Volume 1 / Part 2 — CHAPTER III. (continued 2)

Direct. I. Remember the unquestionable, plenary title that God hath, to the government of you, and of all the world.—The sense of this will awe the soul, and help to subject it to him, and to silence all rebellious motions. Should not God rule the creatures which he hath made? Should not Christ rule the souls which he hath purchased? Should not the Holy Ghost rule the souls which he hath regenerated and quickened?

Direct. II. Remember that God is perfectly fit for the government of you, and all the world.—You can desire nothing reasonably in a governor, which is not in him. He hath perfect wisdom, to know what is best: he hath perfect goodness, and therefore will be most regardful of his subjects' good, and will put no evil into his laws. He is almighty, to protect his subjects, and see to the execution of his laws. He is most just, and therefore can do no wrong, but all his laws and judgments are equal and impartial. He is infinitely perfect and self-sufficient, and never needed a lie, or a deceit, or unrighteous means to rule the world; nor to oppress his subjects to attain his ends. He is our very end, and interest, and felicity; and therefore hath no interest opposite to our good, which should cause him to destroy the innocent. He is our dearest Friend and Father, and loveth us better than we love ourselves; and therefore we have reason confidently to trust him, and cheerfully and gladly to obey him, as one that ruleth us in order to our own felicity.

Direct. III. Remember how unable and unfit you are to be governors of yourselves.—So blind and ignorant; so biassed by a corrupted will; so turbulent are your passions; so incessant and powerful is the temptation of your sense and appetite; and so unable are you to protect or reward yourselves, that methinks you should fear nothing in this world more, than to be given up to "your own heart's lusts, to walk in your own (seducing) counsels," Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12. The brutish appetite and sense hath got such dominion over the reason of carnal, unrenewed men, that for such to be governed by themselves, is for a man to be governed by a swine, or the rider to be ruled by the horse.

Direct. IV. Remember how great a matter God maketh of his kingly prerogatives, and of man's obedience.—The whole tenor of the Scripture will tell you this. His precepts, his promises, his threatenings, his vehement exhortations, his sharp reproofs, the sending of his Son and Spirit, the example of Christ and all the saints, the reward prepared for the obedient, and the punishment for the disobedient—all tell you aloud, that God is far from being indifferent whether you obey his laws or not. It will teach you to regard that, which you find is so regarded of God.

Direct. V. Consider well of the excellency of full obedience, and the present benefits which it bringeth to yourselves and others.—Our full subjection and obedience to God, is to the world and the soul as health is to the body. When all the humours keep their due temperament, proportions, and place, and every part of the body is placed and used according to the intent of nature, then all is at ease within us: our food is pleasant; our sleep is sweet; our labour is easy; and our vivacity maketh life a pleasure to us: we are useful in our places, and helpful to others that are sick and weak. So is it with the soul that is fully obedient: God giveth him a reward, before the full reward: he findeth that obedience is a reward to itself; and that it is very pleasant to do good. God owneth him, and conscience speaketh peace and comfort to him; his mercies are sweet to him; his burdens and his work are easy; he hath easier access to God than others. Yea, the world shall find, that there is no way to its right order, unity, peace, and happiness, but by a full subjection and obedience to God.

Direct. VI. Remember the sad effects of disobedience, even at present, both in the soul and in the world.—When we rebel against God, it is the confusion, ruin, and death of the soul, and of the world. When we disobey him, it is the sickness or disordering of the soul, and will make us groan; till our bones be set in joint again, we shall have no ease: God will be displeased, and hide his face; conscience will be unquiet; the soul will lose its peace and joy; its former mercies will grow less sweet; its former rest will turn to weariness; its duty will be unpleasant; its burden heavy. Who would not fear such a state as this?

Direct. VII. Consider, that when God doth not govern you, you are ruled by the flesh, the world, and the devil.—And what right or fitness they have to govern you, and what is their work, and final reward, methinks you should easily discern. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," Rom. viii. 13. "And if ye sow to the flesh, of the flesh ye shall reap corruption," Gal. vi. 8. It will strike you with horror, if, in the hour of temptation, you would but think: I am now going to disobey my God, and to obey the flesh, the world, or the devil, and to prefer their will before his will.

Direct. VIII. Turn your eye upon the rebellious nations of the earth, and upon the state of the most malignant and ungodly men; and consider, that such madness and misery as you discern in them, every wilful disobedience to God doth tend to, and partaketh of in its degree.—To see a swinish drunkard in his vomit; to hear a raging bedlam curse and swear; or a malignant wretch blaspheme and scorn at a holy life: to hear how foolishly they talk against God, and see how maliciously they hate his servants, one would think should turn one's stomach against all sin for ever. To think what beasts or incarnate devils many of the ungodly are; to think what confusion and inhumanity possess most of those nations that know not God, one would think should make the least degree of sin seem odious to us, when the dominion and ripeness of it are so odious.

Direct. IX. Mark what obedience is expected by men, and what influence government hath upon the state and affairs of the world, and what the world would be without it.—And sure this will make you think honourably and delightfully of the government of God. What would a nation be without government, but like a company of thieves and lawless murderers? or like the pikes in a pond, that first eat up the other fish, and then devour one another, the greater living upon the less. Bears and wolves would live more quietly together, than ungoverned men (except those few that are truly subject to the government of God). Government maintaineth every man in his propriety; and keepeth lust and madness from breaking out; and keepeth peace and order in the world. What would a family be without government? Children and servants are kept by it in their proper place and work. Think then how necessary and excellent is the universal government of God.

Direct. X. Think well of the endless rewards and punishments, by which God will procure obedience to his laws, or vindicate the honour of his government, on the disobedient.—That the world may see that he giveth sufficient motives for all that he requireth, he will reward the obedient with everlasting blessedness, and punish the rebels with endless misery. You shall not say that he bids you work for nothing. Though you can give him nothing but his own, and therefore can merit nothing of him, in point of commutative justice; yet, as he is a Governor and a Father, he will put so wide a difference between the obedient and the rebellious, that one shall be judged to everlasting joy, with a "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the other, to "everlasting punishment," Matt. xxv. Is there not enough in heaven, in a life of endless joys with God, to make obedience lovely to you, and to make sin loathsome? Is there not enough in hell, to deter you from disobedience, and drive you unto God? God will rule, whether you will or not. Consent to be obedient, or he will punish you without asking your consent.

More special directions for obedience.

The directions for the nearer exciting of your obedience, and confirming your full subjection, are these:

Direct. I. Keep still the face of your souls upon God, and in the sense of his greatness, and of his continual presence, and of his particular providence.—And this will keep you in an obediential frame. You will easily then perceive, that so great a God cannot be disobeyed, without great iniquity and guilt. And, that a God that is continually with you, must be continually regarded. And, that a God that exactly observeth and mindeth the thoughts and words of every man, should by every man be exactly minded and observed. This will help you to understand the meaning of the tempter, when you perceive that every temptation is an urging of you to offend, for nothing, so great a God, that is just then observing what you do.

Direct. II. Always remember whither you are going; that you are preparing for everlasting rest and joy, and must pass through the righteous judgment of the Lord; and that Christ is your Guide and Governor, but to bring you safely home, as the Captain of your salvation; and that sin is a rejecting of his help, and of your happiness.—Think not that God doth rule you as a tyrant, to your hurt or ruin, to make his own advantage of you; or by needless laws, that have no respect to your good and safety; but think of him, as one that is conducting you to eternal life, and would now guide you by his counsel, and afterwards take you to his glory. Think that he is leading you to the world of light, and life, and love, and joy, where there are rivers of pleasure, and fulness of delight for evermore, that you may see his face, and feel his love, among a world of blessed spirits; and not be weeping and gnashing the teeth, with impious, impenitent souls. And is not such a government as this desirable? It is but like the government of a physician, to save his patient's life. Or like your government of your children, which is necessary to their good, that cannot feed or rule themselves. Or like a pilot's governing the ship, which is conveying you to possess a kingdom: if the mariners obey him, they may safely arrive at the desired port; but if they disobey him, they are all cast away and perish. And should such a government as this is seem grievous to you? or should it not be most acceptable, and accurately obeyed?

