^o/
S'y.i
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
OF THE
REV. RICHARD BAXTER.
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
OF
THE REV. RICHARD BAXTER:
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF HIS WRITINGS,
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM ORME,
AinHOU OF " THE LIFE OF JOHN OWEN, D.D.j" " BIBLIOTHECA BIBLICA," E/TC
VOL. XVI.
IN TWENTY-THREE VOLUMES.
LONDON:
JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXXX.
.^
LONDON:
PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT,. AND MILLS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET,
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
OF THE
REV. RICHARD BAXTER.
VOLUME XVI.
CONTAININO
THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE, AND BENEFITS OF SELF-
ACQUAINTANCE; THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND CATHOLIC
CHURCH DESCRIBED; CATHOLIC UNITY ; MAKING
LIGHT OF CHRIST AND SALVATION, TOO OFT
THE ISSUE OF GOSPEL INVITATIONS.
VOL. XVl.
R. EDWARDS, CRANt COURT, VLEF.T STREFT, LONDON,
CONTENTS
OF
THE SIXTEENTH VOLUME.
THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE, AND
BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE.
PACK
Epistle Dedicatory, &c. "^
The Text opened ^^
Self-knowledge, what ; and how many sorts 34
How far it is a shame to be ignorant of ourselves 36
The mischiefs of self-ignorance, 1. It cherisheth atheism. . 37
2. Causeth ignorance of the life to come 40
3. And of the evil of sin ibid.
4. It keepeth the soul from true humiliation 41
5. It maketh Christ undervalued ibid.
6. It makes a holy conversation vililied • • 42
7. It makes men cheated by the world 43
8. It causeth pride • 44
9. It makes men run into temptations 45
10. It makes temptations prevalent 46
11. It makes men quarrel with God's word and ministers • • ibid.
12. It destroyeth charity 47
13. It is the cause of church-divisions 48
14. It maketh men troublers of the state 51
15. It causeth errors 52
16. It makes men unjust .53
17. It makes men unthankful ibid.
18. It is an enemy to true peace and joy ibid.
19. It makes men repine at God's providence, 54
20. It makes men lose their timCj and neglect preparations
for death 55
Use.
Self-ignorance detected and reproved 55
Discovered by some effects : 1. By men's unhumbleness .. 59
2. By the abounding of hypocrisy 61 — 3. By the love
of flattery, and impatience of plain reproof 63 —
4. By men's partiality 65 — 5. When every man would
be a rule to others 68 — 6. By the great change that
approaching death, or other awaking providences make
69—7- By men's quarrelling with others in their
sufferings, and overlooking the great cause in them-
selves T'i — The discovery prosecuted 15
YOli, XVI. b
iv CONTENTS.
PACE
Motives.
I. If you know not yourselves, you cannot repent 7S
•2. Nor be duly sensible of your misery ibid.
3. Nor indeed by Christians ^^
4. You will not know what to do with yourselves 86
5. You will not know how to apply the word 88
6. Nor how to confess or pray ^^
7. Nor how to give thanks " -t 93
8. Nor how to receive the Lord's-supper 96
9. All your studies will be irrational, preposterous, &c. . . 97
10. You wiU be much unuseful to others 101
11. You cannot well proceed to know extrinsic things • • • • 103
12. How many things have you to know about yourselves 105
Exhortation 106
Caution against excessive studying of ourselv.es lOS
Who need this caution 110
Information : Why the sincere can discourse so fully and
savourily about heart-affairs 116
And why they are so fuU in prayer, and others so empty . . 117
The excuses of the prayerless answered ........•• 118
Why the upright are so prone to self-accusing. 123
Motives to the Ungodly.
1. If you know not yourselves, you know not whether you
must dwell in heaven or hell 124
2. All shall shortly know themselv-es 3 126
3. And be surprised to find themselves in a mistake 132
How useful a companion conscience is to converse with. ... 130
4. It is Satan's chief design to keep yourself ignorant .... 134
Yet some can go on in known misery 139
A threefold despair ••.... 141
In what cases the sincere may go on in sin against knowledge 142
But the ordinarily self-knowledge would do much 143
Information : Why faithful ministers search so deep, and
speak so hardly of unrenewed souls 147
Questions to the unsanctified 158
What Christianity is, and who sincere in the covenant • • • - 163
Who certainly are unregenerate 164
Exhortation to the Regenerate.
1. 1. To know their sins, 2. Their graces. 1. For want of
self-knowledge 168
1. You confess not sin as you ought to God or man 169 —
2. You pray not against it, or for grace as you ought
170 — 3. You are negligent in your watch ibid. —
4. Seek not help 171—5. Lie in unobserved sins 1/2
CONTENTS. V
PAGE
1. In general. When sin is most unobserved 173
*2. Particularly, 1. The self-ignorant little think, while they
are orthodox, what errors they may fall into 176
2. Or in adversity, what sins prosperity may draw forth . . 17T
3. Or how soon the resolutions of affliction may decay 178
4. Or when the heart is warm and heavenly, how quickly
it may cool and fall to earth 181
True marks of grace 182
5. And in prosperity they little think what sins adversity
may detect or occasion 188
6. Or what pride may appear in those that are humble . . 189
7. Some of the greatest sins of Christians too little ob-
served and lamented : As, 1 . The remnants of infidelity J 9 1
2. The great imperfection of love to God ibid.
3, And want of love to one another 192
8. The insinuations of selfishness in all that we do 193
9. The eruption of passions that seemed mortified 195
1 0. Affections mixed w ith carnality, which seemed spiritual ibid .
Caution against overmuch suspicion or accusation of our-
selves 196
2. Sin surpriseth more dangerously : 3. And the remedy is
neglected, through self-ignorance 198
II. What hinders believers from knowing their graces:
1. The sense of the contraries 199 — 2. The smallness
of grace 200 — 3. Not judging by sure marks : the
essentials of holiness : what they are 202
What marks remain uncertain 202
What sin consist with true grace 203
4. Overvaluing what we have, by looking at what we
ought to be 205
5. Judging upon disadvantage: 1. Surprising ourselves
unpreparedly. 2. Judging in passion, of fear or grief.
3. When helps are absent. 4. When our bodies are
melancholy, or otherwise unfit ibid. — 5. Refusing the
former judgment of our sincerity, if we have not a
continued sight of grace 206
6. The variety and confusion of the soul's operations .... 207
Motives to labour to know our Sanctijication.
1. It is a most excellent sort of knowledge 207
2. It is a most delightful felicitating, knowledge 208
3. It might sweeten every place and state ibid.
4. It would much help our belief of Scripture 209
5. And our trusting on God in all straits 210
6. And our cheerful progress in religion ibid.
vi CONTENTS.
PAGE
7. It may keep you from the terrors of the doubting .... 21 1
8. And sweeten all your other mercies 212
9. And debilitate temptations to sensual pleasures ibid.
10. And sweeten all the service of God ^ 213
1 1 . And kindle love to God 216
12. It is necessary to a life of thankfulness 219
13. You will not else live to the glory of the Gospel 222
14. It will make all sufferings easy 223
As, 1. Scorns ibid. — 2. Opposition. 3. Slanders 224 —
4. Imprisonment and banishment 226 — 5. Personal
and family crosses 227 — 6. Death ...,....,.,.. 227
The hindrances of self-acquaintance . 1. External, 2. Minis-
ters' unskilfulness and unfaithfulness 231
Direct. I. Live under a skilful, faithful pastor " 236
In what cases to use their personal helps 239
Objections against ministers' personal helps, answered .... 240
Quest. How far a doubting person may rest in the judgment
of a minister about the state of his soul 245
The directions applied to both sorts 248
Hind. 2. Desire not much prosperity; and detest flatterers 252
Hind. 3. Conversing only with bad men 261
Direct. 3. Converse with heavenly, exemplary Christians . . 263
II. Internal hindrances j 1. Pride 265
Direct. 1. Come to Christ as little children 266
Hind. 2. An unreasonable love of present ease 267
Direct. 2. Look to the time to come, and be not too tender
of present trouble 269
Hind. 3. Self-love blindeth 270
Direct. 3. Bring your minds to a just impartiahty 271
Hind. 4. Not observing the heart in trial, but taking it only
at the best 273
Caution : When and how to judge ourselves 274
Direct. 4. Judge of your habitual state by your actions .... 276
THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND CATHOLIC CHURCH
DESCRIBED.
1 Corinthians xii. 12 283
CATHOLIC UNITY.
Ephesians iv. 3 379
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST AND SALVATION.
Matthew xxii. 5 598
THE
MISCHIEFS OF SELF IGNORANCE,
AND THE
BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE:
OPENED
IN DIVERS SERMONS AT ST. DUNSTAN'S, WESTj
AND PUBLISHED
IN ANSWER TO THE ACCUSATIONS OF SOME, AND THE
DESIRES OF OTHERS.
" For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth him-
self: But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in
himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden."
Gat., vi. 3—5,
VOL. XVI. B
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ANNE,
COUNTESS OF BALCARRES, &c.
Madam,
Though it be usual in Dedications to proclaim the ho-
nour of inscribed names, and though the proclaiming of
yours be a work that none are like to be offended at that
know you, they esteeming you the honour of your sex and
nation ; yet that you may see I intend not to displease you
by any unsafe or unsavoury applause, I shall presume here
to lay a double dishonour upon you : The one by prefixing
your name to these lean and hasty Sermons : the other by
laying part of the blame upon yourself, and telling the world
that the fault is partly yours that they are published. Not
only yours I confess ; for had it not been for some such
auditors as Christ had, (Luke xx. 20 ; Mark xii. 13,) and
for the frequent reports of such as are mentioned, Psal.
XXXV. II, I had not written down all that I delivered, and so
had been incapable of so easily answering your desires. But
it was you that was not content to hear them, but have in-
vited them to recite their message more publicly ; as if that
were like to be valued, and effectual upon common hearts,
which through your strength of charity and holy appetite
is so with yours. My own thoughts went in the middle
way ; neither thinking as those that accused these sermons
of injurious tendency, against I know not whom, or
what, (that have been so long in contention, that they dream
they are still contending, and fancy every word they hear,
from those that their uncharitableness calleth adversaries,
to signify some hostile, terrible thing ; as the scalded head
doth fear cold water :) nor yet did I think them worthy to
be tendered by such a publication to the world: But valuing
your judgment, and knowing that the subject is of great
necessity, though the manner of handling be dull and dry, I
hope it may be profitable to some, and I find nothing in it
IV EPISTLE DEniCATORY.
to be hurtful unto any, and therefore submit, and leave you
both to bear the blame, and take the thanks, if any be re-
turned.
I perceive you value the subjects which you have found
in the practice of your soul to be most useful : as they that
know God would fain have all others to know him; so those
that know themselves, do love the glass, and would have
others to make use of it : I wonder not if your experience of
the benefits of self-acquaintance, provoke you to desire to
have more partakers in so profitable and so sweet a know-
ledge. Had you not known yourself, you had never known
your Saviour, your God, your way, and your end, as you
have done : you had never been so well acquainted with the
symptoms and cure of the diseases of the soul ; the nature
and exercise of grace, the way of mortification, and the
comfortable supports, refreshments and foretastes of hea-
venly believers ; you had never so clearly seen the vanity
of all the pomp and fulness of the world, nor so easily and
resolutely despised its flatteries and baits, nor so quietly
borne variety of afflictions; nor imitated Moses, (Heb. xi. 25,
26,) nor received the holy character, Psal. xv. He that is a
stranger to himself, his sin, his misery, his necessity, &c., is
a stranger to God, and to all that might denominate him
wise or happy. To have taken the true measure of our
capacities, abilities, infirmities and necessities, and there-
upon to perceive what is really best for us, and most
agreeable to our case, is the first part of true, practical,
saving knowledge. Did the distracted mindless world con-
sider, what work they have at home for their most serious
thoughts, and care, and diligence, and of what unspeakable
concernment and necessity it is, and that men carry within
them the matter of their final doom, and the beginning of
endless joy or sorrows, they would be called home from
their busy idleness, their laborious loss of precious time,
and unprofitable vagaries, and would be studying their
hearts, while they are doting about a multitude of imperti-
nencies, and would be pleasing God while they are purveying
for the flesh ; and they would see that it more concerneth
them to know the day of their salvation, and now to lay up
a treasure in heaven, that they may die in faith, and live in
everlasting joy and glory, than in the crowd and noise of
the ambitious, covetous, voluptuous sensualists, to run after
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. V
a feather, till time is past, and mercy gone, and endless woe
hath unexpectedly surprised them. Yet do these dead men
think they live, because they laugh, and talk, and ride, and
go, and dwell among gnats and flies in the sunshine, and
not with worms and dust in darkness : They think they
are awake, because they dream that they are busy ; and that
they are doing the works of men, because they make a pud-
der and a noise for finer clothes, and larger rooms, and
sweeter morsels, and lower congees and submissions than
their poorer, undeceived neighbours have : they think they
are sailing to felicity, because they are tossed up and down :
and if they can play the jacks among the fishes, or the
wolves or foxes in the flocks of Christ ; or if they can attain
to the honour of a pestilence, to be able to do a great deal
of hurt, they are proud of it, and look as high as if they saw
neither the grave nor hell, nor knew how quickly they must
be taken down, and laid so low, that " the righteous shall
see it, and fear, and laugh at them, saying, Lo, this is the
man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the
abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his
wickedness. (Psal. lii. 6, 7.) " Behold these are the ungodly
that prosper in the world, and increase in riches ; surely
they are set in slippery places, and cast down to destruction,
and brought to desolation as in a moment; and utterly con-
sumed with terrors: as a dream when one awaketh, so, O
Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image,
(Psal. Ixxiii.) Though while they lived they blessed them-
selves, and were praised by men ; yet when they die they
carry nothing away ; their glory shall not descend after them ;
like sheep they are laid in the grave : death shall feed on
them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the
morning; man in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts
that perish ; this their way is their folly ; yet their posterity
approve their sayings," (Psal. xlix,) as the proverb is, ' At
last the wolf's skin is brought to the market, and the fox's
to the furrier.' They shall find that God is not afraid to lay
the hand of justice on the stoutest of them, and will be as
bold with silken, shining gallants, as with the poorest worms ;
and will spit in the face of that man's glory, who durst spit
in the face of the glory of his Redeemer, and will trample
upon the interest which is set up against the interest of
Christ. The juvial world do now think that self-study is
VI EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
too melancholy a thing ; and they choose to be distracted
for fear of being melancholy ; and will be mad, in Solomon's
sense, that they may be wise and happy in their own. (Eccles.
ii. 2.) " The heart of fools is in the house of mirth, and the
heart of the wise in the house of mourning." (Eccles. vii. 4.)
And yet there is most joy in the hearts of the wise, and
least solid peace in the hearts of fools : they know that
conscience hath so much against them, that they dare not
hear its accusations and its sentence : they dare not look
into the hideous dungeon of their hearts, nor peruse the
accounts of their bankrupt souls, nor read the history of their
impious, unprofitable lives, lest they should be tormented
before the time : they dare not live like serious men, lest
they should lose thereby the delights of brutes. O sinful
men ! against what light, both natural and supernatural, do
they offend ! They see how all things haste away : the names
of their predecessors are left as a warning to them ; every
corpse that is carried to the grave, being dead, yet speaketh :
and every bone that is thence cast up, doth rise as a witness
against their luxury and lust ; and yet they will have their
wills and pleasure while they may, whatever it cost them :
and they will set their houses on fire that they might have
one merry blaze, and warm them once before they die.
O Madam, how happy are you (if one on earth may be
called happy,) that have looked home so often and so se-
riously, that now you can dwell at home in peace, and need
not, as the ungodly, be a terror to yourself, nor run away
from yourself, nor seek a place to hide you from yourself;
when impious vagrants have so abused their consciences,
that they dare not converse with them nor meet them alone
or in the dark ! What a mercy is it, that in the great Recon-
ciler you are reconciled to your conscience, and that it doth
not find you out as an enemy, but is a messenger of peace
and of good tidings to you ! That you need not the smiles
of great ones to refresh you, nor pompous enterlaiaments,
compliments, plays or sports to recreate you, and drive
away your sorrows, but that you can find more blessed and
delectable company and employment at home : that you can
daily retire into yourself, and there peruse a richer treasure
than bodily eyes on earth can see; and there be taken up
with a far more contenting satisfactory employment, and a
more fruitful and pleasant converse and recreation, than any
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. Vll
creature in court or country can afford: that your joy is
laid up where the hand of violence cannot touch it ; and
that they that can deprive you of estate, and liberty, and life,
yet cannot take your comfort from you. That when fleshly
unthrifts love not home, because all is spent, and they can
expect no better entertainment there than want, confusion,
chiding, and distress, you can withdraw from a confused
troublesome world, into a well-furnished and adorned soul,
replenished with the precious fruits of the Spirit, and beau-
tified with the image of your Lord! O Madam, what sweet
and noble employment have you there, in comparison of
that which worldlings are troubled with abroad ! There you
may read the sentence of your justification, as foregoing and
foreshowing the public final sentence of your Judge : there
you can converse with God himself, not in his vindictive
justice, but as he is love : for the love that dwelleth so j)len-
tifully in you, doth prove that God dwelleth in you, and you
in him. (1 John iv. 7, 8. 16.) There you may converse with
Christ your head, that dwelleth in you by faith, (Ephes. iii.
17,) and with the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in you, and hath
communion with you, by the beams of his illuminating,
sanctifying, confirming, and comforting grace : there, as in
his temple, you are speaking of his glory, (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17 ;
vi. 19, with Psal. xxix, 9,) and rejoicing in his holy praise,
and remembering what he hath done for your soul : There you
can peruse the records of his mercy, and think with gratitude
and delight, how he did first illuminate you, and draw and
engage your heart unto himself: what advantage he got
upon you, and what iniquity he prevented by the mercies
of your education, and how he secretly took acquaintance
with you in your youth : How he delivered you from worldly,
fleshly snares; how he caused you to favour the things of
the Spirit ; how he planted you in a sound, well-ordered
church, where he quickened and conducted you by a lively
faithful ministry, and watered his gifts by their constant,
powerful preaching of his word, where discipline was for a
defence, and where your heart was warmed with the com-
munion of the saints, and where you learned to worship
God in spirit and in truth ; and where you were taught so
effectually by God to discern between the precious and the
vile, and to love those that are born of God, whom the
world knoweth not, that no subtleties or calamities of the
vm EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
serpent can unteach it you, or ever be able to separate you
from that love. You may read in these sacred records of
your heart, how the Angel of the Covenant hath hitherto
conducted you, through this wilderness towards the land of
promise; how he hath been a cloud to you in the day, and a
pillar of fire by night; how the Lord did number you with
the people that are his flock, his portion, and the lot of his
inheritance ; and led you about in a desert land, instructed
you, and kept you as the apple of his eye. (Deut. xxxii. 9,
10.) His manna hath compassed your tent; liLs doctrine
hath dropped as the rain, and his words distilled as the dew ;
as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers
upon the grass. As his beloved you have dwelt in safety by
him, and the Lord hath covered you all the day long, when
storms have risen, he hath been your refuge ; and when dan-
gers compassed you on every side, he hath hid you as in his
pavilion, and his angels have pitched their tents about you.
and borne you up : You have been fortified in troubles, and
have been enabled comfortably to undergo them : in war
and in peace ; in your native country and in foreign lands ;
among your friends and among your enemies ; in court and
country ; in prosperity and adversity, you have found that
there is none like the God of Israel, who rideth upon the
heaven in your help, and his excellency on the sky : the
eternal God hath been your refuge, and underneath are the
everlasting arms." (Deut. xxxiv. 26,27.) You may remember
the mercies of your younger years, of your married state, and
of your widowhood : your comforts in your truly noble lord,
though troubled and interrupted by his death, yet increased
by the consideration of his felicity v/ith Christ ; your com-
fort in your hopeful issue, though abated by the injury of
Romish theft, which stole one of the roses of your garden,
that they might boast of the sweetness when they called it
their own : (I may well say, stole it, when all the cheat was
performed by unknown persons in the dark ; and no impor-
tunity by you or me, could procure me one dispute or con-
ference in her hearing, with any of the seducers, before her
person was stolen away. Though comforts conveyed by
creatures must have their pricks, yet your experience hath
partly taught you (and more will do) that by all the mixtures
of sour and bitter ingredients, your Father doth temper you
the most wholesome composition ; he chasteneth you for
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. IX
your profit, that you may be partaker of his holiness, (Heb,
xii. 10,) and the least degree of holiness cannot be purchased
at too dear a rate. His rod and staff have comforted you :
and whatever are the beginnings, the end will be the quiet
fruit of righteousness, when you have been exercised therein :
and though man be mutable, and friends, and flesh, and heart
have failed you, yet God is still the strength of your heart,
and your portion for ever. (Psalm Ixxiii. 26.) O the variety
of learning that is contained in the secret writings of a sanc-
tified heart! The variety of subjects for the most fruitful
and delightful thoughts, which you may find recorded in the
inwards of your soul! How pleasant is it there to find the
characters of the special love of God, the lineaments of his
image, the transcript of his law, the harmony of his gifts and
graces, the witness, the seal and the earnest of his Spirit,
and the foretastes and beginnings of eternal life ! As thank-
fulness abhors oblivion, and is a recording grace, and keep-
eth histories and catalogues of mercies; so is it a reward
unto itself; and by these records it furnisheth the soul with
matter for the sweetest employments and delights : Is it not
pleasant to you there to read how God hath confuted the
objections of distrust? How oft he hath condescended to
your weakness, and pardoned you when you could not easily
forgive yourself? How oft he hath entertained you in secret
with his love? and visited you with his consolations? How
near him sometimes you have got in fervent prayer, and
serious meditation ? And when for a season he hath hid his
face, how soon and seasonably he returned ? How oft he
hath found you weeping, and hath wiped away your tears,
and calmed and quieted your troubled soul? How he hath
resolved your doubts, and expelled your fears ; and heard
your prayers? How comfortably he hath called you his
child ; and given you leave, and commanded you to call him
Father ; when Christ hath brought you with boldness into
his presence ! How sweet should it be to your remembrance,
to think how the love of Christ hath sometimes exalted you
above these sublunary things ! How the Spirit hath taken
you up to heaven, and shewed to your faith the glory of the
New Jerusalem, the blessed company of those holy spirits
that attend the throne of the majesty of God, and the shin-
ing face of your glorified Head ! By what seasonable and
happy messengers he hath sent you the cluster of grapes at,
X EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
the firstfruits of the land of promise ! and commanded you
oft to take and eat the bread of life ? How oft he hath
reached to your thirsty soul the fruit of the vine, and turned
it sacramentally into his blood, and bid you drink it in re-
membrance of him, till he come and feast you with his fullest
love, and satisfy you with the pleasure and presence of his
glory.
But the volumes of mercy written in your heart, are too
great to be by me transcribed. I can easily appeal to you
that are acquainted with it, whether such heart-employment
be not more pleasant and more profitable than any of the
entertainments that flashy wit, or gaudy gallantry, or merri-
ments, luxury, or preferments can afford. Is it not better
converse with Christ at home than with such as are described.
Psalm xii. abroad? To dwell with all that blessed retinue,
(Gal. V. 22, 23,) than with pride, vainglory, envy, dissimula-
tion, hypocrisy, falsehood, time-wasting, soul-destroying
pleasures; to say nothing of the filthiness which Christian
ears abhor the mention of, and which God himself in time
will judge, (Eph. v. 3— 6; Heb. xiii. 4,) and the rest recited,
Gal. V. 19 — 21. If ungodly persons do find it more unplea-
sant to converse at home, no wonder, when there is nothing
but darkness and defilement ; and when they have put God
from them, and entertained Satan, so that their hearts are like
to haunted houses, where terrible cries and apparitions do
make it a place of fear to the inhabitants. But if their
souls had such blessed inhabitants as yours, could they meet
there with a reconciled God, a Father, a Saviour and a
Sanctifier ; had they souls that kept a correspondence with
heaven, it would not seem so sad and terrible a life to dwell
at home, and withdraw from that noise of vanity abroad,
which are but the drums and trumpets of the devil, to en-
courage his deluded followers, and drown the cries of mise-
rable souls. Your dearest friends and chiefest treasure, are
not abroad in court or country, but above you, and within
you; where then should your delightful converse be, but
where your friends and treasure are? (Matt. vi. 21 ; Phil. iii.
20; Col. iii. 1 — 4.) When there is almost nothing to be
found in the conversation of the world, but discord and dis-
traction, and confusion, and clamours, and malice, and trea-
chery, is it not better to retire into such a heait, where not-
withstanding infirmities, and some doubts and fears, there
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XI
is order, and concord, and harmony, and such peace as the
world can neither give nor take away? O blessed be the
hand of love, that blotted out the names of honour, and
riches, and pleasures, and carnal interest, and accommoda-
tions, from your heart ; and inscribed his own in characters
never to be obliterated ! That turned out usurpers, and so
prepared and furnished your heart, as to make and judge it
such, as no one is worthy of it but himself. O what a court
have you chosen for your abode ! How high and glorious !
how pure and holy ! unchangeable and safe ! How ambiti-
ously do you avoid ambition ! How great are you in the
lowliness of your mind ! How high in your humility ! Will
no lower a place than heaven content you to converse in ?
(For heart-converse and heaven-converse are as much one,
as beholding both the glass and face :) Will no lower corres-
pondents satisfy you than the host of heaven? Cannot the
company of imperfect mortals serve your turn ? Nay, can
you be satisfied with none below the Lord himself? Well,
Madam, if you will needs have it so, it shall be so : What you
judge BEST FOR YOU, shall be yours: what you had rather
be, you are : and where you had rather dwell, you shall : and
seeing you have understood that " one thing is necessary,
and have chosen the good part, it shall not be taken from
you." (Luke x. 41, 42. Having first sought the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, you shall have such additionals
as will do you good. (Matt. vi. 33; Rom. viii. 28; Psalm
Ixxxiv. 11.) You have learned to know while God is yours,
how little of the creature you need, and how little addition
it maketh to your happiness (you are wise enough if you
live to God ; and honourable enough if you are a member of
Christ; and rich enough if you are an heir of heaven; and
beautiful enough if you have the image of God: and yet
having made your choice of these, how liberally hath God
cast in as overplus the inferior kind, which you tind in losing
them ! As if he had said to you, as to Solomon, (2 Chron. i.
11,) " Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not
asked riches, wealth or honour, nor the life of thine enemies,
neither yet hast asked long life ; but hast asked wisdom
and knowledge for thyself wisdom and knowledge is
granted to. thee ; and I will give thee riches, and wealth,
and honour ;" as if God would convince even flesh it-
self that none are like the servants of the Lord : And when
Xll EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
the envious one hath said, that you serve not God for nought,
though he hath been permitted to put forth his hand, and
touch you in your dearest friends and relations; your peace,
your habitation and estate, yet hath he so restrained him, and
supported you, as may easily convince you that the worst of
Christ is better than the best of the world, or sin.
I have purposely been long in opening the felicity of the
heart-converse, as a matter of your own experience, both for
the exciting of you to a life of thankfulness to God, and that
this undigested treatise which you have drawn out into the
light, may come to your hands with some supply, in that
part of the application which doth most concern you : And
because your name may draw the eyes of many others to
read this preface, I shall add here a few directions to those
that would be well acquainted with themselves, and would
comfortably converse at home.
Direct. 1. Let him not overvalue or mind the deceitful
world, that would have fruitful converse wrth God and with
himself: Trust not such a cheater, as hath robbed so many
thousands before us, especially when God and common ex-
perience do call out to us to take heed : The study ofriches,
and rising, and reputation, and pleasures, agreeth not with this
study of God, and of our hearts : and though the world will
not take acquaintance with us, if we come not in their
fashion, nor see us, if we stand not on the higher ground ;
vet it is much better to be unknown to others, than to our-
selves : though they that live upon the trade, do think there
is no fishing like the sea, yet those that take it but on the
by, will rather choose the smaller waters, where, though the
fish be less, yet few are drowned, and made a prey to the
fish that they would have catched. A retirement therefore
must be made, from the inordinate pursuit of worldly things,
and the charms of honours, riches, and delights: and if
some present loss do seem to follow, it is indeed no loss,
which tendeth unto gain. He will catch no fish that will
not lose his fly. Methinks they that sincerely pray, " Lead
us not into temptation," should not desire to have bolts and
bars between God and them, and to dwell where salvation
is most hardly attained ! Desire not to be planted in any
such place, though it seem a paradise, where God is most un-
known, and used as a stranger, and where saints are wonders,
and examples of serious piety are most rare, and where a
EPISTLE DEDICATORY, Xlll
heavenly conversation is known but by reports, and reported
of according to the malice of the servant, and represented
but as fancy, hypocrisy or faction : vi^here sin most prosper-
eth, and is in least disgrace; and where it is a greater shame
to be a saint than to be a swine ; a serious Christian, than
a seared, stupified sensualist: Bless you from that place
where the weeds of vice are so rank, as that no good plant
can prosper near them: where gain is godliness; and im-
piety is necessary to acceptable observance, and a tender
conscience, and the fear of God, are characters of one too
surly and unpliable to be countenanced by men ; where the
tonp-ue that nature formed to be the index of the mind, is
made the chief instrument to hide it; and men are so
conscious of their own incredibility, that no one doth be-
lieve or trust another: where no words are heart-deep, but
those that are spoken against Christ's cause and interest, or
for their own ; where a vile person is honoured, and those
contemned that fear the Lord : Bless you from the place
where truth is intolerable, and untruth cloaked with its
name ; where holiness is looked at as an owl or enemy, and
yet hypocrisy must steal its honour from it ; where he is a
saint that is less wicked than infamous transgressors ; and
where Dives' life is blameless temperance ; and where pride,
idleness, fulness of bread, and filthy fornication and lascivi-
ousness, are the infirmities of pious and excellent persons ;
where great sins are small ones, and small ones are none ;
and where the greatest must have no reproof, and the phy-
sician is taken for the greatest enemy, where chaff is valued
at the price of Vi^heat, and yet the famine is of choice : where
persons and things are measured by interest; and duty to
God derided as folly, whenever it crosseth the wisdom of
the world, and hated as some hurtful thing when it crosseth
fleshly men in their desires: and where Dives' brethren are
Tinwarned ; and none are more secure and frolic, than those
.that to-morrow may be in hell ; and as at the Gladiators'
sports, none complain less than those that speed worst,
' quia csesi silent, spectatores vociferantur.' Old travellers
are usually most addicted to end their days in solitude ;
learn to contemn the world at cheaper rates than they ;
neither hope, nor wish to live an Alexander, and die a So-
crates ; a crowd or concourse, though of the greatest, where
is the greatest tumult of affairs, and confluence of tempta-
XIV KPISTLE DEDICATOKY.
lions, is not the safest place to die in : and 1 have most mind
to live where I would die. Where men are ' barbari moribus,
et si non natione ;' Christians in name, and infidels in con-
versation : the sweetness of their Christian names will not
preserve them or you from the danger of their unchristian
lives. It was not the whole of Lot's deliverance to be saved
from the flames of Sodom, but it was much of it to be freed
from their malicious rage, and filthy grievous conversations :
the best medicine against the plague is to keep far enough
from the place that hath it. The proverb saith, ' He shall
have fleas that will lie with the dogs.' Desire not that con-
dition, where all seem friends, but none are friends indeed;
but they that seem to be your servants, are by flattery serv-
ing themselves upon you : where few persons or things are
truly represented ; but men are judged of by the descriptions
of their enemies, and the lambs have the skins and names of
wolves : and the best are odious when bold calumniators
load them with odious accusations. In a word, desire not
the place where the more men seek, the less they find, and
the more they find, the less they have ; and the more they
have, the less they do enjoy : where the more are their pro-
visions, the less are their supplies ; the more their wealth,
the more their want ; the more their pleasure, the less their
peace; the greater their mirth, the less their joy; the
greater their confidence, the less their safety : where the
great mistake about their happiness, their best, their end,
doth make their lives a constant error, and death a doleful
disappointment: He must needs lie crooked that hath so
short a bed.
Direct. 2. Keep all clean and sound within, that there
may be little of loathsomeness to disaffect you, or terror to
frighten you from yourselves ; it is a frightful thing to be
much conversing with a guilty soul, and hearing the accu-
sations of a conscience not cleansed by the blood of Christ:
and it is an unpleasant thing to be searching in our wounds,
and reading the history of a life of folly ; especially of wil-
ful sin, and of ungrateful neglect of offered grace. Make
not such work for yourself, if you love it not. We make
our beds ill, and then we are weary of them, because they
are so hard : our comforts are more in our own hands than
in any others : the best friend or pastor cannot do so much
to promote them, nor the greatest enemy so much to destroy
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XV
them, as ourselves. If we will surfeit, and make ourselves
sick, we must endure it. If wasps and vipers be our guests,
no wonder if we dwell not quietly at home ; and if we sit not
at ease, when we carry thorns about us. Folly and concu-
piscence breed our misery : it is the smoke of our own cor-
ruptions that troubleth our eyes, and the scent and smart
of our ulcerated minds that most annoyeth us. We cannot
waste our peace, and have it. Turk and Pope, and all the
terrible names on earth, are not so terrible deservedly to a
sinner as his own : the nearest evil is the most hurtful evil :
If a scolding wife be such a continual dropping, and trou-
blesome companion, as Solomon tells us, what then is a
distempered, troubled mind, and a chiding conscience? It
is a pity that man should be his own afflicter, but so it is :
and, as the proverb is, ' He hath great need of a fool, that
will play the fool himself;' so I may say. He hath great need
of a tormenter, that will be a tormenter to himself. Folly,
and lust, and rashness, and passion, are sorry keepers of our
peace: darkness and filth do make a dungeon, and not a
delightful habitation of our hearts ; God would take plea-
sure in them, if we kept them clean, and would walk with
us in those gardens, if we kept them dressed : but if we will
defile his temple, and make it unpleasing unto him, he will
make it unpleasing unto us. Terror and trouble are the
shadow of sin, that follow it, though the sun shine never so
brightly. If we carry fire in our clothes, we shall smell it at
the least. Keep close to God ; obey his will : make sure of
your reconciliation and adoption ; keep clear your evidences,
and grieve not the Holy Spirit which sealeth you, and must
comfort you. And then it will do you good to look into
your heart, and there you shall find the most delightful
company ; and the Spirit that you have there entertained,
will there entertain you with his joys.
But if disorder have prevailed and made your hearts a
place of trouble, yet fly not from it, and refuse not to con-
verse with it : for though it be not at the present a work of
pleasure, it is a work of necessity, and may tend to pleasure
in the end : conversing wisely and faithfully with a disor-
dered, troubled heart, is the way to make it a well-ordered
and quiet heart.
Direct. 3. In judging of your present state and actions,
let one eye be always on the end : this will both quicken
\
XVI EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
you to be serious in the duty, and direct you in all particu-
lar cases to judge aright. As the approach of death dotli
convince almost all men of the necessity of studying them-
selves, and calleth them to it from all other studies ; so the
considerate foresight of it would do the like in better time.
And it is the end that communicateth the good or evil to all
things in the way : and therefore as they have relation to
the end, they must be judged of. When you peruse your
actions, consider them as done by one that is entering into
eternity, and as those that must all be opened in a clearer
light. If we separate our actions in our considerations from
their ends, they are not of the same signification, but taken
to be other things than indeed they are. If the oaths, the
lies, the slanders, the sensuality and filthiness of impure
sinners, had not relation to the loss of heaven, and to the
pains of hell, they were not matters of that exceeding mo-
ment as now they are. And if the holiness, obedience and
watchfulness of believers, had no relation to the escaping
of hell fire, and the attainment of eternal life, they would be
of lower value than they are. The more clearly men discern
that God is present, that judgment is at hand, that they are
near to heaven or hell, where millions have already received
their reward, the more seriously will they study, and the
better will they know themselves.
Direct. 4. Though you mustendeavour to judge yourself
truly as you are, yet rather incline to think meanly, than
highly of yourself, and be rather too suspicious than too
presumptuous. My reasons for this direction are, because
man's nature is generally disposed to self-exalting; and
pride and self-love are sins so common and so strong, as that
it is a thing of wondrous difficulty to overcome them, so far
as to judge ourselves impartially, and to err as little in our
own cause, as if it were another's : and because self-exalting
hath far more dangerous effects than self-abasing, supposing
them to exceed their bounds. Prudent humility is a quieting
grace, and avoideth many storms and tempests, which trou-
ble and shake the peace of others. It maketh men thank-
ful for that little as undeserved, which others repine at as
short of their expectations : it telleth the suflPerer that God
doth afllict him much less than he deserveth ; and causeth
him to say, " I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because
I have sinned against him." (Micah vii. 9.) It teacheth
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XVll
Tis a cautelous suspicion of our own understandings, and a
just submission to those that are wiser than ourselves.
When pride keepeth out wisdom, by keeping out the know-
ledge of our ignorance. And as Pliny tells us of some na-
tions, where they are grey-headed in their infancy, and
black-headed when they are old : so pride maketh many
wise so soon, that they never come to be truly wise : they
think in youth that they have more than the wisdom of age,
and therefore in age they have less than what beseemeth
them in youth. Every hard report or usage is ready to break
a proud man's heart ; when contempt doth little disquiet the
humble, because they judge so meanly of themselves. The
proud are frequently disturbed, because they climb into the
seats of others; when humility sits quietly, and no one bids
it rise, because it knoweth and keepeth its own place.
Therefore it is, that true contrition having once told us of
our folly to~the heart, doth make us walk more circum-
spectly while we live ; and that no man is better resolved
than he that was once in doubt, and that no man standeth
faster than he that hath had a fall : and no man is more
safe, than he that hath had most assaults. If you love your
safety, desire not either to be, or to seem too high. Be lit-
tle in your own eyes, and be content to be so in the eyes of
others. As for worldly greatness, affect neither the thing
nor the reputation of it : look up, if you please, to the tops
of steeples, masts and mountains ; but stand below if you
would be safe. Though the chimney be the highest part of
the house, it is not the cleanest or the sweetest part ; it is
scorched more with the fire, and suffocated with the smoke
than other parts. And for spiritual endowments, desire
them, and improve them; but desire not inordinately the
reputation of them. It seldom increaseth a man's humility
to be reputed humble ; and though humility help you to
bear applause, yet the remnants of pride are ready to take
fire, and other sins to get advantage by it.
Direct. 5. Improve your self-acquaintance to a due ap-
prehension of what is most suitable, most profitable, and
necessary for you, and what is most hurtful, unsuitable and
unnecessary. He that hath taken a just measure of himself,
is the better able to judge of all things else. How suitable
will Christ and grace appear, and how unsuitable will worldly
VOL. XVI. c
XVlll EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
pomp appear to one that truly knows himself ! How, suit-
able will serious, fervent worship appear, and how unsuit-
able the ludicrous shows of hypocrites ! And one pair of
eyes will be valued above many pair of spectacles ; and one
pair of legs before two pair of crutches, by one that is not a
stranger to himself. He that takes grass and provender to
be his best and most delightful food, hath surely forgotten
that he is a man, and taketh himself to be but a beast, or
else he would not choose the food of a beast, nor use him-
self as a beast. If a man knew aright the capacity and
tendency of the reasonable nature, and the evil of sin, and
the necessity and distress of an unrenewed soul, what sweet,
what longing thoughts would he have of God, and all that
tendeth to the pleasing and enjoying of him! How little
would he think himself concerned in the trivial matters of
honour or dishonour, riches or poverty, favour or displea-
sure, further than as they help or hinder him in the things
that are of more regard ! Know yourself, and you will know
what to love and what to hate ; what to choose and what to
refuse ; what to hold and what to lose; what to esteem and
what to slight ; what to fear, and when to be courageous
and secure : the curing the dotage thus, would cure the
night-walks of the dreaming, vagrant world. And they that
find that music cureth not the stone or gout, would know
that mirth and gallantry, and vainglory, are no preservatives
from hell, nor a sufficient cure for a guilty soul : and that if
an aching head must have a better remedy than a golden
crown, and a diseased body a more suitable cure than a
silken suit, a diseased soul doth call for more.
Direct. 6. Value not yourself by mutable accidents, but
by the essence and substance of Christianity. " A man's
life consisteth not in the abundance which he possesseth."
(Luke xii. 15.) Paul knew better what he said, when he ac-
counted all but loss and dung for the knowledge and fruition
of Jesus Christ, (Phil. iii. 7, 8,) than they that dote on it as
their felicity. And is a man to be valued, applauded, and
magnified for his dung, or for his personal endowments? Is
that your perfume that stinketh in the nostrils of men of
sounder senses? Judge not of the person by his apparel,
when the foolishest and the worst may wear the same. The
master and inhabitants honour the liouse more than the
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XIX
house cloth the master and inhabitants. All the wit and
learning in the world, with all the riches, honour and ap-
plause, yea, and all the civility and winning deportment,
will not make a Christian of an infidel or atheist, nor a happy
of a. miserable man. As nothing will make a man honourable
indeed, that hath not the use of reason, which differenceth
men from brutes; so nothing will make or prove him holy,
or happy, or safe, that hath not the holy image of God,
which must difference his children from his enemies. If he
be unsanctified, and be not a new creature, and have not the
Spirit of Christ within him, he is an atheist, or infidel, or
an ungodly wretch, let him be never so rich, or great, or
honourable. And as a harlot is never beautiful in the eyes
of the wise and chaste, so a wicked man is never happy in
the eyes of any but his phrenetic society.
Direct. 7. Think not that a few, seldom, hasty thoughts
v/ill bring and keep you in acquaintance with yourself. It
must be diligent observation, and serious consideration that
must accomplish this. Many a man walketh where he doth
not dwell. A transient salute is not a sign of intimate
familiarity. It is enough sometimes to step into your
neighbour's house for a charitable visit ; but you must dwell
in your own : be more busy and censorious at home than
the proud and malicious are abroad ; and be as seldom and
tender in censuring others, as such hypocrites are in cen-
suring themselves. Put on your spectacles at home, when
you are reading over the register of your consciences ; but
wear them not as you walk the streets ; but take up with so
much knowledge of ordinary passengers as you can have
without them. Think not that you are unconcerned in the
danger or safety of your neighbour, but remember that you
are more concerned in your own. It is here most rea-
sonable to say, that charity begins at home, when self-neg-
lect will disable you to help another. And if sometimes
your falls or frailty do find you matter for purging, griping,
troublesome thoughts, and interrupt your sweeter, comfort-
able meditations, refuse not the trouble when you have
made it necessary : it is many a sad and serious thought
that the ministers of Christ have for the cure and safety of
their flocks : and should not the people have as serious
thoughts for themselves ? * None foul their hands,' saith the
proverb, 'about their own work :' they that bring in the filth,
XX EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
should not refuse to sweep it out. We must cast out all the
foul and troublesome work upon our nurses, as long as we
can help ourselves. Your reason, your wisdom, care and
diligence, are more your own than any one's else ; and
therefore should be more used for yourself than for any.
And if, after much thoughtfulness and labour, you find your
heart to be no whit better, yet labour and believe. It is not
the last blow of the axe alone that cuts down the tree,
though it fall not till the last. The growth of grace, as of
plants and fruits, and flowers, is not perceived by immediate
inspection. There is much good obtained when we discern
it not : and nothing is more certain, than that honest dili-
gence is never lost in the things of God and our salvation.
It is worth all our labour, if we grow no better, to keep our
spark from going out, and to see that we grow no worse.
And the preventing of evil is here an excellent good. Many
a thousand eat and drink, that never hope to grow any fat-
ter or stronger than they are. It is not nothing to be sus-
tained for our daily work, and to have our oil renewed daily
as it wasteth. 'The mill gets by going,' saith the proverb,
' though it stir not from the place.' "O keep the heart with
all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." (Prov. iv.
23.) Actions receive their specification and quality from
the earth. " Death and life are in the power of the tongue,"
(Prov. xviii. 21,) but the tongue is in the power of the heart.
Direct. 8. Let not your self-knowledge be merely specu-
lative, or affective, but also practical. Be not contented
that you know what you are, and what you have done, nor
that your heart is much affected with it ; but let all tend to
action to mend what is amiss, and to maintain, improve,
and increase what is good : and let the next question be,
* What am I now to do V or, * What must I be for time to
come?' It is a lamentable mistake of many that tire them-
selves with striving, to make deep, affecting impressions on
their hearts ; and when they have got much sorrow, or much
joy, they think they have done the greatest matter, and there
they stop. But affections are the spring that must move to
action ; and if you proceed not to your duty, affection is
much lost : and if with smaller affection or passion you can
steadfastly and resolutely cleave to God, and do your duty,
you have the principal thing, and are accepted : not that
outward actions are accepted without the heart ; but that
I
EPISTLE DEDICATOliy. XXI
there is most of the heart, where there is most of the estima-
tion and will, though less of passion; and there is most of
will, where there is most endeavour : and inward action is
the first part of obedience ; and without these no specula-
tions will avail. However you find your heart, be up and
doing in the use of means, to make it better, and wait on
God for further grace.
Direct. 9. Manage your self-acquaintance prudently, cau-
telously, and with the help of your skilful friend or pastor.
Think not that it is a work that you need no helper in : If
you mistake your accounts, and put down a wrong sum, and
call yourself confidently what you are not, or deny God's
graces, whenever through melancholy or distemper you can-
not find them, and pass false conclusions against God's
mercies and yourself, this were to turn a duty into a sin and
snare.
And you must do it seasonably : Melancholy persons
are most incapable of it, who do nothing but pore upon
themselves to little purpose ; such must do more of other
duty, but lay by much of this till they are more capable,
and make much use of the judgment of their guides. And
weaker heads must take but a due proportion of time for
self-searching meditations, lest they contract that trouble-
some disease: duties must be used with profitable variety,
and all done under good advice. But young persons, and
those that are yet unconverted, have need to fall upon it
without delay ; and to follow it till they have made sure
their calling and election. (2 Peter i. 10.) O what a dread-
ful thing it is, for a man to come rawly and newly to the
study of his soul, as a thing that he is unacquainted with,
when sickness is upon him, and death at hand, and he is
ready to pass into another world ! To be then newly to ask,
' What am I V and, ' What have I done ?' and, ' Whither am
I going?' and, ' What will become of me for ever?' is a most
fearful state of folly.
Direct. 10. Terminate not your knowledge ultimately ni
yourself; but pass up unto God in Christ, and to the blessed
privileges of the saints, and the joyful state of endless glory,
and there let your meditations be most frequent and most
sweet. But of this elsewhere.
Madam, I have added these directions, not ])rincipally
for you that have learned the art, but for your hopeful sons
XXll POSTSCRIPT.
and daughters, who must be taught these things betimes, and
for your friends, who will be invited hither for your sake.
They that know you not, will think I have taken too much
liberty, and spoken too much both of you and to you. But
I appeal from such : They that know not how easily you
can pardon any one, except yourself, will aggravate the
weaknesses which your charity will cover. I Was purposely
the longer, because the treatise is defective ; and if one
kingdom do not hold us, and I should see your face no more
on earth, yet till we meet in the glorious, everlasting king-
dom, we shall have frequent converse by such means as
these, notwithstanding our corporal distance. And as I am
assured of a room in your frequent prayers, so I hope I shall
remain,
Madam,
Your faithful servant,
And remembrancer at the throne of grace,
RICHARD BAXTER.
August 25,, 1661.
POSTSCRIPT.
Madaim,
Since the writing of this epistle, finding you under the
afflicting hand of God, I thought meet to remember you of
what you know, That God thus traineth up his children for
their rest: " Whom he loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If we endure chastening,
God dealeth with us as with children : and if we be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then we are bastards
and not sons." (Heb. xii. 6, 7, 8.) The same flesh that
would be pleased, will grudge when it is displeased ;
and that which is our enticing enemy in prosperity, will
be our disturbing enemy in adversity. " As fleshly minds
misjudge of the law and service of God, and cannot be sub-
ject, because of the enmity against him," (Rom. viii. 7,) so
do they misjudge of his chastisements: and so far as they
participate of this disease, the best will be repining, and
tempted to unworthy thoughts of God. Even innocent na-
ture is loath to suffer; Christ himself saith,"If itbe thy will,
let this cup pass from me:" and nature, so far as it is corrupted.
POSTSCRIPT. xxm
is yet much more averse, because the Hesh is more inordi-
nately desirous of its ease, and passion more turbulent when
it is denied ; and the soul hath less apprehension and relish
of that love of God, which is the cause and end, and should
sweeten all to a reconciled well composed mind : and it is
also less satisfied in the will of God, and it is less subject to
it; and patience is defective, because of the weakness of
the graces that should support us. Besides which also, a
tenderness of spirit, and overmuch sensibility, fears and
trouble, are ordinary effects of the weak and tender nature
of man, especially of the more weak and tender sex. And
when all these concur, (the averseness of the most innocent
nature, the remnants of sin, and the special tenderness of
your nature and sex) your burden and trial is much the
greater, and your grief must needs be much the more. But,
I beseech you, remember, that you have not to do with an
enemy, but a Father that knoweth what he doth, and nieanetli
you no hurt, but that which is the fittest means to your
good, and to your escaping greater hurt; that loveth you no
less in the greatest of your pain and danger, than in the
greatest of your prosperity and peace. " That you have a
Head in heaven that was partaker with us of flesh and blood,
that he might deliver us from our bondage, which we are in
through the fear of death, who was made perfect by suffer-
ing, and is not ashamed to call us brethren ; being in all
things made like unto us, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high-priest, in things pertaining to God, to aiiuke
reconciliation for our sins, who, in that he himself hath
suffered being tempted, is able to succour them that are
tempted," (Heb. ii. 10, 11 . 14, 15. 17, 18.) We have not an
high-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted or tried as we are,
but without sin. He that himself, in the days of his flesh,
did offer up prayers and supplications, with strong crying
and tears, to him that was able to save him from death,"
(Heb. V. 7,) will not be angry if his servants complain and
cry to him in their suffering. He that cried out, " My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me !" will pity his poor
distressed members, and not forsake them, when they think
themselves forsaken : and if they go beyond their bounds
in their complainings, he will not therefore disregard then
moans: but he that honoured the patience of Job, though
XXIV POSTSCRIPT.
he so passionately cursed the day of his birth, will love the
faith and patience of his people, notwithstanding the mix-
tures of unbelief and impatience ; he is ready with his gra-
cious excuse," (Matt. xxvi. 41,) " The spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak ;" and he considereth that our " strength
and flesh is not of stones or brass." (Job vi. 12.) " He will
therefore revive the spirit of the contrite, and will not con-
tend for ever, nor be always wroth, lest the spirit should
fail before him, and the souls which he hath made," (Isa.
Ivii. 15, 16.) " And though no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; yet the end is, that he
may make us partakers of his holiness, and afterwards it
yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that
are exercised thereby." (Heb. xii. 10, 11.) " Blessed is the
man that endureth temptation ; for when he is tried he shall
receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them
that love him." (James i. 12.) " Blessed is the man whom
thou chastenest, O Lord, and teacheth him out of thy law,
that thou raayest give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit be digged for the wicked: for the Lord will
not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheri-
tance." (Psal. xciv. 12, 13, 14.)
Madam, If nothing in all the world be more certain,
than that there is a God, who is true and just, and delighteth
in his people when they are lowest in the world: If nothing
be more sure, than that there is a heaven for persevering pe-
nitent believers than are our arguments for the comfort of
God's afflicted ones, no fancies, but fetched as from the
highest excellencies, so from the surest realities that ever
were presented to the understanding of a man. And though
the best of saints have been put to wrestle with the tempta-
tions that arise from the adversity of believers, and the yjros-
perity of the wicked, yet this is still the result of all their
perplexing thoughts ; " Truly God is good to Israel, even to
such as are of a clean heart. Though sometimes their feet
are almost gone, and their paths do well nigh slip, and they
are ready to say, we have cleansed our hearts in vain, and
washed our hands in innocency ; for all the day are we
plagued, and chastened every morning; yet they soon learn
in the sanctuary of God, that the wicked are set in slippery
places, and cast down into destruction, and brought to de-
soliition as in a moment, and utterly consumed with terrors
POSTSCRIPT. XXV
as a dream when one awaketh, so the Lord when he awaketh,
will despise their image." (Psal. Ixxiii.) " But mark the per-
fect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that man is
peace." (Psal. xxxvii. 37.) "Because sentence against an
evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of
the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil : but though
a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be pro-
longed, yet surely I know, that it shall be well with them
that fear God, which fear before him." (Eccles. viii. 11, 12.)
If not here, yet certainly at last all shall say, " Verily there
is a reward for the righteous," (Psal. Iviii. 11.) " Rest there-
fore in the Lord, and wait patiently for him ; commit your
way to him ; trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass : for
the needy shall not alway be forgotten ; the expectation of
the poor shall not perish for ever." (Psal. ix. 18.) How
happy are you, that God doth thus save you from the temp-
tations of prosperity, which you see befool and undo so
many before your eyes ! And that you are not left in the
number of those that are men of the world, which have their
portion in this life ! (Psal. xvii. 14,) " and are given up to
their own heart's lusts, to walk in their own counsels," (Psal.
Ixxxi. 12,) and must hear at last, " Remember that thou in
thy lifetime receivedest thy good things," but that here you
have your evils, and shall be comforted when the now pros-
perous wicked are tormented. (Luke xvi. 25.) If heaven
be enough to make you a felicity, and eternity be long
enough for your fruition of it, then never think hardly of
God for any of his chastisements. Lazarus repenteth not
there that he was poor; nor Job that he was covered with
sores ; nor David, that he washed his couch with tears, and
that his sore ran and ceased not. The longest of our sor-
rows will there be reviewed, as short in respect of our end-
less joys ; and the sharpest of our pains as nothing to those
pleasures. Madam, experience as well as faith assureth me,
that it is good for us that we are afflicted ; and though for
the sake of others, I shall earnestly beseech the Lord, that
he will not unseasonably remove such as you from this un-
worthy generation; yet I doubt not but your removal and
sufferings in the way, will advantage you for your everlast-
ing rest. And for myself, I desire, that my lot may still fall
with those that follow Christ through tribulation, bearing
the cross, and crucified to the world, and waiting for his ap-
XXVI POSTTCUIPT.
pearance, desiring to be absent from the body, and present
with the Lord ; and not with those that are fed as beasts
for the slaughter, and prosper a while in their iniquity, till
sudden destruction come upon them, and at last their sins do
find them out, " when the wicked shall be turned into hell,
and all the nations that forget God." (Psal. ix. 17; Numb,
xxxii. 23 ; 1 Thess. v. 3 ; Phil. iii. 19.) And that these
words of life may be engraven upon ray heart, (Psal. Ixiii. 3,)
"Thy lovingkindness is better than life ;" (Psal. Ixxiii. 26;)
" My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the strength of
my heart, and my portion for ever;" (Rom. viii. 28;) All
things work together for good to them that love God ;" (John
xiv. 19;) "Because I live, ye shall live also;" (Col, iii.
3, 4;) " Our life is hid with Christ in God : when Christ
who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with
him in glory ; and that I may be lit for the title of the be-
loved apostle, (Rev, i. 9,) though as a servant to you and
the Church of God,
Your Brother and Companion in Tribulation, and
in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ,
RICH. BAXTER.
Nov. 1, 1661.
TO MY DEARLY BELOVED
THE INHABITANTS
OP THE
BOROUGH AND PARISH OF KIDDERMINSTER
IN THE
COUNTY OF WORCESTER.*
As I never desired any greater preferment in this world,
than to have continued in the work of my ministry among
you, so I once thought my days would have been ended in
that desired station : but we are unmeet to tell God how he
shall dispose of us : or to foreknow what changes he in-
tends to make. Though you are low in the world, and have
not the riches which cause men's estimation with the most,
I see no probability that we should have been separated till
death, could I but have obtained leave to preach for nothing.
But being forbidden to preach the Gospel in that dio-
cese, I must thankfully take the liberty which shall any
where else be vouchsafed me : and while I may enjoy it,
I take it not for my duty to be over querulous, though the
wound that is made by my separation from you be very
deep. And though to strangers it will seem probable that
such severity had never been exercised against me, but for
some heinous crime, yet to you that have known me, I shall
need to say but little in my defence. The great crime
which is openly charged on me, and for which I am thought
unworthy to preach the Gospel, (even where there is no
other to preach) is a matter that you are unacquainted with,
and therefore, as you have heard me publicly accused of it,
I am bound to render you such an account as is necessary
to your just information and satisfaction.
It pleased the king's majesty, (in the prosecution of his
most Christian resolution, of uniting his differing subjects
by the way of mutual approaches and abatements,) to grant
a commission to twelve bishops and nine assistants on the
one side, and to one bishop and eleven other divines and
nine assistants on the other side, to treat about such altera-
* Giving ail account of the causes of his being forbidden to preach in the diocese
of Worcester, by Dr. Gkorgi: Morley, then bishop tlierc.
XXVlll ADDRESS TO THE
tions of the Liturgy, as are necessary to the satisfying of
tender consciences, and to the restoring of unity and peace.
My experiences in a former treaty (for reconciliation in mat-
ter of discipline) made me entreat those to whom the nomi-
nation on the one side was committed, to excuse me from
the service which 1 knew would prove troublesome to my-
self, and ungrateful to others ; but I could not prevail.
(But the work itself, I very much approved, as to be done
by fitter and more acceptable persons.) Being commanded
by the king's commission, 1 took it to be my duty to be
faithful, and to plead for such alterations as T knew were
necessary to the assigned ends ; thinking it to be treachery
to his Majesty that entrusted us, and to the Church and
cause for which we were entrusted, if under pretence of
making such alterations as were necessary to the two fore-
mentioned ends, I should have silently yielded to have
no alterations, or next to none. In the conclusion (when
the chief work was done by writing) a committee of each
part, was appointed to manage a disputation in presence (by
writing also). Therein those of the other part formed an
argument, whose major proposition was to this sense (for I
have no copy), * Whatsoever book enjoineth nothing but
what is of itself lawful, and by lawful authority, enjoineth
nothing that is sinful :' We denied this proposition ; and at
last gave divers reasons of our denial; among which one
was that ' It may be unlawful by accident, and therefore
sinful.' You now know my crime, it is my concurring with
learned, reverend brethren, to give this reason of our denial of
a proposition : yet they are not forbidden to preach for it,
(and I hope shall not be;) but only I. You have publicly
heard, from a mouth that should speak nothing but the
words of charity, truth, and soberness, (especially there)
that this was * a desperate shift that men at the last extre-
mity are forced to,' and inferring • that then neither God nor
man can enjoin without sin.' In city and country this
soundeth forth to my reproach. I should take it for an act of
clemency to have been smitten professedly for nothing, and
that it might not have been thought necessary to afflict me
by a defamation, that so I might seem justly afflicted by a
prohibition to preach the Gospel. But indeed is there in
these words of ours so great a crime? Though we doubted
not but they knew that our assertion made not everif evil
INHABITANTS OF KIDDERMINSTER. XXIX
accident, to be such as made an imposition unlawful, yet
we expressed this by word to them at that time, for fear of be-
ing misreported : and I told it to the Right reverend bishop
when he forbade me to preach, and gave this as a reason:
and I must confess, I am still guilty of so much weakness
as to be confident that ' some things not evil of themselves,
may have accidents so evil, as may make it a sin to him
that shall command them.' Is this opinion inconsistent with
all government? Yea, I must confess myself guilty of so
much greater weakness, as that I thought I should never
have found a man on earth, that had the ordinary reason of
a man, that had made question of it ; yea I shall say more
than that which hath offended, viz. 'That whenever the
commanding or forbidding of a thing indifferent is like to
occasion more hurt than good, and this may be foreseen,
the commanding or forbidding it is a sin. But»yet this is
not the assertion that 1 am chargeable with, but that ' some
accidents there may be that may make the imposition sin-
ful ;' if I may ask it without accusing others, how would
my crime have been denominated if I had said the contrary?
Should I not have been judged unmeet to live in any go-
verned society? It is not unlawful of itself to command out
a navy to sea : but if it were foreseen that they would fall
into the enemies' hands, or were like to perish by any acci-
dent, and the necessity of sending them were small, or none,
it were a sin to send them. It is not of itself unlawful to
sell poison, or to give a knife to another, or to bid another
do it : but if it were foreseen that they will be used to poi-
son or kill the buyer, it is unlawful ; and I think the law
would make him believe it that were guilty. It is not of it-
self unlawful to light a candle or set fire on a straw ; but if
it may be foreknown, that by another's negligence or wil-
fulness, it is like to set fire on the city, or to give fire to a
train and store of gunpowder, that is under the parliament
house, when the king and parliament are there : I crave the
bishop's pardon, for believing that it were sinful to do it, or
command it : yea or not to hinder it (in any such case,)
when' qui non vetatpeccare cum potest, jubet.' Yea though
going to God's public worship be of itself so far from being
a sin, as that it is a duty, yet I think it is a sin to command
it to all in time of a raging pestilence, or when they should
be defending the city against the assault of an enemy. It
XXX ADDRESS TO THE
may rather be then a duty to prohibit it. I think Paul
spake not any thing inconsistent with thegovernmentof God
or man, when he bid both the rulers and people of the church,
not to destroy him with their me^t for whom Christ died :
and when he saith that he hath not his power to destruction,
but to edification. Yea, there are evil accidents of a thing
not evil of itself, that are caused by the commander: and it
is my opinion that they may prove his command unlawful.
But what need I use any other instances than that which
was the matter of our dispute? Suppose it never so lawful
of itself to kneel in the reception of the sacrament, if it be
imposed by a penalty that is incomparably beyond the pro-
portion of the offence, that penalty is an accident of the com-
mand, and maketh it by accident sinful in the commander :
If a prince should have subjects so weak as that all of them
thought it a sin against the example of Christ, and the ca-
nons of the General Councils, and many hundred years'
practice of the church, to kneel in the act of receiving on
the Lord's-day, if he should make a law that all should be
put to death that would not kneel, when he foreknew that
their consciences would command them all, or most of them,
to die rather than obey, would any man deny this command
to be unlawful by this accident? Whether the penalty of
ejecting ministers that dare not put away all that do not
kneel, and of casting out all the people that scruple it, from
the church, be too great for such a circumstance, (and so
in the rest,) and whether this, with the lamentable state
of many congregations, and the divisions that will follow,
beino- all foreseen, do prove the impositions unlawful which
were then in question, is a case that I had then a clearer call
to speak to than I have now. Only I may say that the
ejection of the servants of Christ from the communion of
his church, and of his faithful ministers from their sacred
work, when too many congregations have none but insuffi-
cient or scandalous teachers, or no preaching ministers at
all, will appear a matter of very great moment, in the day of
our accounts, and such as should not be done upon any but
a necessary cause, where the benefit is greater than this
hurt, and all the rest amounts to.
Havino- given you, to whom I owe it, this account of
the cause for which 1 am forbidden the exercise of my mi-
nistry in that country, I now direct these Sermons to your
INHABITANTS OF KIDDERMINSTER. XXXI
hands, that seeing I cannot teach you as I would, I may
teach you as I can. And if I much longer enjoy such li-
berty as this, it will be much above my expectation.
My dearly beloved, stand fast in the Lord ; And " fear
ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revil-
ings : for the moth shall eat them up a garment, and the
worm shall eat them like wool : but the righteousness of the
Lord shall be for ever, and his salvation from generation to
generation." (Isa. li. 7, 8.) If I have taught you any doc-
trine of error or impiety, of disobedience to your governors
in lawful things, of schism or uncharitableness, unlearn
them all, and renounce them with penitent detestation: but
if otherwise, " I beseech you mark them which cause divi-
sions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which you have
learned, and avoid them : for they are such as serve not our
Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly ; and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom.
xvi. 17.) If any shall speak against truth or godliness, re-
member what you have received ; and how little any(adver-
sary could say, that ever made such assaults upon you,
while I was with you : and that is easy for any man to talk
confidently when no man must contradict him. I denied no
man liberty upon equal terms, to have said his worst against
any doctrine that ever I taught you. And how they suc-
ceeded, I need not tell you: your own stability tells the
world. As you have maintained true Catholicism, and never
followed any sect, so I beseech you still maintain the an-
cient faith, the love of every member of Christ, and common
charity to all, your loyalty to your king, your peace with all
men: and let none draw you from catholic unity to a fac-
tion, though the declaiming against faction and schism
should be the device by which they would accomplish it.
And as the world is nothing, and God is all, to all that are
sincere believers ; so let no worldly interest seem regardable
to you, when it stands in any opposition to Christ; but ac-
count all loss and dung for him. (Phil. iii. 8.) And if you
shall hear that I yet suffer more than I have done, let it not
be your discouragement or grief; for I doubt not but it will
be my crown and joy: I have found no small consolation,
that I have not suffered, for sinful, or for small and indif-
ferent things : and if my pleading against the ejection of the
ministers of Christ, and the excommunicating of his mem-
XXXll ADDRESS.
bers for a ceremony, and the divisions of his church, and
the destruction of charity, shall be the cause of my sufter-
ing (be it never so great,) it shall as much rejoice me to be
a suffering witness for charity and unity, as if I were a
martyr for the faith. I participate with Paul in an " ex-
pectation and hope, that Christ shall be magnified in my
body whether by life or death : and as to live will be Christ,
so to die will be gain ; only let your conversation be as it
becometh the Gospel of Christ ; that whether I ever see you
more, or be absent, till the joyful day, I may hear of your
affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind stri-
ving together for the faith of the Gospel; and in nothing
terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident
token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God,
if to you it shall be given on the behalf of Christ, not only
to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." (Phil. i.
20, 21. 27 — 29.) But let no injury from inferiors pro-
voke you to dishonour the governors that God himself hath
set over you. " Be meek and patient ; the Lord is at hand ;
honour all men ; love the brotherhood : fear God ; honour
the king : for so is the will of God, that with well doing ye
may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." (1 Pet. ii,
15. 17.) It is soon enough for you and me, to be justified
at the bar of Christ (by himself that hath undertaken it)
against all the calumnies of malicious men. Till then let it
seem no greater a malicious matter than indeed it is, to be
slandered, vilified or abused by the world. Keep close to
him that never faileth you, and maintain your integrity, that
he may maintain the joys that none can take from you.
Farewel, my dear brethren, who are my glory and joy in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. (1 Thess.
ii. 18, 19.)
Your faithful.
Though unworthy Pastor,
RICH. BAXTER.
Nov. tlth, 1661.
1
THE
MISCHIEFS OF SELF IGNORANCE,
AND
BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE.
2 CORINTHIANS xiii. 5.
Knoiv ye not your own selves ?
The Corintliians being much abused by false teachers, to
the corrupting of their faith and manners, and the question-
ing of the apostle's ministry, he acquainteth them in my
text with an obvious remedy for both these maladies ; and
lets them know, that their miscarriages call them to question
themselves rather than to question his authority or gifts,
and that if they find Christ in themselves, they must acknow-
ledge him in his ministry.
He therefore first most importunately urgeth them to the
mediate duty of self-examination : " Examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith : prove your own selves :" Self-
examination is but the means of self-knowledge. This
therefore he next urgeth, and that first in general ; and fcJiis
by way of interrogation, " Know ye not your own selves?"
and then more particularly he tells them, what it is of them-
selves, that it most concerneth them to know, " How that
Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates." As if
he should say, ' Alas, poor souls ; you have more cause to
question yourselves than me : go to therefore, examine and
prove yourselves. It is a shame for a man to be ignorant
of himself. Know ye not your own selves? Either Christ is
in you, by faith, and by his Spirit, or he is not : if he be not,
you are yet but reprobates, that is, disapproved of God, and
at present in a forsaken, or condemned state yourselves ;
(which is a conclusion that you will be loath to admit, but
more concerneth you:) if Christ be in you, it was by the
means of my ministry ; and therefore that ministry hath been
powerful and effectual to you, and you are my witnesses ;
the seal of my ministry is upon your own souls : Christ with-
VOL. XVI. D
34 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
in you bears me witness, and therefore of all men, you have
least cause to question or quarrel with my ministry.'
This paraphrase opening all that may seem difficult in
'the text, 1 shall immediately offer you a double observation,
which the words afford us ; first, as considered in them-
selves, and then as respecting the inference for which they
are premised by the apostle.
The first is, that All men shmdd knovj themselves: or,
it is a sliamefor a man to be unacquainted with himself.
The second is, that Not knowing ourselves is the cause of
other errors : or. The knowledge of ourselves, loould much con-
duce to the cure of many other errors.
In handling this, I shall shall shew you, I. What it is to
know ourselves. 11. How far it is, or is not a shame to be
ignorant of ourselves. III. What evils follow this io-norance
of ourselves, and what benefits self-knowledge would pro-
cure. IV. How we should improve this doctrine by appli-
cation and practice. Of the first but briefly.
I. Self-knowledge is thus distinguished according to the
object. 1. There is a physical self-knowledge : whenaman
knows what he is as a man ; what his soul is, and what his
body, and what the compound called man. The doctrine of
man's nature, or this part of physics is so necessary to all,
that it is first laid down even in the Holy Scriptures, in Ge-
nesis, chap, i, ii, iii, before his duty is expressed. And it is
presupposed in all the moral passages of the word, and in
all the preaching of the Gospel. The subject is presuppo-
sed to the adjuncts. The subjects of God's kingdom be-
long to the constitution ; and therefore to be known before
the legislation and judgment, which are the parts of the ad-
ministration. Morality always presupposeth nature. The
species is in order before the separable accidents. Most
ridiculously therefore doth ignorance plead for itself against
knowledge, in them that cry down this part of physics, as
human learning, unnecessary to the disciples of Christ.
What excellent, holy meditations of human nature do you
find oft in Job, and in David's Psalms, (Psal. cxxxix,) con-
cluding in the praise of the incomprehensible Creator, (ver.
14,) " I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made : marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth
right well."
AND BENEFrr.S OF S EL F-A C Q U/V 1 NT A NCE. 35
2. There is a moral self-knowledge very necessary. And
thi.s is, the knowing of ourselves in relation to God's law,
or to his judgment. The former is the knowledge of our-
selves in respect of our duty: the second, in respect of the
reward or punishment. And both of them have respect to
the law of nature, and works, or to the remedying law of
grace.
Tlie ethical knowledge of ourselves, or that which res-
pecteth the precept of our duty, is twofold. The first is, as
we have performed that duty. The second, as we have
violated the law by non-performance or transgression. The
first is, the knowledge of ourselves as good ; the second as
evil. And both are either the knowledge of our habits (good
or evil) or of our acts; how we are morally inclined, dis-
posed, or habituated; or what, and how we have done : We
must know the good estate of our nature that we are created
in; the bad estate of sinful nature that we are fallen into;
the actual sin committed against the law of nature, and what
«in we have committed against the law of grace; and whe-
ther we have obeyed the call of the gospel of salvation or
not. So that as man's state considered ethically, is three-
fold, 'institutus, destitutus, et restitutus : infirmatus, defor-
matus, et reformatus ;' the state of upright nature ; the state
of sin, original and actual ; and the state of grace ; we must
know what we are in respect to every one of these.
And as to the judicial knowledge of ourselves, that is, as
we stand related to the promises, and threatenings, the judg-
ment, the reward and punishment; we must know tirst, what
is due to us according to the law of nature, and then what is
due to us according to the tenor of the law of grace. By the
law of nature or of works, death is the due of fallen mankind;
but no man by it can lay claim to heaven. All men are under
its curse or condemnation, till pardoned by Christ; but no
man can be justified by it. By the promise of the Gospel,
all true believers renewed and sanctified by the Spirit of
Christ, are justified and made the sons of God and heirs of
everlasting glory. To know whether we are yet delivered
from the condemnation of the law, and whether our sins are
pardoned or not, and whether we are the children of God,
and have any part in the heavenly glory ; is much of the
self-knowledge that is here intended in the text, and that
which most nearly concerneth the solid comfort of our souls-
3(j THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
II. But is all self-ignorance a shame, or dangerous ?
Answ. 1. It is no other shame than what is common to
human frailty, to be ignorant of much of the mystery of our
natural generation, constitution, integral parts, and temper-
ament. There is not a nerve, or artery, or vein, nor the
breadth of a hand from head to foot, but hath something
unknown to the most excellent philosopher on earth. This
little world called man, is a compound of wonders. Both
soul and body have afforded matter of endless controversy,
and voluminous disputations, to the most learned men ;
which will not admit of a full decision, till we are past this
state of darkness and mortality.
2. There are many controversies about the nature, deri-
vation, and punishment of original sin, which a humble and
diligent Christian may possibly be ignorant of.
3. The degrees of habitual sin, considered simply, or
proportionably and respectively to each other, may be much
unknown to many that are willing and diligent to know :
and so many divers actual sins, such as we know not to be
sin, through our imperfect understanding of the law; and
such as through frailty, in a crowd of actions, escape our
particular observation. And the sinfulness or aggravations
of every sin, are but imperfectly known and observed by the
best.
4. Tiie nature and beauty of the image of God, as first
planted on created man, and since restored to man redeemed :
the manner of the Spirit's access, operation, testimony and
inhabitation, are all but imperfectly known by the wisest of
believers.
The frame or admirable composure or contexture of the
new man in each of the renewed faculties ; the connection,
order, beauty and special use of each particular grace, are
observed but imperfectly by the best.
5. The very uprightness and sincerity of our own hearts,
in faith, hope, love, repentance and obedience, is usually
unknown to incipients, or young beginners in religion; and
to the weaker sort of Christians, how old soever in profes-
sion, and to melancholy persons, who can have no thoughts
of themselves but sad and fearful, tending to despair; and
to lapsed and declining Christians, and also to many an
upright soul, from whom in some cases of special trial, God
seems to hide his pleased face. And though these infirmi-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 37
ties are their shame, yet are they not the characters or
prognostics of their misery and everlasting shame.
6. The same persons must needs be unacquainted with
the justification, reconciliation, adoption and title to ever-
lasting blessedness, as long as they are uncertain of their
sincerity. Yea, though they uprightly examine themselves,
and desire help of their guides, and watch and pore conti-
nually upon their hearts and ways, and daily beg of God to
acquaint them with their spiritual condition, they may yet
be so far unacquainted with it, as to pass an unrighteous
judgment on themselves, and condemn themselves when God
hath justified them.
But, 1. To be totally ignorant of the excellency and
capacity of your immortal souls. 2. To be void of an effec-
tual knowledge of your sin and misery, and need of the
remedy. 3. To think you have saving grace, when you have
none ; that you are regenerate by the Spirit, when you are
only sacramentally regenerate by baptism; that you are
the members of Christ, when it is no such matter; that you
are justified, adopted, and the heirs of heaven, when it is not
so ; all this is doleful and damnable unacquaintedness with
yourselves.
To be unacquainted with a state of life, when you are
in such a state, is sad and troublesome, and casts you upon
many and great inconveniences. But to be unacquainted
with a state of death, when you are in it, doth fasten your
chains, and hinder your recovery. To be willing and dili-
gent to know your state, and yet be unable to attain to
assurance and satisfaction, is ordinary with many true
believers : but to be ignorant of it because you have no
grace to find, and because you mind not the matters of
your souls, or think it not worth your diligent consideration
or inquiry: this is the case of the miserable despisers of
salvation.
III. The commodities and incommodities to be men-
tioned, are so many and great, that many hours would not
serve to open them as they deserve.
1. Atheism is cherished by self-ignorance. The know-
ledge of ourselves as men, doth notably conduce to our
knowledge of God. Here God is known but darkly, and
as in a glass, (1 Cor. xiii. 12,) and by his image, and not
as face to face. And, except his incarnate and his wiilteu
3B THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
word, what glass revealeth him so clearly as the soul of man'f
We bear a double image of our Maker: his natural image in
the nature of our faculties ; and his moral image in their
holy qualifications, in the nature of grace, and frame of the
new man. By knowing ourselves, it is easy to know that
there is a God ; and it much assisteth us to know what he is,
not only in his attributes and relations, but even in the
Trinity itself. He may easily know that there is a primitive
being and life, that knoweth he hath himself a derived
being and life. He must know that there is a Creator, that
knoweth he is a creature. He that findeth a capacious intel-
lect, a will and power in the creature, and that is conscious
of any wisdom, and goodness in himself, may well know that
* formaliter' or ' eminenter,' ail these are infinite in the first
cause that must thus have in itself whatsoever it doth com-
municate. He that knoweth that he made not, and pre-
serveth not himself, may well know that he is not his own,
but his that made him and preserveth him, who must needs
be his absolute proprietary and Lord. He that knoweth
that he is an intellectual moral agent, and therefore to act
morally, and therefore to be moved by moral means, and that
he is a sociable creature, a member of the universe, living
among men, may well be sure, that he is made to be a sub-
ject, and governed by laws, and by moral means to be direc-
ted and moved to his end ; and therefore that none but his ab-
solute Lord, the Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, can
be his absolute and highest sovereign. He that is convinced
that he is, he lives, he hopeth and enjoyeth all that is good,
from a superior bounty, may be sure that God is liis princi-
pal benefactor. And to be ' The first and infinite being,
intellect, will, and power, wisdom, goodness, and cause of
all things ; the absolute owner, the most righteous governor,
and the most bounteous benefactor,' this is to be God.
This being the description of him that is so called : such a
description as is fetched from Uis created image man, and
expressed in the terms that himself hath chosen, and used in
his word, as knowing that if he will be understood by man,
he must use the notions and expressions of man : and
though these are spoken but analogically of God, yet are
there no fitter conceptions of him that the soul of man, in flesh,
is capable of. So that the Atheist carrieth about him that
impress and evidence of the Deity, which may convince him.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 39
or condemn him for his foolishness and impiety. He is a
fool indeed, that " saith in his heart there is no God,'' (Psal.
xiv. I,) when that heart itself in its being, and life, and mo-
tion, is his witness : and soul and body, with all their facul-
ties, are nothing but the effects of this Almighty cause.
And when they prove that there is a God, even by question-
ing or denying it, being unable, without him, so much as to
deny him; that is, to think, or speak, or be. As if a fool
should write a volume, to prove that there is no ink or paper
in the world, when it is ink and paper by which he writes.
And whether there be no representation of the Trinity in
unity in the nature of man, let them judge that have well
considered, how in one body there are the natural, vital and
animal parts and spirits : and in one life or soul, there are
the vegetative, sensitive and rational faculties ; and in one
rational soul as such, there are an intellect, will and execu-
tive power, morally perfected by wisdom, goodness and
promptitude to well doing. As in one sun there are light and
heat, and moving force. So that man is both the beholder
and the glass; the reader and the book : he is the index of
the Godhead to himself: yea, partly of the Trinity in unity:
of which saith August, de Trinit. lib 1. ' Nee periculosius
alicubi erratur, nee laboriosiusaliquid quseritur, nee fructu-
osius,invenitur, quam Trinitas.' We need not say. Who shall
go up into heaven : Saith Seneca himself by the light of na-
ture, 'Prope Deus est; tecum est : intusest; sacer intra nos
Spiritus; sedet bonorum malorumque nostrorum observator
et custos : hie prout a nobis tractatur, ita nos tractat ipse :
bonus vir sine Deo nemo est.' God is nigh us ; with
us; within us; a holy Spirit resideth within us: the ob-
server of our evil and good, and our preserver : he useth
us as he is used by us : no good man is without God. Saith
August. * Deus est in seipso sicut « et w: in mundo sicut
rector et author : in Angelis sicut sapor et decor : in Eccle-
sia sicut pater familias in domo : in animo sicut sponsus in
thalamo : in justis sicut adjutor et protector : in reprobis,
sicut pavor et horror.' God is in himself as the Alpha and
Omega ; in the world as its governor and author: in angels
as their sweetness and comeliness: in the church as the
master of the family in his house : in the soul, as the bride-
groom in his bed-chamber: in the righteous, as their helper
and protector, &c. and as all declareth him, so all should
40 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
praise him : ' Hunc itaquemens diligat, lingua canat, manus
scribat, atque in his Sanctis studiisfidelis animus seexerceat/
Aug. Let the mind be exercised in loving him, the tongue
in singing him, the hand in writing him ; let these holy studies
be the believer's work.
2. He that knoweth himself, may certainly know thatthere
is another life of happiness or misery for man to live, when
this is ended. For he must needs know that his soul is capa-
ble of a spiritual and glorious felicity with God, and of im-
material objects, and that time is as nothing to it, and tran-
sitory creatures afford it no satisfaction or rest: and that the
hopes and fears of the life to come, are the divine engines by
which the moral government of the world is carried on ; and
that the very nature of man is such, as that without such
apprehensions, hopes and fears, he could not in a connatu-
ral way be governed, and brought unto the end, to which
his nature is inclined and adapted ; but the world would be
as a wilderness, and men as brutes. And he may well know
that God made not such faculties in vain, nor suited them
to an end which cannot be attained, nor to a work which
would prove but their trouble and deceit: he may be sure
that a mere probability or possibility of an everlasting life,
should engage a reasonable creature in all possible diligence
in piety and righteousness, and charity to attain it : and so
religious and holy endeavours, are become the duty of man
as man; there being few such infidels or atheists to be found
on earth, as dare say. They are sure there is no other life for
man, and doubtless whatsoever is by nature and reason
made man's duty, is not delusory and vain : nor is it reason-
able to think that falsehood, frustration and deceit, are the
ordinary way by which mankind is governed by the most
wise and holy God. So that the end of man may be clearly
gathered from his nature : forasmuch as God doth certainly
suit his works unto their proper use and ends. It is there-
fore the ignorance of ourselves, that makes men question
the immortality of souls : and I may add, it is the ignorance fl
of the nature of conscience, and of all morality, and of the JM
reason of justice among men, that makes men doubt of the
discriminating justice of the Lord, which is hereafter to be
manifested.
3. Did men know themselves, they would better know
the evil and odiousness of sin. As poverty and sickness are
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 41
better known by feeling than by hearsay ; so also is sin. To
hear a discourse, or read a book of the nature, prognostics
and cure of the plague, consumption, or dropsy, doth little
affect us, while we seem to be sound and safe ourselves : but
when we find the malady in our flesh, and perceive the danger,
we have then another manner of knowledge of it. Did you
but see and feel sin as it is in your hearts and lives, as oft
as you read and hear of it in the law of God, I dare say sin
would not seem a jesting matter, nor would those be cen-
sured as too precise, that are careful to avoid it, any more
than they that are careful to avoid infectious diseases, or
crimes against the laws of man, that hazard their temporal
felicity or lives.
4. It is want of self-acquaintance that keeps the soul
from kindly humiliation : that men are insensible of their
spiritual calamities, and lie under a load of unpardoned sin
and God's displeasure, and never feel it, nor loathe them-
selves for all the abominations of their hearts and lives, nor
make complaint to God or man with any seriousness and
sense. How many hearts would be filled with wholesome
grief and care, that now are careless and almost past feel-
ing ! and how many eyes would stream forth tears that now
are dry, if men were but truly acquainted with themselves !
It is self-knowledge that causeth the solid peace and joy of
a believer, as conscious of that grace that warranteth his
peace and joy : but it is self-deceit and ignorance that quiet-
eth the presumptuous, that walk as carelessly, and sleep as
quietly, and bless themselves from hell as confidently, when
it is ready to devour them, as if the bitterness of death were
past, and hypocrisy would never be discovered.
5. It is unacquaintedness with themselves that makes
Christ so undervalued by the unhumbled world: that his
name is reverenced, but his office and saving grace are dis-
regarded. Men could not set so light by the physician,
that felt their sickness, and understood their danger. Were
you sensible that you are under the wrath of God, and shall
shortly and certainly be in hell, if Christ received by a
hearty, working, purifying faith, do not deliver you, I dare
say, you would have more serious, savory thoughts of Christ,
more yearnings after him, more fervent prayers for his heal-
ing grace, and sweet remembrance of his love and merits.
42 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
example, doctrine and inestimable benefits, than lifeless
hypocrites ever were acquainted with.
Imagine with what desires and expectations the diseased,
blind and lame cried after him for healing to their bodies,
when he was on earth. And would you not more highly
value him, more importunately solicit him for your own
souls, if you knew yourselves?
6. It is unacquaintedness with themselves that makes men
think so unworthily of a holy, heavenly conversation ; and
that possesseth them with foolish prejudice against the holy
care and diligence of believers : Did men but value their im-
mortal souls, as reason itself requireth them to do, is it pos-
sible they should venture so easily upon everlasting misery,
and account it unnecessary strictness in them that dare not
be as desperately venturous as they, but fly from sin, and
fear the threatenings of the Lord? Did men but consider-
ately understand the worth and concernment of their souls,
is it possible they should hazard them for a thing of naught,
and set them at sale for the favour of superiors, or the tran-
sitory pleasures and honours of the world? Could they
think the greatest care and labour of so short a life to be
too much for the securing of their salvation? Could they
think so many studious careful days, and so much toil, to be
but meet and necessary for their bodies ; and yet think all
too much that is done for their immortal souls? Did men
but practically know that they are the subjects of the God
of heaven, they durst not think the diligent obeying him to
be a needless thing, when they like that child or servant best,
that is most willing and diligent in their service. Alas !
were men but acquainted with their weakness, and sinful
failings, when they have done their best, and how much
short the holiest persons do come of what they are obliged
to by the laws and mercies of the Lord, they durst not make
a scorn of diligence, nor hate or blame men for endeavouring
to be better, that are sure at best they shall be too bad.
When the worst of men, that are themselves the greatest
neglecters of God and their salvation, shall cry out against
a holy life, and making so much ado for heaven, (as if a man
that lieth in bed should cry out against working too much
or going too fast,) this shews men's strangeness to themselves.
Did the careless world but know themselves, and see where
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 43
they stand, and what is before them, and how much lieth on
this inch of time ; did they but know the nature and em-
ployment of a soul, and why their Creator did place them
for a little while in flesh, and whither they must go when
time is ended, you should then see them in that serious
frame themselves, which formerly they disliked in others :
and they would then confess, that if any thing in the world
deserved seriousness and diligence, it is the pleasing of God,
and the saving of our souls.
7. It is for want of acquaintance with themselves, that
men are so deceived by the vanities of the world ; that they
are drowned in the love of pleasures and sensual delights ;
that they are so greedy for riches, and so desirous to be
higher than those about them, and to waste their days in the
pursuit of that which will not help them in the hour of their
extremity. Did the voluptuous sensualist know aright that
he is a man, he would not take up with the pleasures and
felicity of a brute; nor enslave his reason to the violence of
his appetite. He would know that there are higher pleasures
which beseem a man; even those that consist in the well-
being and integrity of the soul, in peace of conscience, in
the favour of God, and communion with him in the Spirit,
and in a holy life, and in the forethoughts and hopes of
endless glory.
Did the covetous worldling know himself, he would know
that it must be another kind of riches that must satisfy his
soul, and that he hath wants of another nature to be supplied j
and that it more concerneth him to lay up a treasure in
heaven, and think where he must dwell for ever, than to
accommodate this perishing flesh, and make provision with
so much ado, for a life that posteth away while he is pro-
viding for it : he would rather make him friends with the
mammon of unrighteousness, and lay up a foundation for the
time to come, and labour for the food that never perisheth,
than to make such a stir for that which will serve him so
little a while; that so he might hear " Well done, thou good
and faithful servant, &c." rather than " Thou fool, this night
thy soul shall be required of thee ; then whose shall those
things be which thou hast provided ?"
Self-knowledge would teach ambitious men, to prefer
the calmest, safest station before the highest; and to seek
tirst the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and to please
44 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
him most carefully that hath the keys of heaven and hell f
and to be content with food and raiment in the way, while
they are ambitious of a higher glory. It would tell them,
that so dark and frail a creature should 4De more solicitous
to obey than to have dominion ; and that large possessions
are not the most congruous or desirable passage to a narrow
grave ; and that it is the highest dignity to be an heir of
heaven. Would men but spend some hours time in the
study of themselves, and seriously consider what it is to be
a man, a sinner, a passenger to an endless life, an expectant
of so great a change, and withal to be a professed believer,
what a turn would it make in the cares, and the desires, and
conversations of the most !
* O amatores mundi (inquit Angust.) cujus rei gratia mi-
litatis? Ibi quid nisi fragile plenum periculis ? et per
quot pericula pervenitur ad majus periculum? pereant haec
omni, et dimittamus hsec vana et inania, conferamus nos ad
solam inquisitiouem eorum quse finem non habeant.' i. e.
What strive you for, O worldlings ? what is here but a brit-
tle glass full of dangers ? and by how many dangers must
you come to greater dangers ? Away with these vanities
and toys, and let us set ourselves to see the things that have
no end.
8. It is for want of self-acquaintance that any man is
proud. Did men considerately know what they are, how
quickly would it bring them low ! Would corruptible flesh,
that must shortly turn to loathsome rottenness, be stout
and lordly, and look so high, and set forth itself in gaudy
ornaments, if men did not forget themselves? Alas, the
way forgets the end ; the outward bravery forgets the dirt
and filth within ; the stage forgetteth the undressing-room.
Did rulers behave themselves as those that are subjects to
the Lord of all, and have the greatest need to fear his judg-
ment, and prepare for their account : did great ones live as
men that know that rich and poor are equal with the Lord,
who respects not persons ; and that they must speedily be
levelled with the lowest, and their dust be mixed with the
common earth, what an alteration would it make in their
deportment and affairs ! and what a mercy would it prove to
their inferiors and themselves ! If men that swell with pride
of parts, and overvalue their knowledge, wit or elocution,
did know how little indeed they know, and how much they
AND BENEFITS OF .SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 45
are ignorant of, it would much abate their pride and confi-
dence. The more men know indeed, the more they know to
humble them. It is the novices, that " being lifted up with
pride, do fall into the condemnation of the devil." (1 Tim.
iii. 6.) They would loathe themselves if they knew them-
selves.
9. It is self-ignorance that makes men rush upon temp-
tations, and choose them, when they customarily pray
against them. Did you know what tinder or gunpowder
lodgeth in your natures, you would guard your eyes and ears,
and appetites, and be afraid of the least spark ; you would
not be indifferent as to your company, nor choose a life of
danger to your souls, for the pleasing of your flesh ; to live
among the snares of honour or beauty, and bravery, or sen-
sual delights ; you would not wilfully draw so near the brink
of hell, nor be nibbling at the bait, nor looking on the for-
bidden fruit, nor dallying with allurements, nor hearkening to
the deceiver or his messengers. It is ignorance of the weak-
ness and badness of your hearts, that maketh you so confi-
dent of yourselves, as to think that you can hear any thing,
and see any thing, and approach the snare, and treat with
the deceiver without any danger. Self-acquaintance would
cause more fear and self-suspicion.
If you should escape well awhile in your self-chosen
dangers, you may catch that at last that may prove your woe.
Nemo sesc tuto periculis ofFerre tam crebro potest.
Quem saepe transit casus, aliquando invenit.
Seneca.
Temptation puts you on a combat with the powers of the
earth, and flesh and hell ! And is toil and danger your de-
light? ' Nunquam periculum sine periculo vincitur,' saith
Seneca: Danger is never overcome without danger: It is
necessary valour to charge through all, which you are in;
but it is temerarious fool-hardiness to seek for danger, and
invite such enemies when we are so weak. Saith Augustine,
' Nemo sibi proponat et dicat, habere volo quod vincam ;
hoc est, dicere, vivere desidero et volo sub ruina.' Goliah's
" give me a man to fight with," is a prognostic of no good
success. Rather foresee all your dangers to avoid them ;
understand where each temptation lieth, that you may go
another way if possible. ' Castitas periclitatur in deliciis
46 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
hifmilitas in divitiis ; pietas in negotiis ; Veritas in multilo-
quio J charitas in hoc mundo/ saith Bernard : * Chastity is
endangered in delights; humility in riches; piety in busi-
nesses ; truth in too much talk ; and charity in this world.'
Alas, did we but think what temptations did with a Noah, a
Lot, a David, a Solomon, a Peter, we would be afraid of the
enemy and weapon that such worthies have been wounded
by, and of the quicksands where they have so dangerously
fallen. When Satan durst assault the Lord himself, what
hope will he have of such as we ? When we consider the
millions that are blinded, and hardened and damned by
temptations, are we in our wits if we will cast ourselves into
them? ' Preceps est, qui transire contendit, ubi conspexerit
alios cecidisse : et vehementer infraanis est, cui non incu-
titur timor alio pereunte.' Aug.
10. Self-acquaintance would confute temptations, and
easily resolve the case when you are tempted. Did you
considerately know the preciousness of your souls, and your
own concernments, and where your true felicity lieth, you
would abhor allurements, and encounter them with that ar-
gument of Christ, (Mark viii. 36, 37,) " What shall it pro-
fit a man, if he win the world and lose his soul? or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" The fear of man
would be conquered, by a greater fear; as the Lord com-
mandeth," (Luke xii. 4, 5,) " And I say unto you, my
friends; be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do : but I will forewarn
you whom you shall fear : Fear him, which after he hath
killed, hath power to cast into hell : yea, I say unto you.
Fear him."
IL It is unacquaintedness with themselves, that makes
men quarrel with the word of God, rejecting it when it suits
not with their deceived reason, and to be offended with his
faithful ministers, when they cross them in their opinions
or ways, or deal with them with that serious plainness, as
the weight of the case, and their necessity doth require.
Alas, sirs, if you were acquainted with yourselves, you
would know that the holy rule is straight, and the crooked-
ness is in your conceits and misapprehensions ; and that
your frail understandings should rather be suspected than
the word of God, and that your work is to learn and obey
the law, and not to censure it. (James iv. 11.) And that
AXD BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 47
quarrelling with the holy word which you should obey, will
not excuse but aggravate your sin ; nor save you from the
condemnation, but fasten it and make it greater. You would
know that it is more wisdom to stoop than to contend with
God : and that it is not your physicians nor the medicine that
you should fall out with, nor desire to be delivered from,
but the disease.
12. Self-acquaintance would teach men to be charitable
to others, and cure the common censoriousness, and envy,
and malice of the world. Hath thy neighbour some mis-
takes about the disputable points of doctrine, or doubtful
modes of discipline or worship? Is he for the opinion, or
form, or policy, or ceremony, which thou dislikest? Or is
he against them when thou approvest them? Or afraid to
use them, when thou tliinkest them laudable ? If thou know
thyself, thou darest not break charity or peace for this.
Thou darest not censure or despise him: but wilt remember
the frailty of thy own understanding, which is not infallible
in matters of this rank ; and in many things is certainly mis-
taken, and needs forbearance as well as he. Thou wouldst
be afraid of inviting God or man to condemn thyself, by thy
condemning others ; and wouldst think with thyself; If
every error of no more importance in persons that hold the
essentials of religion, and conscionably practise what they
know, must go for heresy, or make men sectaries, or cut
them off from the favour of God, or the communion of the
church, or the protection of the magistrate, and subject
them to damnation, to misery, to censures and reproach :
alas, what then must become of so frail a wretch as I, Of
so dark a mind, of so blameable a heart and life, that am
like to be mistaken in matters so great, where I least sus-
pect it? It is ignorance of themselves, that makes men so
easily think ill of their brethren, and entertain all hard or
mis-reports of them, and look at them so strangely, or speak
of them so contemptuously and bitterly, and use them so
uncompassionately, because they are not in all things of
their opinion and way. They consider not their own infir-
mities, and that they teach men how to use themselves.
The falls of brethren would not be over-aggravated, nor be
the matter of insulting or contempt, but of compassion, if
men knew themselves. This is implied in the charge of the
Holy Ghost, (Gal. vi. 1, 2,) " Brethren, if a man be over-
48 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also
be tempted : bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the
law of Christ." The Pharisee that seeth not the beam of
mortal formality and hypocrisy in his own eye, is most cen-
sorious against the motes of tolerable particular errors in his
brother's eye. None more uncharitable against the real or
supposed errors or slips of serious believers, than hypocrites
that have no saving, serious faith and knowledge, but place
their religion in opinion and outside shows, and wholly err
from the path of life.
13. It is ignorance of themselves that makes men divide
the Church of Christ, and pertinaciously keep open its
bleeding wounds, and hinder concord, and disturb its peace.
How far would self-acquaintance go to the cure of all our
discords and divisions! Is it possible that the Pope should
take upon him the government of the antipodes, even of all
the world, (and that as to spiritual government, which re-
quiieth more personal attendance than secular,) if he knew
Jiimself, and consequently his natural incapacity, and the
terror of his account for such an usurped charge? Self-ac-
quaintance would depose their inquisitions, and quench
their flames ; and make them know what spirit they are of,
that inclineth not to save men's lives, but to destroy them.
(Luke ix. 55, 56.) Did they know themselves, the Papists
durst not multiply new articles of faith, and ceremonies,
and depart from the ancient simplicity of the Gospel, and
turn the Creed or Scripture into all the volumes of their
councils, and say. All these decrees or determinations of
the church are necessary to salvation; and so make the
way of life more difficult, if not impossible (had they indeed
the keys) by multiplying of their supposed necessaries.
Did they but know themselves aright, it were impossible
they should dare to pass the sentence of damnation on the
far greatest part of the Christian world, because they are not
subject to their pretended Vice-Christ. Durst one of the
most leprous, corrupted sort of Christians in the world un-
church all the rest that will not be as bad as they, and con-
demn all other Christians as heretics or schismatics, either
for their adhering to the truth, or for errors and faults, far
smaller than their own? Did they know themselves and
their own corruptions, they durst not thus condemn them-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 49
selves, by so presumptuous and blind a condemnation of
the best and greatest part of the Church of Christ, which is
dearest to him, as purchased by his blood. If either the
Protestants, or the Greeks, or the Armenians, Georgians,
Syrians, Egyptians, or Jithiopian Churches, be in as bad
and dangerous a case, as these usurping censurers tell the
world they are, what then will become of the tyrannous, su-
perstitious, polluted, blood-thirsty Church of Rome?
What is it but self-ignorance that perverteth the unset-
tled among us, and sends them over to the Roman tents?
No man could rationally become a Papist, if he knew him-
self. Let me prove this to you in these four instances.
1. If he had but the knowledge of his natural senses, he
could not take them to be all deceived, (and the senses of all
others as well as his) about their proper object ; and believe
the priests, that bread is no bread, or wine no wine, when
all men's senses testify the contrary.
2. Some of them turn Papists because they see some dif-
ferences among other Christians, and hear them call one
another by names of contumely and reproach ; and there-
fore they think that such can be no true Churches of Christ:
but if they knew themselves, they would be acquainted with
more culpable errors in themselves, than those for which
many others are reproached ; and see how irrational a thing
it is to change their religion upon the scolding words or
slanders of another ; or, which is worse, upon their own un-
charitable censures.
3. Some turn to the Papists, as apprehending their cere-
monious kind of religion to be an easier way to heaven than
ours : but if they knew themselves, they would know that it
is a more solid and spiritual sort of food that their nature
doth require, and a more searching physic that must cure
their diseases ; and that shells and chaff will not feed, but
choke and starve their souls.
4. AH that turn Papists, must believe that they were un-
justified and out of the catholic church before, and conse-
quently void of the love of God and special grace : for they
receive it as one of the Romish articles, that out of their
church there is no salvation. But if these persons were in-
deed before ungodly, if they knew themselves, they would
find that there is a greater matter necessary, than believing
VOL. XVI. , E
50 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
in the Pope, and turning to that faction ; even to turn to
God by faith in Christ, without which no opinions or pro-
fession can save them. But if they had the love of God be-
fore, then they were justified, and in the church before ; and
therefore Protestants are of the true church, and it is not
confined to the Roman subjects: so that if they knew this,
they could not turn Papists without a palpable contradiction.
The Papists' fugitives tell us, we are no true ministers,
nor our ministry effectual and blessed of God. What need we
more than imitate Paul, when his ministry was accused, and
call them to the knowledge of themselves, "Examine your-
selves, whether ye be in the faith ? Prove yourselves : know
ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, ex-
cept ye be reprobates?" If they were ungodly, and void of
the love of God, while they were under our ministry, no
wonder if they turn Papists. For it is just with God, that
those that " receive not the love of the truth that they may
be saved, be given over to strong delusions to believe a lie."
(2 Thess. ii. 10, 11.) But if they received themselves the
love of God in our churches by our ministry, they shall be
our witnesses against themselves.
And it is others as well as Papists that would be kept
from church divisions, if they did but know themselves.
Church governors would be afraid of laying things unne-
cessary, as stumbling-blocks before the weak, and of laying
the unity and peace of the church upon them ; and casting
out of the vineyard of the Lord, and out of their com-
munion, all such as are not in such unnecessary or little
things, of their opinion or way. The words of the great
Apostle of the Gentiles, (Rom. xiv. 15,) so plainly and fully
deciding this matter, would not have stood so long in the
Bible, as, 'non-dicta,' or utterly insignificant, in the
eyes of many rulers of the churches, if they had known
themselves, as having need of their brethren's charity and
forbearance. " Him that is weak in the faith receive you,
but not to doubtful disputations : For one believeth that
he may eat all things, another that is weak eateth herbs.
Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not, (much
less destroy him, or excommunicate him,) and let not
him which eateth not, judge him that eateth : for God hath
received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's ser-
vant? To his own master he standeth or falleth; yea he
AND BENEFITS OP SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. oi
shall beholden up, for God is able to make him stand. One
man esteemeth one day above another ; another esteemeth
every day alike : let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind." (Ver. 13.) " Let us not therefore judge one another
any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stum-
bling-block, or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." (Ver.
17.) " For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Ver.
18.) " For he that in these things serveth Christ, is accep-
table to God, and approved of men." (Chap. xv. 1.) "We
then that are strong, ought to bear with the infirmities of
the weak, and not to please ourselves." (Ver. 7.) "Where-
fore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to
the glory of God," Self-acquaintance would help men to
understand these precepts ; and be patient with the weak,
when we ourselves have so much weakness, and not to vex or
reject our brethren for little or unnecessary things, lest
Christ reject or grieve us that have greater faults.
Self-acquaintance also would do much to heal the divi-
ding humour of the people ; and instead of separating from
all that are not of their mind, they would think themselves
more unworthy of the communion of the church, than the
church of their's.
Self-acquaintance makes men tender and compassionate,
and cureth a censorious, contemptuous mind. It also silen-
ceth passionate, contentious disputes, and makes men sus-
picious of their own understandings, and therefore forbid-
deth them intemperately to condemn dissenters. It also
teacheth men to submit to the faithful directions and con-
duct of their pastors ; and not to vilify, forsake and disobey
them, as if they were above them in understanding, and fit-
ter to be guides themselves; so that in all these respects, it
is ignorance of themselves that makes men troublers of the
church, and the knowledge of themselves would much re-
medy it.
14. And it is ignorance of themselves also, that makes
men troublers of the state. A man that doth not know him-
self, is unfit for all society : if he be a ruler he will forget
the common good, and instead of clemency and justice, will
violently exercise an imperious will. If he be a subject, he
will be censuring the actions of his rulers, when distance and
dis-acquaintance makes him an incompetent judge. He
52 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
will think himself fitter to rule than they, and whatever they
do, he imagineth that he could do it better. And hence
comes suspicions and uiurmurings against them, and Co-
rah's censures, "Ye take too much upon you : are not all
the people holy?" Were men acquainted with themselves,
their weaknesses, their concernments, and their duties, they
would rather inquire whether they obey well, than whether
their superiors rule well ; and would think the lowest place
to be most suitable to them ; and would quiet themselves in
the discharge of their own duty, " making supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for all men; for
kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a
quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty; for
this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savi-
our." (1 Tim. ii. 1 — 3.) It would quiet all the seditions
and tumults of the world, if men were w^ll acquainted with
themselves.
I confess, seditions seem to rise from a too great know-
ledge and regard of ourselves, and of our own commodity.
' Aliquid commune tuum facere, est seditionis et discordiae
principium : to appropriate common benefits to ourselves, is
the spring of discord and sedition. But here, as in other
things, self-seeking cometh from self-ignorance, and tendeth
to self-deceit and disappointment. The end of contendings
answer not the promises that selfishness and passion make
men in the beginnings.
Si aeterna semper odia mortales agant
Ne cjeptus unquam cedat ex aniinis furor.
Sed arma faelix teneat, infelix pereat.
Nihil relinquent bella. Seneca.
And then,
' En quo discordia cives
Perduxit miseros, en queis consevimus agros,
15. Self-acquaintance would end abundance of contro-
versies, and very much help men to discern the truth. In the
controversy of freewill or human power; to know ourselves
as we are men, would be to know that we have the natural
power and freedom consisting in the self-determining fa-
culty and principle. To know ourselves as sinful, would
certify us how much we want of the moral power which con-
sisteth in right inclinations, and the moral liberty, from vi-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQU A INTANCE. 53
cious dispositions and habits. Would time permit, I might
shew itin the instances of original corruption, of the nature of
grace, of merit, the cause of sin, and many other controversies,
how much error is promoted by the ignorance of ourselves.
16. Self-acquaintance maketh men both just and merci-
ful. One cannot be so much as a good neighbour without
it, nor yet a faithful friend. It will teach you to put up inju-
ries, and to forgive ; as remembering that you are likely to be
injurious to others, and certainly are daily so to God; and
that it is no great fault that is done against such poor, un-
worthy persons as ourselves (if it had no higher a respect
than to us). It is such only that " with all lowliness, and
meekness, and long-suffering, forbear one another in love,"
(Ephes. iv. 2,) and " recompense to no man evil for evil,"
and " be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
(Ver. 21.) He that is drawn to passion and revenge, is over-
come when he seems to overcome by that revenge. It
teacheth us to forgive, to know that much is forgiven us by
Christ, or at least, what need we have of such forgiveness.
(Ephes. iv. 31, 32.) " Let all bitterness, and wrath, and an-
anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from
you, with all malice : and be ye kind one to another, tender-
hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you." O that this lesson were well learned !
17. Self-acquaintance will teach us the right estimate of
all our mercies : when we know how unworthy we are of the
least, and whatitis we principally need, it will teach us thank-
fulness for all ; and teach us which of our mercies to prefer.
Men know not themselves and their own necessities, and
therefore they slight their chief mercies, accounting them
burdens, and are unthankful for the rest.
18. Self-acquaintance is necessary to the solid peace and
comfort of the soul. Security and stupidity may quiet the
ungodly for a while, and self-flattery may deceive the hypo-
crite into a dream of heaven ; but he that will have a dura-
ble joy, must find some matter of joy within him, as the
effects and evidence of the love of God, and the prognostics
of his endless love. To know what Christ hath suffered,
and done, and merited, and promised, is to know the gene-
ral and principal ground of our rejoicing : but something is
wanting to make it peace and joy to us, till we find the
iruits of his Spirit within us, without which no man can be his,
54 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE
(Rom. viii. 9 ; Gal. v. 16, 17. 22. 24, 25.) " If a man think
himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth
himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another."
(Gal. vi. 3, 4.) The seal, and witness, and beginnings of
life, must be within you, if you will know that you are the
heirs of life.
19. Self-ignorance causeth men to misinterpret and re-
pine at the providence of God, and to be froward under his
most righteous judgments. Because men knovi^ not what they
have deserved, or what they are, and what is good for them,
therefore they know not the reason and intent of Provi-
dence ; and therefore they quarrel v^ith their Maker, and
murmur as if he did them wrong : when self-acquaintance
would teach them to justify God in all his dealings, and re-
solve the blame of all into themselves. The nature of man
doth teach all the world, when any hurt is done to societies
or persons, to inquire by whose will, as well as by whose
hands, it was perpetrated ; and to resolve all the crimes that
are committed in the world unto the will of man, and there
to leave the guilt and blame, and not excuse the malefactors
upon any pretence of the concourse or predetermination of
the first or any superior cause : and to justify the judge and
executioner that takes away men's lives, or their estates, as
long as themselves are proved to deserve it. And surely
the knowledge of the nature and pravity of man should
teach us to deal as equally with God, and finally resolve all
guilt and blame into the free and vitiated will of man.
Humbling self-knowledge maketh us say with Job, (chap,
xl. 4,) " Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth:" and when God is glorifying
himself on our relations, or ourselves by his judgments,
it teacheth us with Aaron to hold our peace, (Lev. x. 3,)
and to say with Eli, " It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth
him good." (1 Sam.iii. 18.) And with David, (2 Sam. xv. 25,)
" If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me
again, and show me it, and his habitation: But if he thus
say, I have no delight in thee ; behold here am I, let him
do to me as seemeth good to him." And as the afflicted
church, (Mic. vii. 9,) " I will bear the indignation of the
Lord, because 1 have sinned against him." Even a Pharaoh,
when affliction liath taught him a little to know himself, will
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. e'iS
say, "The Lord is rigliteous, and I and my people are
wicked." (Exod. ix. 27.) When Rehoboam and his princes
are humbled, they say, "The Lord is righteous." (2 Chron.
xii. 6.) See Ezra ix. 15.
20. Lastly, it is for want of the knowledge of ourselves,
that precious time is so much lost, and hastening death no
more prepared for. Did we carry still about us the sensible
knowledge of our necessity, our mortality, and the incon-
ceivable change that is made by death, we should then live
as men that are continually waiting for the coming of their
Lord ; and as if we still beheld our graves. For we carry
about us that sin and frailty, such corruptible flesh, as may
tell us of death as plainly as a grave or skeleton. So great,
so unspeakably necessary a work as the seriously diligent
preparation for our end, could not be so sottishly neglected
by the ungodly, did they thoroughly and feelingly know
what it is to be a mortal man, and what to have an immor-
tal soul ; what it is to be a sinner, and what to pass into an
endless life of joy or misery.
And thus I have shewed you some of the fruits, both of
the knowledge and ignorance of ourselves ; even in our na-
tural, and moral, and political capacities (though it be the
second that is directly intended in the text); which may help
you in the application.
USE.
And now I may suppose that the best of you all, the most ho-
nourable, the most learned, the most religious (of them I dare
affirm it), will acknowledge, that I want not sufficient reason to
urge you, with the question in my text " Know ye not your own
selves?" Judge by the forementioned effects, whether self-ac-
quaintance, even in the most weighty and necessary respects,
be common among professed Christians. Doth he duly know
himself as he is a man, that doubteth of a Deity whose image
is his very essence, though not the moral image that must
be produced by renewing grace? Or he that doubteth of a
particular providence, of which he hath daily and hourly ex-
perience? Or he that doubteth of the immortality of his soul,
or of the life to come, which is the end of his creation and
endowments, and is legibly engraven on the nature and fa-
culties of his soul ? Do they morally know themselves, that
make a jest of sin; and make it (heir delight? That bear it
56 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORA N CE,
as the lightest burden, and are not so much humbled by all
the distempers and miseries of their souls, as they would be
by a leprosy, an imprisonment, or disgrace ? That have as
cold, unthankful thoughts of Christ, and of his grace and
benefits, as a sick stomach of a feast? That compli-
ment with him at the door, but will not be persuaded to let
him in, unless he will come upon their terms, and dwell with
their unmortified sin, and be a servant to their flesh, and
leave them their worldly prosperity and delights, and save
them for these compliments and leavings of the flesh, when
sin and the world shall cast them off"?
Do those men truly know themselves, that think they need
not the Spirit of Christ for regeneration, conversion, and
sanctification, nor need a diligent, holy life, nor to be
half so careful and serious for "their salvation, as they are for
a shadow of happiness in the world? That would without
entreaty bestir themselves, if their houses were on fire ; or
they were drowning in the water, or were assaulted by a
thief or enemy, and yet think he is too troublesome and
precise, that entreateth them to bestir themselves for heaven,
and to quit themselves like men for their salvation, and
to look about them, and spare no pains for the escaping
everlasting misery; when this is the time, the only time,
when all this must be done, or they are utterly undone for
ever.
Do they know themselves, and what they want, and
what indeed would do them good, that itch after sensual
delights, and glut their flesh, and please their appetites and
lusts, and waste their time in needless sports, and long for
honour and greatness in the world, and study for preferment
more than for salvation, and think they can never stand too
high nor have too much : as if it were so desirable to fall
from the highest pinnacle, or to die forsaken by that, for
which they forsook the Lord.
Do our feathered, powdered, gawdy gallants, or our
frizzled, spotted, wanton dames, understand what it is that
they are so proud of, or do so carefully trim up and adorn?
Do they know what flesh is, as they would do, if they saw
the comeliest of their companions, when he hath lain a month
or twelvemonths in the grave? Do they know what sin is, as
a sight of hell would make them know, or the true belief of
buch a state? If they did, they would think that another
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. .57
garb doth better beseem stich miserable sinners ; and that
persons in their case have something else to mind and do,
than toyishly to spruce up themselves, like handsome pic-
tures for men to look upon, and something else to spend
their hours in, than dalliance and compliments, and unne-
cessary ornaments ; and that the amiable and honourable
beauty, and comeliness, and worth, consisteth in the holy
image of God, the wisdom and heavenly endowments of the
soul, and in a heavenly, charitable, righteous conversa-
tion, and good works ; and not in a curious dress or gaudy
attire, which a fool may wear as well as a wise man, and a
carcase as well as a living man, and a Dives that must lie in
hell, when a Lazarus may lie in sores and rags.
Do they know themselves that fear no snares, but choose
the life of the greatest temptations and dangerto their souls,
because it is highest, or hath most provision for the flesh ?
and that think they can keep in their candle in the greatest
storms, and in any company maintain their innocency ? And
yet cannot understand so much of the will of God, nor of
their own interest and necessity, and danger, as to resist a
temptation when it comes, though it offer them but the most
inconsiderable trifle, or the most sordid and unmanly lust.
Do they know themselves, that are prying into unre-
vealed things, and will be wise, in matters of theology, above
what is written ? That dare set their shallow brains, and
dark, unfurnished understandings, against the infallible word
of God ; and question the truth of it, because it suiteth not
with their lame and carnal apprehensions ; or because they
cannot reconcile what seemeth to them to be contradiction ;
nor answer the objections of every bold and ignorant infidel.
In a~word, when God must not be God unless he please
them ; nor his word be true, unless it be all within the reach
of them, that never employed the time and study to under-
stand it, as they do to understand the books that teach them
languages, art, and sciences, and treat of lower things : and
when Scripture truth must be called in question, as oft as an
ignorant eye shall read it, or an unlearned, graceless person
misunderstand it : when offenders that should bewail and
reform their own transgressions of the law shall turn their
accusations against the law, and call it too precise or strict,
and believe and practise no more than stands with their
obedience to the law of sin, and will quarrel with God, when
58 TH£ MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
they should humbly learn, and carefully obey him; and des-
pise a life of holy obedience, instead of practising it ; and in
effect, behave themselves as if they were fitter to rule them-
selves and the world than God is ; and as if it were not God,
but they, that should give the law, and be the judge ; and
God were the subject, and man were God. Do you think,
that sinful, creeping worms, that stand so near the grave and
hell, do know themselves, when they think, or speak, or live
at such rates, and according to such unreasonable arro-
gancy? Do they know themselves, that reproach their bre-
thren for human frailties, and difference of opinion in modes
and circumstances, and errors smaller than their own? And
that by calling all men heretics, sectaries, or schismatics,
that differ from them, do tempt men to turn infidels or Pa-
pists, and to take us all for such as we account each other?
And that instead of receiving the weak in faith, whom God
receiveth, will rather cast out the most faithful labourers, and
cutoff Christ's living members from his church, than forbear
the imposing of unnecessary things? I dare say, were it not
for unacquaintedness with our brethren and ourselves, we
should put those in our bosoms as the beloved of the Lord,
that now we load with censures and titles of reproach : and
the restoring of our charity would be the restoring of
our unity. If blind men would make laws for the banish-
ment of all that cannot read the smallest characters, you
would say, they had forgot themselves. Nay, when men
turn Papists or Separatists and fly from our churches, to
shun those that perhaps are better than themselves, and to
get far enough from the smaller faults of others, while they
carry with them far greater of their own;, when people are
more apt to accuse the church than themselves, and say the
church is unworthy of their communion, rather than that
they are unworthy the communion of the church, and think
no room in the house of God is clean and good enough for
them, while they overlook their own uncleanness ; when
men endure an hundred calumnies to be spoken of their
brethren, better than a plain reprehension of themselves ; as
if their persons only would render their actions justifiable,
and the reprover culpable ; judge whether these men are
well acquainted with themselves.
What should we go further in the search ; when in all
ases and countries of the world the unmercifulness of the
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 5i)
rich, the murmuring of the poor, the hard usage by superi-
ors, the disobedience of inferiors, the commotions of the state,
the wars and rebellions that disquiet the world, the cruelty
covered with pretences of religion, the unthankfulness for
mercies, the murmuring under afflictions, too openly declare
that most men have little knowledge of themselves ; to con-
clude, that when we see that none are more self-accusing
and complaining than the most sincere, and none more self-
justifying and confident than the ungodly, careless souls;
that none walk more heavily than many of the heirs of life,
and none are merrier than many that must He in hell for
ever : that all that a minister can say, will not convince
many upright ones of their integrity, nor any skill or indus-
try, or interest, suffice to convince most wicked men that
they are wicked ; nor if our lives lay on it, we cannot
make them see the necessity of conversion, nor know
their misery till feeling tell them it is now too late : when so
many walk sadly and lamentingly to heaven ; and so many
go fearlessly and presumptuously to hell, and will not believe
it till they are there ; by all this judge, what work self-igno-
rance maketh in the world.
Fvw^t amvTov is many a man's motto, that is a stranger
to himself. As the house may be dark within that hath the
sign of the sun hanging at the door. ' Multi humilitatis um-
bram, pauci veritatem sectantur,' saith Hieron. A blind man
may commend the sun, and dispute of light. A man may
discourse of a country that he knoweth not. It is easy to
say, men should know themselves, and out of the book or
brain to speak of the matters of the heart : But indeed to
know ourselves as men, as sinners, as Christians, is a work of
greater difficulty, and such as few are well acquainted with :
Shall I go a little further in the discovery of it ?
1. Whence is it that most are so unhumbled; so great
and good in their own esteem ; so strange to true contrition
and self- abhorrence, but that they are voluntary strangers to
themselves? To loathe themselves for sin, to be little in
their own eyes, to come to Christ as little children, is the
case of all that know themselves aright. (Ezek. xx. 43 ; vi. 9 ;
Matt, xviii. 3, 4; 1 Sam, xv. 17.) And Christ made himself
of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a servant,
and set us a pattern of the most wonderful humiliation that
ever was performed, to convince us of the necessity of it, that
60 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
sin to humble us, when he had none. (Phil. ii. 6 — 9.)
" Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly." (Matt. xi. 28.)
And one would think it were a lesson easily learned by such
as we that carry about us within and without so much sensi-
ble matter of humiliation. Saith Augustin de Verb. Dei.
' Discite a me, non mundum fabricare, non cuncta visibilia
et invisibilia, creare, non miracula facere, et mortuos susci-
tare, sed quoniam mitis sum, et humilis corde.' Had Christ
bid us learn of him to make a world, to raise the dead, and
work miracles, the lesson had been strange: but to be meek
and lowly is so suitable to our low condition, that if we knew
ourselves we could not be otherwise.
To be holy without humility, is to be a man without the
essentials of nature, or to build without a foundation, * Qui-
sine humilitate virtutes congregat, quasi in ventum pulverem
portat,' saith Greg, in Psal. 3. PcEnit. It is but carrying
dust into the wind, to think to gather commendable qualities
without humility. It is the contrite heart that is the habita-
tion and delight of God on earth ; the acceptable sacrifice ;,
(Isa. Ivii. 15; Ixvi. 2 ; Psal. li. 17.) * Tanto quis vilior Deo,
quanto preciosior sibi : tanto preciosior Deo, quanto propter
eum vilior est sibi,' saith Greg. Mor. " He that humbleth
himself shall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall
be brought low." We must not overvalue ourselves, if we
would have God esteem us ; we must be vile and loathed
either in his eyes or our own. ' Solet esse specificum elec-
torum, saith Greg. Mor. quod de se semper, sentiunt infra
quam sunt.' It is specifical to the elect to think more meanly
of themselves than they are. ' Recta sacere et inutiles se
reputare,' as Bernard speaks. But I urge you not to err in
your humility, nor ' humilitatis causa mentiri,' as August.
It were low enough, if we were as low, in our own esteem,
as we are indeed : which self-acquaintance must procure.
'Quanto quis minus se videt, tanto minus sibi displicet;'
saith Greg. * Et quanto majoris gratiae lumen percipit,
tanto magis repreh6nsibilem se esse cognoscit.' He is least
displeased with himself, that least knoweth himself; and he
that hath the greatest light of grace, perceiveth most in him-
self to be reprehended. Illumination is the first part of
conversion, and of the new creature : and self-discovery is
not the least part of illumination. There can be no salva-
tion without it, because no humiliation. Saith Bernard ia
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 6\
Cantic. * Soio nemineni absque sui cognitione salvari, de qua
nimirum mater salutis humilitas oritur, et timor Domini.'
But how rare this is, let experience determine : to have a
poor habitation, a poor attire, and perhaps of choice (though
that is not usual), is much more common than a humble soul,
* sed tumet animus, sub squallore habitus, ut Hier. et
multo ilia deformior est superbia, quce latet sub quibusdara
sigftis humilitatis, inquit idem,' It is the most ill-favoured
pride that stealeth some rags of humility to hide its shame.
And saith Jerom truly * Plus est animum deposuisse quam
cultum: difficilius arrogantia quam auro caremus, aut gem-
mis.' It is easier to change our clothing than our mind,
and to put off a gaudy habit than our self-flattering tumified
hearts. Many a one can live quietly without gold rings and
jewels, or sumptuous houses and attendance, that cannot
live quietly without the esteem and applause of men, nor
endure to be accounted as indeed he is. Saith Ambrose,
* Qui paupertate contentus est, non est contentus injuria.
Et qui potest administrationes contemnere, dolet sibi
aliquem honorificentia esse prselatum.'
O therefore as you would escape Divine contempt, and the
most desperate precipitation, know yourselves. For that
which cast angels out of heaven, will keep you out, if it pre-
vail. As Hugo acutely saith, ' Superbia in ccelo, nata est,
sed immemor qua via inde cecidit, illuc postea redire non
potuit.' Pride was bred in heaven, (no otherwise than as death
in life) but can never hit the way thither again, from whence
it fell. Open the windows of our breast to the Gospel light,
to the laws of conviction, to the light of reason, and then be
unhumbled if you can. ' Quare enim superbit cinis et
terra?' saith Origen : ' oblitus quid erit, etquam fragili vas-
culo contineatur, etquibus stercoribus immersus sit, etqua-
lia semper purgamenta de sua carne projiciat.' Nature is
low, but sin and wrath are the matter of our great humilia-
tion, that have made us miserably lower,
2. The abounding of hypocrisy showeth how little men
are acquainted with themselves. I speak not here of that
gross hypocrisy which is always known to him that hath it,
but of that close hypocrisy, which is a professing to be what
we are not, or to believe what we believe not, or to have
what we have not, or to do what we do not. What article
of the faith do not most among us confidently profess?
62 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
What petition of the Lord's Prayer will they not put up?
Which of the Commandments will they not profess their
obedience to ? While the stream of their conversation tes-
tifieth, that in their hearts there is none of the belief, the
desire, or the obedience in sincerity which they profess.
Did they know themselves, they would be ashamed of the
vanity of their profession, and of the miserable want of the
things professed; and that God who is so nigh their mouths
is so far from their hearts. If you heard an illiterate man
profess, that he uuderstandeth all the languages and sciences,
or a beggar boasting of his wealth, or a parrot taught to say
that he is a man, would you take any of these to be the
words of one that knows himself? ' Quid est vita hypo-
crite (inquit Gregor.) nisi quadam visio phantasmatis, quae
hie ostenhitin imagine, quod nonhabet in veritate?' Surely
they are in the dark that spend their days in dreaming
visions : but they have their eyes so much on the beholders,
that they have no leisure to peruse themselves : they are so
careful to be esteemed good, that they are careless of being
what they seem. ' Quo magis exterius hominibusplaceant,
eose interius aspicere negligunt, totosque se in verbis prox-
imorum fundunt, et sanctos se esse astimant, quia sic se
Jiaberi ab hominibus pensant, ut Gregor. Mor.'
Especially if they practise not the vicious inclinations
of their hearts, they tliink they have not the vice they prac-
tise not, and that the root is dead because it is winter :
when it is the absence of temptations and occasions, and
not of vicious habits, or inclinations, that smooths their
lives with seeming innocency, and keeps their sins from
breaking forth to their own or others' observation. ' Mul-
torum, quce imbecillia sunt, latent vitia, saith Seneca ; in-
strumenta illis explicandae nequitise desunt. Sic tuto ser-
pens pestifer tractatur, dum riget frigore ; non desunt tamen
illi venena, sed torpent: ita multorum crudelitas, luxuria et
ambitio.' The feeble vices of many lie hid : there are
wanting instruments of drawing forth their wickedness. So
a poisonous serpent may be safely handled, while he is stiff
with cold, and yet it is not because he hath no venom, but
because it is stupified : so it is with the cruelty, luxury and
ambition of many. The knowledge of yourselves is the
bringing in of light into your souls, which will awaken you
from the hypocrite's dream, and make such apparitions
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 63
vanish. Come near this fire, and the paint of" hypocrisy
will melt away.
3. The common impatience of plain reproof, and the
love of flattery, shew us how much self-ignorance doth
abound. Most men love those that have the highest esti-
mation of them, be it true or false. They are seldom of-
fended with any for overvaluing them. They desire not
much to be accounted well when they are sick, nor rich
when they are poor, but to be accounted wise though they
are foolish, and godly when they are ungodly, and honest
and faithful when they are deceitful and corrupt, this is a
courtesy that you must not deny them; they take it for
their due : They will never call you heretics for such errors
as these: and why is it, but because they err themselves,
about themselves, and therefore would have others do so too.
* Nimis perverse seipsum amat, qui et alios vult errare,
ut error suus lateat :' saith August. He too perversely
loveth himself, that would have others err to hide his error.
A wise man loveth himself so well, that he would not be
flattered into hell, nor die as Sisera or Samson, by good
words, as the harbingers of his woe. He loveth his health
so well, that he thinks not the sweetness or colour of the
fruit a motive sufficient to encourage him to a surfeit. He
loveth ingenuous penitence so well, that he cannot love the
flatterer's voice, that contradicteth it. Faithful reprovers
are the messengers of Christ, that calls us to repentance,
that is, to life : unfaithful flatterers are the messenp-ers of
the devil, to keep us from repentance, and harden us in im-
penitency unto death : If we know ourselves, we shall know
that when we are overvalued and overpraised as being more
learned, wise, or holy than we are, it is not we that are loved
and praised ; for we are not such as that love or praise sup-
poseth us to be ; saith August. * Vos qui me multum dili-
gitis, si talem me asseritis, ut numquam me in scriptis meis
errasse dicatis, frustra laboratis ; non bonam causam sus-
cepistis : facile in eo, me ipso judice, superamini. Quoniam
non mihi placet, cum a charissimis talis esse existimor, qua-
ils non sum. Profecto non me, sed pro me alium sub meo
nomine diligunt; si non quod sum, sed quod non sum dili-
gunt.' It pleased him not to be accounted unerring in his
writings, and to be taken by his friends to be what he was
not ; which is not to love him, but another under his name.
64 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
He that knovvetli himself, perceivelh how much of the com-
mendation is his due, and how much he can lay just claim
to : and knoweth it is a dishonour to own the honour that
is not his own. He loves not to be belied by a praiser, any
more than by a dispraiser ; lest truth and he be both abused.
Vices, like worms, are bred and crawl in the inward parts,
unseen, unfelt of him that carrieth them about him ; and
therefore by the sweetmeats of flattery and sensuality they
are ignorantly fed : but it is bitter medicines that must kill
them; which those only will endure, that know they have
them, and what they are. * Lenocinantur dulcia delictis :
austera vero et fortia virtutibus sunt amica.' You speak
bitterly, saith the impatient sinner to the plain reprover, but
such are sweet and excellent men that meddle not with the
sore. But it is bitter things that are wholesome to your
souls; that befriend your virtues, and kill the worms of
your corruptions, which sweet things cherish. Saith Jerom in
Eccles. ' Si cujus sermo non pungit, sed oblectationem facit
audientibus, ille sermo non est sapiens.' Sermons not pierc-
ing, but pleasing, are not wise. But, alas, men follow the
appetite of their vices, not only in choosing their meat, and
drink, and company, and recreations, but also in the choice
of the church that they will hold communion with, and the
preachers that they will hear : and they will have the sweet,
and that which their corruption loveth, come on it what will,
• Libenter enim quod delectat, audimus, et ofiendit omne,
quod nolumus,' saith Jerom : Nay, pride hath got so great
dominion, that flattery goetb for due civility; and he is ac-
counted cynical or morose that useth it not. To call men
as they are, (even when we have a call to do it,) or to tell
them of their faults with necessary freedom, though with the
greatest love and caution and deprecation of offence, is a
thing that most, especially great ones, cannot digest : A
man is supposed to rail, that speaketh without flattery ; and
to reproach them that would save them from their sins.
Saith Jerom, ' Adeo regnat vitium adulationis, quodque
est gravissimum, quia humilitatis ac benevolentise loco duci-
tur, ita fit ut qui adulari nescit, aut invidus, aut superbus
reputetur :' that is, the vice of flattery now so reigneth, '
and which is worst, goeth under the name of humility and
good-will, that he that knoweth not how to flatter is reputed
envious or proud. Indeed some men have the wit to hate
AND BE;N£FITS OF S F. LI - A C Q U A I X T ANC K. 05
Ta feigned hypocritical flatterer, and also modestly to take
on tiiem to disown the excessive commendations of a friend;
but these mistaken, friendly flatterers do seldom displease
men at the heart. ' Quanquam respondeamus nos indignos,
et calidus rubor ora perfundat, tamen ad laudem suam ani-
ma intrinsecus Isetatur,' Hieron. We can say we are un-
worthy, and modestly blush ; but, within, the heart is glad
at its own commendation. Saith Seneca, ' Cito nobis
placemus, si invenimus, qui nos bonos viros dicant, qui
prudentes, qui sanctos : Non sumus modica laudatione con-
t.enti ; quicquid in nos adulatio sine pudore congessit, tan-
quam debitum prendimus : optimos nos esse et sanctissimos
affirmantibus assentimur, cum sciamus ssepe illos mentiri :'
that is. We soon please ourselves to meet with those that
call us good men, wise and holy : and we are not content
with a little praise : whatever flattery heapeth on us without
shame, we lay hold on it as due ; we assent to them that say
we are the best and most holy, when we oftentimes know
ourselves that they lie. All this is for tiie want of the true
knowledge of themselves. When God hath acquainted a
sinner effectually with himself, he quickly calleth himself
by other names, than flatterers do : With Paul he saith,
*' We ourselves were sometime foolish, disobedient, serving-
divers lusts and pleasures." (Titus iii. 3.) And (Acts xxvi.
11,) that he was mad against the saints in persecuting them.
He then speaks so much against himself, that if tender mi-
nisters and experienced friends did not think better of him
than he of himself, and persuade him to more comfortable
thoughts, he would be ready to despair, and think himself
unworthy to live upon the earth.
