is evil, by
engaging them in a way and interest, which he knoweth
that God is engaged against, and enticing them under the
strokes of his justice. And he tempteth believers themselves
to poor, diminutive, unworthy thoughts of the goodness and
mercifulness of God, and to continual apprehensions of his
wrath and terrors. And if he can make them believe that
God is their enemy, and think of him only as a consuming
fire, how little are they like to love him? If Christians knew
how much of the devil's malice against God and them, doth
exercise itself in this, to make God appear to man, unlovely,
they would more studiously watch against such misrepre-
sentations, and fly from them with greater hatred *. Not
that we must first, by the advice of arrogant reason, and
self-love, as some do,' draw a false description of goodness
and amiableness in our minds, and make that the measure of
our judgment of God, his nature, attributes, and decrees ;
nor take his goodness to be only his suitableness to our
opinions, wills, and interest. But we must take out from
the Word and works of God, that true description of his
goodness which he hath given of himself, and expunge out
of our conceits whatsoever is contrary to it. Think of God's
goodness in proportion with his other attributes. [* O my
soul, how unequally hast thou thought of God! Thou
easily believest that his power is omnipotence, and that his
knowledge is omniscience ; but of his goodness, how nar-
row and poor are thy conceivings ! As if it were nothing
to his power and knowledge. How oft hast thou been
amazed in the consideration of his greatness, and how seldom
affected with the apprehensions of his goodness ! Thou
gratifiest him that would have thee believe and tremble, as
he doth himself, and not him that would have thee believe
and love. How oft hast thou suffered the malicious enemy
a O orator, in tua oratione plus dilige Deum quam teipsum et alia : et si hoc fa-
cis Justus es et prudens, et de charitate et sanctitate habituatus. Qui habitus est
amicus tuus in oratioue. O Orator ! quando orabis pro corumlssis, justitiam Dei te-
cum teneas diligendo ; non autem odiendo : quia si sic, misericordia Dei non posset
esse tua arnica, eo quia-injustus esset ; et tuus habitus esset crudelis et a spe et cha-
ritate prolongatus, et tuum amare in odire esset perversum, de quo odire esset in aeter-
num habituatus. Raim. LuUius, Arte Magna de Applic. c. cxiv. p. 537, 558.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 375
to accuse God to thee, and make thee believe that he is a
hater of man, and hateful to man, or a hater of thee, that he
might make thee hate him ! How oft hast thou suffered
him to draw in thy thoughts a false representation of thy
dearest Lord, and shew him to thee as in that unlovely shape !
How oft have thy conceptions dishonoured and blasphemed
his love and goodness, while thou hast seemed to magnify
his knowledge and his power ! Think of him now as love
itself! As more full of goodness, than the sea of water, or
the sun of light ! Love freely and boldly, without the stops
of suspicions and fears, where thou art sure thou canst never
love enough : and if all the love of men and [angels were
united in one flame, they could never love too much, or come
near the proportion of the glorious goodness which they
love ! Cast thyself boldly into this ocean of delights.
Though the narrowness of thy own capacity confine thee,
yet, as there are no bounds in the object of thy love, let not
false, unbelieving thoughts confine thee. O that I were all
eye, to see the glorious amiableness of my God ! O that I
were all love, that I might be filled with his goodness ! O
that all the passions of my soul were turned into this holy
passion ! O that all my fears, and cares, and sorrows, were
turned into love ! And that all the thoughts that confusedly
crowd in upon me and molest me, were turned into this one
incessant thought, of the infinite goodness of my God ! O
that all my tears, and groanings, yea, and all my other
mirth and pleasures, were turned into the melodious songs
of love ! And that the pulse, and voice, and operations of
love, were all the motion of my soul ! Surely in heaven it
will be so, though it is not to be expected here.']
Direct, ix. / The great means of promoting love to God
is duly to behold him in his appearances to man, in the
ways of Nature, Grace, and Glory. First, therefore, learn
to understand and improve his appearances in Nature, and
to see the Creator in all his works, and by the knowledge
and love of them to be raised to the knowledge and love of
him.' — Though sin hath so disabled us to the due improve-
ment of these appearances of God in nature, that grace
must restore us, before we can do it effectually and accept-,
ably; yet objectively nature is still the same in sub&tance,
and affordeth us much help to the knowledge and love of
376 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
God. He kjioweth nothing of the world aright that know-
eth not God in it, and by it. Some pote, that the greatest
students in nature are not usually the best proficients in
grace ; and that philosophers and physicians are seldom
great admirers of piety ; but this is to judge of the wise by
the foolish, and to impute the ignorance and impiety of
some to others that abhor it. Doubtless, he is no philo-
sopher, but a fool, that seeth not and admireth not the
Creator in his works. Indeed, if a man doth wholly give
himself to know the shape and form of letters, and to write
them curiously, or cut them in brass or stone, or to print
them, and not to understand their significations or use, no
wonder if he be ignorant of the arts and sciences, which those
letters well understood would teach him ; such a man may be
called an engraver, a scrivener, a printer, but not a scholar :
and no better can the atheist be called a philosopher or a
learned man, that denieth the most wise Almighty Author,
while he beholdeth his works, when the nature and name of
God is so plainly engraven upon them all. It is a great
part of a Christian's daily business to see and admire God
in his works, and to use them as steps to ascend by to him-
self. ** The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all
them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable
and glorious ; and his righteousness endureth for ever. He
hath made his wonderful works to be remembered^." — " 1
meditate on all thy works ; I muse on the works of thy
hands ^." — ** I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk
of thy doings **."—** For thou. Lord, hast made me glad
through thy work. I will triumph in the works of thy
hands. A brutish man knoweth not ; neither doth a fool
understand this *. As the praising of God's works, so the
observing of (Jjod in his works is much of the work of a
holy soul. " Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised ;
and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall
praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty
acts, I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty,
and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the
might of thy terrible acts ; and I will declare thy great-
ness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great
b Psal. cxi. 2, 3, 4. « Psal. cxliii. 5.
** Psal. Ixxvii. 1 2. « Psal. xcii. 4—6.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 377
goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. All thy
works shall praise thee, O Lord ; and thy saints shall bless
thee. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all
his works ^" — ** That which might be known of God is
manifest in them ; for God hath shewn it unto them. For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made ; even his eternal power and Godhead : so that they
are without excuse s.'' If we converse in the world as be-
lievers and rational creatures ought, we should as oft as
David repeat these words : " O that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness, and for his wondrous works to the
children of men ! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of
thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. They
that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great
waters ; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders
in the deep*"." But this is a subject fitter for a volume (of
physics theologically handled) than for so short a touch.
What an excellent book is the visible world for the daily
study of a holy soul ! Light is not more visible to the eye
in the sun, than the goodness of God is in it and all the
creatures to the mind. If I love not God, when all the
world revealeth his loveliness, and every creature telleth me
that he is good, what a blind and wicked heart have I ! O
wonderful wisdom, and goodness, and power which appear-
eth in every thing we see ! in every tree, and plant, and
flower ; in every bird, and beast, and fish ; in every worm,
and fly, and creeping thing ; in every part of the body of
man or beast, much more in the admirable composure of
the whole ; in the sun, and moon, and stars, and meteors ;
in the lightning and thunder, the air and winds, the rain and
waters, the heat and cold, the fire and the earth, especially
in the composed frame of all, so far as we can see them set
together ; in the admirable order and co-operation of all
things ; in their times and seasons, and the wonderful use-
fulness of all for man. O how glorious is the power, and
wisdom, and goodness of God, in all the frame of nature !
Every creature silently speaks his praise, declaring him to
man, whose office is, as the world's high-priest, to stand
^ Psal. cxlv. 3—7. 10. 17- ? Rom. i. 19, 20. ^ Psal. cvii. 21—24.
378 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
between them and the great Creator, and expressly offer him
the praise of all. " When I consider thy heavens, the work
of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast or-
dained ; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the
son of man, thatthou visitest him? For thou hast made him
a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put down all things
under his feet. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy
name in all the earth ! O that men would praise the Lord for
his goodness, and declare his wondrous works to the chil-
dren of men ! The earth is full of the goodness of the
Lord '." Thus love God as appearing in the works of nature.
Direct, x. ' Study to know God as he appeareth more
clearly to sinners in his Goodness in the works of Grace;
especially in his Son, his covenant, and his saints, and there
to love him, in the admiration of his love.' — Here love hath
made itself an advantage of our sin and unworthiness, of
our necessities and miseries, of the law and justice, and the
flames of hell. The abounding of sin and misery hath
glorified abounding grace ; that grace which fetcheth sons
for God from among the voluntary vassals of the devil,
which fetcheth children of light out of darkness, and living
souls from among the dead, and heirs for heaven from the
gates of hell ; and brings us as from the gallows to the throne.
1. A believing view of the nature, undertaking, love, obe-
dience, doctrine, example, sufferings, intercession, and
kingdom of Jesus Christ, must needs inflame the believer's
heart with an answerable degree of the love of God. To
look on a Christ and not to love God is to have eyes and
not to see, and to overlook him while we seem to look on
him. He is the liveliest image of Infinite Goodness, and
the messenger of the most unsearchable, astonishing love,
and the purchaser of the most invaluable benefits, that
ever were revealed to the sons of men. Our greatest love
must be kindled by the greatest revelations and communi-
cations of the love of God. And " greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends^"
That is, men have no dearer and clearer a way to express
* Psal. viii. 3. 6. 9. xxxiii. 5—9. Read fsal. Ixv. •' John xv. 13.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 379
their love to their friends ; but that love is aggravated la-
de ed, which will express itself as far for enemies. " But
God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were
yet sinners Christ died for us. And if, when we were ene-
mies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his lifej."
Steep, then, that stiff and hardened heart in the blood of
Christ, and it will melt : come near, with Thomas, and by
the passage of his wounds get near unto his heart, and it
will change thy unkind, unthankful heart into the very na-
ture of love. Christ is the best teacher of the lesson of
love that ever the world had ; who taught it not only by his
words, but by his blood, by his life, and by his death : if
thou canst not learn it of him thou canst never learn it.
Love is the greatest commander of love, and the most ef-
fectual argument that can insuperably constrain us to it :
and none ever loved at the measure and rates that Christ hath
loved. To stand by such a fire is the way for a congealed
heart to melt, and the coldest affections to grow warm. A
lively faith still holding Christ, the glass of infinite love
and goodness, before our faces, is the greatest lesson in the
art of love.
2. Behold God also in his Covenant of Grace, which
he hath made in Christ. In that you may see such sure,
such great and wonderful mercies, freely given out to a
world of sinners, and to yourselves among the rest, as may
afford abundant matter for love and thankfulness to feed on
while you live. There you may see how loath God is that
sinners should perish; how he delighteth in mercy; and
how great and unspeakable that mercy is. There you may
see an act of pardon and oblivion granted upon the reason-
able condition of believing, penitent acceptance, to all man-
kind : the sins that men have been committing many years
together, their wilful, heinous, aggravated sins, you may
there see pardoned by more aggravated mercy ; and the ene-
mies of God reconciled to him, and condemned rebels saved
from hell, and brought into his family, and made his sons.
O what an image of the goodness of God is apparent in the
tenor of his word and covenant ! Holiness and mercy make
up the whole — they are expressed in every leaf and line I
' Rom.v. 8— 10.
380 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
The precepts, which seem too strict to sinners, are but the
perfect rules of holiness and love, for the health and hap-
piness of man. What loveliness did David find in the law
itself ! and so should we, if we read it with his eyes and
heart : it was sweeter to him than honey ; he loved it above
gold ; he crieth out, " O how I love thy law ! it is my me-
ditation all the day""." And must not the Lawgiver then
be much more lovely, whose goodness here appeareth to
us ? " Good and upright is the Lord ; therefore will he teach
sinners in the way "." — " I will delight myself in thy com-
mandments, which I have loved : my hands also will I lift
up to thy commandments, which I have loved ; and I will
meditate on thy statutes °." How delightfully then should I
love and meditate on the blessed Author of this holy law !
But how can I read the history of love, the strange design
of grace in Christ, the mystery which the angels desirously
pry into, the promises of life to lost and miserable sinners,
and not feel the power of love transform me ? ** Behold,
with what love the Father hath loved us, that we should be
called the sons of God p." How doth God shed abroad his
love upon our hearts, but by opening to us the superabun-
dance of it in his Word, andopening our hearts by his Spirit
to perceive it? O when a poor sinner that first had felt the
load of sin, and the wrath of God, shall feelingly read or
hear what mercy is tendered to him in the covenant of grace,
and hear Christ's messengers tell him, from God, that all
things are now ready ; and therefore invite him to the hea-
venly feast, and even to compel him to come in, what melt-
ing love must this affect a sinner's heart with ! When we
see the grant of life eternal sealed to us by the blood of
Christ, and a pardoning, justifying covenant, so freely made
and surely confirmed to us, by that God whom we had so
much offended, O what an incentive is here for love !
When I mention the Covenant I imply the Sacraments,
which are its appendants or confirming seals, and the in-
vesting the believer solemnly with its benefits : but in these
God is pleased to condescend to the most familiar com-
munion with his church, that love and thankfulness might
want no helps. There it is that the love of God in Christ
"> Psal cxix, 127. xcvii. " Psal. xxv. 8.
o Psal. cxix. 47, 48. P 1 John iii. 1.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 381
applieth itself most closely to particular sinners ; and the
meat or drink will be sweet in the mouth, which was not
sweet to us on the table at all. O how many a heart hath
this affected! How many have felt the stirrings of that
love, which before they felt not, wljien they have seen Christ
crucified before their eyes, and have heard the minister, in
his name and at his command, bid them * Take,' and * Eat,' and
' Drink ;' commanding them not to refuse their Saviour, but
take him and the benefits of his blood as their own ; as-
suring them of his good-will and readiness to forgive and
save them?
3. Behold also the loveliness of God in his holy ones,
who bear his image, and are advanced by his love and mer-
cy. If you are Christians indeed, you are taught of God to
love his servants, and to see an excellency in the saints on
earth, and make them the people of your delight '^. And
this must needs acquaint you with the greater amiablenes^,
in the most Holy God, that made them holy. O how oft
have the feeling and heavenly prayers of lively believers,
excited those affections in me, which before I felt not!
How oft have I been warmed with their heavenly discourse !
How amiable is that holy, heavenly disposition and conver-
sation which appeareth in them ! Their faith, their love,
their trust in God, their cheerful obedience, their hatred of
sin, their desire of the good of all, their meekness and pa-
tience ; how much do these advance them above the igno-
rant, sensual, proud, malignant, and ungodly world ! How
good then is that God that makes men good ! And how
little is the goodness of the best of men, compared to his
unmeasurable goodness ! Whenever your converse with
holy men, stirs up your love to them, rise by it presently
to the God of saints, and let all be turned to him that giveth
all, to them and to you.
And as the excellency of the saints, so their privilege
and great advancement, should shew you the goodness of
God, that doth advance them. As oft as thou seest a saint,
how poor and mean in the world soever, thou seest a living
monument of the abundant kindness of the Lord. Thou
seest a child of God, a member of Christ, an heir of heaven.
Thou seest one that hath all his sins forgiven, and is snatch-
1 Psal.xvi. 1,2. 1 Thes. iv.9.
382 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
ed as a brand out of the fire, and delivered from the power
of satan, and translated into the kingdom of Christ. Thou
seest one for whom Christ hath conquered the powers of
hell ; and one that is freed from the bondage of the flesh ;
and one that, of the devil's slave, is made a priest, to offer
up the sacrifices of praise to God. Thou seest one that
hath the Spirit of God within him ; and one that hath daily
intercourse with heaven, and audience with God, and is
dearly beloved by him in Christ. Thou^eest in flesh a com-
panion of angels, and one that hath the Divine nature, and
must shortly be above the stars in glory, and must be with
Christ, and must love and magnify God for ever. And is
not the amiableness of God apparent, in such mercy be-
stowed upon sinful man ? And should we not now begin to
admire him in his saints, and glorify him in believers, who
will come with thousands of his angels, to be glorified and
admired in them at the lasf? O the abundant deliveran-
ces, preservations, provisions, encouragements, which all
his servants receive from God ! M^ho ever saw the just for-
saken, even while they think themselves forsaken ? " For
the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints;
they are preserved for ever. The law of his God is in his heart ;
none of his steps shall slide. Mark the perfect man, and
behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace \"
*' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints*."
" Ye that love the Lord, hate evil : he preserveth the souls
of his saints ; he delivereth them out of the hand of the
wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for
the upright in heart"." " O love the Lord all his saints !
for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully reward-
eth the proud doer''."
Direct, xi. ' Insist not so much on your desires after vi-
sion, as to undervalue the lower apprehensions of faith : but
love God by the way of faith, as in order to the love of in-
tuition.
We are exceeding apt to be over-desirous of sight ; and
to take nothing as an object fit to affect us, which sense
perceiveth not. When we have the surest evidence of the
truth of things unseen, it hardly satisfieth us, unless we may
' 2 Thes. i. 10. * Psal. xxxvii. 25, 28, 31, S7. * Psal. cxvi. 15.
u Psal. xcvii. 10, 11. « Psal. xxxi. 23.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 383
see or feel. And hereupon, our love to God is hindered ;
while we think of him aa if he were not, or take the appre-
hensions of faith, as if they were uncertain, and little dif-
fered from a dream. Yea, it proveth the ground of most
dangerous temptations to infidelity itself. While we take
that knowledge which we have of God, in the way of faith,
the love and communion which is exercised thereby, to be
as nothing ; we are next tempted to think, that there is no
true knowledge of God, and communion with him to be at-
tained. And when we have been searching and striving
long, and find that we can reach no more, we are tempted to
think, that the soul of man is made but as the beasts, for
present things, and is incapable of those higher things,
which are revealed in the Gospel ; and that if there were in-
deed a life to come, and man was made to enjoy his God,
we should get nearer to him than we are, and know him
more, and love him better. [' But is it nothing, O pre-
sumptuous soul, to see God in a glass, in order to a nearer
•sight ? Is it nothing to have the heavenly Jerusalem des-
cribed and promised to thee, unless thou see it and possess
it? Wilt thou travel to no place, but what thou seest all
the way ? Wouldst thou have nr difference betwixt earth
and heaven ? What canst thou have more in heaven, than
immediate intuition ? Wouldst thou have no life of trial,
in obedience of faith, before the life of fruition and reward ?
Or canst thou think that a life of sight and sense, is fit for
trial and preparation, to shew who is meet for the rewarding
life ? Unthankful soul ! Compare thy state with that of
brutes : is it nothing, for thee to know thy Maker in the
works of his creation and providence, and in the revelations
of grace, and the belief of promised immortality, unless thou
presently see him in his glory ? When these thy fellow
creatures know him not at all ? Compare thyself now, with
thyself as heretofore, in the days of thy ignorance and car-
nality. Hadst thou then any such knowledge of God, as
thou now undervaluest ? or any such communion with him,
as thou now accountest next to none ? When the light first
shined in thine eyes, and thou hadst first experience of the
knowledge of God, thou thoughtest it something, and re-
joicedst in the light: if then thou couldst have suddenly
attained but to so much, as thou hast now attained, wouldst
384 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART T.
thou have called it nothing ? Would it not have seemed a
greater treasure to thee, than to have known both the In-
dies as thine own ? O be not unthankful for the little which
thou hast received, when God might have shut thee out in
that darkness which the greatest part of the world lieth in,
and have left thee to thyself, to have desired no higher know-
ledge, than such as may feed thy fancy, and pride, and lust.
Art thou so far drowned in flesh and sense, as to take in-
tellectual apprehensions for dreams, unless thy sense may
see and feel ? Wilt thou take thy soul, thyself for nothing,
because thou art not to be seen or felt? Shall no subjects
honour and obey their king, but they that have seen his
court and him ? Desire the fullest and the nearest sight ;
the purest and the strongest love ; and desire and spare not
the life where all this will be had : but take heed of being
too hasty with God, and unthankful for the mercies of the
way. Know better the difference betwixt thy travail and
thy home : and know what is fit for passengers to expect.
Humbly submit to an obedient waiting in a life of faith : and
make much of the testament of Christ, till thou be at age to
possess the inheritance. Thou must live, and love, and
run, and fight, and conquer, and suffer by faith, if ever thou
wilt come to see and to possess the crown.']
Direct, xii. * It is a powerful means to kindle the love
of God in a believer, to foresee by faith the glory of heaven,
and what God will be there to his saints for ever^.! — And
thus to behold God in his Glory, is the use of Grace.
Though the manner of knowing him thus by faith, be far
short of what we there expect, yet it is the same God and
glory that now we believe, which then we must more openly
behold. And therefore, as that apprehension of love will
inconceivably excel the highest which can be here attained ;
so the forethoughts of that, doth excel all other arguments
and means to affect us here ; and will raise us as high as
means can raise us. The greatest things, and greatest inte-
y Read Julian Toletan. his Prognosticon. Si in coelis fidelibus haec servatur
heeriditas, frivola qusedam et tepida proferunt aliqui, putantes earn se percipere in
terrena Jerusalem ; mille anais existimant esse deliciarum praemia proprietate recep-
tnros: qui interrogandi sunt, quomodo astruant delicias corporales, dum dicatur banc
haereditatem nee corruoipi posse nee marcescere. Didyraus Alexand. in Petr. 1.
cont. Millenjir.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 385
rest of our souls being there, will greatly raise us to the love
of God, if any thing will do it : to foresee how near him we
shall be ere long ; and what a glorious proof we shall have
of his good will ; and how our souls will be ravished ever-
lastingly with his love ! To think what hearts the blessed
have that see his glory, and live with Christ ! How full of
love they are ! and what a delight it is to them thus to love !
must needs affect the heart of a believer. [* Lift up thy
head, poor drowsy sinner ! Look up to heaven, and think
where thou must live for ever ! Think what the holy ones
of God are doing! Do they love God, or do they not?
Must it not then be thy life and work for ever ? And canst
thou forbear to love him now, that is bringing thee to such
a world of love ? Thou wouldst love him more, that would
give thee security to possess a kingdom which thou never
sawest, than him that giveth thee but some toy in the hand.
And let it not seem too distant to affect thee : the time is
as nothing till thou wilt be there : thou knowest not but
thou mayst be there this night. There thou shalt see the
Maker of the worlds, and know the mysteries of his won-
drous works. There thou shalt see thy blessed Lord, and
feel that love which thou readest of in the Gospel, and en-
joy the fruits of it for ever. There thou shalt see him that
suffered for thee, and rose again, whom angels see and wor-
ship in his glory. Thou shalt see there a more desirable
sight, than those that saw him heal the blind, and lame, and
sick, and raise, the dead ; or those that saw him in his trans-
figuration ; or than those that saw him on the cross, or after
his resurrection ; or than Stephen saw when he was stoned ;
or Paul when he was converted ; yea, more than it is like
he saw when he was in his rapture, in the third heavens !
O who can think believingly on the life which we must
there shortly live, the glory which we must see, the love
which we must receive, and the love which we must exer-
cise, and not feel the fire begin to flame, and the glass in
which we see the Lord, become a burning-glass to our af-
fections!'] Christ and Heaven are the books which we
must be often reading ; the glasses in which we must daily
gaze, if ever we will be good proficients and practitioners in
the art of holy love.
Direct, xin. * Exercise your souls so frequently and di'
VOL. II. c c
386 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
ligently in this way of love, that the method of it may be fa-
miliar to you, and the means and motives still at hand, and
you may presently be able to fall into the wQ.y, as one that
is well acquainted with it, and may not be distracted and
lost in generals, as not knowing where to fix your thoughts.'
— I know no methods alone will serve to raise the dead, and
cause a carnal, senseless heart to love the Lord. But I
know that many honest hearts, that have the spirit of love
within them, have great need to be warned, that they quench
not the Spirit ; and great need to be directed how to stir
up the grace which is given them : and that many live a
more dull, or distracted, uncomfortable life, than they would
do, if they wanted not skill and diligence. The soul is
most backward to this highest work, and therefore hath
the greater need of helps : and the best have so much need
as that it is well if all Will serve to keep up loving and grate-
ful thoughts of God upon their minds. And when every
trade, and art, and science, requireth diligence, exercise,
and experience, and all are bunglers at it at the first, can
we reasonably think that we are like to attain any high de-
grees, with slight, and short, and seldom thoughts ?
Direct, xiv. ' Yet let not weak-headed or melancholy
persons, set themselves on those methods or lengths of me-
ditation, which their heads cannot bear ; lest the tempter
get advantage of them, and abate their love, by making re-
ligion seem a torment to them ; but let such take up with
shorter, obvious meditation^, and exercise their love in an
active, obediential way of living.' — That is the best physic
that is fitted to the patient's strength and case : and that is
the best shoe that is meetest for the foot, and not that which
is the biggest or the finest. It is a great design of satan,
to make all duties grievous and burdensome to us ; and
thereby to cast us into continual pain, and fear, and trou-
ble, and so destroy our delight in God, and consequently,
our love. Therefore pretend not to disability for carnal
unwillingness and laziness of mind ; but yet mar not all by
grasping at more than you are able to bear. Take on
you as you are able, and increase your work, if God in-
crease your strength. If a melancholy person crack his
brain with immoderate, unseasonable endeavours, he will
but disable himself for all.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 387
Direct, xv. ' Keep clear, and hold fast the evidences of
thy sincerity, that thou mayst perceive thy interest in the
love of God, and resist the temptations which would hide
his love to thee, and cause thee to doubt of it, or deny it.' —
Satan hath not his end when he hath troubled thee, and
robbed thee of thy peace and comfort : it is worse that he is
seeking to effect by this : his malice is more against God,
than against thee ; and more against God and thee, in this
point of love, than in any other grace or duty. He know-
eth that God esteemeth this tfiost : and he knoweth if he
could kill thy love, he kills thy soul. And he knoweth how
natural it is to man, to love those that love him, and hate
those that hate him, be they never so excellent in themselves.
And therefore, if he can persuade thee into despair, and to
think that God hateth thee, and is resolved to damn thee,
he will not despair of drawing thee to hate God. Or if he
do but bring thee to fear that he loveth thee not, he will
think accordingly to abate thy love. I know that a truly
gracious soul keepeth up its love, when it loseth its assu-
rance ; and mourneth, and longeth, and seeketh in love,
when it cannot triumph and rejoice in love : but yet there
are some prints left on the heart, of its former apprehen-
sions of the love of God : and such souls exceedingly dis-
advantage themselves as to the exercises of love, and make
it a work of wondrous difficulty. O ! it will exceedingly
kindle love, when we can see God's surest love-tokens in
our hearts, and look to the promises, and say, * They are all
mine ;' and think of heaven, as that which shall certainly
be our own : and can say with Thomas, ** My Lord, and my
God :" and with Paul, that " The life which I live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, that loved me,
and gave himself for me." Denial of our grace may seem
to be humility, but it tendeth to extinguish love and grati-
tude.
' But,' you will say, * I must avoid soul-delusion and
Pharisaical ostentation on the other side. And few reach
assurance ; how then should we keep up the love of God V
Answ. 1. Though I am not come to the point of trying
and discerning grace, I shall give you this much help in the
way, because it is so useful to the exercises of love. (1.) If
you have not enjoying, delighting love, yet try whether you
388 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
have not desiring, seeking love. Love appeareth as truly,
in desiring and seeking good, as in delighting in it. Poor
men shew their love of the world, by desiring and seeking
it, as much as rich men do in delighting in it. What is it
that you most desire and seek? (2.) Or if this be so weak
that you scarce discern it, do you not find a mourning and
lamenting love ? You shew that you loved your money, by
mourning when you lose it ; and that you loved your friend,
by grieving for his death, as well as by delighting in him
while he lived. If you heartily lament it as your greatest
unhappiness and loss, when you think that God doth cast
you off, and that you are void of grace, and cannot serve and
honour him as you would, this shews you are not void of
love. (3.) Ifyou feel not that you love him, do you feel
that you would fain love him, and that you love to love
him ? If you do so, it is a sign that you do love him.
When you do not only desire to find such an evidence of sal-
vation in you, but when you desire love itself, and love to love
God. Had you not rather have a heart to love him perfectly,
than to have all the riches in the world? Had you not ra-
ther live in the love of God, if you could reach it, than to
live in any earthly pleasure ? If so, be sure he hath your
hearts. The will is the love, and the heart : if God have
your will, he hath your heart and love. (4.) What hath
your hearts if he have them not ? Is there any thing that
you prefer and seek before him, and that you had rather
have than him ? Can you be content without him, and let
him go, in exchange for any earthly pleasure ? If not, it is
a sign he hath your hearts. You love him savingly, ifyou
set more by nothing else than by him. (5.) Do you love
his holy image in his Word ? Do you delight and meditate
in his law ? Is it in your hearts ? Or do you pray, " In-
cline my heart unto thy testimonies ^ ?" If you love God's
image in his Word, (the wisdom and holiness of it) you love
God. (6.) Do you love his image on his children ? Ifyou
love them for their heavenly wisdom and holiness, you so
far love God. He that loveth the candle for its light, doth
love the light itself and the sun : he that loveth the wise
and holy, for their wisdom and holiness, doth love wisdom
and holiness themselves . The Word and the saints being more
» Psal. i. 2. xl. 8. cxix. 36.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 389
in the reach of our sensible apprehensions, than God him-
self is, we ordinarily feel our love to them, more sensibly
than our love to God ; when indeed it is God, in his Word
and servants that we love ^. Though, for want of assurance
you feel not the delights of love, have you not a heart that
would delight in it, more than in all the riches of the world,
if you could but get assurance of your interest? Would it
not comfort you more than any thing, if you could be sure
he loveth you, and could perfectly love him and obey him ?
If so, it is not for want of love that you delight not in him,
but for want of assurance. So that if God have thy heart,
either in a delighting love, or a seeking and desiring, or a
lamenting, mourning love, he will not despise it or reject it.
" He is nigh to them that be of a broken heart :'' " A bro-
ken and contrite heart is his sacrifice, which he will not des-
pise :" The " good Lord will have mercy on every one that
prepareth their hearts to seek him, though they do it not ac-
cording to the preparation of the sanctuary ^." By these
evidences, you may discern the sincerity of love in small
degrees : and so you may make love the occasion of more
love, by discerning that goodness of God which is mani-
fested to you in the least.
2. But suppose you cannot yet attain assurance ; neg-
lect not to improve that goodness and mercy of God which
he revealeth to you in the state that you are in. Love him,
but as Infinite Goodness should be loved, who " so loved
the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life *=." Love him, as the most blessed and merciful God,
who made you and all things, and hath given to the world
an universal pardon, on condition of their penitent accep-
tance, and offereth them everlasting life, and all this pur-
chased by the blood of Christ. Love him, as one that of-
fereth you reconciliation, and entreateth you to be saved :
and as one that delighteth not in the death of the wicked,
but rather that they turn and live : and as one that would
have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the
truth, though he will save none but the penitent, that do
acknowledge the truth. And when you love him sincerely
a 1 John iil. 14. Psal. xv. 4. •» Psal. xxxiv. 18. li. 17.
* John iii. 16.
390 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
on these accounts, you will have the evidence of his special
love to you.
Direct, xvi. * Improve thy sense of natural and friendly
love, to raise thee to the love of God.' — When thou seest or
feelest vsrhat love a parent hath to children, and a husband
to a vs^ife, or a wife to a husband, or faithful friends to one
another ; think then, [* What love do I owe to God \ O
how inconsiderable is the loveliness of a child, a wife, a
friend, the best of creatures, in comparison of the loveliness
of God ! Unworthy soul ! canst thou love a drop of good-
ness in thy friend ; and canst thou not love the ocean of
goodness in thy God? Is a spark in the creature more
amiable than the fire that kindled it ? Thou canst love thy
friend for all his blemishes, his ignorance, his passions, and
manifold imperfections : and canst thou not love thy God,
who hath none of these, nor any thing to discourage or damp
thy love ? Thou lovest, and deservedly lovest thy friend,
because he loveth thee, and deals friendly with thee : but O !
how much greater is the love of God ! Did ever friend love
thee, as he hath loved thee ? Did ever friend do for thee,
as he hath done ? He gave thee thy being, thy daily safety,
and all the mercies of thy life ! He gave thee his Son, his
Spirit, and his grace ! He pardoned thy sins, and took thee
into his favour, and adopted thee for his son, and an heir of
heaven! He will glorify thee with angels in the presence
of his glory ! How should such a friend as this be loved !
How far above all mortal friends ! Their love and friend-
ship is but a token and message of his love. Because he
lov€th thee, he sendeth thee kindness and mercy by thy
friend : and when their kindness ceaseth, or can do thee no
good, his kindness will continue, and comfort thee for ever.
Love them therefore as the messengers of his love : but
love him in them, and love them for him, and love him much
more.']
Direct, xvii. ' Think oft, how delightful a life it would
be to thee, if thou couldst but live in the love of God : and
then the complacency will provoke desire, and desire will
turn thy face towards God, till thou feel that thou lovest
him.' — The love of a friend hath its sweetness and delight :
and when we love them, we feel such pleasure in our love,
that we love to love them. How pleasant then would it be
CHAP. III.] CHRI.STIAN ETHICS. 391
to love thy God ! [* O blessed, joyful life, if I could but
love him as much as I desire to love him ! How freely could
I leave the ambitious, and the covetous, and the sensual,
and voluptuous, to their doting, delusory, swinish love!
How easily could I spare all earthly pleasures ! How near
should I come to the angelical life ! Could I love God as I
would love him, it would fill me with continual pleasure,
and be the sweetest feast that a soul can have. How easily
would it quench all carnal love ! How far would it raise
me above these transitory things ! How much should I con-
temn them, and pity the wretches that know no better, and
have their portion in this life ! How readily should Hobey,
and how pleasant would obedience be ! How sweet would
all my meditations be, when every thought is full of love !
How sweet would all my prayers be, when constraining love
did bring me unto God, and indite and animate every word !
How sweet would sacraments be, when my ascending, flam-
ing love, should meet that wonderful, descending love which
Cometh from heaven to call me thither, and in living bread,
and spiritual wine is the nourishment and cordial of my
soul ! How sweet would all my speeches be, when love
commanded them, and every word were full of love ! How
quiet would my conscience be, if it h9,d never any of this
accusation against me, to cast in my face, to my shame and
confusion, that I am wanting in love to the blessed God ! O
could I but love God with such a powerful love as his love
and goodness should command, I should no more question
my sincerity, nor doubt any more of his love to me. How
freely then should I acknowledge his grace, and how heartily
should I give him thanks for my justification, sanctification,
and adoption^ which now I mention with doubt and fear !
O how it would lift up my soul unto his praise, and make
it my delight to speak good of his name ! What a purify-
ing fire would love be in my breast, to burn up my corrup-
tions ! It would endure nothing to enter or abide within
me, that is contrary to the will and interest pf my Lord ; but
hate every motion that tendeth to dishonour and displease
him. It would fill my soul with so much of heaven, as
would make me long to be in heaven, and make death wel-
come, which is now so terrible. Instead of these with-
drawing, shrinking fears, I should desire to depart and to
302 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
be with Christ, as being best of all. O how easily should
I bear any burden of reproach, or loss, or want, when I thus
loved God and were assured of his love ! How light would
the cross be ! And how honourable and joyful would it
seem, to be imprisoned, reviled, spit upon, and buffetted for
the sake of Christ ! How desirable would the flames of
martyrdom seem, for the testifying of ray love to him that
loved me at dearer rates than I can love him ! Lord, is
there no more of this blessed life of love to be attained here
on earth ? When all the world reveals thy goodness ; when
thy Son hath come down to declare thy love, in so full and
wonderful a manner ; when thy Word hath opened us a win-
dow into heaven, where afar off we may discern thy glory ;
yet, shall our hearts be clods, and ice ? O pity this utikind,
unnatural soul ! This dead, insensible, disaffected soul !
Teach me by thy Spirit, the art of love ! Love me, not only
so as to convince me that I have abundant cause to love thee
above all, but love me, so as to constrain me to it, by the
magnetical, attractive power of thy goodness, and the insu-
perable operations of thy omnipotent love.']
Direct, xvin. * In thy meditations upon all these incen-
tives of love, preach them over earnestly to thy heart, and
expostulate and plead with it by way of soliloquy, till thou
feel the fire begin to burn.' — Do not only think on the ar-
guments of love, but dispute it out with thy conscience, and
by expostulating, earnest reasonings with thy heart, en-
deavour to affect it. There is much more moving force in
this earnest talking to ourselves, than in bare cogitation,
that breaks not out into mental words. Imitate the most
powerful preacher that ever thou wast acquainted with: and
just as he pleadeth the case with his hearers, and urgeth the
truth and duty on them, by reason and importunity, so do
thou in secret with thyself. There is more in this than most
Christians are aware of, or use to practise. It is a great
part of a Christian's skill and duty, to be a good preacher to
himself. This is a lawful and a gainful way of preaching.
Nobody here can make question of thy call, nor deny thee a
licence, nor silence thee, if thou silence not thyself. Two
or three sermons a week from others, is a fair proportion ;
but two or three sermons a day from thyself, is ordinarily
too little. Therefore, I have added Soliloquies to many
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 393
of these Directions for Love, to shew you how, by such
pleadings with yourselves, to affect your hearts, and kin-
dle love.
And O that this might be the happy fruit of these Di-
rections with thee that art now reading or hearing them !
That thou wouldst but oifer up thy flaming heart to Jesus
Christ our great High Priest, to be presented an acceptable
sacrifice to God. Or, if it flame not in love as thou desirest,
yet give it up to the Holy Spirit to increase the flames.
Thou little knowest how much God setteth by a heart. He
calleth to thee himself, "My son, give me thy heart *^."
Without it, he cares not for any thing that thou canst give
him : he cares not for thy fairest words without it : he cares
not for thy loudest prayers without it : he cares not for thy
costliest alms or sacrifices, if he have not thy heart. " If
thou give all thy goods to feed the poor, and give thy body
to be burned, and have not love, it will profit thee nothing.
If thou speak with the tongue of men and angels, and hast
not love, thou art but as sounding brass, or a tinkling cym-
bal. If thou canst prophesy, and preach to admiration, and
understand all mysteries and knowledge, and hast faith to
do miracles, and have not love, thou art nothing ^." Thou
hast but a shadow, and wantest that which is the substance
and life of all. Come then, and make an agreement with
God, and resolve now to offer him thy heart. He asketh
thee for nothing which thou hast not : it is not for riches
and lands that he seeketh to thee ; for then the poor might
say as Peter, ** silver and gold have I none :" give him but
such as thou hast, and it sufficeth. He knoweth that it is
a polluted, sinful heart; but give it him, and he will make
it clean. He knoweth that it is an unkind heart, that hath
stood out too long ; but give it him yet, and he will pardon
and accept it. He knoweth that it is an unworthy heart ;
but give it him, and he will be its worth : only see that you
give it him entirely and unreservedly ; for he will not bar-
gain with the devil, or the world, for the dividing of thy
heart between them. A half-heart and a hollow-heart, that
is but lent him till fleshly interest or necessity shall call for
it again, he will not accept. Only resign it to him, and do
but consent that thy heart be his, and entirely and absolutely
d Prov. xxiii. 26. « 1 Cor. xiii, 1 — 3.
394 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
his, and he will take it and use it as his own. It is his own
by title : let it be also so by thy consent. If God have it
not, who shall have it ? Shall the world, or pride, or fleshly
lust ? Did they make it, or did they purchase it ? Will they
be better to thee in the time of thy extremity ? Do they bid
more for thy heart than God will give thee ? He will give
thee his Son, and his Spirit, and image, and the forgiveness
of all thy sins : if the greatest gain, or honour, or pleasure
will win it and purchase it, he will have it : if heaven will
buy it, he will not break with thee for the price. Have the
world and sin a greater price than this to give thee ? And
what dost thou think that he will do with thy heart ? and
how will he use it, that thou art loath to give it him ? Will
he blind it, and deceive it, and corrupt it, and abuse it, and
at last torment it, as satan will do ? No ; he will more illu-
minate it, and cleanse it, and quicken it ^ : he will make it
new, and heal and save it s : he will advance and honour it
with the highest relations, employments, and delights : for
Christ hath said, " If any man serve me, let him follow me";
and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man
serve me, him will my Father honour ^." He will love it,
and govern it, and comfort it, and the heart that is delivered
to him shall be kept near unto his own. *' For the Father
himself loveth you," saith Christ, " because you have loved
me K" Whereas, if thou deliver not thy heart to him, it \yi\l
feed on the poison of luscious vanity, which will gripe and
tear it when it is down : it will be like a house that nothing
dwelleth in, but dogs, and flies, and worms, and snakes : it
will be like one that is lost in the wilderness, or in the night,
that tireth himself in seeking the way home, and the longer
the worse : despair and restlesness will be its companions
for ever. Let me now once more in the name of God be-
speak thy heart. I will not use his commands or threaten-
ings to thee now, though these, as seconds, must be used,
because that love must have attractive arguments, and is
not raised by mere authority or fear. If there be not love
and goodness enough in God, to deserve the highest affec-
tions of every reasonable creature, then let him go, and give
thy heart to one that is better. Hear how God pleadeth his
f Psal. li. 10. Ephes. ii. 1. Jer. xxiv. 7. e Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 2 Cor. v. 17.
h John xU. 26. ' John xxvi, 27.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 395
own cause with an unkind, unthankful people, ** Hear O ye
mountains the Lord's controversy. O my people what have
I done unto thee ? and wherein have I wearied thee ? testify
against rae^." What is there in him to turn away thy
heart ? Let malice itself say the worst, without notorious
impudence, against him : what hath he ever done that de-
serveth thy disaffection and neglect ? What wouldst thou
have to win a heart that is not in him ? For which of his
mercies or excellencies is it, that thou thus contemnest and
abusest him ? What dost thou want that he cannot, yea,
or will not give thee ? Doth not thy tongue speak honoura-
bly of his goodness, while thy heart contradicteth it, and
denieth all ? What hast thou found that will prove better
to thee ? Is it sin or God that must be thy glory, rest, and
joy, if thou wilt not be a fire-brand of restlessness and mi-
sery for ever ? What sayst thou yet sinner ? Shall God, or
the world and fleshly pleasures have thy heart ? Art thou
not yet convinced which best deserveth it, and which will be
best to it ? Canst thou be a loser by him ? Will he make
it worse, and sin make it better? Or wilt thou ever have
cause to repent of giving it up to God, as thou hast of giving
it to the world and sin? I tell thee, if God have not thy
heart, it were well for thee if thou hadst no heart. — I had a
thousand times rather have the heart of a dog, or the basest
creature, than that man's heart that foUoweth his fleshly
lusts, and is not unfeignedly delivered up to God, through
Christ.
If I have not prevailed with your hearts for God, by all
that I have said, your consciences shall yet bear me witness,
that I shewed you God's title, and love, and goodness, and
said that which ought to have prevailed : and you shall find
ere long, who it is that will have the worst of it : but if you
resolve and give them presently to God, he will entertain
them, and sanctify, and save them : and this happy day and
work will be the angels joy: and it will be my joy, and
especially your own everlasting joy.
Grand Direct, xii. ' Trust God with that soul and body
which thou hast delivered up and dedicated to him ; and
^ Mic. vi. 2, 3.
396 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
quiet thy mind in his love and faithfulness, whatever shall,
appear unto thee, or befall thee in the world.'
I shall here briefly shew you, 1 . What is the Nature of
this trust in God \ 2. What are the Contraries to it. 3.
What are the Counterfeits of it. 4. The Usefulness of it.
And then 5. I shall give you some Directions how to attain
and exercise it.
I. To trust in God, is, upon the apprehension of the allr
sufficiency, goodness, and faithfulness of God, to quiet our
hearts in the expectation of the safety or benefits from him
which we desire, rejecting the cares, and fears, and griefs
that would disquiet them, if they had not the refuge of these
hopes "". It containeth in it a crediting the Word or nature
of God, or judging it to be a sufficient ground of our secu-
rity and expectation : and then security and expectation
built upon that ground, make up the rest of the nature of
trust. Looking for the benefit, and finding a complacency
and quietness of mind in the ground discovered, and ceasing
all other cares and fears, which would else disquiet us.
Aquinas and other school-men, often call affiance, * spes ro-
borata,' a confirmed hope. There is a two-fold trust in God :
one is, for that which he hath not promised to do, but yet
we think that we find reason sufficient, from his nature it-
self, and relations, to expect : this may be more or less cer-
tain and strong, as our collection of the will of God, from
his nature, is more or less sure and clear. The other is,
when we have not only God's nature, but his promise also to
trust upon : and this giveth us a certainty, if we certainly
understand his promise. To the last sort I may reduce that
trust in God for particiilar benefits, when we have only a pro-
mise in general, which maketh not the particulars known
and certain to us : as the promise, that all shall work to-
gether for our good, doth give us but a probability of health
or outward protection and deliverances, because we are un-
certain how far they are for our good. All that is promised
is sure : but whether this or that be good for us, must be
otherwise known. But those general promises which contain
• Of the nature of Affiance and Faith, I have written more fully in ray disputa-
tion with Dr. Barlow, of Saving Faith.
n» SOLA fide Deo SOLI constaater adha^re, A SOLO cunctis eripiete malis.
Peucerus's Distich, in his ten years imprisonment. Scult. Curric. p. 22.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 397
particulars as surely known as the promise itself, do make
every one of the particular benefits as sure, by promise, as
the general : as, the promise of the pardon of all our sins,
ascertaineth us of the pardon of every sin in particular.
Where there is a promise, we trust God's faithfulness as
well as his nature ; but where there is none, we trust his na-
ture only. As a child doth quietly trust his parents, with-
out a promise, that they will not kill, or torment, or forsake
him. But because man is apt to make false collections of
God's will from his nature, he hath given us such clear ex-
pressions of it in his Word, as may bring us above uncertain
probabilities, and are sufficient for faith to ground upon
(supposing God's properties) for our government and peace.
And it is certain that all collections of God's will, which are
contrary to his Word, are the errors of the collector.
In what I have said in this Direction, I desire you chiefly
to observe these three things : 1. That God's nature and
love, are the sufficient, general security to the ^soul. 2.
That his promise is the sufficient, particular security. 3.
And that our unfeigned, self-dedication to him, is our suffi-
cient evidence of our interest in his love and covenant,
which may warrant our special trust and expectations.
II. The Contraries to trust in God, are : 1. Privative :
not trusting him : not seeing the ground of just security in
his love and promise : not crediting what is seen : not ceas-
ing disquietness and distrustful cares and fears. 2. Posi-
tive distrust : supposing the allsufficiency, goodness, and
promises of God, are not sufficient grounds of our expecta-
tion and security ; and thereupon disquieting our minds
with sinful fears, and griefs, and cares, and shifting endea-
vours for ourselves some other way. And this hath various
degrees: in some it is predominant; in others not. 3.
Opposite or adverse : when we trust ourselves, or friends, or
wealth, or something else instead of God, either against him,
without him, or in co-ordination with him.
III. The Counterfeits of this trust are these: 1. When
indeed we trust in our wit, or power, or shifts, or friends,
or in some means or creatures only, or in co-ordination with
God ; but pretend and think that we do it but in subordi-
nation to him, and that our primary trust is in him alone.
The detection of this is by trying how we can trust God
398 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
alone, when he giveth us a promise and no probable means.
2. Pretending to trust God alone in the neglect of those
means which he hath appointed us to use, and in the ne-
glect of those duties which he hath made the condition of
his promises ; and this trust is but a self-deceiving cover
for sin and sloth. 3. Pretending to trust God in the use of
self-devised, sinful means ; when he hath promised a bless-
ing to no such means, but threatened them with a curse.
4. Thinking we trust God, when it is some false revelation
of the devil, or some delusion of deceivers, or some dream,
or fancy, or brain-sick, proud conceit of our own, which in-
deed we believe, and ground our trust upon : as those do
that are deluded by false prophets and false teachers, and
fantastical fancies of their corrupted imaginations. 6.
When men in presumption and carnal security will rashly
venture their souls in the darkness of uncertainty (as well
as in the neglect of a holy life) and cast away all the sense
of their miserable state ; and all the necessary fear and care
that tended to their recovery, and persuade themselves that
they are in no great danger, or that their care will do no
good, and call all this a trusting God with their salvation.
7. A pretending to trust God for that which is contrary to
his nature : as to love the wicked with complacency, or to
take them into heaven. 8. A pretending to trust God for that
which is contrary to his Word : as to save the unregenerate
and unholy ; and so ' not believing him * itself, is taken for
a believing in him, or trusting him. 9. Pretending to be-
lieve and trust him for that which neither his nature or his
Word did ever declare to be his will, in matters which he
hath kept secret, or never gave us any revelation of; such
is that which some call a particular faith : as to believe in
prayer that some particular never promised shall be granted,
because we ask it, or because we feel a strong persuasion
that it will be so.
Quest, * But is not such a particular faith and trust
divine and solid?' — Answ. To expect any particular mercy
which God's nature, or Word, or works do tell us that he
will give is sound and warrantable : and to expect any par-
ticular thing which by inspiration, prophecy, or true extra'
ordinary revelation shall be made known to us ; for this is a
Word of God : but all other belief and expectation is but
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 399
self-promising and self-deceiving. And wise men will not
easily take themselves for prophets, nor take any thing for
an inspiration, or divine, extraordinary revelation, which
bringeth not the testimony of cogent evidence.
IV. There are three great Uses and Benefits of this trust
in God, which highly commend it to us, and make it neces-
sary. 1 . It is necessary to our acknowledgment and ho-
nouring of God. It is a cordial, practical confession of his
power, and wisdom, and goodness, and truth : for where any
one of these is wanting, there is no ground of rational trust.
And the greater the danger or assault against us is, the
more God is acknowledged and honoured by our trust ; for
then we declare, that no creature or impediment can dis-
appoint his will : but that his power is above all power, and
his wisdom above all wisdom, and his goodness and fidelity
constant and invincible. Whereas distrust is a denying of
God in some of his attributes, or a suspecting of him. 2. It
is necessary to ourselves, for the quiet, and peace, and com-
fort of our minds, which else will be left unavoidably to con-
tinual disquietness and pain, by vexatious fears, and griefs,
and cares, unless stupidity or deceit should ease them. 3.