Direct. III. Still think, what dangers, difficulties, and enemies you must pass through to this rest, and that all your safety dependeth upon the conduct and assistance of your Guide.—And this will bring over self-love to command your strict obedience. You are to pass through the army of your enemies; and will you here disobey the Captain of your salvation? or would you have him leave you to yourselves? Your disease is mortal, and none but Jesus Christ can cure it; and if he cure it not, you are lost for ever. No pain of gout or stone is comparable to your everlasting pain; and yet will you not be obedient to your Physician? Think, when a temptation comes, If there were a narrow bridge over the deepest gulf or river, and all my friends and happiness lay on the further side, and I must needs go over whether I will or not; if Christ would take me by the hand and lead me over, would I be tempted to refuse his help, or to lose his hand? or if he should offer to lose me, and leave me to myself, should I not tremble, and cry out, as Peter, "Lord, save me," Matt. xiv. 30, or as the disciples, "Save, Master, we perish?" And should I not then hold him fast, and most accurately obey him, when he is leading me to life eternal, that I may escape the gulf of endless misery?

Direct. IV. Remember still, how bad, and blind, and backward, and deceitful, and weak you are yourselves, and therefore what need you have of the greatest watchfulness, lest you should disobey your Pilot, and lose your Guide, before you are aware.—O what a heart have we to watch! A lazy heart, that will be loitering or sitting down, when we should be following our Lord. A foolish heart, that will let him go, while we play with every play-fellow in our way. A cowardly heart, that will steal away, or draw back in danger, when it should follow our General. A treacherous heart, that will give us the slip, and deceive us, when we seemed surest of it. A purblind heart, that even when it followeth Christ, our Guide, is hardly kept from missing the bridge, and falling into the gulf of misery. Think well of these, and you will obey your Governor.

Direct. V. Forget not the fruits of your former obedience and disobedience, if you would be kept in an obedient frame.—Remember that obedience hath been sweetest afterward; and that you never yet found cause to repent or be ashamed of it. Remember that the fruit of sin was bitter, and that when your eyes were opened, and you saw your shame, you would fain have fled from the face of God; and that then it appeared another thing to you, than it seemed in the committing. Remember what groans and heart's grief it hath cost you; and into what fears it brought you of the wrath of God; and how long it was before your broken bones were healed; and what it cost both Christ and you. And this will make the very name and first approach of sin, to cast you into a preventing fear. A beast that hath once fallen into a gulf or quick-sand, will hardly be driven into the same again: a fish that was once stricken and escaped the nook, will fear and fly from it the next time: a bird that hath once escaped the snare, or the talons of the hawk, is afterwards afraid of the sight or noise of such a thing. Remember where you fell, and what it cost you, and what you escaped which it might have cost you, and you will obey more accurately hereafter.

Direct. VI. Remember that this is your day of trial, and what depends upon your accurate obedience. God will not crown untried servants. Satan is purposely suffered to tempt you, to try whether you will be true to God or not. All the hope that his malice hath of undoing you for ever, consisteth in his hope to make you disobedient to God. Methinks these considerations should awaken you to the most watchful and diligent obedience. If you were told beforehand, that a thief or cut-purse had undertaken to rob you, and would use all his cunning and industry to do it, you would then watch more carefully than at another time. If you were in a race to run for your lives, you would not go then in your ordinary pace. Doth God tell you before, that he will try your obedience by temptation, and as you stand or fall, you shall speed for ever; and will not this keep you watchful and obedient?

Direct. VII. Avoid those tempting and deluding objects, which are still enticing your hearts from your obedience; and avoid that diverting crowd and noise of company or worldly business, which drowns the voice of God's commands.—If God call you into a life of great temptations, he can bring you safely through them all; but if you rush into it wilfully, you may soon find your own disability to resist. It is dangerous to be under strong and importunate temptations, lest the stream should bear us down; but especially to be long under them, lest we be weary of resisting. They that are long solicited, do too often yield at last: it is hard to be always in a clear, and ready, and resolute frame: few men have their wits, much less their graces, always at hand, in a readiness to use. And if the thief come when you are dropped asleep, you may be robbed before you can awake. The constant drawings of temptation, do ofttimes abate the habit of obedience, and diminish our hatred of sin and holy resolutions, by slow, insensible degrees, before we yield to commit the act. And the mind that will be kept in full subjection, must not be so diverted in a crowd of distracting company or business, as to have no time to think on the motives of his obedience. This withdrawing of the fuel may put out the fire.

Direct. VIII. If you are unavoidably cast upon strong temptation, take the alarm; and put on all the armour of God, and call up your souls to watchfulness and resolution, remembering that you are now among your enemies, and must resist as for your lives.—Take every temptation in its naked, proper sense, as coming from the devil, and tending to your damnation by enticing your hearts from your subjection unto God: suppose you saw the devil himself in his instruments offering you the bait of preferment, or honour, or riches, or fleshly lust, or sports, or of delightful meats, or drinks, to tempt you to excess; and suppose you heard him say to you plainly, Take this for thy salvation; sell me for this thy God, and thy soul, and thy everlasting hopes; commit this sin, that thou mayst fall under the judgment of God, and be tormented in hell with me for ever. Do this to please thy flesh, that thou mayst displease thy God, and grieve thy Saviour: I cannot draw thee to hell, but by drawing thee to sin; and I cannot make thee sin against thy will; nor undo thee, but by thy own consent and doing: therefore I pray thee consent and do it thyself, and let me have thy company in torments. This is the naked meaning of every temptation: suppose therefore you saw and heard all this, with what detestation then would you reject it! with what horror would you fly from the most enticing bait! If a robber would entice you out of your way and company, with flattering words, that you might fall into the hands of his companions, if you knew all his meaning and design beforehand, would you be enticed after him? Watch therefore, and resolve when you know beforehand the design of the devil, and what he intendeth in every temptation.

Direct. IX. Be most suspicious, fearful, and watchful about that, which your flesh doth most desire, or finds the greatest pleasure in.—Not that you should deny your bodies all delight in the mercies of God: if the body have none, the mind will have the less: mercy must be differenced from punishment; and must be valued and relished as mercy: mere natural pleasing of the senses is in itself no moral good or evil. A holy improvement of lawful pleasure, is a daily duty: inordinate pleasure is a sin: all is inordinate which tendeth more to corrupt the soul, by enticing it to sin, and turning it from God, than to fit and dispose it for God and his service, and preserve it from sinning. But still remember, it is not sorrow but delight that draweth away the soul from God, and is the flesh's interest which it sets up against him. Many have sinned in sorrows and discontents; but none ever sinned for sorrows and discontents: their discontents and sorrows are not taken up and loved for themselves; but are the effects of their love to some pleasure and content, which is denied them, or taken from them. Therefore, though all your bodily pleasures are not sin, yet, seeing nothing but the pleasures of the flesh and carnal mind is the end of sinners, and the devil's great and chiefest bait, and this only causeth men's perdition, you have great reason to be most afraid of that which is most pleasing to your flesh, and to the mind as it is corrupt and carnal: escape the delusions of fleshly pleasure, and you escape damnation. You have far more cause to be afraid of prosperity, than of adversity; of riches, than of poverty; of honour, than of obscurity and contempt; of men's praises and applause, than of their dispraises, slanders, and reproach; of preferment and greatness, than of a low and mean condition; of a delicious, than of less tempting meats and drinks; of curious, costly, than of mean, and cheap, and plain attire. Let those that have hired out their reason to the service of their fleshly lusts, and have delivered the crown and sceptre to their appetites, think otherwise. No wonder if they that have sold the birthright of their intellects to their senses, for a mess of pottage, for a whore, or a high place, or a domineering power over others, or a belly-full of pleasant meats or liquors, do deride all this, and think it but a melancholy conceit, more suitable to an eremite or anchorite, than to men of society and business in the world. As heaven is the portion of serious believers and mortified saints alone, so it shall be proper to them alone to understand the doctrine and example of their Saviour, and practically to know what it is to deny themselves, and forsake all they have, and take up their cross and follow Christ, and by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, Luke xiv. 26-29, 33; Rom. viii. 5-7, 13; Col. iii. 1-4. Such know that millions part with God for pleasures, but none for griefs: and that hell will be stored with those that preferred wealth, and honour, and sports, and gluttony, drink and filthy lusts, before the holiness and happiness of believers; but none will be damned for preferring poverty, and disgrace, and abstinence, hunger and thirst, and chastity before them. It must be something that seemeth good, that must entice men from the chiefest good: apparent evil is no fit bait for the devil's hook. Men will not displease God, to be themselves displeased; nor choose present sorrows instead of everlasting joys; but for the pleasures of sin for a season many will despise the endless pleasures.

Direct. X. Meet every motion to disobedience with an army of holy graces; with wisdom, and fear, and hatred, and resolution, with love to God, with zeal and courage; and quench every spark that falls upon your hearts before it breaks out into a flame.—When sin is little and in its infancy, it is weak and easily resisted; it hath not then turned away the mind from God, nor quenched grace, and disabled it to do its office. But when it is grown strong, then grace grows weak, and we want its help, and want the sense of the presence, and attributes, and truths of God, to rebuke it. O stay not till your hearts are gone out of hearing, and straggled from God beyond the observance of his calls. The habit of obedience will be dangerously abated, if you resist not quickly the acts of sin.