4. Judge also how well men know themselves, when you
have observed, what different apprehensions they have of their
own faults and of other men's ; and of those that are suitable
to their dispositions, interests or examples, and those that
are against them. They seem to judge of the actions by
the persons, and not of the persons by the actions. Though
he be himself a sensualist, a worldling, drowned in ambition
and pride, whose heart is turned away from God, and ut-
terly strange to the mystery of regeneration and a heavenly
life, yet all this is scarcely discerned by him, and is little
troublesome, and less odious than the failings of another,
VOL. XVI. F
00 THE :\rTSCHTEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
whose heart and life is devoted unto God. The different
opinions, or modes and circumstances of worship, in another
that truly feareth God, is matter of their severer censures and
reproach, than their own omissions, and averseness and enmity
to holiness, and the dominion of their deadly sins. It seems to
them more intolerable for another to pray without a book, than
for themselves to pray without any serious belief, or love, or
holy desire, without any feeling of their sins, or misery or
wants ; that is, to pray with the lips without a heart ; to pray
to God without God, even without the knowledge or love of
God, and to pray without prayers. It seemed to the hypocri-
tical Pharisees, a greater crime in Christ and his disciples, to
violate their traditions, in not washing before they eat, to break
the ceremonious rest of their sabbath by healing the diseased,
or plucking ears of corn, than in themselves to hate and per-
secute the true believers and worshippers of God, and to kill
the Lord of Life himself. They censured the Samaritans for
not worshipping atJerusalem,butcensured not themselves for
not worshipping God, that is a spirit, in spirit and in truth.
Which makes me remember the course of their successors, the
ceremonious Papists; that condemn others for heretics, and
fry them in the flames, for not believing that bread is no bread,
and wine is no wine, and that bread is to be adored as God, and
that the souls of dead men know the hearts of all that pray to
them in the world at once ; and that the Pope is the vice-
christ, and sovereign of all the Christians in the world ; and
for reading the Scriptures and praying in a known tongue,
when they forbid it ; and for not observing a world of cere-
monies ; when all this enmity to reason, piety, charity, hu-
manity, all their religious tyranny, hypocrisy, and cruelty,
do seem but holy zeal and laudable in themselves. To lie,
dissemble, forswear, depose and murder princes, is a smaller
matter to them when the Pope dispenseth with it, and when
it tends to the advantage of their faction, which they call
the church, than to eat flesh on Friday, or in Lent, to neg-
lect the mass, or images, or crossing, &c.
And it makes me remember Hall's description of an hy-
pocrite, 'He turneth all gnats into camels, and cares not to
imdo the world for a circumstance. Flesh on Friday is more
abominable to him, than his neighbour's bed : he abhors
more not to uncover at the name of .Tesus, than to swear
AN'D BENEFITS OF S KL F-AC Q U A 1 N" T A XC E. (17
by the name of God, &,c.' It seems, that prelates were
guilty of this in Bernard's days, who saith, ' Praslati nostri
calicem linquunt, et Camelura deglutiunt : dum majora per-
mittentes, minora discutiunt. Optimi rerum sestimatores,
qui magnam in minimis, et parvam aut nullam in maxi-
mis adhibent diligentiam :' i. e. Our prelates strain at
a gnat, and swallow a camel, while permitting greater
matters, they discuss (or sift) the less : Excellent estimators
of things indeed, that in smaller matters employ great dili-
gence ; but in the greatest, little or none at all. And the
cause of all this partiality is, that men are unacquainted
with themselves. They love and cherish the same corrup-
tions in themselves, which they should hate and reprehend
in others. And saith Jerom, * Quomodo potest praeses
Ecclesise auferre malum de medio ejus, qui in delictum
simile corruerit? aut qua libertate corripere peccantem
potest, cum tacitus ipse sibi respondeat, eadem se admisisse
•quse corripit:' i. e. How can a prelate of the church re-
form the evil that is in it, that rusheth into the like offence?
Or with what freedom can he rebuke a sinner, when his con-
science secretly tells him, that he hath himself committed
the same faults which he reproveth ?
Would men but first be acquainted with themselves, and
pass an impartial judgment on the affections and actions
that are nearest them, and that most concern them, they
would be more competent, and more compassionate judges
of their brethren, that are now so hardly used by them. It
is excellent advice that Austin gives us, ' Quum aliquem
reprehendere nos necessitas coegerit, cogitemus, utrum tale
sit vitium, quod nunquam habuimus; et tunc cogitemus nos
homines esse, et habere potuisse, vel quod tale habuimus
€t jam non habemus ; et tunc memoria tangat communis
fragilitatis, ut illam correctionem non odium sed miseri-
cordia prsecedat : Sin autem invenerimus nos in eodem vitio
esse, non objurgemus, sed ingemiscamus, et ad sequaliter
deponendum invitemus:' i. e. When necessity constrain-
eth us to reprove any one, let us think whether it be such a
vice as we never had ourselves ; and then let us think that
we are men, and might have had it : or if we once had such,
but have not now, then let the remembrance of common
frailty touch us, that compassion and not hatred may lead
the way to our reproof: but if we find that we have the
68 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
same vice ourselves, let us not chide, but groan, and move
(or desire) that we may both equally lay it by.
5. It shews how little men know themselves, when they
must needs be the rule to all other men, as far as they are
able to commend it ; and that in the matters that men's salva-
tion dependeth on, and in the smallest, tender, disputable
points ; and even in those things where themselves are most
unfit to judge. In every controverted point of doctrine,
(though such as others have much better studied than them-
selves,) he that hath strength to suppress all those that dif-
fer from him, must ordinarily be the umpire ; so is it even
in the modes and circumstances of worship. Perhaps Christ
may have the honour to be called the King of the Church,
and the Scripture have the honour to be called his Laws.
But indeed it is they that would be the lords themselves;
and it is their wills and words that must be the laws ; and
this under pretence of subserving Christ, and interpreting
his laws ; when they have talked the utmost for councils^
fathers, church-tradition, it is themselves that indeed must
be all these ; for nothing but their own conceits and wills
must go for the sense of decrees, or canons, fathers, or tra-
dition. Even they that hate the power and serious practice
of religion, would fain be the rule of religion to all others :
And they that never knew what it was to worship God in
spirit and truth, with delight and love, and suitableness of
soul, would needs be the rule of worship to all others, even
in the smallest circumstances and ceremonies. And they
would be the governors of the church, or the determiners of
its mode of government, that they would never be brought
under the government of Christ themselves. If it please
them better to spend the Lord's-day in plays or sports, or
compliment or idleness, than in learning the will of God in
- his word, or worshipping him, and begging his mercy and
salvation, and seriously preparing for an endless life, they
would have all others do the like. If their full souls loathe
the honey-comb, and they are weary of being instructed
above an hour, or twice a day, they would have all others
forced to their measure, that they may seem as diligent as
others, when others are compelled to be as negligent as they.
Like a queasy-stomached lady, that can eat but one slender
meal a day, and therefore would have all her servants and
tenants eat no more, or if they do, accuseth them of excess.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 69
If the emperor of Constantinople make a law, that no
subject shall be suffered in his dominions, that will not be
conformable to him in time, and quality and measure, for
meats and drink, and sleep, and speech, and exercise, it
would be an honourable misery, and uniform calamity and
ruin to his subjects. Alas, did men but know themselves,
the weakness of their understandings, the sinful bias that
personal interest and carnal inclinations have set upon their
wills, they would be less arrogant and more compassionate,
and not think, by making themselves as gods, to reduce the
unavoidable diversities that will be found among mankind,
to a unity in conformity to their minds and wills, and that
in the matters of God and of salvation ; where every man's
conscience that is wise and faithful, will be tenacious of a
double interest (of God and of his soul) which he cannot
sacrifice to the will of any. But be so just as not to mis-
take and misreport me in all this, as if I pleaded for liber-
tinism or disorder, or spoke against government, civil or
ecclesiastical ; when it is only private ambition, uncharita-
bleness, and cruelty, and Papal usurpations over the church
and consciences of men, that I am speaking of; which men,
I am sure, will have other thoughts of, when God hath made
them know themselves, than they have while passion hin-
deretli them from knowing what spirit they are of: they
will then see, that the weak in faith should have been re-
ceived, and that catholic unity is only to be founded in the
luiiversal Head, and End, and Rule.
6. The dreadful change that is made upon men's minds,
when misery or approaching death awakes them, doth shew
how little they knew themselves before. If they have taken
the true estimate of themselves in their prosperity, how
come they to be so much changed in adversity? Why do
they begin then to cry out of their sins, and of the folly o^"
their worldliness and sensuality, and of the vanity of the
lionours and pleasures of this life? Why do they then begin
to wish, with gripes of conscience, that they had better spent
their precious time, and minded more the matters of eternity,
and taken the course as those did whom they once derided,
as making more ado than needs ? Why do they then trem-
ble under the apprehensions of their unreadiness to die, and
to appear before the dreadful God, when formerly such
thoughts did little trouble them? Now there is no suclt
70 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
sense of their sin or danger upon their hearts. Who is it
now that ever hears such lamentations and self-accusations
from them, as then it is likely will be heard ? The same man
that then will wish with Balaam, that he might "die the
death of the righteous, and that his latter end might be as
his," will nowdespiseand grieve the righteous. The same man
that then will passionately wish that he had spent his days
in holy preparations for his change, and lived as strictly as
the best about him, is now so much of another mind, that
he perceives no need of all this diligence ; but thinks it is
humourous or timorous superstition, or at least that he may
do well enough without it. The same man that will then cry,
' Mercy, mercy — O mercy. Lord, to a departing soul, that is
laden with sin, and trembleth under the fear of thy judg-
ment,' is now perhaps an enemy to serious, earnest prayer,
and hates the families and persons that most use it; or at
least is prayerless, or cold and dull himself in his desires,
and can shut up all with a few careless, customary words,
and feel no pinching necessity to awaken him, importunately
to cry and strive with God. Doth not all this show, that
men are befooled by prosperity, and unacquainted with
themselves, till danger or calamity call them to the bar, and
force them better to know themselves.
Your mutability proveth your ignorance and mistakes.
If indeed your case be now as good as present confidence or
security do import, lament it not in your adversity ; fear it
not when death is calling you to the bar of the impartial
Judge! Cry not out then of your ungodliness and sen-
suality ; of your trifling hypocrisy, your slight contemptu-
ous thoughts of God, and of your casting away your hopes
of heaven, by wilful negligence and delays ! If you are sure
that you are now in the right, and diligent, serious believers
in the wrong, then stand to it before the Lord : Set a good
face on your cause if it be good ; be not down in the mouth
when it is tried ; God will do you no wrong : If your cause
be good, he will surely justify you, and will not mar it :
Wish not to die the death of the righteous : say not to
them, " Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."
(Matt. XXV. 8.) If all their care, and love, and labour, in
*' seeking first the kingdom of God and its righteousness,"
be a needless thing, wish not for it in your extremity, but
call it needless then. If fervent prayer may be spared now
AND BENEFITS 0J< SELF-ACQU AI A T A NGE. 71
while prayer may be heard, and a few lifeless words that
you have learned by rote may serve the turn, then call not
on God when answering is past, seek him not when he will
not be found. " When your fear cometh as desolation, and
your destruction as a whirlwind ; when distress and anguish
come upon you," (Prov. i. 27, 28,) cry not " Lord, Lord,
open unto us, when the door is shut." (Matt. xxv. 10, 11.)
Call them not foolish then that slept, but them that watched,
if Christ was mistaken, and you are in the right. (Matt. xxv.
2. 8 ; Prov. i. 22.)
O sirs, stand but at the bedside of one of these ungodly,
careless men, and hear what he saith of his former life, of
his approaching change, of a holy or carnal course, whether
a heavenly or worldly life is better, (unless God have left
him to that deplorable stupidity which an hour's time will
put an end to) ; hearken then whether he think that God or
the world, heaven or earth, soul or body, be more worthy of
man's chief care and diligence; and then judge whether
such men did know themselves in their health and pride,
when all this talk would have been derided by them as too
precise, and such a life accounted over-strict and needless,
as then they are approving and wishing they had lived.
When that minister or friend should have once been taken
for censorious, abusive, self-conceited, and unsufFerable,
that would have talked of them in that language as when
death approacheth, they talk of themselves ; or would have
spoke as plainly, and hardly of them, as they will then do of
themselves. Doth not this mutability show, how few men
now have a true knowledge of themselves?
What is the repentance of the living, and the despera-
tion of the damned, but a declaration that the persons re-
penting and despairing, were unacquainted with themselves
before? Indeed the erroneous despair of men, whiie grace is
offered them, comes from ignorance of the mercy of God,
and willingness of Christ to receive all that are willing to
return. But yet the sense of sin and misery, that occasion-
eth this erroneous despair, doth show that men were before
erroneous in their presumption and self-esteem. Saith Ber-
nard in Cant. * Utraque C^ognitio, Dei scilicet et tui, tibi
necessaria est ad salutem, quia sicut ex notitia tui venit in
te timor Dei, atque ex Dei notitia itidem amor ; sic e contra,
de ignorantia tui superbiu, ac de Dei ignorautia veuit de-
72 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
sparatio ;' that is, Both the knowledge of God and of thy-
self is necessary to salvation ; because as from the know-
ledge of thyself, the fear of God cometh into thee, and love
from the knowledge of God : so on the contrary, from the
ignorance of thyself cometh pride ; and from the ignorance
of God comes desperation. ' Quid est sapientia (inquit
Seneca?) Semper idem velle, et idem nolle : At non potest
idem semper placere nisi rectum :' Wisdom appeareth in
always willing, and always nilling the same thing : but it is
only right and good that can always please.
Poor men that must confess their sin and misery at last,
would show a more seasonable acquaintance with themselves,
if they would do it now, and say with the prodigal, " I will go
to my father, and say to him. Father I have sinned against
heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son." In time this knowledge and confession may be sav-
ing. Even a Seneca could say, without the Scripture, * Initium
est salutis, notitia peccati ; nam qui peccare se nescit, corrigi
nonvult. Ideo quantum potes,teipsum argue. Inquire in te ;
accusatoris primum partibus fungere ; deinde judicis, novis-
sime deprecatoris.' i. e. The knowledge of sin is the beginning
of recovery (or health) : for he that knows not that he sinneth,
will not be corrected. Reprehend thyself therefore as much as
thou canst. Inquire into thyself: first play the part of an ac-
cuser, then of a judge : and lastly, of one that asketh pardon.
It is not because men are innocent or safe, that we now
hear so little confession or complaint ; but because they are
sinful and miserable in so great a measure, as not to know
or feel it. ' Quare vitia sua nemo confitetur (inquit Seneca?)
Quia etiam nunc in illis est. Somnium narrare, vigilantis
est; et vitia sua confiteri, sanitatis judicium est:' i. e.
Why doth no man confess his vices? Because he is yet
in them. To tell his dreams is the part of a man that is
awake : and to confess his faults, is a sign of health. If
you call a poor man rich, or a deformed person beautiful,
or a vile, ungodly person virtuous, or an ignorant barbarian
learned, will not the hearers think you do not know them?
And how should they think better of your knowledge of
yourselves, if any of you that are yet in the flesh, will say
you are spiritual? And those that hate the holiness, and
justice, and government of God, will say they love him t
Or those that are in a state of enmity to God, are as neai
AND BENEFITS Of SELF-ACQU A IN TANCi:. 73
to hell as the execution is to the sentence of the law, will
persuade themselves and others, that they are the members
of Christ, the children of God, and the heirs of heaven ?
And take it ill of any that would question it, though only
to persuade them to make it sure, and to take heed what
they trust to, when endless joy or misery must be the issue?
7. Doth it not manifest how little men know themselves,
when in every suffering that befals them, they overlook the
cause of all within them, and fall upon others, or quarrel
with every thing that standeth in their way ? Their con-
tempt of God doth cast them into some affliction, and they
quarrel with the instruments, and meddle not with the mortal
cause at home- Their sin finds them out, and testifieth
against them; and they are angry with the rod, and repine
at providence, as though God himself were more to be sus-
pected of the cause than they : yea, it is become with many,
a serious doubt, whether God doth not necessitate them to
sin; and, whether they omit not duty merely because he
will not give them power to perform it ; and, whether their
sin be any other than a relation unavoidably resulting from
a foundation laid by the hand of God himself. Do men
know themselves, that will sooner suspect and blame the
most righteous, holy God, than their own unrighteous, car-
nal hearts? Man drinketh up iniquity like water., but there
is no unrighteousness with God. Saith Innocent, ' Con-
ceptus est homo in fcetore luxuriaj quodque deterius est, in
labepeccati; natus ad laborem, timorem, dolorem. Sec. Agit
prava, quibus offendit Deum ; ofFendit proximura ; offendit
seipsum ; agit turpia, quibus poUuit famam, polluit per-
sonam, polluit conscientiam : agit vana, quibus negligit
Sana; negligit utilia; negligit necessaria.' Man is con-
ceived in the filth or stink of luxury (or lust), and which is
worse, in the stain of sin ; born to labour, fear, and pain,
&c. He doth that which is evil, to the offence of God, hia
neighbour, and himself: he doth that which is filthy, to the
polluting of his fame, his person, and his conscience ; he
doth that which is vain, neglecting what is sound, and pro-
fitable, and necessary. And is not such a frail and sinful
wight, more likely to be the cause of sin than God? and ta
be culpable in all the ill that doth befal us ?
And it shows, that men little know themselves, when all
their complaints are poured out more fluently on others thaa
74 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
themselves : like sick stomachs, that find fault with eveiy
dish, when the fault is within them ; or like pained, weak,
or froward children, that quarrel with every thing that
toucheth them,whenthecauseisin themselves. If they want
peace, content, or rest, they lay the blame on this place or
that, this or that person or estate : they think if they had
their mind in this or that, they should be well ; and there-
fore they are still contriving for somewhat which they want,
and studying changes, or longing after this or that, which
they imagine would work the cure : when, alas poor souls,
the sin, the sickness, the want is in themselves! It is a
wiser mind, a better, more holy, heavenly will, that is want-
ing to them ; without which nothing in the world will solidly
content and comfort them. Seneca can teach them this
much by the light of nature, * Non longa peregrinatione, nee
locorum varietatibus, tristitiam mentis gravitatemque; dis-
cuties: animum debes mutare, non ccelum: licet vastumtra-
jeceris mare, sequuntur te, quocunque perveneris, vitia.
Quid miraris tibi peregrinationes non predesse, cum te cir-
cumferas ? Premit te eadem causa quse expulit. Quid
terrarum juvare novitas potest? Quid cognitio urbium aut
locorum? In irritum cedit ista jactantia. Onus animi de-
ponendum est, non ante tibi uUus placebit locus. Vadis
hue et illuc, ut excutias incidens pondus, quod ipsajacta-
tione incommodius fit : sicut in navi onera immota miniis
urgent, insequalitur convoluta citius eam partem, in quam
incumbunt, demergunt. Quicquid facis, contra te facis : et
motu ipso noces tibi : segrum enim concutis. At cum istud
exemeris malum omnis mutatio loci jucundus fiet. In ultimas
expellaris terras licet, in quolibet Barbariae angulo culloce-
ris, hospitalis tibi ilia qualiscuaque sedes erit. Magis quis
veneris, quam quo, interest.' That is, it is not by long tra-
vels, or by change of places, that you can discuss the sad-
ness and heaviness of the mind. It is the mind, and not the
climate that you should change ; though you pass the vast-
est sea, your vices will follow you whithersoever you go.
Why marvellest thou, that travels avail thee not, when thou
carriest about thyself? The same cause that drove thee
away, doth follow thee. What can the novelty of countries
avail ? Or the knowledge of cities and places ? This tossing
u[) and down is vain ; it is the load of thy mind, that
must be laid down ; till that be done, no place will please
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-A CQP AINTANCE. 75
thee : thou goest up and down to shake off a burden that is
fastened on thee ; which even by thy motion doth become
more troublesome. As in a ship, the settled weight is least
troublesome, when things unequally thrown together, do
sink the part in which they lie. What thou dost, thou dost
it against thyself, and hurtest thyself by the very motion ;
for thou shakest a sick person. But when once thou hast
taken out of thyself the evil, every change of place will be
pleasant. Though thou be expelled into the remotest lands,
or placed in any corner of Barbary, it will be however to
thee a seat of hospitality : it more concerneth thee to know
who (or what) thou art thyself that comest thither, than
whither it is that thou comest.
Did you know yourselves in all your griefs, it is there
that you would suspect and find your malady, and there
that you would most solicitously seek the cure.
By this time, if you are willing, you may see, where lieth
the disease and misery of the world, and also what must be
the cure. Man hath lost himself, by seeking himself; he
hath lost himself in the loss of God : he departed from God,
that he might enjoy himself; and so is estranged from God
and himself. He left the sun, and retired into darkness,
that he might behold himself, and not the light ; and now
beholdeth neither himself nor the light : for he cannot be-
hold himself but by the light. As if the body should for-
sake the soul, and say, I will no longer serve another, but
will be my own. What would such a selfish separation pro-
cure, but the converting of a body into a loathsome carcase,
and a senseless clod? Thus hath the soul dejected itself,
by turning to itself, and separating from God ; without
whom it hath neither life, nor light, nor joy. By desiring a
selfish kind of knowledge of good and evil, withdrawing
from its just dependance upon God, it hath involved itself
in care and misery, and lost the quieting, delighting know-
ledge which it had in God. And now poor man is lost in
error; he is straggled so far from home, that he knowetli
not where he is, nor which way to return, till Christ in mercy-
seek and save him. (Matt, xviii. 11; Luke xix. 10.)
Yet could we but get men to know that they do not
know themselves, there were the gre?.tcr hope of their re-
covery. But this is contrary to the nature of their distem-
per. An eye that is blinded by a suftiisiou oy cataract.
76 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
seeth not the thing that blindeth it: it is the same light
that must shew them themselves, and their ignorance of
themselves. Their self-ignorance is part of the evil which
they have to know. Those troubled souls that complain
that they know not themselves, do shew that they begin at
least to know themselves. But a Pharisee will say " Are
we blind also?" (John ix. 40.) They are too blind to know
that they are blind. The Gospel shall be rejected, the apos-
tles persecuted, Christ himself abused and put to death, the
nation ruined, themselves and their posterity undone by the
blindness of these hypocrites, before they will perceive that
they are blind, and that they know not God or themselves.
Alas, the long calamities of the church, the distempers and
confusions in the state, the lamentable divisions and dissen-
tions among believers, have told the world, how little most
men know themselves ; and yet they themselves will not
perceive it. They tell it aloud to all about them, by their
self-conceitedness and cruelty, uncharitable censures, re-
proaches and impositions, that they know not themselves,
and yet you cannot make them know it. Their afflicted
brethren feel it to their smart ; the suffering, grieved
churches feel it; thousands groan under it, that never
wronged them ; and yet you cannot make them feel it.
Did they well know themselves to be men, so many would
not use themselves like beasts, and care so little for their
most noble part. Did they know themselves aright to be
but men, so many would not set up themselves as gods ;
they would not arrogate a divine authority in the matters of
God, and the consciences of others, as the Roman prelates
do : nor would they desire so much that the observation,
reverence, admiration, love, and applause of all should be
turned upon them ; nor be so impatient when they seem to
be neglected ; nor make so great a matter of their wrongs,
as if it were some Deity that were injured.
O what a change it would make in the world, if men
were brought to the knowledge of themselves ! How many
would weep, that now laugh, and live in mirth and pleasure !
How many would lament their sin and misery, that now are
pharisaically confident of their integrity ! How many would
seek to faithful ministers for advice, and inquire what they
should do to be saved, that now deride them, and scorn their
counsel, and cannot bear their plain reproof or come not
AND BENEFITS OK SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 77
neai" them! How many would ask directions for the cure
of their unbelief, and pride and sensuality, that now take
little notice of any such sins within them! How many
would cry day and night for mercy, and beg importunately
for the life of their immortal souls, that now take up with a
few words of course, instead of serious, fervent prayer! Do
but once know yourselves aright, know what you are, and
what you have done, and what you want, and what is your
danger; and then be prayerless and careless if you can:
Then sit still and trifle out your time, and make a jest of holy
diligence, and put God off with lifeless words and compli-
ments if you can. Men could not think so lightly and con-
temptuously of Christ, so unworthily and falsely of a holy
life, so delightfully of sin, so carelessly of duty, so fearlessly
of hell, so senselessly and atheistically of God, and so dis-
regardfully of heaven as they now do, if they did but
thoroughly know themselves.
And now, sirs, methinks your consciences should begin
to stir, and your thoughts should be turned inwards upon
yourselves, and you should seriously consider what measure
of acquaintance you have at home, and what you have done
to procure and maintain such acquaintance. Hath con-
science no use to make of this doctrine, and of all that hath
been said upon it? Doth it not reprove you for your self-
neglect, and your wanderings of mind, and your alien, un-
necessary fruitless cogitations? Had you been but as strange
to your familiar friend, and as regardless of his acquaintance,
correspondence and affairs, as too many of you have been
of your own, you may imagine how he would have taken it,
and what use he would have made of it: some such use it
beseemeth you to make of estrangedness to yourselves.
Would not he ask, • What is the matter that my friend so
seldom looketh at me; and no more mindeth me or my
affairs ? What have I done to him ? How have I deserved
this ? What more beloved company or employmenthath he
got?' You have this and much more to plead against your
great neglect and ignorance of yourselves.
In order to your conviction and reformation, I shall first
shew you some of those reasons, that should move you to
know yourselves, and consequently should humble you for
neglecting it : and then I shall shew you what are the hiu-
78 THE iVIISCHIEFS 01' SE L I'-IG XOK ANCE,
drances that keep men from self-acquaintance, and give you
some directions necessary to attain it.
In general consider, it is by the light of knowledge that
all the affairs of your souls must be directed: and therefore
while you know not yourselves, you are in the dark, and un-
fit to manage your own affairs. Your principal error about
yourselves will have influence into all the transactions of
your lives; you will neglect the greatest duties, and abuse
and corrupt those which you think you do perform. While
you know not yourselves, you knov^? not what you do,
nor what you have to do, and therefore can do nothing well.
For instance :
1. When you should repent of sin, you know it not as
in yourselves, and therefore cannot savingly repent of it. If
you know in general that you are sinners, or know your
gross and crying sins, which conscience cannot overlook,
yet the sins which you know not, because you will not know
them, may condemn you. How can you repent of your
pride, hypocrisy, self-love, self-seeking, your want of love,
and fear, and trust in God, or any such sins, which you
never did observe ? Or if you perceive some sins, yet if you
perceive not that they reign and are predominant, and that
you are in a state of sin, how can you repent of that estate
which you perceive not? Or if you have but a slight and
superficial sight of your sinful state and your particular sins,
you can have but a superficial, false repentance.
2. If you know not yourselves, you cannot be duly sen-
sible of your misery. Could it be expected that the Phari-
sees should lament, that they were of their father the devil,
as long as they boasted that they were the children of God?
(John viii. 41. 44.) Will they lament that they are under
the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the bondage of
the devil, that know not of any such misery that they are in,
but hope they are the heirs of heaven? What think you is
the reason, that when Scripture telleth us that few shall be
saved, and none at all but those that are new creatures, and
have the Spirit of Christ, that yet there is not one of many
that is sensible that the case is theirs? Though Scripture
peremptorily concludeth, " That they that are in the flesh
cannot please God," and that " to be carnally minded is
death, (Rom. viii. 6 — 8,) and that " without holiness none
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 7.9
shall see God," (Heb. xii. 14,) and that all " they shall be
damned that believe not the truth, but have pleasure in un-
righteousness," (2 Thess. ii. 12,) and that " Christ will come
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ;
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the
presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, when he
shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all
them that do believe." (2 Thess. i. 7 — 10.) And would not
a man think that such words as these should waken the
guilty soul that doth believe them; and make us all to
look about us ? I confess it is no wonder, if a flat atheist
or infidel should slight them and deride them I But is it
not a wonder if they stir not those, that profess to believe
the word of God, and are the men of whom these Scriptures
speak? And yet among a thousand that are thus condemned
already ; (I say, by the word, that is the rule of judgment,
even condemned already ; for so God saith, John iii. 18,)
how few shall you see that with penitent tears lament their
misery ? How few shall you hear, with true remorse, com-
plain of their spiritual distress, and cry out as those that
were pricked at the heart, (Acts ii. 37,) Men and brethren,
what shall we do ? In all this congregation, how few hearts
are affected with so miserable a case ! Do you see by the
tears, or hear by the complaints of those about you, that
they know what it is, to be unpardoned sinners, under the
wrath of the most holy God ! And what is the matter that
there is no more such lamentation ? Is it because there are
few or none so miserable ? Alas ! no : the Scripture, and
their worldly, fleshly, and ungodly lives, assure us of the
contrary. But it is because men are strangers to themselves :
they little think that it is themselves, that all the terrible
threatenings of God do mean. Most of them little believe
or consider what Scripture saith ; but fewer consider what
conscience hath to say within, when once it is awakened,
and the curtain is drawn back, and the light appeareth.
The first proposition inferreth not the conclusion ; and the
assumption they overlook. Did all that read and hear the
Scriptures know themselves, I will tell you how they would
hear and read it. When the Scripture saith, " To be car-
nally minded is death :" and " If ye live after the flesh ye
shall die," (Rom. viii. 8. 13,) the guilty hearer would say, T am
W THE MI.SCHIEF6 OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
carnally minded: and I live after the flesh: therefore I must
turn or die. When the Scripture saith, " Where your trea-
sure is, there will your heart be also," (Matt. vi. 21,) The
guilty conscience would assume, my heart is not in heaven,
therefore my treasure is not there. When Scripture saith,
" Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," (Matt, xviii. 3,)
and " Except a man be regenerate and born again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God," (John iii. 3. 5,) and " If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old things are
passed away, behold all things are become new," (2 Cor. v.
17,) and " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same
is none of his," (Rom. viii. 9,) The guilty hearer would
assume, I was never thus converted, regenerate, born again,
and made a new creature : I have not the Spirit of Christ :
therefore I am none of his, and cannot enter into the king-
dom of heaven, till this change be wrought upon me. When
the Scripture saith, " Whoremongers and adulterers God
will judge," (Heb. xiii. 4,) The guilty hearer would say,
How then shall I be able to stand before him?
Yea, did but hearers know themselves, they would per-
ceive their danger from remoter principles, that mention the
dealing of God with others. When they hear of the judg-
ment of God upon the ungodly, and the enemies of the
■church, they would say, " Except 1 repent, I shall likewise
perish." (Luke xiii. 3. 5.) When they hear that "judgment
must begin at the house of God," they would infer " What
shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God?
And when they hear that " the righteous are scarcely saved,"
they would think " Where then shall the ungodly and sinner
appear?" (1 Peter iv. 17, 18.)
3. If you know not yourselves, you cannot be Christians :
you cannot have a practical belief in Christ ; for he is
offered to you in the Gospel, as the remedy for your misery ;
as the ransom for your enthralled souls ; as the propitiation
for your sin, and your peace-maker with the Father ; without
whose merit, satisfaction, righteousness, and intercession,
your guilty souls can have no hope. And can you savingly
value him in these respects, if you know not that sin and
misery, that guilt and thraldom, in which your need of
Christ consisteth ? Christ is esteemed by you according to
the judgment you pass upon yourselves.
AND BENEFI'JS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 81
They that say they are sinners, from a general brain-
knowledge, will accordingly say Christ is their Saviour and
their hope, with a superficial belief, and will honour him
with their lips with all the titles belonging to the Redeemer
of the world: but they that feel that they are deadly sick of
sin at the very heart, and are lost for ever if he do not save
them, will feel what the name of a Saviour signifieth, and
will look to him as the Israelites to the brazen serpent, and
cast themselves at his feet, for the crumbs of grace, and will
yield up themselves to be saved by him, in his way. An in-
eflectual knowledge of yourselves, may make you believe in
a Redeemer, as all the city do of a learned, able physician,
tliat will speak well of his skill, and resolve to use him when
necessity constraineth them; but at present they find no
such necessity. But an effectual sight and sense of your
condition, will bring you to Christ, as a man in a dropsy or
consumption comes to the physician; that feels he must
have help or die. Saith Bernard, 'Filium Dei non reputat
Jesum, qui ipsius non terretur comminationibus, &c.' You
will not take the Son of God for a Saviour, if you be not
afirighted by his threatenings. And if you perceive not
that you are lost, you will not heartily thank him that came
to seek and save you. ' Non consolantur Christi lachryma;
cachinnantes ; non consolantur panni ejus ambulantes in
stolis ; non consolantur stabulura et praesepe amantes
primas cathedras in synagogis.' Saith Bernard, Christ's
tears do not comfort them that laugh : his rags do not com-
fort them that (love to) walk in robes : his stable and man-
ger comfort not them that love the highest seats in the sy-
nagogues. Can you seek to Christ to take you up, till you
find that you have fallen and hurt you ? Will you seek to
him to fetch you from the gates of hell, that find not that
you are there?
But to the self-condemning soul thatknoweth itself, how
welcome would a Saviour be? How ready is such a soul for
Christ? Thou that judgest thyself art the person that must
come to Christ to justify thee. Now thou are ready to be
healed by him, when thou findest that thou art sick, and
dead : hast thou received the sentence of death in thyself?
Come to him now and thou shalt have life. (John v. 40;
1 John v. 11.) Art thou weary and heavy laden? Come to
VOL. XVI. G
82 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
Iiira for rest : come and fear not ; for he bids thee come.
(Matt. xi. 27,28.) Dost thou know that " thou hast smned
against heaven and before God, and art not worthy to be
called a son?" Do but cast thyself then at his feet, and tell
him so, and ask forgiveness, and try whether he will not
welcome and embrace thee, pardon and entertain thee, clothe
thee and feast thee, and rejoice over thee as one that " was
lost and is found, was dead and is alive." (Luke xv.) For " he
came to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke xix.
10.) While tliou saidst, " I am rich and increased in goods,
and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ;"
thou wouldst not " buy the tried gold that thou mightestbe
rich, nor his white raiment that thou mightest be clothed,
that the shame of thy nakedness might not appear; nor
Christ's eyesalve that thou mightest see." (Rev. iii. 17, 18.)
But now thou art poor in spirit, and findest that thou art
nothing, and hast nothing, and of thyself canst do nothing
that is acceptably good, (John xv. 5,) and that of thyself
thou art insufficient to think any thing that is good; (2 Cor.
iii. 5;) now thou art readier for the help of Christ, and a
patient fit for the tender healing hand of the physician.
Whilst thou saidst, " God, I thank thee that I am not as
other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, nor as this
publican, thou wast farther from Christ and justification,
than now thou standest as afar off, and darest scarcely
look up to heaven, but smitest on thy breast and sayest. Lord
be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke xviii. 11 — 14.) Not that
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or any that are ungodly, are
justified or can be saved, while they are such : not that a
smiting on the breast, with a " Lord be merciful to me a
sinner," will serve their turn while they continue in their
wicked lives : but when thou art brought to accuse and con-
demn thyself, thou art prepared for his grace that must
renew and justify thee. None sped better with Christ than
the woman that confessed herself a dog, and begged but for
the children's crumbs : and the centurion that sent friends to
Christ to mediate for him, as being unworthy to come him-
self, and unworthy that Christ should enter under his
roof: For of the first Christ said, " O woman, great is thy
faitli : be it unto thee even as thou wilt;" (Matt. xv. 27, 28;)
AND BENEFI'lS OF SELF-ACQU A i N T A N CK. 83
And of the second he saith with admiration, " I have not
found so great faith, no not in Israel." (Luke vii. 6 — 9.)
Though thou art ready to deny the title of a child, and to
number thyself with the dogs, yet go to him and beg his
crumbs of mercy. Though thou think that Christ will not
come to such a one as thou, and though thou beg prayers of
others, as thinking he will not hear thy own, thou little
thinkest how this self-abasement and self-denial prepareth
thee for his tenderest mercies, and his esteem. When thou
art contrite (as the dust that is trodden under feet), and poor,
and tremblest at the word, then will he look at thee with
compassion and respect. (Isaiah Ixvi. 2.) " For thus saith
the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name
is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place : with him also
that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit
of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones :
for I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always
wroth; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls
which I have made." (Isaiah Ivii. 15.) When thou art using
the self-condemning words of Paul, (Rom. vii. 14 — 25,) " I
am carnal, sold under sin : what I would, that do I not; and
what I hate, that do I. For I know that that in me, that is,
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing I find a law, that
when I would do good, evil is present with me . A law
in my members warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin " when thou
criest out with hira " O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me, from the body of this death ;" thou art then fitter
to look to thy Redeemer, and use the following words, " I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." When thou
didst exalt thyself, thou wast obnoxious to the storms of
justice, which was engaged to bring thee low : but now thou
humblest thyself, thou liest in the way of mercy, that is
engaged to exalt thee. (Luke xiv. 11 ; xviii. 14.) Mercy
looketh downward, and can quickly spy a sinner in the dust;
but cannot leave him there, nor deny him compassion and
relief. Art thou cast out as helpless, wounded by thy sin,
and neglected by all others that pass by ? Thou art the
fittest object for the skill and mercy of Him that washeth
sinners in his blood, and tenderly bindeth up their wounds,
and undertakes the perfecting of the cure, though yet thou
must bear the surgeon's hand, till his time of perfect cure be
84 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
come. (Luke x. 33—35.) Now thou perceivest the greatness
of thy sin and misery, thou art fit to study the greatness of
his mercy ; and with all saints (to strive) " to comprehend
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and
to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
(Ephes. iii. 18, 19.) Now thou hast " smitten upon the
thigh," and said, " What have I done?" (Jer. xxxi. 19;
viii. 6,) thou art fitter to look unto him that was wounded
and smitten for thy transgressions, and to consider what he
hath done, and suffered : how he " hath borne thy grief and
carried thy sorrows, and was bruised for thy iniquities ; the
chastisement of our peace was laid upon him, and we are
healed by his stripes : all we like sheep have gone astray :
we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah liii. 4 — 6, &c.)
Art thou in doubt whether there be any forgiveness for thy
sins; and whether there be any place for repentance?
Remember that Christ is " exalted by God's right hand to
be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel,
and forgiveness of sins. (Acts v. 31.) And that he himself
hath spoken it, that " all manner of sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men, except the blasphemy against the
Spirit. (Matt. xii. 32.) And this forgiveness of sins thou art
bound to believe as an article of thy creed : that it is pur-
chased by Christ, and freely offered in the Gospel. Mercy
did but wait all this while, till thou wast brought to under-
stand the want and worth of it, that it might be thine. When
a Peter that denieth Christ with oaths and cursing, goeth
out and weepeth, he speedily finds mercy from him without,
that he but now denied within. When so bloody a perse-
cuter as Paul findeth mercy, upon his prostration and con-
fession ; and when so great an offender as Manasseh is for-
given upon his penitence, in bonds ; when all his witchcraft,
idolatry and cruelties are pardoned, upon a repentance that
might seem to have been forced by a grievous scourge ;
what sinner that perceives his sin and misery, can question
his entertainment if he come to Christ. Come to him sinner,
with thy load and burden ; come to him with all thy acknow-
leged unworthiness: and try whether he will refuse thee.
He hath professed that " him that cometh to him he will in
no wise cast out." (John vi. 37.) He refused not his very
murderers, when they were pricked at the heart and inquired
AND BENEFITS OF .SELF-A CQU A 1 NT A X CE. 85
after a remedy; (Acts ii. 37;) and will he refuse thee?
Hath our Physician poured out his blood to make a medicine
for distracted sinners; and now is he willing to work the
cure? ' Fusus est sanguis medici, et factum est medica-
mentum frenetici/ saith Augustine. O sinner ! now thou
art brought to know thyself, know Christ also and the cure
is done. Let thy thoughts of the remedy be deeper, and
larger, and longer, than all thy thoughts of thy misery: it is
thy sin and shame if it be not so. Why wilt thou have
twenty thoughts of sin and misery, for one that thou hast of
Christ and mercy ? when mercy is so large, and great, and
wonderful as to triumph over misery: and grace aboundeth
much more where sin hath abounded. (Rom. 5. 20.) ' Inspice
vulnera pendentis; sanguinem morientis ; pretium redi-
mentis ; cicatrices resurgentis. Caput habet inclinatum ad
osculandum; cor apertum ad diligendum; brachia extensa
ad araplexandum, totum corpus expositum ad redimendum,'
saith Augustin. Behold the wounds of Christ as he is hang-
ing; the blood of him dying, the price of him redeeming,
the scars of him rising. His head is bowed to kiss thee :
his heart open to love thee ; his arms open to embrace thee;
his whole body exposed to redeem thee.
* Homo factus esthorainis factor, utsugeret uberaregens
sydera; ut esuriret panis; ut siteret fons ; dormiret lux, ab
itinere via fatigaretur ; falsis testibus Veritas occultaretur ;
Judex vivorum et raortuorum a judice mortali judicaretur;
ab injustis justitia damnaretur ; flagellis disciplina caedere-
tur spinis botrus coronaretur; in ligno fundamentum sus-
penderetur; virtus infirmaretur ; salus vulneraretur; vita
moreretur,' saith Augustin: that is. The Maker of man was
made man ; that he might suck the breasts that rules the
stars; that bread might hunger; the spring (or fountain)
might thirst; the light might sleep; the way might be weary
in his journey; that the truth might be hidden by false wit-
nesses: that the Judge of quick and dead might be judged
by a mortal judge : justice might be condemned by the
unjust; discipline might be scourged ; the cluster of grapes
might be crowned with thorns; the foundation might be
hanged on a tree ; that strength might be weakened ; that
health might be wounded ; and that life itself might die.
This is the wonderful mystery of love, which will entertain
the soul that comes to Christ, and which thou must study
80 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGN OliANCE,
to know when thou knowest thyself. But till then all these
will be riddles to thee, or little relished : and Christ will
seem to thy neglecting heart to have died and done all this
in vain.
And hence it is, that as proud, ungodly, sensual men,
were never sound believers, so they ofttimes fall from that
opinionative common faith which tliey had, and of all men
do most easily turn apostates : it being just with God that
they should be so far forsaken as to vilify the remedy, thai
would not know their sin and misery, but love it, and perti-
naciously hold it, as their felicity !
4. If you know not yourselves, you will not know what
to do with yourselves, nor to what end, and for what work
you are to live. This makes the holy work neglected, and
most men live to little purpose, wasting their days in matters
that themselves will call impertinent when they come to
die ; as if they were good for nothing else: whereas if they
knew themselves, they would know that they are made and
fitted for more noble works. O man, if thou were acquainted
well with thy faculties and frame, thou wouldst perceive the
name of God thy Maker, to be so deeply engraven in thy
nature, even in all thy parts and powers, as should convince
thee that thou wast made for him; that all thou art and all
thou hast, is nothing worth, but for his service : as all the
parts and motions of a clock or watch are but to tell the
hour of the day. Thou wouldst know then the meaning of
sanctification and holiness ; that it signifieth but the giving
God his own, and is the first part of justice, without which
no rendering men their due can prove thee just. Thou
wouldst then know the unreasonableness and injustice of
ungodliness and all sin : and that to serve thy fleshly lusts
and pleasures with those noble faculties that were purposely
formed to love and serve the Eternal God, is more absurd
and villainous, than to employ the highest officers of the
king in the sweeping of your chimnies, or the serving of
your swine. Remember it, unreasonable, brutish man, the
next time thou art going to thy lusts and sensual delights.
It is no wiser a course thou takest : it is no more honoura-
ble or just: but as much worse, as God is to be preferred
to a king ; and as thy sin is worse than the serving of thy
swine. O man, didst thou but know thyself, and for what
employment thy faculties are made, thou wouldst lift up thy
s
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQU Al N T A NC K. 87
head, and seriously think who holds the reins? wliu keeps
the breath yet in thy nostrils, and continueth thee in life?
and where it is that thou must shortly fix thy unchangeable
abode ; and what is now to be done in preparation for such
a day : ' Os homini sublime dedit, &c.' Thou wouldst know
that thou hadst not that reason, and that will and executive
power, to roll in the earth, and be but a cunning kind of
beast, that hath wit to play the fool, and can ingeniously live
below understanding, and do that with argument which
other brutes can do without it. Thou wouldst know that
thy higher faculties were not made to serve the lower : thy
reason to serve thy sensual delights. The horse was not
made to ride the man, nor the master to follow and attend
the dog. O man! hadst thou not lost the knowledge of thy-
self, thou wouldst be so far from wondering at a holy life,
that thou wouldst look upon an unholy person as a monster,
and wouldst hear the deriders and opposers of a holy life, as
thou wouldst hear him that were deriding a man because he
is not a swine, or were reproaching men of honour and
learning, because they live not as an ass.
I confess, my soul is too apt to lose its lively sense of all
these things ; but whenever it is awake, I am forced to say, in
these kind of meditations, If I had not a God to know and think
on, to love and honour, to seek and serve, what had I to do
with myunderstanding, will, and all my powers? What should
I do with life and time ? What use should I make of God's
provisions? What could I find to do in the world, that is
worthy of a man? Were it not as good lie still, and sleep
out my days, and professedly do nothing, as to go dreaming
with a seeming seriousness, and wander about the world as
in my sleep, and do nothing with such a troublesome stir,
as sensual, worldly persons do ? Could not I have played
the beast without a reasonable free-workins; soul ? Let them
turn from God, and neglect the conduct of the Redeemer,
and disregard the holy approaches, and breathings, and
workings of the soul towards its beloved centre and felicity,
that know not what an immortal soul is, or know how else
to employ their faculties, with satisfaction or content unto
themselves. I profess here, as in his presence that is the
Father of spirits, and before angels and men, I do not, I
know not what else to do with my soul that is worth tiie
doing, but what is subservient to its proper object, its end
S8 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
and everlasting rest. If the holy service of God, and the
preparation for heaven, and making after Christ and happi-
ness, be forbidden me, I have no more to do in the world,
that will satisfy my reason, or satisfy my affections, or that
as a man or a Christian I can own. And it is as good not live,
as to be deprived of the uses and ends of life. Though my
love and desires are infinitely below the Eternal goodness,
and glory, which they should prosecute and embrace, yet do
my little tastes and dull desires, and cold affections consent
unfeignedly to say. Let me have God or nothing: Let me
know him and his will, and what will please him, and how
I may enjoy him: or, O that I never had an understanding
to know any thing! Let me remember him; or, O that I had
never had a memory ! Let me love him and be beloved of
him; or, O that I never had such a thing as love within me-
Let me hear his teachings, or have no ears : Let me serve
him with my riches, or let me have none; and with any in-
terest or honour, or let me be despised. It is nothing that
he gives not being to : and it is useless that is not for his
glory and his will. If God have nothing to do with me, I
have nothing to do with myself, and the world hath nothing
to do with me.
Let dark, and dreaming, doating sinners, declare their
shame, and speak evil of what they never knew, and neglect
the good they never saw ; let them that know not themselves
or God, refuse to give up themselves to God, and think a
life of sensuality more suitable to them. But " Lord lift thou
up the light of thy countenance on me," (Psal. iv,) and let
me no longer be a man, nor have reason, or any of thy
talents in my trust, than 1 shall be thine, and live to thee.
I say as Bernard, ' Dignus plane est morte, qui tibi Christe
recusal vivere ; et qui tibi non sapit, desipit; et qui curat
esse nisi propter te, pro nihilo est et nihil est. Propter
teipsum Deus fecisti omnia ; et qui esse vult sibi, et non tibi,
nil esse incipit inter omnia.' Worthy is that man, O Christ to
die, that refuseth to live to thee: and he that is not wise to
thee, is but a fool ; and he that careth to he unless it be for
thee, is good for nothing, and is nothing. For thyself, O
God, hast thou made all things ; and he that would be to
himself and not to thee, among all things beginneth to be
nothing.
5. If you know not yourselves, you know not how to
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 80
apply the word of God, which you read or hear ; you know
not how to use either promises or threatenings, to the bene-
fit of your souls: nay, you will misapply them to your hurt.
If you are unregenerate, and know it not, you will put by all
the calls of God, that invite you to come in and be converted,
and think that they belong to grosser sinners, but not to
you. All the descriptions of the unsanctified and their
misery, will little affect you ; and all God's threateninos to
such will little move you ; for you will think they are not
meant of you; you will be pharisaically blessing yourselves,
when you should be pricked at the heart, and laid in contri-
tion at the feet of Christ : you will be thanking God that
you are not such as indeed you are; you will be making
application of the threatenings to others, and pitying them
when you should lament yourselves; you will be thundering
when you should be trembling ; and speaking that evil of
others that is your own ; and convincing others of that
which you had need to be convinced of; and wakening
others by talking in your sleep ; and calling other men hy-
pocrites, proud, self-conceited, ignorant, and other such
names that are indeed your own ; you will read or hear your
own condemnation, and not be moved at it, as not knowino-
your own description when you hear it, but thinking that this
thunderbolt is levelled at another sort of men. All the words
of peace and comfort, you will think are meant of such as
you. When you read of pardon, reconciliation, adoption,
and right to everlasting life, you will imagine that all these
are yours. And thus you will be dreaming-rich and safe,
when you are poor and miserable, and in the greatest peril.
And is it not pity that the celestial, undeceiving light should
be abused to so dangerous self-deceit? And that truth
itself should be made the furtherance of so great an error ?
And that the eyesalve should more put out your eyes ? Is
it not sad to consider, that you should now be emboldened
to presumption, by that very word which (unless you be
converted) will judge you to damnation? And that self-
deceit should be increased by the glass of verity that should
undeceive you?
How can you know what promise or threatening doth
belong to you, while you know not what state your souls
are in. Can you tell what physic to take, till your disease
be known? Or choose your plaister till you know your sore?
.90 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNOllANCE,
6'. If you know not yourselves, you know not how to con-
fess or pray. This makes men confess their sins so seldom,
and with so little remorse to God and man ; you hide them
because they are hidden from yourselves ; and therefore God
will open them to your shame : whereas if they were opened
to you, they would be opened by you, and covered by God.
Saith Augustine ' Non operui, sed aperui ut operires; non
cselavi, ut tegeres: nam quando homo detegit, Deus tegit.
Cum homo cselat, Deus nudat : cum homo agnoscit, Deus
ignoscit.' I did not cover, but open that thou mayest cover :
I concealed not, that thou mightest hide. For when man dis-
closeth, God covereth : when man hideth, God maketh bare :
when man confesseth, God forgiveth. For want of self-
acquaintance it is that men hypocritically confess to God in
way of custom, the sins which they will deny or excuse to
man ; and will tell God formally of much, which they cannot
endure to be told of seriously by a reprover : or, if they con-
fess it generally with a seeming humility to others, they
cannot bear that another should faithfully charge it upon
them, in order to their true humiliation and amendment.
' Indicia verse confessionis sunt, si utunusquisque se pecca-
torem dicit, id de se dicenti alteri non contradicat. Nam
non peccator sed Justus videri appetit, cum peccatorem
se quisque nuUo arguente confitetur ; superbise quippe
vitium est, ut quod de se fateri quis sua sponte dignatur,
hoc sibi dici ab aliis dedignetur,' saith Bernard. It is the
sign of true confession, if, as every one saith he is a sinner,
he contradict not another that saith it of him. For he de-
sireth not to seem a sinner, but righteous, when one con-
fesseth himself a sinner when none reproveth him. It is
the vice of pride, for a man to disdain to have that spoken
to him of others, which he stuck not to confess of his own
accord concerning himself.
And for prayer, it is men's ignorance of themselves that
makes prayer so little in request : hunger best teacheth
men to beg. You would be oftener on your knees, if you
were oftener iu your hearts. Prayer would not seem needless,
if you knew your needs. Know yourselves, and be prayer-
less if you can. When the prodigal was convinced, he pre-
sently purposeth to confess and pray. When Paul was
converted, Ananias hath this evidence of it from God,
" Behold he prayeth." (Acts ix. 11.) Indeed the inward
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAIN'J'ANCE. 91
paf t of prayer, is the motion of a returning soul to God :
Saith Hugo, 'Oratio est piae mentis et humilis ad Deuni
conversio, fide, spe, et charitate subnixa.' Prayer is the
turning of a pious, humble soul to God, leaning upon faith,
hope and love. It is * Oranti subsidiura, Deo sacrificium,
dffimonibus flagellum.' The relief of the petitioner, the
sacrifice of God, the scourge of devils.
And self-knowledge would teach men how to pray. Your
own hearts would be the best prayer-books to you, if you
were skilful in reading them. Did you see what sin is, and
in what relation yon stand to God, to heaven and hell, it
would drive you above your beads and lifeless words of
course, and make you know, that to pray to God for par-
don and salvation, is not a work for a sleepy soul. Saith
Gregory, ' lUe Deo veram orationem exhibit qui semetipsum
cognoscit, quia pulvis sit ; humiliter videt, qui nihil sibi
virtutis tribuit,' &c. He oiFereth the truest prayer to God,
that knoweth himself, that humbly seeth he is but dust, and
ascribeth not virtue to himself, 8cc. Nothing quencheth
prayer more than to be mistaken or mindless about our-
selves. When we go from home this fire goes out; but
when we return, and search our hearts, and see the sins, the
wants, the weaknesses that are there, and perceive the dan-
ger that is before us, and withal the glorious hopes that are
offered us, here is fuel and bellows to inflame the soul, and
cure it of its drowsiness and dumbness. Help any sinner to
a clearer light, to see into his heart and life, and to a live-
lier sense of his own condition, and I warrant yon he will be
more disposed to fervent prayer, and will better understand
the meaning of those words, " That men ought always to
pray and not to faint;" (Luke xviii. 1 ;) and " Pray without
ceasing." (1 Thess. v. 17.) You may hear some impious
persons now disputing against frequent and fervent prayer,
and saying, 'What need all this ado V But if you were able
to open these men's eyes, and shew them what is within
tliem and before them, you would quickly answer all their
arguments, and convince them better than words can do,
and put an end to the dispute. You would set all the pray-
erless families in town and country, gentlemen's and poor
men's, on fervent calling upon God, if you could but help
them to such a sight of their sin and danger, as shortly the
stoutest of them must have. Why do they pray, and call
92 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNOK ANCE,
Ibr prayers, when they come to die, but that they begin a
little better to know themselves ? They see then that youth,
and health, and honour, are not the things, nor make them
so happy, as befooling prosperity once persuaded them.
Did they believe and consider what God saith of them, and
not what flattery and self-love say, it would open the mouths
of them that are most speechless. But those that are born
deaf are always dumb. How can they speak that language
with desire to God, which they never learned by faith from
God or by knowledge of themselves?
And self-knowledge would teach men what to ask. They
would feel most need of spiritual mercies, and beg hardest
for them ; and for outward things, they would ask but for
their daily bread, and not be foolishly importunate with
God for that which they know not to be suitable or good
for them. ' Fideliter supplicans Deo pro necessitatibus
hujus vitse, et miserecorditer auditur, et miserecorditer non
auditur. Quid enim infirmo sit utilius magis novit medicus
quam eegrotus,' saith Prosper. It is mercy to be denied
sometimes when we pray for outward things : our physi-
cian, and not we must choose our physic, and prescribe our
diet.
And if men knew themselves, it would teach them on
what terms to expect the hearing of their prayers. Neither
to be accepted for their merits, nor yet to be accepted with-
out that faith and repentance, and desire that seriousness,
humility, and sincerity of heart, which the very nature of
prayer to God doth contain or pre-suppose. " He that
nameth the name of Christ, must depart from iniquity,"
(2 Tim. ii. 19,) and must " wash himself and make him clean,
and put away the evil of his doings from before the eyes of
God, and cease to do evil, and learn to do well." (Isa. i. 16,
17.) As knowing that though a Simon Magus must repent
and pray, (Acts viii. 22,) and the " wicked in forsaking his
way, and thoughts, and returning to the Lord, must seek
him while he may be found, and call upon him while he is
near ;" (Isa. Iv. 6, 7 ;) and the prayers of a humble publican
are heard, when he sets his prayer against his sins : yet if
he would cherish his sin by prayer, and flatter himself into
a presumption and security in a wicked life, because he
useth to ask God forgiveness : if he thus " regard iniquity
in his heart, God will not hear his prayers;" (Psal. Ixvi. 18;)
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE, 93
and " we know that such impenitent sinners God heareth
not." (John ix. 31.) And thus the prayers of the wicked,
as wicked, (which are not a withdrawing from his wicked-
ness, but a bolster of his security, and as a craving of pro-
tection and leave to sin) are but " an abomination to the
Lord." (Prov. xvii. 8 ; xxviii. 9.) ' Ferrum prius extrahen-
dum :' The bullet, the thorn must be first got out, before any
medicine can heal their wounds. Saith Augustine, * Plus
Deo placet latratus canum, mugitus bonuni, grunnitus por-
corum, quani cantus clericorum luxuriantium.' The bark-
ing of dogs, the lowing of beasts, the grunting of swine,
doth please God better than the singing of luxuriant clergy-
men. Did men know themselves, and who they have to do
with in their prayers, they would not go from cards, and
dice, and gluttony, and fornication, and railing, lying, or
reviling at the servants of the Lord, to a few hypocritical
words of prayer, to salve all till the next time, and wipe
their mouths, as if one sin had procured the forgiveness of
another. Nor would they shut up a day of worldliness,
ambition, sensuality, or profaneness, with a few heartless
words of confession and supplication ; or with the words of
penitence, while their hearts are impenitent, as if when they
have abused God by sin, they would make him amends, or
reconcile him by their mockery. Nor would they ihink to
be accepted by praying for that which they would not have;
for holiness, when they hate it, and for deliverance from the
sins which they would not be delivered from, and would not
have their prayers granted.
7. If you know not yourselves, it will unfit you for
thanksgiving: your greatest mercies will be least esteemed;
and the lesser will be misesteemed. And while you are un-
thankful for what you have, you will be absurdly thanking
God for that which indeed you have not.
What inestimable mercies are daily trodden under feet
by sinners, that know not their worth, because they know
not Iheir own necessities ! They have time to repent, and
make preparation for an endless life : but they know not the
worth of it, but unthankfully neglect it, and cast it away on
the basest vanities : as if worldly cares, or wicked company,
or fleshly lusts, or cards, or dice, or revellings, or idleness,
were exercises in which they might better improve it, than
tlie works of holiness, justice, and mercy, which God hath
94 THE MISCHIEFS OF SP:LF-IGN O 11 A NCE,
made the business of their lives : or, as if the profits, and
pleasures, and vainglory of this world, did better deserve it
than their Creator, and their own souls, and the heavenly
inheritance. But if their eyes were opened to see where
they stand, and what they are, and what are their dangers
and necessities, how thankful would they be for one year,
one month, one day, one hour, to repent and cry to God
for mercy ! And how sensibly would they perceive that a
hundred years' time is not too long to spend in serious
preparation for eternity !
They have now the faithful ministers of Christ, inviting'
them in his name to come to him and receive the riches of
his grace, and " beseeching them in his stead to be recon-
ciled unto God." (Matt, xxii ; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20.) But they
stop their ears, and harden their hearts, and stiffen their
necks, and love not to be disturbed in their sins, but are
angry with those that are solicitous for their salvation, and
revile them as too precise and strict, that tell them of the
one thing needful, and persuade them to choose the better
part, and tell them where their sin will leave them. They
take them for their friends that will encourage them in the
way that God condemneth, and be merr}"^ with them in the
way to endless sorrow, and flatter them into security and
impenitency till the time of grace be past ; but they hate
them as their enemies that faithfully reprove them, and tell
them of their folly, and call them to a safer, better way.
Alas, sirs, there would not be so man}!- nations, congrega-
tions, and souls now left in darkness and misery by their
own doing, having driven away the mercy of the Gospel, and
thrust their faithful teachers from them, if they knew them-
selves. Men would not triumph in their own calamity,
when they have expelled their faithful teachers, (the dust of
whose feet, the sweat of their brows, the tears of their eyes,
and the fervent prayers and groans of their hearts must wit-
ness against them,) if they knew themselves. They would
not be like a madman that glorieth that he hath beaten away
his physician and his friends, and is left to himself, if they
knew themselves. When they have the earnest calls of the
Word without, and convictions and urgings of the Spirit
of God, and their consciences within, they would not wil-
fully go on, and cast these mercies at their heels, if they
knew themselves.
AND BENEFITS OF S ELF-AC QUAIN lANCE. 95
They have leave to join in the communion of saints, and
to enjoy the benefit of holy society in prayer, and con-
ference, and mutual love and sjDiritual assistance, and in the
jDublic worship of God : but they pass these by, as having
more of trouble and burden than of mercy, because they
little know themselves.
And their inferior mercies of health, and wealth, and
food, and raiment, and friends, and accommodations, they
misesteem and misuse ; and value them but as provision
for the flesh, and the satisfaction of their sensual and
inordinate desires, and not as their necessary provision for
J.heir duty in the way to heaven ! And therefore they are
most thankful for their greatest snares : for that honour and
abundance which are stronger temptations than they can
overcome : for those fleshly contentments and delights,
which are the enemies of grace, and the prison of their no-
blest faculties, and the undoing of their souls. If they could
for shame speak out, they would thank God more for a
whore, or a successful game, or the favour of their earthen
gods, or for preferment, or commodity, lands or houses,
than ever they did for all the offers of Christ and grace, and
all tlie invitations to a holy life. For there is much more
joy and pleasure in their hearts for the former than the latter.
And self-ignorance will also corrupt your thanksgiving,
and turn it into sin and folly. Is it not shame and pity to
hear an unpardoned enemy of holiness, and of God, to
thank God that he is justified and reconciled to God, and
adopted to be his child, and made a member of Jesus Christ?
And to hear a carnal, unregenerate person give thanks for
his regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Ghost? As
it is to hear a leper give thanks for perfect health, or a fool
or madman thank God for making him wiser than his neigh-
bours? Is it not pity to hear a miserable soul thank God
for the grace which he never had? and one that is near eter-
nal misery to thank God for making him an heir of glory?
O how many have thanked God pharisaically for the pardon of
their sins, that must for ever suffer for those sins ! How many
have thanked him for giving them the assured hopes of
glory, that must be thrust out into endless misery ! As I
have known many, that by their friends and by themselves
have been flattered into confident hopes of life, when they
were ready to die, have thanked God that they were pretty
Df) THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IG XOR A NCE,
well, and the worst was past ; which, in the eyes of judici-
ous standers-by, was not the least aggravation of their sad
and deplorable state. Methinks it is one of the saddest
spectacles in the world to hear a man thanking God for the
assurance of salvation, that is in a state of condemnation,
and likely to be in hell for ever ! These absurdities could not
corrupt your highest duties, and turn them into sin, if you
knew yourselves.
A man that knoweth his own necessities and unworthi-
ness, is thankful for a little to God and man. Mercy is as
no mercy, where there is no sense of need or misery. * Sa-
pientinotum est quanti resqueequetaxandasit,' saith Seneca.
Therefore God useth to humble them so low in the work of
conversion, whom he meaneth ever after to employ in the
magnifying of his grace. And then that which is folly and
hypocrisy from a Pharisee, will be an acceptable sacrifice
from a humble, grateful soul ; and he that by grace is dif-
ferenced from other men, may (modestly) thank God that
he is not as other men. For had he nothing more to thank
God for, than the ungodly world, he would be rejected and
perish with the world : and if he have more than the world,
and yet be no more thankful than the world, he would be
guilty of greater unthankfulness than the world. 'Non est
superbia elati, sed confessio non ingrati : et habere te cog-
nosce, et nihil ex te habere ; ut nee superbus sis, nee ingra-
tus : Die Deo tuo, quoniam sanctus sum quia sanctificasti
me : quia accepi, non quae habui ; quia tu dedisti, non qua;
ego merui :' saith Augustine. This is not the pride of
one lift up, but the acknowledgement of one that is not un-
thankful : Know that thou hast, and know that thou hast
nothing of thyself, that thou mayest neither be proud, nor
yet unthankful. Say to thy God, 1 am holy, for thou hast
sanctified me : for I have received what I had not ; and
thou hast given me what I deserved not. The thanksgiv-
ing of a faithful soul is so far from being displeasing to
God as a pharisaical ostentation, that it is a great and ex-
cellent duty, and a most sweet and acceptable sacrifice.
" Offer unto God thanksgiving He that ofFereth praise
glorifieth me." (Psal. 1. 14. 23.)
8. And as to the Lord's-supper, what work they are
there like to make that are unacquainted with themselves,
you may conjecture from the nature of the work, and the
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 97
command of self-examination and self-judging. Though
some may be welcomed by Christ, that have faith and love,
though they doubt of their sincerity, and know not them-
selves to be children of God ; yet none can be welcome
that know not themselves to be sinners condemned by the
law, and needing a Saviour to reconcile and justify them.
Who will be there humbled at the feet of grace, and thank-
ful for a Redeemer, and hunger and thirst for sacramental
benefits, that knowetli not his own unworthiness and neces-
sities? O what inestimable mercy would appear in a sacra-
ment to us, in the offers of Christ and saving grace, and
communion with God and with his saints, if our appetites
were but quickened by the knowledge of ourselves !
9. And 1 beseech you consider, whether all your studies,
and learning, and employments, be not irrational, prepos-
terous and impertinent, while you study not first to know
yourselves ? You are nearest to yourselves, and therefore
should be best acquainted with yourselves. What should
you more observe than the case of your own souls ! and
what should you know better than what is within you, and
what you carry still about you, and that which raethinks
you should always feel ; even the bent of your own estima-
tions and affections ; the sicknesses of your souls ; your guilt,
your wants and greatest necessities. All your learning is
but the concomitant of your dotage till you know your-
selves. Your wisest studies are but the workings of a dis-
tracted mind, while you study not yourselves, and the things
of everlasting consequence. The wise man was but derided
by the standers-by, that fell overhead into a ditch, whilst he
was busily taking the height of a star. To study whether
it be the sun or earth that moveth, and not consider what
motion is predominant in thy soul and life, is a pitiful, pre-
posterous study : To think more what stars are in the firma-
ment, than what grace is in thy heart ; and what planet
reigneth, than what disposition reigneth in thyself; and
whether the spirit or the flesh have the dominion, is but to
be learnedly besides thyself.
• Ill
urn ego jure
Despiciam, qui scit quanto sublimior Atlas
Omnibus in Lybia sit niontibus ; bic tameu idem
Tgnoret quantum ferrata distet ab area.
VOL. XVI. H
93 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
Is it not a laborious madness to travel into far countries,
and compass sea and land, to satisfy a curiosity ; and to be
at so much cost and pains to know the situation, govern-
ment, and manners, of the cities and countries of the world,
and in the meantime to be utterly strange at home, and
never bestow one day or hour in a serious survey of heayt
and life? To carry about a dark, unknown, neglected soul,
while they are travelling to know remotest things that less
concern them ? Methinks it is a pitiful thing, to hear men
ingeniously discoursing of the quality, laws and customs of
other nations, and of the affairs of princes, and common-
wealths, and of the riches and commodities of sea and land,
and to be mute when they should express their acquaintance
with themselves, either in confession and prayer to God, or
in any humble, experimental conference with men. To
trade abroad, and utterly neglect the trade of godliness at
home. To keep correspondence with persons of all de-
grees, and to have no correspondence with themselves. To
keep their shop-books and accounts with diligence, and
never regard the book of conscience, nor keep account of
that for which they must ere long be accountable to God.
It is a pitiful thing to see men turn over voluminous histo-
ries, to know what hath been done from the beginning of
the world, and regard no more the history of their own
lives, nor once look back with penitent remorse upon their
ungodly, careless conversations, nor say, 'What have we
done?' To see men have well-furnished libraries, and read
over a multitude of books, and never read the state and re-
cords of their souls !
Quid juvat inimensos scire atque evolvere casus,
Si facienda fugis, si fugienda lacis ?
It maketh you but objects of wonder and compassion, to
read laws and records, and understand all cases, and never
endeavour to understand the case of your immortal souls !
To counsel others for their temporal estates, and never un-
derstand your own spiritual state ! To study the mysteries of
nature, and search into all the works of God, except yourselves,
and that which your happiness or misery doth depend on !
To study the nature, and causes, and signs of bodily diseases,
and their several remedies, and never study the diseases of
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. iJU
your own souls, nor the precious remedy which mercy hath
provided you. To cure the sicknesses of other men's bodies,
and never feel a stony, proud or sensual heart, nor use any
care and industry for the cure ! To know the matters of all
arts and sciences, to be able to discourse of them all to the
admiration of the hearers, is but an aggravation of thy la-
mentable folly, if thou be all this while a stranger to thyself,
and that because thou art mindless of thy soul's condition.
You would but laugh at such a learned fool that knew not
how to dress himself, or eat, or drink, or go, and yet could
talk of the profoundest speculations in metaphysics or other
sciences. It is more necessary to know yourselves, your
sin, your duty, your hopes, your dangers, than to know how
to eat, or drink, or clothe yourselves. Alas, it is a pitiful
kind of knowledge, that will not keep you out of hell ; and
a foolish wisdom that teaches you not to save your souls.
'Per veram scientiam itur ad disciplinam; per disciplinam
ad bonitatem ; per bonitatem ad beatitudinem,' saith Hugo.
Till you know yourselves, the rest of your knowledge is but
a confused dream : When you know the thing, you know
not the end, and use, and worth of it. Self-knowledge will
direct you in all your studies, and still employ you on that
which is necessary, and will do you good, when others are
studying but unprofitable, impertinent things ; and indeed
are but "proud, knowing nothing (when they seem to excel
in knowledge) but doting about questions and strifes of
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute
of the truth, that take gain for godliness." (1 Tim. vi. 4, 5.)
Self-knowledge will help you in all your studies, to know,
' Quo ordine, quo studio, quo fine unumquodque scire opor-
teat. Quo ordine ; ut illud prius, quod maturius movet ad
salutem : Quo studio; ut illud ardentius, quod vehementius
ad amorem: Quo fine; ut non ad inamen gloriam et osten-
tationem, sed ad tuam et aliorum salutem,' saith Bernard.
You will know in what order, with what study, and to
what end every thing should be known: In what order, that
that may go first, that most promoteth our salvation: With
what study or desire ; that we may know that most ardently,
which most vehemently provoketh love : To what end, that
it be not for vainglory and ostentation, but for your own and
other men's salvation.
100 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
And as it is ourselves and our own affairs that are nearest
to us, and therefore first in order to be known ; so it is our-
selves that we have a special charge of, and that we are most
obliged to study and to know ; and it is our own condition
and soul affairs that most concern us. Though sun, and
moon, and earth, be not little things in themselves ; yet the
knowledge of them is a small, inconsiderable matter to thee,
in comparison of the knowledge of thyself. The words even
of Seneca are so pungent on this subject, that I shall recite
some of them to shame those professed Christians that are
so much short of a heathen. ' Quid ad virtutem viam sternit
syllabarum enerratio, verborum diligentia et fabularum me-
moria, et versuum lex et modificatio ? Quid ex his metum
demit, cupiditatem fraenat?' What furtherance to virtue
is the enarration of syllables, the diligence of words, the re-
membering of fables, and the law and modification of verses?
What of these taketh away fear, and bridleth concupi-
scence ? ' Metiri me geometer docet latifundia : potius
doceat quomodo metiar quantum homini satis sit: Docet
quomodo nihil perdam ex finibus meis : at ego discere volo
quomodo totum hilaris amittam. Scis rotunda metiri : si
artifex es, metire hominis animum ; die quam magnus, die
quam pusillus sit. Scis quse recta sit linea : quid tibi pro-
dest si quid in vita rectum sit ignoras?' The geometrician
teaeheth me to measure spacious grounds : let him rather
teach me to measure how much is sufficient for a man : He
teaeheth me how I may lose nothing of my possessions : but
that which I would learn is, how I may lose all with a cheer-
ful mind. Thou canst measure rounds ; if thou be an artist,
measure the mind of man; tell him how great it is, or how
little or low. Thou knowest a straight line : and what the
better art thou if thou know not what is right or straight in
thy own life ? * Hoc scire quid proderit, ut solicitus sim,
quum Saturnus et Mars ^ contrario stabunt? Ilia li-
beralium artium conseetatio molestos, intempestivos, ver-
bosos, sibi placentes facit, et ideo non discentes neeessaria,
quia supervacua didicerunt.' What good will it do me,
that 1 should be solicitous to know when Saturn and Mars
will stand in opposition? This diligent study of the
liberal arts, doth make men troublesome, unseasonable,
wordy, self-pleasing, and such as therefore learn not things
necessary, because they have learned things superfluous.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 101
When our nearer, greater works are done, then those
that are more distant will be seasonable, and useful, and ex-
cellent in their proper places. When men understand the
state and affairs of their souls, and have made sure of their
everlasting happiness, they may then seasonably and wisely
m mage political and economical affairs, and prudently or-
der and prosecute their temporal concernments : when they
" first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness," su-
bordinate things may be seasonably considered. But for a
man to be taken up about matters of law, or trade, or plea-
sure, when he mindeth not the matters of his salvation ; and
to study languages, arts and sciences, when he studieth not
how to escape damnation, is not to be learned, but to dote ;
nor to be honourably or prudently employed, but to walk as
a ' noctambulo,' a man in a dream, and live besides the rea-
son of a man, as well as below the faith of a Christian :
These seemingly wise and honourable worldlings, that la-
bour not to know what state and relation they stand in to-
wards God, and his judgment, do live in a more pernicious
distraction than he that is disputing in mood and figure
while his house is burning over his head, or he that is learn-
ing to fiddle or dance, when he is assaulted by an enemy,
or to be tried for his life.
Even works of charity seem but absurd, preposterous
acts, in those that are not charitable to themselves. To be
careful to feed or clothe the bodies of the poor, and sense-
less of the nakedness and»misery of your own souls, is an
irrational, distracted course of mercy : As if a man should
be diligent to cure another of a bile, while he minds not the
plague or leprosy upon himself: or should be busy to pull
a thorn out of another's finger, and senseless of a stab that
is given himself in the bowels or at the heart. To love your-
self, and not your neighbour, is selfish, unsociable and un-
charitable. To love neither your neighbour nor yourself, is
inhuman : To love your neighbour and not yourself, is pre-
posterous, irrational, and scarcely possible. But to love
first yourself (next God,) and then to love your neighbour
as yourself, is regular, orderly. Christian charity.
10. Consider also, that the ignorance of yourselves doth
much unfit you to be useful unto others. If you are Magis-
trates, you will never be soundly faithful against the sin of
others, till you have felt how hurtful it is to yourselves. If
102 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNOIi ANCE,
you are Ministers, you will scarcely ever be good at heart-
searching work, till you have searched your own : nor will
you know the deceitfulness of sin, and the turnings and
windings of the crooked serpent, till you have observed
them in yourselves : nor will you have due compassion on
the ignorant, impenitent, ungodly, unconverted, or on the
tempted, weak, disconsolate souls, till you have learned
rightly to be affected with sin and misery in yourselves. If
men see a magistrate punish offenders, or hear a minister re-
prove them, that is as bad or worse himself, they will but
deride the justice of the one, and reproofs of the other, as
the acts or words of blind partiality or hypocrisy; and ac-
cost you with a ' Medice cura teipsum,' Physician heal thy-
self: with a ' Loripidem rectus derideat, jEthiopem abbus,'
&,c. And a ' Primus jussa subi,' &c. And a* Qui al-
terum incusat probri, ipsum se intueri oportet.' First sweep
before your own door. It is ridiculous for the blind to re-
proach the purblind. ' Quae in aliis reprehendis, in teipso
maxime reprehende.' Reprehend that more in thyself, which
thou reprehendest in another. The eye of the soul is not
like the eye of the body, that can see other things, but not
itself. There are two evils that Christ noteth in the reproofs
of such as are unacquainted with themselves, in Matt. vii.
3,4. Hypocrisy and unfitness to reprove. " Why beholdest
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how wilt thou say
to thy brother. Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye,
and behold, a beam is in thy own eye ? Thou hypocrite,
first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou
shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's
eye." Thy own vices do corrupt thy judgment, and cause
thee to excuse the like in others, and to accuse the virtue
that in others is the condemner of thy vice, and to repre-
sent all as odious that is done by those that by their piety
and reproofs are become odious to thy guilty and malicious
soul. Dost thou hate a holy, heavenly life, and art void of
the love of God, and of his servants ? Hast thou a carnal,
dead, unconverted heart? Art thou a presumptuous, care-
less, worldly wretch ? Hast thou these beams in thy own
eye ? And art thou fit to quarrel with others that are bet-
ter than thyself, about a ceremony, or a holy day, or a cir-
cumstance of church-government or worship, or a doubtful.
AND BLNEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 103
controverted opinion ? And to be pulling these motes out
of thy brother's eye? (Yea, rather wouldst pull out his
eyes, to get out the mote:) First get an illuminated mind,
and a renewed, sanctified heart ; be acquainted with the
love of God, and of his image ; and cast out the beam of
infidelity, ungodliness, worldliness, sensuality, malice and
liypocrisy, from thine own eye ; and then come and play
the occulist with thy brother, and help to cure him of his
lesser involuntary errors and infirmities. Till then the beam
of thy sensuality and impiety will make thee a very incom-
petent judge of the mote of a different opinion in thy bro-
ther. Every word that thou speakest in condemnation of
thy brother, for his opinion or infirmity, is a double con-
demnation of thyself for thy ungodly, fleshly life. And if thou
wilt needs have "judgment to begin at the house of God,"
for the failings of his sincere and faithful servants, it may
remember thee to thy terror, " what the end of them shall
be that obey not the Gospel of God." And if you will con-
demn the righteous for their lamented weaknesses, " Where
think you the ungodly and the sinner shall appear?" (1 Pet.
iv. 17, 18.)
11. If you begin not at yourselves, you can make no
progress to a just and edifying knowledge of extrinsic things.
Man's self is the alphabet or primer of his learning. * Non
pervenitur ad summa nisi per inferiora.' You cannot come
to the top of the stairs, if you begin not at the bottom.
' Frustra cordis oculum erigit ad videndum Deum, qui non-
dum idoneus est ad videndum seipsum : Prius enim est ut
cognoscas invisibilia spiritus tui, quam possis esse idoneus
ad cognoscendum invisibilia Dei; et si non potes te cog-
noscere, non prsesumas apprehendere ea quae sunt supra te
(inquit. Hug. de Anim.)' i. e. In vain doth he lift up his
heart to see God, that is yet unfit to see himself. For thou
must first know the invisible things of thy own spirit, be-
fore thou canst be fit to know the invisible things of God.
And if thou canst not know thyself, presume not to know
the things that are above thyself. You cannot see the face
which it representeth, if you will not look upon the glass
which representeth it. God is not visible, but appeareth to
us in his creatures; and especially in ourselves. And if we
know not ourselves, we cannot know God in ourselves.
' Prajcipuum et principale est speculum ad videndum Deum
104 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
animus rationalis intuens seipsum (inq. Hug.)' The princi-
pal glass for the beholding of God, is the reasonable soul
beholding itself.
And you will make but an unhappy progress in your
study of the works of God, if you begin not with yourselves.
You can know but little of the works of nature, till you
know your own nature : and you can know as little of the
works of grace, till self-acquaintance help you to know the
nature and danger of those diseases that grace must cure.
The unhappy error of presumptuous students, about their
own hearts, misleadeth and perverteth them in the whole
course of their studies ; that by all, they do but profit in
misapplied notions and self-deceit. It is a lamentable sight
to see a man turning over fathers and councils, and diligently
studying words and notions, that is himself in the gall of
bitterness and bond of iniquity, and never knew it, nor stu-
dielh the cure. And it is a pitiful thing to see such in a
pulpit, teaching the people to know the mysteries of salva-
tion, that know not, nor ever laboured to know what sins are
predominant in their own hearts and lives ; or, whether they
stand before God in a justified or a condemned state! To
hear a poor, unsanctified man, as boldly treating of the mys-
teries of sanctification, as if he had felt them in himself:
and a man that is condemned already, and stayeth but
awhile till the stroke of death, for final execution, to treat as
calmly of judgment and damnation, as if he were out of
danger ; and exhorting others to escape the misery which
he is in himself, and never dreameth of it! This sheweth
how sad a thing it is for men to be ignorant of themselves.
To see men run out into damnable and dangerous errors on
each hand, some into the proud self-conceitedness of the
fanatics, enthusiasts and libertines, and some into contempt
and scorn of holiness, and every one confident even to rage
in his own distractions; this doth but shew us, whither
men will go, that are unacquainted with themselves.
This also maketh us so troubled with our auditors, that
when they would learn the truth that should convert and
save them, are carping and quarrelling with us, and hear us
as the Pharisees and Herodians heard Christ, to catch him
in his words. (Mark xii. 13.) As if a dying man in a con-
sumption, imagining that he is well, should go to the phy-
sician to make a jest of him, or seek to ruin him for telling
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. [05
him that he is sick. And how frowardly do they reject the
wisest counsel, and cast the medicine with unthankful in-
dignation into the face of the physician ! And they must
tell us themselves what medicine must be given them, what
doctrine, and what administrations they must have. But
self-acquaintance would teach them to understand that of
Augustine, * Novit medicus quid salutiferuni, quidve con-
trarium petat segrotus. Mgtoii estis, nolite ergo dictare
qusB vobis medicamnia velit opponere.'
Yea, they that will not be directed or healed by us, will
blame us if others be not healed, and hit the minister in the
teeth with the errors and faults of his unteachable hearers.
Though we do our best in season and out of season, and
they cannot tell us what we have neglected on our part, that
was like to do the cure (though I confess we are too often
negligent) : and though we succeed to the conversion of
many others, yet must we be reproached with the disobe-
dience of the impenitent ! As if it were not grief enough to
us, to have our labours frustrated, and see them obstinate in
their sin and misery, but we must also be blamed or derided
for our calamity !
Fecerit el postquani quicquid jubet ipsa medeiidi
Norma, nisi valeat subitoque revixerit aeger,
Murtnurat insipicns vulgus, linguaque loquaci,
Et loquitur de te ccnvitia, talia jactans,
Heu raihi, quam stultum est medicorum credere nugis !
As if they knew not the power of the disease ; and what
a wonder of mercy it is that any and so many are recovered.
Non est in medico semper relevetur ut asger ;
Interdum docta plus valet arte malum.
None would die if physicians could cure all : and none
would perish if ministers could save all. * Rhetor non sem-
per persuadebit, nee medicus semper sanabat,' saith the phi-
losopher. They cast away the medicine, and then blame
the physician. ' Crudelem vel infaelicem medicum intem-
perans asger facit.' An intemperate, unruly patient maketh
the physician seem cruel and unsuccessful.
12. Lastly, consider but how many great and necessary
things concerning yourselves you have to know, and it will
shew you how needful it is to make this the first of your
studies. To know what you are as men ; with what facuU
106 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
ties you are endowed, and to what use ; for what end you
live ; in what relation you stand to God and to your fellow-
creatures; what duties you owe ; what sin is in your hearts ;
and what hath been by commission and omission in your
Jives ; what humiliation, contrition, and repentance you
have for that sin ; whether you have truly entertained an
offered Christ ; and are renewed and sanctified by his Spi-
rit; and unreservedly devoted to God, and resolved to be
entirely his : whether you love him above all, and your
neighbours as yourselves : whether you are justified and
have forgiveness of all your sins : whether you can bear af-
flictions from the hand, or for the sake of Christ, even to the
forsaking of all the world, for the hopes of the heavenly,
everlasting treasure : how you perform the daily works of
your relations and callings : whether you are ready to die,
and are safe from the danger of damnation. O did you but
know how it concerneth you to get all these questions well
resolved, you would find more matter for your studies in
yourselves, than in many volumes. You would then per-
ceive that the matters of your own hearts and lives, are not
so lightly and carelessly to be passed over, as they ordina-
rily be by drowsy sinners : To consider but * quid, quis,
qualis sis; quid in natura, quis in persona, qualis in vita
(ut Bern.)' would find you no small labour. And it would
redound (saith another) ' in utilitatem sui, charitatem prox-
imi, contemptum mundi, amorem Dei :' To our own profit,
charity to our neighbour, the contempt of the world, and
the love of God.
If you have but many and weighty businesses to think
on in the world, you are so taken up with care, that you
cannot turn away your thoughts. And yet do you find no
work at home, where you have such a world of things to
think on, and such as of all the matters in the world, do
most nearly concern you?
Having shewed you so much reason for this duty, let me
now take leave to invite you all, to the serious study of
yourselves. It is a duty past all controversy, agreed on by
heathens as well as Christians, and urged by them in the
general, though many of the particulars to be known are be-
yond their light : It brutifieth man to be ignorant of him-
self. " Man that is in honour and understandeth not (him-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 107
self especially) is as the beasts that perish." (Psal. xlix. 20.)
Saith Boetius, ' Humana natuva infra bestias redigitur, si se
nosse desierit : Nam cseteris animantibus sese ignorare na-
tura est ; hominibus vitio venit.' It is worse than beastly
to be ignorant of ourselves, it being a vice in us, which is
nature in them.
Come home you wandering, self-neglecting souls ; lose
not yourselves in a wilderness or tumult of impertinent,
vain, distracting things ; your work is nearer you ; the
country that you should first survey and travel, is within
you ; from which you must pass to that above you : when
by losing yourselves in this without you, you will find your-
selves before you are aware, in that below you. And then
(as Gregory speaks) he that was ' stultus in culpa,' a fool
in sinning, will be ' sapiens in poena,' wise in suffering ! You
shall then have time enough to review your lives, and such
constraining help to know yourselves, as you cannot resist.
O that you would know but a little of that now, that then
you must else know in that overwhelming evidence which
will everlastingly confound you ! And that you would now
think of that for a timely cure, which else must be thought
of endlessly in despair. Come home then, and see what
work is there. Let the eyes of fools be in the corners of the
earth ! Leave it to men besides themselves, to live as with-
out themselves, and to be still from home, and waste that
time in other business, that was given them to prepare for
life eternal. ' Laudabilior est animus, cui nota est infirmitas
propria, quam qui ea non perspecta, mania mundi, vias sy-
derura, fundamenta terrarum, et fastigia coelorum scrutatur,
(inquit August.)' The soul is more laudable that knows its
own infirmity, than he that without discerning this doth
search after the compass of the world, the courses of the
stars, the foundations of the earth, and the heights of the
heavens. Dost thou delight in the mysteries of nature ?
Consider well the mysteries of thy own. * Mirantur aliqui
altitudines montium, ingentes fluctus maris, altissimos
lapsus fluminum, et oceani ambitum, et gyros syderum, et
relinquunt seipsos, nee mirantur,' saith Augustine. Some
men admire the heights of mountains, the huge waves of
the sea, the great falls of the rivers, the compass of the
ocean, and the circuit of the stars, and they pass by them
themselves without admiration. The compendium of all
108 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
that thou studiest without thee, is near thee, even within
thee, thyself being the epitome of the world. If either ne-
cessity or duty, nature or grace, reason or faith, internal in-
ducements, external repulses, or eternal attractives and mo-
tives, might determine of the subject of your studies and
contemplations, you would call home your lost, distracted
thoughts, and employ them more on yourselves and God.
But before I urge this duty further, I must prevent the
misapplication of some troubled souls. I must confess it is
a grievous thing for a guilty soul to judge itself, and see its
own deformity and danger: and I observe many troubled,
humbled souls, especially where melancholy much prevails,
are exceeding prone to abuse this duty, by excess and mis-
doing it. Though wandering minds must be called home,
we must not run into the other extreme, and shut up our-
selves, and wholly dwell on the motions of our own distem-
pered hearts. Though straggling thoughts must be turned
inward, and our hearts must be watched, and not neglected,
yet must we not be always poring on ourselves, and neglect
the rest of our intellectual converse. To look too long on
the running of a stream, will make our eyes misjudge of
what we after look on, as if all things had the same kind of
motion. To look too long on the turning of a wheel, will
make us vertiginous, as if all turned round. And to pore
too long on the disordered motions, the confused thoughts,
the wants, the passions of our diseased minds, will but
molest us, and cast us into greater disquiet and confusion.
The words of Anselme notably express the straits that
Christians are here put to, ' O nimis gravis Angustia, si me
inspicio, non tolero meipsum : si non inspicio, nescio meip-
sum : si me considero, terret me facies mea : si me non con-
sidero, fallit me damnatio mea ; si me video, horror est
intolerabilis : si non video, mors est inevitabilis.' O griev-
ous strait! If I look into myself, I cannot endure myself: if
I look not into myself, I cannot know myself. If I consider
myself, my own face afFrighteth me : if I consider not myself,
ray damnation deceiveth me : if I see myself the horror is
intolerable : if I see not myself, death is unavoidable.
In this strait we must be careful to avoid both ex-
tremes ; and neither neglect the study of ourselves, nor yet
exceed in poring on ourselves. To be carelessly ignorant of
ourselves, is to undo ourselves for ever : To be too much
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 109
about ourselves, is to disquiet rather than to edify ourselves ;
and to turn a great and necessary duty into a great un-
necessary trouble.
Consider, 1. That we have many other matters of great
importance to study and know when we know ourselves.
We must chiefly study God himself, and all the books of
Scripture, Nature, and Governing Providence, which make
him known. What abundance of great and excellent truths
have we in all these to study! What time, what industry
is necessary to understand them! And should we lay out
all this time about our own hearts and actions, which is but
one part of our study ? What sinful omissions should we be
guilty of in the neglecting of all these ! It is indeed but the
burying of our talent of understanding, to confine it to so
narrow a compass as ourselves, and to omit the study of God,
and his word and works, which are all with delight and dili-
gence to be studied.
We have also Christ and his Gospel mysteries and bene-
fits to study. We have the church's ease, its dangers, suf-
ferings, and deliverances to study : we have the state of our
neighbours and brethren to consider of: the mercies, and
dangers, and sufferings both of their souls and bodies : we
have our enemies to think of with due compassion: and our
duty to all these.
2. And as it is negligence and omission to be all at
home, and pass by so great a part of duty ; so is it a double
frustration of our labour, and will make even this study of
ourselves to be in vain. (1.) We cannot come by all our
study to the true knowledge of ourselves, unless we also
study other things besides ourselves : For we are related to
God, as his creatures, as his own, as his subjects, and as his
dependent children, as his redeemed, and his sanctified
ones, (or such as should be such.) And if we know not
God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; as our Owner,
Ruler and Benefactor; and know not what his creation, re-
demption, sanctification, his title, government, and benefits
mean, it is not possible that we should know ourselves.
Mutual relations must be known together, or neither can be
known.
(2.) And if we could know ourselves, and know no more,
it were but to know nothing, and lose that knowledge : for
this is but the entrance into wisdom, and the means and way
110 THE MISCHIEFS OF SE L P-IGNOR A NCE,
to higher knowledge. This learning of our alphabet or
primer is lost, if we learn no farther ; you are therefore to
study and know yourselves, that you may advance to the
knowledge of Christ and his grace, and be acquainted with
the remedy of ail that you find amiss at home : and that
by Christ you may be brought unto the Father, and know
God as your happiness and rest ; you are not your own ulti-
mate ends, and therefore must go farther in your studies
than yourselves.
3. We shall never attain to rectitude or solid comfort
and content, unless our studies go farther than ourselves :
for we are not the rule to ourselves, but crooked lines ! And
cannot know what is right and wrong, if we study not the
rule as well as ourselves. And alas, we are diseased, misera-
ble sinners. And to be always looking on so sad a specta-
cle, can bring no peace or comfort to the mind. To be still
looking on the sore, and hearing only the cry of conscience,
will be but a foretaste of hell. When we would be humbled
and have matter of lamentation, we must look homeward,
where the troubling thorns and nettles of corruption grow.
But if we would be comforted and lift up, we must look
higher, to Christ and to his promises, and to everlasting life :
our garden beareth no flowers or fruits that are so cordial.
This much I have spoken by way of caution. 1. That
you may not think 1 am driving you into the extreme of
solitude, and confining or imprisoning you at home. 2.
Because some scarcely know how to avoid a fault, without
running into another on the other side of the way : nor how
to understand the right use of a doctrine, but are turning it
into an abuse, and building sin upon the foundation of
righteousness.
Two sorts of persons have great need of this caution,
that they dwell not too much on themselves. One is poor
melancholy people, that can think of almost nothing else :
their distemper disposeth them to be always poring on them-
selves, and fixing their thoughts on their sin and misery, and
searching into all their own miscarriages, and making them
worse than indeed they are : you cannot call off their thoughts
from continual self-condemning, and musing on their own
misdoings and unhappiness. They have a God, a Christ, a
heaven, a treasure of precious promises to meditate on : and
they cannot hold their thoughts to these, (unless as they
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. Ill
aggravate their sin and sorrows) but live as if they had
nothing to think on but themselves, and were made to be
their own tormentors : day and night, even when they should
labour, and when they should sleep, they are busy in a
fruitless vexation of themselves. These poor afflicted souls
have need to be called from the excessive study of them-
selves.
Another sort is, those Christians that are wholly taken up
in inquiring, whether they have saving grace or not; while
they neglect that exercise of their grace, in doing all the
good they can to others, and following on the way of faithful
duty, which might do more to their assurance than solitary
trials.
The former sort by overdoing in this one part of their
work, disable themselves to all the rest : they tire and dis-
tract their minds, and raise such fears as hinder their under-
standings, and cast their thoughts into such confusion, that
they quite lose the command of them, and cannot gather
them up for any holy work : yea, while they study nothing
but themselves, they lose even the knowledge of themselves :
they gaze so long upon their faults and wants, till they can
see nothing else, and know no apprehensions but dark and
sad; and wilfully unlearn the language of thanksgiving and
praise; and the burden of all their thoughts and speeches,
is Miserable and Undone; as if there were for them no mercy,
no help, no hope, but they were utterly forsaken and cast off
by God.
The other sort do so exceed in the measure of that self-love,
which in itself is good, that they neglect the study of the
love of God, and are still thinking what they are and have
been, when they should consider what they must be. They
spend so much time in trying their foundation, that they can
make but little progress in the building : they are like mu-
sicians, that will spend all the day in setting instruments in
tune ; or like a mower that spends most of his time in
whetting. They are all day preparing their tools, while they
should be working ! and putting on their armour, and pre-
paring their weapons, when they should be fighting : and
inquiring which is the way, while they should be travelling.
They leave undone too much of their work without doors,
while they confine themselves to that within : and that within
goes on the worse, because they neglect that without doors,
112 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-J G NORA NCE,
which should further it. When they should instruct the
ignorant, exhort the obstinate, confirm the weak, or comfort
the afflicted, they are complaining of their own ignorance,
obstinacy, weakness, or affliction; and help not others, be-
cause they feel such need of help themselves; as if they
were like beggars, that had nothing to give, but must live
l)y asking and receiving. They understand not that it is
one of the mysteries of godliness, that teaching others doth
inform themselves, and the light which they bring in for
others, will serve themselves to work by; and that reproving
others doth correct themselves ; and exhorting others doth
prevail with themselves ; and persuading the obstinate wills
of others, doth tend to bend and resolve their own ; and that
comforting others doth tend to revive and raise themselves:
their own spirits may be a little revived, by the very smell
of the cordials they prepare for others. In this case, giving
is both begging and receiving. Doing good is not the least
effectual kind of prayer ; and that we may be so employed,
is not the smallest mercy. Many a one hath thus grown
rich by giving : many a one hath convinced himself, by
confuting his own objections from another: and many a one
hath raised and comforted himself, by offering comfort to
others that have the same infirmities ; and have banished
their own excessive doubts and fears, by frequent compas-
sionate answering the same in others, whose sincerity
they have less suspected than their own.
None thrive more than they that grow in the sunshine of
God's blessing : and God blesseth those most that are the
most faithful in his work : and the work of love is the work
of God. To do good, is to be most like him : and they that
are most like him, do best please him : In subordination to
Christ, in whom we are accepted, we must, by his Spirit, be
made thus acceptable in ourselves : we must be amiable if
we will be loved. And those that God loveth best, and is
most pleased with, are like to receive most plenteously
from his love. It is necessary therefore to our own safety,
and holiness, and consolation, that we look much abroad at
the necessities of others, and study our brethren and the
church of God, as well as ourselves : that we " look not
every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others," (Phil, ii.4.)
There may be somewhat of inordinate selfishness even
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-AC QU A 1 NTT A NC E. 113
i^bout our souls ; and sinful selfishness is always a losing
course. As he that will be a self-saver, in point of estate,
or honour, or life, taketh the ready way to lose them, (Matt.
xvi. 15,) so he that for the saving of his soul, will con-
fine all his care and charity to his own soul, taketh not the
way indeed to save it. We keep not ourselves; we quicken
not, we comfort not, we save not ourselves ; but only as
agents under Christ, manuring the land, and sowing the
seed, to which he alone can give the blessing : it is not there-
fore our inordinate self-studying that will do it : With all
our care, vs^ithout his blessing-, we cannot add one cubit to
the stature of our graces: therefore it must needs be our
safest course, to be as careful and faithful as we can in
duty, and lay out most of our study to please him ; and then
if we come not to assurance of his love, or discern not his
image and grace upon us, yet we must trust him with our
souls, and leave the rest to his care and goodness, that hath
undertaken that none shall be losers by him, nor be ashamed
or frustate of their hopes, that wait upon him : " Let us
commit the keeping of our souls to him in well doing, as
unto a faithful Creator." (1 Peter iv. 19.) " As the eyes of
servants look to the hand of their masters so our eyes
(in a way of duty) must wait upon the Lord our God, till he
have mercy upon us." (Psal. cxxiii. 1, 2.) And though we
" grow weary of crying, and our throat be dried, and our
eyes fail while we wait for God," (Psal. Ixix. 3,) yet " our
hope is only in him, and therefore we must continue to wait
upon him." (Psal. xxxix. 7.) " And they that wait for him
shall not be ashamed." (Isa. xlix. 23.)
It is not the pretended necessity of one work, that will
■excuse him that hath many as necessary to do; especially
when they are conjunct in nature and necessity, and must
go together, to attain their end. Concerning God, as we
may well say that we must love and serve him only, and
none but him, because we must love nothing but for his
sake, and as a means to him the end of all ; and so while it
is God in all things that we love, we are more properly said
to love God than the creature by that act, because he is the
ultimate first intended end, and principal object of that love;
and as the means, as a means, hath its essence in its relation
to the end ; so the love of the means, as such, is accordingly
VOL. XVI. I
114 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
specified: and so we may say of our study and knowledge
of God, that nothing but God is to be studied or known;
because it is God in the creature that must be studied : It
is a defective similitude (as all are) to say, ' As it is the face
that we behold the glass for :' for God is more in the crea-
ture than the face in the glass. But though all the means
be united in the end, yet are they various among themselves.
And therefore though we must study, know, and love no-
thing but God, yet we must study, know, and love many
things besides ourselves : the means that are many, must all
be thought on. More strings must be touched than one
(how near soever) if we will have any music. More letters
must be learned than /, or we shall never learn to read.
All men will confess, that to confine our charity to our-
selves, and to do good to no others, is unlike a Christian.
To deny to feed and clothe our brother in his need, is to
deny it unto Christ: and it will be no excuse, if we were
able, to say, ' I laid it out upon myself.' And the objects of
our charity must be the objects of our thoughts and care :
and it will not suffice for our excuse to say, ' I was taken
up at home, I had a miserable soul of my own to think on.*
And yet if these self-studying souls, that confine almost
all their thoughts unto themselves, would but seek after
God in themselves, and see his grace and benefits, it were
the better : but, poor souls, in the darkness of temptation,
they overlook their God ; and most of their study of them-
selves, is to see Satan and his workings in themselves : to
find as much of his image as they can, in the deformities
or infirmities of their souls ; but the image of God they
overlook, and hardly will acknowledge. And so, as noble
objects raise the soul, and amiable objects kindle love, and
comfortable objects fill it with delight; and God, who is
all in one perfection, doth elevate and perfect it, and make
it happy ; so inferior objects do depress it ; and ugly, loath-
some objects fill it with distaste and loathing; and sad and
mournful objects turn it into grief: and therefore to be still
looking on our miseries and deformities, must needs turn
calamity and woe into the temperament and complexion of
the soul.
This much I thought needful to be spoken here, to pre-
vent misunderstanding and misapplication ; that while I am
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 115
pressing you to study and know yourselves, I may not en-
courage any in extremes, nor tempt them to make an ill use
of so great and necessary a doctrine. And indeed the ob-
servationof the sad calamity of many poor,drooping, afflicted
souls, that are still poring excessively on their own hearts,
commanded me not to overpass this caution. And yet when
I have done it, I am afraid lest those in the contrary extreme,
will take encouragement to neglect themselves, by my re-
prehensions of those that are so unlike them.
And therefore I must add, to save them from deceit; I.
That it is but a very i'ew that are faulty in over-studying
themselves, in comparison of the many thousands that err
on the other hand, in the careless neglecting of themselves.
2. And that it is symptomatically and effectively far more
dangerous to study yourselves too little than too much.
Though it be a fault here to exceed, yet it is for the most part
a sign of an honest heart to be much at home, and a sign of
an hypocrite to be little at home and much abroad. Sincerity
maketh men censurers of themselves; for it maketh them
more impartial, and willing to know the truth of their con-
dition : it cureth them of that folly, that before made them
think that presumption shall deliver them, and that they
shall be justified by believing promises of their own, though
contrary to the word of God ; yea, by believing the promises
of the devil, and calling this a faith in Christ : They are
awakened from that sleep in which they dreamed, that
winking would save them from the stroke of justice, and
that a strong conceit that they shall not be damned, will
deliver them from damnation; and that they are safe from
hell if they can but believe that there is no hell, or can but
forget it, or escape the fears of it. These are the pernicious
conclusions of the ungodly; discernible in their lives, and
intimated in their presumptuous reasonings, though too
gross to be openly and expressly owned : and therefore they
are indisposed to any impartial acquaintance with them-
selves.
But grace recovereth men from this distraction, and
makes them know that the judgment of God will not follow
the conceits of men ; and that the knowledge of their dis-
ease is necessary to their cure, and the knowledge of their
danger is necessary to the prevention ; and that it is the
IKJ THE MISCHIEFS OP SELF-IGNORANCE,
greatest madness to go on to hell, for fear of knowing that
we are in the way ; and to refuse to know it, for fear of be-
ing troubled at the news.
And an upright soul is so far fallen out with sin, that he
taketh it seriously for his enemy, and therefore is willing to
discover it, in order to its destruction, and willing to search
after it in order to a discovery.
And he hath in him some measure of the heavenly illu-
mination, which maketh him a child of light, and disposeth
him to love the light, and therefore cometh to it, " that his
deeds may be made manifest." (John iii. 21.) Hypocrites
are quick-sighted in discovering the infirmities of others ;
but at home they shut the windows, and draw the curtains,
that they may not be disturbed or frightened in their sin :
Thieves and sleepers choose not light ; darkness suits the
works of darkness. It is a good sign when a man dare see
his own face in the glass of God's word ; and when he dare
hear his conscience speak. I have ever observed it in the
most sincere-hearted Christians, that their eye is more upon
their own hearts and lives, than upon others : and I have
still observed the most unsound professors to be least cen-
sorious and regardful of themselves, and hardly drawn to
converse at home, and to pass an impartial judgment on
themselves.
Hence therefore you may be informed of the reason of
many other differences between sincere believers and the un-
godly. As, 1. Why is it that the sincere are so ready to
discourse about matters of the heart; and that they so much
relish such discourse ; and that they have so much to say
when you come to such a subject. It is because they know
themselves in some good measure. They have studied, and
are acquainted with the heart, and therefore can talk the
more sensibly of what is contained in a book which they
have so often read, and are so conversant in. Talk with
them about the matters of the world, and perhaps you may
find them more simple and ignorant than many of their
neighbours : but when you talk about the corruptions of
the heart, and the secret workings of them ; the matter, and
order, and government of the thoughts, and affections, and
passions ; the wants and weaknesses of believers ; the na-
ture and workings of inward temptations ; the ways of grace.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 117
and of the exercise of each grace ; the motions and opera-
tions of the Spirit upon the heart; the breathings of love
and desire after God ; the addresses of the soul to Christ
by faith, and dependance on him, and receivings from him ;
about these secret matters of the heart, he is usually more
able in discourse than many learned men that are unsanc-
tified. ^
And hence it is that upright, self-observing souls are so
full in prayer, and able to pour out their hearts so enlargedly
before the Lord, in confessing their sins, and petitioning
for grace, and opening their necessities, and thanking God
for spiritual mercies ! Some that are themselves acquainted
with themselves, and the workings of grace, despise all this,
and say, * It is but an ability to speak of the things which
they are most used to.' I doubt not but mere acquired
abilities and custom may advance some hypocrites, to pray
in the language of experienced Christians. And I doubt
not but natural impediments, and want of use, and of right
education, may cause many to want convenient expressions,
that have true desires, but the question is, from whence it
comes to pass, that so great a number of those that are most
careful and diligent for their souls, are so full in holy con-
ference and prayer, when very few others that excel them
in learning and natural parts, have any such ability? And
doubtless the chief reason is, that the care and study of
these Christians hath been most about their spiritual estate ;
and that which they set their hearts upon, they use their
tongues upon : generally it cannot be imagined, why they
should use themselves to those studies and exercises which
procure those abilities, but that they more highly esteem,
and most seriously regard the matters that concern their
salvation, which are the subject. I doubt not, but God be-
stoweth his gifts upon men in the use of means, and that it
is partly use that maketli men able and ready in these ser-
vices of God. But what reason can be given, why one part
of men use themselves to such employments, and another
part are unable through disuse, but that some do set their
hearts upon it, and make it their business to know them-
selves, their sins, and wants, and seek relief, when by the
others all this is neglected. Some hypocrites may be moved
by lower ends, both in this and in other duties of religion;
but that is no rule for our judging of the intentions of the
118 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
generality, or of any that are sincere. As a man that hath
lived in the East or West Indies, is able to discourse of the
places and people which he hath seen ; and perhaps another
by a map or history may say somewhat of the same subject,
though less distinctly and sensibly ; but others can say no-
thing of it: so a man of holy experience in the mysteries of
sanctification, that is much conversant at home, and ac-
quainted with his own heart, is able (if other helps concur)
to speak what he feels, to God and man, and from his par-
ticular observation and experience, to frame his prayers and
spiritual conference ; and an hypocrite from reading and
common observation, may do something affectedly that is
like it: But careless, self-neglecting worldlings, are usually
dumb about such matters, and hear you as they do men of
another country, that talk in a language which they do not
understand, or at least cannot make them any answer in.
But if any of you will needs think more basely and ma-
liciously of the cause of holy prayer and conference in be-
lievers, let us leave them for the present (to the justification
of him that gave them the spirit of supplication, which you
reproach), and let us only inquire what is the reason that
men that can discourse as handsomely as others, about
worldly matters, have nothing to say (beyond a few cold,
affected words, which they have learned by rote) either to
God or man, about the matters of the soul, the methods of
the Spirit, the workings of a truly penitent heart, or the
elevations of faith, and the pantings of desire after God.
Why are you dumb when you should speak this language,
and frequently and delightfully speak it? Is it because
your reason is lower than those men's that do speak it,
whom you despise ? and that you are naturally near kin to
idiots? No 5 you are wise enough to do evil : you can talk
of your trades, your honours or employments, your ac-
quaintance and correspondencies all the day long; you are
more wordy about these little things, than the preachers
themselves, that you count more tedious, are about the
greatest. You are much longer in discoursing of your de-
lusory toys, than the lovers of God, whose souls long after
him, are in those prayers, which trouble you with their
length : Many a time have I been forced to hear your dream-
ing, incoherent dotage : how copious you are in the words
that signify no greater matters than flesh-pleasing, or fanci-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 119
fill honours and accommodations ; I had ahiiost said, than
chaff, or straw, or dirt. One may hear you from morning to
night, from day to day, discoursing in variety of company,
on various subjects, with freedom and plausible ingenuity ;
and when all is set together, it is but a hodgepodge of earth
and flesh, and windy vanity, a frothy puddle. As the ridi-
culous orator, ' Magno Conatu et hiatu hihil dicitis :' You
strain and gape an hour or a day together to say nothing.
Set all the words of a day together, and peruse them at
night, and see what they are worth : there is little higher
than visible materials, (that I say not, than the dunghill or
your shadows) than meat and drink, and play and compli-
ment, than houses, or lands, or domineering affections or
actions, in many hours or days discourse. I think of you
sometimes, when I see how ingeniously and busily children
do make up their babies of clouts, and how seriously they
talk about them, and how every pin and clout is matter of em-
ployment and discourse, and how highly they value them,
and how many days they can unweariedly spend about them.
Pardon my comparison : If you repent not of your dis-
courses and employments more than they, and do not one
day call yourselves far worse fools than them, then let me
be stigmatized with the most contumelious brand of folly.
It is not then your want of natural faculties and parts
that makes you mute in the matters of God and your salva-
tion, when men of meaner parts than you do speak of those
things with the greatest freedom and delight.
And surely it is not for want of an ingenuous education ;
as you would take it ill to be thought below them in natural
endowments, so much more in those acquisitions and furni-
ture of the mind, which comes by breeding and due culture
of your naturals. You would disdain in these to be com-
pared with many poor rustics and mechanics, that are almost
as fluent in speaking of the great things of immortality, as
you are in talking of your transient occurrences, your sub-
lunary felicities, and the provisions of your appetites and
your skins. What then can be the cause of this dumb dis-
ease, but that you are unacquainted with yourselves? And
as you have not a new-birth, and a divine nature, and the
Spirit of Christ, to be either the spring and principle, or the
matter of your discourse; so you have not the due know-
ledge of your bin and misery, which should teach you in the
120 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
language of serious penitents, before you have the language
of justified believers.
If you say again, * It is because we have not been used
to this kind of speech.' I answer, And whence is it that you
have not been used to it? If you had known the greatness
and goodness of the Lord, as sensibly as they, would not
you have used to pray to him and speak of him as well as
they? If you had known and considered your sin, and
wants, and miseries, or dangers, as well as they, would you
not have been used to beg mercy, pardon and relief, and to
complain of your distress as much as they? If you did as
highly value the matters of eternal consequence as they do,
and laid them to heart as seriously as they, would not your
minds and hearts have appeared in your speeches, and made
you use yourselves to prayer and holy conference as well as
others ?
If you say, ' That many have that within them which
they are not able to express, or which they think not meet
to open unto others,' I answer :
1. As to ability, it is true of those that have the impedi-
ments of some natural disability, or excessive bashfulness,
melancholy, or the like disease ; and of those that are so
lately converted, that they have not had time to learn and
use themselves to a holy language : But what is this to them
that are of as good natural parts and free elocution as other
men, and suppose themselves to have been true Christians
long?
2. And as to the point of prudence vi^hich is pleaded for
this silence, it is so much against nature, and so much against
the word of God, that there is no room at all for this pre-
tence, unless it be for inferiors, or such as want an oppor-
tunity to speak to their superiors or to strangers ; or unless
it be only for some particular omissions when the thing
would be unseasonable.
Nature hath made the tongue the index of the mind;
especially to express the matters of most urgency and con-
cernment. Do you keep silent ordinarily the matters which
you most highly esteem; which you most often think of;
which you take your life and happiness to consist in ; and
which you are most deeply affected with, and prefer before
all other matters of the world ? What a shameful pretence
is it, for those that are dumb to prayer and holy conference.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 121
for want of any sense of their condition, or love to God,
which should open their lips, to talk on them? Is it for
want of tongues, or because their prudence directeth them
to silence? When they hold not their tongues about those
matters, which they must confess are ten thousandfold less
regardable, they can discourse unweariedly about their
wealth, their sport, their friend, their honour, because they
love them : And if a man should here tell them, that the
heart is not to be opened or exercised by the tongue, they
would think he knew not the natural use of heart or tongue :
and yet while they pretend to love God above all, they have
neither skill nor will to make expression of it, you strike
them dumb when you turn the stream of conference that
way ; and you may almost as well bid them speak in a
strange language, as pray to God from the sense of their
necessities, and yet they say, their hearts are good.
Let the word of God be j udge whether a holy, experienced
heart should hide itself, and not appear in prayer and holy
conference by the tongue. " Pray continually." (1 Thess.
V. 17.) " Christ spake a parable to this end, that men ought
always to pray and not wax faint." (Luke xviii. L) "Be
careful for nothing ; but in every thing by prayer, and sup-
plication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known unto God." (Phil. iv. 6.)
And how they must pray, you may gather from 2 Chron.
vi. 29. In case of dearth, pestilence, blasting, mildews,
locusts, caterpillars, enemies, sicknesses or sores, " Then
what prayer or supplication soever shall be made of any
man, or of all the people, when every one shall know his
own sore, and his own grief, and shall spread forth his
hands in this house, then hear thou from heaven, &c." I
am not speaking of the prescribed prayers of the church,
nor denying the lawfulness of such in private : but if you
have no words but what you say by rote, and pray not from
the knowledge of your own particular sore and grief, it is
because you are too much unacquainted with yourselves,
and strangers to those hearts where the greatest of your
sores and griefs are lodged.
And whether good hearts should be opened in holy con-
ference (as well as prayer), you may easily determine from
the command of God, "As every man hath received the
gift, so minister the same one to another, as good stewardi*
122 THE MISCHIEFS OF SKLF-IGNORANCE,
of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him
speak as the oracles of God." (1 Pet. iv. 10, 11.) " Let no
corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that
which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers." (Eph. iv. 29.) " Exhort one an-
other daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hard-
ened through the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb. iii. 13.) " The
mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue
talketh of j udgment : The law of his God is in his heart, &.c."
(Psal. xxxvii. 30, 31.) "Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honour all the day." (Psal. Ixxi. 8.)
" The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life. The lips
of the righteous feed many." (Prov.x. 11. 21.) And Christ
himself decideth it expressly, " Out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh : A good man out of the good
treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things." (Matt.
xii. 34, 35.)
For a man that hath no heart to prayer or holy con-
ference, but loathes them, and is weary of them, and had
rather talk of fleshly pleasures, to pretend that yet his heart
is good, and that God will excuse him for not expressing
it ; and that it is his prudence, and his freedom from hypo-
crisy, that maketh his tongue to be so much unacquainted
with the goodness of his heart, this is but to play the hy-
pocrite to prove that he is no hypocrite, and to cover his
ignorance in matters of his salvation, with the expression
of his ignorance of the very nature and use of heart and
tongue, and to cast by the laws of God, and his own duty,
and cover this impiety with the name of prudence. If heart
and tongue be not used for God, what do you either with a
heart or tongue 1
The case is plain, to men that can see that it is your
strangeness to yourselves, that is the cause that you have
little to say against yourselves, when you should confess
your sins to God ; and so little to say for yourselves, when
you should beg his grace ; and so little to say of yourselves,
when you should open your hearts to those that can advise
you: but that you see not that this is the cause of your
dumbness, who see so little of your own corruptions, is no
wonder, while you are so strange at home. Had you but
so much knowledge of yourselves as to see that it is the
strangeness to yourselves that maketh you so prayerles&
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 123
and mute ; and so much sense as to complain of your dark-
ness, and be willing* to come into the light, it were a sign that
light is coming in to you, and that you are in a hopeful way
of cure. But when you neither know yourselves, nor know
that you do not know yourselves, your ignorance and pride
are likely to cherish your presumption and impiety, till the
light of grace, or the fire of hell, have taught you better to
know yourselves.
2. And here you may understand the reason why people
fearing God are so apt to accuse and condemn themselves,
to be too much cast down ; and why they that have cause of
greatest joy, do sometimes walk more heavily than others.
It is because they know more of their sinfulness, and take
more notice of their inward corruptions and outward fail-
ings, than presumptuous sinners do of theirs. Because they
k .low their faults and wants, they are cast down ; but when
they come further to see their interest in Christ and grace,
they will be raised up again. Before they are converted,
they usually presume, as being ignorant of their sin and
misery : in the infancy of grace they know these, but yet
languish for want of more knowledge of Christ and mercy.
But he that knoweth fully both himself and Christ, both
misery and mercy, is humbled and comforted, cast down
and exalted. As a man that never saw the sea, is not afraid
of it ; and he that seeth it but afar off, and thinks he shall
never come near it, is not much afraid of it: he that is
drowned in it, is worse than afraid : and he that is tossed
by the waves, and doubteth of ever coming safe to harbour,
is the fearful person : he that is tossed but hath good hopes
of a safe arrival, hath fears that are abated or overcome with
hope : but he that is safe landed is past his fears. The first
is like him that never saw the misery of the ungodly: the
second is like him that seeth it in general, but thinks it doth
not belong to him : the third is like the damned that are past
remedy : the fourth is like the humbled, doubting Chris-
tian, that seeth the danger, but doth too much question or
forget the helps : the fifth is like the Christian of a stronger
faith, that sees the danger, but withal seeth his help and
safety : the sixth is like the glorified saints, that are past
the danger.
Though the doubting Christian know not his sincerity,
and therefore knoweth not himself so well as the strong be-
124 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
liever doth, yet in that he knoweth his sinfulness and un-
worthiness, he knoweth himself better than the presumptu-
ous world.
These two remarks, with the foregoing caution, having
interposed (somewhat out of place), I now return to prose-
cute my exhortation, that no matters may seem so sweet, so
honourable, so great, or necessary, as to pass with you for
excuses for the neglecting of the most diligent and impartial
study of yourselves.
All persons to whom I can address this exhortation, are
either godly or ungodly ; in the state of sin, or in the state
of grace. And both of them have need to study themselves.
I. And to begin with the unrenewed, carnal sort, it is
they that have the greatest need to be better acquainted
with themselves. O that I knew how to make them sensi-
ble of it; if any thing will do it, raethinks it should be done
by acquainting them how much their endless state is con-
cerned in it. In order hereunto, let me yet add, to all that
is said already, these few considerations :
1. If you know not yourselves, you know not whether
you are the children of God, or not; nor whether you must
be for ever in heaven or hell ; no, nor whether you may not
within this hour behold the angry face of God, which will
frown you into damnation. And is this a matter for a man
of reason to be quietly and contentedly ignorant of? It is a
business of such unspeakable concernment, to know whe-
ther you must be everlastingly in heaven or hell, that no
man can spare his cost or pains about it, without betraving
and disgracing his understanding. You are sure you shall
be here but a little while : those bodies you all know, will
hold your souls but a little longer : as you know that you
that are now together here attending, must presently quit
this room and be gone ; so you know that when you have
stayed a little longer, you must quit this world, and be gone
into another. And I think there is not the proudest of you
but would be taken down, nor the most sluggish or dead-
hearted but would be awakened, if you knew that you must
go to endless misery, and that your dying hour would be
your entrance into hell. And if you know not yourselves,
you know not but it may be so. And to know nothing to
the contrary, would be terrible to you if you well considered
it, especially when you have so much (jause to fear it. O,
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQU A I NT A NCF:. 125
sirs, for a man to sit here senselessly in these seats, that
knows not but he may burn in hell for ever, and knows
not because he is blind and careless; how unsuitable is it
to the principle of self-preservation? And how much
unbeseeming the rational nature, to have no sense or
care, when you look before you into the unquenchable
fire, and the utter darkness, where, as the heathen poet
speaks,
Nee mortis poenas mors altera finiet hujus;
Horaque erit tantis ultima nulla malis.
If any of you think that all these matters are to be put to
the adventure, and cannot now be known, you are danger-
ously mistaken. As you may certainly know by Scripture
and the light of nature, that there is a future life of joy to
the godly, and of misery to the wicked, so may you know by
a faithful trial of yourselves, to which of these at present you
belong, and whether you are under the promise or the
threatening ; know yourselves, and you may know whether
you are justified or condemned already, and whether you
are the heirs of heaven or hell. Surely He that comforteth
his servants with the promise of glory to all that believe
and are new creatures, and sanctified by his Spirit, did sup-
pose that we may know whether we believe, and are renewed
and sanctified or not : or else, what comfort can it be to us?
If blinded infidels, have no means to quiet themselves but
their unbelief, and a conceit that there is no such life of
misery, they have the most pitiful opiate to ease them in the
world ; and may as well think to become immortal, by a con-
fident conceit that they shall never die. If they befool
themselves with the ordinary questions, /Where is hell, and
what kind of fire is it? &c.' I answer them with Augustine,
' Melius est dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis:
Ilium quippedivitem in ardore poenarum, et ilium pauperem
in refrigerio gaudiorum esse intelligendos non dubito : sed
quomodo intelligenda illaflamma ininfernoille sinus Abrahse,
ilia divitis lingua, ille digitus pauperis, ilia sitis tormenti,
ilia stilla refrigerii, vix fortasse a mansuete quserentibus,
contentiose autem sectantibus nunquam invenitur ;' that is.
It is better to be in doubt about things that are hidden from
us, than to quarrel about things that are uncertain to us. I
am past doubt that we must understand that that rich man
126 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
was in the heat of pain, and the poor man in a refreshing
place of joys: But how to undertand that flame in hell,
that bosom of Abraham, that tongue of the rich man, that
finger of the poor man, that thirst of torment, that drop for
cooling or refreshment, perhaps will hardly be found by the
most humble inquirers, but never by contentious strivers.
So that I may conclude, that the greatness and dreadful-
ness of the case, should make every person that hath an eye
to see, an ear to hear, and a heart to understand, to read and
inquire and consider, and never rest till they know them-
selves, and understand where it is that they are going to
take up their abode to everlasting.
2. Consider, that all men must shortly know themselves.
Presumption will be but of short continuance. Be never
so confident of being saved without holiness, you will
speedily be undeceived. If the Spirit's illumination do not
convince and undeceive you, death will undoubtedly do it
at the farthest. Thousands and millions know their sin and
misery now when it is too late, that would not know it when
the remedy was at hand. Sinners, your souls are now in
darkness: your bodies are your dungeon; but when death
brings you out into the open light, you will see what we
could never make you see. O how glad would a faithful
minister of Christ be, if by any information he could now
give you half the light that you shall then have, and now
make you know at the heart with the feeling of repentance,
that which you must else quickly know, even at the heart
with the feeling of despair. Sirs, I hope you think not that
I speak mere fancies to you, or any think that is ques-
tionable or uncertain : you cannot say so without denying
yourselves to be Christians ; no, nor without contradicting
the light of nature, and debasing your souls below the
heathen, who believe an immortality of souls in a different
state of joy or misery in the life to come: and if you are
once below heathens, what are you better than brute beasts?
Better in your natural faculties and powers, as not being
made brutes by your Creator; but worse as to the use of
them, and the consequents to yourselves, because you are
voluntary, self-abusing brutes. But to live here as a brute,
will not make you die and be hereafter as a brute : to believe
you shall die as a beast will not prevent the miserable life
of an impenitent sinner. It will not make your souls to be
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 127
mortal, to believe they are mortal ; no more than it will
make a beast to be immortal, if he could but think so. The
coffin-maker and the grave-maker, if they never read a book,
can tell you that is no controversy whether you must go
hence. And faith and reason can both assure you, that your
souls lie not down with your bodies in the dust, nor are
annihilated by the falling of your earthly tabernacle; no
more than the spirits when the glass is broken that held
them, or than your bodies are annihilated when you put off
your clothes, or rise out of your beds : or than the bird is
annihilated that is got out of the shell : or the infant that is
by nature cast out of the womb : nor any more than the
angels that appeared to the apostles or others, were annihi-
lated when they disappeared : or, (if I must speak more
suitably to the ungodly,) no more than the devil that some-
times appeareth in a bodily shape is annihilated when that
appearance vanisheth. As I suppose there is never a person
in all this populous city, that was here but sevenscore years
ago, so I suppose there is none of you that are here to-day,
that expect to be here so long a time : they are gone before
you into a world where there is no presumption or security:
and you are going after them, and are almost there. As
easily as you sit here, I tell you all, you are going after
them apace, and are almost there.
O sirs, that world is a world of light. To the damned
souls it is called outer darkness, because they have none of
the light of glory or of comfort: but they shall have the
light of a self-accusing, self-tormenting conscience, that is
gone out of the darkness of self-ignorance and self-deceit,
and is fully cured of its slumber and insensibility.
Do you now take a civilized person for a saint? You will
not do so long.
Doth the baptism of water only go with you now for the
regeneration of the spirit ? It will not be so long : you will
shortly be undeceived.
Doth a ceremonious Pharisee thank God for the sincerity
and holiness which he never had? He will shortly be taught
better to know the nature of holiness and sincerity, and that
God justifieth not all that justify themselves.
Doth a little formal, heartless, hypocritical devotion, now
cover a sensual, worldly mind ? The cover will be shortly
128 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
taken off, and the nakedness and deformity of the Pharisee
will appear.
Doth the name of a Christian, and the heartless use of
outward ordinances, and that good esteem of others, now
go for godliness and saving grace ? The autumn is at hand,
when these leaves will all lie in the dirt, and will go for fruit
no longer.
Do you now take it for true religion to be hot for lust,
and pride, and gain, and cold for God and your salvation?
and to obey God as far 'as will stand with your outward
prosperity, and as the flesh, or your other masters will give
leave? This is an opinion that never accompanied any man
beyond the grave.
Do you think to be saved by all that devotion, which gives
God but the leavings of the flesh and world, and by a reli-
gion that gives him but the outer rooms (when pleasure and
gain are next your hearts), and that makes himbut an under-
ling to your covetousness and ambition ? Think so if you
can, when you are gone hence.
Cannot the preacher now make the ungodly to know
that they are ungodly, the unsanctified to know they are
but carnal, and the pharisee to know that his religion is vain?
Death can convince the awakened soul of all this in a moment.
You can choose whether you will believe us ; but death
■will so speak as to be believed. You must be voluntary in
knowing your misery now; but then you shall know it
against your wills. You must open the windows, or must
open your eyes, if you will see yourselves by the light which
we bring to you ; but death irresistibly throws open all. To
say in pride and obstinacy, ' I will not believe it,' will now
serve turn to quiet your consciences, and make you seem
as safe as any ; but when God saith You shall feel it, your
unbelief is ineffectual : it can then torment you, but it can
no longer ease you. There is then no room for ' I will not
believe it.' God can without a word persuade you of that
which you were resolved you would never be persuaded of.
This day Avhile you all sit here in the body, you are every
one affected according as you apprehend your state to be,
whether it be indeed as you apprehend it or not ; but when
death hath opened you the door into eternity, you will be
all affected with your conditions as they are indeed.
AND BENEFITS OF SEL F- A C QU A I N T AN C E. 129
To-day, you are here quiet, because you think your souls
are safe : and some are troubled that think they are in a
state of misery : and it is likely that some on both sides are
mistaken : and the quiet of one, and the disquiet of another,
may arise for want of the knowledge of yourselves : but
death will rectify both these errors: and then if you are un-
sanctified, no false opinions, no unbelief, no confident con-
ceits of your integrity, will abate your desperation, or give
any ease to your tormented minds : nor will there be any
doubts, or fears, or despairing, self-afflicting thoughts, to
disquiet those that Christ hath justified, or abate their joys.
O how man}'^ thousands will then think much otherwise
of themselves than they now do ! Death turns you out of
the company of flatterers, and calls you out of the world of
error, where men laugh and cry in their sleep ; and bringeth
you among awakened souls, where all things are called by
their proper names ; and all men are taken by themselves to
be as they are indeed. Serious religion is not there a
derision ; nor loving, and seeking, and serving God with
all the heart, and soul, and might, is not there taken for un-
necessary preciseness. Holiness is notthere called humour
or hypocrisy : nor is the pharisaical ceremonious hypocrite
taken for a man of the most prudent, safe and moderate
religion. God judgeth not as man, by outward appearances,
but with righteous judgment: " That which is highly es-
teemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God."
(Luke xvi, 15.) And he will make you then to judge of
yourselves as he hath judged you. Though wisdom now be
justified but of her children, it shall then be justified by all:
not by a sanctifying, but a constrained, involuntary, torment-
ing light : and though now men can believe as well of
themselves, as self-love and the quieting of their con-
sciences doth require, yet then they will have lost this mas-
tery over their own conceits.
O therefore, beloved hearers, seeing you are all going
into an irresistibly convincing light, and are almost in
that world where all must fully know themselves : seeing
" nothing is covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid that
shall not be made known," (Matt, x.26,) and no unsanctified
hypocrite doth flatter himself into such high presumption,
but a dying hour will take him down, and turn it all
VOL. XVI. K
130 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGX K A NC E,
into endless desperation, if true conversion prevent it not;
I beseech you be more conversant with conscience than you
have been : be ashamed that a wanton sot, that knoweth
nothing better than flesh to adorn and to be careful of,
should bestow more hours in looking into the glass, than
you bestow to look into God's word and your own hearts :
yea, more in a year, than you have thus bestowed in all
your lives!
O that you knew what a protitable companion conscience
is for you to converse with ! You would not then think
yourselves so solitary as to be destitute of company and em-
ployment, while you have so much to do at home, and one
in your bosom that you have so much business with.
And it is a necessary and inseparable companion. If the
wife of your bosom should be a shrew, you must not there-
fore be a stranger to her, because of nearness, necessity
and business. If conscience should give you some foul
words, and chide you when you had rather be flattered; yet
there is no running from it for more pleasant company :
Home is homely : It is there that you must dwell: conscience
is married to you : please it on safe terms as well as you can;
but do not think to overrun it: for it will follow you; or
you must return to it home again, when you have gone
your furthest, and done your worst. You have taken con-
science for better and for worse. There is no expectation
of a divorce : no, not by death : it will follow you to eternity.
And therefore be not strange to conscience, that will be your
comforter or tormenter at the hour of death ; that can do so
much to make sickness, and all suffering light or grievous ;
and to make death welcome or terrible to you: Fly not from
conscience that must dwell with you for ever.
O foolish sinners ! Do you want company and business
to pass away your time ? Are you fain to go to cards or dice
to waste this treasure, which is more precious than your
money ? Do you go to an alehouse, a playhouse, or other
such pest-house, to seek for company or pastime? (I say not,
to Bedlam; for that is as much more honourable than
your sinful society, as the place that cureth or restraineth
the mad, is better than that which makes them mad.) Do
you forget what company and business you have at home?
As you love your peace and happiness, instead of conversing
AND BP.NEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 131
with vain, lascivious, or ungodly persons, O spend that
time in converse with your consciences ! You may there
have a thousand times more profitable discourse. Be not
offended to give conscience a sober, faithful answer, if it
ask you. What have you done with all your time ? and how
you have lived in the world? and how you have obeyed the
calls of grace? and how you have entertained Christ into
your hearts ? and whether you have obeyed him or his
enemy? and whether you have been led by the Spirit or the
flesh ? and what forwardness the work of your salvation is in,
for which you came into the world ? and what assurance
you have of your justification and salvation? and what rea-
diness to die ? Think it not presumption in conscience thus
to examine you : though you have perhaps unthankfully
disdained to be thus examined by your pastors, your ex-
ternal guides, whose office is to help you, and watch for your
souls ; yet do not disdain to be accountable to yourselves.
Accountable you must be ere long to God: and that friend
that would help you to make ready such accounts, on which
so great a weight dependeth, methinks should be welcomed
with a thousand thanks. Ministers and conscience should
be acceptable to you, that come on so necessary a work.
