Christian Observations and Resolutions, Observations · Observation 82 – Observation 85
82. Complementing. is a windie fulnesse.
COmplementing in speach, is a verball, Idolatrie; it is counted a perfection in talking, but is indeed the quintessence of pratling, and vnworhtie of a free and ingenuous minde. The giuer and receiuer are both deceiued; the first speaketh that which hee meaneth not, and the other troweth that which he exspecteth not: At titling men hauehave armes and facts of hostilitie without wrath, they breake their speares on other, & intend none hurt; so complementing hath friendly words without louelove: As jesters breake their jests on other, so doe Polititians their smoakie wishes & praise.
They liue by that smoake; but modest Spirits are tormented with it: That mist fleeth moste among men of least true worth: Where that flatterie is mutuall, then two birds of one feather …lee together, and two horse (of one itch) doe nippe other.
It is a pitie to see men teach their tongs to speake lies, & to labour to be trusted more than vnderstood: But they trow not themselues, how shall other men trust them? No mā can justly craue more credite to his speach of other, thā himself giueth to it, or if he doe, he must conceat stronglie that hee dealeth with a foole.
Hee mindreh one thing, and speaketh, or rather soundeth the contrare: Hee knoweth his Heart thinketh not what hee speaketh, and therefore hee taketh the floorish of faire speech to supplie the want of trueth: His heart must fetch the reasons of his owne perswasion from his mouth, and measuring others by himselfe, hee thinketh that many faire wordes shall beguile them, as well as hee beguileth himselfe with them.
They are no more vexed to coyne their wordes, than I am to keepe my countenance when I heare them.
Ingenuitie of affection goeth plainly to worke: The more care to fill mine eares with officious offers, the lesse credite they finde in mine heart: I thinke their Spirit is so spent in that vapour, that there is left neither spirit nor life in their affection.
This sort of lying is not vulgare, but with a singular mode: Poets hauehave libertie to lie, and for keeping their Rythme, they are licenced to quite Reason oft-times. There is none odde veine of Poesie, without some degree of abstractnes of Spirit, the strictnesse of meeter looseth them from the strictnesse of veritie, and secureth them from rigorous censure for that slippe: And their hyperbolees doe passe for good coyne. But the Complementer doe lie without either libertie or licence: And their hyperbolees are none other thing in broad tearmes, than lyes in folio.
Their speaches run vsuallie on three thinges, 1. large praises of some excellent worth in them whom they idole: 2. Officious offers of seruice as due to it. 3. And large wishes of all happinesse to them. In the first, their idoles know they are speaking false, except they be as sensles of flatteries, as there flatterers are shamelesse. In the second, their owne heart giueth them the lie: For they think themselues more worthie of seruice, than hee to whom they offer it. In the third, their Conscience checketh them for mocking of God: For they pray for that which they desire not to bee granted: Yea, they would bee grieued if it were granted.
They are equivocaters, minding one thing, and speaking another: Many doe practise the Iesuits, mentall Reseruation, who know not their doctrine: (It must bee a cousening Religion that teacheth, practiseth, & alloweth such cousening.) I neuer suspect them more, than when they double their complements.
Hee is short and shallow witted, who is glosed with these flowrishes▪ Let them paint out their speach and gesture, I wil giuegive lesse credite to so onerous and insidious speach. I shall trow the heart and the person so affected as it deserueth: An honest meaning simplie expressed, hath more weight, than all these buskinges and fairdings.
The heart that God made (but they abuse) hath the owne meaning: I trust that, but not the person which they assume, and laye downe, as soone as they hauehave spent their borrowed breath. The next momēt, and the first man they meete with, findeth them in another, if not in a contrare minde; it cannot byde in their heart, which bred not in it, nor was neuer in it: Their wordes are but carcases of language, and let the credulous beleeuer looke for no more, than carcase of offices. Belike, they thinke their words either not to bee idle, or that they shall not giuegive an accompt of them at the last day.