Direct. XI. Labour for the clearest understanding of the will of God, that doubtfulness about your duty do not make you flag in your obedience, and doubtfulness about sin do not weaken your detestation and resistance, and draw you to venture on it.—When a man is sure what is his duty, it is a great help against all temptations that would take him off: and when he is sure that a thing is sinful, it makes it the easier to resist. And, therefore, it is the devil's method to delude the understanding, and make men believe that duty is no duty, and sin is no sin; and then no wonder if duty be neglected, and sin committed: and therefore he raiseth up one false prophet or other to say to Ahab, "Go, and prosper;" or to say, There is no hurt in this; to dispute for sin, and to dispute against duty. And it is almost incredible how much the devil hath got, when he hath once made it a matter of controversy. Then every hypocrite hath a cloak for his sin, and a dose of opium for his conscience, when he can but say, It is a controversy; some are of one mind, and some of another, you are of that opinion, and I am of this: especially if there be wise and learned on both sides; and yet more, if there be religious men on both sides; and more yet, if he have an equal number on his side; and most of all, if he have the major vote (as error and sin have commonly in the world). If Ahab have but four hundred lying, flattering prophets to one Micaiah, he will think he may hate him, reproach him, and persecute him without any scruple of conscience. If it be made a controversy whether bread be bread, and wine be wine, when we see and taste it; some will think they may venture to subscribe or swear that they hold the negative, if their credit, or livings, or lives lie upon it; much more if they can say, It is the judgment of the church. If it be once made a controversy, whether perjury be a sin, or whether a vow materially lawful bind, or whether it be lawful to equivocate, or lie with a mental reservation for the truth, or to do the greatest evil, or speak the falsest thing with a true and good intent and meaning, almost all the hypocrites in the country will be for the sinful part, if their fleshly interest require it; and will think themselves wronged, if they are accounted hypocrites, liars, or perjured, as long as it is but a point of controversy among learned men. If it be once made a controversy, whether an excommunicate king become a private man, and it be lawful to kill him, and whether the pope may absolve the subjects of temporal lords from their allegiance, (notwithstanding all their oaths,) and if such learned men as Suarez, Bellarmine, Perron, &c. are for it, (to say nothing of Santarellus, Mariana, &c.) you shall have a Clement, a Ravilliac, a Faux, yea, too great choice of instruments, that will be satisfied to strike the blow. If many hold it may or must be done, some will be found too ready to do it: especially if an approved general council (Lateran. sub Innoc. III. Can. 3.) be for such papal absolution. We have seen at home how many will be imboldened to pull down government, to sit in judgment on their king, and condemn him, and to destroy their brethren, if they can but say, that such and such men think it lawful. If it were but a controversy once whether drunkenness, whoredom, swearing, stealing, or any villany be a sin or not, it would be committed more commonly, and with much less regret of conscience. Yea, good men will be ready to think that modesty requireth them to be less censorious of those that commit it, because in controverted cases they must suspect their own understandings, and allow something to the judgment of dissenters. And so all the rules of love, and peace, and moderation, which are requisite in controversies that are about small and difficult points, the devil will make use of, and apply them all to the patronage of the most odious sins, if he can but get them once to have some learned, wise, religious offenders. And from our tenderness of the persons we easily slide to an indulgent tenderness in censuring the sin itself: and good men themselves, by these means, are dangerously disabled to resist it, and prepared to commit it.

Direct. XII. Take heed lest the devil do either cast you into the sleep of carnal security, or into such doubts, and fears, and perplexing scruples, as shall make holy obedience seem to you an impossible or a tiresome thing. When you are asleep in carelessness, he can use you as he list; and if obedience be made grievous and ungrateful to you, your heart will go against it, and you will go but like a tired horse, no longer than you feel the spur: you are half conquered already, because you have lost the love and pleasure of obedience; and you are still in danger lest difficulties should quite tire you, and weariness make you yield at last. The means by which the tempter effecteth this, must afterward be spoken of, and therefore I shall omit it here.

By the faithful practice of these directions obedience may become, as it were, your nature, a familiar, easy, and delightful thing; and may be like a cheerful servant or child, that waiteth for your commands, and is glad to be employed by you. Your full subjection of your wills to God, will be as the health, and ease, and quietness of your wills: you will feel that it is never well or easy with you, but when you are obedient and pleasing to your Creator's will. Your "delight will be in the law of the Lord," Psal. i. 2. It will be sweeter than honey to you, and better than thousands of gold and silver; and this not for any by-respect, but as it is the "law of God;" a "light unto your feet," and an infallible guide in all your duty. You will say with David, Psal. cxix. 16, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 174, "I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word. Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight." And as Psal. xl. 8, "I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart." And, O "blessed is the man that feareth the Lord; that delighteth greatly in his commandments," Psal. cxii. 2.

Learning as disciples of Christ our Teacher.

Grand Direct. VII. Continue as the covenanted scholars of Christ, the Prophet and Teacher of his church, to learn of him by his Spirit, word, and ministers, the farther knowledge of God, and the things that tend to your salvation; and this with an honest, willing mind, in faith, humility, and diligence; in obedience, patience, and peace.

Though I spake before of our coming to God by Jesus Christ, as he is the way to the Father; it is meet that we distinctly speak of our relation and duty to him, as he is our Teacher, our Captain, and our Master, as well as of our improving him as Mediator immediately unto God. The necessity of believers, and the office and work of Christ himself, doth tell us how much of our religion doth consist in learning of him as his disciples. Acts vii. 37, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall you hear." This was the voice that came out of the cloud in the holy mount, Matt. xvii. 5, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him." Therefore is the title of disciples commonly given to believers. And there is a twofold teaching which Christ hath sent his ministers to perform; both mentioned in their commission, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. The one is, to "teach the nations;" as to make disciples of them, by persuading them into the school of Christ, which containeth the teaching of faith and repentance, and whatever is necessary to their first admission, and to their subjecting themselves to Christ himself as their stated and infallible Guide. The other is the teaching them further to know more of God, "and to observe all things whatsoever he commandeth them." And this last is it we are now to speak of, and I shall add some sub-directions for your help.

Directions for Learning of Christ, as our Teacher.

How to learn of Christ.

Direct. I. Remember who it is that is your Teacher: that he is the Son of God, that knoweth his Father's will, and is the most faithful, infallible Pastor of the church.—There is neither ignorance, nor negligence, nor ambition, nor deceit in him, to cause him to conceal the mind of God. There is nothing which we need to know, which he is not both able and willing to acquaint us with.

Direct. II. Remember what it is that he teacheth you, and to what end.—That it is not how to sin and be damned, as the devil, the world, and the flesh would teach you; nor how to satisfy your lusts, or to know, or do, or attain the trifles of the world: but it is how to be renewed to the image of God, and how to do his will and please him, and how to be justified at his bar, and how to escape everlasting fire, and how to attain everlasting joys: consider this well, and you will gladly learn of such a Teacher.

Direct. III. Let the book which he himself hath indited by his Spirit, be the rule and principal matter of your learning.—The holy Scriptures are of divine inspiration: it is them that we must be judged by, and them that we must be ruled by, and therefore them that we must principally learn. Men's books and teachings are but the means for our learning this infallible word.

Direct. IV. Remember that as it is Christ's work to teach, it is yours to hear, and read, and study, and pray, and practise what you hear.—Do your part, then, if you expect the benefit. You come not to the school of Christ to be idle. Knowledge droppeth not into the sleepy dreamer's mouth. Dig for it as for silver, and search for it in the Scriptures as for a hidden treasure: meditate in them day and night. Leave it to miserable fools, to contemn the wisdom of the Most High.

Direct. V. Fix your eye upon himself as your pattern, and study with earnest desire to follow his holy example, and to be made conformable to him.—Not to imitate him in the works which were proper to him as God, or as Mediator; but in his holiness, which he hath proposed to his disciples for their imitation. He knew how effectual a perfect example would be, where a perfect doctrine alone would be less regarded. Example bringeth doctrine nearer to our eye and heart; it maketh it more observable, and telleth us with more powerful application, Such you must be, and thus you must do. The eye maketh an easier and deeper impression on the imagination and mind, than the ear doth; therefore Christ's example should be much preached and studied. It will be a very great help to us, to have still upon our minds the image of the holy life of Christ; that we be affected, as if we always saw him doing the holy actions which once he did. Paul calls the Galatians "foolish," and "bewitched," that "obeyed not the truth, when Christ had been set forth as crucified among them evidently before their eyes," Gal. iii. 1. Papists think that images serve well for this turn: but the records of Scripture, and the living images of Christ whom they persecute and kill, are far more useful. How much example is more operative than doctrine alone, you may perceive by the enemies of Christ, who can bear his holy doctrine, when they cannot bear his holy servants, that practise that doctrine before their eyes. And that which most stirs up their enmity, hath the advantage for exciting the believer's piety.