The chidings of conscience are more friendly language
than the flattery of your ignorant or proud associates: and
should be more grateful to you than " the laughter of fools,
which is like the crackling of thorns in the fire." (Eccles.
vii. 6.) Thy own home, though it be a house of mourning, is
better for thee than such a sinful house of mirth. Hear but
what conscience hath to say to you. No one will speak
with you, that hath words to speak, which more nearly con-
cern you. I beseech you, sirs, be more frequent and familiar
with conscience than most men are. Think not the time
lost, when you walk and talk with it alone. Confer with it
about your endless state, and where you are likely to be for
€ver; and what way you are in; and what thoughts you
will have of your sins and duties, of the world and God, of
yielding or overcoming at the last. Is there no sense in
this discourse ? Thou art dead and senseless if thou think
so. Is idle talk and prating better ? I hope you are not so
distracted as to say so. If you have not blinded, deceived
or bribed it, I tell you, conscience hath other kind of dis-
course for you ; more excellent and necessary thinsfs to talk
132 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
of, than wantons, or worldlings, or pot-copipanions have.
It is better to be giving conscience an account, what busi-
ness thou hast had so often in such company; and how thou
wouldst have looked, if death had found thee there, than
without leave from God or conscience, to go thither again.
The thriving way is neither to be still at home, nor still
abroad ; but to be at home when home-work is to be done ;
and to be abroad only for doing and for getting good, in a
way of diligent, Christian trading; and to bring that home
that is got abroad : But never to go abroad upon loitering,
vain, expensive occasions. When you have done with con-
science, converse with others that your business lieth with,
and go abroad when it is for your Master's work : but go
not upon idle errands : Converse not with prodigal wasters
of your time, and enemies to your souls.
One time or other conscience will speak, and have a
hearing: the sooner the better: put it not off to a time so
unseasonable as death; 1 say not unseasonable for con-
science to speak in; but unseasonable for it to begin to
speak in; and unseasonable for those terrible words that
need a calmer time for answer ; and unseasonable for so
many things and so great, as self-betrayers use to put off
until then, which need a longer time for due consideration
and despatch.
3. And I beseech you consider, with what amazing hor-
ror it must needs surprise you, to find on a sudden and un-
expectedly when you die, that all is worse with you than
you imagined or would believe ! After a whole life of confi-
dent presumption, to be suddenly convinced by so dreadful
an experience of your so long and wilful a mistake ! To find
in a moment, that you have flattered your souls, into so
desperate a state of woe ! To see and feel all the selfish
cavils and reasonings confuted, in one hour, which the
wisest and holiest men on earth could never beat you
from before ! O, sirs, you know not what a day, what a
conviction, that will be ! You know not what it is for a
guilty soul to pass out of the body, and find itself in the
plague of an unsanctified state, and hated of the holy God,
that never would know it till it was too late. You know not
what it is to be turned, by death, into the world of spirits,
where all self-deceit is detected by experience ; and all must
undergo a righteous judgment; where blindness and self-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 133
love can iio more persuade the miserable that they are happy ;
the unholy, that they^ are sanctified ; the fleshly-minded
men, that they are spiritual; the lovers of the world, that
they are the lovers of God. Men cannot there believe
what they list ; nor take that for a truth which makes
for their security, be it never so false : men cannot there be-
lieve that they are accepted of God, while they are in the
bonds of their iniquity ; or that their hearts are as good as
the best, while their tongues and lives are opposite to good-
ness, or that they shall be saved as soon as the godly, though
they be ungodly.
It is easy for a man to hear of waves, and gulfs, and ship-
wreck, that never saw the sea; and without any fear to hear
of battles, that never saw the face of an enemy; and with-
out any trouble to hear of sickness and tormenting pains,
and burning, and cutting off of limbs, that never felt or saw
such things. It is easy for you here in these seats, in the
midst of health, and peace, and quietness, to hear of a de-
parting soul, and where it shall appear, and what it shall
there see, and how great a discovery death will make. But,
O sirs, when this must be your case, (as you know it must
be, alas, how speedily!) these matters will then seem con-
siderable : they will be new and strange to those that have
heard of them a hundred times, because they never heard of
them sensibly till now. One of those souls that have been
here before you, and have passed that way into eternity,
have other thoughts of these things than you have! O how
do they think now, of the fearless slumber and stupidity of
those that they have left behind ! What think they now
of those that wilfully fly the light, and flatter themselves
in guilt and misery, and make light of all the joys and tor-
ments of the other world ? Even as the damned rich man
in Luke xvi, thought of his poor brethren, that remained in
prosperity and presumption upon earth, and little thought
what company he was in, what a sight he saw, and what he
did endure !
Poor careless souls, you know not now what it is, for the
ungodly to see that they are ungodly, by the irresistible
light of another world; and for the unholy to feel in hell
that they are unholy, and to be taught by flames and the
wrath of the Almighty, what is the difference between tlitf
134 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE
sanctified and the carnal ; between an obedient and a rebel-
lious life. While you sit here you little know these things.
You see them not : you feel them not : and the Lord grant
you may never so know them by woful experience: that you
may escape such a knowledge, is the end of all that I am
saying to you : But that will not be, but by another kind of
knowledge, even the knowledge of belief and serious con-
sideration.
For your souls' sake therefore come into the light, and
try yourselves, and huddle not over a work of such unspeak-
able consequence, as the searching of your hearts and judg-
ing of your spiritual state! O be glad to know what you
are indeed ! Put home the question, ' Am I sanctified or
not? Am I in the Spirit or in the flesh?' Be glad of any
help for the sure resolution of such doubts. Take not up
with slight and venturous presumptions. It is your own
case ; your nearest and your greatest case ; all lies upon it:
who should be so willing of the plainest dealing, the speediest
and the closest search as you ? O be not surprised by an
unexpected sight of an unrenewed, miserable soul at death!
If it be so, see it now, while seeing it may do good : if it be
not so, a faithful search can do you no harm, but comfort
you by the discovery of your sincerity. Say not too late,
' I thought I had been born again of the Spirit, and had been
in a state of grace : I thought I had been a child of God, and
reconciled to him, and justified by faith !' O what a heart-
tearing vv^ord would it be to you, when time is past, to say,
' I thought it had been better with me !'
4. Consider also, that it is one of Satan's principal de-
signs of your damnation, to keep you ignorant of yourselves.
He knows if he can but make you believe, that you are re-
generate when you are not, you will never seek to be regene-
rate: and that if he can make you think that you are godly,
when you are ungodly, and have the Spirit of Christ, while
you are servants to the flesh, he may defeat all the labours
of your teachers, and let them call on you to be converted
till their hearts ache, to no purpose, but leave you as you
are : He knows how light you will sit by the physician, if he
can but make you believe that you are well ! and how little
care you will take for a pardon, if you think that you need
it not, or have one already. In vain we mav call on vou till
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 135
we are hoarse, to turn and become new creatures, and give
up yourselves to Christ, if you think that you are good
Christians, and are in the way to heaven aheady.
And when you know beforehand, that there lieth the
principal game of the deceiver, and that it will be his chief
contrivance, to keep you unacquainted with your sin and
danger, till you are past recovery, one would think there
should be no need to bid you to be diligent to know your-
selves.
5. And I beseech you consider also, that without this
design there is no likelihood that Satan could undo you : if
he keep you not ignorant of yourselves, he is never likely to
keep you in his power : you come out of his kingdom when
you come out of darkness. He knoweth that if once you
did but see how near you stand to the brink of hell, you
would think it time to change your standing.
There is a double principle in nature, that would do
something towards your repentance and recovery, if your
eyes were opened to see where you are.
1. There is since the seduction and ruin of man, by Sa-
tan's temptations, an enmity put into the whole nature of
man against the whole satanical, serpentine nature; so that
this natural enmity would so much conduce to your deliver-
ance, as that you would not be contented with your relation,
if you knew that you are the drudges of the devil; nor
would you be charmed into sin so easily, if you knew that
it is he indeed that doth invite you ; nor would you datice
after his pipe, or take his bait, if you perceived indeed that
it is his : no language would be so taking with you, which
you knew was uttered by his voice. It would do much to
affright you from his service, if you knew that it is he indeed
that setteth you on to work, and is gratified by it. He
keepeth men in his bondage, by making them believe that
they are free : he persuadeth men to obey him, by persuading
them that it is God that they obey : and he draweth them
to hell by making them believe that they are following
Christ to heaven ; or at least, that they are following the in-
clination of their nature in a pardonable infirmity.
2. And the natural principle of self-love, would in order
to self-preservation, do much to drive you from your sinful
state, if you did but know what a state it is. There is no
nian so far hateth himself, as to be willing to be damned.
136 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
You cannot choose an habitation in hell ; for such a place
can never be desired. Surely he that cannot choose but to fly
from an enemy, or a bear that did pursue him, or fly from
fire, or water, or pestilence, when he perceives his danger,
would fly from hell if he perceived his danger.
I beseech you all, that are secure in an unsanctified
state, do but look inwards, and help me in preaching this
doctrine to your hearts, and tell yourselves, whether you do
think that your state is good, and that you are the children
of God as well as others ; and that though you are sinners,
yet your sins are pardoned by the blood of Christ, and that
you shall be saved if you die in the state that you are in ?
And are not these thoughts the reason why you venture
to continue in your present state, and look not after so
great a change as Scripture speaketh of as necessary ?
And I pray you deal plainly with your hearts, and tell me,
you careless sinners, young or old, that sit here as quietly
as if all were well with you. If you did but know that you are
at this hour unregenerate, and that without regeneration
there is no salvation : if you did but know that you are yet
carnal and unholy, and that " without holiness none shall
see God :" if you did but know that you are yet in a state of
enmity to God while you call him Father, and of enmity to
Christ while you call him your Saviour, and of enmity to
the Holy Spirit, while you call him your Sanctifier : if you
did but know that your sins are unpardoned, and your souls
unjustified, and that you are condemned already, and shall
certainly be damned if you die as you are. Could you live
quietly in such a state? Could you sleep, and eat and drink
quietly, and follow your trades, and let time run on without
repenting and returning unto God, if you knew that you are
past hope, if death surprise you in this condition ? For the
Lord's sake, sirs, rouse up yourselves a little, and be serious
in a business that concerneth you more than ten thousand
natural lives ; and tell me, or rather tell yourselves. If you
did but know that while you sit here, you are unrenewed,
and therefore under the curse of God, and in the bondage of
the devil, and are hastening towards perdition, and are
gone for ever, if you be not sanctified and made new crea-
tures before you die: could you then put off" this sermon
with a sleepy, careless hearing, and go home and talk of
common matters, and no more mind it, as you have done by
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 137
sermons until now ? Could you forbear going alone, and
there bethink yourselves, ' O what a sinful, dreadful condi-
tion are we in ! What will become of us, if we be not rege-
nerate before we die! Had we no understandings, no hearts,
no life or sense, that we have lingered so long, and lived so
carelessly in such a state ! O where had we been now, if
we had died unregenerate ! How near have we been oft to
death ! How many sicknesses might have put an end to
life and hope! Had any of them cut off the slender thread
that our lives have hanged on so long, and had we died be-
fore this day, we had been now in hell without remedy.'
Could any of you that knew this to be your case, forbear to
betake yourselves to God, and cry to him in the bitterness
of your souls, O Lord, what rebels, what wretches have we
been ! We have sinned against heaven and before thee, and
are no more worthy to be called thy children ! O how sin
hath captivated our understandings, and conquered our
very sense, and made us live like men that were dead, as to
the love and service of God, and the work of our salvation,
which we were created and redeemed for ! O Lord, have
mercy upon these blind and senseless miserable souls ! Have
mercy upon these despisers and abusers of thy mercy ! O
save us or we perish ! Save us from our sins, from Satan,
from thy curse and wrath I Save us, or we are undone and
lost for ever ! Save us from the unquenchable fire, from the
Avorm that never dieth ! from the bottomless pit, the outer
darkness, the horrid gulf of endless misery! O let the
bowels of thy compassion yearn over us! O save us for thy
mercy sake; shut not out the cries of miserable sinners.
Regenerate, renew and sanctify our hearts ; O make us new
creatures ! O plant thine image on our souls, and incline
them towards thee, that they may be wholly thine ! O make
us such as thou commandest us to be ! Away with our sins,
and sinful pleasures, and sinful company ! We have had too
much, too much of them already ! Let us now be thine, asso-
ciated with them that love and fear thee; employed in the
works of holiness and obedience all our days! Lord, we are
willing to let go our sins, and to be thy servants : or if we
be not, make us willing.'
What say you, sirs, if you knew that you were this hour
in a state of condemnation, could you forbear making haste
138 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
with such confessions, complaints, and earnest supplications
to God ?
And could you forbear going presently to some faithful
minister, or godly friend, and telling him your case and
danger, and begging his advice, and prayers, and asking
him, what a poor sinner must do to be recovered, pardoned
and saved, that is so deep in sin and misery, and hath des-
pised Christ and grace so long ? Could you tell how to
sleep quietly many nights more, before you had earnestly
sought out for help, and made this change? How could you
choose but presently betake yourselves to the company,
and converse, and examples of the godly that are within
your reach ? (For whenever a man is truly changed, his
friendship and company is changed, if he have opportunity.)
And how could you choose but go and take your leave of
your old companions, and with tears and sorrow tell them,
how foolishly and sinfully you have done, and what wrong
you have done each other's souls, and entreat them to
repent and do so no more, or else you will renounce them,
and fly from their company as from a pesthouse?
Can a man forbear thus to fly from hell, if he saw that
he is as near it as a condemned traitor to the gallows ? He
that will beg for bread, if he be hungry, and rather lay by
shame than famish, would beg for grace, if he saw and felt
how much he needeth it: and seeing it, is the way to feel
it. He that will seek for medicines when he is sick, and would
do almost any thing to escape a temporal death, would he
not seek out to Christ, the remedy of his soul, if he knew
and felt that otherwise there is no recovery ? and would he
not do much against eternal death ? " Skin for skin, and all
that a man hath, he will give for his life;" was a truth that
the devil knew and maketh use of in his temptations. And
will a man then be regardless of his soul, that knows he
hath an immortal soul ? and of life eternal, that knows his
danger of eternal death ?
0,sirs, it is not possible, but the true knowledge of your
state of sin and danger, would do very much to save you
from it. For it is a wilful, chosen state. All the devils in
hell cannot bring you to it, and continue you in it against
your will. You are willing of the sin, though unwilling of
the punishment. And if you truly knew the punishment.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 139
and your danger of it, you would be the more unwilling of
the sin; for God hath affixed punishment to sin for this
end, that they that else would love the serpent, may hate it
for the sting. Will you not say, he is a beast and not a
man, that will avoid no danger but what he seeth? Fore-
seeing is to a man, what seeing is to a beast: if he see it
before his eyes, a beast will not easily be driven into a coal-
pit or a gulf; he will draw back and strive, if you go about
to kill him. And is he a man, or some monster that wants
a name, that will go on to hell, when he seeth it as it were
before him? and that will continue in a state of sin, when
he knows he must be damned in hell for ever, if he so con-
tinue to the end ? Indeed sin is the deformity and mons-
trosity of the soul. He is a monster of blindness that seeth
not the folly and peril of such a state, and that a state of
holiness is better. He is a monster of stupidity that finds
himself in such a state, and doth not feel it, but maketh
light of it. And he is a monster of slothfulness, that will
not stir when he finds himself in such a case, and seek for
mercy, and value the remedy, and use the means, and for-
sake his sinful course and company, till further mercy take
him up and bring him home, and make him welcome, as
" one that was lost but now is found, was dead but is alive."
I do not doubt, for all these expostulations, but some
men may be such monsters, as thus to see that they are in
a state of wrath and misery, and yet continue in it.
As, 1. Such as have but a glimmering, insufficient sight
of it, and a half belief, while a greater belief and hope of the
contrary (that is, presumption) is predominant at the heart :
But these are rather to be called men ignorant of their
misery, than men that know it; and men that believe it not,
than men that do believe it, as long as the ignorance and
presumption is the prevailing part.
2. Such as by the rage of appetite and passion are hur-
ried into deadly sin, and so continue, whenever the tempter
ofFereth them the bait against their conscience, and some
apprehension of their misery. But these have commonly a
prevalent self-flattery secretly within, encouraging and up-
holding them in their sin, and telling them, that the re-
luctancies of their consciences are the Spirits' strivings
against the flesh, and their tits of remorse are true repen-
140 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
tance : and though they are sinners, they hope they are
pardoned, and shall be saved, so that these do not know
themselves indeed.
3. Such as by their deep engagements to the world, and
love of its prosperity, and a custom in sinning, are so hard-
ened, and cast into a slumber, that though they have a
secret knowledge or suspicion that their case is miserable,
yet they are not awakened to the due consideration and feeling
of it; and therefore they go on as if they knew it not: but
these have not their knowledge in exercise. It is but a candle
in a dark lantern, that now and then gives them a convinc-
ing flash, when the right side happens to be towards them ;
or like lightning, that rather frightens and amazeth them,
than directeth them. And (as I said of the former) as to
the act, their self-ignorance is the predominant part, and
therefore they cannot be said indeed to know themselves.
Now and then a convinced apprehension, or a fear, is not
the tenor of their minds.
4. Such as being in youth or health, do promise them-
selves long life, or any others that foolishly put away the
day of death, and think they have yet time enough before
them ; and therefore though they are convinced of their
misery, and know they must be converted or condemned,
do yet delay, and quiet themselves with purposes to repent
hereafter, when death draws near, and there is no other
remedy but they must leave their sins, or give up all their
hopes of heaven. Though these know somewhat of their
present misery, it is but by such a flashy, ineffectual know-
ledge as is afore described ; and they know little of the
wickedness of their hearts, while they confess them wicked.
Otherwise they could not imagine that repentance is so
easy a work to such as they, as that they can perform it
when their hearts are further hardened, and that so easily
and certainly, as that their salvation may be ventured on it
by delays. Did they know themselves, they would know
the backwardness of their hearts ; and manifold difficulties
should make them see the madness of delays, and of longer
resisting and abusing the grace of the Spirit that must con-
vert them, if ever they be saved.
5. Such as have light to show them their misery, but
live where they hear not the discovery of the remedy, and
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 14f
are left without any knowledge of a Saviour : I deny not
but such may go on in a state of misery, though they know
it, when they know no way out of it.
6. Such as believe not the remedy, though they hear of
it, but think that Christ is not to be believed in, as the Sa-
viour of the world.
7. Such as believe that Christ is the Redeemer, but be-
lieve not that he will have mercy upon them, as supposing
their hearts are not qualified for his salvation, nor ever will
be, because the day of grace is past, and he hath concluded
them under a sentence of reprobation ; and therefore think-
ing that there is no hope, and that their endeavours would
be all in vain, they cast off all endeavours, and give up
themselves to the pleasures of the flesh, and say, ' It is as
good to be damned for something, or for a greater matter,
as for a less.'
So that there are three sorts of despair that are not
equally dangerous. 1. A despair of pardon and salvation,
arising from infidelity, as if the Gospel were not true, nor
Christ a Saviour to be trusted with our souls, if predomi-
nant, is damnable. 2. A despair of pardon and salvation,
arising from a misunderstanding of the promise, as if it
pardoned not such sins as ours, and denied mercy to those
that have sinned so long as we ; this is not damnable neces-
sarily of itself, because it implieth faith in Christ ; and not
infidelity, but misunderstanding hindereth the applying,
comforting act : and therefore this actual personal despair,
is accompanied with a general actual hope, and with a par-
ticular personal, virtual hope. 3. A despair of pardon and
salvation, upon the misunderstanding of ourselves, as think-
ing both that we are graceless, and always shall be so, be-
cause of the blindness and hardness of our hearts. Of this
despair, I say as of the former, it is joined with faith, and
with general and virtual hope ; and therefore is not the des-
pair that of itself condemneth. Many may be saved that
are too much guilty of it.
But if either of these two latter sorts shall so far prevail,
as to turn men off from a holy, to a fleshly, worldly interest
and life, and make them say, * We will take our pleasure
while we may, and will have something for our souls before
we lose them,' and do accordingly ; this kind of despera-
142 THE MISCHIEFS OF S ELF-IGNOK A NCE,
tion is damnable by the effects, because it takes men off the
means of life, and giveth them up to damning sins.
Thus I have showed you of seven sorts of persons that
may know themselves, their sin and danger, with such an
ineffectual, partial knowledge as I have described, and yet
continue in that sin and misery.
And in two cases, even sound believers may possibly go
on to sin, when they see the sin : and not only see the dan-
ger of it, but despairingly think it greater than it is. As,
1. In case of common, unavoidable failings, infirmities, and
low degrees of grace : We are all imperfect, and yet we all
know that it is our duty to be perfect (as perfection is op-
posed to sinful, and not to innocent imperfection), and yet
this knowledge maketh us not perfect. We know we should
be more humbled, and more believing, and more watchful,
and love God more, and fear and trust him more, and be
more fruitful and diligent, and obedient and zealous; and
yet we are not what we know we should be in any of these.
In these we all live in sin against knowledge ; else we
should be all as good as we know we ought to be, which no
man is. And if through temptation any of us should be
ready to despair, because of any of these infirmities, be-
cause we cannot repent, or love God, watch, or pray, or
obey more perfectly, or as we should, yet grace ceaseth not
to be grace, though in the least degree, because we are
ready to despair for want of more. Nor will the sincerity
of this spark, or grain of mustard seed, be unsuccessful, as
to our salvation, because we think so, and take ourselves to
be insincere, and our sanctification to be none : Nor yet be-
cause we cannot be as obedient and good as we know we
should be. For the Gospel saith not, ' He that knoweth he
hath faith or sincerity shall be saved ; and he that knoweth
it not, shall be damned: or, he that is less holy or obedient
than his conscience tells him he should be, shall be damned.'
But " He that believeth and repenteth, shall be saved," whe-
ther he know it to be done in sincerity or no : and " he that
doth not, shall be damned," though he never so confidently
think he doth. So that in the degrees of holiness and obe-
dience, all Christians ordinarily sin against knowledge.
2. And besides what is ordinary, some extraordinarily in
the time of a powerful temptation go further than ordinarily
AXD BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. J 43
they do. And some under dull, phlegmatic melancholy, or
choleric diseases or distempers of body, or mider a diseased,
violent appetite, may transgress more against their know-
ledge, than otherwise they would do : When the spirits are
flatted, the thoughts confused, the reason weakened, the
passion strengthened, and the executive faculties undis-
posed, so that their actions are but imperfectly human or
moral ; (imperfectly capable of virtue or vice, good or evil)
it is no wonder here, if poor souls not only perceive their
sin, but think it and the danger to be tenfold greater than
they are, and yet go on against their knowledge, and yet
have true grace.
This much I have said, both to stay you from misunder-
standing what I said before, concerning the power of con-
viction to conversion (for few auditories want hearers that
will be still excepting, if caution stop not every hole), and
also to help you to the fuller understanding of the matter
itself, of which I treat. But ' exceptio firmat regulam in non
exceptis,' exceptions strengthen and not weaken any rule
or proposition in the points not excepted. Still I say, that
out of these cases, the true knowledge of a sinful, miserable
state, is so great a help to bring us out of it, that it is hardly
imaginable, how rational men can wilfully continue in a
state of such exceeding danger, if they be but well acquaint-
ed that they are in it. I know a hardened heart hath an un-
reasonable, obstinate opposition against the means of its
own recovery : but yet men have some use of reason and
self-preserving love and care, or they are not men (and if
they be not men, they cannot be sinful men). And though
little transient lightnings often come to nothing, but leave
some men in greater darkness ; yet could we but set up a
standing light in all your consciences, could we fully con-
vince and resolve the unregenerate, that they cannot be
saved in the carnal state and way that they are in, but must
be sanctified or never saved ; what hopes should we have,
that all the subtleties and snares of Satan, and all the plea-
sures and gain of sin, and all the allurements of ungodly
company, could no longer hinder you from falling down
at the feet of mercy, and begging forgiveness, through the
blood of Christ, and giving up yourselves in covenant to the
Lord, and speedily and resolutely betaking yourselves to
an holy life! Could I but make you thoroughly known un-
144 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IG NOK ANCE,
to yourselves, I should hope that all the unsanctified that
hear me, would date their conversion from this very day ;
and that you would not delay till the next morning, to be-
wail your sin and misery, and fly to Christ, lest you should
die and be past hope this night.
And doth so much of our work, and of your recovery,
lie upon this point, and yet shall we not be able to accom-
plish it? Might you be brought into the way to heaven, if
we could but persuade you that you are yet out of the way;
and will you be undone, because you will not suffer so small
and reasonable a part of the cure as this is? O God forbid !
O that we knew how to illuminate your minds so far, as to
make you find that you are lost ! how ready would Christ be
then to find you, and to receive and welcome you, upon
your return ! Here is the first difficulty, which if we could
but overcome, we should hope to conquer all the rest. Had
we but a wedge to cleave this knot, the rest would the more
easily be done. Could we draw but this one pin of self-
deceit, the frame of Satan's building were like to tumble
down. O that any of you that know the nature of self-
deceit, and know the accesses to the inwards of a sinner,
and know the fallacious reasonings of the heart, could tell
us but how we might undeceive them ! O that any of you
that know the nature of human understanding, with its seve-
ral maladies, and their cure, and know the power of saving
truth, could tell us what key will undo this lock! what
medicine will cure this disease, of wilful, obstinate, self-de-
ceiving ! Think but on the case of our poor people, and of
ours, and sure you cannot choose but pity both them and
us. We are all professors of the Christian faith, and all say
we believe the word of God. This word assureth us, that
all men are fallen in Adam, and are by " nature children of
wrath," and increase in sin and misery, till supernatural
grace recover them. It tells us, that the Redeemer is be-
come by office, the Physician or Saviour of souls, washing
away their guilt by his blood, and renewing and cleansing
their corrupted natures by his Spirit. It tells us, that he
will freely work the cure, for all that will take him for their
Physician, and will forgive and save them that penitently
fly to him, and value, and accept, and trust upon his grace:
and that except they be thus made new creatures, all the
world cannot save them from everlasting wrath. This is the
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-A CQU AINT A NC K. 145
doctrine that we all believe, or say we do believe. Thus
doth it open the case of sinners. We come now, according
to our office, and the trust reposed in us, and we tell our
hearers what the Scripture saith of man, and what it com-
mandeth us to tell them. We tell them of their fall, their
sin and misery; of the Redeemer, and the sure and free sal-
vation, which they may have if they will but come to him.
But, alas, we cannot make them believe that they are so
sick, as to have so much need of the Physician: and that
they are dead, and have need of a new creation, as to the
inclinations of their hearts, and the end, and bent, and busi-
ness of their lives. We are sent to tender them the mercy
of Christ, but we cannot make them believe that they are
miserable. We are sent to offer them the riches, and eye-
salve, and white raiment of the Gospel ; but we cannot make
them know that they are poor, and blind, and naked. We
are sent to call them to repent and turn, that they may be
saved ; and we cannot make them know that they are so
far out of the way, as to need a change of heart and life.
Here they sit before us, and we look on them with pity, and
know not how to help them. We look on them, and think,
Alas, poor souls, you little see what death will quickly make
you see ! You will then see that there is no salvation, by all
the blood and merits of Christ, for any but the sanctified :
but O that we could now but make you understand it! We
lookonthem^with compassion ; and think, Alas, poor souls,
as easily and quietly as you sit here, a change is near ! It
will be thus with you but a little while, and where will you
be next ? We know, as sure as the word of God is true,
that they must be converted and sanctified, or be lost for
ever: and we cannot make them believe, but that the work
is done already. The Lord knoweth, and our consciences
witness to our shame, that we be not half so sensible of their
misery, nor so compassionate towards them as we ought to
be. But yet sometimes our hearts melt over them, and fain
we would save them from the "wrath to come;" and we
should have great hopes of the success, if we could but
make them know their danger. It melts our hearts to look
on them, and think that they are so near damnation, and
never likely to escape it, till they know it ; till they know
.that their corruption is so great, that nothing but the quick-
yOL. XVI. L
146 THE MISCHIEFS OF SEL i-IG NOR ANCE,
ening Spirit can recover them, and nothing less than to be-
come new creatures will serve the turn. But if we would
never so fain we cannot make them know it. O that we
knew how to acquaint them with their case! O that we
knew how to get within them, and to open the windows,
that the light of Christ might show them their condition!
But when we have done all, we find it past our power. We
know they will be past help in hell, if they die before they
are regenerate. And could we but get themselves to know
it, we could not but hope that they would better look about
them and be saved. But we are not able. It is more than
we can do. We cannot get the grossest worldling, the basest
sensualist, the filthiest lecher, the proudest child of the
spirit of pride, to know that he is in a state of condemnation,
and must be sanctified or be damned. Much less can we pro-
cure the formal Pharisee, thus to know himself. We can
easily get them to confess that they are sinners, and deserve
damnation, and cannot be saved without Christ ; but this
will not serve : the best saint on earth must say as much as
this comes to. There are converted and unconverted sin-
ners, sanctified and unsanctified sinners, pardoned and un-
pardoned sinners, sinners that are members of Christ, and
the children of God, and heirs of heaven ; and sinners that
are not so, but contrary. They must know not only that
they are sinners, but that they are yet unconverted, unsanc-
tified, unpardoned sinners ; not only that they cannot be
saved without Christ, but that they have no special interest
in Christ: they will not turn, while they think they are
turned already : they will not so value and seek for conver-
sion, and remission, and adoption, as to obtain them, while
they think they have them already. They will not come to
Christ that they may have life, while they think they have
part in Christ already. Paul after his conversion was a sin-
ner, and had need of Christ: but Paul, before his conver-
sion, was an unsanctified, unjustified sinner, and had no
part in Christ : This is the state of sin and misery that you
must come out of, or you are lost : and how can you be
brought out of it, till you know that you are in it?
O therefore that we knew how to make you know it !
How should we make poor sinners see that they are within
a few steps of everlasting fire, that we might procure them,
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 147
to run away from it, and be saved ! V/e cry so often, and
lose our labour, and leave so many in their security and
self-deceits, that we are too discouraged, and remit our de-
sires, and lose our compassion ; and ourselves, alas, grow
dull, and too insensible of their case, and preach too often
as coldly as if we could be content to let them perish. We
are too apt to grow weary of holding the light to men asleep,
or that shut their eyes and will not see it. When all that
we have said is not regarded, and we know not what more
to say than hath been said so long in vain, this damps our
spirits ; this makes so many of us preach almost as care-
lessly as we are heard. Regardless, sleepy hearers, make
regardless, sleepy preachers. Frequent frustration abateth
hope: and the fervour and diligence of prosecution ceaseth,
as hope abateth. This is our fault : your insensibility is no
good excuse for ours : but it is a fault not easily avoided.
And when we are stopped at the first door, and cannot
conquer Satan's out-works, what hope have we of going fur-
ther? If all that we can say, will not convince yon that
you are yet unsanctified and unjustified, how shall we get
you to the duties that belong to such, in order to the attain-
ment of this desirable state ?
And here I think it not unreasonable to inform you of
the reason why the most able, faithful ministers of Christ do
search so deep, and speak so hardly of the case of unrenewed
souls, as much displeaseth many of their hearers, and makes
them say, they are too severe and terrible preachers. The
zealous Antimonian saith, they are legalists ; and the pro-
fane Antinomian saith, they rail and preach not mercy, but
judgment only, and would drive men to despair, and make
them mad. But will they tell God he is a legalist for making
the law, even the Gospel law as well as the law of nature,
and commanding us to preach it to the world ? Shall they
escape the sentence by reproaching the law-maker ? Will
not God judge the world • and judge them by a law ; and
will he not be just and beyond the reach of their reproach?
O, sinner, this is not the smallest part of thy terror, that it
is the Gospel that speaks this terror to thee, and excludes
thee from salvation, unless thou be made new : it is mercy
itself that thus condemneth thee, and judgeth thee to end-
less misery. You are mistaken, sirs, when you say we preach
not mercy, and say we preach not the Gospel, but the law :
148 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
It is the Gospel that saith, " Except a man be born again,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven ! and that if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his."
(John iii. 3. 5; Rom. viii. 9.) The same Gospel that saith,
" He that believeth shall be saved," saith also, that " He
that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark xvi. 16.) Will
you tell Christ, the Saviour of the w^orld, that he is not
merciful, because he talks to you of damnation ? Mercy it-
self, when it tells you that "there is no condemnation,"
doth limit this pardon to them "that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom.
viii. ].) It is sanctifying mercy that must save you, if
ever you be saved, as well as justifying mercy. And will
you refuse this mercy, and by no entreaty yield to have it,
and yet think to be saved by it? What, saved by that mercy
which you will not have? And will you say, we preach not
mercy, because we tell you, that mercy will not save you,
if you continue to reject it? To be saved by mercy with-
out sanctification, is to be saved and not saved ; to be saved
by mercy without mercy ; your words have no better sense
than this : And are those afraid, lest preachers should make
them mad by showing them their need of mercy, that are no
wiser than to cast away their souls upon suoii senseless,
self-contradicting conceits as these ?
I beseech you, tell us whose words are they, think you,
that say, " Without holiness none shall see God?" (Heb.xii.
14.) and that "He that is in Christ, is a new creature,"
(2 Cor. v. 17,) and such like passages which offend you ;
Are they ours, or are they God's ? Did we indite the Holy
Scriptures, or did the Holy Ghost? Is it long of us, if there
be any words there that cross your flesh, and that you call
bitter? Can we help it, if God will save none but sanctified
believers ? If you have any thing to say against it, you must
say it to him : we are sure that this is in his word : and we
are sure he cannot lie : and therefore we are sure it is true :
We are sure that he may do with his own as he list, and that
he oweth you nothing, and that he may give his pardon and
salvation to whom, and upon what terms he please : and
therefore we are sure he doth you no wrong. But if you
think otherwise, reproach not us that are but messengers ;
but prepare your charge, and make it good against your
Maker, if you dare and can : You shall shortly come before
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 149
him, and be put to it to justify yourselves : if you can do it
by recrimination, and can prevent your condemnation, by
condemning the law and the Judge, try your strength and
do your worst.
Ah, poor worms ! dare you lift up the head, and move a
tongue against the Lord ! Did Infinite wisdom itself want
wisdom, to make a law to rule the world ? And did Infinite
goodness want goodness to deal mercifully, and as was best
with man! And shall justice itself be judged to be unjust?
and that by you ! by such silly, ignorant, naughty and un-
righteous ones as you! as if you had the wisdom and good-
ness, which you think God wanted when he made his laws!
And whereas you tell us of preaching terribly to you, we
cannot help it, if the true and righteous threatenings of God
be terrible to the guilty. It is because we know the terrors
of the Lord, that we preach them, to warn you to prevent
them. And so did the apostles before us. (2 Cor. v. 11.)
Either it is true that the unquenchable fire will be the por-
tion of impenitent, unbelieving, fleshly, worldly, unsancti-
fied men, or it is not true : If it were not true, the word of
God were not true : and then what should you do with any
preaching at all, or any religion I But if you confess it to
be true, do you think in reason it should be silenced? Or
can we tell men of so terrible a thing as hell, and tell them
that it will certainly be their lot, unless they be new crea-
tures, and not speak terribly to them ! O, sirs, it is the won-
der of my soul that it seemeth no more terrible, to all the
ungodly that think they do believe it. Yea, and I would it
did seem more terrible to the most, that it might affright
you from your sin to God, and you might be saved. If you
were running ignorantly into a coalpit, would you revile
him that told you of it, and bid you stop if you love your
life ! would you tell him that he speaks bitterly or terribly
to you ? It is not the yjreacher that is the cause of your
danger : he doth but tell you of it, that you may escape. If
you are saved, you may thank him : but if you are lost, you
may thank yourselves. It is you that deal bitterly and ter-
ribly with yourselves. Telling you of hell doth not make
hell : warning you of it, is not causing it : nor is it God
that is unmerciful, but you are foolishly cruel and unmerci-
ful to yourselves. Do not think to despise the patience
and mercy of the Lord, and then think to escape by accus-
150 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
ing him of being unmerciful, and by saying, it is a terrible
doctrine that we preach to you impenitent sinners ! I con-
fess to thee it is terrible, and more terrible than thy sense-
less heart imagineth, or is yet aware of: One day, if grace
, prevent it not, thou shalt find it ten thousand times more
terrible than thou canst apprehend it now. When thou
seest thy Judge with millions of his angels coming to con-
demn thee, thou wilt then say his laws are terrible indeed.
Thou hast to do with a holy; jealous God, who is a "con-
suming fire," (Heb.xii.29,)and can such a God be despised,
and not be terrible to thee? He is called, "The great, the
mighty, and the terrible God." (Neh. ix. 32; Deut. vii. 21.)
" With God is terrible majesty." (Job xxxvii. 22.) " He is
terrible out of his holy place." (Psal. Ixviii. .35.) " He is
terrible to the greatest, even to the kings of the earth."
(Psal. Ixxvi. 12.) It is time for you therefore to tremble
and submit, and think how unable you are to contend with
him : and not revile his word or works, because they are
terrible ; but fear him for them, and study them on purpose
that you may fear and glorify him. And as David, " Say
unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works ! Through the
greatness of thy power shall thy enemies submit themselves
unto thee Come and see the works of the Lord! He
is terrible in his doings towards the children of men."
(Psal. Ixvi. 3. 5.) " Let them praise thy great and terrible
name, for it is holy." (Psal. xcix. 3.) And will you reproach
God, or his word, or works, or ministers, with that which is
the matter of his praise? If it be terrible to hear of the
wrath of God, how terrible will it be to feel it? Choose not
a state of terror to yourselves, and preaching will be less
terrible to you. Yield to the sanctifying work of Christ,
and receive his Spirit : and then that which is terrible to
others will be comfortable to you. What terror is it to the
regenerate (that knoweth himself to be such), to hear that
none but the regenerate shall be saved ? What terror is it to
them that mind the things of the Spirit, to hear of the misery
of a fleshly mind, and that they that live after the flesh shall
die? (Kom. viii. 8. 13.) The word of God is full of terror to
the ungodly : but return with all your hearts to God, and
then what word of God speaks terror to you ? Truly, sirs,
it is more in your power than ours, to make our preaching
easy and less terrible to you ! We cannot change our doc-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-A CQU A i NJ'A NCE. 151
trine, but you may change your state and lives : we cannot
preach another Gospel ; but you may obey the Gospel
which we preach. Obey it, and it will be the most com-
Ibrtable word to you in the world. We cannot make void
the word of God ; but you may avoid the stroke by penitent
submission. Do you think it is fitter to change our Mas-
ter's word, and falsify the laws of God Almighty ; or for
you to change your crooked courses, which are condemned
by this word, and to let go the-sin which the law forbiddeth ?
It is you that must change, and not the law. It is you that
must be conformed to it, and not the rule that must be
made crooked to conform to you.
Say not as Ahab of Michaiah, of the minister : " I hate
him, for he prophesieth not good of me, but evil ;" (1 Kings
xxii. 8 ;) For a Balaam could profess that if the king " would
give him his house full of silver and gold, he could not go
beyond the word of the Lord his God, to do less or more,"
(Numb. xxii. 19,) or " to do either good or bad of his own
mind," as he after speaks, xxiv. 13. What good would it
do you for a preacher to tell you a lie, and say that you
may be pardoned and saved in an impenitent, unsanctified
state ? Do you think our saying so, would make it so ? Will
God falsify his word to make good ours? Or would he not
deal with us as perfidious messengers that had betrayed our
trust, and belied him, and deceived your souls ? And would
it save or ease an unregenerate man to have Christ con-
demn the minister for deceiving him, and telling him that
he may be saved in such a state?
Do but let go the odious sin that the word of God doth
speak so ill of, and then it will speak no ill of you.
Alas, sirs, what would you have a poor minister do,
when God's command doth cross your pleasure ; and when
he is sure to offend either God or you ? Which should he
venture to offend ? If he help not the ungodly to know
their misery, he ofiendeth God : if he do it, he offendeth
them. If he tell you, that " All they shall be damned that
believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness,''
your hearts rise against him for talking of damnation to
you : and yet it is but the words of the Holy Ghost, (2 Thess.
ii. 12,) which vv'e are bound to preach ! If he tell you that
"If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," you will be angry,
(especially if he closely apply it to yourselves :) and if he
152 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
do not tell you so, God will be angry ; for it is his express
determination. (Rom, viii. 13.) And whose anger think you
should a wise man choose ; or whose should he most reso-
lutely avoid ; the anger of the dreadful God of heaven, or
yours ? Your anger we can bear, if there is no remedy ; but
his anger is intolerable. When you have fretted, and fumed,
and railed, and slandered us and our doctrine, we can live
yet ; or if you kill the body, you can do no more : you do
but send us before, to be witnesses against you, when you
come to judgment. But who can live, when God will pour
out wrath upon him ? (Numb. xxiv. 23.) We may keep your
slanders and indignation from our hearts ; but it is the heart
that the heart-searching God contendeth with : and who
can heal the heart which he will break ? You may reach the
flesh ; but he that is a Spirit can afflict and wound the spi-
rit : " And a wounded spirit (and wounded by him) who
can bear?" (Prov. xviii. 14.) Would you not yourselves
say he were worse than mad, that would rather abuse the
eternal God, than cross the misguided desires of such worms
as you ; that would displease God to please you, and sell
his love to purchase yours ? Will you be instead of God to
us when we have lost his favour ? Will you save us from
him, when he sendeth for our souls by death, or sentenceth
us to hell by judgment? Silly souls! how happy were you,
could you save yourselves ! Will you be our gods if we for-
s&,ke our God ? What you that are but skinfuls of corrup-
tion ! that will shortly be choked with your own filth and
phlegm, and by your friends be laid to rot in silent, undis-
cerned darkness, lest the loathsome sight or smell of you
should annoy them ! Blame not God to use them as enemies
and rebels, that will change him for such earthen gods as
you. We have one God, and but one, and he must be
obeyed, whether you like or dislike it : " There is one Law-
giver that is able to save and destroy," James iv. 12,) and
he must be pleased, v./hether it please your carnal minds or
not : If your wisdom now will take the chair, and judge the
preaching of the Gospel to be foolishness, or the searching
application of it to be too much harshness and severity, I
* am sure you shall come down ere long, and hear his sen-
tence that will convince you, that the " wisdom of the world
is foolishnessS with God, and the foolishness of God (as
blasphemy dare call it) is wiser than men." (1 Cor. iii. 19 j
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 15S
i* 25.) And God will be the final Judge, and his word shalF
stand when you have done your worst. The worst that the
serpent can do, is but to hiss awhile and put forth the sting,
and bruise our heel : but God's day will be the bruising of
his head, and " Satan shall be bruised under feet." (Rom.
xvi. 20.)
The sun will shine, and the light thereof discover your
deformities, whether you will or not. And if adulterers or
thieves, that love the works of darkness, will do their worst
by force or flattery, they cannot make it cease its shining,
though they may shut their eyes, or hide themselves in
darkness from its light : Faithful teachers are the " lights
of the world." (Matt. v. 14.) They are not lighted by the
Holy Ghost, to be " put under a bushel, but on a candle-
stick, that they may give light to all that are in the house."
(ver. 15.) What would you do with teachers but to teach
you ? and what should they make known to you, if not your-
selves ? Shall not the physician have leave to tell you of
your diseases?
Verily, sirs, a sinner under the curse of the law, unsanc-
tified and unpardoned, is not in a state to be jested and
dallied with, unless you can play in the flames of hell: it i»
plain dealing that he needs. A quibbling, toyish, flashy
sermon, is not the proper medicine for a lethargic, misera-
ble soul, nor fit to break a stony heart, nor to bind up a
heart that is kindly broken. Heaven and hell should not
be talked of in a canting, jingling, or pedantic strain. A
Seneca can tell you that it is a physician that is skilful,
and not one that is eloquent, that we need. If he have also
fine and neat expressions, we will not despise them ; nor
overmuch value them: ' urendum, secandum:' It is a cure
that we need ; and the means are best, be they never so
sharp, that will accomplish it. Serious, reverent gravity
best suiteth with matters of such incomprehensible concern-
ment. You set not a schoolboy to make an oration, to
give an assaulted city an alarm, or to call men out to quench
a common fire. You may play with words when the case
will bear it: but as dropping of beads is too ludicrous for
one that is praying to be saved from the flames of hell ; so
a sleepy, or a histrionical, starched speech, is too light and
unlikely a means to call back a sinner that is posting to per-
dition, and must be humbled and renewed by the Spirit, ov
154 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
be for ever damned. This is your case, sirs : and do you
think the playing of a part upon a stage doth fit your case ?
O, no ! So great a business requireth all the serious earnest-
ness in the speaker that he can use. I am sure you will
think so ere long yourselves ; and you will then think well
of the preachers that faithfully acquainted you with your
case: and (if they succeed to your perdition) you will curse
those that smoothed you up in your presumption, and hid
your danger, by false doctrine, or misapplication, or seeming
to discover it, indeed did hide it, by an hypocritical light,
not serious mention of it. God can make use of clay and
spittle to open the eyes of men born blind ; and of rams-
horns to bring down the walls of Jericho : but usually he
fitteth the means unto the end, and works on man agreeably
to his nature: and therefore if a blind understanding must
be enlightened, you cannot expect that it should be done by
squibs and glowworms, but by bringing into your souls the
powerful celestial truth, which shall show you the hidden
corners of your hearts, and the hidden mysteries of the
Gospel, and the unseen things of the other world. If a
hardened heart be to be broken, it is not stroking, but
striking that must do it. It is not the sounding brass, the
tinkling cymbal, the carnal mind puffed up with superficial
knowledge, that is the instrument fitted to the renewing of
men's souls : but it is he that can acquaint you with what
he himself hath been savingly acquainted : the heart is not
melted into godly sorrow, nor raised to the life of faith and
love, by the bubbles of a frothy wit, or by a game at words,
or useless notions, but by the illuminating beams of sacred
truth, and the attraction of Divine displayed goodness, com-
municated from a mind that by faith hath seen the glory of
God, and by experience found that he is good, and that
liveth in the love of God : such a one is fitted to assist you
first in the knowledge of yourselves, and then in the know-
ledge of God in Christ.
Did you consider what is the ofiice of the ministry, you
would soon know what ministers do most faithfully perform
their ofiice, and what kind of teaching and oversight you
should desire : and then you would be reconciled to the
light: and would choose the teacher (could you have your
choice) that would do most to help you to know yourselves,
and know the Lord.
AND BENEFITS OF SELl-A CQU A INTANCE. 155
I beseech you judge of our work by our commission, and
judge of it by your own necessities. Have you more need
to be acquainted with your sin and danger? or to be pleased
with a set of handsome words, which when they are said, do
leave you as they found you ; and leave no light, and life, and
heavenly love upon your hearts: that have no substance that
you can feed upon in the review ?
And what our commission is you may find in many places
of the Scripture, (Ezek. iii. 18—21,) " When I say unto the
wicked, thou shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not warn-
ing, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to
save his life ; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
but his blood will I require at thy hand : yet if thou warn the
wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his
wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast de-
livered thy soul: " And " If thou warn the righteous
man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall
surely live, because he is warned, also thou hast delivered
thy soul."
And what if they distaste our doctrine, must we forbear ?
(Ezek. iii. 11.) " Tell them, thus saith the Lord God, whe-
ther they will hear, or whether they will forbear." So
Ezek. xxxiii. 1 — 10.
You know what became of Jonah for refusing to deliver
God's threatenings against Nineveh.
Christ's stewards must give to each his portion. He
himself threateneth damnation to the impenitent, the hypo-
pocrites, and unbelievers. (Luke xiii. 3. 5; Mark xvi. 16;
Matt. xxiv. 51.) Paul saith of himself, " If I yet pleased
men, 1 should not be the servant of Christ." (Gal. i. 10.)
Patience and meekness is commanded to the ministers of
Christ, even in the instructing of opposers, but to what end?
But " that they may escape out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will." So that with
all our meekness we must be so plain with you, as to make
you know that you are Satan's captives, taken alive by him
in his snares, till God by giving you repentance shall recover
you, (2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.)
The very office of the preachers sent by Christ was " to
open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may re-
ceive remission of sins, and inheritance with the sanctified
156 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
by faith in Christ," (Acts xxvi. 18,) which telleth you, that
we must let men understand, that till they are converted and
sanctified, they are blind, and in the dark, and in the power
of Satan, far from God ; unpardoned, and having no part iu
the inheritance of saints.
Christ tells the Pharisees, that they were of their father
the devil, when they boasted that God was their Father ;
(John viii. 44 ;) And how plainly he tells them of their hy-
pocrisy, and asked them how they can escape the damna-
tion of hell, you may see in Matt, xxiii.
Paul thought it his duty to tell Elymas, (Acts xiii. 10,)
that he " was full of all subtlety and mischief, the child of
the devil, and the enemy of all righteousness, a perverter of
the right ways of the Lord." And Peter thought meet to
tell Simon Magus, that he had " neither part, nor lot in that
matter; that his heart was not right in the sight of God ;"
that he was in " the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.
(Acts viii. 21—23.)
The charge of Paul to Timothy is plain and urgent, (2
Tim. iv. 1, 2,) " I charge thee before God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing, and his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in
season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort." And
to Titus, (chap. i. 13,) " Rebuke them sharply, that they
may be sound in the faith."
Judge now, whether ministers must deal plainly or deceit-
fully with you, and whether it be the searching, healing
truth that they must bring you, or a smooth tale that hath
no salt or savour in it: And would you have us break these
laws of God, for nothing but to deceive you and tell you a
lie, and make the ungodly believe that he is godly, or to hide
the truth that is necessary to your salvation? Is the know-
ledge of yourselves so intolerable a thing to you ?
Beloved hearers, either it is true that you are yet un-
sanctified, or it is not: If it be not, it is none of our desire
you should think so : we do all that we can to cure the mis-
takes of troubled Christians, that think themselves worse
than indeed they are. But if it be true, tell me, why would
you not know it ? I hope it is not because you would not be
remembered of your woe, and so tormented before the time.
I hope you think not that we delight to vex men's con-
sciences with fear, or to see men live in grief and trouble.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 157
rather than in well-grounded peace and joy. And if indeed
you are yet unregenerate, that is not long of us that tell you
of it, but of yourselves that wilfully continue it. Do we
make you ungodly, by telling you of your ungodliness? Is
it we that hinder the forgiveness of your sins, by letting you
know that they are not forgiven? O no! we strive for
your conversion to this end, that your sins may be forgiven
you ; and you hinder the forgiveness of them, by refusing
to be converted. When God forsaketh stubborn souls for
resisting his grace, note, how he expresseth his severity
against them, " That seeing they may see and not perceive,
and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any
time they should be converted, and their sins should be for-
given them. (Mark iv. 12.) You see here, that till they are
converted, men's sins are not forgiven them. And that who-
ever procureth the forgiveness of their sins, must do it by
procuring their conversion ; and that the hindering of their
conversion is the hindering of their forgiveness. And that
blindness of mind is the great hindrance of conversion ;
when men do not perceive the very things which they see,
(not knowing the reason, and the sense, and the end of
them, but the outside only :) nor understand the things
which they hear : And therefore undoubtedly the teacher
that brings you a light into your minds, and first showeth
you yourselves, and your unconverted and your unpardoned
state, is he that takes the way to your conversion and for-
giveness : as the forecited text showeth you, " I send thee
to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light,"
(Acts xviii. 26,) (that they may first know themselves, and
then know God in Jesus Christ), " and from the power of Sa-
tan," (who ruled them as their prince, and captivated them as
their gaoler)," unto God" (whom they had forsaken as a guide
and governor, and were deprived of as their protector, por-
tion and felicity,) " that they may receive forgiveness of sins"
(which none receive but the converted,) " and an inheritance
among them that are sanctified," for glory is the inheritance
of the saints alone; (Col. i. 12;) and all this " through faith
that is in me" (by believing in me, and giving up themselves
unto me, that by my satisfaction, merits, teaching. Spirit,
intercession, and judgment, it may be accomplished).
Truly sirs, if we knew how to procure your conversion
and forgiveness, without making you know that you are
158 THE MISCHIEFS OF .SELF-IGNORANCE,
unconverted and unpardoned, we would do it, and not trou-
ble you needlessly with so sad a discovery. Let that man
be accounted a butcher of souls, and not a physician for
them, that delighteth to torment them. Let him be ac-
counted unworthy to be a preacher of the Gospel, that en-
vieth you your peace and comfort. We would not have
you think one jot worse of your condition than it is. Know
but the very truth, what case you are in, and we desire no
more.
And so far are we by this from driving you to despera-
tion, that it is your desperation that we would prevent by it;
which can no other way be prevented. When you are past
remedy, desperation cannot be avoided : and this is neces-
sary to your remedy. There is a conditional despair, and
an absolute despair. The former is necessary to prevent the
latter, and to bring you to a state of hope. A man that hath
the tooth-ach, may perhaps despair of being eased without
drawing the tooth ; or a man that hath a gangrened foot
may despair of life, unless it be cut off; that so by the cure
he may not be left to an absolute despair of life. So you must
despair of being pardoned or saved without conversion, that
you may be converted, and so havehopeof your salvation, and
be saved from final, absolute despair. I hope you will not
be offended with him, that would persuade you to despair of
living, unless you will eat and drink. You have no more
reason to be ofi'ended with him that would have you despair
of being pardoned or saved without Christ, or without his
sanctifying Spirit.
Having said so much of the necessity of ministers endea-
vouring to make unregenerate sinners know themselves, I
shall next try what I can do towards it, with those that hear
me, by proposing these few questions to your consideration.
Quest. 1. Do you think that you were ever unsanctified,
and in a state of wrath and condemnation or not ? If not,
then you are not the offspring of Adam; you are not then of
the human race; for the Scripture telleth you that " We are
conceived in sin, (Psal. li. 5,) And " that by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. And that by the
offence of one judgment came upon all men to condem-
nation," (Rom. V. 12, 18,) And that " All have sinned, and
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQU A I N T ANC K. J 59
come short of the glory of God." (Rom. iii. 23.) " If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us," (1 John i. 8, 10,) And " the wages of sin is
death." (Rom. vi. 23.)
And I hope you will confess that you cannot be par-
doned and saved without a Saviour, and therefore as yoii
need a Saviour, so you must have a special interest in him.
It is as certain that Christ saveth not all, as that he saveth
any : for the same word assureth us of the one, and of the
other.
Quest. 2. But if you confess that once you were chil-
dren of wrath, my next question is. Whether you know how,
and when you were delivered from so sad a state ? or at least,
whether it be done, or not? Perhaps you will say, it was
done in your baptism, which vvasheth away original sin. But
granting you, that all that have a promise of pardon before,
have that promise sealed, and that pardon delivered them
by baptism, 1 ask you.
Quest. 3. Do you think that baptism by water only will
save, unless you be also baptized by the Spirit? Christ
telleth you the contrary, with a vehement asseveration,
(John iii. 5,) " Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God." And Peter tells you that it is " not the
putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience towards God." (1 Pet. ii. 21.) " If therefore you
have not the Spirit of Christ," for all your baptism, " you are
none of his;" (Rom. viii. 9;) For " that which is born of the
flesh is (but) flesh," and you must be born of the Spirit if you
will be spiritual. (John iii. 6.)
I shall further grant you, that many receive the Spirit of
Christ even in their infancy, and may be savingly as well as
sacramentally then regenerate. And if this be your case,
you have a very great cause to be thankful for it. But I next
inquire of you.
Quest. 4. Have you not lived an unholy, carnal life, since
you came to the use of reason? Have you not since then
declared, that you did not live the life of faith, nor walk after
the Spirit but after the flesh ? If so, then it is certain that
you have need of a conversion from that ungodly state, what-
ever baptism did for you ; and therefore you are still to in-
quire, whether you have been converted since yon came to age.
160 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
And I must needs remember you, that your infant cove-
nant made in baptism, being upon your parents' faith and
<:onsent, and not your own, will serve your turn no longer
than your infancy, unless when you come to the use of rea-
son, you renew and own that covenant yourselves, and have
a personal faith and repentance of your own. And what-
ever you received in baptism, this must be our next inquiry.
Quest. 5. Did you ever since you came to age, upon
sound repentance, and renunciation of the flesh, the world,
and the devil, give up yourselves unfeignedly by faith, to
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; and show by the
performance of this holy covenant, that you were sincere in
the making of it?
I confess it is a matter so hard to most, to assign the time
and manner of their conversion, that I think it no safe way
£)f trial. And therefore I will issue all in this one question.
Quest. 6. Have you the necessary parts of the new crea-
ture now? Though perhaps you know not just when, or how
it was formed in you? The question is, whether you are now
in a state of sanctification ? And not, whether you can
tell just when you did receive it? He that would know,
whether he be a man, must not do it by remembering when
he was born, or how he was formed ; but by discerning the
rational nature in himself at present. And though grace be
more observable to us in its entrance, than nature (as finding,
and entering into a discerning subject, which nature doth
not): yet it beginneth so early with some, and so obscurely
with others, and in others, the preparations are so long or
notable, that it is hard to say when special grace came in.
But you may well discern, whether it be there or not. And
that is the question that must be resolved, if you would know
yourselves.
And, though I have been long in these exhortations, to
incline your wills, I shall be short in giving you those evi-
dences of the holy life,' which must be before your eyes while
you are upon the trial.
In sum, if your very hearts do now unfeignedly consent
to the covenant which you made in baptism, and your lives
express it to be a true consent, I dare say you are regene-
rate, though you know not just when you first consented.
Come on then, and let us inquire what you say to the
several parts of your baptismal covenant.
AND BKNEFITS OF SELF-A C QU A INTANC K. 16f
1. If you are sincere in the covenant you have made with
Christ, you do resolvedly consent, that God shall be your
only God, as reconciled to you by Jesus Christ. Which is,
1. That you will take him for your Owner or your absolute
Lord, and give up yourselves to him as his own.
2. That you will take him for your supreme Governor,
and consent to be subject to his government and laws,
taking his wisdom for your guide, and his will for the rule
of your wills and lives.
3. That you will take him for your chiefest Benefactor,
from whom you receive and expect all your happiness, and
to whom you owe yourselves and all, by way of thankfulness.
And that you take his love and favour for your happiness
itself, and prefer the everlasting enjoyment of his glorious
sight and love in heaven, before all the sensual pleasures of
the world.
I would prove the necessity of all these by Scripture as
we go, but that it is evident in itself; these three relations
being essential to God, as our God in covenant. He is not
our God, it" not our Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor. You
profess all this, when you profess but to love God, or to
take him for your God.
2. In the covenant of baptism you do profess to believe
in Christ, and take him for your only Saviour. If you do
this in sincerity, 1. You do unfeignedly believe the doctrine
of his Gospel, the articles of the Christian faith, concerning
his person, his offices, and his sufferings and works. 2.
You do take him unfeignedly for the only Redeemer and
Saviour of mankind, and give up yourselves to be saved by
his merits, righteousness, intercession, Slc. as he hath pro-
mised in his word. 3, You trust upon him and his promises,
for the attainment of your reconciliation and peace with
God, your justification, adoption, sanctification, and the
glory of the life to come. 4. You take him for your Lord
and King, your Owner and Ruler by the right of redemp-
tion ; and your grand Benefactor, that hath obliged you to
love and gratitude, by saving you from the wrath to come,
and purchasing eternal glory for you by his most wonderful
condescension, life and suflferino-s.
3. In the baptismal covenant, you are engaged to the
Holy Ghost. If you are sincere in this branch ofyour cove-
VOL. XVI. M
162 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
nant, 1. You discern your sins as odious and dangerous, as
the corruption of your souls, and that which displeaseth the
most holy God. 2. You see an excellency in holiness of
heart and life, as the image of God, the rectitude of man,
and that which fits him for eternal blessedness, and maketh
him amiable in the eyes of God. 3. You unfeignedly desire
to be rid of your sin, how dear soever it hath been to you ;
and to be perfectly sanctified by the Holy Spirit, by his de-
grees, in the use of the means which he hath appointed: and
you consent that the Holy Ghost, as your Sanctifier, do
purify you and kindle the love of God in you, and bring it to
perfection.
4. In baptism, you profess to renounce the world, the flesh,
and the devil ; that is, as they stand for your hearts against
the will and love of God, and against the happiness of the
unseen world; and against your faith in Christ your Sa-
viour ; and against the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost.
If therefore you are sincere in this part of your covenant,
you do upon deliberation perceive all the pleasures, profits,
and honours of this world, to be so vain and worthless, that
you are habitually resolved to prefer the love and favour of
God, and your salvation, before them ; and to be ruled by
Jesus Christ, and his Spirit and word, rather than by the de-
sires of the flesh, or the world's allurements, or the will of
man, or the suggestions of the devil ; and to forsake all
rather than forsake the Father, the Saviour, the Sanctifier,
to whom you are devoted, and the everlasting life, which
upon his promise you have taken for your hope and por-
tion. This is the sense of baptism, and all this in profes-
sion being essential to your baptism, must be essential to
your Christianity. Your parents' profession of it was ne-
cessary to your infant title to the outward privileges of the
church. Your own personal profession is necessary to your
continuance of those privileges,and your visible Christianity
and communion with the adult. And the truth of what you
profess, is necessary to your real Christianity before God,
and to your title to salvation : and this is it that is to be now
inquired after. You cannot hope to be admitted into hea-
ven, upon lower terms than the sincerity of that profession
which entereth you into the church : while we tell you of
ao higher matters necessary to your salvation, than the sin-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 163
cerity of that which is necessary to baptism and Christianity,
I hojje you will not say we deal too strictly with you. In-
quire now by a diligent trial of your hearts, whether you
truly consent to all these articles of your baptismal vow or
covenant. If you do, you are regenerate by the Spirit : if
you do not, you have but the sacrament of regeneration ;
which aggravateth your guilt, as a violated profession and
covenant must needs do. And I do not think, that any man
worthy to be discoursed with, will have the face to tell you,
that any man, at the use of reason, is by his baptism, (or
any thing else) in a state of justification and salvation, whose
heart doth not sincerely consent to the covenant of baptism,
and whose life expresseth not that consent.
Hence therefore you may perceive that it is a thing un-
questionable, that all these persons are yet unregenerate,
and in the bond of their iniquity.
I. All those that have not unfeignedly devoted themselves
to God, as being not their own, but his. His by the title of
creation, (Psal. c. 3,) " Know ye that the Lord he is God ;
it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are his
people, and the sheep of his pasture." And his by the title
of redemption; for "we are bought with a price." (1 Cor. vii.
23.) And he that unfeignedly taketh God for his owner,
and absolute Lord, will heartily give up himself unto him ;
as Paul saith of the Corinthians, (2 Cor. viii. 5,) "They first
gave up their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will
of God."
And he that entirely giveth up himself to God, doth with
himself surrender all that he hath in desire and resolution.,
As Christ with himself doth give us all things," (Rom. viii.
32,) and " addeth other things to them that seek first his
kingdom and its righteousness, (Matt. vi. 33,) so Christians
with themselves do give up all they have to Christ.
And he that giveth up himself to God, will live to God:
and he that taketh not himself to be his own, will take no-
thing for his own ; but will study the interest of his Lord,
and think he is best disposed of, when he honoureth him
most, and serveth him best, (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20,) " Ye are not
your own, for ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
If any of you devote not yourselves unfeignedly to God,
and make it not your first inquiry, what God would have
164 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
you be and do, but live to yourselves, and yet think your-
selves in a state of life, you are mistaken, and do not know
yourselves. What abundance might easily see their miserable
condition in this discovery, who say in effect, " Our lips are
our own : who is Lord over us?*' (Psal. xii. 4,) and rather
hate and oppose the interest of God and holiness in the
world, than devote themselves to the promoting of it ! (Deut.
xxxii. 6.) " Do ye thus requite the Lord, ye foolish people
and unwise ? Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee?
Hath he not made thee, and established thee ?"
2. All those are unregenerate and in a state of death,
that are not sincerely subjected to the governing will of
God, but are ruled by their carnal interest and desires ; and
the word of a man that can gratify or hurt them, can do
more with them than the word of God : To shew them the ^
command of a man that they think can undo them if they
disobey, doth more prevail with them, than to shew them
the command of God, that can condemn them unto endless
misery. They more fear men that can kill the body, than
God, that can destroy both soul and body in hell fire. When
the lust of the flesh, and the will of man do bear more sway
than the will of God, it is certain that such a soul is unre-
generate. (Rom. vi. 3, 4, 6.) " Know ye not that so many of
us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his
death ? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead, by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed ; that hence-
forth we should not serve sin, (ver. 16.) Know ye not
that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death,
or of obedience unto righteousness? Forasmuch then as
Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves like-
wise with the same mind ; for he that hath suffered in the
flesh hath ceased from sin : that he no longer should live the
rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the
will of God." (1 Pet. iv. 1,2.)
3. All those are unregenerate, that depend not upon God
as their chief benefactor; and do not most carefully apply
themselves to him, as knowing that " in his favour is life,"
(Psal. XXX. 5,) and that " his loving-kindness is better than
AND BENEFITS OF SE LF-AC QU A I N T ANC F,. 1(35
life," (Psal, Ixiii. 3,) and that to his judgQient we must fi-
nally stand or fall: but do ambitiously seek the favour of
men, and call them their benefactors, (Luke xxii. 25; Matt*
xxiii. 9,) whatever become of the favour of God. He is no child
of God that preferreth not the love of God before the love
of ail the world. He is no heir of heaven, that preferreth
not the fruition of God in heaven, before all worldly glory
and felicity. " If ye be risen with Christ, seek the things
that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
(lod : Set your affections on things above, not on things on
the earth." (Col. iii. 1 — 3.) The love of God is the sura of
holiness; the heart of the new creature ; the perfecting of
it is the perfection and felicity of man.
4. They are certainly unregenerate, that believe not the
Gospel, and take not Christ for their only Saviour, and his
promises of grace and glory, as purchased by his sacrifice
and merits, for the foundation of their hopes, on which they
resolve to trust their souls for pardon and for peace with
God, and endless happiness. "Neither is there salvation in
any other : for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.)
" This is the record that 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." (1 John v. 11, 12.)
When our happiness was in Adam's hands, he lost it : it
is now put into safer liands, and Jesus Christ the second
Adam is become our treasury. He is the head of the body,
from whom each member hath quickening influence. (Eph.
i. 22.) The life of saints is in him, as the life of the tree is
in the root, unseen. (Col. iv. 3, 4.) Holiness is a living un-
to God in Christ; though we are dead with Christ, to the
law, and to the world, and to the flesh, we are alive to God.
So Paul describeth our case in his own, " I through the
law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God : 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." (Gal. ii. 19, 20.) " Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. vi. '
11.) " Christ is the vine, and we are the branches; with-
out him we can do nothing : If you abide not in him, and
16G THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
his v/ords in you, you are cast forth as a branch, and
withered, which men gather and cast into the fire, and they
are burned." (John xv. 1. 5 — 7.) In baptism you are married
unto Christ, as to the external solemnization; and in spi-
ritual regeneration your hearts do inwardly close with him,
entertain him, and resign themselves unto him by faith and
love ; and by a resolved covenant become his own : and
therefore baptism and the Lord's-supper are called Sacra-
ments ; because as soldiers were wont, by an oath, and list-
ing their names, and other engaging ceremonies, to oblige
themselves to their commanders, and their vow was called
a Sacrament : so do we eno-aoe ourselves to Christ in the
holy vow or covenant entered in baptism, and renewed in
the Lord's-supper.
5. That person is certainly unregenerate, that never was
convinced of a necessity of sanctification, or never perceived
an excellency and amiableness in holiness of heart and life,
and loved it in others, and desired it himself; and never
gave up himself to the Holy Ghost, to be further sanctified
in the use of his appointed means ; desiring to be perfect,
and willing to press forward towards the mark, and to
abound in grace. Much less is that person renewed by the
Holy Ghost, that hateth holiness, and had rather be without
it, and would not walk in the fear and obedience of the Lord.
The spirit of holiness is that life by which Christ quick-
eneth all that are his members. He is no member of Christ
that is witliout it. (Rom. viii. 9.) " According to his mercy,
he saveth us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing
of the Holy Ghost." (Titus iii. 5.)
6. That person is unregenerate, that is under the do-
minion of his fleshly desires, and " mindeth the things of
the flesh above the things of the Spirit ;" and hath not mor-
tified it so far, as not to live according to it. A carnal
mind, and a carnal life, are opposite to holiness, as sickness
is to health, and darkness unto light. "There is no con-
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh : but they that
are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be car-
nally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God;
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be :
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 167
So then they that are in the flesh, cannot please God-
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if by the Spi-
rit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Rom.
viii. 1 — 14.) " Now the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like ; of which I tell you before, as I
have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : against such there
is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh, with the affections and lusts." (Gal. v. 18 — 25.)
7. Lastly, That person is certainly unregenerate, that so
far valueth and loveth the world, or any of the carnal ac-
commodations therein, as practically to prefer them before
the love of God, and the hopes of everlasting glory : seek-
ing it first, with highest estimation, and holding it fastest;
so as that he will rather venture his soul upon the threatened
wrath of God, than his body upon the wrath of man ; and
will be religious no further than may consist with his pros-
perity or safety in the world, and hath something that he
cannot part with for Christ and heaven, because it is dearer
to him than they : Let this man go never so far in religion,
as long as he goeth further for the world, and setteth it
nearest to his heart, and holds it fastest, and will do most
for it, and consequently loveth it better than Christ, he is
no true Christian, nor in a state of grace.
The Scriptures put this also out of doubt, as you may
see Matt. x. 37, 38 ; Luke xiv. 25, 27. 33 ; " He that loveth
father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me, &c.
Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me, can-
not be my disciple. Whoever he be of you that forsaketh
not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." " Know
ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy
of God." (James iv. 4.) No wonder then if the world must
be renounced in our baptism. " Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world : if any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John ii. 15.)
You see by this time, what it is to be regenerate, and to
UJ8 THE MISCHIEF^; OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
be a Christian indeed, by what is contained even in our
baptism : and consequently how you may know yourselves,
whether you are sanctified, and the heirs of heaven, or not.
Again therefore I summon you to appear before your
consciences : And if indeed these evidences of regeneration
are not in you, stop not the sentence, but confess your sin-
iui, miserable state, and condemn yourselves, and say no
longer, I hope yet that my present condition may serve turn,
and that God will forgive me, though I should die without
any further change: Those hopes that you may be saved
without regeneration, or that you are regenerate when you
are not, are the pillars of Satan's fortress in your hearts, and
keep you from the saving hopes of the regenerate, that will
never make you ashamed. Uphold not that which Christ is
engaged against: down it must, either by grace or judg-
ment: and therefore abuse not your souls by under-prop-
ping such an ill-grounded, false, deceitful hope. You have
now time to take it down so orderly and safely, as that it
fall not on your heads, and overwhelm you not for ever. But
if you stay till death shall undermine it, the fall will be
great, and your ruin irreparable. If you are wise, therefore
know yourselves in time.
II. I have done with that part of my special exhortation
which concerned the unregenerate : I am next to speak to
Uiose of you that by grace are brought into a better stale :
and to tell you, that it very much concerneth you also, even
the best of you, to labour to be well acquainted with your-
selves : and that both in respect of, ] . Your sins and wants ;
and, 2. Your graces and your duties.
I. Be acquainted with the root and remnant of your sins:
with your particular inclinations and corrupt affections ;
with their quality, their degree and strength : with the
weaknesses of every grace : with your disability to duty ;
and with the omissions or sinful practices of your lives.
Search diligently and deeply ; frequently and accurately pe-
ruse your hearts and ways, till you certainly and thoroughly
know yourselves.
And I beseech you, let it not suffice you that you know
your states, and have found yourselves in the love of God,
in the faith of Christ, and possessed by his Spirit. Though
this be a mercy worth many worlds, yet this is not all con-
AND BENEFITS OF SELl'-A C QU A INTANCE. 169
earning yourselves that you have to know. If yet you
say that you have no sin, you deceive yourselves. If yet
you think you are past all danger, your danger is the greater
for this mistake. As much as you have been humbled for
sin ; as much as you have loathed it ; as often as you have
confessed it, lamented it, and complained and prayed against
it, yet it is alive: though it be mortified, it is alive. It is
said to be mortified as to the prevalency and reign, but the
relics of it yet survive: were it perfectly dead, you were
perfectly delivered from it, and might say, you have no sin :
but it is not yet so happy with you. It will find work for
the blood and Spirit of Christ, and for yourselves, as long
as you are in the flesh. And, alas, too many that know
themselves to be upright in the main, are yet so much un-
acquainted with their hearts and lives, as to the degrees of
grace and sin, as that it much disadvantageth them in their
Christian progress. Go along with me in the careful obser-
vation of these following evils, that may befal even the re-
generate by the remnants of self-ignorance.
1. The work of mortification is very much hindered, be-
cause you know yourselves no better, as may appear in all
these following discoveries.
(1.) You confess not sin to God or man ^o penitently and
sensibly as you ought, because you know yourselves no
better. Did you see your inside with a fuller view, how
deeply would you aggravate your sin! how heavily would
you charge yourselves ! repentance would be more intense
and more effectual ; and when you were more contrite,
you would be more meet for the sense of pardon, and for
God's delight. (Isa. li. 15; Ixvi. 2.) It would fill you more
with godly shame and self- abhorrence, if you better knew
yourselves. It would make you more sensibly say with
Paul, " I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of ray mind, and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!"
(Rom. vii. 23, 24.) And with David, " I will declare my
iniquity ; I will be sorry for my sin. They are more than
the hairs of my head. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid : I said I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord, and thou forgayest the iniquity
of my sin." (Psal. xxxviii. 18; xl. 12; xxxii. 5.) Repen-
170 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
tance is the death of sin : and the knowledge of ourselves,
and the sie;ht of our sins is the life of repentance.
(2.) You pray not against sin, for grace and pardon, so
earnestly as you should, because you know yourselves no
better. O that God would but open these too-close hearts
unto us, and anatomize the relics of the old man, and show
us all the recesses of our self-deceit, and the filth of world-
liness, and carnal inclinations that lurk within us, and read
us a lecture upon every part; what prayers would it teach us
to indite ! That you may not be proud of your holiness, let
me tell you, Christians, that a full display of the corruptions
that the best of you carry about you, would not only take
down self-exalting thoughts, that you be not lifted up above
measure, but would teach you to pray with fervour and im-
portunity, and waken you out of your sleepy indifference,
and make you cry, " O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me !" If the sight of a lazar, or cripple, or naked
person, move you to compassion, though they use no words :
if the sight of a man that is gasping for want of your relief.
Will affect you : surely the sight of your own deformities,
wants and dangers, would affect you if you saw them as
they are. How many a sin do you forget in your confes-
sions that should have a particular repentance ! And how
many wants do you overlook in prayers, that should have
particular petitions for a merciful supply ! And how many
are lightly touched, and run over with words of course, that
would be earnestly insisted on, if you did but better know
yourselves ! O that God would persuade you better to study
your hearts, and pray out of that book whenever you draw
nigh to him, that you might not be so like the hypocrites, that
draw near to him with the lips, when their hearts are far
from him. To my shame I must confess, that my soul is
too dry and barren in holy supplications to God, and too
little affected with my confessed sins and wants : but I
am forced to lay all in a very great measure upon the im-
perfect acquaintance that I have at home : I cannot think I
should want matter to pour out before the Lord in confes-
sion and petition, nor so much want fervour and earnestness
with God, if my heart and life lay open to my view, while I
am upon my knees.
(3.) It is for want of a fuller knowledge of yourselves that
you are so negligent in your Cliristian watch, that you do
AND BLNEl'ITS OF SE Ll-AC QU A I N T AN CP:. 171
no better guard your senses ; that you make no stricter a
covenant with your eyes, your appetites, your tongues :
that you no more examine what you think, affect and say :
what passeth in your heart and out of it : that you call not
yourselves more frequently to account; but days run on,
and duties are carelessly performed as of course, and no
daily or weekly reckoning made to conscience of all. The
knowledge of your weaknesses, and readiness to yield, and
of your treacherous corruptions that comply with the ene-
my, would make you more suspicious of yourselves, and to
walk more "circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,"(Eph.
V. 15,) and to look under your feet, and consider your ways
before you were too bold and venturous. It was the con-
sciousness of their own infirmity, that should have moved
the disciples to watch and pray. " Watch and pray that ye
enter not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak." (Matt. xxvi. 41.) And all have the same
charge, because all have the same infirmity and danger.
" What I say to you, I say unto all, Watch." (Mark xiii. 37.)
Did we better know how many advantages our own cor-
ruptions give the tempter, that charge of the Holy Ghost
would awake us all to stand to our arms and look about us:
" Watch ye, stand fast in the faith : quit you like men, be
strong." (1 Cor. xvi. 13.) "Put on the whole armour of
God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil : for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,"
8lc. (Eph. vi. 1 1 — 14.) When men know not whose legs they
stand upon, they grow heedless of their way, and quickly slide.
The knowledge of ourselves doth show us all the advan-
tages of the tempter : what he hath to work upon, and what
in us to take his part, and consequently where he is most
likely to assault us : and so puts us into so prepared a pos-
ture for defence, as very much hindereth his success. But
so far as we do not know ourselves, we are like blind men
in fencing, that the adversary may hit in what part he please :
we have so many hidden enemies in our houses, as will
quickly open the door to more. What sin may not Satan
tempt a man into, that is not acquainted with the corruptions
and frailties of his own heart !
(4.) Tt is for want of self-acquaintance that we make not
172 THE MISCHIEFS uF SELF-J G N OR A N CE,
out for help against our sin to ministers or other friends
that could assist us : and that we use the confirmino; ordi-
nances with no more care and diligence. All the abilities
and willingness of others, and' all the helps of God's ap-
pointment, will be neglected, when we should employ them
against our sins, so far as self-ignorance doth keep us from
discerning the necessity of them.
(5.) It is for want of a fuller knowledge of ourselves, that
many lie long in sins unobserved by themselves : and many
are on the declining hand, and take no notice of it. And
how little resistance or mortifying endeavours we are likely
to bestow upon unknown or unobserved sins, is easy to con-
ceive. How many may we observe to have notable blemishes
of pride, ostentation, desire of pre-eminence and esteem,
envy, malice, self-conceitedness, self-seeking, censorious-
ness, uncharitableness, and such like, that see no more of it
in themselves, than is in more mortified men ! How ordi-
narily do we hear the pastors that watch over them, and
their friends that are best acquainted with them, lamenting
the miscarriages, and the careless walking and declining of
many that seem religious, when they lament it not them-
selves, nor will be convinced that they are sick of any
such disease, any more than all other Christians are ! Hence
comes the stiffness of too many such, against all that can be
said to humble and reform them : and that they are so im-
patient of reproof, and think reprovers do them wrong ; and
it is well if it abate not Christian love, and procure not some
degree of hatred or displeasure. Like a man that is enter-
ing into 9, consumption, and takes it for an injury to be told
so, till his languishing and decay convince him. Hence it
is that we have all need to lament in general our unknown
sins, and sav with David, " Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults." (Psal. xix. 12.) Hence
it is that we can seldom tell men of the most discernible
faults, but they meet us with excuses, and justify themselves.
There are few of us, I think, that observe our hearts at
all, but find both upon any special illumination, and in the
hour of discovering trials, that there were many distempers
in our hearts, and many miscarriages in our lives, that we
never took notice of before. The heart hath such secret
corners of uncleanness, such mysteries of iniquity, and
depths of deceitfulness, that many fearing God, are strangely
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 17."3
unacquainted with themselves, as to the particular motions
and degrees of sin, till some notable providence, or gracious
light assist them in the discovery. I think it not unprofit-
able here to give you some instances, of sin undiscerned by
the servants of the Lord themselves that have it, till the light
come in that makes them wonder at their former darkness.
In general, fust observe these two. 1. The secret habits
of sin, being discernible only by some acts, are many times
unknown to us, because we are under no strong temptation
to commit those sins. Audit is a wonderful hard thing for
a man that hath little or no temptation to know himself, and
know what he should do, if he had the temptations of other
men. And O, what sad discoveries are made in the hour of
temptation! What svv^arms of vice break out in some, like
vermin, that lay hid in the cold of winter, and crawl about
when they feel the summer's heat ! What horrid corruptions
which we never observed in ourselves before, do show them-
selves in the hour of temptation ! Who would have thought
that righteous Noah had in the ark such a heart, as would
by carelessness fall into the sin of drunkenness! Or that righ-
teous Lot had carried from Sodom the seed of drunkenness
and incest in him! Or that David, a man so eminent in holi-
ness, and a man after God's own heart, had a heart that had
in it the seeds of adultery and murder ! Little thought
Peter, when he professed Christ, (Matt. xvi. 16,) that there
had been in him such carnality and unbelief, as would so
soon have provoked Christ to say, " Get thee behind me
Satan, thou art an offence unto me : for thou savourest not
the things that be of God, but those that be of men," (ver. 22,
23.) And little did he think when he so vehemently professed
his resolution rather to die with Christ than deny him, that
there had been then in his heart the seed that would bring
forth this bitter fruit. (Matt. xxvi. 74, 75.) Who knows
what is virtually in a seed, that never saw the tree, or tasted
of the fruit?
Especially when we have not only a freedom from temp-
tations, but also the most powerful means to keep under
vicious habits, it is hard to know how far they are mortified
at the root. When men are among those that countenance
the contrary virtue, and where the vice is in disgrace, and
where examples of piety and temperance are still before their
eyes: if they dwell in such places and company, where au-
174 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
thority and friendship and reason do all take part with good,
and cry down the evil, no wonder if the evil that is unmorti-
iied in men's hearts, do not much break out to their own or
others' observations through all this opposition. The in-
stance of King Joash is famous for this, who " did that which
was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days of Jehoiada
the priest that instructed him,*' (2 Kings xii. 2,) but " after
his death, when the princes of Judah flattered him with their
obeisance, he left the house of God and served idols, till
wrath came upon the land ; and was so hardened in sin, as
to murder Zechariah the prophet of God, and son of that
Jehoiada that had brought him out of obscurity, and set him
upon the throne, even because he spake in the name of the
Lord against his sin. (2 Chron. xxiv. 20. 22.)
Who would have thought that it had been in the heart
of Solomon, a man so wise, so holy, and so solemnly engaged
to God, by his public professions and works, to have com-
mitted the abominations mentioned 1 Kino;s xi. 4.?
If you say, ' That all this proveth not that there was any
seed or root of such a sin in the heart before, but only that
the temptation did prevail to cause the acts first, and then
such habits as those acts did tend to ;' I answer, 1. I grant
that temptations do not only discover what is in the heart,
but also make it worse when they prevail ; and that is
no full proof that a man had a proper habit of sin before,
because by temptation he commits the act : for Adam sinned
by temptation without an antecedent habit. 2. But we
know the nature of man to be now corrupted, and that this
corruption is virtually or seminally all sin, disposing us to
all ; and that this disposition is strong enough to be called
a general habit. When grace in the sanctified is called a
nature, (2 Peter i. 4,) there is the same reason to call the
sinful inclination a nature too ; which can signify nothing
else than a strong and rooted inclination. Knowing there-
fore that the heart is so corrupted, we may well say, when
the evil fruit appears, that there was the seed of it before.
And the easy and frequent yielding to the temptation, shows
there was a friend to sin within. 3. But if it were not so,
yet that our hearts should be so frail, sodefectible, mutable,
and easily drawn to sin, is a part of self-knowledge necessary
to our preservation, and nut to be disregarded. 4. I am
sure Christ himself tells us, that " out of the lieart proceed
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQU A INTANC F. I7e>
the sins of the life, (Matt. xv. 19,) and that the " evil things
of evil men come out of the evil treasure of their hearts."
(Matt. xii. 35.) And when God permitted the fall of good
King Hezekiah, the text saith, " God left him to try him,
that he might know all that was in his heart," (2 Chron,
xxxii. 31,) that is, that he might show all that was in his
heart, so that the weakness and the remaining corruption of
Hezekiah's heart were shewn in the sin which he committed.
2. And as the sinful inclinations are hardly discerned,^
and long lie hid till some temptation draw them out ; so the
act itself is hardly discerned in any of its malignity, till it
be done and past, and the soul is brought to a deliberate
review. For while a man is in the act of sin, either his
understanding is so far deluded, as to think it no sin in its
kind, or none to him that then committeth it; or that it is
better venture on it than not, for the attaining of some seem-
ing good, or the avoiding of some evil : or else the restrain-
ing act of the understanding is suspended, and withdrawn ;
and it discerneth not practically the pernicious evil of the
sin, and forbiddeth not the committing of it, or forbids it so
remissly and with so low a voice, as is drowned by the cla-
mour of contradicting passion : so that the prohibition is not
heard. And how can it be then expected, that when a man
hath not wit enough in use, to see his sin so far as to forbear
it, he should even then see it so far as rightly to judge of
himself and it ? And that when reason is low, and sensuality
prevaileth, we should then have the right use of reason for
self-discerning ? When a storm of passion hath blown out
the light, and error hath extinguished it, we are unlikely
then to know ourselves. When the sensual part is pleasing
itself with its forbidden objects, that pleasure so corrupts
the judgment, that men will easily believe that it is lawful^
or that it is not very bad : so that sin is usually least known
and felt, when it is greatest and in exercise, and one would
think should then be most perceptible. Like a phrensy or
madness, or other deliration, that is least known when it is
greatest and most in act, because its nature is destructive
to the reason that should know it: like a spot in the eye^
that is itself unseen, and hindereth the sight of all things
else. Or as the deeper a man's sleep is, the less he knoweth
that he is asleej). ' Somniuai narrare vigilaatis est,' saith
Seneca: It is men awake that tell their dreams.
176 THE MJSCHIEFiJ OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
And thus you see that through self-ignorance it comeij to
pass, that both secret habits, and the most open acts of sin
are ofttimes little known. A man that is drunk, is in an unfit
state to know what drunkenness is, and so is a man that is
in his passion : you will hardly bring him to repentance till
it be allayed. And so is a man in the brutifying heat of lust :
or in the childish use of such recreations as he doteth on :
or in the ambitious pursuit of his deluding honours : and
therefore abundance of unknown sin, may remain in a soul
that laboureth not to be well acquainted with itself.
And as I have showed you this in general, both of habits
and acts of sin, let us consider of some instances in particu-
lar, which will yet more discover the necessity of studying
ourselves.
]. Little do we think what odious and dangerous errors
may befal a person that now is orthodox! What a slippery
mutability the mind of man is liable unto! How variety of
representations causeth variety of apprehensions : like some
pictures that seem one thing when you look on them on one
side, and another thing when on another side; if you change
your place, or change your light, they seem to change. In-
deed God's word hath nothing in it thus fitted to deceive:
but our weakness hath that which disposeth us to mistakes.
We are like an unlearned judge that thinks the cause is
good which he first hears pleaded for, till he hear the con-
futation by the other party, and then he thinks the other
hath the best cause, till perhaps he hear both so long, till
he know not whose cause is the best: The person that now
is a zealous lover of the truth, (when it hath procured enter-
tainment by the happy advantage of friends, acquaintance,
ministers, magistrates, or common consent being on its side)
may possibly turn a zealous adversary to it, when it loseth
those advantages : When a minister shall change his mind,
how many of the flock may he mislead !
When you marry, or contract any intimate friendship with
a person of unsound and dangerous principles, how easily
are they received !
When the stream of the times and authority shall change,
and put the name of truth on falsehood, how many may be
carried down the stream!
How zealous have many been for a faithful ministry, that
have turned their persecutors, or made it a great part of
AND BEXEFITS OF S ELF-A C Q U A I NT A NO PI. 177
their religion to revile them, when once they have turned
to some sect that is possessed by the malicious spirit,
(especially the Papists and Quakers are famous for such
language of reproach: though the former excel the latter
much in the slandering part, and the latter excel in the open
bawling and incivility of speech.)
And O that we could stop here, and could not remem-
ber how faithfully and honestly some have seemed to love
and obey the word of God, and to delight in the communion
of saints, that by seducers have been brought to deny the
Divine authority of the Scriptures, and to turn their backs
on all God's public ordinances of worship, and excommuni-
cate themselves from the society of the saints, and vilify
or deny the works of the Spirit in them! Little did these
men once think themselves, whither they should fall, under
the conceit of rising higher : and little would they have
believed him that had told them what a change they would
make. Had these men known themselves in time, and
known what tinder and gunpowder was in their hearts, they
would have walked more warily, and it is likely have escaped
the snare; but they fell into it, because they feared it not: and
they feared it not, because they knew not or observed not,
how prone they were to be infected.
2. Little do many think in their adversity, or low estate,
what seeds are in their hearts, which prosperity would turn
into very odious, scandalous sins, unless their vigilancy,and
a special preservation, do prevent it. Many a man that in
his shop, or at his plough, is censuring the great miscar-
riages of his superiors, doth little think how bad he might
prove, if he were in the place of those he censureth. Many
a poor man that freely talks against the luxury, pride, and
cruelty of the rich, doth little think how like them he should
be, if he had their temptations and estates. How many per-
sons that lived in good repute for humility, temperance, and
piety, have we seen turn proud, and sensual, and ungodly,
when they have been exalted ! I would mention no man's case
by way of insulting or reproach, but by way of compassion,
and in order to their repentance that survive. I must say that
this age hath given us such lamentable instances, as should
make all our hearts to ache and fear, when we consider the
crimes and their effects. Would the persons that once
VOL, XVI. N
178 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
walked with us in the ways of peace, and concord, and obe-
dience, have believed that man that should have foretold
them twenty years ago, how many should be puffed up and
deluded by successes, and make themselves believe, by the
ebullition of pride, that victories authorized them to denv
subjection to the higher powers, and by right or wrong to
take down all that stood in their way, and to take the go-
vernment into their own hands, and to depose their rightful
governors, never once vouchsafing to ask themselves the
question that Christ asked, Luke xii. 14, " Man, who made
me a judge, or a divider over you?" As if authority had
been nothing but strength, and he had the best right to
govern, that could make tire greatest force to compel obedi-
ence. Little were the seeds of all this evil discerned in the
heart, before prosperity and success did cherish them, and
bring them to that, which with grief we have long observed.
They would have said as Hazael, " Am I a dog that I should
do this ?" If one had told them before, that when God hath
charged every soul to be subject on pain of condemnation,
and they had vowed fidelity, they should break all these
bonds of commands and vows; and all because they were
able to do it: when they would not justify him that should
do any mischief to themselves, and think it warrantable be-
cause he was able : when the ministers of the Gospel, and
their dearest friends, bore witness against the sin, the heart
could not, by all this be brought to perceive its guilt ; or
that it was any sin to overturn,-overturn, overturn, till they
had overturned all, and left not themselves a bough to stand
upon. And how hardly to this day, do the notable disco-
verings of God, and the plainness of his word, and the con-
tinued witness of his servants, prevail for kindly true repent-
ance ! The unrighteous usage of magistracy and ministry,
and the licentious indulgence of the open enemies and re-
vilers of both, and of all the ordinances and churches of the
Lord, do proclaim aloud to all that fear God, ' The depths
and deceits of the heart are wonderful, and you little think
what an hour of temptation may discover in you, or bring
you to : O therefore know yourselves, and fear, and watch.'
3. A man that in adversity is touched with penitent and
mortifying considerations, and strongly resolveth how holily
and diligently he will live hereafter, if he be recovered oc
i
AND BENEFITS OF S E LF- A C QU A I N T ANCE. 179
delivered from his suffering, doth ofttimes little think what a
treacherous heart he hath, and how little he may retain of
all this sense of sin or duty, when he is delivered^ and that
he will be so much worse than he seemed or promised, as
that he may have cause to wish he had been afflicted still.
O how many sick-bed promises are as pious as we can de-
sire, that wither away and come to almost nothing, when
health hath scattered the fears that caused them ! How many
with that great imprisoned Lord, do, as it were, write the
story of Christ upon their prison walls, that forget him
when they are set at liberty ! How many are tender-con-
scienced in a low estate, that when they are exalted, and
converse with great ones, do think that they may waste their
time in idleness and needless scandalous recreations, and
be silent witnesses of the most odious sins from day to day ;
and pray God be merciful to them when they go to the house
of Rimmon ; and dare scarcely own a downright servant,
or hated and reproached cause of God! O what a preserva-
tive would it be to us in prosperity, to know the corruption
of our hearts, and foresee in adversity what we are in dan-
ger of! We should then be less ambitious to place our
dwellings on the highest ground, and more fearful of the
storms that there must be expected. How few are there
(to a wonder) that grow better by worldly greatness and
prosperity ! Yea, how few that hold their own, and grow
not worse ! And yet how few are there (to a greater wonder)
that refuse, or that desire not this perilous station, rather
than to stand safer on the lower ground ! Verily, the
lamentable fruits of prosperity, and the mutability of men
that make great professions and promises in adversity,
should make the best of us jealous of our hearts, and con-
vince us that there is greater corruption in them, than most
are acquainted with, that are never put to such a trial. The
height of prosperity shews what the man is indeed, as much
as the depth of adversity.
Would one have thought that had read of Hezekiah's
earnest prayer in his sickness, and the miracle wrought to sio--
nify his deliverance, (2 Kings xx. 2, 3. 9,) and of his writ-
ten song of praise, (Isa. xxxviii,) that yet Hezekiah's heart
should so deceive him, as to prove unthankful ? You may
see by his expressions, his high resolutions to spend his life
in the praise of God, " The living, the living, he shall praise
180 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
thee, as I do this day : the fathers to the children shall make
known thy truth. The Lord was ready to save me: there-
fore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all
the days of our life in the house of the Lord !" (Isa. xxxviii.
19, 20.) Would you think that a holy man, thus wrapt up in
God's praise, should yet miscarry, and be charged with in-
gratitude? And yet in 2 Chron. xxxii. 25, it is said of
him, " But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the
benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore
there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem."
And God was fain to bring him to a review, and humble him
for being thus lifted up, as the next words shew, (ver. 26.)
" Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride
of his heart." sirs, what Christian that ever was in a deep
affliction, and hath been recovered by the tender hand of
mercy, hath not found how false a thing the heart is, and
how little to be trusted in its best resolutions, and most con-
fident promises ! Hezekiah still remained a holy faithful man ;
but yet thus failed in particulars and degrees. Which of us
can say, who have had the most affecting and engaging de-.
liverances,that ever our hearts did fully answer the purposes
and promises of our afflicted state ! and that we had as
constant sensible thanksgivings after, as our complaints and
prayers were before ! Not I ; with grief I must say. Not I,
though God hath tried me many a time. Alas, we are too
like the deceitful Israelites, (Psal. Ixxviii. 34.) " When he
slew them, then they sought him ; and they returned and
inquired after God : and they remembered that God was
their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless
they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto
him with their tongues : for their heart was not right with
him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. Prosperity
oft shews more of the hypocrisy of the unsound, and the in-
firmity of the upright, than appeared in adversity. When
we feel the strong resolutions of our hearts to cast off our
sin, to walk more thankfully and fruitfully, and accurately
with God than we have done, we can hardly believe that
ever those hearts should lose so much of those affections
and resolutions, as in a little time we find they do. Alas,
how quickly and insensibly do we slide into our former in-
sensibility, and into our dull and heavy fruitless course,
when once the pain and fear is gone ! And then when the
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 181
next affliction comes, we are confounded and covered with
shame, and have not the confidence with God in our prayers
and cries as we had before, because we are conscious of
our covenant-breaking and backsliding ; and at last we grow
so distrustful of our hearts, that we know not how to believe
any promises which they make, or how to be confident of
any evidence of grace that is in them ; and so we lose the
comfort of our sincerity, and are cast into a state of too
much heaviness and unthankful denial of our dearest mer-
cies : And all this comes from the foul, unexpected relapses,
and coolings, and declinings of the heart that comes not up
to the promises we made to God in our distress.
But if exaltation be added to deliverance, how often doth
it make the reason drunk, so that the man seems not the
same ! If you see them drowned in ambition, or worldly cares
or pleasures ; if you see how boldly they can play with the
sin, that once they would have trembled at ; how powerful
fleshly arguments are with them ; how strangely they now
look at plain-hearted, zealous, heavenly Christians, whose
case they once desired to be in ; and how much they are
ashamed or afraid, to appear openly for an opposed cause
of Christ, or openly to justify the persons that he justifieth,
as if they had forgot that a day is coming, when they will
be loath that Christ should be ashamed of them, and refuse
to justify them, when the grand accuser is pleading for their
condemnation ! I say, if you see these men in their pros-
perity, would you not ask with wonder, ' Are these the
men that lately in distress, did seem so humble, penitent,
and sincere : that seemed so much above these vanities :
that could speak with so much contempt of all the glory and
pleasures of the world : and with so much pity of those
vertiginous men, that they now admire?'
O what pillars have been shaken by prosperity! What
promises broken ! What sad eruptions of pride and worldli-
ness ! What openings and sad discoveries of heart, doth this
alluring, charming trial make? And why is it that men know
not themselves when they are exalted, but because they did
not sufficiently know themselves when they were brought
low, nor suspected enough the purposes and promises of
their hearts, in the day of their distress !
4. We would little think, when the heart is warmed and
raised even to heaven, in holy ordinances, how cold it will
182 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
grow again, and how low it will fail down! And when we
have attained the clearest sight of our sincerity, we little
think how quickly all such apprehensions may be lost; and
the misjudging soul, that reckons upon nothing but what
it sees, or feels at present, may be at as great a loss, as if it
had never perceived any fruits of the Spirit, or lineaments
of the image of God upon itself. How confident upon good
grounds, is many an honest heart of its sincerity ! How cer-
tain that it desireth to be perfectly holy ! 1. That it would
be rid of the nearest, dearest sin. 2. That it loves the saints.
3. That it loves the light of the most searching ministry.
4. And loveth the most practical, sanctifying truths. 5.
And loves the ministry and means that have the greatest and
most powerful tendency to make themselves more holy (all
of which are certain evidences of sincerity). How clearly
may the heart perceive all these, and write them down ; and
yet ere long have lost the sight and sense of them all, and
find itself in darkness and confusion, and perhaps be per-
suaded that all is contrary with them ! And when they read
in their diary, or book of heart-accounts, that at such a day
in examination they found such or such an evidence ; and
such a one at another ; and many at a third ; yet now they
maybe questioning, whether all this were not deceit, because
it seems contrary to their present sight and feeling; for it
is present light that the mind discernethby, and not by that
which is past and gone, and of which we cannot so easily
judge by looking back. They find in their accounts. At such
a time I had my soul enlarged in prayer; and at such a time
I was full of joy ; and at another time I had strong assurance,
and boldnesss with God, and confidence of his love in Christ,
and doubted not of the pardon of all my sins, or the justifi-
cation or acceptance of my person: But now, no joy, no
assurance, no boldness, or confidence, or sense of love and
pardon doth appear ; but the soul seemeth dead, and carnal,
and unrenewed: As the same trees that in summer are beau-
tified with pleasant fruits and flowers, in winter are deprived
of their natural ornaments, and seem as dead, when the life
is retired to the root. The soul that once would have defied
the accuser, if he had told him that he did not love the bre-
thren, nor love the sanctifying word and means, nor desire
to be holy, and to be free from sin, is now as ready to believe
the accusation, aud will sooner believe the tempter than the
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 183
minister that watcheth for them, as one that must give
account. Yea, now it will turn the accuser of itself, and say
as Satan, and falsely charge itself with that which Christ
will acquit it of. (And must Christ be put to justify us
against ourselves, as well as against Satan !) The same
work that a well composed believer hath in confuting the
calumnies of Satan, the same hath a minister to do in con-
futing the false accusations of disturbed souls against them-
selves. And how subtle! how obstinate and tenacious are
they ! As if they had learned some of the accuser's art ; such
as the uncharitable and malicious are against their neigh-
bours, in picking quarrels with all that they say or do, in
putting the worst construction upon all, in taking every
thing in the most uncharitable sense, in aggravating the
evil, and extenuating the good, in feigning things against
them that they are not guilty of, and denying or hiding all
that is commendable; just such are poor disquieted souls
against themselves : so unjust, and so censorious, as that if
they dealt as ill by others, they would have the more cause
for some of these accusations of themselves.
And there is not a soul so high in joy and sweet as-
surance, but is liable to fall as low as this. And it makes
our case to be much more grievous than otherwise it would
be, because we know not ourselves in the hour of our con-
solations, and think not how apt we are to lose all our joy,
and what seeds of doubts, and fears, and grief, are still within
us, and what cause we have to expect a change. And there-
fore when so sad a change befalleth us, so contrary to our ex-
pectations, it surpriseth us with terror, and casteth the poor
soul almost into despair. Then crieth the distressed sinner,
• Did I ever think to see this day ! are my hopes and com-
forts come to this! Did I think so long that I was a child of
God, and must I now perceive that he disowneth me ! Did
I draw near him as my father, and place my hope in his
relief; and now must my mouth be stopped with unbelief,
and must I look at him afar off, and pass by the doors of
mercy with despair ! Is all my sweet familiarity with the
godly, and all my comfortable hours under the precious
means of grace, now come to this !' O how the poor soul
here calls itself * O vile apostate, miserable sinner! O that
I had never lived to see this gloomy day ! It had been bet-
184 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
ter for me never to have known the way of righteousness,
than thus to have relapsed; and have all the prayers that
I have put up, and all the sermons I have heard, and the
books that I have read, to aggravate my sin and misery.'
O how many a poor Christian in this dark misjudging case, is
ready with Job, to curse the day that he was born, and to say
of it, " Let it be darkness, let not God regard it from above,
neither let the light shine upon it: let it not be joined to
the days of the year : let it not come into the number of the
months: Because it shut not up the doors of the womb,
and hid not sorrow from mine eyes. Why died I not from
the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came
out of the belly ? Why did the knees prevent me, or why
the breasts that I should suck? For now should I have lain
still and been quiet Wherefore is light given to him that
is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul : which long
for death, and it cometh not which rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad when they can find the grave. Why is light
given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged
in!" (Job iii.) Such are the lamentations of distressed
souls, that lately were as in the arms of Christ. Their lives
are a burden to them; their food is bitter to them; their
health is a sickness to them; their liberty is as a prison to
them ; their dearest relations are become a»8 strangers ; and
all their comforts are turned into sorrows, and the world
seems to them as a howling wilderness, and themselves as
desolate, forsaken souls. They are still as upon the cross,
and will own no titles, but vile, unworthy, lost, undone,
forlorn and desolate ; as if they had learned no words from
Christ, but " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !"
And much of this comes from the ignorance of ourselves
in the time of peace and consolation. We are as David,
(Psal. XXX. 6, 7,) that saith " In my prosperity I said, I shall
never be moved : Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my
mountain to stand strong : but thou hidest thy face and I
was troubled." One frown of God, or withdrawing the light
of his countenance from us, would quickly turn our day into
night, and cover us with sackcloth, and lay us in the dust.
Take warning, therefore, dear Christians, you that are
yet in the sunshine of mercy, and were never at so sad a loss,
nor put to grope in the darkness of mistake and terror. No
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 185
man is so well in health, but must reckon on it that he may
be sick. When you feel nothing but peace and quietness
of mind, expect a stormy night of fears, that may disquiet
you : When you are feasting upon the sweet entertainments
of your Father's love, consider that feasting is not likely to
be your ordinary diet, but harder fare must be expected.
Look on poor Christians, in spiritual distress, with compas-
sion ; hear their sad complaints, and the bills for prayer
which they here put up, and join in hearty prayer for them,
and remember that this may prove your case. If you say.
To what purpose should you know beforehand, how sub-
ject you are to this falling sickness : I answer, not to anti-
cipate, or bring on your sorrows ; but if it may be, to pre-
vent them ; or if that may not be, at least to prevent the
extremity and terror, and to be provided for such a storm.
When you are now in health of body, and not disabled by
melancholy, or other corruptions of your fantasy, or pas-
sion, nor overwhelmed with the troubles of your mind, you
have leisure calmly to understand the case of such misjudg-
ing and distressed souls ; and accordingly you may avoid
the things that cause it: and you may be furnished with
right principles, and with promises, and experiences, and re-
corded evidences of grace ; and when comfort is withdrawn,
you may by such provision understand, that God changeth
not, nor breaks his covenant, nor abates his love, when your
apprehensions change : and that this is no sign of a for-
saken soul : and that the ceasing of our feast, and with-
drawing of the table, is not a turning us out of the family.
Expect some sicknesses, and you will the better know the
use of the physician, and will lay up promises, and prepare
your cordials : and this will prove an exceeding ease, when
the hour of your trial comes.
And what I have said of the loss of comfort may be said
also of the diminished and interrupted operations of all
grace. We little think, in the vigour of our holy progress,
what falls, and swoonings, and languishings we may find.
When you have access with boldness in prayer unto God,
and lively affections and words at will, and comfoi;table re-
turns, remember that you may come to a sadder case ; and
that many a true Christian hath such withdrawings of the
spirit of prayer, as makes them think they are possessed
with a dumb devil, and question whether ever they prayed
186 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
acceptably at all, and cannot so much as observe the groan-
ings of the Spirit in them. (Rom. viii. 26.)
When you are warm and vigorous in the work of God,
and find delight in all the ordinances, remember that you
are subject to such sicknesses as may take away your appe-
tite, and make you say, I have no mind to hear, or read, or
pray: methinks I feel no sweetness in them! I was wont to
go up with comfort to the house of God ; I was glad when the
Lord's-day was come, or nigh : it did me good to see the
faces of the saints : O the meltings, the strivings, the lively
workings of soul that I have had in their sweet communion !
when they have preached and prayed as full of the Holy
Ghost, and of faith : but now I do but force myself to duty:
I go to prayer as against my will : T feel small relish in the
word of life. O how many Christians that little thought of
such a day, cry out that spiritual death is upon them ; that
they are dead to prayer, and dead to meditation, and dead
to holy conference; and that once they thought they were
dead to the world, and now they find they are dead to God.
Understand before that you are liable to this, and you may
do much to prevent it : and if you should fall into a sick-
ness and loss of appetite, you may be able to difference it
from death.
When you are sweetly refreshed at the table of the Lord,
and have there received a sealed pardon, as from heaven in-
to your bosoms, and have found delightful entertainment
with the Lord, remember that the day may come, when dul-
ness, and unbelief, and fears, may so prevail, as to make
that an ordinance of greatest terror to you, and you may sit
there in trembling, lest you should eat and drink your own
damnation : and you may go home in fears, lest Satan have
there taken possession of you, or lest it have sealed you up
to wrath : or you may fly from that feast which is your due,
and Christ invites you to, through fears, lest it belong not
to you, and should but harden you more in sin : for, alas,
this sad and sinful case is too often the case of true be-
lievers, that little feared it in their spiritual prosperity. So
that the very high expectations of such workings of soul,
which they cannot often or ordinarily reach, and the frus-
trating of those expectations, doth so often turn the table
of the Lord into the bitterness of wormwood, into distract-
ing fears and troubles, that I cannot tell whether any other
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 187
part of worship occasion so much distress to many that are
upright at the heart as this doth, which is appointed for
their special consolation.
So when you are clear and vigorous in the life of faith,
and can abhor all temptations to unbelief, and the beams of
sacred verity in the Scriptures, have shewed you that it is
the undoubted word of God, and you have quietly bottomed
your soul on Christ, and built your hopes upon his promises,
and can with a cheerful contempt let go the world for the
accomplishment of your hopes ; remember yet that there is
a secret root of unbelief remaining in you, and that this
odious sin is but imperfectly mortified in the best: and that
it is moFe than possible that you may see the day when the
tempter will assault you with questionings of the word of
God, and trouble you with the injections of blasphemous
thoughts and doubts, whether it be true or not ! And that
you that have thought of God, of Christ, of heaven, of the im-
mortal state of souls, with joy and satisfied confidence, may
be in the dark about them, affrighted with ugly suggestions
of the enemy, and may think of them all with troublesome,
distracting doubts, and be forced to cry with the disciples,
** Lord increase our faith." (Luke xvii. 5.) And as he,
Mark ix. 24, " Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief."
Yea, worse than so ; some upright souls have been so amazed
and distracted by the tempter, and their distempered hearts,
as to think they do not believe at all, nor yet are able sin-
cerely to say, " Lord help thou my unbelief." When yet at
that time their fears and their abstaining from iniquity
shew, that they believe the threatenings, and therefore in-
deed believe the word. Now if we did but thoroughly know
ourselves, when faith is in its exercise and strength, and
consider whither the secret seeds of remaining unbelief may
bring us, being forewarned, we should be fore-armed, and
should mortify our faith the better, and be provided against
these sad assaults. And if the malignant spirit be suffered
to storm this fortress of the soul, we should more manfully
resist : and we should not be overwhelmed with horror, as
• soon as any hideous and blasphemous temptations do as-
sault us. (When Christ himself was not exempted from the
most blasphemous temptation, even the worshipping of the
devil instead of God ; though in him there was no sinful
.dispositit)n to entertain it. Matt, iv. 9^ 10; John xiv. 30.)
188 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
watch and pray. Christians, in your most prosperous
and comfortable state ! Watch and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation : for you little think what is yet within you ;
and what advantage the deceiver hath ; and how much of
your own to take his part ; and how low he may bring you,
both in point of grace and peace, though he cannot damn
you.
1 am troubled that I must tell you of so sad a case, that
even the children of God may fall into, lest by troubling
you with the opening of your danger, I should do any thing
to bring you into it. But because self-ignorance, and not
being beforehand acquainted with it, may do much more, I
have timely shewed you the danger with the remedy.
5. Another instance of the darkness even of a heart that
in part is sanctified, is in the successes of the temptations of
adversity. When we want nothing, we think we value not
the world, and we could bear the loss of all, but when po-
verty or danger comes, what trouble and unseemly whining
is there, as if it were by a worldling that is deprived of his
idol, and all the portion that ever he must have ! And by
the shameful moan and stir that we make for what we want,
we shew more sinful overvaluing of it, and love to it, than
before we observed or would believe. O how confidently
and piously have I heard some inveigh against the love of
the world, as if there had been no such thing in them ; who
yet have been so basely dejected, when they have been un-
expectedly stripped of their estates, as if they had been quite
undone !
How patiently do we think we could bear affliction, till
we feel it ! and how easily and piously can we exhort others
unto patience, when we have no sense of what they suffer !
But when our turn is come, alas, we seem to be other men.
Suffering is now another thing ; and patience harder than we
imagined. And how inclinable are we to hearken to temp-
tations, to use sinful means to come out of our sufferings !
Who would have thought that faithful Abraham should have
been so unbelieving, as to equivocate in such a danger, and
expose the chastity of his wife to hazard, as we read in Gen.
xii. 12, 13. 19? and that he should fall into the same sin
again, on the same occasion, (Gen. xx,) to Abimelech, as
before he had done with Pharaoh ! and that Isaac should,
after him, fall into the same sin, in the same place ! (Gen.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 189
xxvi. 7.) The life of faith doth set us so much above the
fear of man, and shew us the weakness and nothingness of
mortal wornas, and the faithfulness and all-sufficiency of
God, that one would think the frowns and threatenings of a
man should signify nothing to us, when God stands by, and
giveth us such ample promises and security for our con-
firmation and encouragement : and yet what base dejected-
ness, and sinful compliances are many brought to, through
the fear of man, that before the hour of this temptation,
could talk as courageously as any ! This was the case of
Peter, before-mentioned, and of many a one that hath a
wounded conscience, and wronged their profession by too
cowardly a disposition ; which if it where foreknown, we
might do more for our confirmation, and should betake our-
selves in time to Christ, in the use of means for strength.
Few turn their backs on Christ, or a good cause in time of
trial, that are jealous of themselves beforehand, and afraid
lest they should forsake him: Few fall that are afraid of
falling : but the self-ignorant and self-confident are careless
of their way, and it is they that fall.
6. Another instance that I may give you, is, in the un-
expected appearances of pride in those that yet are truly
humble. Humility speaks in their confessions, aggravating
their sin, and searching heart and life for matter of self-accusa-
tion: they call themselves "Less than the least of all God's
mercies." They are ready, with the woman of Canaan, (Matt.
XV. 27,) even to own the name of dogs, and to confess them-
selves unworthy of the children's crumbs, and unworthy to
tread upon the common earth, or to breathe in the air, or to
live upon the patience and provisions of God : they will
spend whole hours, and days of humiliation, in confessing
their sin, and bewailing their weaknesses and want of grace,
and lamenting their desert of misery. They are often cast
down so much too low, that they dare not own the title of
God's children, nor any of his special grace, but take them-
selves for mere unsanctified, hardened sinners ; and all that
can be said, will not convince them that they have any sav-
ing interest in Christ, nor hinder them from pouring out un-
just accusations against themselves. And all this is done
by them in the uprightness of their hearts, and not dissem-
blingly. And yet would you think, that with all this humi-
lity, there should be any pride? and that the same persons
1.90 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
should lift up themselves and resist their helps to further
humiliation? Do they think in their dejections, that it is
in their hearts so much to exalt themselves? I confess
many of them are sensible of their pride, even to the in-
crease of their humility ; and as it is said of Hezekiah, " do
humble themselves for the pride of their hearts, so that
God's wrath doth not come upon them." (2 Chron. xxxii.
26.) But yet too few are so well acquainted with the power
and rootedness of this sin at the heart, and the workings of
it in the hour of temptation, as they should be. Observe it
but at such times at these, and you will see ^Aa^ break forth,
that before appeared not. 1. When we are undervalued
and slighted, and meaner persons preferred before us ; and
when our words and judgments are made light of, and our
parts thought to be poor and low; when any blot or disho-
nour is cast upon us, deserved or undeserved ; when we are
slandered or reproached, and used with despite : Wliat a
matter do we make of it, and how much then doth our pride
appear in our distaste, and offence, and impatience ! So
that the same person that can pour out words of blame and
shame against himself, cannot bear half as much from others,
without displeasure and disquietness of mind. It would
help us much to know this by ourselves, in the time of our
humility, that we may be engaged to more watchfulness
and resistance of our pride.
2. When we are reproved of any disgraceful sin, how
hardly goes it down, and how many excuses have we ! How
seldom are we brought to downright penitent confessions !
What secret distaste is apt to be rising in our hearts, against
the reprover! And how seldom hath he that hearty thanks,
which so great a benefit deserves ! And would any think in
our humiliations and large confessions unto God, that we
were so proud ! To know this by ourselves, would make us
more suspicious and ashamed to be guilty of it.
3. When any preferment or honour is to be given, or any
work to be done that is a mark of dignity, how apt are we
to think ourselves as fit for it as any, and to be displeased,
if the honour or employment do pass by us !
4. When we are admired, applauded, or excessively
esteemed and loved, how apt are we to be too much pleased
with it ! which sheweth a proud desire to be somebody in
the world ; and that there is much of this venom at the bot-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-AC QUA J NT A NCE. 191
torn ill our hearts, even when we lay ourselves in the dust,
and walk in sackcloth, and pass the heaviest judgment on
ourselves.
7. Another instance of our unacquaintedness with our
hearts, and the latent, undiscerned corruption of them, is
our little discerning or bewailing those secret master-sins,
which lie at the root of all the rest, and are the life of the
old man, and the cause of all the miscarriages of our lives.
As, 1. Unbelief of the truth of the Holy Scriptures, of the
immortality of the soul, and the life of joy or misery here-
after, and the other articles of the Christian faith. What
abundance of Christians are sensible of their unbelief, as to
the applying acts of faith that tend to their assurance of
their own salvation, that are little sensible of any defect in
the assenting act, or of any secret root of unbelief about
the truth of the Gospel revelations ! And yet, alas, it is
this that weakeneth all our graces : it is this that feedeth
all our woe ! O happy men, were we free from this ! What
prayers should we put up ! What lives should we lead ! How
watchfully should we walk! With what contempt should
we look on the allurements of the world ! With what dis-
dain should we think on fleshly lusts ! With what indigna-
tion should we meet the tempter, and scorn his base, unrea-
sonable motions, if we did but perfectly believe the very
truth of the Gospel, and world to come ! How careful and
earnest should we be, to make our calling and election sure!
How great a matter should we make of sin, and of helps and
hindrances in the way to heaven ! How much should we
prefer that state of life that furthereth our salvation, before
that which strengtheneth our snares by furthering our pros-
perity and pleasure in the world, if we were not weak- or
wanting in our belief of the certain verity of these things !
Did we better know the badness of our hearts herein, it
would engage us more in fortifying the vitals, and looking
better to our foundation, and winding up this spring of faith,
which must give life to all right motions of the soul.
2. How insensible are too many of the great imperfection
of their love to God! What passionate complaints have we
of their want of sorrow for their sin, and want of memory,
and of ability to pray, &c. when their complaints for want
of love to God, and more affecting knowledge of him, are so
cold and customary, as shews us they little observe the
192 THE MISCHIEFS OF S E LF-IG XOR A NCE,
greatness of this sinful want ! This is the very heart, and
sum, and poison of all the sins of our soul and life. So much
as a man loves God, so much he is holy: and so much he
hath of the Spirit and image of Jesus Christ : and so much
he hath of all saving graces : and so much he will abhor
niquity ; and so much he will love the commands of God.
As love is the sum of the law and prophets, so should it be
the sum of our care and study through all our lives to ex-
ercise and streno-then it.
3. How little are most Christians troubled for want of
love to men ; to brethren, neighbours and enemies ! How
cold are their complaints for their defects in this, in com-
parison of other of their complaints ! But is there not cause
of as deep humiliation for this sin, as almost any other? It
seems to me that want of love is one of the most prevalent
diseases among us, when I hear it so little seriously lament-
ed. I often hear people say, O that we could hear more at-
tentively and affectionately, and pray more fervently, and
weep for sin more plenteously : But how seldom do I hear
them say, O that we did love our brethren more ardently,
and our neighbours and enemies more heartily than we do,
and set ourselves to do them good ! There is so little pains
taken to bring the heart to the love of others, and so few
and cold requests put up for it, when yet the heart is back-
ward to it, that makes me conclude that charity is weaker
in most of us than we observe. And indeed itappeareth so
when it comes to trial : to that trial which Christ will judge
it by at last. (Matt, xxv.) When love must be shewed by
any self-denial, or costly demonstration, by parting with
our food and raiment to supply the wants of others, and by
hazarding ourselves for them in their distress, then see how
much we love indeed ! Good words cost little : So cheap an
exercise of charity as is mentioned. James ii. 15, 16, " De-
part in peace, be warmed, and filled," is an insufficient evi-
dence of the life of grace, and will do as little for the soul
of the giver, as for the body of the receiver. And how little
hazardous or costly love is found among us, either to ene-
mies, neighbours, or to saints ! Did we better know our
hearts, there would be more care and diligence used to bring
them to effectual, fervent love, than to those duties that are
of less importance ; and we should learn what this meaneth,
" I will have mercy and not sacrifice," (Matt. ix. 13; xii. 7,)
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 193
which Christ sets the Pharisees twice to learn. More in-
stances of greatest duties extenuated 1 might add, but I
proceed.
8. Another instance of unobserved corruption of the
heart, is, the frequent and secret insinuations of selfishness
in all that we do towards God or man : When we think we
are serving God alone, and have cleansed our hearts from
mixtures and deceit, before we are aware, self-interest, or
self-esteem, or self-conceit, or self-love, or self-will, or self-
seeking, do secretly creep in and mar the work. We think
we are studying, and preaching, and writing purely for God,
and the common good, or the benefit of souls ; and per-
haps little observe how subtlely selfishness insinuates, and
makes a party, and biaseth us from the holy ends, and the
simplicity and sincerity which we thought we had carefully
maintained : So that we are studying, and preaching, and
writing for ourselves, when we take no notice of it.
When we enter upon any office, or desire preferment, or
riches, or honour in the world, we think we do it purely for
God, to furnish us for his service, and little think how much
of selfishness is in our desires.
When we are doing justice, or shewing mercy, in giving
alms, or exhorting the ungodly to repent, or doing any other
work of piety or charity, we little think how much of selfish-
ness is secretly latent in the bent and intention of the heart.
When we think we are defending the truth and cause of
God, by disputing, writing, or by the sword; or when we
think we are faithfully maintaining on one side order and
obedience against confusion and turbulent, disquiet spirits,
or the unity of the church against division ; or on the other
hand, that we are sincerely opposing Pharisaical corruptions
and hypocrisy, and tyranny, and persecution, and are de-
fending the purity of divine worship, and the power and
spirituality of religion ; in all these cases we little know
how much of carnal self may be secretly unobserved in the
work.
But above all others, Christ himself, and the Holy Ghost
that searcheth the hidden things of the heart, hath warned
one sort to be suspicious of their hearts ; and that is, those
that cannot bear the dissent and infirmities of their brethren
in tolerable things, and those that are calling for fire from.
VOL. XVI. o
194 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
heaven, and are all for force and cruelty in religion ; for
vexing, imprisoning, banishing, burning, hanging, or other-
wise doing as they would not be done by, proportionably in
their own case. He tells his two disciples, in such a case,
" Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of," (Luke ix.
55.) As if he should say, ' You think you purely seek my
honour in the revenge of this contempt and opposition of
unbelievers, and you think it would much redound to the
propagation of the faith : and therefore you think that all
this zeal is purely from my Spirit : but you little know how
much of a proud, carnal, selfish spirit is in these desires !
You would fain have me and yourselves with me to be openly
vindicated by fire from heaven, and be so owned by God
that all men may admire you, and you may exercise a do-
minion in the world ; and you stick not at the sufferings
and ruin of these sinners, so you may attain your end : But
I tell you this selfish, cruel spirit, is unlike my Spirit, which
inclineth to patience, forbearance and compassion.'
" Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye who
art thou that judgest another man's servant? Why dost thou
judge thy brother, and why dost thou set at nought thy
brother? We shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ. Every one of us shall give account of him-
self to God We then that are strong, ought to bear
the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to
edification." (Rom. xiv. 1, 2, &-c. ; xv. 1, 2.) " Brethren, if
a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfil the law of Christ." (Gal. vi. 1, 2.)
So also men are foully and frequently mistaken, when
they are zealously contending against their faithful pastors
and their brethren, and vilifying others, and quenching love,
and troubling the church, upon pretence of greater know-
ledge or integrity in themselves, which is notably discovered,
and vehemently pressed by the apostle, James iii. 1, &c.,
where you may see how greatly the judgment of the Spirit
of God, concerning our hearts, doth differ from men's judg-
ment of themselves. They that had a masterly, contentious,
envious zeal, did think they were of the wiser sort of Chris-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 195
tians, and of the highest form in the school of Christ; when
yet the Holy Ghost telleth them that their wisdom descended
not from above, but was earthly, sensual and devilish, and
that their envy and strife doth bring confusion, and every
evil work ; and that the wisdom from above is neither un-
holy nor contentious, but " first pure, and then peaceable,
gentle and easy to be entreated." (James iii. 17.)
You see then how often and dangerously we are deceived
by unacquaintedness with ourselves ; and how selfish, carnal
principles, ends and motives, are often mixed in the actions
which we think are the most excellent for wisdom, zeal and
piety, that ever we did perform. O therefore, what cause
have we to study, and search, and watch such hearts, and
not too boldly or carelessly to trust them !
And it is not only hypocrites that are subject to these
deceitful sins, who have them in dominion, but true be-
lievers, that have a remnant of this carnal, seltish principle
continually offering to insinuate and corrupt their most ex-
cellent works, and even all that they do.
9. The strong eruption of those passions that seemed to
be quite mortified, doth shew that there is more evil lurking
in the heart than ordinarily doth appear. How calmly do
we converse together ! How mildly do we speak, till some
provoking word or wrong do blow the coals, and then the
dove appeareth to partake of a fierce nature ; and we can
perceive that in the flame, which we perceive not in the
spark. When a provocation can bring forth censorious,
reviling, scornful words, it shews what before was latent in
the heart.
10. We are very apt to think those affections to be
purely spiritual, which in the issue appear to be mixed with
carnality. Our very love to the assemblies and ordinances
of worship, and to ministers, and other servants of the Lord ;
to books, and knowledge, are ordinarily mixed ; and good
and bad are strangely complicate, and twisted together in
the same affections and works. And the love that beginneth
in the Spirit, is apt to degenerate into carnal love, and to
have too much respect to riches, or honour, or personage,
or birth, or particular concernments of our own, and so it is
corrupted, as wine that turneth into vinegar, before we are
aware. And though still there be uprightness of heart, yet
196 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
too much hypocrisy is joined with it, when it is little per-
ceived or suspected.
And thus in ten instances I have shewed you how much
the servants of Christ themselves may be mistaken or unac-
quainted with their hearts ; and how the work of mortifica-
tion is hindered by this covering of so many secret, unob-
served sins.
But I must here desire you to take heed of running into
their extreme, who hereupon conclude that their hearts be-
ing so dark and so deceitful, are not at all to be understood ;
and therefore they are still so suspicious of the worst, as
that they will not be persuaded of the grace that plainly
worketh in them, and will condemn themselves for that
which they are not guilty of, upon suspicion that they may
be guilty and not know it, and think that all the sin that
they forbear, is but for want of a temptation ; and that if
they had the same temptations, they should be as bad asi
any others.
I would entreat these persons to consider of these truths^
for their better information :
1. Temptations do not only shew the evil that is in the
heart, but breed much more, and turn a spark into a flame y
as the striking of the steel upon the flint, doth by the col-
lision and tinder make fire where was none, Adam was
made a sinner by temptation.
2. There is no Christian so mortified, but hath such rem-
nants of corruption and concupiscence, as would quickly
bring forth heinous sins, if temptations beyond strength
were let loose upon him. What need you more proof than
the sad instances of Noah, Lot, David, Solomon and Peter?
It did not prove that any of these were graceless hypocrites
before, because they fell so foully by temptations. And yet
these objectors think they are graceless, because some strong
temptations might make them fall.
3. Is it not God's way of saving men, to give them so
much inward grace as no temptation can overcome, but ta
preserve and bring them safe to heaven, by moral, sapiential
conduct, together with internal changes of their hearts.
And therefore he keepeth men from sin, by keeping them
from temptations that are too strong for them. All human
strength is limited : and there are none on earth have such.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 107
a measure of grace, but a temptation may be imagined so
strong as to overcome them. And if God should let Satan
do his worst, there must be extraordinary assistances to pre-
serve us, or we should fall. Bless God if he " lead you not
into temptation, but deliver you from the evil," by keeping
you far enough from the snare. This is the way of preserva-
tion that we are taught to pray and hope for.
4. And therefore it is our own duty to keep as far from
temptations as we can ; and if we have grace to avoid the
sin by avoiding the temptation, we have such grace as God
useth for the saving of his own : not that he hath saving
grace that would live wickedly, if he were but tempted to it
by those ordinary trials that human nature may expect :
but the soul that preferreth God and glory before the plea-
sures of sin for a season, if it so continue, shall be saved,
though possibly there might have been a temptation so
strong as would have conquered the measure of grace that
he had, if it had not been fortified with new supplies. It is
therefore mere dotage in those that could find in their hearts
to put themselves upon some temptation, to try whether
they are sincere by the success. Avoid temptation, that
you may avoid the sin and punishment. Make not your-
selves worse on pretence of discovering how bad you are.
Put not gunpowder or fuel to the sparks of corruption that
still remain in you, on pretence of trying whether they will
burn. All men are defectible, and capable of every sin, and
must be saved from it by that grace which worketh on na-
ture according to that nature, and prevaileth with reason
by means agreeable to reason. If we think we are wicked,
because we find that we have hearts that could be wicked,
were they let alone, and because we are not removed so far
from sin as to be incapable of it, we may as well say Adam
was wicked in his innocency, much more David, Solomon,
and Peter, before their falls. It is not he that can sin that
shall be punished : but he that doth sin, or would sin if he
could, and had rather have the sin for its pleasure or com-
modity to the flesh, than be free from it, and be holy, in or-
der to salvation, and the favour and pleasing, and enjoying
of God in endless glory.
5. Lastly, Let such persons try themselves by their con-
quest over the temptations which they have, and not by
imaginary conflicts with all that they think may possibly
198 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
at any time assault them. You have still the same flesh to
deal with, and the same world and devil, that will not let
you go to heaven without temptation : If the temptations
which you have already, keep you not from preferring the
love and fruition of God before the pleasure of the flesh ;
and a life of faith and holiness, before a life of infidelity and
impiety, and sensuality, so that you had rather live the for-
mer than the latter, I am sure then your temptations have
not kept you from a state of grace. And you may be as-
sured, that for the time to come, if you watch and pray, you
may escape the danger of temptation ; and that God will
increase your strength if he increase your trials : Be not
secure, be you never so holy. Think not that you have a na-
ture that cannot sin, or cannot be tempted to a love of sin :
but " let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he
fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is
moderate, or common to man : but God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that
you may be able to bear it." (1 Cor. x. 12, 13.)
And thus I have shewed you how self-ignorance hinder-
eth the conquest and mortifying of sin, even in the godly,
and now shall add some further motives.
2. Not knowing ourselves, and the secret corruptions of
our hearts, doth make sin surprise us the more dangerously,
and break forth the more shamefully, and wound our con-
sciences the more terribly. The unsuspected sin hath least
opposition, and when it breaks out doth like an unobserved
fire, go far before we are awakened to quench it. And it
confoundeth us with shame, to find ourselves so much worse
than we imagined. It overwhelmeth the soul with despair-
ing thoughts to find itself so bad, when it thought it had
been better. It breedeth endless suspicions and fears, when
we find our former opinions of ourselves confuted, and that
contrary to our expectations we are surprised where we
thought we had been safe : We are still ready to think what
ever we discern that is good within us, that we may as well
be mistaken now as we were before. And thus our present
self-ignorance, when discovered, may hinder all the com-
forts of our lives.
3. Lastly, Not knowing ourselves, and our particular
sins, and wants, and weaknesses, doth keep us from a parti-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 199
cular application of the promises, and from seeking those
particular remedies from Christ, which our case requireth :
And so our mercies lie by neglected, while we need them,
and do not understand our need.
And thus I have shewed you why you should labour to
know vour sinfulness.
II. I am next to persuade believers to know their graces
and their happiness. Good is the object of voluntary know-
ledge, but evil of forced involuntary knowledge, unless as
the knowledge of evil tendeth to some good. Therefore me-
thinks you should be readiest to this part of the study of
yourselves : and yet, alas, the presumptuous are not more
unwilling to know their sin and misery, than some perplexed
Christians are backward to acknowledge their grace and
happiness. How hard is it to convince them of the tender
love of God towards them, and of the sincerity of their love
to him ; and to make them believe that they are dear to
God when they loathe themselves ! How hard is it to per-
suade them that the riches of Christ, the promises of the ,
Gospel, and the inheritance of the saints, belong to them !