It is necessary to prevent the errors and sinful miscarriage of
our lives. For if we trust not in God, we shall spend all
our thoughts and labours in the use of sinful means ; we
shall be trusting idolatrously to the creature, and we shall
be shifting for ourselves by lies or any unlawful means, and
lose ourselves by saving ourselves, as from God, or without
God.
Hence it is, that trust in God is so frequently and ear-
nestly commanded in the Scriptures, and such blessings
promised to it, as if it were the sum of godliness and reli-
gion. " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and mak-
eth flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
— Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose
hope the Lord is**. — Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is
he°. — Blessed are all they that put their trust in him?.
— O taste and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man
that trusteth in him^i." Safety, stability, comfort, salva-
n Jer. xvii. 5. 7. ° Prov. xvi. 20.
P Psal. ii. 12. 1 Psal, Ixxxiv. 12. xxxiv. 8.
400 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
tion, all mercies are promised to them that trust in God"".
So faith in Christ is called trust' ; and idolaters and world-
lings are described, by trusting in their idols and their
wealth*.
Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God.
Direct, i. ' Let thy soul retain the deepest impression of
the almightiness, wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness of
God, and how certainly all persons, things, and events are
in^his power j and how impotent all the world is to resist
him, and that nothing can hurt thee but by his consent.'
— The principal means for a confirmed confidence in God
is to know him, and to know that all things that we can
fear are nothing, and can do nothing, but by his command,
and motion, or permission. I am not afraid of a bird or a
worm, because I know it is too weak for me : and if I
rightly apprehend how much all creatures are too weak for
God, and how sufficient God is to deliver me, his trust
would quiet me. " Fear thou not ; for I am with thee ; be
not dismayed ; for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee ;
yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee "." — They that
know thy name will put their trust in thee''." — " Hearken
unto me ye that know righteousness, the people in whose
heart is my law ; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither
be afraid of their revilings : for the moth shall eat them up
like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wooU."
Direct, ii. ' Labour for a sound and clear understand-
ing of the promises of God, that thou mayst know how far
he calleth thee to trust him.' — For to think that he pro-
miseth what he doth not, is not to trust him, but to deceive
thyself ; and to think that he doth not promise what indeed
he doth, is to cast away the ground of trust.
Direct. Ill* ' Yield not to the tempter, who would either
entice thee into terrifying guilt, and blot thine evidences,
or else hide them from thee, and keep thee doubtful and
suspicious of the love of God.' — For almost all that the dis-
•* Psal. xxxiy. 22. xxxtu. 3. 5. 40. xci. 2. 4. cxxv. 1. Isa. 1. 10,
» Matt. xii. 21. Ephes, i. 12, 13.
' Psal. cxv. 8. cxxxv. 18. Amos vi. 1. Mark x. 14. Prov. xi. 28. xxviiit 26,
« Isa. xli. 10. « Psa. xi. 10. y Isa. li. 8.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 401
trustful soul hath to say for itself, to justify its distrust, is,
I am not sure that the promises are mine. Remember still,
that a heart dedicated to God, or consenting to his cove-
nant, is your fullest evidence ; and suffer not this to be hid
or blotted. Wilful sin and guiltiness breeds fears, and will
interrupt your trust and quiet till it be forsaken.
Direct, iv. * Remember the grounds of confidence and
quietness which God hath given you in his Son, his cove-
nant, his Spirit, his sacraments, and your own and others^
manifold experiences.' — I name them all together, because
I would have you set them all together before your eyes.
Will he not give you *' all things with him," that hath " given
you his Son?" Is not Christ a sufficient undertaker and
encourager ? Are not his covenant, promise, and oath suffi-
cient security for you ? " Wherein God, willing more
abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath ; that by two im-
mutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation y." And are not the hea-
venly seal and earnest of his Spirit sufficient to confirm
us^?" And have you tried God so oft, and yet cannot you
trust him ? Our frequent experiences, though the least of
all these helps of trust, are very powerful, because they are
near us, and almost satisfy sense itself ; when all our bones
say, " Lord, who is like unto thee, who deliverest the
poor^!" &c.
Direct, v. * Consider of the greatness of the sin of dis-
trust : how it denieth God in his attributes, and usually
supposeth the creature to be above him.' — Either thou
doubtest of, or deniest his power to help thee, or his wis-
dom as deficient in making his promises, or finding out the
means of thy deliverance, or his goodness and love, as if he
would deceive thee, and so his truth and faithfulness in his
promises. And if thou fear a man how great soever, when
God calleth thee to trust him for thy help, what dost thou
but say. This man is more powerful than God ? Or God
cannot deliver me out of his hands ? If it be' want, or sick-
ness, or death which thou fearest, what dost thou but say
y Heb. vi. 17, 18. ^ 2 Cor. i. 22. v. 5. Eplies. i. 13, 14. iv. 30.
» Psal. XXXV. 10,
VOL. TI. D D
402 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
in thy heart, that God either knoweth not what is best for
thee so well as thou knowest thyself, or else is not powerful
or gracious enough to give it? nor true enough to keep his
promise? ** He that believeth not, makes God a liar^."
Direct, vi. * Remember that trusting God doth, as it
were, oblige him, and distrusting him doth greatly disoblige
him, especially when any thing else is trusted before him/
— If any man trust you upon any encouragement given him
by you, you will take yourselves obliged to be trusty to
him, and not to fail any honest trust ; but if he trust you
not, or trust another, you will turn him off to those that he
hath trusted. God may say to thee. Let them help thee
whom thou hast trusted : thou trustedst not in me, and
therefore I fail not thy trust when I forsake thee.
Direct, vii. * Remember that thou must trust in God,
or in nothing.' — For nothing is more sure, nor more fre-
quently experienced, than that all things else are utterly in-
sufficient to be our help. Shall we choose a broken reed,
that we know beforehand will both deceive and pierce us ?
Woe to the man that hath no surer a foundation for his
trust than creatures? The greatest of them are unable; and
the best of them are untrusty and deceitful. How sad is
thy case, if God turn thee off to these for help in the hour
of thy extremity! Then wilt thou perceive, that "it is
better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in
princes *"." — "The righteous also shall see, and fear, and
laugh at him : Lo, this is the man that hath made not God
his strength ; but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
and strengthened himself in his wickedness ^." — " But they
that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, that cannot
be removed, but abideth for ever^." Creatures will cer-
tainly deceive thy trust, but so will not God.
Direct, viii. * Believe and remember the particular pro-
vidence of God, which regardeth the falling of a sparrow on
the ground, and numbereth the very hairs of your heads ^'
— And can you distrust him, that is so punctually regard-
ful of your least concernments ? that is always present, and
watcheth over you ? You need not fear his absence, dis-
b 1 John V. 10, 11. *= Psal. cxviii. 8, 9. ^ Psal. lii. 6, 7.
« Psal. cxxv. 1. fMatt. X. 30.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 403
regard, forgetfulness, or insufficiency. Doth he number
your hairs, and doth he not number your groans, and
prayers, and tears? How then doth he wipe away your
tears, and put them all as in his bottle s?
Direct, ix. ' Compare God with thy dearest and most
faithful friend, and then think how boldly thou canst trust
that friend if thy life or welfare were wholly in his hand ;
and how much more boldly thou shouldst trust in God, who
is more wise, and kind, and merciful, and trusty than any
mortal man can be.' — ^When thou art in want, in prison, in
sickness and in pain expecting death, think now if my life,
or health, or liberty were absolutely in the power of my
surest friend, how quietly could I wait, and how confidently
could I cast away my fears, though I had no promise what he
would do with me ; for I know he would do nothing but what
is for my good : and is not God to be trusted in much more ?
Indeed a friend would ease my pain, or supply my wants,
or save my life, when God will not : but that is not because
God is less kind but because he is more wise, and better
knoweth what tendeth to my hurt or good? My friend
would pull off the plaster as soon as I complain of smart ;
but God will stay till it have done the cure. But, surely,
God is more to be trusted for my real, final good, though my
friend be forwarder to give me ease. All friends may fail ;
but God never faileth.
Direct, x. ' Make use of thy natural love of quietness,
and thy natural weariness of tormenting cares, and fears,
and sorrows, to move thee to cast thyself on God, and quiet
thyself in trusting on him.' — For God hath purposely made
thyself and all things else insufficient, unsatisfactory, and
vexatious to thee, that thou mightst be driven to rest on
him alone, when nothing else affords thee rest. Cares,
and fears, and unquietness of mind are such thorns and
briars as nature cannot love or be content with : and you
may be sure that you can no way be delivered from them,
but by trusting upon God. And will you choose care and
torment, when so sure and cheap a way of ease is set before
you ? Who can endure, to have fears torment him, and
cares feed daily upon his heart, that may safely be delivered
from it ? An ulcerated, festered, pained mind is a greater
s Psal. Ivi. 8. Rev. vii. 17.
404 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
calamity than any bodily distress alone. And if you be cast
upon your own care, or committed to the trust of any crea-
ture, you can never rationally have peace. For your own
ease and comfort then betake yourselves to God, and cast
all your care and burden on him, who careth for you, and
knoweth perfectly what you want*'. Read often Matt. vi.
from ver. 24. How sweet an ease and quietness is it to the
mind that can confidently trust in God ? How quiet is he
from the storms of trouble and the sickness of mind, which
others are distressed with ? *' Thou wilt keep him in per-
fect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee : because he
trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the
Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength*. — He shall not be
afraid of evil tidings ; his heart is fixed, trusting in the
Lord ; his heart is established ; he shall not be afraid''.
— Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up
for them that fear thee ; which thou hast wrought, for them,
that trust in thee, before the sons of men. Thou shalt hide
them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man ;
thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife
of tongues. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen
your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord^ — What time I am
afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word ;
in God have I put my trust : I will not fear what flesh can
do unto me™." How easy and sweet a life is this !
Direct, xi. * Remember that distrust is a pregnant,
multiplying sin, and will carry thee to all iniquity and mi-
sery if thou suffer it to prevail." — Distrusting God is but
our entrance upon a life of error, sin, and woe. It pre-
sently sets us on idolatrous confidence on flesh, and sinful
shifts, and stretching conscience ; it deludeth our judg-
ments, and maketh every thing seem lawful, which seems
necessary to our safety and welfare ; and every thing seem
necessary, without which man cannot accomplish it. All
sinful compliances, and temporizings, and man-pleasing,
and believing sinful means to be no sin, proceed from this
distrust of God.
Direct, XII. * Suffer not distrustful thoughts and rea-
h 1 Fet.v. 7. MatL vi. 32. * Isai. xxvi.3, 4. '' Psal.cxii. 7, 8.
» Psal. xxxi. 19, 20 . m pgal. hi. S, 4.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 405
sonings in thy mind, but cast them out, and command them
to be gone.' — Cogitations are the instruments of good and
evil in the mind of man ; they cannot be acted but by
thoughts, and the will hath more command of the thoughts
than it hath immediately of the passions themselves. If you
cannot trust God so quietly as you would, nor keep under
every fearful apprehension, yet keep out, or cast out the
thoughts which exercise your sin, and turn your thoughts
to something else. If thoughts do not actuate it, your dis-
trustful fears and cares will vanish. What are your cares,
but the turmoiling of your thoughts ? continually feeding
upon difficulties and trouble, and tiring themselves with
hunting about for help ? Cast away the thoughts, and the
cares are gone. You may do much in this if you will,
though it be difficult. " Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your
bodies, what ye shall put on. Which of you, by taking
thought, can add one cubit to his stature ? And why take
ye thought for raiment "?"
Direct, xiii. * When commands will not prevail, rebuke
and chide thy unbelieving heart, and reason it out of its dis-
trustful cares, and fears, and sorrows.' — Say to it, as David
oft, *' Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art
thou so disquieted within me? Trust in God, for I shall yet
give him thanks, who is the health of my countenance, and
my God**." O foolish soul ! hast thou yet learned no better
to know thy God ? Doth he support the heavens and the
earth, and the whole creation? and yet canst thou not rely
upon him? Is he not wise enough to be trusted with the
conduct and disposal of thee? Is he not good and gracious
enough to be trusted with thy life, estate, and name, and
welfare? Is he not great and powerful enough to be trusted
against the greatest danger, or difficulties, or opposition
that ever can befall thee? Is he not true and faithful
enough to be trusted, whatever improbabilities may arise
before thee? Where dwelt the man, and what was his
name, that ever trusted him in vain, or was ever failed or
deceived by him ? Are not his Son, and Spirit, and cove-
nant, and oath, sufficient pledges of his love for thy secu-
rity ? How oft hath he performed his promises to thee, and
n Matt. vi. 25. 27, 28. » Psal. xlii. & xliii.
406 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
heard thy cries, and helped and saved thee in thy distress ?
How oft hath he confuted thine unbelief, and shamed thy
distrustful fears and cares ? and then thou couldst resolve
to trust him better in the next distress. And shall all his
wonders of mercy be forgotten? and all thy confessions,
thanksgivings, and promises be now repented of, contra-
dicted, or recanted, by thy renewed distrust and unbelief?
Is he not the same God, that hath so frequently and abun-
dantly had mercy on thee ? Is he not the same God, that
hath saved all that trusted in him, and wrought such won-
ders for his servants in the earth, and brought so many safe
to heaven ? " Our fathers trusted in him ; they trusted,
and he delivered them ; they cried to him, and were deli-
vered ; they trusted in him, and were not confounded p."
And is he not sufficient for thee, that is sufficient for all the
world? Who ever sped ill that trusted in him? or who hath
prospered by trusting in themselves or any other, without
him, or against him ? Unworthy soul ! wilt thou atheistically
deny the sufficiency, or truth, or goodness of thy God?
Shall thy distrust deny him, or blaspheme him ? Wilt thou
idolatrously set up a worm above him? Is there more in
man, or any thing else, to hurt or ruin thee, than in God to
save thee ? Whom wilt thou trust, if thou trust not God ?
Darest thou think that any other is fitter for thy confidence?
Thou wouldst be quiet and confident if thy dearest friend
had thy life or welfare in his hands ; and art thou troubled
now it is in the hands of God? Is he enough to be our
endless happiness in heaven, and not to be thy confidence
on earth ? Canst thou trust him to raise thy body from the
dust, and not raise thy state, or name, or troubled mind ?
Either take him for thy rock and hope, or never pretend to
take him for thy God. If thou trust not in him, thou must
despair, or trust against him ; and whom wilt thou trust to
save thee from him ? Hadst thou no more encouragement
to trust him but this, that he hath bid thee trust him, thou
mightst be sure he never would deceive thee. Lament,
therefore, thy disquietment and self-tormenting fears ; la-
ment thy injurious distrust of thy most dear Almighty Fa-
ther. Choose not vexation, when the harbour of his love is
open to secure thee. If men or devils are against thee, say
P Psal. xxii. 4, 5.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 407
as those, believers, " We are not careful to answer thee in
this matter ; our God whom we serve is able to deliver us ^.**
Go on, with Daniel, in praying to thy God, and trust him
with the lions' jaws. *' Commit thy way unto the Lord ;
trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass^" *' Some trust in
chariots, and some in horses, but I will remember the name
of the Lord our God^" '* Trust in him, for he is thy hope
and shield*."
Direct. XIV. * Take not the sayings of the tempter or thy
own distrustful heart for the sayings of God, or for any rea-
son against thy confidence in him.' — Some take all the ma-
licious suggestions of the devil, for the reasons of their dis-
quietness and fears, as if it were the Spirit of God that
raised all the terrors and molestations in them, which are
raised by the enemy of God and them : and they fear when
satan bids them, thinking it is the Spirit of God ; and they
dare not trust God when he commandeth them, for fear lest
it be the will of satan. Some are so strongly affected with
their own conceits and fancies, that they think God saith
all that their hearts or fancies say, and make one fear the
reason of another. Thy heart is not so wise or good, as
that thou shouldst take all its words for the words of God.
Thy " flesh and thy heart" may " fail thee," when God, who
is the " rock of thy heart and thy portion," will never fail".
Thy heart may say, I have no grace, no help, no hope, when
God never said so*. Thy heart may say, I am a reprobate,
forsaken of God, he will not hear me, the time of grace is past,
when God never said so. Thy heart may say, I am undone,
I can find no comfort in any friend, no evidence of grace
within me, no comfort in God, in Christ, or in the promises,
no comfort in my life, which is but a burden to me ; I can-
not pray, I cannot believe, I cannot answer the objections
of satan, I can strive no longer against my fears, I cannot
bear my wounded conscience. All this is the failing of the
heart ; but proveth not any failing of God, whose grace is
sufficient for thee, and his strength is manifested in thy
weakness. The heart hath a thousand sayings and conceits,
which God is utterly against.
1 Dan. iii. 16, 17. ■" Psal. xxxvii. 5. * Psal. xx. 7.
' Psal. cxv. 9, 10, 1 1 . " Psal, Ixxiii. 26. " Psal. Ixxvii. 7, 8, 9, 10.
408 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct, xv. * When you cannot exercise a trust of assu-
rance, exercise the trust of general faith, and hope, and the
quiet submission of thyself to the holy will of God/ — The
common pretence of distrust is, * I know not that I am a
child of God :' and * it beseems the ungodly to fear his
wrath/ But, as the Gospel is tidings of great joy to any
people where it cometh ; so is it a word of hope and trust*
At least trust God so far as infinite goodness should be
trusted, who will damn none but the finally obstinate re-
fusers of his saving grace. And with Aaron '', hold your
peace, when he is glorifying himself in his corrections. Re-
member, that the will of God is never misguided ; that it is
the beginning and end of all things ^ ; that it never willeth
any thing but good ; that it is the centre and end of all our
wills. There is no rest or quietness for our wills, but in the
will of God : and his will is always for the good of them
that truly desire to be conformed to it, by obedience to his
commands, and submission to his disposal. Say, therefore,
with your Saviour, " Father, if it be thy will, let this cup
pass from me ; but not as I will, but as thou wilt." There
is nothing got by struggling against the will of God ; nor
anything lost by a quiet submission to it. And, if thou love
it, and desire to obey and please it, trust in it, for it will
surely save thee.
Grand Direct, xiii. * Diligently labour that God and Ho-
liness may be thy chief Delight : and this holy Delight may
be the ordinary temperament of thy religion.'
Directions for Delighting ourselves in God.
Direct, i. ' Rightly understand what delight in God it is
that you must seek and exercise.' — It is not a mere sensi-
tive delight, which is exercised about the objects of sense
or fancy, and is common to beasts with men : nor is it the
delights of immediate intuition of God, such as the blessed
have in heaven : nor is it an enthusiastic delight, consisting
in irrational raptures, and joys, of which we can give no ac-
count of the reason ^. Nor is it a delight inconsistent with
^ Lev. X. 3. y Rev. iv. 11. Rom. xi, 36.
* Of enthusiastic impressions I have said more in my Directions for the Cure of
Church Divisions, and in the defence of it, and in other books.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 409
sorrow and fear, when they are duties ; but it is the solid, ra-
tional complacency of the soul in God and holiness, arising
from the apprehensions of that in him, which is justly delec-
table to us. And it is such, as, in estimation of its object,
and inward complacency and gladness, though not in pas-
sionate joy or mirth, must excel our delight in temporal
pleasure ; and must be the end of all our humiliations, and
other inferior duties.
Direct, ii. * Understand how much of this holy delight
may be hoped for on earth.' — Though too many Christians
feel much more fear and sorrow in their religion than de-
light, yet every true Christian doth esteem God more delec-
table, or fit, and worthy of his delights, if he could enjoy
him : whereas to the carnal, fleshly things do seem more fit
to be their delights. And though most Christians reach
not very high in their delights in God, yet God hath pre-
scribed us such means, in which, if we faithfully used them,
we might reach much higher. And this much we might
well expect : 1. So much as might make our lives incom-
parably more quiet, contented, and pleasant to us, than are
the lives of the greatest or happiest worldlings. 2. So much
as might make our thoughts of God and the life to come, to
be ready, welcome, pleasant thoughts to us. 3. So much
as might greatly prevail against our inordinate griefs and
fears, and our backwardness to duties, and weariness in
them, and might make religion an ordinary pleasure. 4. So
much as might take off our hankering desire after unneces-
sary recreations and unlawful pleasures of the flesh. 5. So
much as might sweeten all our mercies to us, with a spiri-
tual perfume or relish. 6. So much as might make some
sufferings joyful, and the rest more easy to us. 7. And so
much as might make the thoughts of death less terrible to
us, and make us desire to be with Christ.
Direct, iii. * Understand what there is in God and holi-
ness, which is fit to be the soul's delight.' — As, 1. Behold
him in the infinite perfections of his being : his omnipo-
tence, omniscience, and his goodness ; his holiness, eternity,
immutability, &c. And as your eye delighteth in an ex-
cellent picture, or a comely building, or fields, or gardens,
not because they are yours, but because they are a delecta-
ble object to the eye ; so let your minds delight themselves
410 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
in God, considered in himself, as the only object of highest
delight. 2. Delight yourselves also in his relative attri-
butes, in which are expressed his goodness to his creatures :
as his allsufficiency, and faithfulness or truth, his benignity,
his mercy, and compassion, and patience to sinners, and his
justice unto all. 3. Delight yourselves in him as his glory
appeareth in his wondrous works, of creation and daily pro-
vidence. 4. Delight yourselves in him as he is related to
you, as your God and Father, and as all your interest, hope,
and happiness are in him alone. 5. Delight yourselves in
him as his excellencies shine forth in his blessed Son. 6.
And as they appear in the wisdom and goodness of his
Word, in all the precepts and promises of the Gospel *. 7.
Delight thyself in his image, though but imperfectly printed
on thy soul ; and also on his holy servants ^. 8. Delight
yourselves in the consideration of the glory which he hath
from all his creatures, and the universal fulfilling of his will :
as the prosperity and happiness of your friend delighteth
you, and the success of any excellent enterprises, and the
praise of excellent things and persons, and as you have a
special delight in the success of truth, and the flourishing
order, and unity, and peace, and prosperity of kingdoms, es-
pecially of the church, much more than in your personal
prosperity, unless you have selfish, private, base, unmanly
dispositions ; so much more should you delight in the glory
and happiness of God. 9. Delight yourselves in the safety
which you have in his favour and defence ; and the treasury
which you have in his allsufficiency and love, for your con-
tinual supplies in every want, and deliverance in every dan-
ger ; and the ground of quiet contentedness and confidence
which is offered to fearful souls in him. 10. Delight your-
selves in the particular discoveries of his common mercies
to the world, and his special mercies to his saints, and his
personal mercies to yourselves, from your birth to this mo-
ment, both upon your souls, and bodies, and friends, and
names, and estates, and affairs in all relations. 11. Delight
yourselves in the privilege you enjoy of speaking to him,
and of him, and hearing from him, and adoring and wor-
shipping him, and singing, and publishing his praise, and in
the communion which your souls may have with him through
a Psal. cxix. 162. .Tcr, xv. 16. ^ Gal. ii. 20. 1 Cor. xv. 10. 2 Cor. vii. 1&.
CHAP. Ill] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 411
Christ, on his days, and e*' all times, in his sacraments, and
in all your lives. And say as Solomon, ** And will God in-
deed dwell on earth ? Will he dwell and walk with sinful
men ? When the heaven of heavens cannot contain him *=."
"Let those that seek him rejoice and be glad in him*^."
Let us be glad to go to the house of the Lord, and join with
his holy assemblies in his worship. '* The streams" of his
grace " make glad the city of God, the holy tabernacles of
the Most High : God is in the midst of her ; she shall not
be moved®." 12. Delight yourselves above all in the fore-
thoughts and hope of the glory which you shall see and en-
joy for ever. I do but name all these for your memory,
because they are before spoken of in the Directions for love.
Direct, iv. * Understand how much these holy delights
are pleasing unto God, and how much he is for his people's
pleasure.' — For it much hindereth the joy of many Chris-
tians, that they think it is against the will of God, that such
as they should so much rejoice; or at least that they ap-
prehend not how much he hath commanded it, and how
great a duty it is, and how much pleasing to their God.
Consider, 1. It is not for nothing that the nature of man is
made capable of higher and larger delights, than the brutish,
sensual nature is : and that in this we are made little lower
than angels. 2. Nor is it for nothing that God hath made
delight and complacency, the most powerful, commanding
affection, and the end of all the other passions, which they
professedly subserve and seek : and the most natural, inse-
parable affection of the soul, there being none that desireth
not delight. 3. Nor is it in vain that God hath provided
and offered such plenty of most excellent objects for our de-
light, especially himself, in his Attributes, Love, Mercy, Son,
Spirit, and Kingdom : which brutes were not made to know
or to enjoy. 4. Nor hath he given us in vain, such excel-
lent, convenient, and various helps, and inferior prepara-
tions which tend to our delight ; even for body and mind,
to further our delight in God. 5. Nor is it in vain that he
maketh us yet more nearly capable by his Spirit ; even by
affecting humiliations and mortifying, cleansing, illuminat-
ing, and quickening works : and that the kingdom of heaven
consisteth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy
«: 1 Kings viii. 27. <i Psal. xl. 16. « Psal. xM. 4.
412 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Ghost : and that the Spirit hath undertaken to be the Com-
forter of believers, who is sent upon no low or needless
work. 6. Nor did Christ purchase his people's joys in vain,
by the price of his grievous sufferings and sorrows. Having
borne our griefs, and being made a man of sorrows, that we
that see him not, might rejoice in believing, with joy un-
speakable and full of glory. 7. Nor is it in vain that he
hath filled his word with such matter of delight and comfort,
in the most glad tidings that could come to man, and in
such free, and full, and faithful promises. 8. Nor hath he
multiplied his commands for his rejoicing and delight, in
vain ; again and again commanding us to rejoice, and always
to rejoice. 9. Nor is it insignificant that he hath forbidden
those worldly cares, and fears, and griefs which would de-
vour their joys. Nor that he hath so clearly shewed them
the way to joy, and blameth them if they walk not in it.
10. He filleth up their lives with mercies, and matter of de-
light, by his direction, support, provisions, and disposals :
and all this in their way of trial, and in the valley of tears.
11. How tender is he of their sufferings and sorrows ; not
afflicting willingly, nor delighting to grieve the sons of men.
12. He taketh not away their delight and comfort, till they
cast it away themselves, by sinning, or self-afflicting, or
neglecting his proposed pleasures. 13. He never faileth to
meet them with his delights, while they walk in the way
prescribed to that end : unless when it tendeth to their
greater pleasure, to have some present interruption of the
pleasure. 14. In their greatest needs, when themselves and
other helps must fail, he giveth them ofttimes the greatest
joys. 15. And he taketh their delights and sorrows as if
they were his own. In all their afflictions he is afflicted,
and he delighteth in their welfare, and rejoiceth over them
to do them good. Cannot you see the will of your Father
in all this? 16. If you cannot, yet lift up your heads, and
foresee the eternal delights which he hath prepared for you,
when you shall enter into your Master's joy : and then
judge whether God be for your delight?
Direct, v. * Take special notice of the reasons why God
commandeth you to delight in him, and consequently how
much of religion consisteth in these delights.' — 1. Thou vi-
lifiest and dishonourest him, if thou judge him not the wor-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 413
thiest for thy delights. 2. If thou delight not in him, thy
thoughts of God will be seldom, or unwelcome and unplea-
sant thoughts. 3. And thy speeches of him will be seldom,
or heartless, forced speeches. Who knoweth not how readi-
ly our thoughts and tongues do follow our delight ? Be it
house, or land, or books, or friends, or actions, which are
our delight, we need no force to bring our thoughts to them.
The worldling thinks and tasteth of his wealth and business :
the proud man, of his dignities and honour : the voluptuous
beast, of his lusts, and sports, and meats, and drinks ; be-
cause they most delight in these. And so must the Chris-
tian of his God, and hopes, and holy business, as being his
delight ^ 4. It will keep you away from holy duties, in
which you should have communion with God, if you have
no delight in God and them. This makes so many neglect
both public and secret worship, because they have no de-
light in it ; when those that delight in it are ready in taking
all opportunities. 5. It will corrupt your judgments, and
draw you to think that a little is enough, and that serious
diligence is unnecessary preciseness, and that one quarter
of your duty is an excess. A man that hath no delight in
God and godliness, is easily drawn to think, that little, and
seldom, and cold, and formal, and heartless, lifeless preach-
ing and praying may serve the turn, and any lip-service is
acceptable to God, and that more is more ado than needs.
And hence, he will be further drawn to reproach those that
go beyond him, to quiet his own conscience, and save his
own reputation ; and at last to be a forlorn, satanical reviler,
hater, and persecutor of the serious, holy worshippers of
God. " Behold the word of the Lord, is a reproach to
them : they have no delight in it : therefore I am full of the
fury of the Lord s." 6. If you delight not in it, you will do
that which you do, without a heart, with backwardness and
weariness : as your ox draweth unwillingly in the yoke, and
is glad when you unyoke him : and as your horse that goeth
against his will, and will go no longer than he feels the spur,
when delight would cause alacrity and unweariedness. 7.
It makes men apt to quarrel with the Word, and every
weakness in the minister ofFendeth them, as sick stomachs
' Laetari in Deo est res omnium surama in terris. Bucholtzer.
s Jer. yi. 10.
414 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [l*ART I.
that have some fault or other Btill to find with their meat. 8. It
greatly inclineth men to carnal and forbidden pleasures, be-
cause they taste not the higher and more excellent delights.
Taverns, and ale-houses, plays, and whores, cards, and dice,
and excess of recreation must be sought out for them, as
Saul sought a witch and a musician instead of God. It
would be the most effectual answer to all the silly reason-
ings of the voluptuous, when they are pleading for the law-
fulness of their unnecessary, foolish, time-wasting sports, if
we could but help them to the heavenly nature, and hearts
that more delight in God ^. This better pleasure is an ar-
gument that would do more to confute and banish their sin-
ful pleasure, than a twelve-months disputing or preaching
will do with them, while they are strangers to the soul's de-
light in God, Then they would rather say to their com-
panions, * O come and taste those high delights, which we
have found in God I' 9. The want of a delight in God and
holiness, doth leave the soul as a prey to sorrows : every
afiliction that assaulteth it may do its worst, and hath its
full blow at the naked, unfortified heart : for creature de-
lights will prove but a poor preservative to it. 10. This
want of a delight in God and holiness, is the way to apos-
tacy itself. Few men will hold on in a way that they have
no delight in, when all other delights must be forsaken for
it. The caged hypocrite, while he is cooped up to a stricter
life than he himself desires, even while he seemeth to serve
him, is loathsome to God : for the body without the will is
but a carcase or carrion in his eyes. If you had rather not
serve God, you do not serve him while you seem to serve
him. If you had rather live in sin, you do live in sin, repu-
tatively, while you forbear the outward act : for in God's
account, the heart, or will, is the man : and what a man had
rather be (habitually) that he is indeed. And yet, this hypo-
crite will be still looking for a hole to get out of his cage,
and forsake his unbeloved outside of religion : like a beast
that is driven in a way that he is loath to go, and will be
turning out at every gap. All these mischiefs follow the
want of delight in God.
6. On the contrary, the benefits which follow our delight
•> Tres sunt.virtutis conditiones, tentationis remotio, actuuin rauJtiplicalio, et in
bono deleclatio. P. Soaliger.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 415
in God, (besides the sweetness of it,) are unspeakable.
Those which are contrary to the forementioned hurts, I leave
to your own consideration. 1. Delight in God will prove
that thou know^est him, and lovest him, and that thou art
prepared for his kingdom : for all that truly delight in him
shall enjoy him. 2. Prosperity, which is but the small ad-
dition of earthly things, will not easily corrupt thee or trans-
port thee. 3. Adversity, which is the withholding of earth-
ly delights, will not much grieve thee, or easily deject thee.
4. Thou wilt receive more profit by a sermon, or good book,
or conference, which thou delightest in, than others, that
delight not in them, will do in many. 5. All thy service
will be sweet to thyself, and acceptable to God : if thou de-
light in him, he doth certainly delight in thee'. Thou hast
a continual feast with thee, which may sweeten all the cros-
ses of thy life, and afford thee greater joy than thy sorrow
is, in thy saddest case. 7. When you delight in God, your
creature-delight will be sanctified to you, and warrantable
in its proper place ; which in others is idolatrous, or corrupt.
These, with many others, are the benefits of delight in
God.
Direct, vi. * Consider how suitable God and holiness are
to be the matter of thy delight, and take heed of all temp-
tations which would represent him as unsuitable to you.' —
He is, 1. Most perfect and blessed in himself. 2. And full
of all that thou canst need. 3. He hath all the world at his
command for thy relief. 4. He is nearest to thee in pre-
sence and relation in the world. 6. He hath fitted all things
in religion to thy delight, for matter, variety, and benefit.
6. He will be a certain and constant delight to thee : and a
durable delight, when all others fail. Thy soul came from
him, and therefore naturally should tend to him : it is from
him, and for him, and therefore must rest in him, or have no
rest. We delight in the house where we were born, and in
our native country, and in our parents ; and every thing in-
clineth to its own original : and so should the soul to its
Creator.
Direct, vii. ' Corrupt not your minds and appetites with
contrary delights.' — Addict not yourselves to fleshly plea-
sures : taste nothing that is forbidden. Sorrow itself is
' Psal, cxlvii. 11. cxlix, 4. 1 Chron, xxix. 17.
416 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
not such an enemy to spiritual delights, as sensual, sinful
pleasures are. O leave your beastly and your childish plea-
sures, and come and feast your souls on God. Away with
the delights of lust, and pride, and covetousness, and vain
sports, and gluttony, and drunkenness, if ever you would
have the solid and durable delights ! Think not of joining
both together. Bethink yourselves : can it be any thing
but the disease and wickedness of thy heart, than can make
a play, or a feast, or drunken, wanton company, more plea-
sant to thee than God ? What a heart is that which think-
eth it a toil to meditate on God and heaven ; and thinks it
a pleasure to think of the baits of pride and covetousness ?
What a heart is that which thinks that sensuality, wanton-
ness, and vanity are the pleasure of their families, which
must not be turned out ; and that godliness, and heavenly
discourse, and exercises, would be the sadness and trouble
of their families, which must not be brought in, lest it mar
their mirth ; that thinks it an intolerable toil and slavery to
love God, and holiness, and heaven, and to be employed for
them ; and thinks it a delightful thing to love a whore, or
excess of meat, or drink, or sports ? Can you say any thing
of a man that is more disgraceful, unless you say he is a de-
vil ? It were not so vile for a child to delight more in a dog
than in his parents, or a husband to delight more in the ug-
liest harlot than in his wife, as it is for a man to delight more
in fleshly vanities than in God. Will you be licking up this
dung, when you should be solacing your souls in angelical
pleasures, and foretasting Ihe delights of heaven ? O how
justly will God thrust away such wretches from his everlast-
ing presence, who so abhor his ways and him ! Can they
blame him for denying them the things which they hate, or
set so light by, as to prefer a lust before them? If they
were not haters of God and holiness, they would never be so
averse even to the delights Afhich they should have with
him.
Direct, viii. * Take heed of a melancholy habit of bo-
dy:'— for melancholy people can scarce delight in any
thing at all, and therefore not in God. Delight is as hard
to them, as it is to a pained member to find pleasure, or a
sick stomach to delight in the food which it loathes. They
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 417
can think of God with trouble, and fear, and horror ,and
despair ; but not with delight.
Direct, ix. ' Take heed of an impatient, peevish, self-
tormenting mind, that can bear no cross ; and of overvalu-
ing of earthly things, which causeth impatience in the want
of them. Make not too great a matter of fleshly pain or
pleasure.' — Otherwise your minds will be called to a close
attendance on the flesh, and taken up with continual desires,
or cares, or fears, or griefs, or pleasures ; and will not be
permitted to solace themselves with God, The soul that
would have pure and high delights, must abstract itself
from the concernments of the flesh ; and look on your body,
as if it were the body of another, whose pain and pleasure
you can choose whether you will feel. When Paul was rapt
up into the third heaven, and saw the things unutterable,
he was so far freed from the prison of sense, that he knew
not whether he was in the body, or out of it. As the sepa-
rated souls, that see the face of God and the Redeemer, do
leave the body to be buried, and to rot in darkness, and feel
not all this to the interrupting of their joys; so faith can
imitate such a death to the world, and such a neglect of the
flesh, and some kind of elevating separation of the mind, to
the things above. If in this near conjunction you cannot
leave the body to rejoice or sufler alone, yet, as itself is but
a servant to the soul, so let not its pain or pleasure be pre^-
dominant, and control the high operations of the soul. A
manly, valiant, believing soul, though it cannot abate the
pain at all, nor reconcile the flesh to its calamity, yet it can
do more, notwithstanding the pain, to its own delight, than
strangers will believe.
Some women, and passionate, weak-spirited men, espe-
cially in sickness, are so peevish, and of such impatient
minds, that their daily work is to disquiet and torment
themselves. One can scarce^ tell how to speak to them, or
look at them, but it offendeth them. And the world is so
full of occasions of provocation, that such persons are like
to have little quietness. It is unlike that these should de-
light in God, who keep their minds in a continual, ulcerated,
galled state, incapable of any delights at all, and cease not
their self-tormenting.
Direct, x. ' Itis only a life of faith, that will be a life of
VOL. II. E E
4i8 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I^
holy, heavenly delight : exercise yourselves, therefore, in be-
lieving contemplation's of the things unseen.' — It must not
be now and then a glance of the eye of the soul towards
God, or a seldom salutation, which you would give a stran-
ger ; but a walking with him, and frequent addresses of the
soul unto him, which must help you to the delights which
believers find in their communion with him.
Direct, xi. ' Especially let faith go frequently to hea-
ven for renewed matter of delight, and frequently think
what God will be to you there for ever, and with what full,
everlasting delight he will satiate your souls.' — As heaven
is. the p:ace of our full delight, so the foresight and fore-
taste of it, is the highest delight, which on earth is to be
attained. And a soul that is strange to the foresight of
heaven, will be as strange to the true delights of faith.
Direct, xii. ' It is a great advantage to holy delight, to
be much in the more delightful parts of worship ; as in
thanksgiving and praise, and a due celebration of the sa-
crament of the body and blood of Christ.' — Of which I have
spoken in the foregoing Directions.
Direct, xiii. 'A skilful, experienced pastor, who is able
to open the treasury of the Gospel, and publicly and pri-
vately to direct his flock in the work of self-examination,
and the heavenly exercises of faith, is a great help to Chris-
tians' spiritual delight.' — The experiences of believers teach
them this : How oft do they go away refreshed and revived,
who came to the assembly, or to their pastors in great dis-
tress, and almost in despair''? It is the office and delight of
the ministers of Christ, to be " helpers of his people's faith
and joy'."
' Direct, xiv. * Make use of all that prosperity and lawful
Jjleasure, which God giveth you in outward things, for the
increase and advantage of your delight in God.' — Though
corrupted nature is apter to abuse prosperity and earthly
delights, than any other state, to the diverting of the heart
from God ; and almost all the devil's poison is given in su-
gared or gilded allectives ; yet the primitive, natural use of
prosperity, of health, and plenty, and honour, and peace, is
to lead up the mind to God, and give us a taste of his spiritual
delights ! That the neighbourhood of the body might be
•' See Job xxxiii. 23. 2 Cor. i. 3, 4.
' a Cor.i. 24. Phil. i. 4. 25. 1 Thess. ii. 20.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 419
the soul's advantage ; and that God, who in this hfe will be
seen by us but in a glass, and will give out his comforts by his
appointed means, might make advantage of sensitive de-
lights, for his own reception, and the communications of
his love and pleasure unto man : that, as soon as the eye,
or ear, or taste, perceiveth the delightfulness of their seve-
ral objects, the holy soul might presently take the hint and
motion, and be carried up to delightful thoughts of him that
giveth us all these delights. And, doubtless, so far as we
can make use of a delight in friends, or food, or health, or
habitations, or any accommodations of our bodies, to fur-
ther our delight in God, or to remove those melancholy
fears or sorrows, which would hinder this spiritual delight, it
is not only lawful, but our duty to use them, with that mo-
deration as tendeth to this end.
Direct. XY. 'Make use of affliction, as a great advan-
tage for your purest and unmixed delight in God.' — The
servants of Christ have usually never so much of the joy in
the Holy Ghost, as in their greatest sufferings : especially if
they be forhiss^ke. The soul never retireth so readily and
delightfully to God, as \vhen il hath ho one else that will
receive it, or that it can take any comfort from. God com-
forteth us most, when he hath made us see that none else
can or will relieve us. When all friends have forsaken
us save only one, that one is sweeter to \is then than ever.
When all our house is fired down except one room, that
room is pleasanter to us than it was before. He that hath
lost one eye, will love the other better than before. In
prosperity our delights in God are too often corrupted by a
mixture of sensual delight : but all that remaineth when the
creiiture is gone, is purely divine.
Direct, xvi. * Labour by self-examination, deliberately
managed under the direction of an able spiritual guide, to
settle your soiils in the well-grounded persuasion of your
special interest in God and heaven : and then suffer hot sa-
tan, by his troublesome importunity, to renew your doubts,
or molest your peace.' — An orderly, well-guided, diligent,
self-examination, may quickly do much to shew you your
condition : and if you are convinced that the truth of grace
is in you, let hot fears and suspicion go for reas'oh, and
cause you to deny that which you cannot, without the gain-
420 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
saying of your consciences, deny. You see not the design
of the devil in all this : his business is by making you fear,
that you have no interest in God, to destroy your delight
in him, and in his service : and next that, to make you,
through weariness, forsake him ; and either despair, or turn
to sensual delights. Foresee and prevent these designs of
satan, and suifer him not at his pleasure to raise new storms
of fears and troubles, and draw you to deny your Father's
mercies, or to suspect his proved love.
Direct, xvii. * Damp not your delights by wilful sin.' —
If you grieve your Comforter, he will grieve you, or leave
you to grieve yourselves. In that measure that any known
sin is cherished, delight in God will certainly decay.
Direct, xviii. * Improve your observation of wicked
men's sensual delights, to provoke your souls to delight in
God.* — Think with yourselves; shall hawks, and hounds,
and pride, and filthiness, and cards, and dice, and plays,
and sports, and luxury, and idleness, and foolish talk, or
worldly honours, be so delightful to these deluded sinners,
and shall not my God and Saviour, his love and promises,
and the hopes of heaven, be more delightful to me ? Is
there any comparison between the matter of my delights
and theirs ?
Direct, xix. * Labour to overcome those fears of death,
which would damp your joys in the foresight of everlasting
joys.' — As nothing morefeedeth holy delights than the fore-
thoughts of heaven ; so there is scarce any thing that more
hindereth our delight in those forethoughts, than the fear
of interposing death. See what I have written against this
fear, in my " Treatise of Self-denial," and " Saints' Rest,"
and in my " Treatise of Death, as the last Enemy," and in my
" Last Work of a Believer."
Direct, xx. ' Pretend not any other religious duties,
against your delight in God and holiness ; but use them all
in their proper subserviency to this/ — Penitent sorrow is
only a purge to cast out those corruptions which hinder you
from relishing your spiritual delights. Use it therefore as
physic, only when there is need ; and not for itself, but on-
ly to this end ; and turn it not into your ordinary food.
Delight in God is the health of your souls : say not you
cannot have while to be healthful, because you must take
I
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 4^1
physic, or that you take physic against health, or instead of
health, but for your health. So take up no sorrow against
your delight in God, or instead of it, but for it, and so much
as promoteth it. See the Directions for love beforegoing.
By this time you may see, that holy delight adjoined
to love, is the principal part of our religion, and that they
mistake it which place it in any thing else. And therefore
how inexcusable are all the ungodly enemies or neglecters
of a holy life. If it had been a life of grief and toil, they had
had some pretence ; but to fly from pleasure, and refuse de-
light, and such delight, is inexcusable. Be it known to
you, sinners, God calleth you not to forsake delight, but to
accept it : to change your delight in sin and vanity, for de-
light in him. You dare not say but this is better : you
cannot have your houses and lands for ever, nor your lust
and luxury for ever, but you may have God for ever. And
do you hope to live for ever with him, and have you no de-
light in him? Men deal with Christ as the Papists with the
reformed churches : because we reject their formalities and
ceremonious toys, they say we take down all religion. So
because we would call men from their brutish pleasures,
they say we would let them have no pleasure : for the epi-
cure thinks, when his luxury, lust, and sport are gone, all is
gone. Call a sluggard from his bed, or a glutton from his
feast, to receive a kingdom, and he will grudge, if he observe
only what you would take from him, and not what you give
him in its stead. When earthly pleasures end in misery,
then who would not wish they had preferred the holy, dura-
ble delights ?
Grand Direct, xiv. * Let Thankfulness to God thy Creator,
Redeemer, and Regenerator, be the very temperament of
thy soul, and faithfully expressed by thy tongue and life.'
Though our thankfulness is no benefit to God, yet he is
pleased with it, as that which is suitable to our condition,
and sheweth the ingenuity and honesty of the heart. An
unthankful person is but a devourer of mercies, and a grave
to bury them in, and one that hath not the wit and honesty
to know and acknowledge the hand that giveth them ; but
the thankful looketh above himself, and returneth all, as he
is able, to him from whom they flow. '
422 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
True thankfulness to God is discerned from counterfeit,
by these qualifications : 1. True thankfulness having a just
estimate of mercies compai^atively, preferreth spiritual and
everlasting mercies, before those that are merely corporal
and transitory. But carnal thankfulness chiefly valueth
carnal mercies, though notionally it may confess that the
spiritual are the greater. 2. True thankfulness inclineth
the soul to a spiritual rejoicing in God, and to a desire after
more of his spiritual mercies : but carnal thankfulness is
only a delight in the prosperity of the flesh, or the delusion
and carnal security of the mind, inclining men to carnal,
empty mirth, and to a desire of more such fleshly pleasure,
plenty, or content : as a beast that is full fed, will skip, and
play, and shew that he is pleased with his state : or if he
have ease, he would not be molested. 3. True thankfulness
kindleth in the heart, a love to the giver above the gift, or
at least a love to God above our carnal prosperity and plea-
sure, and bringeth the heart still nearer unto God, by all
his mercies. But carnal thankfulness doth spring from
carnal self-love, or love of fleshly prosperity ; and is moved
by it, and is subservient to it, and loveth God and thanketh
him but so far as he gratifieth or satisfieth the flesh. A
childlike thankfulness maketh us love our Father more than
his gift, and desire to be with him, in his arms ; but a dog
doth love you and is thankful to you, but for feeding him :
he loveth you in subordination to his appetite and his bones.
4. True thankfulness inclineth us to obey and please him,
that obligeth us by his benefits. But carnal thankfulness
puts God off* with the hypocritical, complimental thanks of
the lips, and spends the mercy in the pleasing of the flesh,
and makes it but the fuel of lust and sin. 5. True thank-
fulness to God is necessarily transcendent, as his mercies
are transcendent. The saving of our souls from hell, and
promising us eternal life, besides the giving us our very be-
ings and all that we have, do oblige us to, be tp tally and ab-
solutely his, that is so transcendent a benefactor to us, and
causeth the thankful person to devote and resign himself,
and all that he hath to God, to answer so great an obliga-
tion. . But carnal thankfulness falls short of this absolute
and total dedication, and still leaveth the sinner in the
power of self-love, devoting himself (really) to himself, and
GHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHIGS. 423
using all that he is, or hath, to the pleasing of his fleshly
mind, and giving God only the tithes or leavings of the
flesh, or so much as it can spare, lest he should stop the
streams of his benignity, and bereave the flesh of its pros-
perity and contents.
Directions for Thankfulness to God, our Benefactor.
Direct, i. * Understand well how great this duty is, in
the nature of the thing, but especially how the very design
and tenor of the Gospel, and the way of our salvation by a
Redeemer, bespeaketh it as the very complexion of the soul,
and of every duty.' — A creature that is wholly his Creator's,
and is preserved every moment by him, and daily fed and
maintained by his bounty, and is put into a capacity of life
eternal, must needs be obliged to incessant gratitude. And
unthankfulness among men is justly taken for an unnatural,
monstrous vice, which forfeiteth the benefits of friendship
and society. The " unthankful" are numbered with the "un-
holy ""," &c., as part of the monsters which should come in the
last times, (and which we have lived to see, exactly answer-
ing that large description of them.) But the design of God
in the work of redemption, is purposely laid for the raising
of the highest thankfulness in man : and the Covenant of
Grace containeth such abundant, wondrous mercies, as
might compel the souls of men to gratitude, or leave them
utterly without excuse. It is a great truth, and much to be
considered, that gratitude is that general duty of the Gos-
pel, which containeth and animateth all the rest, as being
essential to all that is properly evangelical. A law, as a law,
requireth obedience as the general duty : and this obedience
is to be exercised and found in every particular duty which
it requireth. And the covenant with the Jews was called,
* The Law,' because the regulating part was most eminent :
and so obedience was the thing that was eminently requir-
ed by the law, though their measure of mercy obliged them
also to thankfulness. But the Gospel or New Covenant is
most eminently a history' of mercy, and a tender and pro-
mise of the most unmatchable benefits that ever were heard
of by the ears of man : so that the gift of mercy is the pre-
'» 2 Tim. iii. 2,
424 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
dominant or eminent part in the Gospel or New Covenant :
and though still, God be our Governor, and the New Cove-
nant also hath its precepts, and is a law, yet that is, in a
sort, but the subservient part. And what obedience is to a
law, that thankfulness is to a benefit, even the formal an-
swering of its obligation : so that though we are called to as
exact obedience as ever, yet it is now only a thankful
obedience that we are called to. And just as law and pro-
mises or gifts are conjoined in the New Covenant, just so
should obedience and thankfulness be conjoined in our
hearts and lives ; one to God as our Ruler, and the other to
him as our Benefactor : and these two must animate every
act of heart and life. We must repent of sin ; but it must
be a thankful repenting, as becometh those that have a free
pardon of all their sins procured by the blood of Christ, and
offered them in the Gospel : leave out this gratitude, and it
is no evangelical repentance. And what is our saving faith
in Christ, but the assent to the truth of the Gospel, with a
thankful acceptance of the good which it ofFereth us, even
Christ as our Saviour, with the benefits of his redemption.