Let the image of Christ, in all his holy examples, be always lively written upon your minds. 1. Let the great ones of the world remember, that their Lord was not born of such as bore rule, or were in worldly pomp and dignity, but of persons that lived but meanly in the world (however they were of the royal line); how he was not born in a palace, but a stable, and laid in a manger, without the attendance or accommodations of the rich.

2. Remember how he subjected himself unto his reputed father, and his mother, to teach all children subjection and obedience, Luke ii. 51.

3. And how he condescended to labour at a trade, and mean employment in the world; to teach us that our bodies, as well as our minds, must express their obedience, and have their ordinary employment; and to teach men to labour and live in a calling; and to comfort poor labourers, with assurance that God accepteth them in the meanest work, and that Christ himself lived so before them, and chose their kind of life, and not the life of princes and nobles, that live in pomp, and ease, and pleasure.

4. Remember how he refused not to submit to all the ordinances of God, and to fulfil all righteousness, and to be initiated into the solemn administration of his office by the baptism of John, Matt. iii. 15-17, which God approved, by sending down upon him the Holy Ghost: to teach us all to expect his Spirit in the use of his ordinances.

5. Remember how he voluntarily began his work, with an encounter with the tempter in the wilderness, upon his fasting; and suffered the tempter to proceed, till he moved him to the most odious sin, even to worship the devil himself: to teach us that God loveth tried servants, and expecteth that we be not turned from him by temptations; especially those that enter upon a public ministry, must be tried men, that have overcome the tempter: and to comfort tempted christians, who may remember, that their Saviour himself was most blasphemously tempted to as odious sins as ever they were; and that to be greatly tempted, without consenting or yielding to the sin, is so far from being a sin in itself, that it is the greatest honour of our obedience; and that the devil, who molesteth and haunteth us with his temptations, is a conquered enemy, whom our Lord in person hath overcome.

6. Remember how earnestly and constantly he preached; not stories, or jingles, or subtle controversies, but repentance, and faith, and self-denial, and obedience. So great was his love to souls, that, when he had auditors, he preached, not only in the temple and synagogues, but on mountains, and in a ship, and any other convenient place; and no fury of the rulers or Pharisees could silence him, till his hour was come, having his Father's commission. And even to particular persons, he vouchsafed, by conference, to open the mysteries of salvation, John iii. and iv.; to teach us to love and attend to the plain and powerful preaching of the gospel, and not to forbear any necessary means for the honour of God, and the saving of souls, because of the enmity or opposition of malicious men, but to "work while it is day, seeing the night is coming when none can work," John ix. 4.

7. Remember how compassionate he was to men's bodies, as well as to their souls; going up and down with unwearied diligence, doing good; healing the blind, and lame, and deaf, and sick, and possessed: and how all his miracles were done in charity, to do good; and none of them to do hurt; so that he was but living, walking LOVE and MERCY. To teach us to know God, in his love and mercy; and to abound in love and mercy to our brethren; and to hate the spirit of hurtfulness, persecution, and uncharitableness; and to lay out ourselves in doing, good; and to exercise our compassion to the bodies of men, as well as to their souls, according to our power.

8. Remember how his zeal and love endured the reproach, and resisted the opposition of his friends, who went to lay hold on him as if he had been beside himself, Mark iii. 20, 21: and how he bid Peter "Get behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things of God, but those of men," when in carnal love and wisdom he rebuked him for resolving to lay down his life, saying, "Be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee," Matt. xvi. 22, 23. To teach us to expect that carnal love and wisdom in our nearest friends, will rise up against us in the work of God, to discourage us both from duty and from sufferings; and that all are to be shaken off, and counted as the instruments of Satan, that would tempt us to be unfaithful to our trust and duty, and to favour ourselves by a sinful avoiding of the sufferings which God doth call us to undergo.

9. Remember how through all his life he despised the riches of the world, and chose a life of poverty, and was a companion of the meanest, neither possessing nor seeking sumptuous houses, or great attendance, or spacious lands, or a large estate. He lived in a visible contempt of all the wealth, and splendour, and greatness of the world: to teach us how little these little things are to be esteemed; and that they are none of the treasure and portion of a saint; and what a folly it is to be fond of such snares, and diversions, and temptations which make the way to heaven to be to us as a needle's eye.

10. Observe, how little he regardeth the honour and applause of men; Phil. ii. 7-9, how "he made himself of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a servant," refusing to be "made a king," or to have a "kingdom of this world," John vi. 15. Though he told malignant blasphemers how greatly they sinned in dishonouring him, yet did he not seek the honour of the world: to teach us how little the thoughts or words of ignorant men do contribute to our happiness, or are to be accounted of; and to turn our eyes from the impertinent censures of flesh and blood, to the judgment of our Almighty Sovereign, to whom it is that we stand or fall.

11. Remember also how little he made provision for the flesh, and never once tasted of any immoderate, sinful pleasure. How far was he from a life of voluptuousness and sensuality! Though his avoiding the formal fastings of the Pharisees, made them slander him as a "gluttonous person," and "a wine-bibber," Matt. xi. 19, as the sober christians were called carnivori, by those that thought it unlawful to eat flesh; yet so far was he from the guilt of any such sin, that never a desire of it was in his heart. You shall never find in the gospel that Christ spent half the morning in dressing him, choosing rather to shorten his time for prayer, than not to appear sufficiently neatified, as our empty, worthless, painted gallants do: nor shall you ever read that he wasted his time in idle visitations, or cards, or dice, or in reading romances, or hearing stage-plays: it was another kind of example that our Lord did leave for his disciples.

12. Mark also, how far Christ was from being guilty of any idle, or lascivious, or foolish kind of talk; and how holy and profitable all his speeches were: to teach us also to speak as the oracles of God, such words as tend to edification, and to administer grace unto the hearers, and to keep our tongues from all profane, lascivious, empty, idle speeches.

13. Remember, that pride, and passion, are condemned by your pattern. Christ bids you "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls," Matt. xi. 28, 29. Therefore he resolveth that "except" men "be converted and become as little children, they shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," Matt, xviii. 3. Behold therefore the Lamb of God, and be ashamed of your fierce and ravenous natures.

14. Remember that Christ your Lord and pattern did humble himself to the meanest office of love, even to wash the feet of his disciples: not to teach you to wash a few poor men's feet, as a ceremony once a year, and persecute and murder the servants of Christ the rest of the year, as the Roman Vice-Christ doth; but to teach us, that if he their Lord and Master washed his disciples' feet, we also should stoop as low in any office of love, for one another, John xiii. 14.

15. Remember also that Christ your pattern spent whole nights in prayer to God;[97] so much was he for this holy attendance upon God: to teach us to "pray always and not wax faint," Luke xviii. 1. And not to be like the impious God-haters, that love not any near or serious addresses unto God, nor those that use them, but make them the object of their cruelty or scorn.

16. Remember also that Christ was against the Pharisees' outside, hypocritical, ceremonious worship, consisting in lip-labour, affected repetitions, and much babbling; their "Touch not, taste not, handle not," and worshipping God in vain, according to their traditions, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." He taught us a serious, spiritual worship: not "to draw nigh to God with our mouth, and honour him with our lips, while our hearts are far from him;" but to "worship God who is a Spirit, in spirit and truth," Matt. xv. 6-9; John iv. 23, 24; Matt. xxiii.

17. Christ was a sharp reprover of hypocritical, blind, ceremonious, malicious Pharisees; and warneth his disciples to take heed of their leaven. When they are offended with him, he saith, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up: let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind," &c. Matt. xv. 12-14. To teach us to take heed of autonomous, supercilious, domineering, formal hypocrites, and false teachers, and to difference between the shepherds and the wolves.

18. Though Christ seems cautelously to avoid the owning of the Romans' usurpation over the Jews, yet rather than offend them he payeth tribute himself, Matt. xvii. 25-27, and biddeth them "render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's," Matt. xxii. 21. The Pharisees bring their controversy to him hypocritically, "Whether it be lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not?" (For that Cæsar was a usurper over them, they took to be past controversy.) And Christ would give them no answer that should insnare himself, or encourage usurpation, or countenance their sedition: teaching us much more to pay tribute cheerfully to our lawful governors, and to avoid all sedition and offence.