And the reasons, among others, are principally these:
1. The remnant of sins are so great, and so active and
troublesome, as that the feeling of these contrary disposi-
tions doth hinder them from observing the operations of
grace. It is not easy to discern the sincerity of faith among
so much unbelief, or the sincerity of love where there is so
much averseness : or of humility where there is so much
pride : or of repentance and mortification, where there is so
much concupiscence and inclination to sin : especially when
grace by its enmity to sin doth make the soul so suspicious
and sensible of it, as that the observation of it turns their
mind from the observation of the contrary good that is in
them. Health is not observed in other parts, when the feel-
ing of the stone, or but the tooth-ach, takes us up. The
thoughts are called all to the part affected ; and sickness
and wounds are felt more sensibly than health. The fears
of misery and sin, are more easily excited, and more pas-
sionate than love and hope, and all the affections that are
employed in the prosecution of good. And in the midst of
fears it is hard to feel the matter of our joys : fear is a ty-
rant if it exceed, and will not permit us to believe or ob-
200 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
serve the cause of hope. ' Quod nimis metuunt miseri, hos
facile credunt, et nunquam amoveri putant,' saith Seneca.
What we too much fear, we too easily believe, and hardly
believe that it is gone, and the danger past. These fears are
useful to our preservation, but they too often pervert our
judgments, and hinder our due consolation. ' Qui insidias
timet, in nullas incidet: nee cit5 perit ruina, qui ruinam
timet. Semper metuendo sapiens vitat malum,' saith Seneca.
He that feareth snares, doth not fall into them: nor doth he
quickly perish by ruin, that feareth ruin: A wise man
escapeth evil by always fearing it. And the Holy Ghost
saith, " Happy is the man that feareth alway ; but he that
hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief." (Prov.xxviii. 14.)
Moderate fears then are given to believers for their ne-
cessary preservation, that walking among enemies and snares,
they may take heed and escape them. But when this pas-
sion doth exceed, it abuseth us, and drowns the voice of
reason : it maketh us believe that every temptation is a sin,
and every sin is such as cannot stand with grace, and will
hardly ever be pardoned by Christ. Every sin against know-
ledge and conscience doth seem almost unpardonable : and
if it were deliberate after profession of religion, it seems to
be the sin against the Holy Ghost. As children and other
fearful persons that fear the devil by way of apparitions,
do think in the dark he is ready to lay hold on them, and
they look when they see him : so the fearful Christian is still
thinking that thing he feareth is upon him, or coming upon
him. The fear of an unregenerate, unpardoned state, doth
make him think he is in it ; and the fear of the wrath of God
doth make him think that he is under it ; and the fear of
damnation makes him imagine he shall be damned. It is
wonderful hard in a fearful state, or indeed in any passion
that is strong, to have the free use of judgment for the know-
ing of ourselves, and to discern any grace, or evidence or
mercy, which is contrary to our fears, especially when the
feeling of much corruption doth turn our eyes from the ob-
servation of good, and we are still taken up with the matter
of our disease.
2. Another cause that we hardly know our graces, is be-
cause they are weak and small ; and therefore in the midst
of so much corruption are oftentimes hardly discerned from
none. A little faith, even as a grain of mustard-seed, may
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 201
save us : a little love to God that is sincere will be accepted ;
and weak desires may be fulfilled : but they are frequently
undiscerned, or their sincerity questioned by those that have
them, and therefore bring but little comfort. Peter's little
faith did keep him from drowning, but not from doubting
and fearing he should be drowned, nor from beginning to
sink. " He walked on the water to go to Jesus; but when
he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid, and beginning to
sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately
Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt !"
(Matt. xiv. 29, 30, 31.) So the little faith of the disciples
kept them from perishing, but not from their fear of perish-
ing. " When a great tempest arose, so that the ship was
covered with waves, they cry, Lord, save us, we perish : and
he saith to them. Why are ye afraid, O ye of little faith?"
The little faith of the same disciples entitled them to the
fatherly protection and provision of God : but it kept them
not from sinful cares and fears, about what they should eat
or drink, or wherewith they should be clothed, as is inti-
mated in Matt. vi. 25. 28, 30. " Take no thought for your
life, what you shall eat, or drink, or for your body what you
shall put on Why take you thought for raiment? If
God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and
to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
clothe you, O ye of little faith ?" So in Matt. xvi. 7, 8. The
seed that Christ likeneth his kingdom to, (Matt. xiii. 31,)
hath life while it is buried in the earth, and is visible while
a little seed ; but is not so observed as when it cometh to
be as a tree. Though God, " despise not the day of little
things," (Zech. iv. 10,) and though he " will not break the
bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax," (Isaiah xlii. 3,)
yet ourselves or others cannot discern and value these ob-
scure beginnings, as God doth. But because we cannot
easily find a little faith, and a little love, when we are look-
ing for it, we take the non-appearance for a non-existence,
and call it none.
3. Sanctification is oft unknown to those that have it,
because they do not try and judge themselves by sure infal-
lible marks, the essentials of the new man; but by uncer-
tain qualifications, that are mutable and belong but to the
beauty and activity of the soul.
202 THE MISCHIEFS OF SKLF-IGNOR A NCE,
The essence of holiness, as denominated from the object,
is the consent to the three articles of the Covenant of Grace.
1. That we give up ourselves to God, as our God and recon-
ciled Father in Jesus Christ. 2. That we give up ourselves
to Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer and Saviour, to recover us,
reconcile us, and bring us unto God. 3. That we give up
ourselves to the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier, to guide and
illuminate us, and perfect the image of God upon us, and
prepare us for glory.
The essence of sanctification, as denominated from its
opposite objects, is nothing but our renunciation and rejec-
tion of the flesh, the world, and the devil ; of pleasures pro-
fits, and honours, as they would be preferred before God,
and draw us to forsake him.
The essence of sanctification, as denominated from our
faculties, which are the subject of it, is nothing but this pre-
ferring of God, and grace, and glory, above the said plea-
sures, profits, and honours, 1. By the estimation of our
understandings. 2. By the resolved habituate choice of our
wills. 3. And in the bent and drift of our endeavours in
our conversations. In these three acts, as upon the first
three objects, and against the other three objects, lieth all
that is essential to sanctification, and that we should judge
of our sincerity, and title to salvation by, as I before shewed.
But besides these, there are many desirable qualities
and gifts, which we may seek for, and be thankful for ; but
are not essential to our sanctification. Such are,
1. The knowledge of other truths, besides the essentials
of faith and duty, and the soundness of judgment, and
freedom from error in these lesser points.
2. A strong memory to carry away the things that we
read and hear.
3. A right order of our thoughts, when we can keep them
from confusion, roving, and distraction.
4. Freedom from too strons; affections about the crea-
tures, and from disturbing passions.
5. Lively affections and feeling operations of the soul
towards God, in holy duty, and tender meltings of the heart
for sin ; which are very desirable, but depend so much on
the temperature of the body, and outward accidents, and are
but the vigour, and not the life and being of the new crea-
ture, that we must not judge of our sincerity by them. Some
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 203
Christians scarce know what any such lively feelings are ;
and some have them very seldom, and, I think, no one con-
stantly: and therefore if our peace, or judgment of our-
selves, be laid on these, we shall be still wavering and un-
settled, and tossed up and down as the waves of the sea :
sometimes seeming to be almost in heaven, and presently
near the gates of hell : when our state doth not change at
all, as these feelings and affectionate motions of the soul do ;
but we are still in our safe relation to God, while our first
essential graces do continue, though our failings, dulness,
weaknesses and wants, must be matter of moderate filial
humiliation to us.
6. The same must be said of all common gifts, of utter-
ance, in conference or prayer, and of quickness of under-
standing, and such like.
7. Lastly. The same must be said also of all that rectitude
of life, and those degrees of obedience that are above mere
sincerity; in which one true Christian doth exceed another;
and in which we should all desire to abound ; but must not
judge ourselves to be unsanctified, merely because we are
imperfect; or to be unjustified sinners, merely because we
are sinners.
In our judging of ourselves by our lives and practices,
two extremes must be carefully avoided : on the left hand
that of the profane, and of the Antinomians. The former
cannot distinguish between sinners and sinners, sanctified
and unsanctified, justified and unjustified sinners ; and when
they have once conceited that they are in the favour of God,
whatever they do, they say, * We are but sinners, and so are
the best.' The latter teach men, that when once they are
justified, they are not for any sins to doubt again of their
justified state, lest they should seem to make God change-
able.
On the other hand must be avoided this extreme of per-
plexed doubting Christians, that make all their sins, or
too many of them, to be matter of doubting, which should
be but matter of humiliation.
I know it is a very great difficulty that hath long per-
plexed the doctors of the church, to define what sins are
consistent, and what inconsistent with a state of holiness
and salvation (which if any distinguish by the names of
mortal and venial, taking the words in no other sense, I
204 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
shall not quarrel with them). At present I shall say but
this, for the resolving of this great and weighty question.
1. It is not the bare act of sin in itself considered, that
must determine the case ; but the act compared with the
life of grace, and with true repentance. Whoever hath the
love of God and life of grace, is in a state of salvation ; and
therefore whatever sin consisteth with the fore-described
essentials of sanctification, (viz. the habitual devotion of the
soul to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the
habitual renunciation of the flesh, the world, and devil,) con-
sisteth with a state of life. And true repentance proveth
the pardon of all sin : And therefore whatever sin consisteth
with habitual repentance, (which is the hatred of sin, as sin)
and hath actual repentance when it is observed, and there is
time for deliberation, consisteth with a state of grace. Now
in habitual conversion or repentance, the habitual willingness
to leave our sin, must be more than our sinful habitual
willingness to keep it. Now you may by this, much discern,
as to particular acts, whether they are consistent with
habitual hatred of sin. For some sins are so much in the
power of the will, that he that hath an habitual hatred of
them, cannot frequently commit them. And some sins are
also of so heinous a nature or degree, that he that habitually
hateth sin, cannot frequently commit them ; not at all, while
his hatred to them is in act. And he that truly repenteth
of them, cannot frequently return to them; because that
sheweth that repentance was indeed either but superficial,
or not habitual. But some sins are not so great and heinous,
and therefore do not so much deter the soul, and some are
not so fully in the power of a sanctified will (as passions,
thoughts, &c.), and therefore may oftener be committed in
consistency with habitual repentance or hatred of sin. To
examine particulars, would be tedious and digressive.
2. And I must further answer, that our safety, and con-
sequently our peace and comfort, lieth in flying as far from
sin as we can : And therefore he that will sin as much as
will consist with any sparks of grace, shall bury those sparks
by his sin, and shall not know that he hath any grace, nor
have the comfort of it ; as being in a condition unfit for
actual assurance and comfort, till he be brought to actual
repentance and amendment.
Thus have I shewed you, by what you must try your
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 205
sanctification, if you will know it ; which I before proved to'
you from Scripture ; and further may do, when the occasion
will excuse me from the imputation of disproportion and
unseasonableness, in repeating the proofs of all that we
speak in explication or application of the principal point.
4. Another cause that many Christians are ignorant of
their state of grace, is their looking so much at what they
should be, and what others are that have a right degree of
grace, and what is commanded as our duty, that they observe
not what they have already, because it is short of what they
ought to have. We are thus too much about outward mer-
cies too. We mourn more for our friend that is dead, than
we rejoice in many that are alive. We are more troubled
for one mercy taken from us, than comforted in many that
are left us. We observe our diseases and our sores, more
sensibly than our health. David for one Absalom is so
afflicted, that he wished he had died for him though a rebel!
when his comfort in Solomon, and his other children is laid
aside. As all the humours flow to the pained place, so do
our thoughts, as was aforesaid, and so we overlook the mat-
ter of our comfort.
5. And it very much hindereth the knowledge of our
graces, that we search upon so great disadvantages as hinder
a true discovery. Among many others, I will instance but
in two or three.
1. We surprise our souls with sudden questions, and look
for a full and satisfactory answer, before we can well recol-
lect ourselves, and call up our evidences ; and we expect to
know the sum or product, before our consciences have had
leisure deliberately to cast up their accounts. Yea, when
we have set to it, and by diligent search with the best
assistances, have discovered our sincerity, and recorded the
judgment, if conscience cannot presently recal its proofs,
and make it out upon every surprise, we unjustly question
all that is past, and will never rest in any judgment, but are
still calling over all again, as if the cause had never been tried.
And then the judgment passeth according to our present
temper and disposition, when many of the circumstances
are forgotten, and many of the witnesses are out of the way,
that last assisted us.
2. Perhaps we judge (as I said before) in the fit of a pas-
sion of fear or grief, which imperiously overruleth or dis-
200 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
turbeth reason : and then no wonder, if in our haste we
say, that all men that would comfort us are liars. And if
with David, (Psal. Ixxvii. 2, 3. 7, 8, 9.) In the " day of our
trouble, our souls do even refuse to be comforted ;" and if
we remember God, and we are troubled more, and if
" our spirit be overwhelmed in us : when he holdeth our
eyes waking, and we are so troubled that we cannot speak."
And if we question whether " the Lord will cast off for ever,
and will be favourable no more :" Whether " his mercy be
clean gone for ever, and his promise fail for evermore :" whe-
ther " he hath forgotten to be gracious, and hath shut up
his tender mercies in displeasure :" till a calm deliver us
from the mistake, and make us say, ' This is our infirmity.'
we think that God doth cast off our souls, and " hideth his
face from us," when " our soul is full of troubles, and our
life draweth nigh unto the grave : when we are afflicted and
ready to die from our youth up, and are distracted, while we
suffer the terrors of the Lord;" as he complaineth, Psal.
Ixxxviii. 3. 14, 15, 16. Passion judgeth according to its
nature, and not according to truth.
3. Or perhaps we judge, when our friends, our memory,
and other helps are out of the way, and we are destitute of
due assistance.
4. Or when our bodies are weak or distempered with
melancholy, which representeth all this in black and terrible
colours to the soul, and will hear no language hnt forsaken,
miserable, and undone. You may as well take the judg-
ment of a man half drunk, or half asleep, about the greatest
matters of your lives, as to take the judgment of conscience
in such a state of disadvantage, about the condition of your
souls.
5. Another hindrance to us, is, that we cannot take
comfort from the former sight of grace that we have had,
unless we have a continued present sight. And so all our
labour in trying, and all our experiences, and all God's
former manifestations of himself to the soul are lost, as to
our present comfort, when our grace is out of sight : like
foolish travellers, that think they are out of the way, and
are ready to turn back, when ever any hill doth interpose,
and hinder them from seeing the place they go to. As if it
were no matter of comfort to us, to say, 1 did find the evi-
dences of grace ; I once recorded a judgment of my sin-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. "207
cerity : but the former is still questioned rather than the
latter. When with David, we should " consider the days of
old, the years of ancient times, and call to remembrance our
songs in the night, and commune with our hearts in such a
diligent search," and remembrance of the mercies formerly
received. [(Psal. Ixxvii. 5, 6, 7.)
6. Lastly, The operations of man's soul are naturally so
various, and from corruption are so confused and so dark,
that we are ofttimes in amaze and at a loss, when we are
most desirous to judge aright; and scarce know where, in
so great disorder, to find any thing that we seek ; and know
it not when we find it : so that our hearts are almost as
strange to themselves as to one another ; and sometimes
more confident of other men's sincerity than our own, where
there is no more matter for our confidence.
Having thus shewed you the causes of our ignorance of
our sanctification, I shall briefly tell you some reasons that
should move you to seek to be acquainted with it, where
it is.
1. The knowledge of God is the most excellent know-
ledge ; and therefore the best sort of creature-knowledge is,
that which hath the most of God in it. And undoubtedly
there is more of God in holiness, which is his image, than in
common things. Sins and wants have nothing of God in
them; they must be fathered on the devil and yourselves,
and therefore the knowledge of them is good but by acci-
dent, because the knowledge even of evil hath a tendency to
good : and therefore it is commanded and made our duty,
for the good which it tendeth to. It is the Divine nature
and image within you, which hath the most of God ; and
therefore to know this is the high and noble knowledge. To
know Christ within us, is our happiness on earth, in order
to the knowledge of him in glory " face to face," which is
the happiness of heaven. To " know God, though darkly
through a glass," and but in part, (1 Cor. xiii. 12,) is far
above all creature-knowledge. The knowledge of him
raiseth, quickeneth, sanctifieth, enlarge th, and advanceth all
our faculties. It is " life eternal to know God in Christ."
(John xvii. 3.) Therefore where God appearetli most, there
should our understandings be most diligently exercised in
study and observation.
208 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
2. It is a most delightful felicitating knowledge, to know
that Christ is in you. If it be delightful to the rich to
see their wealth, their houses, and lands, and goods, and
money : and if it be delightful to the honourable to see
their attendance, and hear their own commendations and
applause ; how delightful must it be to a true believer to
find Christ within him, and to know his title to eternal life?
If the knowledge of " full barns," and " much goods laid up
for many years," can make a sensual worldling say, " Soul,
take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry," (Luke xii. 19, 20,)
methinks the knowledge of our interest in Christ and hea-
ven, should make us say, " Thou hast put gladness in my
heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine in-
creased," (that is, more than corn and wine could put into
theirs.) (Psal. iv. 7.) " Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." (Psal. cxvi. 7.)
If we say with David, " Blessed are they that dwell in thy
house ; they will be still praising thee," (Psal. Ixxxiv. 4,)
much more may we say. Blessed are they in whom Christ
dwelleth, and the Holy Ghost hath made his temple, they
should be still praising thee. " Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts : we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." (Psal.
Ixv. 4.) But this is upon supposition, that he be first blessed
by Christ's approach to him, and dwelling in him.
If you ask, ' How is it that Christ dwelleth in us ;'
I answer, 1. Objectively, as he is apprehended by our faith
and love : as the things or persons that we think of, and love
and delight in, are said to dwell in our minds or hearts.
2. By the Holy Ghost, who as a principle of new and hea-
venly life, is given by Christ the head, unto his members ;
and as the agent of Christ doth illuminate, sanctify, and
guide the soul. " He that keepeth his commandments,
dwelleth in him, and he in him : and hereby we know that
he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us."
(1 John iii. 24.) That of Ephes. iii. 17, may be taken in
either, or both senses comprehensively, " That Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith."
3. Did you know that Christ is in you by his Spirit, it
might make every place and condition comfortable to you I
If you are alone, it may rejoice you to think what company
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 209
dwelleth continually with you in your hearts. If you are
wearied with evil company without, it may comfort you to
think that you have better within : when you have com-
munion with the saints, it is your joy to think that you have
nearer communion with the Lord of saints. You may well
say with David, (Psal. cxxxix. 18,) " When I awake I am
still with thee." " I have set the Lord always before me ;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."
(Psal. xvi. 8.)
4. Did you know Christ within you, it would much help
you in believing what is written of him in the Gospel.
Though to the ungodly the mysteries of the kingdom of God
do seem incredible, yet when you have experience of the
power of it on your souls, and find the image of it on your
hearts, and the same Christ within you, conforming you to
what he commandeth in his word, this will work such a
suitableness to the Gospel in your hearts, as will make the
work of faith more easy. Saith the apostle, (1 John iv. 14,
16,) " We have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent
the Son to be the Saviour of the world;" (there is their out-
ward experience;) " and we have known and believed the
love that God hath to us : God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him :" (there is their
faith confirmed by their inward evidence: no wonder if
they that have God dwelling in them by holy love, do be-
lieve the love that God hath to them.) This is the great
advantage that the sanctified have in the work of faith, above
those that much excel them in disputing, and are furnished
with more arguments for the Christian verity ; Christ hath
his witness abiding in them. " The fruits of the Spirit bear
witness to the incorruptible seed, the word of God that liveth
and abideth for ever," (1 Peter i. 23.) The impress on the
heart bears witness to the seal that caused it. And it is not
a weak and ineffectual argument for the truth of the Gospel,
that believers use to fetch from within, when they plead the
effects of it on their souls. Labour to know the truth of
your sanctification, that you may be confirmed by it in the
truth of the word that sanctifieth you," (Johnxvii. 17,) and
may " rejoice in him that hath chosen you to salvation,
through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth."
(2 Thess. ii. 13.)
VOL. XVI. P
210 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
5. If you can come to the knowledge of Christ within
you, it will be much the easier to you to trust upon him, and
fly to him in all your particular necessities, and to make use
of his mediatorship with holy confidence. When others fly
from Christ with trembling, and know not whether he will
speak for them, or help them, or have any regard to them,
but look at him with strange and doubtful thoughts, it will
be otherwise with you that have assurance of his continual
love and presence. Nearness breedeth familiarity, and over-
cometh strangeness : familiarity breedeth confidence and
boldness : when you find Christ so near you, as to dwell
within you, and so particular and abundant is his love to
you, as to have given you his Spirit, and all his graces, it
will breed a sweet delightful boldness, and make you run to
him as your help and refuge, in all your necessities. When
you find the great promise fulfilled to yourselves, " I will
put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write
them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more ;"
you will " have boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus ; by the new and living way which he hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
And having an high priest over the house of God, you may
draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having
your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience," (or the con-
science of evil) " as your bodies are washed" (in baptism)
" with pure water." (Heb. x. 16 — 22.) " In Christ we may
have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of
him." (Ephes. iii. 12.) This intimate acquaintance with our
great High Priest that is " passed into the heavens," and yet
abideth and reigneth in our hearts, will encourage us to
" hold fast our profession, and to come boldly to the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need." (Heb. iv. 14. 16.) When by unfeigned love,
we •' know that we are of the truth, and may assure our hearts
before him, and our heart condemneth us not, then we have
confidence towards God ; and whatever we ask we receive
of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those
things that are pleasing in his sight." (1 John iii. 18 — 22.)
6. When once you know that you have Christ within
you, you may cheerfully proceed in the way of life ; when
doubting Christians, that know not whether they are in the
AND BENEFITS OF S KLF- A C QU A I NT A V CE. 211
way or not, are still looking behind them, and spend their
time in perplexed fears, lest they are out of the way, and go
on with heaviness and trouble, as uncertain whether they
may not lose their labour ; and are still questioning their
groundwork, when the building should go on. It is an un-
speakable mercy, when a believing soul is freed from these
distracting, hindering doubts, and may boldly and cheerfully
hold on his way, and be walking or working, when other
men are fearing and inquiring of the way ; and may with
patience and comfort wait for the reward, the crown of life,
when others are still questioning, whether they were ever
regenerate, and whether their hopes have any ground. We
may be " steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord, when we know that our labour is not in
vain in the Lord." (1 Cor. xv. 58.) We may then " gird up
the loins of the mind, and in sobriety hope unto the end, for
the grace that is to be brought us, at the revelation of Jesus
Christ." (1 Peter i. 13.)
7. When you are assured that you have Christ within
you, it may preserve you from those terrors of soul that
affright them that have no such assurance. O ! he that know-
eth what it is to think of the intolerable wrath of God, and
says, ' I fear I am the object of this wrath, and must bear
this intolerable load everlastingly,' may know what a mercy
it is to be assured of our escape. He that knows what it is
to think of hell, and say, * I know not but those endless
flames may be my portion,' will know what a mercy it is to
be assured of a deliverance, and to be able to say, " I know
I am saved from the wrath to come;" (1 Thess. i. 10;) And
that we " are not of them that draw back to perdition, but
of them that believe to the saving of the soul ;" (Heb. x. 39 ;)
And that " God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to ob-
tain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with
him:" we may " comfort ourselves together, and edify one
another," when we have this assurance. (1 Thess. v. 9 — 11.)
They that have felt the burden of a wounded spirit, and
know what it is to feel the terrors of the Lord, and to see
hell fire as it were before their eyes, and to be kept waking
by the dreadful apprehensions of their danger, and to be pur-
sued daily by an accusing conscience, setting their sins in
order before them, and bringing the threatenings of God Id
212 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
their remembrance ; these persons will understand, that to
be assured of" a Christ within us, and consequently of a
Christ that is preparing a place of glory for us, is a mercy that
the mind of man is now unable to value, according to the
ten thousandth part of its worth.
8. Were you assured that Christ himself is in you, it
would sweeten all the mercies of your lives. It would assure
you, that they are all the pledges of his love; and love in
all, would be the kernel and the life of all : Your friends,
your health, your wealth, your deliverances, would be steeped
in the dearest love of Christ, and have a spiritual sweetness
in them, when to the worldling they have but a carnal, un-
wholesome, luscious sweetness ; and to the doubting Chris-
tians they will be turned into troubles, while they are ques-
tioning the love, and meaning of the Giver ; and whether
they are sent for good to them, or to aggravate their con-
demnation; and the company of the Giver will advance your
estimation of the gift. Mean things with the company of
our dearest friends are sweeter than abundance in their ab-
sence. To have money in your purses, and goods in your
houses, and books in your studies, and friends in your near
and sweet society, are all advanced to the higher value, when
you know that you have also Christ in your hearts; and that
all these are but the attendants of your Lord, and the fruits
that drop from the tree of life, and the tokens of his love,
importing greater things to follow. Whereas in the crowd,
of all those mercies, the soul would be uncomfortable, or
worse, if it missed the presence of its dearest friend : and in
the midst of all, would live but as in a wilderness, and go
seeking after Christ with tears, as Mary at his sepulchre,
because they had " taken away her Lord," (as she thought)
" and she knew not where they had laid him." (John xx. 13.)
All mercies would be bitter to us, if the presence of Christ
do not put into them that special sweetness which is above
the estimate of sense.
9. This assurance would do much to preserve you from
the temptation of sensual delight. While you had within
you the matter of more excellent contentment, and when
you find that these inferior pleasures are enemies to those
which 'are your happiness and life, you would not be easily
taken with the bait. The poorest brutish pleasures are made
much of by them that never were acquainted with any better.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 2J3
But after the sweetness of assurance of the love of God, how
little relish is there to be found in the pleasures that are so
valued by sensual unbelievers ! Let them take them for me,
saith the believing soul ; may I but still have the comforts
of the presence of my Lord, how little shall I miss them!
How easily can I spare them! Silver will be cast by, if it
be set in competition with gold. The company of common
acquaintance may be acceptable, till better and greater
come; and then they must give place. Men that are taken
up with the pleasing entertainment of Christ within them,
can scarce afford any more than a transient salutation or
observance to those earthly things that are the felicity of
the carnal mind, and take up its desires, endeavours and
delight; when the soul is tempted to turn from Christ, to
those deceiving vanities that promise him more content and
pleasure, the comfortable thoughts of the love of Christ, and
his abode within us, and our abode with him, do sensibly
scatter and confound such temptations. The presence of
Christ, the great reconciler, doth reconcile us to ourselves,
and make us willing to be more at home. He that is out of
love with the company that he hath at home, is easily drawn
to go abroad. But who can endure to be much abroad,
that knoweth of such a guest as Christ at home? We shall
say as Peter, " Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life ; and we believe, and are sure, thou art
that Christ the Son of the living God." (John vi. 68, 69.)
And as Matt. vii. 4, when he saw him in a little of his glory,
?* Master, it is good for us to be here." And if the riches
of the world were offered to draw a soul from Christ, that
hath the knowledge of his special love and presence, the
tempter would have no better entertainment than Simon
Magus had with Peter, Their money perish with them
that think Christ and his graces to be no better than money.
(Acts viii. 20.)
10. How easy and sweet would all God's service be to
you, if you were assured that Christ abideth in you! What
delightful access might you have in prayer, when you know
that Christ himself speaks for you ! Not as if the Father
himself were unwilling to do us good, but that he will do it
in the name, and for the sake and merits of his Son : which
is the meaning of Christ in those words, which seem to deny
his intercession, " At that day ye shall ask in my name j
214 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGN O Ji ANCE,
and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you :
lor the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved
me, &c." (John xvi. 26.) I appeal to your own hearts.
Christians, whether you would not be much more willing
and ready to pray ; and whether prayer would not be a
sweeter employment to you, if you were sure Christ's abode
within you, and intercession for you, and consequently that
all your prayers are graciously accepted of the Lord ? You
would not then desire the vain society of empty persons ;
nor seek for recreation in their insipid, frothy, insignificant
discourse. The opening of your heart to your heavenly
Father, and pleading the merits of his Son, in your believing
])etitions for his saving benefits, would be a more contenting
kind of pleasure to you.
How sweet would meditation be to you, if you could
still think on Christ, and all the riches of his kingdom, as
your own ! Could you look up to heaven, and say with
grounded confidence, ' It is mine, and there I must abide
and reign for ever !' Could you think of the heavenly host,
as those that must be your own companions, and of their
holy employment as that which must be your own for ever,
it would make the assent of your minds to be more frequent,
and meditation to be a more pleasant work. Were you but
assured of your special interest in God, and that all his
attributes are by his love and covenant engaged for your
happiness, experience would make you say, " In the multi-
tude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts do delight my
soul." (Psal. xliv. 19.) " I will sing unto the Lord as long as
I live : I will sing praise to my God while I have my being :
my meditation of him shall be sweet ; I will be glad in the
Lord." (Psal. civ. 33, 34.) Could you say with full assur-
ance, that you are the children of the promises, and that
they are all your own ; how sweet would the reading and
meditation on the Holy Scriptures be to you! How dearly
would you love the Word ! What a treasure would you
judge it! " Your delight would be then in the law of the
Lord, and you would meditate in it day and night." (Psal.
i. 2.) To find such grounds of faith, and hope, and riches
of consolation in every page, and assuredly to say, ' All this
is mine,' would make you better understand why David did
iudite all the cxix. Psalm, in high comriiendations of the
word of God, and would make you join in his afiiectionate
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE.
215
expressions, " O how I love thy law ! it is my meditation
all the day ! Thou through thy commandments hast made
me wiser than mine enemies ; for they are ever with me."
(Psal. cxix. 97—99.)
Sermons also would be much sweeter to you, when you
could confidently take home the consolatory part, and use
our ministry as a help to your faith, and hope, and joy ;
whereas your doubts and fears, lest you are still unregene-
rate, will turn all that you hear, or read, or meditate on, into
food and fuel for themselves to work upon ; and you will
gather up all that tends to your disquietment, and say. It
is your part ; and cast away all that tendeth to your con-
solation, and say, it belongeth not to you. And the most
comforting passages of the word will be turned into your
discomfort : and the promises will seem to you as none,
while you imagine that they are none of yours : and the
loss of your peace and comfort will not be the worst: But
this will increase your backwardness to duty ; and when
your delight in the worship of God is gone, your inclina-
tion to it will abate, and it will seem a burden to you, and
be as meat to the stomachs of the sick, that with the most
careful preparation, and much entreaty, can hardly be
brought to get it down, and can bear but little, and that
which is suited to their diseased appetites.
The same I may say of the sacrament of the Lord's-sup-
per. How sweet will it be to you, if you are assured, that
the same Christ that is there represented as broken and
bleeding for your sins, doth dwell within you by his Spirit !
What welcome entertainment would you expect to find, if
you knew that you brought the feast, and the master of the
feast with you in your hearts ; and had there entirely enter-
tained him, with whom you expect communion in the sacra-
ment ! How boldly and comfortably would your hungry
souls then feed upon him ! With what refreshing acts of
faith would you there take the sealed promise and pardon of
your sins ! Whereas when you come in fears and doubting,
and must take the body and blood of Christ in their repre-
sentations, with your hand and mouth, while you know not
whether you receive him with the heart, and whether you
have any special interest in him, O what a damp it casteth
on the soul! How it stifleth its hopes and joys, and turneth
the sacrament, which is appointed for their comfort, into
2J6 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
their greater trouble ! It hath many a time grieved me to ob-
serve that no ordinance doth cast many upright souls into
greater perplexities, and discouragements, and distresses,
than the Lord's-supper, because they come to it with double
reverence, and by the doubtings of their title, and question-
ing their preparedness, and by their fears of eating and
drinking unworthily, their souls are utterly discomposed
with perplexing passions, and turned from the pleasant ex-
ercise of faith, and the delightful intercourse that they
should have with God ; and they are distempered and put
out of relish to all the sweetness of the Gospel : and then
they are frightened from the sacrament by such sad expe-
riences, and dare come thither no more, for fear of eating
judgment to themselves. And should not Christians labour
to remove the cause of such miserable, distracting fears,
that so much wrong both Christ and them, and to recover
their well-grounded peace and comfort?
11. Your love to God, which is the heart and life of the
new creature, doth so much depend upon your knowledge
of his love to you, as should make you much more desirous
of such a knowledge. Love is the end of faith ; and faith
the way to love. So much of love as is in every duty, so
much holiness is in it, and no more. Love is the sum of the
commandments. It is the fulfilling of the law. (Rom. xiii.
10; Matt.xxii.37; Markxii.33.) Though God loved us first,
as purposing our good, before we loved him; (1 John iv. 9,
10 ;) and we therefore love him, because he first loved us,
(ver. 19 ;) yet doth he love us by complacency and acceptance,
because we love the Father and the Son: "For the Father
himself loved you, because ye loved me, and have believed that
I came out from God." (John xvi. 27.) And what will more
effectually kindle in you the fervent love of Christ, than to
know thathelovethyou.and dwellethin you? All this is ex-
pressed by Christ himself; " At that day ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you : He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me,
and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will
love him, and will manifest myself unto him. If a man love
me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and
we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John
xiv. 20 — 23.) " If any man love God, the same is known of
him," 1 Cor. viii. 3,) with a knowledge of special love and
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 217
approbation. This is no disparagement to faith, whose na-
ture and use is to work by love. (Gal. v. 6.) What a man
loveth, such he is. The love is the man. Our love is judged
by our life, as the cause by the effect: but the life is judged
by the love, as the fruits by the tree, the effects of the cause.
' Mores autem nostri non ex eo ; quod quisque novit, sed ex
eo quod diligit, dijudicari solentinec faciunt bonos vel
malos mores, nisi boni vel mali amores,' saith Augus-
tine; that is, our manners are not used to be judged of ac-
cording to that which every man knoweth, but according to
that which he loveth : it is only good or evil love, that
maketh good or evil manners. If Plato could say, (as Au-
gustine citeth him, lib. viii. de Civit. Dei,) ' Hoc est philo-
sophari, scilicet Deum amare :' To be a philosopher, is to
love God. Much more should we say, ' Hoc est Chris-
tianum agere,' this is the doctrine and work of a Christian,
even the love of God. Indeed it is the work of the Redeemer,
to recover the heart of man to God, and to bring us to love
him by representing him to us as the most amiable, suitable
object of our love : and the perfection of love, is heaven it-
self. ' O jugum sancti amoris, (inq. Bernard.) quam dulciter
capis, gloriose laqueas, suaviter premis, delecianter oneras,
fortiter stringis, prudenter erudis !' that is. The yoke of holy-
love, O how sweetly dost thou surprise ! How gloriously
dost thou enthral ! How pleasantly dost thou press ! How
delightfully dost thou load ! How strongly dost thou bind !
How prudently dost thou instruct! ' O fselix amor ex quo
oritur strenuitas morum, puritas affectionum, subtilitas intel-
lectuum, desideriorum sanctitas, operum claritas, virtutum
fa^cunditas meritorum dignitas, praemiorum sublimitas.' O
happy love, from which ariseth the strength of manners, the
purity of affections, the subtlety of intellects, the sanctity
of desires, the excellency of works, the fruitfulness of vir-
tues, the dignity of deserts, the sublimity of the reward!
I appeal to your own consciences, Christians, would you
not think it a foretaste of heaven upon earth, if you could
but love God as much as you desire? Would any kind of
life that you can imagine, be so desirable and delightful to
•you! Would any thing be more acceptable unto God? And
on the contrary, a soul without the love of God, is worse
than a corpse without a soul. " If any man love not the
218 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maran-atha."(l Cor.
xvi. 22.)
And do I need to tell you what a powerful incentive it
is to love, to know that you are beloved ? It will make
Christ much more dear to you, to know how dear you are to
him. What is said of affective love in us, may partly be
said of attractive love in Christ. " Many waters cannot
quench love, neither can the floods drown it:" (Sol. viii. 7:)
no riches can purchase what it can attract. When you find
that he hath set you " as a seal upon his arm and heart,"
(ver. 6,) and that you are dear to him as the " apple of his
eye," what holy flames will this kindle in your breast ! If
it be almost impossible with your equals upon earth not to
love them that love you, (which Christ telleth you that
even publicans will do. Matt. v. 46,) how much more
should the love of Christ constrain us abundantly to love
him, when being infinitely above us, his love descendeth,
that ours may ascend ! His love puts forth the hand from
heaven to fetch us up.
O Christians, you little know how Satan wrongeth you,
by drawing you to deny, or doubt of the special love of God !
How can you love him that you apprehend to be your ene-
my, and to intend your ruin? Doubtless not so easily as if
you know him to be your friend. In reason is there any
more likely way to draw you to hate God, than to draw you
to believe that he hateth you? Can your thoughts be plea-
sant of him ; or your speeches of him sweet ? or can you at-
tend him, or draw near him with delight, while you think
he hateth you, and hath decreed your damnation ? You
may fear him, as he is a terrible avenger ; and you may con-
fess his judgments to be just: but can you amicably em-
brace the consuming fire, and love to dwell with the ever-
lasting burnings ?
O, therefore, as ever you would have the love of God to
animate, and sanctify, and delight your souls, study the
greatness of his love to you, and labour with all possible
speed and diligence, to find that Christ by his Spirit is
within you. It is the whole work of sanctification that Sa-
tan would destroy or weaken by your doubts : and it is the
whole work of sanctification that by love would be promoted,
if you knew your interest in the love of Christ.
AND BENEFITS Ol" SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 219
12. It is the knowledge of Christ dwelling in you, and
so of the special love of God, that must acquaint you with a
life of holy thankfulness and praise. These highest and
most acceptable duties, will be out of your reach if Satan
can hide from you that mercy which must be the chiefest
matter of your thanksgiving. Will that soul be in tune for
the high praises of the Lord, that thinks he meaneth to use
him as an enemy? Can you look for any cheerful thanks-
sivina; from him that looks to lie in hell ? Will he not rather
cry with David, " In death there is no remembrance of thee :
In the grave who shall give thee thanks?" (Psal. vi. 5.)
" What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the
pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?"
(Psal. XXX. 9.) Shall the damned praise thee, or shall they
give thee thanks that must be scorched with the flames of
thine indignation? Can you expect that joy should be in
their hearts, or cheerfulness in their countenances, or praises
in their mouths, that think they are reprobated to the fire
of hell ? Undoubtedly Satan is not ignorant, that this is
the way to deprive God of the service which is most accept-
able, to him and you of the pleasures of so sweet a life. And
therefore he that envieth both, will do his worst to damp
your spirits, and breed uncomfortable doubts and fears, and
wrongful suspicions in your minds. Whereas the know-
ledge of your interest in Christ, would be a continual store-
house of thanksgiving and praise, and teach your hearts as
well as your tongues, to say with David, " Blessed is the
man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered ;
blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not ini-
quity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Be glad in
the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye
that are upright in heart." (Psal. xxxii. 1, 2. 11.) "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 bene-
fits : who forgiveth all thine iniquities : who healeth all
thy diseases : who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and
crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies."
(Psal. ciii. 1 — 4.) " O Lord, my God, I cried unto thee, and
thou hast healed me : O Lord, thou hast brought up ray 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 : for his
220 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
anger endureth but for a moment: in his favour is life."
(Psal, XXX. 2—5.) Thanksgiving would be the very pulse
and breath of your assurance of Christ dwelling in you.
You would say with Paul, " Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spi-
ritual blessino;s in celestials in Christ: According as he
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him in love :
Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of
his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have re-
demption through his blood, the remission of sins accord-
ing to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded
toward us," &,c. (Eph. i. 3 — 8.) Thus faith and assurance,
as they have an unspeakable store to work upon, so it is na-
tural to them to expatiate in the praise of our Redeemer, and
to delight in amplifications and commemorations of the
ways of grace. Just so doth Peter begin his first epistle,
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us
again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly re-
joice," &c.
No wonder if the heirs of heaven be inclined to the lan-
guage and the work of heaven. I think there are few of you
that would not rejoice, and by your speech and countenance
express your joy, if you had assurance but of the dignities
and dominions of this world. And can he choose but ex-
press his joy and thankfulness, that hath assurance of the
crown of life ? What fragrant thoughts should possess that
mind that knoweth itself to be possessed by the Spirit of the
living God ! How thankful will he be that knows he hath
Christ and heaven to be thankful for! What sweet delights
should fill up the hours of that man's life, that knows the
Son of God living in him, and that he shall live in joy
with Christ for ever! How gladly will he be exercised in
the praises of his Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, that
knows it must be his work for ever ! No wonder if this joy
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 221
be a stranger to their hearts, that are strangers to Christ, or
strangers to their interest in his love : No wonder if they
have no hearts for these celestial works, that have no part in
the celestial inheritance, or that know not that they have
any part therein. How can they joyfully give thanks for
that which they know not that they have or ever shall have,
or have any probability to attain!
But to that man that is assured of Christ within him,
heaven and earth, and all their store, do offer themselves as
the matter of his thanks, and do furnish him with provisions
to feed his praises. What a shame is it that an assured
heir of heaven should be scant and barren in comfort to
himself, or in thanks and praise to Jesus Christ, when he
hath so full a heap of love and mercy to fetch his motives
from, and hath two worlds to furnish him with the most pre-
cious materials ; and hath no less than Infinite goodness,
even God himself, to be the subject of his praise ! " O give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy en-
dureth forever (whatever others du) : Let Israel say, let the
house of Aaron say, let them that fear the Lord say, that
his mercy endureth for ever." (Psal. cxviii. 1 — 4.) The know-
ledge of our interest fitteth us for his praise. "Thou art
my God, and I will praise thee : thou art my God, I will
exalt thee." (Psal. cxviii. 28.) " O Lord, truly I am thy ser-
vant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid:
thou hast loosed my bonds ; I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord !"
(Psal. cxvi. 16, 17.) " His praise is for the congregation of
his saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him ; let the
children of Zion be joyful in their King." (Psal. cxlix. 1, 2.)
" Let them praise the name of the Lord ; for his name alone
is excellent, his glory is above the earth and heaven. He
also exalteth the horn of his people ; the praise of all his
saints, even of the children of Israel, a people near unto
him." (Psal. cxlviii. 13, 14.) " I will also clothe his priests
with salvation, and his saints shall shout aloud for joy." (Psal.
cxxxii. 16.) Praise is a work so proper for the saints, and
thanksgiving must be fed with the knowledge of your mer-
cies, that Satan well knovveth what he shall get by it, and
what you will lose, if he can but hide your mercies from
you. The height of his malice is against the Lord, and the
next is against you : and how can he shew it more than by
222 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
drawing you to rob God of his thanks and praise, when he
hath blessed and enriched you with the chiefest of his mer-
cies ! Labour therefore. Christians, to know that you have
that grace that may be the matter and cause of so sweet
and acceptable an employment as the praises of your Lord,
13. Moreover, you should consider that without the
knowledge of your interest in Christ, you cannot live to
the honour of your Redeemer, in such a measure as the Gos-
pel doth require. The excellency of Gospel-mercies will
be veiled and obscured by you, and will not be revealed
and honoured by your lives. Your low and poor dejected
spirits will be a dishonour to the faith and hope of the
saints, and to the glorious inheritance, of which you have
so full a prospect in the promises. If you take the son of a
prince in his infancy, and educate him as the son of a
ploughman, he will not live to the honour of his birth, which
he is not acquainted with. The heirs of heaven, that know
not themselves to be such, may live like the heirs of heaven
as to uprightness and humility, but not in the triumphant
joy, nor in the courageous boldness, which becometh a be-
liever. What an injury and dishonour is it to our Redeemer,
that when he hath done and suffered so much to make us
happy, we should walk as heavily as if he had done nothing
for us at all ! And when he hath so fully secured us of ever-
lasting happiness, and told us of it so expressly that our
joy may be full, we should live as if the Gospel were not
the Gospel, and such things had never been promised or re-
vealed ! When heaven is the object, and the promise of God
is the groundwork of our faith, we should live above all
earthly things, as having the honours and pleasures of the
world under our feet, accounting all as " loss and dung for
the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ," (Phil. iii.
8,) whom we should love, though " we have not seen him ;
in whom though now we see him not, yet believing we
should rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, as
those that must receive the end of their faith, the salvation
of our souls." (1 Pet. i. 8, 9.) And how can we do this, if
we are still questioning the love of Christ, or our interest
in it!
Believers should with undaunted resolution charge
through the armies of temptation, and conquer difficulties,
and suffer for the name of Christ with joy ; accounting it a
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 223
blessed thing to be persecuted for righteousness sake, be-
cause that " theirs is the kingdom of heaven :" Because of
the greatness of the reward, they should "rejoice and be ex-
ceeding glad." (Matt. v. 10. 12.) And how can they do
this, that believe not that the reward and kingdom will be
theirs !
The joys of faith and confidence on the promise and
strength of Christ, should overcome all inordinate fears of
man ; " For he hath said, I will never fail thee nor forsake
thee." So that we may boldly say, " The Lord is my helper,
and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." (Heb. xiii.
5, 6.) And how can we do this, while we are questioning
our part in the Christ and promise that we should thus
boldly trust upon !
14. Lastly consider, that the knowledge of your part in
Christ, may make all sufferings easy to you. You will be
so much satisfied in God your portion, as will abate the de-
sires, and drown the joys and sorrows of the world. You
will judge the "sufferings of this present time unworthy to
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us."
(Rom. viii. 18.) You will choose rather " to suffer affliction
with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
that the treasures of the world, as having respect to the re-
compence of the reward." (Heb. xi. 25, 26.) All this must be
done, and will be done by true believers, that have an as-
surance of their own sincerity ; they must and will forsake
all, and take up the cross and follow Christ, in hope of a
reward in heaven, as it is offered them in the Gospel, when
they know their special interest in it. For these are Christ's
terms which he imposeth on all that will be his disciples.
(Luke xiv. 33 ; xviii. 22. 24, 25.) But you may certainly per-
ceive that it will be much more easy to part with all, and
undergo and do all this, when we have the great encourage-
ment of our assured interest, than when we have no more
but the common offer. To instance in some particulars.
1. Do you live where serious godliness is derided, and
you cannot obey the word of God, and seek first the king-
dom of God, and its righteousness, without being made the
common scorn, and the daily jest and by-word of the com-
pany? Let it be so: If you know that you have Christ
within you, and are secured of the everlasting joys, will you
224 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
feel, will you regard such things as these? Shall the jest of
a distracted, miserable fool, abate the joy of your assured
happiness? Princes and noblemen will not forsake their
dominions or lordships, nor cast away the esteem and com-
fort of all they have, because the poor do ordinarily re-
proach them as proud, unmerciful oppressors. They think
they may bear the words of the miserable, while they have
the pleasure of prosperity. And shall not we give losers
leave to talk? We will not be mocked out of the comfort of
our health or wealth, our habitations or our friends: and
shall we be mocked out of the comfort of Christ, and of the
presence of the Comforter himself! If they that go naked
deride you for having clothes, and they that are out of doors
in the cold and rain, deride you that are warm and dry with-
in ; or they that are sick deride you for being well, this will
but make you more sensible of your felicity, and pity them
that have added such folly to their wants : so will it increase
the sense of your felicity, to find that you are possessed of
so unspeakable a mercy, which others have not so far tasted
of as to know its worth. If you have the feast, you may
bear the words of famished, unhappy souls that speak
against it because they taste it not: if you are in your
Father's arms, you may bear the scorns of such as stand
without the doors.
2. If you have the contradictions and opposition of the
ignorant or malicious, speaking evil of things they know
not, and persuading you from the ways of righteousness,
how easily may all this be borne while you have Christ with-
in you to strengthen and encourage you ! Had you but his
example before you, who is " the Author and Finisher of
your faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and endured such contra-
diction of sinners against himself, it should keep you from
being weary and fainting in your minds." (Heb. xii. 2, 3.)
But when you have his presence, liis Spirit, and his help,
how much should it corroborate and confirm you !
3. How easy may you bear the slanders of your own or
the Gospel's enemies, as long as you are sure of your interest
in Christ ! How easily may you suffer them to call you by
their own names, " pestilent fellows, and movers of sedition
among the people, ringleaders of a sect, profaners of the
temple," as Paul was called, (Acts xxiv. 5, 6,) as long as
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 2*25
you have Christ within you, that was called Beelzebub for
your sakes. (Matt. x. 25.) Your Judge that must finally
decide the case, is your dearest friend, and dwelleth in you :
It is "he that will justify you ; who is he that condemneth
you?" (Rom. viii. 33, 34.) His approbation is your life
and comfort. How inconsiderable is it as to your own feli-
city, what mortal worms shall say or think of you ? What if
they call you all that is naught, and stain your names, and
obscure your innocency, and make others believe the falsest
accusations that Satan can use their tongues to utter of
you? You have enough against all this within you : What
if you go for hypocrites, or factious, or what malignity can
call you, until the day of judgment? As long as you have
so good security of being then fully cleared of all, and your
righteousness vindicated by your Judge, how easily may you
now bear the slanders of men, that prove themselves wicked,
by falsely affirming it of you ! You can endure to be called
poor, so you be not poor ; and to be called sick, as long as
you are well. And you may well endure to be called proud,
while you are humble ; and factious, while you are lovers of
unity and peace ; or hypocrites, while you are sincere. How
boldly may you say with the prophet, " The Lord God will
help me, therefore 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 con-
tend with me ? Let us stand together : Who is mine adver-
sary ? Let him come near to me : Behold the Lord God will
help me ; who is he that shall condemn me ? Lo, they shall
all wax old as a garment : the moth shall eat them up."
(Isaiah 1. 7—9.)
Had you but Paul's assurance and experience of Christ
dwelling in you, you might imitate him in a holy contempt
of all the slanders and revilings of the world : " For I think
that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were men
appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle to the
world, and to angels, and to men : We are fools for Christ's
sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are
strong : ye are honourable, but we are despised : Even unto
this present hour, we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked,
and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place ; and
labour working with our own hands : being reviled, we
VOL. XVI. Q
2*26 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF IGNORANCE,
Viless : being persecuted, we suffer it : being defamed, we
entreat: we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the
offscouring of all things unto this day." (1 Cor. iv. 9 — 13.)
Thus may we " do and suffer all things through Christ that
strengtheneth us." (Phil. iv. 13.) What matter is it what
men call us, if God call us his children and friends, and
Christ be not ashamed to call us brethren ? With us it will
be a very small thing to be judged of man, while we know
"the Lord that must judge us, is on our side." (1 Cor. iv.
3,4.) It lieth not on our hands to justify ourselves: it is
Christ that hath undertaken to answer for us ; and made it
the work of his office to justify us; and to him we may
boldly and comfortably leave it : and let all the accusers
prepare their charge, and deal with him, and do their worst.
4. How easily may you bear imprisonment, banishment,
or other persecution, as long as you are assured of the love
of Christ! Can you fear to dwell where Christ dwells with
yon ? If he will go with you through fire and water, what
need you fear? Those owning, appropriating words, will
make us venture upon the greatest perils, " Fear not, for T
have redeemed thee ; I have called thee by thy name, thou
art mine : when thou passest through the waters, I will be
with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be
burnt For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of
Israel, thy Saviour." Who would not with Peter cast him-
self into the sea, or walk with confidence upon the waters,
if Christ be there, and call us to him? (Matt, xiv. 28, 29 ;
John xxi. 7.)
The eleventh chapter to the Hebrews doth recapitulate
the victories of faith, and shew us what the hope of unseen
things can cause believers patiently to undergo. How cheer-
fully will he endure the foulest way, that is assured to come
safe to such a home? What will a man stick at, that knows
he is following Christ to heaven ; and knoweth that he
" shall reign with him, when he hath suffered with him ?"
(2 Tim. ii. 12.) W^howill refuse bloodletting, that is assured
beforehand that it shall procure his health? He is unwor-
thy of Christ, and of salvation, that thinks any thing in the
world too good to lose for them. (Matt. x. 37.) What mat-
ter is it, whether death finds us in honour or dishonour, in
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 227
our own country or in another, at liberty or in prison, so we
are sure it finds us not in a state of death ? Who would not
rather pass to glory by as straight a way as John Baptist,
Stephen, or other martyrs did, than with their persecutors,
to prosper in the way to misery 't Who can for shame repine
at the loss of temporal commodities, that is secured of the
eternal joys? If assurance of the love of God, would not
embolden you to patient suffering, and to lay down life and
all for Christ, what do you think should ever do it?
But when you are afraid lest death will turn you into
hell, what wonder if you timerously draw back? When you
know not whether ever you shall have any better, no won-
der if you are loath to part with the seeming happiness
which you have. Those doubts and fears enfeeble the soul,
and spoil you of that valour that becomes a soldier of Christ.
5. All personal crosses in your estates, your families,
your friends, your health, will be easily borne, if you are
once assured of your salvation. To a man that is passing
into heaven, all these are almost in-considerable things.
What is Lazarus the worse now for his sores or rags ? Or
what is the rich man the better for his sumptuous attire and
fare ? (Luke xvi.) Whether you be poor or rich, sick or
sound ; whether you are used kindly or unkindly in the
world, are questions of so small importance, that you are
not much concerned in the answer of them : but whether
you have Christ within you, or be reprobates ; whether you
are the heirs of the promise, or are under the curse, are
questions of everlasting consequence.
6. Lastly, You may comfortably receive the sentence of
death, when once you are assured of the life of grace, and that
you have escaped everlasting death. Though nature will be
still averse to a dissolution, yet faith will make you cheerfully
submit, "desiring to depart and be with Christ," as the best
condition for you. (Phil. i. 23.) When you "know that
if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, you
have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eter-
nal in the heavens;" you will then "groan earnestly, desiring
to be clothed upon with your house, which is from heaven :
not to be unclothed, (for the union of soul and body, is the
constitution of the man, which nature cannot but desire,)
but to be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed
up of life. This God doth work you for, who giveth you
228 THE MISCHIEFS OF S ELF-IGNOU ANCE,
the earnest of the Spirit: therefore as men that know while
you are at home in the body, you are absent from the Lord;
and that walk by faith, and not by sight, you would be
always confident, and willing rather to be absent from the
body, and present with the Lord." (2 Cor. v. 1—8.)
Though it be troublesome to remove your dwelling, yet
you would not stick upon the trouble, if you were sure to
change a cottage for a court : nor would you refuse to cross
the seas, to change a prison for a kingdom. The holy de-
sires of believers, do prepare them for a safe death; but it
is the assurance of their future happiness, or the believing
expectation of it, that must prepare them for a death that is
safe and comfortable. The death of the presumptuous may
be quiet, but not safe : the death of doubting, troubled be-
lievers may be safe, but not quiet: the death of the ungodly,
that have awakened, undeceived consciences, is neither safe
nor quiet : but the death of strong believers, that have at-
tained assurance, is both. And he that findeth Christ with-
in him, may know, that when he dieth, he shall be with
Christ: his dwelling in us by faith, by love, and by his Spi-
rit, is a pledge that we shall dwell with him. Christ within
us, will certainly carry us unto Christ above us. Let Soci-
nians question the happiness of such departed souls, or
doubt whether they be in heaven before the resurrection ; I
am sure that they are with Christ, as the forecited places
shew, (2 Cor. v. 7, 8 ; Phil. i. 23,) and many other. We are
following him, that when he had conquered death, and went
before us, did send that message to his doubting, troubled
disciples, (which is to me so full of sweetness, that methinks
I can scarce too often recite it,) " Go to my brethren, and
say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father,
and to my God and your God," (John xx. 17.) O piercing,
melting words, which methinks do write themselves upon
my heart, whenever I read them with attention and consi-
deration ! Know once that you are his brethren, and that his
Father is your Father, and his God is your God, and that he
is ascended and glorified in your nature ; and then how can
you be unwilling to be dismissed from the bondage of this
flesh, and be with Christ! For in his " Father's house are
many mansions ! and he is gone before to prepare a place
for us ; and will come again and receive us unto himself,
that where he is, there we may be also." (John xiv. 2, 3.)
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 2'Z9
And that this is his will for all his servants, he hath de-
clared in that comfortable promise, (which also I have found
so full of sweetness, that I value it above all the riches of
the world,) " 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." (John xii. 26.) The
Spirit of Christ within you, is the earnest of all this : Be
assured of your faith, and hope, and love, and you may be
assured to possess the good believed, and hoped for, and
loved. " The incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth
for ever," of which you are new born, (1 Peter i. 23,) doth
tend to the "incorruptible crown, (1 Peter v. 4,) even the
" crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge will
give to all that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 8.) "And
so shall we ever be with the Lord," as the apostle com-
fortably speaks, 1 Thess. iv. 17, and seasonably annexeth the
use of such a cordial, " Wherefore comfort one another with
these words." (ver. 18.)
Whether we are to die by the decay of nature, or by the
storm of any violent disease, or by the hand of persecutors,
or any other instruments of Satan, the difference is small :
they are but several ways of landing at tbe shore of happi-
ness, which we were making towards, through all the duties
and difficulties of our lives. May we by any death be sent
to Christ, let them domineer awhile that stay behind, and
are conquerors and happy in their dream ; we shall neither
miss nor desire their felicity. May I die assured of the love
of God, how little regardable is it, whether I be poor or rich
till then ; or in what manner death shall do its execution l
And how little cause have blessed souls to envy them that
are left on earth, in a quiet and prosperous passage to dam-
nation !
And what an ease and pleasure is this to a man's mind
through all his life, to be able, with well-grounded comfort,
to think of death ! What cares can vex him that hath se-
cured his everlasting state? What losses should afflict him
that is sure he shall not lose his soul, and is sure to gain
eternal life ? What fears should disquiet him that is sure to
escape the wrath of God ? What wants should trouble
him that knoweth he is an heir of heaven ? Why should
the indignation or threatenings of man, be any temptation
to turn him out of the way of duty, or dismay his mind.
230 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-i G NOKANCE,
who knoweth that they can but " kill the body," and dis-
miss the soul into his blessed presence, whom itloveth, and
laboureth and longs to see ? What should inordinately
grieve that man that is certain of eternal joy ? What else
should he thirst for, that hath " in him the well of living
waters, springing up to everlasting life?" (John iv. 14.) And
what should deprive that man of comfort, that knoweth he
hath the Comforter within him, and shall be for ever com-
forted with his master's joy ? And what should break the
peace and patience of him that is assured of everlasting
rest? If the assurance of a happy death cannot make it
welcome, and cannot make affliction easy, and fill our lives
with the joys of hope, I know not what can do it.
But, alas for those poor souls that know not whither
death will send them, or at least have not good grounds of
hope; what wonder if " through the fear of death they be all
their lifetime subject to bondage!" (Heb. ii. 15.) Me-
thinks in the midst of their wealth and pleasure, they should
not be so stupid as to forget the millions that are gone be-
fore them, that lately were as jovial and secure as they ; and
how short their dreaming feast will be. Methinks all the
beauty of their fleshly idols should be blasted with those
nipping frosts and storms, that in their serious forethoughts
come in upon them, from the black and dreadful regions of
death ! Methinks at any time it should damp their mirth, and
allay the ebullition of their frenetic blood, to remember, ' For
all this I must die,' and it may be " this night, that the fool
must deliver up his soul; and then, whose shall those things
be which he hath provided !" (Luke xii. 19,20.) Then who shall
be the lord, and who the knight or gentleman ? And who shall
wear the gay attire? and who shall domineer, and say, ' Our
will shall be done, and thus we will have it?' Then where is the
pleasure of lust, and merry company, and meat, drink, and
sports? Methinks, Solomon's memento, (Eccles.xi. 9,) should
bring them to themselves. " Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth,
and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine
eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will
bring thee into judgment." And as the sound of these
words ' I must shortly die,' methinks should be always in
your ears ; so in reason, the question ' Whither I must then
go,' should be always as it were before your eyes, till your
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 231
souls have received a satisfactory answer to it. O what an
amazing dreadful thing it is, when an uusanctified, unpre-
pared soul must say, * I must depart from earth, but I know
not whither! I know not whether unto heaven or hell;
here I am now, but where must I be for ever!' When men
believe that their next habitation must be everlasting, me-
thinks the question, * Whither must I go ?' should be day and
night upon their minds, till they can say upon good grounds,
* 1 shall go to the blessed presence of the Lord :' O had you
but the hearts of men within you, methinks the sense of this
one question, ' Whither must I go when I leave the flesh?'
should so possess you, that it should give your souls no
rest till you are able to say, ' We shall be with Christ, be-
cause he dwelleth in us here, and hath sealed us and given
us the earnest of his Spirit ; or at least, till you have good
hopes of this, and have done your best to make it sure.
And thus I have told you of how great importance it is
to believers, to attain assurance of the love of God, and to
know that Christ abideth in them. And now I think you
will confess, I have proved the necessity of Self-knowledge,
both to the unregenerate and the regenerate, though in se-
veral degrees : and having opened the disease, and shewed
you the need of a remedy, I am next to direct you in the
application for the cure.
I doubt not but there are many of the hearers, that by
this time, are desirous to be instructed, how this self-know-
ledge may be attained : for whose satisfaction, and for the
reducing of all that hath been spoken into practice, I shall
next acquaint you with the hindrances of self-knowledge
(the removing of them being not the least point in the cure),
and with the positive directions to be practised for the at-
tainment of it. And because the hindrances and helps are
contrary, I shall open both together as we go on.
The hindrances of self-knowledge are some of them
without us, and some within us; and so must be the helps.
I. The external hindrances are these.
1. The failing of ministers in their part of the work,
through unskilfulness or unfaithfulness, is a great cause
that so many are ignorant of themselves. They are the
lights of the world; and if they are eclipsed, or put under a
bushel; if they are darkened by the snuff of their own cor-
2.32 TH£ MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNOR ANCJE,
ruptions; or if they feed not their light by the oil of dili-
gent studies, and other endeavours ; or if they will not go
along with men into the dark and unknown corners of the
heart, what wonder if men's hearts remain in darkness, when
those that by office are appointed to afford them light, do
fail them ? It is not a general dull discourse, or critical
observations upon words, or the subtle decision of some
nice and curious questions of the schools, (though these
may be useful to their proper ends,) nor is it a neat and
well-composed speech, about some other distant matters,
that is likely to acquaint a sinner with himself. How many
sermons may we hear (that to other ends are not unprofit-
able) that are levelled at some mark or other, that is very
far from the hearers' hearts, and therefore are never likely to
convince them, or prick them, or open and convert them ?
And if our congregations were in such a case, as that they
needed no closer quickening work, such preaching might
be borne with and commended ; but when so many usually
sit before us, that must shortly die, and are unprepared, and
that are condemned by the law of God, and must be par-
doned or finally condemned ; that must be saved from their
sins, that they may be saved from everlasting misery, I
think it is time for us to talk to them of such things as most
concern them ; and that in such a manner as may most
effectually convince, awake, and change them. When we
come to them on their sick-beds, we talk not then to them of
distant or impertinent things : of words, or forms, or parties,
or by-opinions; but of the state of their souls, and their
appearing before the Lord, and how they may be ready,
that death may be both safe and comfortable to them :
(though a superstitious miserable fellow, that knoweth no
better things himself, may talk to the sick of beads, and
relics, and of being on this side or that, for this ceremony
or the other, and may think to conjure the unholy spirit out
of him, by some affected words of devotions, uttered from a
graceless, senseless heart; or to command him out by Papal
authority, as if they would charm his soul to heaven, by
saying over some lifeless forms, and using the Gospel as a
spell: yet ministers indeed, that know themselves what faith
and what repentance is, and what it is to be regenerate, and
to be prepared to die, do know that they have other work to
do.) The Gospel offereth men their choice, whether they
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. '233
will have holiness or sin ; and to be ruled by Christ, or by
their fleshly lusts; and so whether they will have spiritual,
or carnal, eternal, or transitory joys. And our work is to
persuade them to make that choice which will be their hap-
piness if we can prevail, and which eternal joy depends
upon ; whether we come to them in sickness or in health,
this is our business with them. A man that is ready to be
drowned, is not at leisure for a song or dance : and a man
that is ready to be damned, methinks should not find him-
self at leisure to hear a man shew his wit and reading only,
if not his folly and malice against a life of holiness : nor
should you think that suitable to such men's case, that doth
not evidently tend to save them. But, alas, how often have
we heard such sermons, as tend more to diversion than
direction, to fill their minds with other matters, and find men
something else to think on, lest they should study them-
selves, and know their misery ! And whereas there may be
so much ingenuity in the sinner, as to perceive that the dis-
course of idle tongues, or the reading of a romance is un-
suitable to one in his condition ; and therefore will not, by
such toys as these, be called off from the consideration of
his ways. A preacher that seems to speak religiously, by
a sapless, dry, impertinent discourse, that is called a sermon,
may more plausibly and easily divert him : and his con-
science will more quietly suffer him to be taken off the
necessary care of his salvation, by something that is like it,
and pretends to do the work as well, than by the grosser
avocations, or the scorns of fools : and he will more tamely
be turned from religion, by something that is called religion,
and which he hopes may serve the turn, than by open wick-
edness, or impious defiance of God and reason. But how
oft do we hear applauded sermons, which force us, in com-
passion to men's souls, to think, O what is all this to the
opening a sinner's heart unto himself, and shewing him his
unregenerate state ! What is this to the conviction of a self-
deluding soul, that is passing unto hell with the confident
expectations of heaven ! To the opening of men's eyes, and
turning them from darkness unto light, and from the power
of Satan unto God ! What is this to shew men their undone
condition, and the absolute necessity of Christ, and of re-
newing grace ! What is in this to lead men up from e^rth
to heaven, and to acquaint them with the unseen world, ind
234 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
•to help them to the life of faith and love, and to the mortify-
ing and the pardon of their sins! How little skill have
many miserable preachers, in the searching of the heart, and
helping men to know themselves, whether Christ be in them,
or whether they be reprobates ! And how little care and
diligence are used by them to call men to the trial, and help
them in the examining and judging of themselves, as if it
were a work of no necessity I " They have healed also the
hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying. Peace,
peace; when there is no peace, saith the Lord," (Jer. vi. 14.)
And Ezek. xiii. 10 — 12. " Because, even because they have
seduced my people, saying, peace ; and there was no peace;
and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with un-
tempered mortar: Say unto them that daub it with untem-
pered mortar, that it shall fall : there shall be an overflow-
ing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a
stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall
it not be said unto you. Where is the daubing wherewith ye
have daubed it?"
It is a plain and terrible passage, Prov. xxiv. 24, " He
that saith to the wicked. Thou art righteous; him shall the
people curse; nations shall abhor him." Such injustice in
a judge, or witnesses, is odious, that determine but in order
to temporal rewards or punishments : (Lev. xix. 15 ; Prov.
xviii. 5 ; xxviii, 21.) But in a messenger that professeth to
speak to men in the name of God, and in the stead of Jesus
Christ, when the determination hath respect to the con-
sciences of men, and to their endless joy or torment, how
odious and horrid a crime must it be esteemed, to persuade
the wicked that he is righteous ; or to speak that which
tendeth to persuade him of it, though not in open, plain ex-
pressions! What perfidious dealing is this against the
Holy God! What an abuse of our Redeemer, that his pre-
tended messengers shall make him seem to judge clean con-
trary to his holiness, and to his law, and to the judgment
which indeed he passeth, and will pass on all that live and
die unsanctified! What vile deceit and cruelty against the
souls of men are such preachers guilty of, that would make
them believe that all is well with them, or that their state is
safe or tolerable, till they must find it otherwise to their woe !
When diseased souls have but a short and limited time
allowed them for their cure, that a man shall come to them,.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 235
as in the name of their physician, and tell them that they
are pretty well, and need not make so much ado about the
business, and thus keep them from their only help till it be
too late ! What shame, what punishment can be too great
for such a wretch, when the neglect and making light of
Christ and his salvation, is the common road to hell? (Heb.
ii. 3 ; Matt. xxii. 5.) And most men perish, because they
value not, and use not the necessary means of their recovery ;
for a man in the name of a minister of the Gospel, to cheat
them into such undervaluings and neglects, as are likely to
prove their condemnation : what is this but to play the minis-
ter of Satan, and to do his work, in the name and garb of a
minister of Christ? It is a damnable treachery against
Christ, and against the people's souls, to hide their misery,
when it is your office to reveal it ; and to let people deceive
themselves in the matters of salvation, and not to labour
diligently to undeceive them ; and to see them live upon
presumption and ungrounded hopes, and not to labour with
faithful plainness to acquaint them with their need of better
hopes. But some go further, and more openly act the part
of Satan, by reproaching the most faithful servants of the
Lord, and labouring to bring the people into a conceit, that
seriousness and carefulness in the matters of God and our
salvation, are but hypocrisy and unnecessary strictness :
and in their company and converse they put so much coun-
tenance on the ungodly, and cast so much secret or open
scorn upon those that would live according to the Scrip-
tures, as hardeneth multitudes in their impenitency. O
dreadful reckoning to these unfaithful shepherds, when they
must answer for the ruin of their miserable flocks ! How
great will their damnation be, which must be aggravated by
the damnation of so many others I When the question is,
' How come so many souls to perish?' The answer must be,
* Because they set light by Christ and holiness, which should
have saved them.' But what made them set light by Christ
and holiness ? It was their deceitful confidence, that they
had so much part in Christ and holiness, as would suffice to
save them, though indeed they were unsanctified strangers
to both. They were not practically acquainted with their
necessities. But how came they to continue thus ignorant
of themselves till it was too late ? Because they had teach-
ers that kept them strange to the nature of true holiness, and
'236 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-lGNORA NCE,
did not labour publicly and privately to convince them of
their undone condition, and drive them to Christ, that by
him they might have life. Woe to such teachers that ever
they were born, that must then be found under the guilt of
such perfidiousness and cruelty ! Had they ever felt them-
selves, what it is to be pursued by the law of conscience, and
with broken hearts to cast themselves on Christ as their
only hope and refuge, and what it is to be pardoned, and
saved by him from the wrath of God ; and what it is to be
sanctified, and to be sensible of all his love, they would take
another course with sinners, and talk of sin, and Christ, and
holiness at other rates, and not deceive their people with
themselves.
Direct. 1. My first direction therefore to you, is in order
to the knowledge of yourselves, that if it be possible, you
will live under a faithful, soul-searching, skilful pastor; and
that you will make use of his public and personal help, to
bring you, and keep you in continual acquaintance with
yourselves.
As there is a double use of physicians; one general, to
teach men the common principles of physic, and read them
lectures of the nature of diseases, and their causes and reme-
dies; and the other particular, to apply these common pre-
cepts to each individual person as they need : so is there a
double use of ministers of the Gospel ; one to deliver pub-
licly the common doctrines of Christianity, concerning man's
sin and misery, and the remedy, &c. ; and the other to help
people in the personal application of all this to themselves.
And they that take up only with the former, deprive them-
selves of half the benefit of the ministry.
1. In public, how skilful and diligent should we be, in
opening the hearts of sinners to themselves ! The pulpit
is but our candlestick, from which we should diffuse the
holy light into all the assembly: not speaking the same
things of all that are before us, as if it were our work to
trouble men, or only to comfort them : but as the same light
will shew every man the things which he beholdeth in their
varieties and differences ; (we see by the same sun a man to-
be a man, and a beast to be a beast, and a bird to be a bird ;)
so the same word of truth which we deliver, must be so dis-
covering and discriminating, as to manifest the ungodly to
be ungodly; and the carnal to be carnal; the worldling to be
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 237
a worldling; the hypocrite to be a hypocrite, and the ene-
mies of holiness to be as they are ; and the sincere to be
sincere ; and the renewed soul to be indeed renewed. The
same light must shew the excellency of sanctification, and
the filthiness of sin : the glory of the image of Christ, and
the deformity of that spiritual death which is its privation.
It must shew the rishteous to be " more excellent than his
neighbour," (Prov. xii. 26,) and help men to " discern be-
tween the righteous and the wicked; between him that
serveth God and him that serveth him, not." (Mai. iii. 18.)
We must not be like the miserable ungodly preachers, that
cannot describe the state of grace with clearness and feel-
ingly, because they never knew it : or that dare not discover
the unsanctified, lest they detect themselves, nor judge them
according to their office, lest they condemn themselves; and
that preach to the ungodly as if all were well with them ;
and they dare not awaken the consciences of others, lest
they should awaken and affright their own : and therefore
are ready to scorn at all distinguishing preachers, and to
take the discovery of regeneration to be but the boasting of
hypocrisy, as if he that would differ from the most, or did
pretend to the special privileges of the saints, did but as
the Pharisee, " Thank God that he is not like other men;"
or say, "Stand by, I am more holy than thou:" And if
these preachers could prove that all men should be saved
that will but say that they are Christians, they might then
have hope of being saved themselves, without that serious
piety which they so distaste. No wonder therefore if they
preach in the language of Corah, "Ye take too much upon
you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them,
and the Lord is among them : wherefore t;hen lift you up
yourselves above the congregation of the Lord ! " (Numb.
xvi. 3.) But the Lord saith, " If yod take forth the precious
from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth : Let them return
unto thee, but return not thou unto them." (Jer. xv. 19.)
If you love not differencing preaching, make no difference
from the true members of Christ by your hypocrisy or un-
godly living; be such as they, and we shall not difference
you from them. Read but the first psalm, and the fifteenth
psalm, and the third of John, and the eighth to the Romans,
and the first Epistle of John, and then tell me whether the
Scripture be not a differencing word, condemning some.
238 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IG XOR A NCE,
and justifying others, and shewing the true state of the dif-
ference between them. What is there no difference between
the heirs of heaven and hell? Or is the diffei'ence no more
than that one hath the name of a Christian, and not the
other ? Or that one had the hap to be born where the Gos-
pel was received, and Christianity was the religion of the
country, and the other the unhappiness to be born where it
was not known? O no, when the dreadful differencing day
is come, men shall find that there was another kind of dif-
ference between the way of life and death : when many shall
say, " Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works ? " To whom Christ will profess,
" I never knew you : depart from me ye that work iniquity."
(Matt. vii. 22, 23.) When " many shall come from the east
and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the
kingdom shall be cast out into outter darkness : there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. viii. 11, 12.)
What a difference will appear between those that now con-
verse together, and sit here in the same seats, between
whom the world that judgeth by the outside, discerns but
little or no difference ! When those things shall be exe-
cuted that are written in Matt. xxv. and 2 Thess. i, O what
a difference will then appear ! When of those that were in
the same church, the same house, the same shop, the same
bed, one shall be taken, and the other left: and the felicity
that was hid in the seed of grace, shall shine forth to the
astonishment of the world, in the fulness of eternal glory !
I know preachers are ordinarily hated that thus differ-
ence between the godly and the ungodly ; the very names
of difference are matter of scorn to guilty souls, because
they imply the matter of their terror. I have often noted
this with admiration, in the success of Christ's own doctrine
upon the Jews, (Luke iv. 18, 19, 22,) when he had so preach-
ed the Gospel, as that he had the testimony of the multitude
that wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of
his mouth, yet some were cavilling and believed not ; and
verse 25, 26, 27, he saith, " I tell you of a truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven
was shut up three years, &,c.; But unto none of them was
Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, to a woman
AXD BExVEFlTS OF SELF-ACQU AINTAN C£. "239
that was a widow : And many lepers were in Israel in the
time of Eliseus the prophet : and none of" them were cleans-
ed, saving Naaman the Syrian : " But how was this differ-
encing doctrine of Christ entertained by the Jews? It is
said, ver. 28, 29, " All they in the synagogue when they
heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and
thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the
hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him
down headlong." Read it, and consider what moved these
men to so much rage against Christ himself for preaching
this doctrine, which restrained the fruit of the Gospel to a
few ; and then you will not wonder, if those preachers that
imitate Christ in this, be used no better than their master.
But let ministers know that this is their duty, to shew
every man himself, his deeds, and state, as indeed they are:
and let Christians choose and love such ministers. Choose
not the glass that makes you fairest, but which is truest,
and representeth you to yourselves as God accounteth you,
whether he do it with more eloquence or less, with smot ther
or with rougher language ; hear liim if you may, that will
best acquaint you with the truth of your condition, and
choose not those that speak not to the heart.
2. And when you have heard the best, the clearest, the
most searching preacher, do not think that now you can do
all the rest of the work yourselves, and that you have no
further need of help, but make use of their more particular
personal advice, not needlessly, but in these following cases.
1. In case that after your most diligent self-examination,
you are yet at uncertainty and doubt, whether you are truly,
sanctified or not, the settling of your states for all eternity,
and the well-grounding of your hopes and comforts, is a
matter of such unspeakable moment, as that you should not
remain in careless, negligent xmcertainty, while God hath
provided you any further means that may be used for assur-
ance. Yea, if you were not troubled with doubting, yet if
you have opportunity of openingyour evidences to a judicious,
faithful minister or friend, I think it may be worth your la-
bour, for the confirmation of the peace and comforts which
you have. You cannot make too sure of everlasting happiness.
2. And not only in the first settling of your peace, but
also when any notable assault or dangerous temptation shall
afterward shake it, which vou cannot overcome without
240 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
assistance, it is seasonable to betake yourselves to a phy-
sician.
And also in case of any dangerous lapse or declining,
that hath brought you into a state of darkness. The sick
and wounded must have help: they are not sufficient for
themselves.
4. Also in case of any particular corruption or tempta-
tion, your particular sinful inclinations may, cautiously, be
opened to a faithful guide, that by his prudent and lively
counsel you may be strengthened.
If you say, ' To what end do ministers preach to me,
and why do I hear them opening the natures of grace and
of hypocrisy, if 1 cannot judge of myself by the doctrine
which they preach?' I answer, 1. You may and must judge
yourselves by the public common helps, as far as you are
able : but a personal applying help, added unto this, is a
further advantage. And humility should teach you, not to
think better of your understandings than there is cause ;
nor to think you are so wise as to need but one help, when
God hath provided you two : or that you need but the lesser,
when he hath provided you a greater. And doth not your
own experience convince you? Do you not find, that after
the best public preaching, you are yet in doubt, and at a
loss about your spiritual state, and therefore that you have
need of further help ?
2. I further answer you : There is so great a diversity of
particular circumstances in the cases of particular persons,
that a great deal of help is necessary to most, to pass a right
judgment, when they do understand both the law and the
fact. Will you think it enough that you have the statutes
of the land, and the law-books, to judge of all your own
cases by? Or will you not think that you have also
need of the counsel of the wisest lawyer (in your weightiest
cases) to help you to judge of your cause by the particular
application of the law to it? So in physic, who is so
foolish, as to think that by the help of the most learned
book, or approved recipes, he is able to be his own physi-
cian, without any more particular advice ? You must be
long in studying law or physic, before you can understand
them so well as those that have made them the study and
business of their lives. It is not having or reading a book
only, or hearing a lecture of them, that can make you as un-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE, 241
derstanding as the masters of the profession ; and also to have
all passages at hand that must be observed in the judging
of your cause. So is it in matters of the soul. When you
have heard much, and understand much, you cannot in
modesty think that all the sense of Scripture, about those
points, is known as exactly to you, as to your most judi-
cious teachers ; and that you are as able at once to see all
the passages of the word, and of the fact, as may enable you
to pass so clear a judgment on it. Perhaps you vsrill say,
that you know your own hearts and actions better than they
do. I answer, you do so, or should do so, as to the matter
of fact ; and it is you that they must know it from : and yet
when you have done, you may not be able to judge of your
state by those acts which you say you know. You must
shew the lawyer all your evidences : he cannot see them,
till you shew them him ; and yet when he seeth them, he
can judge of them whether they are good or bad, and of
your title by them; better than you can that have the keep-
ing of them, because he better understands the law. The
physician feeleth not your pain, nor knoweth it till you tell
it him ; and yet when you have told it him, he knows better
than you what it signifieth, and whither it tendeth, and
whether it be curable or not ; and what must cure it.
But perhaps you will say, that when you have gone to
ministers, and opened your case to them, they cannot re-
solve you, but you are still in doubt.
I answer, 1. Perhaps when they have resolved them,
yet you would not be resolved. Have they not told you
the truth and you would not believe it? Or directed you
to remedies which you would not use? They cannot, when
they have told you the truth, compel you to believe it; nor
when they have told you what will do the cure, they cannot
make you use it if you refuse.
2. And what if the nature of the disease be obstinate,
and will not be cured easily and at once, but with time,
and diligence, and patience ? Will you therefore think the
means are vain ? Must you at once, or in a short time,
be resolved, and delivered from all your doubts, about your
title to eternal life, or else will you cast off all advice?
Should you do so by your bodies, you may know what were
likely to be the issue : should your children learn ilms of
VOL. XVI. R
242 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
their teachers, they were likely to make unhappy scholars.
As you will not have done with Christ, if he cure you not
at once, nor give over praying, if you have not all your de-
sires at once, (if you love yourselves,) so you must not have
done with the counsel of your guides, if they satisfy not
your doubts at once : As you cease not hearing Ihem in
public, though you have still your doubtings ; so why
should you cease advising with them personally upon that
account? Use God's means, and be thankful, if by degrees
they do cure, and prevail at last.
Object. ' But I find it is God only that can speak peace;
and therefore it is vain to hang on men.'
I answer, God speaketh by his Word and Spirit : his
word is to be delivered, expounded, and applied to you by
his ministers : if therefore you will have it from God, you
must not refuse his own appointed ordinary means. The
Spirit comforteth by the promise : As in conversion God
useth not to do it by the Spirit, without, but in, and by the
ministry of the word, so also in all our directions, and satis-
faction and comfort afterwards. As he that will run from
the ministry of the word, because it is God that must con-
vert, doth indeed run from God, and is not likely to be con-
verted ; so is it in point of assurance and consolation. The
teachers of the church " are to be accounted of as the mini-
sters of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God,"
(1 Cor. iv. 1,) " by whom the people have believed;" (1 Cor.
iii. 5 ;) " not having dominion over their faith, but being
helpers of their joy;" (2 Cor. i. 24;) " who are comforted in
all their tribulations, that they might be able to comfort
them that are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith they
themselves are comforted of God." (ver. 4.) They are to
be " faithful and wise stewards, whom the Lord maketh
rulers over his household tg give them their portion of meat
in due season." (Luke xii. 42.) Thus Christ has given
"authority to his servants, and appointed to every man his
work, (Mark xiii. 34,) and given pastors and teachers to
his church, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God to a perfect man." (Eph. iv. 11 — 13.)
These therefore being Christ's officers, and this their ap-
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 243
pointed work, we must receive so much of God's mercies
by their hands, as belongeth to their office to administer.
" If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one
among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness, then
God is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from
going down to the pit; I have found a ransom. (Job xxxiii-
23, 24.)
So that you see it is God's way to shew to man his up-
rightness, and to speak peace to souls by his messengers
and interpreters that are fitted and authorised thereto.
Object, ' But it is but few that are able thus to discuss
the case of unsettled, doubting souls, and to give them clear
and safe directions, that may save both from presumption
and despair: in many places the ministers are senseless of
these things, and unacquainted with the concernments and
works of conscience, and have nothing to say to us, unless
to deride us as scrupulous and precise; and bid us not
trouble our heads about such matters, seeing God is merci-
ful, and Christ died for sinners. They will discourse with
us long enough about news, or worldly businesses, or opi-
nions, or controversies; but when we open to them the
state of our souls, and desire their advice for the " makino-
our calling and election sure," they have no sense or savour
of such discourse : and many ministers that are truly con-
scientious, are yet so unskilful and so weak, that we have
no encouragement to acquaint them with our state.'
To this I answer : It cannot be denied but all this is too
true; and it is matter of lamentation, and must send us to
God with the old petition which Christ himself hath put
into our mouths, (Matt. ix. 37, 38,) " The harvest truly is
plenteous, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into
his harvest."
But consider that this is no wonder, or unusual thing :
For all this, there is no nation under heaven that hath more
able, faithful ministers of Christ, than are in these nations.
Alas, how much of the church is guided by mere ignorant
readers ! And how much by superstitious deceivers ! Did
you know the case of the poor Christians in the Ethiopian,
the Greek, and the Roman churches, you would bless God
that it is so well with us: even when the church was in a
narrower room, yet God complained, (Jer. xii. 10,) " Many
244 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
pastors have destroyed my vineyard : they have trodden my
portion under foot : they have made my pleasant portion a
desolate wilderness : they have made it desolate : and being
desolate it mourneth unto me :" And Jer. xxiii. 1, 2. " Woe
be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my
pasture, saith the Lord : therefore thus saith the Lord God
of Israel against the pastors that feed my people : Ye have
scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not
visited them : behold I will visit on you the evil of your
doings, saith the Lord. And I will set up shepherds over
them, that shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor
be dismayed." Then was the church fain to take up this
lamentation, Jer. x. 19 — 21. " Woe is me, my hurt! for my
wound is grievous : but I said, truly this is a grief, and I
must bear it : my tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords
are broken : my children are gone forth of me, and they
are not : there is none to stretch forth my tent any more,
and to set up my curtains: for the pastors are become
brutish, and have not sought the Lord : therefore they shall
not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered."
But the voice of healing mercy saith, " Only acknow-
ledge thine iniquity, &c. Turn, O backsliding children,
&c. and I will give you pastors according to my heart,
which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."
(Jer. iii. 13 — 15.)
You see in all other professions (that require not super-
natural illumination), there are but few that attain to excel-
lency: it is but in few that nature layeth the foundation, or
giveth that capacity, to be excellent, which grace doth ele-
vate and improve.
Take therefore the advice of the ablest you can get : If
most physicians are weak and ignorant, do not therefore
cast ofl'all, nor yet cast yourselves upon one that is likely to
kill you, because he is your neighbour. I will not persuade
you to go always to the minister of your parish, to open the
case of your souls, be he fit or unfit; but to the fittest that
you can have access to : the Papists themselves will give
men leave to choose others for their confessors. Where
there is most of the heavenly illumination, and holy skill in
the matters of the soul ; where there is the soundest and
most exact judgment, joined with experience and tender
compassion, and faithful plainness, and cautelous secresy.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 245
there open your hearts if you have opportunity, and take
the help of such faithful counsellors to acquaint you with
yourselves.
Object. ' But such ministers being few, and having more
of greater work than they can turn them to, are not to be
spoken with as oft as my necessity requireth help.'
Answ. Use then the best that are at leisure ; and it is
not only ministers that you must use, but any other Chris-
tian friend that hath such abilities and qualifications, as fit
them to assist you : whosoever hath the light, refuse not
to come to it ; God's gifts and graces may be helpful to you
in a parent, a husband, a neighbour, and not only in a mi-
nister.
Quest. ' But how far may a dark and doubting person
take up and rest in the judgment of a minister, or of others,
about the state of his soul, when he is not satisfied himself?'
Answ. This question is of very great use, and therefore
the more carefully to be resolved ; I shall answer it there-
fore, 1. Negatively, and, 2. Affirmatively.
1. No man's judgment of your state is to be taken as
absolutely infallible or Divine : nor is man to be believed
as God is, with a Divine belief. When they tell you, that ' If
you are regenerate, you are justified/ then they do but tell
you what God hath told you, and therefore this is to be
taken as of infallible certainty, not as it is their word, but
as it is God's: So also when they tell you, that ' If you are
unconverted you are not forgiven.* But when they tell you,
that ' you are converted or unconverted, pardoned or un-
pardoned,' this judgment is not to be taken as infallible or
Divine.
2. For the bare matter of fact (whether you repent or
not; whether you had rather be holy or unholy, &c.) there
is no minister that can know your heart so well as your-
selves may know it, except in case when melancholy or pas-
sion, or a weakness of understanding on one side, or a wil-
fulness of presumption on the other side, doth make men
judge of their own condition quite contrary to the evidence
that appeareth in their lives to others.
3. It is not safe to rest on the judgment of one that is
either an enemy or stranger to the workings of a careful,
troubled soul ; or one that is drunk with any heresy, or fond
of any private opinion of his own, and layeth out his zeal to
246 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
form people into his opinion, as if the life of religion lay in
that: nor yet of a weak unskilful man.
4. It is not safe for you to rest much in the judgment of
one that knows you not, and is not acquainted (by himself,
or by the report of others, or some good evidence) of the
bent and manner of your lives, but must judge only by the
present expressions of your own mouths.
5. It is not safe for you to rest on the judgment of any one
single person, when the judgment of most of your judicious
acquaintance is contrary to it. So much for the negative.
2. AflSrmatively, I answer,
1. By a Divine faith you are bound to believe all the
promises of Scripture that your pastor (or any other) shall
acquaint you with.
2. As a disciple of Christ, you are bound to learn the
meaningof those promises (and other passages of the Scrip-
ture) from your teachers, duly authorised to instruct you :
and with such a human belief, as a scholar oweth to his
teacher in arts or sciences, you are bound to believe your
teachers concerning the meaning of the promises, in cases
wherein you are unable yourselves to understand the word
by its proper light and evidence, as well as they ; and in
case you see no evidence of falsehood in their exposition,
nor have any special reason to distrust them. He that will
believe nothing that his teacher telleth him, in order to his
own understanding, shall never understand by teaching. If
you know as much as he already, you need no teacher : if
you do not, you must believe him, or else you can never
learn of him. But this is not to take him for omniscient, or
infallible in himself, but to credit him as a man.
3. You are bound, when he judgeth of your particular
case, upon your opening to him the matter of fact, to allov^
him so much credit as is due to the proportion of his under-
standing. You tell him how you feel your hearts affected,
and what the actions of your lives have been ; when you
have told it him, he judgeth by God's word, whether this be
a state of saving grace which you describe, or not ; if upon
much stronger parts, or longer study, and more experience,
he know more of the meaning of the word, and of the nature
of grace, and so be abler to judge than you, modesty re-
quireth that you do in that measure submit your understand-
ing unto his, and believe him according to the measure of
AND Bi:NEFlT.S OF SEL K-ACQU AINTANCE. 247
his skill, upon supposition that you deceive him not in
your information. Even as you will believe a lawyer about
your title to your lands, when you have shewed him your
evidence; or a physician about your disease, when you have
told him what you feel, as I said before.
4. You are bound to add also, all that credit that his
honesty and fidelity requireth, if he be a godly man unwill-
ing to deceive you.
5. And you are bound to add so much belief, as in the
case is due to a stander-by that is out of the dust, and is not
blinded by self-love, or partiality, or passions, or any selfish
bias, as most men are to themselves.
6. If you are darkened by melancholy, or any other weak-
ening distemper, that maketh you incapable of judging for
yourselves, you are bound to allow another so much credit^
as the advantage of his sounder understanding, and more
composed judgment doth require. If every child, or sick
person, will believe nobody that doth not say as they,
their self-conceitedness and their distrust of others will be
their wrong.
7. In the manner of reception, you are bound to do all
this with such a submission as belongeth to an officer of
Christ : not that you are to believe any falsehood that he
bringeth you, and fathereth upon Christ; nor to put out
your own eyes, and see with his, but to learn of him to
understand yourselves, and receive what he bringeth you,
according to his office : as a child is bound to submit to any
tutor or teacher that the parents shall set over him. The
same truth must be received as from a double obligation,
when besides its proper evidence it is delivered by a mes-
senger of Christ.
8. You may yet more boldly and confidently give credit
to the judgment of such a minister of Christ, when he is not
singular, but speaks according to the concurrent judgment
of the generality of able, experienced men, modesty will
forbid you to think yourselves wiser than all the able minis-
ters about you.
9. You have the less reason to suspect his judgment,
when you may be sure that he is not perverted by any self-
interest or self-respect, and frustrateth not the truth for fear
of displeasing you, or bringing any discredit or suffering on
hiraselt.
248 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
10. Lastly, When all these things concur, you may with
the greater confidence rest upon his judgment. And though
still he is but an imperfect man, and no absolute certainty of
your estate can be had from his bare judgment (though
from his doctrine, and the effects and signs there may), yet
such a judgment should weigh very much with you, to the
raising of fear, and care in the ungodly, and for the quieting
of a troubled souh
Let us a little now apply this direction to both parties.
Beloved hearers, if any of you can look before you to eter-
nity, and do not with awakened thoughts conclude, that all
probable means should be used in time, to make sure of your
final justification at the dreadful day of God, that man wants
either the faith of a Christian, or the feeling of a considerate
man. Are you all desirous to be sure beforehand, what
sentence shall pass upon you then, or are you not? If you
are, come on, and let me make a motion that you cannot
reasonably refuse : the business is of unspeakable conse-
quence: to be deceived, may be to be undone for ever.
Will you advise with those that God hath appointed to give
you advice in so great a case? Well then! will you go and
faithfully open your state (supposing you have the need be-
fore expressed,) to some able, faithful minister of Christ ?
Not to an ignorant, or a carnal, unexperienced man, bat
unto one that is skilled in spiritual affairs, and that will be
faithful to you, and deal with that serious gravity and reve-
rence as beseems him that is helping to prepare a soul for
the bar of Christ. Will you (if you never did it) tell him,
whether ever you were convinced of your sin and misery ?
And whether ever you saw the need of Christ ? And whether
you have loathed yourselves for your iniquities, and fled to
Christ as your only refuge from the wrath of God, and have
turned away with resolution from your former ungodly, care-
less life, and have changed your company, your business,
and your delights ? Whether you make it your chief busi-
ness to please God, and to save your souls ? and resolve
to take up with the hopes of heaven as your only portion,
and not to hazard it for any worldly interest, or fleshly plea-
sure whatsoever? " Whether in your eyes a vile person be
contemned, but you love and honour them that fear the
Lord ?" Tell these and other such particulars of your state
to your faithful pastors : answer them to these, and suck
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 240
like questions, and then take their judgment (with the cau-
tions before expressed) of your spiritual state. Hear what
they will tell you of it. Might not this course convince
thee of thy miserable state, that never hadst any such evi-
dences as these to shew ! and might it not awaken thee in
time, to bethink thee of a safer course ? Go to any faithful
minister in the world, and tell him the plain truth, that yet
thou art a secret fornicator, or drunkard, or pot-companion,
or flesh-pleaser in some sensual way ; or if thou sinnest not
so grossly, that yet thou art a formal hypocrite, and hast a
secret enmity to those that are most seriously religious, and
live the most heavenly lives, and that thou art thyself a
stranger to all the aforesaid passages of sanctification : and 1
dare assure thee that he will tell thee, if thou art thus indeed,
thou art in the " gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity,"
and must be speedily renewed, and sanctified, and j ustified, or
thou art undone for ever. I tell thee, there is not a man
that is worthy the name of a minister in all the world, but
will pass this judgment on the condition of thy soul. And
yet wilt thou bear it out with a senseless heart, a seared con-
science, and a brazen face; and still live as carelessly as if
all were well with thee ! What is thy soul of no more worth?
Is it so small a matter with thee, what becometh of thee?
Or is the judgment of able, faithful ministers, in the way of
their own office, of no more regard with thee? What not
when all the aforesaid requisites concur ! They shew thee the
plain word of God against thee ; and that his threatening
contains the virtual sentence of thy condemnation: they are
by office the interpreters of the law of God to you ; it hath
been the study of their lives : the matters in question are
such as they have had experience of in themselves, and
others: they have judged as hardly of themselves, and of
their own case, as now they do of yours, when theirs was
the same as yours is now. Do they pronounce you misera-
ble, as being strangers to the Spirit of Christ ? So they did
by themselves, when they saw their sin ; and therefore they
are impartial : they have had before them multitudes, (alas
too many) in your case : and you will regard the judgment
of a physician, that hath had many hundreds in hand that
had the same disease as you. They are men that are not
willing to deceive you. They deny themselves, in telling
you of your danger : they know that smoother words would
250 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
please you better ; and they have natures that desire men's
love and favour, rather than displeasure and ill-will. They
are more impartial than you are, and have not your self-
interest and passion to blind them : they are not abused in
their judgment by the temptations of evil company, or of
worldly, fleshly things, as you are ; for these temptations
more hinder us from judging ourselves than other men:
They are the messengers of Christ, appointed to give to each
their portion ; and should not their judgment be regarded,
in the business committed to their trust? And it is not one
man or two, or a hundred only, that are of this mind. Open
thy case to all the judicious, faithful ministers in the land,
or in the world, and open it truly, and they will all tell thee,
that ' If thou die without converting, sanctifying grace,
thou art lost for ever ;' and that all the world cannot save
thee from the everlasting wrath of God. Try as many of
them as you will, and see if all of them tell you not the same
thing. And is all this nothing to thee, presumptuous sin-
ner, that in the judgment of all the most able, faithful mi-
nisters of Christ, thy soul should be in a state of death ?
Art thou wiser than all the best and wisest, in the matters of
their own profession? If all the physicians in the country
should tell thee, that ' Thou hast a disease that will certainly
be thy death, unless thou take some one effectual medicine
in time,' I think thou wouldst not slight their judgment, and
say, they are too censorious, that .thou knowest thy condi-
tion better than they? I think it would affright thee to
seek after the remedy. And why should not the judgment
of the faithful ministers, about the state of thy soul, be so
far regarded, as to awaken thee to a more careful inquiry,
and stir up a preventing and remedying fear? If the judg-
ment of Christ's officers be not regardable, then there is no
matter of terror in excommunication ; nor no matter of
comfort in ministerial absolution.
O the madness of a hardened sinner ! that when he
sheweth by the fruits of an ungodly life, that he is a stranger
to sanctification, and liveth in the sins which the Scripture
threateneth damnation to, and hath no evidence of true con-
version to shew, will yet be confident of pardon and salva-
tion, let God and all his ministers say what they will against
it! and will rather be offended with his spiritual physicians,
for telling him of the danger of his state, and rail at them
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 251
as if they did him wrong, than he will see his danger and
prevent his misery ! Let such a one hear the word of God,
if he have ears to hear, " Lest there should be among you a
root that beareth gall and wormwood, and it come to pass
when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless him-
self in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk
in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to
thirst : The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of
the Lord, and his jealousy shall smoke against that man,
and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie
upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under
heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil," &c.
(Deut. xxix. 18—21.)
And on the other side, is there any soul among you, that
in doubts and troubles, hath opened his case to the faithful
ministers of Christ, and their judgment is, that your state is
safe? Is this the judgment, not only of the weakest, but
the wisest; not only of strangers, but of those that know
you best ; not only of one or two, but of all, or most of the
judicious ministers that ever you opened your case to ; even
of the most honest and impartial, that would not flatter you
nor deceive you? Yea, and perhaps, when desertions, or
melancholy, or passion, or ignorance, do make you unmeet
to judge of yourselves. And doth all this seem nothing to
you ; or a small matter? It is not nothing; it is not small.
I confess it is no ground of certainty : they are but men: it
is a human testimony; but yet it is a testimony that may
weigh down many of your own surmises, and take off much
of your distressing fears, and may give much ease to trou-
bled souls, while they are seeking after surer knowledge.
It is a ground of comfort, not to be despised, or made light
of. Till you can come to see your evidences yourselves,
and to be acquainted with the indwelling Spirit as your wit-
ness, you may much quiet your minds, and take much com-
fort, in this judgment and witness of the servants of the
Lord, that have a spirit of discerning, and have that grace
which acquainteth them with the nature of grace in others,
and that have been long exercised in the discerning of men's
states. It is possible an hypocrite (especially one that wil-
fully giveth them a false relation of himself) may deceive
them ; but it is probable that it is not one of many they are
deceived in, when they know or have a good description of
252 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
the person. If in a lawsuit, all the ablest lawyers tell you
that your cause is good, it is possible they maybe deceived,
but it is not likely. If in a fever, all the ablest physi-
cians tell you the danger is past, it is possible yet that they
may be all deceived : but yet I think you would take some
comfort in such a testimony ; so should you here. Though
the judgment of ministers be not infallible, it may be much
better than your own, though about yourselves ; and it may
be set against the jealousies and fears of a disquiet soul,
and against abundance of the molesting suggestions of the
accuser.
I do not by all this draw you to lay too much on man ;
I advance them not too high, and make them not lords of
your faith, but helpers of your joy. I draw you not to any
deceitful course, nor into any way of danger to your souls.
I bid you not fully and finally rest in the judgment of man ;
I bid you not neglect any means to come to fuller know-
ledge, and certainty of your own sincerity. 1 bid you not
forbear any means that tend to the getting of true grace.
If you have it, and know it not, the same means (for the
most part) may increase it, which you use to get it : and if
you have it not, when it is thought you have it, the means
may work it, that are intended to increase it. Do all that
you can to repent, believe, and love God, and live to him,
whether you ever did these before or not. But yet let the
judgment of your faithful pastors, the officers and expe-
rienced servants of the Lord, keep off despondency and des-
pair, that would disable you from the use of the means, and
would weaken your hands, and make you sit down in un-
profitable complaints, and give up all as hopeless. Let their
judgment quiet you in the way of duty ; lean on them in
the dark, till you come into the light. Yea, be glad that
you have so much encouragement and hope, from those that
are by Christ appointed to subserve the Spirit, in the com-
forting as well as the sanctifying work, and to shew to man
his uprightness, and to say to the righteous, " It shall be
well with him." (Isa. iii. 10.) I tell you, all the wealth of
the world is not worth even this much ground of comfort :
Live upon this much, till by diligent attendance, and waiting
on the Spirit of grace and comfort, you can get higher.
2. The second extrinsic hindrance of Self-knowledge is
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 253
prosperity, and the flattery that usually attendeth it. The
one disposeth men to be deceived, and the other putteth the
hood over their eyes, and tells them the falsehoods which de-
ceive them.
When men prosper in the world, their minds are lifted
up with their estates ; and they can hardly believe that they
are indeed so ill, while they feel themselves so well ; and
that so much misery is joined with so much content and
pleasure. They cannot taste the bitterness of their sin, and
God's displeasure, while the sweetness of worldly delights
and honours is in their mouths. The rich man in Luke xvi,
it is likely would have given a man but an unwelcome enter-
tainment, that had come to tell him that within a few days
or years he sliould lie in hell, and not be able to get a drop
of water to cool his tongue ! What need we doubt of that,
when his five brethren, that he left on earth behind him,
would not be persuaded (to know their danger of those
flames, and to use the necessary means to escape them),
though one had come to them from the dead! (Luke xvi. 31.)
You plead against their feeling, when you tell them of their
misery, when they feel prosperity. Their fleshly appetite
and sense, which is in them the reigning faculty, doth tell
them they are well and happy : and that which must con-
fute this, and tell them that they are miserable, must be an
inward sense of the sin and diseases of their souls, and a
foreseeing faith that must look before them unto eternity,
and fetch its proofs from the word of God, and fetch its
motives from another world: And, alas, they have no such
inward sense, nor no such faith as can prevail against their
sensual feeling. And therefore it is a matter of lamentable
difficulty, to make a prospering sinner well acquainted with
his misery. He is drunken with fleshly pleasures and con-
tentments : and when the drink is in a man's head, you can
hardly make him sensible of his misery, though he be a
beggar, or a prisoner, or were to die within a week. The
devil is therefore willing to reach his servants as full a cup
of prosperity as he can, that their drunkenness may keep
them from the true use of their reason : for if they once
come to themselves, they will come home to God. When
misery brought the prodigal to himself, he resolveth pre-
sently of going to his father. (Luke xv.) The bustle of his
worldly business, and the chattering, vain discourse that
2oi THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
is in his ears, and the mirth and sport that takes him up,
will not allow him so much of reason, as seriously to con-
sider of his soul's condition. Alas, when poor men, that
must labour all day for food and raiment, can find some time
for serious converse with God, and with their consciences,
the sreat ones of the world have no such leisure. How many
are going apace towards hell, and say they cannot have
while to bethink themselves what way they are in, or whi-
ther it is that they are going ! That which they have all their
time for, they have no time for, because they have no hearts
for it. Prosperity doth so please their flesh, that they can
give no heed to conscience or to reason : it doth so charm
their minds, and enslave their wills to sense and appetite,
that they cannot abide to be so melancholy, as to prepare
for death and judgment, or to consider seriously how this
will relish with them at the end ; nor scarcely to remember
that they are men, that should rule their senses, and be
ruled by God, and that have another life to live.
And as prosperity in itself is so great a hindrance to the
knowledge of yourselves, so flatterers, that are the flies of
summer, are always ready to blow upon the prosperous, and
increase the danger. What miserable men are extolled as
wise, and virtuous, and religious, if they be but rich and
oreat ! their vices are masked, or extenuated, and made but
little human frailties ; though they were swinish gluttons or
drunkards, or filthy fornicators, or mere flesh-pleasing, sen-
sual brutes, that waste most of their lives in ease and sports,
and eating and drinking, and such delights ; yet with their
flatterers all these shall go for prudent, pious, worthy per-
sons, if they can but seek when they have done, to mock
God and their consciences with some lip-service and lifeless
carcase of religion. O happy men, if God would judge of
them as their flatterers do ; and would make as small a mat-
ter of their wickedness, and as great a matter of their out-,
side hypocritical, heartless worship ! But they must be
o-reater than men or angels, and higher than either earth or
heaven, before God will flatter them. When they can make
him afraid of their high looks or threatenings, or when they
can put him in hope of rising by their preferment, then they
may look that he should comply with their parasites, and
compliment with his enemies, and justify the ungodly; but
not till then. O did they consider how little flattery doth
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. *255
secure them, and how little the Judge of all the world re-
gards their worldly pomp and splendour ; yea, how greatly
their greatness doth aggravate their sin and misery, they
would frown their flatterers out of doors, and call for plain
and faithful dealers. Of all the miseries of worldly great-
ness, this is not the least, that usually such want the neces-
sary blessing of a glass that will truly shew them their faces ;
of a friend at hand that will deal plainly and justly with
their souls. Who tells them plainly of the odiousness, and
bitter fruits of sin ; and of the wrath of God, and endless
misery ? How few such true and faithful friends have they !
and what wonder ! when it is a carnal inducement that
draweth men to follow them : It is their wealth and honour,
and their power, to do men good or hurt in outward things,
that makes their friends. They are attended by these flies
and wasps, because they carry the honey-pot which they '
love. And God saith to his followers, " Love not the world,
nor the things that are in the world : if any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him." (i John ii. 15.)
And it is for love of worldly things, even the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life, &c., which are
not of the Father, but of the world : (1 John ii. 16:) it is for
these that great men have their friends and followers for the
most part : and therefore it is plain, that the worst sort of
men are ordinarily their friends ; for those are the worst
men, that have not the love of the Father in them, but are
the friends of the world, and therefore the enemies of God.
(James iv. 4.) And the best, though fit to be their truest
friends, are seldom their followers, as knowing that the at-
tractive of the sensual world is a shadow unfit to deceive
those that are acquainted with its vanity, and a snare unfit
to take those that have observed how Satan lays and baits
the trap, and how they have fared that have been taken in
it. A despised Christ that hath the words of eternal life, is
much more followed by men that have the heavenly relish.
Such gracious souls, whose appetites are not corrupted by
the creature and their sickness, have more mind to flock af-
ter a spiritual and powerful messenger of Christ, that talks
to them of his kingdom, and the righteousness thereof,
which they first seek, than to gape after the preferment and
vainglory of prosperity. Christ, that despised the offer of
256 THE MISCHIEFf. OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
all the kingdoms and glory of the world, (Matt. iv. 8, 9,)
doth teach his followers to despise them.
Seeing then the ordinary attendants of the prosperous
are the worst of men, that seek themselves, and are purvey-
ing for the flesh, what wonder if they be flatterers, that have
netther skill, nor will to speak that unpleasing language
of reproof, that should make the prosperous know them-
selves! O how seldom (or never) do they hear, what the
poor can hear from every mouth ! If a man of low degree
be wicked, or off'end, his enemy dare tell him of it, and
his friend dare tell him of it, and his angry neighbour or
companion will be sure to tell him of it; and they dare
tell him frequently till he amend, and tell him plainly,
and set it home. But if great ones be as bad, and need
more help, as having more temptation, yet, alas, they naay
sin, and sin again, and perish, for any body that will deal
faithfully with their souls, except some faithful minister of
Christ, whose plainness is taken but for a thing of course.
And usually, even ministers themselves are some of them so
unfaithful, and some so fearful, and some so prudently cau-
telous, that such persons have no such help from them to
know themselves, as the poorer sort of people have. If we
deal freely with them, and set it home, it will be well taken ;
or if it offend, yet offence may be easily borne, as bringing
no ill consequents to our ministry : But if we deal so with
the great ones of the world, what outcries would it raise,
and by what names should we and our preaching be called !
If it were not for fear, lest some malicious hearers would
misunderstand me, and misapply my words, as spoken of
those we are bound to honour, and as tending to diminish
the reputation of any of our superiors (which I detest), I
should have shewed you all this in Scripture instances.
When Haman could not bear the omission of one man's
obeisance, what wonder if such cannot bear to be spoken
to, as indeed they are ! Not only an Aliab hateth one faith-
ful plain Michaiah, because he prophesieth not good of him,
but evil; (1 Kings xxii. 8;) but Asa, that destroyed idola-
try, can imprison the prophet that reproveth him for his sin.
(2 Chron. xvi. 10.) I will not tell you of the words that
were spoken to Amos by the priest of Bethel, (Amos vii.
10—13,) or to the prophet, (2 Chron. xxv. 15, 16,) lest
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 257
malice misinterpret and misreport me: for it is none of
my intent to fix on any particular persons, but to tell you
in general, the lamentable disadvantage that the great and
presperous have, as to the knowledge of themselves ; how
little plaindealing they have, and how hardly most of them
can bear it; though yet I doubt not but it is borne and
loved by those that have true grace: and that if David sin,
he can endure to hear from Nathan " Thou art the man,"
and this shall befal thee ! And an Eli can bear the prophesy
of Samuel, and say, " It is the Lord, kt him do what seem-
eth him good." (1 Sam. ii. 27; iii. 17, 18.) And an Hezekiah
can say, " Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast
spoken ;" (2 Kings xx. 19;) and Josiah can bear the threat-
enings of Huldah. (2 Chron. xxxiv; 2 Kings xxii.) And it
is a double honour in persons that have so great tempta-
tions, to love the plain discoveries of their sin: but a Joash
will slay even Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, that set him
up: and a Herod, that hath so much religion as to fear
John, as knowing that he was a just man, and an holy, and
to observe (or save him) ; and when he heard him, to do many
things, and hear him gladly, had yet so much love to his
fleshly lust, and so little power to resist a flatterer, as that
he could sell both the head of John and his own soul, for so
pitiful a price as this. (Mark vi. 20. 25. 27, 28.) So true is
that of Christ himself, " For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds
should be reproved (or discovered) : but he that doeth truth,
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God." (John iii. 20, 21.)
And indeed there is none that mofe opposeth Micaiah
than Zedekiah, as being concerned for the honour of his
flattering prophecy, to bring plaindealing into disgrace.
It is he that smiteth him, and saith, " Which way went the
Spirit of the Lord from me, to speak unto thee? " (1 Kings
xxii. 24.) As Plutarch compareth the flatterer to a painter,
that having made a picture of cocks which was very bad,
he bid his boys be sure to keep the living cocks out of his
sight, lest their appearance should shew the faultiness of
his picture : so, saith Plutarch, doth the flatterer do what
he can to keep away plaindealing faithful friends, lest his
fraud and falsehood should be detected by them. But, saith
VOL. XVI. s
258 THE MTSCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
Solomon, " He that rebuketh a man, afterward shall find
more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue." (Prov.
xxviii. 23.) And " Faithful are the wounds of a friend ; but
the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." (Prov. xxvii. 6.)
When prosperity is vanished, the flatterer and the faithful
dealer will be better known. Deceitful prosperity, and de-
ceitful men, will at once forsake you. None of them will
admire or applaud you when you are low, and the tide is
gone, and hath left you in contempt : these kind of men
will be as ready as any to reproach you ; as Shemei that
honoured David in his prosperity, but curseth him, and re-
vileth him as a rebel against Saul, and casteth stones at
him, when he saw him flying in distress. Plutarch likeneth
flatterers to lice, that forsake the bodies of the dead, be-
cause the blood is gone that did maintain them. Commonly
men in misery, or at death, have better thoughts of faithful
plainness, and worse of smoothing man-pleasers, than before.
But whom can the prosperous blame so much as them-
selves, if they are undone by the deceit of flatterers? It
is their own choice; they love to have it so ; they will not
endure faithful dealing. When they contract those diseases
which will not be cured without bitter medicines, they hate
the physician that offereth them : their appetites and sensual
lust, and not their believing-reason, doth choose their work,
their pleasures and their company, and prescribe what lan-
guage must be spoken to them. And he that resolves to
cast away the remedy, and will please his appetite and fancy,
come on it what will, must take what he gets by it, and
bear the endless wrath of God, that could not bear the ne-
cessary warnings and self-knowledge that should have pre-
vented it. Did these men hate sin, and the messengers of
Satan, they would not hate the justice and messengers of
God : but while they damnably love fleshly pleasures, they
cannot savingly love the word that chargeth them to let go
those pleasures, nor the persons that cross them in the
things they love. And thus poor worldlings are ruined by
their own desires : it seemeth so sweet to them to live in
sin, that they cannot endure to know the bitter fruits of mi-
sery, which it will at last bring forth. They are conquered
by their fleshly lusts, and therefore they hate the messengers
of tliat Spirit which would fight against them. Satan doth
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-A CQU A I NTA NC K. 259
perfect his former victories in them, by dispelling or dis-
persing the auxiliaries of Christ, that were sent for their
rescue and relief. They live as if they were purposely made
great, that they may be able to drive away the messengers
of salvation, and to keep the voice of mercy far enough
from their ears; and to command that which the Gadarenes
did entreat, that Christ would go out of their coasts, (Mark
V. 17,) because they would not be troubled with him. They
so much love the way to hell, that they cannot abide to be
told whither it leadeth them, and therefore they come thi-
ther before they are aware, and must know themselves by
the unquenchable fire, because they would not know them-
selves by the discovering recovering light. And thus by
prosperity and flattery, Satan pursues and wins his game.
Direct. 2. In opposition to this hindrance, two things
are to be done. 1. Desire not so perilous a station as worldly
prosperity and greatness is. Love not, and seek not a con-
dition so hazardous to your souls. Leave that to them that
take it for their portion, as not believing what they must
lose and suffer by it; or what God hath revealed of the life
to come.
Or if you be in such prosperity, not by your desire, but
by the will and providence of God, let your fear and watch-
fulness be doubled, as your dangers are : Be not like those
sensualists, that " feed themselves without fear." (Jude 12.)
Use not prosperity to the pleasing of the flesh, and the
prospering of your lusts, but deny yourselves in the midst
of your abundance; and turn it into an adversity to your
sensual inclinations, by taming the body and bringing it
into subjection, and suspecting yourselves, and walking
humbly with God and man.
And when adversity is upon you, improve the opportu-
nity for the knowledge of yourselves. Then take a just
survey of your former course of life. Then try your ways,
when the drunkenness and deceits of prosperity are past,
and the hand of God hath brought you into a sober and
considerate state. O how many souls do know that in one
day, when adversity hath made them wise and sensible,
which before they knew and would not know ; they saw it,
but did not understand and feel it! Then on a sudden they
are able to pass a right judgment, upon their yielding to
temptations, and the value of the things that tempted them.
260 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
and upon their worldly designs, and fleshly wisdom, and
their neglects of God, and heaven, and duty, than before
they could do, though they had never so much instruction,
and though they could speak the same words of sin as now.
Affliction taketh away the deceiving advantages of fleshly
objects, and unmasketh the glory and profit of the world,
and awakeneth the rational faculties to perform their office,
and therefore is an excellent opportunity for self-acquaint-
ance. The prodigal came to himself, when he was denied
to fill his belly with the food of swine. (Luke xv. 16, 17,)
Nature teacheth men to understand, that it is the principal
lesson that affliction readeth to us, to know ourselves, and
our ways, as they are related to God and to his judgment.
2. If you are in prosperity, be the more suspicious of
flatterers, and drive them away with the greater detestation :
be more careful to keep them from you, than to keep your
bodies clean from vermin. And be the more solicitous to
procure such faithful overseers and physicians for your
souls, as will do their best to save you, though they dis-
please you. O that you knew what an advantage it is to
have a faithful pastor, and a faithful friend, that seek not
yours but you, and make no advantage to themselves by
flattering you, but choose the means that tend most to your
salvation ! And O that you knew the great disadvantage
of those that want such a pastor, and such a friend ! You
would then be sure to give it as your strictest charge to
both, to deal plainly with you, and never to hide or exte-
nuate your sin or danger. You would charge your teachers^
' Whatever you do, deal faithfully with my soul ! If you
see me in any dangerous course, I beseech you tell me of it:
if I should be hardened against your warnings and reproofs,
I beseech you deal not lightly with me, but labour to awaken
me, and set it home, and pull me out of the fire, and save
me as with fear. (Jude 23.) O suffer me not to be quiet
in my sins.' The like charge also you would give to your
friends that are about you, and converse with you ; choose
such pastors, and choose such friends as are fittest, thus to
prove your friends indeed : and charge them, and entreat
them as they love your souls, and as they will answer it be-
fore God, that they suffer you not to sin for fear of displeas-
ing you by plain reproofs ; and resolve to submit and take it
well, A stander-by hath the great advantage of impartiality,
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 261
and therefore may see that in you which you observe not
in yourselves; an object too near the eye, or too far off,
is not well discerned : self-love doth not hinder us so much
in judging of other men's cases as our own. Friendly and
faithful dealing in the matters of eternal consequence, is the
principal use and benefit of friendship. This differenceth
the communion of saints from Beelzebub's swarm of flies
and caterpillars. Thus " two are better than one : for if
they fall, the one will lift up his fellow : but woe to him
that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to
help him up." (Eccles. iv. 9, 10.) Much more woe to him
that hath a multitude to cast him and to keep him down.
Hind. 3. The third extrinsical impediment to self-know-
ledge, is conversing only with such as are as bad as our-
selves ; and not with such whose lives display the spiritual
endowment, and excellencies which we want. Among the
Ethiopians, it seemeth no deformity to be black : Seneca
saith, that " no man is to be upbraided with that which is
• vitium humani generis,' the common fault of all the world,
or of the country where he lives :" for this were but to up-
braid him that he is a man, or that he was born in such a
time or place. Though Christians that know better the
common disease, do know that there must be a common
humiliation and remedy ; yet these indeed are the thoughts
of most ; they know not that it is a matter of dishonour and
lamentation, to be no better than the most, and to lie in the
common corruptions of the world, and to have no better
hearts than they had by nature. To hear preachers talk of
holiness, and a Divine nature, and a new birth, and of
being made new creatures, and of living in the love of God,
and in the joyful hopes of endless glory, doth seem to them
but as the talk of a world in the sun, or the description of
an angel, which humbleth not them at all, for not being
such, nor exciteth in them any great desires to be such :
as long as they see not the persons that are such, they think
these are but devout imaginations, or the pious dreams of
melancholy men ; and that indeed there are no such persons
in the world : or if there be, that they are but as the Papists'
saints, here and there one to be admired and canonized, and
not upon pain of damnation to be imitated. They judge of
all the world, or almost all, by those about them ; and they
think that God should be unmerciful if he should condemn
262 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-TGNOR ANCE,
SO great a number as they see are like themselves; and
should save none but those few transcendent souls that they
are described, but are unacquainted with.
It sometimes melteth my heart, in pity of many great
ones of the world, to think how hard a matter it is for them
to know indeed what holiness is ; when they seldom hear so
much as one heavenly prayer or discourse, or any serious
talk of the matters of sanctification, and communion with
Christ. When profaneness and inhuman wickedness dwell
about them, and make such as are but civil and temperate,
and good-natured persons, to seem saints: when they see
but few that fear the Lord, and love him unfeignedly, and
live by faith : and those few are perhaps of the more cold,
and timerous, and temporizing strain, that shew forth but
little of the heavenly nature, and the virtues of their holy
faith ; that dare scarce open their mouths to speak against
the wickedness which they see or hear ; that dare not dis-
course like the saints of the Most High, and the heirs of
heaven, for fear of being made the scorn and by-word of
the rest, or of falling under the frowns and dislike of their
superiors ; so that they live among others almost like com-
mon men, save only that they run not with them to their
excess of riot ; and think it enough that by such forbearance
of gross sin, they are in some measure evil spoken of: When
they that should " let their light so shine before men, that
they might see their good works, and glorify their Heavenly
Father, do hide their religion, and put their light as under
a bushel, and not in a candlestick, that it might give light
to all that are in the house;" (Matt. v. 15, 16;) and so
when religion never appeareth in its proper splendour and
power, and heavenly tendency, to those great ones that have
no better company, what wonder if they never know them-
selves, nor truly understand the nature, necessity, or excel-
lency of religion ? When they know it, for the most part,
but by hearsay, yea, and when they hear it more reproached
than applauded, it must be a miracle of mercy that must
make such men to be sincerely and heartily religious. When
they see so many about them worse than themselves, and
so few better, and those few that are better do hide it, and
live almost as if they were no better ; and when the godly,
whom they see not, are described to them by the serpent's
seed, as if they were but a company of whining, melancholy.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQU A J NT A NCE. 263
brain-sick hypocrites, who can expect that ever such men
should savingly know themselves or Christ, unless a wonder
of mercy rescue them, and bring them from this darkness
and delusion into the light? O how oft have I wished in
compassion to many of the great ones of the world, that
they had but the company which we that are their inferiors
have ! That they did but hear the humble, holy, heavenly
language, that we have heard ! And hear the faithful fer-
vent prayers that many poor Christians pour out before the
Lord ! and saw but the humble, harmless, exemplary, and
heavenly lives of many poor Christians, that are represented
\o them as the filth and the offscouring of the world, and
perhaps no more regarded than Lazarus was at the rich
man's gate. (Luke xvi.) Did they but see and hear, and
know such holy and heavenly believers, and were as well
acquainted with them as we are, how many of them would
better know themselves, and see what they want, and what
they must be, and better discern between the righteous and
the wicked, between those that fear God, and those that fear
him not? (Mai. iii. 18.)
Direct. 3. It will therefore be a great help to the know-
ledge of yourselves, if you will converse with those that
bear the holy image of their Creator, (Col. iii. 10,) and
whose lives will tell you what it is to live by faith, and
what it is to walk in the Spirit, to mortify the flesh, and to
live above all the alluring vanities of the world. We can
more sensibly perceive the nature of holiness, when we see
it in action before our eyes, than when we only read a de-
scription of it. Who could have known what life is, or
what reason is, by bare reading or hearing their descriptions,
if he knew them not in himself and others, by another kind
of demonstration ! Many thousands can honour the name
of a saint, and the Scripture descriptions of a saint, that
hate the life of holiness, when it appeareth to them in prac-
tice, and cannot endure a saint indeed. It will most con-
vincingly tell you what you want, when you see what others
have. To see how naturally they breathe after heaven, will
most convincingly shew you the dulness and earthliness of
your minds : to see how easily they can love an enemy, and
forgive a wrong, will acquaint you most sensibly with the
ulcers of your passionate, revengeful minds. Do but lay by
your prejudice and partiality, and sec whether there be not
204 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
in serious Christians another spirit than in the world : and
whether they live not upon the things above, which your
belief and love did never reach? Look upon believers, and
consider why they pray, and watch, and study to please God,
and then bethink yourselves, whether you have not as much
cause to do so as they : and so you may perceive your negli-
gence by their diligence; your senselessness by their tender-
ness of heart and conscience; your fleshliness by their spi-
rituality ; and the rest of your sins by the lustre of their graces.
Saith Gregory 'Qui plenissime intelligere appetit qualis sit,
talis debet aspicere qualis non est ; ut in bonorum forma me-
tiatur quantur ipse deformis est : ' that is. He that would
fully understand what he is, must look on such as are better
than himself, that in the comeliness of the good, he may take
the measure of his own deformity. As Isidore saith, ' Mi-
nus homo seipsum ex seipso considerat:' Men know
not themselves by themselves alone.
Hence, therefore, the servants of God may see how ex-
actly they should live, and of what consequence it is that
they be eminently holy ! when it is they that by their hea-
venly excellency must convince the world of their sinfulness
and misery. O Christians, do you live such exemplary and
convincing lives? Is there indeed that excellency of holi-
ness appearing in you, which may shew men, to the glory
of your Redeemer, how the heirs of heaven do differ from
the world? Alas, our common careless living, doth wrong-
to multitudes as well as to ourselves ; and is a cruelty to
the souls whose salvation we are bound by our examples to
promote. What then do those men, that by their vicious,
scandalous conversation, do harden the ungodly, and cause
them to think contemptuously, and to speak scornfully of
the holy way ! O, woe to them, if they repent not, by whom
such offence cometh !
Especially ministers should see that their lives be a con-
tinual lecture ; as Jerom saith, ' Episcopi domus et con-
versatio quasi in speculo posita, magistra est publicee dis-
ciplinse : quicquid fecerit, id sibi omnes faciendum putant.'
That is, The house and conversation of a bishop, is set as in
a glass (or to be beheld) as the teacher of public discipline:
all think they should do whatever he doth. • And therefore
Chrysostom concludeth * That a priest that is bad, doth
acquirebyhispriesthood,notdignity but.disgrace : For (saitb
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 265
he) thou sittest in judgment on thyself: If thou live well and
preach well, thou instructestthe people : if thou preach well
and live ill, thou condemnest thyself. For by living well
and preaching well, thou instructest the people how to live :
but by preaching well and living ill, thou instructest God as
it were how to condemn thee.'
And hence it is also that the servants of God should have
the care of their fame, as well as of their conversation; be-
cause the reputation of religion dependeth much on the re-
putation of the religious : and reputation doth much to the
encouraging or discouraging of the ungodly that are stran-
gers to the things themselves. Saith Augustine, * Con-
scientia necessaria est tibi, fama proximo tuo : qui famam
ancupans negligit conscientiam, hypocrita est : qui confidens
conscientiae negligit famam, crudelis est.' That is. Con-
science is necessary for thyself: and thy good name is ne-
cessary for thy neighbour. He that hunteth aftfer fame, and
neglecteth conscience, is an hypocrite : and he that so
trusteth to a good conscience as to neglect his good name, is
cruel (to others). When we mind our fame for the good of
others, and the service of God, and not to please a proud
vainglorious mind; and when we do it without immoderate
care, seeking it only by righteous means, and referring the
issue to the will of God, as being prepared for evil report as
well as good, this is but to improve our talent to our mas-
ter's use.
II. I come next to the internal impediments to self-
acquaintance, especially in the worser sort of men.
1. The first that I shall acquaint you with is, That na-
tural deep-rooted sin of pride, which strongly inclineth men
to think well of themselves, and to desire that all others do
so too : so that where pride is not discovered and subdued
by grace, men will scarce endure to be closely questioned
by ministers or other friends about their sin, and the condi-
tion of their souls. What ! question them whether they are
ungodly, unsanctified, the servants of sin and Satan ; in a
state of death and condemnation ! Their hearts will rise with
indignation against him that will put such questions to them.
What! question them whether they have any saving grace !
Whether they are regenerate, pardoned, and have any well-
grounded hopes of heaven ! They love not the searching
266 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
word of God ; they love not the distinguishing passages of
Scripture ; they love not a faithful searching minister, be-
cause they would dishonour and trouble them with such
doubts as these. A proud man judgeth not of himself as he
is, but as his tumified, distempered fancy representeth him to
himself to be : To " think himself something when he is no-
thing," and so to be wilfully his own deceiver, is his disease.
(Gal. vi. 3.) And as pride is one of the deepest-rooted sins
in man, and of greatest strength, and most hardly extirpated
and overcome, so true self-acquaintance must be accordingly
difficult, it being carried on but by such degrees as we get
ground and victory against our pride. As melancholy men
that are wise in all other things, may be far from the right
use of reason in some one point, where the fantasy is crazed,
and the distemper lieth ; so a proud man, how wise soever
in any other matters, as to the right knowledge of himself,
is like one that is crackbrained, and hath not indeed the
right use of reason : pride was his tirst tutor, and taught
him what to believe of himself: so that Christ who comes
after with a humbling doctrine, cannot be believed, nor
scarce with any patience heard. O what a disease is to be
cured, before a proud person will well know himself! What
labour do we lose in all our sermons ! Yea, how oft doth the
medicine irritate the disease ! So that a poor wretch that
is under the wrath of God, and knoweth not when he is
gone out of the assembly, whether the justice of Heaven will
not take vengeance on him before he can come hither again,
yet cannot abide to hear of this, but with Ahab, hateth the
preacher that prophesieth evil of him, be it never so true.
It is pride that leadeth up that army of corruptions, that here
strive against the light of truth, that is sent to convince and
convert the guilty. And is a man like to be saved by the
word, while he hateth it, and bends his thoughts and pas-
sions all against it?
Direct. 1. He therefore that will ever know himself, must
first let in so much of the light as may take down his arro-
gancy, and bring him as a little child to the school of Christ.
First know what thou art as a man ; and then know what thou
art as a sinner, and sentenced by God, that so thou mayest
come to know what thou art as one that is under the hopes
and duties of the redeemed. When thy proud heart re-
belleth against conviction, remember with whom thou hast
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 2(57
to do. Will God speak submissively to thee for fear of
offending thee ? Will he cry thee mercy for handling thee
so roughly as to tell thee thou art yet the child of wrath ?
Is he afraid to talk to thee of death or of damnation? Will
he recal his threatenings, and repent him of the severity of
his laws, because such worms are angry with them, or will
not believe them ? Perhaps thou mayest make a false-
hearted, frightful, man-pleasing minister, to change his
strain or plainer dealing, and become thy flatterer, or be
silent : but will God be silenced ? Will he stoop to thee, and
bend or stretch his word to humour thee? O no ; he will
one day tell thee what thou art with another voice than this
of a mortal and despised man, and in another manner than
preachers tell it thee. If thou canst frown the preacher out
of the pulpit, or out of his fidelity to God and thee, yet canst
thou not frown God out of heaven. He will speak to thee
more terribly than the most terrible preacher that ever thou
heard : and if thy pride shall rise up, and tell him that he
doth thee wrong, how quickly will thy " mouth be stopped,"
and thou be forced to confess thy guilt ! (Rom. iii.5, 6. 19.)
O stoop, man, to the humbling word of grace, or God will
make thee stoop to the words and strokes of wrath ! Fear
him that will make the proudest fear, before he hath done
with them. Judged thou must be ; by thyself, to self-
abasing and conversion, or by God to desolation and con-
fusion: and canst thou easier bear God's judgment than thy
own! Stoop, foolish self-deluding dust! Stoop, sinful wretch,
and know thy misery ! If thou stand it out a little longer,
an undiscerned blow may bring thee down; and thou shalt
not see the hand tha^ strikes thee, till thou art humbled in
the grave and hell. O how absurd, yet pitiful a sight is it,
to see poor sinners brave it out against the humbling mes-
sage of the Lord, as if they could make good their cause
against him! And scorn to know that they are going to
hell, till they are there ! And then will pride preserve them
from the knowledge of it ? It is shameful folly to be proud
and obstinate, where a man knoweth beforehand that he
must submit at last, and is not able to stand it out.
2. The second intrinsical impediment to self-acquaint-
ance is an unreasonable tenderness of ourselves ; when an
inordinate love of ease and quietness of mind doth prevail
with us to hold fast all that thus quieteth us at the present.
268 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF IGNORANCE,
without regard of due provision for the time to come ; in
this there is a mixture of unreasonableness and self-love : it
is indeed the very brutish disposition. A beast will not
willingly be dieted for his future health: let hira have at
present what he loveth and you please hira, though you feed
him for the slaughter! for he hath not reason to foresee
what followeth. An ox must be bound, and cast and held
down by force, if you will shoe him, though it be to the
keeping of his feet from hurt ; or if you will pull out a thorn,
or do any thing for his good that hurteth him at the present.
