Discourse of the Gospel of Peace, Tract 2 · Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
THE Improvement of the Doctrine.
I shall improve this Doctrine for the Reproof of five sorts of Men.
And First, of those who ambitiously reach at that Greatness above others, which God hath made none of their Duty, and hath set out of their Reach; and in the mean time are wholly unconcerned for this far greater Excellency that God hath made their Duty, and put within their Power by Divine promised Assistance, scil. the Rule of their own Spirits.
What projecting, intrigueing, troubling the World and themselves, does the whole Life, and all its powers of many Men resolve themselves into, for no other end but to top others in the Shadows of Greatness; but to govern themselves, which is both true Greatness and Goodness, are the serious Thoughts and industry but of a very few. God, who is the most perfect Understanding and Truth, hath told us wherein Goodness and real Tranquillity consists; who are the best of Men, and the most happy; that how low soever our Station is in the World, we are capable of this Felicity, that 'tis to be attainned with much greater Certainty, and upon far better Terms: But we will have none of this; but that which of it self is of as small a value as vexatious Vanity, and to most, both unlawful and impossible.Psal. 4. 2.
O ye Sons of Men! How long will ye turn my Glory into Shame? How long will you love Vanity and seek after leasing? Selah. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. And who is this godly Man, but he that sincerely endeavours to rule his Affections, and consequently his Life to a Conformity to God's Law? This is the Man that he has marked out for the wise and good Man, meet for his Favour, his Service, his Approbation, and his Portion among Men. And what and whose Portion they must be that are rejected of God, I will leave to you to determine, when your Thoughts are serious.
Secondly, It reproves those who value themselves by their having other Men under their Feet. This may signify their Might, but not their Goodness at all. But I pray what value is to be put upon mere Might and Power? Poysons we say have a great vertue, i. e. Force, but 'tis a mischievous one. The faln Angels are mighty in strength, but what value is to be put on them? Believe it, they that are under Foot may be better Men than those who tread upon their Heads. We read of the wisest among Philosophers, that they have been sold for Slaves; and the greatest Worthies among the Saints have been Martyrs and Confessors; and in the purest Times of the Church, Christians and Christianity were so low, that they were the Scorn of the Jews and Heathen, and accounted the Off-scouring of all things; yea the Lord of Glory was under the power of not only Pilate but the meanest of his Souldiers, to wound and mock him at their Pleasure.
Alas! What Glory is it for one Man, one Party to tread on the Neck of another? But this is a Vanity, a Folly we are too well acquainted with, yet the worst of all is, that Men value themselves by it as the better Men, and the weak World strike in with the Conceit as ungrounded and foolish as it is. Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur. The People will commonly take them to be best who are uppermost; and if Christ be on the Cross, the unthinking Vulgar will repute him a great Malefactor. Let not the wise Man glory in his Wisdom, nor let the mighty Man glory in his Might, nor the rich Man glory in Jer. 9. 23.his Riches. What then should they glory in? In understanding and knowing God, to exercise Lovingkindness, Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth, and to have that sense of him, as to govern our Spirits by so just and benign a Pattern.
Thirdly, It reproves those who follow their Inclinations and Passions without consulting their Superiors, i. e. their Ʋnderstandings and Consciences.
Certainly such Men who wear their Spectacles only in their Pockets, or forget to open their Eyes when they move on a Precipice, are as wise and self-consistent as these. There are a sort of People in the World, whose Passions sally out without Direction, Correction, or Self-examination: The Egyptians painted an inconsiderate Man with the Globe of the Earth before him, and a Looking-Glass behind him. These are the wild Asses used to the Wilderness, who Jer. 2. 24.snuff up the Wind at their Pleasure, who feed upon Ashes; a deceived Heart hath turned them aside, so Isa. 44. 20.that they cannot say, is there not a Lie in my right Hand? They abandon Reason as an useless thing, or as a Rub in that way which they are resolved in right or wrong: This is (I will not say unchristianing, but) unmanning themselves.
He that best knows the Nature of such Degenerates, gives them their due Characters and proper Names; and tells us, that Man that is in Honour, and understandeth Ps. 49. 20.not, is like the Beasts that perish. Let a Man be accomplished with any or all the titular Dignities that other Men can put upon him; if his Understanding be not his Master and Tutor; if he cast off those Reins of Government, consult nothing but his own Interest (as Men love to call their unreasonable Appetites) he conforms to the Brute, prostitutes himself to his Sensuality, as if he had to do with nothing more noble and worthy. But what Jude 10.they know naturally as brute Beasts, therein do they corrupt themselves. Under this Cognisance the Lord takes them; Hear this Word ye Kine of Bashan. Amos 4. 1.Upon this Text one gives this Paraphrase; Great Men who consult not their Ʋnderstandings for the Conduct of their Actions, are but great Beasts. And such Beasts are little Men too, who follow the same Tract, only they are of the lesser Herds of Cattel. Be not like the Horse or the Mule without Ʋnderstanding, that must be held in with Bit and Bridle. He that is so unlike a Man as to have nothing to do with his Understanding deserves the Bit and Bridle of a Horse: If he will not rule his own Spirit by his own Vertue, he must be ruled with the Bit and Bridle of an outward restraint from another Hand. Non caret regiâ Potestate, qui corpore suo noverit rationabiliter Aust. in Sent.imperare: That Man (and that Man only) who knows how to govern himself by his own Reason, needs no Royal Authority but his own.