19. Yet is he accused, condemned, and executed among malefactors, as aspiring to be "King of the Jews," and the judge called, "none of Cæsar's friend," if he let him go: teaching us to expect that the most innocent christians should be accused, as enemies to the rulers of the world, and mistaken governors be provoked and engaged against them, by the malicious calumnies of their adversaries; and that we should, in this unrighteous world, be condemned of those crimes of which we are most innocent, and which we most abhor, and have borne the fullest testimonies against.

20. The furious rout of the enraged people deride him by their words and deeds, with a purple robe, a sceptre of reed, a crown of thorns, and the scornful name of "King of the Jews;" they spit in his face, and buffet him, and then break jests upon him; and in all this "being reviled he reviled not again, but committed all to him that judgeth righteously," 1 Pet. ii. 21-23. Teaching us to expect the rage of the ignorant rabble, as well as of deluded governors; and to be made the scorn of the worst of men; and all this without impatience, reviling, or threatening words; but quieting ourselves in the sure expectation of the righteous judgment, which we and they must shortly find.

21. When Christ is urged at Pilate's bar to speak for himself, he holds his peace: teaching us to expect to be questioned at the judgment-seat of man; and not to be over-careful for the vindicating of our names from their most odious calumnies, because the judgment that will fully justify us is sure and near.

22. When Christ is in his agony, his disciples fail him; when he is judged and crucified, they "forsook him and fled," Matt. xxvi. 56: to teach us not to be too confident in the best of men, nor to expect much from them in a time of trial, but to take up our comfort in God alone, when all our nearest friends shall fail us.

23. Upon the cross he suffereth the torments and ignominy of death for us, praying for his murderers: "leaving us an example that we should follow his steps," 1 Pet. ii. 21; and that we think not life itself too dear to part with, in obedience to God, and for the love of Christ and one another, 1 John iii. 16; and that we forgive and pray for them that persecute us.

24. In all this suffering from men, he feels also so much of the fruit of our sin upon his soul, that he crieth out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" to teach us, if we fall into such calamity of soul, as to think that God himself forsaketh us, to remember for our support, that the Son of God himself before us, cried out, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and that in this also we may expect a trial, to seem of ourselves forsaken of God, when our Saviour underwent the like before us.

I will instance in no more of his example, because I would not be tedious. Hither now let believers cast their eyes: if you love your Lord, you should love to imitate him, and be glad to find yourselves in the way that he hath gone before you. If he lived a worldly or a sensual life, do you do so: if he was an enemy to preaching, and praying, and holy living, be you so: but if he lived in the greatest contempt of all the wealth, and honours, and pleasures of the world, in a life of holy obedience to his Father, wholly preferring the kingdom of heaven, and seeking the salvation of the souls of others, and patiently bearing persecution, derision, calumnies, and death, then take up your cross, and follow him in joyfully to the expected crown.

Direct. VI. If you will learn of Christ, you must learn of his ministers, whom he hath appointed under him to be the teachers of his church.—He purposely enableth them, inclineth them, and sendeth them to instruct you: not to have dominion over your faith, but to be your spiritual fathers, and "the ministers by whom you believe, as God shall give" (ability and success) "to every one" as he pleases; "to plant and water," while "God giveth the increase; to open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light;" and to be "labourers together with God, whose husbandry and building you are;" and to be "helpers of your joy." See 2 Cor. ii. 4; Acts xxvi. 17, 18; 1 Cor. iii. 5-9; iv. 15. Seeing therefore Christ hath appointed them, under him, to be the ordinary teachers of his church, he that "heareth them," (speaking his message,) "heareth him," and he "that despiseth them, despiseth him," Luke x. 16. And he that saith, I will hear Christ, but not you, doth say in effect to Christ himself, I will not hear thee, nor learn of thee, unless thou wilt dismiss thy ushers, and teach me immediately thyself.

Direct. VII. Hearken also to the secret teachings of his Spirit, and your consciences, not as making you any new law or duty, or being to you instead of Scriptures or ministers; but as bringing that truth into your hearts and practices, which Scriptures and ministers have first brought to your eyes and ears.—If you understand not this, how the office of Scripture and ministers differ from the office of the Spirit and your consciences, you will be confounded, as the sectaries of these times have been, that separate what God hath joined together, and plead against Scripture or ministers under pretence of extolling the Spirit, or the light within them. As your meat must be taken into the stomach, and pass the first concoction, before the second can be performed, and chylification must be before sanguification; so the Scripture and ministers must bring truth to your eyes and ears, before the Spirit or conscience bring them to your hearts and practice. But they lie dead and uneffectual in your brain or imagination, if you hearken not to the secret teachings of the Spirit and conscience, which would bring them further. As Christ is the principal Teacher without, and ministers are but under him; so the Spirit is the principal teacher within us, and conscience is but under the Spirit, being excited and informed by it. Those that learn only of Scriptures and ministers, (by hearing or reading,) may become men of learning and great ability, though they hearken not to the sanctifying teachings of the Spirit, or to their consciences. But it is only those that hearken first to the Scriptures and ministers, and next to the Spirit of God, and to their consciences, that have an inward, sanctifying, saving knowledge, and are they that are said to be taught of God. Therefore, hearken first with your ears, what Christ hath to say to you from without; and then hearken daily and diligently with your hearts, what the Spirit and conscience say within. For it is their office to preach over all that again to your hearts, which you have received.

Direct. VIII. It being the office of the present ordinary ministry, only to expound and apply the doctrine of Christ already recorded in the Scriptures, believe not any man that contradicteth this recorded doctrine, what reason, authority, or revelation soever he pretend. Isa. viii. 20, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to these, it is because there is no light in them." No reason can be reason indeed that is pretended against the reason of the Creator and God of reason. Authority pretended against the highest authority of God, is no authority: God never gave authority to any against himself; nor to deceive men's souls; nor to dispense with the law of Christ; nor to warrant men to sin against him; nor to make any supplements to his law or doctrine. The apostles had their "power only to edification, but not to destruction," 1 Cor. x. 8; 2 Cor. xiii. 10. There is no revelation from God that is contrary to his own revelation, already delivered as his perfect law and rule unto the church; and therefore none supplemental to it. If an "apostle or an angel from heaven (per possibile vel impossibile) shall evangelize to us besides what is evangelized," and we "have received," he must be held "accursed," Gal. i. 6-8.

Direct. IX. Come not to learn of Christ with self-conceitedness, pride, or confidence in your prejudice and errors; but as little children, with humble, teachable, tractable minds. Christ is no teacher for those that in their own eyes are wise enough already: unless it be first to teach them to "become fools" (in their own esteem, because they are so indeed) "that they may be wise," 1 Cor. iii. 18. They that are prepossessed with false opinions, and resolve that they will never be persuaded of the contrary, are unmeet to be scholars in the school of Christ. "He resisteth the proud, but giveth more grace unto the humble," 1 Pet. v. 5. Men that have a high conceit of their own understandings, and think they can easily know truth from falsehood, as soon as they hear it, and come not to learn, but to censure what they hear or read, as being able presently to judge of all, these are fitter for the school of the prince of pride, and father of lies and error, than for the school of Christ. Except conversion make men as little children, that come not to carp and cavil, but to learn, they are not "meet for the kingdom of Christ," Matt. xviii. 3; John iii. 3, 5. Know how blind and ignorant you are, and how dull of learning, and humbly beg of the heavenly Teacher, that he will accept you, and illuminate you: and give up your understandings absolutely to be informed by him, and your hearts to be the tables in which his Spirit shall write his law; believing his doctrine upon the bare account of his infallible veracity, and resolving to obey it; and this is to be the disciples of Christ indeed, and such as shall be taught of God.

Direct. X. Come to the school of Christ with honest, willing hearts, that love the truth, and fain would know it, that they may obey it; and not with false and biassed hearts, which secretly hinder the understanding from entertaining the truth, because they love it not, as being contrary to their carnal inclinations and interest. The word that was received into honest hearts, was it that was as the seed that brought forth plentifully, Matt. xiii. 23. When the heart saith unfeignedly, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; teach me to know and do thy will;" God will not leave such a learner in the dark. Most of the damnable ignorance and error of the world, is from a wicked heart, that perceiveth that the truth of God is against their fleshly interest and lusts, and therefore is unwilling to obey it, and unwilling to believe it, lest it torment them, because they disobey it. A will that is secretly poisoned with the love of the world, or of any sinful lusts and pleasures, is the most potent impediment to the believing of the truth.

Direct. XI. Learn with quietness and peace in the school of Christ, and make not divisions, and meddle not with others' lessons and matters, but with your own. Silence, and quietness, and minding your own business, is the way to profit. The turbulent wranglers that are quarrelling with others, and are religious contentiously, in envy and strife, are liker to be corrected or ejected, than to be edified. Read James iii.