The love to God that is there required, is the thankful love
of his redeemed ones : and the love to our very enemies, and
the forgiving of wrongs, and all the love to one another, and
all the works of charity there required, are the exercises of
gratitude, and are all to be done, on this account, because
Christ hath loved us, and forgiven us, and that we may shew
our thankful love to him. Preaching, and praying, and sa-
craments, and public praises, and communion of saints, and
obedience, are all to be animated with gratitude ; and they
are no further evangelically performed, than thankfulness is
the very life and complexion of them all. The dark and de-
fective opening of this by preachers, gave occasion to the
Antinomians to run into the contrary extreme, and to dero-
gate too much from God's law and our obedience : but if we
obscure the doctrine of evangelical gratitude, we do as bad
or worse than they. Obedience to our Ruler, and thankful-
ness to our Benefactor, conjoined and co-operating as the
head and heart in the natural body, do make a Christian in-
deed. Understand this well, and it will much incline your
hearts to thankfulness.
jpired. ii. * Let the greatness of the manifold mercies of
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 425
God, be continually before your eyes.* — Thankfulness is
caused by the due apprehension of the greatness of mercies.
If you either know them not to be mercies, or know not that
they are mercies to you, or believe not what is said and pro-
mised in the Gospel, or forget them, or think not of them,
or make light of them through the corruption of your minds,
you cannot be thankful for them. I have before spoken of
mercy in order to the kindling of love, and therefore shall
now only recite these following, to be always in your me-
mories. 1. The love of God in giving you a Redeemer, and
the love of Christ in giving his life for us, and in all the
parts of our redemption. 2. The covenant of grace, the par-
don of all our sins : the justification of our persons: our
adoption, and title to eternal life. 3. The aptness of means
for calling us to Christ : the gracious and wise disposals of
Providence to that end : the gifts and compassion of our in-
structors : the care of parents : and the helps and examples
of the servants of Christ. 4. The efficacy of all these means:
the giving us to will and to do, and opening of our hearts,
and giving us repentance unto life, and the Spirit of Christ
to mortify our sins, and purify our nature, and dwell within
us. 5. A standing in his church, under the care of faithful
pastors : the liberty, comfort, and frequent benefit of his
Word and sacraments, and the public communion of his
saints. 6. The company of those that fear the Lord, and
their faithful admonitions, reproofs, and encouragements :
the kindness they have shewed us for body, or for soul. 7.
The mercies of our relations, or habitations, our estates, and
the notable alterations and passages of our lives. 8. The
manifold preservations and deliverances of our souls, from
errors and seducers : from terrors and distress : from dan-
gerous temptations, and many a soul-wounding sin : and
that we are not left to the errors and desires of our hearts,
to seared consciences, as forsaken of God. 9. The manifold
deliverances of our bodies from enemies, hurts, distresses,
sicknesses, and death. 10. The mercies of adversity, in
wholesome, necessary chastisements, or honourable suffer-
ings for his sake, and support or comfort under all. 11.
The communion which our souls have had with God, in the
course of our private and public duties, in prayer, sacra-
ments, and meditation. 12. The use which he hath made
426 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
of us for the good of others : that our time hath not been
wholly lost, and we have not lived as burdens of the world.
13. The mercies of all our friends and his servants, which
were to us as our own ; and our interest in the mercies and
public welfare of his church, which are more than our own.
14. His patience and forbearance with us under our con-
stant unprofitableness and provocations, and his renewed
mercies notwithstanding our abuse : our perseverance until
now. 15. Our hopes of everlasting rest and glory, when
this sinful life is at an end. Aggravate these mercies in
your more enlarged meditations, and tl^ey will sure constrain
you to cry out, " Bless the Lord, O my soul : and all that
is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and forget not all his benefits ; who forgiveth all thine
iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth
thy life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving-
kindness and tender mercies"." " Enter into his gates with
thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise ; be thankful
unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his
mercy is everlasting ; and his truth endureth to all gene-
rations °." " The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger, and plenteous in mercy.. For as the heaven is high
above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear
himP." *' O give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good ; for
his mercy endureth for ever ^." '* O give thanks unto the
Lord ; call upon his name ; make known his deeds among
the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him ; talk ye
of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name : let
the heart of them rejoice that seek him*"."
Direct, iii. 'Be well acquainted with the greatness of
your sins, and sensible of them as they are the aggravation
of God's mercies to you.' — This is the main end why God
will humble those that he will save ; not to drive them to
despair of mercy, nor that he taketh pleasure in their sor-
rows for themselves ; but to work the heart to a due esteem
of saving mercy, and to a serious desire after it, that they
may thankfully receive it, and carefully retain it, and faith-
fully use it. An unhumbled soul sets light by Christ, and
grace, and glory : it relisheth no spiritual mercy : it cannot
n Psal. ciii. 1—4. ° Psal. c. 4, 5. f Psal. ciii. 8. 11.
'1 Psal. cxxjcvi. l,&c. "^Psal. cv. 1—3.
CHAP. III.] CURISTIAN ETHICS. 427
be thankful for that which it findeth no great need of. But
true humiliation recovereth our appetite and teacheth us to
value mercy as it is. Think, therefore, what sin is, (a& I
have opened to you. Direct, viii.) and think of your mani-
fold, aggravated sins : and then think how great those
mercies are that are bestowed on so great, unworthy sin-
ners! Then mercy will melt your humbled hearts, when
you confess that you are " unworthy to be called sons %"
and that you are unworthy to look up to heaven *," and that
you are *' not worthy of the least of all the mercies of God "."
The humbled soul ia the thankful soul, and therefore so
greatly valued by the Lord.
Direct, iv. * Understand what misery you were deli-
vered from, and estimate the greatness of the mercy by the
greatness of the punishment which you had deserved.* — Mi-
sery as well as sin must tell us the greatness of our merciesv.
This is before opened. Chap. i. Direct, ix.
Direct, v. * Suppose you saw the damned souls, or sup-
pose you had been one day in hell yourselves, bethink you
then how thankful you would have been for Christ and
mercy.' — And you were condemned to it by the law of God,
and if death had brought you to execution you had been
there, and then mercy would have been more esteemed. If
a preacher were sent to those miserable souls to oiFer them
a pardon and eternal life on the terms as they are offered to
us, do you think they would make as light of it as we do ?
Direct, vi. ' Neglect not to keep clear of the evidences
of thy title to those especial mercies, for which thou shouldst
be most thankful : and hearken not to satan when he would
tempt thee to think that they are none of thine, that so he
might make thee deny God the thanks for them which he
expecteth.' — Of this I have spoken in the Directions for
Love.
Direct, vii. * Think much of those personal mercies
which God hath shewed thee from thy youth up until now,
by which he hath manifested his care of thee, and particular
kindness to thee.' — Though the common mercies of God's
servants be the greatest, which all other Christians share
in with each one ; yet personal favours peculiar to ourselves
» Luke XV. ' Lpke xviii. 13. " Gen. xxxii. 10
4^8 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
are apt much to affect us, as being near our apprehension,
and expressing a peculiar care and love of us. Therefore
Christians should mark God's dealings with them, and write
down the great and notable mercies of their lives (which
are not unfit for others to know, if they should see it) .
Direct, viii. * Compare thy proportion of mercies with
the rest of the people's in the world ; and thou wilt find
that it is not one of many thousands that hath thy propor-
tion.'— It is so small a part of the world that are Christians,
and of those so few that are orthodox, reformed Christians ;
and of those so few that are seriously godly as devoted to
God ; and of those so few that fall not into some perplexi-
ties, errors, scandals, or great afflictions and distress, that
those few that are in none of these ranks have cause of
wondrous thankfulness to God : yea, the most afflicted
Christians in the world. Suppose God had divided his
mercies equally to all men in the world, as health, and
wealth, and honour, and grace, and the Gospel, &c. how
little of them would have come to thy share in comparison
of what thou now possessest ? how many have less wealth
or honour than thou ? how many thousands have less of the
Gospel and of grace ? In reason therefore thy thankfulness
should be proportionable and extraordinary.
Direct, ix. * Compare tiie mercies which thou wantest
with those which thou possessest, and observe how much thy
receivings are greater than thy sufferings.* — Thou hast many
meals plenty, for on© day of scarcity or pinching hunger ;
thou hast many days health for one day's sickness : and if
one part be ill, there are more that are not ; if one cross be-
fall thee, thou escapest many more that might befall thee,
and which thou deservest.
Direct, x. * Bethink thee how thou wouldst value thy
mercies, if thou wert deprived of them.' — The want of them
usually teacheth us most effectually to esteem them. Think
how thou shouldst value Christ and hope, if thou wert
in despair ? and how thou wouldst value the mercies of
earth, if thou wert in hell ? and the mercies of England, if
thou wert among bloody inquisitors and persecutors, and
wicked, cruel Heathens or Mahometans, or brutish, savage
Americans. Think how good sleep would seem to thee, if
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 429
thou couldst not sleep for pains ; or how good thy meat, or
drink, or clothes, or house, or maintenance, or friends,
would all seem to thee, if they were taken from thee ; and
how great a mercy health would seem, if thou wert under
some tormenting sickness ; and what a mercy time would
seem, if death were at hand, and time were ending ; and
what a mercy thy least sincere desires, or measure of grace
is, in comparison of^their case, that are the haters, despisers
and persecutors of holiness. These thoughts, if followed
home, may shame thee into thankfulness.
Direct, xi. ' Let heaven be ever in thine eye, and still
think of the endless joy which thou shalt have with Christ.'
— For that is the mercy of all mercies ; and he that hath
not that in hope to be thankful for will never be thankful
aright for any thing ; and he that hath heaven in promise
to be thankful for hath still reason for the highest, joyful
thanks, whatever worldly thing he want, or though he were
sure never more to have comfort in any creature upon earth.
He is unthankful indeed, that will not be thankful for hea-
ven ; but that is a mercy which will constrain to thankful-
ness, so far as our title is discerned. The more believing
and heavenly the mind is, the more thankful.
Direct, xii. ' Look on earthly and present mercies in
connection with heaven which is their end, and as sweet-
ened by our interest in God that giveth them/— You leave
out all the life and sweetness, which must cause your
thankfulness, if you leave out God and overlook him. A
dead carcase hath not the loveliness or usefulness as a living
man. You mortify your mercies, when you separate them
from God and heaven, and then their beauty, and sweet-
ness, and excellency are gone ; and how can you be thankful
for the husks and shells, when you foolishly neglect the
kernel ? Take every bit as from thy Father's hands : remem-
ber that he feedeth, and clotheth, and protecteth thee, as
his child : it is to " Our Father which is in heaven," that we
must go every day for our " daily bread." Taste his love in
it, and thou wilt say that it is sweet. Remember whither
all his mercies tend, and where they will leave thee, even in
the bosom of Eternal Love. Think with thyself, how good
is this with the love of God ! this and heaven are full enough
for me. Coarse fare, and coarse cloathing, and coarse usage
4dO CHHlStlAN DIRECTORY. [PAR-f I.
in the world, ^nd hard labour, and a poor habitation, with
heaven after all, is mercy beyond all human estimation or
conceiving. Nothing can be little, which is a token of the
love of God, and leadeth to eternal glory. The relation to
heaven is the life and glory of mercy.
Direct, xiii. ' Think oft how great a mercy it is, that
thankfulness for mercy is made so great a part of thy duty.'
^— Is it not the sweetest employment in the world to be al-
ways thinking on so sWeet a thing as the mercies of God,
and to be mentioning them with glad and thankful hearts ?
Is not this a sweeter kind of work than to be abusing mercy,
and casting it away upon fleshly lusts, and sinning it away,
and turning it against us? Yea, is it not a sweeter work
thian to be gro^ilitig under sin and misery? If God had as
much fixed your thoughts upon saddening, heart-breaking
objects, as he hath (by his commands) upon reviving and
delightful objects, you might have thought religion a me-
lancholy life. But when sorrow is required but as prepa-
ratory to delight, and cheerful thanksgiving is made the life
and sum of your religion, who but a monster will think it
grievous to live in thankfulness to our great Benefactor ?
To think thus of the sweetness of it will do much to incline
us to it, and make it easy to us.
Direct. XIV. * Make conscience ordinarily of allowing
God's mercies as great a room in thy thoughts and prayers,
as thou allowest to thy sins, and wants, and troubles.* — In a
day of humiliation, or after some hotable fall into sin, or in
some special cases of distress, I confess sin and danger may
have the greater share. But, ordinarily, mercy should take
up liiore time in our remembrance and confession than our
sins. Let the reasons of it first convince you, that this is
your duty ; and, when you are convinced, hold yourselves
to the performance of it. If you cannot be so thankful as
you desire, yet spend as much time in the confessing of
God's mercy to you, as in confessing your sins and mentioh-
i'rig your wants. Thanksgiving is an effectual petitioning
for more : it sheweth that the soul is not drowned in selfish-
ness, but would carry the fruit of all his mercies back to
God. If you cannot think on mercy so thankfully as you
would, yet see that it have a due proportion of ybiir
thoughts. This course (of allowing mercy its due time irt
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 431
our thoughts and prayers) would work the soul to greater
thankfulness by degrees. Whereas, on the contrary, when
men accustom themselves to have ten words or twenty
of confession and petition for one of thanksgiving, and ten
thoughts of sins, and wants, and troubles, for one of mer-
cies, this starveth thankfulness and turneth it out of doors.
You can command your words and thoughts if you will ;
resolve, therefore, on this duty.
Direct, xv. * Take heed of a proud, a covetous, a fleshly,
or a discontiented mind ; for all these are ienemies to thank-
fulness.'— A proud heart thinks itself the worthiest for more,
and thinks dimunitively of all. A covetous heart is still
gaping after more, and never returning the fruit of what it
hath received. A fleshly mind is an insatiable gulph of cor-
poral mercies ; like a greedy dog that is gaping for another
bone when he hath devoured one, and sacrificeth all
to his belly which is his God. A discontented mind is
always murmuring and never pleased, but findeth some-
thing still to quarrel at ; and taketh more notice of the de-
nying of its unjust desires, than of the giving of many un-
deserved mercies. Thankfulness prospefeth not, where
these vices prosper.
Direct, xvt. * Avoid as much as may be a melancholy
and over-fearful temper ; for that will not suffer you to see
or taste your greatest mercies, nor to be glad or thankful
for any thing you have, but is still representing all things
to you in a terrible or lamentable shape.'— The grace of
thankfulness may be habitually in a timorous, melancholy
mind : and that appeareth in their valuation of the mercy.
How glad and thankful would they be, if they were assured
that the love of God is towards them ? But it is next to
impossible for them, ordinarily, to exercise thankfulness,
because they cannot believe any thing of themselves that is
good and comfortable. It is as natural for them to be still
fearing, and despairing, and complaining, and troubling
themselves, as for froward children to be crying, or sick men
to groan. Befriend not therefore this miserable disease, but
resist it by all due remedies.
Direct. :kvii. * Take heed of unthankful doctrines. Which
teach you to deny or undervalue mercy.' — Such is, 1. The
doctrine of the Pelagians, (whom Prosper calleth the Un-
432 CHRISTIAN DIREOTOHY. [PART I.
grateful,) that denied faith and special grace to be any spe-
cial gift of God ; and that teach you, that Peter is no more
beholden to God than Judas, for his differencing grace. 2.
The doctrine which denieth general grace, (which is pre-
supposed unto special,) and tells the world, that Christ
died only for the elect, and that all the mercy of the Gospel
is confined to them alone ; and teacheth all men to deny
God any thanks for Christ or any Gospel mercy, till they
know that they are elect and justified ; and would teach the
wicked (on earth and in hell), that they ought not to
accuse themselves for sinning against any Gospel mercy,
or for rejecting a Christ that died for them. 3. All doc-
trine which makes God the physical, efficient predeterminer
of every act of the creature considered in all its circum-
stances ; and so tells you, that saving grace is no more, nor
any otherwise caused of God, than sin and every natural act
is ; and our thanks that we owe him for keeping us from
sin is but for not irresistible premoving us to it. Such doc-
trines cut the veins of thankfulness ; and being not doctrines
according to godliness, the life of grace, and spiritual sense
of believers are against them.
Direct, xviii. " Put not God off with verbal thanks, but
give him thyself and all thou hast.' — Thankfulness causeth
the soul to inquire, ** What shall I render unto the Lord for
all his benefits towards me''?" And it is no less than thy-
self and all thou hast that thou must render ; that is, thou
must give God not only thy tithes, and the sacrifice of Cain,
but thyself to be entirely his servant, and all that thou hast
to be at his command, and used in the order that he would
have thee use it. A thankful soul devoteth itfelf to God ;
this is the " living, acceptable sacrifice y." It studieth how
to do him service, and how to do good with all his mercies.
Thankfulness is a powerful spring of obedience, and makes
men long to be fruitful and profitable, and glad of oppor-
tunities to be serviceable to God. Thus law and Gospel,
obedience and gratitude concur. A thankful obedience
and an obedient thankfulness are a Christian's life. " Offer
unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows to the Most
High : and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Whoso offer-
»Psal. cxvi. 12. y Rom. xii. 1.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 433
eth praise glorifieth me ; and to him that ordereth his con-
versation aright, I will shew the salvation of God''."
I beseech thee now that readest these lines, be so true
to God, be so ingenuous, be so much a friend to the com-
fort of thy soul, and so much love a life of pleasure, as to
set thyself for the time to come to a more conscionable per-
formance of this noble work ; and steep thy thoughts in the
abundant mercies of thy God, and express them more in all
thy speech to God and man. Say as David, ** O Lord,
truly I am thy servant ; thou hast loosed my bonds. I will
offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon
the name of the Lord *." " I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to re-
joice over me. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and
thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my
soul from the grave ; thou hast kept me alive, that I should
not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints
of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with glad-
ness ; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee,
and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to
thee for ever ^." " I will praise the name of God with a
song, and magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall
please the Lord better than an ox*"." " It is a good thing
to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy
name, O Most High ; to shew forth thy loving-kindness in
the morning, and thy faithfulness every night '^.^ At mid-
night will I rise to give thanks unto thee, because of thy
righteous judgments®." ** Surely the righteous shall give
thanks unto thy name ; the upright shall dwell in thy pre-
sence ^" Remember that you are commanded, " in every
thing to give thanks s." When God is scanty in mercy to
thee then be thou scanty in thankfulness to him ; and not
when the devil, and a forgetful, or unbelieving, or discon-
tented heart, would hide his greatest mercies from thee. It
is just with God to give up that person to sadness of heart,
and to uncomfortable, self-tormenting melancholy, that will
^ Psal. 1. 14, 15. 23. a Psal. cxvi. 16, 17. •» Pgai. xxx. 1— 4. 11, 12.
^ Psal. lxix.30, 31 . "^ Psal. xcii. 1, 2. « Psal. cxix. 62.
<■ Psal. cxl. 13. g 1 Thess. V. 18.
VOL. II. F F
434 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
not be persuaded by the greatness and multitude of mercies,
to be frequent in the sweet returns of thanks.
Grand Direct, xv. * Let thy very heart be set to glorify
God, thy Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier ; both with the
estimation of thy mind, the praises of thy mouth, and the
holiness of thy life/
The glorifying of God, being the end of man and the
whole creation, must be the highest duty of our lives ; and
therefore deserveth our distinct consideration. " Whether
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory
of God''." " That God in all things might be glorified
through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen'." I shall therefore first shew
you what it is to glorify God, and then give directions how
to do it.
To glorify God is not to add to his essential perfections,
or felicity, or real glory. The glory of God is a word that
is taken in these various senses : 1. Sometimes it signifieth
the essential, transcendent excellencies of God in himself
considered ; so Rom. vi. 4. Psal. xix. 2. 2. Sometimes it
signifieth that glory which the angels and saints behold in
heaven : what this is, a soul in flesh cannot formally con-
ceive or comprehend. It seemeth not to be the essence of
God, because that is every where, and so is not that glory ;
or if any think that his essence is that glory, and is every
where alike, and that the creature's capacity is all the dif-
ference betwixt heaven and earth, he seems confuted in that
the glory of heaven will be seen by the glorified body itself,
which it is thought cannot see the essence of God. Whe-
ther, then, that glory be the essence of God, or any imme-
diate emanation from his excellency, as the beams and light
that are sent forth by the sun, or a created glory for the fe-
licity of his servants, we shall know when with the blessed
we enjoy it. 3. Sometimes it is taken for the appearance of
God's perfections in his creatures, either natural or free
agents, as discerned by man, and for his honour in the
esteem of man. John xi. 4. 40. 1 Cor. xi. 7. 2 Cor. iv. 15.
Phil. i. 11. ii. 11. Isa. xxxv. 2. xl. 5, &c. And so to
h 1 Cor. X. 31. * 1 Pet. iv. 11.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 435
glorify God is, 1. Objectively, to represent his excellencies
or glory ; 2. Mentally, to conceive of them ; 3. and Ver-
bally, to declare them. I shall therefore distincly direct
you, 1. How to glorify God in your minds. 2. By your
tongues. 3. By your lives.
Directions for glorifying God with the Heart.
Direct, i. * Abhor all blasphemous representations and
thoughts of God, and think not of him lamely, unequally,
or diminutively, nor as under any corporeal shape ; nor
think to comprehend him, but reverently admire him.'
— Conceive of him as incomprehensible and infinite : and if
satan would tempt thee to think meanly of any thing in
God, or to think highly of one of his perfections, and
meanly of another, abhor such temptations ; and think of
his power, knowledge, and goodness, equally as the infinite
perfections of God ^.
Direct, u. * Behold his glory in the glory of his works
of nature and of grace, and see him in all as the soul, the
glory, the all of the whole creation.*-— What a power is that
which made and preserveth all the world ! What a wisdom
is that which set in joint the universal frame of heaven and
earth, and keepeth all things in their order. How good is
he that made all good, and gave the creatures all their good-
ness, both natural and spiritual, by creation and renewing
grace ! Thus " the heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament sheweth his handy-work ^" His glory cover-
eth the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise™." " The
voice of the Lord is upon the waters ; the God of glory
thundereth"."
Direct, in. * Behold him in the person, miracles, resur-
rection, dominion, and glory of his blessed Son ;*-*-" who is
the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his per-
son ; upholding all things by the word of his power, and
having by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right-
hand of the Majesty on high, being made better than the
angels'^." ** By him" it is that " glory is given to God
in the church p." " God hath highly exalted him, and given
^ Lege Gassendi Oration, inaugural, in Institut. Astronom.
» Psal. xix. 1. «» Hab. iii. 3. " Psal. xxix. 3. cxlv.
« Heb. i. 3, 4. p Eph. iii. 2i.
436 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
him a name which is above every name ; that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father^." " Pray," therefore, that the
" God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
acknowledgment of him : the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of
his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inherit-
ance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of
his power to usward who believe, according to the working
of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead, and set him at his right hand in
the celestials, far above all principality, and power, and
might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be
Head over all things to the church ^" " The Father hath
glorified his name in his Son^"
Direct, iv. * Behold God as the end of the whole
creation, and intend him as the end of all the actions of thy
life/ — You honour him not as God, if you practically esteem
him not as your ultimate end ; even the pleasing of his will,
and the honouring him in the world. If any thing else be
made your chiefest end you honour it before him, and make
a god of it.
Direct, v. * Answer all his blessed attributes with suit-
able affections, (as I have directed in my " Treatise of the
Knowledge of God," and here briefly Direct, iv.) and his
relations to us with the duty which they command,* sub-
jection, love, &c.) as I have opened in the foregoing Direc-
tions. We glorify him in our hearts, when the image of his
attributes is there received.
Direct, vi. * Behold him by faith as always present
with you.' — And then every attribute will the more affect
you, and you will not admit dishonourable thoughts of
him : pray to him as if you saw him, and you will speak
to him with reverence. Speak of him, as if you saw him,
1 Phil. ii. 9—11. •■ Eph. i. 17, &c.
» Johnxii. 28. xiii. 41, 32. xiv. 13. xvii. 1.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 437
and you dare not take his name in vain, nor talk of God
with a common frame of mind, nor in a common manner, as
of common things. ** By faith Moses forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king ; for he endured, as seeing
Him that is invisible *." God is contemned by them that
think they are behind his back.
Direct, vii. * Think of him as in heaven where he is re-
vealed in glory to the blessed, and magnified by their high,
everlasting praise.' — Nothing so much helpeth us to glorify
God in our minds, as by faith to behold him where he is
glorious. The very reading over the description of the
glory of the New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. and xxii. will much
affect a believing mind with a sense of the gloriousness of
God. Suppose, with Stephen, we saw heaven opened, and
the Ancient of Days, the great Jehovah gloriously illustrat-
ing the city of God, and Jesus in glory at his right-hand,
and the innumerable army of glorified spirits before his
throne, praising and magnifying him with the highest admi-
rations, and joy fullest acclamations that creatures are ca-
pable of, would it not raise us to some of the same admira-
tions ? The soul that by faith is much above doth most
glorify God, as being nearest to his glory.
Direct, viii. * Foresee by faith the coming of Christ,
and the day of the universal judgment, when Christ shall
come in flaming fire with thousands of his holy angels, to
be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that do
believe".'
Direct, ix. * Abhor all doctrines which blfispheme or
dishonour the name of God, and would blemish and hide
the glory of his Majesty.' — I give you this rule for your own
preservation, and not in imitation of uncharitable firebrands
and dividers of the church, to exercise your pride and im-
perious humour, in condemning all men, to whose opinions
you can maliciously affix a blasphemous consequence, which
either followeth but in your own imagination, or is not
acknowledged but hated by those on whom you do affix it..
Let it suffice you to detest false doctrines, without detest-
ing the persons that you imagine guilty of them, who pro-
fess to believe the contrary truth as stedfastly as you your-
selves.
» Heb, xi. 27. » 2 Thess. i. 10.
438 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct, x. * Take heed of sinking into flesh and earth,
and being diverted by things sensible from the daily con-
templation of the glory of God.' — If your belly become your
God, and you mind earthly things, and are set upon the ho-
nours, or profits, or pleasures of the world, when your con-
versation should be in heaven, you will be glorying in your
shame, when you should be admiring the glory of your
Maker ", and you will have so much to do on earth, that you
will find no leisure (because you have no hearts) to look up
seriously to God.
Directions for glorifying God with our Tongues in his Praises,
Direct, i. * Conceive of this duty of praising God ac-
cording to its superlative excellencies, as being the highest
service that the tongue of men or angels can perform.' — To
bless, or praise, or magnify God is not to make him greater
or better, or happier than he is ; but to declare and extol
his greatness, goodness, and felicity. And that your hearts
may be inflamed to this excellent work, I will here shew
you how great and necessary, how high and acceptable a
work it is.
1. It is the giving to God his chiefest due''.' A speak-
ing of him as he is ; and when we have spoken the highest,
how far fall we short of the due expression of his glorious
perfections ! O how great praise doth that Almightiness
deserve, which createth and conserveth all the world, and
over-ruleth all the sons of men, and is able to do whatso-
ever he will ! ** Great is theLord, and greatly to be praised ; and
his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise his
works to another and declare his mighty acts : I will speak
of the glorious honour of thy Majesty, and of thy wondrous
works ; and men shall speak of the might of thy terrible
acts, and I will declare thy greatness y." What praise doth
that knowledge deserve which extendeth to all things that
are, or were, or ever shall be ? and that wisdom that order-
eth all the world ! He knoweth every thought of man, and
" Phil. iii. 18—20.
^ Christianus est homo dicens ct faciens ingiata diabolo ; et ornans gloriam
Dei, autoris vitae et salutis suee. Bucholtzer.
y Psal. cxlv. 3—5.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 439
all the secrets of the heart ^. ** Known unto God are all his
works, from the beginning of the world ^." *' His under-
standing is infinite^." What praise doth that goodness and
mercy deserve, which is diffused throughout all the world,
and is the life, and hope, and happiness of men and angels !
" His mercy is great unto the heavens, and his truth unto
the clouds*'." " O how great is his goodness to them that
fear him^!" And therefore how great should be his praise !
'* Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord, and who can
shew forth all his praise*?" " For great is the glory of the
LordH"
2. It is the end of all God's wondrous works, and espe-
cially the end which man was made for, that all things
might praise him objectively, and men (and angels) in es-
timation and expression. That his glorious excellency
might be visible in his works, and be admired and extolled
by the rational creature : for this all things were created and
are continued : for this we have our understanding and our
speech : this is the fruit that God expecteth from all his
works. Deny him this, and you are guilty of frustrating
the whole creation, as much as in you lieth. You would
have the sun to shine in vain, and the heavens and earth to
stand in vain, and man and all things to live in vain, if you
would not have God have the praise and glory of his works.
Therefore, sun, and moon, and stars, and firmament, are
called on to praise the Lord s, as they are the matter for
which he must by us be praised. ** O praise him therefore
for his mighty acts : praise him according to his excellent
greatness ^." " O that men would praise the Lord for his
goodness, and declare his wondrous works for the children
of men \" Yea it is the end of Christ in the redemption of
the world, and in saving his elect, that God might, in the
church, in earth and heaven, have the " praise and glory of
his grace ''." " By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to his name ^" " And let the redeemed of the Lord
say, that his mercy endureth for ever""." For this, all his*
^ Psal. xliv. 21. xciv. 11. * Acts xv. 18. ^ Psal. cxlvii. 5.
« Psal. Ivii. 10. •^ Psal. xxxi. 10. • Psal. cvi. 2.
f Psal. cxxxviii. 5. ^ Psalm cxlviii. 2 — 4. ^ Psalm cl. 2.
* Psalm cvii. 8. '' Ephes. i. 6. 12. 14. ' Heb. xiii. 15.
■n Psalm cvii. 2,
440 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
saints "are a. chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people, that they should shew forth the
praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into
his marvellous light."
3. The praise of God is the highest and noblest work in
itself: (1.) It hath the highest object, even the glorious ex-
cellencies of God. Thanksgiving is somewhat lower, as
having more respect to ourselves and the benefits received ;
but praise is terminated directly on the perfections of God
himself. (2.) It is that work that is most immediately near-
est on God, as he is our end : and as the end, as such, is
better than all the means set together, as such, so are the
final duties about the end, greater" than all the immediate
duties. (3.) It is the work of the most excellent creatures
of God, the holy angels : they proclaimed the coming of
Christ, by way of praise, " Glory to God in the highest : on
earth peace : good will towards men "." And as we must
be equal to the angels, it must be in equal praising God, or
else it will not be in equality of glory. (4.) It is the wark
of heaven, the place and state of all perfection: and that is
best and highest which is nearest heaven : where " they rest
not day nor night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God
Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." " Thou art
worthy O Lord to receive glory, and honour, and power, for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are
and were created." ** A voice came out of the throne, say-
ing. Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluiah : for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and re-
joice, and give honour unto him : for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready p."
4. It beseemeth us, and much concerneth us, to learn
and exercise that work, which in heaven we must do for
ever : and that is, to love and joyfully praise the Lord : for
earth is but the place of our apprenticeship for heaven.
The preparing works of mortifying repentance must in their
place be done ; but only as subservient to these which we
must ever do : when we shall sing the " new song" before
*> Luke ii. 13, 14. Psalm ciii. 20. cxlviii. 2. p Rev. iv. 8. 10. xix. 5, 6.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 441
the " Lamb, Thou art worthy ;" — " For thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us kings
and priests unto our God *^." Therefore the primitive church
of believers is described as most like to heaven : " with
great joy they were continually in the temple, praising and
blessing God '^.^ *' O praise the Lord therefore in the con-
gregation of the saints : let Israel rejoice in him that made
him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let
the saints be joyful in glory : let the high praises of God be
in their mouths ^"
5. Though we are yet diseased sinners, and in our war-
fare, among enemies, dangers, and perplexities, yet praise is
seasonable and suitable to our condition here, as the great-
est part of our duty, which all the rest must but promote.
Pretend not that it is not fit for you because you are sinners,
and that humiliation only is suitable to your state. For the
design of your redemption, the tenor of the Gospel, and your
own condition, engage you to it. Are they not engaged to
praise the Lord, that are brought so near him to that end ? —
that are reconciled to him ? — to whom he hath given and
forgiven so much ? — that have so many great and precious
promises ? — that are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who
dwelleth in them, and sanctifieth them to God ? — that have
a Christ interceding for them in the highest ? — that are al-
ways safe in the arms of Christ ; — that are guarded by angels ;
— and devils, and enemies forbidden to touch them, further
than their Father seeth necessary for their good ? — that have
the Lord for their God ? — that have his saints for their com-
panions and helpers ? — that have so many ordinances to
help their souls ; and so many creatures and comforts for
their bodies? — tliat live continually upon the plenty of his
love ? — that have received so much, and are still receiving ?
Should we not bless him every day with praise, that blesseth
us every day with benefits? Should we not praise the
bridge that we go over? — the friend that we have tried so
oft ? And resolve as Psalm cxlv. " Every day will I bless
thee: I will praise thy name for ever and ever." Psalm
Ixiii. 3, 4. *' Because thy loving kindness is better than life,
my lips shall praise thee : thus will I bless thee while I live :
q Rev.v. 9, 10. '^ Luke xxiv. 53. ' Psalm cxlix. 1, 2. 5. 6.
442 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
I will lift up my hands in thy name." Are they not bound
to praise him on earth, that must reign with Christ for ever
in heaven*?
6. The praises of God do exercise our highest graces :
praise is the very breath of love, and joy, and gratitude : it
tendeth to raise us above ourselves, and make our hearts to
burn within us, while the glorious name of God is magni-
fied : it hath the most pure, and spiritual, and elevating ef-
fect upon the soul ; and therefore tendeth most effectually to
make us more holy, by the increase of these graces.
7. To be much employed in the praise of God, doth
tend exceedingly to the vanquishing all hurtful doubts, and
fears, and sorrows. Joy and praise promote each other.
And this it doth, (1.) By keeping the soul near to God, and
within the warmth of his love and goodness ". (2.) By the
exercise of love and joy, which are the cordial, reviving,
strengthening graces ''. (3.) By dissipating distrustful, vexing
thoughts, and diverting the mind to sweeter things ^. (4.)
By keeping off the tempter, who ^usually is least able to
follow us with his molestations, when we are highest in the
praises of our God. (5.) By bringing out the evidences of
our sincerity into the light, while the chiefest graces are in
exercise ^. (6.) And by way of reward from God, that loveth
the praises of his meanest servants. And here I would com-
mend this experiment, to uncomfortable, troubled souls,
that have not found comfort by long searching after
evidences in themselves. Exercise yourselves much in the
praises of God : this is a duty that you have no pretence
against. Against thanksgiving for his grace, you pretend
that you know not that you have received his grace ; but to
praise him in the excellency of his perfections, his power
and wisdom, and goodness, and mercy, and truth, is the du-
ty of all men in the world. While you are doing this, you
will feel your graces stir, and feel that comfort from the
face of God, which you are not like to meet with in any
other way whatsoever. Evidences are exceeding useful to
our ordinary stated peace and comfort ; but it is oft long
before we confidently discern them : and they are oft dis-*
' Rom. viii. 17. 33. Rev. i. 5, 6. Col. i. 12. 1 Pet. i. 4.
"sal.cxl. 13. " I'sal. xciv. 19. cxvi. 1. J Psal. civ. 34.
^ 2 Cor. iii. 18.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 443
cemed when yet the soul is not excited to much sense of
comfort and delight : and we quickly lose the sight of evi-
dences, if we be not very wise and careful. But a life of
praise bringeth comfort to the soul, as standing in the sun-
shine bringeth light and warmth : or as labouring doth
warm the body : or as the sight and converse of our dearest
friend, or the hearing of glad tidings doth rejoice the heart,
without any great reasoning or arguing the case. This is
the way to have comfort by feeling, to be much in the hearty
praises of the Lord. When we come to heaven we shall
have our joy, by immediate vision, and the delightful ex-
ercise of love and praise. And if you would taste the
heavenly joys on earth, you must imitate them in heaven, as
near as possibly you can ; and this is your work of nearest
imitation.
8. To live a life of praising God, will make religion
sweet and easy to us, and take off the wearisomeness of it,
and make the work of God a pleasure to us. Whereas they
that set themselves only to the works of humiliation, and
leave out these soul-delighting exercises, do cast themselves
into exceeding danger, by making religion seem to them a
grievous and undesirable life. This makes men backward
to every duty, and do it heartlessly, and easily yield to
temptations of omission and neglect, if not at last fall off
through weariness : whereas the soul that is daily employed
in the high and holy praises of his God, is still drawn on by
encouraging experience, and doth all with a willing, ready
mind.
9. No duty is more pleasing to God, than the cheerful
praises of his servants. He loveth your prayers, tears, and
groans ; but your praises much more : and that which
pleaseth God most, must be most pleasing to his servants ;
for to please him is their end : this is the end of all their la-
bour, that " whether present or absent, they may be accept-
ed of him V So that it is a final enjoying, and therefore a
delighting duty.
10. To be much employed in the praises of God, will
acquaint the world with the nature of true religion, and re-
move their prejudice, and confute their dishonourable
thoughts and accusations of it, and recover the honour of
* 2 Cor. V. 9.
444 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Christ, and his holy ways, and servants. Many are averse
to a holy life, because they think that it consisteth but of
melancholy fears or scrupulosity : but w^ho dare open his
mouth against the joyful praises of his Maker ? I have heard
and read of several enemies and murderers, that have broke
in upon Christians with an intent to kill them, or carry
them away, that finding them on their knees in prayer, and
reverencing the work so much as to stay and hear them till
they had done, have reverenced the persons also, and de-
parted, and durst not touch the heavenly worshippers of
God. This life of praise is a continual pleasure to the
soul ; clean contrary to a melancholy life. It is recreating
to the spirits, and healthful to the body, which is consumed
by cares, and fears, and sorrows. It is the way that yield-
eth that " mirth which doth good like a medicine, and is a
continual feast*." Therefore, saith the apostle, "Is any
merry, let him sing psalms ^" He cannot better exercise
mirth, than in singing praises to his God. This keeps the
soul continually on the wing, desiring still to be nearer God,
that it may have more of these delights : and so it over-
comes the sense of persecutions and afflictions, and the
fears of death, and is a most excellent cordial and com-
panion in the greatest sufferings. Was it not an excellent
hearing, to have been a witness of the joy of Paul and Silas,
when in the prison and stocks, with their backs sore with
scourges, they sang at midnight the praises of the Lord *= ?
so that all the doors were opened, and all the prisoners'
bonds were loosed, that had been their auditors ; so great
was God's acceptance of their work. O that we would do
that honour and right to true religion, as to shew the world
the nature and use of it, by living in the cheerful praises
of our God, and did not teach them to blaspheme it, by our
misdoings !
I have said the more of the excellency and benefits of
this work, because it is one of your best helps to perform it,
to know the reasons of it, and how much of your religion,
and duty, and comfort consisteth in it : and the forgetting
of this, is the common cause that it is so boldly and ordi-
narily neglected, or slubbered over as it is.
Direct, u. ' The keeping of the heart in admiration and
=* Prov. xvii. 22. xv. 15. '' James v. 13. ^ Acts xvi. 26.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 445
glorifying of God, according to the foregoing Directions, is
the principal help to the right praising of him with our
lips.' — For out of the heart's abundance the mouth will
speak : and if the heart do not bear its part, no praise is
melodious to God.
Direct, iii. ' Read much those Scriptures which speak
of the praises of God ; especially the Psalms : and furnish
your memories with store of those holy expressions of the
excellencies of God, which he himself hath taught you in
his Word.' — None knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit
of God ; who teacheth us in the Scripture to speak divine-
ly of things divine. No other dialect so well becometh the
work of praise. God, that best knoweth himself, doth best
teach us how to know and praise him. Every Christian
should have a treasury of these sacred materials in his me-
mory, that he may be able, at all times, in conference and in
worship, to speak of God in the words of God.
Direct, iv. * Be much in singing psalms of praise, and
that with the most heart-raising cheerfulness and melody :
especially in the holy assemblies.' — The melody and the
conjunction of many serious, holy souls, doth tend much to
elevate the heart. And where it is done intelligibly, reve-
rently, in conjunctionwith a rational, spiritual, serious wor-
ship, the use of musical instruments are not to be scrupled
or refused; any more than the tunes or melody of the voice.
Direct, v. * Remember to allow the praises of God, their
due proportion in all your prayers.' — Use not to shut it out,
or forget it, or cut it short with two or three words in the
conclusion. The Lord's prayer begins and ends with it :
and the three first petitions are for the glorifying the name
of God, and the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his
will, by which he is glorified : and all this before we ask any
thing directly for ourselves. Use will much help you in the
praise of God.
Direct, vi. ' Especially let the Lord's day be principally
spent in praises and thanksgivings for the work of our re-
demption, and the benefits thereof.' — This day is separated
by God himself to this holy work : and if you spend it (or-
dinarily) in other religious duties, that subserve not this,
you spend it not as God requireth you. The thankful and
praiseful commemoration of the work of man's redemption.
446 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I*
is the special work of the day : and the celebrating of the
sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, (which is there-
fore called the Eucharist) was part of these laudatory exer-
cises, and used every Lord's day by the primitive church.
It is not only a holy day, separated to God's worship in ge-
neral, but to this eucharistical worship in special above the
rest, as a day of praises and thanksgiving unto God i and
thus all Christians (ordinarily) should use it.
Direct, vii. ' Let your holy conference with others be
much about the glorious excellencies, works, and mercies
of the Lord, in way of praise and admiration.' — This is in-
deed to speak to edification, and as the *' oracles of God''."
" That God in all things may be glorified." " In his tem-
ple doth every one speak of his glory ^" " My tongue shall
speak of thy righteousness, and of thy praises all the day
long^." " And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible
acts. — They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and
talk of thy power : to make known to the sons of men his
mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. — My
mouth shall speak of the praises of the Lord, and let all
flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever s." " Talk ye of
all his wondrous works : glory ye in his holy name'*."
Direct, viii. * Speak not of God in a light, irreverent,
or common sort, as if you talked of common things : but
with all possible seriousness, gravity, and reverence, as if
you saw the majesty of the Lord.' — A common and a holy
manner of speech are contrary. That only is holy, which is
separated to God from common use. You speak profanely,
(in the manner, how holy soever the matter be,) when you
speak of God with that careless levity, as you use to speak
of common things. Such speaking of God is dishonoura-
ble to him, and hurts the hearers more than silence, by
breeding in them a contempt of God, and teaching them to
imitate you, in slight conceits and speech of the Almighty :
whereas, one that speaketh reverently of God, as in his pre-
sence, doth ofttimes more affect the hearers with a reverence
of his majesty, with a few words, than irreverent preachers
with the most accurate sermons, delivered in a common or
affected strain. Whenever you speak of God, let the hear-
^ Eph. iv. 29. ^ 1 Pet. iv. 11. Psal. xxix. 9. ^ Psal. xxxv. 28.
8 Psal. cxlv. 6. 11. 21. •' Psal. cv. 2, 3.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 447
ers perceive that your hearts are possessed with his fear and
love, and that you put more difference between God and
man, than between a king and the smallest worm : so when
you talk of death or judgment, of heaven or hell, of holi-*
ness or sin, or any thing that nearly relates to God, do it
with that gravity and seriousness, as the matter doth re-
quire.
Direct, ix. * Speak not so unskilfully and foolishly of
God, or holy things, as may tempt the hearers to turn it in-
to a matter of scorn or laughter.'— Especially understand
how your parts are suited to the company that you are in.
Among those that are more ignorant, some weak discourses
may be tolerable and profitable ; for they are most affected
with that which is delivered in their own dialect and mode :
but among judicious or captious hearers, unskilful persons
must be very sparing of their words> lest they do hurt, while
they desire to do good, and make religion seem ridiculous.
We may rejoice in the scorns which we undergo for Christ,
and which are bent against his holy laws, or the substance
of our duty : but if men are jeered for speaking ridiculously
and foolishly of holy things, they have little reason to take
comfort in any thing of that, but their honest meanings and
intents : nay, they must be humbled for being a dishonour
to the name of godliness. But the misery is, that few of
the ignorant and weak have knowledge and humility enough
to perceive their ignorance and weakness, but they think
they speak as wisely as the best, and are offended if their
words be not reverenced accordingly. As a minister should
study and labour for a skill and ability to preach, because
it is his work ; so every Christian should study for skill to
discourse with wisdom and meet expressions, about holy
things, because this is his work. And, as unfit expressions
and behaviour in a minister, do cause contempt instead of
edifying ; so do they in discourse.
Direct, x. * Whenever God's holy name or word is blas-
phemed, or used in levity or jest, or a holy life is made a
scorn, or God is notoriously abused or dishonoured, be rea-
dy to reprove it with gravity where you can ; and where you
cannot, at least let your detestation of it be conveniently
manifested.' — Among those to whom you may freely speak,
lay open the greatness of their sin. Or, if you are unable
448 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
for long or accurate discourse, at least tell them who hath
said, " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh
his name in vain." And where your speech is unmeet (as
to some superiors), or is like to do more harm than good,
let your departing the room, or your looks, or rather your
tears shew your dislike.
Directions for the Glorifying God in our Lives.
Direct, i. * Our lives then glorify God, when they are
such as his excellencies most appear in : and that is, when
they are most divine or holy ; when they are so managed,
that the world may see, that it is God that we have chiefly
respect unto, and that HOLINESS TO THE LORD is
written upon all our faculties and affairs.' — So much of
GOD as appearetli in our lives, so much they are truly ve-
nerable, and advanced above the rank of fleshly, worldly
lives*. God only is the real glory of every person, and eve-
ry thing, and every word or action of our lives. And the
natural conscience of the world, which in despite of their
atheism, is forced to confess and reverence a Deity, will
be forced (even when they are hated and persecuted,) to re-
verence the appearance of God in his holy ones. Let it ap-
pear therefore, 1. That God's authority commandeth you,
above all the powers of the earth, and against all the power
of fleshly lusts. 2. That it is the glory and interest of God
that you live for, and look after principally in the world, and
not your own carnal interest and glory : and that it is his
work that you are doing, and not your own ; and his cause,
and not your own, that you are engaged in^. 3. That it is his
word and law that is your rule. 4. And the example of his
Son that is your pattern. 5. And that your hearts and lives
are moved and acted in the world, by motives fetched from
the rewards which he hath promised, and the punishments
which he hath threatened, in the world to come. 6. And
that it is a supernatural, powerful principle, sent from God
> Turpissimum est philosopho secus docere quam vivit. Paul. Scaliger. p. 728.
'' Nam ilia quae de regno ccElorum commemorantur a nobis, deque praesentium
rerum contemptu, vel non capiunt, vel non facile sibi persuadent cum sermo factis
evertitur. Acosta, lib. iv, c. 18. p. 418.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 449
into your hearts, even the Holy Ghost, by which you are in-
clined and actuated in the tenor of your lives. 7. And
that your daily converse is with God, and that men, and
other creatures are comparatively nothing to you, but are
made to stand by, while God is preferred, and honoured,
and served by you : and that all your business is with him,
or for him in the world.
Direct, ii. ' The more of heaven appeareth in your lives,
the more your lives do glorify God.' — Worldly and carnal
men are conscious, that their glory is a vanishing glory, and
their pleasure but a transitory dream, and that all their ho-
nour and wealth will shortly leave them in the dust : and
therefore, they are forced, in despite of their sensuality, to
bear some reverence to the life to come. And though they
have not hearts themselves, to deny the pleasures and pro-
fits of the world, and to spend their days in preparing for
eternity, and in laying up a treasure in heaven ; yet they are
convinced, that those that do so, are the best and wisest
men ; and they could wish that they might die the death of
thei righteous, and that their last end might be like his. As
heaven exceedeth earth, even in the reverent acknowledg-
ment of the world, though not in their practical esteem and
choice: so heavenly Christians have a reverent acknow-
ledgment from them, (when malice doth not hide their hea,-
venliness by slanders,) though they will not be such them-
selves. Let it appear in your lives, that really you seek a
higher happiness than this world affordeth, and that you
verily look to live with Christ, and that as honour, and
wealth, and pleasure command the lives of the ungodly, so
the hope of heaven commandeth yours. Let it appear that
this is your design and business in the world, and that your
hearts and conversation are above, and that whatever you
4o or suffer, is for this, and not for a^ny lower end ; and this
is a life that God is glorified by.
Direct, iii. * It glorifieth God, by shewing the excellen-
cy of faith, when we contemn the riches and honours of the
world, and live above the worldling's life ; accounting that
a despicable thing, which he accounts his happiness, and
loseth his soul for.' — As men despise the toys of children,
«o a believer must take the transitory vanities of this world,
for matters so inconsiderable, as not to be worthy of his re-
VOL. TI. G G
450 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAftT I.
gard, save only as they are the matter of his duty to God,
or as they relate to him, or the life to come. Saith Paul,
** We look not at the things which are seen," (they are not
worth our observing, or looking at) " but at the things which
are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal'." The world
is under a believer's feet, while his eye is fixed on the ce-
lestial world. He travelleth through it to his home, and he
will be thankful if his way be fair, and if he have his daily
bread i but it is not his home, nor doth he make any great
matter, whether his usage in it be kind or unkind, or whe-
ther his inn be well adorned or not. He is almost indiffe-
rent, whether, for so short a time, he be rich or poor, in a
high, or in a low condition, further than as it tendeth to his
Master's service. Let men see that you have a higher birth
than they, and higher hopes, and higher hearts, by setting
light by that, which their hearts are set upon as their felici-
ty. When seeming Christians are as worldly and ambitious
as others, and make as great a matter of their gain, and
wealth, and honour, it sheweth that they do but cover the
base and sordid spirit of worldlings, with the visor of the
Christian name, to deceive themselves, and bring the faith
of Christians into scorn, and dishonour the holy name which
they usurp.