Fourthly, It reproves those, whose blind and froward Will and Affections fight against and master the Dictates of the Ʋnderstanding, and Authority of their Consciences. To go on carelesly without consulting our Understandings, and what Directions it may afford us, is a Contempt of the Law of our Duty, and the means of our Welfare: but to act against them is Presumption, Scorn, and flat Rebellion against God in our Consciences. It is a black Brand on those of whom it is said, These are of them Job 24. 13.who rebel against the Light, they know not the Ways thereof, nor abide in the Paths thereof: But if 'tis said, they know not the ways thereof; so that 'tis at most but a Sin of Ignorance: I answer, no such matter! They know but will not acknowledg; they behave themselves notwithstanding their Knowledg, as if they were utterly ignorant, which is an high Aggravation of their Sin: and when by God Men are judicially given up to this Spirit, 'tis a Token of his highest Displeasure in this World, a Reservation in those Chains of Darkness, which are like to hold them till the Judgment of the great Day. For the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ʋngodliness and Ʋnrighteousness of Men, who hold the Truth in Ʋnrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God (i. e. his Being and their Duty) is manifest in them, for God hath shewed it unto them. In short, they oppressed and fought against their Light till they put it quite out, and all in favour of those unruly Affections and Lusts, which by it were made uneasy to them. For this Rebellion against their Light God gave them their Swing, and left them to embrace without controul the grossest Follies, and most unbecoming rational Creatures. That Advice of an Heathen therefore, reverere seipsum, was the Voice of a wise Man for he that hath not an awful regard of the Light and Authority of his own Understanding and Conscience, is a dissolute Wretch, who hath burst the Bands, and broken the Cords, by which the supreme and sovereign Authority holds Men to their Duty to him, to their Neighbour, and themselves.
Fifthly, It reproves them who abandon themselves to the arbitrary Conduct of others without concerning their own Judgments and Ʋnderstandings, in the Tryal of its Truth or Goodness. And I must say that of all Men they run most headlong into Error and Unmanliness, who will be at no farther Pains to consider what becomes them in their Places, what to entertain as their Opinion, what in their Practice; than only what such a Man says and does, whose Reasons may be as weak, whose Authority as little, and Motives as unreasonable as their own. We decry the giving up our Judicium Discretionis, and yet do it where there is not the least Shadow for it to a considering Man: What Advantage is it to decline our our own Ignorance and inordinate and irregular Appetitions, and follow anothers blind-fold. The Authority and Examples of a good and wise Man ought to weigh somewhat with us; but not so much as to determine us without farther Examination. God alone is so wise as not possibly to be mistaken, and so good and just as he cannot injure his Creatures: a perfect and absolute deference to him is our duty and safety. I will thank my fellow-servant to lend me his eyes, that I may see better with mine own: but, I will not so abuse his eyes as to put out mine own. God hath given to every Man a Guide in his own bosom, which with all other helps is to be his immediate Controuler and Director. I know not any commission we have to devolve its office upon a proxy. It is as reasonable, and as eligible, to commit it to others to eat and to drink for us, as to understand for us. Let every Man prove his own work; then shall he Gal. 6. 4.have rejoycing in himself alone, and not in another.
But I would not forget to mind those, whose Lusts and Passions have misled and dethroned their own Judgments, and Consciences; and yet are not so content, but give up themselves to a sort of Men, who are greater Masters of Misrule, and Doctors in Debauchery and Vice; that they wofully transgress this Doctrine of the excellency of a Mans governing his own Spirit. Is it not enough, and infinitely too much, for a Man indued with reason to turn Rebel, and subdue it by his own unreasonable appetite; but he must call in the greatest offenders against this Law, and submit himself wholly to their conduct? How many in our day go to school to learn the Art of sinning more sinfully, and chuse such wicked Companions for their patterns, who are most perfect in Villany; and can with the most scorn, and least sense of all that is venerable, not only satisfie, but inflame their Pride and Luxury, and all Licentiousness! Certainly if it be an unmanly error, to follow the tract of the better sort of men without examination; because, cause they may be misled themselves, or mislead others by their own Passions: It is a Crime, an Enormity for which no name is bad enough, to give up our selves to the misrule of the worst of Men; and for this very cause or motive, that they are more wicked; and can give us Instructions and Examples of Sinning, and gratifying our corrupt Affections above our selves, or any others.
Lastly, It reproves those above all others, whose Judgments and Ʋnderstandings are given up and prostituted to the service of sinful passions.
This is a most lamentable inversion of that Order, which God hath created in his creature Man; a turning it up-side down, a most direct and diametrical opposition to the Divine Institution. It is Man's Excellency to rule his own Spirit by a sanctified Reason: but he is so far faln from that, his Reason so unsanctified, as to turn it into a Slave and Vassal to his Lusts.
This Men do, when their Understandings have nothing to do, but to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof, and when that is done, to justify and turn Advocate for Sin.
The Scriptures give us many sad Instances of this, of a whole Generation that are pure in their own eyes, Prov. 30. 12.and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness. Their Judgments are so far polluted, as to justify them from any degree of Faultiness in the greatest degrees of Pollution. It tells us of Men that are wise to do Evil, but to do Jer. 4. 22.Good have no Knowledg. And what is this but a total giving up their Understanding to plot, and contrive the gratifying of sinful Passions; a Sagacity, and reach, a cunning for nothing else. This is the Wisdom which is not from above (and whence 'tis then you may guess) but 'tis earthly, sensual, devilish. Jam. 3. 15.The Faculty of Understanding is from above, and placed in Man to tread under Foot these vile Affections; but so to abuse it, as to be a Contriver for, a Promoter of what comes under any of these three Taints, is not from the pure Fountain above, but from the Sourse beneath, the bottomless Pit of Sin, Folly and Misery.