Direct. XII. Remember that the school of Christ hath a rod; and therefore learn with fear and reverence, Heb. xii. 28, 29; Phil. ii. 12. Christ will sharply rebuke his own, if they grow negligent and offend: and if he should cast thee out and forsake thee, thou art undone for ever. "See," therefore, "that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we, if we refuse him that is from heaven," Heb. xii. 25. "For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" Heb. ii. 3, 4. "Serve the Lord therefore with fear, and rejoice with trembling: kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the kindling of his wrath," Psal. ii. 11, 12.

To obey Christ as Physician in his healing work, and his spirit in its cleansing, mortifying work.

Grand Direct. VIII. Remember that you are related to Christ as the Physician of your souls, and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier. Make it therefore your serious study, to be cured by Christ, and cleansed by his Spirit, of all the sinful diseases and defilements of your hearts and lives.

Though I did before speak of our believing in the Holy Ghost, and using his help for our access to God, and converse with him; yet I deferred to speak fully of the cleansing and mortifying part of his work of sanctification till now; and shall treat of it here, as it is the same with the curing work of Christ, related to us as the Physician of our souls: it being part of our subjection and obedience to him, to be ruled by him, in order to our cure. And what I shall here write against sin, in general, will be of a twofold use. The one is, to help us against the inward corruptions of our hearts, and for the outward obedience of our lives, and so to further the work of sanctification, and prevent our sinning. The other is, to help us to repentance and humiliation, habitual and actual, for the sins which are in us, and which we have already at any time committed.

The general directions for this curing and cleansing of the soul from sin, are contained, for the most part, in what is said already: and many of the particular directions also may be fetched from the sixth direction before-going. I shall now add but two general directions, and many more particular ones.

Direct. I. The two general directions are these: 1. Know what corruptions the soul of man is naturally defiled with: and this containeth the knowledge of those faculties, that are the seat of these corruptions, and the knowledge of the corruptions that have tainted and perverted the several faculties.

Direct. II. 2. Know what sin is, in its nature or intrinsic evil, as well as in the effects.

How the several faculties of the soul are corrupted and diseased.

In what cases sound understanding may be ignorant.

1. The parts or faculties to be cleansed and cured, are both the superior and inferior. (1.) The understanding, though not the first in the sin, must be first in the cure: for all that is done upon the lower faculties, must be by the governing power of the will: and all that is done upon the will, according to the order of human nature, must be done by the understanding. But the understanding hath its own diseases, which must be known and cured. Its malady in general is ignorance; which is not only a privation of actual knowledge, but an undisposedness also of the understanding to know the truth. A man may be deprived of some actual knowledge, that hath no disease in his mind that causeth it: as in a case that either the object be absent, and out of reach, or that there may be no sufficient revelation of it, or that the mind be taken up wholly upon some other thing, or in case a man shut out the thoughts of such an object, or refuse the evidence, which is the act of the will, even as a man that is not blind, may yet not see a particular object, 1. In case it be out of his natural reach; 2. Or if it be night, and he want extrinsic light; 3. Or in case he be wholly taken up with the observation of other things; 4. Or in case he wilfully either shut or turn away his eyes.

How the understanding can be the subject of sin?

It is a very hard question to resolve, how far and wherein the diseases of the understanding may be called sin? Because the understanding is not a free, but a necessitated faculty; and there can be no sin, where there is no liberty. But to clear this, it must be considered, 1. That it is not this or that faculty that is the full and proper subject of sin, but the man: the fulness of sin being made up of the vice of both faculties, understanding and will, conjunct. It is properer to say, The man sinned, than, The intellect or will sinned, speaking exclusively as to the other. 2. Liberium arbitrium, free choice, is belonging to the man, and not to his will only, though principally to the will. 3. Though the will only be free in itself, originally, yet the intellect is free by participation, so far as it is commanded by the will, or dependeth on it for the exercise of its acts. 4. Accordingly, though the understanding, primitively and of itself, be not the subject of morality, of moral virtues or of moral vices, which are immediately and primarily in the will; yet participatively its virtues and vices are moralized, and become graces or sins, laudable and rewardable, or vituperable and punishable, as they are imperate by the will, or depend upon it.

Consider then, the acts, and habits, and disposition of the understanding; and you will find, That some acts, and the privation of them, are necessary, naturally, originally, and unalterably; and these are not virtues or sinful at all, as having no morality. As, to know unwillingly, as the devils do, and to believe when it cannot be resisted, though they would; this is no moral virtue at all, but a natural perfection only. So, 1. To be ignorant of that which is no object of knowledge, or which is naturally beyond our knowledge, as of the essence of God, is no sin at all. 2. Nor, to be ignorant of that which was never revealed, when no fault of ours hindered the revelation, is no sin. 3. Nor, to be without the present, actual knowledge or consideration of one point, at that moment when our thoughts are lawfully diverted, as in greater business, or suspended, as in sleep. 4. But to be ignorant, wilfully, is a sin, participatively in the intellect, and originally in the will. 5. And to be ignorant for want of revelation, when ourselves are the hinderers of that revelation, or the meritorious cause that we want it, is our sin: because, though that ignorance be immediately necessary, and hypothetically, yet originally and remotely it is free and voluntary.

So, as to the habits and disposition of the intellect; it is no sin to want those, which man's understanding in its entire and primitive nature was without. As, not to be able to know without an object, or to know an unrevealed or too distant object, or actually to know all things knowable, at once. But there are defects or ill dispositions, that are sinfully contracted; and though these are now immediately natural[98] and necessary, yet being originally and remotely voluntary or free, they are participatively sinful. Such is the natural man's disability or undisposedness to know the things of the Spirit, when the word revealeth them. This lieth not in the want of a natural faculty to know them, but, 1. Radically in the will. 2. And thence in contrary, false apprehensions which the intellect is prepossessed with, which resisting the truth, may be called, its blindness or impotency to know them. And 3. In a strangeness of the mind to those spiritual things which it is utterly unacquainted with.

Note here, 1. That the will may be guilty of the understanding's ignorance, two ways: either, by positive averseness prohibiting or diverting it from beholding the evidence of truth; or, by a privation and forbearance of that command or excitation which is necessary to the exercise of the acts of the understanding. This last is the commonest way of the sin in the understanding; and that may be truly called voluntary which is from the will's neglect of its office, or suspension of its act, though there be no actual volition or nolition.

2. That the will may do more in causing a disease in the understanding, than it can do in curing it. I can put out a man's eyes, but I cannot restore them.

3. That yet for all that, God hath so ordered it in his gracious dispensation of the grace of the Redeemer, that certain means are appointed by him, for man to use, in order to the obtaining of his grace, for his own recovery: and so, though grace cure not the understanding of its primitive, natural weakness, yet it cureth it of its contracted weakness, which was voluntary in its original, but necessary, being contracted. And, as the will had a hand in the causing of it, so must it have, in the voluntary use of the aforesaid means, in the cure of it. So much to show you how the understanding is guilty of sin.

The operations and maladies of the intellect.

Though no actual knowledge be so immediate as to be without the mediation of the sense and fantasy, yet supposing these, knowledge is distinguished into immediate and mediate. The immediate is when the being, quality, &c. of a thing, or the truth of a proposition, is known immediately in itself by its proper evidence. Mediate knowledge is when the being of a thing, or the truth of a proposition, is known by the means of some other intervenient thing or proposition, whose evidence affordeth us a light to discern it.

The understanding is much more satisfied when it can see things and truths immediately in their proper evidence. But when it cannot, it is glad of any means to help it.

The further we go in the series of means, (knowing one thing by another, and that by another, and so on,) the more unsatisfied the understanding is, as apprehending a possibility of mistake, and a difficulty in escaping mistake in the use of so many media.

When the evidence of one thing in its proper nature showeth us another, this is to know by mere discourse or argument.

When the medium of our knowing one thing is the credibility of another man's report that knoweth it, this is (though a discourse or argument too, yet) in special, called, belief; which is strong or weak, certain or uncertain, as the evidence of the reporter's credibility is certain or uncertain, and our apprehension of it strong or weak.

In both cases, the understanding's fault is either an utter privation of the act, or disposition to it; or else a privation of the rectitude of the act. When it should know by the proper evidence of the thing, the privation of its act is called ignorance or nescience, and the privation of its rectitude is called error (which differ as not seeing, and seeing falsely.) When it should know by testimony, the privation of its act is simple unbelief, or not believing, and the privation of its rectitude is either disbelief, when they think the reporter erreth, or misbelief, when it believeth a testimony that is not to be believed.