Direct, iv. * It much honoureth God, when his servants
can quietly and fearlessly trust in him, in the face of all the
dangers and threatenings which devils or men cast before
them; and can joyfully suffer pain or death, in obedience
to his commands, and in confidence on his promise of ever-
lasting happiness.' — This sheweth that we believe indeed
that " there is a God," and that " he is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him™;" and that he is true and just,
and that his promises are to be trusted on ; and that he is
able to make them good, in despite of all the malice of his
enemies ; and that the threats or frowns of sinful worms are
contemptible to him that feareth God. " So that men shall
say. Verily there is a reward for the righteous : verily there
is a God that judgeth in the earth";" and that at last will
judge the world in righteousness. Paul gloried in the
Thessalonians, ** for their faith and patience, in all their per-
»2Cor. iv.l8. "' Heb.xi. 6. « Psal. Iviu. 11.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 451
secutions and tribulations which they endared ; as a mani-
fest token oftherighteous judgment of God, that they might
be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which
they suffered : seeing it is a righteous thing with God to
recompense tribulation to them that trouble us, and rest
with his saints to those that are troubled*^." '* If ye be re-
proached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spi-
rit of glory, and of God, resteth upon you ; on their part he
is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified p." " If
any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but
let him glorify God on this behalf 'i." When confidence in
God, and assurance of the " great reward in heaven '^j" do
cause a believer undauntedly to say, as the three witnesses,
'* We are not careful, O king, to answer thee in this matter :
the God whom we serve is able to deliver us":" when by
faith we can go through the trial of carnal mockings and
scourgings, of bonds and imprisonment, to be destitute and
afflicted, yea, and tortured, not accepting deliverance (upon
sinful terms), thus God is glorified by believers. ** Lift up
your voices," O ye afflicted saints, ** and sing, for the ma-
jesty of the Lord. — Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even
the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea*."
Sing to his praise with Paul and Silas, though your feet be
in the stocks. If God call for your lives, remember that
" you are not your own : you are bought with a price :
therefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits which
are his"." Rejoice in it, if you " bear in your bodies the
marks of the Lord Jesus ''." And if you " always bear about
in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus might be manifested in your bodies y." And " with
all boldness," see that ** Christ be magnified in your bo-
dies, whether it be by life or death ^." He dishonoureth and
reproacheth Christ and faith, that thinks he is not to be
trusted even unto the death.
Direct. V. * It much honoureth God, when the hopes of
everlasting joys, do cause believers to live much more joy-
fully than the most prosperous worldlings." — Not with their
• 2 Thess. i. 4—7- p 1 Pet. iv. 14. 1 Ver. 16.
' Matt. V, 11, 12. » Dan.iii. 16, 17. * Isa. xxiv. 14, 15.
" 1 Cor. vi. 20. '' Gal. vi. 17. ? 2 Cor. iv. 10.
'Phil. i. 20.
452 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
kind of doting mirth, in vain sports and pleasures, and fool-
ish talking, and uncomely jests ; but in that constant cheer-
fulness and gladness, which beseemeth the heirs of glory.
Let it appear to the world, that indeed you hope to live with
Christ, and to be equal with the angels. Do a dejected
countenance, and a mournful, troubled, and complaining life,
express such hopes ? or rather tell men that your hopes are
femall, and that God is a hard Master, arid his service grie-
vous ? Do not thus dishonour him by your inordinate de-
jectedness : do not affright and discourage sinners from the
pleasant service of the Lord.
Direct, vi. * When Christians live in a readiness to die,
and can rejoice in the approach of death, and love and long
for the day of judgment, when Christ shall justify them
from the slanders of the world, and shall judge them to eter-
nal joys : this is to the glory of God and our profession/ —
When death, which is the king of fears to others, appeareth
as disarmed and conquered to believers : when judgment,
which is the terror of others, is their desire; this sheweth a
triumphant faith, and that godliness is not in vain. It must
be something above nature that can make a man " desire to
depart and be with Christ, as best of all,'' and " to be absent
from the body and present with the Lord," and to '* com-
fort one another" with the mention of the glorious coming
of their Lord, and the day when he shall judge the world in
righteousness ^.
Direct, vii. * The humility, and meekness, and patience
of Christians, much honour God and their holy faith: as
pride, and passion, and impatience dishonour him.' — Let
men see that the Spirit of God doth cast down the devilish
sin of pride, and maketh you like your Master, that humbled
himself to assume our flesh, and to the " death of the cross,"
and to the contradiction and reproach of foolish sinners,
and " made himself of no reputation," but " endured the
shame," of being derided, spit upon, and crucified ^ and
stooped to wash the feet of his disciples. It is not stout-
ness and lifting up the head, arid standing upon your terms,
and upon your honour in the world, that is the honouring
of God. When you are as little children, and as nothing in
a Phil. i. 21. 'if Cor. v. 8. 1 Thess. iv. 18. 2 Thess. 1. 10.
«» Phil. ii. 7—9- Heb, xii. 2.
GHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 433
your own eyes, and seek not the honour that is of men, but
say, " Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name be the
giory*=;" and are content that your honour decrease and be
trodden into the dirt, that his may increase, and his name be
magnified; this is the glorifying of God. So when you
shew the world, that you are above the impotent passions of
men, not to be insensible, but to be " angry and sin not,*'
and to " give place to wrath," and not to resist and " avenge
yourselves ^ :" and to be " meek and lowly in heart ®." It
will appear that you have the wisdom which is "from
above," if you be " first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without par-
tiality, and hypocrisy ^." ** But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the
truth," as if this were the wisdom from above which glori-
fieth God : for this ** wisdom descendeth not from above,
but is earthly, sensual, and devilish s." '* A meek and
quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God ^ :" an or-
nament commended to women by the Scripture ; which if
amiable in the eyes of all.
Direct, viii. * It honoureth God and your profession,
when you abound in love and in good works : loving the
godly with a special love, but all men with so much love,
as makes you earnestly desirous of their welfare, and to love
your enemies, and put up wrongs, and to study to do good
to <ftll, and hurt to none.' — To be abundant in love, is to be
like to God, who is Love itself » ; and sheweth that God
dwelleth in us ^. " All men may know that we are Christ's
disciples, if we love one another ^" This is the *' new" and
the " great commandment ; the fulfilling of the law ™."
You will be known to be the " children of your heavenly
Father, if you love your enemies, and bless them that curse
you, and pray for them that hate and persecute you, and
despitefully use you "." Do all the good that possibly you
can, if you would be like him that doth good to the evil, and
whose mercies are over all his works. Shew the world that
you " are his workmanship, created to good works in Christ
e Psal. cxv. 1. "^ Rom. xii. 19. * Matt. xi. 29.
f James ui. 17. « Ver. 14. 15. " 1 Pet. iii. 4.
i 1 John iv. 7. 11. ^ Ver. 12. ' John xiii. 35.
™ Rom. xiii. 10. John xv. 12. 17. xiii. 34. » Matt. v. 44.
454 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Jesus, which he hath ordained for you to walk in°." " Here-
in is your Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit p."
** Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven 'K" " Honour God with thy substance, and with the
first fruits of all thy increase ""." " And those that honour
him he will honour ^." When barren, worldly hypocrites,
that honour God only with their lips, and flattering words,
shall be used as those that really dishonour him.
Direct. IX. * The unity, concord, and peace of Christians,
do glorify God and their profession : when their divisions,
contentions, and malicious persecutions of one anather,
do heinously dishonour him.' — Men reverence that faith
and practice which they see us unanimously accord in. And
the same men will despise both it and us, when they see us
together by the ears about ity and hear us in a Babel of con-
fusion, one saying, ' This is the way,' and another, ' That is
it :' one saying, * Lo here is the true church and worship,*
and another saying, * Lo it is there.' Not that one man or
a few must make a shoe meet for his own foot, and then say,
* All that will not dishonour God by discord, must wear this
shoe : think as I think, and say as I say, or else you are
schismatics/ But we must all agree in believing and obey-
ing God, and " walking by the same rule so far as we have
attained *." ** The strong must bear the infirmities of the
weak, and not please themselves ; but every one of us please
his neighbour for^ good to edification ; and be likeminded
one towards another, according to Christ Jesus, that we may
with one mind, and one mouth glorify God : receiving one
another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God "."
Direct. X. ' Justice commutative and distributive, private
and public, in bargainings, and in government, and judg-
ment, doth honour God and our profession in the eyes of
all : when we do no wrong, but do to all men as we would
they should do to us '^ : that no man go beyond or defraud
his brother in any matter : for the Lord is the avenger of all
such y.' — That a man's word be his master, and that we lie
not one to another, nor equivocate or deal subtilly and de-
o Ephes. ii. 10. p John xv. 8. •> Matt. v. 16.
r Piov. iii. 9. ' 1 Sara. iJ. 30. * Phil. iii. 15, 16.
« Bora. XV. 1, S{. 5—7. " Matt. vii. 12. y 1 Thess. iv. 6.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 466
ceitfully, but in plainness and singleness of heart, and in
simplicity and godly sincerity have our conversation in the
world. Perjured persons and covenant-breakers, that dis-
solve the bonds of human society, and take the name of God
in vain, shall find by his vengeance that he holdeth them;
not guiltless.
Direct, xi. ' It much glorifieth God to worship him ra-
tionally and purely, in spirit and in truth, according to the
glory of his wisdom and goodness, and it dishonoureth him
to be worshipped ignorantly and carnally, with spells and
mimical, irrational actions, as if he were less wise than
serious, grave, understanding men.' — The worshippers of
God have great cause to take heed how they behave them-
selves : lest they meet with the reward of Nadab and Abihu,
and God tell them by his judgments, "that he will be sanc-
tified in all them that come nigh him, and before all the peo-
ple he will be glorified ^" The second commandment is en-
forced by the jealousy of God abont his worship. Ignorant,
rude, unseemly words, or unhandsome gestures, which tend
to raise contempt in the anditors ; or levity of speech, which
makes men laugh, is abominable in a preacher of the Gos-
pel. And so is it to pray irrationally, incoherently, con-
fusedly, with vain repetitions and tautologies, as if men
thought to be heard for their babbling over so many words,
while there is not so much as an appearance of a well com-
posed, serious, rational, and reverent address of a fervent
soul to God. To worship God as the Papists do, with ima-
ges, Agnus Dei's, crucifixes, crossings, spittle, oil, candles,
holy water, kissing the pax, dropping beads, praying to the
Virgin Mary, and to other saints, repeating over the name
of Jesus nine times in a breath, and saying such and such
sentences so oft, praying to God in an unknown tongue, and
saying to him they know not what, adoring the consecrated
bread as no bread, but the very flesh of Christ himself,
choosing the titular saint whose name they will invocate,
fasting by feasting upon fish instead of flesh, saying so many
masses a day, and offering sacrifice for the quick and the
dead, praying for souls in purgatory, purchasing indulgen-
ces for their deliverance out of purgatory from the pope,
carrying the pretended bones or other relics of their saints,
« Lev. X. 1—3.
456 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
the pope's canonizing now and then one for a saint, pr^?-
tending miracles to delude the people, going on pilgrimages
to images, shrines, or relics, offering before the images, with
a riiultitude more of such parcels of devotion, do most hei-
nously dishonour God, and, as the apostle truly saith, do
make unbelievers say, ** They are mad * ;" and that they are
** children in understanding," and not " men ^." Insomuch
as it seemeth one of the greatest impediments to the con-
version of the heathen and Mahometan world, and the chief-
esf means of confirming them in their infidelity, and making
them hate and scorn Christianity, that the Romish, and the
Eastern, and Southern churches, within their view, do wor-
ship God so dishonourably as they do : as if God were like
a little child that must have pretty toys bought him in the
fair, and brought home to please him. Whereas, if the uti-
reformed churches in the East, West, and South were re-
formed, and had a learned, pious, able ministry, that clearly
preached and seriously applied the word of God, and wor-
shipped God with understanding, gravity, reverence, and
serious spirituality, and lived a holy, heavenly, mortified,
self-denying conversation, this would be the way to propa-
gate Christianity, and win the infidel world to Christ.
Direct, xii. * If you will glorify God in your lives, you
must be above a selfish, private, narrow mind, and must be
chiefly intent upon the public good, and the spreading of
the Gospel through the world.' — A selfish, private, narrow
soul brings little honour to the cause of God : it is always
taken up about itself, or imprisoned in a corner, in the dark,
to the interest of some sect or party, and seeth not how
things go in the world : its desires and prayers, and endea-
vours go no further than they can see or travel. But a
larger soul beholdeth all the earth, and is desirous to know
how it goeth with the cause and servants of the Lord, and
how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving nations ;
and such are affected with the state of the church a thousand
miles off, almost as if it were at hand, as being members of
the whole body of Christ, and not only of a sect. They pray
for the " hallowing of God's name," and the ** coming of his
kingdom," and the ** doing of his will throughout the earth,
as it is in heaven," before they come to their own necessities,
a 1 Cor, XIV. 23. • *> Verse 20.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 457
at least in order of esteem and desire. The prosperity of
themselve«, or their party or country satisfieth them not,
while the church abroad is in distress. They live as those
that know the honour of God is more concerned in the wel-
fare of the whole, than in the success of any party against
the rest. They pray that the Gospel may have free course
and be glorified abroad, as it is with them, and the preachers
of it be " delivered from unreasonable and wicked men ^."
The silencing the ministers, and suppressing the interest of
Christ and souls, are the most grievous tidings to them : there-
fore they ** pray for kings, and all in authority," not for any
carnal ends, but that ** we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty*^." Thus God must be
glorified by our lives.
Grand Direct, xvi. ' Let your life on earth be a conver-
sation in heaven, by the constant work of faith and love :
even such a faith as maketh things future as now present,
and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your
sight : and such a love as makes you long to see the glorious
face of God, and the glory of your dear Redeemer, and to be
taken up with blessed spirits in his perfect, endless love and
praise.'
My Treatise of " The Life of Faith," and the fourth part
of " The Saints' Rest," being written wholly or mostly to
this use, I must refer the reader to them, and say no more
of it in this Direction.
Grand Direct, xvii. 'As the soul must be carried up to
God, and devoted to him, according to all the foregoing Di-
rections, so must it be delivered from carnal, selfishness, or
flesh-pleasing, which is the grand enemy to God and god-
liness in the world : and from the three great branches of
this idolatry, viz. the love of sensual pleasures, the love of
worldly wealth, and the proud desire and love of worldly ho-
nour and esteem : and the mortifying of these must be much
of the labour of your lives.'
Of this also I have written so much in a ** Treatise of
Self-denial," and in another called " The Crucifying of the
World by the Cross of Christ," that I shall now pass by all,
c 2 Thess.iii. 1, 2. ^ 1 Tim. ii. 1—3.
458 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
save what will be more seasonable anon under the more par-
ticular Directions, in the Fourth Part, when I come to speak
of Selfishness, as opposed to the love of others^.
I have now given you the General Grand Directions,
containing the very Being and Life of Godliness and Chris-
tianity, with those Particular Sub-directions which are need-
ful to the performance of them. And I must tell you, that
as your life, and strength, and comfort principally depend
on these, so doth your success in resisting all your particu-
lar sins : and therefore if you first obey not these General
Directions, the more particular ones that follow, will be
almost useless to you, even as branches cut off from the
stock of the tree, which are deprived thereby of their sup-
port and life. But upon supposition that first you will
maintain these vital parts of your religion, I shall proceed
to direct you, first in some particulars most nearly subordi-
nate to the forementioned Duties, and then to the remoter
branches.
APPENDIX
The true Doctrine of Love to God, to Holiness, to Ourselves, and
to Others, opened in certain Propositions ; especial^ for re-
solving the Questions, What self-love is lawful? — what sinful!
— Whether God must be loved above our own felicity, and how ?
— Whether to love our felicity more than God may stand with a
state of saving grace? — Whether it be a middle state between
sensuality and the Divine nature to love God more for our-
selves than for himself! — Whether to love God for ourselves
be the state of a believer as he is under the promise of the New
Covenant? — And whether the spirit and sanctification promised
to believers, be the love of God for himself and so the Divine
nature promised to him that chooseth Christ and God by him
out of self-love for his own felicity? — How God supposeth and
« I pass not this by as a small matter, to be passed by also by the reader. For I
take the Love of God, kindled by faith in Christ, with the lull denial of our carnal
selves, to be the sum of all religion. But because I would not injure so great a duty
by saying but a little of it ; and therefore desire the reader whostudieth for practice,
and needethsuch helps, to peruse the mentioned books of " Self-denial," and "Cru-
cifying the World."
i
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 469
worketh on the principle of self-love in manh conversion ? — loith
many such like. To avoid the tediousness of a distinct
debating each question.
Though these things principally belong to the theory,
and so to another treatise in hand, called " Methodus
Theologies ;" yet because they are also practical, and have
a great influence upon the more Practical Directions, and
the right understanding of them may help the reader himself
to determine a multitude of Cases of Conscience, the parti-
cular discussion and decision of which would too much
increase this volume, which is so big already, I shall here
explain them in such brief Propositions as yet shall give
light to one another, and I hope contain much of the true
nature of Love, which is the mystery of the Christian religion.
Prop. 1. The formal act of Love is Complacency, ex-
pressed by a * placet ;' which Augustine so oft calleth
Delectation.
2. Benevolence, or desiring the good of those we love,
is but a secondary act of love, or an effect of the prime,
formal act. For to wish one well is not to love him for-
mally ; but we wish him well because we love him, and
therefore first in order love him.
3. Their definition of love is therefore inept, and but from
an effect, who say it is, * Alicui bene velle, ut ipsi bene sit.'
4. Love is either merely sensitive and passionate, which
is the sensible act and passion of the sensitive and fantas-
tical appetite ; or it is rational, which is the act of the
rational appetite or will. The first is called sensitive in a
double respect, 1. because it folio weth the apprehension of
the senses, or fantasy, loving that which they apprehend as
good ; 2. and because it is exercised passionately and feel-
ingly by the sensitive appetite. And the other is called ra-
tional, 1 . because it is the love of that which reason appre-
hendeth as good ; and 2. because it is the complacency of that
will which is a higher faculty than the sensitive appetite.
5. Sensitive love is oft without rational (always in brutes),
but rational love is never totally without sensitive, at least in
this life ; whether it be because that the sensitive and rational
are faculties of the same soul, or because they are so nearly
connexed as that one cannot move or act without the other ?
460 CHRISTIAN PIBECTORY. [PART %.
6. But yet one is predominant in sojpae persons, and the
other in others.
7. Love is the complacency of the appetite in appre-
hended good. Good is the formal object of love. Sensitive
love is the complacency of the sensitive appetite in sensible
good, (or in that which the sense and imagination appre-
hend as good). Rational love is the complacency of the
rational appetite in that which reason apprehendeth good :
the same thing with primary volition.
8. Good is not only a man's own felicity and the means
thereto, called * mihi bonum,' good to me ; either as profit-
able, pleasant, or honourable (as some think that have un-
manned themselves) : but there is extrinsic good, which is
such in itself, in others, or for others, which yet is the na-
tural object of man's love, (so far as nature is sound.) As
the learning, and wisdom, and justice, and charity, and all
other perfections of a man at the antipodes, whom I never
saw nor hope to see, or to receive any benefit by, is yet
amiable to every man that hath not unmanned himself. So
also is the good of posterity, of countries, of kingdoms, of
the church, of the world, apprehended as future when we
are dead and gone ; yea, if we should be annihilated, desir-
able, and therefore amiable to us ; when yet it could be no
benefit to us.
9. Self-love is sensitive or rational : sensitive as such is
necessary and not free ; and it is purposely by the most wise
and blessed Creator planted in man and brutes, as a prin-
ciple useful to preserve the world, and to engage the crea-
ture in the use of the means of its own preservation, and so
to bring it to perfection, and to endue it with those fears
and hopes which make us subjects capable of moral govern-
ment :
10. The rational or higher appetite also hath a natural
inclination to self-preservation, perfection and felicity ; but
as ordinable and ordinate to higher ends.
11. The rational powers cannot nullify the sensitive, nor
directly or totally hinder the action of them ; but they may
and must indirectly hinder the act, by avoiding the objects
and temptations, by diverting the thoughts to higher things,
&c. y and may hinder the effects by governing the loco-
motive power.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 481
12. Sensitive self-love containeth in it, 1 . A love of life,
and, that is, of individual self-existence ; 2. And a love of
all sensitive pleasures of life ; and, 3. Consequently, a love
of the means of life and pleasure.
13. Insensitive self-love, therefore, self, that is, life, is
both the material and formal object : we love ourselves even
because we are ourselves ; we love this individual person,
and loathe annihilation or dissolution.
14. Though the will (or higher faculties) are naturally
rnclined also to love ourselves, and our own felicity, yet
they exercise this inclination with a certain liberty ; and
though the act of simple complacency or volition towards
our own being and felicity be so free as yet to be necessary,
yet the comparative act (by which comparing several goods,
we choose one and refuse another) may be so free as not to
be necessary; that is, a man may will his own annihilation
rather than some greater evil (of which anon), not as good
in itself, and therefore not willed for itself, but as a means
to a greater good ; and so he may less nill it than a greater
evil.
15. Also a tolerable pain may on the same account be
willed, or less nilled, and so consented to for the avoiding
of a greater evil ; but intolerable pain cannot possibly be
willed, or consented to, or not nilled, because it taketh
away the exercise of reason and free-will ; but what is to
be called intolerable I determine not, it being variously
measurable according to the patient's strength.
16. The soul as intellectual, by its rational appetite, hath
also a natural inclination to intellectual operations (to know
and love) and to intellectual objects as such, and to intel-
lectual perfections in itself. Yet so that, though it neces-
sarily (though freely) loveth the said acts and perfections
while it hath a being ; yet doth it not necessarily love all
the said objects, nor necessarily choose the continuance of
its own being, but in some cases, as aforesaid, can yield or
consent to an annihilation as a lesser evil.
17. The rational soul being not of itself, nor for itself
alone, or chiefly, is naturally inclined not only to love to it-
self, and that which is for itself, but also to love extrinsic
good, as was aforesaid ; and accordingly it should love that
best which is best : for * a quateftus et ad omne et ad gra-
462 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
dum, valet argumentum/ If we must love any thing or
person because it is good (as the formal reason) then we
should love all that is good, and love that best which is;
best, if so discerned.
18. Though I must love greater, simple, extrinsic good
above myself, with that love which is purely rational, yet it
cannot ordinarily be done with a more sensitive and pas-
sionate love.
19. I am not always bound to do most good to him that
I love better than others, and ought so to love, nor to him
that I must wish most good to. Because there are other
particular laws to regulate my actions, divers from that
which commandeth my affections : as those that put chil-
dren, relations, families, neighbours, under our especial
charge and care ; though often others must be more loved.
20. That good which is the object of love is not a mere
universal or general notion, but is always some particular
or singular being ' in esse reali, vel in esse cognito.' As
there is no such thing in ' rerum natura,' as good in a mere
general, which is neither the good of natural existence, or
of moral perfection, or of pleasure, profit, honour, &c. Yea,
which is not in this or in that singular subject, or so con-
ceived ; so there is no such thing as love, which hath not
some such singular object. (As Rada and other Scotists
have made plain.)
21. All good is either God or a creature, or a creature's
act or work.
22. God is Good infinitely, eternally, primitively, inde-
pendently, immutably, communicatively, of whom, and by
whom, and to whom are all things : the Beginning or first
efficient, the Dirigent and ultimately ultimate cause of all
created good ; as making and directing all things for him-
self.
23. Therefore it is the duty of the intellectual creature
to love God totally, without any exceptions or restrictions,
with all the power, mind, and will, not only in degree above
ourselves and all the world ; but also as God, with a love
in kind transcending the love of every creature.
24. All the goodness of the creature doth formally con-
sist in its threefold relation to God, viz. 1. In the impresses
of God as its first efficient or creator ; as it is his image or
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 463
the effect and demonstration of his perfections, viz. his in-
finite power, wisdom, and goodness. 2. In its conformity
to his directions, or governing laws, and so in its order and
obedience. 3. And in its aptitude and tendency to God as
its final cause, even to the demonstration of his glory and
the complacency of his will.
25. All created good is therefore derivative, dependent,
contingent, finite, secondary, from God, by God, and to
God, receiving its form and measure from its respect to him.
26. Yet as it may be subordinately from man, as the
principle of his own actions, and by man as a subordinate
ruler of himself or others, and to man as a subordinate end ;
so there is accordingly a subordinate sort of goodness,
which is so denominated from these respects unto the crea-
ture, that is himself good, subordinately.
27. But all this subordinate goodness ('bonum a nobis,
bonum per nos, bonum nobis ') is but analogically so ; and
dependently on the former sort of goodness, and is some-
thing in due subordination to it, and against it, nothing,
that is, not properly good.
28. The best and most excellent creatures, in the afore-
said goodness related to God are most to be loved ; and all
according to the degree of their goodness, more than as
good in relation to ourselves.
29. But seeing their goodness is formally their relation
unto God, it foUoweth that they are loved primarily only for
his sake, and consequently God's image or glory in them is
first loved ; and so the true love of any creature is but a
secondary sort of the love of God.
30. The best being next to God is the universe or whole
creation, and therefore next him most to be loved by us.
31. The next in amiableness is the whole celestial
society, Christ, angels, and saints.
32. The next, when we come to distinguish them, is
Christ's own created, glorified nature in the person of the
Mediator, because God's glory or image is most upon him.
33. The next in amiableness is the whole angelical so-
ciety, or the orders of intellectual spirits above man.
34. The next is the spirits of the just made perfect, or
the triumphant church of saints in heaven.
35. The next is all this lower world.
484 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
36. The next is the church in the world, or militant on
earth.
37. The next are the particular kingdoms and societies
of the world, (and so the churches,) according to their va-
rious degrees.
38. The next under societies and multitudes are those
individual persons who are best in the three aforementioned
respects, whether ourselves or others. And thus, by the
objects, should our love that is rational be diversified in
degree, and that be loved best that is best.
39. The amiable image of God in man is (as hath oft
been said): 1. Our natural image of God, or the image of
his three essential properties as such, that is, our vital, ac-
tive power, our intellect, and our will. 2. Our moral image,
or the image of his said properties in their perfections, viz.
Our holiness, that is, our holy life or spiritual vivacity and
active power, our holy light or wisdom, our holy wills or
love, 3. Our relative image of God, or the image of his
supereminency, dominion, or majesty ; which is, 1. com-
mon to man, in respect to the inferior creatures, that we are
their owners, governors, and end (and benefactors) ; 2. emi-
nently in rulers of men, parents, and princes, who are ana-
logically sub-owners, sub-rulers, and sub-benefactors to
their inferiors, in various degrees. By which it is discern-
ible what it is that we are to love in man, and with what
variety of kinds and degrees of love, as the kinds and de-
grees of amiableness in the objects differ.
40. Even the sun, and moon, and frame of nature, the
inanimates and brutes, must be loved in that degree com-
pared to man and to one another, as their goodness before
described, that is, the impressions of the Divine perfections
do more or less gloriously appear in them, and as they are
adapted to him the ultimate end.
41. As God is in this life seen but darkly and as in a
glass, so also proportionably to be loved : for our love can-
not exceed our knowledge.
42. Yet it followeth not that we must love him only as
he appeareth in his works, which demonstrate him as effects
do their cause ; for both by the said works improved by
reason, and by his Word, we know that he is before his
works and above them, and so distinct from them as to
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 465
transcend, and comprehend, and cause them all, by a con-
tinual causality ; and therefore he must accordingly be
loved. -
43. It greatly hindereth our love !o txod, when we over-
look all the intermediate excellencies between him and us,
which are much better, and therefore more amiable than
ourselves ; such as are before recited.
44. The love of the universe, as bearing the liveliest
image or impress of its cause, is an eminent secondary
love of God, and a great help to our primary or immediate
love of him. Could we comprehend the glorious excellency
of the universal creation, in its matter, form, parts, order,
and uses, we should see so glorious an image of God as
would unspeakably promote the work of love.
45. Whether the Glory of God in Heaven, which will for
ever beatify the beholders and possessors, be the Divine
Essence (which is every where), or a created glory pur-
posely there placed for the felicity of holy spirits, and what
that glory is, are questions fittest for the beholders and
possessors to resolve.
46. But if it be no more than the universal, existent
frame of nature, containing all the creatures of God, beheld
* uno intuitu' in the nature, order, and use of all the parts,
it would be an inconceivable felicity to the beholders, as be-
ing an inconceivable glorious demonstration of the Deity.
47. It is lawful and a needful duty to labour by the
means of such excellencies as we now know, which heaven
is resembled to in Scripture, to imprint upon our ima-
ginations themselves, such an image of the glory of the
heavenly society, Christ, angels, saints, and the heavenly
place and state, as shall help our intellectual apprehensions
of the spiritual excellencies which transcend imagination.
And the neglect of loving God as foreseen in the demon-
stration of the heavenly glory, doth greatly hinder our love
to him immediately as in himself considered.
48. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his glorified, created na-
ture, is crowned with the highest excellency of any parti-
cular creature, that he might be the Mediator of our love
to God ; and in him (seen by faith) we might see the glory
of the Deity. And as in heaven we shall have (spiritual, glo-
rified) bodies as well as souls, so the glorified, created
VOL. 11. H H
466 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
nature of Christ will be an objective glory, fit for our bodies
(at least) to behold in order to their glory, as the Divine
nature (as it pleaseth God in glory) revealed, will be to the
soul.
49. The exercise of our love upon God as now appearing
to the glorified, in the glorious, created nature of Christ,
(beheld by us by faith) is a great part of our present exer-
cise of divine love : and we extinguish our love to God, by
beholding so little by faith our glorified Mediator.
50. We owe greater love to angels than to men, because
they are better, nearer God, and liker to him, and more de-
monstrate his glory ; and indeed also Jove us better, and do
more for us than we can do for one another. And the
neglect of our due love and gratitude to angels, and forget-
ting our relation to them, and receivings by them, and com-
munion with them, and living as if we had little to do with
them, is a culpable overlooking God, as he appeareth in his
most noble creatures, and is a neglect of our love to God
in them, and a great hindrance to our higher more imme-
diate love. Therefore by faith and love we should exercise
a daily converse with angels, as part of our heavenly con-
versation^, and use ourselves to love God in them : though
not to pray to them, or give them Divine worship.
51. We must love the glorified saints more than the in^
habitants of this lower world, because they are far better,
and liker to God, and nearer to him, and more demonstrate
his holiness and glory. And our neglect of conversing
with them by faith, and of loving them above ourselves
and things on earth, is a neglect of our love to God in them,
and a hindrance of our immediate love. And a loving con-
versation with them by faith would greatly help our higher
love to God.
52. Our neglect of love to the church on earth, and to
the kingdoms and public societies of mankind, is a sinful
neglect of our love to God in them, and a hindrance of our
higher love to him ; and the true use of such a public love
would greatly further our higher love.
53. If those heathens who laid down their lives for their
countries had neither done this for fame, nor merely as
esteeming the temporal good of their country, above their
a^ Phil. iii. 20, 21. Heb. xii. 22.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 467
own temporal good and lives, but for the true excellency of
many above one, and for God's greater interest in them,
they had done a most noble, holy work.
54. Our adherence to our carnal selves first, and then to
our carnal interests, and friends, and neglecting the love of
the highest excellencies in the servants of God, and not
loving men according to the measure of the image of God
on them, and their relation to him, is a great neglect of our
love of God in them, and a hindrance of our higher imme-
diate love. And to use ourselves to love men as God ap-
peareth in them, would much promote our higher love.
And so we should love the best of men above ourselves.
55. The loving of ourselves sensually, preferring our pre-
sent life and earthly pleasure before our higher spiritual
felicity in heaven, and our neglecting to love holiness, and
seek it for ourselves, and then to love God in ourselves, is a
neglect and hindrance of the love of God.
56. Man hath not lost so much of the knowledge and
love of God, as appearing in his greatness, and wisdom, and
natural goodness in the frame of nature, as he is the Author
of the creatures' natural goodness, as he hath of the know-
ledge and love of his holiness, as he is the Holy Ruler,
Sanctifier, and End of souls.
57. The sensitive faculty and sensitive interest are still
predominant in a carnal or sensual man ; and his reason is
voluntarily enslaved to his sense : so that even the intel-
lectual appetite, contrary to its primitive and sound nature,
loveth chiefly the sensitive life and pleasure.
58. It is therefore exceeding hard in this depraved state
of nature, to love God or any thing better than ourselves ;
because we love more by sense than by reason, and reason
is weak and serveth the interest of sense.
59. Yet the same man who is prevalently sensual, may
know that he hath a rational, immortal soul, and that know-
ledge and rectitude are the felicity of his soul ; and that it
is the knowledge and love of, and delight in God, the highest
good, that can make him perpetually happy : and therefore
as these are apprehended as a means of his own felicity, he
may have some kind of love or will unto them all.
60. The thing therefore that every carnal man would
have, is an everlasting, perfect, sensual pleasure ; and h^ ap-
468 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
prehendeth the state of his soul's perfection mostly as con-
sisting in this kind of felicity : and even the knowledge and
love of God, which he taketh for part of his felicity, is prin-
cipally apprehended but as a speculative gratifying of the
imagination, as carnal men now desire knowledge. Or if
there be a righter notion of God and holiness to be loved
for themselves, even ultimately above our sensual pleasure
and ourselves ; yet this is but an ineffectual, dreaming
knowledge, producing but an answerable lazy wish : and it
will not here prevail against the stronger love of sensuality
and fantastical pleasure, nor against inordinate self-love.
And it is a sensual heaven, under a spiritual name, which
the carnal hope for.
61. This carnal man may love God as a means to this
felicity so dreamed of; as knowing that without him it
cannot be had, and tasting corporal comforts from him here :
and he may love holiness as it removeth his contrary cala-
mities, and as he thinks it is crowned with such a reward.
But he had rather have that reward of itself without
holiness.
62. He may also love and desire Christ, as a means
(conceived) to such an end ; and he may use much religious
duty to that end ; and he may forbear such sins as that end
<jan spare, lest they deprive him of his hoped-for felicity.
Yea, he may suffer much to prevent an endless suffering.
63. As nature necessarily loveth self and self-felicity,
God and the devil do both make great use of this natural
* pondus,' or necessitating principle, for their several ends.
The devil saith, thou lovest pleasure, therefore take it and
make provision for it. God saith, thou lovest felicity, and
fearest misery : I and my love are the true felicity ; and ad-
hering to sensual pleasure depriveth thee of better, and is
the beginning of thy misery, and will bring thee unto worse.
64. God commandeth man nothing that is not for his
own good, and forbiddeth him nothing which is not (di-
rectly or indirectly) to his hurt ; and therefore engageth
self-love on his side, for every act of our obedience.
65. Yet this good of our own is not the highest, nor all
the good which God intendeth, and we must intend ; but it
is subordinate unto the greater good aforementioned.
66. As a carnal man may have opinionative, ineffectual
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 496
convictions, that God and his love are his spiritual felicity
(better than sensual) ; yea, and that God is his ultimate
end above his own felicity itself: so the sanctifying of man
consisteth in bringing up these convictions to be truly ef-
fectual and practical, to renew and rule the mind, and will,
and life.
67. Whether this be done by first knowing God as the
beginning and end, above ourselves, and then knowing (ef-
fectually) that he is man's felicity ; or whether self-love be
first excited to love him as our own felicity, and next we be
carried up to love him for himself as our highest end, it-
Cometh all to one when the work is done ; and we cannot .
prove that God tieth himself constantly to either of theses
methods alone. But experience telleth us, that the latter
is the usual way ; and that as nature, so grace beginneth
with the smallest seed, and groweth upwards towards per-
fection 5 and that self-love, and desire of endless felicity^
and fear of endless misery, are the first notable effects or
changes on a repenting soul.
68. And indeed the state of sin lieth both in man's fall
from God to self, and in the mistake of his own felicity ;
preferring even for himself a sensible good before a spiri-
tual, and the creature before the Creator : and therefore he
must be rectified in both.
69. And the hypocrite's ineffectual love to God and ho-
liness is much discovered in this, that (as he loveth dead
saints and their images and holidays, because they trouble
him not) so he loveth (opinionatively) and least hateth (prac-
tically) the saints in heaven, and the holiness that is far
from him, and God, as he conceiveth of him as one that is
in heaven to glorify men ; but he hateth (practically, though
not professedly) the God that would make him holy, and
deprive him of all his sinful pleasures, or condemn him. for,
them ; and he can better like holiness in his pastor, neigh-
bour, or child, than in himself.
70. Therefore sincerity much consisteth in the love of
self-holiness ; but not as for self alone, but as carrying self
and all to God.
71. As the sun-beams do without any interception reach
the eye, and by them without interception our sight ascend^
eth and extendeth to the sun ; so God's communicated
470 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
goodness and glorious revelation extend through, and by
all inferior mediums, to our understandings, and our wills :
and our knowledge and love ascend and extend through
all, and by all again to God. And as it were unnatural
for the eye, illuminated by the sun, to see itself only,
or to see the mediate creatures, and not to see the light and
sun by which it seeth (nay, it doth least see itself) ; so it is
unnatural for the soul to understand and love itself alone
(which it little understandeth, and should love with self-
denial), and the creatures only, and not to love God, by
whom we know and love the creature.
72. It is possible to love God, and holiness, ^and heaven,
as a conceited state and means of our sensual felicity, and
escape of pain and misery ; but to love God as the true fe-
licity of the intellectual nature, and as our spiritual rest, and
yet to love him only or chiefly for ourselves, and not rather
for himself as our highest end, implieth a contradiction.
The same I say of holiness, as loved only for ourselves.
The evidence whereof is plain, in that it is essential to God
to be not only better than ourselves and every creature, but
also to be the ultimate end of all things, to which they
should tend in all their perfections. And it is essential to
holiness to be the soul's devotion of itself to God as God,
and not only to God as our felicity : therefore to love God
only or chiefly for ourselves, is to make him only a means to
our felicity, and not our chief end ; and it is to make our-
selves better, and so more amiable thaii God," that is, to be
gods ourselves. -^^ :>^iKt; • r
73. This is much of the Sense of the controversy be-
tween the Epicureans and the sober philosophers, as is to
be seen in Cicero, &c. The sober philosophers said, that
virtue was to be loved for itself more than for pleasure ; be-
cause if pleasure as such be better than virtue as such, then
all sensual pleasure would be better than virtue as such.
The Epicureans said, that not all pleasure but the pleasure
of virtue was the chief good, (as Torquatus's words in Ci-
cero shew.) And if it had been first proved, that a man's
self is his just, ultimate end, as the ' finis cui ' or the per-
sonal end, then it would be a hard question, whether the
Epicureans were not in the right as to the * finis cujus* or
the real end, (which indeed is but a medium to the personal.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 471
* cui.') But when it is most certain, that no man's person is
to be his own personal end as ' cui/ but God, and then the
universe, and societies of the world as beforesaid, it is then
easy to prove that the sober philosophers were in the right,
and that no man's pleasure is his ultimate end, ' finis cujus :'
because no man's pleasure is either such a demonstration of
the Divine perfection as virtue is, as such ; nor yet doth it
so much conduce to the common good of societies or man-
kind, and so to the pleasing and glorifying of God. And
this way Cicero might easily have made good his cause
against the Epicureans.
74. Though no man indeed love God as God, who loveth
him not as better than himself, and therefore loveth him not
better, and as his absolutely ultimate end, and though no
man desire holiness indeed, who desireth not to be devoted
absolutely to God before and above himself ; yet is it very
common to have a false, imperfect notion of God and holi-
ness, as being the felicity of man, and though not to deny,
yet to leave out the essential superlative notion of the Dei-
ty ; and it is more common to confess all this of God and
holiness notionally, as was aforesaid, and practically to
take in no more of God and holiness, but that they are bet-
ter for us than temporary pleasures. And some g^o further,
and take them as better for them, than any (though perpe-
tual) mere sensual delights ; and so make the perfection of
man's highest faculties (practically) to be their ultimate
end ; and desire or love God and holiness (defectively and
falsely apprehended) for themselves, or their own felicity,
and not themselves, and their felicity and holiness, ulti-
mately for God. Which sheweth that though these men
have somewhat overcome the sensual concupiscence or flesh,
yet have they not sufficiently overcome the Selfish disposi-
tion, nor yet known and loved God as God, nor good as
good.
75. Yet it is not a sin to love God for ourselves, and our
own felicity, so be it we make him not a mere means to that
felicity, as our absolutely ultimate end. For as God in-
deed is, 1. The Efficient of all our good. 2. The Dirigent
Cause, that leadeth us to it. 3. The End in which our fe-
licity truly consisteth ; so he is .to be loved on all these ac-
counts.
472 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
76. If God were not thus to be loved for ourselves, (su-
bordinated to him,) thankfulness would not be a Christian
duty.
77. Our love to God is a love of friendship, and a desire
of a kind of union, communion, or adherence. But not
such as is between creatures where there is some sort of
equality : but as between them that are totally unequal ;
the one infinitely below the other, and absolutely subject
and subordinate to him.
78. Therefore, though in love of friendship, a union of
both parties, and consequently a conjunct interest of both,
and not one alone, do make up the ultimate end of both ;
yet here it should be with an utter disproportion, we being
obliged to know God as infinitely better than ourselves, and
therefore to love him incomparably more, though yet it will
be but according to the proportion of the faculties of the
lover.
79. The purest process of love, therefore, is, first thank-
fully to receive the divine efficiencies, and to love God as
communicative of what we and all things are, and have, and
shall receive, and therein to see his perfect goodness in him-
self, and to love him as God for that goodness ; wherein is
nothing but the final act, which is our love, and the final ob-
ject, which is the infinite good. So that the act is man's
(from God) but nothing is to be joined with God as the ab-
solutely final object ; for that were to join somewhat with
God as God.
80. And though it be most true, that this act may be
made the object of another act, and, as Amesius saith, * Om-
nium gentium consensu dicimus Volo velle,' so we may and
must say, ' Amo amare,' I love to love God, and the very
exercise of my own love is my delight, and so is my felicity
in the very essential nature of it, being a complacency, and
being on the highest objective good. And also this same
love is my holiness, and so it and I are pleasing unto God ;
yet these are all consequential to the true notion of the final
act, and circularly lead to the same again. We must love
our felicity and holiness, which consist in our love to
God, but as that which subordinately relateth to God, in
which he is first glorified, and then finally pleased ; and so
from his Will which we delight to please, we ascend to his
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 473
total, perfect Being, to which we adhere by perfect love.
In a word, our ultimate end of acquisition (and God's own,
so far as he may be said to have an end) is the pleasing of
the Divine will, in his glorification : and our ultimate end of
complacency, objectively, is the infinite goodness of the
Divine will and nature.
81. There is, therefore, place for the question, 'Whether
I must love God, or myself, more or better V (as it is resolv-
ed.) But there is no place for the question, * Whether I
must love God or myself?' Because God alloweth me not
ever to separate them : (though there is a degree of just
self-loathing or self-hatred, in deep repentance.) Nor yet
for the question, * Whether I must seek God's glory and
pleasure, or my own felicity V for I must ever seek them
both, though not with the same esteem. Yea, I may be
said to seek them both with the same diligence ; because
by the same endeavour and act that I seek one, I seek the
other : and I cannot possibly do any thing for one, that doth
not equally promote the other, if I do them rightly, pre-
ferring God before myself, in my inward estimation, love,
and intention.
82. Though it be essential to Divine love, and conse-
quently to true holiness, to love God for himself, and as
better than ourselves, (or else we love him not as God, as is
before said) yet this is hardly and seldom perceived in the
beginning, in him that hath it : because the love of ourself
is more passionate, and raiseth in us more subordinate pas-
sions, of fear of punishment, and desires of felicity, and
sorrow for hurt and misery, &c. Whereas, God being im-
material and invisible, is not at all an object of our sense,
but only of our reason and our wills ; and therefore not di-
rectly of sensitive, passionate love : though consequently
while the soul is united to the body, its acting, even on im-
material objects, moveth the lower, sensitive faculties, and
the corporeal spirits. Also, God needeth nothing for us to
desire for him, nor sufFereth any thing for us to grieve for,
though we must grieve for injuring him, and being displeas-
ing to his will.
83. I cannot say, nor believe (though, till it be searched,
the opinion hath an enticing aspect) that the Gospel faith,
which hath the promise of justification and of the Spirit* i»
474 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
only a believing in Christ, as the means of our felicity, by
redemption and salvation, out of the principle of self-love
alone, and for no higher end than our said felicity : because
he is not believed in as Christ, if he be not taken as a re-
conciler, to bring us home to God. And we take him not
to bring us to God as God, if it be not to bring us to God
as the beginning and end of all things, and as infinitely
more lovely than ourselves. And our repentance for not
loving God accordingly, above ourselves, must go along
with our first justifying faith. Therefore, though we are
learners before we are lovers, and our assent goeth before
the will's consent, yet our assent that God is God, and
better than ourselves, must go together with our assent that
Christ is the Mediator to save us, by bringing us to him :
and so must our assent that this is salvation, even to love
God above ourselves, and as better than ourselves : and
accordingly our consent to these particulars must concur in
saving faith.
84. He, therefore, that out of self-love, accepteth Christ
as the means of his own felicity, doth, if he know practically
what felicity is, accept him as a means to bring him to love
God perfectly, as God above himself, and to be perfectly
pleasing to his will.
85. Yet it is apparent that almost all God's preparing
grace consisteth in exciting and improving the natural prin-
ciple of self-love in man ; and manifesting to him, that if he
will do as one that loveth himself, he must be a Christian,
and must forsake sin, and the inordinate love of his sensu-
ality, and must be holy, and love God for his own essential,
as well as communicated goodness. And if he do other-
wise, he will do as one that hateth himself, and seeketh in
the event his own damnation. And could we but get men
rationally to improve true self-love, they would be Chris-
tians, and so be holy.
86. But because this is a great, though tender point, and
it that I have more generally touched in the case, * Whether
Faith in Christ, or Love to God, as our end, go first ;' and
because, indeed it is it for which I principally premise the
rest of these Propositions, I shall presume to venture a little
further, and more distinctly to tell you, how much of love
to God is in our first justifying faith, and how much not :
CHAP, in.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 475
and how far the state of such a believer is a middle state
between mere preparation, or common grace, and proper
sanctification, or possession of the Holy Ghost. And so,
how far vocation giving us the first faith, and repentance,
differeth from sanctification. And the rather, because my
unriper thoughts and writings defended Mr. Pemble, who
made them one, in opposition to the stream of our divines.
And I conceive that all these following acts about the point
in question, are found in every true believer, at his first faith,
though not distinctly noted by himself.
(1.) The sinner hath an intellectual notice, that there is
a God (for an atheist is not a believer), and so that this God
is the first and last, the best of Beings^; the Maker, Owner,
Ruler and Benefactor of the world, the just end of all created
actions, and to be loved and pleased above ourselves : for
all this is but to believe that there is a God.
(2.) He is convinced that his own chief felicity lieth, not
in temporary or carnal pleasure, but in the perfect knowing,
loving, and pleasing this God above himself: for if he
know not what true salvation and felicity are, he cannot de-
sire or accept them.
(3.) He knoweth that hitherto he hath been without this
love, and this felicity.
(4.) He desireth to be happy, and to escape everlasting
misery.
(5.) He repenteth, that is, is sorry that he hath not all
this while loved God as God, and sought felicity therein.
(6.) He is willing and desirous, for the time to come, to
love God as God, above himself, and to please him before
himself: that is, to have a heart disposed to do it.
(7.) He findeth that he cannot do it of himself, nor with
his old, carnal, indisposed heart.
(8.) He believeth that Christ, by his doctrine and Spirit,
is the appointed Saviour to bring him to it.
(9.) He gladly consenteth that Christ shall be such a
Saviour to him, and shall not only justify him from guilt,
and save him from sensible punishment, but also thus bring
him to the perfect love of God.
(10.) He had rather Christ would bring him to this by
sanctification, than to enjoy all the pleasures of sin for a
476 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
season ; yea, or to have a perpetual sensitive felicity, with-
out this perfect love to God, and pleasing of him.
(11.) God being declared to him in Jesus Christ, a God of
love, forgiving sin, and conditionally giving pardon and life
to his very enemies, as he is hence the more easily loved with
thankfulness for ourselves ; so the goodness of his nature
in himself, is hereby insinuated and notified, with some se-
cret complacency to the soul. He is, sure, good, that is "so
merciful and ready to do good, and that so wonderfully as
in Christ is manifested.
(12.) So that as baptism (which is but explicit, justify-
ing faith, or the expression of it in covenanting with God)
is our dedication by vow to all the Three Persons : to God
the Father, as well as to the Son and Holy Ghost ; so faith
itself is such a heart-dedication.
(13.) Herein I dedicate myself to God as God, to be
glorified and pleased in my justification, sanctification, and
glorification ; that is, in my reception of the fruits of his
love, and in my loving him above all, as God : or to be
pleased in me, and I in him for ever.
(14.) In all this, the understanding acknowledgeth God
to be God, (by assent) and to be loved above myself, and
the will desireth so to love him : but the object of the will
here directly, is its own future disposition and act. It doth
not say, * I do already love God, as God above myself;' but
only, * I would so love him, and I would be so changed, as
may dispose me so to love him ; I acknowledge that I
should so love him, and that I do love him, for his mercies
to myself and others.' Neither can it be said, that ' Volo
velle,' or * Volo amare,' a desire to love God as such, is di-
rect love to God. Because, it is not all one, to have God
to be the object of my will, and to have my own act of
willing or loving to be the object of it. And because that
a man may for other ends (as for mere fear of hell) will to
will or love that, which yet he doth not will or love, at least
for itself.
(15.) In this case above all others, it is manifest, that
every conviction of the understanding doth not accordingly
determine the will. For in this new convert, the understand-
ing saith plainly, * God is to be loved as God, above my-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 477
self:' but the will Baith, * I cannot do it though I would :
I am so captivated by self-love, and so void of the true love
of God, that ] can say no more, but that 'Propter me vellem
amare Deum propter se ;* I love my own felicity so well,
that I love God as my felicity ; and love him under the no-
tion of God the perfect good, who is infinitely better than
myself; and desire a heart to love him more than myself;
but I cannot say, that I yet do it, or that I love him best
or most, whom I acknowledge to be best, and as such to
be loved.
(16.) Yet in all this, there is not only ' semen amoris,' a
seed of divine love to God as God, but the foxindation of it
laid, and some obscure, secret conception of it beginning,
or ' in fieri,' in the soul. For while the understanding con-
fesseth God to be most amiable, and the will desireth that
felicity which doth consist in loving him above myself, and
experience telleth me, that he is good to me, and therefore
good in himself, it can hardly be conceived, but that in all
this there is some kind of secret love to God, as better than
myself.