You please not your horse by letting him blood, though you
save his life by it. Fleshly-minded men have thus brutified
themselves, so that they judge of things by present feeling,
and have not reason and faith to look before them, and j udge
of things by what they tend to, even by the good or hurt
that will follow in the end. It is a very terrible troublesome
thing for a man that is unregenerate, unjustified, and un-
reconciled to God, to know it ; for a man that hath any
feeling left, to find himself in a state of condemnation: this
is to stir up all the terrors of his soul, and cast him into
perplexing fears and disquietments of mind; so that he can-
not eat or drink, or sleep in quietness, but the troublesome
thoughts of sin and everlasting wrath torment him : and the
inconsiderate man that judgeth of things by present feeling,
will not endure this ; and therefore must needs have the
windows shut, and the light removed, that sheweth him these
perplexing sights. As most men hate those that speak
against them, be the matter never so true, so they cannot
endure those thoughts that do accuse them, nor to have a
reprover so near them, even in their own breasts : a con-
science within them, to preach to them night and day ; not
one hour in a week, but wherever they go, and whatever
they are doing ; to be so near, so constant, so precise, and
so severe and terrible a preacher, as usually a newly enlight-
ened and awakened conscience is ; this seemeth intolerable
to them ; and whatever come of it, this preacher must be
silenced, as turbulent and vexatious, and one that would
make them melancholy or mad. " And this is the condemna-
tion (of these miserable souls,) that light is come into the
world, and they loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil : for every one that doeth evil, hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. '269
be reproved," (John iii. 19, 20.) And thus while men are so
tender of themselves, that they will do nothing that troubleth
or hurteth them at the present, they venture upon all the
miseries that they are forewarned of.
Direct. 2. Be not unreasonably tender of a little dis-
turbance at the present, nor unbelievingly careless of the
misery to come. Cannot you endure to know your sin and
misery, and yet can you endure to bear it? Will you go to
hell for fear of knowing that you are in the way? Must you
not know it with everlasting woe and vengeance when you
come thither, if by knowing your danger you prevent not
your coming thither? Is it easier to bear God's wrath for
ever, than to find at present that you have offended him ?
Sirs, the question is. Whether you are under the condemna-
tion of the law, or not? Whether you are regenerate and
justified, or yet in your sin? If you are justified, far be it
from me to persuade you to think that you are under con-
demnation: I leave that to Satan and the malicious world,
who are the condemners of those that Christ doth justify.
But if you are unregenerate and unjustified, what will you
do at death and judgment? Can you stand before God, or
be saved upon any other terms? You cannot; if God be to
be believed, you cannot: and if you know the Scriptures,
you know you cannot ! And if you cannot be saved in an un-
renewed, unjustified state, is it not needful that you know it?
Will you cry for help before you find yourselves in danger ?
or strive to get out of sin and misery, before you believe
that you are in it ? If you think that you have no other sin
than the pardoned infirmities of the godly, you will never
so value Jesus Christ, and pray and strive for such grace as
is necessary to'^them that have the unpardoned, reigning sins
of the ungodly. If it be necessary that you be saved, it is
necessary that you value and seek salvation ; and if so, it is
necessary that you know your need of it, and what you must
be and do if you will obtain it! It is a childish or brutish
thing, below a man of reason, to stick at a little present
trouble, when death cannot otherwise be prevented: If you
can prove that ever any was converted and saved by any
other way than by coming to the knowledge of their sin and
misery, then you have some excuse for your presumption :
but if Scripture tell us of no other way, yea, that there is no
other way, and you know of none that ever was saved by any
270 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
Other, I think it is time to fall to work, and search and try
your hearts and lives, and not to stop at a straw when yoii
are running for your lives, and when damnation is as it were
at your backs. You should rather think with yourselves. If
we can so hardly bear the forethoughts of hell, how shall
we be able everlastingly to bear the torments?
And consider, that Christ hath made the discovery of your
sin and misery to be now comparatively an easy burden, in
that he hath made them pardonable and curable : If you had
not had a Saviour to fly to, but must have looked on your
misery as a remediless case, it had then been terrible indeed ;
and it had been no great mistake to have thought it the best
way to take a little ease at present, rather than to disquiet
yourselves in vain. But through the great mercy of God,
this is not your case; you need not despair of pardon and
salvation, if you will but hear while it is called to-day. The
task that you are called to, is not to torment yourselves as
the damned do with the thought of unpardonable sin, and of
a misery that hath no help or hope ; but it is only to find out
your disease, and come and open it to the physician, and
submit to his advice, and use his means, and he will freely
and infallibly work the cure. It is but to find out the folly
that you have been guilty of, and the danger that you have
brought yourselves into, and come to Christ, and with hearty
sorrow and resolution to give up yourselves unto his grace,
to cast away your iniquities, and enter into his safe and com-
fortable service. And will you lie in hell and say, ' V/e are
suffering here, that we might escape the trouble of foresee-
ing our danger of it, or of endeavouring in time to have pre-
vented it ! We died for fear of knowing that we were sick !
We suffered our house to burn to ashes for fear of knowing
that it was on fire ! O, sirs, be warned in time, and own not,
and practise not such egregious folly, in a business of ever-
lasting consequence. Believe it, if you sin, yoa must know
that you have sinned : and if you are in the power of Satan it
cannot long be hid. Did you but know the difference between
discovering it now while there is hope, and hereafter when
there is none, I should have no need to persuade you to be
willing to know the truth, whatever it should cost you.
Hind. 3. Another great impediment of the knowledge of
ourselves, is, that self-love so blindeth men that they can
see no great evil in themselves or any thing that is their own :
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 271
It makes them believe that all things are as they would have
them be ; yea, and better than they would have them : for
he that would not indeed be holy, is willing by himself and
others to be thought so : did not the lamentable experience
of all the world confirm it, it were incredible that self-love
could so exceedingly blind men. If charity think no evil
of another, and we are very hardly brought to believe any
great harm by those we love ; much more will self-love cause
men to see no evil by themselves, which possibly they can
shut their eyes against, it being more radicated and powerful
than the love of others. No arguments so cogent, no light
so clear, no oratory so persuading, as can make a self-lover
think himself as bad as indeed he is, till God by grace or
terror shall convince him. When you are preaching the
most searching sermons to convince him, self-love confuteth
or misapplieth them ; when the marks of trial are most
plainly opened, and most closely urged, self-love doth frus-
trate the preacher's greatest skill and diligence : When
nothing of sense can be said to prove the piety of the im-
pious, and the sincerity of the formal hypocrite, yet self-love
is that wonderful alchymist, that can make gold not only of
the basest metal, but of dross and dirt. Let the most unde-
niable witness be brought to detect the fraud and misery of
an unrenewed soul, self-love is his most powerful defender.
No cause so bad which it cannot justify ; and no person so
miserable but it will pronounce him happy, till God by grace
or wrath confute it. Self-love is the grand deceiver of the world .
Direct. 3. Subdue this inordinate self-love, and bring
your minds to a just impartiality in judging. Remember
that self-love is only powerful at your private bar ; and it is
not there that your cause must be finally decided : it can do
nothing at the bar of God ; it cannot there justify, where it
is condemned itself: God will not so much as hear it,
though you will hear none that speak against it. Self-love
is but the vicegerent of the grand usurper, that shall be de-
posed, and have no show of power, at Christ's appearing,
when he will judge his enemies.
And here it will be a helpless cause, to see your own sin
and misery in others : and put the case as if it were theirs,
and then see how you can discern the evil of it. O how easy
is it with the most, to see and aggravate the faults of others !
How safe were we, if we were as impartial to ourselves !
272 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
And also it will be very useful to desire often the help
of more impartial judgments than your own: 'Fit enim
nescio quomodo (inquit Cicero) ut magis in aliis cernamus,
quam in nobis met ipsis, siquid delinquitur.' Others can
quickly spy our faults, as we can quickly find out theirs :
Therefore as poets and painters do expose their works be-
fore they finish them, to the common view, that so what is
blamed by many may be considered and amended ; so should
we, in order to the judging of ourselves, observe both what
our friends and enemies say of us, and the more suspiciously
try what others blame. But especially have some near, ju-
dicious friends, that will prudently and faithfully assist you.
A true friend is an excellent looking-glass. Saith Seneca,
' Deliberate well first in the choosing of a friend, and then
with him deliberate of all thino-s.'
And if you would have the benefits of friendship, dis-
courage not plaindealing. ' Magis amat objurgator sanans
(inquit August.) quam adulator dissimulans.' I know a re-
prover should be wise, and love must be predominant if he
will expect success : for if he speak ' lacerato animo,' as Au-
gustine saith, it will seem but 'punientis impetus,' and not
' corrigentis charitas.' But we must take heed of judging
that we are hated, because we are reproved ; that is, that a
friend is not a friend, because he doth the office of a friend.
Of the two, it is fitter to say of a reproving enemy, * He
dealeth with me like a friend,' than of a reproving friend,
' He dealeth with me like an enemy :' for, as Augustine saith,
' Accusare vitia ofiicium est bonum, quod cum mali faciunt,
alienas partes agunt.' It is a good office to speak ill of vice,
which when bad men do, they play another's part. It is a
happy enmity that helpeth you to deliver you from sin and
hell ; and a cruel friendship that will let you undo your
soul for ever, for fear of displeasing you by hindering it.
There are two sorts that deprive tl\emselves of the saving
benefit of necessary reproof, and the most desirable fruits
of friendship : the one is the Hypocrite, that so cunningly
hideth his greatest faults, that his friend and enemy never
tell him of them : he hath the happiness of keeping his
physician unacquainted with his disease, and consequently
of keeping the disease. The other is the Proud, that can
better endure to be ungodly than to be told of it, and to
live in many sins, than to be freely admonished of one.
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 273
Consider therefore, that it will prove self-hatred in the
effect, which is now called self-love : and that it would seem
but a strange kind of love from another, to suffer you to fall
into a coal-pit, for fear of telling you that you are near it ;
or to suffer you to fall into the enemy's hands, lest he should
affright you, by telling you that they are near. If you love
another no better than thus, you have no reason to call
yourself his friend : and shall this be your wisest loving of
yourselves? If it be love to damn your souls for fear of
knowing your danger of damnation, the devil loveth you.
If it be friendship to keep you out of heaven, for fear of dis-
quieting you with the light that should have saved you, then
you have no enemies in hell. The devil himself can be con-
tent to grant you a temporal quietness and ease, in order to
your everlasting disquietness and woe. Let go your hopes
of heaven, and he can let you be merry awhile on earth ;
while the strong armed man keepeth his house, the things
that he possesseth are in peace. If it be not friendship, but
enmity, to trouble you with the sight of sin and danger, in
order to your deliverance, then you have none but enemies
in heaven: for God himself doth take this course with the
dearest of his chosen. No star doth give such light as the
sun doth : no minister doth so much to make a sinner know
himself, as God doth. Love yourselves therefore in the way
that God loveth you : be impartially willing that God and
man should help you to be thoroughly acquainted with your
state : love not to be flattered by others, or yourselves. Vice
is never the more lovely, because it is yours : and you know
that pain is never the more easy or desirable to you, because
it is yours. Your own diseases, losses, injuries, and mise-
ries, seem the worst and most grievous to you: and why
should not your own sins also be most grievous ? You love
not poverty or pain, because it is your own ; O love not sin,
because it is your own!
Hind. 4. Another impediment to self-acquaintance, is,
that men observe not their hearts in a time of trial, but take
them always at the best, when no great temptation puts
them to it. A man that never had an opportunity to rise in
the world, perhaps doth think he is not ambitious, and de-
sireth not much to be higher than he is, because the coal
was never blown. When a little affront doth ferment their
VOL. XVI. T
274 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
pride into disquietness and desires of revenge ; or applause
doth ferment it into tumour or self-exaltation, they observe
not then the distemper when it is up and most observable,
because the nature of sin is to please and blind, and cheat
the mind into a consent. And when the sin seems past,
and they find themselves in a seeming humility and meek-
ness, they judge of themselves as then they find themselves,
as thinking that distemper is past and cured, and they are
not to judge of themselves by what they were, but what
they are. And by that rule every drunkard or whoremonger
should judge themselves temperate, and chaste, as soon as
they forbear the act of sin. And what if poverty, age, or
sickness, hinder them from ever committing either of them
again ? For all this, the person is a drunkard or fornicator
still ; because the act is not pardoned, nor the heart sancti-
fied, and the habit or corrupt inclination mortified. And
thus passionate persons do judge of themselves by their
milder temper, when no temptation kindleth the flame. But
little doth many a one know himself, what corruption is la-
tent in his heart, till trial shall disclose it, and draw it into
sight. ' Jam diu diabolus (inq. Aug.) sopitum ignem sine
uUis flammis occultat, donee duas faculas jungens ambas
simul accendat,' &c. If these persons be not always sinning,
they will not take themselves for sinners : but he that hath
once sinned knowingly, in God's account continueth in the
sin, till his heart be changed by true repentance.
Yet, on the other side, I would not wrong any upright soul,
by persuading them to judge of themselves, as they are at the
worst, in the hour of temptation ; for so they will be mis-
taken as certainly, though not as dangerously as the other.
You may ask them, ' What is to be done in such a diffi-
cult case? If we must neither judge of ourselves as we are
at the best out of temptation, nor yet as we are at the worst
in the hour of temptation, when, and how then shall we
judge of ourselves?'
I answer, it is one thing to know our particular sins, and
their degrees, and another thing to know our state in general,
whether we are justified and sanctified or not. To discern
what particular sin is in us, and how apt it is to break forth
into act, we must watch all the stirrings and appearings of it,
in the time of the temptation : but to discernwhether itbeim-
mortified and have dominion, wc must observe these rules :
AND BENEFITS OF SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 275
1 . There is no man on earth that is perfectly free from sin :
and therefore it is no good consequence that sin reignethunto
death, because it is not perfectly extinguished, or because it
is sometimes committed, unless in the cases after expressed,
2. No sin that is truly mortified and repented of, shall con-
demn the sinner: for pardon is promised to the truly penitent.
3. Whatever sin the will, according to its habitual incli-
nation, had rather leave than keep, is truly repented of and
mortified. For the will is the principal seat of sin; and
there is no more sinfulness, than there is wilfulness.
4. There are some sins which cannot be frequently com-
mitted in consistency with true grace, or sincere repen-
tance ; and some which may be frequently committed in
consistency with these. As where sins are known and great,
or such as are easily subject to the power of a sanctified
will, so that he that will reject them, may : as one such sin
must have actual repentance, if actually known; so the fre-
quent committing of such will not consist with habitual re-
pentance. Whereas those sins, that are so small as upright
persons, perhaps may not be suflSciently excited to resist-
ance ; or such as upon the sincere use of means are still un-
known, or such as a truly sanctified will may not subdue,
are all of them consistent with repentance and a justified
state : and in this sense we reject not that distinction be-
tween moral and venial sin ; that is, between sin incon-
sistent with a state of spiritual life, and sin consistent with
it, and consequently pardoned. He that had rather leave
the former sort, (the mortal sins,) will leave them ; and he
that truly repents of them, will forsake them. But for the
other (consistent with life) we must say, that a man may
possibly retain them, that yet had rather leave them, and
doth truly repent of them.
5. A sin of carnal interest (esteemed good, in order to
something which the flesh desireth ; and so loved and de-
liberately kept) hath more of the will, and is more inconsis-
tent with repentance, than a sin of mere passion or surprise,
which is not so valued upon the account of such an interest.
6. They that have grace enough to avoid temptations to
mortal or reigning sin, and consequently that way to avoid
the sin, shall not be condemned for it, whatever a strono-er
temptation might have done.
7. Where bodily diseases necessitate to an act, or the
276 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
omission of an act, the will is not to be charged with that
which it cannot overcome, notwithstanding an unfeigned
willingness. As if a man in a frenzy or distraction should
swear or curse, or blaspheme ; or one in a lethargy, or po-
tent melancholy, cannot read, or pray, or meditate, &c.
8. As frequent commissions of venial sins (or such as
are consistent with true grace) will not prove the soul un-
sanctified ; so the once committing of a gross sin by sur-
prise, which is afterward truly repented of, will not prove
the absence of habitual repentance, or spiritual life, so as
the frequent committing of such sins will.
So that I conclude, in order to the detection of the sin
itself, we must all take notice of ourselves as at the worst,
and see what it is that temptation can do : but in order to
the discovery of our state, and whether our sins are par-
doned or no, we must especially observe whether their erup-
tions are such as will consist with true habitual repentance,
and to note what temptations do with us. To this end.
Direct. 4. Observe then the workings and discoveries of
the heart, and judge of its abundance, or habits, by your
words and deeds. Note what you were when you had op-
portunity to sin, when the full cup of pleasure was held out
to you, when preferment was before you, when injury or
provoking words did blow the coal : if then sin appeared,
judge not that you are free, and that none of the roots are la-
tent in your hearts : or if you are sui'e that such dispositions
are hated, repented of and mortified, yet you may hence
observe what diseases of soul you should chiefly strive
against, to keep them under, and prevent a new surprise or
increase. It is usual for such licentiousness, such self-
seeking, such ugly pride and passion, to break forth upon
some special temptations, which for many years together
did never appear to the person that is guilty, or to any other,
that it should keep the best in fear and self-suspicion, and
cause them to live in constant watchfulness, and to observe
the bent and motions of their souls ; and to make use after-
ward of such discoveries as they have made to their cost in
time of trial.
And it much concerneth all true Christians, to keep in
remembrance the exercise and discoveries of grace, which
formerly upon trial did undoubtedly appear, and did con-
vince them of the sincerity which afterward they are apt
vVND BENEFITS Of SELF-ACQUAINTANCE. 277
again to question. Will you not believe that there is a sun
in the firmament, unless it always shine upon you ; or that
it is hot, unless it be always summer ? Will you not believe
that a man can speak, unless he be always speaking ? It is
weakness and injurious rashness in those Christians, that
upon every damp that seizeth on their spirits, will venture
to deny God's former mercies, and say, that they had never
special grace, because they feel it not at present : that they
never prayed in sincerity, because some distemper at pre-
sent discomposeth or overwhelmeth them: that their for-
mer zeal and life was counterfeit, because they are grown
more cold and dull ; that former comforts were all but
hypocritical delusions, because they are turned now to sor-
rows ;, As much as to say, ' Because I am now sick, I was
never well, nor so much as alive.' O were it not for the
tender compassions of our Father, and the sure performance
of our Lord and Comforter, and that our peace is more in
his hand than our own, (though more in our own than any
others,) it could never be that a poor distempered, imperfect
soul should here have any constancy of peace, considering
the power of self-love and partiality on one side, and of
grief and fear, and other passions on the other ; and how
little a thing doth shake so moveable and weak a thing,
and muddy and trouble a mind so easily disturbed ; and how
hard it is again to quiet and compose a mind so troubled,
and bring a grieved soul to reason, and make passion un-
derstand the truth, and to cause a weak, afflicted soul to
judge clean contrary to what they feel ! All this considered,
no wonder if the peace and comfort of many Christians be
yet but little, and interrupted, and uneven : and if there be
much crying in a family that hath so many little ones, and
much complaining where there are so many weak and poor;
and many a groan where there is so much pain. To shew
us the sun at midnight, and convince us of love while we
feel the rod ; and to give us the comfortable sense of grace,
while we have the uncomfortable sense of the greatness- of
our sin; to give us the joyful hopes of glory, in a troubled,
melancholy, dejected state : all this is a work that requireth
the special help of the Almighty, and exceeds the strength
of feeble worms. Let God give us never so full discoveries
of his tenderest love and our own sincerity, as if a voice
from heaven had witnessed it unto us, we are questioning
278 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-IGNORANCE,
all if once we seem to feel the contrary, and are perplexed
in the tumult of our thoughts and passions, and bewildered
and lost in the errors of our own disturbed minds. Though
we have walked with God, we are questioning whether in-
deed we ever knew him, as soon as he seemeth to hide his
face. Though we have felt another life and spirit possess
and actuate us than heretofore, and found that we love the
things and persons which once we loved not, and that we
were quite fallen out with that which was our former plea-
sure, and that our souls broke off from their old delights,
and hopes, and ways, and resolvedly did engage themselves
to God, and unfeignecUy delivered up themselves unto him ^
yet all is forgotten, or the convincing evidence of all forgot-
ten, if the lively influences of heaven be but once so far
withdrawn, as that our present state is clouded and afflicted,
and our former vigour and assurance is abated. And thus
unthankfully we deny God the praise and acknowledgment
of his mercies, longer than we are tasting them, or they are
still before us : all that he hath done for us is as nothing,
and all the love which he hath manifested to us, is called
hatred ; and all the witnesses that have put their hands to
his acts of grace, are questioned, and his very seals denied,
and his earnest misinterpreted, as long as our darkened,
distempered souls are in a condition unfit for the apprehen-
sion of mercy, and usually when a diseased or afflicted
body doth draw the mind into too great a participation
of the affliction. And thus as we are disposed ourselves,
so we judge of ourselves and of all our receivings, and all
God's dealings with us. When we feel ourselves well, all
goes well with us, and we put a good interpretation upon all
things : and when we are out of order, we complain of every
thing, and take pleasure in nothing, and no one can con-
tent us, and all is taken in the worse part; as the poet said,
Lieta fere laetus cecini, cano tristia tristis.
You shall have a merry song from a merry heart, and a
sad ditty from a troubled, grieved mind.
And thus while the discoveries both of sin and grace,
are at present overlooked, or afterwards forgotten, and al-
most all men judge of themselves by present feeling, no
wonder if few are well acquainted with themselves.
But as the word and the works of God must be taken
together, if they be understood, and not a sentence, part
AND BENEFITS OF SEEF-ACQU AINTANCE. 279
or parcel taken separated from the rest, which must make
up tlie sense; so also the workings of God upon your souls
must be taken altogether, and you must read them over from
the first till now, and set altogether, and not forget the let-
ters, the part that went before, or else you will make no
sense of that which followeth. And I beseech all weak and
troubled Christians to remember also, that they are but
children and scholars in the school of Christ ; and therefore
when they cannot set the several parts together, let them
not overvalue their unexperienced understandings, but by
the help of their skilful, faithful teachers, do that which of
themselves they cannot do. Inquire what your former mer-
cies signify : open them to your guides, and tell them how
God hath dealt with you from the beginning, and tell them
how it is with you now ; and desire them to help you to per-
ceive how one conduceth to the right understanding of the
other. And be not of froward, but of tractable, submissive
minds ; and thus your self-acquaintance may be maintained,
at least to safety, and to some degree of peace, if not to the
joys, which you desire, which God reserveth for their pro-
per season.
I should have added more on this necessary subject, but
that I have said so much of it in other writings, especially
in the " Saints' Rest," part iii. chap. 7 ; and in my " Treatise
of Self-denial," and in " The Right Method for Peace of
Conscience."
I must confess I have written on this subject as I did
of Self-denial, viz. with expectation that all men should
confess the truth of what I say ; and yet so few be cured by
it of their self-ignorance, as that still we must stand by,
and see the world distracted by it, the church divided, the
love of brethren interrupted, and the work of Satan carried
on by error, violence, and pride ; and the hearts of men so
strangely stupitied, as to go on incorrigibly in all this mis
chief, while the cause and cure are opened before them, and
all in vain, while they confess the truth ; so that they will
leave us nothing to do, but exercise our compassion, by
lamenting the deliration of frenetic men,, while we are un-
able to serve the church, their brethren, or their own souls,
from the dilacerations and calamitous effects of their furious
self-ignorance. But Christ that hath sent us with the light,
which may be resisted, and abused, and in part blown out,
280 THE MISCHIEFS OF SELF-I GNOR A N CE, &C.
will speedily come with light irresistible, and will teach
the proud, the scornful, the unmerciful, the self-conceited,
the malicious, and the violent, so effectually to know them-
selves, as that no more exhortations shall be necessary for
the reception of his convictions; nor will he or his servants
any more beseech men to consider and know their sin and
misery, nor be beholden to them to believe and confess
it. (See Jude 14, 15.) And is there no remedy for a
stupified, inconsiderate soul? Is there no prevention of so
terrible a self-knowledge, as the light of judgment, and the
fire of hell v.'ill else procure? Yes, the remedy is certain,
easy, and at hand : " Even to know themselves till they are
driven to study, and seek and know the Father, and his Son
Jesus Christ," (John xvii. 3,) and yet is the salvation of
most as hopeless almost as if there were no remedy, because
no persuasion can prevail with them to use it. Lord, what
hath thus locked up the minds and hearts of sinners against
thy truth and thee ! What hath made reasonable man so
unreasonable, and a self-loving nature so mortally to hate
itself! O thou that openest, and no man shutteth, use the
key that openeth hearts ; come in with thy wisdom, and thy
love, and all this blindness and obstinacy will be gone. At
least commit not the safety of thy flock to such as will not
know themselves: but " gather thy remnant, and bring them
to their folds, and let them be fruitful and increase ; and set
up shepherds over them, which shall feed them, and let them
fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor be lacking." (Jer. xxiii.
3, 4.) " Ordain a place for them, plant them, and let them
dwell therein unmoved ; and let not the children of wicked-
ness waste them any more." (1 Chron. xvii. 9.) " As a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among
his sheep that are scattered, so seek out thy sheep, and de-
liver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day." (Ezek. xxxiv. 12.) "Save
thy people, and bless thine inheritance : feed them also,
and lift them up for ever." (Psal. xxviii. 9.)
END OF SELF-IGNORANCE, AND SELF-ACQUAINTANCE.
281
THE TRUE CATHOLIC,
AND
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED;
AND THE VANITY OF THE PAPISTS. AND ALL OTHER SCHISMATICS.
THAT CONFINE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TO THEIR SECT,
DISCOVERED AND SHAMED.
THE PREFACE.
Reader,
The tumultuary contentions and distractions about the
catholic church, which have been raised by many heretical
and schismatical firebrands, have moved me to publish these
popular sermons, in order to the satisfaction and settlement
of such minds as have been ensnared to a misunderstanding
of this article of the Creed. It grieved me to hear so many
Christians, that were all baptized into the catholic church,
and there received the badge of Christianity and Catholi-
cism, to be doubtfully inquiring which is the true catholic
church, and many dividers confining it to their sects : and
lastly, the Seekers, (instructed by the Papists) with seeming
seriousness questioning whether there be any church and
ministry at all? But never any sect did cause my admira-
tion so much as the Papist ! That ever so many princes and
learned men should so odiously vilify the catholic church,
and that under pretence of magnifying it, and appealing to
it. They are not contented in their doctrine of transub-
stantiation, to deny sense and reason, ('Et contra rationem
nemo sobrius') and in many wri-tings to speak diminutively
and dishonourably of the Holy Scriptures, (too like to infi-
dels : 'Et contra Scripturas nemo Christianus;') but they
also cut off themselves (as sectaries) from the universal
church, as far as an uncharitable, odious condemning of the
far greatest part of the church can do it, and call the church
(even that greatest part) by the name of heretics and schis-
matics ; (' Et contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus.') And as con-
fidently and conteniiously do they labour to cut off the
282 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
main body of believers, and to appropriate the cathulic
church to themselves, and to make their corrupted sect to
be the whole, as if the catholic church had been limited to
the Roman in the Scripture, or the Creed ; or as if they had
the consent of Christ himself for the divorcing of his spouse.
And the men that call charity th^ form, and soul, and life of
the new creature, do seem to be insensible of the brand ol
their unhappiness ; and that there is no greater uncharitable-
ness to be found on this side hell, than the malicious reproach-
ing, condemning, and unchurching of the far greatest part of
the church of Christ ; except that of infidels,who condemn the
whole. When you hear them glorifying of their charity, come
hither and rub your eyes, and see what Popish charity is.
For the right understanding of this following discourse,
I shall only desire the reader to observe, 1. That it is not a
particular church, but the universal, that I am here inquir
ing after. 2. That I do not intend hereby to equalize the
several parts of the catholic church, as to purity of doc
trine, discipline, or worship. 3. That yet I would have all
Christians join themselves in actual particular communion
with the purest churches, if they can obtain it, without
greater hurt to themselves or others, than the benefits will
countervail. And that I do not intend that we must hold local
communion with every congregation, which must be owned
as a part of the catholic church. It is possible they may
require a participation in some sin of all those that they
will admit to their communion: and in such cases, (when
they exclude us) we can hold but such a general distant
communion, which they cannot prohibit. 4. That when I.
condemn the schism and uncharitableness of the Papists,
or any others, I yet condemn not, but commend our exercise
of charity to them, as far as I can discern it.
Lastly, be advertised, that whereas in another book, that
comes out with this, (called " Catholic Unity,") I have again
taken up many of the particulars wherein the godly are
united ; I think it need not offend the reader, as an unne-
cessary repetition, that being but the application of the
truth which is here asserted. There 1 labour to convince
the ungodly, that concord can be obtained by no other
means, and no other terms, than those which I have here
shewed the godly are all agreed in.
Reader, If indeed thou love the church of Christ, join
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 283
with me in thy heartiest daily prayers, and iu thy faithful
diligent endeavours, for the destroying of divisions, and
the repairing of decayed charity, and restoring of catholic
principles and affections to all the members of the church,
RICHARD BAXTER.
December 12, 1669.
THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND CATHOLIC
CHURCH DESCRIBED.
1 CORINTHIANS xii. 12.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the
■members of that one body, being many, are one body : so also
is Christ.
It is a pitiful case with the poor afflicted church of Christ,
that almost all the members cry out against division, and
yet cause and increase it, while they speak against it. And
that all cry up unity, and yet very few do any thing that is
very considerable to promote it ; but multitudes are destroy-
ing unity, while they commend it : and those few that would
heal and close the wounds, are not able by the clearest rea-
sons, and most importunate requests, to hold the hands of
others from opposing it ; and to get leave of the rest to do
that work, which they will not do themselves while they
extol it. You would think this were rather the description of
a bedlam, than of a Christian ! to set all on fire, and furiously
to rail at all that would quench it, and at the same time
to rail as much at incendiaries, and cry out for concord, and
against division, and call other men all that is naught, for
doing that which they do themselves, and will not be per-
suaded from ! But to the injurious dishonour of Christianty
itself it is thus with millions of professed Christians! thus
is the church used : the sin and shame is made so public,
that no charity can much excuse it, and no shift can cover
it from the reproachful observation of those that are with-
out. Alas, our flames do rise so high, that Turks, and Jews,
and Heathens stand looking on them, and ask, ' What is the
matter that these Christians thus irreconcileably worry one
another?' Do we need any proof, when we feel the bmart?
284 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
When we see the blood ? When we hear the noise of re-
vilers at home, and see the scornful laughters of those
abroad? When almost all Christendom is up in arms?
When the churches are so many by-names, and broken into
so many odious fractions; and so many volumes fly abroad,
containing the reproaches and condemnations of each other ?
And (which is enough to break an honest heart to think or
speak of) that all this hath continued so long a time ! And
they be not so wise as the passionate, or the drunken, that
in time will come to themselves again; and that it hath
continued notwithstanding the greatest means that are used
for the cure : Mediation prevaileth not : pacificatory en-
deavours have done almost nothing : nay, sin gets advantage
in point of reputation, and dividing is counted a work of
zeal, and ministers themselves are the principal leaders of
it ; yea, and ministers of eminent parts and piety ; and piety
itself is pretended for this, which is the poison of piety ;
and pacification is become a suspected or derided work ;
and the peace-makers are presently suspected of some
heresy ; and perhaps called dividers for seeking reconcilia-
tion. It made my heart ache with grief, the other day, to
read over th6 narrative of the endeavours of one man (Mr.
John Dury), to heal the Protestant churches themselves,
and to think that so much ado should be necessary to make
even the leaders of the Christian flocks to be willing to cease
so odious a sin, and come out of so long and doleful a mi-
sery ; yea, and that all should do so little good, and get
from men but a few good words, while they sit still and
suffer the flames to consume the deplorable remnant: yea,
such havock hath division made, and cut the church into so
many pieces, that it is become one of the commonest ques-
tions among us, which of these pieces it is that is the Church ;
one saith, * We are the catholic church ; ' and another
saith, * No, but it is we ! ' and a third contendeth that it is
* only they :' and thus men seem to be at a loss; and when
they believe the holy catholic church, they know not what
it is, which they say, they believe. Though I dare not pre-
sume to hope of much success in any attempts against this
distraction, after the frustration of the far greater endea-
vours of multitudes that have attempted it with far greater
advantage, yet I have resolved by the help of Christ to bear
witness against the sin of the dividers, and leave my testi-
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBE]). 285
moyn on record to posterity, that if it may not excite some
others to the work, yet at least it may let them know, that
all were not void of desires for peace in this contentious age.
To which purpose I intend, 1. To speak of the unity
and concord of the catholic church. 2. Of the unity and
concord of Christians in their particular churches, and in
their individual state. And the first discourse I shall ground
upon this text, which from the similitude of a natural body
doth assert, 1. The multiplicity of the members: and
2. The unity of the body or church of Christ, notwithstand-
ing the multiplicity of the members. The members are here
said to be many for number, and it is intimated (which after
is more fully expressed) that they are divers for office, and
use, and gifts. The church here spoken of is the universal
church, as it is both in its visible and mystical state : It is
not only a particular church that is here meant ; nor is it
the catholic church only as mystical, or only as visible,
but as it containeth professors and believers, the body and
soul, which make up the man, having both ordinances and
spirit in their possession. That it is the catholic church is
apparent: 1. In that it is denominated in the text from
Christ himself, " So also is Christ." And the universal
church is more fitly denominated from Christ as the Head,
than a particular church. It is not easy to find any text of
Scripture that calleth Christ the Head of a particular con-
gregation (as we use not to call the king the head of this,
or that corporation, but of the commonwealth), though he
may be so called, as a head hath respect to the several
members : but he is oft called the Head of the catholic
church. (Ephes. i. 22 ; iv. 15 ; Col. i. 18 ; ii. 19 ; Ephes. v.23.)
The head of such a body is a commoner phrase than the
head of the hand or foot. 2. Because it is expressly called
" the body of Christ," which title is not given to any par-
ticular church, it being but part of the body, verse 27.
3. It is such a church that is here spoken of, to which
was given apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healings,
helps, governments, tongues. Sec. verse 28, 8, 9, 10. But
all particular churches had not all these ; and it is doubtful
whether Corinth had all that is here mentioned. 4. It is that
church which all are baptized into, Jews and Gentiles, bond
and free : but that is only into the universal church. The
Spirit doth not baptize, or enter men first or directly into a
286 THE TRUE GATHOLIC, AND
particular clmrcli ; no, nor the baptism of water neither
always, nor primarily. The scope of the chapter, and of
the like discourse of the same apostle, (Ephes. iv,) do shew
that it is the catholic church that is here spoken of.
The sense of the text then lyeth in this doctrine.
Doct. The universal church being the body of Christ is
but one, and all true Christians are the members of which
it doth consist.
Here are two propositions ; first, that the catholic
church is but one. Secondly, that all Christians are mem-
bers of it, even all that by the one spirit are baptized into
it. These are both so plain in the text, that were not men
perverse or very blind, it were superfluous to say anymore to
prove them. And for the former propositions, that the
catholic church is but one, we are all agreed in it. And
therefore I will not needlessly trouble you with answering
such objections as trouble not the church, which are fetched
from the difference of the Jewish church, and the Gentile
church, (or strictly catholic) or between the called (the true
members) and the elect uncalled ; or between the church
militant and triumphant.
And as for the second proposition, that the catholic
church consisteth of all Christians, as its members, it is
plain in this text, and many more. It is all that (heartily
say " Jesus is the Lord," (verse 3,) and all that " are bap-
tized by one Spirit into the body," (verse 13,) and all that
Paul wrote to, and such as they: and yet some of them were
guilty of division, or schism itself, and many errors and
crimes, which Paul at large reprehendeth them for. The
Galatians were members of this church; (Gal.iii. 26 — 29;)for
all their legal conceits and errors, and for all that they dealt
with Paul as an enemy for telling them the truth. This
church consisteth of all that have the " one Spirit, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, &,c." and of
all that " have so learned Christ, as to put off the old man,
and to be renewed in the spirit of their minds, and put on
the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness." (Ephes. iv. 4 — 6. 20 — 24.) This church
consisteth of all that " Christ is a Saviour of," and that are
" subject" unto Christ, and for " whom he gave himself,
that he might sanctify and cleanse them by the washing of
water by the word." (Ephes. v. 23 — 26.) It containeth all such
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 287
as the Romans then were to whom Paul wrote, (Rom. xii. 4,5, )
however differing among themselves to the censuring of each
other. It containeth in it all " such as shall be saved."
(Acts ii. 47.) These things are beyond all just dispute.
When I say, that all Christians are members of the
catholic church, I must further tell you that men are called
Christians, either because they are truly and heartily the
discijjles of Christ; or else because they seem so to be by
their profession. The first are such Christians as are justi-
fied and sanctified, and these constitute the mystical body
of Christ, or the church as invisible : professors of this in-
ward true Christianity doth constitute the church as visible
o men. Professors of some pieces only of Christianity,
leaving out or denying any essential part of it, are not pro-
fessors of Christianity truly, and therefore are no members
of the visible church: and therefore we justly exclude the
Mahometans.
And whereas it is a great question. Whether heretics are
members of the catholic church ? The answer is easy :
contend not about a word. If by a heretic you mean a man
that denieth or leaves out any essential part of Christianity,
he is no member of the church : but if you extend the word
so far as to apply it to those that deny not, or leave not out
any essential part of Christianity, then such heretics are
members of the church. It is but the perverseness of men's
spirits, exasperated by disputation, that makes the Papists
so much oppose our distinction of the fundamentals of
religion from the rest: when at other times they confess the
thing in other words themselves. By the fundamentals we
mean the essentials of the Christian faith, or religion : And
do they think indeed that Christianity hath not its essential
parts ? Sure they dare not deny it, till they say, ' it hath no
essence, and so is nothing, which an infidel will not say V
Or do they think that every revealed truth, which we are
bound to believe, is essential to our Christianity? Sure they
dare not say so, till they either think that no Christian is
bound to believe any more than he doth believe, or that he
is a Christian that wants an essential part of Christianity, or
that Christianity is as many several things, as there be per-
sons that have several degrees of faith or knowledge in all
the world. For shame therefore, lay by this senseless cavil,
and quarrel not with the light by partial zeal, lest you prove
288 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
your cause thereby to be darkness. But if you perceive a
difficulty (as who doth not, though it be not so great as some
would make it) in discerning the essential parts from the in-
tegrals, do not therefore deny the unquestionable distinction,
but join with us for a more full discovery of the difference.
In a few words, every man that doth heartily believe in
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by a faith that work-
eth by love, is a true Christian. Or every one that taketh
God for his only God, that is his Creator, Lord, Ruler, and
felicity, or end, and Jesus Christ for his only Redeemer, that
is, God and man; that hath fulfilled all righteousness, and
given up himself to death on the cross in sacrifice for our
sins, and hath purchased and promised us pardon, and grace,
and everlasting life ; and hath risen from the dead, ascended
into heaven, where he is Lord of the church, and intercessor
with the Father, whose laws we must obey, and who will
come again at last to raise and judge the world, the righ-
teous to everlasting life, and the rest to everlasting punish-
ment: and that taketh the Holy Ghost for his Sanctifier, and
believeth the Scriptures given by his inspiration, and sealed
by his work, to be the certain word of God. This man is a
true Christian, and a member of the catholic church; which
will be manifested when headjoineth a holy, sober and righ-
teous life, using all known means and duties, especially
baptism at first, the Lord's-supper afterward, prayer, confes-
sion, praise, meditation, and hearing the word of God, with
a desire to know more, that his obedience may be full : living
under Christ's ministers, and in communion of saints, deny-
ing himself, mortifying the flesh and world, living in charity
and justice to man ; he that doth this is a true Christian, and
shall be saved, and therefore a member of the catholic
church as invisible ; and he that professeth- all this, doth
profess himself a true Christian, and if he null not that pro-
fession, is a member of the catholic church as visible. These
things are plain, and in better days were thought sufficient.
He that hath all that is contained but in the ancient
Creed, the Lord's-prayer and Ten Commandments, with bap-
tism and the Lord's-supper, in his head, and heart, and life,
is certainly a member of the catholic church. In a word, it is
no harder to know who is a member ofthis church, than it is
to know who is a Christian. Tell me but what Christianity is,
and I will soon tell you how a Church member maybe known.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 289.
But because it will tend both to the further clearing of
this, and the text itself, I shall next shew you in what
respects the members of the church are divers, and then in
what respects they are all one, or in what they are united.
And as the text tells you, that the members are many
numerically, so they are divers in their respects.
1. They are not of the same age or standing in Christ.
Some are babes, and some are young men, and some are
fathers, (1 John ii. 12 — 14.) Some are novices, or late
converts, and raw Christians, (1 Tim. iii. 6,) and some are
of longer standing, that have " borne the burden and heat of
the day." (Matt. xx. 12.)
2. The members are not all of the same degree of strength.
Some are of small understanding, that reach little further
than the principles of holy doctrine, and have need to be
fed with milk, being unskilful in the word of righteousness:
Yea, they have need to be taught the very principles again,
not as being without a saving knowledge of them (for they
are all taught of God, and these laws and principles are
written in their hearts) j but that they may have a clearer,
more distinct and practical knowledge of them, who have
but a darker, general, less effectual apprehension. (Heb. v.
11 — 13; vi. 1.) And some being at full age, are fit for
" stronger meat," that is harder of digestion. (Heb. v. 14.)
Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil. Some have faith and other graces but
as a " grain of mustard-seed," and some are thriven to a
greater strength. (Matt, xviii. 20 ; xii. 31.) Some grow in
grace, and are able to resist a temptation, and do or suffer
what they are called to, (2 Pet, iii. 18,) being " strengthened
with might by the Spirit in the inner man, according to
the glorious power of grace," (Ephes. iii. 17; Col. i. 11,)
being " strong in faith, giving glory to God." (Rom. iv.
20.) Having accordingly " strong consolation/' (Heb. vi.
18.) And some are " weak in the faith," apt to be offended,
and their consciences to be wounded, and themselves in
greater danger by temptations, whom the stronger must
receive, and take heed of offending, and must support them,
and bear their infirmities." (Rom. xiv, 1, 2. 21; xv. 1; 1
Cor. viii. 7. 10—12 ; ix. 22 ; 1 Thess. v. 14 ; Acts xx. 35.)
3. Moreover the members have not all the same stature
% OL. XVI. u
2J)0 the true catholic, and
or degree of gifts; nor in ail things the same sort of gifts;
some excel in knowledge, and bome in utterance ; some in
one sort of knowledge, and some in another; and some are
weak in all. But of this the chapter speaks so fully, that
I need say no more but refer you thither.
4. The members are not altogether of the same com-
plexion. Though all God's children be like the Father, be-
ing holy as he is holy, yet they may be known from one
another. Some are naturally more mild, and some more
passionate: some of colder and calmer temper, and some so
hot, that they seem more zealous in all that they say or do :
some of more orderly, exact apprehensions, and some of
more confused : some of quick understanding, and some
dull. (Heb. V. 11.)
5. The members are not all of the same degree of spiritual
health. Some have much quicker and sharper appetites to
the bread of life than others have : some are fain to strive
with their backward hearts before they can go to secret
duties, or hold on in them, and before they can get down
the food of their souls : and some go with cheerfulness, and
find much sweetness in all that they receive : some are of
sounder understandings, and others tainted with many errors
and corrupt opinions: as appears in Paul's writings to the
Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and others. Some relish
only the food that is wholesome, and some have a mind of
novelties, and vain j anglings, and contentions, needless dis-
putes, like stomachs that desire coals and ashes, or hurtful
things. Some in their conversations maintain their integrity,
and walk blamelessly, and without offence. (Luke i. 6; Phil.
2. 13.) And some are overcome by temptations, and give
offence to others and grievously wound themselves; as
David, Lot, Noah, Peter, &,c. And being overcome with
creature-respects many good men walk not uprightly in some
things, nor according to the truth of the Gospel, and others
that are good also are led away in a party by the example of
their miscarriages, and the high estimation of their parts
and persons, (Gal. ii. 1 1 — 14.) Some are firm and stedfast in
the truth, and some hold it with shaking, and are of looking
behind them, and sometimes are declining and going back-
ward, and have need to be called upon to return to their first
love, and to strengthen the things that remain: yea, some
CATHOLIC CHUKCH DESCUIBED. 291
grow to forsake many excellent truths ; and neglect many
weighty duties, yea, to oppose these truths and duties, and
speak against them, as thinking them to be none. Hence it
follows that some live in a holy peace and joy, as health is
mostly accompanied with ease ; when others live in con-
tinual lamentations and complaints ; and some in too much
stupidity and carelessness ; and some with dangerous mix-
tures of an ungrounded, misguided, deluding peace.
6. Hence also it follows, that the members are not all
of the same usefulness and serviceableness to the church
and cause of Christ. Some are as pillars to support the rest,
(Gal.ii.9; 1 Thess. v. 14,) and some are a trouble to others,
and can scarce go any further than they are guided and sup-
ported by others. Some lay out themselves in the helping
of others: and some are as the sick, that cannot help them-
selves, but trouble the house with their complaints and neces-
sities, which call for great and continual attendance. Some
are fit to be teachers of others, and to be pastors of the flock,
and guide the Lord's people in the way of life, and give the
children their meat in season, rightly dividing the word of
truth. And some are still learning, and never come to much
knowledge of the truth, and do no great service to God in
their generations : yea, too many weary their teachers ami
brethren by their frowardness and unfruitfulness : and too
many do abundance of wrong to the church, and Gospel, and
the world by their offensive miscarriages : yea, too many
prove as thorns in our sides, and by some error in their
understandings, cherished and used by the too great rem-
nant of pride, self-conceitedness, passion and carnality, are
grievous afflicters of the church of Christ, and causes of dis-
tention ; one saying I am of Paul, and another 1 am oi'
Apollos, and another I am of Christ, as if Christ were
divided, or else appropriated to them, and Paul or Apollos
had been their saviours. (1 Cor. iii. 1 — 5.) Some live so
as that the church hath much benefit by their lives, and
much loss by their death : and some are such troublers of
it, by their weakness and corrupt distempers, that their
death is some ease to the places where they lived. And yet
all these may be truly godly, and living members of the
catholic church.
7. Moreover, the members are not all the same in regard
of office. Some are appointed to be pastors, teachers, elders,
292 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
overseers, to be stewards of God's mysteries, and to feed
the flock, taking heed to them all, as being over them in the
Lord, as their rulers in spiritual things. (Ephes. iv. 11 ; Acts
xiv. 23 ; Tit. i. 5 ; 1 Cor. iv. 1 ; Acts xx. 17. 28 ; 1 Thess.
V. 12; Heb. xiii. 7. 17.) And some are the flock, com-
manded to learn of them, to have them in " honour, and
highly esteem them for their work sake, and to obey them."
(1 Thess. V. 12; Heb. xiii. 17; 1 Tim. v. 17.) In this chapter
saith Paul, " If the whole body were an eye, where were
the hearing? If the whole where hearing, where were the
smelling? Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all
teachers?" (1 Cor. xii. 17.29.) As there are diversity of
gifts, so also of offices : for God hath designed men to use
the gifts they have in such order and manner as may edify
the church. All the body is not the bonds, or nerves, and
ligaments, by which the parts are joined together. (Eph. iv.
16.) All are not " pastors and teachers, given for perfecting
of the saints, the work of the ministry, and edifying of the
body of Christ." (Ephes. iv. 11—13.)
8. Consequently the members have not all the same em-
ployment : magistrates must rule by force, and ministers
must guide or rule by the light and force of the word of
God : all must not administer sacraments : all must not be
the overseers of the flock. Masters and parents have their
own work, and servants and children have theirs. Nay, dif-
ference of understanding may cause a great deal of difference
among ministers and people in the manner of God's worship,
when yet all worship him acceptably and in sincerity. Some
may be too much ceremonious in meats, and drinks, and
observation of days. (Rom. xiv. and xv.) In gestures, ves-
tures, and other circumstances, sinfully laying much more
in these than God would have them : and others may be as
rigorous against them: and others more temperate between
both. Some may pray and praise God in forms composed
by themselves or others, or read them in a book: and some
may abhor all this as unlawful ; and some may be so wise
as to know that it is a matter that God hath left in itself
indifferent, and is to be determined according to the suita-
bleness of times and persons. And thus many modal cir-
cumstantial differences there may be in the true worshipping
of God, by the members of this one universal church.
9. And from what is said already, it follows, that all the
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. ^3
members of the church are not all equally to be honoured
and loved. Even among the elders, there are some that are
worthy of double honour, and some of more than they
(1 Tim. V. 17.) Some are of high and excellent gifts and
graces ; and as more of God doth shine forth in them, so a
greater love and honour is due to them. Some are so emi-
nently self-denying, and of public spirits, and wholly carried
to the service of God, and the good of the church, that few
others are " like-minded, naturally caring for the people's
state, but all do too much seek their own, and too little
the things that are Jesus Christ's." (Phil. ii. 20, 21.) The
body hath some parts that are less honourable, and less
comely :" (1 Cor. xii.22 — 24 :) though these also have their
honour and comeliness : those that most honour God shall
be most honoured ; (I Sam. ii. 30 ; Job xii. 26 ;) and they
that will be the " servants of all, shall be the greatest."
Luke xxii, 26; Matt, xxiii. 11.)
10. To conclude, from all this imparity it will follow,
that the members will not have an equal degree of glory, as
not having an equal preparation and capacity. All are not
in Abraham's bosom, as Lazarus was. "To sit on Christ's
right hand and left in his kingdom will not be the lot of all,
but of those to whom the Father will give it." (Matt. xx.
23.) All are not to sit on thrones, in full equality with the
apostles. (Luke xx^ZO.) There are of the first for time of
coming in, that shall be last of dignity, and of the last that
shall be first. (Matt. xix. 30 ; xx. 16.) All shall not be
rulers of five cities, but only they that have double fire
talents. (Matt, xxv.) And thus I have shewed you the dis-
parity of the members, wherein they differ.
Secondly. I am now to shew you the unity of them, and of
the body which they constitute. Themembersof the catholic
church are united in all these following respects :
1. They have all but" one God, the fountain of their be-
ing and felicity, and are all related to him as children to
one Father, reconciled to them, and adopting them in Jesus
Christ. (John i. 12.) " Ye are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. iii. 26.) "There is one God
and Father of all," &c. (Gal. iv. 5, 6 ; Eph. iv. 6.)
2. The members of the church have all one Head, the Re-
deemer, Saviour, Mediator, Jesus Christ. (Ephes. iv. 5.) As
the commonwealth is denominated from the unity of the
204 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
sovereign power that heads it ; so the church is hence prin-
cipally denominated one from Christ, who is the Head, the
Sovereign, and the Centre of it. And therefore it is called
frequently his body, and he the Head of it. (Ephes. iv. 15 ;
i. 22; Col. i. 18; ii. 19; Ephes. v. 23; Col. iii. 15; Rom.
\ii. 4, 5 ; 1 Cor. x. 17; Ephes. ii. 16.) He is the founda-
tion, and the church is the building that is erected upon
him, "and other foundation can no man lay." (1 Cor. iii.
11, 12.) " From this head the whole body fitly joined to-
gether, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working of the measure of every
part, maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in
love." (Ephes. iv. 16.) All therefore are members of the
catholic church that are members of Christ. He is " the
chief corner-stone that is laid in Zion, elect and precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded ; to
whom coming as to a living stone, we also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house." (1 Pet. ii. 4 — 6.) As this
" One died for all," (2 Cor. v. 14,) because all were dead, so
by the righteousness of this One, the free gift cometh on all
to justification of life, and by the obedience of this One
shall many be made righteous." (Rom. v. 18, 19.) " And by
one Jesus Christ we shall reign in life." (Rom. v. 17.) " In
him the church of Jews and Gentiles are made one." (Ephes.
ii. 14, 15.) " To this one Husband we are all espoused."
(2 Cor. xi. 2.) So that we " are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal.
iii. 28.) And " to us there is but one God the Father, of
whom are all things, and we in him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we in him." (1 Cor. viii. 6.)
3. The whole catholic church (strictly taken, as com-
prehending only the living members) have only one Holy
Ghost dwelling in them, illuminating, sanctifying and guid-
ing them, and are animated as it were by this one Spirit.
" By this one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, and
have been all made to drink into one Spirit." (1 Cor. xii. 13.)
And " whoever hath not this Spirit of Christ, the same is
none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.) " By this one Spirit we have
all access to the Father." (Ephes. ii. 18.) And through this
t^irit we are " one habitation of God." (Ephes. ii. 22.) And
therefore " he that is joined to the Lord is called one Spirit."
(I Cor. vi. 17.) And it is said of Christ, so may it be of the
Spirit in a sort, " He that sanctifieth, and they that are
CATHOLIC CHUKCH DESCRIBED. 295
sanctified are all one." (Heb. ii. 11.) This is the scope of
the chapter that my text is in.
4. The church is one as to their principal, ultimate end.
The same God is their end who is their beginning. The
same eternal glory with him, is purchased and prepared for
them, and intended by them through their Christian course.
The wicked have a lower end, even flesh and self: but all
the members of Christ are united in the true intention of
this end. They are all the " heirs of life, and partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light, and have all lain up
their treasure in heaven." (Matt. vi. 20, 21 ; Col. i. 12 ; Gal.
iv. 7; Rom. viii. 17; 1 Pet. iii. 7; Tit. iii. 7; Gal. iii. 29;
Heb. i. 14 ; Ephes. iii. 6.) "All that are risen with Christ,
do seek the things that are above," (Col. iii. 1,) " and have
their conversation with him in heaven." (Phil. iii. 20, 21.)
5. All the members of the catholic Gospel-church have
one Gospel to teach them the knowledge of Christ. (Gal. i.
10, 11.) And one word of promise to be the charter of their
inheritance, (1 Tim. iv. 8; Heb. ix. 15; Gal. iii. 22. 29,)
and one holy doctrine to be the instrument of their regenera-
tion, and the '• seed of God abiding in them." (1 Pet. i.
23. 25; Luke viii. 11.) It is but one that God hath ap-
pointed for them ; and it is one in the substance that is the
instrument of their change.
6. It is one kind of faith, that by this one holy doctrine
is wrought upon their souls. Though the degrees be vari-
ous, yet all believe the same essential points of faith, with a
belief of the same nature. There is " one faith ;" (Ephes. iv.
5 ;) and in all these essentials the church is of " one mind,"
(John xvii. 21 ; Acts iv. 32 ; 1 Pet. iii. 8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 2—4,)
though in lesser things there be exceeding great diversity.
7. There is one new disposition, or holy nature wrought
by the Spirit of God in every member of the catholic church.
This is called their holiness, and the new creature, and the
divine nature, and the image of God. (1 Pet. i. 16 ; 2 Pet. i.
4 ; John iii. G.) "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit."
(Col. iii. 10 ; 2 Cor. v. 17.)
8. The affections which are predominant in all the mem-
bers of the church, have one and the same object. Sin is the
chiefest thing that all of them hate, and the displeasure of
God the chief thing they fear, and God in Christ is the.
prime object of their love ; and they have all the same ob-
290 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
ject of their desires and hopes, even the favour of God, and
everlasting life : and they all chiefly rejoice in the same
hopes and felicity ; as were easy to manifest and prove in
the particulars, as to all the essentials of Christianity that
are the objects of the will. (Phil. i. 27; ii. 3 ; Ephes. iv. 4;
Matt. xxii. 37, 38 ; Rom. viii. 28 ; 1 Cor. ii. 9.) And thus they
are all of one heart and soul, as uniting in the same objects.
9. They have also one rule or law to live by, which is
the law of faith, of grace, of liberty, of Christ. (Rom. iii.
27 ; viii. 2 ; James i. 25 ; Gal. vi. 2.) And as one law is
appointed for them all, so one law in the points of absolute
necessity is received by them all ; for *' it is written in their
hearts," and put into " their inward parts." (Jer. xxxi. 32 ;
Heb. viii. 10. 16.) Though in the other points of the law of
Christ there be much diversity in their reception and obe-
dience. All of them are sincerely obedient to what they
know, and all of them know that which God hath made of
necessity to life.
10. Every member of the church is devoted to God in
one and the same covenant. As the covenant on Christ's
part is one to them all ; so is it one on their part. They all
renounce the world, the flesh and the devil, and give up
themselves to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And
this being used by God's appointment, to be solemnly done
in baptism, therefore baptism is called the principle or
foundation. (Heb. vi. 1.) And there is said to be one bap-
tism, (Ephes. iv. 5,) and baptism is said to save us ; " Not
the putting away the filth of the flesh, (that is, not the out-
ward washing,) but the answer of a good conscience to God,"
(1 Pet. iii. 21,) that is, the sincere, internal covenant of the
heart, and delivering up ourselves to Christ. So also the
fathers, when they (usually) speak of the necessity of bap-
tism, they mean principally our becoming Christians, and
entering into the holy covenant, which was done by bap-
tism. Though if any be so weak as to think that this out-
ward baptism is to be delayed, (as Constantine and many of
the fathers did,) if in the meantime he make and profess his
covenant with Christ, he is to be taken as a Christian and
church-member: but as a soldier without colours, or a king
not crowned ; he is a Christian not orderly admitted, which
is his sin.
11. Every member of the catholic church hath the same
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 297
instrumental founders of his faith under Christ, that is,
the prophets and apostles, infallibly inspired by the Holy
Ghost. "We are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner
stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed together grow-
eth unto an holy temple in the Lord." (Ephes. ii. 20, 21.)
These were the eye-witnesses of the resurrection of Christ,
and the ear-witnesses of his holy doctrine, who have deli-
vered it to us as confirmed by the miracles of the Holy
Ghost by Christ, and by themselves. And though possibly
some ignorant Christian may not well understand his rela-
tion to these founders of his faith, yet from them he had it,
and is thus related to them : and commonly this is under-
stood and acknowledged by them.
12. Every member of the church is related to all tho
body, as a member of it : and are " no more strangers and
sojourners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the
household of God." (Ephes. ii. 19.) But this the very term
itself doth sufficiently import to you.
13. Every member of the church hath an habitual love
to each particular member of the same church. Though
mistakes and infirmities may occasion fallings out, even as
with Paul and Barnabas, to a parting ; and there may be
dislikes and bitterness against one another upon misunder-
standings, and not discerning God's graces in each other;
yet still, as Christians, they are heartily loved by eacli
other ; and did they know more of the truth of each other's
Christianity, they would love each other more. Every mem-
ber is united by love to the rest ; for this is a lesson that is
taught us inwardly of God : "And by this we know that we
are translated from death to life." (1 Pet. i. 22 ; 1 John iii. 11.
14. 23 ; iv. 12. 20, 21. 8 ; 1 Thess. iv. 9 ; John xiii. 34, 35.)
14. Every member of the church hath a special love to
the whole, and desire after the church's welfare and prospe-
rity. Yea, their love to the body exceedeth their love to
the particular members, (Psal. cxxii. 2,) and therefore they
desire and pray for its safety and increase.
15. Every member of the church hath a special love to
the more noble sort of members. As every man is more
careful of the heart, the stomach, the lungs, the liver, than
of his finger; so are Christians, as Christians, in greatest
love to those that have most of Christ in tlietii, and on whoui
298 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
the church's welfare doth most depend, of them are they
most solicitous, so far as they understand it. This is true
both of men's graces, gifts and offices. He that loveth
grace, loveth those most that have most grace. And he
that loveth the church, honoureth those in a special man-
ner whom he discerneth best gifted for the benefit of the
church, and to employ his gifts most faithfully thereto.
And though I will not say but it is possible for some Chris-
tians to be converted by a private man, and die before they
know a church-officer, and for some weak ones in a temp-
tation to deny and disclaim, or quarrel with their officers ;
yet so far as any true Christian is acquainted with the ne-
cessity or usefulness of the ministry to the church's good,
and God's honour, (as ordinarily all know it in some measure ;
and they that know it not are in some fit of a frensy,) so
far they cannot choose but love and honour them. And
thus far all Christians join for the ministry : as God's inten-
tion was for all their good in giving pastors, teachers and
gifts of special service for the church. (Ephes. iv. 11—14.)
16. Ail members have an inward inclination to hold
communion with fellow members, so far as they discern
them to be members indeed. As fire would to fire, and
water would to water, and earth to earth, and every thing to
its like ; so Christians would have actual communion with
Christians, as delighting in each other, and loving Christ in
each other, and finding benefit by each other's communion.
Though I know that this inclination may be much kept from
execution, and communion much hindered, by mistakes
about the nature, and manner, and requisites of it, and by
infirmities and passions of our own. Brethren may fall out,
but there is naturally in them a brotherly love, and when
the mistake or passion is over, they will get together again.
(Acts ix. 32, 33 ; ii. 42. 44 ; Heb. x. 25 ; Psal. xvi. 3.)
17. There is in every true member of the church an in-
ward inclination and propensity to all the instituted means
of grace, and a suitableness of spirit to them, which fitteth
them to relish them, and highly to value them : and ordina-
rily this disposition is brought forth into act. The word of
God is engrafted or innaturalized to them. (James i. 21.) It
is to them as milk to the new-born babe. (1 Pet. ii. 1, 2.)
The Lord's-supper is sweet to him, as representing Christ
sacrificed, and oftering him Christ the food of the soul, and
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 299
affording him special communion with the saints. " Foi- the
cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the
blood of Christ ; and the bread which we break is the com-
munion of the body of Christ ; for we being many are one
bread, and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one
bread. (1 Cor. x. 16, 17.) The same holy disposition have
they to prayer, confession, the praises of God, and all other
parts of his service. Though it is too true, that as diseases
may put our mouths out of relish to our meat ; so tempta-
tions may bring some Christians to mistakes about some
ordinances, especially as to the manner, and so may make
them guilty of too long forbearance of them.
18. So also every member of the church hath in the main
the same holy employment and conversation, that is, the
service of God, so far as they know his will, is the business
of their lives. (Rom. xii. 1.) "We are his workmanship,
created to good works in Christ Jesus." (Ephes. ii. 10, 11.)
19. And every member hath an inward enmity to that
which is destructive to itself, or to the body, so far as he
knoweth it, that is, 1. To sin in general. 2. To all known
sin in particular. And, 3. Specially to divisions, distrac-
tions, and diminution of the church. These things their in-
ward disposition is against ; and when they are led to them,
it is by temptation producing mistakes and passions against
the bent of their hearts and lives. They abhor that which
is destructive to the body, as such.
20. Lastly. They shall all at the end of their course ob-
tain the same crown of glory, and see and enjoy the same
blessed God and glorified Redeemer, and be members of
the same celestial Jerusalem, and be employed everlastingly
in the same holy love, and joy, and praise, and glorify and
please the Lord in all, and centre, and be united perfectly
in him. (John xvii. 21. 23, 24.) " For of him, and through
him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever.
Amen." (Rom. xi. 36.)
And tlius I have shewed you in twenty particulars the
unity of the saints ; though it is not from every one of these
that they are called one church, yet all these are inseparable
as to possession from the true members, and as to profession
from the seeming members that are adult.
Use 1. The truth being thjis plain and certain as it is,
that the catholic church is one, and consisteth of trufe
300 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
Christians, as its real living members, and of all professors
of true Christianity, as its visible members, we have here
too great occasion of sad lamentation, for the common igno-
rance of the contenders of the world about this matter, and
the great inconsiderateness and abuse of this unques-
tionable verity. To four sorts of people I shall direct my
expostulations. 1. To the Seekers, or whoever else deny
the very being of the catholic church. 2. To the blind
contending parties of these times, and the offended ignorant
people, that are much perplexed among so many pretenders,
to know which is the church. 3. To the several sects that
would appropriate the church to themselves only. 4. To
the Papists, that ask us for a proof of the continued visi-
bility of our church, and where it was before Luther. To
these in order : and.
First, For the Seekers ; because it is not their persons
that I have to speak against, but the errors which they are
said to hold, and because they purposely hide their opinions ;
and because I meet with them of so many minds, I shall
therefore deal only with the opinions commonly supposed
to be theirs, not determining whether indeed they are theirs,
or no: for I care not who maintains them, so I do but
effectually confute them. And here are four degrees of this
error supposed to be held by the Seekers. 1. Some of
them are said to deny the universal mystical church itself.
2. Some are said to deny only the universal visible church,
as such; 3. Some yielding both these, deny the universal
church as political only. 4. Some only deny the truth of
particular churches, as political, that is, the truth of the
ministry. Of these in order :
1. Let that man that questioneth the being of the ca-
tholic mystical church, and yet pretends to believe in Christ,
read but these three or four arguments, and blush.
Argum. 1. If there be no such universal church, then
there are no Christians : for what is the church but all the
Christians of the world ? And I pray inquire better, whe-
ther there be any Christians in the world or not ? Read the
church history, and the books of the infidels, and see whe-
ther there have been Christians in the world since the
apostles. He that believeth not that there are Christians
In the world, when he dwells among them, and daily con-
verseth with them, deserveth to be otherwise disputed with
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 301
than by argument. He hath only cause to doubt whether
there be any Christian magistrate in this part of the world,
that such as he are suffered to rave against Christianity.
And certainly he that thinks there are no Christians in
the world, is none himself, nor would be thought one.
Argum. 2. If there be no church, there is no Christ:
nobody, no head: no kingdom, no king: no wife, no
husband: no redeemed ones, no Redeemer or Mediator.
Tliough the person of Christ should be the same, yet the office
and relation must cease, if the church cease. This is beyond
all dispute. And if this be your meaning, that there is no
Christ, no Mediator, no Head, or Teacher, or King of the
church, speak out, and call yourselves infidels as you are.
Argum. 3. li' there be no church or Christians, then
there is no salvation : for salvation is promised to none but
Christians, or members of Christ. He is the " Saviour of his
body." (Ephes. v. 23.) And he that thinks there is none
on earth that shall be saved, it seems expecteth no salvation
himself : and how much the world is beholden to him for
his doctrine, and how ready they will be to receive it, if
they be in their wits, is easy to be conjectured.
Argum. 4. If there be no church, there is no pardon of
sin, or adoption, nor any fruit of the promise. For the
church only are the heirs of promise, pardoned, adopted,
(I would heap up plain Scriptures for these things, if I
thought it to any purpose.) And he that thinks the pro-
mises are ceased, and the pardon of sin and adoption ceased,
doth sure think the Gospel and Christianity are ceased,
or never were.
2. As to the second opinion, let them that deny the
church as visible, consider of the same arguments again,
with the necessary addition, and be ashamed.
Argum. 1. If there be no visible church, there are no
visible Christians ; for Christians are the church : And if
there are no visible Christians, then no man can say, that
there are any Christians at all : For how do you know it if
they are not visible ?
Argum. 2. And consequently no man can tell that
there is a Christ, the head and king of the church : for who
can judge of that which is inevident ? And if you know not
that there is a choirch, you cannot know that there is a Christ.
302 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AIS D
Argnm. o. And thus you must be uncertain of any to
be saved, because they are not visible.
Argum. 4. And you must be uncertain of the continu-
ance of the force of the promise, and of pardon, and sanc-
tification.
Aigum. 5. Experience and sense itself confutes you.
Open your eyes and ears : do you not see Christians in
holy exercises? Do you not hear them make profession of
their faith ? It is a fine world, when we must be fain to
dispute whether there be such a people whom we every day
converse and talk with ! You may better question, whether
there be any Turks or Jews in the world ! And as well
question, whether there be any men in the world ! And
how should such be disputed with !
3. Fovtlie third opinion,which yields an universal visible
church, but not a political, it is a gross contradiction.
Argum. Where there is a sovereign, and subjects, and
ruler, and such as are under his rule, there is a political
body or society. For the ' pars imperans,' and ' pars sub-
dita,' do constitute every commonwealth : and the rela-
tions of these two parties, the ruling part, and the ruled
part, is the form of the republic. This is undeniable. Bui.
here are these two parts : for Christ is the ruling part, and
the church or Christians are the ruled part : and therefore
you must either deny that there is a Christ to be King, or
that there are Christians his subjects ; or else you must
confess a political church.
But some of this opinion say, ' We confess there is a
visible body headed by Christ, who is to us invisible, though
visible in the heavens; but this makes not the church to be
visibly political, unless ' secundum quod ;' but here is no
visible universal head.'
Anstv. 1. We perceive now whereabout you are, and
from whom, and for whom you fetch your arguments. You
must have a Pope, it seems, or else no visible political
church : We deny that either Pope or, General Council are
the visible heads of the church. We maintain that the
church is no otherwise visible in its policy, than in these
respects. 1. As the body is visible, and their obedience.
As 2. The laws are visible by which they are governed.
3. As the inferior officers or ministers are visible. And 4.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 303
As Christ the Head is visible in heaven, there is no other
visibility of polity to be here expected.
4. The next opinion denieth only, that there are any true
particular political churches. Against this I argue thus :
Argum. 1. If there be no particular churches, there is no
universal church : for there can be no whole, if there be no
parts : and political particular churches are those principal
constitutive parts of the universal, which the Scripture
mentioneth. But 1 have proved that there is an universal
church, which is the whole : therefore there are particular
political churches, which are parts.
Argum. 2. If there be particular Christian societies with
overseers, then there are particular political churches : for
a church hath but two essential parts ; the guiding or ruling-
part, which is the elders or overseers, and the guided and
ruled part, which are the people. Now here are both these :
therefore there are particular political churches. That here
are Christian assemblies methinks I should not need to
prove, to men that see them day to day, and plead against
them. The only question, therefore, remaining is, Whether
the elders or teachers be true officers or elders, or not?
And in the upshot this is all the question, and you can stick
on no other (nor well on this) without declaring yourselves
to be infidels: and this isaquestion that belongs not to this
place, but I purposely refer you to what I have already pub-
lished hereupon.
II. My next address is, to them that are so solicitous to
know which is the true church among all the parties in the
world that pretend to it. Silly souls I they are hearkening
to that party, and to that party, and turn it may be to one,
and to another, to find the true universal church ; I speak
not in contempt, but in compassion : but I must say, you
deal much more like bedlams than Christians, or reasonable
men. You run up and down from room to room to find
the house, and ask, is the parlour it? or is the hall it? or
is the kitchen, or the coal-house it? Why, every one is a
part of it ; and all the rooms make up the house. You are
in the wood, and cannot find it for trees: But you ask,
which of these sort of trees is the wood? Is it the oak, or
the ash, or the elm, or poplar? or is it the hawthorn, or
the bramble ? Why, it is all together. You are studying
which of the members is the man : Is the hand th^^ man?
304 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
or is it the foot? or is it the eye? or the heart? or which
is it? Why, it is the whole body and soul, in wliich
all parts and faculties are comprised. You wisely ask,
Which part is the whole? Why, no part is the whole.
Which is the catholic church ? Is it the Protestants, the
Calvinists, or the Lutherans, the Papists, the Greeks, the
^Ethiopians, or which is it ? Why, it is never any one of
them, but all together that are truly Christians. Good
Lord ! what a pitiful state is the poor church in, when we
must look abroad and see such abundance running up and
down the world, and asking which is the world ? Whether
this country be the world, or that country be the world ?
They are as it were running up and down England to look
for England, and ask, whether this town be England, or
whether it be the other ? They are as men running up and
down London to inquire for London, and ask, whether this
house be London, or that street be London ? or some other?
Thus are they in the midst of the church of Christ inquiring
after the church, and asking, Whether it be this party of
Christians, or whether it be the other? Why, you doating
wretches, it is all Christians in the world of what sort soever,
that are truly so, that constitute the catholic church.
Indeed if your question were only. Which is the purest,
or soundest, or safest part of the church, then there were
some sense in it, and I could quickly give you advice for
your resolution ; but that is reserved for a following part of
the discourse. If you only ask, whether the parlour or the
coal-house be the better part or room of the house ? or
whether the oak or the bramble be the better part of the
wood ? I should soon give you an answer. So if you ask.
Whether the Protestants, or Papists, or Greeks, be the
sounder part of the church ? I should soon answer you.
The same family may have in it both infants and men at
age, sound men and sick men ; some that have but small
distempers, and some that have the plague or leprosy : and
yet all are men, and members of the family : and so hath
the church of God such members.
* Object. But will you make all sects and heretics in the
world to be members of the catholic church?'
Answ. No : there are none members of the church but
Christians. If you call any Christians heretics, those are
members of the church : but those heretics that are no
CATHOLIC t'HURCH UES( lllBEU. ^Ofi
Christians, are no church-members. If they deny any essen-
tial point of Christianity, they are not Christians, but ana-
logically, equivocally, or ' secundum quid.' I tell you, all
that are true believers, justified and sanctified, are true liv-
ing members of the church : and all that profess true faith
and holiness, are true members, and no others, at age and
use of reason. Your inquiry, therefore, should be. Which
are true Christians? And what is true Christianity? And
what heresies deny the essentials of Christianity? And
then you may soon know who are of the church.
Object. 'Abundance of the errors now common in the
world, do subvert the foundation, or destroy the essentials
of Christianity, '
Arisw. It is not every consequential destroying of the
essentials that will prove a man no Christian. For almost
every error in the matters of faith and morality doth conse-
quentially subvert the foundation, because of the con-
catenation of truths together, and their dependance on each
other. And so every ntian on earth should perish if this
were inconsistent with Christianity : for all men err in mat-
ters revealed and propounded by God in Scripture to their
knowledge and belief. He that holdeth fast the essentials
of religion by a practical belief, shall be saved by it, though
he hold any opinions which consequently subvert the truth,
and doth not understand that they do subvert it : for this
is the best men's case. But if he so hold the error, as see-
ing that it overthrows an essential point, and so holdeth not
that point which it is against, this man is not a Christian.
Every drop of water is contrary to fire, and yet a great fire
is not put out by a single drop. Every degree of sickness,
or natural decay, hath a contrariety to health and life : and
yet every man is not dead that is sick ; nor any man, I think:
nor is it every sickness that procureth death. The promise
is, " He that believeth shall be saved :" and, therefore, as
long as he believeth all the essential verities, it is no con-
trary opinion that can unchristen him, or unchurch him.
* Object, But how shall we know a visible Christian by
this, when we know not whether he hold the truth, or not;'
Answ. By men's profession the visibility of their faith
is easily discerned. If they say they believe that Christ
rose from the dead, 1 am to take them as believers of it, not-
VOL. XVI. X
306 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AISTD
withstanding they should hold some error, that hath a remote
opposition to it. But if they directly deny it, 1 have no reason
to think they believe it ; and if they will hold two directly
contradictory propositions, they are madmen, and to be be-
lieved in neither. The Lutherans maintain, That Christ hath
a true human nature ; and yet some of them say. That it is
everywhere. Though this be contrary to the former by con-
sequence ; yet I am bound to judge that they take Christ to
be true man still, because indeed they do so, not seeing the
contradiction.
But if a man by his contradiction in other terms, do ma-
nifest that he doth not believe the truth which he professeth
to believe, but speaks the words while he denies the sense;
this is to deny the matter itself: for it is the sense that is
the doctrine : and so he denies himself to be a Christian.
For example : If he say, that Christ is risen, and by Christ
tell you he meaneth his own spirit; and by rising he mean-
eth his rising from sin, as the Familists do, and no more :
this is to deny the resurrection of Christ.
Object. ' But will you dishonour Christ and his church
by taking in all sects and erroneous persons, that held the
essentials : What a linseywoolsey garment will this be ?
What a large and mingled church will you make?'
Answ. The largeness is no dishonour to it : but by over-
narrowing it many sects do dishonour it. The corruptions
and infirmities are indeed a dishonour to it: but that reflects
not at all on Christ, yea, it maketh for his honour, both
that he is so exceeding compassionate as to extend his love
and mercy so far, and to bear with such distempers, and
pardon such miscarriages of his servants: And should your
eye be evil because he is good ? O how ill doth it beseem
that man that needeth exceeding mercy himself, even to save
him from damnation, to be opening his mouth against the
mercy of Christ to others ! Yea, to repine at, and even re-
proach the mercy that he liveth by, and must save him, if
ever he be saved. Why man, hast not thou as much need
of tender indulgence and mercy thyself, to keep thee in the
church, and in the favour of God, and bring thee to heaven,
as Anabaptists, Separatists, Arminians, Lutherans, and many
such sects have, to continue them in the number of catholic
Christians? If thou have not their errors, thou hast others.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 307
and perhaps as bad, whicli thou little thinkest of: and if
thou have not their errors, hast thou not sins that are as
provoking to God as they ? Really, speak thy heart man, be
thou Papist or Protestant, or what thou wilt, wouldst thou
have God less merciful than he is? Or wouldst thou wish
him to be so little merciful as to damn all that be not of thy
opinion, or to unchristen and unchurch all these that thou
speakest against? Or wouldst thou have him to condemn
and cast away all men that have as great faults as the errors
of these Christians are? And consequently to condemn thy-
self? Moreover it is Christ's honour to be the healer of
such great distempers, and the cure at last shall magnify
his skill. In the meantime the church, though black, is yet
comely in the eyes of Christ, and of all that see by the light
of his Spirit. And our tenderhearted Saviour disdaineth
not to be the physician of such an hospital as hath many
sorts of diseases in it, and many of them very great. And
when pharisees make it his reproach that he thus converseth
with publicans and sinners, he takes it as his glory to be
the compassionate physician of those that are sick.
I beseech you therefore, poor, peevish, quarrelsome
souls, give others leave to live in the same house with you :
Do not disown your brethren, and say, they are bastards,
because they somewhat differ from you in complexion,
in age, in strength, in health, in stature, or any of the
points wherein I told you a little before that the members
of the church do usually differ in. Shew not yourselves so
ignorant or froward as to make a wonder of it, that God
should be the Father both of infants, and men at age, of
weak and strong, and that the sick and sound should both
be in his family. Doth such cruelty beseem the breast of
a Christian, as to wish God to cast out all his children from
his family that are weak and sick? Do not make it such a
matter of wonder, that God's house should have so many
rooms in it ; and think it not a reproach to it, that the kitchen
or the coal-house is a part of the house. Wonder not at it
as a strange thing, that all the body is not a hand or eye ;
and that some parts have less honour and comeliness than the
rest. Hath God told you so plainly and fully of these matters,
and yet will you not understand, but remain so perverse?
I pray hereafter remember better that the catholic church
is one, consisting of all true Christians as the members.
308 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
III. My next address is to those several sects (I call
them not so in reproach, but because they make themselves
so), that sinfully appropriate the catholic church to them-
selves. Thus did the Donatists in Augustine's time, to whom
he gives a confutation of very great use to all that are guilty
of that sin in our days. But I shall only speak particularly
now to these three sects that are most notoriously guilty : L
The Quakers*. 2. Some Anabaptists. And, 3. The Papists.
1. The Quakers are but a few distempered people, risen
up within a few years in this corner of the world : and yet
they are not ashamed to condemn the most godly Christians,
ministers and churches of the world, that are not of their
way; as if the church were confined to these few poor, dis-
tracted, erroneous persons do not think that they are all of
a mind among themselves ; some of them plainly deny the
very essentials of Christianity. And for these to reproach
the church is no wonder: but to appropriate it to themselves
that are no members of it, as if Turks or heathens should
have persuaded the world that they are the only Christians.
In the meantime I thank God that Christianity is in so much
esteem, that even the enemies of it do pretend to it : But for
those that go under that name, and deny not the fundamen-
tals, let them consider what I said before to the Seekers: If
there be no church, there is no Christ: no body, no head:
And no church, no Christians; and no justification or salva-
tion. And therefore I would know of them, where was the
true church before the other day that the Quakers rose? If
there were any, where was it? If there were none, then there
was no Christ, no head ! I remember what a boy told them
lately near us, * Your church and religion (saith he) cannot
be the right, for I can remember since it first begun.' Surely
Christ had a church before the Quakers.
2. The rigid Anabaptists do run the same strain, and
appropriate the church to their sect alone ; and this upon
the Popish conceit, that baptism is either necessary to sal-
vation, or else to the being of a member of the church. None
but the re-baptized, or those that are baptized at age, are
taken by them to be members of the church ; (though I
know that many of the Anabaptists are more moderate, and
make re-baptizing necessary only in point of duty, and ' ad
' It is necessary to remark, lliat the people called Quakers and Anabaptisis, iit
i!ic pre-ent dny, dilier very inateriailj from the sects so Cfilled^iii Mr. Baxter's time
CATHOLIC CH UUCH UtSCRI BIl D. 309
bene esse.' Of" these men 1 would also know, 1. Where
was a church that was against infant-baptism, since the days
of the apostles, (much less among them) till within these five
hundred or six hundred years at most, (perhaps these two
hundred or three hundred ?) Had Christ a visible church of
such in all ages ? If so, tell us where it was, and prove it.
If not, tell us how Christ could be a king without a king-
dom, a head without a body. 2. And can your hearts endure
so cruel a doctrine, as to unchurch all the churches of the
world, except so few and such as believe you? 3. And
would you have men in their wits believe that Christ hath
been so many hundred years without a visible church? Or
that his church hath had a false constitution, and that now
he is constituting his church aright in the end of the world?
4. Your error is so much the greater and more cruel, as your
party is the smaller, and more lately sprung up; that ever it
can enter into your hearts to imagine that God hath no
church in all the world but you. But I shall say no more to
you particularly, partly, because you are an impatient gene-
ration, that take a confutation for a persecution ; and
partly, because I shall offend the more sober, by such need-
less words, to so gross an error ; and chiefly because that
which I shall speak to the next party, will also be useful to
your information.
3. The principal sect that appropriate the church to
themselves, is the Papists. And to them I shall more largely
open my mind. They make a great noise against all other
parties with the name of the Roman Catholic church, and
the confident ostentation that it is only they. They make
the Pope the visible head of it, and exclude all from the
church, besides his subjects \ and all that are not of that
church they exclude also from salvation, with an ' extra
ecclesiam nulla salus.' What shall we say to these things?
1. Surely it must needs be some admirable qualification
that must thus advance the church of Rome to be the whole
and only catholic church ! And what should this be? Is it
their extraordinary holiness? I know they talk much of the
holiness of their church : but they dare not put it upon that
issue, and let us take that for the church which we find to
be most holy. On those terms I think we should soon be
resolved, by a little observation and experience. However
it would not serve their turn, unless they could prove thai
310 THJ:: TllUE CATHOLIC, AND
none are holy at all but they. What then is the ground oF
this pretended privilege? Why, because they take the bishop
of Rome for the universal bishop, aod are under his govern-
ment. And is this it that salvation is confined to ?
2. And surely it must be some very heinous matter, that
all the rest of the Christian world must be unchurched and
damned for ; and what is that? Is it for denying any article
of the faith? Which is it that we deny? When they would
set them against Protestants, they boast that the (i reeks are
in all things of their mind, except the Pope's supremacy ;
and therefore this is the only heresy that might unchurch
and damn them. And it is not for ungodliness ; for we are
ready to join with them in severer censures of ungodliness
than we know how to bring them to. The damning crime is,
that we believe not the church of Rome to bo the mistress of
all the churches, and the Pope to be their head. And indeed
is this a damning sin, and inconsistent with Christianity, or
church-membership? I prove the contrary, that the catholic
church is not confined to the Roman, but containeth in it all
that I have mentioned before.
Argum. 1. If many are true Christians that believe not in
the Pope, or Roman church, as the ruler of the rest, then
many may be church-members and saved that believe not in
them : but the antecedent is certain. For,
1. He that truly believes in God the Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, renouncing the flesh, the world, and the devil,
is a Christian : but so do many millions that believe not in
the Pope or Roman sovereignty.
2. He that hath the sanctifying Spirit of Christ is a Chris-
tian : for Christ giveth it to no other : but so have millions that
believe not theRoman sovereignty, as I shall further shew anon.
3. Those that have all that is essential to a Christian,
are true Christians : but so have millions that believe not the
Roman sovereignty. For they have faith, hope, charity,
repentance, and sincere obedience, and therefore are true
Christians. If you say, that the belief of the Roman sove-
reignty is essential to Christianity, you must well prove it,
which yet was never done.
I prove the contrary by many arguments.
1. No Scripture tells us that your sovereignty is a truth,
much less of the essence of Christianity. Therefore it is
not so to be believed. What Bellarmin brings but to prove
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 311
the ti uth of it, 1 have manifested to be utterly impertinent
in my book against Popery.
2. If it had been essential to Christianity, and necessary
to salvation, to believe the sovereignty of the church of
Rome, the apostles would have preached it to all the people,
whose conversion they endeavoured, and have established
the churches in it : but there is not a word in Scripture, or
any church history, that ever the apostles, or any preachers
of those times, did teach the people any such doctrine : much
less that they taught it all the people. And sure they would
not have omitted a point of necessity to salvation.
3. If the sovereignty of the Pope, or of Rome, is of
necessity to Christianity and salvation, then the apostles
and pastors of the primitive church would either have bap-
tized men into the Pope or Roman church, or at least have
instructed their catechumens in it, and required them to
profess their belief in the Pope and Roman church. But
there is not a word in Scripture, or any church records,
intimating that ever such a thing was once done either by
orthodox or heretics ; that ever any did baptize men into
the name of the Pope or Roman church, or did require of
them a confession of the Roman sovereignty ; no, nor ever
taught any church or Christian to obey the church of Rome,
as the ruler of other churches. Paul was more certainly an
apostle at Rome (a bishop they call him) than Peter, and
you may know his practice by 1 Cor. i. 14, 15, " I thank
God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gains, lest
any should say that I baptized in my own name." The
ancient forms of baptism are recorded in Scripture and
church history ; but this is never in. He that believed in
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for remission, justifi-
cation, sanctiiication, and everlasting life, was baptized as a
Christian.
4. If the sovereignty of the Roman church were neces-
sary to Christianity and salvation, we should have had it in
some of the creeds of the primitive church, or at least in the
exposition of those creeds. But there we have no such
thing. For their affirmation, that the word catholic church
in the creed, signifieth as much as the Roman catholic
church doth signify no more to us, but the dreaming un-
grounded confidence of the affirmers.
5. Thousands and millions were saved in the primitive
31-2 THE IRLK CATHOLIC, AND
church, without ever believing or confessing the Roman
sovereignty : therefore it is not essential to Christianity. No
man can prove that one Christian believed Rome to be the
mistress of other churches for many hundred years after
Christ, much less that all believed it.
6. If it be an article of faith, and so essential to Chris-
tianity, that Rome is the mistress of other churches, then
either it was so before there was a church at Rome, or else
it begun after. Not before : for when there was no church,
it could not be the mistress of all churches. Not after: for
then Christianity should have altered its specific nature, and
become another thing, by the adding of a new essential part.
But Christianity is the same thing since there was a church
at Rome, as it was for many years before. And the catholic
church is the same thing;, ft was many vears a catholic
church before there was any church at Rome at all.
7. If it be necessary to Christianity or salvation to be-
lieve that Rome is the mistress and head of the catholic
church, then it is as necessary to know who it is that is this
head and mistress ; whether it be the Pope, or the particular
Church of Rome, or the General Council. For else the bare
name of Rome should be the thing of necessity. But if we
knownot what that name dothsignify, itisnomore to us than
a nonsensical word, which a parrot may utter. But what it
is that is this head or sovereignty the Papists themselves are
utterly disagreed in. The Council of Constance and Basil
defined. That the General Council is the head, above the
Pope, and may judge and depose him, as they did divers.
The Laterane Council thought otherwise : and Bellarmin
saith the aforesaid council, 'judged the judge of the whole
world,' and maintained the Pope to be the head and seat of
sovereignty. The Italians go one way, and the French ano-
ther. But if these be true General Councils, then the mat-
ter is determined against the Pope : and therefore is an
article of faith to be believed on pain of damnation, that
the council is above the Pope: and yet it is also an article
of faith to be believed on the same penalty, that the Pope is
above the General Council ; for the Council at the Lateran
under Leo X, hath determined it, sess. 11. So that councils
are contrary, and articles of faith are contrary, and he that
will be a Papist must believe contradictions. If to evade
this any say, that either the Council of Constance, or thai
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 313
at the Lateran, were not true General Councils, or not
approved by the Pope : For that of Constance Bellarmin
answers after Turrecremato, Campegius, Sanders, &c., that it
was a true and approved Council. (Lib. 2. de Concil. cap. 19.)
But they say, • That it determined only that the Council is
above the Pope in case of a schism, when the true Pope is not
known.' But Bellarmin dare not stand to this answer: for the
express words of the Council are, that ' A General Council
hath immediate authority from Christ, which all are bound to
obey, though of Papal dignity.' Can plainer words be
spoke? But Bellarmin's other shift is worse, 'that P.
Martin 5. confirmed all that was done in this council, con-
ciliariter; but this (saith he) was not conciliariter.' See
wliat juggling the articles of the Romish faith are liable to,
and how clear an interpreter of the Scriptures, and decider
of controversies we have, that speaks so enigmatically when
he seems to speak most plainly, even in confirming a Gene-
ral Council, that his own cardinals, nor the Council itself,
are able to understand him. But perhaps the Council at
the Lateran was false, that determineth of the contrary,
that the Pope is above councils : no, not in the judgment
of Bellarmin and his party. For (Lib. 2. de concil. cap. 17,)
he saith, that 'vix dici potest,' it can scarcely be said that
the council was not general. And the Pope was in it, and
confirmed it, and the non-reception of it by others he saith is
nothing, because decrees of faith are immutable, and the not
receiving cannot change them. What a case then are they
in that must needs be damned? Whether they believe the
Pope to be the supreme, or the Council to be the supreme?
One council is against one way, and the other against the
other way, and both councils confirmed by undoubted
Popes. But yet they have a remedy, and that is, that yet
the matter is doubtful : and where is the doubt? Why it is,
whether the council defined this as an article of faith, or no?
And therefore saith Bellarmin, ' they are not properly he-
retics that hold the contrary, but cannot be excused from
great temerity.' So that you see what certainty the Papists
are at in their faith. It cannot be known, nor will any suc-
ceeding Popes determine it, when a council hath decided a
point, whether or no they intended it as an article of faith,
(And yet in the Trent oath they are to swear obedience to-
all things defined .ind declared bv the sacred canons and
314 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
cecumeuical councils.) One council decrees, that the Pope
is highest, another or two decree, that the council is
highest, and the Pope must obey them : yea, both these are
confirmed by the Pope. The subjects are sworn to obey
both contradictories : and yet after this contrary decision,
the case is still undecided with them, and for fear of losing-
half their party, they dare not say that either are properly
heretics. (Mark, properly.) ' Yea, (saith Bellarrain, de
concil. lib. 2. c. 13,) though afterwards in the Florentine
and Lateran Council the question seems to be defined,
(having before been contrarily defined at Constance and
Basil) yet to this day it remaineth a question among Catho-
lics, because the Council of Florence seems not to define it
so expressly : and of the Council of Lateran, which most
expressly defined it, some doubt). So that as there is no
understanding their councils in their highest degrees, so
we have the confession of the Papists themselves, that it is
yet undetermined, and no point of faith, which is the sove-
reign power in the church : and if it be not so much as
determined, then much less is it essential to Christianity.
And if it be not necessary to know who hath the sovereignty,
then it cannot be necessary to know that it is in the
church of Rome: For the name of the Church of Rome is
nothing but a sound, without the thing that is signified by
it: Moreover, the Pope is not the church of Rome ; for it
was never heard that one man was called a church : and a
General Council is not the churches of Rome: for if there
be such a thing, it representeth all churches as much as
Rome. And therefore which ever be the sovereign, it cannot
be the church of Rome. And as for the particular Roman
clergy or people, no man that ever 1 heard of did yet afiirm
that it was the sovereign ruler of the churches. It is only
the Pope and Council that are competitors.
If any say. That it is the Pope and Council only con-
junct. I answer, 1. That two that are both fallible, set to-
gether, will not make one infallible power. 2. Then the far
greatest part of the Papists are erroneous in holding the
contrary: for almost all make either the Pope or the Coun-
cil to be the seat of supremacy and infallibility. 3. Then
what is become of the church when these two disagree, as
frequently tliey have done? 4. The Pope and Council agree-
ing do often contradict a former Pope and Council agreeing.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. ,'315
5. Then the church is without a head, all this while thai
there is no council in being. See Bellarmin's urguraentti
against this opinion.
8. Another argument to prove that it is not essential to
Christianity, to believe the sovereignty of the Pope or
church of Rome is this, it is not necessary to salvation to
know that there is such a place as Rome in the world, or
whether there be one, or two, or ten places of that name,
or which of them it is that hath the sovereignty : and there-
fore it cannot be necessary to believe that it is the catholic
or mistress church : Would God lay men's salvation upon
the title of a city, many thousand miles from some parts of
his church, which they have no knowledge of? Many Pa-
pists say, that heathens have sufficient means of salvation
that never heard of Christ ; and yet will they damn Chris-
tians that never heard of the city or Pope of Rome? For
about three hundred years after Christ it was the seat of the
greatest idolatry, impiety, and persecuting cruelty in the
world. And would God all that while so advance that wicked
place as to make it essential to Christianity to believe Rome
to be the seat of the sovereignty of the church !
9. We have no certainty of faith that Rome shall not be
burned, or be possessed by Mahometans, or turn to infi-
delity : therefore we have no certainty that it shall be any
church at all, much less the true ruling; or catholic church.
10. If it were necessary to salvation to believe Rome's
sovereignty, God would aiFord the world sufficient evidence
of it, and commission preachers to preach it to the world :
" For how should they believe without a preacher; and how
shall he preach except he be sent?" But no such commis-
sions are proved to be given to any from the Lord.
Having thus backed my first argument, and proved others
besides Papists to be Christians, and consequently mem-
bers of the catholic church, I may proceed to the rest.
Argum. 2. If millions besides Papists have the Spirit of
God, and true faith, and charity, and holiness, then are they
members of the catholic church. For out of the church is
no salvation ; but all that have the Holy Ghost and charity
shall be saved, as the Papists confess, if they continue in it.
But that many besides Papists have charity and sanctifica-
tion, we have large experience to persuade us to conclude;
31(5 THK TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
For though no man can know the certain truth of another
man's profession, or heart ; yet as far as men can know by
one another, we have ground to be exceeding confident of
the sanctity and charity of multitudes among us. I profess
if it were but this one thing that hindered me, I could not be
a Papist upon any terms ; I live among humble, holy, and
heavenly people, that live in continual breathings after God,
hating a sinful thought, in great mortification, and willing-
ness to know God's will, that they may obey it : and ac-
cordingly abundance have ended their lives in peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost: None of these were Papists: and
now it is impossible for a man to be a Papist, that will not
conclude all these to be out of the catholic church, and con-
sequently to be unsanctified and condemned. And if so, I am
resolved never to be aPapist. If 1 cannot be a Papist without
condemning a multitude of the holiest persons that ever i
could meet with, and shutting my eyes against the admirable
lustre of their graces, let them be Papists that will for me.
Arsum. 3. The Lord Jesus shed his blood for all Chris-
tians as well as Papists, with a special intent to sanctify and
save all that are such indeed. Therefore they are members
of the catholic church. (Ephes. v. 25 — 27.)
Argum. 4. All Christians are subject to Christ, though
they be not subject to the Pope : therefore they are the
church of Christ. (Ephes. v. 24.)
Argum. 5. Those that are loved of the Father, and recon-
ciled to him, are to be taken for members of the church. But
all that believe in the Son, and love him, are loved by the
Father, and reconciled to him. (John xvi. 27 ; Rom. v. 1, 2.)
Argum. 6. All that are justly baptized are visible mem-
bers of the church : but many are justly baptized that be-
lieve not the sovereignty of Rome. Therefore, &c., the
minor is evident by the Scripture-direction for baptizing,
and examples of it ; and millions at this day in the church
of God confirm it to us.
Argum. 7. They that have a promise of pardon, and are the
adopted sons of God, and heirs of glory, are members of the
church (beyond all question) : but so are all that believe in
Christ, and love God, whether they believe in the Pope or
not; as you may see expressly, John i. 12; iii. 15, 16. 18;
xvii. 20-^22. 24 ; Mark xvi. 16 ; John iii. 36 ; v. 24 ; vi. 35.
C A r H O L I C V II V ECU DESCRIBED. 317
40.47; vii. 38; xi.25, 26; xii.46; Rom. iii. 22.26 ; iv. 11.
24 ; ix. 33 ; x. 9 ; Gal. iii. 22 ; 2 Thess. i. 10 ; Heb. iv. 3 ;
Acts V. 14 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6 ; 1 John v. 1. 5. 10 ; Acts xiii. 39.
Argum. 8. If they must live in heaven with us, we have
reason to take them for members of the church on earth.
But all that truly love God, and believe in Christ, shall live
in heaven with us, though they never believed in the Pope.
Therefore, &c.
Argum. 9. They that are united in all the twenty parti-
culars in the beginning expressed, are certainly members of
the catholic church : but so are many that believe not in the
Pope. Therefore,
Argum. 10. The Papists* doctrine goes against the cer-
tain experience of the sanctified. Some measure of assurance
I have myself of the love of God in me ; and much more
many others have, as I see great reason to believe. Now
popery binds me to conclude that I am void of charity, and
all saving, special grace, because I believe not in the Pope ;
that is, to renounce the experience of God's grace in ray
soul, and unthankfully to deny all these mercies of God.
So that as sure as any Protestant can be of charity or saving
grace in himself, so sure may he be that popery is false doc-
trine, and that is enough.
Having spoken thus much to these several sects that
would appropriate the catholic church to themselves, I shall
once more speak to tiiem altogether. Whether you are Pa-
pists, or what sect soever that are guilty of this grievous
crime, I beseech you think of these following aggravations
of your sin:
1. How evidently is your doctrine against the merciful
nature of God, and contrary to that abundant grace which
he hath manifested to mankind. Is lie love itself; and his
mercy over all his works reaching unto the heavens, and un-
conceivable by sinners ? Hath he not thought the blood of
his Son too dear for us ? And yet can you believe those men
that would persuade you- that the far greatest part of the
Christians of the world are out of the church, and shall be
damned, because they believe not in the Pope of Rome, or
because they are not rebaptized, or the like, how holy so-
ever they are in other respects? Is this like God ; or hath he
thus described himself in his word ? We are as willing as
you to know the truth ; and study, and pray, and s(>pk as
318 THE TRUF, CATHOLIC, .WD
much after it, and would most gladly find it at any rates:
and the more we search," and study, and pray, the more con-
fident we are that your way is wrong : And must we yet be
all unchristened that are not of your opinion ?
2. How much do you wrong and dishonour the Lord
Jesus in many respects! l.Hath he purchased his church
with his own blood ; and now dare you presume to rob him
of the far greater part of his purchase, because they be not
of your opinion? I would not stand before him with the
guilt of such a sin for all the world. 2. Dare you charge so
great unmercifuluess on Christ, that hath so wonderfully
shewed his mercy, and at so dear a rate? After all his blood
and sufferings, dare you feign him to say to the world, ' Be-
lieve in me, and love me never so much ; if you obey not
the church of Rome, you cannot be my disciples, or be
saved ?' Yea, and would he lay our salvation on this, and
yet not reveal it to us, but say so much against it? Let him
be of these men's minds that can, for I cannot. 3. More-
over, the weaknesses and diseases of the saints do honour
the skill of Christ their Physician, that hath undertaken the
cure, and in due time will accomplish it. And will you go
and turn them all out of his hospital, and say they are none
of his patients?
3. Your design is against the very nature of the catholic
church, and the communion of saints. The design of Christ
in the work of redemption was to gather all into one body,
and bring them to God. To break down the partition-wall
between Jew and Gentile, and take away the ordinances and
ceremonies that occasioned the division, and to unite them
all in himself the universal head. (Ephes. ii. 13 — 15.) "That
he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby." (verse 16.) To this
end, "When he ascended, he gave pastors and teachers, as
well as apostles, prophets and evangelists, for the perfect-
ing of the saints, for the v»'ork of the ministry, for the edify-
ing of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ, that we may grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body
fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 319
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love." (Ephes. iv. 11, 12. 15, 16.)
In these several particulars you directly strike at the very
nature of the catholic church. 1. The church is but one,
and you tear off a member, and call it the whole, and so
would make it many, or divide it. It was the design of
Christ to unite all the differing parts ; and you cross his
design, and go about to separate that which he hath con-
joined and cemented, even by his precious blood. 2. The
church is united and centered in Christ, and knows no other
head : and Papists would set up a mortal and incapable
man, and have all unity in him as a vicar head : and having
not a word for this from Christ, they pervert one text, " The
eye cannot say to the hand, &c., or the head to the feet, I
have no need of you." (1 Cor. xii. 21.) See here, say they,
is a visible head : But, 1. It is visible to any man that will
understand, that the term head is used of the natural body's
head, by way of similitude : but when the thing assimilate
(the mystical body) is mentioned, there is not a word of a
head ; but the application is of the more honourable or
comely parts in general : many such heads there be, that is,
more honourable parts, but no Universal Governor, that is
it they should prove ; they may else as well pretend, that
beside the Pope who is the head, there must be one or two
universal eyes, and two universal hands, or feet, for the
whole churcli. Thus men abuse themselves, when they will
dare to wrest the Scripture to their interests. 2. But if it
had spoke of one universal head, must it needs be the Pope,
or an earthly man ? I must profess that very chapter is so
full and plain against popery, that were there no more I
could hardly be a Papist. For mark, I pray you, 1. The
Lord Jesus himself is expressly named in verse 12. And
yet must we seek for another exposition of the word head ?
" All the members of that body being many, are one body ;
even so is Christ." It is Christ that the church is united in.
Object. ' But Christ may say to the feet, I have no need
of you.'
Ansio. For himself he hath no need of any creature: But,
1. For the completing of the body he hath need of the mem-
bers, which is the thing here mentioned. 2. And to his own
glory he hath use for them. He that said of a colt, when he
was to ride into .Terusalem, " The Lord hath need of him,"
320 THE TRUK CATHOLIC, A N' D
may as well be said to have need of his members. 3. If
neither prophet, apostle, or teacher, were head of the church,
then the Pope is not : for he pretends not to be greater than
Peter the apostle. But none of these were the head, as is
most plain, " Now ye are the body of Christ, and members
in particular ; and God hath set some in the church, first
apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers," (verse 27,
28.) So that Christ only is made the head, and apostles
are all together numbered with the prime or most honour-
able members, and no more.
So (Colos. i. 18—20,) " And he is the head of the body,
the church : For it pleased the Father, that in him should
all fullness dwell, and having made peace by the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself." What
a daring vile attempt is it of that man, that would tear the
greater half of the members from his body, when it hath
cost him so dear to unite them in himself.
4. Moreover, your course is dishonourable to the church
and cause of Christ. I know his flock is small; but to narrow
it, as you would do, is exceedingly to dishonour it. To make
men believe that God hath no more in all the world but
your party, is to raise temptations and hard thoughts of God
in the minds of men without any cause.
6. And if such a dividing censuremustneeds be past, there
is none less fit to do it than you, that are commonly forvvard-
est to divide. If most of the Christian world must needs be
unchurched, to whose share were it more likely to fall than
to you? Quakers 1 will say nothing to, their folly being so
gross. Anabaptists are setting up a' new church-entrance
in the end of the world : and if they know any thing of church
history, they must needs know that, comparatively, there
are few in heaven that were of their mind on earth. And
for the Papists, we have much ado to maintain our charity,
in proving them to be a church at all. And the truth is, the
question hath some difiiculty, whether the church of Rome
be a true church or no : to which I give this true and plain
answer in brief.
The word church signifieth four things (pertinent to our
present purpose.) 1. The universal or catholic church as
visible : so the church of Rome is not the church at all.
2. The universal church as invisible: so the church of Rome
is not the church. 3. A particular political church of Christ's
CATHOLIC CHUUCIl DESCRIBED. 321
institution. And 4. A community or mere country or com-
pany of Christians, as part of the catholic church. Now as
to these two last, the church of Rome signifieth, 1. Either
all the Papists formally as such, that is, as united to a pre-
tended universal bishop. And in this formal respect the
church of Rome is a false church, and no true church at all
of Christ's appointing. 2. By the church of Rome may be
meant, the persons that live under the Papal captivity and
subjection; not as his subjects formally, but as Christians,
and the subjects of Christ: and thus all Christians in the
church of Rome are a part of the universal church of Christ :
A part, and but a part, as Christians : no part, but the plague
of the church, as Papists. This is the plain truth. Your
errors are great and numerous ; yet we are willing to extend
our charity as far as is possible, to take you for brethren :
and will you be so froward as to unchurch others, even all
the rest of the Christian world, that have need of so much
charity to yourselves? You cry out of the heresy of the
Jacobites, Georgians, Syrians, Armenians, &c. Some are
Nestorians, some are Eutychians, and I know not what :
but woe to Rome if worse men, and more erroneous than
they, may not be of the church, and saved. Shall I set
down the words of one of your own monks that dwelt among
them ii> Judea ? It is Bochardus Descript. Terra sanct. 323,
324, 325, 326. " Sunt in Terra promissionis," &c. " There
are in the Holy Land (saith he), men of every nation under
heaven : and every nation liveth after their own rites : and
to speak the truth, to our great confusion, there are none
found in it that are worse, and of more corrupt manners than
the Christians :" (he means the Papists.) Page 235, he saith,
" Moreover those that we judge to be damned Heretics,
Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronites, Georgians, and the like, I
found to be for the most part good and simple men, and liv-
ing sincerely towards God and men, of great abstinence,"
&c. And page 324, he tells you, "That the Syrians,
Nestorians, Nubians, Jabeans, Chaldeans, Maronites, Ethi-
opians, and many other nations of Christians there inhabit,
and some are Schismatics, not subject to the Pope; and
others called Heretics, as the Nestorians, Jacobites,"
&c. " But (saith he) there are many in these sects exceed-
ing simple (or plain), knowing nothing of heresies, devoted
VOL. XVI. Y
322 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
to Christ, macerating the flesh with fastings, and wearing
the most simple garments, so that they even far exceed the
very religious of the Roman church."
Thus by the testimony of your own eye-witnesses, even
these that you cast out for heretics and schismatics, are
far beyond even the religious of your church : What then
are the reformed churches ? Truly sirs, it is intolerable for
the parlour to say, * I am all the house ;' but for the chim-
ney, kitchen, or coal-house, it is more intolerable. If your
chief servant shall say, * the rest are no servants,' it is not
well: but for the scullion or groom to say so, is worse. If
the oak say, * I am the whole wood,' it is ill ; but if the
bramble say so, it is worse. If the best of your children
should say, that all the rest are bastards, it is not well ; but
if the most vicious and deformed say so, it is worse.
And as you are unfit for quality to exclude all others, so
also for number you are very unfit. As for the Anabaptists,
and such inconsiderable parties, that are not past the thou-
sandth part of the church, or perhaps the many thousandth
part of. it (when yet the whole visible church is supposed
to be but the sixth part of the world) ; I do admire how any
Christian can make himself believe that the love and grace
of Christ is confined to so narrow a room, and his church
so small. I think he that believeth once that Christ hath
not one of so many thousands, is next to believing that he
hath no church at all, and consequently that there is no
Christ at all.
And for the Papists, how deeply also are they guilty in
this ! As I said, in their greatest height now they are not
near one half the Christians in the world : a great part of
their church are the poor Americans, whom they drive to
baptism, as cattle to the water, (yet not leaving it to their
choice so much as to drink when they come thither :) so
that their own writers tell us, that multitudes of them
know nothing of Christianity but the name, and many for-
get that too. Awhile ago the Papists were but a small part
of the church, before Tenduc, Nubia, and other kingdoms
fell away. One of their own bishops, and a legate there
resident, speaks upon his own knowledge of the state of the
church in the eastern parts, " That in the easterly parts of
Asia alone, the Christians exceeded in multitudes both the
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED, 323
Greek and Latin churches," (Jacob a Vitriaco Histor.
Oriental, cap. 77.) And a most learned writer of their own,
(Melch. Canus Loc. Theol. lib. 6. cap. 7, fol. 201,) saith,
" Pugnatum est," &c. " Both the Greeks, and almost all
the rest of the bishops of the whole world, did vehemently
fight to destroy the privilege of the Roman church ; and
they had on their side both the arms of emperors, and the
greater number of churches, and yet they could never bring
it to pass, that the power of this one Roman Pope should be
abrogated." You see here by their own most express con-
fession which way the most of the churches went, and that
almost all or most of all the bishops of the world were against
them, (and so where our church was before Luther:) and
yet are these men a competent number to condemn all the
rest of the churches of Christ, and appropriate all the catho-
lic church to themselves ? O what a world of faction do we
live in! lam bitterly censured on one side for believing
that any Papists are parts of the catholic church : and, on
the other side, we cannot persuade the Papists, that any
other are parts of it : and so they Vt'ill needs be either the
whole church, or none of it.
6. This factious course of unchurching all the Christians,
saving yourselves, is contrary to the very internal nature of
Christianity. Every Christian as a Christian is taught of
God to love the brethren, and by this all must know that we
are Christ's disciples ; and " he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death." There is a holy disposition to unity and
closure in all Christians. And if you have not this dispo-
sition yourselves, you are but hypocrites : if you have it,
how dare you sin against it ? Though you must not unite
with any in their sin, you must unite with all that are Chris-
tians in their Christianity.
7. Moreover, your course is contrary to Christian humi-
lity, and proclaimeth the most abominable pride of the di-
viders. That you should call all the rest of the Christian
world Schismatics and Heretics, and say, that none are
Christians but you : Why, what are you above other men,
that you should say, ' Come not near me, I am holier than
thou ■? ' Have none in the world, think you, faith, hope, and
charity, but you ? Can you indeed believe that none shall
be saved but you ? Alas, that you should not only so much
overlook God's graces in your brethren, but also be so in-
324 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
sensible of your own infirmities ! Have you so many errors
and sins among you, and yet are none of the church but you?
Methinks an humble soul should say, * Alas, I am so bad,
that I am more likely to be cast out than they ; T am un-
worthy of the communion of saints !
8. Yea, you trespass against common reason itself. Do
you think it reasonable for us to believe, that all those that
we see walk uprightly with God and men, earnest in prayer,
and study to know the truth ; holy, and humble, and heavenly
Christians, are yet out of the church, and state of life, be-
cause they be not re-baptized with the Anabaptists, or be-
cause they believe not in the Pope of Rome, with the
Papists ? It is hard to imagine that he that pretends to
believe such unreasonable things as these, doth well believe
Christianity itself.
9 . And how could you honour and gratify the devil more,
and magnify his kingdom, than by teaching men that most
of the churches are his? Will you not be content to let
him go away with all the unbelieving world, and all the
hypocrites also in the church, but you will proclaim him
the king of Christ's inheritance, even of the best and greatest
part of his disciples, because they are not of your opinion,
or your sect? What dealing is this for a Christian to be
guilty of?
10. Lastly, consider what uncomfortable doctrine it is
that you deliver, especially to yourselves? You will not
believe that all these sects and differing parties that hold
"the essentials are members of the catholic church: You scorn
at such a church, and say. What a medley church is this!
Will Christ entertain men of so many opinions, and of so much
corruption ? Yea; or else woe to you, and such as you are !
Methinks you should rather say, ' Alas, what will become
of me, if sinners and erring persons may not be Christians,
but must all perish ? O what sins have 1 that are greater than
many of their errors 1 And who is more likely to err than
such an ignorant wretch as I ! ' Take heed lest you cut a
shoe too little for your own foot; and lest you shut out so
many that you must yourselves go out with the first. I must
profess, after long, impartial studies, if I were of the opinion
that most of the Christian world are, out of the catholic
church, I could not believe that the Papists are in it.
Consider now of these aggravations of your sin : To
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 325
think and say, 1. That one piece of the church is the whole
church : 2. Yea, and a piece that is no greater : 3. That
none of the best, nor far from the worst : 4. Nor any of
the ancientest, whatever is pretended. 5. And to exclude
the greatest part of Christians for such a matter, as not be-
lieving in the Pope of Rome : And 6. Lastly, to do all this in
pretence of unity, even to cast away the most of the church
to unite it. What an unreasonable, unchristian course is
this ! Dividing spirits may plead what they will, but God
will one day shew them their sin in a fouler shape than here
I have opened it, though it seem to them but pious zeal.
V. My next address is to the Papists, for answer to their
great question, 'Where was your church before Luther?
Give us a catalogue of the persons of all ages that were of
your church? '
Answ. Of OUR CHURCH ! Why, sirs? Do you think we
have a catholic church by ourselves? Is there anymore
universal churches than one ? Do you not know where the
catholic church was before Luther, and in all ages ? Why,
there was our- church ; for we have no other, we know but
one. Do you not know where there were any Christians be-
fore Luther, or in all ages? Or would you have us give you
a catalogue of Christians? Wherever there were true Chris-
tians, there was our church. Would you have the world
believe that there were no Christians but the subjects of the
Pope ? Can you believe it yourselves ? Doth not your
Canus confess, as before cited, that most of the churches and
bishops of the whole world were against the privileges of
the church of Rome, and had the arms of emperors on their
sides ? Doth not your Reinerius long ago say, or whoever
was the author of that conclusion, " The churches of the
Armenians, Ethiopians, and Indians, and the rest which the
apostles converted, are not under the church of Rome."
(Contr. Waldens. Catal. in Biblioth. Patr. T. 4. Page 773.)
What fuller confessions can we desire? Nay, do we not
know how small a part of the world did believe your uni-
versal sovereignty till almost a thousand years after Christ;
and none at all for many hundred years after him, that any
credible history tells us of? and yet do you ask us, where
was our church?
But you must have us tell you where was a church that
had all our opinions? To which I answer, 1. When you
326 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
have shewed us a catholic church that held all your opinions,
we shall quickly tell you of one that held ours. 2. It is not
all our opinions that are essential to a Christian, and the
catholic church. It is Christianity that makes us Christians
and members of the church : It is not inferior truth. That
which makes us Christians and catholics, all true Christians
in the world have as well as we : And, therefore, we are of
the same catholic church. iEthiopians, Syrians, Armenians,
Egyptians, Georgians, Jacobites, the manynations of Greeks,
Muscovites, and Russians, and all other that are against the
Roman sovereignty, are of the same religion and catholic
church as we : and so are all among yourselves too that are
Christians indeed. The points which we agree in make us
all Christians, and church-members : but the points in which
we differ from the Papists do make us so much sounder and
safer Christians than these, that I would not be one of them
for all the world. A sound man is but a man ; and so is a
man that hath the plague : but yet there is some difference,
though not in their manhood.
If, therefore, you will at any time try whether your doc-
trines or ours be the sounder, we are heartily willing to ap-
peal to antiquity ! Spit in his face, and spare not, that will
not stand to this motion : That the oldest way of religion
shall carry it: and they that are of latest beginning shall be
judged to be in the wrong. I abhor that religion that is less
than sixteen hundred yisars of age, and therefore I cannot
be a Papist. I confess in the streams of after-ages there
have been divisions in the integrals of Christianity, or the
points that tend to the soundness of the churches. And in
this, I say, let the oldest be the best. But for the essentials
of Christianity, and the Church, there never was division
among true Christians : for they could not be Christians
that wanted any essential part. And, therefore, that one
church which contained all the Christians in the world was
our church before Luther ; and the catalogues of the pro-
fessors are our church rolls : but we count by thousands,
and by countries, and not by names.
But perhaps you will say, ' You cannot be of the same
church with the Greeks, or us, or the other parties that you
name; for we and tliey do all renounce you.' I answer, as
if it were in your power who shall be no member of Christ
and his church by your renouncing him ! Your renouncing
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 327
may prove you no Christians yourselves perhaps, by proving
you, in some cases, uncharitable : but it can do nothing to
unchurch or unchristen others. If I should say myself, I
am no member of the church, that doth not make me none,
as long as I am a Christian : much less can your saying so.
Saith Paul, " If the foot shall say, because I am not the
hand, I am not of the body : is it therefore not of the
body ? and if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye,
I am not of the body: is it therefore not of the body?"
(1 Cor. xii. 15, 16.) The words of a man's mouth make not
another to be what he is not, or cease to be what he is.
Every one is not a bastard, or a whore, that another in rail-
ing passion calleth so. If Christ do but consent we will be
members of his body, whether the Pope will or not.
And now, beloved hearers, you have been acquainted
from the Word of God of the nature and unity of the ca-
tholic church, 1 beseech you resolve to retain this doctrine,
and make use of it for yourselves and others. If any man
ask you what church you are of, tell him, that you are of
that particular church where you dwell : but for the ca-
tholic church you know but one, and that you are of.
Thrust not yourselves into a corner of the church, and there
stand quarrelling against the rest : make not sectaries of
yourselves, by appropriating Christ, and the church, and
salvation to your party : abhor the very thoughts and name
of any universal church of Christ, which is of narrower ex-
tent than Christianity, and containeth fewer than all true
Christians, and is pretended to be confined to a sect. It is
not the Papists that are the catholic church, nor is it the
Greeks, no, nor the Protestants, much less the new pre-
lates alone ; but it is all Christians through the world, of
whom the Protestants are the soundest part, but not the
whole. Again, consider what a lamentable case it is, that
so great a part of the church do seem to be at a loss about
the church, as if they knew not where it is ? That they run
up and down the house of God, complaining that they can-
not find the house, and know not which room it is that is
the house. But in the house of God are many rooms and
mansions : one for Greeks, and one for ^Ethiopians, one for
Armenians, and Georgians, and Syrians ; one for many that
are called Papists ; one for Lutherans and Arrainians ; one
for Anabaptists, and one for many that are truly guilty of
•^^^ THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
schism and separation from particular churches : there is
room for Episcopal, Presbyterians, Independents and Eras-
tians : there is room for Augustinians, called Jansenists, and
room for Calvinists : but yet no room for any but Chris-
tians and catholics. Alas, that after so many warnings in
plainest words of Scripture, and the history of so many ages,
so many Christians should yet be so carnal, as to be saying,
I am of Paul, and 1 am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, that is,
Peter : Yea, that after Cephas is here named as a party, the
Papists should be so wilfully blind as still to make him the
head of a party ! That one is for Rome, and another for
Constantinople, and another for Alexandria! When that
Augustine hath so long ago decided this point against the
Donatists, and told them which is the catholic church, even
that which begun at Jerusalem, and is extended over the
world wherever there be Christians : alas, that still men are
so stupid in their divisions, as to be crying out, * Here is
Christ, and there is Christ : here is the church, and there is
the church: we are the church, and you are none of it:'
When the body of Christ and its unity is so frequently and
plainly described in the Scripture. I know that none are
members of the church that deny any essential point of
Christianity : but I know that many other mistaken parties
are. Consider what an uncharitable, dangerous thing it is
to give Christ's spouse a bill of divorce, or cast his children
out of his family. And in the name of God take heed whilst
you live, 1. That you never confine the church to a sect or
party. 2. Nor ever cast out the least true Christians, seeing
Christ will never cast them out.
But because this disease hath miserably tormented us
for so many ages, and because we see so many sick of it at
this day, distractedly looking for the catholic church in
this or that party, and thinking that all others are shut out,
1 shall here tell you what are the causes of this distraction,
and in the discovery of the causes you may see the reme-
dies. And withal I shall shew you the hindrances of the
concord and peace of the church, while so many seem to be
all for peace ! For it may seem a wonderful thing to hear
almost all men cry up the church's peace and concord, and
yet that it flieth further from us, when it is in our power to
be possessors of it^ if we were but truly and generally will-
ing, as we pretend to be, and think that we are.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 329
1. Some men understand not the nature of the union and
concord of the church, nor how much is to be expected in
this life, and therefore looking for more than is to be looked
for, they think we have no unity, because we have not that
which they ignorantly expect : and thereupon finding greater
unity in this or that sect among themselves than they find
in the whole body, they presently conclude that that sect is
the church : they see a great many differing parties, and
hear them condemning one another, and therefore they fool-
ishly think that all these cannot possibly be of the true
church : and then they hear the Papists boast of their unity,
as having one head, and one judge of controversies, and one
expounder of Scripture, and being all of one belief, and
therefore they think that the Papists are the true church.
But consider before you run past your understandings
of these two things : First, There is no perfect concord to be
expected upon earth : this is the glory that is proper to the
life to come. You may easily see this if you were but con-
siderate. For, 1. There can be no perfect concord, but
where there is perfect light and knowledge : for while we
are ignorant, we shall unavoidably err and differ. What do
we quarrel about but matter of opinion ? One thinks this is
the right, and another thinks that is the right : And if we had
all so much knowledge as to resolve all these doubts, do
you think we should not be sooner agreed? Doubtless our
disagreements are much for want of knowledge; we quarrel
in the dark : if such a light would come among us, as would
shew us all the truth, it would soon make us friends. But
this is not to be expected in this life : even Paul saith, that
here we know but in part ; we understand as children ; and
think and speak as children ; and is it any wonder to have
children fall out? " 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 ; but then face to face : Now we
know in part; but then we shall know even as we are known."
(1 Cor. xiii. 9—12.) And therefore we find even Paul and
Barnabas so far disagreed as to part asunder, because they
had not both so much knowledge as to know whether Mark
should be taken with them or not. In heaven only we shall
know perfectly : and therefore in heaven only we shall be
united, and agree perfectly.
2. And we can never be perfect in union and agreement
330 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
among ourselves till we are perfect in union and agreement
with Christ. For we cannot regularly be nearer to each
other than we are to our Centre : for it is the Centre only in
which we must unite. It is not possible to be more nearly
united among ourselves by a Christian union than we are to
Christ: and therefore seeing it is only in heaven that we
are perfectly united to Christ, and at agreement with him,
it is only in heaven that we must be perfectly united among
ourselves. You marvel that we so much differ from one an-
other, but you forget how much we all differ yet from Jesus
Christ; and that this is the difference that must be first
made up before we do any good of the rest.
3. Moreover, we can never be perfectly united and agreed
till we are perfectly holy, and every grace be perfect in us :
for holiness is that new nature in which we must be one ;
and every grace hath a hand in our accord. When we are
perfect in love, and perfect in humility, and meekness, and
patience, and perfect in self-denial, and all other graces,
then, and never till then, shall we be perfect in our union
and agreement among ourselves : while there is the least
sin in the soul it will hinder our full agreement with God
and men. It is sin that woundeth both the soul and the
church, and makes all the debate and divisions among us ;
and when all sin is gone, then all differences will be done,
and never till then. What an ignorant thing then is it of
you to wonder so much at our many differences, and yet
not to wonder at our sinfulness, and unholiness, and differ-
ence with Christ, in whom we must agree. Well, remember
hereafter, that unity and concord is here to be expected but
according to the proportion of our holiness, and therefore
so much sin and ignorance as remains, no wonder if so much
division remain.
The second thing which I desire you to remember is
this : That in all the essential matters of Christianity there
is as true a union among all the differing sorts of Christians,
as there is among the Papists ; or any one sect : even in all
the Twenty points of union, which I named at the beginning.
And this is the union that is most to be esteemed ; or at
least, this is enough to make us of one Christ. As the great
essential points of faith are of far greater moment and ex-
cellency than our several controverted by-opinions, so is a
union in these great essential points more excellent than an
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 331
union in smaller matters : though both together is best of
all, if joined with the truth.
To these let me add also a third consideration ; that it
is no wonder to find the Papists as a sect agreed among
themselves ; for so are other sects as well as they : yea, let
me add more, that I know, not of any one sect in the world
that differ so much among themselves as the Papists do.
The Greeks are kept from so much difference by their want
of learning, which keeps them from meddling so much with
niceties, and running into so many controversies as the Pa-
pists do. The like may be said of the Ethiopians, Arme-
nians, and many more. The Protestants differ not in half,
nor a quarter so many points as the Papists do. Nay, the
very Anabaptists themselves do not differ among themselves
in the tenth part so many points as the Papists. If the many
hundred differences among their commentators, schoolmen,
casuists, and other writers, were collected and presented to
your view, I much doubt whether there be any one sect on
the face of the earth that hath the twentieth part so many
differences among themselves as the Papists have. Though
they think they salve all by saying that they differ not in
articles of faith, yet their differences are never the fewer for
that. And others may say more in that than they can do.
Well! remember this advice : expect not a heavenly per-
fection of unity and concord till you come to heaven.
2. Another cause of our distractions and hindrance of
concord is, that very few men have peaceable spirits, even
when they are extolling peace. A peaceable spirit must
have these qualifications, which most men want. 1. He
must be united to Christ, the head and centre of union, and
have a sanctified nature, and value God's honour above all
things else, that so his desires of peace may flow from a
right principle, and may proceed upon right grounds, and to
right ends ; and he may seek a holy peace : And, alas, how
few such spirits have we !
2. A peaceable spirit must be a public spirit, highly
esteeming the welfare of the whole body, above any interest
of his own, or of any sect or party. The great grace of self-
denial is of necessity herein. No man hath a Christian, peace-
able spirit, that doth not most highly value the peace and
prosperity of the universal church, so far as to submit to
losses or sufferings himself for the obtaining of it \ and that
332 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
had not rather his party suffered than the whole. But, alas*,
how rare is a public spirit in any eminency ! how private and
selfish are the most ! The good of the church can no further
be endeavoured, with too many, than self will give leave,
and than their party will give leave : these must be made
the masters of the consultation.
3. A peaceable spirit must be a charitable spirit; loving-
all the saints as saints ; and that with a pure heart, and fer-
vently : this would put by the matter of contentions : this
would provoke men to healing endeavours ; and it would put
the best construction on men's opinions, words and actions,
that they can bear : " Charity suffereth long, and is kind :
Charity envieth not : Charity vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeking not her
own; is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things ;
believeth all things ; hopeth all things; endureth all things."
(1 Cor. xiii. 4 — 7.) O what an effectual healer is charity!
what a tender hand will it bear to any distressed member !
much more to the whole church. What causeth our distrac-
tions more than want of charity ; what else makes men look
so scornfully, and speak so disgracefully of every sort of
Christians, but themselves ? And to endeavour to make
others as odious as they can ; and to make mere verbal dif-
ferences seem real, and small ones seem exceeding great;
and to find out a heresy or a blasphemy in the smallest error,
and perhaps in a harmless word : All is blasphemy with
some men, or error at least, which they do not understand.
Alas, we have real heresies and blasphemies enough among
Arians, Socinians, Ranters, Quakers, Seekers, Libertines,
Familists, and many others ; let us reject these that are to
be rejected, and spare not ; but we need not feign heresies
and blasphemies where they are not, as if we wanted matter
for our indignation.
4. A peaceable spirit must be in some measure meek and
patient, with a humble consciousness of its own frailties and
offences: but, alas, what passionate, rash and turbulent
spirits do abound in the poor divided church ! Such as are
made of gunpowder, and speak fire and sword ; that will do
no right, nor bear any wrong ; that will speak well of few but
their own party, and yet cannot endure to be ill spoken of
themselves ; that are possessed with the " wisdom wiiich is
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 333
from beneath, which is earthly, sensual and devilish," and are
strangers to the heavenly " wisdom, which is first pure, and
then peaceable; gentle, and easy to be entreated." (James
iii. 15. 17.) Even preachers of peace are some of them be-
come the fervent agents of the divider, and go up and down
with destroying rage, and make their tongues the bellows of
hell, resisting the peaceable endeavours of their brethren.
5. A peaceable spirit must have a high esteem of peace,
and be zealous for it, and industrious to obtain it. Only
against ungodliness and unpeaceableness must he be un-
peaceable. Many have a good wish and a good word for
peace, as hypocrites have for godliness, but this will not
serve the turn. He that is not for us is against us, and he
that gathereth not with us scattereth abroad. The wicked
and unpeaceable are zealous and industrious against peace ;
and those that are for peace are cold and indifferent for the
greater part ; and the zealous and industrious are so few, that
their voices cannot be heard in the contentious crowd. The
unpeaceable are commonly the loudest, and are actuated by
a fervent zeal, which nature agreeth with, and Satan cherish-
eth and excites : such will, even as the Quakers, go up and
down from one assembly to another, and in the market-
places, and other places of concourse, revile, and rail, and
reproach the ministry, and speak as earnestly as if they were
the agents of Christ, And others are busy in secret, that
will not incur the disgrace of such visible impiety. And
when the enemies of unity and peace are many, and hot, and
loud, and the friends of unity and peace are either few, or
cold, and dull, and silent, what is likely to be the issue but
even the mischiefs which we feel ? Forsooth, some dare not
be fervent for peace, lest they be censured for their fervour
to be unpeaceable: these shew how much they love the
praise of men, and stick yet in the power of self. There is
need of zeal for peace, as well as for other parts of holiness.
All the resistance that the enemies of hell and earth can
make will be made against it : and will be carried on against
all by sleepy wishes, and sitting still ! I am sure this agrees
not with the precepts of the Spirit. " Follow peace with all
men." (Heb. xii. 14.) " If it be possible, as much as in you
lieth live peaceably with all men." (Kom. xii. 18.) It is a
sorry surgeon, or physician, that will think it enough to
wish well to their patient ; the house of God will be neither
334 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
built nov repaired without zeal, and industry, and patience
in the work. If men's hearts were set upon the church's
peace, and they did but feel the disjointing of her members,
the breaking of her bones, and the smart of her wounds, as
sensibly as they feel the like in their own bodies ; and if
ministers and other Christians, were as sensible of the evil
of divisions as they are of drunkenness, and whoredom,
and such other sins ; and if we were all awakened to quench
the flames of the church, as earnestly as we would do the
fire in our houses, and would preach for peace, and pray
for peace, and plead, and labour, and suffer for peace, then
some good might be done on it against the rage and multi-
tude of dividers.
3. One of the greatest hindrances of concord and peace,
is the setting up of a false centre, and building peace on
grounds that will never bear it. Christian unity is no where
centered but in Christ the head, and no way maintained but
by the means which he hath ordained to that end. But the
miserable world will not discern or take up with this. The
Papists are of two churches ; for they have two heads, or
sovereigns, which specify the society. One of the Popish
churches make the Pope the head and centre, and all the
church must unite in him, or it can be no church ! The other
Popish church do make a general council the head, and the
Pope only the subordinate sovereign in the vacancy. And
these think to have the whole church to unite upon these
terms. But it will never be. As Divine faith will have no
formal object but Divine veracity, so neither can Christian
unity have any universal proper centre but Christ. As at
the building of Babel, when men would unite for their
future security in their own devices, it brought them to
utter confusion, which the world groaneth under to this day;
so when men will build a Babel of their own invention, for
the preventing of the inundation of heresies, they are upon
the most dreadful work of confusion. The church is taught
by the Scripture, and the Holy Ghost within them, to take
up nowhere short of God; to call no man on earth the father
or master of our faith, nor to trust in man, and make flesh our
arm. Man is too dark and too weak a creature to be the
head or centre of the church-deluded Papists ! You think
you befriend the church's unity, when you hang it by a hair,
and build it on the sand, and found it on mere weakness :
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCUIBED. 335
could you prove that ever God had promised abilities and
gifts to the Pope of" Rome, proportionable to such a work,
we should most gladly look out to him for the exercise of
those abilities. God setteth none on work but he furnisheth
them with a suitableness for it. Have all Popes or councils
prophetical and apostolical inspirations and directions?