To have our Understandings so much abased, as to serve no higher Ends than earthly things, 'tis become a poor, low, restrained, imprisoned thing; it digs for Riches, but they are earthly Riches, Excesses of shining Clay, extention of Houses, Lands, which one calls Bona scabelli, the good things of God's Footstool, and such as he has placed under our Feet. This is making our Understandings Slaves to the Sin of Covetousness, which the only true God calls Idolatry. And tho Pride and Ambition look somewhat bigger than what may be tied up in a Bag, yet 'tis but earthly. Nebuchadnezzar thought his Wisdom and Understanding had been bravely imployed, when it had raised such a Morsel for his Ambition as his great Babylon; but God esteemed him a Beast for using his Understanding no better, and turns him among the Herd to admonish himself and others to employ it better.
But to have our superior Faculties serve mere Sensualities, is yet a greater Abuse. This is for Man to become brutish in his Knowledg, which is complained of by God as a wosul Degeneracy. For a ManJer. 1…. 14. to slave his Understanding, to provide what may most gratify the Lusts of the Eye, and the Lusts of the Flesh, by a voluptuous eating, drinking, wearing, hearing, and the touches of Uncleanness, is more base than Bestiality it self; for though the highest of their Heaven be the gratifyings of Sense, they know their Measure, and where left to themselves, act most exactly according to that Law of Self-preservation, and what is peculiar to their several Species, for their delights.
Yet Mens Understandings sink lower, even to drudg to Devilism; to contrive for, and to justify Envy, Revenge, Enmity, Cruelty, all manner of Mischief; yea, to turn Tempters to Soul-damning Sin, and taking pleasure in tormenting (not Beasts, but) Men. I forbear to give Examples of these several degrees of Sin, which have devoured Mens Understanding and Consideration in their Service. If I should tell you of a Crassus, a Midas, a Demas, an Achan, a Judas, who put Christ himself into his Bag; an Alexander, a Julius Caesar, Ahab, Jezebel, Nero, Sardanapalus; some it may be would stay their thoughts in them, as if such unreasonable and reason-prostituting Men were rare things: whereas indeed, this Disease is Epidemical, Common, and in some degree Universal.
But where this Crime is reigning, 'tis but playing the Fool with all our Cunning, and sinning the more profoundly. To be brutish in our Affections, is very unbecoming a rational Creature; but to have our Understandings approving and serving brutish Lusts is far worse; the greatest degeneracy we are capable of in this World. And it seems as if intended to express the ne plus ultra of the possible defection of Man from his Integrity, to have his Mind and Conscience defiled, i. e. to have sentiments, and give instructionsTit. 1. 15. agreeable to inordinate Affections: If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?
SECT. II.
We shall next consider some Instructions to our Understandings this Doctrine affords us.
And first, it informs us how we are to judg of Mens Excellencies, Goodness or Worthiness. Not by their Greatness and Might with respect to others, but by that Dominion they have and exercise over their own Spirits. He is an Hero indeed who is his own Master: He is a Grandee, and as good as he is great, that by his Understanding taking its Light from the Word of God, governs and keeps in order his own Affections. Such a Man has the Empire of a whole World, a lesser World, but of more value than the greater.
They who judg of Goodness by such outward Appearances as agree to common Opinion and mere Pageantry, judge according to Appearances, but not righteous Judgment.
Secondly, This informs us that there are but a few Men in the World that are excellent Men. My Goodness extendeth not to thee, (saith David) but Ps. 3. 16.to the Saints that are on the Earth, and to the Excellent in whom is all my Delight. But who are these Excellent ones? why they are Saints, such who exercise 1 Tim. 4. 7.themselves (as the Apostle speaks) unto Godliness, have their Heads and Hearts employed to the ordering their Conversation aright, both that without, and that within: Who are upright before God, and keep themselves from their Iniquity. But these are a very few comparatively. Among the Throng of People that are in the world, 'tis the Lot of but a few to be Noble, Rich or Great; and I fear 'tis the choice of fewer to be in good earnest in this cumbersom unpleasing-work to the Flesh, of ruling their own Spirit. In all Places and Societies of Men, unruly Spirits banish the Delight and Profit of Christian and humane Converse, and make but an illfavoured Representation of Christianity. 'Tis a rare thing to meet with a Man whom you shall be sure to find in the Path of Reason and Christian Duty, who needs no other Motives to be what he ought to be, than what he carries alway in his own Bosom. And I would I could say of Professors of the Fear of God, that they were generally a People of this Excellency commended, such as have crucified the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts; whose enlightned Understandings and Consciences had a powerful Influence to restrain their Passions, when under no Temptation but of natural Humours. True Notions of Truth and Duty, a Track of Ordinances, with some professed Approbations of the things that are excellent, is the utmost Limit of most Mens Religion. What Crookedness, Perverseness, Worldliness, Sensuality, Pride, Frowardness were the Symptons of their unbridled Spirits long since, continues the same, and are more unchanged than their Faces: Their Graces seem powerless, and short of the Effects of moral Vertue: yea good Nature, or good Breeding have much a fairer Appearance, and render their Societies who rise no higher (at least) less offensive. There may be true Grace within, Charity may suggest so much, when 'tis as a Candle in so foul a Lanthorn, as not only its useful Shine is withdrawn, but also its being there is almost most invisible. But let me make bold to tell Professors, that have no better Proof of their being delivered from the Power of Darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God, that they put their eternal Estate to a very great hazard.