So that you see by what is said, that the diseases of the mind to be cured, are, 1. Mere ignorance. 2. Error; thinking truth to be falsehood, and falsehood truth. 3. Unbelief. 4. Disbelief. And 5. Misbelief.

Rom. viii. 5-7.

But as the goodness is of chief regard in the object, so the discerning of the truth about good and evil, is the chiefest office of the understanding. And therefore its disesteem of God, and glory, and grace, and its misesteem of the fleshly pleasure, and worldly prosperity, wealth, and honour, is the principal malady of the mind.

(2.) The diseases of the will, are in its inclination, and its acts. 1. An inordinate inclination to the pleasing of the fleshly appetite and fantasy, and to all carnal baits and temporal things, that tend to please it, and inordinate acts of desire accordingly. 2. An irrational backwardness to God, and grace, and spiritual good, and a refusal or nolition in act accordingly. These are in the will, 1. Because it is become much subject to the sensitive appetite, and hath debased itself, and contracted, by its sinful acts, a sensual inclination, the flesh having the dominion in a corrupted soul. 2. Because the intellect being also corrupted, ofttimes misleadeth it, by overvaluing transient things. 3. Because the will is become destitute (in its corrupted state) of the power of divine love, or an inclination to God and holy things, which should countermand the seduction of carnal objects. 4. And the understanding is much destitute of the light that should lead them higher. 5. Because the rage of the corrupted appetite is still seducing it. Mark therefore, for the right understanding of this, our greatest malady:

1. That the will never desireth evil, as evil, but as a carnal or a seeming good. 2. Nor doth it hate good as good, but as a seeming evil, because God and grace do seem to be his enemies, and to hurt him, by hindering him of the good of carnal pleasure which he now preferreth. 3. Nay, at the same time that he loveth evil as it pleaseth the flesh, he hath naturally, as a man, some averseness to it, so far as he apprehendeth it to be evil: and when he hateth God and holiness as evil, for hindering him of his carnal pleasure, he naturally loveth them, so far as he apprehendeth them to be good. So that there is some love to God and good, and some hatred to evil, in the ungodly; for while man is man, he will have naturally an inclination to good as good, and against evil as evil. 4. But the apprehension of sensitive good is the strongest in him, and the apprehension of spiritual good is weakest; and therefore the will receiving a greater impress from the carnal appetite and mind, than from the weak apprehensions of spiritual good, is more inclined to that which indeed is worst; and so things carnal have got the dominion, or chief commanding interest, in the soul. 5. Note also, that sin receiveth its formality, or moral evil, first in the will, and not in the intellect or sensitive appetite: for it is not sin till it be positively or privately, immediately or mediately, voluntary. But the first motions to sin are not in the will, but in the sensitive appetite; though there, at first, it be not formally sin. 6. Note, that neither intellect, object, appetite, or sense, necessitate naturally the will to sin, but it remaineth the first in the sin and guilt.

It is a matter of great difficulty to understand how sin first entered into the innocent soul; and it is of great importance, because an error here is of dangerous consequence. Two sorts seem to me to make God so much the necessitating cause of Adam's first sin, (and so of all sin,) as that it was as naturally impossible for Adam to have forborne it, according to their doctrine, as to have conquered God: 1. Those that assert the Dominican, immediate, physical, pre-determining pre-motion (which no created power can resist). 2. And those that say the will acts as necessitated by the intellect in all its acts (and so is necessitated in all its omissions); and that the intellect is necessitated by objects (as, no doubt it is, unless as its acts are sub imperio voluntatis); and all those objects are caused and disposed of by God. But it is certain that God is not the cause of sin; and therefore this certainty overruleth the case against these tenets.

At present it seemeth to me, that sin entered in this method: 1. Sense perceiveth the forbidden thing. 2. The appetite desireth it. 3. The imagination thinketh on its desirableness yet further. 4. The intellect conceiveth of it (truly) as good, by a simple apprehension. 5. The will accordingly willeth it by a simple complacency or volition. Thus far there was no sin. But, 6. The will here adhered to it too much, and took in it an excess of complacency, when it had power to do otherwise: and here sin begun. 7. And so when the cogitations should have been called off; 8. And the intellect should have minded God, and his command, and proceeded from a simple apprehension to the comparing act, and said, The favour of God is better, and his will should rule, it omitted all these acts, because the will omitted to command them; yea, and hindered them. 9. And so the intellect was next guilty of a non-renuo,—I will not forbid or hinder it (and the will accordingly). 10. And next of a positive deception, and the will of consent unto the sin, and so it being "finished, brought forth death."

If you say, the will's first sinful adhesion in the sixth instance, could not be, unless the intellect first directed it so to do; I deny that, because the will is the first principle in men's actions quoad exercitium, though the intellect be the first as to specification. And therefore the will could suspend its exercise and its excitation of the mind. In all this I go upon common principles: but I leave it to further inquiry; 1. How far the sensitive appetite may move the locomotive faculty without the will's command, while the will doth not forbid? And whether reason be not given man, as the rider to the horse, not to enable him to move, but to rule his motion: so that as the horse can go if the rider hinder not, so the sensitive appetite can cause the actions of eating, drinking, thinking, speaking sensually, if reason do but drop asleep, or not hinder. 2. And so whether in the first sin (and ordinarily) the sensitive appetite, fantasy, and passion be not the active mover, and the rational powers first guilty only by omitting their restraining government, which they were able to have exercised? 3. And so, whether sin be not (ordinarily) a brutish motion, or a voluntary unmanning of ourselves, the rational powers in the beginning being guilty only of omission or privation of restraint; but afterwards brought over to subserve the sensitive appetite actively? 4. And so, whether the will, which is the principium actus quoad exercitium, were not the first in the omission? The intellect having before said, This must be further considered, the will commanded not that further consideration, when it could and should?

However, if it be too hard for us to trace our own souls in all their motions, it is certain that the will of man is the first subject of moral good and evil; and uncertainties must not make us deny that which is certain.

The reader who understandeth the importance and consequence of these points, I am sure, will pardon me for this interposition of these difficult controverted points (which I purposely avoid where I judge them not very needful in order to the defence or clearing of the plainer common truths): and as for others, I must bear their censure.

The degree of sinfulness in the will lieth in a stiffness and obstinacy, a tenaciousness of deceitful temporal good, and an eagerness after it; and stubborn averseness to spiritual good, as it is against that temporal fleshly good. This is the will's disease.[99]

(3.) The sinfulness of the memory is in its retentiveness of evil, or things hurtful and prohibited; and its looseness and neglect of better, spiritual, necessary things. If this were only as things present have the natural advantage to make a deeper impress upon the fantasy, and things unseen and absent have the disadvantage, it were then but a natural, innocent infirmity; or if in sickness, age, or weakness, all kind of memory equally decay. But it is plain, that if the Bible be open before our eyes, and preaching be in our ears, and things unseen have the advantage of their infinite greatness, and excellency, and concernment to us, yet our memories are like walls of stone to any thing that is spiritual, and like walls of wax, on which you may write any thing, of that which is secular or evil. Note here, also, that the faultiness of the memory is only so far sinful as it is voluntary: it is the will where the sin is as in its throne, or chiefest subject. Because men love carnal things, and love not spiritual things, therefore it is that they mind, and understand, and remember the one, and not the other. So that it is but as imperate, and participatively, that the memory is capable of sin.

(4.) The sinfulness of the imagination consisteth in its readiness to think of evil, and of common earthly things, and its unaptness to think of any thing that is holy and good; and when we do force ourselves to holy thoughts, they are disorderly, confused, unskilfully managed, with great averseness.—Here also voluntariness is the life of the sin.

(5.) The sin of the affections, or passions, consisteth in this:—That they are too easily and violently moved by the sensitive interest and appetite; and are habitually prone to such carnal, inordinate motions, running before the understanding and will, (some of them,) and soliciting and urging them to evil; and resisting and disobeying the commands of reason and the will: but dull and backward to things spiritually good, and to execute the right dictates of the mind and will.

(6.) The sin of the sensitive appetite consisteth in the inordinate rage or immoderateness to its object, which causeth it to disobey the commands of reason, and to become the great inciter of rebellion in the soul; violently urging the mind and will to consent to its desires. Materially this dependeth much on the temper of the body; but formally this also is so far sinful as (positively or privately, mediately or immediately) it is voluntary. To have an appetite simply to the object of appetite is no sin; but to have a diseased, inordinate, unruly appetite, is a sin, not primarily in itself considered, but as it is voluntary, as it is the appetite of a rational free agent, that hath thus disordered the frame of its own nature.