What! those that have been censured, and some of them
deposed, for blasphemy, heresy, sodomy, adultery, murder,
simony, and such works of darkness! The Spirit useth not
to dwell in such persons, nor light to have communion with
such darkness. Nay, if all Popes were holy, yea, as holy as
Peter, they were too weak to bear up with the unity of the
church. It is Christ, and not Peter, that is called the rock,
on which the church is built, against which the gates of hell
shall not prevail. This rock is Christ. (1 Cor. x. 4.) The
church is the spouse of Christ, and must not be made a
harlot, by being wedded to the Pope, or any other. Nothing
hath more hindered the fuller union of the church than this
idol, self-exalting head, and false centre of union.
And if any would unite the church in kings, in councils,
in any human devices, they will but divide it.
4. And the same course take they that must needs build
our union on insufficient, subordinate means. Some must
have confessions in words of their own, to which all that will
be accounted Christians must subscribe ; or at least, that
would have communion with them. Though we would sub-
scribe to the whole Scripture, or any confession drawn up
in its phrase and matter, yet this will not serve for union and
communion. They tell us, heretics will subscribe to the
Scripture : and I tell them, that heretics may subscribe
also to their confessions, and force a sense of their own upon
them : and that God never left them to make better confes-
sions, and fitter to discover heresies, than Scripture doth afford.
But if heretics will subscribe to the Scriptures, or confes-
sions taken wholly out of them, they should be no heretics
in our account till they discover that they maintain some
heresy against the sense of the Scripture, or confession
which they subscribed to ; and then they are to be censured
by the churches accordingly ; not for want of subscribing
to a sufficient confession, but for abusing and contradicting
the confession which they did subscribe; and so to be cor-
rected for it as a crime against a sufficient law and rule; and
336 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
we must not think to prevent it by making a better law or
rule, which shall tie them more strict, and which they cannot
break. It is a strange rule, which can necessitate the sub-
ject to observe it, and which cannot be violated. And it is
a wild head that must have new laws and rules made, be-
cause he sees that malefactors can break these ! The law is
sufficient to its own part, which is to be the rule of duty,
and of judgment. It tells men sufficiently what they must
believe and do ; but if they will not do it, itjudgeth them as
offenders. You will never form a confession, or make a law
that cannot be misinterpreted and broken. The Papists have
set up whole volumes of councils and decrees for the rule
forsooth, because the Scripture is dark, and all heretics
plead Scripture. And what have they done by it, but cause
more darkness, and set the world and their own doctors too
in greater contentions, so that now councils cross councils,
and they can neither agree which be true approved councils,
and which not ; nor when they intend a decree to be an arti-
cle of faith, and when not ; no, nor what sense to take their
words in, and how to reconcile them. And thus men lose
themselves, and abuse the church, because God's word will
not serve their turn as a rule for us to unite upon. This is
the one rule that God hath left, and men will needs blame
this as insufficient, and mend God's works by the devices of
their addle brains, and then complain of divisions, when they
have made them ! One company of bishops must needs
make a company of canon laws for the church, and all must
be schismatics that will not be ruled by them : another
company that are of another mind make contrary canons,
and those must be obeyed, or else we are schismatics. They
must make us our sermons, and call them Homilies, and make
us our prayers, and call them a Liturgy : and the fruit of
their brains must be the rule of all others, or else they are
schismatics. So wise and holy are they above all their
brethren, that none must publicly speak to God in any words
but what they put into their mouths. (Read Dr. Heylin's
Discourse of Cant. 5. 5. against ministers praying in the
church in any other words but what is in the common-prayer-
book.) So they do also by their vestures, and gestures, and
other ceremonies : Nothing hath more divided the church
than the proud impositions of men, that think so highly of
their own words and forms, and ceremonious devices, that
CATHOLIC CHUKt H DESCRIBED. 337
no man shall have communion with Christ and the church
in any other way. Never will the church unite on such
terms. The rule that all must agree in must be made by one
that is above all, and whose authority is acknowledged by
all. Experience might tell these men, that they are building
but a Babel, and dividing the church. In the Lord's-supper,
where they have limited us to a gesture, we are all in pieces.
In singing psalms, where they left us free, we have no dis-
sention. ^ In the places where garments and other ceremonies
are not imposed, God's worship is performed without conten-
tion, and with as little uncomeliness as with them. Proud
quarrelsome men, that must needs be lording it over the
church, and turning legislators, may set all on fire for the
promoting of their ways, and rail at all that will not be under
their yoke: but when they have all done, they will find they
are but busily dividing the church, and their canons are but
fiery engines to batter its unity and peace. A thousand years
experience and more, might have taught us this to our cost.
Never will the church have full unity, till the Scripture-suf-
ficiency be more generally acknowledged. You complain of
many opinions and ways, and many you will still have, till
the one rule, the Scripture, be the standard of our religion.
As men that divide and separate from us, do use to accuse
the ministers, and then be every man a teacher to himself;
so they use to accuse the Scriptures, and, as the Papists,
call them dark, and dangerous, and insufficient : and then
every sect must make us a new rule, when they have dis-
paraged that which Christ hath given us. Then one makes
the Pope a rule by his decretals, and another a council, and
another the bishops, canons or articles, and another his own
suggestions and impulses. Stick close to this one Bible,
and let nothing come into your faith or religion but what
comes thence ; and when controversies arise, try them by
this ; and if you cannot do it yourselves, then take the help
of ministers or synods, and use them not as masters, but as
helpers of your faith; not to make you another rule, but to
help you to understand this only rule, and thus may you
come to be of one religion, but never otherwise.
5. To these I may add the damnable sin of pride and
selfishness, touched at before. All men would have peace:
but most would have it on their own terms ; yea, and most
VOL. XVI. z
338 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
parties would be the very centre of the churches. If all the
world will come over to them, they will be at peace with
them, otherwise not. If we will all swear allegiance to the
Pope, and turn to them, we shall have concord with the
Papists. Ifwe will all renounce Presbyterian ordination,
and submit to Episcopacy, with all their canons, forms and
ceremonies, we shall have concord with the rigid of that
party. If we- will all be for an office of unordained eldei-s,
that have no power to meddle with preaching or sacraments,
we shall have peace with the more rigid sort of that way. If
we will causelessly separate, and make the major vote of the
people to be church-governors, we may have peace with men
of that way. And if we will be re-baptized, we may have
peace with the Anabaptists. But can all the catholic church
unite upon these private, narrow terms? Every man would
be the Pope or the general council himself : or rather every
one would be the God of the world ; that all men may receive
the law at his mouth, and his name may be honoured, and
his kingdom may be set up, and his will may be done through-
out the world: this is the nature of self-idolizing pride. And
hence it is that the church hath as many dividers, as unsanc-
tified men; because every unsanctified man is thus made an
idol by his pride, and knows no further end but self. Is
there never a man of you that hears me this day, that would
not have all the town, and country, and world to be of one
mind? I think there is not one but wisheth it. But what
mind must it be? It must be of your mind ! Or else it will
not satisfy you! And alas you are so many, and of so many
minds among yourselves, that this way will never unite the
world! One must have all of his mind, and another must have
all of his mind, when no man well agrees with another, and
yet none will be brought to another's mind. But God is
one, and his mind is certainly right and good : and the Spirit
is one, and the Scripture indited by it is one ; and if you
would come to that as the only rule, you might be of one
religion, and mind, and way : but till then you do but labour
in vain. But you will say still, that every sect pretendeth
to the Scripture, and there is so many expositions of it, that
we see no hopes that this way should unite us : To this I
next answer.
6» It is the bane of unity when men must make every in-
CATHOLIC CHlfRCH DESCRIBED. 339
ferior opinion the seat of unity, and will not unite in the
essentials of Christianity, endeavouring in love to accord as
well as they can in the rest. Though the truth of the whole
Scripture, that is known to be holy Scripture must be ac-
knowledged ; yet the understanding of the meaning of the
whole Scripture is not of necessity to salvation, or church
unity : otherwise woe to every one of us I For there is no
man on earth that hath the perfect understanding of all the
holy Scriptures. And yet all that is in it propounded to be
believed is ' de fide' matter of faith, and it is our duty to believe
it, and understand it, and our sin that we do not ; but not a
sin that proves us graceless, or unjustified. I wonder the
Papists have not venial errors in matter of faith, as well as
venial sins against moral precepts! But all that is 'defide,'
must with some of them be fundamental or essential to
Christianity. The Scripture is a full and beautiful body,
which hath its flesh, and skin, and a multitude of nerves, and
veins, and arteries, as well as the head, the heart, and stomach,
and other natural parts ; without which parts, that are the
seat or chief instruments of the animal, vital and natural
spirits, the body were no body. All in the Scripture is true
and useful, but all is not essential to Christianity. And in
the essentials all Christians do agree; and if you would
know how such should behave themselves to one another,
hear the Holy Ghost himself, (Phil. iii. 12—16,) " Not as
though I had already attained, or were already perfect ; but
I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I
am apprehended of Christ Jesus : Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, for-
getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
to those things that are before, I press towards the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us
therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded; and if in
any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto you : Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained,
let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing."
So 1 Cor. iii. 11 — 15. " Other foundation can no man lay,
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man
build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest : for
the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If
•540 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
any man's work abide which he liath built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward: If any man's work shall be burnt, he shall
suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."
Errors may bring heavy judgments in this life, and out of this
fire the erroneous may escape, and not fall into the eternal
fire ; for thus will God " sit as a refiner, and purifier of silver,
and will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and
silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteous-
ness." (Mai. iii. 2,3.) Dislike every error, and escape as many
as you can ; but think not that every error must dissolve
our unity, or that every truth is necessary to our unity.
And where you say that all sorts do plead the Scriptures,
T answer, 1. That all sorts of Christians in the essentials do
rightly understand the Scripture. 2. And for the rest, their
very pleading that, shews that all sorts are convinced that
it is the rule of truth, even where they do not understand it.
3. And this is no proof of the insufficiency of Scripture, but
of the imperfection of men's understandings; and instead of
seeking for another rule, you should labour for a better un-
derstanding of this, and use the help of ministers thereto. The
law of the land is the rule of the subjects' actions, and
tenures ; and yet what controversies are about it, even
among the wisest lawyers ! and one pleadeth it for one cause,
and another saith that the law is for the contrary cause !
Yea, one judge differs from another. What then! must we
cast away the law? Let us know where to have a better
first! But rather, men should labour to know it better, and
meddle not contentiously with theniceties of it without need.
And thus we must do about the law of God. Agree in the
essentials, and learn the rest as well as we can.
7. Another great impediment to our concord is, abun-
dance of dividing, unpeaceable principles, that be grown into
credit, or entertained in the world : and if such principles
meet with the most peaceable disposition, they will make
the man become unpeaceable. For the best men that are
will think they must obey God ; and therefore when they
mistake his will, they will think they will do well when they
are sinning against him. There are too few in the world of
a peaceable principle : Some lay all peace, as is said, on the
opinions of their own parties ; and some lay it on a multi-
tude of such low opinions, and such doubtful things, that
they might know can never be the matter of universal con-
CATHOLIC CHUKCU DESCRIBED. 341
sent: Some think they must not silence any thing which
they conceive to be a truth, for the peace of the church, or
the promoting of greater undoubted truths. Some think tliey
ought to reproach and disgrace all that are not of their mind;
and some think they ought to destroy them, or cast them
out, and think this a part of their faithfulness to the truth of
Christ, and that this is but to help him against his enemies.
And there is no more desperate principle of division and
persecution than this uncharitableness, which makes the
children of God, and the members of Christ, to seem his ene-
mies, and then use them as his enemies : To dress them in
a false attire, as they did Christ, and then smite him : To
put them in the shape of schismatics, or heretics, or devils,
as the Papists do when they burn them, and then use them
accordingly. Many more unpeaceable principles I might re-
cite ; and if it were not too tedious, I think it would be useful.
8. Another hindrance of unity and peace is, a carnal
zeal in matters of religion, which is frequently mistaken for
the true zeal of the saints. When men are confident that
their opinions are the truth, »and overvalue them as to the
necessity, because they are their own, though they observe
not the reason, they presently think they must be hot against
all the gainsayers of their opinions ; and herein they place
the most, or at least too much of their religion.
There is not one of many that hath this zeal, but thinks
it is of God, and is part of their holiness. When as it is often
from the devil and the flesh, even when the doctrine is true
which they contend for. You may know it from true zeal by
these following marks. 1. It is more for controversies and
speculations than for practical holiness. 2. It is selfish, and
kindled by an overvaluing their own conceits or ways.
3. It is private, and would promote a lower truth to the loss
of a greater, or a doubtful point to the loss of undoubted
truth ; or a single truth to the loss or hindrance of the body
of common truth ; and it is hotter for a party than for the
catholic church, and will promote the interest of an opinion
or party, to the wrong of the common interest of the church.
4. It is blind, and carries men to sinful means; as resisting
authority, order, or ordinances, or the like. 5. It is unmer-
ciful and unpeaceable, and little sensible of the case of others,
or smart of the divided church. Many are calling for fire
from heaven for the cause of Christ, that little " know what
342 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
spirit they are of." (Luke ix. 55.) O how true is this of
many, that think they excel in knowledge or zeal, and are
but defending the truth against erroneous adversaries! But
" who is the wise man, and endowed with knowledge among
you? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works
with meekness of wisdom : But if ye have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the
truth : This wisdom descended! not from above, but i^s
earthly, sensual, devilish : for where envying and strife is,
there is confusion, and every evil work : But the wisdom
that is from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and
easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righte-
ousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." (James iii,
13 to the end.) But of this 1 have formerly spoken at large
in many sermons on these words of James. Dividing zeal
is a grievous distracter of the church's peace.
6. Another hindrance is, that of the many that are for
peace and unity, there are few that have any great skill to
promote it, and those few that have skill, want opportunity
or interest, and are cried down by the opposers. There is a
great deal of skill necessary to discern and manifest the true
state of controversies, and to prove verbal queirrels to be but
verbal, and to take off the false visors which ignorance
and passion puts on them, to aggravate the differences
that are debated. There is much wisdom necessary for the
securing of truth, while we treat for peace, and the main-
taining peace, while we defend the truth. Alas, how few
escape one of the extremes in most differences themselves,
and, therefore, are unfit reconcilers of others. Few are pos-
sessors of that blessed light that doth shew the error of
both extremes, and must be the means of our concord, if
ever we agree ! Few know that truth between contrary errors
in which both must meet. How much skill also is necessary
to deal with touchy, froward spirits, and to handle both
nettles and thorns that must be dealt with. And how few
men of wisdom and peace are much regarded by the fire-
brands of the churches ! And how few of them have lan-
guage, and health, and maintenance, and authority, and a
skilful activity to set others on work, which are almost need-
ful for this healing design? And what abundance of private
wishes have been buried by the most skilful men for want of
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 343
opportunities ! And how many private writings cast by, that
have that in them that deserved public entertainment, and
might have been very fit instruments for this healing work.
10. And the various carnal interests of the world, are
an exceeding hindrance to the church's peace. The inte-
rest of one prince lieth for one party ; and another is for
another party : one prince thinks it for his interest to unite,
and another thinks it for his interest to divide, or secretly
to cherish and continue divisions. The ministry also have
too oft a carnal interest, which lieth usually in siding with
the prince \ and the great carnal interest of the Roman clergy
lieth sticking close to the Pope. The people hereupon are
commonly in such distractions and disturbances, by wars, or
secular cares and wants, that motions of peace can scarcely
be heard, or attended to ; but the noise of guns, drums, and
lamentations, and reproaching of enemies, drowneth all.
And when the crossing of secular interests hath made them
one another's enemies, they will hardly treat as friends for
unity in religion, or the healing of the church.
11. And it is no small hindrance that the princes of the
earth are commonly so bad, as either to be strangers to the
true interest of Christ and his church, or else to prefer their
own before it. It is they that have the greatest interests
and opportunities, and might do most for unity if they would.
And withal they think that nobody should meddle without
their leave ; and commonly when they do nothing themselves,
they will not suffer the ministers to do it that are their sub-
jects. How easy were it with the Christian princes and
states, if they had so much wit and grace to agree together,
to bring the churches in their dominions to much agreement.
But alas, highest places have greatest temptations, and
therefore too oft the worst men : so that they that should
do it, and might do it, have no heart to it. And the princes
are very rare that prefer Christ's interest before their own ;
and have truly learned the lesson of denying themselves, and
forsaking all they have for him. The great work of con-
verting the heathen world should be promoted by them ;
but how little is there done in it by any princes !
12. Moreover, the multitude are everywhere almost averse
to holy unity and peace : Their dispositions are against it :
their principles are against it: their parts unfit for it: and
yet how to do it without them will be hard. For 1. They
344 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
have all of them almost conceits of their own fitness; and
think all matters in religion should be regulated by them.
They detest that a few should overtop them, and do the
work while they stand by ; and they grow to a hatred of
those few, because they are counted wiser and better than
they ; yea, they naturally hate the godly, and the practical
truths of God : and yet the greater vote must carry it, or
else the swarm will be about your ears : When it is a hun-
dred to one, but a hundred for one in most places of the
world, are in the wrong, if not bitter enemies to the right.
And in the best parts of thew orld, it is a wonder if the greater
part be not the worse. Or if in a corner or two it should be
better, what is that to all the Christian world? 2. At least
if they will not be passively peaceable, how little can we
do, when it is they that must, in part, consent, and it is they
that have the strength to resist.
13. And even among the godly the peacemakers are far
the smaller number, 1 mean as to the healing of our common
divisions. For the younger sort of Christians, in age, or
grace, or gifts, are the greatest number: and these also are
of the most active, hot dispositions, and will be forwardest
in all agitations, and will not stand by. And alas, how few
of them have meekness, prudence, and charity, answerable
to their heat and activity! They will lead their leaders;
and their way must carry it, or else all are censured and
trod down by them : and how ordinarily is their way un-
peaceable and confusive ! And how seldom doth it end ac-
cording to their expectations, for the churches' good. But
for the wise and judicious, experienced, sober, peaceable
men, alas, how few are they ; till they grow aged few attain
to this. And yet nothing will be done for the peace and
welfare of the church but by the conduct and direction of
these few experienced, judicious, moderate men. None else
can do it : and yet few other will suffer them to do it. And
thus we see here in these nations, that even religious men
have been the hinderers of our peace.
14. And withal, the devil, who is the great enemy of
peace and unity, is still watching to cast in some bone of
contention, and to make use of the opinions and passions of
all, both good and bad, for the accomplishing of his ends.
And alas, his subtlety overreacheth not only the ignorant
people, but the most learned divines, and prudent princes-
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 345
They shall not manage their affairs of state so carefully, but
he will engage them against Christ and the peace of the
church, before they are aware : He will do his utmost to make
the interest of Christ and the prince, of the church and the
commonwealth, to seem to stand at an enmity to each other,
and make princes walk in a jealousy of Christ, and his Gos-
pel, and ministers, lest they should encroach upon their
honour and greatness : and too oft he engageth them in flat
opposition, till this stone fall upon them, and grind them to
powder.
And the ministers of the Gospel shall scarcely manage
their work so wisely, but he will cast in some wildfire, and
find some occasion to make a dissention by. Either the
subtlety of men too wise and learned, in their own eyes,
shall start some dividing, fruitless controversies ; or the zeal
of men that are orthodox over much, shall rise up unpeace-
ably against all dissenters : or he will entangle the godly in
some dangerous errors ; or he will seek to make men lay
snares for their brethren, by needless impositions, under
pretence of order, and decency, and unity, and authority:
or some passionate words shall kindle the fire. There are
many unsound hypocrites among the godly ministers ; and
there is too much pride and passion in the best, and Satan
knows how to make use of all : What saith he to the proud,
Shall such a one be preferred before thee ? Shall he bear
away the applause ? Shall he eclipse and stand in the way
of thy reputation ? Did he not speak dishonourably of thee ;
or carry himself disregardfully towards thee ? Did he not
disgrace thee by such an opposition or dispute ? A hundred
temptations hath Satan at hand to kindle dissention, even
among the ministers of Christ : and where he meets with
proud hearts he seldom misseth of his purpose. If the dis-
ciples were striving which should be the greatest, and if
Paul and Barnabas fall out to a parting, no wonder if pride
and dissention be yet found among the most renowned men.
Though it is a sad case that it should be so, when we daily
preach humility to our people, and know, that except con-
version make us like little children, we can in no wise enter
into the kingdom of God. (Matt, xviii. 3.)
How hard a task hath a peaceable minister to keep one
congregation of Christians in peace. But differences will be
rising, and one will be provoking another by injuries, or
346 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AN-^D
haid words, and few can bear, and forbear, and forgive :
Yea, a master of a family finds it hard to keep one small
family in peace. Yea, two persons will find somewhat to do
to keep peace, especially if they have much trading, or deal-
ing with each other, or any crossing in matters of commodity.
Yea, husband and wife, that are as one flesh, have much ado
to avoid dissentions. No wonder then if the enemy of peace
can disturb the church of Christ.
15. Another cause of divisions is, living among, and
hearkening to schismatical persons that are still blowing the
coals. It is a dangerous case, especially to young, unexpe-
rienced Christians, to fall among those that make it their reli-
gion to vilify others as enemies of Christ: When they hear one
sect only extolled, and all others spoken of as ignorant, or
carnal, or enemies to the church, it is two to one but this
imprinteth a schismatical disposition in the hearers' minds.
Conversing only with one party doth usually occasion great
uncharitableness towards all others, and sear the conscience,
so that it grows insensible of revilings, and opprobrious
speeches, against those that differ from them.
16. And the unity of the church is exceedingly hindered
by an unworthy privacy and retiredness of most Christians
that live like the snail in a shell, and look but little abroad
into the world. Some know not the state of the world, or
of the church, nor much care to know it; but think it is
with all the world as it is with us in England : when as if
they knew the fewness of Christians, the huge numbers of
infidels, the corruptions of other churches, in comparison of
ours, it would surely set them lamenting, and praying that the
kingdom of Christ might come. Yea, many ministers are of
so base a privacy of spirit, that they look little further than
their own parishes, and think if all be well there, all is well
everywhere ; and seldom inquire how it goes with the church
in the rest of the world : nor will scarcely be brought to as-
sociate and keep correspondence with their brethren, for the
union and communion of the several churches and the com-
mon good : far unlike the temper of Paul and the other
apostles and servants of Christ in those days. They have
not a care of all the churches. They long not to hear of
their welfare. They would think it much to travail and la-
bour for it the thousandth part so much as they. They can-
not say, " who is weak, and I am not weak," 8cc.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 347
17. Yea, some are drawn from the church's unity and
peace by misunderstanding those texts of Scripture that call
for separation from the world, and that speak of the fewness
of those that shall be saved. I have heard of one that turned
Separatist upon this conceit, because he thought that, seeing
the flock of Christ is little, the Protestants were too many
to be it : at last the separated church grew so big, that he
thought, surely this is not the little flock, and so turned to the
Anabaptists : at last the Anabaptists' church so increased,
that he thought, surely this is too big to be the little flock ;
and so went seeking about for the least, as thinking that
must needs be in the right. Alas, what low thoughts have
such of the church of God ! Yea, and of the love and gra-
cious nature of God, and of the great design of Christ in the
work of redemption ! But the main cause of the delusion
of these poor souls is, because they know not the state of the
world abroad. If they did but know that it is the sixth part
of the world that are baptized common Christians, and not
past a sixth or seventh part of that sixth part that are com-
mon Protestants, but all the rest are Papists, and Greeks,
and many sorts of more ignorant, unreformed Christians ;
and among the Protestants, no country for godliness is like
to England ; they would not go about to pen up the church
into a narrower room. To believe that Christ died, and
made so much ado for so small a part of the world, as comes
not to one of forty, or fifty, or an hundred thousand, is next
to flat infidelity itself; which thinks he died for none at all.
And for the command, " Come out from among them,
and be ye separate," it is pity that any Christian should
need be told, that it speaks only to the church to come out
of the heathen, infidel world, (such as are Jews, and Maho-
metans, and heathens ;) but there is never a word in all the
Bible that bids you * Come out of the church, and be ye
separate !' Wonderful ! that God should be so abused by
misunderstanding Christians ! Because he commands men
to come out of the infidel world into the church, they plead
it as if he commanded them to come out of the church
into a separated sect. The church is the house of Christ;
forsake it not, while he stays in it : forsake it not, for he hath
promised never to forsake it. Particular churches indeed
he may cast off, but never the universal. Dwell therefore
where he dwells.
348 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
18. Another hindrance of peace is, that so many Chris-
tians as they have carnal dispositions, so they are still look-
ing at carnal means. The endeavours of the ministry they
account as nothing ; but they are still looking what the
Magistrate will do : and till he force them they will not stir,
and till he do it they think there is nothing done : such base
thoughts have some, even ministers, of their own callings.
And hence it is that such men are always on the stronger
side, and of the king's religion ; or else are seeking carnal
advantages to carry on their cause. So the Jesuits are more
busy to get the princes of the world engaged for them, and
the arms of the nations employed for their ends, than we
are to treat of unity and peace: And every party, instead of
seeking peace, is seeking to get highest, that they may be
able to force all others to their will : and we can never get
any peaceable debates upon equal terms, because the several
parties do seldom stand on equal terms : but still one is up,
and another is down : and he that is in the saddle will not
light to treat of peace, nor hearken to any equal motions,
but must have his will, and nothing less will serve the turn:
and when he is down, and the other party is up, the case is
the same. Still he that is lowest is most reasonable and
peaceable, (except some impious, implacable spirits :) but the
party that is highest will not be brought to reason. And thus
the peace of the church is hindered, to our grief and shame.
19. Another great hindrance of unity and concord is the
great weaknesses and miscarriages of the professors of god-
liness, partly because of hypocrites among them, and partly
because they are sanctified but in part. Among others, by
these several ways, they do disturb our peace.
1. By an ignorant quarrelling with their teachers, think-
ing themselves fit to correct their guides before they are
considerably grounded in the catechism.
2. By entertaining false opinions, and making a dis-
turbance for them.
3. By the great diversity of opinions among themselves,
by which they become a scorn or stumbling-block to many
about them.
4. By the uncharitable bitterness of their spirits, in rash
censures and contendings.
5. By their scandalous lives, and falls, disgracing their
profession, and hardening and alienating the minds of others.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 349
And, 6. By their imprudent and intemperate dealing with
others ; using proud or provoking language, or carriage that
more savoureth of contempt than of compassion. And thus
the children of the church do divide it. Especially by their
childish fallings out with one another, and hearkening to
malicious, contentious hypocrites, that would lead them to
despise their guides, and break them into shreads among
themselves. (Rom. xvi. 17.)
20. Lastly, The greatest hindrance of our unity is, the
ungodliness of the most that profess themselves Christians,
whereby they become incapable matter for our truest, nearest
union, and yet think that we must be united to them all :
when they will not join with us in the vitals of Christianity,
but stick in the bark, and take up with the name, yet do
they think that we must join with them, and be of their
communion and opinions in all external things, and if we
differ from them they think we are schismatics. Men lay
the church's unity too much in mere speculations, which
they call the Articles of faith, and too little in practical,
and holiness of life, whereas there is no article of faith, but
is for practice ; and as truly as the understanding and will
are both essential to the soul ; so truly the sanctity of un-
derstanding and will are both essential to a Christian : And
as the holiness of the heart is as essential as faith to a real
Christian, or member of the church regenerate ; so the pro-
fession of holiness is as essential as the profession of faith
to make a man a member of the church visible or congre-
gate. And therefore as we can have no inward union and
communion with any but the truly sanctified, so can we
have no visible church-union or communion but with those
that profess to be truly sanctified. It is a shameful thing
to hear every drunkard and scorner at godliness to rail at
the many divisions in the church, and to call for unity and
concord, when it is he, and such as he, that hinder it, that
will not be united to Christ himself, nor join with us in the
only centre of union, nor in the greatest and most necessary
things, without which all Christian union is impossible.
But because I take this to be a necessary point, I shall
handle it, God willing, more fully by itself.
To conclude all, let me exhort all Christians to drink in
this truth into their judgments and affections. If you are
Christians indeed, you are catholics. And if so, you must
350 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
have, 1. Catholic principles. And, 2. Affections. I be-
seech you look to both these well.
And as you keep the great catholic principle, which is
the subject of our discourse, viz. to know what a true ca-
tholic is, and which is the catholic church, that so you may
not do as the Papists, that take up a sect under the abused
name of Catholicism, and plead against the catholic church
for that sect under the name of the catholic church ; so also
you must know and keep close to the true catholic rule ;
and not do as the Papists, that have honoured a private and
crooked rule by that name, to the church's trouble, and their
own delusion : and also you must keep close to the true
catholic governor of the church, and judge of controversies,
and turn not aside with Papists and others, to an usurper,
or a private judge. In these three your Catholicism must
much consist. The first, what the catholic church is, and
what a true catholic, I have said as much to as I conceive
necessary. The other two I shall say a little more to, viz.
the catholic rule, and the catholic judge, and then of the
fourth and last, which is, the catholic spirit or affections.
1. We are all agreed that the will of God revealed, must
be, and is, the catholic rule of faith and life. But we are
not all agreed which is this revelation of the will of God.
That the book of the creatures and the principles of nature
do reveal much natural-moral verity and duty we are agreed :
but the doubt is of supernatural revelation. And of this we
are agreed, that ' whatsoever is certainly delivered to the
church by prophet or apostle, or any person infallibly prov-
ing a Divine inspiration or command to deliver what he
speaks, must be received as from God. And whatever is so
revealed concerning faith or duty, by way of imposition, is
our rule : and if revealed to all, it is the rule to all.' We are
agreed also, that the holy Scriptures containing those books
which the Reformed churches take for the canon, are a Divine,
infallible revelation concerning faith and duty. And there-
fore we are all agreed that the holy Scriptures are the rule.
But whether they be the whole rule we are not agreed. The
Reformed churches say, that the sign is but to make known
the doctrine signified : and that while the inspired apostles
were themselves alive, their own voices were the sign, and
instead of a written word to all that heard them, and more.
But knowing that they must die, and that the word of per-
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. S51
.sons not infallibly inspired, is no rule of faith, and how
hardly things not written are preserved from alteration and
deprivation, therefore they left their doctrine in writing, for
the easier and surer, and more universal communication and
preservation. And that universal, infallible tradition hath
delivered us down both this Scripture, and also (by itself)
the sum of Christianity, in the creed and baptismal covenant,
and in the hearts of the faithful from age to age. So that
we make very high account of tradition, as bringing us in
one hand the essentials of Christianity, and in the other the
whole body of sacred doctrine in the Scriptures, containing
all these essentials, and more. And this is the rule of our
faith and life : Yet we confess, that if any could prove a cer-
tain delivery of any more from the apostles to the church,
we are ready to receive it, which way ever it be delivered.
But the Papists add, that partly tradition, and partly the
canons and decrees of the church, are to be received as the
rule as well as Scripture, and that much is revealed by ver-
bal tradition to that end, which is not in Scripture, which is
with equal pious affection and reverence to be received ;
and that the church, which is the keeper of this tradition,
is only the Roman church, or all that believe in the Pope of
Rome, as the universal head or sovereign of the church.
Now the question is, 'Whether theirs or ours be the
catholic rule ?'
And here the wickedness of factious disputers hath done
the church a world of wrong on both sides. Some are so
mad in their contentious, that they care not what they say
scarcely, so they do but cry down one another. The Papists
cannot cry up their tradition, but they must speak so re-
proachfully, impiously, foolishly, of the Scriptures, as if they
were stark infidels. To omit others, the reading of Rush-
worth's Dialogues, and White's Additions and Defence, is a
notable bait to tice men to infidelity, and those dialogues
contain the very same arguments which the new apostate
infidels use. And on the other side, many to say as much
as they can against the Papists, do so cry down traditions,
that they (' tantum non') disable themselves to make good
the Scripture itself. Operverseness ! O doleful fruits of con-
tentions ! Whereas a true catholic should be glad of any
light from heaven whatsoever: and must know, that God
352 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
in great mercy to liis church hath by these two hands de-
livered us his will : not some part in Scripture, and the rest
by unwritten traditions, as say the Papists ; but some part
by such tradition, and all by Scripture, and that Scripture
by tradition. So that God hath given us two strings to one
bow : and the Papists will have two bows also ; and others
will have but one string.
Well; L I prove that the Scripture is the catholic rule.
That is the catholic rule of faith, which the whole church
in all ages and places hath received as the rule : But such
is the Scripture. Papists and Protestants, Greeks and Arme-
nians, Abassines and all Christians, confess that the canoni-
cal Scriptures are the revelation of the will of God : so that
this must be catholic, which the catholic church receiveth.
2. And I prove that the Papists' rule is a sectarian,
crooked rule, and not catholic. 1. That is not the catholic
rule of faith which the catholic church did never receive :
But such is the popish rule of Roman tradition : Therefore if
you take it in the general, viz. the traditions of the Roman
church to be received by her peculiar authority, (i.) The Re-
formed churches now disown it. (2.) The Greeks and other
Eastern and Southern churches now disown it. (3.) The
primitive church did never own it : so that all the church
was once a stranger to their rule, and the most of it is an
adversary to it at this day. And can that be the catholic
rule which most of the catholic church disclaims? The
Eastern and Southern churches think that the Roman tra-
ditions are of no more authority than their own ; nay, of far
less, and much of them false. 2. If you look to their addi-
tions of the apocryphal books, to the canon of the Scrip-
tures, the ancient catholic church was against them ; as Dr.
Reignolds, and newly Dr.Cosin at large, and through every
age hath shewed. 3. If you come to particulars : the very es-
sence of the Roman Catholicism and church, and the univer-
sal headship still of their Pope, which are the master points
of their tradition, are denied and detested by the far greater
part of the catholic church on earth to this day. And is
this a catholic rule which the catholic church denieth? A
great stir the Papists make about catholic tradition, and the
judgment of the catholic church. But what good would
this do them if we were as much for tradition as they? When
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 353
the most of the catholic church condetnneth them and their
traditions, or own them not, even in the principal points
essential to their religion ?
And what have they to say to this? Nothing but what
any thief may say of a true man when he hath cut his purse,
even to call him thief first ! Forsooth, most that are called
Christians, by far, are all heretics, and therefore none of
the catholic church ; and therefore their votes are no im-
peachment to the papal claim. And how prove you that ?
' Why the Pope saith so, and so do his faction.' Why, but
he is a party ! How know we that he saith true? Why, here
you must leave them : ' He saith that he saith true ; there-
fore he saith true : He saith that the most of the church are
not of the church, but heretics, and that none but his sub-
jects are of the church, therefore it is true.' And so he
must be the judge in his own cause, and be believed by the
catholic church on his own authority. Read but the third
section of Rushworth's Second Heathenish Dialogues, and
see what a silly shift the self-conceited disputant is at in
answering this objection, ' All Christians agree in the ac-
ceptation of the Scripture, and far fewer in divers points of
doctrine : for the churches of the Roman communion are no
such extraordinary part of Christendom, compared to all the
rest. Answ. For the extent of the churches I cannot cer-
tainly tell you the truth, because I fear many are called
Christians, who have little either in their belief or lives to
verify that name : But you know in witnesses the quality is
to be respected, as well and more than the quantity : so
that those countries in which Christianity is vigorous, are
to be preferred before a greater extent of such where little
remains more than the name. Suppose, in a suit at law,
one party had seven legitimate witnesses, the other as many,
and besides them twenty knights of the post, (known per-
jured knaves,) would you cast the cause for this wicked
rabble?' Thus Rushworth.
And is this all? And is this a catholic cause or rule?
You see now from their most violent subtle disputers, that
they dare not stand to the major vote. They cannot deny
but the Papists are the far smaller number: And most must
not carry it ! How then ? Why we must be judged by the best,
and not by the most. Content: And I must solemnly pro-
VOL. XVI. A A
354 The true catholic^ anb
fess, that if my salvation lay upon it, and 1 were to go to-
morrow, either to heaven or hell, according to my choice of
the holier party to trust ray faith upon, I should make as
little doubt whether the Reformed or the Roman professors
be more holy, (as far as ever I was able to discern,) as I
should do whether the Latin or the Greek church be the
more learned. If godliness and honesty of witnesses must
carry it, I must live and die where I am. But especially
when the Papists are worsted at both, and have neither the
greater part, nor the more honest, (of which I am quite past
doubt, as I am whether England be better and greater than the
Orcades,) where then is their catholic faith and rule?
As for ail the heathenish cavils of Rushworth against the
certainty of Scripture, because of the language, the transla-
tions, and such blind, malignant exceptions, I shall answer
them, if God will, in a more fit place.
2. Having spoken of the catholic rule, let me next advise
you to keep close to the Catholic Governor and Judge. And
who is that? Even Jesus Christ himself, and none but he.
Why, but is there not a visible head and catholic judge of
controversies on earth? To deny this seems an intolerable
absurdity to a Papist : Then every man may believe what he
list, or what his own fancy leads him to? Answ. 1. And if
the Pope can cure heresy or infidelity, why doth he suffer
most of the world to be infidels, and most of professed
Christians to be, in his judgment, heretics? And if he can
decide all controversies, why suffers he so many hundreds to
be undecided among his followers. And it seems by the
late determination of the Five Jansenian Articles, that neither
lie norhis subjects know whenhe hath decided a controversy,
and when not. He said he condemned five points of the
doctrine of Jansenius: the Jesuits say so too : the Jansen-
ists say, It is not so, they are none of his doctrines, nor to
be found in him in word or sense. 2. The catholic judge
doth not contradict the catholic rule ; but the Pope and his
Council doth. 3. The catholic Judge contradicteth not him-
self, but so do Popes and Councils. 4. That is not the catholic
judge whom most of the catholic church disowneth, and never
did own : but most of them never owned the Pope. But of
all this I entreat the unsatisfied reader to peruse what I have
written in the Second and Third Disputation against Popery.
if^K
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 605
Object. 'But what! Will you have no visible judge of
controversies r Amw. Yes: but not over all the catholic
church. Quest. ' But who then shall be judge?' A^sw;. The
case is plain, if men were but impartial. Discerning is one
thing, teaching is another, and deciding or determining is
another. A discerning judgment, as far as they are able,
belongs to all: A directing or teaching judgment occasion-
ally and ' ex charitate' belongs to all that are able ; and pub-
licly and ordinarily, ' ex officio,' it belongs to all pastors and
teachers. Neither of these is the judgment now inquired
after, but the third. If a man know not the articles of faith,
the teachers of the church are to instruct him. But if a man
deny the articles of faith, the same teachers of the church
are to endeavour to convince him of his error, and better
inform him : and thus far judicial decisive power is unneces-
sary. But if he will not be convinced, but still deny the arti-
cles of the faith, then comes in the judicial decisive power in
order to his punishment. The articles of faith are to be dis-
cerned, and judged by, but not judged themselves any other-
wise than to be taught : but it is the heretic or offender that
is to bejudged. And the judgment being in order to execution,
there is a twofold judgment, as there is a twofold execution.
1. If the question be. Who shall be taken for a heretic, in order
to the corporal punishment or forcible coercion of him by the
sword, here the magistrate only is the judge : and it is, 1. A
vile usurpation in the Pope to take this power out of his hands.
2. And it is an intolerable abuse of magistrates ! It makes them
but like hangmen, or mere executioners, when the Pope and
his clergy must be the judges of heresies, and the magistrate
must but execute their judgment : What if the church or
Pope judge a catholic to be a heretic, must the magistrate
therefore burn an innocent member of Christ? They confess
themselves that the Pope may err in matter of fact, and
judge a man to be a heretic that is none: and if he could not
err, yet surely his clergy may : Yea, they confess a General
Council may, and say, they did err in condemning Pope
Honorius of heresy. And must kings, and judges, and all
magistrates, hang and burn all innocent people that the
Popish clergy shall falsely judge heretics? Will it justify
them before God to say. The Pope or bishops bid us burn
them ? No, I had rather be a dog, than be a king upon these
conditionii. 3. And indeed it ia impossible for the Pope him-
356 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AKD
self to be judge of all men through the world that are guilty
of heresy. For he is many hundred or thousand miles off;
and there must be a present j udge that shall hear the cause and
witnesses; and there must be many thousand of these judges
to the whole world : and can the Pope or Council then serve
alone? If every heretic in England escape till a Pope or
Council have the hearing or judging of him, he will not fear.
Object. ' But the Pope and Council are to judge what is
heresy, and what not, though not to judge all particular
causes; and then the bishops must judge the causes.'
Ansio. God hath told us already in his word, which are
the articles of our faith, and the universal church hath de-
livered us all the essential articles in creeds, professions,
and the baptismal covenant ! And therefore here is no work
for a judge, but for a teacher. The pastors of the church
must teach us ' ex officio,' with authority, which are the arti-
cles of faith; but they have no power to judge an article to be
no article, nor to make any new article : and to judge an
article to be an article, any man may do by judgment of
discerning, and any teachers by a judgment of direction. If
moreover you would have no article of faith to be believed
to be such, but on the word or credit of the Pope or Council,
and so resolve our faith into them, I have fully confuted this
in my Third Dispute against Popery ! The word of God must
be believed, whether men know the mind of the Pope and
Council, or not: but this is the highest arrogancy of the
Papal sect, that they must not have God's own laws be-
lieved, or received by any, but upon their word and credit :
and so we must know that they are authorized hereto, and
infallible, before we know the articles of our faith ; and so
we must believe in Christ's vicar before we can believe in
Christ? This is the ground of the Papal cause. Well, I
think I may take it for granted by this time, that with rea-
sonable, impartial, considerate men the case is plain, that it
is magistrates, and not the Pope, that are judges who is to
be corporally punished for heresy ! And if every bishop must
do it, then, 1. They must prove every bishop infallible; and,
2. Then they have not one catholic judge of faith but many.
And what if we had granted them a power in the Pope
or Council to judge of God's law, and what is an article of
faith, and what is heresy? Yet this will be far from restrain-
ing heresies, as long as there is no judge of the particular
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. S57
case : And if we have as many judges of the cause and person
as there be bishops, then we have not one catholic judge of
persons and causes ; and if we must have fallible bishops,
yea, and Popes, to judge of the person and fact, then we
have but fallible restrainers of heresy.
2. The second sort of judgment is in order to church
punishments. When the question is not. Who shall be
punished by the sword? But Who shall be avoided by the
church as a heretic ? Here it is the church that is to judge ;
even that church that must avoid or reject them from com-
munion. And therefore as communion is of narrower or
wider extension, so must excommunication, and judging of
heretics be. If the question be only, whether this man be
to be avoided as a heretic by this particular church where
he liveth? That church must judge. If the question be.
Whether he be to be avoided as a heretic by all the churches
of the country or nation, it is all these churches that must
judge. For who should judge but those that must practise,
and answer for their practice? And how can the Pope or
Council be able to judge persons and causes that they know
not ; and to judge so many millions throughout the world?
If you could prove that the whole catholic church were
bound to take notice of this individual heretic, and were
capable of actual communion, and avoiding communion
with him, and of congregating to judge him, then I should
consent that all Christendom should meet to excommuni-
cate a heretic, if they had no better work the while to do.
But the case is plain, that the church that must execute,
must judge: the church that must avoid the communion of
the heretic, must judge him to be avoided : and I think the
Pope and General Councils will not undertake all this work.
You have nothing therefore to say, but to recur to the
former way in your objection, viz. That it is the work of
Pope and General Councils to judge what is faith and he-
resies, and the work of provincial synods or bishops to judge
the offenders by their canons.
Ansiv. That is plainly ; the Pope and Council must make
the law, and the bishops judge by it. But, 1. God hath
made the church's law already : we know but this one Law-
giver to the church, to constitute articles of faith and spi-
ritual duty. And is this all that you make such a noise
about, when you say, Who shall be judge of faith, and heresy.
^1-S8 TflF, TRUK CATHOLIC, AKD
and controversy? That is, Who shall make laws against
them, to tell us which is faith, and which is heresy? Why
God hath done this already in the Scripture. 2. And this
will not answer your own expectations in resolving your
doubt: For if the Pope's legislation be all his judging of
controversies, there will be never the fewer controversies or
heresies in the world : for there is no \q.w that hath a virtue
sufficient to compel all the subjects to obey it. If God's law
cannot do it, neither can the Pope's.
Object, ' But every heretic pleadeth Scripture, and saith,
it is for him; and shall there be no judge to put an end to all
these controversies about the sense of Scripture?'
Answ. 1. If there be any absolute judge of the sense of
Scripture, his work is to give the world a decisive commentary
upon it: which no Pope or Council hath done. 2. And
he should actually decide all the controversies afoot, which
the Pope dare not attempt; but leaves hundreds undecided
among themselves, and more than ever were among the
Protestants. 3. It is the work of a teacher, and not a catho-
lic judge, to acquaint men with the meaning of the law. 4.
For all their malignant accusation of the Scriptures, they do
as plainly deliver us the articles of Christian faith, and
the necessary Christian duties, as any Pope or Council
hath done. And if all the work for a Pope or Council be to
teach God how to speak or mend his word, and make sense
of it, when God hath made it but nonsense, in their pre-
sumptuous judgments, then we can well spare such a judge
as this. 5. There is as much contention among yourselves
about the meaning of the canons of Councils, and the Pope's
decretals : and who must be judge of all these controversies?
Even the late Council of Trent is pleaded by one party for
one side, and another for the contrary: yea, even by the par-
ticular divines that were members of the Council: and yet
no deciding judge steps up, but let the contenders worry
one another, and there is no end of their disputes.
So that the case is as plain as can be desired, 1. That
constituting by a law or universal rule, to determine what
shall be taken for faith, and what for heresy, this God hath
done, who is the only Universal Lawgiver, and we need no
Pope for it. 2. To judge who is to be corporally punished
as a heretic belongs to the magistrate in his own jurisdic-
tion, and not to the Pope or bishops: (as hath been made
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 35U
good in all ages against tiiem, since they claimed it, as the
many tractates of Goldastus' collection manifests.) 3. To
judge who shall be cast out of the communion of the church
as a heretic, and avoided, belongs to the church that hath
communion with him, and that is to avoid him; and to all
other churches, so far as they are naturally capable of com-
munion and non-communion with him, and of the cognizance
of the case, and bound to take notice of it. So that all
human judgment is but limited, and 'ad hoc,' the judgment
being but in order to the execution. 4. And therefore the
absolute final judgment is only that of Christ himself, to
whom we must make our appeals, and from whom there is
no appeal : And this is the true decision of this question,
that makes so loud a noise, ' Who shall be judge of contro-
versies in faith, and of heresies?' And thus you see that
■Scripture is the catholic rule, and Christ the catholic judge,
jjind the magistrate the judge 'ad hoc,' who shall be corporally
punished, and the pastors and church where communion or
avoiding the party is a duty, are judges 'ad hoc,' whether he
be to be avoided. And this is the next catholic principle.
Before I come to speak of the last, (which is, catholic
affections) I shall briefly name some principles contrary to
the catholic principles, which I would warn you to avoid :
and I shall not stand upon them, but touch them.
1. It is a private and not-catholic principle, to hold that
we are not baptized into the catholic church, but into a par-
ticular church only. As the case of the eunuch, (Acts viii,)
and the baptismal institution shew.
It is a private principle, contrary to Catholicism, to hold
that an authorized minister of Christ, is only a minister in that
church which is his special charge, and where we confess he
is bound to exercise his ordinary labours, and that he may
not preach, baptize, administer the Lord's-supper, yea, and
rule 'pro tempore,' as a minister in another church to which
he is called. As physicians must first have a general licence,
upon exploration and approbation, to practise physic when
they are called, and afterward may have a special call and
engagement to a particular hospital or city as their charge,
and so do practise occasionally upon a particular call abroad,
but ordinarily at home, as to their special charge, but to both
as physicians; so is it with a pastor in the church of Christ.
3. It is a private and uncatholic principle, that a minister
360 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
is so bound to that one congregation wliich is his special
charge, as that he must prefer them and their service before
the more public service of the cliurches, and must neglect
opportunities of doing apparently much greater good, for
fear of neglecting them. All our obligations are strongest
to our ultimate end, and next to that which is next that end,
and so more to the public than to any particulars as such.
4. And it is a private uncatholic principle, that a minister
should more fear or avoid the offending or hurting of his
own particular flock, than the offending and hurt of the
catholic church, or of many particular churches, where the
interest of Christ and the Gospel is greater, we are more
obliged to God, and the catholic church, than we can be to
any manor particular church. A physician of an hospital, *cai-
teris paribus,' must prefer his own charge before any others,
and rather neglect a stranger's life than theirs : but he should
rather neglect one of his own charge, than a prince, or many
considerable persons abroad, or all his own charge, than per-
sons, or cities, or countries of far more public use and interest.
5. It is a private uncatholic principle, that ministers may
satisfy their consciences if they stay at home, and only look
after their own congregations, and never go to the assem-
blies of the ministers, where more public aftairs of the
churches are transacted, nor by preaching abroad where
necessity requireth it, be helpful to other places.
6. And it is an uncatholic principle, to hold that the
assemblies and associations of pastors, and concatenation
of churches by them, is a needless thing ; or that they are
not to be ordinary, and fixed, for a certain settled way of the
communion of churches and brethren, but only occasional,
and seldom ; and that it is indifferent whether we be there.
7. And it is an uncatholic dividing principle to hold, that
when the churches agree upon a circumstance of worship
as convenient, any particular persons shall walk singularly,
and refuse to consent to that agreement, unless it be against
the word of God.
8. It is not according to catholic principles, for any man
of another church to make light of the reproofs, advice or
teaching, of any faithful minister of Christ, because they are
not members of his chars:e.
9. Nor is it a catholic principle for a minister to hold,
that a fit person of another church may not have communion
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 301
with him and his charge, and partake of the ordinances
among them, when they are for a time cast into their neigh-
bourhood, and give sufficient testimony of their fitness.
10. It is a dividing uncatholie principle, to think that
for every disorder, or gross sin, that (against our wills) is
connived at in the church, we must therefore withdraw from
the communion of that church, before sufficient means and
patience have been used with them, and before the church
do own the sin.
11. It is a dividing uncatholie principle, to hold that we
must necessarily require the profession of more than the
essentials of Christianity in order to the baptizing of any
into the church, or that profession is no satisfactory evi-
dence, (though there be no proof on the contrary to invalidate
it,) unless there be some other discovery of the truth of grace.
To deny the catholic qualification of visible members is not
catholic.
12. It is a dividing, and not a catholic principle, that
we must needs preach, profess, or declare every thing that
we take to be a truth, though to^the apparent hazard of the
church, and hindrance of the great essential truths ; and
that no truth must be silenced for the church's peace, and
the advantage of the more necessary truths. And that we
may not hold communion with those that agree not with us
in some integrals of the Christian faith, though they agree
in the essentials, and forfeit not the communion of the
church by wicked lives.
Too many more such principles might be named, but I
only warn you briefly of these few.
3. The last part of my advice is, that you labour to pre-
serve a catholic spirit and affections. And a catholic spirit
consisteth, 1. In a catholic love. 2. A catholic compassion.
3, A catholic care. And 4. A catholic endeavour to be
serviceable to all.
I. A catholic love consisteth in these particulars, 1. That
you love a Christian as a Christian, for the sake of Christ,
and not for by-respects only : Not chiefly because he is rich,
or honourable, or of eminent place, or parts, or personage,
or because he loveth you, or any such lower respects;
though these may have their parts in subserviency to the
main ; but the chief reason of your love must be, because
he is a member of Christ, and beareth his image, and is ser-
.362 THK THUK CATHPLiC, ANi)
viceable to the glory of God, and one that is likely to join
with you in his everlasting praise*, ,
2. That your love may be catholic, it must be a love to
3.U that are Christians, as far as you can discern them, and
have opportunity to observe them. Though he should differ
from you in many points of religion, yet if he hold the
essentials, and manifest the grace of God in jiis life, you
Biust love him with the special love of a Christian. Though
he have fallen out with you, or wronged you by word or
cleed, or have a low esteem of you, and slight you, whether
deservedly or in a mistake, yet if he manifest the image of
God, by his holy profession and conversation, you must
aflford him this special Christian love. Though he be a very
weak Christian of parts, or graces, and subject to passions
and infirmities, (consistent with grace) and his profession
reach not to that height as may make him eminent, nor his
life to that degree of diligence as may make you confident
of his sincerity, yet if he have a profession of true faith, and
repentance, and holiness, seemingly serious, and not invali-
dated or disproved by a contrary profession or practice, you
must allow him the special love of a Christian. He that
loveth a Christian as a Christian, must needs love all Chris-
tians that he discerneth to be such : and he must not by
uncharitableness hinder that discerning.
3. And catholic love will be somewhat suitable to the
excellency of the object, which is a member of Christ. He
that loveth a Christian truly, doth love him above gold, and
silver, and worldly things ; and therefore can part with his
substance to relieve him, and venture his life for him, when
God and his honour do require it. And therefore it is that
Christ will not at the last day barely ask. Whether we have
IjOved him in his members? but whether our love were such
as could carry us to clothe, and feed, and visit, and relieve
them to our power.
4. Lastly, catholic love must be diversified in the degree
according to the apparent degree of men's graces and ser-
viceableness to God, He that loveth men as Christians and
godly, will love those best where he seeth most Christianity
;£Mid godliness, and those least where he seeth least of it.
There is, 1. A common love of men as men ; and this you
owe to all, even to an enemy ; and this may consist with a
dislike or hatred of them as wicked, and God's enemies.
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCBIBED. 3G3
2. There is a love to men for some lovely, natural, or acquired
parts; as wit, learning, eloquence, gentleness, a loving na-
ture, and the like : and this is proper to them that are the
qualified objects of it ; you owe it not to all, and yet you may
allow it to those that are no saints. But this is not the
catholic love which I speak of. 3. There is the before-
described love to a Christian, as a Christian ; and this is the
•catholic love which is due to all that seem Christians.
4. There is a special degree of this love, which you owe to
stronger and more excellent Christians, and to those whose
profession and conversation doth put you into a more con-
fident persuasion of their sincerity, than you have of many
or most common professors. And this special degree is not
due to all Christians. As we have but very small and doubt-
ful persuasions of some men's sincerity, and more confident
persuasions of others; so our love must be greater to one
than to another, even where a special Christian love is due
to them all. 5. There is a special suitableness in the spirits
of but few, even of those that are stronger Christians, where-
by they are fitted to be your bosom friends. And this extra-
ordinary love of a bosom friend, such as was between David
and Jonathan, and should be between husbands and wives,
is not due to all, no, not all that all are strong Christians.
For natural love to parents, and children, and other na-
tural relations ; and for grateful love to benefactors, I shall
say nothing to them, as not pertaining to our business ; nor
yet of the heavenly degree of love which is proper to glory.
But I have shewed you what that special Christian love is
which is truly catholic ; and that it must be to all, and to
all with a high degree ; but not to all with an equal degree,
but must be much diversified by their degrees of grace.
The love which is called, " The fulfilling of the law," con-
taineth all the sorts beforementioned ; but the love which is
the new commandment of the Gospel, is this special endear-
edness of Christians to one another in their new relation, even,
1. As they believe in the Messiah as come, in whom they
are all fellow-members and brethren. And 2. As they are
disposed and elevated to this love, by a special measure of
sanctification by the Spirit, proper to Gospel times.
This is the love to the brethren, by which we may know
that we are translated from death to life, and so that we are
true catholic Christians. (1 John iii. 14.) " He that hath
364 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
not this love abideth in death. By this it is that all men
must know us to be Christ's disciples, that is, catholic
Christians. (1 John xiii. 33.) If Christ have more skill in
knowing his own sheep and sheepraark than the Papists
have, then this is a better mark of a catholic than believing
in the Pope, as the universal sovereign of the church : even
loving one another as Christians, for Christ's sake, and that
" with a pure heart fervently." (1 Pet. i. 22.) " Not in word
and tongue, but in deed and in truth," so as to part with
worldly goods for our brethren's relief. (1 John iii. 17, 18;
Matt. XXV. 34. 40.
Reader, thou art a blessed man if thou hast this charita-
ble catholic spirit, that thou canst love all Christians, as far
as thou canst discern them, with a special Christian love.
When others hate and reproach all those that are not of
their sect, or at least have no special Christian love for them,
let them be dear to thy heart, and amiable, because of the
image and interest of thy Lord, even when thou art called
to disown and rebuke (yea, or chasten, if a governor) their
errors and imperfections. This lesson is written in the very
heart of a true catholic ; for " they are all taught of God to
love one another." (1 Thess. iv. 9.) Those, therefore, that
malign all dissenters, and malice those that are not of their
party, do carry about with them the brand of sectaries, how
much soever they may seem to detest them. Those that
deny the essentials of Christianity are not the objects of
Christian love, but of common love only ; but whatever in-
firmities are consistent with Christianity are insufficient
to excuse us from this special love.
And here let me mind you of one other principle, which
is notoriously uncatholic, while it pretendeth to be most
catholic, and is here most fitly to be mentioned, as being the
bane of catholic. Christian love ; and that is the doctrine of
many Papists, and some few Protestants, that make the ne-
cessary qualification of a church-member to be (the reality,
' coram Deo,' and the profession, ' coram Ecclesia,' of) a
kind of dogmatical faith, which is short of justifying faith.
From whence it followeth, that visible church-members, as
such, are not to be taken by us for true living members of
the body of Christ; but that esteem is due only to some
few that manifest their holiness by an extraordinary profes-
sion, or fuller discovery : and consequently, that we are not
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 3f)5
bound to love any as living members of Christ, but such
eminent professors : and so the special catholic love, which
is the new commandment, and the badge of a disciple, is
turned into a common love specifically different from it, and
answerable to the common not-justifying faith : and the
special catholic love is reserved as another thing for some
few of the visible church : whereas indeed we may say of
all that are duly visible members, by profession of a saving
faith, not nulled, that as it is the same faith with that of the
holiest saints which they profess, so it is the same specific
love that is due to the holiest saint that they must be loved
with : a great difference there must be in degree, but none
in kind. We love none of them as infallibly known to be
true living Christians, but all of them as probably such by
profession ; but with very different degrees, because of the
different degrees of probability.
And let me add another principle, that tendeth to cor-
rupt this catholic love, and that is theirs that would have
the church lie common ; and men that profess not saving
faith, or that null that profession by a wicked, impenitent
course of life, to be permitted in the church, and discipline
laid aside, and so the common and unclean to be numbered
with the visible saints. And so when the permitted members
are such as by right are no members, nor so much as seeming
saints, they cannot be the objects of catholic love. Destroy
the object and you destroy the art.
II. The second catholic affection in compassion towards
a Christian as a Christian in his sufferings. A sensibleness
of their sufferings, as if we suffered with them, " And whe-
ther one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or
one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."
(Heb. xiii. 3 ; 1 Cor. xii. 26.) "Rejoice with them that do
rejoice, and weep with them that weep: Be of the same
mind one towards another." (Rom. xii. 15, 16.) " Who is
weak, and I am not weak ? Who is offended, and I burn
not? " (2 Cor. xi. 29.) A true catholic is grieved to see his
brother's calamity, and especially to hear of the dangers,
and losses, and sufferings of the churches : be they never so
distant from him, it is near to his heart, for their interest
is his own.
He that feels nothing but his own afflictions, and can make
a small matter of the losses and sufferings of the church.
o66 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
perhaps under pretence of trusting God, so that if all be
but well with himself, is certainly no catholic or Christian.
And he that little feels the losses of the church, if his own
sect or party do but gain or increase by it, doth shew that
he hath more of a sectary than of a Christian. Catholic
compassion (to which I adjoin also catholic rejoicing) do
prove a true catholic.
III. Another catholic affection is a special care of the
common Christian state and cause,- and of the case of all our
brethren that are known to us. I mean not that care which
belongs to God only, and which we are forbidden to use,
even for ourselves ; but, 1. An estimation of the interest of
the church and brethren as their own, and 2. An ordinate
solicitousness about their welfare, containing an earnest de-
sire of it, and a care to use the means that should obtain it.
A catholic spirit is busily careful about the church's and bre-
thren's welfare as well as his own. " That there should be
no schism in the body, but that the members should have
the same care one for another." (1 Cor. xii. 25.) Timothy
naturally cared for the state of the churches : Such a care
by grace he had of the churches, as he had by nature of
himself; proceeding from so deep a love, as was a kind of
new nature to him. (Phil. ii. 20.) " That our care for you
in the sight of God might appear to you." (2 Cor. vii. 12.)
Titus had an earnest care for the Corinthians. (2 Cor. viii.
16.) Every pastor must have a care of his church, (1 Tim.
iii. 5,) but not stop there; but with Paul, " have a care of all
the churches," (2 Cor. xi. 28,) though not an apostolical
charge of them like his. Carelessness of the church and
brethren is not catholic.
IV. Lastly, A true catholic spirit must appear in catholic
endeavours, for the good of all the members of the church.
1. It is contrary to a base, covetous, selfish spirit, which
causeth men to mind and seek only their own, and not the
things of .Jesus Christ, and of their brethren : and will not
allow men to part with any more than some inconsiderable
pittance out of their superfluity, for their brethren's relief,
or the church's service. " But whoso hath this world's
goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him?" (1 John iii. 17.) He that cannot pinch
himself, and deny himself even in his daily bread for the
CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED. 367
church and brethren, when God requireth it> is not a true
catholic Christian.
2. And it is contrary much more to a spirit of malignity,
by which men envy the good of others, or of those that are
not of their party ; and yet more to persecution, when men
would tread down and destroy their brethren, and the in-
heritance of the Lord, in a selfish, devilish zeal.
3. But yet it is not contrary to a charitable, moderate
correction of offenders, which tendeth either to their own
or the church's good, and is necessary to the restraint of
iniquity, and the preserving of others from the infection of
error ; and therefore the sword of the magistrate and the
discipline of the church must both be employed in the cause
of God ; and this is so far from being contrary to the endea-
vours of a catholic spirit, that it is a necessary part of it.
Correction first, proceedeth from love, and secondly, tendeth
to good, and thirdly, is not used but in necessity ; and this
differeth from persecution, as the whipping of a child, from
the malignant hurting of the innocent.
Quest. ' But how can the endeavours of a private Chris-
tian be extended to the catholic church ?'
Ansio. 1. His daily and earnest prayers to God may be
extended to the whole ; and must be. He is not of a ca-
tholic spirit that is not disposed to fervent prayers for the
universal church of Christ. 2. And his actual assistance
must reach as far as he can extend it ; and then he that doth
good to a part of the church, may well be said to do good
to the catholic church in that part.
Quest. ' But what good is it that we should do V
Armu. Besides that of prayer before-mentioned, 1. Main-
tain catholic truths and principles ; earnestly contend for
the catholic faith ; and resist dividing, uncatholic principles
and errors. 2. Maintain catholic affections in others to
your power, and labour to draw them from privateness of
spirit, and selfish or dividing affections. 3. Endeavour the
actual healing of breaches among all catholics as soon as
you perceive them. To that end, 1. Acquaint youreelves
with healing truths ; and labour to be as skilful in the work
of pacifying and agreeing men, as most are in the work of
dividing and disagreeing. Know it to be a part of your ca-
tholic work to be peace-makers ; and therefore study how
to do it a!5 a workman that needeth not be ashamed. I
368 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, AND
think most divines themselves in the world do study differ-
ences a hundred hours, for one hour that ever they study
the healing of differences ; and that is a shameful dispro-
portion. 2. Do not bend all your wits to find what more
may be said against others, and to make the differences as
wide as you can, but study as hard to find out men's agree-
ments, and to reduce the differences to as narrow a compass
as is possible. 3. And to that end, be sure that you seethe
true state of the controversy, and distinguish all that is
merely verbal, from that which is material ; and that which
is but about methods, and modes, and circumstances, from
that which is about substantial truths ; and that which is
about the inferior truths, though weighty, from that which
is about the essentials of Christianity. 4. Be as industri-
ous for peace among others as if you smarted by it yourself;
seek it, and beg it, and follow it, and take no nay. Make
it the work of your lives. When once God hath so awakened
the hearts of his servants to see the beauty, and feel so
much of the necessity of unity and peace in the church, as
shall make them generally more zealous, and diligent, and
unwearied in seeking them, than dividers are in seeking to
destroy them, then may we expect a healing, and strength,
and glory to the catholic church: but wishing will not
serve the turn, nor will we much thank wishers for it if we
be healed.
Lastly. Lay the unity of the church upon nothing but
what is essential to the church. Seek after as much truth,
and purity, and perfection as you can : but not as necessary
to the essence of the church, or any member of it; nor to
denominate and specify your faith and religion by. Tolerate
no error or sin, so far as not to seek the healing of it : but
tolerate all error and sin, consisting with Christian faith
and charity, so far as not to unchristian and unchurch men
for them. Own no man's errors, or sins, but own every
man that owneth Christ, and whom Christ will own, not-
withstanding those errors and infirmities that he is guilty
of. Bear with those that Christ will bear with ; especially
learn the master-duty of self-denial: for it is self that is the
greatest enemy to Catholicism. Self-conceitedness, and self-
love, and self-willedness, and selfish interests, are the things
that divide, and would make as many religions in the world
as self's. Even among many accounted orthodox, ])ride and
CATHOLIC CHURCH DKSCRlBFiU. 369
selfishness causeth them so far to overvalue their own judg-
ments, as to expect that all should be conformable to them,
and bow to their arguments which have no strength, if not
to their sayings and wills without their arguments ; and to
disdain, and passionately censure and reproach all that dis-
sent and gainsay them. And thus every man, so far as he
is proud and selfish, would be the Pope or centre of the ca-
tholic church. And therefore it is observable that Christ
hath told us, " That except .we be converted, and become
as little children, we cannot enter into his kingdom." (Matt,
xviii. 3.) " And if we deny not ourselves we cannot be his
disciples." (Luke ix. 23.) But of this I have spoken in
another treatise.
And thus I have plainly from the word of God declared
to you the true nature of Catholicism, and which is the ca-
tholic church, and who a catholic. I hope it may do some-
what to cure the frensy of the world, that makes men cry.
Here is the church, and there is the church. That makes
one sect say. We are the church, and another say. We are
the church. I hope it may do somewhat to the confound-
ing of the arrogancy and presumption of all sects, especially
the sect of Papists, that being but a piece of the church,
and that none of the best, dare pretend to be the whole, and
restrain the name of Catholics or Christians to themselves !
And I hope it may do somewhat to awake the servants of
Christ to more catholic considerations, and principles, and
affections, and endeavours, that those that have lived too
much to themselves, and too much to their own parties, as
if the church had been confined to their narrow provinces,
may hereafter look more abroad into the world, and remem-
ber the extent of the kingdom of Christ, and not think so
dishonourably of it as they have done. I hope also it may
help to abate the censoriousness and presumption of those
that would rob Christ of the greatest part of his inheritance,
and deliver it up to Satan, his enemy. And I hope it may
somewhat disgrace the dividing principles and practices of
these times, and turn soldiers into surgeons, wounding into
healing, and excite in some a stronger desire for unity and
peace, and cause them to extend their care and charity fur-
ther than they have done. However, this here described, is
the catholic church which God will own. This is it that is
VOL. XVJ. B B
.370 THE TRUE CATHOLIC, &C.
built on Christ the Rock, which the gates of hell shall not
prevail against. Here is the safe standing, from whence
you may look with boldness, thankfulness, and compassion,
upon the many sects, and furious contentions of the world ;
and lament their giddiness, without being brought your-
selves to a loss about the truth of your church or faith : and
may see the folly of them that are puzzled to find out the
true catholic church and religion. And here you may see
the admirable privilege of a truly regenerate, sanctified
person, that is most certainly a member of the true catholic
church, whoever deny it. To conclude, you may hence see
that it is not as Romanists, Greeks, Armenians, Abassines,
Jacobines, Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians, &c., that men
are saved, but as catholic Christians, aspiring to the higjiest
perfection.
END OF TRUE CATHOLTC, AND CATHOLIC CHURCH DESCRIBED.
.371
CATHOLIC UNITY:
OB
THE ONLY WAY TO BRING US ALL TO BE OF
ONE RELIGION.
ro BE READ BY SUCH AS ARE OFFENDED AT THE DIFIEPENCES IN RELIGION,
AND ARE WILLING TO DO THEIR PART TO IIEAI. THEM.
2o all those in the several Parishes of these Nations, that com-
plain of the Disagreements in Matters of Religion.
MEN AND BRETHREN,
As in the midst of all the impiety and dishonesty of the
world, it is some comfort to us, that yet the names of piety
and honesty are still in credit, and ungodliness and disho-
nesty are terms of disgrace ; so that those that will be un-
godly and dishonest, are fain to use the mask and veil of
better names, to hide their wickedness ; so also it is some
comfort to us, in the midst of the uncharitableness and dis-
cords of this age, that yet the names of Love and Concord
sound so well, and are honoured by those that are farthest
from the things : for thus we seem agreed in the main cause,
and have this advantage in our debates, that whatever shall
be proved to be against love, and unity, and peace, we are
all of us obliged by our professions to disown. 1 may sup-
pose that all that read these words, will speak against the
uncharitableness, and contentions, and divisions of the pre-
sent times as well as I. Doth it grieve my soul to hear
professed Christians so censoriously condemning, and pas-
sionately reviling one another, while they are proudly justi-
fying themselves? I suppose you will say, it grieves you
also. Do I mourn in secret, to see so many divisions and
subdivisions, and church set up against church, and pastors
against pastors, in the same parishes ; and each party la-
bouring to disgrace the other and their way, that they may
promote their own ? I suppose you will say, you do so too.
«'^72 CATHOLIC UNITY.
Do I lament it as the nation's shame, that in religion men
are of so many minds, and manage their differences so un-
peaceably, that it is become the stumbling-block to the un-
godly, the grief of our friends, and the derision of om
enemies ? I know you will say, that this also is your lamen-
tation. And is it not a wonder indeed, that such a misery
should be continued, which all men are against; and which
cannot be continued but by our wilful choice ? Is it not
strange that we are so long without so great a blessing as
Unity and Peace, while all men say they love it and desire
it; and while we may have it if we will ? But the cause is
evident ; while men love unity, they hate the holiness in
which we must unite : while they love peace, they hate the
necessary means by which it must be obtained and main-
tained : the way of peace they have not known; or know-
ing it, they do abhor it. As well as they love unity and
peace, they love the causes of discord and division much
better. The drunkard, and whoremonger, and worlding say
they love the salvation of their souls : but yet while they
love and keep their sins, they will miss of the salvation
which they say they love. And so while men love their un-
godliness and dividing ways, we are little the better for
their love of peace. If men love health, and yet love poison,
and hate both medicine and wholesome food, they may miss
of health, notwithstanding they love it.
Where know you a parish in England, that hath no dis-
agreements in matters of religion ? In this parish where I
live, we have not several congregations, nor are we divided
into such parties as in many other places ; but we have here
the great division ; some are for heaven, and some for earth;
some love a holy, diligent life, and others hate it ; some
pray in their families, and teach them the word and fear of
God, and others do not; some spend the Lord's-day in holy
exercises, and others spend much of it in idleness and
vanity ; some take the service of God for their delight, and
others are weary of it, and live in ignorance, because they
will not be at the pains to learn : some make it the princi-
pal care and business of their lives to prepare for death,
and make sure of everlasting life ; and others will venture
their souls on the wrath of God, and cheat themselves by
their own presumption, rather than be at this sweet and
necessary labour to be saved. Some hate sin, and make it
CATHOLIC UNITY. 373
their daily work to root out the relics of it Irom their hearts
and lives ; and others love it and will not leave it, but hate
those that reprove them, and endeavour their salvation.
And as long as this great division is unhealed, what
other means can bring us to any happy unity '! It would
make a man's heart bleed to consider of the folly of the un-
godly rout, that think it would be a happy union, if we
could all agree to read one form of prayer, while some love,
and others hate the holiness which they pray for: and if we
could all agree to use the sign of the cross in baptism,
while one half either understand not the baptismal covenant,
or wilfully violate it, and neglect, or hate, and scorn that
mortified holy life, which by that solemn vow and covenant
they are engaged to. They are solicitous to bring us all to
unity in the gesture of receiving the sacrament of the Lord's-
supper, while some take Christ and life, and others take
their own damnation. When they should first agree in be-
ing all the faithful servants of one Master, they make a
great matter of it, that the servants of Christ and of the
devil may use the same bodily posture in that worship where
their hearts are as different as Spirit and tlesh. Poor people
think that it is the want of uniformity in certain ceremonies
of man's invention, that is the cause of our great divisions
and distractions ; when, alas ! it is the want of unity in
matters of greater consequence, even of faith, and love, and
holiness, as I have here shewed. If once we were all chil-
dren of one Father, and living members of one Christ, and'
all renewed by one sanctifying Spirit, and aimed at one end,
and walked by one rule, (the word of God,) and had that
special love to one another which Christ hath made the
mark of his disciples, this were an agreement to be rejoiced
in indeed, which would hold us together in the most com-
fortable relations, and assure us that we shall live together
with Christ in everlasting blessedness. But, alas ! if our
agreement be no better, than to sit together in the same
seats, and say the same words, and use the same gestures
and ceremonies, our hearts will be still distant from each
other, our natures will be contrary, and the malignity of un-
godly hearts will be breaking out on all occasions. And as
now you hear men scorning at the practice of that religion
which themselves profess, so if God prevent it not, you may
shortly see another war take off their restraint and let theni.
374 CATHOLIC UNIIY.
loose, and then they will seek the blood of those that now
they seem to be agreed with. At furthest we are sure, that
very shortly we shall be separated as far as heaven and hell,
if there be not now a nearer agreement than in words and
outward shows and ceremonies.
It being then past doubt, that there is no happy, lasting
unity, but in the Spirit and a holy life, what hindereth us
from so safe, so sweet, so pure a peace ? Why might not all our
parishes agree on such necessary, honourable and reasonable
terms? Why is there in most places, but here and there a
person, or a family, that will yield to the terms of an ever-
lasting peace, and live as men that believe they have a God
to serve and please, and immortal souls to save or lose? Is
not God willing that "all should be saved, and come to the
knowledge of the truth ;" (1 Tim. ii. 4 ;) and that all should
agree in so safe a path ? Why then doth he invite all, and
tender them his saving mercy, and send his messengers to
command and importune them to this holy concord? He
would take them all into the bond of his covenant : how
often would Christ have gathered all the children of Jerusa-
lem to him, as the hen gatbereth her chickens under her
wings; but it was they that would not. (Matt, xxiii. 37.)
He would have the Gospel preached to every creature, (Matt,
xvi. 15, 16,) and would have the kingdoms of the world be-
come the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ.
What then is the cause of this sad division in our pa-
rishes ? Are ministers unwilling that their people should all
agree in holiness? No, it would be the greatest favour you
could do them, and the greatest joy that you could bring to
their hearts : they would be gladder to see such a blessed
unity, than if you gave them all that you have in the world.
O how a poor minister would boast and glory of such a pa-
rish! He would bless the day that ever he came among them;
and that ever he was called to the ministry ; and that ever
he was born into the world for their sakes. How easy would
all his studies and labours be, if they were but sweetened
with such success ! How easily could he bear his scorns
and threatenings, and abuses, and persecution from others,
if he saw but such a holy unity among his people to encou-
rage him! So far are your teachers from excluding you
from this happiness, that it is the end of their studies, and
preaching, and prayers, yea, and of their lives, to bring you
CATHOLIC UNITY. .*{75
to partake of it. And glad would they be to preach to you,
and exhort you, in hunger and thirst, in cold and naked-
ness, in all the contempt and derision of the world, if there-
by they could but bring their parishes to agree in a life of
faith and holiness.
And surely our difference is not because the godly will
not admit you to join with them in the ways of God ; for
they cannot hinder you if they would ; and they would not
if they could. It is their joy to see the house of God filled
with guests that have on the wedding garment.
We must conclude therefore, that it is the ungodly that
are the wilful and obstinate dividers. They might be united
to Christ, and reconciled to God, and they will not. They
might be admitted into the communion of saints, and into
the household of God, and partake of the privileges of his
children ; and they will not. They have leave to read, and
pray, and meditate, and walk with God in a heavenly con-
versation, as well as any of their neighbours ; but they will
not. It is themselves that are the refusers, and continue
the division, to the displeasing of God, and the grief of
their friends, and the gratifying of Satan, and the perdition
of their own immortal souls. We might all be united, and
our divisions be healed, and God much honoured, and
ministers and good Christians be exceedingly comforted,
and the church and commonwealth be delivered and highly
honoured, and themselves be saved from everlasting misery,
if we could but get the hearty consent of these foolish, ob-
stinate, ungodly men.
What say you, wretched souls, can you deny it? How
long have your Teachers been labouring in vain, to bring
you to the hearty love of God, and heaven, and serious ho-
liness ! How long have they been persuading you to set up
reading, and catechising, and constant fervent prayer in
your families, and yet it is undone ! How long have they in
vain been persuading the worldling from his worldliness,
and the proud person to humility, and the sensual beast
from his tippling, and gluttony, and other fleshly pleasures !
And besides this, most of the disorders and divisions in
the churches are caused by ungodly men. I will instance in
a few particulars.
1. When wc ask any godly, diligent ministers, either in
London, or the country, why they do not unanimously catc-
.376 CATHOLIC UNITY.
chise, instruct and confer with all the inhabitants of their
parishes, man by man, to help them to try their spiritual
state, and to prepare in health for death and judgment?
they usually answer us, that, alas ! their people will not con-
sent, but many would revile them if they should attempt it.
2. When we ask them why they do not set up the prac-
tice of discipline, which they so unanimously plead for ; and
why they do not call their people to confirmation, or open
profession of faith and holiness in order thereto? they tell
us, that their people will not endure it; but many will ra-
ther set themselves against the ministry, and strengthen the
enemy that now endangereth the church's safety, or turn to
any licentious sect, than they will thus submit to the un-
doubted ordinances of Christ, which the churches are so
commonly agreed in as a duty.
3. We have an ancient, too-imperfect version of the
Psalms, which we sing in the congregations ; and in the
judgment of all divines that ever I spoke with about it, (of
what side soever,) it is our duty to use a better version, and
not to perform so excellent a part of the public worship, so
lamely, and with so many blemishes. And if you ask the
ministers why they do not unanimously agree on a reformed,
corrected version, most of them will tell you, that their
people will not bear it, but proudly and turbulently re-
proach them, as if they were changing the word of God.
4. In many places the sacrament of baptism is more
often used in private houses, than in the public assemblies ;
and if we ask the reason of so great a disorder, the minis-
ters will tell us that it is the unruliness and wilfulness of
the people, that proudly set themselves above their guides,
and instead of obeying them, must rule them, and have their
humours and conceits fulfilled, even in the holy things of
God, or else they will revile the pastors, and make divisions
in the church : and this is done by them that in other cases
do seem sufficiently to reverence the place of public assem-
bly as the house of God, and that speak against private
meetings, though but for prayer, repeating sermons, or
singing to the praise of God, while yet themselves are wil-
fully bent for such private meetings as are set up in opposi-
tion to the public, and that for the administration of soi
great an ordinance as the sacrament of baptism, and in
cases where there is no necessity of privacy : And who
CATHOLIC UNITY. .377
knows not that our sacramental covenant with God, and en-
gagement to a Christian life, and reception into a Christian
state and privileges, is fitter to be done with the most honour-
able solemnity, than in a conventicle, in a private house?
Too many more such instances I could give you, which
shew who they be that are the enemies of our unity ; even
those that cry outagainst divisions while they cause them, and
cry up unity, concord and obedience, while they destroy them.
And shall we thus continue a division that doth prog-
nosticate our everlasting division ? Is there no remedy for
so great a misery, when yet our poor ungodly neighbours
may heal it if they will? What if the ministers of the several
parishes should appoint one day of public conference with
all the people of their parishes together, and desire all that
are fit to speak, to debate the case, and give their reasons,
why they concur not in their hearts and lives with the holy
diligent servants of the Lord? And let them hear the reasons
why the godly dare not, and cannot come over to their neg-
ligent ungodly course ? And so try who it is long of among
them, that they are not of one mind and way ? What if the
ministers then urged it on thefn, to agree all before they
parted, to unite on the terms which God will own, and all
unanimously to take that course that shall be found most
agreeable to his word ; and whoever doth bring the fullest
proof that his course is best, in reason, the rest should pro-
mise to join with him ? What if we call the people together,
and bespeak them as Elijah did, (1 Kings xviii. 21,) " How
long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God,
follow him : but if Baal, then follow him." If a careless,
ungodly, worldly, fleshly life be best, and most please God,
and will comfort you most at death and judgment, then hold
on in the way that you are in, and never purpose hereafter
to repent of it, but let us all become as sensual as you. But if
it be only the life of faith and holiness, and seeking first the
kingdom and righteousness of God, that God, and Scripture,
and reason will justify, and that will comfort the soul in the
hour of extremity, and that you shall wish a thousand times
you had followed, in everlasting misery, when wishing is too
late, if now you continue to neglect it; doth not common
reason then require, that we all now agree to go that way
which all will desire to be found in at the last?
One would think, if a minister should treat thus with his
378 CATHOLIC UNITY.
parishioners, and urge such a motion as this upon them, they
should not have the hearts or faces to deny, or delay such a
necessary agreement and engagement that would make their
parish and their souls so happy, and which nothing but the
devil and the befooled, corrupted minds of sinners hath any
thing to say against ! And yet it is likely we should either
have such an answer as Elijah had, even silence, (" The
people answered him not a word." ver. 21,) or else some
plausible promise, while we have them in a good mood,
which would quickly be broken and come to nothing. For
indeed they are all engaged already by their baptismal
covenant and profession of Christianity, to the very same
thing; and yet we see how little they regard it.
But yet because it is our duty to use the means for the
salvation and concord of our people, and wait on God by
prayer for the success, I have here shewed you the only way
to both. Read it impartially, and then be yourselves the
judges, on whom the blame of our greatest and most dan-
gerous divisions will be laid ; and for shame, either give over
complaining that men are of so many minds, and profess
yourselves the enemies of unity and peace ; or else give over
your damning, and dividing course, and yield to the Spirit
of Christ, that would unite you to his body, and walk in com-
munion with his saints : And let not these warnings be here-
after a witness against you to your confusion, which are in-
tended for your salvation, and the healing of our discords,
by
An unworthy Servant of Jesus Christ, for the calling
and edifying of his members,
RICHARD BAXTER.
December 10, 1659.
.379
CATHOLIC UNITY.
EPHESIANS iv. 3.
Endeavouring to keep the unitij of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
It seems that unity and felicity are near kin, in that the
world is so like affected to them both. As our felicity is iu
God, and we lost it by falling from God, so our unity is in
God, and we lost it by departing from this Centre of unity.
And as all men have still a naturtil desire after felicity in
general; but God who is their felicity, they neither know nor
desire, so have we still a natural desire after unity in itself con-
sidered ; but God who is our unity, is little known or desired
by the most. And as nature can perceive the evil of misery
which is contrary to felicity, and cry out against it, and yet
doth cherish the certain causes of it, and will not be per-
suaded to let them go ; so nature can perceive the evil of
division, which is contrary to unity, and cry out against it,
and yet will not forbear the causes of division. And there-
fore as we say of felicity, Nature by philosophy seeks it ;
Divinity findeth it, and Religion possesseth it: so we may
say of true unity ; Philosophy or nature seeks it. Divinity
findeth it, and Religion or holiness possesseth it. And as
most of the world do miss of felicity, for all their high esteem
of it, and fall into misery, for all their hatred of it, because
they love not the object and way of felicity, and hate not
the matter and way of misery. Even so most of the world
do miss of unity, for all their high esteem of unity, and fall
into miserable distractions and divisions for all their hatred
of divisions, because they love not the centre and way of
unity, and hate not the occasion and causes of division.
And as the very reason why the most are shut out of happi-
ness, is their own wilful refusing of the true matter and
means of happiness, and no one could undo them but them-
selves, for all that they are loath to be undone : even so
the very reason why the world attaineth not to unity, is their
own wilful refusing of the true centre and means of unity;
and it is themselves that are the wilful causes of their own
divisions, even when they cry out against divisions. And
as there is no way to happiness, but by turning to God from
380 CATHOLIC UNITY.
whom we fell, that in him we may be happy ; and no way to
God but by Jesus Christ as the Saviour, and the Holy Ghost
as the Sanctifier ; so there is no way to true unity, but by
turning to God that we may be one in him; and no way to
him, but being united to Christ, and being quickened by that
one most Holy Spirit that animateth his members. And yet
as poor souls do weary themselves in vain, in seeking felicity
in their own ways and devices ; so they do deceive them-
selves in seeking unity in ways that are quite destructive to
unity. One thinks that we must be united in the Pope, and
another in a General Council ; another saith, we shall never
have unity till the magistrate force us all one way ; and yet
they would not be forced from their own way. Another
turns atheist, or infidel, or impious, by observing the divi-
sions that be among Christians, and saith, ' It is this Scrip-
ture, and religion, and Christ, that hath set the world toge-
ther by the ears ; and we shall never have unity till we all
live according to nature, and cast off the needless cares
and fears of another life:' And thus the miserable, deluded
world are groping in the dark after unity and felicity, while
both are at hand, and they wickedly reject them ; and many
of them become so mad, as to run away from God, from
Christ, from the Spirit, as if He were the cause of misery and
division, who is the only Centre of felicity and unity. And
thus as it is but few that arrive at happiness for all their desire
of it, so it is but few that attain to unity ; to such a unity as
is worth the attaining to.
I dare presume to take it for granted, that all you that
hear me this day, would fain have divisions taken away, and
have unity, and concord, and peace through the world. What
say you? would you not have us all of one mind, and of one
religion? And would you not fain have an agreement, if it
might be, through all the world ? I am confident you would.
But you little think that it is you, and such as you, that are
the hinderers of it. All the question is. What mind that is
that all should be one in? And what religion that is that all
men should agree in? Every man would have all men of one
mind, and one religion ; but then it must be of his mind, and
of his religion ; and so we are never the nearer an agreement.
Well ! what would you give now to be certainly told the
only way to unity and agreement ? There is but one way ;
when you have sought about as long as you will, you must
CATHOLIC UxMTT. ;)8I
come to thatoneway, or you will be never the nearer it. What
would you give to know undoubtedly, which is that one way !
O that the world were but willing to know it, and to follow
it when they know it. Well ! I dare promise you from the
information of the Holy Ghost, here given us in this text, that
now I have read to you, to tell you the only way to true unity;
and blessed is he that learneth it, and walketh in it.
This text is a precept containing the work required of us,
with its double object; the one the means to the other. The
next verse is an exposition of this. As the natural man hath
one body, and one soul, which constitute it a man, so the
church which is the mystical body of Christ, is one body,
consisting of many members united by one Spirit. Every
commonwealth or political body, hath, 1. Its constituent
causes that give it its being and its unity; and, 2. Its ad-
ministration and preserving causes, as laws, execution, obe-
dience, &c., that exercise and preserve, and perfect its being.
The constitutive cause is the sovereign and the subject con-
joined in their relation. So is it with the church, which is a
political body, but of a transcendent kind of policy. The
constitutive causes of the church, are Christ and the members
united in one Spirit: and this is the final part of the duty here
required, "to keep the unity of the Spirit." The preserving
cause is the peaceable behaviour of the members : and this
is the mediate duty here required "in thebond of peace." Our
own endeavours are hereto required; because as every natural
body must be eating and drinking, and fit exercise and usage
be a cause of its own preservation, and not forbear these
under pretence of trusting the all-sufficiency of God; and as
every political body, must by government and arms, in case
of need, preserve themselves under God ; so must the body
of Christ, the church, be diligent in using their best endea-
vours to preserve the being and wellbeing of the whole.
So that you see here are two causes of the church's unity
expressed: 1. The principal constitutive cause, in which our
unity consisteth ; and that is, " the Spirit." 2. The preserving
cause, by which our unity is cherished, and that is " peace,"
which therefore is called "the bond "of it. The fifth and sixth
verses do open this unity of Spirit in its parts, effects, and
ends. " There is one hope of our calling," that is, one heaven
or life eternal, which is the end of our Christianity and church
constitution. " There is one Lord," Jesus Christ ; one head,
382 CATHOLIC UNITY.
one Saviour, one sovereign Redeemer, to whom by this Spirit
the members are all united. " Theie is one faith," both one
sum of holy doctrine, which all that will be saved must be-
lieve which was used to be professed by the adult at bap-
tism, and one internal saving faith, which this Spirit causeth
in our spirits, and useth it as a means of our union with
.Christ, in whom we do believe. " There is one baptism," or
solemn covenanting with God the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost ; and the same promise there to be made by all. And
" there is one God the Father of all," from whom we fell, and
to whom we must be recovered, and who is the end of all, and
to whom Christ and all these means are the way. So that
all these are implied in, and conjunct with the " unity of
the Spirit."
The sense of the text then briefly is this : As all the living
true members of Christ and the church, have one Spirit, and
so one faith, by which they are all united to Christ the head,
and so to the Father in and by him ; which union in one
Spirit is your very life, and it that constituteth you true
members of Christ and his church ; so it must be your care
and great endeavour to preserve this Spirit in you, and this
vital unity, which by this Spirit you have with Christ and
one another : and the way to preserve it, is by the bond of
peace among yourselves.' It is here evident then, that all
the members of Christ and his body, have one Spirit, and in
that is their union. All the question is, What Spirit this is ?
And that is left past all doubt in the chapter ; for though
the common gifts of the Spirit are sometimes called by that
name, yet these are no farther meant in the text than as
appurtenances or additions to greater gifts. As godliness
hath the promise of the common mercies of this life, as well
as of the special mercies of the life to come; but yet with
great difference, the latter being absolutely promised, and
the former but limited, so far as God sees best for us: even
so the Spirit gave to the members of the church both sanc-
tifying grace, and common gifts; but with great difference;
giving sanctification to all, and only the members of Christ ;
but giving common gifts also to some others, and to them
but with limitation, for sort, and season, and measure, and
continuance, as God shall see good. It is then the same
Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier, into whose name we are bap-
tized, as well as into the name of the Father and Son, and in
CATHOLIC UNITY. :i83
whom we all profess to believe, that is here meant in my
text. And it is only the sanctified that are the people united
to Christ, and to one another. This is proved expressly by
that which foUoweth. It is those that have the " one hope,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God the Father." (ver.
6, 7.) It is the saints and body of Christ that are to be
perfected by the ministry, (ver. 12.) It is those that must
come in the unity of faith, and knowledge of the Son of God
to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ ; and that grow up in all things in Christ the head :
It is the body that is united to him, and compacted in love,
and edifieth itself in love. (ver. 13. 15, 16.) It is those that
have so learned Christ, as to put off the old man that is
corrupt, and are renewed in the spirit of their minds, and
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteous-
ness and true holiness." (ver. 20 — 24.) If therefore any
words be plain, it is plain that it is true saints only that are
here spoken of, that.have the " unity of Spirit," which they
must preserve in the " bond of peace." And therefore I shall
make this observation the ground of my discourse.
Doct. • The true unity of the catholic church of Christ
consisteth in this, that they have all one sanctifying Spirit
within them.'
By the Holy Ghost within them they are all united to
Christ and to one another: by this one Spirit they are all made
saints, or a holy people, having one heaven for the matter
of their hopes, one Christ their head, one sum of Christian
doctrine, which they believe, containing all the essentials of
Christian faith ; and one living principle of faith to believe it ;
one solemn covenant with Christ; and one God the Father,
their end and all.
It is only the sanctified that have true Christian unity ;
and it is unholiness or ungodliness that is the cause of the
miserable divisions of the world. Now, sirs, you see the
only way to unity: even to have one sanctifying Spirit
within us, and be all a holy people, and there is no way
but this. Now you see the principal cause of division;
even unholiness, and refusing the Spirit of grace.
In handling this point, I. I shall give you some proposi-
tions that are necessary for the fuller understanding of it.
II. I shall demonstrate the point to you by a fuller evidence
of reason. III. I shall make application of it.
384 CATHOLIC UNITY.
I. P/vp. 1. Though it be only the sanctified that have
the true union of members with Christ and the body; yet
all that make profession of sanctification, and null not that
profession: have an extrinsic, analogical union in profession:
as the wooden or dead leg is united to the body, and the
dead branch to the vine. And so even hypocrites must not
only dwell among us, but be of the same visible church with
us, as the chaff and tares are of the same corn field. And
as long as they seem saints we must value them and use
them as saints, and love them, and have communion with
them as saints : not as conceiving them certainly to be such,
but probably, and by that human faith, by which we are
bound to believe their profession ; not as we believe God,
who is infallible, but as men that are fallible ; and this in
several degrees, according to the several degrees of their
credibility, and the probability of their profession. So that
you must not after this mistake me, as if I tied our external
church-communion only to true saints ; for then we must
have communion with none; because being not able to search
the hearts, we know not what professors are sincere. But
yet even this external church-communion belongs only to
them that make profession of love and holiness, as well as
of belief; and no lower profession must serve the turn.
Prop. 2. There is a common unity of human nature that
we have with all men, and a common peace, that as much
as in us lieth we must hold with all. (Rom. xii. 18.) But
this is nothing to the unity in question, which belongeth to
our happiness. The devils have a unity of nature, and some
order and accord in evil ; for if " Satan be divided, how
can his kingdom stand?" (Matt. xii. 26.)
Prop. 3. The unity of the saints in the spirit of holiness,
consisteth in this life with much imperfection and discord,
according to the imperfection of their holiness. But as
grace is the seed of glory, and the beginning of eternal life,
•for all its weakness, and the sins that accompany it, (John
xvii. 3,) so the unity of the Spirit of holiness is the seed and
beginning of the perfect unity in heaven, for all the differ-
ences and discord that here accompany it.
II. Having shewed you the only bond of unity, I come
now by fuller evidence, to convince you of the truth of what
is said, and even to force it into your understandings, if you
will but use your reason, and believe the word of God. It
CATHOLIC UNITY. 385
is unholiness and ungodliness that causeth our discord ; and
it is the spirit of holiness that is the uniting principle; and
there is no true Christian unity to be had with ungodly men :
never think of unity by any other way than sanctification :
You are as on the other side of the river, and cannot be
united to the servants of Christ till the Spirit convert you,
and pass you over. You are dead men, and unfit to be
united to the living ; and it is the " Spirit that quickeneth,"
and this life must be our union. You madly rail against
division, and yet stand at a distance from Christ and his
church, and maintain the greatest division in the world. Be-
lieve it, you do but doat and dream, if you think to have true
Christian unity on any other terms, than by the sanctifying
Spirit of Christ. And this I shall now evince as foUoweth.
1. You know surely that there can be no Christian unity,
but in God as your Father, and the centre of unity : All the
true members of the catholic church must say " Our Father,"
and be as his children united in him. If you will have unity
without the favour of God, it must be the unity of rebels,
and such a concord as is in hell : the family of God do all
unite in him. As all the kingdom is united in one king, so
is all the church in God. Can you think it possible to have
unity as long as you will not unite in God? Well then,
there is nothing plainer in the Scripture, than that all men
by nature are departed from God, and none are united to him
but those that are regenerate and made new creatures ; not
a man is his child by grace, and in his favour, but only those
that are sanctified by his Spirit. (John iii. 3 — 5 ; Matt, xviii.
3 ; 2 Cor. v. 17 ; Heb. xii. 14.) So that there is no true unity
without sanctification, because there is no reconciliation
with God, nor unity with him, without it.
2. There can be no true Christian unity but in Christ the
Redeemer and Head of the Church : For how can the mem-
bers be united but in the head? Or the scholars but in their
teacher? Or the subjects but in their sovereign? You know
there is no Christian unity but in Christ. Well then. What
unity can we have with those that are not in Christ? The
unsanctified have indeed the name of Christians ; but what is
that to the nature ? Some branches not bearing fruit are said
to be in him the Vine, by outward profession : but they are
dead and withered, and must be cut off and cast away for
VOL. XVI. c c
.386 CATHOLIC UNITY.
the fire ; and so are unfit for communion with the Vine.
(John XV.) " He that is in Christ is a new creature : old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
(2 Cor. V. 17.) " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
(which is this sanctifying Spirit) the same is none of his."
1 pray you mark the plainness of these passages. All you
that are unconverted and unsanctified are out of Christ, and
none of his, though you may talk and boast of him as long
as you will. And, therefore you cannot have unity with
Christians till you will first have unity with Christ himself.
Till you are ingrafted into him, you are not ingrafted into
the catholic church, but only seem to be what you are not.
3. The dead cannot be united to the living : Who will
be married to a dead corpse ? Or would be tied to it, and
carry it about? It is life that must unite us. The unsancti-
fied are dead in sin, (Ephes. ii. 5,) and the Spirit is given to
quicken the dead, that they may be fit for converse. What
union can there be between a block and a man ; or a beast
that hath but a sensitive life, and a man that hath a rational
soul ? So what union between the sensual world and the
sanctified believer? If you could have unity without the
Sanctifying Spirit, why are you then baptized into the name
of the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier? To have a unity of
being is common to us with the devils ; for they are God's
creatures, and so are we. To have a union of specific being
is common to us with all the damned, for they are men as
well as we ; and common to the devils among themselves.
But it must be a unity in the Spirit of holiness that must
prove us happy, and afford us comfort.
4. There is no possibility of having unity with those
that have not the same ultimate principal end. But the
sanctified and the unsanctified have not the same end, nay,
have contrary ends. If one of you will go to York, and the
other to London, how can you possibly go one way? This
is the great difference that sets the world and the sanctified
by the ears : You serve mammon, and they serve God : you
have one portion, and they another : your portion is in this
life. (Psalm xvii. 14.) Here you have your good things,
(Luke xvi. 25,) and here you lay up your treasure. (Matt,
vi. 19, 21.) Your belly is your god, and you mind earthly
things. (Philip, iii. 18.) But it is the Lord that is the
CATHOLIC UNITY. t}S7
portion of the saints. (Psal. xvi. 5.) They lay up a trea-
sure in heaven, (Matt. vi. 20,) and there they have their
conversations. (Philip, iii. 20.) Being risen with Christ,
they seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at
the right hand of God; for they are dead, and their life is
hid with Christ in God. (Col. iii. 1. 3, 4.) The business
that the saints, and that the ungodly have in the world, is
clean contrary. Their business is for heaven, and yours is
for earth ; they are sowing to the Spirit, in hope of everlast-
ing life, and you are sowing to the flesh, and shall reap cor-
ruption. (Gal. vi. 6, 7.) They are making provision for
another life, that never shall have end ; and you are making
provision for the flesh, to satisfy its desires. (Rom. xiii. 14.)
And how is it possible for these to be united? What con-
cord between light and darkness? Or Christ and Belial? Or
righteousness with unrighteousness? (2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.)
" Can two walk together, except they be agreed? " (Amos
iii. 3.) We must better agree of our business in the world,
and of our journey's end, before we can keep company with
you. While you are for earth and we for heaven, it is not
possible that we should go one way. While one is for the
world, and another for God, they must needs differ: for
God and the world are masters that are irreconcileable. If
you will cleave to one, you must despise the other.
The work of the butcher and the soldier is to kill ; and
the work of the surgeon and physician is to cure. And do
you think these will ever take one course? The soldier
studies how to wound and kill : the surgeon studies how to
close these wounds and heal them : and surely these must
go contrary ways. Sirs, as long as your business is prin-
cipally for the flesh and the world, and the business of the
sanctified is against the flesh and world, and for the Spirit
and the world to come, how is it possible that you should
be agreed? You must bring heaven and earth together first;
yea, heaven and hell together first, before you can have a
Christian unity and agreement between the sanctified and
the unsanctified. •
5. There is no unity to be had, but in the Gospel. The
apostle tells us, " there is one faith." (Eph. iv, 5.) If an
angel from heaven would preach another Gospel, he must
be accursed. (Gal. i. 10, 11.) But the unsanctified do not
truly and heartily entertain this Gospel. You think and say
388 CATHOLIC UNITY.
you truly believe it, when you do not. If you truly believed
it, your lives would shew it. He that indeed believes an
everlasting glory, will surely look after it, more than after
the world or the flesh.
6. There is no Christian unity, but in the Christian na-
ture. Contrary natures cannot close. Fire and water, the
wolf and the lamb, the bear and the dog, will not well unite.
The sanctified have a new, divine and heavenly nature. (John
iii. 6 ; 2 Pet. i. 4 ; 2 Cor. v. 17.) Their disposition is another
way than it was before. But the unsanctified have the old
corrupt fleshly nature still : one is as the fire, still bending
upward ; the other as the earth or stone, still bending down-
ward to the earth : And how can these agree together?
7. There is no Christian unity to be had, where the affec-
tions run quite contrary ways. But so it is with the sancti-
fied and the unsanctified. One loves God above all, and
cannot live without holy communion with him, and retireth
into him from the distractions of the world, andmaketh him
his rest, content, and solace : the other mentions the good-
ness of God, but findeth no such sweetness in him, nor de-
sires after him. One tr&ads a world underfoot as dirt, or
valueth and useth it but as the help to heaven : and the other
makes it his happiness, and sets his heart on it. One de-
lighteth in holiness, and the other hateth it, or regardeth it
not. One hateth sin as a serpent, or as death ; and the other
makes it his meat, and drink, and business. And how is it
possible for men of such contrary affections to be agreed,
and nature at such enmity to unite ?
8. The sanctified and unsanctified are moved by contrary
objects : one lives by faith on things that are out of sight,
and strives for heaven as if he saw it, and strives against
hell as if he saw it; for his " faith is the evidence of things
not seen." (Heb. xi. 1. 7.) " We live by faith, and not by
sight. (2 Cor. v. 7 ; 2 Cor. iv. 18.) But the unsanctified live
upon things that are seen, and things believed little move
them, because they are not heartily believed.
9. The hol^ and the unholy do live by contrary laws.
One liveth by the law of God, and there asketh counsel what
he must think, or say, or do, resolving to obey God, before
his flesh, and all the world. The other will say, he will be
ruled by God's laws, till his flesh and carnal interest con-
tradict it, and then he will take his lusts for his law: his
CATHOLIC UNITY. 389
pride is a law to him, and the pleasures and profits of the
world are a law to him ; and the will of great ones, and the
customs of men are his law. And how is it possible for men
to agree that walk by such contrary rules as these?
10. There is no true unity but in the covenant with
Christ. As marriage uniteth man and wife, so every truly
sanctified man hath delivered up himself to Christ in a pe-
remptory absolute covenant, and hath quit all claim of inte-
rest in himself, and is wholly God's. But the unsanctified
will not be brought to this, any further than the lips, and
therefore they cannot be well united.
11. The true members of the church are " built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets," (Eph. ii. 20,21.)
Butthe unsanctified regard them not,if they cross theirminds.
12. There is no true Christian unity, but with the holy
catholic church. The body is but one. (1 Cor. xii. 12, 13;
Eph. iv. 4.) But the unsanctified are not of the holy catholic
church, but only in the visible external communion of it.
13. There can be no true Christian unity with the saints,
without a special love to the saints. For by this " we know
that we are passed from death to life, because we love the
brethren ; he that loveth not his brother abideth in death."
(1 John iii. 14.) " By this must all men know that we are
Christ's disciples." (John xiii. 35.) Love is the bond and
cement of the church. He that doth not heartily love a godly,
sanctified man, because he is such, hath no true unity with
the church. But the ungodly love them not as such : they
see no such beauty and loveliness in holiness. Though
Scripture calls it God's image, they be not in love with
God's image, but think it a conceit, or hypocritical pre-
tence, or a wearisome thing. Why ! poor carnal wretches,
do you hate the godly, and yet would you have unity with
them? Do you hate them, and yet cry out against divisions,
when your hearts are thus divided from God and his servants ?
You must learn to love them with a special love, and Christ
in them, before you can be united with them.
14. There is no unity to be had without a love to the
body that you are united to. You must love the church,
and long for its prosperity, and the success of the' Gospel,
and the downfal of wickedness. Thus do the saints ; but
thus do not the ungodly. Nay, many of them are glad
when they hear of any evil befal the godly.
3D0 CATHOLIC UNITY.
15. There is no unity without a singular respect to the
special members that are ligaments and chief instruments
of unity ; even the officers of the church and most useful
members. The overseers of the church must " be highly
esteemed in love for their work sake." (1 Thess. v. 12.)
Thus do the godly, but not the ungodly.
16. There must be an inward inclination to the com-
munion of saints, before there can be any agreement and
unity. All that are of the holy catholic church, must desire
the communion of saints. Their " delight must be in them."
(Psalm xvi. 3.) But the ungodly have no such delight in
their communion.
17. If you will have unity and communion with the
church, you must have a love to the holy ordinances, which
are the means of communion ; as to the word of God, heard
and read, to prayer, sacraments, confession, &,c. ; but the un-
godly either have a distaste of these, or but a common delight
in the outside, and not in the spirit of the ordinance. And,
therefore, they cannot agree with the church ; when you
loathe that which is our meat and drink, and we cannot feed
at one table together, what an agreement can there be ?
18. If you will agree, you must work in the same vine-
yard, and labour in the same employment, and walk the
same way as the sanctified do : And that is in the way of
holiness and righteousness, " giving all diligence to make
your calling and election sure." (2 Pet. 1. 10.) If you live
to the flesh, and they live to the Spirit, (Rom. viii. 5, 13,)
What unity and agreement can there be?
19. There is no unity to be had, unless you will join in
a defensive and offensive league, and in opposition to that
which would tend to our destruction. What commonwealth
-will unite with them that defend their enemies and rebels ?
There is an enmity put in the beginning between the seed
of the woman and of the serpent. (Gen. iii. 15.) " Because
we are not of the world, the world hate us." (John xv. 19.)
If you will be united to the church and people of Christ,
you must be at enmity with sin, and hate it, and join for
the destroying of it ; and you must be soldiers in Christ's
army, which the devil and his army fight against; and you
must fight against the flesh, the world, and the devil, and
not live in friendship with them. But this the unsanctified
will not do.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 391
20. And therefore because you will not be united to them
in the state and kingdom of grace, you shall not be united
with them in the state and kingdom of glory.
And thus I have made it plain to you, that none can
have true union with the church of Christ, but only they
that are sanctified by the Spirit.
Use 1. By this time you may see, if you are willing to
see, who it is long of that the world is all in pieces by di-
visions, and who are the greatest hinderers of unity. Even
unsanctified, ungodly men. And you may see how fit these
men are to cry out against divisions, that are the principal
causes of them : and how wisely they deal to cry up unity,
and in the meantime resist the only ground and way of
unity : As Joshua said to Achan, " Why hast thou troubled
us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day;" (Jos. vii. 25 ;)
So I may say to all the ungodly, ' Why trouble you the
church, and hinder unity ? You shall one day have trouble
yourselves for this.' They cry out against the ministry and
others that fear God, as Ahab did to Elijah, " Art thou he
that troubleth Israel?" But saith Elijah, " It is thou and
thy father's house that trouble Israel, in that ye have for-
saken the commandments of the Lord." (1 Kings xvii. 17,
18.) Sirs, I tell you, (and I may confidently tell you when
I have proved it so fully,) that it is the ungodly that are the
great dividers of the world. It is you that make the breach,
and keep it open. We are willing to agree to any thing
that is reasonable or possible ; but there is no possibility of
agreeing with the ungodly, unless they will turn. It would
make any honest heart to ache, to see these wretches set all
on fire, and then cry out against others as the authors of it.
As Nero set Rome on fire, and then persecuted the Chris-
tians for it, as if it had been done by them. They pluck up
the foundations, and hold most damnable, practical errors ;
and when they have done, they go about reviling other men
as erroneous. I speak not in the excuse or extenuation of
other men's errors : I have spoke my part against them also :
but I tell you, it is the profane and ignorant rabble, and all
the ungodly, whether gentlemen,scholars,or of what rank so-
ever, that are the great dividers, and stand at the greatest
distance from Christian unity. O what a happy church
should we have, for all the sects that trouble us so much, if
it were not for ungodliness that animateth some of those
^"^^ CATHOLIC LNITV.
sects, and virtually containeth many more ! Had we none
but men fearing God to deal with, we should have no oppo-
sition to the essentials of religion ; and we should still have
the comfort of agreeing with them in all things necessary to
salvation. They would carry on their differences in Chris-
tian meekness, charity and moderation ; and at the worst
our agreement would be greater than our disagreement.
But when we have to deal with haters of holiness, or at
least with men that are strangers to the sanctifying work of
the Spirit, we have predominant pride, and selfishness, and
covetousness to strive against: We have radicated infidelity,
and enmity to God and holiness, giving life and strength to
all their errors, and making them stubborn, and wilful, and
scornful, against the clearest truths that can be shewed
them. There is no dealing effectually with a carnal heart,
for any but God himself. Unless we can create light in
them, as well as reveal the truth to them, what good can we
do them? What good doth the sun to a man that is blind ?
They have understandings left, and therefore they can err ;
but they have no heavenly light in them, and therefore they
cannot choose but err. They have wills, and therefore are
capable of sin ; but they have no holy rectitude of them,
and therefore sin they will with obstinacy. When we dis-
pute with the godly, that err through weakness, we deal with
men that have eyes in their heads, and life in their souls,
and some savour and experience of the matters of God. But
when we dispute with the ungodly, we deal with the blind,
we talk to the dead, we offer the bread of life to men that
have no appetite or savour of it ; yea, we speak for God, to
enemies of God ; and for truth, to the natural enemies of
such truths; and the more obstinate enemies, because they
know it not. Had we nothing but mistakes to argue against,
and had we but to do with men that have the free use of
their reason, we should do well enough with them. But
when we must persuade the deaf, the distracted, and the
dead ; when we must dispute with pride, and passion, and
enmity, and persuade a lion to become a lamb, and a ser-
pent to lay by his venom, no wonder if we find a difficult
task of it. tiad we none but the godly to deal with, we
should have abundant advantage for success; we should
deal with men that love the truth, and are willing to use right
means to discover it : they would pray with us ibr truth, as
CATHOLIC UNIl Y. 393
well as dispute; they would with meekness search the
Scripture, and see whether these things be so or not: they
would yield to light when it appeareth to them, and not im-
prison it in unrighteousness. And it would move us to
more tender dealing with them, while we see and love Christ
in them, and when we remember that the men that we now
dispute with, we must live with in heaven, and join with in
the everlasting praises of the Lord. I profess, sirs, I speak
to you from sad experience, I have been troubled with Anti-
nomians, and Anabaptists, and other errors in well-meaning-
men, as much as most: and many a day's work they have
made me in writing and disputing against them. But, alas!
this is nothing to the trouble that the profane, ungodly do
put me to. I thank God I have dealt with all these errors
with so good success, that I live in peace by them ; and I
know not of an Anabaptist, or Socinian, or Arminian, or
Quaker, or Separatist, or any such sect in the town where I
live ; except half a dozen Papists that never heard me.
But infidels, atheists, ungodly wretches, I am pestered with
still : one heresy called drunkenness, that denieth the use
of reason itself, doth still walk the streets in despite of all
that I can say, or all that the magistrates will do ; and none
of us all are able to confute them. In one hour's time they
will fetch more arguments from the alehouse, than all the
reason in the town can effectually answer.
And as the ungodly are most desperately principled, of
any heretics in the world, both for the quality and the radi-
cation of their errors ; so there are far greater numbers of
them, than of all other heresies set together. It may be we
have one or two Anabaptists in a parish, and in some pa-
rishes none ; in some few it may be twenty : but O that I
could say, I had not twenty, and twenty, and twenty, and
twice twenty more, unsanctified, ungodly persons in my
parish, though I hope there are as many better, as in any pa-
rish I know. Alas, sirs, into how many parishes may you
go, and find gross ignorance, profaneness, worldliness, con-
tempt of God and heavenly things, to be their common air
which they breathe in, and the natural complexion of the
inhabitants, as blackness is to the ^Ethiopians. It is a
blessed parish, that of three thousand inhabitants, hath not
above two thousand natural heretics, even ungodly persons
that are strangers to sanctification. And who then do you
394 CATHOLIC UNITY.
think is most likely to be the cause of our distractions and
divisions?
Moreover, let me tell you, profaneness and ungodliness
is not a single error or heresy ; but it is the sum of all the
heresies in the world. You will think this strange, when
you see so many that join with us in a sound profession,
and some of them zealous defenders of the truth ; and many
of them cry out against errors : but, alas! they believe not
that which they think they do believe. They hold not that
which they say they hold. There is much in their creed,
that was nev^r in their belief. Doubtless ungodliness is the
nest of all the heresies in the world.
Will you give me leave to instance in some particulars.
The greatest error in the world is atheism, when men deny
the Godhead itself. And do not the most of the ungodly
deny him in their hearts ? If he be not just, he is not God ;
and they deny and hate his justice : If he be not holy, he is
not God ; and they deny in their hearts, and hate his holi-
ness : If he be not true, he is not God; and they commonly
believe that he is not true. Shew them where he hath said,
that none but the converted, the sanctified, the regenerate,
the heavenly, the self-denying shall be saved ; and they will
not believe that this will be made good, but hope it is false.
If he be not wise, and be not the Governor of the world, he
is not God. And these wretches quarrel with his holy laws,
as if they could tell how to mend them themselves, and
were wiser to make a law than God is ; and by flat rebellion
deny his government. So that we may truly say with
David, (Psal. xiv,) that these fools say in their hearts, that
" There is no God ;" or else they durst not say and do in his
presence as they do.
Moreover, idolatry, which is the setting up of false gcds,
is a most abominable, damning sin. And every ungodly
man is guilty of it. Covetousness is idolatry, (Ephes. v. 5,)
and the sensual make their belly their God. (Phil. iii. 19.)
And pride and selfishness, which are the heart of the old
man, are nothing else but making ourselves our idols.
Every unsanctified man is his own idol ; giving to himself
the honour, and pleasure, and love that is due to God alone;
and setting up his own will instead of God's.
Polytheism, which is the feigning of many gods, is a
most damnable error : And how many gods have all that are
CATHOLIC UNITY. 395
ungodly ! No man departeth from the one true God, but
he makes to himself many false gods in his stead. His
wealth, and his credit, and his throat, and his recreations,
and the rulers that are capable of hurting him, are all as his
gods, and to them he gives that which is due to God only.
Infidelity is one of the most damning errors in the
world; when men believe not in Christ that bought them:
but this is the case of all the unsanctified. An opinion they
have that the Gospel is true ; and Christ is the only Lord
and Saviour ; but infidelity is predominant in them, and
therefore should denominate them ; or else they should be
saved, if they were true believers. Never did they give an
hour's true entertainment to Christ in their hearts.
To set up a false Christ, is one of the most damning sins
in the world. And what else do all the ungodly, that place
their hopes for pardon and salvation, either in their own
good works or carnal shifts, or at least, by false conceptions
do make Christ not indeed to be Christ ?
To have many saviours, is a damnable error. And how
many do the ungodly make to themselves, while they depart
from the Lord Christ ?
To deny the Holy Ghost, is a damnable error. And
what else dq all the ungodly in the world, that will not be
sanctified by him? This is the most palpable error that
they are guilty of: They are baptized into the name of the
Holy Ghost as their Sanctifier, and yet they will not be
sanctified by him : nay, some of them make a mock of the
Spirit, and of sanctification. And some of them will hearken
to false, deceiving spirits, instead of the Holy Spirit of God.
Some heretics have denied some parts of the Scripture,
and infidels deny it all. And what less do all ungodly men,
that believe it not heartily, and will not obey it, but deny it
in parts, and refuse subjection to it? They will not be so
holy, not they, let the Scripture say what it will. Are not
all the ungodly against the Scripture? Many a time have I
heard them, when the times more encouraged them, deriding
the Bible, and those that did but carry a Bible, or speak of
the Scripture, or read it in their houses. Certainly, he that
fights against the Scripture in his life, is more against it
than he that only denies it with his tongue.
Moreover, the Pelagian heretics denied original sin, and
justified man's nature : and so doth profaneness in a very
396 CATHOLIC UNITY.
great measure. Never were the ungodly truly humbled for
their original sin, nor saw any such matter in themselves,
as to make them abhor themselves : And what is this but
actually to deny it?
The same Pelagians made light of grace, which is God's
image upon the soul. But in this the ungodly go quite be-
yond them: they make a matter of nothing of holiness, but
account it a fancy, or a needless thing ; and many of them
hate it, and if the times did but favour their malice, there
were no living near them for any that fear God : In this they
are devils in flesh ; I cannot liken them to any heresy, but
devilism, they go so far beyond the professors of them all.
One sect is against those that are their opposers, and
another sect against their opposers; but ungodliness is
against all that are godly of every party whatsoever ; and
is in open arms or secret enmity against the army of Christ,
and against himself.
The Simonians, and Nicolaitans, and Gnostics of old,
did hold that men might do any outward action, when there
is no other way to escape suffering, as long as they keep
their hearts to God. So think the ungodly, as appeareth
by their practice : Before they will lose their estates and be
brought to poverty, or before they will lie in prison, or be
burnt at a stake, they will say any thing, or do any thing :
they would worship a piece of bread as if it were God ;
they would turn to Papists or any that can do them a mis-
chief, if it were the Turks.
Alas ! the particular sects among us, do play a small
game in comparison of the ungodly ; and hold but petty
errors to theirs : one sect is against one ordinance, and an-
other sect is against another ordinance; but the ungodly
are against all. The sectaries are against something in the
manner or outside of the work, but the ungodly are against
the spirit and life, and substance of the duty itself: one sect
depraveth the doctrine of faith; and another the doctrine of
repentance, and another the doctrine of obedience : but the
ungodly deprave all the doctrine of holiness ; yea, deny it,
and not only deprave it : they sweep away all before them,
and go by wholesale : they stand not to speak as other
heretics, against this grace or that grace, but against all :
it is godliness itself that the ungodly are against.
The sectaries oppose all parts of the catholic church.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 397
saving their own: but the ungodly are against the holy
catholic church itself; as it is a church, and as it is holy,
they are against it. The church is a society combined for
holy obedience to Christ; and the ungodly are against that
holy obedience.
The sectaries would have no communion of saints, but in
their own way. But the ungodly are against the communion
of saints in itself; for they are against the saints that hold
this communion.
The Papists and Quakers are against our ministry, and
rail at them, and labour to bring them into hatred. So do
the worst sort of the ungodly, even of them that say they
are Protestants, and of our religion. In their houses, and in
the alehouses, in their ordinary discourse, they are cavilling
against the ministers, or reproaching them : and some of
them are more bitter haters and revilers of them, than almost
any heretics that we meet with : yea, some of them are glad
to hear the Quakers and Anabaptists reproach them, and
secretly set them on : only they are ashamed to own these
revilers, because they see them come off in the end with so
much disgrace. But if they were but sure that Papists, or
Quakers, or any sect that is against a godly ministry, had
power in their hands to go through with their work, the
multitude of the ungodly among us would soon join with
them. How plainly did this appear in our late wars? When
few ministers of noted diligence and piety, that desired to
have lived at home in quietness, could be suffered to live
among them ; but the ungodly rise up against them as if
they had been Turks or Jews, and drove them into garrisons
to save their lives. The Separatists and Quakers, and other
sects, dispute against the ministry with cavils and railings ;
but the ungodly would dispute them down with halters and
hatchets, if the merciful Governor of the world did not tie
their hands.
The Quakers, and many Anabaptists and Separatists, are
against tithes, and all settled maintenance of the ministry.
And do I need to tell you, that the ungodly, covetous world-
lings are of the same mind? What need had ministers else
to sue for their tithes ? Were it not for fear of treble da-
mages, the ministers in many parishes of England would not
have bread to their mouths, nor clothes to their backs, be-
398 CATHOLIC uisriTy.
fore they got it by suit at law. How commonly do thev
think that all is won, and is currently their own, that they
can but defraud the minister of? If it were not that they
are under disgrace, the Quakers would soon have disciples
enough upon this very account, because they are against
tithes. And gladly do the ungodly covetous people hearken
to that doctrine, and get their books, and would fain have
that opinion take as orthodox. If the prince and parliament
would but turn Quakers, and cry down tithes, yea, and mi-
nistry too, the miserable ungodly multitude would quickly
be of that religion, and entertain their laws with ringing of
bells, and shouts, and bonfires.
Another heresy there is, even the old sect of Anabap-
tists, that are against Christian magistracy ! And another
heresy, the Libertines, that would have the magistrates give
men leave to sin. And are not all the profane of the same
opinion ! They dare not speak so freely indeed against the
magistrates as against the ministry, unless when they are up
in arms against him, but their very hearts detest that magis-
trate that takes part with godliness, and promotes religion,
and puts down alehouses, and punisheth swearers, and
profaners of the Lord's-day. They are commonly for the
doctrine that Dell preached to the Parliament, that ' They
should let Christ alone with reformation, and let him do his
work himself:' or as another hath written, that * He will
never serve such a God that is not able to defend his own
cause without the magistrate's sword.' The wretches might
as well have said ' We will have no such God as cannot
govern us himself without a magistrate ; or cannot defend
us against enemies without wars ; or cannot preserve our
estates without the charge and trouble of law-suits; or save
our goods or lives, without punishing thieves or murderers;
or that cannot teach the world, without ministers, or give
us corn without ploughing and sowing; we will never serve
such a God as cannot preserve our lives without meat and
drink, and clothes ; and lighten the world himself without a
sun.' God can do all this! But must these dunghill worms
impose it on him, and give him a law, and take down his
creatures and institutions, and means, and bid him do all
without them himself, or else he is no God? O wretched
blasphemers! Why how much of this blasphemy are the
CATHOLIC UNITY. 3fJ9
ungodly guilty of, that hate the magistrate, or any other that
executes God's laws, and would hinder them from sin, and
drive them to the means that should make them better!
The Antinoraians corrupt the doctrine of faith, and take
it to be a believing that their sins are pardoned, that Christ
hath even repented and believed in their stead ; and he that
hath this belief they think is safe, and that a man cannot
thus believe too much or too soon. And this is just the
common faith of the ungodly : they trust in Christ to save
and pardon them, even without sanctification or conversion;
and trust they will, let ministers say what they can : pre-
sumption is taken to be true believing, and by it they think
to be saved. They believe that God will save them, and
therefore thev think thev are true believers.
The Antinomians say, that no man should be discouraged
from such a belief by any sin whatsoever. And this the
ungodly hold and practise. The Antinomians hold that no
man should stay for any evidences of grace in himself, before
he thus believe that he is a child of God, and justified. And
this the ungodly hold and practise. They believe and hope
that they are justified and shall be saved, when they have
not a word of proof for their hopes, nor any reason why they
should be saved more than the rest of the world that will be
condemned : only they believe it and hope it, and that they
think shall serve the turn.
The Antinomians are against repenting and grieving for
sin, and confessing it, as a means of pardon. And I am sure
the ungodly are practically against it. Repent, and mourn,
and turn from sin, they will not; nor confess any more but
what they know not how to deny ; but as much as they can
they will hide it, excuse it, and defend it.
The Antinomians would not have one of their believers,
if he fall into the grossest sins, to make the least question of
his pardon and justified state for that. And so it is with the
ungodly : they will confess, when they swear or are drunk,
that they sin, (because they cannot deny it) but they will
not believe that they are graceless and unpardoned ; but all
are sinners ; and the best have their faults, and so have they;
and this is the worst they can make of their sin.
The Pelagians say, that the will of man is so free, that he
can turn and become a new creature at any time. And if
this were not the opinion of the ungodly, how could they
400 CATHOLIC UNITY.
put off conversion, and say, It is time enough hereafter : but
that it seems they think they can turn at any time, as if they
had the Spirit and grace of God at their command.
And yet they hold the contrary to this. (And this is no
wonder; for there is the very Babel of confusion in the soul
of the unsanctified.) The Antinomians say, that man can do
nothing to his own conversion, but is merely passive : If
God have justified him before he was born, he shall be a
justified person; and if God will give him grace, well and
good ; if not, he cannot help it. Just so say many of the
ungodly: 'If we are elected we shall be saved; if not, let
us do what we can, we cannot be saved : if God will not
give us grace, we cannot have it; and if we perish, what
remedy?' As if God did deny his grace to any of you, but
those that forfeit it by wilful sin ! Or as if your willing-
resisting it were no fault or forfeiture : Or as if God did
predestinate any besides the sanctified to salvation.
Abundance more such heresies I might reckon up, that
are all comprised in ungodliness. Some infidels question
the immortality of the soul : and so do many of the ungodly :
I have heard some of them flatly deny it, and others of them
do not well believe it.
Some infidels question whether there be any hell. And
so do the ungodly in their hearts, or else they dare never
so boldly venture on it, and so merrily live in the sudden
danger of it.
Some infidels question the joys of heaven. And if the
ungodly did not so in their heart, they would not think a
holy life too much ado to get it, nor would they part with it
for the pleasure of a filthy sin.
There is never an article of the Creed but some heretic or
other doth oppose it. And the ungodly are against them
altogether, even while they profess to believe them all.
There is never a one of the Ten Commandments, but
ungodliness is against it. There is never a petition in the
Lord's- prayer, but ungodliness is against it; for all that they
are content to use the words. Instead of hallowing the
name of God, they dishonour it; and instead of living to
the glory of God, they seek themselves and their own honour.
The kingdom of Christ they are enemies to : in the church
without them, they love not his government. In their hearts
within, they will not endure it ; and the coming of his glo-
catholic: unity. 401
nous kingdom they are afraid of. Instead of doing his will,
they will quarrel with it, and murmur at it, and disobey it,,
and do their own wills, and would have God do their wills
too, and have all others do them. Instead of being content
with daily bread to fit them for God's service, they drown
themselves in pleasure, or in worldly cares, to make provi-
sion to satisfy their flesh. Instead of valuing and accepting
the forgiveness of sin, as purchased by Christ, and offered
m the Gospel, they have slight apprehensions of so great a
mercy, and refuse the conditions of it as too hard, and run
deeper into debt, and wilfully sin more. Instead of avoiding
temptations, and flying to Christ for deliverance from evil,
they tempt themselves, and run into temptations, and seek
after them, and love the evil of sin, and are loath to leave it
and be delivered from it. So that they are against every
petition in the Lord's-prayer, though they use the words.
They are also against every ordinance of God, and lick
up the vomit of all sects that do oppose them. One sect is
against the Lord's-day ; and so are the ungodly against the
sanctifying of it, and spending it in holy worship, and de-
lighting themselves thereon in God. Else what need so
many acts to restrain them from sports and other profana-
tion of it? And all will not do.
Another sect is against praying but by the book, and
would have ministers restrained from praying in any other
words than are commanded him. And the ungodly easily
receive this opinion, and reproach all other prayers as ex-
temporate and disorderly.
Another sect is against church-government by any but
magistrates ; these are called Erastians. And the ungodly
are not only against it, but detest it, and reproach it. Let
them be called to public repentance and confession for any
public sin, and try whether they be not against this disci-
pline. I know no outward duty that they are more against.
They will hear us preach with some patience and quietness;
but when we come to reprove them personally, and recover
them from scandalous sins by necessary discipline, they
storm and rage against us, and will not endure it.
Some Separatists are for the people's governing of the
church by a major vote, and consequently ruling those that
God doth call their rulers, and commandeth them to obey,
VOL. XVI. D n
402 CATHOLIC UNITY.
(Heb. xiii. 17.) And so are the ungodly; they would rule
their rulers, the ministers, and have them administer the
ordinances of God according to their fancies, but they will
not be ruled by them. Let the minister but require them to
come to him to be instructed or catechised, and they will
not be ruled by him, they are too old to be catechised : let
him call them to any necessary profession or other duty,
and they will do what they list. Let him but cross any of
their conceits and customs, and they will sooner revile him
than be ruled by him.
The Separatists will withdraw themselves from our
churches and God's ordinances, if things be not suited to
their mind. And so will many of the ungodly. Most
parishes in England, that I hear of, where any kind of disci-
pline is exercised, have more Separatists than communicants.
The far greater part of many parishes forbear the communion
of the church in the Lord's-supper, and have done many
years together ; even because they cannot be admitted with-
out examination, or without some necessary or lawful pro-
fession, or because they cannot have the sacrament kneeling,
or put into their hands, or the like. They will separate and
be without the sacrament, or take it in a separate society,
rather than they will be ruled by the pastors of the church
in a gesture or undoubtedly lawful thing.
Another sect of late will not sing David's Psalms ; and
the ungodly will not do it heartily and reverently, but only
with the voice.
Another sect, the Anabaptists, are against baptizing in-
fants. And the ungodly do not holily and heartily devote
themselves and their infants to God ; they do not themselves
renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, and take God
for their God, and Christ for their Saviour, to heal and rule
them, and the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier to make them
holy : And how then can they do this for their children,
which they refuse themselves ? When they have offered
their children to God in baptism, they bring them up to the
flesh, and the world, and the devil, in their lives, and teach
them to break the covenant which they made. So that they
are far worse than Anabaptists.
Another late sect will not pray morning and evening in
their families, nor crave God's blessins: on their meat, nor
CATHOLIC UNITY. 40.1
teach their children and servants the duties of religion: and
so it is with the ungodly. How many of you that hear me
to-day, have prayerless families ; that let your people go
about their labour as an ox to the yoke, without calling upon
God! How few use to instruct and admonish their families,
and help to prepare them for death and judgment ! All that
are about you may see that you are guilty of this heresy.
Another sect of late is risen up, that will not keep any
constant times of prayer neither in family or in private, but
only when they find themselves in a good mood, then they
will pray. And so is it with many of the profane.
I am weary of mentioning these desperate errors : more
of them might be mentioned, and the case made plain, that
almost all the heresies in the world are met together in the
ungodly and unsanctified.
Would you see the sum of all my charge, in order? It is
this: 1. Many sects that trouble us much, yet do hold no
errors but what may stand with Christianity and salvation.
But the ungodly err in the essentials, and overthrow the very
foundation of religion. Their errors will not consist with
grace or salvation. They are damnable heresies. Yea, be-
side all that the sects aforesaid hold, they have many damn-
ing heresies of their own. These deadly heretics hold, that
the world is rather to be sought than everlasting glory; that
the pleasure of sin is to be chosen before the holiness of the
saints ; that their flesh is to be pleased before God ; that it
is better venture on their beloved sins, and keep them yet a
little longer, than presently forsake them ; that the way to
heaven which God commandeth, and Christ and all his apos-
tles went in, is Puritanism and preciseness, and godliness is
more ado than needs ; and that the body must have more
care and diligence than the soul ; and the trifles of this
world be more looked after than the one thing necessary!
These, and abundance such damnable heresies do dwell
in our cities and countries, in the minds of those that cry
out against heresies. Ungodliness is the greatest heresy in
all the world.
2. Other heretics have some of therfi but one or two
errors, but the ungodly have all these together : they are
the sink of all errors. As all God's graces make up the new
creature in the sanctified ; so all deadly errors and vices go
to make up the body of ungodliness, when it is complete.
404 CATHOLIC UNITY,
Its name is Legion, for there are many of these evil spirits
in it. The Anabaptist hath a scab, and the Separatist hath
a wound ; but the ungodly multitude have the leprosy and
plague sores from top to toe.
Profaneness is a hodgepodge and gallimaufry of all
the heresies of the world in one.