Thirdly, This Doctrine informs us, how happy and blessed the Heaven of the Blessed will be. There will be this Goodness in its Perfection, there will be no pricking Briars nor grieving Thorns of unmortified unbridled Passions in others, or our selves. Into that place shall enter nothing that doth offend. Every thing that is crooked here, shall be found streight there. Humour, carnal Interest, Flattery, Opinion are not the Byass of that thorowly reformed World. All there is naked Plainness and perfect Beauty, that needs none of the Masques and Disguises which Men use here to cover those Disorders in their Affections, which they have no Will, and therefore no Power to cure.
This World is not worth the living for, 'tis so rude a thing; Men who by Nature are fitted for delightful and useful Society, are become the most degenerate and troublesom of the whole Creation. We know not where to be, but we find it a Meshek or a Kedar. How gladded will a Soul, disposed for, and assured of that blessed Rest, be at its Departure from so much Uneasiness from others, and from remaining Corruptions in her self, which as more near, and more its own Guilt, is more her own Disease and Grief? It is one of the good, if not of the best Improvements we can make of all the Evils we know, or do, or suffer here; to raise thereby the Price of Heaven in our Hearts, where none of that Disorder, Deformity and Bitterness will be found: And of what Sparks or Drops of good we see, or taste here, to raise the Price of Heaven in our Hearts by considering, that all this Goodness will be there in Perfection. This will be the way to make our Mercies and Comforts more sweet and comfortable, and our Afflictions, yea our very Sins, less imbittering our Days.
The third Improvement we shall make of this Doctrine, will be of such things it puts us on the practice of.
First, To call over the Records of our Memories and Consciences, that we may inform our selves how far, and wherein we are faln from this Excellency, the Rule of our own Spirits. It is certain that God invested Man with it in his first Creation, and as certain he never gave to any an Authority to divest us of it, nor have we his Warrant to neglect it, or discharge our selves. We had once a Right to this Empire of our own Spirits, and the Possession also: But woe is us! 'tis lost and hath been so time out of mind. If God should now demand of us an Account of our selves, how we have conserved this Trust, and maintain our Authority in its Vigour; what Answer should we make to the Supreme Lord? Alas we have cared so little for these things, that we can give no Account of them; they have not fallen under our Observation; we have not charged our selves with them as any part of the Province committed by the great Sovereign to our Custody. Our Wills have taken no Measures from our Understandings, nor our Understandings from that Law of the whole Creation, scil. to serve the Ends of our Being. There hath been an universal Conspiracy against the Divine Right, and that Order he has commanded. Not only our Love, Hatred, Joy, Sorrow, Desire, Aversation have been licentious and run riot, been a Sort of Self-movers; but our Wills and Understandings also have quit their Posts, and like treacherous Counsellors and Commanders in an Army, have taken part with, and headed a Mutiny. We came into this World like corrupted troubled Springs, and have fallen in with the Stream of this Folly, and followed its Current into the dead Sea of Sin and Vanity, we knew not how nor asked why. If the case is so, as certainly it is, or hath been so, and is so in too great a degree with the best. Then,
Secondly, Let this Doctrine, this momentous and so much a self-concerning Truth, put us upon resuming our Command and Rule of our own Spirits. Though we have lost the Power and Possession, we have not lost the Right, nor is the Possession irrecoverable. Look into the holy Scriptures, there thou shalt find the Records of thy first Rights, and the true Constitution of self-Government, with all the Helps thou canst desire to set it upon its Legs again, with a greater Encouragement and Advantage than thou hadst at the Beginning. And though thou mayest not expect wholly to reform the Disorder all thy days: yet so much may be done by the Grace of God which offers it self to thee, as may render thee through Christ acceptable in the Sight of God, thy Life more righteous, orderly, comfortable, and useful to thy self and others, and thine End blessed. Rouse up thy self therefore, let thy Reason (submitted and devoted to God) take the Throne, lay its Commands on thy Affections, and force their Obedience: Keep thine Heart with all Diligence, take a daily, an hourly, aPro 4. 23. foreign above all keeping. continual Account of all its Motions: Restore to thy Conscience its Office of directing, examining, accusing, excusing, and encouraging. Live like a Man, a Christian in good earnest, that has something to do with the World, but more with thy self, and the Concerns of thy Soul with God. That this may be done, and how it may be done in some good measure, I shall propose shortly some Motives and Directions for thine Assistance. In the mean time I shall put thee upon one Task more, to which this Doctrine obliges thee.
SECT. IV.
Put a Remark upon the Disorders in the Spirits of others, more especially in thine own, with their Causes, that renders the World involv'd in so much Confusion, and wherein this great Duty of Self-government is most neglected, and most apparently injured.
I shall endeavour to give a Prospect of some few of them, and leave you to enlarge by your own Observation.
First, It appears in the perverse and contentious adhering to whatever is our own.