87. In all this, note, that it is one thing to love God,
under the notion of the infinite good, better than myself and
all things, and another thing for the will to love him more,
as that notion obligeth.
88. And the reason why these are often separated, is,
because besides a slight intellectual apprehension, there is
necessary to the will's just determination, a clear and deep
apprehension, with a right disposition of the will, and a sus-
citation of the active power.
89. Yea, and every slight volition or velleity will not
conquer opposing concupiscence and volitions : nor is every
will efiectual to command the life, and prevail against its
contrary.
90. Therefore, I conceive, that in our first believing in
Christ, even to j ustification, though our reason tell us that
he is more amiable than ourselves, and we are desirous so
to love him for the future, and have an obscure, weak be-
ginning of love to God as God, or as so conceived : yet, 1.
The strength of sensitive self-love, maketh our love to our-
selves more passionately strong. 2. And that reason, at
least in its degree of apprehension, is too intense in appre-
478 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
bending our self-interest, and too remiss in apprehending
the amiableness of God as God : and so far, even our ra-
tional love is yet greater to ourselves, though, as to the no^
tion, God hath the preeminence. 3. And that in thife whole
affair of our baptismal covenanting, consent, or Christianity,
our love to our own felicity, as such, is more powerful and
effectual, in moving the soul, and prevailing for our resolu-
tion for a new life, than is our love to God, as for himself,
and as God.
91. And therefore it is, that fear hath so great a hand
in our first change : for all that such fear doth, it doth as
moved by self-love ; I mean the fear of suffering and dam-
nation : and yet experience telleth us, that conversion com-
monly beginneth in fear. And though where self-love and
fear are alone, without the love of God as good in and for
himself, there is no true grace ; yet I conceive that there is
true grace initial in those weak Christians, that have more
fear and self-love in the passionate and powerful part, than
love to God, so be it they have not more love to sin, and to
any thing that stands in competition with God.
92. Therefore, he that hath a carnal self-love (or inor-
dinate) inclining him to the creature, which is stronger in
him than the love of God, is graceless : because it will turn
his heart and life from God. But he that hath only a ne-
cessary self-love, even a love to his own spiritual, eternal
felicity, operating by strong desire and fear, conjunct with
a weaker degree of love to God as good in himself, I think
hath grace, and may so be saved: because here is but an
unequal motion to the same end, and not a competition.
93. If any dislike any of this decision, I only desire him
to remember, that on both hands there are apparent rocks
to be avoided. First, It is a dangerous thing to say that a
man is in a state of grace and salvation, who loveth not God
as God, that is, better than himself. And on the other hand,
the experience of most Christians in the world saith, that at
their first believing (if not long after), they loved God more
for themselves, than for himself, and loved themselves more
than God, though they knew that God was better and more
amiable ; and that the fear of misery, and the desire of their
own salvation, were more effectual and prevalent with them,
than that love of God for himself. And I doubt, that not
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 479
very many have this at all, in so high a degree as to be clear
and certain of it. And if we shall make that necessary to
salvation, which few of the best Christians find in them-
selves, we either condemn almost all professed Christians,
or at least leave them under uncertainty and terrors. There-
fore, God's interest speaking so loud on one hand, and
man's experience on the other, I think we have need to cut
by a thread, and walk by line, with greatest accurateness.
94. By this time we may see, that, as Christ is the way
to the Father, and the Saviour and recoverer of lapsed man
from himself to God ; so faith in Christ, as such, is a me-
diate and medicinal grace and work : and that faith is but
the bellows of love : and that our first believing in Christ,
though it be the regenerating work, which generateth love,
yet is but a middle state, between an unregenerate and a re-
generate : not as a third state specifically distinct from
both, but as the * initium' of the latter ; or, as the'embryo, or
state of conception in the womb, is, as to a man and no man.
Faith containeth love ' in fieri.'
95. As the love of ourselves doth most powerfully
(though not only,) move us to close with Christ as our Sa-
viour, so, while hereby we are united unto him, we have a
double assistance or influx from him, for the production of
the purer love of God. The one is objective, in all the Di-
vine demonstrations of God's love ; in his incarnation, life,
death, resurrection ; in his doctrine, example, intercession ;
and in all his benefits given us ; in our pardon, adoption,
and the promises of future glory. The other is in the se-
cret operations of the Holy Spirit, which he giveth us to
concur with these means, and make them all effectual.
96. The true state of sanctification, as different from
mere vocation and faith, consisteth in this pure love of God
and holiness ; and that more for himself and his infinite
goodness, than for ourselves, and as our felicity.
97. Therefore, when we are promised the Spirit, to be
given to us if we believe in Christ, and sanctification is pro-
mised us, with justification, on this condition of faith, this
is part of the meaning of that promise ; — that, if we truly
take Christ for our Saviour, to bring us to the love of God,
though at present we are most moved with the love of our-
selves to accept him, he will, by his Word, works, and Spirit,
480 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
bring us to it, initially here, and perfectly in heaven ; even
to be perfectly pleased in God, for his own perfect good-
ness, and so to be fully pleasant to him. And thus (besides
the extraordinary gifts to a few,) the Spirit of holiness or
love, which is the Spirit of adoption, is promised by cove-
nant to all believers.
98. Accordingly, this promise is so fulfilled, that in the
first instant of time we have a relative right to Christ, as our
head and .the sender of the Spirit, and to the Holy Spirit
himself as our Sanctifier by undertaking, according to the
terms of the covenant. But this doth not produce always a
sensible or effectual love of God above ourselves in us, at
the first, but by degrees, as we follow the work of faith in
our practice.
99. For it is specially to be noted, that the doctrinal or
objective means of love, which Christ doth use, and his in-
ternal, spiritual influx do concur. And his way is not to
work on us by his Spirit alone, without those objects, nor
yet by the objects without the Spirit, nor by both distinctly
and dividedly, as producing several effects ; but by both
conjunctly for the same effect: the Spirit's influx causing
us effectually to improve the objects and reasons of our
love ; as the hand that useth the seal, and the seal itself
make one impression.
100. As Christ began to win our love to God by the ex-
citation of our self-love, multiplying and revealing God's
mercies to ourselves, so doth he much carry it on to in-
crease the same way. For while every day addeth fresh ex-
perience of the greatness of God's love to us, by this we
have a certain taste that God is love, and good in himself;
and so by degrees we learn to love him more for himself,
and to improve our notional esteem of his essential good-
ness into practical.
101. Though faith itself is not wrought in us, without
the Holy Ghost, nor is it (if sincere) a common gift, yet this
operation of the Spirit drawing us to Christ, by such argu-
ments and means as are fitted to the work of believing, is
different from the consequent covenant-right to Christ
and the Spirit, which is given to believers, and from the Spi-
rit of adoption, as recovering us, as aforesaid, to the love of
God.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 481
102. In this last sense it is that the Holy Ghost is said
to dwell in believers, and to be the new name, the pledge,
the earnest, the first-fruits of life eternal, the witness of our
right to Christ and life, and Christ's agent and witness in
us, to maintain his cause and interest.
103. Even as a man, that by sickness hath lost his ap-
petite to meat, is told that such a physician will cure him,
if he will take a certain medicinal food that he will give
him ; and at first he taketh it without appetite to the food
or medicine in itself, btit merely for the love of health ; but
after he is doubly brought to love it for itself; first, because
he hath tasted the sweetness of that which he did but see
before, and next, because his health and appetite are recover-
ed : so is it with the soul, as to the love of God procured by
believing; when we have tasted through the persuasion of
self-love, our taste and recovery cause us to love God for
himself.
104. When the soul is risen to this habitual, predomi-
nant love of God and holiness as such, for their own good-
ness, above its own felicity as such, (though ever in conjunc-
tion with it, and as his felicity itself;) then is the law writ-
ten in the heart ; and this love is the virtual fulfilling of all
the law. And for such it is that it is said, that the law is
not made ; that is, in that measure that they love the good
for itself, they need not be moved to it with threats or pro-
mises of extrinsic things, which work but by self-love and
fear. Not but that Divine authority must concur with love
to produce obedience, especially while love is but imperfect :
but that love is the highest principle, making the command-
ed good connatural to us.
105. And I think it is this Spirit of adoption and love
which is called * The Divine nature' in us, as it inclineth us to
love God and holiness for themselves, as nature is inclined to
self-love, and to food, and other necessaries. Not that the
specific, essential nature, that is, substance or form of the
soul is changed, and man deified, and he become a god, that
was before a man ; but his human soul or nature is elevated
or more perfected (as a sick man by health, or a blind man
by his sight,) by the Spirit of God inclining him habitually
to God himself, as in and for himself. (And this is all which
the publisher of Sir H. Vane's notions of the two covenants
VOL. II. 1 I
482 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and two natures, can soundly mean, and seemeth to grope
after.)
106. By all this you see, that as the love of God hath a
double self-love in us to deal with, so it dealeth variously
with each: 1. Sensual, inordinate self-love it destroyeth ;
both as it consisteth in the inordinate love of sensual plea-
sure, and in the inordinate love of self or life. 2. Lawful
and just self-love it increaseth and improveth to our further
good, but subjecteth it to the highest, purest love of God.
107. By this you may gather what a confirmed Chris-
tian is, even one in whom the pure love of God as God, and
all things for God, is predominant, and more potent than
(not only the vicious, but also) the good, and lawful, and
necessary love of himself.
108. Though Christians therefore must study themselves,
and keep up a care of their own salvation, yet must they
much more study God, his greatness, wisdom, and good- '
ness, as shining in his works and Word, and in his Son, and
as foreseen in the heavenly glory : and in this knowledge of
God and Christ is life eternal. And nothing more tendeth
to the holy advancement and perfection of the soul, than to
keep continually due apprehensions of the Divine na-
ture, properties, and glorious appearances in his works up-
on the soul, so as it may become a constant course of con-
templation, and the habit and constitution of the mind, and
the constant guide of heart and life.
109. The attainment of this would be a taste of heaven
on earth : our wills would follow the will of God, and rest
therein, and abhor reluctancy : all our duty would be both
quickened and sweetened with love: self-interest would be
disabled from either seducing us to sin, or vexing us with
griefs, cares, fears, or discontents. We should so far
trust soul and body in the will and love of God, as to be
more comforted that both are at his will, than if they were
absolutely at our own. And God being our all, the con-
stant, fixing, satisfying object of our love, our souls would
be constantly fixed and satisfied, and live in such experience
of the sanctifying grace of Christ, as would most powerfully
conquer our unbelief; and in such foretastes of heaven, as
would make life sweet, death welcome, and heaven unspeak-
ably desirable to us. But it is not the mere love of personal
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 483
goodness, as our own perfection, that would do all this up-
on us.
1 10. The soul that is troubled with doubts, whether he
love God as God, or only as a means of his own felicity, in
subordination to self-love, must thus resolve his doubts.-^.
If you truly believe that God is God, that is, the efficient,
dirigent, and final cause, the just end of every rational agent,
the Infinite Good, and chiefly to be loved, in comparison of
whom you are vile, contemptible, and as nothing ; if you
feelingly take yourself as loathsome by sin ; if you would
not take up with an everlasting sensual pleasure alone, with-
out holiness, if you could have it ; no, nor with any perfec-
tion of your intellectual nature, merely as such, and for your-
selves, without the pleasing and glorifying God in it ; if
you practically perceive that every thing is therefore,
and so far,_good and amiable, as God shineth in it as its
cause, or as it conduceth to glorify him, and please his will;
if, accordingly, you love that person best, on whom you per-r
ceive most of God, and that is most serviceable to him,
though not at all beneficial to yourself; if you love the
welfare of the church, the kingdom, the world, and of the
heavenly society, saints, angels, and Christ, as the Divine
nature, interest, image, or impress maketh all lovely in their
several degrees ; and would rather be annihilated, were it
put upon your choice, than saints, angels, kingdoms, church
should be annihilated ; if your hearts have devoted them-
selves, and all that you have to God, as his own, to be used
to his utmost service ; if your chief desire and endeavour
in the world be to please his blessed will ; and in that will,
and the contemplation of his infinite perfections, you seek
your rest ; if you desire your own everlasting happiness, in
no other kind, but as consisting in the perfect sight of
God's glory, and in your perfect loving of him, and being
pleasant or beloved to him ; and this as resting more in the
infinite amiableness of God, than the felicity which hence
will follow to yourselves, though that also must be desired ;
if now you deny your own glory for his own glory ; if your
chief desire and endeavour be to love, him more and more ;
and you love yourselves best, when. you love him most; in
a word, if nothing more take up your care than how to
love God more ; and nothing in. the whole world (youlrself
484 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
or others) seem more amiable to your sober, practical judg-
ment, and your wills, than the infinite goodness of God as
such ; — if all this be so, you have not only attained sinceri-
ty, (which is not now the question,) but this Divine nature,
and high, confirmed holiness; though, withal, you never
so much desire your own salvation, which is but to desire
more of this love ; and though your nature have such a sen-
sitive, selfish desire of life and pleasure, as is brought into
subjection to this Divine love.
If any be offended that so many propositions must be
used in opening the case, and say that they rather confound
men's wits than inform them ; I answer, 1 . The matter is
high, and I could not ascend by a shorter ladder. Nor have
I the faculty of climbing it * per saltum,' stepping imme-
diately from the lowest to the highest part. If any will
make the case plainer in fewer words, and with less ado, I
shall thankfully accept his labour as a very great benefit
when I see it. 2. Either all these particulars are really di-
verse, and really pertinent to the matter in question, or not :
If not, it is not blaming the number that will evince it, but
naming such particulars as are either unjustly or unnecessa-
rily distinguished or inserted. And if it be but repeating
the same things that is blamed, I shall be glad if all these
words and more, would make such weighty cases clear; and
do confess that, after all, I need more light, and am almost
stalled with the difficulties myself. But if the particulars
can be neither proved false nor needless, but the reader be
only overset with multitude, I would entreat him to be pa-
tient with other men, that are more laborious and more ca-
pable of knowledge : and let him know, that if his difficul-
ties donot rather engage him in a diligent search, than tempt
him to impatience and accusation, I number him, not oniy
with the slothful contemners, but therefore also, with the
enemies of knowledge; even as I reckon the neglecters, and
contemners, and accusers of piety among its enemies.
But ere I end, I must answer some objections.
Ol^ect. I. Some will say, ' Doth not every man love God
abo-ve himself and all, while he know eth him to be better,
and so more lovely ? For there is some act of the will, that
answereth this of the understanding.'
Answ. You must know that the carnal mind is first cap-
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 485
tivated to carnal self and sensuality : and therefore, the
most practical and powerful apprehensions of goodness or
amiableness, in every such person, do fasten upon life and
pleasure, or sensual prosperity. And the sense having here
engaged the mind and will, the contrary conclusions that
God is best, are but superficial and ineffectual, like dreams ;
and though they have answerable effects in the will, they
are but ineffectual velleities or wishes, which are borne down
with far stronger desires of the contrary. And though God
be loved as one that is notionally conceived to be best and
most to be loved, yet he is not loved best or most. Yea,
though ordinarily the understanding say God is best, and
best to me, and for me, and most to be loved ; when it com-
€th to volition or choice, there is a secret apprehension,
which saith more powerfully, ' hie et nunc' this sensible
pleasure is better for me, and more eligible. Why else is it
chosen ? Unless you will say that the motion is principally
sensitive, and the force of the sensitive appetite suspendeth
all forcible opposition of the intellect, and so ruleth the lo-
comotive faculty itself. But whether the intellect be active,
or but emissive in it, the sin cometh up to the same height
of evil. However it be, it is most evident, that, while such
men say God is most to be loved, they love him not most,
when they will not leave a lust or known sin for his love ;
nor shew any such love, but the contrary, in their lives.
Object. II. ' But do not all men practically love God
best, when they love wisdom, honesty, and goodness in all
men ? Even in strangers that will never profit them ? And
whatis God but wisdom, goodness, and greatness themselves V
Answ. They first idolize themselves and their sensual
delights ; and then they love such wisdom, goodness, and
greatness, as are suitable to their selfish, sensual lust and in-
terest. And it is not the prime good, which is above them,
and to be preferred before them, which they love as such,
but such goodness as is fitted to their fleshly concupiscence
and ends. And therefore, holiness they love not. And
though they love that which is never like to benefit them,
that is but as it is of the same kind with that which, in
others nearer them, may benefit them, and therefore is suit-
able to their minds and interest. And yet we confess that
the mind of man hath some principles of virtue, and some
486 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
footsteps and witnesses of a Deity left upon it ; but though
these work up to an approbation of good, and a dislike of
evil, in the general notion of it, and in particular so far as it
-firosseth not their lust, yet never to prefer the best things
practically befoje their lust ; and God is not loved best, nor
jas.God, ifhe be not loved betterthan fleshly lust.
i Object, in. ' But it seems that most or all men love God
practically best. For there are few, if any, but would ra-
ther be annihilated, than there should be no God, or no
world. Therefore they love God better than themselves.*
Answ. 1. They know that if there were no God or no
world, they could not be themselves, and so must also be
-annihilated. 2. But suppose that they would rather be an-
nihilated, than continue in prosperity alone, were it possi-
ble, without a God, that is but for the world's sake, because
the world cannot be the world without a God ; which prov-
eth but that they are so much men, as to love the whole
world better than themselves. But could the world possi-
bly be what it is, without a God, I scarce think they would
choose annihilation, rather than that there should be no
God. 3. But suppose they would, yet I say that some sen-
sual men love their lusts or sensuality, better than their be-
ing ; and had rather be annihilated for ever, so they might
but spend their lives in pleasure, than to live for ever with-
out those pleasures. And therefore they will say, that a
short life with pleasure, is better than along one without it.
And when they profess to believe the life to come, and the
danger of sinning ; yet will they not leave their sinful plea-
sures to save their souls. Therefore, that man that would
rather be annihilated than there should be no God, may
yet love his lusts better than God, though not his being.
4. And I cannot say that every one shall be saved, that lov-
eth God under a false idea or image better than himself: no
more than that it will save a distracted, melancholy, vene-
reous lover, if he loved his paramour or mistress better than
himself. For God is not loved as God, if he be not loved as
infinitely great, and wise, and good, which containeth his
holiness, and also as the Owner, and Holy Governor and
End of man. If any therefore should love God upon con-
ceit that God loveth him, and will indulge him in his sins ;
or if he love him only for his greatness, and as the fountain
CHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 487
of all natural, sensible good ; and love him not as holy, nor
as a holy and just Governor and End, it is not God indeed
that this man loveth ; or he loveth him but * secundum quid,'
and not as God.
' . Object, IV. * But suppose I should love God above all,
as he is only great, and wise, and good in the production of
all sensible, natural good, without the notion of holiness,
and hatred of sin, would not this love itself be holy and
saving?'
Answ. Your love would be no holier or better, than the
object of it is conceived to be. If you conceive not of God
as holy and pure, you cannot love him with a pure and holy
love. If you conceive of him but as the cause of sun and
moon, light and heat, and life and health, and meat and
drink, you will love him but with such a love as you have to
these : which will not separate you from any sin as such,
but will consist with all sensuality of heart and life. And
it is not all in God, that nature, in its corrupted state, doth
hate, or is fallen out with : but if you love him not so well
as your lusts and pleasure, nor love him as your most
holy Governor and End, you love him not as God, or but
* secundum quid ;? but if you love' him holily, you love him
as holy. nmaE hit f (Mn'A <
Object. V. * God himself loveth the substance or person
more than the holiness ; for he contirmeth the persons of
men and devils, when he permitteth the holiness to perish,
or givcth it not.'
Answ. As the existence and event, and the moral goodness
must be distinguished ; so must God's mere volition of event,
and his complacency in good as good. God doth not will
the existence of a reasonable soul in a stone or straw ; and
yet it foUoweth not, that he loveth a stone or straw for its
substance, better than reason in a man : for though God
willeth to make his creatures various in degrees of goodness,
and taketh it to be good so to do, and that every creature
be not of the best ; yet still this goodness of them is various,
as one hath more excellency in it than another. The good-
ness of the whole may require that each part be not best in
itself, and yet best respectively in order to the beauty of the
whole. As a peg is not better than a standard,, and yet is
better to thfe building in its place ; and a finger is not better
488 ~ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
than a head, and yet is better to the body in its place,
than another head would be in that place. The head there-
fore must be loved comparatively better than the finger, and
the finger may be cut off to save life, when the bead must
not : so God can see meet to permit men and devils to fall
into misery, and thieves to be hanged, and use this to the
beauty of the whole, and yet love a true man better than a
thief, and a good better than a bad.
And either you speak of goodness or holiness existent
or non-existent. In a devil there is substance, which is
good in its natural kind, and therefore so far loved of God;
but there is no holiness in him, and that which is not, is not
amiable : but if you mean existent holiness, in a saint, then
it it false that God loveth the person of a devil better than
the holiness of a saint. Nor is it a proof that he loveth
them equally, because he equally willeth their existence ;
for he willeth not they shall be equal in goodness, though
equally existent : and it is complacency, and not mere
volition of existence, which we mean by love.
Otherwise your arguing is as strong as if it run thus :
that which God bringeth to pass, and not another thing, he
willeth and loveth more than that other ; but God bringeth to
pass men's sickness, pain, death, and damnation, and not the
holiness, ease, or salvation of those persons : therefore he
loveth their pain, death, and damnation better than their
holiness : therefore we should love them better, than the de-
vils or miserable men should love their misery better, than
holiness, God sheweth what he loveth, oft by commanding
it, when he doth not effect it ; he loveth holiness * in esse
cognito,' and * in esse existente,' respectively as his image.
Object. ' But at least it will follow, that in this or that
person as the devils, God loveth the substance better than
holiness ; for what he willeth he loveth : but he .willeth
the substance without the holiness ; therefore he loveth the
substance without the holiness.'
Answ, It is answered already. Moreover, 1. God willed
that holiness should be the duty of all men and devils,
though he willed not insuperably and absolutely to effect it.
2. The word 'without' meaneth either an exclusion or a
mere non-inclusion. God willeth not the person excluding
the holiness : for he excludeth it not by will or work; but
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 489
only he willeth the person, not including the holiness as to
any absolute will. And so God loveth the person without
the holiness ; but not so much as he would love him if he
were holy.
Object. * But you intimate, that it is best as to the beauty
of the universe, that there be sin, and unholiness, and damn-
ation ; and God loveth that which is good as to the uni-
verse, yea, that is a higher good than personal good, as the
fsubject is more noble, and therefore more to be loved of us
as it is of God.'
Answ, I. I know Augustine is oft alleged as saying,
* Bonum est ut malum fiat.' But sin and punishment must
be distinguished : it is true of punishment presupposing sin,
that it is good and lovely, in respect to public ends, though
hurtful to the person suffering ; and therefore as God will-
eth it as good, so should we not only be patient, but be
pleased in it as it is the demonstration of the justice and
holiness of God, and as it is good, though not as it is our
hurt. But sin (or unholiness privative) is not good in it-
self, nor to the universe : nor is it a true saying, that ' It is
good that there be sin ;' nor is it willed of God, (though not
nilled with an absolute, effective nolition) as hath been
elsewhere opened at large. Sin is not good to the universe,
nor any part of the beauty of the creature : God neither
willeth it, causeth it, nor loveth it.
Object. * At least he hath no great love to holiness in
those persons, that he never giveth it to : otherwise he
would work it in them.' ^
Answ. He cannot love that existent which existeth not.
Nor doth he any further will to give it them than to com-
mand it, and give them all necessary means and persuasions
to it. But what if God make but one sun, will you say that
he hath no great love to a sun, that will make no more ?
What if he make no more worlds ? Dot^ that prove that he
hath no great love to a world ? He loveth the world, the
sun, and so the saints, which he hath made : and he doth
not so far love suns, or worlds, or saints, as to make as
many suns, or worlds, or saints as foolish wits would pre-
scribe unto him. Our question is. What being God loveth,
and we should most love, as being best and likest him, and
not what he should give a being to that is not.
490 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Object. VI. * Holiness is but an accident, and the per-
son is the substance, and better than the accident ; and
Dr. Twiss oppugneth, on such accounts, the saying of Ar-
minius. That God loveth justice better than just men, be-
cause it is for justice that he loveth them.'
Answ. Aristotle and Porphyry have not so clearly made
known to us the nature of those things, or modes which
they are pleased to call accidents, as that we should lay any
great stress upon their sayings about them. Another will
say that goodness itself is but an accident, and most will
call it a mode; and they will say that the substance is better
than the mode or accident, and therefore better than good-
ness itself. -And would this, think you, be good arguing?
Distinguish then between physical goodness of being, in the
soul, both as a substance, and as a formal virtue ; and the per-
fective, or modal, qualitative or gradual goodness; and then
consider, that the latter always presupposeth the former :
where there is holiness, there is the substance, with its physi-
cal goodness, and the perfective, modal, or moral goodness
too ; but where there is no holiness, there is only a substance
deprived of its modal, moral goodness. And is not both
better than one, and a perfect being than an imperfect ?
And as to Arminius's saying, He cannot mean that God
loveth righteousness with a subject or substance, better than
a subject without righteousness ; for there is no such thing
to love (as righteousness without a subject, though there
may be an abstract, distinct conception of it). If therefore
the question be only, Whether God love the same man
better, as he is a man, or as he is a saint, I answer, he hath
a love to each which is suitable to its kind. He hath such
complacency in the substance of a serpent, a man, a devil,
as is agreeable to their being; that is, as they bear the na-
tural impressions of his creating perfections, yet such as
may stand with their pain, death, and misery. But he hath
such a complacency in the actual holiness, love, and obe-
dience of men and angels, as that he taketh the person that
hath them, to be meet for his service, and glory, and ever-
lasting felicity, and delight in him, as being qualified for it.
So that God's love must be denominatively distinguished
from the object ; and so it is a love of nature, and a love of
the moral perfections of nature : the first Igve is that by
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 491
which he loveth a man because he is a man, and so all other
creatures ; the second love is that by which he loveth a good
man, because he is good or holy. And if it will comfort you,
that God loveth your being without your perfections or vir-
tue, let it comfort you in pain, and death, and hell, that he
continueth your being without your well-being or felicity.
Object. VII. ' All goodness or holiness is some one's
goodness or holiness (as health is). And as it is the person's
welfare and perfection, so it is given for the person's sake :
therefore the person, as the * finis cui,' and utmost end, is
better than the thing given him, and so more amiable.'
Answ. That all goodness is some one's goodness, proveth
but that some one is the subject or being that is good, but
not that to be, is better than to be good, as such. And as he
is in some respect the * finis cui,' for whom it is, and so it is
good to him ; yet he and his goodness are for a higher end,
which is the pleasing of God in the demonstration of his
goodness : that therefore is best which most demonstrateth
God's goodness. And there is no subject or substance without
its accidents or modes ; and that person that is not good and
holy, is bad and unholy. Therefore the question should be.
Whether a person bad and unholy, be more amiable than a
person good and holy, that hath both physical and moral
goodness. And for all that the name of an accident maketh
action seem below the person ; yet it must be also said, that
the person and his faculties are for action, as being but the
substance in a perfect mode, and that action is for higher
ends than the person's being or felicity.
0^'ec^. VIII. ' Love is nothing but benevolence, ' velle
bonum alicui ut ei bene sit.' But who is it that would not
wish good to God, that is, to be blessed as he is T But how
can holiness then be loved, but rather the person for hisholir
ness ; because we cannot wish it good, but only to be what
it is.'
Answ. 1. The definition is false, as hath been shewed, and
as the instance proveth ; else a man could not be said to
love learning, virtue, or any quality, but only to love the
person that wanteth it, or hath it. But love is a compla-
cency, and benevolence is but its effect or antecedent. 2.
The unholy wish not good to God, for they would all depose
him from his Godhead : they would not have him to be a
492 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
hater of their sin, nor to be their holy and righteous Go-
vernor and Judge.
Object. IX. * It is better to be a man, though a sinner
and miserable in hell, than not to be at all. Else God
would never ordain, cause, or permit it.'
Answ. It is better to the highest ends, God's glory,
and the universal order, to be a punished man, than to be
nothing (when God will have it so) ; because punishment,
as to those highest ends, is good : though it is not best for
the poor miserable sinner ; but the same cannot be said of
sin. It is indeed better also to those highest ends, to be a
man though a sinner (while God continueth humanity) : for
the latter implieth some good to be in the sin which hath no
good, and therefore God neither causeth it, nor willeth it,
though he permit it. But though a sinful man is better
than no man to God's ends, it foUoweth not, that to be a
man is better than to be a good man.
Object. X. * If that be best and most amiable which is
most to the glory of God, then it is more amiable to be a
sinner in hell torment glorifying his justice, than not to be
at all, or to be a brute.'
Answ. It is neither of these that is offered to your love
and choice, but to be holy. All good is not matter of election ;
but that good which is in hell is not the sin, but the punish-
ment. For the sin doth reputatively, and as much as in it
lieth rob God of his glory, and punishment repaireth it.
Therefore love the punishment if you can, and spare not, so
you love holiness better ; for that would honour God more
excellently, and please him more.
Object. XI. * If I must love to be like God, I must love
to be great, and I must love the greatest as most like
him.'
Answ. You must love to be like him in those perfections
which you are capable of, and to the ends and uses of your
proper nature : therefore you must be desirous to be like
him in your measure, even in such power and greatness as
are suitable to the nature and ends of a rational soul. Not in
such strength as he giveth a horse, or such magnitude as he
giveth a mountain, which is not to be most like him ; but
in the vital activity and power of an intellectual free-agent :
to be powerful and great in love to God and all his service.
CHAP. III.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 493
and in all good works, to be profitable to the world ; to be
lively and ready in all obedience, strong to suffer, and to
conquer sin and all temptations : in a word, to be great and
powerful in wisdom and true goodness. Thus seek even in
power to be like to God in your capacities.
Object. XII. * God himself doth not love men only for
their goodness, nor love that best which is best. For he
loveth his elect while enemies and ungodly ; and he telleth
Israel he loved them because he would love them, and not
because they were better than others ; and in the womb he
loved Jacob best, when he was no better than Esau.'
Answ. 1. Distinguish between God's complacence and
benevolence. 2. Between the good that is present, and fore-
seen good with a present capacity for it.
1. God had a greater benevolence to Jacob than Esau,
and the Israelites than to other nations that were perhaps
not much worse. And it is not for our goodness that
God decreeth to make us good, or to give us a double pro-
portion of any of those mercies, which he giveth not as
Rector but as ' Dominus * and Benefactor, as an absolute
owner and free benefactor. And with this love of benevo-
lence he loveth us, when we are his enemies, that is, he
purposeth to make us good ; but this benevolence is jbut a
secondary love and fruit of complacency, joined with the
free, unequal distribution of his own.
2. But for complacency, which is love in the first and
strictest sense, God so loveth the wicked though elect, no
farther than they are good and lovely, that is, (1.) As they
have the natural goodness of rational creatures : (2.) And as
they are capable of all the future service they will do him,
and glory they will bring him; (3.) And as his infinite wisdom
knoweth it fit to choose them to that service. Or, if the be-
nevolence of election do go before his first complacence in
tliem above others, as being before his foresight that they
will serve and love him better, yet still this proper love
called complacence, goeth not beyond the worth of the
thing loved.
Object. * Doth God love us complacentially in Christ,
beyond the good that is in us ?'
Answ. Not beyond our real and relative good, as we are
in ourselves, by his grace, and as we are in Christ related to
494 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
him, and both ways such as demonstrate the Divine perfec-
tions, and shall love, and glorify, and please him for ever.
So much for the opening of the true nature of love to
God, ourselves, and others, and of man's ultimate end, and
of the nature of holiness and goodness, and those mysteries
of religion which are involved in these points.
CHAPTER IV.
Subordinate Directions against those Grand Heart-Sins,
which are direct^ contrary to the Life of Godliness and
Christianity. ' ' -^
The positive Directions to the Essential Duties of God-
liness and Christianity, have already given you Directions
against the contrary sins : as in the first Grand Direction
you have helps against direct unbelief : in the second, you
have Directions against unbelief, as it signifieth the not
using and applying of Christ according to our various needs.
In the third, you have Directions against "^ all resisting oif^
neglecting the Holy Ghost : (which were first, because in
practice we must come by the Son and the Spirit to the
saving knowledge and love of the Father.) In the fourth,
you have Directions ^ against atheism, idolatry, and ungod-
liness. In the fifth, you have Directions against self-idoliz-
ing, and self-dependence, and unholiness in an alienating
yourselves from God. In the sixth, you are directed against
rebellion and disobedience against God. In the seventh,
you have Directions against unteachableness, ignorance,
and error. In the eighth, you have Directions against im-
penitency, unhumbleness, impurity, unreformedness, and all
sin in general as sin. In the ninth, you are directed against ""
security, unwatchfulness, and yielding to temptations, and
in genera) against all danger to the soul. In the tenth, you,
* Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, I have- written a special Treatise in my
*' Unreasonableness of Infidelity."
^ Since the writing of this, I have published the same more at large, in my
" Reasons of the Christian Religion," and in my " Life of Faith."
^ Of presumption and false hope, enougli is said in the " Saints' Rest," and
liere about temptation, hope, and other heads afterwards.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 495
are directed against barrenness, unprofitableness, and sloth,
and uncharitableness ; and against mistakes in matter of
duty or good works. In the eleventh, you are directed
against all averseness, disaffection, or cold indifferency of
heart to God. In the twelfth, you are directed against dis-
trust, and sinful cares, and fears, and sorrows. In the
thirteenth, you are directed against an over sad or heartless
serving of God, as merely from fear, or forcedly, without de-
light. In the fourteenth, you are directed against unthank-
fulness. In the fifteenth, you are directed against all un-
holy or dishonourable thoughts of God, and against all in-
jurious speeches of him, or barrenness of the tongue, and
against all scandal or barrenness of life. In, the books re-
ferred to in the sixteenth and seventeenth, you are directed
against selfishness, self-esteem, self-love, self-conceit, self-
will, self-seeking, and against all worldliness, and fleshli-
ness of mind or life. But yet, lest any necessary helps
should be wanting against such heinous sins, I shall add
some more particular Directions against such of them as
were not fully spoken to before.
PARTI.
Directions against Unbelief.
I KNOW that most poor, troubled Christians, when they
complain of the sin of Unbelief, do mean by it, their not be-
lieving that they are sincere believers, and personally justi-
fied, and shall be saved. And I know that some divines
have affirmed, that the sense of that article of the creed, * I
believe the remission of sins,' is, * I believe my sins are ac-
tually forgiven.' But the truth is, to believe that I am elect
or justified, or that my sins are forgiven, or that I am a sin-
cere believer, is not to believe any Word of God at all : for
no Word of God doth say any of these ; nor any thing equi-
valent ; nor any thing out of which it can be gathered : for
it is a rational conclusion ; and one of the premises which
does infer it, must be found in myself by reflection, or inter-
nal sense, and self-knowledge. The Scripture only saith,
" He that truly believeth is justified, and shall be saved."
But it is conscience, and not belief of Scripture, which
496 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART f.
must say, * I do sincerely believe :* therefore the conclusion,
' that I am justified, and shall be saved,' is a rational collec-
tion from what I find in Scripture and in myself, set together,
and resulting from both, can be no firmer or surer than is
the weaker of the premises. Now certainty is objective or
subjective; in the thing, or in my apprehension. As to ob-
jective certainty in the thing itself, all truths are equally
true ; but all truths are not equally discernible, there being
more cause of doubting concerning some, which are less
evident, than concerning others, which are more evident.
And so the truth of God's promise of justification to be-
lievers, is more certain ; that is, hath fuller, surer evidence
to be discerned by, than the truth of my sincere believing.
And ' that I sincerely believe,' is the more debile of the pre-
mises, and therefore the conclusion followeth this in its de-
bility ; and so can be no article of faith. And as to the
subjective certainty, that varieth according to men's various
apprehensions. The premises, as in their evidence or apti-
tude to ascertain us, are the cause of the conclusion as evi-
dent, or knowable. And the premises, as apprehended, are
the cause of the conclusion, as known.
Now it is a great doubt with some. Whether a man can
possibly be more certain that he believeth, than he is that
the thing believed is true ; because the act can extend no
farther than the object: and to be sure I believe, is but to
be sure that I take the thing believed to be true. But I
shall grant the contrary, that a man may possibly be surer
that he believeth, than he is that the thing believed is true ;
because my believing is not always a full subjective cer-
tainty, that the thing is true ; but a believing that it is true
And though you are fully certain that all God's Word is
true ; yet you may believe that this is his Word, with some
mixture of unbelief or doubting. And so the question is
but this. Whether you may not certainly, without doubt-
ing know, that you believe the Word of God to be true,
though with some doubting. And it seems you may. But
then it is a further question, Whether you can be surer of
the saving sincerity of your faith, than you are that this
Word of God is true. And that ordinary men doubt of the
•first, as much as they doubt of the latter, I think is an ex-
perimented truth. But yet grant that with some it may be
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 497
otherwise, (because he believeth sincerely, that so far be-
lieveth the Word of God, as to trust his life and soul upon it,
and forsake all in obedience to it : and that I do so, I may
know with less doubting, than I yet have about the truth of
the Word so believed,) all that will follow is but this, that
of those men that doubt of their justification and salvation,
some of their doubts are. caused more by their doubting of
God's Word, than by their doubting whether they sincerely,
though doubtingly believe it: and the doubts of others,
whether they are justified and shall be saved, are caused mucK
more by their doubting of their own sincere belief, than by
their doubting of the truth of Scriptures. And the far
greatest number of Christians seem to themselves to be of
this latter sort. For no doubt, but though a man of clear
understanding can scarcely believe, and yet not know that
he believeth; yet he may believe sincerely, and not know
that he believeth sincerely. But still the knowledge of our
own justification, is but the effect or progeny of our belief
of the Word of God, and of our knowledge that we do sin-
cerely believe it, which conjunctly are the parents and
causes of it : and it can be no stronger than the weaker of
the parents, (which * in esse cognoscibili' is our faith, but
t in esse cognito' is sometimes the one, and sometimes the
other.) And the effect is not the cause ; the effect of faith
and knowledge conjunct, is not faith itself. It is not a be-
lieving the Word of God, to believe that you believe, or that
you are justified : but yet, because that faith is one of the
parents of it, some call it by the name of faith, though they
should call it but an effect of faith, as one of the causes.
And well may our doub tings of our own salvation be said
to be from unbelief, because unbelief is one of the causes of
them, and the sinfullest cause.
And that the article of remission of sin is to be believed
with application to ourselves, is certain : but not with the
application of assurance, persuasion, or belief that v^^e are
already pardoned ; but with an applying acceptance of an
offered pardon, and consent to the covenant which maketh
it ours. We believe that Christ hath purchased remission
of sin, and mad^ a conditional grant of it in his Gospel, to
all, viz. if they will repent, and believe in him, or take him
VOL. TI. K K
498 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
for their Saviour, or become penitent Christians. And we
consent to do so, and to accept it on these terms. And we
believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent.
By all this you may perceive, that those troubled Chris-
tians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God, but
only of their own sincerity, and consequently of their justi-
fication and salvation, do ignorantly complain that they
have not faith, or that they cannot believe : for it is no act
of unbelief at all, for me to doubt whether my own heart be
sincere : this is my ignorance of myself, but it is not any
degree of unbelief : for God's Word doth no where say that
I am sincere ; and therefore I may doubt of this, without
doubting of God's Word at all. And let all troubled Chris-
tians know, that they have no more unbelief in them, than
they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of
God. Even that despair itself, which hath none of this in
it, hath no unbelief in it, (if there be any such). I thought
it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is, before I
come to give you Directions against it. And though the
mere doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all, yet
real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures, is so
common and dangerous a sin, and some degree of it is la-
tent in the best, that I think we can no way so much further
the work of grace, as by destroying this. The weakness of
our faith in the truth of Scriptures, and the remnant of our
unbelief of it, is the principal cause of all the languishings
of our love and obedience, and every grace ; and to
strengthen faith, is to strengthen all. What I have more
fully written in my ** Saints' Rest," Part 2., and my " Trea^
tise against Infidelity," I here suppose.
Direct, i. * Consider well how much of religion nature
itself teacheth, and reason, (without supernatural revelation,)
must needs confess : ' (as, that there is another life which
man was made for, and that he is obliged to the fullest love
and obedience to God, and the rest before laid down in the
Introduction.) * And then observe how congruously the
doctrine of Christ comes in, to help where nature is at a
loss, and how exactly it suits with natural truths, and how
clearly it explaineth them, and fully containeth so much of
them as is necessary to salvation ; and how suitable and
proper a means it is to attain their ends ; and how great a
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 499
testimony the doctrines of nature and grace do give unto
each other ^.
Direct, ii. ' Consider, that man's end being in the life to
come, and God being the righteous and merciful Governor
of man in order to that end, it must needs be that God will
give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that
^ I must profess that the nature and wonderful difference of tlie godly and un-
godly, and their conversation in the world, are perpetual, visible evidences in my
eyes, of the truth of the Holy Scriptures.
1. That there should be so universal and implacable a hatred against the godly,
in the common sort of unrenewed men, in all ages and nations of thp earth, when
these men deserve so well of them, and do them no wrong, is a visible proof of Adam's
fall, and the need of a Saviour and a Sanctifier.
2. That all those who are seriously Christians, should be so far renewed, and re-
covered from the common corruption, as their heavenly minds and lives, and their
wonderful difference from other men sheweth, this is a visible proof that Christianity
is of God.
3. That God doth so plainly shew a particular, special providence, in the convert-
ing and confirming souls, by differencing grace, and woik on the soul as the sanctified
feel, doth shew that indeed the work is his.
4v That God doth so plainly grant many of his servants' prayers, by special provi-
dences, doth prove his owning them and his promises.
5. That God suffereth his servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so
much for his love and service, from the world and flesh, doth shew that there is a judg-
ment, and rewards, and punishments hereafter. Or else our highest duty would be
our greatest loss ; and then how should his government of men be just ?
6. That the renewed nature (which maketh men better, and therefore is of God,)
doth wholly look at the life to corne, and lead us to it, and live upon it, this sheweth
that such a life there is, or else this would be delusory and vain, and goodness itself
would be a deceit.
7. When it is undeniable that ' de facto esse' the world is not governed without the
hopes and fears of another life ; almost all nations among the heathens believing it,
and shewing by their very worshipping their dead heroes as gods, that they believed
that their souls did live, and even the wicked generally being restrained by those
hopes and fears in themselves. And also that ' de posse' it is not possible the world
should be governed agreeably to man's rational nature, without the hopes and fears of
another life ; but men would be worse than beasts, and all villanies would be the al-
lowed practice of the world. As every man may feel in himself what he were like to
be and do, if he had no such restraint. And there being no doctrine or life compara-
ble to Christianity, in their tendency to the life to come. All these are visible, stand-
ing evidences, assisted so much by common sense and reason, and still apparent to all,
that they leave infidelity without excuse ; and are ever at hand to help our faith,
and resist temptations to unbelief.
8. And if the world had not had a beginning according to the Scriptures, %. We
should have found monuments of antiquity above six thousand years old. ^. Arts
and sciences would have come to more perfection, and printing, guns, &c., not have
been of so late invention. 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world,
would not have been yet uninhabited, unplanted, or undiscovered.
Of atheism I have spoken before in the Introduction j and nature so clearly re-
vealeth a God, that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men.
500 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
end ; ' and that the clearest, fullest means must needs de-
monstrate most of the government and mercy of God.
Direct, iii. * Consider, what full and sad experience the
world hath of its pravity and great corruption ;' and that
the natural tendency of reason is to those high and excellent
things, which corruption and brutishness do almost extin-
guish or cast out with the most ; and that the prevalency
of the lower faculties against right reason, is so lamentable
and universal, to the confusion of the world, that it is
enough to tell us, that this is not the state that God first
made us in, and that certainly sin hath sullied and disor-
dered his work. The wickedness of the world is a great
confirmation of the Scripture.
Direct, iv. * Consider, how exactly the doctrine of the
Gospel, and covenant of grace, are suited to the lapsed state
of man ' even as the law of works was suited to his state
of innocency : so that the Gospel may be called the law of
lapsed nature, as suited to it, though not as revealed by it ;
as the other was the law of entire nature.
Direct, v. ' Compare the many prophecies of Christ,
-with the fulfilling of them in his person.' As that of Moses
recited by Stephen, Acts vii. 37. Isa. liii. Dan. ix. 24- — 26.
&c. And consider that those Jews which are the Christians'
bitterest enemies, acknowledge and preserve those prophe-
cies, and all the Old Testament, which giveth so full a tes-
timony to the New.
Direct, vi. ' Consider, what an admirable suitableness
there is in the doctrine of Christ, to the relish of a serious,
heavenly mind :' and how all that is spiritual and truly
good in us, doth close with it and embrace it from a certain
congruity of natures, as the eye doth with the light, and the
•stomach with its proper food. Every good man in reading
the Holy Scripture, feeleth something (even all that is good)
within him, bear witness to it. And only our worse part is
quarrelling with it, and rebels against it.
Direct, vii. ' Consider, how all the first churches were
planted by the success of all those miracles mentioned in
the Scripture.' And that the apostles and thousands of
others saw the miracles of Christ : and the churches saw
the miracles of the apostles, and heard them speak in lan-
guages unlearned: and had the same extraordinary gifts
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN JETHICS. 501
communicated to themselves. And these being openly and
frequently manifested, convinced unbelievers : and were
openly urged by the apostles to stop the mouths of opposers,
and confirm believers ; who would all have scorned their ar-
guments, and the faith which they supported, if all these
had been fictions, of which they themselves were said to be
eye-witnesses and agents. So that the very existence of
the churches, was a testimony to the matter of fact. And
what testimony can be greater of God's interest and appro-
bation, than Christ's resurrection, and all these miracles?
Direct, viii. * Consider, how no one of all the heretics
or apostates, did eVer contradict the matters of fact, or hath
left the world any kind of confutation of them,' which they
wanted not malice, or encouragement, or opportunity to
have done. , /
Direct, ix. ' Consider, how that no one of all those
thousands that asserted these miracles, are ever mentioned
in any history as repenting of it, either in their health, or
at the hour of death :' whereas it had been so heinous a
villany to have cheated the world in so great a cause, that
some consciences of dying men, especially of men that
placed all their hopes in the life to come, must needs have
repented of.
Direct. X. * Consider, that the witnesses of all these mi-
racles, and all the churches that believed them, were taught
by their own doctrine and experience, to forsake all that
they had in the world, and to be reproached, hated, and per-
secuted of all men, and to be as lambs among wolves, , in
expectation of death ; and all this for the hope of that
blessedness promised them by a crucified, risen Christ.' So
that no worldly end could niove them to deceive, or willingly
to be deceived.
Direct, xi. * Consider, how impossible it is in itself, that
so many men should agree together to deceive the world,
and that for nothing, and at the rate of their own undoing
and death : and that they should all agree in the same nar-
ratives and doctrines so unanimously : and that none of
these should ever confess the deceit, and disgrace the
rest.' All things well considered, this will appear not only
a moral, but a natural impossibility : especially considering
their quality and distance, there being thousginds m severg,l
502 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
countries, that never saw the faces of the rest, much less
could enter a confederacy with them, to deceive the world.
Direct, xii. * Consider the certain way by which the doc-
trine and writings of the apostles, and other evangelical mes-
sengers, have been delivered down to us, without any pos-
sibility of material alteration.' Because the Holy Scrip-
tures were not left only to the care of private men, or of the
Christians of one country, who might have agreed upon cor-
ruptions and alterations : but it was made the office of the
ordinary ministers to read, and expound, and apply them.
And every congregatioi; had one or more of these ministers :
and the people received the Scriptures as the law of God,
and that by which they must live and be judged, and as
their charter for heaven. So that it was not possible for
one minister to corrupt the Scripture text, but the rest, with
the people, would have quickly reproved him : nor for those
of one kingdom to bring all other Christians to it throughout
the world, without a great deal of consultation and opposi-
tion (if at all) : which never was recorded to us.
Direct. XIII. 'Be acquainted as fully as you can with
the history of the church, that you may know how the Gos-
pel hath been planted, and propagated, and assaulted, and
preserved until now :' which will much better satisfy you,
than general, uncertain talk of others.
Direct. XIV. 'Judge whether God, being the wise and
merciful Governor of the world, would suffer the honestest
and most obedient subjects that he hath upon earth, to be de-
ceived in a matter of such importance, by pretence of doc-
trines and miracles proceeding from himself, and which
none but himself (or God by his special grant) is able to do,
without disowning them, or giving any sufficient means to
the world to discover the deceit *.' For certainly, he needeth
not deceit to govern us. If you say that he permits Maho-
metanism, I answer, 1 . The main, positive doctrine of the
Mahometans, for the worshipping of one only God, against
idolatry, is true : and the by-fancies of their pretended pro-
phet, are not commended to the world upon the pretence of
attesting miracles at all, but upon the affirmation of revela-
tions, without any credible seal or Divine attestation,. and
* Neque enim potest Deus qui suitima Veritas et bonitas est, humanum genus,
prolem suam decipere. Marsil. Ficin. tie Rel. Cliris. c. 1 .
ckAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 503
obtruded on the world by the power of the sword. 2. And
God hath given the world sufficient preservatives against
them, in the nullity of the proof of them, and the evident
foppery of the writings and the things themselves. So that
honesty and diligence will easily escape them.
Direct, x v. ' Observe the supernatural effects of the Gos-
pel upon the souls of believers : how it planteth on man the
image of the Holy God :' powerfully subduing both sense
and the greatest interest of the flesh, to the will of God ;
and makis^g men wise and good ; and putting an admirable
difference between them, and all other men. And then
judge whether it be not God's seal, having his image first
upon itself, which he doth use and honour to be the instru-
ment of imprinting his image upon us*.
Direct, xvi. ' Mark well the certain vanity of all other
religions that prevail on the earth.' Idolatry and Maho-
metanism, which openly bear the mark of their own shame,
have shared between them almost all the rest of the earth ; for
mere Deism is scarce any where in possession ; and Judaism
hath no considerable inheritance ; and both of them as sen-
sibly confuted by man's corruption, necessity, and desert.