3. Many other heretics do err but in speculation, and
only the brain is infected, and they do not at the heart digest
their own mistakes. But the heresies of the profane un-
godly people are practical, and have mastered the will : the
poison is working in the heart and vital parts, so that it is
far the more mortal for this.
4. Many sects at least do not practise their errors ; but
the ungodly live upon them: yea, their lives are worse than
their opinions; they say bad, and do worse. You may see
more heresy than you can hear from them.
5. Some erring persons have the substance of Christian
truth mixed with their error, by which the power of the
venom is abated, and they do good in the church as well as
hurt. But the ungodly do not savingly, heartily, and prac-
tically, hold fast any the most fundamental truth.
6. Some sects are meek and temperate in their way ; but
the ungodly are carried on with fury and malice, against the
whole body of the holy catholic church.
7. And some heretics are so thin and few, that where
we have one of them to do hurt, we have a hundred or a
thousand to contradict them. But the unsanctified and un-
godly are the greater number, and think they should rule
because they are the most; and the flock of Christ is a little
flock. And so many thousands swarming all over the
world, and making up the far greatest part of the world, is
likely to do more against the truth and peace, than here and
there a poor sectary in a corner.
8. And lastly, the errors of some others are easier cured;
but the whole nature of the ungodly is turned as it were into
error ; it is rooted so at the heart, that no power on earth is
able to cure it, till God Almighty by insuperable light and
life of grace, will flo the cure.
And now I beseech you, judge impartially, who they be
tliat are the deadly and dangerous heretics, and who are the
hinderers of unity in the church. And how unfit these
miserable people are to call for unity, and cry out against
CATHOLIC UNITY. 405
our many religions, who are heartily of no religion them-
selves, but against the life and practice of all. To hear an
ungodly man go crying out of sects, of Separatists, of Ana-
baptists, and this and that, is as if we should hear a blacka-
moor scorn one for a spot on his face ; or a murderer rebuke
a man for an angry word ; or a soldier that kills as many as
he can, cry out of the surgeons for curing no more, or blame
others for a foul word ; or a common whore reproach another
for a wanton word, or uncomely garments : or as if a mad-
man should revile men for every slip he findeth in their
speeches, and call them fools. O that we knew how to cast
out this master-devil of ungodliness ! this Beelzebub the
prince of devils ! and then I should not fear the rest; no,
not all the sects and errors in the world, that are found with
true godliness.
Yet still remember these two cautions. 1. I do not ex-
cuse the errors of the best; and I lament that they have
lamentably wronged the church, and in some respects they
have the greatest aggravations. 2. And I still confess that
some of the unsanctified are so civil and orthodox, as to be
very useful in the church, and helpful against sects and here-
sies, because they are right in the brain as to speculation,
and right in the tongue; and their error is kept buried deep
in the heart, and therefore they err more to themselves than
to others. I doubt not but many such are profitable preachers
and defenders of the truth ; and the church must be thankful
to God for their gifts. And yet all that I have affirmed standeth
good, that ungodliness is the transcendent heresy and schism.
Use 2. By what hath been said, you may easily perceive
how little cause the Papists, or ceremonious, or any others,
have to glory in such members of their churches as I have
described. Can they expect a unity of the Spirit with these?
If they glory that they have men and multitudes on their
side, so may the Turks that have more than they; and so
may the heathens that have more than either. And yet
when a Papist hath deceived a poor licentious or ignorant
man, or a proud or vicious silly woman, they glory in their
convert. Never yet did I know any Protestant turn Papist,
that was not an ungodly wretch before, and without the
power of the religion which he professed. Do not say I
speak censoriously, or uncharitably in this ; for I think, upon
consideration, all Papists will confess it: For they teach.
406 CATHOLIC UNITY.
that all that be not of their church are void of chanty, and
cannot so be saved ; and that all must therefore come in to
their church, because there is no charity or salvation with-
out it. Though this be false, yet you see by it, that they
confess that never any but graceless, unsanctified Protestants
did turn to them ; nor can they invite any to them but un-
godly people. And whoever turneth Papist, doth thereby
confess that he was ungodly before, and that he was not an
honest, godly man ; for in turning Papist, he professeth to
go into that church out of which there is no salvation, and
consequently no charity or saving grace. And if indeed
you desire none but the ungodly to turn to you, take them
if they will needs go, and try whether you can do any more
good on them than we have done. I think we have little
cause (but for their own sakes) to lament our loss of such
as these ; and that you have little cause to glory in your
proselytes. And I have yet seen none that shew us any
more holiness since their change, than they had before. A
fair church you have, that is the common sty for all that
will come to you ; and that is glad of any to make up the
number, that you may have that in quantity, that is want-
ing in quality.
Use 3. From hence also let Quakers and Papists, and all
reproachers of our churches, take notice, how groundlessly
they hit us in the teeth with the ungodly that live among us.
* These are your Protestants,' say they ; * these are your
churches: these are the fruit of your ministry!' say the
Quakers. No, these are the enemies of our ministry and
doctrine ; these are they that join with you, and such as
you, to reproach us and revile us ! These are the obstinate
despisers of our ministry, that instead of learning of us do
revile us ; and instead of obeying our doctrine do make a
mock at it. If they are any of them brought to a sound
confession, and restrained from any vice, they may thank
the doctrine which we preach for that (unless they do it
only for fear of the laws). But their profaneness is it that
we have endeavoured to cure them of, and cannot; for they
are obstinate.
If Papists or Quakers accuse our doctrine as dead and
weak, because it cannot cure all our hearers ; what forget-
ful dotards are they, that observe not how they condemn
themselves ? Do the Quakers or Papists change us all to
CATHOLIC UNITY. 407
their opinions, by their books or preaching ? Beyond sea
they are fain to keep men in their church by fire and sword,
for fear of losing them : and here, it is but here and there
an ignorant, ungodly wretch, or a proud, raw novice, that
turns to them.
You may therefore as well hit us in the teeth with your-
selves, that revile us, and say, ' We are the fruit of your
ministry,' as with the ungodly, and tell us that * they are the
fruit' of our ministry. For though they live among us, they
are not of us. And we teach men no more to be ungodly
than to be Quakers or Papists. If you say, that they are in
our churches; I answer. Where discipline is exercised, the
most of them are out, and the rest we weed up as fast as
they so discover themselves, that we may do it without dan-
ger of pulling up the wheat with them. Many of us reject
them by discipline ; and all of us rebuke and disown them
by doctrine. If Jews and heathens were among us, we could
not preach more against them, than we do against the un-
godly ; nor could we labour harder to cure them. Tell us
not therefore of them ; they are none of ours, they disown
us, and we disown them : they are our persecutors, as you
are, that hate us when we have done our best for them,
and love us least when we love them most ; and cast back
all our instruction in our faces, or cast it behind their backs
and tread it under feet. They are those against whom we
shake off the dust of our feet : they are not our disciples,
but such as refuse to be Christ's own disciples.
Nay, I wonder that Papists and Quakers do not to their
shame observe, that it is likely to be some evil spirit that sets
them awork to rail against us, seeing all the drunkards,
and whoremongers, and covetous wretches, and ungodly,
malicious people in our parishes, be of their mind, and rail
against us as they do : It is likely to be the same cause that
hath the same effect. If it be the devil that sets the pro-
fane to revile us, judge who it is that sets these sects to
speak the same, or like words against the same persons.
And you that are profane and ungodly, I pray you here
take notice what a case you are in ! You are so vile, that
few besides yourselves will own you. We disown you :
you are none of ours, because you will be none of Christ's.
And the very Quakers, and other sects, disown you, and hit
us in the teeth with you, as if you were our shame : AH
408
CATHOLIC UNITY.
these bear witness against your ungodliness : and therefore
if yet you will be ungodly, when Quakers are against you,
and all are against you almost as well as we; if you will
hear neither ministers nor sectaries, neither teachers nor
railers. how many witnesses will rise up against you, and
how speechless will you be !
Use 4. I have been all this while but about preparatives-;
and now I come to the work that I intended. Do not think
that I have spoken all this of the ungodly, to hinder a
union and Christian concord, but to prepare for it, by telling
you the reason of our distance, and division, and what must
be removed before we can be one. Truly, sirs, I come to
you with peaceable intentions. I come upon a treaty with
you, to see whether you will become one with us, and be
reconciled or not. For the Lord's sake attend me consi-
derately and impartially, for it is a weighty business that I
have to propound to you, and a most excellent motion that
I have to make. As you regard the God of unity that sends
to you, and Christ the Prince of Peace, and the Spirit who
is the principle of unity, and the church that is the seat of
unity, and yourselves that may have the blessing of unity,
hearken to the motion of peace and unity that I have to
make to you from the Lord. Sirs, what think you ! hath
the world been long enough divided or not ? Are we cut
into shreds enough, and broken into pieces enough or not?
Are our distances from one another great enough, and our
spirits bitter enough or not? Is it not time, think you, to
sound a retreat to our foolish wars ? You call for unity :
you talk for unity, and against sects and divisions : do you
mean as you speak; and are you in good earnest, or are
you not? Would you have us be all of one mind and way, or
not? You talk against being of so many religions: is it
the true desire of your hearts, that we should be all of one
religion ? If it be, hold fast to this. So far we are agreed.
Let us lay this as a groundwork ; We must be all of one
church, one faith, one religion, if we will be saved.
Well then, it lies next before us, in order to inquire.
What one religion and way we must be of; and what is our
distance, and what course must be taken to make us one?
Are you willing to lay by passion, and scorn, and hatred,
and bitterness, and come to a treaty about the matter? O,
sirs, if you were but all truly willing to search out the busi.»
CATHOLIC UNITY". 409
ness, and to be ruled by God and reason, we should soon be
agreed for all our differences. And how happy would this
be for the troubled church; how happy for the offended,
distracted world; how happy for your own souls! Well;
what terms shall we agree upon? Somebody must begin
the motion, sitting still will not heal us. I will make a mo-
tion that never a man of you, that hath the face of a Chris-
tian, can tell what justly to except against. Let us set the
word of God before us, and take the best helps on both
sides to understand it, and let this decide the case with us.
What say you ; will you stand to the word of God ? Shall
we appeal all to Christ, and try our differences by his re-
vealed word? If this may carry it, we shall soon be agreed.
But if any of you have catched the popish perverseness,
and say, ' The Scripture is dark, and a dead letter ; every
sect pleads Scripture for their way : this will not serve our
turn; we must have a living judge;' I answer such a one
as followeth : 1. Is the Scripture the law of God or not? If
you say not, you may as well say you are infidels. If you
confess it is, then it must have the use of a law. And, 2.
Must not subjects understand a law to live by it, though
they be not judges? And when estate and life depend on
our obedience to the law ; if this law be now so dark that
the subjects cannot understand it, then it is no law, as not
being capable of the use and ends of a law. And so if
our salvation or damnation lie on our obedience to God's
word and law, it is an intolerable reproach to God and it, to
say it is such as we cannot understand. 3. Must we not be
judged by this law? Undoubtedly we must. And then
should we not measure our causes by it now ? 4. May not
arbitrators make use of a law to decide a controversy, be-
fore it come to the judge? Doubtless they may. 5. What
judge would you have? There are but two in the world,
that pretend to be the universal, infallible judge of contro-
versies ; and that is the Pope and a General Council. For
a General Council, there is none in the world, nor likely to
be to the end of the world. God forbid we should defer
our peace till then ! And its decrees are as dark, and much
more uncertain than the word of God. And for the Pope,
he is the head of a sect or party, and therefore not fit to be
judge: _you may well know he will judge on his own side.
He must be judged by this word of God himself. He is to©
410 CATHOLIC UNITY.
far off, of all conscience, for us to go or send to. Where
Rome is, the most of you know not: a shorter journey may
better dispatch our work. The Papists themselves tell us,
that many popes have been murderers, adulterers, simonists,
perjured persons, and some heretics and infidels. And must
such as these be our only judges? They have erred often
already, and therefore they may deceive us : and if you
send for the Pope's sentence, you must take the messenger's
word that he was there, and that it is true.
But yet if all this will not serve turn, I will make a mo-
tion, that none can gainsay that hath the face of a Chris-
tian. Let us first agree in all those points that Papists and
Protestants, Calvinists and Lutherans, Arminians and Ana-
baptists, and Separatists, and all parties that desire to be
called Christians, are agreed in ! What, say you, is not this
a reasonable motion ! O happy you, and happy the places
where you live, if you would but stand to it !
And let us consider of this motion, first in the general
state of our difference, and then in the particular parts of it!
Truly, sirs, the main difference in this world is between
the godly and the ungodly ; and all other differences that
are not parts of this, are nothing to this, being of lesser
danger and easier toleration or cure. The whole world is
divided into two armies : Christ is the Captain-general of
one, and the saints only his true soldiers, and the seeming
saints his seeming soldiers. The devil is the general of the
other, and all the unregenerate or ungodly are his soldiers.
An enmity is put, since the beginning, between the seed of
the woman and of the serpent, (Gen. iii. L5.) And there is
no middle state, nor one man on earth that is not in one of
these armies. I come not to reconcile the commanders,
Christ and Satan, for they are irreconcileable ; but to re-
concile you to Christ, and draw you from a deceiver. I
tell you, sirs, this great difference between the holy and the
unholy, is the first that must be healed. We can go no far-
ther with you, if you will not begin here at the heart of the
difference. When this is done, you shall see, before I have
done with you, that I will quickly tell you how we may do .
well, for all our other differences. You know if one of us
believe that there is a God, and another that there is none,
it were foolery for us to dispute how God must be wor-
shipped, before we are agreed that there is a God. So here.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 411
when it is the nature of ungodliness to make men false to
the very truths that they do profess, and heartily to be of
no religion at all, it is in vain to dispute about circumstances
and modes with such kind of men. Who would dispute
whether infants should be baptized, with a man that knows
not what baptism is ? ' Even an accepting of God for our God,
and Christ for our Lord and Saviour, and the Holy Ghost for
our Sanctifier ; and an absolute delivering up ourselves to the
blessed Trinity in these relations, by a solemn covenant pro-
fessed and sealed by water, renouncing the flesh, the world, and
the devil.' O were but this much practically known, we should
be all united in this one baptism. Still I say, unholiness is
the great point of difference, and the dungeon of confusion,
and puddle, where all the heresies of the world are blended
and made into a body that is something worse than heresy.
When you cry up unity, and cry down holiness, you are
distracted, and know not what you say. You talk of joining
us together, and you cast away the glue and solder. You
talk of building the church in unity, and you cast away the
lime and mortar, the pins and nails, and all that should
fasten them. You complain that the garment of Christ is
rent, and you throw away the needle and thread that should
sew it up. You see our wounds and blood, and take on you
to have pity on the church, and call for healing ; but you
hate and cast away the only salve. Do you not yet know
the church's unity is a unity of the Spirit, and of Holi-
ness ? And that there is no way in the world for us and
you to be united, unless you will be sanctified, and live in
the Spirit, as you have done in the flesh?
Sirs, let us come nearer the matter : I know our towns
and countries have two sorts of persons in them ; some are
converted, and some unconverted ; some holy, and some
unholy ; some live for heaven, and some are all for earth ;
some are ruled by the word of God, and some by their own
flesh or wills. W ever these agree and be united, one
party must come over to the other. Either the godly must
become ungodly, or the ungodly must become saints and
godly: Which must it be? Which do you think in your
consciences is the way? Must we yield to you, or should
you come away to us ? (Pardon that I number myself with
the sanctified ; for I dare not deny the mercies of God,
and the privileges of his house.) Let us come fairly to de-
412 CATHOLIC UNITY.
bate the case, and lay our reasons together, and I will here
protest to you, if you can give us better reasons why we
should forsake a godly life, I will turn to you ; and if we can
give you better reasons why you should embrace a holy
life, will you here promise to turn to us ? And let them carry
it that have the better cause, and let us be resolved to go
away united, and fall all together into that one way that
shall be proved to be the best.
Well, let us come to a debate, and see whether we
must come to you, or you to us.
1. If we ever agree and unite, you know it must be on
terms that are possible. He that propoundeth impossibili-
ties to be agreed on, is the enemy of agreement. But it is
impossible for us to come to you, and so to unite with you.
This I now prove. (1.) It is impossible to have any univer-
sal unity but in an universal head and centre, and that is
only God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. As I told you
the army must unite in the general, the kingdom in the
sovereign, the family in the master, the school in the school-
master. In order of nature, you must unite with God in
the Redeemer by the sanctifying Spirit, before you can unite
with us. But while you are unsanctified you are divided
from God. Do you not feel your minds strange to him,
your hearts draw back from him, and find by his strange-
ness to you that there is a division? It is impossible for
us to be united to you, till Christ be united to you. For
it is against nature, seeing he is the centre, and the head
and fountain of life : And what good would it do you to be
one with us, and not with him? God is against any unity
without him: Ifyou will not begin with him, he will take
it but as a treasonable conspiracy, and will break it. We
dare not go without him, lest he be angry and destroy us :
Soldiers must not make either peace or war, nor so much as
treat without the general. Do you not remember how Jeho-
saphat had like to have sped by a friendship and confede-
racy with Ahab?
(2.) Moreover the godly and ungodly are of contrary
natures : I told you God hath put an enmity between them.
You must change your nature or we ours, before we can
unite. You may as well think else to unite fire and water,
or to build in the air, or to incorporate fire and gunpowder;
or to reconcile men and serpents ; and marry the dog and
CATHOLIC UNITY. 41
n
the bear together. Sirs, these things are mere impossibili-
ties. There is no agreement between Christ and Belial,
righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, death
and life, the members of Christ, and the members of a harlot,
or a drunkard, or such like. (2 Cor. xvi. 14.) We have
contrary spirits, how then can we be one? One hath the
spirit of holiness, and the other the spirit of profaneness ;
one is led by the Spirit of God, and the other by the flesh.
We live not by one law : God's will revealed in his word is
our law; and the will of the flesh, and the course of the
world is your law. We live not on one sort of food, how
then can we accord together ? Christ and his heavenly truth, •
and Holy Spirit and ordinances, is the meat and drink of the
saints ; they cannot live without them. And the world and
fleshly delights are your food; you cannot be without it. Your
food would be our poison, your worldly cares, your drunken-
ness, and profaneness, would be a torment to an honest
heart. They cannot live without some communion with
God in faith and love, by prayer and meditation ; and your
heart is against it. They have not the same end as you
have. Their work is all for heaven, and yours is all princi-
pally for earth. Their work and yours are contrary : they
go one way, and you another : so that it is impossible to be
united and agree, till one side change. And we cannot pos-
sibly turn to you ; God holds us fast by his Love and Spirit,
and will not let us go, nor suffer us ever to be willing to go.
Do you not read Christ telling you, that it is impossible to
deceive the elect? that is, so far as to turn them away from
Christ. We are kept by the mighty power of God, through
faith, to salvation. And who can break away from the
upholding arms of Almighty power ! Christ hath such hold
of us, that he is resolved none shall take us out of his hands,
(Johnx.28,) so that we cannot come over again to you.
But you may come over to us if you will. God calls
you, and Christ would welcome you, and the Holy Ghost
would help you : The door is set open by the blood of
Christ : the promise is to you and to your children, that
you may and shall have Christ and life if you will come in,
and accept the offer. The devil cannot hinder you against
your wills, he holds you but in the fetters of your own wil-
fulness, by his mere deceits. Seeing, therefore, that you
may come over to the sanctified, and they cannot possibly
414 CATHOLIC UNITV.
come to you, let any reasonable man be judge on what terms
we should unite and agree.
2. Moreover, if we agree, it must be on terms of wisdom
and honesty. A dishonest agreement is not to be desired,
but abhorred. For you to leave your ungodliness, and turn
to the love and fear of God, is an honest course of agree-
ment ; for it is but to leave dishonesty itself and become
honest. I hope none of you dare charge the way of God and
godliness with any dishonesty : God calls you to nothing
but what is holy, and just, and good ; and, therefore, honesty
requireth you to yield.
But for the sanctified to become unsanctified ; for the
godly to become ungodly, to be one with you, this were the
basest dishonesty in the world. We know your way to be
of the devil and the flesh : and is it honest then to join with
you in it? We have tried too long already in the days of
our ignorance, and have found it dishonest and deceitful ;
and would you have us go against our own experience ?
We were once in the way that you are in, and were forced
to renounce it, or else we had been undone body and soul
for ever ; and should we lick up the vomit which we were
forced to cast out ? We were once agreed with you, and
God constrained us to break that agreement; and shall we
renew it again ? Alas, your way hath cost us dear ; many a
bitter repenting day, and many a sad thought, to the break-
ing of our hearts, and the very sense of God's displeasure;
a taste of hell was cast into our consciences ; many a groan,
and tear, and prayer it cost us, before we could recover the
hurt that we caught in the way of ungodliness ; and yet we
have not fully recovered it to this day. And would you
have us stark mad, to forget so soon our former sorrows, and
turn to a life that hath cost us so dear already ? No, we have
paid too dear for it, and smarted too much for it, to go that
way any more : it brought us to the very brink of hell ; and
if we had but died in that condition, we had been damned
at this hour: And would you be so unreasonable as to wish
us to go back again? No, by that time you know as much
of an unsanctified state as we do, you will run from it your-
selves as fast as you can run; as the Israelites did from the
cry of the company of Dathan and Abiram, " Lest the earth
should swallow them up also." (Numb. xvi. 34.)
We are certain that the Lord, whom we serve, is the only
CA IHOLIC UNITY. 415
God ; and that he, and none but he should rule us ; and
that we have grievously wronged him, by disobeying him so
long. And yet would you have us again forsake him? If
we should lie in tears till we die, it were too little to satisfy
his justice for one of the sins we have already committed;
and if it had not been for the wonderful love and suffering
of the Son of God, we had been lost for ever : And yet must
we turn to this course again ? God forbid. It was not so
wise nor honest a course. " We ourselves," saith Paul,
" were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another." (You hear how he calls his former life.)
" But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared ; not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost."
(Titus iii. 3, 4, 5.) And should Paul have turned a fool
again, and be deceived and disobedient again, to agree with
the rest of the deceived world? O sirs, we have seen that which
you have not seen, and tasted that which you never tasted.
Had you seen and tasted the love of God in Christ, and the de-
lightful hopes of eternal life, and felt the comfort of his service,
and the joys of the Holy Ghost, you would neverwish us to
come back again to agree with you in sin ; but you would abhor
yourselves the very thoughts of your former folly. Why, you
may better persuade a man to repent that he was born, and to
go into the womb again, than to persuade us to repent that we
are newborn, and return to our former state of death. Death is
not so sweet to us, nor hell, nor the wrath of God so lovely,
nor sin, with all its pleasure, so desirable, that we should turn
to them for peace with you. If we have escaped them once,
and will not take that for a warning to come there no more,
we deserve to pay for it.
Why, sirs, we have made a solemn covenant with God,
in the face of the congregation, in our baptism, and oft re-
newed it in the Lord's-supper, and vowed that we would be
his, and absolutely and unreservedly his. And would you
wish us to break so solemn a covenant ? What honesty is
in such perfidiousness ? We have renounced the flesh, the
world, and the devil ; and should we turn to them again for
peace with you ? O what a cursed peace were that ! Let
416 CATHOLIC UNITV.
me tell yon, that we have not found Got! so bad a master, as
to forsake him for the sake of you or any creature. We have
tried him, and found him better to us than all the world.
He hath never given us cause to forsake him. And if we
should now, after all the trials of his love, turn back to the
way of sin and ungodliness, the devil himself would charge
us with dishonesty. What! must the godly turn drunkards,
and worldlings, and haters of godliness to have peace with
you ? Why, you may next persuade us even to turn devils,
that we may be reconciled to you. The God that made us,
hath forbid us upon pain of his hot displeasure, to walk in
your ways. He saith to every one of us, as to Jeremiah,
" Let them return unto thee, and return not thou unto them."
(Jer. XV. 19.) And should we obey God or men? Judge
you whether. Why, sirs, are you so utterly unreasonable
as to wish us, or any man living, to love you better than
God, or to regard you more than God, or obey you before
God ? Or should we be so much worse than mad, as to yield
to you if you did desire it? Why, what are you in compa-
rison with the Almighty ! O poor worms, that are even
dying while you are speaking! that are but as bubbles ready
to burst, when you are swelled to the highest in ungodly
pride ! That even while you are eating, and drinking, and
making merry, are passing on apace to weeping and gnash-
ing of teeth, and everlasting woes and lamentations ! What
should we regard such dust and dirt as you are, before the
glorious God ! It were far greater wisdom and honesty, for
your children to set up a dog or a toad, and say, ' This is
more to be loved and honoured than my father.' If a traitor
against an earthly prince deserve to be hanged, drawn and
quartered ; certainly that man that would forsake God and
his laws, to please such silly worms as you, did deserve to
be hanged in the flames of hell, and to be tormented by in-
fernal fiends, and ground to powder by the wrath of the
Almighty ! Well ! if you have eyes that can see, you may
see now past doubt, that we cannot turn to you that are un-
godly, with any wisdom or honesty in the world, nor without
the highest madness and dishonesty. But can you say so
of your turning in to us ? Is it contrary either to wisdom,
or honesty, for you to turn unfeignedly to God, and to be-
come a sanctified godly people ? Methinks you should not
CATHOLIC UNITY. 417
have such a thought in your hearts : and, therefore, if we
be not all of a mind, and go not all one way, it is most ap-
parent that it is not long of us, but of you.
3. If we do unite and agree, it must be upon terms of
safety. This much I hope you cannot deny us. You would
not surely wish us to agree to our own destruction, and to
make a bargain with you, that we may all join together in
cutting our own throats? Do you think that this were a
wise combination? How much less should we make an
agreement to go the certain way to hell, and to join to-
gether in damning our own souls for ever? Sirs, if you dis-
like the way of holiness, do but find out any other way that
will safely bring a man to heaven, and we will promise you
tojoininit. But unholiness will never do it. God hath
told us as plain as can be spoken, " That except a man be
born again, and be converted, he cannot enter into the king-
dom of heaven:" (John iii. 3, 5 ; Matt, xviii. 3 :) "And
that without holiness no man shall see the Lord:" "And
that the righteous themselves are scarcely saved :" (1 Peter
iv. 18:) " And that if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature ; old things are passed away, and all things become
new:" (2 Cor. v. 17:) And that " if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.) So that
if God know who shall be saved, it is as certain as any thing
in the world, that no unsanctified man can be saved. If
leaping into the water be the way to drowning, or leaping
into the fire be the way to burning, or leaping down from
the top of a steeple be the way to break your necks, as sure
is an unholy life the way to everlasting torment. And would
you wish us to undo ourselves everlastingly for your friend-
ship? What can you say to this now? If you say that
your way is not so dangerous, it is but our precise unchari-
table conceit: We have shewed you the Word of God for
it ; and forty times more we could easily shew you ! And
shall we believe you, or such as you, before God? You are
liars, but God cannot lie. You see not what is done in
another world ; but God seeth it. You know not what is
in heaven or hell ; but God knoweth. And shall we not
believe God that knoweth and disposeth of all, better than
moles that never saw it, and ignorant souls that never knew
it? God saith, that " fornicators, adulterers, drunkards^
VOL. XVI. E E
418 CATHOLIC UNITY.
covetous persons, revilers, or the like, shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." (1 Cor. vi. 10, 11.) And that "they
that are in the flesh cannot please God;" and that " if you
live after the flesh ye shall die." (Rom. viii, 5, 6, 7. 13.) And
would you have us believe you, that there is no danger in a
fleshly life ? Sirs, we desire heartily to be united and agreed
with you, but we are loath to buy it so dear, as the loss of
God and heaven conies to. We are willing of concord with
you, but we are loath to be damned with you : And do you
blame us for this ? And, alas, if you should tell us a thou-
sand times, that you hope there is no such danger, or that
you hope to escape as well as the godly, this is but poor
security to us. Shall we be so mad, as to venture ourselves
on such words as these, against the word of the Ruler of the
world? What security can you give us, that we shall escape
damnation if we turn ungodly ? Are you able to save us
from the wrath of God ? Will you undertake to stand be-
tween us and his displeasure? What say you? If we will
forsake a l\oly life, and live as careless worldlings do, and
neglect God and our souls, and please the world and our
flesh, will you undertake to answer for us in judgment?
And will you venture to bear the punishment that we should
bear? If you dare not undertake to save us harmless, why
will you persuade us to do as you do? Nay, if you would
undertake it, he were a madman that would trust you, and
venture his salvation upon such undertakings ; for we know
you are not able to make them good. Alas ! poor souls,
how unable will you be to save yourselves, or to stay out of
hell an hour longer, when devils have commission to can-y
you away ! And shall we trust our souls upon your boast-
ing words, when we know you are unable to help yourselves ?
Let us see first what you can do for yourselves or us, against
the present hand of God. Can you keep off death, and re-
buke diseases, and live here in health and wealth for ever,
whether God will or no? How comes it to pass then that
here is never a one of you near two hundred years of age ?
Let us see you chide back approaching death, and raise the
dead bodies from their graves, and heal all the diseases that
cut off" mankind : If you cannot do these smaller matters,
would you have us believe that you can save us from
damnation ? Why, sirs, must your neighbours lie some of
CA'J'HOl.K' UNITY. 411^
them in poverty, and some in pain, some sick of one disease,
and some of another, and you look on them and cannot cure
them, or relieve them, and yet must we venture our souls
upon your vv^ords ! You cannot make an old man young
again ; and can you make the word of God prove false, or
save those that God hath said shall perish, and bring un-
sanctified men to heaven whether God will or no ? Well,
sirs, let them that hate their souls, or care not whether they
are saved or damned, forsake the Lord and a holy life, and
join with you and see whether you can save them: but for
ray part I believe the word of God, and upon this word only
I am resolved to build my hopes, and venture my soul, and
all that little that I have in this world : trust you on what
you please, this shall be ray trust : and they that can find a
surer ground to build upon, let them take their course.
But I must tell you, that if you would wish us all to cast
away God and Christ, and heaven, to agree with you, you
are monsters and not men ; and if you are so cruel as to de-
sire us to damn our souls for company, we must be so careful
of ourselves as to abhor your motion, and rather to hate the
dearest thing or person in the world, as they would draw us
from Christ and everlasting life. (Luke xiv. 26.)
You see then what it is that standeth in our way, to hinder
us from turning back to you. But what danger would you
be in if you should turn to us? Would it hurt or hazard you
to forsake your sensual, ungodly lives ? Is there any danger
in turning to God, and living a holy, heavenly life? What
is the danger? Forsooth you may lose your estates or lives!
A great matter indeed in comparison of eternal life : And
must you not lose them shortly whether you will or not?
And are they not in the power of God? And cannot he pre-
serve them if he please ? And if it be good for them, he is
more likely to do it for his own, than for his enemies ! But
indeed he hath told you himself, that " he that will save his
life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for his sake, shall
find it ; even in life everlasting." (Matt. xvi. 25 ; x. 39.)
And yet as the world now goeth in England, through the
mercy of God, your lives are in no danger. It is but the
scorn of ignorant, miserable men that you must endure.
And will you stick at this, in the cause of God and your
salvation ? Nay, indeed you are in most dreadful danger
every day, and night, and hour, till you forsake your former
4*20 CATHOLIC UNITY.
fleshly lives, and turn to Christ ! You are all the while even
within a step of death and hell, till you are converted and
made a holy people ; it is but one stroke ot" death to put an
end to your lives and hopes, and you are gone for ever. So
that you have nothing to lose, but a heaven to gain, if you
join with the godly. There is no danger can come to you
by turning, unless it be the loss of your sins; and that is
a loss no more to be feared, than a man should fear to lose
the plague, or leprosy that hath it.
Now I beseech you, sirs, as men of conscience or of rea-
son, set both together, and equally consider how the case
stands between us. If we join with the unholy, we run into
hell, and lose God, and Christ, and grace, and salvation for
evermore; but if you turn to the godly, you get out of danger,
and make the most gainful match that ever was made by
mortal men; and you can lose nothing but the sensual plea-
sures of sin, which are but exchanged for the joys of saints,
as sickness is exchanged for health. And which now do
you think in reason is the more fit, that you turn to the
godly, or they to you ? Truly, if you make so great a matter
of leaving your sins, which are viler than your dung, that
you will rather break with God and us, you must give us
leave to make so great a matter of leaving Christ and his
holy ways and people, that we will much rather break with
you and all the wickedness in the world, and with our carnal
selves, and that which is most dear to them: And I think
we have good reason for it.
4. Moreover, this must be considered in our treaty, that
if we agree, it is fit that our dearest friends be taken into
the agreement: should we cast off them to agree with adver-
saries, and leave our old friends in hope of new? But if we
come over to you, and turn unholy, we shall never have
God's consent to the agreement, we must leave him out, and
utterly lose him : when, alas, we cannot live, nor move, nor
breathe, without him? We cannot have our daily bread, or
one night's rest, but by his gift. And such a friend is not
to be lost for you. And we shall lose the Lord Jesus and
the Holy Ghost, and the communion of saints, and the
peace of our own consciences. O what a peal would con-
science ring us night and day ! It would open hell to us :
It would kindle the fire of God's wrath in our bosoms; and
be scorching us as we lie down and as we rise up : and who
CATHOLIC UNITY. 421
would endure such a life as this for all the world? It is
likely it is not thus with you ; but that is because you know
not what a case you are in, nor what a dreadful thing un-
godliness is; but we know it: and therefore what shift
soever you make to keep your consciences asleep, I know
not how I should quiet mine, if I were in your case, and
knew but what I know of it.
But now if you will join with Christ and us, your true
friends will be glad of it ; you should not lose one friend
in the world by it, unless you take the devil and his servants
for your friends, that would destroy you. Judge then, whe-
ther you should come to us, or we to you.
5. Moreover, this must be considered in our treaty, that
if we agree with you, we have some regard to our honour. And
what honour is it to us to become the servants of sin and the
devil, and be forsaken of God, and return to the slavery that
lately we were delivered from? A hangman is ten thousand
times more honourable than this.
But on the other side, if you will turn to Christ, you will
come out of the greatest shame, and obtain the greatest
honours that you are capable of: you will be the sons of
God, and heirs of heaven, coheirs with Christ, fellow-citizens
of the saints, and of the household of God ; (John i. 12 ; Rom.
viii. 17; Eph. ii. 19;) and be built up an habitation of God
through the Spirit. (Eph. ii. 22.)
6. Moreover, this is most considerable in our treaty, that
if we agree, it must be upon the universal terms that all will
agree upon; or else it can be no universal agreement. If a
few should agree with you, this would not make a unity in
the world. We must have terms that are fit for all to agree
upon. And in good sadness, would you have all the world
be such as you? Tell me, you that are covetous and proud,
would you have all the world become proud and covetous to
agree with you ? Nay, if they should, when they are most
like you, they would not agree with you : for the proud will
envy the proud, and their pride will set them together by the
ears : and the covetous would be greedily snatching the prey
out of one another's jaws, and their mammon would be the
matter of their strife. Tell me also, you that are drunkards
or unclean, would you have all the world become drunkards
and unclean for unity with you? You that are careless about
your souls, and prayerless in your families, and forget the
422 CATHOLIC UNITY.
matters of everlasting life, would you have all the world set
as light by God, and Christ, and heaven as you ? Could the
worst of you all have the face to make such a motion as
this? What! would you have all holiness and heavenly-
miridedness banished out of the world, because you have
banished it from yourselves ? Would you have all men shut
their Bibles as much as you, and instruct their children and
servants no more than you, and love God and serve him no
more than you ? Is it possible that such a heart as this can
be in the breast of the worst on earth? What! would you
have all the world be drunkards, or fornicators, or haters of
godliness, or at least unsanctified, because you are so ? How
quickly then would earth turn hell, and the flames of the
wrath of God consume it! How certainly then would God
forsake the world, as a man would be gone from toads and
serpents! Can there be such cruelty in any but the devils,
as to wish all the world to be damned with you for company,
or to agree with you on such terms, that you may go hand in
hand together to damnation? Or if you had such devilish
hearts within you, as to desire such an agreement as this, can
you think that all the godly would yield to it? No, let me
tell you, not one of them in all the world will yield to it. If
you set no more by the love of God, the blood of Christ, the
presence and comforts of the Holy Ghost, and the hopes of
glory, yet they do, and will do. If you will run into hell,
you shall never get them thither with you for company.
But on the other side, there is nothing in the way of
holiness, but what is fit for all men to agree upon. I know
all will not ; and therefore we expect not an agreement with
all. But that is their unhappiness. There is no fit means
of agreement but this.
7. Lastly, this also must be considered in our treaty ;
that we agree upon terms that are likely to hold, and not to
be repented of hereafter. For what good will it do to agree to-
day, and to break it or bewail it to-morrow? Why, alas, sirs,
we know as sure as we breathe, that if we should agree with
you in unholiness, we should quickly repent it, either bv
grace, or in hell-fire. Nay, we know that you will repent of
these unholy ways and hearts yourselves, either by grace
or judgment. Nay, there are even now some kind of purposes
in many of you to repent. I have heard abundance of un-
godly men profess that they hope to repent hereafter, and
CATHOLIC UNITY.
423
mend their lives, and leave their sins. And would you wish
us to come and join with you in a way that you hope to for-
sake yourselves, and in a way that you propose hereafter to
repent of? I know as surely as that the sun will set, that every
ungodly soul among you, will shortly change their false
opinions; and they that derided the servants of Christ,
would wish then that they might be but door-keepers among
them: you will wish and wish a thousand times that you had
done as they did, and lived as holily as the best on earth:
You will then wish, ' O that it were to do again ! and that
my life were again to be lived ; and God would but try me
on earth once more !' Those tongues that railed against reli-
gion, will a thousand times more reproach yourselves for
those reproaches, and the neglect of this religion. You will
then cry out ' Where was my wit and reason, when I made
so mad a change, as of God for the creature, Christ for sin,
and heaven for hell !' Do you think, sirs, that it were any
wisdom for us to agree with you now in that, for which you
will fall out with yourselves for ever? And to go with you
in that loose ungodly way which you will wish yourselves
that you had never known?
Besides, we know that it is only the saints that we must
live with for ever ; and therefore you must become saints, if
you would be united to us here. What! should we be so
careful to agree with you awhile and be separated from you
eternally, or do worse by suffering with you ! But if you will
unite with us in Christ and holiness, this will be a lasting
unity ; which you will never have occasion to repent of. The
union between the Lord Jesus and his members, shall never
be dissolved. Heartily join with his servants now in the
ways of holiness, and you shall certainly join with them in
the state of happiness, and in the joyful fruition and praises
of the Lord.
Well, sirs, in this much of our treaty, I have laid the case
plain and open before you, and shewed you that we cannot
come over to you : it is not possible, nor honest, nor safe;
we cannot forsake a holy life without forsaking God and
our Redeemer, and our salvation, which no man that is a
man indeed, should desire us to do; nor can we do it till we
first forsake our understandings : But on your side the case
is otherwise: you may turn to God and a holy life without
any hurt or wrong to you at all ; nay. it is the only way to
424 CATHOLIC UNITY.
your felicity, and if you do it not, you are undone for ever :
so that the case is past all controversy before you, thatther e
is no way in the world to unity, but by consent in piety. If
half the commonwealth turn rebels, and so shall make a
division in the body, the way to unite them is by the return-
ing of the rebels to their allegiance, and not for the true and
lawful subjects to turn all rebels and join with them. For
without the head there cannot be a union. So that if the
world be still divided and disagreed, it is not long of the
godly, but of the ungodly : and if you would have an agree-
ment, it is you that must yield, who cause the disagreement.
You may do it, and must do it, or do worse; but the godly
may not yield to you.
What say you now, would you have unity or division?
Would you have peace or no peace? You complain that the
world is of so many minds: would you have them all recon-
ciled and of one mind ? If you would, let us see it. The
work sticks with you ; on your hands it lieth, and it is you
that must do it, if ever it be done. If you would have all
ungodly, you deserve not to live on the earth. Shall we then
without any more ado agree all upon a life of holiness ? O
than our towns and parishes would all join together in this
agreement ! And it must be this or none.
But perhaps some of you will say, ' What need you make
so many words about a matter that nobody doth deny ? We
all know we should be holy and godly, and none should be
ungodly; who doubts this? But the question is, Whatholi-
ness and godliness is ? Tell us therefore what you mean by
it, and who those be that you take to be the godly, sanctified
people?'
Answ. If we are all agreed of the necessity of holiness,
then those that are not yet agreed to be holy themselves,
do sin against their own consciences, and condemn them-
selves in the things which they allow, and wilfully divide
themselves from Christ and from his church. And if any of
you have been so long baptized into the name of the Holy
Ghost as your sanctifier, and yet know not what sanctifica-
tion is, and who are to be accounted sanctified and godly,
you shew that you have perfidiously cast away and broke
your covenant with God : and made but an ill use of your
baptism, or any means and ordinances since. But if you
know not who are godly or ungodly, I shall quickly tell yoiu,
CATHOLIC UNITY. 425
A godly man is one that being formerly in a state of sin
and misery, both strange and backward to God and heaven,
and a holy life, and prone to earthly, fleshly pleasures, is
now by the powerful work of the word and Spirit of God,
converted to unfeigned faith and repentance, broken-hearted
for his former sin and misery, flying to Christ as the only
hope and physician of his soul, and so is made a new crea-
ture, having his heart set upon God and everlasting life, and
contemning all the pleasures of the flesh, and the things of
this world, in comparison of his hopes and glory ; hating
all known sin, and not wilfully living in any ; and loving the
highest degree of,holiness, and willing 4o use the means that
God hath appointed to destroy the remnants of sin, and
bring him nearer to perfection ; this is a truly godly man.
And he that is not such, is ungodly. He that yet remaineth
in his natural depraved state, and is unacquainted with this
great and holy change, that hath any sin that he had rather
keep than leave, and any that he wilfully liveth in; and wil-
fully neglecteth known duties, as one that had rather be free
from them than perform them, and had rather live a fleshly
life than a spiritual and a holy life, and is more in love
with the creature than with God ; with his life on earth in
flesh and sin, than a life in heaven with God and his saints
in perfect holiness; this man is undoubtedly a wicked and
ungodly man, how civilly or religiously soever he may seem
to live in the world. And so I have in a few words told you,
who they be that are godly, and who are the ungodly. The
question now that we are treating about is, whether we shall
all agree together to be godly? Do you not believe it to
be best and necessary? If not, you are blind: if you do,
let us agree on it without delay. You tell us with many
great complaints of the many differences and divisions that
are among us ; but shall we agree so far as we are agreed ?
That is, shall we agree in heart and practice, so far as we are.
agreed in opinion and profession? O that you would make
' a solemn covenant, that you will but consent and go along
with the godly so far as you confess you ought to do ; and
would but unite with us in faithfulness to the truths which
you cannot deny. I think it will be best to call you to the
trial in some particulars.
1. I hope we are all agreed that there is only one God
that made us, and preserveth us, and redeemed us ; and
426 CATHOLIC UNITY.
therefore that we are wholly his, and should resign our-
selves, and all that we have, absolutely to him for his ser-
vice. He is not worthy the name of a man that denieth this :
And shall we all agree now in the practice of this much ?
Shall we wholly resign ourselves and all that we have to
God, and labour to know what God would have us be and
do, and that let us resolve upon, whatever the flesh or the
world say to the contrary ? Were but this much well re-
solved on, we were in a fair way to a full agreement.
2. We are all agreed in opinion or profession, that this
God is our only happiness, and his favour is better than all
the world, and that he is infinitely wise, and good, and
powerful ; and therefore that he must be loved above all
things whatsoever, and must be most feared, and served,
and trusted, and depended on.
And shall we but agree all in the practice of this much ?
O that you would but heartily consent to do it ! Did we
but join together in loving God above all, and fearing, and
trusting, and serving him before all, we should quickly be
of one heart and soul, and in a very fair way to a perfect
agreement.
3. We are all agreed (that profess Christianity) that sin
hath made us miserable, and brought us under the wrath
and curse of God, and that the Lord Jesus Christ having
redeemed us by his blood, is the only Physician and Remedy
for our souls, and having manifested such infinite love in
our redemption, and also purchased dominion over us, we
are strongly bound to rejoice in his salvation, and fly to him
for safety, and rest upon him, and live in the thankful ad-
mirations of his love, and in careful obedience to his gra-
cicfus laws.
And shall we all agree in the practice of this much?
Will you fly to Christ with broken, bleeding hearts, for
safety from sin, and wrath, and hell, and set more by him
than by all the world ? Will you study with all saints to
comprehend his love; (Ephes. iii. 18, 19;) and admire him
and his mercies, and devote yourselves to him, and be ruled
by him ? O that we were but all agreed in this much.
4. We are all agreed in opinion or profession, that the Holy
Ghost is the Sanctifier of God's elect, or of all that shall be
saved ; and that except a man be born again by the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and that with-
CATHOLIC UNITY. 427
out holiness none shall see God ; and that no man is the
son of God that hath not in him the Spirit of his Son.
(1 Cor. xii. 12, 13 ; Ephes. iv. 5 ; John iii. 5, 6; Heb. xii.
14; Rom. viii. 9; Gal. iv. 4.)
Were we but all such now as we are agreed we must be,
and would you but all consent to this sanctification and
newness of life, the great difference were healed, and the
work were done.
5. Moreover we are all agreed, or seem to be so, that the
Holy Scripture is the word of God, and of infallible truth,
and therefore must be believed and made the rule of our
judgments and our lives.
Shall we all agree now in the practice of this? Will you
appeal to the Scripture, and shall it be our rule ? If the
flesh persuade you to another course, and murmur at the
strictness of God's word ; if custom be against it, and the
greater number be against it; if your profits, or pleasures,
or worldly honours be against it, and your former opinions
and practice have been against it, will you yet believe the
Scripture before all, and be ruled by it above all the world ?
You are agreed I hope that God is to be obeyed rather than
men, or than the flesh and the devil? Will you resolve that
it shall be so ? O if the word of God might be the rule,
how quickly should we be agreed ! For all the popish cavils
at its difiiculty, and men's divers expositions, yet how soon
should we be agreed !
6. We are all agreed in opinion or profession, that there
is a heaven for the sanctified, even an endless inconceivable
glory with God, in the seeing of his face, and enjoying him
in perfect love and joys ; and that the seeking of this ever-
lasting glory should be the main and principal business of
our lives, which all things must give place to. He that will
deny this can have no pretence to call himself a Christian.
O that we might but all agree in the practising of this !
and that the principal love and desire of our souls were set
upon the heavenly blessedness, and the chiefest of our care
and labour might be laid out for the obtaining of it. Agree
in this, and all will be agreed at last.
7. We are all agroed in our profession, that there is a
hell, or state of endless torments, where all the finally un-
sanctified and ungodly must be for ever.
But why do we not agree in the diligent avoiding oi
428 CATHOLIC UNITY.
such a dreadful misery, and using our best endeavours to
escape it ?
8. We are all agreed in profession, that the flesh is our
enemy, and must be mortified. But will you agree in the
practice of this mortification ? We are agreed in profes-
sion, that the world is our enemy, and must be contemned,
and that it is a vain and worthless thing compared with the
glory that is to come : but yet men will not agree to re-
nounce the world unfeignedly, and to be strangers to it, and
part with all rather than with God and a good conscience ;
but while men speak contemptuously of the world, they
seek it far more eagerly than heaven. We are agreed that the
devil is our enemy, and yet men will not forsake his service.
9. We are all agreed in profession, that sin is a most
hateful thing, hated of God, condemned by his word, and
the only cause of the damnation of souls : and yet men love
it, and live in it with delight. Shall we agree all to deal
with sin as we speak of it? Will magistrates, and ministers,
and people join together, to banish it out of town and
country? Particularly we are agreed I hope, that whore-
dom, and wantonness, and gluttony, and drunkenness, and
strife, and envying, and lying, and deceit, and cursing, and
swearing, and railing, and backbiting, and speaking against
a holy life, are all gross, hateful, damning sins, which
every Christian must abhor. But why do you not agree in
the hating, and forsaking, and beating down these sins ?
But town and country swarmeth with them as a carcase
doth with maggots, or a stinking pond with frogs and toads:
so that magistrates and ministers, punishments and per-
suasion, the laws of the land, and the laws of God, can do
but little to rid the country of them ; but the same men
that confess all these to be great and grievous sins, will
keep them and delight in them, as if it were in despite of
God and man, or as if they bore a deadly grudge to their
own immortal souls.
10. There is none of you that bears the face of a Chris-
tian, but must agree with us in profession, that "one thing
is needful, and that we must seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, and labour most for the food that will
not perish," (Luke x. 41, 42; Matt. vi. 33; John vi. 27,)
and that " God should be loved with all our heart, and soul,
and might," and that no man can love him too much, nor
CATHOLIC UNITY. 429
serve him too carefully, nor be too diligent in seeking of his
salvation. Why then will you not all agree to do thus ? But
the very same tongues that confess all this, will yet speak
against the service of God, and call it Puritanism and pre-
ciseness, and say it is more ado than needs, ' Why, sirs, if
you will say and unsay, there is no hold to be taken of your
words, and therefore what agreement can be with you?
Will you confess that all should take more care of their
souls than of their bodies ; and take more care for heaven
than earth, and yet will you not agree to do it, but rather
speak against them that do it, when you confess that it is
best? Why, if you can agree no better with yourselves, how
can you agree with us ? If your own opinions and profession
be at such odds with your wills and practices, no wonder if
you be at odds with others.
More particularly, I hope you will all confess, that it is
the duty of all that can, to hear the word of God, and fre-
quently to read it, and labour to understand it, and to medi-
tate in it day and night; and for parents daily to teach it
their children at home and abroad, lying down and rising
up, (Deut. vi. 6 — 8; xi. 18, 19 ; Psal. i. 2, 3,) and to pray
in their families, and in private, even always or frequently
to pray, and not to wax faint, but in all things to make
known their requests to God, that all things might be sanc-
tified to them by the word and prayer. All this is plain in
the word of God. (Dan. vi. 10, 11 ; Luke xviii. 1 ; 1 Thess.
V. 17 ; Psal. Iv. 17 ; 1 Tim. iv. 5 ; Phil. iv. 6.)
But will you all agree with us in the practice of these
things ? Will all the families in town and country agree to-
gether, to pray morning and evening reverently to God, and
to banish profaneness out of their doors, and to instruct
their children and servants in the fear of God, and spend the
Lord's-day in holy exercises, and help one another to pre-
pare for death and judgment, and exhort one another daily,
while it is called to-day, lest any be hardened by the de-
ceitfulness of sin? (Heb. iii. 13.)
To what purpose should I mention any more particulars,
till we see whether you will unite and agree in these ? All
these are your own professions. I know you cannot deny
any one of them, and yet we cannot persuade you to con-
sent with us in the practice of what yourselves profess: no,
nor scarcely to forbear the open opposing of it : Either re-
430 CATHOLtC UNITY.
solve now thai you will all agree with us in these things,
which you confess the Lord hath made your duty, or else
tell us plainly that you are the deadly enemies of unity and
peace, that we may take you to be as you are, and trowble
ourselves no more about you. If you are resolved against
agreement and unity, tell us so, and save us the labour of
any farther treaties with you. Talk no more childishly
about our petty differences in ceremonies and forms of wor-
ship, about bishops and common-prayer-books, and holy-
days, and such like, as long as you refuse agreement in the
main. There is a difference between you that is an hundred
times greater than these; some of you are for heaven, and
some for earth ; some of you live to the Spirit, and some to
the flesh ; some of you are hearing, reading, or meditating
on the word of God, when others think it needless, and had
rather have a pair of cards or dice in their hands : Some of
you make God's law your rule, and some are ruled by the
world and the flesh ; some are drunkards, gluttons, wantons,
worldlings ; and some are sober, temperate, chaste and hea-
venly ; some think almost any thing enough in the worship
of God, and for the saving of their souls ; and others think
the best they can do too little ; and when they have done
most, lament that they do no more ; some families use daily
prayer, reading, and holy instructions ; and others use daily
swearing, railing, ribaldry, and perhaps deriding of holiness
itself. In a word, some give up themselves to God and
heaven, and others to the world, the flesh, and the devil ;
Some are converted and become new creatures by the sanc-
tifying work of the Holy Ghost; and others are yet in the
state of nature, and never knew a true conversion.
This is the great difference of the world, sirs: till this be
healed, it is in vain to talk of the healing of our petty dif-
ferences. And therefore once more I tell you, if you will
not be converted to a holy life, and unite with us on these
terms, you are the enemies of peace and unity, and the great
incendiaries of the world.
And now having proceeded thus far in the treaty with
you, because I will either bring you to agreement, or leave
you at least without excuse, I will here annex some further
reasons to move you, if it may be to so happy a work.
1. Consider, I pray you, that if you will not agree vrith
us in the things that you make profession of, and confess
CATHOLIC UMTY. 431
to be your duty, you are then treacherous and false to God,
and to yourselves, and therefore not fit for any to make
agreement with, till you change your minds. Do you know
that God is best, and yet will you not love him better than
the world ? Do you know that heaven is the only happiness,
and yet will you not seek it more than earth ? Do you know
that a holy life is best, and yet will you be unholy? Do
you know sin is the worst and most dangerous thing in the
world, and yet will you not let it go ? Who will trust such
men as you, that will go against their own knowledge and
confessions ? If you will be false to God, and false to your
own souls, no wonder if you be false to us.
2. Moreover, all your pretended desires of unity and
concord are base hypocrisy, as long as you refuse to unite
with us in the way and state of holiness : To take on you
that you are troubled at the divisions of the world, and to
wish that we were all of one religion, and to talk against
sects and opinions as you do, is mere self-condemning, and
such gross dissembling, as exposeth you to shame. What !
would you have us think you are against divisions, when
you divide from God, and Christ, and the Holy Ghost;
from the Scripture, from the holy catholic church, and from
the communion of saints ? Can you for shame say, that you
are for unity and agreement, when you are dividing from
us, and will not agree with us, unless we will be as mad as
you, and damn our souls for company with you? To hear
these ungodly men talk against sects and divisions in the
church, is as if we heard a man that hath the leprosy, cry
out against those that have the itch, or a murderer chide
another for foul words.
3. And I must tell you, while you remain ungodly, you
are the great heretics and Separatists that trouble the church
of God, more than abundance of those that you reproach.
I excuse not the least ; but none of them are like you. As
death is worse than sickness, as being that which all sick-
ness tends to, and tie worst that it can do ; so ungodliness
is worse than sects, and particular errors or heresies, it be-
ing the worst that any error can do, to make a man ungodly.
There are no such Separatists in the world as you. It is not
only from a particular church or ordinance that you sepa-
rate ; but, as I said »ven now, you separate from God that
4nade you, from Ch;ist that bought you, from the Spirit
432 CATHOLIC UNITY,
that should sanctify you, from the word of God that must
rule you or condemn you, from the body of Christ, and the
holy communion of his people. The church would have
you join with them in holy worship ; and your godly neigh-
bours would have you join with them in prayer and holy
lives, and you will not, but separate from them all. They
cannot have your help against the sins of the time and place
you live in : they cannot have your company in the way to
heaven ; but when they go one way, you go another way.
You are the great troublers of the world, and break the peace
of church and state, and of all you have to do with. You
trouble magistrates, and make work for lawyers ; you trou-
ble ministers, and frustrate their labours, and make their
lives grievous to them, when it is much in your hands to
make them joyous. You trouble all the godly that are about
you, and you will find at last that you have most of all
troubled your own souls. For shame therefore, before you
speak any more against sects and separatists, or any other
troublers of the church, give over the ungodly separation
which you continue in, and come in to the unity of the
church yourselves, and live in that communion of saints
which you say you do believe, and do not go on to trouble
the church more than those that you speak against.
4. Consider also, whether you have not as much reason
to live a diligent holy life, and seek God and your salvation
with all your might, as any of your neighbours have. And,
therefore, whether your own necessity doth not call aloud
to you, to unite with them, and to do' as they do. Your
godly neighbours are meditating on the word of God, when
you are thinking of the world, or on vanity : they are dis-
coursing of the life to come, v/hen you are talking of your
worldly business, or pouring out a company of idle words.
Ask your consciences now, whether you have not as
much need to study the Scripture, and prepare for the life
to come, as they ? Ypur godly neighbours are at prayer,
when you are sinning and drowned in the inordinate cares
of the world, and have no heart to their employment. Let
conscience speak, whether you have rot as much need to
pray as they. They abhor sin and are afraid of it, when you
boldly venture on it. Let conscience tell you, whether you
have not as much cause to be afraid of sin as they. Yea,
and a hundred times more ; for you are under the guilt and
CATHOLIC UNITY. 433
power of it. O wonderful madness of the ungodly world ;
that the example of the godly should not bring them to some
consideration! A man that is converted and reconciled to
God, and hath a pardon of all his sins, and is in a state of
salvation, and walketh humbly and uprightly with God,
doth yet think all too little that he can do ; but fasteth, and
prayeth, and watcheth against temptations, and humbleth
his flesh, and followeth after God continually, and lamenteth
after all that he is so bad, and can do no more. And his
neighbour that liveth by him is an ignorant stupid sinner,
unconverted, and under the guilt of his sin, and under the
curse and wrath of God, having no assurance of salvation ;
nay, it is certain that he would be cast into hell the next
hour if he die in that condition ; and yet this man feels not
any such need of prayer, and holy meditation, and confer-
ence, and so religious and strict a life. He that hath lost
almost all the time of his life, and is not only quite behind
hand in knowledge and abilities, but is an unsanctified
miserable wretch, not sure to be out of hell an hour; this
man perceiveth no such necessity of a holy life, nor why
he should make so much ado. As if a rich man should be
put to daily labour, and a man that hath nothing should
think it needless : or as if a man that hath the tooth-ach,
or a slight disease, should send for a physician; and he that
hath the plague should sit still and say, * What needs this
trouble ? ' Sirs, T beseech you look upon the holiest and most
heavenly neighbours you have, and bethink you whether you
have not more need to be diligent than they. Have not you
immortal souls to lose as well as they? Are not you in
danger of damnation as much, and a hundred times more
than they? Should not God be your master as well as theirs?
And his law your rule as well as theirs ? And heaven be as
dear to you as to them? Bethink yourselves when you hear
them praying, or reading, or repeating sermons, and sancti-
fying the Lord's-day, and fearing to offend, ' Have not I as
much need to do this as any of them? ' If then you have as
much cause and need to live a godly life as others, join
with them in it, and let all the town agree together, and
none withdraw but he that can say, ' I have no need of it/
5. And I pray you consider also, how easy it would make
the way to heaven, if we would but all unite and agree to
VOL. XVI. r F
434 CATHOLIC UNITY.
go together in if. This is it that discourageth the weak,
and makes it so hard a matter to be saved, because there are
so few that are godly : But if one or two poor people be re-
solved to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous-
ness, and to please God and save their souls, the rest do
either look on and refuse to join with them, or else speak
against them, and make them their ordinary scorn. And
thus he that will be saved, must not only go to heaven with-
out the company of the most of his neighbours, but must go
through their opposition, and reproaches, and discourage-
ments : and (the Lord be merciful to the miserable world!)
most places that one shall come into, are more agreed against
holiness and salvation than for it, and had rather that all the
parish would agree together against a godly life (which is
indeed against Christ, and heaven, and their own souls) than
for it. And some places are so miserable, that you may
hear them thank God that they have not one Puritan in their
parish, or but few at most; meaning by Puritans, men that
seek heaven above earth, and had rather leave their sins
than be damned. And this dishearteneth many that have
some mind to godliness, to see almost all the town and
parish against it.
But now if you had all but so much wit and grace, as to
meet together and make an agreement, that you will all be a
holy people to the Lord, and you will all join together in a
godly life, and you will all be the sworn professed enemies
of the way to hell, and join together against your ignorance,
and pride, and covetousness, and drunkenness, and swear-
ing, and railing, and all profaneness and iniquity ; and if
you would all agree together to set up prayer, and reading,
and holy exercises, in every house in town and parish ; and
that you will all redeem the time for your souls, especially
that you will wholly spend the Lord's-day in the necessary
delightful work of God ; then what abundance of your diffi-
culties would be removed ! And how easy and pleasant
would the way to heaven be ! Then there would be none to
discourage poor ignoi'ant souls, by deriding at a godly life ;
nor any to entice them to wicked courses ; nor any to
tempt them by their ill examples ; and the number of the
godly would encourage men, as the fewness of them now
discourageth. This troubleth men in their passage to heaven
CATHOLIC UNITY. 4,35
when we are ill-yoked together, and one draws backward as
the other draws forward : And if the husband be for God,
the wife is for the world ; or if the wife be for heaven, the
liusband will needs go the way to hell : and if one neigh-
bour be godly, the two, if not ten or twenty next him will
be ungodly : and, as the Israelites' spies, they raise up false
reports of the land, and of the state of godliness, and of the
persons themselves, to discourage others : whereas if you
would all agree together, you might march on comfortably
without all this ado.
O how sweet and pleasant a life it is, to see brethren
dwell together in such a holy unity as this. (Psal, cxxxiii.
1.) Happy are they that dwell in such towns and parishes
as these, if there be any such in the world ! Where neigh-
bours go all hand in hand together towards heaven, and take
sweet counsel together ; and go to the house of God in com-
pany ; and when others meet in alehouses, and about fool-
eries and profaneness, they will meet together to talk of
their meeting in the presence of God, and the joy and
praises of the living God, and the communion with Christ,
and with angels, and with one another, which we shall then
possess : when they will pray together, and comfort one
another with such words. (1 Thess. iv. 18.) And when
others are talking idly, or of the world, they will be admo-
nishing and exhorting one another, and speaking words that
are edifying to the hearers, (Col. iii. 16; Ephes. iv. 29,) and
opening their cases and experiences to each other, and
faithfully watching over one another, agreeing to tell one
another plainly and lovingly of their sins, and to take it
thankfully of those that do so, and endeavour presently to
amend. What a sweet and blessed life were this, if all our
towns and parishes would agree in it! Who would not ra-
ther live with bread and water in such a town as this, than
be a lord or prince among the ungodly ! Well, sirs, it is
much in your hands now to make your own and your neigh-
bours' lives thus sweet and comfortable, and to make the way
to heaven thus easy : Why then will you not agree and do it?
6. Moreover, such a holy unity and concord would be
the highest honour to your towns and countries that in this
world they can possibly receive. It is the highest glory of
the kingdoms of the world, to become the kingdoms of the
Lord and of his Christ. (Rev. xi. 17.) You think it a great
436 CATHOLIC UNITY.
honour for your towns to be rich, and have fair buildings,
and to have worldly privileges : but, alas, these are baubles
in comparison of the other ! O if it were but the happiness
of this town and parish to be brought to such a holy agree-
ment as I mentioned, that you would all join together in a
godly life, and every family agree to worship God with holy
reverence, and all set together against profaneness and all
known sin, what an honour would it be to you of this place!
How would your fame go through all the land ! All coun-
tries would ring of Kidderminster, what a victory Christ
had gotten there, and what an overthrow the devil and sin
had there received ! And what a blessed place and people it
is, where they are all agreed to be holy and to be saved,
and are all like the ancient primitive believers, that were of
one heart and one soul. (Acts iv. 32.) O how the world
would ring of such a town, where there is not one family
that is ungodly, that serveth the devil by worldliness, swear-
ing, drunkenness, or any ungodly course ; but all are united
in Christ and holiness, and are likely to live together in
heaven ! Truly, neighbours, this would be a greater honour
to you, and to the town, than if you were every man a lord
or prince ! In the eyes of God and all wise men, it would
be the greatest honour in the world. And O what an excel-
lent example would it be to all the towns and parishes in
the land! When they see your holy unity and peace, or
hear of a place that is so happily agreed, it may shame them
out of their ungodliness, and kindle in them a strong desire
to be like you, and agree together as you have done. O that
you would but give them such an example, and try the issue !
7. And I desire every one singly to consider, that it is
the unspeakable mercy of God, that he calleth you to this
holy union with Christ, and communion of saints; and that
he doth not thrust you away, and forbid you coming near,
but will give you leave to be of the holy society, fellow-
citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. God
hath made his promise and offer so large, that you may have
part in it as well as others, if you will not wilfully shut
out yourselves. The feast is prepared ; all things are ready,
and you are every man and woman invited. Christ hath
opened to you a door of admittance and access to God.
And will you now refuse and undo yourselves? The sanc-
tified are God's jewels. (Mai. iii. 17.) His treasure and pe-
CATHOLIC UNITV. 437
culiar people ; the beloved of his soul, and his delight ; and
the only people in the world that shall be saved. This is
true; for God hath spoken it: and you may be of this
blessed number if you will. God hath not separated you
from them, or shut you out by forbidding you to come among
them. O do not you separate and shut out yourselves. You
see your godly neighbours in possession of this privilege ;
and may not you have it if you will? May not you study
the word of God, and call upon him in prayer, and set your-
selves for heaven as well as they ? Where doth the Scrip-
ture command them to it, any more than you? Or forbid
you any more than them? The door is open, you may come
in if you will. You have the same means, and call, and
offer, and time, and leave to lead a holy life as they. And
will you make so much of the difference yourselves as to
be the only refusers? God hath done so much for you by
the death of Christ, and so ordered the matter in the pro-
mises and offers of the Gospel, that none of you shall be
able to say at last, ' I would fain have been of the blessed
society, and fain have lived in the union and communion of
saints, but I could not ; God would not give me leave, and
Christ and his church would not receive me and entertain
me.' Not a man or a woman of you shall have this excuse;
and therefore come in and join with the sanits, and thank
God that you may.
8. And consider also, that if you will not agree with us
in matters of holiness, we can never well make up the rest
of our differences : our smaller Controversies will never be
well agreed, if you will not agree in the main. But if this
were agreed, we should in season certainly heal the rest.
It would make a man's heart ach to hear wretched sinners
talk of our differences about bishops, and ceremonies, and
common-prayer, and holy-days, and infant baptism, and the
like, that are dead in their sins, and are yet disagreed from
us in the very bent of heart and life. Alas, sirs, you have
other matters than these first to talk of, and trouble your-
selves with. A man that is ready to die of a consumption,
should not be taking care to cure the warts or freckles in
his face. We have greater matters wherein we differ from^
you, than kneeling at the sacrament, or observation of days,
or other ceremonies, or doubtful opinions in matters of doc-
trine. Let us first be agreed all to serve one master, and
458 CATHOLIC UNITY.
seek one end, and be ruled by one law, and hate known sin,
and live a holy life, and then we shall be ready to treat with
you about a further agreement. But to talk of small matters,
when we differ in the greatest matters in the world, as much
as your souls are worth, and in matters which heaven or hell
lieth on ; this is but childish trifling, and whatever we may
do for the peace of the church with such, yet to yourselves
that will be small advantage.
Nay, I must tell you, that it is usually but the cunning
of the devil, and the hypocrisy of your own hearts, that
makes you turn your talk to these controversies, when the
great breach is unhealed between Christ and you. It is
commonly made a shift to delude and quiet a debauched
conscience. Our poor people will not by any persuasion
be drawn to a holy, heavenly life, but live in worldliness,
and fleshliness, in swearing and drunkenness, and lying and
deceit, and filthiness, and profaneness, and hate the minister
or Christian that doth reprove them; and then forsooth they
talk of common-prayer-book, and holy-days, and bishops,
and kneeling at the sacrament, to make others, and perhaps
their deluded hearts believe, that this is the controversy and
difference. And so a wretched drunkard, or worldling, per-
suades himself that he is a religious man ; as if the differ-
ence between him and the godly were but about these
ceremonies or church-orders : when, alas, we differ in greater
matters, as light and darkness, life and death, yea, next to
the difference between heaven and hell.
And I must tell you, that you do but wrong the party or
cause that you pretend to, when you will needs engage
yourselves among them. What hath done more to the dis-
honour of the bishops, and common-prayer-book, and other
late orders and ceremonies of the church, than to see and
hear the rabble of drunkards, swearers, scornevs at holiness,
and such like, to plead for them, and be violent defenders
of them? If you would devise how to shame these things,
and bring them down, you can scarce contrive a more effec-
tual way, than to set all the ungodly scandalous wretches to
cry them up, and become their patrons ; for it will make
abundance of soberer people begin to question, whether
it be likely to be good, that hath such defenders on one side,
and adversaries on the othei' side.
And therefore, sirs, let us begin our closure and agree-
CATHOLIC UNITY. 439
meiit ill the main, if you would be ever the better For it, and
have unity indeed. And if you say, ' What the nearer shall
we be for agreement in the other things? Do not the godly
still differ about church-government, and orders, and cere-
monies?' I answer, 1. If we never should be agreed in
these on earth, we might bear it the more quietly, because
our very hearts and souls are united in the main, even in
matters abundantly greater, and in all that salvation is laid
upon ; and, therefore, we have this comfort in the midst of
our differences, that we shall all shortly come to heaven,
and that perfection and the blessed face of God will unite
and perfectly agree us in all things.
2. In the meantime we could hold a holy communion
with them in the substance of God's worship ; and we have
a daily communion with them in the Spirit, and an endeared
love to one another.
3. And the holiness of their natures will incline them
to manage our remaining differences with meekness, humi-
lity, self-denial, moderation, and with great respect to the
safety of the whole church,,and the honour of God and of
the Gospel.
4. And yet I must add, that with such there is a far
greater advantage to heal the smallest difference that re-
mains, than with any other. When we have one God to awe
us, and one heaven to draw us, and one Christ for our head,
and one Spirit and new nature to principle us and dispose
us, and one law to rule us, and have all one ultimate end
and interest, here is a great advantage for healing of any
particular differences that may arise. If the liver, or spleen,
or stomach, or brain, or lungs be unsound, the sores that
are without will hardly be cured ; yea, if there were none,
these inward diseases may breed them ; but when all is well
within, the strength of nature, without a medicine, will do
much to cure such small distempers that arise without. The
life of faith, the love of God, the love of the brethren, and
the church's peace and welfare, with the humility and self-
denial that is in every Christian, will do a great deal to the
healing of divisions among the godly. They will be content
to meet together in love, and pray it out, and refer the
matter to the Holy Scripture, and they have all some special
illumination of the Spirit.
But perhaps you will say, ' Why are they not more fully
440 CATHOLIC UNITY.
agreed V I answer, 1 . Because there are such a multitude
of ungodly persons among them, that hinder them from op-
portunities and advantages for agreement. And many of
these ungodly ones are hypocrites, that take on them to
be godly, and so are traitors in our bosoms, and hinder
peace the more by seeming to be godly, when they are not.
2. Because of the remnant of sin that is yet in the sanctified,
and because they are not yet perfect and in heaven. If they
had no sin, they would have no divisions; and as their siu
is healed as to the dominion of it, but not perfectly till they
come to heaven ; so their divisions are healed in the main, but
not perfectly, till they are perfectly united to God in glory.
9. Consider also, I beseech you, what a joy it would be
to Christ, and to the angels of heaven, and to all good men,
if you would but all make such an agreement, and heartily
join together in holiness! The whole fifteenth chapter of
Luke is by divers parables to tell you this, what joy there is
in heaven itself, for the conversion of one sinner. O what
would there be then, if towns and countries would agree
in holiness! And I am certain it should be a joy to the
princes and rulers of the earth ; for such a unity will only
hold, and be a blessing to their dominions. Plutarch makes
it Agesilaus' reason, why the Spartans had no walls, be-
cause the people being all of one mind, had no need of walls.
And Pliny tells us of a stone that will swim if it be whole,
and sink if it be broken. And so will commonwealths that
are broken from Christ, and void of the cement of the Spirit
that should unite them.
And to the ministers of the Gospel, and all good Chris-
tians, such an unity as this would be an unspeakable joy.
Somewhat I know of other men's hearts by mine own. Could
I but prevail with this nation, yea with one town and parish
to meet together, and heartily consent, agree, and resolve to
join all together in a heavenly life, I should more rejoice in
it than if I had the house full of gold and silver, yea, (as to
mine own interest) than if I were lord of all the world. O
what a joyful day were this, if I could this day bring you to
this holy unity and agreement! How comfortably should I
spend the remaining days of my pilgrimage among you, if
you would but all be brought to this! Whereas I may now
say as David, (Psalm cxx. 5,) for all the godly that are
among you, ""Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I
CATHOLIC UNITY. 441.
dwell in tlie tents of Kedar! My soul hath too long dwelt
with him that hateth this holy peace ; I am for peace ; but
when I speak, and persuade men to it, they are for war," and
continuance in the dividing course of ungodliness. Alas, it
grieveth us to see such divisions in all the churches and na-
tions of the Christian world: and O that we did know how
to heal them! But when we cannot heal the most ungodly,
separations and divisions of one town and parish, itdiscou-
rageth us from hoping for any great measures of such large
extent. Some attempts I have made, and more I would fain
make, to further a union and peace among the churches
through the land : and when I cannot procure the unity of
this one town and parish, what hope can I have to look any
further ? Alas, what a shame is this to you, and what a grief
to us, that we cannot bring one parish, one village that ever
I knew of, in all England, to be all of a mind in those great,
those weighty, needful things, where it is worse than a mad-
ness for men to be unresolved or disagreed ! As Melanthus
made a jest of a great man that went about to reconcile all
Greece, and bring all the princes and states to peace, when
he could not bring his wife and her servant maid to agree-
ment in his own house. So with what hopes can we attempt
any public peace, when we cannot bring one parish, one
village, yea but very few families, to agree in that which
they must agree in, or else the refusers will be certainly
condemned ! I beseech you, sirs, make glad the hearts of
your teachers, and of all good men, by your agreement. You
owe us this comfort ; and you owe it to Christ, and the
angels of heaven; deny us not our due, but without any
more delay agree together to live as saints. What a joy
it would be to your pastors, you are not easily able to be-
lieve. When Gregory Thaumaturgus came first to be bishop
of Neocaesarea, he found but seventeen Christians in the
city : and when he lay on his deathbed, he desired them to
make inquiry how many infidels were unconverted ; and they
found but just seventeen infidels left, and all the rest were
converted to Christianity. And though he rejoiced that he
left but just as many unconverted infidels as he found con-
verted Christians; yet he grieved withal, that he should leave
those seventeen in the power of the devil. When I came to-
you, I found you all professed Christians ; but O that I
could say that 1 shall leave but seventeen unconverted wheu
442 CATHOLIC UNITY.
I am called from you, for all that! O that there were no
more that are infidels or impious, under the name of Chris-
tians ! But I and you are unworthy of so great a mercy.
10. And I pray you consider this in time, that all of you
that now refuse this agreement in holiness, will wish, ere
long, that you had heartily embraced it, and joined with the
godly, and done as they. And why will you not be of the
mind that you will be shortly of? And why will you be of
that way and company that you will wish at last you had
not been of? The prodigal in Luke xv. did think it a
slavery to be kept up so strictly by his father's eye ; he
must have his portion in his own possession, and abroad he
must be gone : but when smart had taught him another
lesson, and misery had brought him to himself, then he is
glad to be an hired servant, and casteth himself at his father's
feet, in the confession of his unworthiness to be called a son,
God grant that this may prove your case. But let me tell it
you for a certain truth, there is not one of you that now is
loath to become so holy, and join yourselves in the ways of
God; but the time is at hand, when either grace or hell shall
make you wish and wish again, that you might have but the
poorest, lowest place in the society which you so despised.
Mark what I say to you, sirs, in the name of God. If the
Lord of heaven do not shortly make the most dull heart, the
greatest derider of godliness among you, that heareth these
words, to wish and wish a hundred times, that he had lived
as holy and heavenly a life as the most strict of those that he
had formerly derided, then call me a false prophet for ever,
and spare not. When you feel the misery of unholy souls,
and see the happiness of the saints above you, then O that
you had been but such as they, and lived as they, whatever
it cost you! And as Balaam you will shortly say, " O that I
might die the death of the righteous, and that my last end may
be as his !" (Numb.xxiii. 10.) There is never a one of you
all but would fain be among the saints at judgment, and re-
ceive their sentence and reward ; and therefore it is best foryou
to join with them now ; or it will be too late to wish it then.
11. If all this will not serve the turn, but you will needs
stand off, and separate yourselves from the servants of Christ,
be it known to you, you shall ere long have separation
enough, and be further from them than your hearts can wish.
As you would not be united to them, and join with them in
CATHOLIC UNITY. 44^
holiness, so you shall not be partakers with them of their
happiness. One heaven will not hold you both ; and there
is but one to hold you; and therefore an everlasting separa-
tion shall be made : between them and you will a great gulf
be set, so that they that would pass from you to them
shall never be able. (Luke xvi. 26.) When they stand on the
right hand, you shall be set upon the left ; and when they
hear " Come ye blessed," you shall hear " Go ye cursed ;"
and when they " go away into life eternal," you shall " go
away into everlasting punishment." (Matt, xxv.31,32. 41.
46.) Then shall you see that " the man is blessed that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth
he meditate day and night The ungodly are not so, but
are like the chaff which the wind driveth away : therefore
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous : for the Lord knoweth the
way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish." (Psal. 1.) Then you will say to them thatnowyou
differ from, " Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone
out." Oh that we had part in your holiness and your hopes !
But they will answer you, " Not so, lest there be not enough
for us and you." We have little enough for ourselves, you
should have done as we did; but then it will be too late,
(Matt. XXV. 8 — 10.) It will then make the proudest heart
to shake, to hear, " Depart from me, all ye that are workers
of iniquity, I never knew you :" (Matt, vii.23 :) You departed
from me, and would not live in the communion of saints j
and now Christ himself, of whom you boasted, and in whom
you trusted, will not know you, but cause you to depart much
farther than you desired, both from his saints and him.
These are the true revelations of God, which may be laughed
at and slighted now, but will certainly be made good on all
that are not in time united to Christ and his church.
12. And let me tell you, to consummate your misery,
when that day of everlasting separation comes, those servants
of Christ whom you refused to join with in a holy life, will
be so many witnesses against you to your condemnation:
as Christ tells you. Matt, xxv, he will say " Inasmuch as you
did it not to one of these, you did it not to me." So, inas-
much as you refused the communion of saints, and perhaps
44<4 CATHOLIC UNITY.
derided them, you refused communion with Christ himself,
and derided him. Then they must testify against you, ' We
were willing to have had his company in the way of holiness,
but he refused it.' And when you see them set so far
above you, then your own consciences will say, ' We might
have been of this blessed society, and would not; we might
have done as they, and now sped as they ; we were often en-
treated to it by our teachers ; and full glad would the godly
have been of our company in a holy life; but we obstinately
refused all ! Wretches that we are, we refused all ! we thought
it needless, our hearts were against it; we preferred our
pleasures, and profits, and credit, and the customs of the
world before it, and now how justly do we perish in our
wilfulness, and must lie in yonder burning flames, and be
separated as far as hell is from heaven, from those that we
wilfully separated from on earth.'
Beloved hearers, I were not a believer, if I did not foresee
this dreadful day ; and I were not a man, if I did not desire
that you might escape this misery ; and therefore I could
do no less than warn you, as you love yourselves, and would
not be separated from them for ever, that you would pre-
sently be united to the godly, and live in the true communion
of the saints, and withdraw yourselves from the ways of the
ungodly, lest you be found among them, and perish with
them. I have done my part in telling you the truth, and
now must leave the success to God.
Use ult. But I must conclude with a word of advice to the
godly: I have made a very large ambitious motion, for the
conversion of all at once : but alas, it is far from my expecta-
tion that it should prevail. I am not so unacquainted with
the power of sin, and the subtlety of the devil, and the wil-
fulness of blind unsanctified men, and the ordinary course
of providence in this work, as to cherish any hopes that all
the town and parish should consent. If many or any more
do, I should be glad. But * plurima quseras, ut pauca feras :'
an high motion, when reasonable, may be serviceable to
lower hopes. By what I have here said, you may now see how
little hope there is that ever the church should have any such
peace on earth as we desire. If unholiness be the hindrance,
and the greatest part of the world are so unholy, and so our
unity is likely to rise no higher than our piety, you may see
then how much unity to look for.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 445
But for your own parts, be sure among yourselves to
maintain the " unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
" Love the brotherhood, even saints as saints." And because
you are not the searchers of the heart, proceed according to
the word of God. Let all that profess themselves a sancti-
fied people, and live so that you cannot certainly disprove
their profession, be used as saints by you, and leave the in-
fallible judgment to God. It is only real saints that have
the internal " unity of the Spirit, and saving communion;
but it is professors of faith and holiness that must have ex-
ternal communion with us in ordinances, as they have a visi-
ble union of profession with the church. But if they pro-
fess not holiness, they ought not to have any Christian
communion at all.
O Christians, keep close to Christ the centre of your
unity, and the Scripture, which is the rule of it, and cherish
the Spirit which is the vital cause ; walk evenly and uprightly
in a dark generation, and give no offence to those without,
nor to the church of God. Know them that are over you in
the Lord, and be at peace among yourselves, " and the God
of peace shall be with you," (1 Thess. v. 12 ; Philip, iv. 8, 9.)
Object. * But may not a profession of the same faith pro-
cure a sufficient unity among us, though all be not saints,
and savingly regenerate ? Let us first be of one religion,
and then we may come to be sincere in the practice of that
religion by degrees.'
Ansiv. 1. For the church's sake, we are thankful to God,
when we see a common concord in profession, though most
are false in and to the religion which they profess. Many
ways God doth good to his church by unsound professors.
1. Their professing the same faith doth somewhat tie
their hands from persecuting it. And of the two, we can
better bear hypocrites than persecutors.
2. And it somewhat tieth their tongues from reproaching
the faith, and arguing against it, and seducing others from
it. And of the two, it would be more hurtful to the church
to have these men open enemies to the truth, and bend their
wits and tongues against it, and to have the multitude as-
saulting their neighbours with invectives and cavils against
religion, than to have them falsely pretend to be I'eligious,
3. And it is a great mercy to the church, hereby to have
the benefit of these men's common parts and interests. When
446 CATHOLIC UNITY.
they profess the same religion with us, though unsoundly,
yet it engage th them to stand for the religion which they pro-
fess; and their illumination and conviction may lead them
to do much service for the truth. By this means many hands
are at work to build up the church of Christ. And by this means
the lives of many faithful Christians are preserved, and their
estates much spared. Many have skill in building, that are
not true heirs of the house which they build. Many have
excellent gifts for preaching and expounding Scripture, by
which the church may be edified, and the truth defended
against the adversaries, when yet the same men may them-
selves be destitute of the power of this truth. The church hath
great cause to be thankful to God for the gifts of many an
unsanctitied man : had the church been denied the ministry
and gifts of all men except saints, it would have been con-
fined to a narrower room, and many a soul might have
been unconverted that have been by the ministry called of
unsanctified men. By some such did God work miracles
themselves for the confirmation of the Christian faith. And
in times of war, if the church had none but saints to fight
for them, it could not stand without a continued miracle.
And if we had not the daily help of others in civil and secu-
lar affairs, we should find by the miss of it, what a mercy we
undervalued. Were every unregenerate man an open enemy
to the church, we should live as partridges, and such other
birds, that must hide themselves from every passenger.
4. Moreover, this profession of hypocrites doth much
restrain them from many a sin, by which God would be much
dishonoured, and the church more wronged, and the godly
more grieved, and the open enemies more encouraged.
5. And also it is some honour to the Gospel in the eyes
of men, to have a multitude of professors. Should Christ's
visible church be as narrow as the mystical, and should none
be professors of the faith, but those few that are sanctified
believers, the paucity of Christians, and the narrowness of
the church, would be a dishonour to Christ in the eyes of
the world, and would hinder the conversion of many a soul.
All this I have said, that you may see that we do not
despise a unity in profession, and that we are not of those
that would have all hypocrites and common professors shut
out : yea, that we take ourselves bound to be very thankful
to God for the mercy which he vouchsafeth us, by the gifts.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 447
and favour, and help, and interest of many such professors.
And such a unity of profession we shall endeavour to our
power heartily to prorriote, as knowing that the church, as
visible, consisteth of such professors.
2. But yet for all this, I must come closer to your ob-
jection, and tell you, that this unity of mere profession is
comparatively so poor a kind of unity, that this will not,
this must not satisfy us, and serve the turn, which I desire
you to observe in these discoveries.
1. This unity in mere profession is properly no Chris-
tian imity, because you are not properly Christians. If this
be all, it is but in the bark and shell that we are agreed : it
is but a seeming agreement, from the teeth outward ; but
not a hearty agreement to be Christians. What ! shall we
all agree to say we are Christians, when with most it is
not so? For all this agreement, you will still have one father,
and we another. You will not be united with us in Christ
the Head ; you will not have the same Holy Spirit, who
is the life of the new creature : you will be contrary to us
in nature or disposition. You will not have the same in-
tention and ultimate end with us, but you will aim at one
thing, and we at another: you will not go the same way,
nor walk by the same rule and law as we : It will be but a
tying together the living and the dead. Bellarmin himself
confesseth that the ungodly are but dead members. It is
not life that uniteth a dead member to the living. You will
be still either openly or secretly betraying the body to
which you profess yourselves united, and taking part with
its deadly enemies, the flesh, the world and the devil ! Your
very hearts and ours will still be contrary : you will love the
sin that we hate and set ourselves against ; and you will
disrelish that holy, heavenly life, which must be our busi-
ness and delight. Your affections will go one way, and
ours another. You will live by sense, when we must live
by faith ; and you will be laying up a treasure on earth,
when we are laying up a treasure in heaven : you will be
asking counsel of flesh and blood, when we must advise with
God and his holy word. You will look first to your bodies,
when we must look first and principally to our souls. It
will be your business to feed those sins, which it is our daily
work to kill. You will make and apprehend it to be your
interest to go contrary to us : and what agreement can there
448 CATHOLIC UNITY.
be, where there are contrary interests? Under all your out-
ward profession, you will still retain a secret enmity and
hatred to the life of holiness : and will not have that hearty
love to the saints, as beseems all those that are members of
Clirist, and of the holy catholic church. So that when you
have communion with the saints, it will be but an external
and superficial communion in some common things; but
you will have no communion with them in the same Head,
and Spirit, and promise, and holy nature, and saving benefits
of the Gospel. And shall this be called unity, that leaveth
you at so sad a distance as this ? This is but such a union
as a wooden-leg hath to the body ; or as the vessels of ho-
nour and dishonour have by being in the same house toge-
ther. In their highest professions, the Lord himself saith
of unsanctified professors, that they " are none of Christ's,"
(Rom. viii. 9,) and that " they cannot be his disciples,"
(Luke xiv. 33,) that they "are not Israel, though of Israel,
nor are they children of God, nor the seed of promise ;"
(Rom. ix. 6 — 8 ;) and when they plead their highest privi-
leges, at last, Christ will tell them that he "knoweth them
not." (Matt. vii. 23; xxv. 12; Psal. i. 5, 6.) And if in
mercy to the church, God cause the lion and the lamb to
lie down together, yet will he not therefore mistake a lion
for a lamb. So that you see what a poor kind of unity, and
next to none it is, that mere profession maketh. And there-
fore this will not serve our turn.
2. Moreover, if we have no other unity, we are unlike to
live in peace together. Though it be our duty to endeavour
to have peace with all men, yet we can have but little hope
of it. As long as there is so much difference and contra-
riety as I have mentioned ; and as long as there is a secret
enmity at the heart, it will be working into dissention, if
God, for the sake of his church, restrain it not. The godly
will be crossing your carnal interest, and hindering you in
the sinful ways of your commodity, pleasure or vainglory !
They will be calling you to self-denial, which you cannot
endure ; and putting you upon duties of holiness, righte-
ousness and mercy, which your sinful flesh will utterly re-
fuse. If you are scandalous, you will be called to confession,
repentance, and reformation, or by church censures be cut
off from them to your shame : and the magistrate also must
trouble you by the penalties of the law. The very examples
CATHOLIC UNITY. 449
of a strict ahd holy living, which are given you by the
godly, will displease you, because they are so unlike to your
lives, and therefore witness against your negligence and un-
godliness. So that it is not possible that we should avoid
offending you; for our very obedience to God will offend
you, and our studying and following the holy Scripture
will offend you, and our diligent labour to save our souls
will offend you ; and our hating and avoiding the poison of
sin will offend you. And how then shall we live in peace
with such ? If you yoke a swine and a sheep together, one
will be drawing to the washtub, when the other would be at
grass ; and one would be drawing to lie down in the mire,
when the other would lie clean ; one will be routing in the
earth, and eating dung, which the other's nature is against.
It is Christ, before me, that calleth the wicked by the name
of swine, and the godly sheep: and if you will come no nearer
us than this, we are likely to have but poor agreement.
And as our ways will displease you, so your galled, ma-
licious hearts will manifest the offence, and will be girding,
and maligning, if not slandering, deriding, or openly perse-
cuting, as far as you have power, those that thus offend you.
And what unity is this ?
3. If reason persuade you not, do but ask experience it-
self, whether, in all ages, men that profess the same religion
with zealous godly men, have not been their persecutors,
and oftentimes more cruel than infidels themselves ? The
Arians, that call themselves Christians, were as cruel to the
true believers as the heathens. The Papists profess the
same Christianity as we, and take the whole Scripture as
the word of God : and yet none of the heathenish persecu-
tions do match or come near to their French massacres, and
Spanish Inquisition, and the cruelty that in Ireland, Eng-
land, and their part of the Christian world, they have exer-
cised upon the sheep of Christ. The many ministers that
were silenced in Germany, and some imprisoned, and many
families undone, was by the Lutherans, against men that
were Protestants as well as they. And they that cast out
so many learned, holy ministers in England, and occasioned
the expulsion of so many thousand persons fearing God,
were professed Protestants as well as we. And that there
may not be the appearance so much as of a difference in
VOL. XVI. G G
450 CATHOLIC UNITY.
ceremonies to cover their proceedings, abundance of con-
formable men are troubled and undone as well as others,
and they give out that ' none were worse than the conform-
able Puritans.' It was a holy observation of the Lord's-
day, and opposition to the abuse of it by dancings ; and it
was hearing sermons, and instructing men's families, and
praying together, that were the things inquired after, that
occasioned our troubles. And (whoever was in the right or
wrong) you all know that the late miserable wars among us,
was between men that professed themselves to be of the
same religion, not only as Christians, but as Protestant and
Reformed (in the main). To this day you see among our-
selves in towns and countries, that those that do not only
dwell with us, and come to the same assemblies with us,
and profess themselves of the same Protestant, Reformed
Religion, have yet many of them a secret malignity against
the godly, that will not be as loose and negligent as they,
and will not as madly cast away their souls : And also even
many greater hypocrites, that rank themselves with us in
the same church order, and seem to own all ordinances of
God, and government of the church, yet when this govern-
ment crosseth them in their carnal ways, and these ordi-
nances open the nakedness of their miscarriages, they
prove stark enemies to the government, officers and ordi-
nances themselves.
Indeed however we may abide together, (as the clean and
unclean creatures in Noah's ark,) yet still at the heart there
is so much enmity and distance, and in our ends and in-
terests there are so much contrariety, that if the ministers
and other followers of Christ, will faithfully discharge the
duty that is required of them, they will certainly be perse-
cuted by men of the same profession in religion; especially
by the prouder and loftier sort of wicked men. Because
some will receive the same truth better from one than from
another. I will give you my assertion in the words of a
man, that you shall confess did speak impartially, and not
out of any intemperance or singularity ; who in a prospe-
rous University, in peaceable times, being himself in favour,
and of that judgment and of such learning as was likely to
continue him in favour, did write thus concerning persecu-
tion: I mean Doctor Jackson, in his book of ** Saving Faith,"
CATHOLIC UNITY. 451
sect. 2, chap, iv, page 185, " Tlie ministers of Christ may
deny Christ, or manifest their ashamedness of his Gospel,
as directly by not laying his law as closely to the great
Herods of the world, as John Baptist did, (suppose the case
be as notorious, and as well known to them,) as if they had
been afraid to confess him, for fear of being put out of the
synagogues, or said with those other Jews, We know that
God spake with Moses, and gave authority to magistrates ;
but this man we know not whence he is, nor do we care for
his counsels. Yet were John Baptist's kind of preaching
used in many kingdoms, though by such as profess the same
religion with the potentates, they should offend with their
boldness, I think it would prove matter of martyrdom in
the end. That any age, since the Christian religion was first
propagated, hath wanted store of martyrs, is more to be at-
tributed to the negligence, ignorance, and hypocrisy, or
want of courage in Christ's ambassadors, or appointed pas-
tors, than unto the sincerity, mildness or fidelity of the
flock ; especially of the belwethers or chief ringleaders.
Or, if Satan had not abated the edge of primitive zeal and
resolution, by that dishonourable peace concluded between
Christianity and Gentilism, after the settling of the Goths
and Vandals in these parts of Christendom ; had he not utterly
benumbed mankind by locking up their spiritual senses in
midnight darkness, fettering their souls in superstition,
since the time he himself was let loose : Rome Chris-
tian had seen more martyrs, even of such as did not much
dissent from her in most opinions held within six hundred
years of Christ, in one year, than Rome heathen at any time
had known in ten. Even in churches best reformed, it
would be much easier, I think, to find store of just matter of
martyrdom, than of men fit to make martyrs. And he that
hath lived any long time in these quiet mansions, and seats
of jnuses, secure from Mars his broils, or external violence,
hath great cause either to magnify the tender mercies of his
gracious God, or suspect himself for an hypocrite, if he
have not suffered some degrees of martyrdom : but unto
such as have been exercised therein, it bringeth forth the
quiet fruit of righteousness."
Thus you see this learned doctor, though in favour
with the rulers of the age he lived in, did think that a
man that would not be an hypocrite, but faithfully dis-
452 CATHOLIC I'NITY.
charge his duty, was likely to suft'er martyrdom from those
of the same profession with himself, and that it must be by
very great mercy from God, or by hypocrisy and unfaithful-
ness in us, if any minister do escape the hands of the wicked
that are of his own profession. So that you may see that
mere profession will make but a poor agreement or union
among us : sin will be sin still, and the flesh will rage still
after its prey in unmortified professors ; and the word of
God will still disgrace them and condemn them, and conse-
quently trouble them and exasperate them ; so that if you
come no nearer to us than a profession of the Christian Pro-
testant religion, you will still be soldiers in the army of the
devil, and be still flying in the faces of true believers, when-
ever they do but cross you in your sins.
3. Consider also, what a poor benefit comparatively it is
to yourselves, to be joined with the saints by a bare pro-
fession, and no more. Will it make you happy to see their
faces, or to live among them? So do the brute beasts, and
so do their persecutors. Will it make you happy to be
called by the name of Christians? No more than it maketh
a picture rational to be called by the name of a man. And
what if by your parts and moral virtues, you are some way
helpful to the church ? So is the wooden leg to the body,
which is yet not a member, but a crutch.
4. Yea, methinks it should rather double your sorrows,
that you are so miserable among the happy. You live with
them that have part in Christ, when you have none in him.
You join with those that have the Spirit of God, and a
holy disposition and conversation, when you have none :
you kneel by them whose spirits are importunate with God
in prayer, when your hearts are dead : you sit by them that
are quickened and sanctified by the word, which to you is
but a dead and empty sound. You are famished among
them that are feasting upon Christ, and upon the precious
promises of eternal life. You are but as carcases among
the living: their company maketh not you alive; but your
noisome conversation is grievous unto them, unless it be
some of you that are embalmed and beflowered with some
common graces, for the sakes of those that else would be
more troubled with you. And is this so great a comfort to
you, to be dead among the living, and to be heirs of hell in
the midst of them that are heirs of heaven? Methinks (till
CATHOLIC UXITY. 453
you are sanctified) it should be a daily honour to you, to
look theui in the faces, and think that they have Christ and
grace, and you have none; and to hear in the holy assem-
blies the mention of their happiness, and the name of that
God, that Christ, that heaven, where they must live forever,
and in which their blessedness consisteth, when you must
be turned out into everlasting misery.
That you may not think 1 am singular in all this, I will
add here some human testimony for confirmation of it.
Zonoras, Comment, in Epist. Canon. Can. 45. ex Basil. M.
Epist. 2. ad Amphiloch. gives us this as one of the canons
of the Greek church received from Basil, " If any one re-
ceiving the name of Christianity, shall be a reproach to
Christ (that is, saith Zonoras, by a wicked life), his name or
appellation is no profit at all to him." And even in the
Roman canon law, this is one canon taken out of Augustine,
" Parvulus qui baptizatur, si ad annos rationales veniens.
non crediderit, nee ab illicitis abstinuerit, nihil ei prodest
quod parvulus accepit." (Decret. part 3. disl. 3. p. 1241.)
that is, A baptized infant, if when he comes to years of dis-
cretion, doth not believe, nor abstain from things unlawful,
it profiteth him nothing which he received in his infancy. If
it were needful after the canons both of the Greek and Latin
church, to give you the like words from particular Fathers,
I could soon perform it.
5. You are so far from being happy by your visible
church-state and outward profession, and communion with
the church, that you have the greater sin, and will have the
sorer punishment, because among such examples, such
means, and calls, and mercies, you yet resist the grace of
Christ, and are void of that holiness which your tongues
profess. The poor Indians hear not that which you daily
or weekly hear ; nor have the opportunities in public and
private that you have had. If they lie in ignorance and un-
belief, they can say, it is because they n^ver read or heard the
Scripture, nor ever had a man to tell them of the blessed
tidings of redemption, or open to them the way to life: But
so cannot you say for yourselves. They were the less ex-
cusable, if they had seen but one of your days, or joined
but once in those holy assemblies which you profane.
The mouth of Christ himself hath told us concerning the
rejecters of his ministers and his Gospel, that it shall be
454 CATHOLIC UNITV.
easier for Sodom in the day of judgment than for them.
(Matt. X. 15.) You will find a hotter place in hell, that pass
thither from those seats, from this assembly, from such a
neighbourhood, and such a nation, than if you had passed
thither from among the Turks or Indians,
6. Moreover, there is in some respects, less hope of your
salvation, that have long lived unconverted in the outward
communion of the church, than of other men. As a sick man
is in a more desperate case that hath long used the best and
only means, and all in vain, than he that never used any. I
confess you have the advantage of being still under the
means ; and that is your hope (as long as it lasteth), but then
you have the dreadful symptom of frustrating these means ;
and that is your terror, above those that yet remain without.
7. Moreover, if you agree with us but in profession and
outward communion, you will be thereby more capable of
doing us the greater mischief. I know God doth benefit his
church by many of the unsanctified, as I said before. But
many others of them are the greatest plagues to it. One
enemy in our own armies, or in our councils, may do more
against us, than ten thousand open enemies abroad. False-
hearted bishops, pastors, yea, and magistrates, that have the
name and not the nature of Christians, are they that have
betrayed the church, and broken it in pieces, and made the
cause of Christ a stepping-stone to their worldly ends. It
was a Doeg that betrayed David and Abimelech. It was a
Judas that betrayed Christ himself. You are now our daily
hearers, and live some of you civilly among us, and take
yourselves confidently for Christians and saints as well as
others, and secretly scorn those that would rob you of that
honour, as appropriating it unto themselves, and say as
Zedekiah to Micaiah when he struck him, " Which way
went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee ? "
(1 Kings xxii. 24.) But if the times should turn, and you
had but your will, at least if you were but forced or driven
by authority, we should soon find many of you to be blood-
thirsty enemies, that now are so confident that you are
Christians and true servants of God. A little money would
hire those Judases to betray Christ, and his cause and church,
that now are our familiars, and put their hands into the same
dish with the true disciples. While they are among us, they
are not of us ; and therefore when temptations come, they
CATHOLIC UNITY. 455
will be goue from us. It is well if half this assembly that
are now hearing me, would stick to godliness, if godliness
were but the persecuted, scorned way of the times : yea, if
they would not forsake even the name itself of Christian,
and forsake these assemblies and outward worship, if the
rulers were against it, and did but persecute it, so that it
must cost them any thing dear to hold it.
8. Moreover, these hollow-hearted Christians, that agree
with us but in the outside and the name, are capable of dis-
honouring Christ and the Gospel, much more than if they
were open enemies. If a professed heathen or infidel live
wickedly, this cannot be cast upon the Gospel or the Chris-
tian name, nor can Christ and his servants be hit in his teeth
with it, or reproached by it : but when those that take on
them to be Christians, and join with Christians in their public
worship, shall live like heathens, or worse than some of them,
what greater wrong can be done to Christ? Will he not one
day take such wretches by the throat, and say, ' If thou
must have thy pxide, and drunkenness, and covetousness ;
if thou must needs swear, and curse, and rail, or live an un-
godly, fleshly life, thou shouldest have kept thee out of my
church, and not have called thyself a Christian, and taken an
easier place in hell : Must thou bring thy wickedness into
ray house, and among my servants, to dishonour me ? Must
I and my servants be reproached with thy crimes ? '
And this is one great cause why Christ hath appointed
discipline in his church to admonish and reform, or reject
the scandalous : And this is the reason, among many others,
why faithful Chi'istians (though they would make no unjust
divisions and separations) would yet have the church of
Christ kept clean, by use of holy discipline, as he hath ap-
pointed ; because it is from such false-hearted professors
usually, that the name of Christ is reproached in the world :
These are they for the most part that make Turks and Jews,
and all other enemies, say, that Christians are as bad as
others, because those that are as bad as others, do take
on them to be Christians. When drunkards, and forni-
cators, and covetous persons, and profane, do come to
the congregation, and say they are Christians, when in
heart and deed they are not, what wonder then if infidels
and enemies of the church reproach us and say, ' You see
what Christians are.' How could a Papist do the Protestants
456
CATHOLIC UNITY.
a cunninger and surer mischief, than to take on him a Pro-
testant, and then commit fornication or other horrid lewd-
ness, or join with some abominable sect, to make men think
that the Protestants are such as these ! And how can you
do Christ a greater wrong than to carry the dung of the
world into his church ; and to cover all the crimes of infi-
dels, with the name and garb of Christianity, that it may be
said, ' All these are the crimes of Christians !' And there-
fore it is that Christ and his faithful ministers, though they
would have as many as is possible to be saved, yet are not
so forward to take in all, as others be : for Christ needeth
not servants, but it is they that need him ; and he had rather
have a few that will honour him by mortified holy lives,
than a multitude that will but cause his Name and Gospel
to be reproached. It is certain from church history, that
the holy life of some one or few persons (as Gregory Thau-
maturgus, Macarius, and many the like) hath drawn in mul-
titudes, and converted countries to the faith : when the
wickedness of whole towns and countries of professed
Christians, hath caused many to fall off, and caused the
enemy to insult.
We will not for all this break our rule, nor presume to
search the hearts of men any further than they appear in
outward evidence. We will still take all professors of Chris-
tianity as Christians, that null not their own profession.
Basil was advised by Athanasius himself, to receive the
Arians themselves into communion, if they did but disown
their former errors, and subscribe to the Nicene Creed, and
seek the communion of the churches. And he practised this,
though many were offended at it. But yet he must needs say,
that it is better for the church to have a few that are holy, and
answer the nature of their holy calling, than to have multi-
tudes that will but prove our shame, and make the infidel
world believe that Christianity is not what it is. Yea, and these
are they most commonly too (though they may proceed to a
higher profession) that are carried about with every wind ol"
doctrine, and that turn to heresies, and cause and continue the
divisions of the church : for they that are such, serve not
the Lord Jesus, when they profess to serve him. (Rom. xvi.
17.) When heresies do arise, it is such chaff as this that is
carried away, that the approved Christians indeed may be
made manifest. (1 Cor. xi. 19.) Abundance of proud uu-
CATHOLIC UNITY. 457
sanctified persons do us as much good in the church as fire
in our thatch, or as mutinous soldiers that are but the ene-
my's agents in the army, to set all the soldiers together by
the ears, or discover their councils, or blow up their maga-
zines. And would you have us contented with such a kind
of agreement and communion with you as this, which you
and we are like to be so little the better for, if not the worse?
9. Furthermore, it is not this mere agreement in profes-
sion, that will satisfy Christ himself, and, therefore, it must
not satisfy us. It is not in this that he attaineth the prin-
cipal ends of his redemption, nor seeth the travail of his
soul. Alas, the blood of Christ is lost to you, and all the
ordinances and means are lost, and all the labour of ministers
is but lost to you, as to any pardon of sin, or life, or heaven,
that ever you shall have by them, if you go on further. And
would you have us be contented with such an agreement
as this ?
10. Lastly, Consider that if we agree no further than iu
an outward profession of the Christian faith, alas it will be
but a short agreement. We may be together here awhile in
the church, as fishes good and bad in one net; but when it
is drawn to the shore, a separation will be made. Here
you may sit and kneel among us awhile, and go away with
the name of Christians : but alas, it is but a little while till
this agreement will be broken, and a dreadful everlasting-
separation must be made. Dreadful to the unsanctified, but
joyful to the saints. And what great good will it do to you
or us, to be tied together a little while, by words and shows,
and then to be everlastingly separated, as far as light from
darkness, heaven from hell, and the greatest joys from the
greatest sorrows. O blame us not if we motion to you, and
beg of you a far nearer union and agreement than this !
1 think I have now sufficiently proved, that if we will be
indeed of one religion, and ever come to a right agreement,
it is the unity of the sanctifying Spirit that must do it. It
must be a union and agreement in true conversion and holi-
ness of life, and nothing lower will serve the turn. If God
do us any good by the profession, gifts, or interest of hypo-
crites and unsanctified professors, we will thank him for it,
and take it as a mercy ; but it is a higher design that must
be in our hearts ; and woe be to them that come no nearer
the holy catholic church, and the unity of the Spirit, and
458 CATHOLIC UNITY.
the communion of saints, than by an outward profession and
participation of sacraments, and such like outward ordi-
nances of communion !
Quest. ' But suppose we should be united in the Spirit, and
agree in holiness, do you think this would heal the divisions
of the church? Do you not see that the most godly are all
in pieces, as well as others? Is it not such that have been
the principal cause of our late divisions? You promised to
shew us how we might do well, for all our other differences,
if we were but agreed in holiness ; will you now shew us
what advantage that would be?'
Answ. To be agreed in holiness, and to be heartily one
in the essentials of Christianity, is an exceeding advantage
to us in all our disagreements about lesser things : As
1. Were we but once united in the main, and sanctified
by the uniting Spirit of Christ, our principal differences
were healed already. We should no longer be of different
minds, whether sin or holiness be best ; or whether earth or
heaven should be chosen for our portion ; nor whether Godi
or the flesh, or the world, should be obeyed. You little think
what abundance of differences are at once reconciled in the
very hour of a sinner's conversion. Before that hour, we
differed in judgment from all wise men, from all the saints
of God, from all the holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs,
as well as from all the godly about us ; and from all men of
right reason, and faith, and experience; yea, we differed
from the Holy Ghost, from Christ, from God himself; yea,
from none so much as him. Wicked wretches ! you differ
from the godly because they agree with God ; but you differ
more from God than from them. When you despise a holy
life, are his thoughts like your thoughts? When you revile
his servants, and scorn his yoke and burden as too heavy,
are you then of the mind of Christ ? O no ; your darkness
and his light are far more distant than you are able to con-
ceive. Were you but once reconciled to God, by converting,
sanctifying light, you would at once be reconciled to his
servants ; for in the matters of chief concernment to the
soul, they are all of his mind ; for he is their instructor.
And then what a deal of healing would that be I O what
abundance of differences are ended upon the day of true
conversion ! And withal, what abundance of differences
would be new made ! For now you agree with the devil.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 459
and with your fleshly desires, and with distracted, wicked
men, and all this agreement would then be broke : for this
friendship with the world is enmity to God, (James iv. 4.)
and such divisions as these Christ tells us that he came to
send. (Luke xii. 51.) But you would presently be agreed
with God, with the holy Scriptures, with all the apostles and
servants of the Lord, and with all men of spiritual wisdom
and experience in the world, in the great and principal mat-
ters of your lives. And it is a multitude of particulars that
is contained in this agreement that is made when a sinner
is truly sanctified.
2. If once you were united in the spirit, and agreed in a
holy life, you would differ in nothing that could keep you
out of heaven. And if we have some small differences on
earth, as long as they are such as cannot hinder our salva-
tion, they may be the more easily borne. Paul and Barnabas
had a little falling out; but O how sweetly are they now re-
conciled ! Jerom and Chrysostom, Epiphanius and John of
Jerusalem, Theophilus and Chrysostom were at odds ; Lu-
ther and Zuinglius had their disagreements; but O how
happily are they now agreed ! Our imperfection of know-
ledge causeth us here to err and differ in part: but if we
are all united in Christ, and agreed in the main, how quickly
shall we see that blessed light that will reconcile all our
controversies ! Marvel not to find some contests among
the most learned and most godly, unless you will marvel
that earth is not heaven ; or that in that body we see not
the face of God, which is the all-disclosing reconciling light.
If we were all here together in the dark, and were of many
opinions about the things before us; if one did but come in
among us with a candle, it might end all our differences in
a moment. When we are newly out of this obscuring flesh,
and this dark, deceitful, earthly world, Owhat an inconceiv-
able reconciliation will be made by that blessed light.
There is no contending or quarelling : for there are none of
those errors or passions that should occasion it. As imper-
fect holiness produceth an answerable imperfect unity, so
perfect holiness will perfectly unite. And is not this then
the only way to unity, which will help us here to what is
here attainable, and secure us of eternal perfect concord in
the world that we are passing to ? O see that you be once
agreed iu the things that are necessary to salvation, and
460 CATHOLIC UNITY.
then the hour is near at hand that will end all your dif-
ferences, and agree you in the rest.
3. If once you be but agreed in holiness, you will have
no difference left that shall destroy any grace in you, that
is necessary to salvation. The power of Divine faith, and
love, and hope, and fear, and zeal, will still be safe. Your
diseases will not destroy your vital faculties. And if the
head, the heart, and principal parts be sound, you may the
better bear a small distemper. The disagreements of the
ungodly from God, from Scripture, and the saints, are mor-
tal to them, and prove them under the power of darkness
and of Satan, that leads them captive at his will. (2 Tim. ii.
26; Ephes. ii. 23; Acts xxvi. 18.) But the differences of
the sanctified are but as the different complexions or sta-
tures of children, or at worst but as their falling out, which
will not cause the father to turn them out of his family ; so
that as long as faith, and love, and hope, and other graces
are kept sound, we shall certainly do well for all our differ-
ences. And this is the benefit of agreeing in holiness.
4. Moreover, if once we were all agreed in the Spirit, and
in holiness of heart and life, we should escape all the here-
sies, or errors that effectually subvert the essentials of the
Christian faith. Mistaken we might be ; but heretics we
could not be. I stick not upon the bare word, whether small
errors may be called heresy ; but taking heresy as commonly
it is taken, a sanctified person cannot (at least habitually) be
a heretic. For should a man so hold a point inconsistent
with any one essential point of the Christian faith (at least
habitually and practically hold it), it is as impossible that
this man should be then a Christian, as that contradictories
should be true. And therefore certainly, whosever is a true
Christian, is free from such heresies. And therefore, as if
you are sure a man so holds a heresy, you have no reason to
believe his shows of holiness ; so where you see a great ap-
pearance of real holiness, you must long deliberate and have
good evidence, before you judge that man a heretic : for
they cannot be heretics, though they may have many errors,
(as * in sensu composito' all confess.)
5. Moreover, if we but all agreed in true holiness, we
should be freed from most of those scandalous sins which
are the common occasion of our reproaches and divisions.
It is sin that is the great trouble of the church, and of the
CATHOLIC UNITY. 461
world. (John vii. 25.) This breeds our quarrels. This setteth
all into a flame. When a drunkard, or an unclean person,
or a slanderer, or a railer, or any scandalous person is re-
proved, or openly admonished, or for impenitency rejected,
then the devil and sin bestir themselves, and rage against
the church and officers, and ordinances of God. It is sin
within that animateth the malignant to be contentious: and
it is to defend and take part with sin, that they fall out with
God, and his word and servants. Now holiness is contrary
to this sin that troubleth us. Mortification of sin is part of
sanctification. If therefore we were agreed in holiness, it
were as ready a way to procure our peace, as quenching the
fire in your thatch, is the ready way to save your house. I
know there are too many scandals given by the best. But
it is commonly by the weaker, worse sort of the best. And
it is not a common thing with them neither. And none of
them make a trade of sinning, nor have any unmortified
reigning sin. If a Noah, a Lot, a David, be once scandalous
in all his life, this is not the case of all the godly; and it is
not like the case of the ungodly that are either often, or im-
penitent in it. And therefore though it may disturb the
church; yet not so much as the frequent and impenitent
scandals of the ungodly. O could we but all agree against
this make-bate, this great disturber and troubler of the world,
what peace might we enjoy !
6. And also, if once we could agree in holiness, the mat-
ter and occasion of offences, separations, and contentions
would cease. What caused the Donatists' separation of old,
but the scandals in the church ; and the receiving of such,
upon repentance, into communion or ministry? And so the
Novatian schism also was occasioned. And though the
Donatists and Novatians were to blame to be against the
ordination or reception of such penitents ; yet the prevention
of the sin would have been the prevention of the breach.
What hath caused so many to turn Separatists in England,
but seeing so many ungodly persons in our churches and
communion? You that are most offended at schisms and
private churches, are the common occasions of it yourselves.
If such ungodly persons were not in our assemblies, few
godly persons would separate from them. Though I do not
justify them, yet I must needs condemn you as the cause.
Were it not for you, we should be more of a mind among
462 ^ CATHOLIC UNITY.
ourselves. But when youi' rotten ulcers and corrupted lives
have raised a stink in our assemblies, this causeth our divi-
sion: The Separatists stop their noses and are gone, and will
come here no more ; and the rest of us think that for your
sakes, and the peace of the church, we should stay as long
as we well can, like patient surgeons, that will not forsake
their patient because of a rotten, stinking sore, as long as
there is any hope of cure, or of saving the body, by cutting
off the rotten member. And thus while some are more pa-
tient and charitable towards you, and some are more impa-
tient of your sin, or else afraid of God's displeasure for
having communion with you, here comes our divisions
among ourselves, for your sakes. And therefore if we were
but agreed in holiness, all this were ended. There would
then be no habituated drunkard, or worldling, or railer, or
swearer, or other ungodly persons in our churches ; and then
who would scruple communion with them? And so what
should hinder but we might all be one? And yet will you
not agree in this ?
7. Yea, if we were united in the Spirit of holiness, the
very dividing, unpeaceable disposition of men would itself
be healed, and so we should have peace. For an uncharita-
ble, dividing disposition is part of the old man, and of that
unholiness which we must forsake. And charity and meek-
ness, and a peaceable healing temper, is holiness itself. And
therefore this must needs do much to heal and reconcile us.
Read but James iii. throughout, and it will satisfy you of
this, if you will be satisfied. Those that pretend to be
wiser than the rest of the godly, and to have more illumina-
tion, " If yet they have bitter envying and strife in their
hearts, they glory in vain, and lie against the truth: for this
wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual
and devilish. He that is truly wise and endued with know-
ledge in the church, must shew out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. For the wisdom that
is from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be
entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy. But where envying and strife is,
there is confusion, and every evil work." (James iii. 13 — 17.)
See here what a spirit sanctification doth contain, and whe-
ther this be not the only healing way. It is first indeed pure ;
but next it is *' peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated."
CATHOLIC UNITV. 403
They that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doc-
trine which is taught, do not serve the Lord Jesus, whatever
tliey may pretend or think. Peace and holiness must be
followed together. (Heb. xii. 14.) Yea, " peace with all
men," if it be possible, and in our power, (Rom. xii. 18,)
so that by changing the unpeaceable disposition, and drying
up the fountain of our strifes, an agreement in the Spirit
would reconcile us.
8. Moreover, if we would all agree in the Spirit of holi-
ness, it would destroy that carnal selfish disposition, and
that end which is the dividing interest, and take away the
bone of our contentions. It is selfishness that causeth the
great divisions in church and state, and sets the world toge-
ther in wars and quarrels: every unsanctified man is selfish;
his self and selfish interest is more to him than God and his
interest. And such men as these will never live with any
man in peace, any longer than they may have their will and
way. They will not agree with neighbours if self be but
touched by any. They will hate the magistrate whenever he
would punish them. They will hate the pastors of the church
if they faithfully discharge their offices in reproving them,
and calling them to repentance, and such confession is as
necessary to their cure. If it were father or mother, a selfish
person cannot bear it, if they go against his selfish interest.
There is no living at peace with selfish men, if you do but
cross them in their credit or profit, or sensual delights ; and
this we must do, unless we will incur the displeasure of our
Lord. We are cast upon an impossibility of living in peace
with wicked men. For God hath commanded us to " rebuke
them plainly, and not to suffer sin upon them." And if we
disobey God to please men, it will cost us dearer than their
favour can repay. But if we obey God and do our duty, we
are as sure to be hated and reproached with the most, as that
the earth is under our feet. Give a wicked, selfish sinner as
plain Scripture and reason as can be given, and you shall not
stir him from his selfish interest: if you punish him, or re-
prove him openly, or exercise church censures on him, or
any way touch his carnal, selfish interest, and when you have
done, go about to satisfy him with reason, you may as well
almost go reason a hungry dog from his carrion, or reason a
wolf into the nature of a lamb, or reason a mastiff to be
friends with a bear. Many a trial I have made ; and many a
464 CATHOLIC UNITY.
time I have stopped their mouths, and satisfied them in rea-
son, that they ought to deny themselves, and confess and
forsake their sins, and yield to God (or made them confess
so much at least) ; but their selfish minds were no more satis-
fied, for all that, than if I had never spoken to them. Scrip-
ture is no Scripture, and reason is no reason to them ; and
God shall be no God to them, if self do but contradict it;
and that is, whenever he contradicteth self. They can no
more believe, and like, and love that doctrine or duty, or
counsel, or course of life, that crosseth self, and calls them
to any great self-denial, than a child can love to be cor-
rected. So that self being so certain a peace-breaker and
disturber of the world, and yet being the reigning principle
in all that are unsanctified, you may easily see that this is
the hindrance of our unity and concord ; and that sanctifi-
cation must needs be the principal remedy. For sanctifi-
cation is the destruction of selfishness, and teacheth men
self-denial, and centreth all men in one interest, which is
God. Among the unsanctified, there are as many ends and
intetests as men : for every one of them hath a self to please:
and then what unity can there be? But the sanctified are
all united in God, as their common principle, end and all ;
and therefore must needs be reconciled.
9. Moreover, if we could but all agree in the Spirit of
holiness, we should then overcome that pride and self-con-
ceitedness, that breaks our peace, and raiseth errors, and
puts us into dissentions. What makes us all so hardly to
ao-ree, and to be of so many minds and ways, but that every
man naturally is proud and self-conceited, and wise in his
own eyes, and confident of every fancy of his own ? All his
own reasons seem strong to him ; and God's own reasons
do seem unreasonable to him : and can we ever agree with
such men as these, that think themselves wiser than God
and Scripture, and dare prefer the very folly of their own
muddy brains, before the word and wisdom of their Maker ?
Give these men as plain Scripture and reason as you will,
they have more wit (as they think) than to believe you ; and
what they want in reason, they have in pride and self-con-
ceit ; and therefore your wisdom is folly to them. But now
when the Spirit of holiness comes, it takes them down, and
abaseth and humbleth the proud and self-conceited, and
makes them ashamed of the folly and weakness of their own
CATHOLIC UNITY. 465
understandings, SO that a man may speak to them now as to
men of reason, and have a hearing and consideration of his
words. A humble godly man is low in his own eyes;
and therefore suspicious of his own understanding in doubt-
ful things ; and therefore is more flexible and yielding to
the truth ; when others are so stiffened by pride that they are
more ready to deride the wisest that shall contradict them :
If therefore we could but all agree in holy meekness and
humility, what readier way could there be in the world
to draw to an end all our differences and divisions !
10. Moreover, if we could but agree in holiness, it would
free us from that uncharitableness that causeth our disagree-
ment in other things ; and it w^ould possess us with a special
endeared love one to another : and who knoweth not that
love is a uniting, healing thing? Sanctification principally
consisteth in love to God and man, and this the unsanctified
principally want. It is want of love that makes men sur-
mise the worst of one another, and make the worst of all that
they say and do, and draw matter of contention from that
which never gave them cause. Love would put a better
sense upon men's words and deeds, or at least would bear
them far more easily. But instead of love, there is a natural
enmity in all that are unsanctified to all the servants and the
ways of God. And can we ever be agreed with our natural
enemies ? Why malice will so pervert their understandings,
that all that we say or do will be misconstrued ; and as a
man that looks through a red glass thinks all things to be
red that he looks upon ; so these men through the distemper
of their malicious minds, will find matter of quarrelling with
all that we can say or do. Illwill never saith well. Our
very obedience to the law of God, and seeking to save our
own souls, will be matter of quarrel, and taken to be our
crime. If we will not run into hell-fire with them, and
think there is no danger, when we know the contrary, it will
be a fault sufficient for their malice to reproach us with ; so
that if we should agree with ungodly men, in all our opinions
of religion ; yet if we will not damn our souls, and make no
bones of displeasing the great and dreadful God, there is no
peace to be had with them. They have no peace with God,
and they have no solid peace with themselves ; (for God
hath professed " that there is no peace to the wicked,"
VOL. XVI. H H
4G6 CATHOLIC LNITV.
Isa. xlviii. 22;) and how then can we expect that they
should have peace with us? But sanctification doth beget
that effectual love, that is as healing to a divided church, or
to disagreeing persons, as the most precious balsam or
wound-salve is to bodily wounds. Love will not let you
rest in wrath, but will keep you under smart and disquiet-
ness, till you are either at peace, or have done your part
to procure it. Husband and wife, parents and children,
brethren and sisters, do seldom fall into greater dissentions
than strangers : And when they do fall out they are more
easily reconciled. The Spirit of grace doth possess unfeigned
Christians, with as dear a love to one another, as is between
the nearest relations. For by our new birth the saints are
brethren in Christ. If you saw an army fighting, or a com-
pany of people quarrelling and scolding at one another, do
you think there could be a readier way to make them all
friends, and end their quarrels, than to possess them all with
a dear and tender love to one another ? If it were in my
power to cause all contenders to love those that they con-
tend with as themselves, do you think I should not soon
agree them? Why, you know, if you know any thing in
Christianity, that sanctification causeth men to love their
neighbours as themselves, and to " love one another with a
pure heart fervently." (1 Pet. i. 22.) " For by this we know
that we are passed from death to life, because we love the
brethren : he that loveth not his brother abideth in death."
(John iii. 14.) And therefore it is a case exceeding plain,
that the readiest way in the world to reconcile our lesser
differences, is, to be united in the Spirit, and to agree upon
a holy life.
11. Moreover, were we all united in the Spirit, we should
have all one God, one master of our faith, and one lawgiver
and judge of all our controversies: And this would be an
exceeding help to unity. The principal cause of divisions
in the world, are the multitude of rulers, and masters and
judges. For with unsanctified men, their own conceits and
carnal interest are their counsellor and judge. The rulers of
the world, that have the power of the sword, and can do them
good or hurt in their estates, are the masters of their religion
more than God. They will follow this man or that man,
that best pleaseth their fancies and fleshly desires ; and so
CATHOLIC UNITY. 4G7
will never be of one mind. But sanctification takes down
all other masters of our faith, save Christ and those that
declare his will. Let flesh and blood say what it will, let
all the world say what they will, if God say the contrary, his
word shall stand and be a law to them. And can there be a
readier way to unity, than to bring us all into one school,
and subject us all to one Lord and Master, and to bring us
all to refer our differences to one most wise infallible Judge?
Though we do not yet understand his will in all things, yet
when we understand it in the main, and are resolved to
search after the knowledge of the rest, it is a great prepara-
tive to our ao-reement. when we all look but to one for the
deciding of our controversies. Whereas the unsanctified
have as many judges and guides, as persons ; for every man
is a guide and judge to himself.
12. Moreover, were we but once agreed in holiness, we
should all have one light for the ending of our differences ;
and that light would be the true infallible light. For we
should all have the same holy word of God, as the extrinsic
light, which is most true, as coming from the Lord of truth:
and we should all have the Spirit of truth within, to teach
us the meaning of that word without, and to help our under-
standings, and assist us in the application, and destroy the
corruptions that blind us and hinder us from perceiving the
truth : whereas the unsanctified are all in the dark ; and
what wonder, if there they disagree, and are of many minds !
They be not guided by the word and Spirit, and they are
strangers to the light that must reconcile us, if ever we be
reconciled. It is true, too true, that the godly are illumi-
nated but in part, and therefore as yet they dift'er in part.
But yet this imperfect illumination doth more to a true ayjd
safe agreement, than all the world can do besides. If you
would stop your ears against the flesh, and yield to all the
teachings of the word and Spirit, we should be sooner agreed.
13. And if we were once united in the Spirit and holiness,
we should all have the use and benefit of all the reconciling,
healino; means and ordinances of God ; which would be an
exceeding great advantage to us. The unsanctified have
but the outside, the sound, and shell of ordinances ; but it
is the sanctified that have the light, and life, and fruit of
them. Every chapter that you read, and every sermon that
you hear, will do somewhat towards the healing of our
408 CAIHOLIC UNITY.
breaches : it will further our knowledge and our love. The
communion of the saints in all holy duties, especially at the
Lord's-supper, when they partake of one Christ, will in-
flame their love, and humble them for their divisions, and
solder and glue their hearts together, as being all one bread
and one body : and so they will be all as of one heartand
soul. (Acts iv. 32; 1 Cor. x. 16, 17 ; Acts ii. 42—44. 46.)
When we hear of the tender love of Christ to his weakest
members, how can we choose but love them if we be his dis-
ciples ! When we hear how much, and how freely he hath
forgiven us, how can we choose but forgive them ! (Matt,
xviii. 35.) When we have communion with them in holy
worship, as servants of the same Lord, as members of the
same body, how can we choose but have the affections of
fellow-members! (1 Cor. xii. 26.) When we join with them
in prayer, or holy conference, and perceive the fragrant
odour of their graces, and the holy breathings of their souls
after God, we cannot choose but love Christ in them. As
the new commandment so frequently pressed in the Gos-
pel, is the law of love, (John xv. 12. 17,) and the new nature
of the saints is a disposition of love, for this they are taught
of God effectually; (1 Thess. iv. 9;) so the ordinances do all
of them exercise that love, and engage us to it. We must
leave our gift at the altar, and go first and be reconciled to
our brother, if we remember that he hath any thing against
us. (Matt. V. 23, 24.) We must pray for forgiveness, but on
condition that we do forgive. Differences and divisions
that make a breach in Christian charity, are so insufferable
among the saints, that they long for healing, and smart as
the wounded body doth, till the time of healing ; and are
pained as a bone out of joint, till it be set again. And as
they cannot bear it themselves, (when they are themselves,)
so the church cannot bear it, but is engaged to watch over
them, and set them in joint again ; so that God hath hedged
in his servants into one holy society, that they should not
straggle from him, or from each other, and hath set pastors
over them for this very end, to guide them and keep them
in holy unity. (Ephes. iv. 11 — 14.) Now all these uniting,
healing ordinances are effectual upon the sanctified ; for
tlieir hearts are open to them, and their new nature is suited
to the new commandment and work : but to others they are
in a manner as food or physic to the dead : they hate the
CATHOLIC UNITY. 469
power of thetn ; they break ihe holy enclosure of discipline
and proudly rebel against their guides: and say, "Let us
break their bands, and castaway their cords from us :" (Psal
ii. 3:) 'What, must we be ruled by such and such?' It is
but the outside of sacraments, praises, and prayers that
they are acquainted with ; and these have no such healing
force : so that in this you see the great advantage that we
should have for full agreement, if we were but once agreed
in the main, and united by the sanctifying Spirit.
14. Moreover, if once we were united in the Spirit, and
in holiness, we should manage all our differences in a holy
manner, and be awakened and disposed to seek after heal-
ing in a healing way. It would put us upon inquiring after
peace, and studying the meetest terms of peace, till we had
found out the way in which we should accord. The spirit
of love and holiness would provoke us to begin and seek
for peace with those that will not seek to us, and that seem
averse to it ; and to follow after peace when it flyeth from
us, (Heb. xii. 14,) and even to lie down at the feet of men,
and deny our honour and worldly interest, if it might pro-
cure brotherly love and peace. Whereas a proud unsancti-
fied heart will scorn to stoop, especially to those that are
below them, or have wronged them, and will scorn to ask
forgiveness of those that they have wronged ! When you
have shewed them the plainest word of God for it, and per-
suaded them to it with undeniable reasons, you lose your
labour, and may almost as well persuade the fire to be cold.
If you will stoop and humble yourself to him, and ask him
forgiveness, and give him the honour, or change your mind,
and be of his opinion, and say as he saith, and do as he
would have you, perhaps you may have some peace with the
most ungodly man. But the servants of Christ have a spirit
of meekness and humility, and self-denial ; and therefore if
there be fallings out among them, they can humble them-
selves and seek for reconciliation. If there be difference in
judgment about any weighty matters, they will go or send
to one another as brethren, and confer about it in love and
meekness, and search the Scripture, and seek after truth,
and compare their evidences, and pray together for that
light and love that must reconcile them : If they fall out,
they can say to one another, ' We are brethren, and must
not live at a distance, nor suffer any wounds in our affections.
470 CATHOLIC UNITY.
or any breach of charity to remain : The sun must not go
down upon our wrath : Come, let us go together in private,
and beg of God that he would repair our love, and reconcile
us, and prevent such breaches for the time to come.' And
thus they can pray themselves friends again. I am per-
suaded that one quarter of an hour's fervent prayer would
do more to quiet our distempered minds, and reconcile us,
if thus we would get together in private, than many hours'
debates without it. Now the spirit of holiness is a spirit oi
prayer ; and therefore disposeth the servants of Christ, as
,1ieekly and lovingly to search for truth, so earnestly to pray
themselves into agreement.
15. Moreover, were we once united in the Spirit, we
should be under the promise of Divine assistance, which the
unsanctified have no part in. When we pray for light, and
peace, and concord, we have a promise to be heard and
helped, at least, in the time and measure as shall be fittest;
we have a promise of the Spirit to be our Teacher, and to
lead us into truth : we have promises for the maintaining
and repairing of our healing graces, and our communion
graces ; our love to Christ and one another ; our patience
and meekness, and the rest. And this must needs be a
great advantage to unity and agreement. For God is partly
engaged for it.
16. And if we were united in the Spirit, and agreed in
the main, the great truths which we are agreed in would
very much direct us, to find out the rest which yet we differ
in. For these have an influence into all the rest, and the
rest are all connected to these, and also linked and knit
together, that we may find out many by the help of one.
All holy truths do befriend each other, but especially the
great and master points which the rest depend upon, and
flow from : There is no way to a right agreement in other
points, but by agreeing first in these fundamental rudiments.
17. Also if we were once agreed in holiness, we should
have that continually within us and before us, that would
much take us off from vain contendings, and from an over-
zealous minding of smaller things. We should have so
much to do with God in holy duties, and so much to do
with our own hearts in searching them, and watching them,
and exciting them, and mending them, reproving and cor-
recting them, supporting and comforting them by the appli-
CATHOLIC UNITY. 471
cation of the promises, that we should have less iinie for
quarrelling, and less mind of it than the unsauctified have.