Alas! what proper rational Evidence is there of Worth or Goodness in any thing because it is ours? Because 'tis our Opinion, our Party, our Relation, our Interest? Yet under this only Consideration, or rather from these Motives without any farther consideration, not only the above-named, but our very Sins, Lusts and Follies are passionately espoused. If our Spirits were regulated as they ought, we would love Truth as Truth, and Goodness as Goodness wherever we find it: and what is contrary should have none of our Countenance. Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3.would needs have the Image in the Plain of Dura worshipped by all, because it was of his setting up. The Disciples of Christ had not well learned what the best of Masters taught them, when they would have their Mouths stopped who followed not them, and for no other cause. I am of Paul, and I of Apollo, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ was no Symptom of well-govern'd Spirits among the Corinthian Professors of Christianity. And if the Order wherein these Parties are expressed may signify any thing 'tis this, that where Men prefer in the first place their own Passions, Christ will be so far put behind as to become last of all. But these things, and their being puffed up for one against another, were their Follies, and so notorious Follies and unbridled Passions, that the Apostle does not nakedly say they were carnal; but makes them their own Judges, puts it to their own Consciences if they were not so; Are ye 1 Cor. 3. 3.not carnal? It was the early Christians of whom the Apostle said, All Men seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. But this (you will easilyPhil. 2. 21. believe) was not written for our Imitation, but for our Caution.
Secondly, This unruled Spirit appears in Mens Impatience of Contradiction however reasonable. Men when having obtained some Reputation for Learning, Wisdom, Parts, &c. a Spirit of Pride sensually plucks the Reins of their own Spirits out of their Hands: They will rather run into twenty Errors in word or deed, than acknowledge themselves guilty of one, or leave him a Saver that will not go out of the way with them, as well as in it.
Who would think that so many should be ambitious of being thought infallible themselves, who seem to be so much against that Character on any? Vain Man Job 11. 12would be wise, tho he be born as a wild Asses Colt. It were well if he would be so: But the Sense is, he would be thought so, and is more fond of being thought so, than of being so indeed.
How impatient was Zedekiah of Contradiction, that he could not forbear in the presence of two Kings, and many Princes and Nobles, to smite Micaiah (that honest Tell-Truth) on the Cheek. This was certainly a Token that the Spirit of the Lord was gone from him (whether it went to Micaiah or not) and that he had lost also the Rule of his own Spirit. This impatience of Contradiction has been the cause of many a feverish Heat in some Men, from whose Examples might be expected the most eminent Patterns of Humility. And if we think this ungoverned Spirit is not to be found but in the worst of Men, or at least not to be found in those we judg and rank among the best; we may sooner or later find our selves mistaken. Knowledg, or Learning and Parts, have not alway Grace growing up equally with them. I may be bold to say, that if Humility be the Legitimate Daughter of Knowledg, Pride is its Daughter too, tho I confess 'tis not Legitimate, but a Byblow.
Knowledg puffeth up, but Grace edifieth, i. e. Knowledg fills Men as a Bladder with that windy Vanity, but Grace makes Men truly Great and Good. Who would have thought that such a Man as Jonah should be so impatient of a seeming Contradiction to his Prophecy, from the Divine Pity it self, and the imputation of a false Prophet, from the Construction Fools would make of that compassionate and tender Mercy, which is alway implied upon Repentance: Yet so it was, and so unequally, as well as feverish did his Pulse beat, that he justified his Anger against God himself (for who else could he be angry with?) for smiting his Mushroom Gourd, but could have had Patience enough, and it may be some Pleasure too, to see his Prophecy confirmed, by the Destruction of so many thousand Innocents (among greater Sinners) as dwelt in that great City Nineveh.
Thirdly, This ungoverned Spirit appears in Men's so easily shifting, and changing Opinions, Professions, and Communions.
I do not, I dare not say, that when there is a just Evidence of our being in an Error, we must not change an Error for a Truth: That were to give unto a perverse Stubbornness, the Honour of a well-principled Stability. I do not here concern my self with those who under any Profession of Religion whatever, have no design above the low Things of this World. We must expect (say what can be said) that such will admit of no Godliness that crosses worldly Gain. But I speak of, and to, such who do so easily shift and change Principles, and think they do their Duty, and give good satisfaction to God and their own Consciences; and it may be take themselves to be so much the better and more genuine Christians.
Some who I hope are real Christians (but I must needs say are very weak) if they hear a Man speak good Words, and such as it may be contain Truths worthy our acknowledgment; presently grow fond of all that Person holds or practises in the matters of Religion. Is not such a sally of the Affections without Bit or Reigns, which a very mean Understanding may afford them? I would ask such, if they might not as reasonably turn to every Opinion of every Man, that saith somewhat more or less that affects them? and then they must, or may shift all Points of the Compass in a short time, and hold all true that any Man holds, who doth so far gratify them as was said before.
Others, when any thing is said to them for a new Opinion, or contrary to their old Sentiments, which they cannot answer presently; they forsake what they formerly held and professed, and upon good grounds too: Only they knew not how to manage them, and are captivated by the Assailant. If these are not Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine, Eph. 4. 14.those words of Holy Writ have no meaning: For, let another deal with them against those Arguments that altered them before, and say more than they know how to answer; must they not face about as they were, or be as partial now, as before they were both weak and imprudent? Do these poor Souls rule their own Spirits, or their Spirits rule them? Or rather are they not neither ruling nor ruled, but poor passive indifferent things, roul'd to and again with a Breath? Do these People believe that all Truth stands on their Legs, and if their strength cannot support it, it must fall to the Ground and be an Error?