(7.) The sin of the exterior parts, tongue, hand, eyes, feet, &c. is only in act, and not in habit, or at least, the habits are weak and subject to the will. And it is in the execution of the sinful desires of the flesh, and commands of the will, that the same consisteth. These parts also are not the primary subject of the guilt, but the will, that either positively puts them upon evil, or doth not restrain them when it ought; and so they are guilty but participatively and secondarily, as the other imperate faculties are: it is not good or evil merely as it is the act of tongue or hand, but as it is the act of the tongue, or hand of a rational free agent (agreeable or disagreeable to the law). If a madman should speak blasphemy, or should kill, or steal, it were no further sin, than as he had voluntarily contracted the ill disposition which caused it while he had the use of reason. If a man's hand were held and forced by another to do mischief utterly against his will, it is the sin of the chief agent, and not of the involuntary instrument. But no force totally excuseth us from guilt, which leaveth the act to our rational choice. He that saith, Take this oath, or I will kill thee, or torment thee, doth use force as a temptation which may be resisted, but doth not constrain a man to swear: for he leaveth it to his choice whether he will swear, or die, or be tormented; and he may and ought to choose death rather than the smallest sin. The will may be tempted, but not constrained.

Direct. II. 2. Labour clearly to understand the evil of sin, both intrinsical in itself, and in its aggravations and effects.—When you have found out where it is, and wherein it doth consist, find out the malignity and odiousness of it. I have heard some christians complain, that they read much to show them the evil of sin in its effects, but meet with few that show them its evil in itself sufficiently. But, if you see not the evil of sin in itself, as well as in the effects, it will but tempt you to think God unjust in over-punishing it; and it will keep you from the principal part of true repentance and mortification; which lieth in hating sin, as sin. I shall therefore show you, wherein the intrinsical malignity of sin consisteth.

1. Sin is (formally) the violation of the perfect, holy, righteous law of God.

2. It is a denial or contempt of the authority, or governing power, of God: as if we said, Thou shalt not be our Governor in this.

3. It is a usurping the sovereign power to ourselves of governing ourselves, in that act: for when we refuse God's government, we set up ourselves in his stead; and so make gods of ourselves as to ourselves, as if we were self-sufficient, independent, and had right hereto.

4. It is a denying or contempt of the wisdom of God, as if he had unwisely made us a law which is unmeet to rule us.

5. It is a setting up of our folly in the place of God's wisdom, and preferring it before him; as if we were wiser to know how to govern ourselves, and to know what is fittest and best for us now to do, than God is.

6. It is a contempt of the goodness of God, as he is the maker of the law: as if he had not done that which is best, but that which may be corrected or contradicted, and there were some evil in it to be avoided.[100]

7. It is a preferring our naughtiness before his goodness, as if we would do it better, or choose better what to do.

8. It is a contempt or denial of the holiness and purity of God, which sets him against sin, as light is against darkness.

9. It is a violation of God's propriety or dominion, robbing him of the use and service of that which is absolutely and totally his own.

10. It is a claiming of propriety in ourselves, as if we were our own, and might do with ourselves as we list.

11. It is a contempt of the gracious promises of God, by which he allured and bound us to obedience.

12. It is a contempt of the dreadful threatenings of God, by which he would have restrained us from evil.

13. It is a contempt or denial of the dreadful day of judgment, in which an account must be given of that sin.

14. It is a denying of God's veracity, and giving him the lie: as if he were not to be believed in all his predictions, promises, and threats.

15. It is a contempt of all the present mercies, (which are innumerable and great,) by which God obligeth and encourageth us to obey.

16. It is a contempt of our own afflictions, and his chastisements of us, by which he would drive us from our sins.

17. It is a contempt of all the examples of his mercies on the obedient, and his terrible judgments on the disobedient, (men and devils,) by which he warned us not to sin.

18. It is a contempt of the person, office, sufferings, and grace of Jesus Christ, who came to save us from our sins, and to destroy the works of the devil; being contrary to his bloodshed, authority, and healing work.

19. It is a contradicting, fighting against, and in that act prevailing against the sanctifying office and work of the Holy Ghost, that moveth us against sin, and to obedience.

20. It is a contempt of holiness, and a defacing, in that measure, the image of God upon the soul, or a rejecting it: a vilifying of all those graces which are contrary to the sin.

21. It is a pleasing of the devil, the enemy of God and us, and an obeying him before God.

22. It is the fault of a rational creature, that had reason given him to do better.

23. It is all willingly done and chosen by a free agent, that could not be constrained to it.[101]

24. It is a robbing God of the honour and pleasure which he should have had in our obedience; and the glory which we should bring him before the world.

25. It is a contempt of the omnipresence and omniscience of God, when we will sin against him before his face, when he stands over us, and seeth all that we do.

26. It is a contempt of the greatness and almightiness of God, that we dare sin against him who is so great, and able to be avenged on us.

27. It is a wrong to the mercifulness of God, when we go out of the way of mercy, and put him to use the way of justice and severity, who delighteth not in the death of sinners, but rather that they obey, repent, and live.

28. It is a contempt of the attractive love of God, who should be the end, and felicity, and pleasure of the soul. As if all that love and goodness of God were not enough to draw or keep the heart to him, and to satisfy us and make us happy; or, he were not fit to be our delight. And it showeth the want of love to God; for if we loved him rightly we should willingly obey him.

29. It is a setting up the sordid creature before the Creator, and dung before heaven, as if it were more worthy of our love and choice, and fitter to be our delight; and the pleasure of sin were better for us than the glory of heaven.

30. In all which it appeareth, that it is a practical atheism, in its degree; a taking down God, or denying him to be God: and a practical idolatry, setting up ourselves and other creatures in his stead.

31. It is a contempt of all the means of grace, which are all to bring us to obedience, and keep us or call us from our sins: prayer, sacraments, &c.

32. It is a contempt of the love and labours of the ministers of Christ; a disobeying them, grieving them, and frustrating their hopes and the labours of their lives.

33. It is a debasing of reason, the superior faculty of the soul, and a setting up of the flesh or inferior faculties, like setting dogs to govern men, or the horse to rule the rider.

34. It is a blinding of reason, and a misusing the noblest faculties of the soul, and frustrating them of the use and ends which they were made for: and so it is the disorder, monstrosity, sickness, or death of the soul.[102]

35. It is, in its measure, the image of the devil upon the soul, who is the father of sin: and therefore the most odious deformity of the soul; and this where the Holy Ghost should dwell, and the image and delight of God should be.

36. It is the moral destruction not only of the soul, but of the whole creation, so far as the creatures are appointed as the means to bring or keep us unto God: for the means, as a means, is destroyed when it is not used to its end. A ship is useless if no one be carried in it. A watch, as such, is useless, when not used to show the hour of the day. All the world, as it is the book that should teach us the will of God, is cast by, when that use is cast by. Nay, sin useth the creature against God which should have been used for him.

37. It is a contradicting of our own confessions and professions; a wronging of our consciences; a violation of our covenants and self-obligations to God.

38. It is a preferring of time before eternity, and regarding things of a transitory nature, and a moment's pleasure, before that which never shall have end.

The perverting and confusion of societies.

39. It is a making a breach in the harmony and order of the world: as the dislocation or deformity of a particular member, is the trouble and deformity of all the body, because the comeliness and welfare of the whole, containeth the comeliness, proportion, and welfare of all the parts. And as the dislocation or breaking of one part in a watch or clock, is against the use of all the engine; so every man being a part of the kingdom of God, doth by sin make a breach in the order of the whole; and also giveth an ill example to other parts, and makes himself unserviceable to the body; and dishonoureth the whole body with the blot of rebellion; and lets in judgment on the world; and kindleth a consuming fire in the place where he liveth; and is cruel and injurious to others.

40. Sin is not only a preferring the body before the soul, but it is also an unmercifulness or cruelty against ourselves, both soul and body, and so is contrary to the true use of the indelible principle of self-love; for it is a wounding and abusing the soul and defiling the body in this life, and casting both on the wrath of God, and into the flames of hell hereafter, or a dangerous venturing them into the way of endless damnation and despair, and a contempt of those insufferable torments. All these parts of malignity and poison are intrinsical to sin, and found in the very nature of it.

The common aggravations of sin being written of by many, and easily gathered from what is said of the nature of it, I shall briefly name only a few.

1. The infinite perfection of God in all those blessed attributes and relations, which sin is against, is the greatest aggravation of sin.

2. The inconceivable glory of heaven, which is despised, is a great aggravation of sin.

3. So is the greatness of the torments of hell, which sinners despise and venture on.

4. So is the great opposition that God hath made against sin, having said and done so much against it, and declared himself to hate nothing else immediately in the world.

5. The clearness of evidence against it, the nothingness of all that can be said for it, is also a great aggravation of it.