The Soule indeede must bee filled with something, but wee may soone choose better substance to fill it withall, …han that wind of frothie complementing: While they are feeding themselues with their fancies, let the children of Trueth, speake the Trueth from their heart.
Let complementing hauehave the owne due, without a complement: It is the birth of an emptie braine; the maske of hatred & enuy: Refined hypocrisie, with simulation and dissimulation, her twins ingraned; the breathing of an euill mind vnderunder hope of good deede. Hee who knoweth it, can neither bee moued to offer it, nor patientlie admitte it.
83. Consciencious, Knowledge.
If our hearts were narrowlie searched, Atheisme would bee found in them; wee know better then wee doe, and we worshippe not God as wee know him: Wee can say, That God is good, and yet neither louelove nor seeke him, that he is just and powerfull; yet wee feare not to offend him: That hee is wise▪ yet wee submit not our selues to his Wisedome; that hee seeth our heart and thoughts afarre of, and yet wee breede and feed wicked thoughts in our hearts, which wee would bee ashamed to shew to our neighbour: Wee beleeue there is an Hell for euill deedes, and yet goe on in the way of sin: And that there is laid vp a Crown of glorie in Heauen for well doing, yet we are not moued to doe good. What is then in our heart for all our knowledge, but Athiesme and Infidelitie: Our actions giuing our wordes the lye, and proclaming to the Worlde that wee beleeue not the thing that wee speake. The want of the worke of Conscience, is a speciall cause of this fleshly disposition: Without that worke, Christianitie is nothing but a speculation: Wee consider all things in abstract, but take them not in our persons and to our heart: Wee can abhorre sin in it selfe, and in our neighbours, but excuse it in our selfe, wee magnifie Vertue and Grace in it selfe, but yet thirst not for it: Papists talke mightilie of the worth of Faith, but doe scorne the sense & Conscience of it: And many Christians will heare and read their owne sinnes, convicted by the word of God, and yet not thinke themselues particularlie taxed, nor byde at the conviction.
Happie is that man whose Conscience pulleth all to his heart, & his heart to God, who turneth his knowledge to Faith, his Faith to feeling, and all to walke worthie of God, and to liue in Christ, as hee learneth him daylie: He hath not rest, but in walking according to the light of a well informed Conscience: when theorie is turned to practise, and speculatiō to a consciencious sensing, & doing, then wee are Christians indeed.
Gods word is his stamppe, hee hath deeplie sunke his Image in it, but it doth not instamp our heart, except some power thrust it vponupon vsus: When the holy Spirit maketh our conscience to set that word to our heart, then wee are stamped, and take deeplie the impression of his holinesse in the inward habits, and expresse it euidentlie in our life and conuersation.
God hath blessed vsus with many meanes of knowledge, but they doe no more, than propone and open matters to vsus: They inlighten the minde, and goe no further: But the Conscience worketh mightily on the heart. It letteth nothing abide in generalities, but turneth all to our particular and personall respect, and that not in the minde alone, but most in the heart.
As it reduceth all dueties, promises, and threatninges to our persons, so it joyneth affection to light, and moueth the heart according to thinges knowne: And out of all draweth actions that serue to expresse that knowledge, and doeth all as in the presence of God.
When Conscience bringeth Religion to the heart, and from the heart to the life, then wee are truely religious.
84. The wise mixture of mankinde.
HOw wiselie hath God tempered humane societies? All are not of one disposition; some hotte and some co…de, some harsh and headie in their judgement, and violent in their actions, other ryper wits, calmer in their affections, & posed in their doings: Some againe as grossely senslesse; some craue the bridle, and some the spurre.
If a man cast his eyes on a multitude, he shall obserue as much diuersitie in their disposition, voyces, & opinions, as in their faces. If all were of a firie humour, the world would fire at once. If all were sluggish, it would fall downe in the pot: Stirring wittes as quickning barme, put the dou…nesse of the simple to working: and the slownesse of the other, tempereth their fordwardnesse, and so both these extreamities are brought to mids.