But I must drive it a little farther. These Persons (for the more part) are surely within the reach of some more knowing, and as sincere for Truth as themselves: And most of them (I suppose) have some or other Pastors, who by their own Choice have a particular Charge and Care of their Souls. I find but very few of them (upon such Temptations) who will have recourse to them, to try what satisfaction they can give them against the Adversaries Arguments, and to retain them in their former Principles. Doth not this give abundant evidence, that they are so far chain'd by their precipitate Choice of a new Opinion, that they are afraid of being better informed, and re-established? This is the very Truth of most of these Men's shifting Principles. And I dare say these Persons neither rule their own Spirits according to their Portion of Understanding, nor know what manner of Spirit they are of. And I will add, that beside their unfaithfulness to Truth and their own Souls; they cannot be excused from perfidiousness too, and wronging and grieving those who are over them in the Lord. And I pray God to furnish his Church with such Pastors, whose Knowledg may enable them, and whose Integrity may dispose them (like their Lord) to have pity on the Ignorant, and those who are out of the way; and to carry it with that sweetness of Love, Humility, Meekness, and Self-Denial; as may incourage poor Souls in their difficulties to expect their Help. I have said thus much not partially for this or that Persuasion in the Matters of Religion, but from an impartial regard to Souls, and their stability in the Truth.
Fourthly, It appears in the prevalency of corrupt Passions, in giving and receiving Reproofs or Admonitions. I must acknowledg, that it requires much of a Spirit of Wisdom, Love, Meekness, and Impartiality to discharge either of these parts becoming Christians: A wise Reprover, and an obedient Ear, seldom meet. There is a Humour runs in the Veins of all Men (few excepted) to have every Body under check but themselves; a strange inclination to, and fondness of a Self-Indulgence Ʋniversal, without regard to what is right or meet.
Moses that Pattern of singular Meekness, reproves (with a Meekness like himself) a Brother Hebrew,Exod. 2. 13. from brotherly Love; Why smitest thou thy Fellow? The Text tells us that his Reproof was to him that did the wrong: Yet, he met with so sharp, and ungrateful Reception, as made him flee his Countrey. A sad Reward for his Charity! He was paid off with Wrong, and Revenge, and Railery: Who made thee a Judg? there's Railery. Wilt thou kill me? there's a false Accusation: As thou didst the Egyptian Yesterday: there's Revenge added to both the other. That advice of our Saviour, Cast not your Pearls before Swine, lest they turn again and rent you; seems toMat. 7. 9. most, a sufficient discharge from all reproving; Men are generally become so Swinish; having so little rule of their own Spirits. He that reproves, must not only cloath himself with Wisdom, Love, and Meekness, but he must also arm himself with the greatest Patience and Fortitude.
This difficulty and danger of reproving has turn'd Friendship into unfaithful Silence, or a more pernicious Flattery: But it is better to love with this Severity, than to deceive with Flattery. I have thought sometimes to restrain Reproof to the Pulpit, would be the wisest way in a Minister; Because, that leaves the particular Application to the Hearer's own Conscience: But, this tho the most wary, as well as authoritative, does not alway secure him from the charge of a false, or malicious Accuser, of a particular Person, or Busie-Body, tho he has neither had that Offender, nor any particular Person in his Thoughts: Of this many sad and revengeful Instances might be given. Thus Men like foolish Children, hate, if not break the Looking-Glass, that shews them the Dirt or Deformity of their Faces, but hereby they discover their Souls more foul and deformed. I have no small Opinion of that of Bernard, Omnia enim in confessione Bern. in Serm.lavantur, nisi quod ea quae sponte dicunt aliis, ab aliis patienter audire non possunt. God will forgive all the Sins we confess; but not so, if we will not bear a Reproof from others patiently, for the Sins we confess of our own aecord.
The Reproved are commonly of the unruly Spirit we have observed, and much more might be said: But, the Reprover commonly is as little concerned to manage his Spirit in giving, as the Reproved in receiving the Rebuke. Some Persons have such an itch of reproving, that they must be at that work; and are as busy to seek it, as the Fly to find the sore place. These make other Mens Sores smart, to please and tickle, their own Itch. Some Men reprove in Wrath and Anger, as if they hated the Persons more than the Vices they reproved.
—Licuit semper{que} licebit
Parcere Personis, dicore de Vitiis.
And whereas Love and Wisdom would, that as bitter Pills are wrapped in Gold, and a sowre Portion made more tolerable by sweetning; so Reproofs should be prefaced with due Commendations, of the goodness and worth of the Person reproved, and Expressions of good Will, with all the mollifying terms the nature of the Fault, and the hope of the Cure will bear. This was the great Example of Christ the divine Wisdom, in five of his Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia; worthy to be considered by all inRev. chap. 2. & 3. giving Reproof. But where is the Reprover that regards so to govern his own Spirit? What Wrath commonly in the Countenance? What biting Words? What remembrances of former and other present Faults? What deafness to all just Justifications? What discomposure and interestedness to Condemn? And as little Judgment and Charity to consider and weigh with our selves before-hand, what may be said for the Person supposed Faulty, by which we should put our selves in his Case. It was an excellent Spir…t appeared in the Church of Rome, writing an Epistle of Reproof to the Church at Corinth: I will give you a shred for a Sample. Haec Clarissimi, non tantum ut vos officii vestri admoneamus scribimus, sedut nos ipsos commone faciamus; In eodem enim stadio versamur, & certamen idem nobis impendit. i. e. Dear Brethren, We write these things, to advise not you only of your Duty, but with you our selves also: For indeed, we are in the same Fault with you, and labour under the same Disease and Difficulties. To conclude, I know no Action wherein Men do so rarely on the active or passive part, so much as design to govern their own Spirits: For which cause, Reproofs seldom are given but it comes to a down-right Quarrel, and wounding, instead of healing, is the work on both Hands.