Direct, xvii. ' Mark the great difference between the
Christian part of the world, (those that receive Christianity
seriously and in sincerity,) and all the rest^' Those that
are farthest from Christianity, are farthest from piety, ho-
nesty, civility, or any laudable parts or conversations : most
of them are beastly and ungodly : and the rest are but a lit-
tle better: and ignorance and brutishness cannot be the
perfection of a man. Nay, among professed Christians, the
multitudes that have but the name, and hate the nature and
practice of it, are like swine or wolves ; and some of the
worst, near kin to devils. When all that receive Christian-
ity practically into their hearts and lives, are heavenly and
holy, and (in the same measure that they receive it) their
sins are all mortified, and they are devoted to God, and pos-
sessed with justice, charity, and patience to men, and are
carried up above this world, and contemn that which the
^ Pietas fundamentum est omnium virtutura. Cic. pro Plane. 29. Vol. iii.
p. 937.
f Zenophon reportetli Cyrus as saying, ' If all my familiars were endued with
piety to God, they would do less evil to one another, and tome.' lib. viii.
5b4 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
rest do make their felicity and delight. So that if that be
good which doth good, then is the goodness of the Chris-
tian faith, apparent to all, that have any acquaintance, rea-
son, and impartiality to judge.
Direct, xviii. ' Bethink you what you should have been
yourselves, if you had not been Christians V Yea, what
would yet be the consequent if you should fall from the
Christian faith? Would you not look at the life to come
as doubtful? And resolve to take your pleasure in the
world, and to gratify the flesh, and to neglect "^^^^ur souls,
and to venture upon almost any vice, that seemeth neces-
sary to your carnal ends. Christianity hath cleansed and
sanctified you, if you are sanctified : and if (which God for-
bid !) you should forsake Christianity, it is most likely you
would quickly shew the difference, by your dirty, fleshly,
worldly lives ^.
Direct, xix. ' When you see the evidence of Divine re-
velation and authority, it is enough to silence your doubts
and cavils about particular words or circumstances.' For
you know that God is true and infallible ; and you know
that you are silly, ignorant worms, that are utterly at a loss,
when you have not one at hand to open every difficulty to
you! and that all arts and sciences seem full of difficulties
and contradictions to ignorant, inexperienced novices.
Direct, xx. ' Allow all along in your learning, for the
difficulties which must needs arise, from the translation,
ambiguity of all human language, change and variety of
words and customs, time, place, and other circumstances,
and especially from your own unacquaintedness with all
these :' that so your own infirmities, and ignorance, and
mistakes in reasoning, may not be ascribed to the truths <
Direct, xxi. 'Understand the proper use of Holy Scrip-
ture, and so how far it is Divine ; that so you be not tempt-
ed to unbelief, by expecting in it that which never was in-
tended, and then finding your causeless expectations frus-
trate.' It is not so Divine as to the terms, and style, and
order, and such modal and circumstantial matters, as if all
the exactness might be expected in it, that God could put
into a book. Nor is it intended as a system of physics, or
P AtqUe baud scio an pietate ad versus Deos sublat^, fides etiam, et societas ge-
neris huraani, et una excellenUssima vi,itus Justitia, tollatur. Cic. de Nat. J). I. 4*
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 505
logic, or any subservient sciences or arts : but it is an infal-
lible revelation of the v^^ill of God, for the government of the
church, and the conducting men to life eternal: and it ia
ordered and worded so as to partake of such human infir-
mity, as yet shall no way impeach the truth or efficacy of
it ; but rather make it more suitable to the generality of
men, whose infirmity requires such a style and manner
of handling. So that as a child of God hath a body from
parents, which yet is of God, but so of God, as to partake
of the infirmities of the parents ; or rather, as Adam had a
body from God, but yet from earth, and accordingly frail ;
but a soul more immediately from God, which was more pure
and divine : so Scripture hath its style, and language, and
method so from God, as to have nothing in it unsuitable to
its ends ; but not so from God, as if he himself had shewed
in it his own most perfect wisdom to the utmost, and as if
there were nothing in it of human imperfection. But the
truth and goodness which are the soul of Scripture, are more
immediately from God. The style and method of the pen-
men may be various ; but the same soul animateth all the
parts. It is no dishonour to the Holy Scriptures, if Cicero
be preferred for purity of style, and phrase, and oratory, as
for other common uses : but certainly it is to be preferred
as to its proper use : that being the best style for an act of
parliament, which is next to the worst in an oration. The
means are for the end.
Direct, xxii. ' Consider how great assistance appari-
tions, and witchcrafts, and other sensible evidences of spi-
rits conversing with mankind, do give to faith.' Of which
I have written in the forementioned treatises, and therefore
now pass it over.
Direct, xxiii. ' Consider what advantage faith may have,
by observing the nature and tendency of the soul, and its
hopes and fears of a life to come, together with the superior,
glorious worlds, which certainly are possessed by nobler in-
habitants^.' He that seeth every corner of the earth, and
sea, and air inhabited, and thinks what earth is in compa-
rison of all the great and glorious orbs above it, will hardly
once dream that they are all void of inhabitants, or that
there is not room enough for souls.
fc See my book called " A Saint or a Brute,"
506 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1.
Direct, xxiv. * The ministry of angels, of which parti-
cular providences give us a great probability, doth give
some help to that doctrine which telleth us, that we must
live with angels, and that we shall ascend to more familiarity
with them, who condescend to so great service now for us/
Direct, xxv. * The universal, wonderful, implacable en-
mity of corrupted man to the holy doctrine, and ways, and
servants of Christ, and the open war which in every king-
dom, and the secret war which in every heart, is kept up
between Christ and satan through the world ;' with the ten-
dency of every temptation, their violence, constancy, in all
ages, to all persons, all making against Christ, and heaven,
and holiness, do notoriously declare that the Christian doc-
trine and life do tend to our salvation ; which the devil so
maliciously and incessantly opposeth : and thus his temp-
tations give great advantage to the tempted soul against the
tempter. For it is not for nothing that the enemy of our
souls makes so much opposition. And that there is such
a devil, that thus opposeth Christ and temptethu&, not only
sensible apparitions and witchcrafts prove, but the too sen-
sible temptations, which, by their matter and manner,
plainly tell us whence they come. Especially when all the
world is formed as into two hostile armies, the one fighting
under Christ, and the other under the devil ; and so have
continued since Cain and Abel to this day.
Direct, xxvi. * The prophecies of Christ himself of the
destruction of Jerusalem, and the gathering of his church,
and the cruel usage of it through the world, do give great
assistance to our faith, when we see them all so punctually
fulfilled.'
Direct, xxvii. * Mark whether it be not a respect to
things temporal that assaulteth thy belief; and come not
with a biassed, sensual mind to search into so great a mys-
tery.' Worldliness, and pride, and sensuality are deadly
enemies to faith ; and where they prevail they will shew
their enmity, and blind the mind : if the soul be sunk into
mud and filth, it cannot see the things of God.
Direct, xxviii. ' Come with humility and a sense of
your ignorance, and not with arrogance and self-conceit ;'
as if all must needs be wrong that your empty, foolish minds
cannot presently perceive to be right. The most famous
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 507
apostates that ever I knew, were all men of notorious pride
and self-conceitedness.
Direct, xxix. * Provoke not God by wilful sinning
against the light, which thou hast already received, to for-
sake thee, and give thee over to infidelity.* " Because men
receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved ;
for this cause God sends them strong delusions to believe
a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ^" Obey Christ's
doctrine so far as you know it, and you shall more fully
know it to be of God''.
Direct, xxx. * Tempt not yourselves to infidelity, by
pretended humility in abasing your natural faculties, when
you should be humbled for your moral pravity.' Vilifying
the soul, and its reason, and natural free-will doth tend to
infidelity, by making us think that we are but as other in-
ferior animals, incapable of a life above with God : when as
self-abasing, because of the corruption of reason and free-
will, doth tend to shew us the need of a .physician, and so
assist our faith in Christ.
Direct, XXXI. * Judge not of so great a thing by sudden
apprehensions, or the surprise of a temptation, when you
have not leisure to look up all the evidences of faith, and
lay them together, and take a full, deliberate view of all the
cause.' It is a mystery so great as requireth a clear and
vacant mind, delivered from prejudice, abstracted from di-
verting and deceiving things ; which, upon the best assist-
ance and with the greatest diligence, must lay altogether to
discern the truth. And, if upon the best assistance and
consideration, you have been convinced of the truth, and
then will let every sudden thought, or temptation, or dif-
ficulty seem enough to question all again, this is unfaithful-
ness to the truth, and the way to resist the clearest evi-
dences, and never to have done. It is like as if you should
answer your adversary in the court, when your witnesses are
all dismissed or out of the way, and all your evidences are
absent, and perhaps your couuBellor and advocate too. It
is like the casting up of a long and intricate account, which
a man hath finished by study and time ; and when he hath
done all, one questioneth this particular, and another that,
' 2 Thess. ii. 10—12. '' Jolin vii. 17. x. 4.
508 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
when his accounts are absent : it is not fit for him to answer
all particulars, nor question his own accounts, till he have
as full opportunity and help to cast up all again.
Direct, xxxii. * If the work seem too hard for you, go
and consult with the wisest, most experienced Christians ;'
who can easily answer the difficulties which most perplex
and tempt you. Modesty will tell you, that the advantage
of study and experience may make every one wisest in his
own profession ; and set others above you, while you have
less of these.
Direct, xxxiii. ' Remember that Christianity being the
surest way to secure your eternal hopes ;' and the matters
of this life which cause men to forsake it, being such tran-
sitory trifles, you can be no losers by it ; and therefore if
you doubted, yet you might be sure that is the safest way.
Direct, xxxiv. ' Judge not of so great a cause in a time
of melancholy, when fears and confusions make you unfit.'
But in such a case as that, as also whenever satan would
disturb your settled faith, or tempt you at his pleasure to
be still new questioning resolved cases and discerned truths,
abhor his suggestions, and give them no entertainment in
your thoughts, but cast them back into the tempter's face.
There is not one melancholy person of a multitude, but is
violently assaulted with temptations to blasphemy and un-
belief, when they have but half the use of reason and no
composedness of mind to debate such controversies with
the devil. It is not fit for them in this incapacity to hearken
to any of those suggestions, which draw them to dispute the
foundations of their faith, but to cast them away with reso-
lute abhorrence ; nor should any Christian, that is soundly
settled on the true foundation, gratify the devil so much as
to dispute with him whenever he provoketh us to it, but
only endeavour to strengthen our faith, and destroy the
remnants of unbelief.
Direct, xxxv. ' Remember that Christ doth propagate
his religion conjunctly by his Spirit and his Word, and ef-
fecteth himself the faith which he commandeth.' For
though there be sufficient evidence of credibility in his
Word, yet the blinded mind, and corrupt, perverted hearts of
men, do need the cure of his medicinal grace, before they
will effectually and savingly believe a doctrine which is so
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 509
holy, high, and heavenly, and doth so much control their
lusts. See therefore that you distrust your corrupted hearts,
and earnestly beg the Spirit of Christ.
Direct, xxxvi. ' Labour earnestly for the love of every
truth which you believe, and to feel the renewing power of
it upon your hearts ; and the reforming power on your
lives ; especially that you may be advanced to the love of
God and to a heavenly mind and life.' And this will be a
most excellent help against all temptations to unbelief : for
the heart holdeth the Gospel much faster than the head
alone. The seed that is cast into the earth, if it quicken
and take root, is best preserved ; and the deeper rooted the
surer it abideth ; but if it die, it perisheth and is gone.
When the seed of the holy Word hath produced the new
creature, it is sure and safe ; but when it is retained only
in the brain as a dead opinion, every temptation can over-
turn it. It is an excellent advantage that the serious, prac-
tical Christian hath, above all hypocrites and unsanctified
men : love will hold faster than dead belief. Love is the
grace that abideth for ever ; and that is the enduring faith
which works by love. The experienced Christian hath felt
so much of the power and goodness of the Word, that if
you puzzle his head with subtle reasonings against it, yet
his heart and experience will not suffer him to let it go. He
hath tasted it so sweet that he will not believe it to be bitter,
though he cannot answer all that is said against it. If another
would persuade you to believe ill of your dearest friend or
father, love and experience would better preserve you from
his deceit than reasoning would do. The new creature, or
new nature in believers, and the experience of God's love
communicated by Jesus Christ. unto their souls, are constant
witnesses to the Word of God : he that believeth hath the
witness in himself; that is, the Holy Ghost which was given
him, which is an objective testimony or an evidence, and an
effective. Of this see my " Treatise of Infidelity." Unsanc-
tified men may be easier turned to infidelity ; for they never
felt the renewed, quickening work of faith ; nor were ever
brought by it to the love of God, and a holy and heavenly
mind and life. They that never were Christians at the
heart, are soonest turned from bein^ Christians ia opinion
and name.
510 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Quest. * By what reason, evidence, or obligation, were
the, Jews bound to believe the prophet? Seeing Isaiah,
Jeremy, Ezekiel, &c. wrought no miracles, and there were
false prophets in their days ; how then could any man know
that indeed they were sent of God, when they nakedly af-
firmed it V
Answ. I mention this objection or case, because in my
book of the " Reasons of the Christian Religion," (to which
for all the rest I refer the reader) it is forgotten : and be-
cause it is one of the hardest questions about our faith.
1. Those that think every book of Scripture doth now
prove itself to be divine * propria luce,' by its own matter,
style, and other properties, will accordingly say, that by
hearing the prophets then, as well as by reading them now,
this intrinsic, satisfactory evidence was discernible. All
that I can say of this is, that there are such characters in
the prophecies as are a help to faith, as making it the more
easily credible that they are of God, but not such as I could
have been ascertained by (especially as delivered by parcels
then), if there had been no more.
2. Nor do I acquiesce in their answer who say that.
Those that have the same spirit, know the style of the spirit
in the prophets. For, 1. This would suppose none capable
of believing them groundedly that had not the same spirit ;
2. And the spirit of sanctification is not enough to our dis-
cerning prophetical inspirations, as reason and experience
fully prove. The gift of discerning spirits ^ was not com-
mon to all the sanctified.
3. It is much to be observed that God never sent any
prophet to make a law or covenant on which the salvation
of the people did depend, without the attestation of unques-
tionable miracles. Moses wrought numerous open miracles,
and such as controlled and confuted the contradicters' seem-
ing miracles in Egypt ; and Christ and his apostles wrought
more than Moses. So that these laws and covenants by
which God would rule and judge the people were all con-
firmed beyond all just exception.
4. It must be noted, that many other prophets also
wrought miracles to confirm their doctrine, and prove that
they were sent of God, as did Elias and Elisha.
1 1 Cor. xii. 10.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 511
5. It must be noted, that there were schools of prophets,
or societies of them in those times "*, who were educated in
such a way as fitted them to the reception of prophetical
inspirations, when it pleased God to give them. Not that
mere education made any one a prophet, nor that the pro-
phets had at all times the present, actual gift of prophecy ;
but God was pleased so far to own men's commanded dili-
gence, as to join his blessing to a meet education, and at
such times as he thought meet, to illuminate such by visions
and revelations above all others : and therefore it is spoken
of Amos, as a thing extraordinary, that he was made a pro-
phet of a herdsman.
6. Therefore a prophet among the Jews was known to
be such, usually, before these recorded prophecies of their's,
which we have now in the Holy Scriptures : 1. The spirits of
the prophets which are subject to the prophets, were judged
of by those prophets that had indeed the Spirit ; and so the
people had the testimony of the other prophets concerning
them. 2. The Lord's own direction to know a true prophet
by°, is the coming to pass of that which he foretelleth.
Now it is like that before they were received into the number
of prophets, they had given satisfaction to the societies of
the prophets, by the events of things before foretold by them.
3. Or they might have wrought miracles before to have satis-
fied the members of the college of their calling, though these
miracles are not all mentioned in the Scripture. 4. Or the
other prophets might have some Divine testimony concern-
ing them by visions, revelations, or inspirations of their
own. So that the people were not left to the credulity of
naked, unproved assertions, of any one that would say that
he was sent of God.
7. There were some signs given by some of the prophets
to confirm their word. As Isaiah's predictions of Hezekiah's
danger and remedy, and recovery, and of the going back of
the shadow on Ahaz's dial ten degrees, &c. ; and more such
there might be, which we know not of.
8. All prophecies were not of equal obligation. The first
prophecies of any prophet who brought no attestation by
miracles, nor had yet spoken any prophecy that had been
•" 1 Sam. X. 10. xix. 20. 1 Kings xx. 35. 41. xxii. 13. 2 Kings ii. 3. 5.7. 15.
iv. I. 38. V. 22. vi. 1. ix. 1. 1 Cor. xiv. 32. » Deut. xviii. 22.
512 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
fulfilled, might be a merciful revelation from God, which
might oblige the hearers to a reverent regard, and an in-
quiry into the authority of the prophet, and awaiting in sus-
pense till they saw whether it would come to pass ; and the
fulfilling of it increaseth their obligation. Some prophecies
that foretold but temporal things (captivities or deliverances)
might at first (before the prophets produced a divine attest-
ation) be rather a bare prediction than a law ; and if men
believed them not, it might not make them guilty of any
damning sin at all, but only they refused that warning of a
temporal judgment, which might have been of use to them
had they received it.
9. But our obligation now to believe the same Scripture
prophecies is greater, because we live in the age when most of
them are fulfilled, and the rest are attested by Christ and his
apostles, who proved' their attestations by manifold miracles.
10. When the prophets reproved the known sins of the
people, and called men to such duties as the law required,
no man could speed ill by obeying such a prophet, because
the matter of his prophecies were found in God's own law,
which must of necessity be obeyed. And this is the chief
part of the recorded prophecies.
1 1 . And any man that spake against any part of God's
law (of natural or supernatural revelation) was not to be be-
lieved'', because God cannot speak contrary to himself.
12. But the prophets themselves had another kind of
obligation to believe their own visions and inspirations,
than any of their hearers had ; for God's great extraordinary
revelation was like the light, which immediately revealed
itself, and constrained the understanding to know that it
was qf God : and such were the revelations that came by
angelical apparitions and visions. Therefore prophets them-
selves might be bound to more than their bare word could
kave bound their hearers to ; as to wound themselves, to
go bare, to feed on dung, 8cc. : and this was Abraham's case
in offering Isaac. Yet God did never command a prophet,
or any by a prophet, a thing simply evil ; but only such
things as were of a mutable nature, and which his will could
alter, and make to be good : and such was the case of Abra.^
ham himself, if well considered.
o Deut. xili. a,nd xviU. :, ar;.; y^
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 513
PART II.
Directions against Hardness of Heart.
It is necessary that some Christians be better informed what
hardness of heart is, who most complain of it. The metaphor
is taken from the hardness of any matter which a workman
would make an impression on ; and it signifieth the passive
and active resistance of the heart against the Word and works
of God, when it receiveth not the impressions which the
Word would make, and obeyeth not God's command ; but
after great and powerful means remaineth as it was before, un-
moved, unaffected, and disobedient. So that hardness of
heart is not a distinct sin, but the habitual power of every
sin, or the deadness, unmoveableness, and obstinacy of the
heart in any sin. So many duties and sins as there be, so many
ways may the heart be hardened against the Word, which
forbiddeth those sins, and commandeth those duties. It is
therefore an error, that hath had very ill consequences on
many persons, to think that hardness of heart is nothing but
a want of passionate feeling in the matters which concern the
the soul ; especially a want of sorrow and tears. This hath
made them over-careful for such tears, and grief, and pas-
sions, and dangerously to make light of many greater in-
stances of the hardness of their hearts. Many beginners in
religion (who are taken up in penitential duties) do think
that all repentance is nothing but a change of opinion, ex-
cept they have those passionate griefs and tears, which in-
deed would well become the penitent ; and hereupon they
take more pains with themselves to affect their hearts with
sorrow for sin, and to wring out tears, than they do for
many greater duties. But when God calleth them to love
him, and to praise him, and to be thankful for his mercies ;
or to love an enemy, or forgive a wrong : when he calleth
them to mortify their earth^-ymindedness, their carnality,
their pride, their passion, or their disobedience, they yield
but little to his call, and shew here much greater hardness
of heart, and yet little complain of this or take notice of it.
I entreat you therefore to observe, that the greater the duty
is, the worse it is to harden the heart against it ; and the
greater the sin is, the worse it is to harden the heart by ob-
VOL. II. LL
514 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
stinacy in it. And that the greater duties are, the love of
God and man, with a mortified and heavenly mind and life ;
and to resist God's Word commanding these, is the great
and dangerous hardening of the heart. The life of grace
lietli, 1. In the preferring of God, and heaven, and holiness,
in the estimation of our minds before all worldly things.
2. In the choosing them, and resolving for them with our
wills, before all others. 3. In the seeking of them in the
bent and drift of our endeavours. These three make- up a
state of holiness. But for strength of parts, or memory, or
expression, and so for passionate affections of sorrow, or
joy, or the tears that express them; all these in their time,
and place, and measure, are desirable, but not of necessity
to salvation, or to the life of grace. They follow much the
temperature of the body, and some have much of them that
have little or no grace, and some want them that have much
grace. The work of repentance consisteth most in loathing
and falling out with ourselves for our sins, and in forsaking
them with abhorrence, and turning unto God ; and he that
Can do this without tears is truly penitent, and he that
hath never so many tears, without this, is impenitent still p.
And that is the hard-hearted sinner, that will not be
wrought to a love of holiness, nor let go his sin, when God
commandeth him ; but after all exhortations, and mercies,
and perhaps afflictions, is still the same as if he had never
been admonished, or took no notice what God hath been
saying or doing to reclaim him. Having thus told you what
hardness of heart is, you may see that I have given you Di-
rections against it at large before Chap. iii. Direct, vi, and
VIII. ; but shall add these few.
Direct, i. ' Remember the majesty and presence of that
most holy God, with whom we have to do.' Nothing will
more affect and aw^e the heart, and overrule it in matters of
religion, than the true knowledge of God. We will not talk
sleepily or contemptuously to a king ; how much less should
we be stupid or contemptuous before the God of Heaven ?
It is that God whom angels worship, that sustaineth the
world, that keepeth us in life, that is always present, ob-
serving all that we think, or say, or do, whose commands
are upon us, and with whom we have to do in all things ;
P Non taraen ideo beatus est, quia patienter miser est. August, de Civit. 1. 14. c. 85.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 515
and shall we be hardened against his fear? " Who hath
hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered "" ?"
Direct, ii. * Think well of the unspeakable greatness
and importance of those truths and things which should af-
fect you, and of those duties which are required of you.'
Eternity of joy or torment is such an amazing thing, that
one would think every thought, and every mention either of
it or of any thing that concerneth it, should go to our very
hearts, and deeply affect us, and should command the obe-
dience and service of our souls. It is true, they are things
unseen, and therefore less apt in that respect to affect us
than things visible ; but the greatness of them should re-
compense that disadvantage a thousand fold. If our lives
lay upon every word we speak, or upon every step we go,
how carefully should we speak and go ! But O how deeply
should things affect us, in which our everlasting life is con-
cerned ! One would think a thing of so great moment, as
dying, and passing into an endless life of pain or pleasure,
should so take up and transport the mind of man, that we
should have much ado to bring ourselves to mind, regard,
or talk of the inconsiderable interests of the flesh ! How
inexcusable a thing is a senseless, careless, negligent hearty
when God looketh on us, and heaven or hell is a little before
us ? Yea, when we are so heavily laden with our sins, and
<jompassed about with so many enemies, and in the midst of
such great and manifold dangers, to be yet senseless under
iall, is (so far) to be dead. Will not the wounds of sin, and
the threatenings of the law, and the accusations of con-
science, make you feel ? He that cannot feel the prick of a
pin will feel the stab of a dagger, if he be alive.
Direct, iii. * Remember how near the time is, when stu-
pidity and senseless neglect of God will be banished from
all the world ; and what certain and powerful means are
before you at death and judgment, to awaken and pierce
the hardest heart ^* There are but few that are quite insen-
sible at death ; there are none past feeling after death, in
heaven or hell. No man will stand before the Lord in the
day of judgment, with a sleepy or senseless heart. God
•■ Job ix. 4.
« Lento enim grada ad vindictam sui divbia procedit ira, tarditateraque supplicii
gravitate corapeasat. Valerius Maxv de Diooys* lib, 1. c. 2. Bipont Ed, vol. i. p. 14.
516 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
will recover your feeling by misery, if you will lose it by
sin, and not recover it by grace. He can make you now
a terror to yourselves * ; he can make conscience say such
things in secret to you, as you shall not be able to forget
or slight. But if conscience awake you not, the approach
of death it is likely will awaken you ; when you see that
God is now in earnest with you, and that die you must, and
there is no remedy, will you not begin to think now. Whither
must I go ? and what will become of me for ever ? Will you
then harden your heart against God and his warnings ? If
you do, the first moment of your entrance upon eternity
will cure your stupidity for ever. It will grieve a heart that
is not stone, to think what a feeling stony-hearted sinners
will shortly have, when God will purposely make them feel,
with his wrathful streams of fire and brimstone! When
satan, that now hindereth your feeling, will do his worst to
make you feel ; and conscience, the never-dying worm, will
gnaw your hearts, and make them feel, without ease or hope
of remedy. Think what a wakening day is coming !
Direct, iv. * Think often of the love of God in Christ,
and of the bloody sufferings of thy Redeemer,' for it hath a
mighty power to melt the heart. If love, and the love of
God, and so great and wonderful a love, will not soften thy
hardened heart, what will ?
Direct, v. * Labour for a full apprehension of the evil
and danger of a hardened heart.' It is the death of the
soul, so far as it prevaileth : at the easiest, it is like the
stupidity of a paralytic member or a seared part. Ob-
serve the names which Scripture giveth it. The " harden-
ing of the heart". The "hardening of the neck*," which
signifieth inflexibility. The ** hardening of the face^,"
which signifieth impudency. The " searedness of the con-
science''." The " impenitency of the heart*." Sometimes
it is called " sottishness," or " stupidity''. Sometimes it is
called a " not caring," or " not laying things to heart, and
not regarding *"." Sometimes it is denominated metaphori-
cally from inanimates, " A face harder than a rock*^."
" Stony hearts^." " A neck with an iron sinew, and a brow
t Jer. XX. 4. " Prov. xxviii. 14. " Prov. xxix. 10.
y Prov. xxi. 29. ^ 1 Tira. iv. 2. * Rom. ii. 5.
•» Jer. iv. 22. <= Isa. xlii. 25. v. 12. xxxu. 9 — 11.
d Jer. V. 3. « Ezek. xi. 19. xxxvi. 26.
GHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 517
of brass ^" It is called " sleep," and a *' deep slumber,"
and a *' spirit of slumber e," and " death" itself •".
Observe also how dreadful a case it is, if it be predo-
minant, both symptomatically and effectively. It is a fore-
runner of mischiefs It is a dreadful sign of one that is far
more unlikely than others to be converted ; when they are
" alienated from the life of God by their ignorance," and
are " past feeling," they are ** given up to work uncleanness
with greediness''." Usually God calleth those that he will
save, before they are past feeling; though such are not
hopeless, their hope lieth in the recovering of the feeling
which they want ; and a hardened heart, and iron neck, and
brazen forehead are a sadder sign of God's displeasure, than
if he had made the heavens as brass, and the earth as iron
to you, or let out the greatest distress upon your bodies.
When men have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not,
and hearts but understand not, it is a sad prognostic that
they are very unlikely to be "converted and forgiven ^"
A hardened heart (predominantly) is garrisoned and forti-
fied by satan against all the means that we can use to help
them : and none but the Almighty can cast him out and
deliver them. Let husband, or wife, or parents, or the
dearest friends entreat a hardened sinner to be converted,
and he will not hear them. Let the learnedest, or wisest,
■or holiest man alive, both preach and beseech him, and
he will not turn. At a distance he may reverence and ho-
nour a great divine, and a learned or a holy man, especially
when they are dead ; but let the best man on earth be the
minister of the place where he liveth, and entreat him daily
to repent, and he will either hate and persecute him, or ne-
glect and disobey him. What minister was ever so learned
or holy, or powerful a preacher, that had not sad experience
of this ? When the prophet crieth out, " Who hath believed
our report ""?" and the apostles were fain to shake off the
dust of their feet against many that rejected them; and
were abused, and scorned, and persecuted by those whose
souls they would have saved ? Nay> Jesus Christ himself
was refused by the most that heard him ; and no minister
dare compare himself with Christ. If our Lord and Master
f Isa. xlviii. 4. s Rom. xiii. 11. xi. 8. Matt. xxv. 5.
h 1 Tim. V. 6. Ephes. ii. 1. 5. Col. ii. 13. Jude 12. * Prov. xxviii. 14.
^ Ephes. iv. 14. ' Mark iv. 12. Acts xxviii. 27. "» Isa. liii. 1.
518 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART j.
was blasphemed, scorned, and murdered by sinners, what
better should his ablest ministers expect ? St. Augustine
found drunkenness so common in Afric, that he motioned
that a council might be called for the suppression of it ;
but if a general council of all the learned bishops and pas-
tors in the world were called, they could not convert one
hardened sinner, by all their authority, wit, or diligence,
without the power of the Almighty God. For will they be
converted by man, that are hardened against God? What
can we devise to say to them that can reach their hearts,
and get within them, and do them good ? Shall we tell them
of the law and judgments of the Lord, and of his wrath
against them? why all these things they have heard so of-
ten till they sleep under it, or laugh at them. Shall we tell
them of death, and judgment, and eternity ? why we speak
to the posts or men asleep : they hear us as if they heard
us not. Shall we tell them of endless joy and torments?
they feel not, and therefore fear not, nor regard not ; they
have heard of all these, till they are weary of hearing them,
and our words seem to them but as the noise of the wind or
water, which is of no signification. If miracles were wrought
among them by a preacher, that healed the sick, and raised
the dead, they would wonder at him, but would not be con-
verted. For Christ did thus, and yet prevailed but with
few"; and the apostles wrought miracles, and yet were re-
jected by the most". Nay, if one of their old companions
should be sent from the dead to give them warning, he might
affright them, but not convert them ; for Christ hath told
us so himself P ; or if an angel from heaven should preach to
them, they would be hardened still, as Balaam and others
have been. Christ rose from the dead, and yet was after
that rejected. We read not of the conversion of the soldiers
that watched his sepulchre, though they were affrighted
with the sight of the angels : but they were after that hired
for a little money to lie, and say that Christ's disciples stole
him away. If magistrates that have power on their bodies,
should endeavour to bring them to godliness, they would
not obey them, nor be persuaded. King Hezekiah's mes-
sengers were but mocked by the people. David and Solo-
mon could not convert their hardened subjects. Punish
them, and hang them, and they will be wicked to the death :
" John xi. 48. 53. «> Acts vii. 57. xxii. 22. p Luke xvi. 3 1 .
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 519
witness the impenitent thief that died with Christ, and died
reproaching him. Though God afflict them with rod after
rod, yet still they will sin and are the same''. Let death
come near and look them in the face, and let them see that
they must presently go to judgment, it will affright them,
but not convert them. Let them know and confess, that sin
is bad, that holiness is best, that death and eternity are at
hand, yet are they the same, and all will not win their hearts
to God ; till grace take away their stony hearts, and give
them tender, fleshy hearts ^
Direct, vi. ' Take notice of the doleful effects of hard-
heartedness in the world.* This fills the world with wicked-
ness and confusion, with wars and bloodshed ; and leaveth
it under that lamentable desertion and delusion, which we
behold in the far greatest part of the earth. How many
kingdoms are left in the blindness of Heathenism and Ma-
hometanism, for hardening their hearts against the Lord I
How many Christian nations are given up to the most gross
deceits of popery, and princes and people are enemies to
reformation, because they hardened their hearts against the
light of truth ! What vice so odious, even beastly filthiness,
and bitterest hatred, and persecution of the ways of God,
which men of all degrees and ranks do not securely wallow
in through the hardness of their hearts ! This is the thing
that grieves the godly, that wearieth good magistrates, and
breaks the hearts of faithful ministers : when they have done
their best, they are fain, as Christ himself before them, to
grieve for the hardness of men's hearts. Alas ! we live
among the dead : our towns and countries are in a sadder
case than Egypt, when every house had a dead man. Even
in our churches, it were well if the dead were only under
ground, and most of our seats had not a dead man, that sit-
teth as if he heard, and kneeleth as if he prayed, when no-
thing ever pierced to the quick. We have studied the most
quickening words, we have preached with tears in the most
earnest manner, and yet we cannot make them feel ! as if
we cried like Baal's worshippers, O Baal, hear us ! or, like
the Irish to their dead, * Why wouldst thou die, and leave
thy house, and lands, and friends?' So we talk to them
about the death of their souls, and their wilful misery, who
'1 Psal. Ixxviii. Hos. vii. 14. Araosiv.9. Jer, v. 3, Isa. i. 5.
^ Ezek, xxxvi. 26.
520 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
never feel the weight of any thing we say : we are left to
ring them a peal of lamentation, and weep over them as the
dead that are not moved by our tears : we cast.the seed into
stony ground \ It stops in the surface, and it is not in our
power to open their hearts, and get within them. I confess that
we are much to blame ourselves, that ever we did speak to
such miserable souls, without more importunate earnestness
and tears ; (and it is because the stone of the heart is much
uncured in ourselves ; for which God now justly layeth
so many of us by :) but yet, we must say, our importunity
is such, as leaveth them without excuse. We speak to them
of the greatest matters in all the world ; we speak it to them
in the name of God ; we shew them his own Word for it ; and
plead with them the arguments which he hath put into
our mouths ; and yet we speak as to posts and stones ; to
men past feeling. What a pitiful sight was it to see Christ
stand weeping over Jerusalem, for the hardness of their
hearts, and the nearness and greatness of their misery !
while they themselves were so far from weeping for it,
that they raged against the life of him that so much pitied
them ! We bless God that it is not thus with all. He hath
encouraged some of us with the heart-yielding, obedient at-
tention of many great congregations : but, among the best,
alas ! how many of these hardened sinners are mixed ! and,
in many places, how do they abound ! Hence it is that
such odious abominations are committed ; such filthiness
and lying, and perjury, and acts of malicious enmity against
the servants of the Lord ; and that so many are haters of
God and godliness. If satan had not first hardened their
hearts, he could never have brought them to such odious
crimes, as now with impudency are committed in the land.
As Lot's daughters were fain to make their father drunk,
that he might commit the sin of incest ; so the devil doth
first deprive men both of reason and feeling, that he may
bring them to such heinous wickedness as this, and make
them laugh at their own destruction, and abhor those most
that fain would save them. And they are not only past feel-
ing, but so hate any quickening ministry, or truth, or means,
which would recover their feeling, that they seem to go to
hell, as some condemned malefactors to the gallows, that
make themselves drunk before they go, as if it were all they
• Matt. xin. 5. 20.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 521
had to care for, to keep themselves hoodwinked, from know-
ing or feeling whither they go, till they are there. *
See what a picture of a hardened people God giveth to
Ezekiel : " But the house of Israel will not hearken to
thee ; for they will not hearken to me : for all the house of
Israel are impudent and hard hearted ^" Observe but what
a case it is that they are so insensible of, and then you will
see what a hardhearted sinner, past feeling, is.
1 . They are the servants of sin ; in the power of it ;
corrupted by it ; and yet they feel it not.
2. They have the guilt of many thousand sins upon
them, all is unpardoned that ever they committed, and yet
they feel it not.
3. They have the threatenings and curses of God in force
against them in his Word ; even words so terrible, as you
would think might affright them out of their sins or their
wits : and they take on them to believe this Word of God ;
and yet they feel not.
4. They are in the power of the devil : ruled and de-
ceived by him, and taken captive by him at his will ".
5. They may be certain that if they die in this condition
they shall be damned, and they are uncertain whether they
shall live another day : they are never sure to be one hour
longer out of hell ; and yet they feel not.
6. They know that they must die, and that it is a great
change, and of the greatest, endless consequence, that death
will make with them, and they know that this is sure and
near, and are past doubt of it ; and yet they feel it not "".
7. They must shortly appear before the Lord, and be
judged for all that they have done in the body, and be
doomed to their endless state ; and yet they feel not.
8. They know that life is short, and that they have but
a little time to prepare for all this terrible change, and that
it must go with them for ever, as they now prepare ; and yet
they feel not.
9. They hear and read of the case of hardened, wicked
men, that have gone before them, and have resisted grace,
t Ezek. iii. 7. " Acts xxvi. 18. 2 Tim.ii. 26.
" Feriemini, raoriemini, sentietis : an caeci autera an videntes, id in vestra raanu
est. Optate igitur bene mori (quod ipsum nisi bene vixeritis frustra est.) Optate,
inquam, nitimini, et quod in vobis est facile : reliquum illi committite ; qui vos in banc
vitam ultro non vopatos intulit ; egressuris, non nisi vocatus et rogatus manum dabit.
Non mori autem nolite optare. Petrarch, Dial. 107. lib. 2.
522 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
and lost their time, as they now do : and they read or
hear of the miserable end that such have come to ; and yet
they feel not.
10. They have a world of examples continually before
them : they see the filthy lives of many for their warning,
and the holy lives of others for their imitation, and see how
Christ and satan strive for souls ; and yet they feel not.
11. They are always before the eye of God, and do all
this before his face. He warneth them, and calleth them to
repentance ; and yet they feel not.
12. They have Christ as it were crucified before their
eyes^: they hear of his sufferings: they may see in him
what sin is, and what the love of God is : he pleadeth with
them his blood and sufferings against their obstinate un-
kindness ; and yet they feel not.
13. They have everlasting joy and glory offered them,
and heaven so opened to them in God's promises, that they
may see it as in a glass ^ They take on them to believe,
how much the blessed spirits there abhor such wickedness
as theirs ; and yet they feel not.
14. They have the torments of hell opened to them in
the Word of God : they read what impenitent souls must
suffer to all eternity : they hear some in despair in this life,
roaring in the misery of their souls: they hear the joyful
thanksgivings of believers, that Christ delivereth them from
those torments ; and yet they feel not.
15. All the promises of salvation in the Gospel, do put
in an exception against these men, " unless they be convert-
ed :" they are made to the penitent, and not to the impeni-
tent. There is justification and life ; but not for them.
" There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit *." " But
he that believeth not, is condemned already **." And they
that " after their hardness and impenitent hearts, do trea-
sure up wrath against the day of wrath, shall have tribula-
tion and anguish^." Here is comfort for repenting sinners,
but none (but on condition they repent) for them : when
others are welcomed to Christ's marriage feast, he saith to
these, " How came you in hither?" and yet they feel not.
16. They still carry about with them the doleful eviden-
y Gal.iii. 1. ^ 1 Cor. xiii. 12. * Rom. viij. 1.
'' John iii. 18. 36. « Rom. ii. 5—7.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHI€S. 523
cee of ail this misery. One would think the ambitious, and
covetous, and voluptuous might see these death-marks on
themselves ; and the ungodly might feel that God hath not
their hearts : especially they that hate the godly, and shew
their wolfish cruelty against them, and are the progeny of
Cain; and yet they feel not any of this, but live as quietly,
and talk as pleasantly, as if all were well with them, and
their souls were safe, and their calling and election were
made sure. Alas ! if these souls were not hardened in sin,
we should see it in their tears, or hear it in their complaints :
they would after sermon sometimes come to the minister, as
they. Acts ii. 37. xvi. 30. ** Sirs, what must we do to be
saved V or we should see it in their lives ; or hear of it by
report of others, who would observe the change that grace
had made : and sermons would stick longer by them, and
not at best be turned off with a fruitless commendation, and
saying it was a good sermon, and there is an end of it.
Judge now, by this true description which I have given you,
what a hardened sinner is. And then the godly may so see
cause to bewail the remnants of this mischief, as yet to be
daily thankful to God, that they are not in the power of it.
Direct, vii. ' Live, if you can possibly, under a lively,
quickening ministry, and in the company of serious, lively
Christians.' It is true, that we should be deeply affected
with the truths of God, how coldly soever they be deliver-
ed. But the question is not, what is our duty ; but, what
are our disease, and our necessity, and the proper remedy.
All men should be so holy, as not to need any exhortations
to conversion at all : but shall ministers therefore neglect
such exhortations, or they that need them turn away their
ears ? Hear, if possible, that minister that first feels what
-he speaks, and so speaks what he feels, as tendeth most to
make you feel. '* Cry aloud ; spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgressions,
and the house of Israel their sins*^." Though such '* as
seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation
that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of
their God." God is the chief agent; but he useth to work
according to the fitness of the instrument. O woeful case !
to hear a dead minister speaking to a dead people, the living
truths of the living God ! As Christ said, " If the blind
** Isa. IviiL 1, 2.
524 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch." And if the
dead must raise the dead, and the ungodly enemies of a holy
life must bring men to godliness and to a holy life, it must
be by such a power as once made use of clay and spittle, to
open the eyes of the blind. It seems it was a proverb in
Christ's days, " Let the dead bury their dead :" but not,
' Let the dead raise the dead.' God may honour the bones
of the dead prophet, with the raising a corpse that is cast
into its grave, and toucheth them. A meeting of a dead
minister and a dead people, is like a place of graves : and
though it be a lamentable thing to hear a man speak with-
out any life, of life eternal, yet God can concur to the
quickening of a soul. But sure we have no great reason to
expect that ordinarily he should convert mea so miraculous-
ly, without the moral aptitude of means. It is most incon-
gruous for any man in his familiar discourse, to speak with-
out great seriousness and reverence, of things concerning life
eternal. But for a preacher to talk of God, of Christ, of
heaven, and hell, as coldly and sleepily, as if he were per-
suading men not to believe him, or regard him, that no
more regards himself, is less tolerable. It is a sad thing to
hear a man draw out a dreaming, dull discourse, about such
astonishing weighty things ; and to speak as if it were the
business of his art, to teach men to sleep while the names of
heaven and hell are in their ears ; and not to be moved while
they hear the message of the living God, about their life or
death everlasting. If a man tell in the streets of a fire in
the town, or a soldier bring an alarm of the enemy at the
gates, in a reading or jesting tone, the hearers will neglect
him, and think that he believeth not himself. I know it is
not mere noise that will convert a soul : a bawling fervency,
which the hearers may discern to be but histrionical and af-
fected, and not to come from a serious heart, doth harden
the auditors worst of all. A rude, unreverent noise is un-
beseeming an ambassador of Christ. But an ignorant say-
ing of a few confused words, or a sleepy recital of the most
pertinent things, do as little beseem them. Christ raised
not Lazarus by the loudness of his voice : but where the na-
tural ears are the passage to the mind, the voice and man-
ner should be suitable to the matter. Noise without se-
riousness and pertinent matter, is like gunpowder without
bullet, that causeth sound, and no execution. And the
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 525
weightiest matter without clear explication and lively ap-
plication, is like bullet without powder. If you will throw
cannon bullets at the enemy with your hands, they will
sooner fall on your feet than on them. And it is deadness
aggravated by hypocrisy, when a lifeless preacher will pre-
tend moderation, as if he were afraid of speaking too loud
and earnestly, lest he should awake the dead, whom light-
ning and thunder will not awake : and when he will excuse
himself by accusing those that are not as drowsy or dead as
he : and would make men believe that seriousness is intem-
perate rage or madness. If you are cast upon a cold and
sleepy minister, consider the matter more than the manner :
but choose not such a one for the cure of hardness and in-
sensibility of heart.
Direct. VIII. * Take notice, how sensible, tender-hearted
Christians are, of sins far less than those that you make a
j est of :' and how close those matters come to their hearts,
that touch not yours. And have not you as much cause to
be moved as they ? and as much need to lay such things to
heart ? Did you but know what a trouble it is to them, to
be haunted with temptations to the unbelief and atheism
which prevaileth with you : though they are far from choos-
ing them, or delighting in them ! Did you see how involun-
tary thoughts and frailties make some of them weary of
themselves ! And how they even hate their hearts for be-
lieving no more, and loving God no more, and for being so
strange to God and heaven, when yet there is nothing in the
world so dear to them, nor hath so much of their estimation
or endeavour ! You would think, sure, that if such hearts
had your sin and misery to feel, they would feel it to their
grief indeed, (unless the sin itself did hinder the feeling, as
it doth with you.) Let tender-hearted Christians instruct
you, and not be witnesses against you.
Direct, ix. ' Take heed of hardening company, exam-
ples, and discourse.' To hear men rail and scoff at holiness,
and curse, and swear, and blaspheme the name and truth of
God, will at first make you tremble ; but ifyou wilfully cast
yourself ordinarily into such company, by degrees your
sense and tenderness will be gone, and you will find a very
great hardening power, in the company, and frequent dis-
4Jourse, and practices, which yourselves condemn. 'i
6^6 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct. X. ' Take heed of wilful sinning against know-
ledge : much more of lying in such sin, unrepented of/ It
greatly hardeneth, to sin against knowledge : and much
more to commit such sins over and over. This grieveth and
driveth away the Spirit, and dangerously provoketh God to
leave men to themselves.
Direct, xi. ' Take heed of being customary in the use of
those means that must be the means of curing hardened
hearts.' If once the lively preaching, and holy living, and
fervent praying, of the servants of God, be taken by thee
but as matters of course, and thou go with them to church
and to prayers, but as to eat, or drink, or kneel with them
but for custom, thou wilt be as the smith's dog, that can
sleep by the anvil, while the hammers are beating, and the
sparks are flying about his ears. It is dangerous to grow
customaiy and dull, under powerful, lively helps. |
Direct, xii. 'Be often with the sick, and in the house of
mourning, and read thy lesson in the church-yard, and let
the grave, and bones, and dust instruct thee.' When thou |
seest the end of all the living, perhaps thou wilt somewhat ^
lay it to heart. Sight will sometimes do more than the
hearing of greater things. Fear may possibly touch the
heart, that hath not yet so much ingenuity as to be melted
by the force of love. And ordinarily, the humbling and
softening of a hard, impenitent heart begins in fear, and
ends in love. The work of preparation is in a manner the
work of fear alone. The first work of true conversion is
begun in a great measure of fear, and somewhat of love ;
but so little as is scarce perceived, because of the more sen-
sible operations of fear. And as a Christian groweth, hk
love increaseth, till perfect love in the state of perfection
have cast o\it all tormenting fear, though not our reverence
or filial fear of God. Look, therefore, into the grave, and
remember, man, that thou must die ! — thou must die !— it is
past all controversy that thou must die ! And dost thou
know where thou must appear, when death hath once per-
formed its office ? Dost thou not believe that after death
comes judgment ? Dost thou not know that thou art now
in a life of trial, in order to endless joy or misery? and that
this life is to be lived but once ? and if thou miscarry now^
thou art undone for ever ? and that all the hope of prevent^
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 527
ing thy damnation, is now, while this life of trial doth con-
tinue ? " Now is the accepted time : this is the day of sal-
vation." If hell be prevented, it must be now prevented !
If ever thou wilt pray, if ever thou wilt be converted, if ever
thou wilt be made an heir of heaven, it must be now ! O
man ! how quickly will patience have done with thee, and
time be gone ! and then, O then, it will be too late ! Know-
est thou not, that all the care, and labour, and hope of the
devil for thy damnation, is laid out this way, if it be possi-
ble to find thee other work," or take thee up with other
thoughts, or keep thee asleep with presumptuous hopes,
and carnal mirth, and pleasures, and company, or quiet thee
by delays, till time be gone, and it be too late ? And wilt
thou let him have his will, and pleasure him with thy own
perdition? Dost thou think these are not things to be con-
sidered on ? Do they not deserve thy speediest, and most
serious thoughts ? At least use thy reason and self-love to
the awakening, and moving, and softening thy hardened
heart.
PART III.
Directions against Hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is the acting the part of a religious person,
as upon a stage, by one that is not religious indeed*. A
seeming in religion to be what you are not, or to do what
you do not. Or a dissembling or counterfeiting that piety
which you have not. To counterfeit a state of godliness is
the sin only of the unregenerate, who at the present are in
a state of misery : to counterfeit some particular act of god-
e Multi Christum osculantur ; pauci amant : aliud est <^v, aliud 'uaa^tu'iv.
Abr. Bucholtzer in Scultet. cur. p. 15. DicuntStoici sapientes esse sinceros, obser-
vateque et cavere soUicite nequid de se melius quam sit commendare putemus fuco
seu arte aliqua mala occultante, et bona quae insunt apparere faciente, ac circumci-
dere vocis omnem fictionera. Laert. in Zenone. lib. vii. sect. 118. p. 439. In this
citation, Mr. Baxter has given the sense, but not the words of his author. (T. C.)
Philosophia res adeo difficilis est, ut tam vel simulare magna sit pars philosophiae.
Paul. Scalig. It was one of the Roman laws of the 12 Tables, * Irapius ne audeto
placere donis iram Deorum,' ' Let no ungodly person dare to go about to appease
the displeasure of the gods by gifts :' i. e. He must appease them first by reforma-
tion. Bona conscienlia prodire vult et conspici: ipsas nequitia tenebras timet.
Senec. Epist.97. Elz. 1649. p. 379.
528 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
liness, is an odious sin, but such as a regenerate person may
be tempted into. This act of hypocrisy doth not denomi-
nate the person an hypocrite ; but the state of hypocrisy
doth. Every hypocrite therefore is an ungodly person,
seerning godly : or one that indeed is no true Christian, pro-
fessing himself a Christian. Of hypocrites there be two
sorts : some desire to deceive others, but not themselves,
but know themselves to be but dissemblers ; and these are
commonly called, gross hypocrites : and some deceive both
themselves and others, and think they are no hypocrites,
but are as confident of their honesty and sincerity, as if they
were no dissemblers at all : but yet they are as verily hypo-
crites as the former, because they seem to be religious and
sincere, when indeed they are not, though they think they
are; and profess themselves to be true Christians, when
they are nothing less. These are called close hypocrites,
because they know not themselves to be hypocrites ; (though
they might know it if they would.) This is the commonest
sort of hypocrites.