We should have so many great and practical truths to di-
gest and live upon, that lesser and unnecessary matters,
which are the common causes of contention, would iind
less room : or at least, we should allow each truth its due
proportion of our study, and talk, and zeal ; and so the
lesser would have comparatively so small a share, and be so
exceeding seldom and remissly meddled with, that there
would be the less danger of contentions.
18. Yea, if once we were united in the Spirit, the very
forethought of an everlasting union in heaven, would have a
continual influence upon our hearts, for the healing of our
breaches. We should be thinking with ourselves, ' Shall
we not shortly be all of one mind and heart ! and all be
perfected with the blessed vision, and reconciling light of
the face of God ! There will then be no dissention or di-
vision, or unbrotherly censures, or separations. And should
we now live so unlike our future life ! Shall we now be so
unlike to what we must be for ever ! Shall we now cherish
those heart-burnings and dissentions, that must not enter
with us into heaven, but be cast off among the rest of our
miseries, and shut out with the rest of our enemies, and
hated for ever by God and us? Must we there be closed in
perfect love, and be all employed in the same holy praise of
God and our Redeemer ; and does it beseem us now to be
censuring, contending, and separating from each other?'
Thus the belief of the life to come will be a more effectual
means with the godly for agreement, than any that unsauc-
tified men can use.
19. Moreover, they that have the spirit of holiness, have
a dear and special love to truth as well as unto peace. And
therefore they have a great advantage for the receiving of it
in all debates; and consequently they are fairer for a just
agreement. They are friends with the most searching, spi-
ritual truths : but the ungodly have an enmity to all that
truth that would shew them their sin, and misery, and duty,
and make them holy, and lead them up from the creature
unto God. And as the proverb is, * He that would not know,
cannot understand.' When you deal with a wicked, grace-
less heart, you do not set reason against reason, (for if that
were all, we should soon have done,) but you set reason
472 CATHOLIC UNITY.
will, and passion, and appetite and fleshly interest: and
when you have convinced them, you are little the nearer
prevailing with them. You may as well think to satisfy a
hungry belly with reasons, or to tame a wild beast with rea-
sons, as to humble the proud, and bring the sensual person
to self-denial, by all your reasons. For they love not the
truth, because they love not the duty that it would per-
suade them to, and because they love the sin that it would
take from them. There are two forts of Satan in a wicked
man, that none but God can batter, so as to win them : that
is, a proud and ignorant mind, and a hard and sensual heart.
Many a year have I been battering them by the word of
God, from this place, and yet with many can do no good.
But the sanctified heart that loveth the truth will meet it,
and welcome it, and thankfully entertain it. Love maketh
a diligent hearer, and a good scholar, and giveth us hope
that informations and debates may be successful. A godly
man is so far from hating truth, and flying from it, that he
would give all the riches of the world to purchase it : he
prays, and reads, and studieth for it; and therefore hath
great advantage to attain it.
20. Moreover, if we were all agreed in holiness, and
united in the Spirit of Christ, we should love the truth in a
practical manner, and we should know that every truth of
God hath its proper work to do upon the soul ; and there-
fore we should love the end of each truth better than the
truth itself. And therefore we could not pretend the truth
against the ends of truth. And therefore we should see the
security of those ends in all our debates and controversies.
We should not make havock of the church of Christ, nor
easily be guilty of divisions, nor quench our love of God
and of our brethren, under pretence of standing for the
truth ; which unsanctified men will easily do. Truth is for
holiness, and love as its proper end. Ungodly men will
tread down love and holiness, or at least disadvantage it,
and hinder it in the world, for the exalting of their own
conceits, under the name of truth. They will cure the
church by cutting it in pieces, or by cutting the throat of
it, and are presently dismembering for every sore : but with
the godly it is not so.
21. Moreover, the sanctified have a great advantage for
agreement, in that they have hearts that are subject to the
CATHOLIC UNITY. 473
truth, and will be true to it when they understand it. Did
they but know the right way, they would presently walk in
it. Nothing is so dear to them that should not be forsaken
for it, or sacrificed to it. But the wicked are false to the
truths which they are acquainted with. They hold it or
imprison it in unrighteousness, (Rom. i. 18,) and therefore is
wrath revealed against them. " They like not to retain God
in their knowledge;" and therefore God doth often give
them up to a reprobate mind. (Rom. i. 28.) " They receive
not the truth in the love of it, that they might be saved :"
no wonder therefore if " God give them up to strong delu-
sions to believe a lie, that all they might be damned that
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
(2Thess. ii. 10 — 12.) " When they know the judgment of
God, that they that do such things are worthy of death ;
yet they do them, and have pleasure in them that do them."
(Rom. i. 32.) We may well think that God will sooner re-
veal his truth to them that will obey it, than to them that
will but bury it in the dunghill of a corrupted heart. And
that he will rather hold the candle to his servants that will
work by it, than to loiterers that will but play by it ; or
thieves or fornicators, that had rather it were put out ; or
to enemies that would do mischief by it, and will throw
away the candlesticks, (the ministers,) and put the candle
into the thatch. Is there not many an ungodly person that
hears me this day, that is convinced in his conscience that
a holy life is best, and yet will not follow it and obey his
conscience ? Are there not convictions at the bottom, that
the diligent, heavenly Christian, whom thou reproachest, is
in a safer condition than thyself; and yet thou wilt not imi-
tate such. Can you expect that God should acquaint such
with his truth, that are so false to it?
22. If we were but all agreed in true holiness, we should
have the great advantage of a tender conscience, together
with an illuminated mind. For spiritual wisdom, with ten-
derness of conscience, is a great part of sanctification. And
it is a great advantage in controversies and debates, to be
wise and tender-conscienced : for wisdom makes men able
to discern, and a tender conscience will make them afraid
of mistaking and contradicting the truth ; and will keep
them from rashness, and unadvisedness, and levity ; so that
such an one dare not venture so easily upon new conceits.
474 CATHOLIC UNITY.
and will be more suspicious of himself, and of any thing
wherein himself is much concerned : especially if he see
great probabilities against it, or the judgment of the univer-
sal church, or of many wise and godly men against it, and
see that it is likely to have ill effects ; in all such cases a
godly man will be tender-conscienced, and therefore cau-
telous. But is it so with the ungodly ? No : but clean con-
trary. None so bold as the blind. Solomon's words de-
scribe them exactly ; " The fool rageth and is confident."
(Prov. xiv. 16.) If he be in an error, or entangled in any
evil cause or way, you know not what to say to him for his
recovery. The less he knows, the more he despiseth know-
ledge, and sets his face against his teachers, as if they were
but fools to him, and scorns to be ruled by such as they,
whom God hath made his rulers. Will you go to dispute
or debate the case with one of these ? Why be sure of it,
they will put you down and have the day. It would do a
man good to dispute with a wise, and learned, or sober,
rational man, and to be overcome by reason and by truth :
but no man will have so sure a conquest against you, as he
that hath the least of sense or reason. He will go away and
boast that you could not convince him : as if a madman
should boast that the physicians could not all of them cure
him. An obstreperous, proud, self-conceited fellow, will
never yield to the clearest reason, nor ever be put down.
We have a proverb, that ' There's no gaping against an
oven, especially if it be hot.' If he have passion as well as
ignorance, and a tongue, he will have the best. He that
speaks nonsense saith nothing while he seems to speak.
These men have the faculty of saying nothing an hour or
two together, in abundance of words. And there is no con-
futing a man that saith nothing. Nonsense is unanswerable,
if there be but enough of it. Who would dispute against a
pair of bagpipes, or against a company of boys that hoot
at him ! If you will make a match at barking or biting, a
cur will be too hard for you : And if you will try your skill
or strength at kicking, a horse will be too hard for you.
And if you will contend with multitude of words, or by rage
and confidence, a fool will be too hard for you (as you may
see by Solomon's descriptions, and by daily experience).
But if you will dispute by equal, sober reasoning, it is only
a wiser man by evidence of truth that can overcome you :
CATHOLIC UNITY. 475
and to be thus overcome is better than to conquer : tor you
have the better if truth overcome you ; and you have the
worse if you overcome the truth.
So that you rnay easily perceive what an exceeding hin-
drance to unity and peace, it is to have to do with ungodly
persons, that are blind, and proud, and brazen-faced, and of
seared consciences, that fear not God, and therefore dare say
any thing, as if they could out-face the truth, and the God
of truth. But the sanctified have illuminated minds, and
therefore are the more capable of further information ; and
they have tender consciences, and therefore dare not be un-
advised and contentious, and strive against the light ; and
therefore have great advantage for agreement.
23. And if all these advantages should not yet so far
prevail, as to bring us up to a full agreement, yet if we be
but united in the Spirit and a holy life, we should be the
more easily able to bear with one another under all our
lesser differences, until the time of full agreement come.
We should hold our differences (as brethren their diversity
of statures and complexions, or at least as common human
frailties) with love and compassion, and not with hatred and
divisions. We should lovingly consult together upon rules
or terms on which we might manage our unavoidable differ-
ences, to the least disadvantage to the cause of Christ, and
to the common truths that we all maintain, and to the work
of God for other men's conversion, and to the least advantage
to sin and Satan, and the malice of ungodly men. And I
think this is a fair agreement for imperfect persons, short of
heaven; to have unity in the Spirit, and agreement in things
of greatest weight, and to bear with one another in smaller
matters, and manage our differences with meekness and peace.
24, Lastly, If all this be not enough, there is yet more
for our encouragement. 1. If we are but once united in
the Spirit, and agree in a holy heart and life, we have the
infallible promise of God, that we shall shortly all arrive in
heaven, at the place and state of full perfection, where all
our differences will be ended, and we shall be perfectly
agreed in mind and will, being one in him that is the only
centre of universal peace and concord. And it is a great
comfort to us in our darkness and diff"erences, that we are
in the sure and ready way to perfect light and harmony of
mind. 2. Yea, and till we come thither, we are still on the
476 CATHOLIC UNITY.
mending hand; and if we do but thrive in holiness, we shall
certainly thrive in concord and peace. And it is a comfort
to a sick man, not only to be certain of a full recovery, but
to feel himself daily on the mending hand. 3. And in the
meantime God himself will bear with all our differences,
though not so far as to approve or cherish them, yet so far
as to own us for his children, though we are too often falling
out with one another ; and so far as to pity our frailty and
infirmity, and to pardon us, and deal as a father with us.
And if our quarrels cause him to use the rod, it is but to
keep us in quietness afterwards ; that as we had the taste of
the sour fruits of our contentions, so we may after have the
quiet fruits of righteousness.
And thus I have given you in four-and-twenty particular
discoveries, a sutficient proof, that a unity in the Spirit, and
an agreement in holiness, hath abundant advantages for our
further agreement iu lower things ; and such as all other men
are destitute of; and therefore that there is no way possible
for a just, a safe, a durable agreement, but that we all agree
in a holy life, and be united in the sanctifying Spirit of Christ.
But perhaps you will object. If all this be so, whence
comes it to pass that there are so many differences still
among those that you call the sanctified ? Do we not see
that they are more contentious and divided into parties, and
make more stir about religion than any others ?
Answ. 1. The differences among the godly, are nothing
for number, or greatness, or weight, in comparison of yours.
I have shewed you in my discourse of the Catholic Church,
twenty great and weighty points, in which they all agree
together, and in which the ungodly agree not with them.
What if they agree not, whether church-government should
be exercised by the elders only, the flock consenting ; or by
all the flock, the pastors guiding ? Or whether one among
the pastors should be of a superior degree, or of a superior
order, or whether they should only be of the same degree
and order, though chosen to preside and moderate for the
time? What if one think that it is necessary to read the
public prayers out of a book; and another think it is neces-
sary to pray without book ; and a third more truly thinks it
is in itself indifferent, whether it be within book or without?
With other such like differences as these, which will keep
no man out of heaven. Are these like our differences witk
CATHOLIC UNITY. 477
ungodly men? Our differences with you are. Whether hea-
ven or earth is chiefly to be loved and sought after? Whe-
ther grace and holiness, or sin and carelessness be the better?
Whether it be the more sweet and desirable life, to be hea-
venly-minded, and live in the love and service of God, and to
be much in holy communion with him, and meditating upon
his law, and upon the life to come ; or on the contrary, to
live to the world and to the flesh ? Whether it be better to
obey the word of God, and his ministers that speak in his
name ; or to obey our fleshly desires, and the proud con-
ceits of ignorant minds ? In a word, our difference with the
ungodly, though they will not confess it and speak out, is
plainly this. Whether heaven or earth be better ? And whe-
ther God be God and shall be our God ? And whether
Christ be Christ, and shall be our Christ? And whether
the Holy Ghost shall be our Sanctifier? Or whether we
shall live after the flesh and rule ourselves, against the will
and word of God, and so in effect, whether God be God, and
man be man ? And whether we should live as men or as
beasts ? And so whether we should choose salvation or
damnation? If you could but understand yourselves, and
the depth of your deceitful hearts, you would see that here
lieth the difference. For though some of the unsanctified
have a fair and plausible deportment, and will speak hand-
somely of the Christian religion, because they have had an in-
genuous Christian education; yet all this is indeed but little
more than formal compliment, so far are they from a hea-
venly mind and a heart that is truly set on God, as their
careless lives, and carnal, unsavory conference sheweth,if not
their scorns at a state of holiness. So that our differences
are nothing in comparison of the difference with you.
2. Moreover, the servants of God do mind the matters
of religion more seriously than others do ; and therefore
their differences are brought to light, and made more ob-
servable to the world. Their very heart is set upon these
heavenly things, and therefore they cannot make light of
the smallest truth of God ; and this may be some occasion
of their difference: whereas the ungodly differ not about
religion, because they have heartily no religion to differ
about : they trouble not themselves about these matters,
because they do not much regard them. And is this a
unity and peace to be desired ? I had rather have the dis-
47B CATHOLIC UNITY.
cord of the saints, than such a concord of the wicked. They
are so careful about their duty that they are afraid of missing;
it in the least particular; and this (with their imperfect
light) is the reason of their disputings about these matters.
But you that are careless of your duty, can easily agree
upon a way of sin, or take any thing that comes next to
hand. They honour the worship of God so much, that they
would not have any thing out of order; but you set so little
by it, that you will be of the religion that the king is of, let
it be what it will be: and it is easy to agree in such an un-
godly, careless course. Astronomers have many controver-
sies about the positions and motions of the heavens : and all
philosophers have many controversies about the matter of
their sciences : when ignorant men have none of their con-
troversies, because they understand not, and therefore regard
not the things that the learned differ about. And will you
think ever the better of ignorance, or ever the worse of
learning for this? The controversies of lawyers, of historians,
chronologers, geographers, physicians, and such like, do
never trouble the brains of the ignorant : but for all that.
I had rather be in controversy with the learned, than without
such controversy with you. If you scatter a handful of gold
or diamonds in the street, perhaps men will scramble for
them, and fall out about them, v/hen swine will trample
on them and quietly despise them, because they do not know
their worth : will you therefore think that swine are happier
than men? The living are vexed with strifes and controver-
sies, about almost all the matters in the world, when the
dead carcases in the grave lie still in peace, and are not
troubled with any of these differences. And will you say
therefore that the dead corpse is happier than the living?
Sirs, the case is very plain, if you will see, that thus it is as
to the matter in hand. It is a death in sin, and compliance
with the times and carnal interest, and a disesteem of spi-
ritual, holy things, that is the cause of the agreement of the
wicked. But the godly know the worth of the things that
you set light by, and therefore make a greater matter of them
than you, and therefore no wonder if they have more debates
and controversies about them.
3. And this also is another reason of the difference. It
is the interest of Satan to divide the servants of Christ, but
to keep his own in unity and peace ; and therefore he will
I
CATHOLIC UNITY, 47f)
do what he can to accomplish it. He knows that a kingdom
divided cannot stand : and therefore he will do his worst to
divide Christ's kingdom, and to keep his own from being
divided. By a deceitful peace it is that he keeps his servants
to him. And by casting among them the matter of conten-
tions and divisions, he hopeth to get Christ's followers from
him. So that the devil himself is the promoter of yom- unity
and concord, but the destroyer of ours ; and therefore no
wonder if you have fewer differences.
4. Besides, the way that ungodly men go in, is so suited
to the common corruption of nature, that it is no wonder if
they be all agreed. All the world can agree to eat, and
drink, and sleep ; and therefore all the sensual sinners in
the world may easily agree upon an overloving of meat, and
drink, and sleep ; and so of riches, and honours, and plea-
sures. And as it is easy, so it is not much desirable, no
more than if you should all agree to cast yourselves headlong
into the sea: When every house is infected with the plague,
there is an agreement among them : but had you not rather
be one of those that disagree from them ? But to agree in a
holy heavenly life, is contrary to corrupted nature ; and
therefore no marvel if it be more difficult. When a physi-
cian hath an hundred patients in hand, he may easily get
them all to agree to eat and drink that which they desire ;
but if he require them to forbear the things that they most
love, because they will hurt them, the understanding sort will
agree to him, but so will not the rest. In a rotten house,
the fall of one bearer may occasion the fall of all the house,
because their weight inclines them downward : but if you
take up one stone and cast it upward, all the rest of the
stones in the heap will not fly upward with it. It is easier
to draw others with us down hill, than up the hill.
5. And it is considerable that the differences among the
servants of Christ, are not always from themselves, but from
the ungodly enemies that contrive their dissentions, and set
them together by the ears, that they may fish in troubled
waters, and the better attain their wicked ends. It is the
envious man that soweth these tares while we are asleep, and
casteth in this wildfire among us.
6. Moreover, one of the greatest causes of the trouble-
some breaches and divisions in the church, is because there
are so many unsanctified persons among us, that seem to be
480 CATHOLIC UNITY.
of US, and to be truly godly, when it is not so. You think
it is the godly that have these divisions, when the most and
worst of all our divisions proceed from the ungodly that have
an unsound and unrenewed heart, under the cloak of piety
and zeal : for if they were truly gracious persons, they durst
not do as many of them do. 1. They durst not so rashly
and easily venture on novelties as they do, without delibera-
tion, and reading, and hearing what can be said on the other
side. 2, They durst not so easily make a division in the
church of Christ. 3. Nor so easily cast a stumbling-block
before the weak ; and matter of reproach to our Christian
profession before the wicked. 4. Nor durst they so easily
reproach, and condemn, and cast off the unanimous faithful
ministers of Christ. 5. Nor durst they so easily censure
the universal church in former ages, as many of them do. 6.
Nor durst they sacrifice the success, and honour of the Gos-
pel, and the common acknowledged truths, and the saving
of men's souls thereby, to their private opinions, and ends.
7. Nor durst they make so great a breach in charity, nor so
arrogantly condemn or slight their brethren, whose piety and
soberness they cannot deny. These with many other evi-
dences, do let us know, that ungodly men crept in among us,
are the causes of most of our most dangerous divisions.
And will you lay the blame of this upon religion, which the
devil and the secret enemies of religion do perform ? It is
your dishonour and not ours: for these men are of your
party, though they seem to be of us. Satan knows well
enough, that if he have not some of his followers to be spies
in Christ's army, and to raise mutinies there and betray the
rest, he is likely to be the more unsuccessful in his attempts.
Was Judas more a dishonour to Christ, or to the devil ? He
was among the followers of Christ indeed ; but he told them
beforehand of him, that he was a devil; and he never be-
trayed Christ till Satan had entered into him.
7. Lastly, The saints themselves are sanctified but in
part, and many in a low degree; and being imperfect in
holiness, must needs be as imperfect in holy unity and peace.
It is not their holiness that causeth their contentions, but the
remnants of their sin. And therefore it is but small credit
to the way of sinners. Were we but perfectly rid of the
vices that you cherish, and perfectly separated from the
\vays that you so much delight in, and had we no remnants
CATHOLIC UNITY. 481
of your disease and sinful nature in us, we should then have
perfect unity and peace. Do you think that it is long of
our religion, that we disagree: No: if we were but perfectly
religious we should be perfectly agreed. It is because we
are holy in no greater a measure, and not because we are
holy at all. It is not because of the way of godliness that
we have chosen ; but because we walk no faster, and no more
carefully in that way. It is our too oft stepping out of it,
and not our walking in it, that breaketh our peace with God
and man, and our own consciences. Search all the Scrip-
ture, and see where you can find, that ever God encouraged
his servants to divisions. No : but on the contrary, he oft
and earnestly cries them down, and warneth all his followers
to avoid them, and the causers and fomenters of them.
There was never master so much for unity as Christ, and
never was there a law, or a religion that did so much con-
demn divisions, and command brotherly love, and peace,
and concord, and forbearing and forgiving one another, as
the Christian law and religion doth. And will you yet say
that our divisions are long of our religion, or of Christ the
author of it? You may as wisely say, that eating is the
cause of weakness, because that some are weak for all their
meat. But you will find that none can live without it. Or
you may say as wisely, that physicians are the.causes of the
diseases of the world, because they do not cure them all.
I tell you, there is none in all the world that have done so
much for unity and peace, as Christ hath done. No: all the
^vorld set together have not done half so much for it as he.
He hath preached peace and unity, forgiving and forbearing,
and loving one another, yea, loving our enemies ; and he
hath gone before us in the perfect practice of what he taught.
He hath offered himself a sacrifice to the justice of his
Father, that by his blood he might reconcile us unto God.
He is the great peace-maker betv/een God and man, between
Jews and Gentiles, taking away the enmity, and becoming
himself the head of our unity; and giving us one spirit, one
faith, one baptism, that we might be one in him who is one
with the Father. So that to charge the Centre of unity
with our divisions, and the Prince of peace himself with our
.discords, or his holy word or ways with our disagreements,
as all one as to charge the sun with darkness, and to say
FOL. XVI. II
48'2 CATHOLIC UNITY.
that our lawgivers and laws are the causes of theft, and
murder, and adultery, which condemn them to death that
are approved guilty of them. The cause of all our disa-
greements and divisions is, because we are no more holy
than we are, and because we are no more religious. So that
I may leave it now as a proved truth, that we must unite in
the Spirit, and agree in holiness of heart and life, if ever we
will have true unity and agreement.
And now, sirs, you have seen the only way of unity
opened to you: it is plain and past all doubt before you.
If yet you will divide from God and his servants, and if yet
you will be numbered with the stragglers or quarrellers, do
not say but peace was opened and offered to you. Do not
say, you could have peace, but that you would not. Do not
say any more hereafter, that there were so many religions and
so many ways that you could not tell which to join with!
never more pretend the differences of the godly as a cloak
for your ungodliness. I have opened the nakedness of such
pretences. You shall not be able, when your lives are scanned,
to look God in the face with such an unreasonable impudent
pretence. Your consciences and the world shall then be
witnesses of your shame ; that while you cried|out of sects
and heresies, and were offended at the divisions of the
church, it was yourselves that were the cause of it: It was
you, and such as you that were the great dividers; and that
obstinately proceeded in your divisions, when the way of
peace was opened to you ; and would not be united in the
Spirit to Christ, and would not agree in holiness with his
church, when you were acquainted that there was no other
way to peace. Would you but have joined in a firm and
everlasting covenant to God the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, as your only Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, as
members of the holy catholic church, and have lived in the
communion of the saints, you should have received the for-
giveness of sins, the resurrection of the just, and everlasting
life : but in refusing, and obstinately refusing these, you
refused all your hopes of blessedness, and wilfully cast
yourselves on the wrath of God; and therefore must endure
it for ever.
The last advice that I have to give, upon the ground of
this doctrine, is, To all that are united in the Spirit, and
CATHOLIC UNITY. 483
agreed upon a holy life. I mean to say but little to you
now ; but briefly to tender you these two requests.
1. I beseech you Christians but to live as Christians, in
that holy unity as your principles and profession do engage
you to. Hath true Christianity and holiness such abundance
of advantages against division, and yet will you be guilty of
it? Against all these bonds and healing principles and
helps, will you be dividers? Doth it not grieve you, and
even break your hearts, to hear ungodly persons say that
professors are of so many minds and parties, that they know
not which of them to follow ; and that we had never con-
cord since you bore the sway ? O do not seek by your con-
tentious ways, to persuade people that holiness is a dividing
thing, and that religion doth but tend to set the world to-
gether by the ears. Is it not a precious mercy to us of this
place, that we have among us but one church, and one re-
ligion, and have not church against church, and Christian
against Christian ? I charge you from the Lord, that you be
thankful for this benefit; and that you look upon divided
places, and compare their case with yours, that if ever di-
viders come amongst you, the sense of your felicity in this
blessed unity may cause you to reject them; and that you
do not suffer any Delilah to rob you of your strength
and glory. Were you but once here in pieces among your-
selves, what a scorn would you be to all the ungodly ! What
sport would it be to them, to hear you disputing against one
another, and reproaching and condemning one another, and
as bitterly as the wicked do reproach you all? Do you not
pity those places where divisions have made religion to be a
scorn, and the tender love and unity of the saints is turned
into uncharitable censures and separations? Take warning
then that you come not to the like. If you should, you
would be as inexcusable as any people in the world, because
you tried and tasted so much of the sweetness and benefits
of unity as you have done ; shew men by your lives, that
holiness is the most certain way to unity, as ever you desire
either to propagate holiness, or to have any evidence of it
in yourselves.
2. Judge by this undoubted truth, of any doctrine that
shall be offered you, and of the ways of men and of yourselves.
1. Suspect that doctrine that tendeth to divisions in the
diurch. If it be not for unity, it is not of God. (Rom. xvi.
484 CATHOLIC UNITY.
17.) Christ came to heal and reconcile, and is the Prince
of Peace ; and, therefore, sendeth not his servants on a con-
trary errand. He will justify your dividing from the unbe-
lieving world ; but he hateth dividing among his servants.
He that is for church-division, is not (in that) for Christ
or you.
2. Whatever holiness they may pretend to, adhere not
to those men, and think not too highly of them that are for
divisions among the churches, or servants of the Lord.
You will see them repent, or come to shame and confusion
the last. You fly from Christ, if you fly from unity.
3. Think not that you have any more of the Spirit or of
holiness, than you have of love to the unity of the saints.
It is the spirit of Satan and not of Christ, that leadeth you
to church-divisions : it is a counterfeit holiness that maketh
you not desirous of unity with all the saints. If you be not
first pure and then peaceable, your wisdom is not from above.
As you would all take that man to be an enemy to holiness,
that is an enemy to chastity, temperance, or common hones-
ty ; so have you reason to think of him that is an enemy to
the church's unity and peace. Shew that you have the Spirit
by the unity of the Spirit ; and shew that you are holy by
loving the union and communion of the saints.
ROMANS xiv. 1.
Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful
disputations.
I HAVE already proved to you in the foregoing discourse,
1. That the true unity of the church of Christ is a unity of
the Spirit, and that the unsanctified are the causes of our
divisions. 2. That a unity in mere profession, is but a low
and miserable unity, which will not satisfy nor serve the
turn. 3. That a unity in the Spirit of holiness, is a great
advantage for the healing of all our lesser differences, or
that we may do well for all those differences, if we are truly
sanctified. I come now to the fourth and last part of my
discourse, which is to shew you, that 'it is not the will of
God that the unity of his church should consist in things
indifferent, or in the smaller matters, or in points of doubt-
ful disputation.' To which end I have chosen this text, in
CATHOLIC UNITY. 485
which Paul doth purposely and plainly lay down this point,
in order to the reconciling of a difference that was then
among the Romans ; I shall not now stand to discuss whe-
ther the weak that Paul here speaks of, were some Christians
tainted with a Pythagorean conceit, and guilty of some ex-
cessive austerities (which some have thought, 1. because
here is no mention of circumcision : 2. and because they are
said to eat herbs only) ; or whether it were some converts of
the Jews, that scrupled the forsaking of their ancient cere-
monies, which is the common and more likely exposition.
1. The person here spoken of is " Him that is weak in the
faith," that is, who is yet so ignorant in the doctrine of
faith, as not to know that these ceremonies are abolished,
or these matters are no part of duty, which he placeth duty
in ; and, consequently, who is so weak in conscience as that
he dare not omit the observation of these days and ceremo-
nies. The points in which the weakness of these persons
are said to be manifested, are, 1. In their abstaining from
flesh, and eating herbs. 2. In their observation of certain
days as holy.
2. The thing commanded is, that these persons for all
their weakness be received, that is, 1. Into brotherly inter-
nal charity. 2. Into Christian external communion. For
it seems, that by the reason of this their weakness, there
grew divisions in the church. The weak were so self-con-
ceited, as to censure the strong, because they did not observe
their ceremonies. And the strong were too contemptuous
of the weak, and made light of them as a superstitious peo-
ple, untit for their communion : Paul chides them both ;
the weak for censuring the strong, and the strong for con-
temning the weak; and commandeth that for the future,
the weak forbear his judging, and the strong receive the
weak whom they contemned, and so that they join ininward
love, and external communion.
3. And he addeth this caution, for the manner of their
reception and behaviour, that it must not be " to doubtful
disputations " either to the censuring of one another, or to
unseasonable, uncharitable contendings and disputes about
these smaller things. Three things Paul seemeth to suppose
in the matter of their controversy. 1. That they were mat-
ter of some indifferency. 2. That they were small, and of
lowest consideration in religion. 3. That to the weak they
48t) CATHOLIC UNITY.
were so dark and doubtful, as to be the matter of disputes.
But for all these, he would have no breach in their charity
or communion.
One doubt we must not overpass : and that is, how this
will stand with what he saith in the Epistle to the Gala-
tians. Here he saith, " Let not him that eateth, despise him
that eateth not : One man esteenieth one day above another ;
another esteemeth every day alike : Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind :" But there he saith, " Ye ob-
serve days and months, and times, and years ; I am afraid
of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Gal.
iv. 10, 11.) And of circumcision, " Behold, I Paul say unto
you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;
for I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he
is a debtor to do the whole law." (Gal. v. 2, 3.) For the
understanding of this you must observe, 1. That there is a
great difference between circumcision and the ceremonies
here spoken of. 2. And between the outward act of cir-
cumcision, and the sacrament of circumcision as appointed
by God. 3. And there is a great difference between the
using it as necessary to justification, and the using the out-
ward part only for some lawful end. 4. And between the
time when the Gospel was but newly revealed, and the time
when it was oft and fully declared to the world. 5. And be-
tween those that are ignorant for want of full information^,
and those that are obstinate after long instruction. 6. And
between those that scruple the omission of such ceremonies
themselves ; and those that would obtrude them as necessary
upon others. Observing these distinctions, you may see
the difficulty plainly resolved, as followeth, 1. In this text,
Rom. xiv, Paul speaketh not of circumcision, but of meats
and days only. For circumcision engaged men further to
Moses's law, than these single ceremonies. 2. When
Paul saith he was afraid of the Galatians, because of their
observation of days and weeks, and months, he means be-
cause they still adhered to the abrogated law, after so long
and plain instruction. 3. And though he circumcised Timo-
thy, (Acts xvi. 3,) and yet speak against it, (Gal. v. 2, 3,)
the difference of the cases is exceeding great. For, 1. It
was but the outward circumcision of the flesh that he used
with Timothy (as with one that did not intend by it any en-
gagement to Moses, or necessity of it to justification.) But
CATHOLIC UNITY. 487
it was the entire sacrament of circumcision which was pre-
tended to continue necessary, by the false teachers, and
which he exhorted the Galatians to refuse. And circum-
cision as a sacrament doth signify two principal things,
1. An engagement to, and profession of faith in the Promised
seed, as promised and future. 2. An engagement to Moses's
law (for this use it had after the law was given.) Now when
Christ was come, that man that would still be circumcised
into, and profess to expect a Messiah yet to come, and that
would engage himself to that law, which contained the types
of a future Messiah, and was but a schoolmaster to lead to
Christ, I say that person that was thus circumcised (as all
were that received it according to the institution) did plainly
deny that Christ was come, and therefore Christ could profit
them nothing. But yet a man that used but the outward
sign to avoid an impediment to the Gospel (as Paul did in
the case of Timothy), or if it were erroneously, as a mere
custom, as the Abassines now do, might yet be saved by
Christ nevertheless. 2. And when Paul used it, it was as
an indifferent thing 5 but he condemned it as supposed ne-
cessary. 3, When he used it, it was in the beginning of the
publication of the Gospel, that (as Austin speaks) he might
give the ceremonies an honourable burial ; but when he
condemned it, it was after the full publication of the aboli-
tion of the law, against those that would have raked it out
of the grave again. 4. He bore with it in the weak ; but he
condemned it in the wilful. 5. He bore with it in those that
scrupled the forsaking it as they were Jews ; but he con-
demned it in those that would have laid this yoke as neces-
sary on the Gentiles.
Object. ' But it seems here that Paul is against the
necessary observation of the Lord's-day, when he is for
esteeming all days alike.'
Answ. If you understand the subject of the debate, you
will understand his speech. It is only Jewish holy-days that
was the matter in question, and therefore of these only he is
to be understood. As for the Lord's-day, it is plain in the
New Testament, that Christ did not only rise upon it, and
appear to his disciples on it, and send down the Holy
Ghost upon it ; but that the disciples presently after Christ's
resurrection, began their religious assemblies on it, and so
continued them, by the guidance of the Holy Ghost: and
488 CATHOLIC UNITY.
SO settled that day for the use of the holy assemblies of the
^ church, calling it the Lord's-day. (Johnxxi. 19, 26; Actsii.
1 ; XX. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2; Rev. 1. 10.) And it is past all doubt
in the history of the church, that since the apostles' days
till now, the church hath constantly kept this day as thus
established, by the name of the Lord's-day; which the fa-
thers called the Christian sabbath, as they applied the name
of an altar to the table, and of a sacrifice to the supper of the
Lord ; so thathe that will reject the observation of the Lord's-
day, must take on him to be wiser than the Holy Ghost in
the apostles, and than all the catholic church of Christ, from
the beginning, till these contentious persons did arise.
The text being thus explained, the doctrine before-men-
tioned is plain in it before us, viz.
Doctrine. 'It is the will ofGod that the unity of the church
should not be laid upon indifferent, small, and doubtful
points ; but that true believers, who differ in such things,
should notwithstanding have inward charity and outward
communion with one another, not censuring, nor despising,
nor dividing from each other upon this account.
, In handling this point, I shall briefly shew you, 1. What
I mean by things indifferent. 2. What I mean by smaller
matters. 3. What by doubtful things or disputations : and
then I shall give you the reasons of it, and then apply it.
1. For the explication. 1. By things indifferent I do not
mean things, 'hie etnunc,' indifferent in the use; but things
that are not ordinarily in themselves either commanded as
duties, or forbidden as sins, but left as lawful or indifferent
by the Scriptures, unless as some accident or circumstance
may make them to be good or evil.
2. By smaller matters, it is none of my intent to per-
suade you, that any thing that is but an appurtenance to
faith or piety is absolutely small: but they are small in
comparison of the far greater things, and so small that many
are saved without them, and they are not of flat necessity
to salvation ; and the greater matters must be preferred
before them,
3. By things doubtful, I do not mean such as are not
certainly revealed in the Scripture, nor yet such as perverse
heretical men do raise doubts about when they are plain in
themselves: but I mean such points as are revealed cer-
tainly, but more darkly than the greater points, and there-^
CATHOLIC UNITY. 489*
fore cannot be so clearly known ; so that the sum is this,
1. Indifferent things must not be taken to be necessary, or
sinful, but to be indifferent. 2. Lower and lesser points
must not be taken to be greater or weightier than they are.
3. Points of less certainty that are more darkly revealed,
must not be taken to be more clear and certain to us than
they are. 4. And it is not on such darker, smaller matters
that God hath laid our salvation ; or that the church's unity
and peace dependeth.
II. For the fuller demonstration of this, let these rea-
sons be observed: 1. If our unity were laid on these smaller
matters, the multitude of them is such, that we should never
agree in all. The essentials of Christianity are so few, that
all men may well be expected to learn, and know, and en-
tertain them. But the smaller points are so many, that
there is no hope of an universal agreement in them all.
You know in the body of man or beast, the great master
veins that are the stock of all the rest, are but a few ; but
follow them farther, and you shall have so many divisions,
and sub-divisions, till you find them to be many hundreds or
thousands. So is it with the arteries, and with the nerves.
The body of a tree is but one, and the first division perhaps
is but in two or three parts ; but follow it to the very ends
of the branches, and you may find many thousands. So is
it in divinity : and therefore if none should be in unity with
the church, but those that understand every branch of
Christian verity, what hope of union could there be ?
2. Moreover, the smaller points are far less discernible
than the greater be ; and therefore there is the less hope
that ever the church should have unity in these. The great
arms of a tree are easily discerned, when the extremities of
the branches are very small. The trunks of the master
veins are'great and easily seen, but the points and capillary
veins are so small, as hardly to be perceived. So God in
mercy hath made very plain those few essential points of
faith that salvation lieth on ; but if you follow on these
generals to all the particulars and appurtenances, you shall
find them run so small as well as so many, as that it is im-
possible that unity should consist in these.
3. Furthermore, if our unity were laid on these, religion
would be for none but the learned, and (as the ancients
ordinarily argue against the heathens that cavilled at the
490 CATHOLIC UNITY.
plainness of the Scripture) God should then be partial, and
should make a way to heaven that poor men cannot go.
For the poor cannot possibly attain to so much learning,
and spend so much of their lives in study, as may bring
them to the knowledge of all these lower, difficult points.
4. Yea, if our unity or salvation lay on these, it is cer-
tain it would shut us all out, both from unity and salvation ;
so that there would no two be at unity in all the world, and
no one be saved. For all men on earth are ignorant in
many lesser truths, even such as are revealed to us in the
Scripture, and we should endeavour to understand. What
man dare affirm that he understandeth every word of the
Holy Scripture? Did the Pope himself think that he had
attained to this infallibility, he would ere this have written
us an infallible commentary. If the best must say with
Paul himself, " we know but in part," then surely those
smaller, doubtful things, which all the truly sanctified know
not, are not the matter of the unity of the church.
5. I have shewed in my Discourse of the Catholic Church,
that to shut out all, from the church and our communion,
that differ from us in such lower things, is utterly against
the design of Christ, and the tenor of the Gospel, and very
dishonourable to him and to his church : God hath more
mercy than to shut out the weak; and will you dishonour
him so far as to persuade the world that he hath no such
mercy ? The design of the Gospel is grace and love ! How
tender was Christ, even of his little ones that believe in
him ! how compassionate is he to them in their infirmities !
And would you go about to persuade the world that he hath
so little of this compassion, as that he will admit none to
heaven, or to the communion of his church, but those that
attain to knowledge and agreement in all these lesser,
doubtful controversies, and indifferent things ? The church
is small enough already ; but if you would cut off all, that
do not agree in every circumstance, you would make it
small indeed. This is no better than, under pretence of
faith and unity, to unchurch the church, and damn your-
selves, and all the world.
6. The arguments in the text are very forcible ; " For
God hath received him." (ver. 3.) As if he should say,
* Dare you despise or cast out him that God receiveth V
" Who art thou that judgcst another man's servant?" (ver, 4.)
CATHOtlC UNiTV. 491
" Why dost thou judge thy brother ? or why dost thou set
at naught thy brother? We shall all stand before the judg-
ment seat of Christ." (ver. 10.) The church doth not censure
men for small or doubtful things ; nor must we condemn
those that God doth not condemn.
7. The laying such stress on smaller things, doth multi-
ply controversies, and fdl the minds of men with scruples,
and ensnare their consciences, and engage men in parties
against each other to the certain breach of charity, and ruin
of the peace of the church, and of their souls. The fire of
contention will never go out for want of fuel, if unnecessary
things be made necessary, and small things pretended be
great, and uncertain things pretended to be certain. Abun-
dance of vice will be daily set and kept at work, upon this
borrowed stock.
8. And what a world of precious time will be wasted by
this means, while men are studying and reading to main-
tain their own opinions ; and when they must waste their
hours when they are together, in conferences and wrangling
disputations, to the discomposing of their own and others'
minds, and certain troubling the church of God ! O what
use have we for those precious hours, for surer, greater, and
more needful things !
9. The things that our salvation, and the church's peace,
are indeed laid upon, are so great, so necessary, so plea-
sant, and so profitable, that it leaveth us the more without
excuse, to waste our time in things unnecessary. We have
our great Creator to know and honour ; we have the mys-
tery of redemption to search into and admire ; we have the
nature, and life, and death, and resurrection, and ascension,
and glorification, and intercession of Christ, to study and
believe ; and all the love and wisdom of God, the mercy,
and the holiness and justice, that was revealed in him ; we
have judgment to prepare for ; and all the graces of the
Spirit of Christ to be received, or cherished, increased and
exercised in our souls. We have a hell to escape, and a
heaven to obtain, and the foreseen glory of it to feed upon,
for the strengthening and delighting of our souls ; we have
many particular duties of holiness and righteousness to at-
tend to : and in the midst of all this great employment, should
we make more work and trouble to ourselves, and that about
unnecessary things?
4.92 CATHOLIC UNITY.
10. These unnecessary or lower things, when once they
are advanced above their rank, do undermine and wrono- the
greater matters, which they pretended to befriend. They
divert the thoughts and speeches from them, and take up
the affections, and will not be contented with their due pro-
portion i but are, as the proverb is, ' Like a beggar on horse-
back, that will never light.' If men be set upon ceremonies,
or private opinions of their own, they are upon it in all
companies ; and you shall sometimes have almost nothing
else from them. And that is not all ; but the interest of
their unnecessary, or lower points, is ordinarily set up
against the interest of that body of Christian verities which
•we are all agreed in ; so that they can be contented that
Christianity lose much advantage in the greater points, that
their cause may be advantaged. If this were not so, we
should not have had ceremonies and formalities cast out
such abundance of excellent preachers heretofore : nor
private opinions have set so many against the labours of
faithful ministers, as, to our grief and shame, we have lately
seen: and the mischief is, that unnecessary things made
necessary, do so involve the imposer's interest with their
own, that they think they are necessitated to drive them on,
and see their impositions obeyed, or else their wisdom or
authority is despised.
11. And thus they directly lead men to persecution,
and occasion those that must needs have their wills, to lord
it over God's heritage, (1 Pet. v. 3,) when the desire of be-
ing the church's god, hath prevailed so far with any of its
members, as to set them upon a course of law-giving and
domineering, and bringing others into a conformity to their
wills ; they look upon all men as sinners that disobey them,
and think that their power will warrant them to force obe-
dience to their commands, or else to deprive the church of
her pastors. Many a congregation have I known change
preachers for ceremonies ; when as if God's will and word
in necessary things to men's salvation, had been preferred
to the will and word of the bishops, about things called in-
different by themselves, the case had been altered; and
they would rather have let the ignorant have been without
a ceremony than a sermon. It is the unhappy fate of almost
all that are set upoit tmnecessary things, that they cannot
endure that others should have the liberty of differing front
CATHOLIC UNITY. 493
thera. It is not enough to them to enjoy the freedom of
their own consciences, about meats, or holy-days, or ges-
tures or vestures, or other formalities, unless all others be
compelled to do as they do. When they are but moved to
comply with others, though plain Scripture and the prac-
tice of the primitive catholic church be alleged for it, yet
it moveth them little or nothing. But if others will not -^
comply with them, they cry out against them as enemies to
unity and peace ; and say, It is not fit to suffer men to be
of so many minds and ways ; that is, it is fit all should be
compelled to do as they would have them.
12. And another mischief that foUoweth the making un-
necessary things to be necessary, is, that it openeth a gap
to so many more of the same kind, that no man knows how
to stop it, nor when we have ceremonies and inventions
enough : But upon the same ground that these are brought
in to-day, the next Pope or Bishop thinks he may bring an-
other to-morrow ; and so we can never tell when we have
all, nor when will be an end.
13. And in the multitude of things unnecessary, we shall
be in danger of losing the things that are necessary, they
will be so buried or obscured in the crowd : the substance
will scarcely be perceived for the ceremony.
14. And methinks it is such height of pride for mortal
men to arrogate such a power, and to desire and endeavour
such a thing, that I wonder how they dare attempt it. I
mean to make universal or unnecessary laws for the church,
in the matters of faith or worship. Can a man that hath
one spark of humility left in him, desire that his will may
be a law to all others, in doubtful or indifferent things?
And proceed so far as to desire, that none may have liberty
in the church that are not of his opinion, or will not be
ruled by him, in things indifferent, or of no necessity !
Surely a man of any humility would think with himself,
* Am not I also imperfect in knowledge ? And may I not be
mistaken ? What is my judgment that it should be a law to
the church, and that I should be so highly conceited and
confident of it, as to turn out godly ministers or people
from the church or worship of God, for not conforming
themselves to my opinion in things of such a low and indif-
ferent nature !' He that would be the law-giver to the church,
and suffer none but those of his own opinion in such points.
494 CATHOLIC UNITY.
would be the lord of the church, which can know the voice
of none but Christ, and owneth no other Lord but him.
15. And the sin is the greater, because they have so lit-
tle interest or pretence to lead them to these usurpations :
They must have their will, though it get them nothing.
Who made them law-givers to the church of Christ? Can-
not they allow Christ this part of the Sovereignty, to make
laws for his church? And cannot they be content with a
ministerial power, to proclaim and promote the laws of
Christ, and according to these to guide his church ?
16. And hereby men are drawn to a human kind of reli-
gion : and they do more properly believe, obey, and wor-
ship these imposers than Jesus Christ; when they must
fetch the very matter of their religion, not from the Bible,
but the canons or decrees of men, their conscience, obedi-
ence, and reward will be according- thereunto.
17. And hereby the adversaries of the church have oc-
casion to insult over us, and think our differences to be
more than indeed they are. When the unity of the church
is laid upon things indifferent or of smaller moment, there
will presently be disagreements, and these will be the ene-
my's matter of reproach. It is this that makes the Papists
tell us of our differences among ourselves, because we have
made them seem something to them, when they are next to
nothing. * O,' say they, * where is your church of England
now?' Why! what is the matter? Is the church of England
dead ? Or is any thing taken down that was essential to the
church of England ? Was a prelacy ruling by a lay-chancel-
lor over many hundred parishes, chosen and governing
without the body of the clergy, essential to the church of
England ? I am confident the most of the sober, godly
ministers in England, are for the apostolical, primitive Epis-
copacy still. Was the book of canons, or the book of com-
mon-prayer, or the ceremonies essential to the church of
England? Surely they were not ; and if so, it is living still;
But if any say, that these were essential to it, we may thank
them for the death of it, that made it of such a human, mor-
tal frame, which any prince might spurn down at his plea-
sure. Surely the church or churches of Christ in England,
are of a more heavenly, durable frame, that may be perse-
cuted, but hardly destroyed, while the men are living, of
whom it doth consist.
CATHOLIC UNITY. 495
Hence ulso it is, that the Papists tell us, that we have
changed all our worship. And wherein ? Why we have not
the same baptism that we had ; nor the same administration
of the Lord's-supper, nor the same public prayer, nor the
same way of marrying, churching, burying, &c. And what
is the difference? Is it that we say not at every time the
very same words ? Why so you may as well say, that Paul
was mutable, because he wrote not the same words in every
one of his Epistles, nor spoke not the same words in all his
prayers, no not in public. And so both you and we are
mutable, because we preach not the same words every day
in our sermons. God hath bid us pray ; but he hath pre-
scribed us no necessary form of words, but the Lord's-
prayer. If the difference be, that we use not the common-
prayer-book ; doth that make a different sort of worship ?
Is it not the same sort of worship if we say the same words,
or words to the same sense, either on the book or off it? If
once men lay the nature of worship, and the unity of the
church upon things unnecessary, then what changes will
seem to be in our worship, when indeed there are none?
Then the Papists may tell us of our divisions in worship,
because one man sitteth at the singing of psalms and an-
other stands; and one readeth with spectacles and another
without ; and one weareth a cap, and another weareth none ;
and one preacheth on one text, and another upon another.
But be it known to all the Papists in the world, that our
religion is not changed at all : our worship is the same whe-
ther within book or without. Our prayers are the same for
matter with those in the common-prayer-book. And if I
should one day use the common-prayer-book, and another
day forbear it, I should not change the worship of God.
To pray is part of his worship : but whether it be on a book
or off it, is no part at all, but only a mode or circumstance,
which may be altered as occasion serveth. I doubt not but
a book is fittest for some ; but not for all. And do they
think, that we know not what adding, and chopping, and
changing they have made with their mass-book ? Who is it
then that hath changed their worship ? Is it like the same
book that it was before the changes made by Gregory the
Great ? It was so ordinary a thing to change the manner
and forms of worship, that private bishops did it without
496- CATHOLIC UNITY.
any synods : whence else liad the world the forms that are
now in use? Tell us how many of those in the ' Biblioth.
Patrum' were made by apostles, or general council, if you
can. When Basil the Great had set up a new way of sing-
ing to God, and made some other changes in worship, the
clergy of Neocesarea were offended with him for the novelty,
and told him, that none of that was used in Gregory's days :
To whom he answers, that neither was their own litany
known in Gregory's days, (who yet had lived not one hun-
dred and forty years before, and was the famous founder of
their church by miracles.) Basil, Epist. 63. And Basil
added to the clergy of Neocesarea. ' But how can you tell
that these things were not in use in Gregory's days, when
you have kept nothing unchanged which he was used to?'
And that you may see his mind in this ; he adds, ' But I
pardon all these things, (though God will examine all :)
only let the principal things be kept safe.' If we had
changed the sacraments, as the Papists have done, viz.
a commemorative sacrifice into a real sacrifice of Christ
himself; the sacramental body and blood of Christ into the
real body and blood ; the administration of it in both kinds,
into one kind alone, defrauding the people of the cup; the
communion into a private mass, the people only looking on
the priest, when he receiveth alone himself, &c. I say, had
we made such changes as these, they might have called us
changelings indeed, and have told us of novelties in the
worship of God.
18. Moreover, this laying so much upon lower and un-
necessary things, doth impoverish the soul, and make it low,
and empty, and formal, according to the matter that it hath
to work upon. As the great unquestionable truths of God,
are they that sanctify and elevate the soul, and leave their
image on it ; so will contending about private opinions, or
laying out our zeal in ceremonies and shadows, depress the
soul and famish it, and turn our religion into a shadow. We
find, by sad experience, that people are so prone to turn all
religion into mere words, and shows, and customary for-
malities, that when we have done our best, we cannot cure
them of this mortal sin : " God is a Spirit, and will have
such worshippers as worship him in spirit and in truth."
(John iv. 23.) We have little need to cherish this disease
CATHOLIC UNITY. 497
of hypocrisy and seeming histrionical outside religiousness,
when we see so many perish by it, after all that we can do
for their deliverance.
19. And this making a religion of unnecessary things,
or laying the church's unity thereon, is a dangerous snare
to delude the ignorant and ungodly, and make them believe
that they are godly people, and in the way to heaven, as
well as others. I use not this, or any argument, against the
profitable use of any forms, in order to the understanding
of the matter ; nor against the due circumstantiating of the
worship of God. But if profitable forms, and God's own
ordinances, are somewhat liable to this abuse, we cannot
devise how to increase the danger, and quite enthral these
miserable souls more certainly, than by multiplying un-
necessary formalities, and placing religion and unity in
them. For they that are most ignorant, and empty of the
love and fear of God, and the bitterest enemies to a heavenly
life, will presently set in with these formalities, and make
themselves a religion of these; and then they will take
themselves to be as godly as the best. You shall never
make them believe that they are ungodly. They think the
difference lieth but in the way and manner of serving God :
you serve him one way and they another; but yet they
serve him as well as you : yea, they will overdo in these in-
different things, that they may make up that which is want-
ing in true godliness ; and then they will think that they
are better and righter than you. Thus did the heathens cry
out against the ancient Christians, with a ' tollete impios,'
away with the ungodly ; and killed them, and cast them to
wild beasts to be torn by them, because they would not
worship their idols. And so many ungodly wretches now,
that will not be persuaded to a holy life, will yet cry down
others as impious, because they observe not all the ceremo-
nies which they observe. When we have used all the means
we can to bring them to the study of the Scripture, and to
meditate in the law of the Lord, and to holy conference, and
fervent prayer; to hatred of sin, the contempt of the world,
the mortifying of the flesh, to the love of God above all, to
a thankful admiration of the love of Christ, and the great
mystery of redemption, to the believing, delightful fore-
thoughts of everlasting life, and preparation for it, &.c, ; I
VOL, XVI. K K
498 CATHOLIC UNITY.
say, when we have clone all to bring them to tliis which is
godliness indeed, we lose our labour, and leave them as we
find them. They cannot away with so precise a life : but
yet a religion they will have instead of it, to deceive their
souls, and quiet them in the way to hell. For instance, I
must speak it with grief of heart, that I meet with no small
number among us that know not who Christ is ; some say
he is God and not man. Some say, he is man and not God ;
some say he was made both God and man at once ; some
say, he is neither God nor man, but a spirit; some say, he
is- not God, but the Son of God, and hath the power of God
given him : Abundance say, that he is God only and not
man, now he is in heaven, though he was both on earth:
And very many know not what Christianity is, nor wherein
the Christian religion doth consist. And yet all these per-
sons, that are heathens rather than Christians, are the most
zealous keepers of Christmas, (as it is called,) and the bit-
terest conderaners of those that do not; and so do make
themselves believe that they are Christians as well as others.
The same persons that know not who Christ is, nor what it
is to be a Christian, are so much for kneeling at the taking
of the Lord's-supper, that they dare not be so irreverent feis
to sit or stand ; but will rather never receive at all : (nor
are they fit till they change in a grekter matter than the
gesture :) and yet, poor souls, they think themselves to be
very religious, and more reverent than others, and that here
lieth the difference between them. It would grieve the
heart of a considerate man, to see a multitude of miserable
sinners to live in wickedness, in cursing, swearing, drunk-
enness, filthiness, neglect of God and a holy life, drowned
in worldlymindedness, and as regardless of the life to come, as
if they thought they should die like the beasts ; and even
hating those that will not be ungodly as well as they ; and
yet as hot for ceremonies, and holy-days, and kneeling
at the sacrament, and the common-prayer-book, as if they
were more devout than others ; and it seems they have
made themselves believe in good earnest, that they are true
Christians and godly men, because in the depth of their un-
godliness they can make a stir against those that will not
be of their mind, and luse these ceremonies as well as they.
If any of you say, that I am now speaking against youT
CATftOLIC UNITY. ' 49^
opinions or ceremonies themselves, as it' I could not give
you leave to use them, you will but shew yourselves mis-
taken hearers, and false reporters. No, it is the laying too
much stress on these matters, and making indifferent things
seem necessary, as if God's worship, or the unity of the
church lay on them, which I speak against : And therefore I
must needs say, that both sides may be guilty of this sin:
principally the imposers of them, that ^^Ifculd have all men
forced to do as they do ; and next them there may be too
much guilt in those that make indifferent things seem evil,
or lesser evils to be much greater than they are, and scr
would make a religion of avoiding what others make it theit
religion to observe. And whether your religion lie in being
for or against these points (in such as the apostle speaks of
in ray text) is no great difference: for the religion of both
will prove but a mere shadow; yea, an over hot opposing of
such middle things, doth teach those that are for them td
believe that they are matters of very great moment, or else
they think you would not make so great a matter of thern.
And then when you have taught them by your fierce opposi-
tion to make a great matter of them ; and custom and theit
party hath taught them to think their way is best ; both
these set together delude their souls, and make them think
that because of their formalities, they are godly men, in the
depths of their ignorance, ungodliness and misery.
20. Lastly, observe how we sin against the sad experi-
ence of the church in all ages, by laying our religion or
unity upon these smaller or unnecessary things. What hath
distracted the church so much as contendings about their
ceremonies and orders, and precedency and superiority!
Heresies I know have done their part (especially the Arians) ;
but smaller matters have had too great a hand in it; what
plentiful evidence could I give you of this ! The lamentable
divisions of the Christian world about Easter-day, which the
first General Council was fain to meet about and decide, is
too sad an instance. But alas, the present age itself hath
given us too sad and plenteous proofs of it., By a heap of
ceremonies, and unnecessary things, the Roman church hath
almost drowned both the doctrine, worship and discipline of
Christ, and miserably torn the church in pieces, and so con-
tinues to do. And what work this mistake hath made in
England, I have no mind to tell you. while our smart and
«^00 CATHOLIC UNITY.
sufferings tell you of it more plainly than it is fit for me to
do. Indifferent things have shut out that which was better
than indifferent. Consider well these twenty reasons, and
then judge whether the religion or unity of the church should
be placed in unnecessary things. The imposing of them
I shall speak of by itself.
Use. From the text and doctrine explained and confirmed,
we may see these following consectaries arise.
1 . Hence we see the tender mercy of God to them that
are sincere in the faith, though weak. If their understand-
ings be dark, and their judgments in lesser things mistaken,
and their consciences therein erroneous ; yet if they be but
true believers, and right in the main, and willing to know
the mind of God, and to obey it, God would not have them
excluded from the communion of the saints, but rather re-
ceived with charity and compassion; and would have the
stronger bear with their infirmities. (Rom. xv. 1.) He will not
himself reject them; and therefore he would not have them
rejected or despised by his servants.
Use 2. Hence also we may see, that God will bear more,
and so must his church, with smaller errors, than with the
uncharitable or dividing management of those errors. Though
men should err about meats, or days, or such like matters, we
must yet receive them and love them as believers : but yet
if they will hereupon despise, or censure one another to the
breach of charity, and trouble of the church, this must be
sharply rebuked, as Paul here doth.
Use 3. Hence also you may learn, how far men should
desire and enjoy a liberty in matters of religion, and how far
the magistrate should interpose with force, and how far not.
A liberty to live in sin, or to subvert the Gospel, and the
souls of others, the magistrate should give to none : but a
toleration in things of a lower nature, that hazardeth not
mens' souls, nor the unity of the church, should be granted
to the weak. Can we be bound with charity to receive them,
and yet to provoke the magistrate to punish them, and deal
more severely with them than we ! This may not be desired.
Use 4. Hence also you may see what an enemy Popery is
to the unity of the church, and how impossible it is that the
church should have unity upon their terms ; when they have
composed a religion of so many ceremonies, and unneces-
sary things, and new devised articles; and sacraments; and
CATHOLIC UNITY. ,501
none must be u catholic Christian with them that will not
be of this religion, and vow or practise all their novelties. So
far are they from practising the doctrine of my text, that they
set themselves in opposition to it, and place their religion and
the unity of their church in such things as Paul here requir-
eth us not so much as to judge one another in ; or in worse
than these. A catholic unity is impossible on their terms.
Use 5. To conclude, I advise all that are unfeigned friends
to the unity of the church, to practise the wholesome doc-
trine of this text. If you have zeal, there is sin enough in
yourselves and others to lay it out upon : Bear not with infi-
delity, sensuality, impenitency, or any ungodly course. If
men be not so much as weak believers, and seem not saints
at least of the lower form, receive not these into your com-
munion ; but leave them under your common, compassionate
charity. If you can prove that God receiveth them not,
then do not you receive them. But as you are Christians,
take heed of cutting off or despising the members of Christ ;
and of giving a bill of divorce to any soul that is truly
espoused to him : you have drunkards, and railers, and
notorious ungodly ones enough to exercise all your zeal, if
you join both head and heart and hand against them : and
can you find in your hearts to fall upon one another for in-
different things, or smaller matters, which the unity of the
church doth not consist in? I speak to both sides impar-
tially; and I beseech you so understand me. What if thy
weak brother pray upon a book, darest thou therefore de-
spise him? And what if thy brother pray without a book,
darest thou therefore judge him? Nay, darest thou desire
that none but such should have liberty to preach or wor-
ship in the church? What if thy weak brother dare not
receive the sacrament, unless he kneel in the act of receiv-
ing it? Darest thou therefore despise him? And what if
thy brother on the other side, do rather take it in another
gesture, because he is sure that Christ and his apostles
sinned not in so doing, and because he finds that our kneel-
ing is contrary to the practice of the ancient church, (yea,
' ad hominem,' I may say,) contrary to General Councils,
yea, to the last canon of the first General Council itself,
which even the canonists say that no provincial council, or
bishops, can repeal (with many other reasons ; dare you
therefore judge hin), because he dare not miitate you rathec
502 CATHOLIC UNITY.
than Christ and his apostles, and the primitive church for
many hundred years? If any imagine that I go against this
necessary toleration myself, because all here receive the
sacrament sitting ; I answer, let them prove that ever I re-
fused one person merely because ihey would take it kneeling,
if they can. If you say, Why then are not all admitted to
take it kneeling ? I answer, soft and fair ; there are greater
matters than kneeling in the way. Do but first let go your
vicious courses, and agree with us in a holy life, and turu
unfeignedly to God, and live in the church-order that he
hath plainly commanded ; and then, if I cannot give you
satisfaction, you shall have liberty to take it in the gesture
that you desire, so be it you will grant me my liberty as I
grant you yours.
One instance more : To-morrow is the day called Christ-
mas-day, and many days called holy-days do follow it; if
you will but read and mark this chapter, Rom. xiv., I am
persuaded it may prevent a great deal of sin, that many of
you on both sides may be guilty of. Is it not a wonder that
after so large and plain a decision by the Holy Ghost, a&
here you find, there should yet be any controversy among
us about this case? Do you take the word of God for your
rule or not? If you do, why then doth it not rule you, and
end the difierence ? Do you not read the apostle's words,
" One man esteemeth one day above another ; another
esteemeth every day alike : Let every man be fully persuad-
ed in his own mind." (verse 14.) If you were Papists that
would say the Scripture is obscure, and therefore you must
have a General Council, you could scarcely devise how a
council should speak more plain than this. But nothing
will serve some men, but their own wills. Dare you on the
oiie side, despise your weak brother now for esteeming these
days above the rest? Why, perhaps it is to God that he
esteemeth, and the ancient custom of the church, and prac-
tice of many godly persons, do persuade him that is right:
and dare you on the other side condemn or reproach them
that make not this difference of days as you do ? If we are
contented that you have your liberty (which truly I would
not deprive you of, if it were in my power), cannot you be
contented that we have ours? There are three opinions
about these holy-days. 1. Some, think the observance of
them a necessary religious dutv. 2. Some think the very
CATHOLIC UNITY. 503
outward observance to be an intolerable sin. 3. Some know
that both theye extremes are erroneous, and therefore they
take the thing in itself to be indifferent, but as circum-
stances or accidents may make it good or evil : and these
are in the right. They that are in the middle can bear with
others, but the other cannot bear with them, nor with each
other. There is no proof that ever I saw, that the church
observed any of these days, for many hundred years after
Christ. For the Clement, the Dionysius, the Cyprian, that
are cited for it, are known to be spurious. And it is un-
likely that none of these would have been mentioned as well
as the Lord's-day, if they had been then observed, when
there was so much ado about the time of Easter-day. Yea,
it is certain that for many hundred years after Christ, it was
not agreed on, which was the day of Christ's nativity; some
thought it was on January 6, and therefore called it the
Epiphany, or Appearance : and of old, both the birth-day
and circumcision of Christ were supposed to be on the same
day; that is, on the sixth of January, Cassianus witnesseth
that the Egyptians were of that mind; Collat. L 10. c. 11.
And Epiphanius witnesseth the same of the Greek, and
Asian, and Syrian churches. Epiphanius himself and Na-
zianzen, and many others, were of this mind, that it was on
January sixth, and that thence it was called the Epiphany.
And Chrysostom in Hom. in Natal. Dom. tells us, that it
was but ten years before he wrote it, that the Romans had
persuaded the church of Constantinople to change the day
to December 25. And yet the countries about Jerusalem
held to the sixth of January, as Causabon Hath shewed,
Exercit. 2. cap. 4, p. 170, 171, and cap. 11. p. 186, 187. Yea,
indeed theday of Christ's nativity is yet unknown, as if God
had kept us ignorant of purpose. Many very learned 'men,
as Broughton, Helvicus, Scaliger, Beroaldus, think that the
day was about autumn, in the beginning of October. Calvi-
aius, Paraeus, and many more are for other times than De-
cember 25, and Jac. Cappellus, and many others, still go to
the old way for January 6. And Th. Lydias, out of Clem.
Alcxandr. is for May 20. Scultetus, Clopenburgius, and
many others, do shew, that indeed the time is utterly un^
certain. And no wonder if the day be uncertain when the
very year is tio uncertain, that there is no probability of ever
coming to a full agreement about it among th«= learned in
504 CATHOLIC UNITV.
chronology, till the last coming of Christ agree them ! Our
late most learned chronologer. Bishop Usher, was confident
that we were about four years too late in our common ac-
count, as in his Annals may be seen. And what man can
reveal the things that God hath purposely concealed ? For
my part, I dare not judge men for keeping or not keeping
such days as these. But if any will make it a necessary
thing to the universal church, I must resist the usurpation ;
as Paul, that had circumcised Timothy, did cry down cir-
cumcision when some would have obtruded it as a necessary
thing. And for this I have an argument that sustaineth my
religion itself; even the sufHciency of the Holy Scripture.
If this be not the law of God, then farewell Christianity -
If it be his law, it is sufHcient in its kind, and to its ends ;
which is, 1. To determine of all things that were then fit to
be determined of: 2. And to determine of all that the uni-
versal church in all times after must be bound to. There is
no universal lawgiver but Christ. If this day be of necessity,
it was so then as well as now, and it is so to one country as
well as another : for there is the same reason for it in one
age and place as in another. And, therefore, if Scripture
be not a sufficient rule for universal duties of religion, then
we are utterly at a loss ; and as Popery will come first in,
so infidelity is likely to come next. I doubt not but * pro
re nata,' upon emergent occasions, church-governors may
appoint religious anniversary solemnities. For the occasion
of these being, 1. To some one place or province only:
2. And not existent in Scripture-times ; it did not belong to
the universal law to determine of them. But in cases thaf
equally belong to the universal church, and where the reason
and occasion was existent in the apostles' days as well as
now, if there we have not their determination, no others can
come after them and make it universally necessary. And
indeed neither General Councils nor apostolic tradition, can
be pleaded for the necessity. And sure I am, that the one
day in seven, even the Lord's-day, of his own appointment,
which the universal church hath constantly observed, is a
festival for the commemoration of the whole work of re-
demption, and therefore of the birth of Christ, though espe-
cially of the resurrection : and therefore we are not without
a day for this use.
I speak not all this to condemn any that use these days,
CATHOLIC UNITV. 505
but to excuse those that use them not, and by telling you a
few of those many reasons which they have to give for them-
selves, to persuade you both to lay by the opinion of neces-
sity, and to forbear condemning those that differ from you,
and be content that they have their liberty, as we are freely
content that you have yours; and lay not the unity and
peace of the church upon such things as these, when the
Holy Ghost hath so plainly decided the case. And I could
heartily wish that the Lord's own day were not most wil-
fully neglected by many that are most forward for other
holy-days. It is a fearful self-delusion of ungodly people,
that no means can bring them to a new, a holy, and heavenly '
life; and yet they will make themselves believe that they are
religious, by pleading for forms, and days, and ceremonies.
Alas ! poor soul, if thy eyes were but opened, thou wouldest
see that thou hast other kind of matters first to look after !
It would grieve one to hear a man contending for kneeling,
and holy-days, and prayer-books, that is in a state of unre-
generacy, and a stranger to sanctification, and under the
dominion of his sins, and under the curse and wrath of God.
Get first a new and holy nature ; make sure of the pardon
of sin, and of peace with God, and then the discourse of
lower matters will be more seasonable and more savoury.
Is it not a shameful self-condemning, to keep holy-days
for the dead saints, and to hate and rail against the living?
Do you know what kind of men those were that are called
saints, and holy-days were kept in remembrance of them?
They were such as those that now are hated by the world,
and took the course in a holy and diligent care of their sal-
vation, as these do, and therefore were hated by the world,
as the godly now are ; and when wicked men had put them
to death, the godly that survived would keep a day in re-
membrance of their martyrdom, to encourage others to con-
stancy for Christ. And also because the unruly multitude
were so set upon their pleasure, that they kept the idols'
festivals for their sport sake ; therefore some pastors of the
church did think it better to let them have festivals for the
saints to take their pleasure in, to turn them off" from the
idols' festivals. So Gregory Nyssen tells us of Gregory
Thaumaturgus in his Oration of his Life, that he made holy-
days for his neighbours of Neocesarea, when the Roman
fury had martyred many ; and he used this as a piou& wile^
506 CATHOLIC UNITY.
to draw the licentious vulgar from the idols' festivals, by
letting them play on the martyrs' days, till they could be
drawn up to a holy observation of thenj. Whether the course
were right or wrong, by this you may see the original ot
such days. And Gregory the Great of Rome would, for
this very end, have all the heathens' festivals turned into
Christian festivals. But if any of you will hate a saint, and
refuse the communion of saints, and will not imitate them
in holiness, and yet will keep holy-days for them that are
dead, Christ himself hath given you your doom. Matt, xxiii.
29 — 33, which I desire vou to read.
Well, sirs, I have said enough, if enough will serve, to
prove that the unity of the church must not be laid on things
indifferent, nor upon low and doubtful points ; but it must
be a unity in the spirit of sanctification. It is the few, the
great, the certain, and the necessary points, that we must
all agree in if ever we will agree, and compassionately tole-
rate the differences that are tolerable.
If after all this, there be any so proud, and selfish, and
ungodly, and unmerciful, that they will set up their own
conceits and wills, against the plain commands of God, the
long and sad experience of the world, and against the peace
of their brethren, and the unity of the church, and will have
no agreement unless all others will be conformed to their
wills, I shall say no more to such, but that these are not the
sons of peace, nor the living compassionate members of the
church, but self-idolizers, that God is engaged to pull down :
a^d it is not by such as these that the church must be healed
and repaired ; but it is by them that are sensible of their
own infirmities, and compassionate to others, that are of a
Christian catholic spirit, and have catholic principles and
affections, and see such a beauty in the image of Christ,
that they can heartily love a gracious person, notwithstand-
ing his many tolerable infirmities, and think themselvea
more unworthy to be tolerated by others, than such as I
h*ve described to be tolerated by them.
Preached December 24, 1657.
END OF CATHOLIC UNITY.
507
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST
AND SALVATION,
TOO OFT THE ISSUE OF GOSPEL INVITATIONS
A 9£RM0N I'REACHED AT LAURENCu JURY IN LONDOM
TO THE READER.
Reader,
Being called on in London to preach, when I had no time
to study, I was fain to preach some sermons that I had
preached in the country a little before. This was one,
which I preached at St. Laurence, in the church where my
reverend and faithful brother in Christ, Mr. Richard Vines,
is} pastor : when I came home I was followed by such im-
portunities by letters to print the sermon, that I have yielded
thereunto, though I know not fully the ground of their de-
sires. Seeing it must abroad, will the Lord but bless it to
the cure of thy contempt of Christ and grace, how com-
fortable may the occasion prove to thee and me ! It is the
slighting of Christ and salvation, that undoes the world,
O happy man if thou escape but this sin! Thousands
do split their souls on this rock which they should build
them on. Look into the world, among rich and poor, high
and low, young and old, and see whether it appear not by
the whole scope of their conversations that they set more
by something else than Christ? And for all the proclama-
tions of his grace in the Gospel, and our common professing
ourselves to be his disciples, and to believe the glorious
things that he hath promised us in another world, whether
it yet appear not by the deceitfulness of our service, by our
heartless endeavours to obtain his kingdom, and by our busy
and delightful following of the world, that the most who are
called Christians do yet in their hearts make light of Christ;
^nd if so, what wonder if they perish by their contempt !
Wilt thou but soberly peruse this short discourse, and con-
sider well as thou readest of its truth and weight, till thy
heart be sensible what, a sin it is to make light of Christ and
508 MAKING LIGHT Ol CHUJST.
thy own salvation, and till the Lord that bought thee be
advanced in the estimation and affections of thy soul, thou
shalt hereby rejoice, and fulfil the desires of
Thy servant in the faith,
RICHARD BAXTER.
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST
MArrHEW xxii. 5.
But they made light of it.
The blessed Son of God, that thought it not enough to die
for the world, but would himself also be the preacher of
grace and salvation, doth comprise in this parable the sum
of his Gospel. By the king that is here said to make the
marriage, is meant God the Father, that sent his Son into
the world to cleanse them from their sins, and espouse them
to himself. By his Son, for whom the marriage is made, is
meant the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who
took to his godhead the nature of man, that he might be
capable of being their Redeemer when they had lost them-
selves in sin. By the marriage is meant the conjunction of
Christ to the soul of sinners, when he giveth up himself to
them to be their Saviour, and they give up themselves to
him as his redeemed ones, to be saved and ruled by him;
the perfection of which marriage will be at the day of judg-
ment, when the conjunction between the whole church and
Christ shall be solemnized. The word here translated mar-
riage, rather signifieth the marriage-feast; and the meaning
is, that the world is invited by the Gospel to come in and
partake of Christ and salvation, which comprehendeth both
pardon, justification, and right to salvation, and all other
privileges of the members of Christ. The invitation is God's
offer of Christ and salvation in the Gospel ; the servants
that invite them are the preachers of the Gospel, who are
sent forth by God to that end ; the preparation for the feast
there mentioned, is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the
enacting of a law of grace, and opening a way for revolting
sinners to return to God. There is a mention of sending
second messengers, because God useth not to take the first
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 509
denial, but to exercise his patience till sinners are obstinate.
The first persons invited are the Jews ; upon their obstinate
refusal they are sentenced to punishment ; and the Gentiles
are invited, and not only invited, but by powerful preaching,
and miracles, and effectual grace compelled ; that is, infal-
libly prevailed with to come in. The number of them is
so great that the house is filled with the guests : many
come sincerely, not only looking at the pleasure of the feast,
that is, at the pardon of sin, and deliverance from the wrath
of God, but also at the honour of the marriage, that is, of
the Redeemer, and their profession by giving up themselves
to a holy conversation; but some come in only for the
feast, that is justification by Christ, having not the wedding
garment of sound resolution for obedience in their life, and
looking only at themselves in believing, and not to the glory
of their Redeemer ; and these are sentenced to everlasting
misery, and speed as ill as those that came not in at all;
seeing a faith that will not work is but like that of the devil ;
and they that look to be pardoned and saved by it are mis-
taken, as James sheweth, chap. ii. 24.
The words of my text contain a narration of the ill enter-
tainment that the Gospel findeth with many to whom it is
.sent, even after a first and second invitation. They made light
of it, and are taken up with other things. Though it be the
Jews that were first guilty, they have too many followers
among us Gentiles to this day.
Doct. ' For all the wonderful love and mercy that God hath
manifested in giving his Son to be the Redeemer of the
world, and which the Son hath manifested in redeeming;
them by his blood ; for all his full preparation by being a
sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all ; for all his personal
excellencies, and that full and glorious salvation that he
hath procured ; and for all his free offers of these, and fre-
quent and earnest invitation of sinners ; yet many do make
light of all this, and prefer their worldly enjoyments before
it. The ordinary entertainment of all is by contempt.*
Not that all do so, or that all continue to do so, who were
once guilty of i t : for God hath chosen whom he will compel to
come in. But till the Spirit of grace over power the dead and
obstinate hearts of men, they hear the Gospel as a common
story, and the great matters contained in it go not to the heart.
The method in which I shall handle this doctrine is this,
5J0 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
I. I shall shew you what it is that men make light of.
II. What this sin of making light of it is.
III. The cause of the sin.
TV. The use of the doctrine.
1. The thing that carnal hearers make light of is, 1. The
doctrine of the Gospel itself, which they hear regardlessly.
2. The benefits offered them therein: which are, 1. Christ
himself. 2. The benefits which he giveth.
Concerning Christ himself, the Gospel, 1. Declareth his
person and nature, and the great things that he hath done
and suffered for man : his redeeming him from the wrath
of God by his blood, and procuring a grant of salvation
with himself. Furthermore, the same Gospel maketh an
offer of Christ to sinners, that if they will accept him on his
easy and reasonable terms, he will be their Saviour, the phy-
sician of their souls, their husband, and their head.
2. The benefits that he offereth them are these. 1. That
with these blessed relations to him, himself and interest in
him, they shall have the pardon of all their sins past, and be
saved from God's wrath, and be set in a sure way of obtain-
ing a pardon for all the sins that they shall commit here-
after, so they do but obey sincerely, and turn not again to
the rebellion of their unregeneracy. 2. They shall have the
Spirit to become their guide and sanctifier, and to dw^ell in
their souls, and help them against their enemies, and con-
form them more and more to his image, and heal their dis-
eases, and bring them back to God. 3. They shall have
right to everlasting glory when this life is ended, and shall
be raised up thereto at the last; besides many excellent
privileges in the way, in means, preservation, and provision,
and the foretaste of what they shall enjoy hereafter: all
these benefits the Gospel offereth to them thatwill have Christ
on his reasonable terms. The sum of all is in 1 John v. 11,
12, " This is the record, that 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."
II. What this sin of the making light of the Gospel is ?
1. To make light of the Gospel is to take no great heed to
what is spoken, as if it were not a certain truth, or else
were a matter that little concerned them ; or as if God had
not written these things for them. 2. When the Gospel
iloth not affect men, or go to their hearts ; but though they
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 511
/
seem to attend to what is said, yet men are not awakened
by it from their security, nor doth it work in any measure
such holy passion in their souls, as matters of such ever-
lasting consequence should do ; this is making light of the
Gospel of salvation. When we tell men what Christ
hath done and suffered for their souls, it scarcely moveth
them : We tell them of keen and cutting truths, but nothing-
will pierce them : We can make them hear, but we can-
not make them feel ; our words take up in the porch of
their ears and fancies, but will not enter into the inward
parts ; as if we spake to men that had no hearts or feeling ;
this is a making light of Christ and salvation ; (Acts xxviii.
26, 27 ;) hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand -,
seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart
of this people is waxen gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing, their eyes are closed, &c.
3. When men have no high estimation of Christ and sal-
vation, but whatsoever they may say with their tongues, or
dreamingly and speculatively believe, yet in their serious
and practical thoughts they have a higher estimation of the
matters of this world, than they have of Christ, and the sal-
vation that he hath purchased ; this is a making light of him.
When men account the doctrine of Christ to be but a mat-
ter of words and names, as Gallio, (Acts xviii. 4,) or as Festus,
(Acts XXV. 19,) a superstitious matter about one Jesus who
was dead, and Paul saith is alive. Or ask the preachers of
the Gospel, as the Athenians, "What will this babbler say?"
(Acts xvii. 18.) This is contempt of Christ.
4. When men are informed of the truths of the Gospel,
and on what terms Christ and his benefits may be had, and
how it is the will of God that they should believe and ac^
cept the offer ; and he commandeth them to do it upon
pain of damnation ; and yet men will not consent, unless
they have Christ on terms of their own : They will not part
with their worldly contents, nor lay down their pleasures,
and profits, and honour at his feet, as being content to take
so much of them only as he will give them back, and as is
consistent with his will and interest, but think it is a hard
saying, that they must forsake all in resolution for Christ ;
this is a making light of him and their salvation. When
men might have part in him and all his benefits if they
would, and they will not, unless they may keep the world
512 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
too; and are resolved to please their flesh, what ever come*
of it ; this is a high contempt of Christ and everlasting life.
(Matt. xiii. 21, 22; Luke xviii. 23.) You may find exam-
ples of such as I here describe.
5. When men will promise fair, and profess their willing-
ness to have Christ on his terms, and to forsake all for him,
but yet do stick to the world and their sinful courses ; and
when it comes to practice, will not be removed by all that
Christ hath done and said, this is making light of Christ and
salvation. (Jer. xlii. 5, compared with xliii. 2.)
III. The causes of this sin are the next thing to be in-
quired after. It may seem a wonder that ever men, that
have the use of their reason, should be so sottish as to make
light of matters of such consequence. But the cause is,
1. Some men understand not the very sense of the words
of the Gospel when they hear it, and how can they be taken
with that which they understand not ? Though we speak to
them in plain* English, and study to speak it as plain as we
can, yet people have so estranged themselves from God,
and the matters of their own happiness, that they know not
what we say, as if we spoke in another language, and as if they
were under that judgment, Isa. xxviii. 11, "With stammering-
lips, and with another tongue will he speak to this people."
2. Some that do understand the words that we speak,
yet because they are carnal, understand not the matter.
For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, because they are spi-
ritually discerned. (1 Cor. ii. 14.) They are earthly, and
these things are heavenly. (John iii. 12.) These things of
the Spirit are not well known by bare hearsay, but by spi-
ritual taste, which none have but those that are taught by
the Holy Ghost, (1 Cor. ii. 12,) that we may know the things
that are given us of God.
3. A carnal mind apprehendeth not a suitableness in
these spiritual and heavenly things to his mind, and there-
fore he sets light by them, and hath no mind of them. When
you tell him of everlasting glory, he heareth you as if you
were persuading him to go play with the sun : they are
matters of another world, and out of his element ; and there-
fore he hath no more delight in them than a fish would have
to be in the fairest meadow, or than a swine hath in a jewel,
or a dog in a piece of gold : They may be good to others
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRTST. 513
but he cannot apprehend them as suitable to him, because
he hath a nature that is otherwise inclined : he savoureth
not the things of the Spirit. (Rom. viii. 5.)
4. The main cause of the slio-htino; of Christ and salva-
tion, is a secret root of unbelief in men's hearts. Whatso-
ever they may pretend, they do not soundly and thoroughly
believe the word of God : They are taught in general to say
the Gospel is true; but they never saw the evidence of its
truth so far, as thoroughly to persuade them of it ; nor have
they got their souls settled on the infallibility of God's
testimony, nor considered of the truth of the particular
doctrines revealed in the Scripture, so far as soundly to be-
lieve them : O did you all but soundly believe the words
of this Gospel, of the evil of sin, of the need of Christ, and
what he hath done for you, and what you must be and do if
ever you will be saved by him ; and what will become of
you for ever if you do it not ; T dare say it would cure the
contempt of Christ, and you would not make so light of the
matters of your salvation. But men do not believe while
they say they do, and would face us down that they do,
and verily think that they do themselves. There is a root
of bitterness, and an evil heart of unbelief, that makes them
depart from the living God. (Heb. ii. 12; iv, 1, 2. 6.) Tell
any man in this congregation that he shall have a gift of
ten thousand pounds, if he will go to London for it; if he
believe you, he will go ; but if he believe not, he will not ;
and if he will not go, you may be sure he believeth not,
supposing that he is able. I know a slight belief may stand
with a wicked life : such as men have of the truth of a prog-
nostication, it may be true, and it may be false ; but a true
and sound belief is not consistent with so great neglect of
the things that are believed.
5. Christ and salvation are made light of by the world,
because of their desperate hardness of heart. The heart is
hard naturally, and by custom in sinning made more hard,
especially by long abuse of mercy, and neglect of the means
of grace, and resisting the Spirit of God. Hence it is that
men are turned into such stones : and till God cure them of
the stone of the heart, no wonder if they feel not what they
know, or regard not what we say, but make light of all ;
it is hard preaching a stone into tears, or making a rock to
l^OL. XVI. L L
514 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
tremble. You may stand over a dead body long enough,
and say to it, ' O thou carcase, when thou hast lain rotting
and mouldered to dust till the resurrection, God will then
c^rM thee to account for thy sin, and cast thee into everlast-
ing fire,' before you can make it feel what you say, or fear
the misery that is never so truly threatened : When men's
hearts are like the highway that is trodden to hardness by*
long custom in sinning, or like the clay that is hardened to a
stone by the heat of those mercies that should have melted
them into repentance : When they have consciences seared
with a hot iron, as the apostle speaks, (1 Tim. iv. 2,) no
wonder then if they be past feeling, and working all un-
cleanness with greediness do make light of Christ and ever-
lasting glory. O that this were not the case of too many of
our hearers ! Had we but living souls to speak to, they
would hear, and feel, and not make light of what we say. I
know they are naturally alive, but they are spiritually dead,
as Scripture witnesseth. (Ephes. ii. 3.) O if there were
but one spark of the life of grace in them, the doctrine of
salvation by Jesus Christ would appear to them to be the
weightiest business in the world ! O how confident should
I be, methinks, to prevail with men, and to take them off
this world, and bring them to mind the matters of another
world, if I spake but to men that had life, and sense, and
reason ! But when we speak to blocks and dead men, how
should we be regarded ! O how sad a case are these souls
in, that are fallen under this fearful judgment of spiritual
madness and deadness ! To have a blind mind, and a hard
heart, to be sottish and senseless, (Mark i v. 12; John xii.
40.) lest they should be converted, and their sin should be
forgiven them.
6. Christ and salvation are made light of by the world,
because they are wholly enslaved to their sense, and taken
up with lower things : The matters of another world are out
of sight, and so far from their senses, that they cannot re-
gard them ; but present things are nearer them, in their
eyes, and in their hands : There must be a living faith to
prevail over sense, before men can be so taken with things
that are not seen, though they have the word of God for
their security, as to neglect and let go things that are still
before their eyes. Sense works with great advantage, and
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 515
herefore doth much in resisting faith where it is. No won-
der then if it carry all before it, where there is no true and
lively faith to resist, to lead the soul to higher things: This
cause of making light of Christ and salvation is expressed
here in my text: One went to his farm, and another to his
merchandise : Men have houses and lands to look after ;
they have wife and children to mind : they have their body and
outward estate to regard, therefore they forget that they have
a God, a Redeemer, a soul to mind ; these matters of the
world are still with them. They see these, but they see not
God, nor Christ, nor their souls, nor everlasting glory.
These things are near at hand, and therefore work naturally,
and so work forcibly; but the other are thought on as a
great way off, and therefore too distant to work on their af-
fections, or be at the present so much regarded by them.
Their body hath life and sense, therefore if they want meat,
or drink, or clothes, will feel their want, and tell them of it,
and give them no rest till their wants be supplied, and there-
fore they cannot make light of their bodily necessities; but
their souls in spiritual respects are dead, and therefore feel
not their wants, but will let them alone in their greatest
necessities ; and be as quiet when they are starved and lan-
guishing to destruction, as if all were well, and nothing-
ailed them. And hereupon poor people are wholly taken
up in providing for the body, as if they had nothing else to
mind. They have their trades and callings to follow, and so
much to do from morning to night, that they can find no
time for matters of salvation; Christ would teach them, but
they have no leisure to hear him : the Bible is before them,
but they cannot have while to read it : a minister is in the
townwith them, but they cannothave while to go to inquire of
him what they should do to be saved : And when they do hear,
their hearts are so full of the world, and carried away with
these lower matters, that they cannot mind the things which
they hear. They are so full of the thoughts, and desires,
and cares of this world, that there is no room to pour into
them the water of life : The cares of the world do choke the
word, and make it become unfruitful. (Matt. xiii. 22.) Men
cannot serve two masters, God and mammon ; but they will
lean to the one, and despise the other. (Matt. vi. 24.) He
that loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
(1 John ii. 15, 16.) Men cannot choose but set light by
51G MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
Christ and salvation, while they set so much by any thing
on earth : It is that which is highly esteemed among men that
is abominable in the sight of God. (Luke xvi. 15.) O this is
the ruin of many thousand souls ! It would grieve the heart
of any honest Christian to see how eagerly this vain world
is followed every where, and how little men set by Christ,
and the world to come ; to compare the care that men have
for the world, with the care of their souls ; and the time that
they lay out on the world, with that time they lay out for
their salvation : To see how the world fills their mouths,
their hands, their houses, their hearts, and Christ hath little
more than a bare title : To come into their compan);-, and
hear no discourse but of the world ; to come into their
houses, and hear and see nothing but for the world, as if this
world would last for ever, or would purchase them another.
When I ask sometimes the ministers of the Gospel how their
labours succeed, they tell me, ' People continue still the
same, and give up themselves wholly to the world ; so that
they mind not what ministers say to them, nor will give any
full entertainment to the word, and all because of the de-
luding world :' And O that too many ministers themselves
did not make light of that Christ whom they preach, being
drawn away with the love of this world ! In a word, men of
a worldly disposition do judge of things according to worldly
advantages, therefore Christ is slighted, " He is despised
and rejected of men, they hide their faces from him, and
esteem him not, as seeing no beauty or comeliness in him,
that they should desire him." (Isa. liii. 3.)
7. Christ and salvation are made light of, because men
do not soberly consider of the truth and weight of these
necessary things. They suffer not their minds so long to
dwell upon them, till they procure a due esteem, and deeply
affect their heart ; did they believe them and not consider of
them, how should they work ! O when men have reason given
them to think and consider of the things that most concern
them,andyetthey will not use it, this causeth their contempt.
8. Christ and salvation are made light of, because men
were never sensible of their sin and misery, and extreme
necessity of Christ and his salvation ; their eyes were never
opened to see themselves as they are ; nor their hearts sound-
ly humbled in the sense of their condition : if this were done,
they would soon be brought to value a Saviour: a truly
MAKING LIGHT 01 CHRIST. 517
broken heart can no more make light of Christ and salva-
tion, than a hungry man of his food, or a sick man of the
means that would give ease : but till then our words cannot
have access to their hearts : While sin and misery are made
light of, Christ and salvation will be made light of: but
when these are perceived an intolerable burden, then nothing
will serve the turn but Christ. Till men be truly humbled,
they can venture Christ and salvation for a lust, for a little
worldly gain, even for less than nothing : but when God hath
illuminated them, and broken their hearts, then they would
give a world for a Christ ; then they must have Christ or
they die; all things then are loss and dung to them in re-
gard of the excellent knowledge of Christ. (Phil. iii. 8.)
When they are at once pricked in their hearts for sin and
misery, then they cry out, " Men and brethren, what shall
we do? " (Acts ii. 37.) When they are awakened by God's
judgments, as the poor jailor, then they cry out, "Sirs,
what shall I do to be saved?" (Acts xvi. 30.) This is the
reason why God will bring men so low by humiliation, be-
fore he brings them to salvation.
9. Men take occasion to make light of Christ by the
commonness of the Gospel ; because they do hear of it every
day, the frequency is an occasion to dull their affections ;
I say, an occasion, for it is no just cause. Were it a rarity
it might take more with them; but now, if they hear a
minister preach nothing but these saving truths, they say,
• We have these every day : ' They make not light of their
bread or drink, their health or life, because they possess
them every day; they make not light of the sun because it
shineth every day ; at least they should not, for the mercy
is the greater; but Christ and salvation are made light of
because they hear of them often ; ' This is,' say they, ' a good,
plain, dry sermon :' Pearls are trod in the dirt where they are
common ; they loathe this dry manna : " The full soul loathes
the honey-comb ; but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet."
10. Christ and salvation are made light of, because of
this disjunctive presumption ; either that he is sure enough
theirs already, and God that is so merciful, and Christ that
hath suffered so much for them, is surely resolved to save
them, or else it may easily be obtained at any time, if it be
not yet so. A conceited facility to have a part in Christ
and salvation at any time doth occasion men to make light
518 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
of them. It is true, that grace is free, and the offer is uni-
versal, according to the extent of the preaching of the Gos-
pel ; and it is true, that men may have Christ when they
will ; that is, when they are willing to have him on his terms ;
but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing,
hath not promised to make thee willing : and if thou art not
willing now, how canst thou think thou shall be willing here-
after? If thou canst make thine own heart willing, why is
it not done now ? Can you do it better when sin hath more
hardened it, and God may have given thee over to thyself?
O sinners ! you might do much, though you are not able
of yourselves to come in, if you would now subject your-
selves to the working of the Spirit, and set in while the
gales of grace continue : But did you know what a hard
and impossible thing it is to be so much as willing to have
Christ and grace, when the heart is given over to itself, and
the Spirit hath withdrawn its former invitations, you would
not be so confident of your own strength to believe and re-
pent ; nor would you make light of Christ upon such foolish
confidence. If indeed it be so easy a matter as you imagine,
for a sinner to believe and repent at any time, how comes it
to pass that it is done by so few ; but most of the world do
perish in their impenitency, when they have all the helps
and means that we can afford them ? It is true, the thing
is very reasonable and easy in itself to a pure nature ; but
while man is blind and dead, these things are in a sort im-
possible to him, which are never so easy to others. It is
the easiest and sweetest life in the world to a gracious soul
to live in the love of God, and the delightful thoughts of
the life to come, where all their hope and happiness lieth :
but to a worldly, carnal heart it is as easy to remove a moun-
tain as to bring them to this. However, these men are their
own condemners ; for if they think it so easy a matter to
repent and believe, and so to have Christ, and right to sal-
vation, then have they no excuse for neglecting this which
they thought so easy. O wretched, impenitent soul ! what
mean you to say when God shall ask you, Why did you
not repent and love your Redeemer above the world, when
you thought it so easy that you could do it at any time?
IV. Use 1. We come now to the application : and hence
you may be informed of the blindnesl and folly of all carnal
men: How contemptible are their judgment* that think
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. ,519
Christ and salvation contemptible! And how little reason
there is why any should be moved by them, or discouraged
by any of their scorns or contradictions.
How shall we sooner know a man to be a fool, than if he
know no difference between dung and gold ! Is there such
a thing as madness in the world, if that man be not mad that
sets light by Christ, and his own salvation, while he daily
toils for the dung of the earth ? And yet what pity is it to
see that a company of poor, ignorant souls will be ashamed
of godliness, if such men as these do but deride them! Or
will think hardly of a holy life, if such as these do speak
against it! Hearers, if you see any set light by Christ and
salvation, do you set light by that man's wit, and by his
words, and hear the reproaches of a holy life, as you would
hear the words of a madman : not with regard,^but with a
compassion of his misery.
Use 2. What wonder if we and our preaching be despised,
and the best ministers complain of ill success, when the
ministry of the apostles themselves did succeed no bet-
ter ! What wonder if for all that we can say or do, our
hearers still set light by Christ and their own salvation,
when the apostles' hearers did the same ! They that did
second their doctrine by miracles : if any men could have
shaken and torn in pieces the hearts of sinners, they could
have done it : If any man could have laid them at their feet,
and made them all cry out as some, "What shall we do?" it
would have been they. You may see then that it is not
merely for want of good preachers that men make light of
Christ and salvation : The first news of such a thing as the
pardon of sin and the hopes of glory, and the danger of ever-
lasting misery, would turn the hearts of men within them,
if they were as tractable in spiritual matters as in temporal :
but alas, it is far otherwise. It must not seem any strange
thing, nor must it too much discourage the preachers of the
Gospel, if when they have said all that they can devise to
say, to win the hearts of men to Christ, the most do still slight
him, and while they bow the knee to him, and honour him with
their lips,do yet set so light by him in their hearts, as to prefer
every fleshly pleasure or commodity before him. It will be
thus with many : let us be glad that it is not thus with all.
Use 3. But for closer application, seeing this is the great
condemning sin, before we inquire after it into the hearts of
520 MAKING LIGHT Ol' CHRIST.
our hearers, it beseems us to begin at home, and see tha6
we who are preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our-
selves. The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken
the sacred office of revealing the excellencies of Christ to
the world, should make light of him themselves, and slight
that salvation which they do daily preach. The Lord knows
we are all of us so low in our estimation of Christ, and do
this great work so negligently, that we have cause to be
ashamed of our best sermons ; but should this sin prevail in
us, we were the most miserable of all men. Brethren, I love
not censoriousness; yet dare not befriend so vile a sin in
myself or others, under pretence of avoiding it: especially
when there is so great necessity that it should be healed
first in them that make it their work to heal it in others. O
that there were no cause to complain that Christ and salva-
tion are made light of by the preachers of it ! But, 1. Do
not the negligent studies of some speak it out? 2. Doth
not their dead and drowsy preaching declare it? Do not they
make light of the doctrine they preach, that do it as if they
were half asleep, and feel not what they speak themselves ?
3. Doth not the carelessness of some men's private en-
deavours discover it? What do they for souls? how slightly
do they reprove sin? How little do they when they are out
of the pulpit for the saving of men's souls!
4. Doth not the continued neglect of those things where-
in the interest of Christ consisteth discover it? 1. The
church's purity and reformation. 2. Its unity.
5. Doth not the covetous and worldly lives of too many
discover it, losing advantages for men's souls for a little
gain to themselves? And most of this is because men are
preachers before they are Christians, and tell men of that
which they never felt themselves. Of all men on earth there
are few that are in so sad a condition as such ministers :
and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they
preach, methinks it should be terrible to them in their stu-
dying and preaching it.
Use 4. Beloved hearers, the office that God hath called
us to, is by declaring the glory of his grace, to help under
Christ to the saving of men's souls. I hope you think not
that I come hither to-day on any other errand. The Lord
knows 1 had not set a foot out of doors but in hope to suc-
ceed in this work for your souls. I have considered, and
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 52f
often considered. What is the matter that so many^iousands
should perish when God hath done so much for their salva-
tion ; and I find this that is mentioned in my text is the
cause. It is one of the wonders of the world, that when
God hath'so loved the world as to send his Son, and Christ
hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all,
and ofFereth the benefits of it so freely to them, even with-
out money or price, that yet the most of the world should
perish ; yea, the most of those that are thus called by his
word ! Why, here is the reason, when Christ hath done all
this, men make light of it. God hath shewed that he is not
unwilling; and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling
that men should be restored to God's favour and be saved ;
but men are actually unwilling themselves. God takes not
pleasure in the death of sinners, but rather that they return
and live. (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) But men take such pleasure
in sin, that they will die before they will return. The Lord
Jesus was content to be their physician, and hath provided
them a sufficient plaister of his own blood : but if men make
light of it, and will not apply it, what wonder if they perish
after all ! This Scripture giveth us the reason of their per-
dition. This sad experience tells us the most of the world is
guilty of. It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men
do spend their care, their time, their pains, for known vani-
ties, while God and glory are cast aside : that he who is all
should seem to them as nothing ; and that which is nothing
should seem to them as good as all; that God should set
mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain
end, and that they should sit down, and loiter, or run after
the cnildish toys of the world, and so much forget the prize
that they should run for. Were it but possible for one of
us to see the whole of this business, as the All-seeing God
doth ; to see at one view both heaven and hell, which mea
are so near; and see what most men in the world are mind-
ing, and what they are doing every day, it would be the
saddest sight that could be imagined. O how should we
marvel at their madness, and lament their self-delusion !
O poor distracted world ! what is it you run after ? and
what is it that you neglect? If God had never told them
what they were sent into the world to do, or whither they
were going, or what was before them in another world, then
they had been excusable ; but he hath told them over and
f)22 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
over, till ^ley were weary of it. Had he left it doubtful
there had been some excuse; but it is his sealed word,
and they profess to believe it, and would take it ill of us if
we should question whether they do believe it or not.
Beloved, I come not to accuse any of you particularly
of this crime ; but seeing it is the commonest cause of men's
destruction, I suppose you will judge it the fittest matter for
our inquiry, and deserving our greatest care for the cure.
To which end I shall, 1. Endeavour the conviction of the
guilty. 2. Shall give them such considerations as may tend
to humble and reform them. 3. I shall conclude with such
direction as may help them that are willing to escape the
destroying power of this sin. And for the first, consider,
1. It is the case of most sinners to think themselves
freest from those sins that they are most enslaved to ; and
one reason why we cannot reform them, is because we can-
not convince them of their guilt. It is the nature of sin so
far to blind and befool the sinner, that he knoweth not what
he doth, but thinketh he is free from it when it reigneth in
him, or when he is committing it : It bringeth men to be so
much unacquainted with themselves, that they know not what
they think, or what they mean and intend, nor what they love
or hate, much less what they are habituated and disposed
to. They are alive to sin, and dead to all the reason, consider-
ation, and resolution that should recover them, as if it were
only by their sinning that we must know they are alive.
May I hope that you that hear me to-day are but willing to
know the truth of your case, and then I shall be encouraged
to proceed to an inquiry. God will judge impartially, why
should not we do so ? Let me, therefore, by these following-
questions, try whether none of you are slighters of Christ and
your own salvation. And follow me, I beseech you, by putting
them close to your own hearts, and faithfully answering them.
1. Things that men highly value will be remembered,
they will be matter of their freest and sweetest thoughts.
Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation
that think of them so seldom and coldly in comparison of
other things ? Follow thy own heart, man, and observe what
it daily runneth after; and then judge whether it make not
light of Christ.
We cannot persuade men to one hour's sober considera-
tion what they should do for an interest in Christ, or in
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 523
thankfulness for his love, and yet they will not believe that
they make light of him.
2. Things that we highly value will be matter of our dis-
course; the judgment and heart will command the tongue.
Freely and delightfully will our speech run after them.
Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation,
that shun the mention of his name, unless it be inn vain or
sinful use? Those that love not the company where Christ
and salvation is much talked of, but think it troublesome, pre-
cise discourse : that had rather hear some merry jests, or idle
tales, or talk of their riches or business in the world. When
you may follow them from morning to night, and scarce
have a savoury word of Christ ; but perhaps some slight and
weary mention of him sometimes ; judge whether these make
not light of Christ and salvation. How seriously do they talk
oftheworld? (Psal.cxliv.8, 11.) and speak vanity! But how
heartlessly do they make mention of Christ and salvation!
3. The things that we highly value we would secure the
possession of, and therefore would take any convenient
course to have all doubts and fears about them well resolved.
Do not those men then make light of Christ and salvation
that have lived twenty or thirty years in uncertainty whe-
ther they have any part in these or not, and yet never seek
out for the right resolution of their doubts ? Are all that hear
me this day certain they shall be saved? O that they were ! O,
had you not made light of salvation, you could not so easily
bear such doublings of it ; you could not rest till you had
made it sure, or done your best to make it sure. Have you
nobody to inquire of that might help you in such a work ?
Why you have ministers that are purposely appointed to
that office. Have you gone to them, and told them the
doubtfulness of your case, and asked their help in the judg-
ing of your condition ? Alas, ministers may sit in their stu-
dies from one year to another, before ten persons among one
thousand will come to them on such an errand ! Do not these
make light of Christ and salvation ? When the Gospel
pierceth the heart indeed, they cry out, " Men and brethren,
what shall we do to be saved ? " (Acts xvi. 30 ; ix. 6 :) Trem-
bling and astonished, Paul cries out, " Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do ? " And so did the convinced Jews to Peter.
(Acts ii. 37.) But when hear we such questions?
4. The things that we value do deeply aft'ect us, and
524 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
some motions will be in the heart according to our estima-
tion of them. O sirs, if men made not light of these things,
what workings would there be in the hearts of all our hearers !
What strange affections would it raise in them to hear of
^the matters of the world to come! How would their
hearts melt before the power of the Gospel! What sorrow
would be wrought in the discovery of their sins ! What
astonishment at the consideration of their misery ! What
unspeakable joy at the glad-tidings of salvation by the blood
of Christ! What resolution would be raised in them upon
the discovery of their duty ! O what hearers should we
have, if it were not for this sin ! Whereas now we are more
likely to weary them, or preach them asleep with matters
of this unspeakable moment. We talk to them of Christ
and salvation till we make their heads ach : little would one
think by their careless carriage that they heard and regard-
ed what we said, or thought we spok6 at all to them.
5. Our estimation of things will be seen in the diligence
of our endeavours. That which we most highly value, we shall
think no pains too great to obtain. Do not those men then
make light of Christ and salvation, that think all too much
that they do for them; that murmur at his service, and think
it too grievous for them to endure? That ask of his service
as Judas of the ointment, ' What need this waste ? Cannot
men be saved without so much ado? This is more ado than
needs.' For the world they will labour all the day, and all
their lives ; but for Christ and salvation they are afraid of
doing too much. Let us preach to them as long as we will,
we cannot bring them to relish or resolve upon a life of ha-
liness. Follow them to their houses, and you shall not hear
them read a chapter, nor call upon God with their families
once a day ; nor will they allow him that one day in seven
which he hath separated to his service. But pleasure, or
worldly business, or idleness, must have a part. And many
of them are so far hardened as to reproach them that will
not be as mad as themselves. And is not Christ worth the
seeking? Is not everlasting salvation worth more than all
this ? Doth not that soul make light of all these, that thinks
his ease more worth than they? Letbut common sense judge.
6. That which we most highly value, we think we cannot
buy too dear : Christ and salvation are freely given, and yei
the most of men go without them, because they cannot en-
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 525
joy the world and them together. They are called but to
part with that which would hinder them from Christ, and
they will not do it. They are called but to give God his
own, and to resign all to his will, and let go the profits and
pleasures of this world, when they must let go either Christ
or them, and they will not. They think this too dear a bar-
gain, and say they cannot spare these things : they must
hold their credit with men ; they must look to their estates :
How shall they live else? They must have their pleasure,
whatsoever becomes of Christ and salvation: as if they
could live without Christ better than without these : as if
they were afraid of being losers by Christ, or could make a
saving match by losing their souls to gain the world. Christ
hath told us over and over, that if we will not forsake all
for him we cannot be his disciples. (Matt, x.) Far are these
men from forsaking all, and yet will needs think that they
are his disciples indeed.
7. That which men highly esteem, they would help their
friends to as well as themselves. Do not those men make
light of Christ and salvation, that can take so much care to
leave their children portions in the world, and do so little
to help them to heaven ? That provide outward necessaries
so carefully for their families, but do so little to the saving
of their souls ? Their neglected children and friends will
witness, that either Christ, or their childrens' souls, or both,
were made light of.
8. That which men highly esteem, they will so diligently
seek after, that you may see it in the success, if it be a mat-
ter within their reach. You may see how many make light
of Christ, by the little knowledge they have of him, and the
little communion with him, and communication from him ;
and the little, yea, none of his special grace in them. Alas !
how many ministers can speak it to the sorrow of their
hearts, that many of their people know almost nothing of
Christ, though they hear of him daily! Nor know they
what they must do to be saved : If we ask them an account
of these things, they answer as if they understood not what
we say to them, and tell us they are no scholars, and there-
fore think they are excusable for their ignorance. O if
these men had not made light of Christ, and their salvation,
but had bestowed but half so much pains to know and enjoy
him, as they have done to understand the matters of their
526 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
trades and callings in the world, they would not have been
so ignorant as they are : They make light of these things,
and therefore will not be at the pains to study or learn them.
When men that can learn the hardest trade in a few years,
have not learned a catechism, nor how to understand their
creedi under twenty or thirty years' preaching, nor cannot
abide to be questioned about such things ; doth not this shew
that they have slighted them in their hearts ? How will these
despisers of Christ and salvation be able one day to look
him in the face, and to give an account of these neglects?
Thus much I have spoken in order to your conviction.
Do not some of your consciences by this time smite you, and
say, ' I am the man that have made light of my salvation V
If they do not, it is because you make light of it still, for all
that is said to you. But because, if it be the will of the
Lord, I would fain have this damning distemper cured, and
am loath to leave you in such a desperate condition, if i knew
how to remedy it, I will give you some considerations, which
may move you, if you be men of reason and understanding,
to look better about you ; and I beseech you to weigh them,
and make use of them as we go, and lay open your hearts to
the work of grace, and sadly bethink you what a case you
are in, if you prove such as make light of Christ.
Consider, 1. Thou makest light of him that made not light
of thee who didst deserve it. Thou wast worthy of nothing
but contempt. As a man, what art thou but a worm to God ?
As a sinner, thou art far viler than a toad : Yet Christ was
so far from making light of thee and thy happiness, that he
came down into the flesh, and lived a life of suflTering, and
offered himself a sacrittce to the justice which thou hadst
provoked, that thv miserable soul might have a remedy. It
is no less than miracles of love and mercy, that he hath
shewed to us : and yet shall we slight them after all ?
Angels admire them, whom they less concern, (1 Pet.
i. 12,) and shall redeemed sinners make light of them? What
barbarous, yea, devilish, yea, worse than devilish ingratitude
is this! The devils never had a Saviour offered them, but
thou hast, and dost thou yet make light of him?
2. Consider the work of man's salvation by Jesus Christ,
is the masterpiece of all the works of God, wherein he would
have his love and mercy to be magnified. As the creation
declareth his goodness and power, so doth redemption his
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 527
goodness and mercy ; he hath contrived the very frame of
his worship so, that it shall much consist in the magnifying
of this work ; and after all this, will yon make light of it?
" His name is wonderful." (Isa. ix. 6.) " He did the work
that none could do." (John xv. 24.) " Greater love could
none shew than his." (John xv. 13.) How great was the
evil and misery that he delivered us from? the good pro-
cured for us? All are wonders, from his birth to his ascen-
sion, from our new birth to our glorification, all are wonders
of matchless mercy : and yet do you make light of them !
3. You make light of matters of greatest excellency and
moment in the world : You know not what it is that you
slight : Had you well known, you could not have done it.
As Christsaid to the woman of Samaria, (John iv. 10.) Hadst
thou known who it is that speakest to thee, thou wouldst
have asked of him the waters of life : Had they known they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor. ii. 8.)
So had you known what Christ is, you would not have made
light of him ; had you been one day in heaven, and but seen
what they possess, and seen also what miserable souls must
endure that are shut out, you would never surely have made
so light of Christ again.
O sirs, it is no trifles or jesting matters that the Gospel
speaks of. I must needs profess to you, that when I have
the most serious thoughts of these things myself, I am ready
to marvel that such amazing matters do not overwhelm the
souls of men : that the greatness of the subject doth not so
overmatch our understandings and affections, as even to drive
men beside themselves, but that God hath always somewhat
allayed it by the distance : much more that men should be
so blockish as to make light of them. O Lord, that men did
but know what everlasting glory and everlasting torments are ;
would they then hear us as they do? Would they read and
think of these things as they do ? I profess I have been ready
to wonder, when I have heard such weighty things delivered,
how people can forbear crying out in the congregation;
much more how they can rest till they have gone to their
ministers, and learned what they should do to be saved,
that this great business might be put out of doubt. O that
heaven and hell should work no more on men ! O that
everlastingness should work no more ! O how can you
forbear when you are alone to think with yourselves what it
528 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
is to be everlastingly in joy or in torment! I wonder that
such thoughts do not break your sleep; and that they come
not in your mind when you are about your labour ! I wonder
how you can almost do any thing else ! How you can have
any quietness in your minds ! How you can eat, or drink, or
rest, till you have got some ground of everlasting consola-
tions ! Is that a man or a corpse that is not affected with
matters of this moment? That can be readier to sleep than
to tremble when he heareth how he must stand at the bar of
God? Is that a man or a clod of clay that can rise and lie
down without being deeply affected with his everlasting
estate ? That can follow his worldly business, and make
nothing of the great business of salvation or damnation ;
and that when they know it is hard at hand ! Truly sirs,
when I think of the weight of the matter, I wonder at the
very best of God's saints upon earth that they are no better,
and do no more in so weighty a case. I wonder at those
whom the world accounteth more holy than needs, and scorns
for making too much ado, that they can put off Christ and
their souls with so little : that they pour not out their souls
in every supplication: that they are not more taken up with
God ; that their thoughts be not more serious in prepara-
tion for their account. I wonder that they be not a hun-
dred times more strict in their lives; and more laborious
and unwearied in striving for the crown, than they are. And
for myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and careless heart,
and of my slow and unprofitable course of life; so the Lord
knows I am ashamed of every sermon that I preach: When
I think what I have been speaking of, and who sent me,
and what men's salvation or damnation is so much con-
cerned in it, I am ready to tremble, lest God should judge
me as a slighter of his truth, and the souls of men, and lest in
the best sermon I should be guilty of their blood. Methinks
we should not speak a word to men in matters of such conse-
quence without tears, or the greatest earnestness that possibly
we can : were not we too much guilty of the sin which we re-
prove it would be so. Whether we are alone, or in company,
methinks our end, and such an end, should be still in onr
mind, and as before our eyes; and we should sooner forget any
thing, and set light by any thing, or by all things, than by this.
Consider 4. Who is it that sends this weighty message
to you : Is is not God himself? Shall the God of heaven
MAKING LIGH'l OF CllUlSl. O'lU
Speak, and men make light of'it? You would not slight the
voice of an angel, or a prince.
5. Whose salvation is it that you make light of? Is it
not your own? Are you no more near or dear to yourselves
than to make light of your own happiness or misery? Why
sirs, do you not care whether you be saved or damned? Is
self-love lost? Are you turned your own enemies? Ashe
that slighteth his meat doth slight his life; so if you slight
Christ, whatsoever you may think, you will find it was your
own salvation that you slighted. Hear what he saith, " All
they that hate me love death." (Prov. viii. 36.)
Your sin is greater, in that you profess to believe the
Gospel which you make so light of. For a professed infidel
to do it that believes not that ever Christ died, or rose again;
or doth not believe that there is a heaven or hell, this were
no such marvel; but for you that make it your creed, and
your very religion, and call yourselves Christians, and have
been baptized into this faith, and seemed to stand to it, this
is the wonder, and hath no excuse. What! believe that you
shall live in endless joy or torment, and yet make no more of
it to escape torment, and obtain that joy ! What! believe
that God will shortly judge you; and yet make no more
preparation for it! Either say plainly, * I am no Christian,
I do not believe these wonderful things, 1 will believe no-
thing but what I see; or else let your hearts be affected
with your belief, and live as you say you do believe. What
do you think when you repeat the creed, and mention
Christ's judgment and everlasting life?
7. What are these things you set so much by, as to pre-
fer them before Christ and the saving of your souls? Have
you found a better friend, a greater and surer happiness than
this ? Good Lord ! What dung is it that men make so much
of, while they set so light by everlasting glory ! What toys
are they that they are daily taken up with, while matters of
life and death are neglected ! Why, sirs, if you had every
one a kingdom in your hopes, what were it in comparison
of the everlasting kingdom? I cannot but look upon all
the glory and dignity of this world, lands and lordships,
crowns and kingdoms, even as on some brain-sick, beggarly
fellow, that boroweth fine clothes, and plays the part of a
king or a lord for an hour on a stage, and then comes
VOL. XVI. MM
530 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
down, and the sport is ended, and they are beggars again.
Were it not for God's interest in the authority of magistrates,
or for the service they might do him, I should judge no
better of them. For as to their own glory it is but a smoke :
what matter is it whether you live poor or rich, unless it
were a greater matter to die rich than it is? You know well
enough that death levels all: What matter is it at judgment,
whether you be to answer for the life of a rich man or a
poor man ? Is Dives then any better than Lazarus ? O that
men knew what a poor deceiving shadow they grasp at,
while they let go the everlasting substance! The strongest,
and richest, and most voluptuous simiers, do but lay in fuel
for their sorrows, while they think they are gathering together
a treasure. Alas! they are asleep, and dream that they are
happy ; but when they awake what a change will they find?
Their crown is made of thorns : their pleasure hath such a
sting as will stick in the heart through all eternity, except
unfeigned repentance do prevent it. O how sadly will these
wretches be convinced ere long, what a foolish bargain they
made in selling Christ and their salvation for these trifles!
Let your farms and merchandise then save you if they can ;
and do that for you that Christ would have done. Cry then
to thy Baal to save thee! O what thoughts have drunkards
and adulterers. Sec. of Christ, that will not part with the
basest lust for him ! " For a piece of bread," saith Solomon,
" such men do transgress." (Prov. xxviii.21.)
8. To set so light by Christ and salvation is a certain
mark that thou hast no part in them, and if thou so continue,
that Christ will set as light by thee : " Those that honour him
he will honour, and those that despise him shall be lightly
esteemed," (1 Sam. 2. 30.) Thou wilt feel one day that thou
canst not live without him. Thou wilt confess then thy
need of him; and then thou mayest go look for a Saviour
where thou wilt; for he will be no Saviour for thee hereafter,
that wouldst not value him, and submit to him here : Then
who will prove the loser by thy contempt? O what a thing
will it be for a poor miserable soul to cry to Christ for help
in the day of extremity, and to hear so sad an answer as
this! Thou didst set light by me and my law in the day
of thy prosperity, and I will now set as light by thee in thy
adversity. Read Prov. i. 24. to the end. Thou that as
Esau didst sell thy birthright for a mess of pottage, shalt
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 531
•then find no place for repentance, thouoh thou seek, it witli
tears. (Heb. xii. 17.) Do you think that Christ shed his
blood to save them that continue to make light of it? And
to save them that value a cup of drink or a lust before
his salvation ? I tell you, sirs, though you set light by
Christ and salvation, God doth not so : he will not give them
on such terms as these : He valueth the blood of his Son,
and the everlasting glory ; and he will make you value them
if ever you have them. Nay, this will be thy condemnation,
and leaveth no remedy. All the world cannot save him that
sets light by Christ. (Heb. ii. 3 ; Luke xiv. 24.) None of them
shall taste of his supper. (Matt. x. 37.) Nor can you blame
him to deny you what you made light of yourselves. Can you
find fault if you miss of the salvation which you slighted?
9. The time is near when Christ and salvation will not be
made light of as now they are. When God hath shaken
those careless souls out of their bodies, and you must answer
for all your sins in your own name ; O then what would
you give for a Saviour! when a thousand bills shall be
brought in against you, and none to relieve you; then you
will consider, 'O! Christ would now have stood between
me and the wrath of God : had I not despised him, he would
have answered all.' When you see the world hath left you,
and your companions in sin have deceived themselves and
you, and all your merry days are gone ; then what would you
give for that Christ and salvation that now you account not
worth your labour! Do you think when you see the judgment
set.andyou are doomed to everlastingperdition foryourwick-
edness, that you should then make as light of Christ as now?
Why will you not judge now as you know you shall judge
then? Will he then be worth ten thousand worlds, and is he
not now worth your estimation, and dearest affection?
10. God will not only deny thee that salvation thou
madest light of, but he will take from thee all that which
thou didst value before it: he that most highly esteems
Christ shall have him, and the creatures so far as they are
"good here, and him without the creature hereafter, because
the creature is not useful; and he that sets more by the
creature than by Christ, shall have some of the creature
without Christ here, and neither Christ nor it hereafter.
So much of these considerations, which may shew the
true face of this heinous sin.
«53*2 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
What tliink you" now, friends, of this business ? Do you
not see by this time what a case that soul is in that maketh
light of Christ and salvation? What need then is there that
you should take heed lest this should prove your own case !
The Lord knows it is too common a case. Whoever is found
guilty at the last of this sin, it were better for that man he
had never been born. It were better for him he had been
a Turk or Indian, that never had heard the name of a Saviour,
and that never had salvation offered to hina : for such men
" have no cloak for their sin." (John xv. 22.) Besides all
the rest of their sins, they have this killing sin to answer for,
which will undo them. And this will aggravate their misery,
that Christ whom they set light by must be their judge, and
for this sin will he judge them. O that such would now
consider how they will answer that question that Christ put
to their predecessors, " How will ye escape the damnation
of hell?" (Matt, xxiii. 33;) or " How shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation ?" (Heb. ii. 3.) Can you escape
without a Christ: or will a despised Christ save you then?
If he be accursed that sets light by father or mother,
(Deut. xxvii. 16,) what then is he that sets light by Christ?
It was the heinous sin of the Jews, that among them were
found such as set light by father and mother. (Ezek.xxii.7.)
But among us, men slight the Father of Spirits ! In the name
of God, brethren, I beseech you to consider how you will
then bear his anger which now you make light of ! You that
cannot make light of a little sickness or want, or of natural
death,no,notof atoothach,butgroanas if you were undone;
how will you then make light of the fury of the Lord, which
will burn against the contemners of his grace ! Doth it
not behoove you beforehand to think of these things ?
Hitherto I have been convincing you of the evil of the
sin, and the danger that foUowetli : I come now to know
your resolution for the time to come. What say you? Do
you mean to set as light by Christ and salvation as hitherto
you have done ; and to be the same men after all this ? I
hope not. O let not your ministers that would fain save
you, be brought in as witnesses against you to condemn
you : at least, I beseech you, put not this upon me. Why,
sirs, if the Lord shall say to us at judgment. Did you never
tell these men what Christ did for their souls, and what
need they had of him, and how nearly it did concern them to
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRfST. 533
look to their salvation, that they made light of it? We must
needs say the truth ; Yea, Lord, we told them of it as plainly
as we could ; we would have gone on our knees to them if we
had thought it would have prevailed ; we did entreat them as
earnestly as we could to consider these things: they heard of
these things every day ; but, alas, we could never get them
to their hearts : they gave us the hearing, but they made light
of all that we could say to them. O ! sad will it prove on
your side, if you force us to such an answer as this.
But if the Lord do move the hearts of any of you, and
you resolve to make light of Christ no more : or if any of
you say, ' We do not make light of him ;' let me tell you here
in the conclusion what you must do, or else you shall be
judged as slighters of Christ and salvation.
And first I will tell you what will not serve the turn.
1. You may have a notional knowledge of Christ, and
the necessity of his blood, and of the excellency of salva-
tion, and yet perish as neglecters of him. This is too com-
mon among professed Christians. You may say all that
other men do of him ; what Gospel passages had Balaam ?
Jesus I know, and Paul I know, the very devils could say,
who believe and tremble. (James ii.)
2. You may weep at the history of his passion, when you
read how he was used by the Jews, and yet make light of
him, and perish for so doing.
3. You may come desirously to his word and ordinances.
Herod heard gladly ; so do many that yet must perish as
neglecters of salvation.
4. You may in a fit of fear have strong desires after a
Christ, to ease you, and to save you from God's wrath, as
Saul had of David to play before him ; and yet you may
perish for making light of Christ.
5. You may obey him in many things so far as will not
ruin you in the world, and escape much of the pollutions of
the world by his knowledge, and yet neglect him.
6. You may suffer and lose much for him, so far as leaveth
you an earthly felicity ; as Ananias, the young man. Some par-
cels of their pleasures and profits many will part with in hope of
salvation, that shall perish everlastingly for valuing itno more.
7. You may be esteemed by others a man zealous for
Christ, and loved and admired upon that account, and yet
be one that shall perish for making light of him.
r>34 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
I
8. You may verily think yourselves, that you set more
by Christ and salvation than any thing, and yet be mistaken,
and be judged as contemners of him: Christ justifieth not
all that justify themselves.
9. You may be zealous preachers of Christ and salva-
tion, and reprove others for this neglect, and lament the sin
of the world in the like expression as 1 have done this day ;
and yet if you or 1 have no better evidence to prove our hearty
esteem of Christ and salvation, we are undone for all this.
You hear, brethren, what will not serve the turn ; will
you now hear what persons, you must be if you would not
be condemned as slighters of Christ ? O search whether it
be thus with your souls, or no.
1. Your esteem of Christ and salvation must be greater
than your esteem of all the honours, profits, or pleasures of
this world, or else you slight him : no less will be accounted
sincere, nor accepted to your salvation: Think not this hard,
when there is no comparison in the matters esteemed. To
esteem the greatest glory on earth before Christ and ever-
lasting glory, is a greater folly and wrong to Christ, than to
esteem a dog before your prince, would be folly in you, and
a wrong to him. Scripture is plain in this ; " He that loveth
father or mother, wife, children, house, land, or his own
life, more than me, is not worthy of me, and cannot be my
disciple." (Matt. x. 37 ; Luke xiv. 26.)
2. You must manifest this esteem of Christ and salva-
tion in your daily endeavours and seeking after him, and in
parting with any thing that he shall require of you. God
is a Spirit, and will not take a hypocritical profession in-
stead of the heart and spiritual service which he command-
eth. He will have the heart or nothing; and the chief room
in the heart too : These must be bad.
If you say that you do not make light of Christ, or will
not hereafter; let me try you in these few particulars, whe-
ther indeed you mean as you say, and do not dissemble.
1. Will you for the time to come make Christ and sal-
vation the chiefest matter of your care and study ? Thrust
them not out of your thoughts as a needless or unprofitable
subject ; nor allow it only some running, slight thoughts,
which will not affect you. But will you make it your business
once. a day to bethink you soberly, when you are alone,
what Christ hath done for you, and what he will do, if you
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. - 535
do not make light of it ; and what it is to be everlastliiigly
happy or miserable? And what all things in this world are
in comparison of your salvation ; and how they will shortly
leave you ; and what mind you will be then of, and how
you will esteem them ? Will you promise me now and then
to make it your business to withdraw yourselves from the
world, and set yourselves to such considerations as these ?
If you will not, are not you slighters of Christ and salva-
tion, that will not be persuaded soberly to think on them ?
This is my first question to put you to the trial, whether
you will value Christ, or not.
2. Will you for the time to come set more by the word
of God, which contains the discovery of these excellent
things, and is your charter for salvation, and your guide
thereunto? You cannot set by Christ, but you must set by
his word : therefore the despisers of it are threatened with
destruction. (Prov. xiii. 13.) Will you therefore attend to
the public preaching of this word ; will you read it daily ;
will you resolve to obey it whatever it may cost you? If
you will not do this, but make light of the word of God, you
shall be judged as such as make light of Christ and salva-
tion, whatever you may fondly promise to yourselves.
3. Will you for the time to come, esteem more of the of-
ficers of Christ, whom he hath purposely appointed to guide
you to salvation; and will you make use of them for that
end? Alas, it is not to give the minister a good word, and
speak well of him, and pay him his tithes duly, that will
serve the turn : it is for the necessity of your souls that
God hath set them in his church ; that they may be as phy-
sicians under Christ, or his apothecaries to apply his reme-
dies to your spiritual diseases, not only in public, but also
in private : that you may have some to go to for the resolv-
incr of your doubts, and for your instruction where you are
ignorant, and for the help of their exhortations and prayers.
Will you use hereafter to go to your ministers privately, and
solicit them for advice ? And if you have not such of your
own as are fit, get advice from others ; and ask them. What
you shall do to be saved? How to prepare for death and
judgment? And will you obey the word of God in their
mouths : If you will not do this much, nor so much as in-
quire of those that should teach you, nor use the means
which Christ hath established in his church for your help.
536 MAKING LIGHT OF CHKlST.
your own consciences shall one day witness that you were
such as made light of Christ and salvation. If any of you
doubt whether it be your duty thus to ask counsel of your
teachers, as sick men do of their physicians, let your own
necessities resolve you, let God's express word resolve you;
see what is said of the priests of the Lord, even before
Christ's coming, when much of their work did lie in ceremo-
nials ! " My covenant was with him of life and peace : and
I gave them to him (to Levi) for the fear wherewith he
feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of
truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his
lips ; he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn
many away from iniquity. For the priests' lips should keep
knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth : for
he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." (Mai. ii. 5, 6.)
Nay, you must not only inquire, and submit to their ad-
vice, but also to their just reprehensions, and church cen-
sures : and without proud repining submit to the discipline
of Christ in their hands, if it shall be used in the congrega-
tions whereof you are members.
4. Will you for the time to come, make conscience of
daily and earnest prayer to God, that you may have a part
in Christ and salvation ? Do not go out of doors till you
have breathed out these desires to God ; do not lie down to
rest till you have breathed out these desires ; say not, God
knoweth my necessity without so often praying ; for though
he do, yet he will have you to know them, and feel them,
and exercise your desires and all the graces of his Spirit in
these duties : it is he that hath commanded to pray con-
tinually, though he know your needs without. (1 Thess. v.
17.) Christ himself spent whole nights in prayer, and en-
courageth us to this course. (Luke xviii. 1.) If you will
not be persuaded to this much, how can you say that you
make not light of Christ and salvation ?
5. Will you for the time to come resolvedly cast away
your known sins at the command of Christ? If you have
been proud, or contentious, or malicious, and revengeful,
be so no more. If you have been adulterers, or swearers,
or cursers, be so no more. You cannot hold these, and yet
set by Christ and salvation.
What say you? Are you resolved to let them go ? If
not, when you know it is the will of Christ, and he hath
MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST. 5.'^
told you such shall not enter into his kingdom, do not you
make ligJit of him ?
6. Will you for the time to come serve God in the dearest
as well as in the cheapest part of his service? Not only
with your tongues, but with your purses and your deeds?
Shall the poor find that you set more by Christ than this
world ? Shall it appear in any good uses that God calls
you to be liberal in, according to your abilities? Pure reli-
gion, and undefiled before God, is this. To visit the fatherless
and the widows, in their affliction. (James i. ult.) Will you
resolve to stick to Christ, and make sure this work of sal-
vation, though it cost you all that you have in the world ?
If you think these terms too dear, you make light of Christ,
and will be judged accordingly.
7. Will you for the time to come make much of all
things that tend to your salvation ; and take every help that
God oiFereth you, and gladly make use of all his ordinances?
Attend upon his strengthening sacraments, spend the Lord's
own day in these holy employments ; instruct your children
and servants in these things; (Deut. vi. 6,7;) get into
good company that set their faces heavenward, and will
teach you the way, and help you thither : and take heed of
the company of wicked scorners, or foolish, voluptuous
fleshly men, or any that would hinder you in this work.
Will you do these things? Or will you shew that you are
slighters of Christ by neglecting them?
8. Will you do all this with delight; not as your toil,
but as your pleasure? And take it for your highest honour
that you may be Christ's disciples, and may be admitted to
serve and worship him ; and rejoice with holy confidence in
the sufficiency of that sacrifice by which you may have par-
don of all your failings, and right to the inheritance of the
saints in light? If you will do these things sincerely, you
will shew that you set by Christ and salvation, else not.
Dearly beloved in the Lord, I have now done that work
which I came upon ; what effect it hath, or will have upon
your hearts, I know not, nor is it any further in my power
to accomplish that which my soul desireth for you. Were
it the Lord's will that I might have my wish herein, the
words that you have this day heard should so stick by you,
that the secure should be awakened by them, and none of
you should perish by the slighting of your salvation. I can-
i&38 MAKING LIGHT OF CHRIST.
not now follow you to your several habitations to apply this
word to your particular necessities: but O that I could
make every man's conscience a preacher to himself, that it
might do it, whtch is ever with you : that the next time you
go prayerless to bed, or about your business, conscience
might cry out, ' Dost thou set no more by Christ and thy
salvation?' That the next time you are tempted to think
hardly of a holy and diligent life, (I will not say to deride
it as more ado than needs,) conscience might cry out to
thee, ' Dost thou set so light by Christ and thy salvation?'
That the next time you are ready to rush upon known sin,
and to please your fleshly desires against the command of
God, conscience might cry out, ' Is Christ and salvation no
more worth, than to cast them away, or venture them for
thy lusts?' That when you are following the world with
your most eager desires, forgetting the world to come, and
the change that is a little before you, conscience might cry
out to you, ' Is Christ and salvation no more worth than so?'
That when you are next spending the Lord's-day in idleness
or vain sports, conscience might tell you what you are do-
ing. In a word, that in all your neglects of duty, your
sticking at the supposed labour or cost of a godly life ; yea,
in all your cold and lazy prayers and performances, con-
science might tell you how unsuitable such endeavours are
to the reward ; and that Christ and salvation should not be
so slighted ; I will say no more but this at this time. It is a
thousand pities that when God hath provided a Saviour for
the world, and when Christ hath suffered so much for their
sins, and made so full a satisfaction to justice, and purchased
so glorious a kingdom for his saints, and all this is ofl'ered so
freely to sinners, to lost unworthy sinners, even for nothing,
that yet so many millions should everlastingly perish because
they made light of their Saviour and salvation, and prefer the
vain world and their lusts before them. I have delivered my
message, the Lord open your hearts to receive it; I have
|)ersuaded you with the word of truth and soberness, the Lord
persuade you more effectually, or else all this is lost.
END OF THE SIXTEENTH VOLUME.
n. EDWARDS, CHANF. COURT, FLEtT STREET, LONDON,
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