Plato had indeed the art of reproving an ill-taught Reprover, and striking the Quarrel dead with one soft, but heavy Blow. Diogenes the Father of the Cynicks, that is, of the cross-grain'd, unmannerly Humourists, who are for pleasing no Body but themselves; He being in Plato's Lodgings, and seeing there a delicate Bed, and very rich, gets him up with his dirty Feet on the Bed, and tramples it to its great discomposure, and prejudice, crying out; Now I tread Diog. Laer in vit.under Feot Plato's Pride. Plato with a composed, and mild Countenance only returns those words, with greater Pride.
Fifthly, This unruled Spirit among Men, appears in the great Incongruity of Men's Ʋnderstandings, Professions, Approbations, and their own Practices: without much burden to, or complaint of themselves.
The Truth is, the World is full of Knowledg, and Christianity mightily advanced among us, if its Confines reached not to either Heart or Life: But, Wisdom both Human and Divine, which is the practick Knowledg, is sunk to a very low ebb. But what is the matter, that Men look so high, and live so low? talk like Men, like Saints, or Angels, and walk like Crabs? It is because they are not concerned in ruling their own Spirits; Affections inordinate have gotten the Mastery, and keep quiet Possession. It hath been said of the Grecian Stage-Players, that for that Stageturn they had so furnished themselves with excellent Sentences, that honest and wise Men were ashamed to use them, after such Slaves to their Lusts, had so defiled them.
Certainly, they who consider what Christianity is commended to us in our Bible, how we generally commend, and pretend to have a dear and awful respect to it; and also how contrary and unbecoming it our Deportment to God and Men are: I say, such will conclude that either we understand not our Bible, or do not believe it; or we have no care to govern our Spirits. It is true, that the best of Men come short of their Knowledg in their Lives: The Apostle Paul himself saith, To will is present with me, Rom. 7.but how to perform that which is good I know not. But as the first was his Choice and Delight, the latter was his loathing and burden; which vented it self in that Groan, O wretched Man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death? I take it to be neither boldness nor uncharitableness to affirm, that where with the Knowledg, the Grace of God is in Truth, tho there may be, and is too great a Non-conformity of the Practice to the Understanding, and the taint of natural Corruptions will not be quite wrought out; yet, there is a sincere design, a purpose of Heart, to reduce outward Acts, and inward Dispositions to a conformity to our Understandings, and that where it is so, there will be apparently some Bridle of Restraint: Pride, Anger, Frowardness, Covetousness, Hatred, Contention, and other enormous Lusts, will not riot it, and have so free and beaten a Road, as where there is no such Self-Rule sincerely determined.
There will be a Change for the better, a stated endeavour to purify our selves even as God is pure. Where Men understand the proper ways of their Callings, and that they are necessary to answer the ends of a comfortable living in the World, and yet are not to be found ordinarily in them, but in Idleness and ill Haunts, destructive to those Ways and Ends: Every wise Man will conclude such to be a sort of dissolute Persons, i. e. ungoverned loose Men: such as have disbanded themselves from under the Authority of their Understandings, in those Concerns. It is no less a reasonable Conclusion, where the case is alike in Matters of Religion and our Eternal Concerns. And that there is such a looseness among Professors this day, from the Paths that are professedly leading to our Duty and true Felicity, needs no secret Search, no elaborate Enquiries to find the sad proof of.
Sixthly, It appears, in the unreasonable and sudden Alterations wrought on Mens Spirits, by not only great, but small Changes and Provocations. By nothing more than this, is the unruliness of Men's Spirits to be discerned. Where is the Man that is semper idem? that has such a Poise on his Spirit, that he sinks not under a Change to Adversity, or over-sets not with a stiff Gale of Prosperity? I said in my Prosperity, I shall never be moved: Thou didst hide thy Face, and I was troubled. As good a Man as he was that said it, he said no more than what he had proved in his own unruly Heart: It was lifted up so high upon the weak moveable Waters of the World, that he had an unworthy Confidence in, and Opinion of his Stability on so poor a Foundation: It seemed to be a sudden transport of mind. But when God frown'd on him by adverse Providences, what became of his Confidence? where was his Mountain? He then had a Heart melted like Wax, his Spirit was as Water in a Storm all disordered.
It is said of our English Nation, that they hurry from one extream to another, are alway Strangers to Moderation. I was so self-indulging as not to believe it a long time, I took my own Nation (as plain Country People do) to be every way worthy, because it was mine own. But if this last Age hath not proved us more than disposed to Extreams, no Nation ever was proved so. Indeed we have been all in a Passion this Fifty Years and more. One Bucket is on the Seat, 'tother at the bottom of the Well. The Ball is gotten to this end of the Street, and there's the Shout now, and by and by to the other end, then the Shout is there; and they that Shouted before are Dumb, and have scarce Heart enough to keep them on their Feet. This is not the Spirit of the Boys only, 'tis theirs that are old enough to be Men. We cannot but play the Child, when we are mightily pleased, but when otherwise, we are all in the Dumps, or murmur; and 'tis well if God himself have a good Word from us.
If we consider another manner of Humour: When Men have gotten Power, then nothing but Tyranny, Domineering, Scorn, and Contempt of all Mankind except their Superiors: A Spirit full of Revenge and Cruelty; nothing more pleasant than to make them, especially who have wronged them, feel how big they now are, by laying all their weight on them, that they may expire in Groans. But let these very Men become low; their Hearts are in their Heels, no bigger than a Pease; they are shrunk into the most slavish, flattering Abjects imaginable: Such a pusillanimity is there among Men. And I know not how to reflect on such, as Men whose Superior Souls are any great Counsellors or Commanders in their little▪ World, or that Spirits so easily moved, or so far removed by outward Changes, can be truly Great, or well managed by the Judgment and Understanding.