If either extreame preuaile, matters goe wrong, but our wise God maketh that counterposing bring the ballance to an equall standing, and so tumultuous meetinges bring oft-ten foorth just conclusions. There can bee no standing of matters, if either witlesnesse or wilfulnesse predomine; but where contrars by their strife, are brought to a mids, there is the good of mankinde. Our complexion is made vp of contrare qualities, of the elements; and harmonie is a meeting of contrare sounds.
It is worth our labour to marke this disposition, and Gods prudence bringing all to a temper, and a good end. And withall to incline to a tempered and tempering wit, & moderation, of courses: If there be any fault in such moderatiō, it is both lesse in it selfe, & more curable, than the faults of fleshly extremities.
If any consider these extremes a part, hee can not bee without passion; hee shall offend at the headie and hotter sort as fire-brands, and at the coldnesse of the sluggish, as impediments of good: But beeing joyntlie considered as they are tempered of God, to his owne glorie and the well of mankynde, hee shall lay downe his offence: Their nature and action seuerall, is to hurt, but God causeth eueryevery one of them to hemme in another, and so disposeth them to a better temper.
But the moderate Spirit shall be beaten of both extreames: Hee is indeed a friend to both, and yet is counted of both as an enemie: As a Land lying far in the Sea, is beaten on both sides by waues, yet keepeth the soliditie of earth: So he is assaulted of both, & yet keepeth his moderate temper. Both extreames take him for their contrare extreame: Fyrie men call him sottish, and soft men call him fyrie, but hee standeth at his stayed posednesse, and enduring their frivolous censure reduceth them (if they bee curable) to the golden mids.
He rejoyceth in God, who hath giuen him eyes, to see that his diuine contemperation of mankynd, and hath turned his Spirit (of it selfe inclinable to extreames) to moderation. While both parties stand out against other in the claime of perfection to themselues, and imputing of folie to the other, hee thanketh God, who both at the first, and in the constant cariage of his adoes, hath blessed him with that temper, which they can neuer attaine, but by Repentance and amendement.
85. Needlesse feares are fruitfull to the godly.
EVen false and needlesse feares, worke true good in the godly: If they come not as they apprehend, our profite is double; one in the escaping of the feared euill, the other in the great store of Grace, which they produce: It is the best sort of errour, when feares proue false, and the feared euill commeth not, but that errour is recompenced with a true fruite, when it draweth vsus neere to God: There is great oddes betweene the true and false feare in their grounds, but not so in their f…uit: For the false doeth shake vsus, and bring out Repentance, and resolution for death, as well the other. Beside, the contempt of the world, the loathing of the vanities of it, holy vowes of better obedience to God, a renouncing of all, come of such feares.
It is great merciemercy in God, to work the same work of Grace in vsus by false feares, that hee would by true feare, and the greater that our losses are lesse, and our lesson the same. Wise Captaines can giuegive false alarmes to their Souldiers; if they goe franklie to their Armes, they conceat of their courage: So, if we goe to our spirituall Armour, wee are not feeble; if wee looke to our deseruing, eueryevery appearance of danger may make vsus feare, wee are vnderunder guiltinesse, and God hath vsus vnderunder processe for it, and all Creatures are readie to execute his will, how soone may the sentence both come foorth, and bring foorth the executiō against vsus: and it is a great mercy that the fray commeth before the stroke.
His judgement commeth out in the owne degrees. 1. We sinne: 2. And his justice-inquiring fi…deth our sinne worthie of punishment. 3. Our Conscience convincing vsus, and justifying him, doe apprehend the presage of punishment.
If all these can turne vsus to Repentance, happie are wee, with Ninivie we shall eschew the stroke it selfe: wee may call feare needlesse, in respect of the euent which God in merciemercy with-holdeth but it is not causl…sse, so long as sin remaineth. The best way to mitigate our needlesse feares, is to bee at peace with GOD; and if they come, to reape that good fruite of them, Repentance, Resolution, and Obedience. Grace so obtained, is well purchased, & the peace that commeth after, is double pleasant, because it is so farre contrarie to our deseruing and expectation. All things worke to the good of these that louelove God. Rom. 8 28.