There are also two degrees of hypocrites : some of them
have only a general profession of Christianity and godliness,
which is the professed religion of the country where they
live ; and these are hypocrites because they profess to be
what they are not : and others make a greater and extraor-
dinary profession of special strictness in their religion, when
they are not sincere ; and these are eminently called hypo-
crites : such as the Pharisees were among the Jews, and many
friars, and Jesuits, and nuns among the Papists, who by
their separating vows, and orders, and habits, profess ex-
traordinarily an extraordinary measure of devotion, while
they want the life of godliness.
In all hypocrisy there is considerable. 1. The thing pre-
tended : 2. The pretence, or means of seeming, or the cloak
of their deceit. 1 . The thing pretended by common hypo-
crites is to be true Christians, and servants of God, and
heirs of heaven, though not to be so zealous in it as some
of a higher degree. The thing pretended by eminent hypo-
crites is to be zealous, eminent Christians, or at least to be
sincere in a special manner, while they discern the common
hypocrite not to be sincere. 2. The cloak of seeming or
pretence by which they would be thought to be what they
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 529
are not, is any thing in general that hath an appearance of
godliness, and is apt to make others think them godly.
And thus there are divers sorts of hypocrites, according to
the variety of their cloaks or ways of dissimulation ; though
hypocrisy itself be in all of them the same thing. As among
the very Mahometans, and heathens, there oft arise some no-
table hypocrites, that by pretended revelations and austerity
of life, profess themselves (as Mahomet did) to be holy per-
sons, that had some extraordinary familiarity with God or
angels. So among the Papists there are, besides the com-
mon ones, as many sorts of hypocrites as they have self-de-
vised orders. And every where the cloak of the common
hypocrite is so thin and transparent, that it sheweth his na-
kedness to the more intelligent sort : and this puts the emi-
nent hypocrite upon some more laudable pretence, that is not
so transparent. As for instance, the hypocrisy of common
Papists, whose cloak is made up of penances and ceremonies,
of saying over Latin words, or numbering words and beads
for prayers, with all the rest of their trumpery before named,
(Chap.iii. Gr. Direct. 15. Direct. 11.) is so thin a cloak that
it will not satisfy some among themselves, but they with-
draw into distinct societies and orders, (the church and the
profession of Christianity being not enough for them,) that
they may be religious, as if they saw that the rest are not
religious. And then the common sort of ungodly Protes-
tants have so much wit, as to see through the cloak of all
the Popish hypocrisy ; and therefore, they take up a fitter
for themselves : and that is, the name of a Protestant Re-
formed religion and church, joined to the common profes-
sion of Christianity. The name and profession of a Chris-
tian and a Protestant, with going to church, and a heartless
lip-service or saying their prayers, is the cloak of all ungod-
ly Protestants. Others, discerning the thinness of this
cloak, do think to make themselves a better : and they take
up the strictest opinions in religion, and own those which
they account the strictest party, and own that which they
esteem the purest and most spiritual worship : the cloak of
these men is their opinions, party, and way of worship,
while their carnal lives detect their hypocrisy. Some that
see through all these pretepces, do take up the most excel-
lent cloak of all, and that is, an appearance of serious spi-
VOL. II. M M
530 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAllT 1.-
rituality in religion, with a due observation of all the out-
ward parts and means, and a reformation of life, in works of
piety, justice, and charity ; I say, an appearance of all these,
which if they had indeed, they were sincere, and should be
saved : in which the godly Christian goeth beyond them
ail.
By this it is plain, that, among us in England, all men
that are not saints are hypocrites, because that all (except
here or there a Jew or infidel) profess themselves to be Chris-
tians ; and every true Christian is a saint. They know that
none but saints or godly persons shall be saved : and there
are few of them that will renounce their hopes of heaven ;
and therefore they must pretend to be all godly. And is it
not most cursed, horrid hypocrisy, for a man to pretend to
i*eligion as the only way to his salvation, and confidently
call himself a Christian, while he hateth and derideth the
power and practice of that very religion which he doth pro-
fess ? Of this, see my Treatise of " Vain Religion of the
Formal Hypocrite."
The hypocrite's ends, in his pretences and dissemblin^s,
are not all the same. One intendeth the pleasing of pa-
rents, or some friends on whom he doth depend, that will
else be displeased with him, and think ill of him. Another
intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers, when it falls
out that they are friends to godliness. Another intends the
preserving of his esteem with religious persons, that they
may not judge him wicked and profane. Another intend-
eth the hiding of some particular villany, or the success of
some ambitious enterprise. But the most common end is,
to quiet and comfort their guilty souls, with an image of
that holiness which they are without, and to steal some
peace to their consciences by a lie : and so, because they
will not be religious indeed, they will take up some shew or
image of religion, to make themselves, as well as others, be-
lieve that they are religious ^
Direct, i. * To escape hypocrisy, understand well where-
in the life and power of godliness doth consist, and wherein
f When Petrarch, in vita sua, speak eth of others extolling his eloquence, he
addeth his own neglect of it, Ego modo bene vixissem, qualiter dixisseni parvi face-
rem. Ventosa gloria est, de solo verborum splendore famam quaerere. Conscientiam
potius quam famam attende. Falli sn^pe poterit fama : couscientia nunquara. Senec.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 531
it difFereth from the lifeless image or corpse of godliness.'
The life of godliness is expressed in the Seventeen Grand
Directions in Chap. iii. It principally consisteth in such a
faith in Christ, as causeth us to love God above all, and obey
him before all, and prefer his favour and the hopes of hea-
ven before all the pleasures, or profits, or honours of the
world ; and to w^orship him in spirit and truth, according to
the direction of his Word. The images of religion I shewed
you before, page 528. Take heed of such a lifeless image.
Direct, ii. * See that your chief study be about the heart,
that there God's image may be planted, and his interest ad-
vanced, and the interest of the world and flesh subdued,
and the love of every sin cast out, and the love of holiness
succeed : and that you content not yourselves with seeming
to do good in outward acts, when you are bad yourselves,
and strangers to the great internal duties.' The first and
great work of a Christian is about his heart. There it is
that God dwelleth by his Spirit, in his saints ; and there it
is that sin and satan reign, in the ungodly. The great duties
and the great sins are those of the heart. There is the root
of good and evil : the tongue and life are but the fruits and
expressions ofthat which dwelleth within «. The inward ha-
bit of sin is a second nature : and a sinful nature is worse than
a sinful, act. " Keep your hearts with all diligence : for from
thence are the issues of life ^." Make the tree good, and the
fruit will be good : but the " viperous generation that are evil,
cannot speak good : for out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh^" Till the Spirit have regenerated the
soul, all outward religion will be but a dead and pitiful
thing : though there is something which God hath appoint-
ed an unregenerate man to do, in order to his own conver-
sion, yet no suCh antecedent act will prove that the person
is justified or reconciled to God, till he be converted. To
make up a religion of doing or saying something that is
good, while the heart is void of the Spirit of Christ, and
sanctifying grace, is the hypocrite's religion.
e Sic certe vivendurn est, tanquam in conspectu vivamus ; Sic cogitandurn, tan-
qtiamaliqois in pectus intimura inspicere possit : et potest. Senec. Ep. 83. Elz. p. 263.
Rem dicam, ex qua mores ajstimes nostros, vix quemquam invenies, qui possit aperto
ostio vivere. Janitores conscientia nostra, non superbia opposuit. Sic vivimus, ut
depi-ehendi'sit, subito adspici. Senec. Ep. 43. Elz. p. 109.
h Prov. iv. as. ' Matt. xii. 33, 34.
532 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct, iii. * Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts
and the desire, and other affections or passions of the mind,
as well as of the sins of tongue or hand/ A lustful thought,
a malicious thought, a proud, ambitious, or covetous
thought, especially if it proceed to a wish, or contrivance,
or consent, is a sin the more dangerous by how much the
more inward and near the heart; as Christ hath shewed
you. Matt. v. and vi. The hypocrite who most respecteth
the eye of man, doth live as if his thoughts were free.
Direct, iv. * Make conscience of secret sins, which are
committed out of the sight of men, and may be concealed
from them, as well as of open and notorious sins.' If he
can do it in the dark and secure his reputation, the hypo-
crite is bold : but a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to
his conscience, and much more to the all-seeing God.
Direct, v. ' Be faithful in secret duties, which have no
witness but God and conscience :' as meditation and self-
examination, and secret prayer ; and be not only religious
in the sight of men.
Direct, vi. * In all public worship be more laborious with
the heart, than with the tongue or knee : and see that your
tongue overrun not your heart, and leave it not behind.'
Neglect not the due composure of your words, and due be-
haviour of your bodies: but take much more pains for the
exer<jise of holy desires from a believing, loving, fervent
soul.
Direct, vii. ' Place not more in the externals, or modes,
or circumstances, or ceremonies of worship, than is due ;
and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things,
than cometh to their share ; but let the great substantials
of religion have the precedency, and be far preferred before
them^.' Let the love of God and man be the sum of your
obedience : and be sure you learn well what that meaneth ;
" I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." And remember,
'' It is a pitiful cure of the Indians' idolatry, which the honest Jesuit Acosta (^s
the rest) prescribeth, lib. v. c. 11. p. 483. " But you must especially take care, that
saving rites be introduced instead of hurtful ones, and ceremonies be obliterated by
ceremonies. Let the priests persuade the novices, that holy water, images, rosaries,
grains, and torches, and the rest, which the church alloweth and useth, are very fit for
them ; and let them extol them with many praises in their popular sermons, that in-
stead of the old superstition they may be used to liew and religious signs." This is
to quench the fire with oiL
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 533
that the great thing which God requireth of you, is " to do
justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. —
Destroy not him with your meat for whom Christ died."
Call not for fire from heaven upon dissenters ; and think
not every man intolerable in the church, that is not, in every
little matter, of your mind. Remember that the hypocrisy
of the Pharisees is described by Christ, as consisting in a
zeal for their own traditions, and the inventions of men,
and the smallest matters of the ceremonial law, with a neg-
lect of the greatest moral duties, and a furious cruelty against
the spiritual worshippers of God. " Why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders ? for they wash not
their hands when they eat bread. — Ye hypocrites, well did
Esaias prophesy of you, saying. This people draweth nigh
unto me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me : but in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men^"
" They bind heavy burdens, which they touch not them-
selves. All their works they do to be seen of men : they
make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of
their garments ; and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and
the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in public,
and to be called Rabbi. — But they shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men™," and were the greatest enemies of the
entertainment of the Gospel by the people. They *' tithed
mint, and anise, and cummin, and omitted the great matters
of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith.' They " strain-
ed at a gnat and swallowed a camel." They had a great ve-
neration for the " dead prophets and saints," and yet were
persecutors and murderers of their " successors" that were
'' living °." By this description you may see which way hypo-
crisy doth most ordinarily work : even to a blind and bloody
zeal for opinions, and traditions, and ceremonies, and other
little things, to the treading down the interest of Christ and
his Gospel, and a neglect of the life and power of godliness,
and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ, whom they
are bound to love above their ceremonies. I marvel that
many Papists tremble not when they read the character of
the Pharisees ! But that hypocrisy is a hidden sin, and is
an enemy to the light which would discover it. i
• Matt. XV. 2. 7—10. "» Matt, xxiii. 4—6. 13, 14. " Ver. 2^, &c.
534 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
Direct, viii. * Make conscience of the duties of obedi-
ence to superiors, and of justice and mercy towards men, as
well as of acts of piety to God/ Say not a long mass in
order to devour a widow's house, or a Christian's life or re-
putation. Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are
in prayers : and labour as much to exceed common men in
the one as in the other. Set yourselves to do all the good
you can to all, and do hurt to none : and do to all men as
you would they should do to you.
Direct, ix. 'Be much more busy about yourselves than
about others : and more censorious of yourselves than of
other men i and more strict in the reforming of yourselves
than of any others.' For this is the character of the sincere :
when the hypocrite is little at home and much abroad ; and
is a sharp reprehender of others, and perniciously tender
and indulgent to himself. Mark his discourse in all com-
panies, and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures
and bitter reproach of others : how such men, and such
men (that differ from him, or have opposed him, or that he
hates,) are thus and thus faulty, and bad, and hateful. Yea,
he is as great an accuser of his adversaries for hypocrisy,
as if he were not an hypocrite himself: because he can ac-
cuse them of a heart-sin without any visible control. If
he called them drunkards, or swearers, or persecutors, or
oppressors, all that know them could know that he belieth
them ; but when he speaks about matters in the dark, he
thinks the reputation of his lies have more advantage : many
a word you hear from him, how bad his adversaries are \ but
if such hypocritical talk did not tell you, he would not tell
you how bad he is himself **.
Direct, x. * Be impartial, and set yourselves before your
consciences in the case of others.' Think with yourselves :
* How should I judge of this, in such and such a man, that
I use to blame ? What should I say of him, if my adversary
did as I do? And is it not as bad in me as in him? Is not
the sin most dangerous to me that is nearest me? And
should I be more vigilant over any man's faults than my
own ? My damnation will not be caused by his sin ; but
° It is one of Thales' sayings in Laert. Q. Quoraodo optirae acjustissime vive-
mus ? Resp. Si, quae in aliis reprehendimus ipsi non faciaraus. To judge of our-
selves as we judge of others, is the way of the sincere. Lib. i, sect. 36. p. 22.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 535
by my own it may. Instead of seeing the gnat in his eye,
I have more cause to cast out a gnat from my own than a
camel from his.'
Direct, xi. ' Study first to be whatever (judiciously) you
desire to seem.' Desire a thousand times more to be godly,
than to seem so ; and to be liberal, than to be thought so ;
and to be blameless from every secret or presumptuous sin,
than to be esteemed such p. And when you feel a desire to
be accounted good, let it make you think how much more
necessary and desirable it is to be good indeed. To be
godly, is to be an heir of heaven : your salvation foUoweth
it. But to be esteemed godly is of little profit to you.
Direct, xii. * Overvalue not man, and set no more by
the approbation or applause of his thoughts or speeches of
you than they are worth.' Hypocrisy much consisteth in
overvaluing man, and making too great a matter of his
thoughts and words. The hypocrite's religion is divine in
name, but human in deed : it is man that he serveth and ob-
serveth most : and the shame of the world is the evil which
he most studiously &,voideth : and the high esteem and
commendation of the world is his reward. O think, what a
silly worm is man! And of how little moment are his
thoughts or speeches of you, in comparison of the love of
(jod ! His thoughts of you make you not the better or the
worse : and if they either lift you up or trouble you, it is
your proud and foolish fantasy that doth it when you might
choose. If you have not lost the key and government of
your hearts, shut you the door, and keep all thence, and let
men's reproaches go no further than your ears ; and then
what the worse will you be for all the lies and slanders of
the world ? And, besides the pleasing of an effeminate
mind, what the better are you for their applause "^ ?
Direct, xiii. * Look upon all men that you converse with,
as ready to die and turn to dust, and passing into that
P Cato, homo virtuti simillimus qui nunquam recte fecit, ut facere videretur,
sed quia aliter facere non poterat ; cuique id solum visum est rationera habere, quod
haberet justitiam. Velleius Patercul. Hb. 2. c. 35. Burman. Lug. Bat. p. 278.
1 Jam in ecclesiis ista quseruntur, et omissa Apostolicorum simplicitate et puri-
tate verborum, quasi ad AtheuaBum et ad auditoria convenitur ut plausus circumstan-
tium suscitentur, ut oratio rhetoricae artis fucata mendacio quasi quaedam meretricula
procedat in publicum, non tarn cruditura populos, quam favorem populi qutesitura.
Hieron. in prsef. 1. 3, in Galat.
536 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
world where you will be little concerned in their censure or
esteem of you/ If you do any thing before an infant, you
little care for his presence or observation of you : much
less if it be before the dead. If you knew that a man were
to die to-morrow, though he were a prince, you would not
be much solicitous to avoid his censure or procure his ap-
plause ; because his thoughts all perish with him ; and it is
a small matter what he thinks of you for a day. Seeing
therefore that all men are hasting to their dust, and you are
certain that all that applaud or censure you, will be quickly
gone, how little should you regard their judgment ! Look
that man in the face whose applause you desire, or whose
censure you fear, and remember that he is a breathing clod
of clay ; and how many such are now in the grave, whose
thoughts you once as much esteemed ! and this will make
you more indifferent in the case.
Direct, xiv. 'At least remember, that you are paosirig
out of the world yourselves, and look every moment when
you are called away, and certainly know that you shall be
here but a little while.' And is it any great matter what
strangers think of you as you are passing by ? You can be
contented that your name, and worth, and virtues be con-
cealed in your inn, where you stay but a night, and that
they be unknown to travellers that meet you on the road.
The foolish expectation of more time on earth than God
hath given you warrant to expect, is the cause that we over-
value the judgment of man, as well as other earthly things,
and is a great maintainer of every sensual vice.
Direct, xv. ' Set yourselves to the mortifying of self-
love and pride : for hypocrisy is but the exercise of these.*
Hypocrisy is dead so far as pride is dead ; and so far as
self-denial and humility prevail. Hypocrisy is a proud de-
sire to appear better than you are. Be thoroughly humbled
and vile in your own eyes, and hypocrisy is done.
Direct, xvi. ' Be most suspicious of your hearts in cases
where self-interest or passions are engaged :* for they will
easily deal deceitfully and cheat yourselves, in the smoke
and dust of such distempers. Interest and passion so blind
the mind, that you may verily think you are defending the
truth, and serving God in sincerity and zeal, when all the
while you are but defending some error of your own, and
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 537
serving yourselves, and fighting against God. The Phari-
sees thought they took part with God's law and truth
against Christ. The pope, and his cardinal, and prelates
think (as in charity I must think) that it is for Christ, and
unity, and truth, that they endeavour to subject the world
to tlieir own power. And what is it but interest that blind-
eth them into such hypocrisy ? So, passionate disputers
do ordinarily deceive themselves, and think verily that they
are zealous for the faith, when they are but contending for
their honour or conceits. Passion covers much deceit from
the passionate.
Direct. XVII. ' Suspect yourselves most among the great,
the wise, the learned, and the godly, or any whose favour,
opinion, or applause you most esteem.' It is easy for an
arrant hypocrite to despise the favour or opinion of the
vulgar, of the ignorant, of the profane, or any whose judg-
ment he contemneth. It is no great honour or dishonour to
be praised or dispraised by a child, or fool, or a person that
for his ignorance or profaneness is become contemptible.
But hypocrisy and pride do work most to procure the es-
teem of those, whose judgment or parts you most admire.
One most admireth worldly greatness ; and such an one
will play the hypocrite most, to flatter or please the great
ones he admireth. Another that is wiser, more admireth
the judgment of the wise and learned ; and he will play the
hypocrite to procure the good esteem of such, though he
can slight a thousand of the ignorant ; (and his pride it-
self will make him slight them.) Another that is ^yet wiser,
is convinced of the excellency of godly men, above all the
great and learned of the world : and this man is more in dan-
ger of pride and hypocrisy in seeking the good opinion of
the godly ; and therefore can despise the greatest multi-
tude of the ignorant and profane. Yea, pride itself will
make him take it as an addition to his glory, to be vilified
and opposed by such miscreants as these.
Direct. XVIII. ' Remember the perfections of that God
whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be
worshipped in spirit and in truth ; and that he is most great
and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with serious-
ness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served
with toys or lifeless lip-service.; and that he is most holy.
533 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PAl^T I.
pure, and jealouB, and therefore to be purely worshipped ;
and that he is still present with you, and all things are
naked and open to him with whom we have to do/ The
knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing
presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy.
Christ himself argueth from the nature of God, who is a
Spirit, against the hypocritical ceremoniousness of the Sa-
maritans and Jews ^ Hypocrites offer that to God, which
they know a man of ordinary wisdom would scorn if they
offered it to him. If a man knew their hearts as God doth,
would he be pleased with words, and compliments, and ges-
tures, which are not accompanied with any suitable serious-
ness of the mind ? Would he be pleased with affected, his-
trionical actions ? One that seeth a Papist priest come out
in his formalities, and there lead the people, in a language
which they understand not, to worship God by a number of
ceremonies, and canting, repeated, customary words, would
think he saw a stage-player acting his part, and not a wise
and holy people, seriously worshipping the most holy God.
And not only in worship, but in private duties, and in con-
verse with men, and in all your lives, the remembrance of
God's presence is a powerful rebuke for all hypocrisy. It
is more foolish to sin in the sight of God, because you can
hide it from the world, than to steal or commit adultery in
the open market-place, before the crowd, and be careful that
dogs and crows discern it not. If all the world see you, it
is not so much as if God in secret see you. " Be not de-
ceived, God is not mocked '.
Direct, xix. * Remember how hypocrisy is hated of
God ; and what punishment is appointed for hypocrites.*
They are joined in torment with unbelievers. And, as
wicked men's punishment is aggravated by their being con-
demned to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels ; so
the punishment of ordinary ungodly persons, is aggravated
by this, that their portion shall be with hypocrites and un-
believers. How oft find you the Lamb of God himself, de-
nouncing his thundering woes against the hypocritical
Scribes and Pharisees ! How oft doth he inculcate to his
disciples, " Be not as the hypocrites *." And no wonder if
hypocrites be hateful to God, when they and their services
>■ John iv. 23, 24. « Gal. vi. 7. *■ Matt. vi. 2. 5. 16.
' CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 539
I are lifeless images, and have nothing but the name and out-
f side of Christianity, and some antique dress to set them off,
and human ornaments of wit and parts : as a corpse is more
dressed with flowers than the living, as needing those ce-
remonies for want of life to keep it sweet. And a carrion
is not amiable to God. And the hypocrite puts a scorn on
God ; as if he thought that God were like the heathen's
idols, that have eyes and see not, and could not discern the
secret dissemblings of his heart ! or as if he were like fools
and children, that are pleased with fair words and little
toys. God must needs hate such abuse as this.
Direct, xx. ' Come into the light, that your hearts and
lives may be thoroughly known to you. Love the most
searching, faithful ministry and books : and be thankful to
reprovers and plain dealing friends.' Darkness is it that
cherisheth deceit. It is the office of the light to manifest.
Justly do those wretches perish in their hypocrisy, who will
not endure the light which would undeceive them ; but fly
from a plain and powerful ministry, and hate plain reproof,
and set themselves by excuses, and cavils, to defend their
own deceit".
Direct, xxi. 'Be very diligent in the examining of your
hearts and all your actions by the Word of God, and call
yourselves often to a strict account.' Deceit and guilt will
not endure strict examination. The Word of God is quick
and powerful, discovering the thoughts and imaginations of
the heart. There is no hypocrite but might be delivered
from his own deceits, if by the assistance of an able guide,
he would faithfully go on in the work of self-trying, without
partiality or sloth.
Direct, xxii. * Live continually as one that is going to
" Permanent tepidi, ignavi, negligentes, vani, levcs, voluptuosi, delicati ; com-
moda corpores superflua sectantur, suum compendium in omnibus quserunt, ubicimque
honorem et existimationem nominis sui integra servare possunt : intus propria volmi-
tati pertinaciter addicti, irresignati, rainlme abnegati, superbi, curiosi, et couturaaces
sunt in omnibus, licet externa coram omnibus bene morati videantur. In tentationi-
bus impatientes, amari, procaces, iracundi, tristes, aliis molesti, verbis tamen ingenio-
que scioli,. . In prosperis nimium elati et hilares : in adversis, nimium turbati sunt et
pusillaniraes : aliorum temerarii sunt judices: aliorum vitia accuratissime perscrutari,
de aliorum defectibus frequenter garrire, ac gloriari egregium putant. Ex islis et si-
niilibus operibus facillime cognosci poterunt : nam moribus gestibusque suis ceu sorex
quispiam suopte semet indicio produnt. Thauler. flor. p. 65, 66.
540 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART 1,
be judged at the bar of God, where all hypocrisy will be
opened and shamed, and hypocrisy condemned by the all-
knowing God/ One thought of our appearing before the
Lord, and of the day of his impartial judgment, one would
think should make man walk in the light, and teach them to
understand, that the sun is not eclipsed as oft as they wink,
nor is it night because they draw the curtains. What a
shame will it be to have all your dissimulation laid open
before all the world ? " Beware of the leaven of the Pha-
risee, which is hypocrisy : for there is nothing covered,
which shall not be revealed ; neither hid, that shall not be
known. Therefore whatever ye have spoken in darkness
shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken
in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed on the house-tops."
Direct, xxiii. ' Think not that you avoid hypocrisy by
changing the expressions of it ; but see that you run not
into a more subtle kind, while you avoid a grosser.* There
is no outward way of worshipping God, nor any opinion in
religion so sound, but an hypocrite can make a cloak of it.
You see an ignorant, ridiculous hypocrite, such as Bishop
Hall describeth in his character, that can pray up to a pillar,
when his heart knoweth not what his tongue is doing, that
babbleth over a few words to God while he is dressing or
washing him, and talking between to the standers-by ; who
offereth to God the sacrifice of a fool, and knoweth not that
he doth evil ; that serveth God with toys and antique ges-
tures, and saying over certain words which were never ac-
quainted with the feeling of the heart, nor scarce with his
understanding. And to avoid his hypocrisy, perhaps, you
can merrily deride him, and make a formal Popish hypocrite
the subject of your jests ; and you can yourselves, with good
understanding, pour out yourselves many hours together in
orderly and meet expressions of prayer : but remember that
many an hypocrite maketh himself a cloak of as good stuff
as this ; and that as pride hath more advantage to work upon
your greater knowledge and better parts, so hypocrisy is but
the offspring of pride. All this, without a heart entirely de-
voted unto God, is but a carcase better dressed ; as the rich
have more curious monuments than the poor. There is no
outside thing, in which an hypocrite may not seem excellent.
Direct. XXIV. 'Be true to conscience, and hearken dili-
/
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 541
gently to all it saith, and be often treating with it, and daily
conversant and well acquainted with it".' Hypocrites bear
little reverence to their conscience : they make so often and
so grossly bold with them, that conscience is deposed from
its office at the present, and silenced by them, lest it should
gall them by preaching to them those hard sayings which
they cannot bear : and perhaps at last it is seared or bribed
to take part with sin. But usually an hypocrite hath a se-
cret judge within him which condemneth him. Take heed
how you use your consciences, as you love your peace and
happiness. Next Christ, it must be your best friend, or your
greatest enemy : palliate it how you will at present, if you
wound it, it will smart at last. And it is easier to bear po-
verty, or shame, or torment, than to bear its wounds. 1.
Mark the very principles and former judgment of your con-
sciences ; and if they are changed, know what changed
them. 2, Hearken to all the secret counsel and reproofs of
conscience, especially when it speaketh oft and terribly ;
turn it not off without a hearing : yea, know the reason of
its very scruples and doubts. 3. When it is sick and dis-
quieted, know what the matter is, and vomit up the matter
that justly disquiets it, whatever it cost you; and be sure
you go to the bottom, and do not leave the root behind.
4. Open your consciences to some able, trusty guide when
it is necessary, though it cost you shame. An over-tender
avoiding of such shame is the hypocrite's sin and folly.
Counsel is safe in matters of such importance. 5. Prefer
conscience before all men how great soever : none is above
it but God. It is God's messenger, when it is conscience
indeed : remember what it saith to you, and from whom, and
for what end. Let friends, and neighbours, and company,
and business, and profit, and sports, and honour stand by,
and all give place whilst conscience speaketh ; for it will
be a better friend to you than any of these, if you use it as
a friend. It would have been better to Judas than his thirty
pieces were. 6. Yet see that it be well informed, and see
its commission, for it is not above God ; nor is itmasterless
" Quid autem prodest recondere se, et oculos hominum auresque vitare ? Bona
conscientia turbam advocat, mala etiam in solitudine anxia et soUicita est. Si honesta
sunt, quae facis, oinnes sciant : si turpia, quid refert netninem scire, cum tu scias? O
te raiserum, si contemnis hunc testem. Senec. Ep. 43. Elz. p. 109. Matt, xxiii.
13—15. 23. 25. 27. 29.
54^ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
or lawless. 7. Converse not with it only in a crowd, but in
secret. 8. Keep it awake ; and keep it among awakening
means and company : it will much sooner fall asleep in an
ale-house, or a play-house, or among the foolish and pro-
fane, than at a lively sermon, or prater, or reverent discourse
of God. If I could but get conscience awakened to per-
form its office, and preach over all this that I have said, in
secret it would ferret the hypocrite out of his self deceit.
Go, conscience, and search that deceitful heart, and speak
to it in the name of God : ask that hypocrite whether con-
version ever made him a neW creature, and whether his soul
and all that he hath be entirely devoted unto God ? and
whether his hopes and treasure be laid up in heaven, and his
heart be there? and whether he subject all his worldly in-
tel^est to the will of God, and the interest of his soul ? and
whether his greatest work be about his heart, and to ap-
prove himself to God ? and whether he make an impartial,
diligent inquiry after the truth, with a desire to receive it at
the dearest rates ? Tell him that a proud self-flattery may
now make him justify or extenuate his sins, and take his
formalities, and lip-service, and abuse of God for true de-
votion, and hate every man that would detect his hypocrisy,
and convert him by bringing in the light; but a light will
shortly appear to his soul, which he shall not resist. And
then let him stand to his justification if he can ; and let him
then make it good that he gave up himself in sincerity, sim-
plicity, and self-denial, to his God.
Direct, xxv. * Remember that hypocrisy lieth much in
doubling, and in a divided heart and life : see therefore that
you «erVe God in singleness of heart, or simplicity and in-
tegrity, as being his alone. Think not of serving God and
ttiammon : a deep reserve at the heart for the world, while
they seem to give up themselves in covenant to God, is the
grand character of an hypocrite. Live as those that have one
Lord and Master, that all power stoopeth to, and one end or
scope to which all other are but means, and one work of ab-
solute necessity to do ; and one kingdom to seek first, and
with greatest care and diligence to make sure of, and that
have your hearts and faces still one way, and that agree with
yourselves in what you think, and say, and do. A double
heart, and a double tongue is the fashion of the hypocrite.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 543
He hath a heart for the world, and pride, and lust, which
must seem sometimes to be lifted up to ask forgiveness,
that he may sin with quietness and hope of salvation : you
would not think when you see him drop his beads, or lift
up his hands and eyes, and seem devoutly to say his prayers,
how lately he came from' a tavern, or a whore, or a lie, or
from scorning at serious godliness. As Bishop Hall saith,
he seemeth to serve that God at church on holy-days, whom
he neglecteth at home ; and boweth at the name of Jesus, and
sweareth profanely by the name of God. Remember that
there it but one God, one heaven for us, one happiness, and
one way ; and this one is of such moment, as calls for all
the intention and attention of our souls, and is enough to
satisfy us, and should be enough to call us off from all that
would divert us. A divided heart is a false and self-deceiv-
ing heart. Are there two Gods ? or is Christ divided ?
While you grasp at both (God and the world) you will cer-
tainly lose one, and it is like you will lose both. To have
two Gods, two rules, two heavens, is to have no God, no
true rule, no heaven, or happiness at all. Halt not there-
fore between two opinions : if God be God, obey him and
love him ; if heaven be heaven, be sure it be first sought.
But if thy belly be thy god, and the world be thy heaven,
then serve and seek them, and make thy best of them.
Direct, xxvi. * Take heed of all that fleshly policy or
craft, and worldly wisdom, which are contrary to the wisdom
of the Word of God, and would draw thee from the plain
and open-heartedness which godly sincerity requireth. Let
that which was Paul's rejoicing be your's, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, you have had
your conversation in the world. Christianity renounce th
not wisdom and honest self-preservation ; but yet it maketh
men plain-hearted, and haters of crafty, fraudulent minds.
What is the famous hypocritical religion superadded to
Christianity and called Popery, but that which Paul feared
in his godly jealousy for the Corinthians, "lest as the ser-
pent beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so their minds should be
corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." A forsak-
ing the Christian simplicity of Doctrine, Discipline, Wor-
ship, and Conversation, is the hypocrisy of religion, and of
Fife. Equivocating and dishonest shifts and hiding, beseem
544 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
those that have an ill cause, or an ill conscience, or an
ill master whom they dare not trust; and not those that
have so good a cause and God as Christians have. ' tf>itt
Direct, xxvii. ' Remember how much of sincerity con-
sisteth in seriousness, and how much of hypocrisy consist-
eth in seeming, and dreaming, and trifling in the things of
God and our salvation : see therefore that you keep your
souls awake, in a sensible and serious frame ^Z Read over
the fifty considerations, which in the third part of my
" Saints' Rest," I have given to convince you of the neces-
sity of being serious. See that there be as much in your
faith as in your creed, and as much in your hearts and lives
as in your belief. Remember that seeming and dreaming
will not mortify deep-rooted sins, nor conquer strong and
subtle enemies, nor make you acceptable to God, nor save
your souls from his revenging justice. Remember what a
mad kind of profaneness it is to jest and trifle about heaven
and hell, and to dally with the great and dreadful God.
" Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what man-
ner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and
godliness ?" You pray for an obedience answering the pat-
tern of the heavenly society when you say, ' Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven ;' and will you be such hy-
pocrites as to pray, that you may imitate saints and angels
in the purity and obedience of your hearts and lives, and
when you have done, take up with shews, and seemings,
and saying a few words, and a lifeless image of that holiness
which you never had ; yea, and perhaps deride and perse-
cute in others the very thing which you daily pray for. O
horrible abuse of the all-seeing God ! Do you no more be-
lieve or fear his justice? When the apostle saith, " Be not
deceived, God is not mocked ;" he intimateth, that hypo-
crites go about to put a scorn on God by a mock religion,
though it is not he, but themselves that will prove mocked
y The causes of superstition (and so of hypocrisy) are, pleasing and sensual rites
and ceremonies, excess of outward and Pharisaical holiness, too great reverence of
traditions, which must needs load the church, the stratagems of prelates for their own
ambition and lucre, the over favouring of good intentions, which opens the door to
novelties and superstitions. Lord Bacon. Essay on Superstition. As P. Callima-
chus Exper. describeth Attila, that he was a devourer of flesh and wine, &c. and
yet Religione persuasionibusque de diis a gente sua susceptis, usque ad supersti-
tjonem addictus. Calli. p. S39.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 545
in the end. They offer God a deaf nut, or an empty shell,
or cask, for a sacrifice. An hypocrite differeth from a true
Christian, as a fencer from a soldier ; he playeth his part
very formally upon a stage with much applause j but you
may perceive that he is not in good sadness, by his trifling
and formality, and never killing any of his sins. Would
men shew no more of the great, everlasting matters of their
own professed belief, in any seriousness of affection or en-
deavour than most men do, if they were not hypocrites ?
Would they hate and scorn men for doing but that (and
part of that) which they pray and profess to do themselves,
if they were not hypocrites ? Woe to the world, because of
hypocrisy ! Woe to idle shepherds, and the seeming, no-
minal, lifeless Christians, of what sect soever ; for God will
not be mocked. They are Christians ; but it is with mock
Christianity, while their souls are strange to the true esteem
and use of Christ. They are believers, but with a mock
belief, described in James ii. They believe that God should
be loved above all, but they love him not. They believe
that holiness is better than all the pleasures of sin ; yet they
choose it not, but hate it. They are religious, with a seem-
ing, vain religion, which will not so much as humble them,
nor bridle their tongues. They are wise, with a mock wis-
dom ; they are wise enough to prove their sins to be all
lawful, or but venial sins ; and wise enough to cast away the
medicine that would heal them ; and to confute the phy-
sician, and to answer the most learned preacher of them all,
and to escape salvation, and to secure themselves a place in
hell, and keep themselves ignorant of it till they are there.
They are converted, but with a mock conversion ; which
leaveth them as carnal, and proud, and worldly as before :
being born of water but not of the Spirit, and being sensual
still. They repent, with a mock repentance ; they repent,
but they will not leave their sin, nor confess and bewail it,
but hate reproof, and excuse their sin. They are honest,
but with a mock honesty ; though they swear, and curse,
and rail, and slander, and backbite, and scorn at piety itself;
yet they mean well, and have honest hearts : though they
receive not the Word with deep-rooting in their hearts, but
are abominable and disobedient, and to every good work
VOL. II. N N
546 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
reprobate, they are honest for all that''. They love God
above all, though they love not to think or speak of him se-
riously, but hate his holiness and justice, his Word, and
holy ways and servants, and are such as the Scripture call-
eth " haters of God ;" and keep not his commandments,
nor live to his glory. They love the servants of God, but
they care not if the world were rid of them all, and take
them to be but a company of self-conceited, troublesome
fellows, and as very hypocrites as themselves : and the poor
Christians, that are cruelly used by them, think they are
neither in good sadness nor in jest, when they profess to
love thp worshippers of God. They love not their money,
nor lands, nor lusts, with such a kind of love, I am sure.
They have also always good desires; but they are such
mock desires as those in James ii. 15. that wished the poor
were fed, and clothed, and warmed, but gave them nothing
towards it : and such good desires as the sluggard hath that
lieth in bed and wisheth that all his work were done. " The
desires of the sluggard killeth him, because his hands refuse
to labour y." They pray, but with mock prayers ; you would
little think that they are speaking to the most holy God,
for no less than the saving of their souls, when they are
more serious in their very games and sports. They pray for
grace, but they cannot abide it ; they pray for holiness, but
they are resolved they will have none of it ; they pray
against their sin, but no entreaty can persuade them from it.
They would have a mock ministry, a mock discipline, a
mock church, a mock sacrament, as they make a mock pro-
fession, and give God but a mock obedience, as I might
shew you through all the particulars, but for being tedious.
And all is, because they have but a mock faith : they be-
lieve not that God is in good earnest with them in his com-
mands, and threatenings, and fore tellings of his judgments,
as Lot to his sons-in-law. *' He seemeth to them as one
that mocked^," and therefore they serve him as those that
would mock him. O wretched hypocrites! is this agreeable
to your holy profession? You call yourselves Christians,
and profess to believe the doctrine of Christ : is this agree-
able to Christianity, to your creed, to the ten command-
ments, to the Lord's prayer, and to the rest of the Word of
God ? Had you none but the holy, jealous God to make a
* Luke viii. 15. Tit. i. 16. y Prov. xxi. 25. ^ Gen. xix. 14.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 547
mock of? Had you nothing less than religion, and matters
of salvation and damnation to play with? do you serve God
as if he were a child, or an idol, or a man of straw, that
either knoweth not your hearts, or is pleased with toys and
compliments, and shews, and saying over certain words, or
acting a part before him on a stage * ? Do you know what
you offer, and to whom? His power is omnipotency; his
glory is ten thousand-fold above that of the sun ; his wis-
dom is infinite ; millions of angels adore him continually ;
he is thy King and Judge ; he abhorreth hypocrites. If
thou didst but see one glimpse of his glory, or the meanest
of his angels, the sight would awaken thee from thy dream-
ing, and dallying, and frighten thee from thy canting and
trifling into a serious regard of God and thy everlasting
state. " Offer this now to thy governor: will he be pleased
with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of Hosts ** ?"
If your servants set before you upon your table, the feathers
instead of the fowl, and the hair and wool instead of the
flesh, and the scales instead of the fish, would you not think
they rather mocked than served you ? How dear have some
paid even in this life for mocking God? Let the case of
Aaron's sons*", and of Ananias and Sapphira**, inform you :
if with the fig-tree^, you offer God leaves only instead of
fruit, you are nigh unto cursing, and your end is to be burnt.
Do you not read what he saith to the church of Laodicea :
" I Would thou wert cold or hot ; because thou art luke-
warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my
mouth ^ :" that is, either be an open infidel, or a holy, down-
right, zealous Christian : but because thou callest thyself a
Christian, and hast not the life or zeal of a Christian, but
coverest thy wickedness and carnality with that holy name;
I will cast thee away as an abominable vomit. It would
make the heart of a believer ache to think of the hypocrisy
of most that usurp the name of Christians, and how cruelly
they mock themselves. What a glory is offered them, and
they lose it by their dallying ! What a price is in their
hands ! What mercy is offered them, and they lose it by
their dallying ! What danger is before them, and they will
* Superstition is the more deformed for its likeness to religion. And as whole-
some meats corrupt to little worms ; so good forms and orders corrupt into petty
observances. Lord Bacsn's Essay of Superstition.
b Mai. i. 8. " Lev. x. 1. 3. <! Acts v.
« Matt xxi. 19. ^ Rev. iii. 15, 16.
548 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
fall into it by tlieir dallying ! Doth not the weight of your
salvation forbid this trifling? You might better set the town
on fire and make a jest of it, than jest your souls into the
fire of hell. Then you will find that hell is no jesting mat-
ter : if you mock yourselves out of your salvation, where are
youthen? If you play with time, and means, and mercy
till they are gone, you are undone for ever. O dally not till
you are past remedy. Alas ! poor dreaming, trifling hypo-
crites! Is time so swift, and life so short, and death so sure
and near ; and God so holy, just, and terrible ; and heaven
so glorious, and hell so hot, and both everlasting, and yet
will you not be in earnest about your work ? Up and be do-
ing, as you are men, and as ever you care what becomes of
you for ever ! *' Depart from iniquity," if you will ** name
the name of Christ^." Let not a cheating world delude you
for a moment, and have the kernel, the heart, while God
hath but the empty shell. A mock religion will but keep
up a mock hope, a mock peace, and a mock joy and comfort
till satan have done his work, and be ready to unhood you
and open your eyes. " So are the paths of all that forget
God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish''." " For what
is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when
God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when
trouble cometh upon him* ?" " Knowest thou not this of old,
that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of
the hypocrite but for a moment. Though his excellency
mount up to the heavens, and his head reacheth unto the
clouds ; yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung : they
which have seen him shall say where is he*"?" Away then
with hypocritical formality and dalliancje, and be serious
and sincere for thy soul and with thy God,
PART IV.
Directions against inordinate Man-pleasing : or that overvalu-
ing the Favour and Censure of Man, which is the fruit of
Pride, and a great cause of Hypocrisy. Or, Directions
against Idolizing Man.
As in other cases so in this, iniquity consisteth not simply
in the heart's neglect of God, but in the preferring of some
competitor, and prevalence of some object which standeth
g2Tim.ii. 19. »> job viii. IS. * Job xxvii. 8, 9. ^ job xx. 4— 7.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 549
up for an opposite interest ^ And so the obeying man be-
fore God and against him, and the valuing the favour and
approbation of man before or against the approbation of
God, and the fearing of man's censure or displeasure more
than God's, is an Idolizing Man, or setting him ap in the
place of God. It turneth our chiefest observance, and care,
and labour, and pleasure, and grief into this human, fleshly
channel, and maketh all that to be but human in our hearts
and lives, which (objectively) should be divine. Which is
so great and dangerous a sin, partaking of so much impiety,
hypocrisy, and pride, as that it deserveth a special place
in my Directions, and in all watchfulness and consideration
to escape it.
As all other creatures, so especially man, must be re-
garded and valued only in a due subordination and subser-
viency to God. If they be valued otherwise, they are made
his enemies, and so are to be hated, and are made the prin-
cipal engine of the ruin of such as overvalue them. See
what the Scripture saith of this sin : " Cease ye from man
whose breath is in his nostrils : for wherein is he to be ac-
counted of""? " And call no man your Father upon the
earth ; for one is your Father which is in heaven''." " And be
not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your Master, even Christ :
but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant **."
" Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh
his arm P." " The Lord is on my side ; I will not fear what
man can do unto me. It is better to trust in the Lord, than
to put confidence in man, — yea, in princes "i." " Let me not
accept any man's person ; neither let me give flattering titles
unto man : for I know not to give flattering titles ; in so do-
ing my Maker would soon take me away""." '' As for me,
is my complaint to man^?" " Do I seek to please men?
for if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of
Christ*." " But with me it is a very small thing to be
judged of you, or of man's judgment"." " If a man come
1 Non quam multis placeas, sed qualibus stude. Martin. Duraiens. de Morib.
>" Isa. ii. 22.
n Matt, xxiii. 9. Magna animi sublimitate carpentes se atque objurgantesi
Socrates conteranebat. Laert. in Socrat, lib. ii. sect. 26. p. 96.
o Matt. xxui. 8. P Jer. xx. 15. i Psal. cxvui. 6. 8, 9,
f Job xxxii. 21, 22. ^ Job xxi. 4. ' Gal. i. 10.
" 1 Cor. Iv. 3.
550 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I,
to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life^^lso,
he cannot be my disciple. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake^." " Rejoice, and be
exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven y." " Not
with eye-service, as men-pleasers." ** So we speak, not as
pleasing men but God, who trieth our hearts''.'' " Having
men's persons in admiration because of advantage*." This
is enough to shew you what Scripture saith of this inordi-
nate man-pleaing, or respect to man : and now I shall pro-
ceed to direct you to escape it.
Direct, i. * Understand well wherein the nature of this
sin consisteth, that you may not run into the contrary ex-
treme, but may know which way to bend your opposition.'
I shall therefore first shew you, how far we may and must
please men, and how far not.
1. Our parents, rulers, and superiors must be honoured,
obeyed, and pleased in all things which they require of us,
in the several places of authority which God hath given
them over us : and this must be not merely as to man, but
as to the officers of God, for whom, and from whom, (and not
against him,) they have all their power ''.
2. We must in charity, and condescension, and meekness
of behaviour, seek to please all men in order to their salva-
tion. We must so thirst for the conversion of sinners, that
we must become all things (lawful) to all men, that we may
win them. We must not stand upon our terms, and keep at
a distance from them, but condescend to the lowest, and
bear the infirmities of the weak, and in things indifferent
not take the course that pleaseth ourselves ; but that, which
by pleasing him, may edify our weak brother. We must
forbear and forgive, and part with our right, and deny our-
selves the use of our Christian liberty, were it as long as we
live, if it be necessary to the saving of our brethren's souls,
by removing the offence which hindereth them by preju-
y Matt. V. 11. 2 Ephes. vi. 6. Col. iii. 22. 1 Thess. ii. 4.
* Jude 16. When Chrjsippus was asked why he exercised not himself with the
most, he answered, if I should do as the most do, I should be no philosopher. Laert.
in Chr3'sip. lib. vii. sect. 182. p. 479. Adulationi foedum crimen servitutis, malig-
nitati falsa species libertatis inest. Tacit. Hist. lib. i. c. 1. Valpy's edit. vol. iii. p. 3.
Secure conscience first, Qua semel amissa, postea nuUus eris.
*> Rom. xiii. Exod. xx. 12. Titus iii. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 13. 2 Pet. ii. 10.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 651
dice. We must not seek our own carnal ends, but the be-
nefit of others, and do them all the good we can.
3. As our neighbour is commanded to love us as himself,
w© are bound by all lawful means to render ourselves amia-
ble to him, that we may help and facilitate this his love, as
it is more necessary to him than to us : for to help him in
obeying so great a command must needs be a great duty.
And therefore if his very sin possess him with prejudice
against us, or cause him to distaste us for some indifferent
thing, we must, as far as we can lawfully, remove the cause
of his prejudice and dislike; (though he that hateth us for
obeying God, must not be cured by our disobeying him.)
We are so far from being obliged to displease men by sur-
liness and morosity, that we are bound to pleasing gentle-
ness, and brotherly kindness, and to all that carriage which
is necessary to cure their sinful hatred or dislike.
4. We must not be self-conceited, and prefer a weak, un-
furnished judgment of our own, before the greater wisdom
of another ; but in honour must prefer each other : and the
ignorant must honour the knowledge and parts of others that
excel them, and not be stiff in their own opinion, nor wise
in their own eyes, nor undervalue another man's reasons or
judgment ; but be glad to learn of any that can teach them,
in the humble acknowledgment of their own insufficiency.
5. Especially we must reverence the judgment of our
able, faithful teachers, and not by pride set up our weaker
judgment against them, and resist the truth which they de-
liver to us from God. Neither must we set light by the cen-
sures or admonitions of the lawful pastors of the church :
when they are agreeable to the Word and judgment of God,
they are very dreadful. As Tertullian saith, ' If any so of-
fend as to be banished from communion of prayer, and as-
sembly, and all holy commerce, it is a judgment foregoing
the great judgment to come.' Yea, if the officers of Christ
should wrong you in their censures by passion or mistake,
while they act in their own charge about matters belonging
to their cognisance and judgment, you must respectfully and
patiently bear the wrong, so as not to dishonour and con-
temn the authority and office so abused.
6. If sober, godly persons, that are well acquainted with
us, do strongly suspect us to be faulty where we discern it
not ourselves, it should make us the more suspicious and
552 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
fearful : and if judicious persons fear you to be hypocrites,
and no sound Christians, by observing your temper and
course of life, it should make you search with the greater
fear, and not to disregard their judgment. And if judicious
persons, especially ministers, shall tell a poor, fearful,
doubting Christian, that they verily think their state is safe,
it may be a great stay to them, and must not be slighted as
nothing, though it cannot give them a certainty of their case.
Thus far man's judgment must be valued.
7. A good name among men, which is the reputation of
our integrity, is not to be neglected as a thing of naught ;
for it is a mercy from God for which we must be thankful,
and it is a useful means to our successful serving and honour-
ing God. And the more eminentwe are, and the more the ho-
nour of God and religion is joined with ours, or the good of
men's souls dependeth on our reputation, the more careful we
should be of it; and it may be a duty sometimes to vindicate
it by the magistrate's justice, against a slander. Especially
preachers, (whose success for the saving of their hearers de-
pends much on their good name) must not despise if^.
8. The censures of the most petulent, and the scorns of
enemies, are not to be made light of, as they are their sins,
which we must lament ; nor as they may provoke us to a
more diligent search, and careful watchfulness over our
ways. Thus far man's judgment is regardable.
But 1. We must know how frail, and erroneous, and un-
constant a thing man is : and therefore not to be too high in
our expectations from man. We must suppose that men
will mistake us, and wrong us, and slander us, through igno-
rance, passion, prejudice, or self-interest. And when this be-
fals us, we must not account it strange and unexpected.
2. We must consider how far the enmity that is in lapsed
man to holiness, and the ignorance, prejudice, and passion
of the ungodly, will carry them to despise, and scorn, and
slander all such as seriously and zealously serve God, and
cross them in their carnal interest. And therefore, if for
the sake of Christ and righteousness, we are accounted as
the scorn and offscouring of all things, and as pestilent fel-
<= Quicquid de te probabiliter fingi potest, ne fingatur ante devila. Hieron. ad
Nepot. Non solum Veritas in bac parte sed etiara opinio studiose qua;renda est, ut te
bjpocritamagere interdum minime poeniteat, said one harshly enough to Acostu, ut
lib. 4. c. 17. p. 413.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 553
lows, and movers of sedition among the people, and such as
are unworthy to live, and have all manner of evil spoken of
us falsely, it must not seem strange or unexpected to us, nor
cast us down, but we must bear it patiently, yea, and ex-
ceedingly rejoice in hope of our reward in heaven.
3. Considering what remnants of pride and self-conceit-
edness remain in many that have true grace, and how many
hypocrites are in the church, whose religion consisteth in
opinions and their several modes of worship ; we must ex-
pect to be reproached and abused by such, as in opinions,
and modes, and circumstances do differ from us, and take
us therefore as their adversaries. A great deal of injustice,
sometimes by slanders or reproach, and sometimes by
greater violence, must be expected, from contentious pro-
fessors of the same religion with ourselves : especially when
the interest of their faction or cause requireth it : and espe-
cially if we bring any truth among them, which seemeth new
to them, or crosseth the opinions which are there in credit,
or would be reformers of them in any thing that is amiss.
4. No men must be pleased by sin, nor their favour pre-
ferred before the pleasing of God. Man's favour as against
God, is to be despised, and their displeasure made light of.
If doing our duty will displease them, let them be displeas-
ed ; we can but pity them.
5. We must place none of our happiness in the favour
or approbation of men, but account it as to ourselves to be
a matter of no great moment ; neither worth any great care
or endeavour to obtain it, or grief for losing it. We must
not only contemn it as compared to the approbation and fa-
vour of God, but we must value it but as other transitory
things, in itself considered; estimating it as a means to
some higher end, the service of God, and our own or other
men's greater good : and further than it conduceth to some
of these, it must be almost indifferent to us what men think
or say of us : and the displeasure of all men, if unjust, must
be reckoned with our light afflictions.
6. One truth of God, and the smallest duty, must be
preferred before the pleasing and favour of all the men in
the world. Though yet as a means to the promoting of a
greater truth or duty, the favour and pleasing of men must
be preferred before the uttering of a lesser truth, or doing a
lesser good at that time : (because it is no duty then to do it.)
554 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
7. Our hearts are so selfish and deceitful, naturally, that
when we are very solicitous about our reputation, we must
carefully watch them lest self be intended, while God is
pretended. And we must take special care, that we be sure
it be the honour of God, and religion, and the good of souls,
or some greater benefit than honour itself, that we value our
honour and reputation for.
8. Man's nature is so prone to go too far in valuing our
esteem with men, that we should more fear lest we err on
that hand, than on the other, in undervaluing it. And it is
far safer to do too little than too much, in the vindicating
of our own reputation, whether by the magistrate's justice,
or by disputing, or any contentious means.
9. We must not wholly rest on the judgment of any,
about the state of our souls, nor take their judgment of us for
infallible ; but use their help that we may know ourselves.
10. If ministers, or councils called General, do err and
contradict the Word of God, we must do our best to dis-
cern it ; and discerning it, must desert their error rather
than the truth of God. As Calvin, and after him Parseus
on 1 Cor. iv. 3., say, ' We must give an account of our
doctrine to all men, that require it, especially to ministers
and councils : but when a faithful pastor perceiveth himself
oppressed with unrighteous and perverse designs and fac-
tions, and that there is no place for equity and truth, he
ought to be careless of man's esteem, and to appeal to God,
and fly to his tribunal. And if we see ourselves condemned,
our cause being unpleaded, and judgment passed, our cause
being unheard, let us lift up our minds to this magnanimity,
as despising men's judgment, to expect with boldness the
judgment of God,' and say with Paul, " With me it is a
small matter to be judged of you, or of man's judgment; I
have one that judgeth me, even the Lord."
1 1 . God must be enough for a gracious soul, and we
must know that ** in his favour is life," and his " loving
kindness is better than life itself:" and this niust be our
care and labour, that " whether living or dying we may be
accepted of him :" and if we have his approbation it must
satisfy us, though all the world condemn us. Therefore
having faithfully done our duty, we must leave the matter of
our reputation to God ; who, if our ways please him, can
make our enemies to be at peace with us, (or be harmless to
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 555
US as if they were no enemies.) As we must quietly leave
it to (him what measure of wealth we shall have, so also
what measure of honour we shall liave. It is our duty to
love and honour, but not to be beloved and honoured.
12. The prophecy of our Saviour must be still believed,
that the " world will hate us ;" and his example must be
still before our eyes, who submitted to be spit upon, and
scorned and buffetted, and slandered as a traitor or usurper
of the crown, and ** made himself of no reputation," and
" endured the cross," and '* despised the shame ;" leaving
us an example that we *' should follow his steps, who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth ; who, when he
was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threat-
ened not, but committed all to him that judgeth righteous-
ly •^." This is the usage that must be the Christian's expec-
tation, and not to be well spoken of by all, nor to have the
applause and honour of the world.
13. It is not only the approbation of the ignorant and un-
godly that we must thus set light by ; but even of the most
learned and godly themselves, so as to bear their censures as
an easy burden, when God is pleased this way to try us ;
and to be satisfied in God alone, and the expectation of his
final judgment^.
Direct, ii. * Remember that the favour and pleasing of
man is one of your snares, that would prevail against your
pleasing God :' therefore watch against the danger of it, as
you must do against other earthly things.
Direct, iii. * Remember how silly a creature man is ; and
that his favour can be no better than himself.' The thoughts
or words of a mortal worm, are matters of no considerable
value to us.
Direct, iv. * Remember that it is the judgment of God
alone, that your life or death for ever doth depend upon :
and how little you are concerned in the judgment of man.'
1. An humbled soul, that hath felt what it is to have dis-
pleased God, and what it is to be under his curse, and what
it is to be reconciled to him by the death and intercession
of Jesus Christ, is so taken up in seeking the favour of God,
and is so troubled with every fear of his displeasure, and is
d 1 Pet. ii. 21, 22.
^ We must go further than Seneca, who said, Male de me loquuntur, sed ma-
il : raoverer si de me Mar. Cato, si Laelius sapiens, si duo Scipiones ista loquerentur :
nunc raalis displicere, laudari est.
656 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
SO delighted with the sense of his love, as that he can scarce
have vi^hile to mind so small a matter as the favour or dis-
pleasure of a man. God's favour is enough for him, and so
precious to him, that if he find that he hath this, so small a
matter as the favour of a man, will scarce be missed by him.
2. God only is our supreme Judge, and our governors as
officers limited by him : but for others, if they will be usur-
pers, and set themselves in the throne of God, and there
let fly their censures upon things and persons which con-
cern them not, why should we seem much concerned in it?
If a beggar step up into a seat of judicature, and there con-
demn one, and fine another, will you fear him, or laugh at
him? Who art thou thatjudgest another man's servant?
To his own master doth he stand or fall. Men may step up
into the throne of God, and there presume to judge
others according to their interests and passions ; but God
will quickly pull them down, and teach them better to know
their places. How like is the common censure of the world,
to the game of boys, that will hold an assize, and make a
judge, and try and condemn one another in sport ! And
have we not a greater Judge to fear ?
3. It is God only that passeth the final sentence, from
whom there is no appeal to any other. But from human
judgment there lieth an appeal to God^. Their judgment
must be judged of by him: things shall not stand as now
men censure them. Many a bad cause is now judged good,
through the multitude or greatness of those that favour it :
and many a good cause is now condemned. Many a one is
taken as a malefactor because he obeyeth God, and doth
his duty. But all these things must be judged over again,
by him that hath denounced a " woe to them that call evil
good and good evil ; that put darkness for light and light
for darkness s." " He that saith to the wicked, thou art
righteous, people shall curse him, nations shall abhor him''."
It were ill with the best of the servants of Christ, if the
judgment of the world must stand, who condemn them as
fools, and hypocrites, and what they list : then the devil's
judgment would stand. But he is the wise man that God
will judge to be wise at last ; and he only is the happy man ,
that God calls happy. The erring judgment of a creature
f See Dr. Boys' Postil. p. 42, 43. Marlorat. in 1 Cor. iv. 3.
s Isai. V. ^0. •> Prov. xxiv. 24-
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 657
is but like an ignorant man's writing the names of several
things upon an apothecary's boxes ; if he write the names
of poisons upon some, and of antidotes on others, when
there are no such things within them, they are not to be es-
timated according to those names'. How different are the
names that God and the world do put upon things and per-
sons now ! And how few now approve of that which God
approveth of, and will justify at last ! How many will God
judge heterodox and wicked, that men judged orthodox,
and worthy of applause ? And how many will God judge or-
thodox and sincere, that were called heretics and hypocrites
by men ! God will not verify every word against his ser-
vants, which angry men, or contentious disputants say
against them. The learning, or authority, or other advan-
tages of the contenders, may now bear down the reasons and
reputations of more wise and righteous men than they, which
God will restore and vindicate at last. The names of Lu-
ther, Zuinglius, Calvin, and many other excellent servants of
the Lord, are now made odious in the writings and reports
of Papists, by their impudent lies : but God judgeth other-
wise, with more righteous judgment. O what abundance
of persons and causes will be justified at the dreadful day of
God, which the world condemned ! And how many will be
there condemned, that were justified by the world ! O
blessed day ! most desirable to the just ! most terrible to
the wicked and every hypocrite ! How many things will
then be set straight, that now are crooked I And how many
innocents and saints will then have a resurrection of their
murdered names, that were buried by the world in a heap of
lies, and their enemies never thought of their reviving. O
look to that final judgment of the Lord, and you will take
men's censures but as the shaking of a leaf.
4. It is God only that hath power to execute his sentence,
to our happiness or misery : ** there is one lawgiver that is
able to save and to destroy^." If he say to us, " Come ye
blessed," we shall be happy, though devils and men should
curse us : for those that he blesseth shall be blessed. If he
* The open daylight of truth doth not shew the masks, and mummeries, and tri-
umphs of the world, half so stately and gallant as candlelight doth. Lord Bacon's
Essay of Truth. ,
k J^mes iv, 12.
6&§ CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
condemn to hell, the applause of the world will fetch no man
out, nor give him ease. A great name on earth, or histories
written in their applause, or a gilded monument over their
bones, are a poor relief to damned souls. And the barking
of the wicked, and their scorns on earth, are no diminution
to thejoy or glory of the souls that shine and triumph with
Christ. It is our Lord that " hath the keys of death and
help." Please him, and you are sure to escape, though the
pope, and all the wicked of the world, should thunder out
against you their most direful curses. Woe to us if the
wicked could execute all their malicious censures ! Then
how many saints would be in hell ! But if it be God that
justifies us, how inconsiderable a matter is it, who they are
that condemn us ; or what be their pretences™ !
Direct, v. * Remember that the judgment of ungodly
men, is corrupted and directed by the devil : and to be over-
ruled by their censures, or too much to fear them, is to be
overruled by the devil, and to be afraid of his censures of
us.* And will you honour him so much ? Alas ! it is he
that puts those thoughts into the mind of the ungodly, and
those reproachful words into their mouths. To prefer the
judgment of a man before God's, is odious enough, though
you did not prefer the devil's judgment.
Direct, vi. ' Consider what a slavery you choose, when
you thus make yourselves the servants of every man, whose
censures you fear, and whose approbation you are ambitious
of.' " Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants
of men'':" that is, do not needlessly enthral yourselves.
What a task have men-pleasers ? They have as many masters
as beholders ! No wonder if it take them off from the ser-
vice of God : for the " friendship of the world is enmity to
God :" and he that will thus be " a friend of the world, is an
enemy to God." They cannot serve two masters, God and
the world. You know men will condemn you, if you be
triie to God : if, therefore, you must needs have the favour
of men, you must take it alone without God's favour. A
man-pleaser cannot be true to God ; because he is a servant
to the enemies of his service , the wind of a man's mouth
will drive him about as the chaff, from any duty, and to any
sin. How servile a person is a man-pleaser ! How many
' Rev. i. 18. m Rom. viii. 33. » i Cor. vii. 23.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 559
masters hath he, and how mean ones ! It perverteth the
course of your hearts and lives, and turneth all from God to
this unprofitable way°.
Direct, vn. ' Remember what a pitiful reward you seek.'
" Verily," saith our Lord, concerning hypocrites and man-
pleasers, " they have their reward." O miserable reward !
The thought and breath of mortal men ! Instead of God — in-
stead of heaven ; this is their reward ! Their happiness will
be to lie in hell, and remember that they were well spoken
of on earth ! and that once they were accounted religious,
learned, wise, or honourable ! and to remember that they
preferred this rev^ard before everlasting happiness with
Christ ! If this be not gain, your labour is all lost, which
you lay out in hunting for applause. If this be enough to
spend your time for, and to neglect your God for, and to
lose your souls for, rejoice then in the hypocrite's reward.
Direct, viti. * And remember that honour is such a thing
as is found sooner by an honest contempt of it, than by an
inordinate affection of it, and seeking it.' It is a shadow
which goeth from you if you follow it, and follows you as
fast as you go from it. Whose names are now more hono-
rable upon earth, than those prophets, and apostles, and
martyrs, and preachers, and holy, mortified Christians, who
in their days set lightest by the approbation of the world,
and were made the scorn or foot-ball of the times in which
they lived ? Those that have been satisfied with the appro-
bation of their heavenly Father, who saw them " in secret,"
have been " rewarded by him openly." It is even in the
eyes of rational men, a far greater honour to live to God,
above worldly honour, than to seek it. And so much as a
man is perceived to affect and seek it, so much he loseth of
it : for he is thought to need it ; and men perceive that he
plays a low and pitiful game, that is so desirous of their ap-
plause ! As they would contemn a man that should lick up
the spittle of every man where he comes, so will they con-
temn him that liveth on their thoughts and breath, and ho-
nour him more that lives on God.
Direct, ix. * If nothing else will cure this disease, at
least let the impossibility of pleasing men, and attaining
your ends, suffice against so fruitless an attempt.' And
° Offendet te superbus contemptu, dives conturaelia, petulans injuria, lividus
malignitate/pugnax coatentione, ventosus etmendax vanitate. Non feres a suspicio se
timeri, a pertinace vinci, a delicato fastidiri, Senec, de Ira. lib. 3. c. 8. Elz. p. 65.
560 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
here I shall shew you how impossible it is, or, at least a
thing which you cannot reasonably expect.
1. Remember what a multitude you have to please ; and
when you have pleased some, how many more will be still
unpleased, and how many displeased, when you have done
your best P. Alas ! we are insufficient at once to observe
all those that observe us, and would be pleased by us. You
are like one that hath but twelve pence in his purse, and a
thousand beggars come about him for it, and every one will
be displeased if he have it not all. If you resolve to give
all that you have to the poor, if you do it to please God, you
may attain your end : but if you do it to please them, when
you have pleased those few that you gave it to, perhaps
twice as many will revile or curse you, because they had no-
thing. The beggar that speeds well will proclaim you libe-
ral ; and the beggar that speeds ill, will proclaim you nig-
gardly and unmerciful ; and so you will have more to of-
fend and dishonour you, than to comfort you by their praise,
if that must be your comfort.
2. Remember that all men are so selfish, that their expec-
tations will be higher than you are able to satisfy. They
will not consider your hindrances, or avocations, or what
you do for others, but most of them look to have as much
to themselves, as if you had nobody else to mind but them.
Many and many a time, when I have had an hour or a day
to spend, a multitude have every one expected that I should
have spent it with them. When I visit one, there are ten
offended that I am not visiting them at the same hour : when
I am discoursing with one, many more are offended that I
am not speaking to them all at once : if those that I speak
to account me courteous, and humble, and respectful, those
that I could not speak to, or but in a word, account me dis-
courteous and morose. How many have censured me, be-
cause I have not allowed them the time, which God and con-
science commanded me to spend upon greater and more ne-
cessary work ! If you have any office to give, or benefit to be-
P Unusmihi pro populo est, et populus pro uno. Sen. Ep. 7. ex Democr. EIz.
p. 16. Satis sunt niihi pauci, satis est unus, satis est nuFlus. Senec. Epist. 7. So-
crates was condemned by the votes of more against liira of his judges, than those that
absolved him : and they would not suffer Plato to speak for him. His sentence was,
Jura violat Socrates, quos ex majorum instituto suscepit civitas, deos esse negans, alia
vero nova daemonia inducens. Laert. in Socrat. lib. ii- sect. 40. p. 104.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 66i
stow, which one only can have, every one thinketh himself the
fittest ; and when you have pleased one that hath it, you have
displeased all that went without it, and missed of their desires.
3. ' You have abundance to please that are so ignorant,
unreasonable, and weak, that they take your greatest virtues
for your faults,' and know not when you do well or ill : and
yet none more bold in censuring than those that least un-
derstand the things they censure 'J. Many and many a time
my own and other's sermons have been censured, and openly
defamed, for that which never was in them, upon the igno-
rance or heedlessness of a censorious hearer : yea, for that
which they directly spoke against ; because they were not
understood: especially he that hath a close style, free
from tautology, where every word must be marked by him
that will not misunderstand, shall frequently be misreported.
4. * You will have many factious zealots to please, who
being strangers to the love of holiness, Christianity, and
unity, are ruled by the interest of an opinion or sect ;' and
these will never be pleased by you, unless you will be one of
their side or party, and conform yourself to their opinions.
If you be not against them, but set yourselves to reconcile
and end the differences in the church, they will hate you as
not promoting their opinions, but weakening them by some
abhorred syncretisms. As in civil, so in ecclesiastical wars,
the firebrands cannot endure the peaceable : if you will be
neuters, you shall be used as enemies. If you be never so
much for Christ, and holiness, and common truth, all is
nothing, unless you be also for them, and their conceits.
5. ' Most of the world are haters of holiness, and have
a serpentine enmity to the image of God ; being not renewed
by the Holy Ghost : and will not be pleased with you, un-
less you will sin against your Lord, and do as they do/
** Walking in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings,
banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think
it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of
riot, speaking evil of you ; who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the quick and the dead*"." You must
1 Quae egoscio populusnon probat: quae probat populus ego nescio. Sen. Epis.
29. Imperitia in hominibus majori ex parte dominatur, et multitudo verborum.
Cleobulus, in Laert. lib. i. sect. 91. p. 67.
"• 1 Fet iv. 3, 4, 5.
VOL. II. O O
562 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
be counted as Lot among the Sodomites, a busy fellow that
comes among them to make himself their judge, and to con-
trol them, if you tell them of their «in. You shall be xsall-
ed a precise, hypocritical coxcomb, (or somewhat much
worse,) if you will not be as bad as they, a^d if by your ab-
stinence (though you say nothing,) you seem to reprehend
their sensuality and contempt of Ood. Among bedlams you
must play the bedlam, if you will escape the fangs of their
revilings. And can you hope to please such men as these ?
6, * You shall have satanical God-haters, and men of
seared and desperate consciences to please, that are mali-
cious and cruel, and will be pleased with nothing but some
horrid iniquity, and the damning of your own souls, and
drawing others to damnation/ Like that monster of Milan,
tbat when he had gat down his enemy, made him blaspheme
God in hope to save his life, and th«n stabbed him, calling it
a noble revenge, that killed the body, and damned the soul
at once. There are such in the world, that will so visibly act
the devil's part, that they would debauch, your eonscienoes
with the most horrid perjuries, perfidiousness, and impiety,
that they may triumph over your miserable souls ^ And if
you think it worth the wilful damning of your souls, it is
possible they may be pleased. If you tell them, we cannot
please you, unless we will be dishonest, and displease God,
and sin against our knowledge and consciences, and hazard
our salvation, they will make but a jest of such arguments
as these, and expect you should venture your souls and all
upon their opinions, and care as little for God and your souls
as they do. Desperate sinners are loath to go to hell alone : it
is a torment to them to see others' bette*' than themselvje*,.
They that are cruel and unmerciful to themselves, an4 have
no pity on their own souls, but will sell them for a whore,
or for preferment, and honour, or sensual delighibs, will
scarce have mercy on th(g 'spuls\Qf ptlj^^jcsj "l^is felaftd be
on us, and on our children V' , ,* ; . '
7. * You will have rigorous, c^ptit^us^ ruaefeafitabJe and
unrighteous men to please, who wijl "make a man an offen-
der for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the
gate, and t^irn aside the j us t for a thing of nought, and watch
» Inter haec quid agant quibus loquendi a -Ghmto 00idun) mtodator? -Peo
displicent, si taceant ; hominibus si loqiiantur. Salvian. ad Eccles. Cath.'nb.4.
* Matt, xxvii. 25.
CHAF. IV.] CBRISTIAN ETHICS* 5^
for iniquity"." ' That have none of that charity which co-
vereth faults, and interpreteth words and actions favourably ;
nor any of that justice which causeth men to do as they
would be done by, and judge as they would be judged ; but
judging without mercy, are like to have judgment without
mercy. And are glad when they can find any matter to re-
proach you : and if once they meet with it, (true or false)
they will never forget it, but dwell ais the fly on the ulcerat-
ed place ''.
8. * You will have passionate persons ta please/ whose
judgments are blinded, and are not capable of being pleased.
Like the sick and sore that are hurt with every touch ; and
at last, saith Seneca, with the very conceit that you touch-
ed them. How can you please them, when displeasedness
is their disease, that abideth within them, at the very heart 1
9. ' You will find that een«oriousness is a common vice,
and. though few are competent judges of your actions, as not
being acquainted with all the case, yet every one almost will
be venturing to cast in his censure.' A proud, presump-
tuous understanding is a very common vice ; which thinks
itself presently capable of judging, as soon as it heareth but
a piece of the case, and is not conscious of its own fallibility,
though it have daily experience of it. Few are at your el"
bow, and none in your heart, and therefore know not the
circumstances and reasons of all that you do, nor hear
what you have to say for yourselves ; and yet they will
presiune to censure you, who would have absolved you,
if tbey had but heard you speak. It is rare to meet even
with professors of greatest sincerity, that are very tender
and fearful of sinning, in this point of rash, ungrounded
judging, without capacity or calL
10. ' You live among unpeaceable tattlers and tale-ear-
riers, that would please others by accusing you.' Who is
it that hath ears that hath not such vermin as these earwigs
busy at them ? Except here and there an upright man, whose
angry countenance hath still driven away such backbiting
tongues. And all shall be said behind your backs, when
"La.xxix. 20,21. '' ' ' ^^- "
^ Even for the greatness of ytmr services, you may perish, by the suspicion and
envy of those great ones whom you served : as is proved by the case of Saul and Da-
vid, BelisaiiuS) Narses, Bonifacius, the two sons of Huniades imprisoned, and one
slaiu; and multitudes snch like.
564 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
you are incapable of answering for yourselves. And if it
be a man that the hearers think well of, that accuseth or
backbiteth you, they think it lawful then to believe them :
and most that are their friends, and of their party, and for
their interest, shall be sure to be thought so honest as to be
credible. And it is not strange, for a learned, ingenious,
yea, a godly person, to be too forward in uttering, from the
mouths of others, an evil report : and then the hearer thinks
he is fully justified for believing it, and reporting it again
to others. David himself, by the temptation of a Ziba, is
drawn to wrong Mephibosheth the son of his great deserv-
ing friend y. No wonder then if Saul do hearken to a Doeg
to the wrong of David, and murder of the priests. " The
words of a tale-bearer are as wounds^." *' Where no wood
is, the fire goeth out : so where there is no tale-bearer the
strife ceaseth *." And when these are still near men, and you
far off, it is easy for them to continue the most odious repre-
sentation of the most laudable person's actions in the world.
11.' The imperfection of all men's understandings and ^
godliness is so great, that the differences of judgment that \
are among the best, will tend to the injury and undervaluing
of their brethren.' One is confident that his way is rights
and another is confident of the contrary : and to how great
contendings and injuries such differences may proceed, he
that knoweth not in this age, shall not know for me**. We
need not go to Paul and Barnabas for an instance, (that was
a far lighter case :) nor to Epiphanius, Hierom, and Chry-
sostom : nor to those ages and tragedies of contending bi-
shops, that in the eastern and western churches have been
before us : every one thinking his cause so plain, as to jus-
tify himself, in all that he saith and doth against those that
presume to differ from him. And surely you may well ex-
pect some displeasure, even from good and learned men, |
when the churches have felt such dreadfnl concussions, and J
bleedeth to this day, by so horrid divisions, through the \
remnants of that pride and ignorance which her reverend
guides have still been guilty of *". ,,
y 2 Sam. xvi. 3, 4. ^ Prov. xviii. 8. » Prov. xxvi. 20. I
*» Persiura non euro lege re : Laelium Decimum volo : ut Lucilius. I
•^ I may add that you have guilty consciences to please. And the guilty are, *
as Seneca speaks, like one that hath an ulcer, that at first is hurt with every touch, and
at last even veith the suspicion of a touch. Tutum aliqua res in mala conscientia prae-
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 565
12. ' You have men of great mutability to please ;' that
one hour may be ready to worship you as gods, and the next
to stone you, or account you as devils, as they did by Paul,
and Christ himself. What a weathercock is the mind of
man ! especially of the vulgar and the temporizers ! When
you have spent all your days in building your reputation on
this sand, one blast of wind or storm at last, doth tumble it
down, and all your cost and labour are lost. Serve men as
submissively and carefully as you can ; and after all, some
accident or failing of their unrighteous expectations, may
make all that ever you did forgotten, and turn you out of
the world with Wolsey's groans, * If I had served God as
faithfully as man, I had been better rewarded, and not for-
saken in my distress.' How many have fallen by the hands
or frowns of those whose favour they had dearly purchased^
perhaps at the price of their salvation ! If ever you put
such confidence in a friend, as not to consider that it is pos-
sible he may one day prove your enemy, you know not
man ; and may perhaps be better taught to know him, to
your cost.
13. * Every man living shall unavoidably be engaged by
God himself, in some duties which are very liable to miscon-
struction, and will have an outside and appearance of evil,
to the offence of those that know not all the inside and cir-
cumstances.' And hence it comes to pass, that a great part
of history is little worthy of regard : because the actions of
public persons are discerned but by the halves by most that
write of them. They write most by hearsay ; or know but
the outside and seemings of things, and not the spirit, and
life, and reality of the case. Men have not the choosing of
their own duties, but God maketh them by his law and pro-
vidence : and it pleaseth him oft to try his servants in this
kind : many of the circumstances of their actions shall re-
stat, nulla securura. Putat enira si etiam si non deprehenditur, posse deprehendi ; et
inter somnos niovetur, etquoties alicujus scelus loquitur, de suo cogitat. Senec. Epis.
105. Elz. p. 416. Prima et maxima peccantium poena est peccasse Haec et
secundae poenae premunt et sequuntur, timere semper et expavescere et securitati dif-
fidere. Senec. Epis. 97. Elz. p. 380. Tyranno amici quoque saepe suspecti sunt.
Tu ergo, si tyrannidem tuto tenere cupis, atque in ea constabiliri : civitatis principes
telle, sive illi amici, sive inimici videantur. Thrasybulus in Epist. Periand. in Laert.
lib. i. sect. 100. p. 64. Plerorumque ingenium est, ut errata aliorum vel minima per-
scrutentur, benefacta vero vel in propatulo posita prastereant ; sicut vultures corpora
viva et sana non sentiunt, raorticina vero et cadavera tametsi longe remota odore per-
equuntur. Galiadus in Arcan. Jesuit, p- 55.
566 CHRISTIAN DlRECTOaY. [PART I.
main unknown tp men, that wonJd justify them if they knew
them, and account them as notorious, scandalous persons,
because they kiaow them not. How like to evil was ike Is'-
raelites taking the goods of the Egyptians ? and how likely
to lay them open to their ceaisure ? So was Abraham's at-
tempt to sacrifice his son : and so was David's eating the
shew-bread, and dancing almost naked before the ark;
Christ's eating and drinking with publicans and sinners ;
Paul's circumcising Timothy, and purifying in the temple ;
with abundance such like, which fall out in the life of every
Christian. No wonder if Joseph thought once of putting
Mary away, till he knew the evidence of her miraculous con-
ception ; and how liable was she to censure, by those that
knew it not? O, therefore, how vain is the judgment of
man! And how contrary is it frequently to the truth!
And with what caution must history be read I And O how
desirable is the great day of God, when all human censure
shall be justly censured !
14. *The perverseness of many is so great, that they re-
quire contradictions and impossibilities of you, to tell you
that they are resolved never to be pleased by you.' If John
use fasting, they say, " he hath a devil :" if Christ come
** eating and drinking," they say, '' behold a gluttonous per-
son, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners*^."
If your judgment and practice be conformable to superiors,
especially if they have admitted of a change, you shall be judg-
ed mere knaves and temporizers : if they are not, you shall be
judged disobedient, refractory, and seditious. If you speak
fair and pleasingly, they will call you flatterers and dissem-
blers : if you speak more freely, though in a necessary case,
they will say you rail. If I accept of preferment, they will
say, I am ambitious, proud, and worldly : If I refuse it, (how
modestly soever,) they will say, I am discontented, and have
seditious designs. If I preach not when I am forbidden, I
shall be accused as forsaking the calling I undertook, and
pbeying man against God : if I do preach, I shall be ac-
counted disobedient and seditious. If a friend or kins-
man desire me to help him to some place or preferment
which he is not fit for, or which would tend to another's
wrong; if I shpuld grant his desire, I shall be taken
for dishonest, that by partiality wrong another : if I deny
^ Matt. xi. 18, 19.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 507
it bim, I shall be called unnatural or unfriendly, and
worse than an infidel. If I give to the poor as long as I
have it, 1 shall be censured for ceasing when I have no more:
they that know not whether you have it to give or not, will
be displeased if you do not; and if many years you should
maintain them freely, it, is. all as nothing as soon as you
cease^ either because your stock is spent, or because some
other is made the necessary object of your charity. If you
be wronged in your estate, if you go to law, they will say,
you are contentious ; if you let go your estate to avoid con-
tention, they will say, you are silly fools or idiots. If you
do any good works of charity to the knowledge of men>
they will say, you are hypocrites, and do it for applause : if
you do it secretly,, that no one know of it, they will say, you
are covetous, and have no good works, and though you make
a greater profession of religion, you do no good ; and others
shall be censured so also for your sakes. If you be plea-
sant and merry, they will censure you as light and vain : if
you be more grave and sad, they will say, you are melancho-
ly or discontent. In a word, whatever you do, be sure by
some it will be condemned ; and do or not do, speak or be
silent, you shall certainly displease> and never escape the
censures of the world.
15. * There is among men so great a coritrariety of judg-
ments, and dispositions, and interests,^ that they will never
agree among themselves; and if you please one, the
rest will be thereby displeased*.' He that you please is an
enemy to another ; and therefore you displease his enemy,
by pleasing him. Sometimes, state differences divide king-
doms into parties, and one party will be displeased with you;
if you be of the other, and both if you are neuters, or dis-
like them both : and each party think their cause will jus-
tify any accusations they can charge you with, or odious
titles they can give you, if not any sufferings they can bring
upon you. Church differences and sects have been found;
in all ages, and you cannot be of the opinion of every party :
when the world aboundeth with such variety of conceits,
you cannot be of all at once. And if you be of one party,
e When the divines of Heidelberg appointed Pitiscus to write his Irenicon, his
very writing for peace, and to persuade the Reformed from apologies and disputes,
did give occasion of renewed stirs to the Saxon and Swedish divines to tell men, that
they could have no peace with us. Scultet. Curric. p. 46.
568 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
you must displease the rest ; if you are of one side in con-
troverted opinions, the other side accountethyou erroneous:
and how far will the supposed interest of their cause and
party carry them ? One half of the Christian world, at this
day, condemneth the other half as schismatical at least,
the other half doing the like for them. And can you be
Papists, and Protestants, and Greeks, and every thing ? If
not, you must displease as many as you please. Yea, more,
if mutable men shall change never so oft, they will expect
that you change as fast as they, and whatever their contrary
interests require, you must follow them in ; one year you
must swear, and in another you must unswear all again :
whatever cause or action they engage in be it never so devil-
ish, you must approve of it and countenance it, and all that
they do you must say is well done. In a word, you must
teach your tongue to say or swear any thing, and you must
sell your innocency, and hire out your consciences wholly
to their service, or you cannot please them. Micaiah must
say with the rest of the prophets, " Go, and prosper," or
else he will be hated, as not prophesying good of Ahab, but
evil ^. And how can you serve all interests at once. It
seems the providence of God hath, as of purpose, wheeled
about the affairs of the world, to try and shame man-
pleasers and temporizers in the sight of the sun. It is evi-
dent then, that if you will please all you must at once both
speak and be silent, and verify contradictions, and be in many
places at once, and be of all men's minds, and for all men's
way. For my part, I mean to see the world a little better
agreed among themselves, before I will make it my ambition
to please them. If you can reconcile all their opinions,
and interests, and complexions, and dispositions, and make
them all of one mind and will, then hope to please them.
16. * If you excel in any one virtue or duty, even that
shall not excuse you from the contrary defamation, so unrea-
sonable are malicious men.' Nothing in the world can secure
you from censorious, slanderous tongues^. The perfect ho-
liness of Jesus Christ could not secure him from being
called a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber, and a friend
of publicans and sinners. His wonderful contempt of
' 1 Kings xxii. 8.
K They that saw Stephen's face as it had been the face of an angel, and heard
him tell thcin that he saw heaven Open, yet stoned him to death as a blasphemer*
Acts vi. 15. vii. 55 — 60.
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 569
worldly dignities and honours, and his subjection to Caesar,
could not secure him from being slandered and crucified as
Caesar's enemy. The great piety of the ancient Christians
excused them not from the vulgar calumny, that they met
together for filthiness in the dark ; nor from the cry of the
rabble, ' Tollite impios,' * away with the ungodly,* because
they were against the worshipping of idols. I have known
those that have given all that ever they had to the poor ex-
cept their food and necessaries, and yet (though it was to
a considerable value) have been reproached as unmerciful,
by those that have not had what they expected. Many a
one hath been defamed with scandalous rumours of unclean-
ness, that have lived in untainted chastity all their lives.
The most eminent saints have been defamed as guilty of the
most horrid crimes, which never entered into their thoughts.
The principal thing that ever I bent my studies and care
about, hath been the reconciling, unity, and peace of
Christians, and against unpeaceableness, uncharitable-
ness, turbulency, and division : and yet some have been
found, whose interest and malice have commanded them
to charge me with that very sin, which I have spent my
days, my zeal, and study against. How oft have contrary
factions charged me with perfectly contrary accusations ?
I can scarce remember the thing that I can do in all the
world, that some will not be offended at. Nor the duty so
great and clear, that some will not call my sin. Nor the
self-denial so great (to the hazard of my life) which hath not
been called self-seeking, or something clean contrary to what
it was indeed. Instead therefore of serving and pleasing
this malicious, unrighteous world, I contemn their blind and
unjust censures, and appeal to the most righteous God*".
17. * If you have a design for a name of honour when
you are dead, consider what power a prevailing faction may
have to corrupt the history of your life, and represent you
to posterity perfectly contrary to what you are ; and how
impossible it is for posterity to know whose history is the
product of malicious, shameless lies, and whose is the nar-
rative of impartial truth.' What contrary histories are there
of particular persons and actions written by men of the
same religion : as of Pope Gregory VII. and the emperors
•* Socrates primus de vitae ratione disseruit, ac primus philosophorum damnatus
nioritur. See Laerl. in Socrat. lib. ii. sect. 45. p. 108. Multa prius de immortalitate
animarum ac praeclara dissertus. Ibid.
570 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I,
that contended with him; and about Pope Joan, and many
the like cases, where yon may read scores of historians on
one side, and on the other'.
18. 'Remember that the holiest saints or apostles could
never please the world, nor escape their censures, slanders,
and cruelties ; no, nor Jesus Christ himself.' And can you
think by honest means to please them better than Christ and
all his ^ints have done? You have not -the wisdom that
Christ had to please men, and to avoid offence. You have
no^t the perfect innocency and unblamableness thai Christ
had ; you cannot heal their sicknesses and infirmities, and
do that good to them to pleas© and win them as Jesus
Christ did: you cannot convince them, and constrain them
to reverence you by manifold miracles as Jesus Christ did.
Can you imitate such an excellent pattern as is set you by
the holy, patient, charitable, unwearied apostle Paul^.' If
you cannot, how can you please them that would not be
pleased by such inimitable works of love and power? The
more Paul ** loved" some of his hearers, the ** less he was
beloved ^" They used him " as an enemy for telling l^em
the truth""." Though he * became all things to all men ;"
he could " save but some," nor " please but some""." And
what are you that you should better please them?
19. ' Godliness, virtue, and honesty themselves will not
please the world, and therefore you cannot hope to please themr
by that which is not pleasing to them.' Will men be pleased
by that which they hate ? and by the actions which they
think accuse them and condemn them? And if you will be
ungodly and vicious to please them, you sell your souls,
your conscience, and your Grod to please them. God and
they are not pleased with the same ways ; and which do you
think should first be pleased? If you displease him for
their favour, you will buy it dqar*'.
' Fama libefriraa principum judex. Seneea in consolat. ad Marciam, cap.iv«
Ek..p. 159.
•^ Acts XX, 1 Cor. iv. i^. 2CJor. iv, v. vi. x. xi. xii.
1 2 Cor. xii. 15. «» Gal. iv. 16. " 1 Cor. ix. 22.
o Aristides, having got the surname of Just, was hated by the Athenians, who
decreed to banish kuraj and every one that voted against him being to write down
iiis name, a elpwn that qqi^ not write, cam? to Arisjidesi to, desire him to writedown
Aristides's name : he asked^him wJiether lie knew Aristides? ^nd the raana^swered,
no ; but he would vote against him because bis name was Just. Aristides concealing
himself fulfilled the man's desire, andwrote his own namie in the roll and gave it him :
so easily did he bear it to be condenuied of the world for being Just. Plutarch in
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 671
20. * They are not pleased with God himself; yea, no
man doth displease so many and so much as he/ And can
you do more than God to please them? or can you deserve
their favour more than he ? They are daily displeased with
his works of providence. One would have rain, when ano-
ther would have none ; one would have the winds to serve
his voyage, and another would have them in a contrary
end; one party is displeased, because another is pleased
and exalted. Every enemy would have his cause succeed,
and the victory to be his ; every contender would have all
go on his side. God must be ruled by them, and fit him-
self to the interest of the most unjust, and to the will of the
most vicious, and do aa they would have him, and be a ser-
vant to their lusts, or they will not be pleased with him*
And his holy nature, and his holy Word, and holy ways dis^
please them more than his ordinary providence. They are
displeased that his Word is so precise and strict, and that
he commandeth them so holy and so strict a life, and that he
threateneth all the ungodly with damnation : he must alter
his laws, and make them more loose, and fit them to their
fleshly interest and lusts, and speak as they would have
him, without any difficulties, before they will be pleased with
them (unless he alter their minds and hearts). And how do
you think they will be pleased with him at last, when he ful-
fils his threatenings ? When he killeth them and turneth their
bodies to dust, and their guilty souls to torment and despair.
21. ' How can you please men that cannot please them-
selves V Their own desire and choice will please them but
a little while. Like children, they are soon weary of that
which they cried for ; they must needs have it, and when
they have it, it is naught and cast away : they are neither
pleased with it, nor without it. They are like sick persons
that long for every meat or drink they think of; and when
they have it they cannot get it down, for the sickness is still
within them that causeth their displeasure. How many do
trouble and torment themselves by their passions and folly
from day to day? and can you please such self-displeasers?
* How can you please all others, when you cannot please
yourselves?' If you are persons fearing God, and feel the
Aiistide. It was not only Socrates that was thus used, saith Laertius, Nam Home-
rum velut insanientem drachmis quinquaginta mulctarunt, TyrtjBuraque mentis ira-
potem dixerunt, &c. lib. ii. sect. 43. p. 106. Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted ? Matt, xxiii.
572 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
burden of your sins, and have life enough to be sensible of
your diseases, I dare say there are none in the world so
displeasing to you as you are to yourselves. You carry that
about you, and feel that within you which displeaseth you
more than all the enemies you have in the world. Your pas-
sions and corruptions, your want of love to God, and your
strangeness to him and the life to come, the daily faultiness
of your duties and your lives, are your daily burden, and
displease you most. And if you be not able, and wise, and
good enough to please yourselves, can you be able, and
wise, and good enough to please the world? As your sins
are nearest to yourselves, so are your graces ; and as you
know more evil by yourselves than others know, so you
know more good by yourselves. That little fire will not warm
all the room, which will not warm the hearth it lieth on.
Direct, x. * Remember what a life of unquietness and
continual vexation you choose. If you place your peace
or happiness in the good-will or word of man?.' For hav-
ing shewed you how impossible a task you undertake, it
must needs follow that the pursuit of it must be a life of
torment : to engage yourselves in so great cares, and be
sure to be disappointed ! To make that your end, which
you cannot attain ! To find that you labour in vain, and
daily meet with displeasure instead of the favour you
expected, must needs be a very grievous life. You are like
one that dwelleth on the top of a mountain, and yet cannot
endure the wind to blow upon him; or like him that dwell-
eth in a wood, and yet is afraid of the shaking of a leaf.
You dwell among a world of ulcerated, selfish, contradic-
tory, mutable, unpleaseable minds, and yet you cannot en-
dure their displeasure. Are you magistrates? The people
will murmur at you ; and those that are most incompetent
and incapable will be the most forward to censure you, acdr'
think that they could govern much better than you^i. Those
that bear the necessary burdens of the common safety and
defence will say that you oppress them ; and the malefactors
that are punished will say you deal unmercifully by them ;
and those that have a cause never so unjust will say that
you wrong them, if it go not on their side. Are you pastors
P Vis esse in mundo? Couterani et tetnnere disce. Abr. Bucholtzer.
'1 Socrates dicenli cuidam, nonne tibi ille maledicit? Non inquit, mihi enini ista
iioH adsunt. Diog. Laert. lib. ii. sect. 36. p. 102,
CHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 573
and teachers ? You will seem too rough to one, and too
smooth to another; yea, too rough to the same man when
by reproof or censure you correct his faults, who censureth
you as too smooth and a friend to sinners, when you are to
deal in the cause of others : no sermon that you preach is
like to be pleasing to all your hearers, nor any of your mi-
nisterial works ^ Are you lawyers? The clients that lost
their cause, behind your backs, will call you unconscion-
able, and say you betrayed them ; and those that prevailed
will call you covetous, and tell how much money you took
of them, and how little you did for it : so that it is no won-
der that among the vulgar your profession is the matter of
their reproach. Are you physicians ? You will be accused
as guilty of the death of many that die, and as covetous
takers of their money whether the patient die or live ; for
this is the common talk of the vulgar, except of some few
with whom your care hath much succeeded. Are you
tradesmen? Most men that buy of you are so selfish that,
except you will beggar yourselves, they will say you de-
ceive them, and deal unconscionably and sell too dear;
little do they mind the necessary maintenance of your faini-
lies, nor care whether you live or gain by your trading, but
if you will wrong yourselves to sell them a good penny-
worth, they will say you are very honest men : and yet when
you are broken, they will accuse you of imprudence and
defrauding your creditors ; you must buy dear and sell
cheap, and live by the loss, or else displease ^
Direct, xi. * Remember still that the pleasing of God is
your business in the world, and that in pleasing him your
souls may have safety, rest, and full content, though all the
world should be displeased with you*.' God is enough for
you ; and his approbation and favour are your portion and
reward. How sweet and safe is the life of the sincere and
upright ones, that study more to be good than to seem
good? And think if God accept them that they have
' Dicebat expedire, ut sese ex industria comicis exponeret. Nam si quidem ea
dixerint quae in nobis corrigenda sint, emendabunt : sin alia, nihil ad nos. Ibid.
* Dicenti Alcibiadi, non esse tolerabilem Xantippen adeo morosam : atqui, ait,
ego ita hisce jampridem assuetus sura, ac si jugitur sonum trochlearura audiam et
mihi post Xautippes usum, reliquorura mortaliura facilis toleratio est. Laert. in
Socr. lib. ii. sect. 37, 38. pp. 102, 103.
* Hoc habeo fere refugii et praesidii in meis aerumnis : serraones cum Deo, cum
anaicis veris, et cum mutis raagistris. Bucholtzer.
574 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
enough? O what a mercy is an upright heart! which re-
nounceth the world, and all therein that stands in compe-
tition with his God ; and taketh God for his God indeed,
even for his Lord, his Judge, his portion, and his all ? Who
in temptation remembereth the eye of God, and in all his
duty is provoked and ruled by the will and pleasure of his
Judge ? and regardeth the eye and thoughts of man, but as
he would do the presence of a bird or beast, unless as piety,
justice or charity, require him to have respect to man, in
due subordination to God. Who when men applaud him
as a person of excellent holiness and goodness is fearful
and solicitous, lest the all-knowing God should think other-
wise of him than hie applauders ; and under all the censures,
reproaches, and slanders of man, (yea, though through temp-
tation good men should thus use him,) can live in peace
upon the approbation of his God alone ; and can rejoice in
his justification by his righteous Judge and gracious Re-
deemer, though the inconsiderable censures of men con-
demn him ". Verily, I cannot apprehend how any other
man but this can live a life of true and solid peace and joy.
If God's approbation and favour quiet you not, nothing can
rationally quiet you. If the pleasing of him do not satisfy
you, though men, though good men, though all men should
be displeased with you, I know not how or when you will
be satisfied. Yea, if you be above the censures and dis-
pleasure of the profane, and not also of the godly, (when
God will permit them, as Job's wife and friends, to be your
trial,) it will not suffice to an even, contented, quiet life.
And here consider,
1. If you seek first to please God and are satisfied there-
in, you have but one to please instead of multitudes '".^ And
a multitude of masters are hardlier pleased than one. 2.
And it is one that putteth you upon nothing that is unrea-
sonable, for quantity or quality. 3. And one that is per-
fectly wise and good, not liable to misunderstand your case
and actions. 4. And one that is most holy, and is not
pleased in iniquity or dishonesty. 5. And he is one that is
impartial and most just, and is no respecter of persons.
6. And he is one that is a competent Judge, that hath fit-
" Nemo aliorum sensu miser est, sed suo : et ideo non possunt cujusqiiam ialso,
judicio esse miseri, qui sunt vere su^ conscienti^ beati. Salvian. de Gubern. 1. i.
'^ Philosophi libertas luolesta est oronibiM. P. ScaJig. multo magis fidelis pastoris.
GHAP. IV.] CHRISTIAN ETHICS. > 67$
ness and authority, and is acquainted with your hearts, and
every circumstance and reason of your actions. 7. And he
is one that perfectly agreeth with himself, and putteth you
not upon contradictions or impossibilities. 8. And he is
one that is constant and unchangeable ; and is not pleased
with one thing'to-day, and another contrary to-morrow ; nor
with one person this year, of whom he will be weary the
next. 9. And he is one that is merciful, and requireth you
not to hurt yourselves to please him ; nay, he is pleased
with nothing of thine but that which tendeth to thy happi-
ness, and displeased with nothing but that which hurts thy-
self or others 5 as a fatJier that is displeased with his chil-
dren, when they defile or hurt themselves. 10. He is gentle,
though just in his censures of thee; judging truly, but not
with unjust rigour, nor making your actions worse than they
are. 1 1 . He is one that is not subject to the passions of men,
which blind their minds, and carry them to injustice. 12. He
is one that will not be moved by tale-bearers, whisperers, or
false-accusers, nor can be perverted by any misinformation.
Consider also the benefits of taking up with the pleasing
of God. 1. The pleasing of him is your happiness itself :
the matter of pure, and full, and constant comfort, which you
may have continually at hand, and no man can take from you.
Get this and you have the end of man; nothing can be added
to it but the perfection of the same, which is heaven itself.
2. What abundance of disappointments and vexations
will you escape, which tear the very hearts of man-pleasers,
and fill their lives with unprofitable sorrows ?
3. It will guide and order your cares, and desires, and
thoughts, and labours to tiheir right and proper end ; and
prevent the perverting of them, and spending them in sin
and vanity on the creature.
4. It will make your lives not only to be divine, but tiiis
divine life to be sweet and easy, while you set light by hu-
man censures which would create you prejudice and difii-
culties ! When others glory in wit, and wealth, and strength,
you would glory in this, that you know the Lord.
5. As God is above man, thy heart and life are highly
ennobled by having so much respect to God, and rejecting
inordinate respect to man. This is indeed to walk with God.
6. The sum of all graces is contained in this sincere de-
sire to please tl>y God, a«<J conteatednesa in ikis so far as
576 CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. [PART I.
thou findest it attained. Here are faith, and humility, and
love, and holy desire, and trust, and the fear of God con-
centered. You " sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and
make him your fear, and dread, and sanctuary."
7. If human approbation be good for you and worth
your having, this is the best way to it, for God hath the
disposal of it. " If a man's ways please the Lord, he mak-
eth even his enemies to be at peace with him." Appeasing
their wrath, or restraining them from intended evil, or doing
us good by that which they intend for hurt.
' See therefore that you live upon God's approbation as
that which you chiefly seek, and will suffice you.' Which
you may discover by these signs : 1. You will be most care-
ful to understand the Scripture, to know what doth please
and displease God. 2. You will be more careful in the do-
ing of every duty, to fit it to the pleasing of God than man.
3. You will look to your hearts, and not only to your ac-
tions ; to your ends, and thoughts, and the inward manner
and degree. 4. You will look to secret duties as well
as public, and to that which men see not, as well as
unto that which they see. 5. You will reverence your con-
sciences, and have much to do with them, and will not slight
them : when they tell you of God's displeasure, it will dis-
quiet you ; when they tell you of his approbation, it will com-
fort you. G. Your pleasing men will be charitable for their
good ; and pious, in order to the pleasing of God ; antl not
proud and ambitious for your honour with them, nor impi-
ous against the pleasing of God. 7. Whether men be pleased
or displeased, or how they judge of you, or what they call
you, will seem a small matter to you, as their own interest,
in comparison of God's judgment. You live not on them.
You can bear their displeasure, censures, and reproaches,
if God be but pleased. These will be your evidences^.
y Non est idoneus philosophic discipulus, qui stultum pudorum "non possit con-
temncre. Id. ibid. p. 728.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
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