Seventhly, This unbridled Spirit appears in Mens pursuit of the World. No bounds are given to the measure, nor means for obtaining it. The Word enough is one of the most unintelligible in our Dictionaries. The Heart, Head, all the Powers are inslaved to its interest. It hath usurped the Place of God Himself. Men take all measures by it in matters both Civil, and Ecclesiastical: Love and Hatred, Court and Contempt, rise and fall at its beck. It answers all things, as far as the most violent Passions can carry it, which are become its perfect Slaves. In this Argument there is Field-room enough to fill a Volume.
I would only ask a few Questions, and they are, What thinking Men say, preach and print of the Weight, Worth and necessity of that Measure of the World (if that word may pass for the present) which Men press unto? the Means and Spirits laid out to obtain it? the value of it when the most is made of it that can be possible? Really there is so general a Consent to what the Scripture speaks of its Vanity to those great Ends of Satisfaction, its Snares to intangle in all Evil, its Fumes and Vapours to intoxicate Men both seeking and finding it, desiring and possessing it; that we may call it by all the hard Names imaginable, charge its Idolatrizers with setting their Eyes and Hearts on that which is not, with all the Folly, Wrong to God, Ruin to their own Souls we can express: All Men generally (that pretend to Religion or Reason) will say Amen to't, and (it may be) the Conscience of Guilt in this matter, and the Heart resolved notwithstanding to continue it, shall send forth a faint Sigh, and go away a little sad for the present, as the young Man after he had heard from Christ what was not fit for his turn.
Now considering that the things of the World are (at best and worst) such, and all consent to't, when their Judgments and Consciences speak; Where is the Rule and Government of Mens Spirits, that are so perfectly, violently and constantly contrary to those Sentiments? What Account can they give to themselves? or do they dare to call themselves to any Account at all in this matter? Certainly the God of this World cannot but laugh and triumph at this almost universal Folly and Madness, whereby Men with wind and stream are hurried on to serve his malicious Ends. Quem Deus pro malis suis abjicit, Cassiodorus in verba, Omnia te expectant.fit Diaboli pabulum; quapropter si inescam inimici dari nolumus, non debemus esse terreni: Quia sic in Principio maledictus est, ut terram comedat. They whom God rejects, are the Devils Prey. Therefore if we would not be devoured by that Enemy, it becomes us to take heed of earthly-mindedness; because the Devil was in the Beginning cursed to have the Earth for his Morsels. A little grain of Salt for the strain of Wit usual with (otherwise) great Men in their day, and it carries in it a substantial and useful Truth.
Eighthly, In Anger, Lust and Revenge: I joyn all three under one Head; because they are the three greatest Furies in corrupted Nature; such as of all others disdain any Rule or Order; when once they have gotten the Bit in their Teeth. What a mad thing is Anger? He that cannot so rule his Spirit, as to preserve it from being at all prevailed on by this Passion, in vain doth he hope afterward to correct it, till it has with the fiercest Horse run it self out of Breath, or with the Waters broken over the Bank, spent their Torrent. This Passion is of all others the least guilty of Hypocrisy, but of all others is the most impudent, for it exposes its Fury in all the Features of the Face, in Looks full of Terror and threatning; a Tongue set on fire of Hell, Actions and Gestures so uncomely, so inconsiderate, that it differs nothing from stark Madness, only in Duration. It is Furor brevis, it is so void of all Deference to the Understanding, that it will have an absolute Soveraignty or Tyranny; All true it saith, all Good it doth, when 'tis most uncapable of either. Nulli irascenti sua Ira videtur injusta: And it hath oneAust. Quality peculiarly unreasonable, that nothing more inflames it than to be opposed with Reason. And certainly Men under this Distemper, if they had Power equal to their Passion, nothing would end it but the End and Destruction of its Objects. Therefore our Saviour makes it a degree of Murder. It is a dangerous Companion to our selves and others, fit toProv. 21. 19. live no where but alone; 'tis better to live in a Wilderness than with an angry Woman. Make no Friendship with an angry Man, and with a furious Man Prov. 22. 24.thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his Ways, and get a Snare to thy Soul. So far is an angry Person from the Rule of his own Spirit, that he is not fit for Society.
Lust, so far as it prevails, is no less a Sympton of an unbridled Spirit, of the Understanding dethroned. When once this Evil hath touched and infected the Heart, 'tis it alone possesses all the Powers. What became of David's Piety or Humanity? What Token left of any thing of a Man of Understanding, much less of a Man after God's own Heart, when his inordinate Affection had fastned on Bathsheba? What did he stick at to accomplish and continue his unchast Desires. Give me Dinah, said Shecem, let the Dowry be what it will be. Solomon himself, a most wise King in his Youth, plaid the fool in his old Age, broke the Bonds of Duty and Loyalty to his God, Equity to his Subjects, and Prudence to himself; this Passion did so far divest him of the Rule of his own Spirit. That Expression of the Heathen Philosopher, of Jupiter, accounted the Supreme Deity, runs highest in this Evidence, and with that I shall conclude it; Jupiter himself cannot love and be wise at once. This is a great Document, but Thanks be to God we have the Kowledg of a greater and a better Deity.
Revenge is as great an Usurper on the Authority of the superior Soul, an Usurpation of what is peculiar to God and the Magistrate, and renders our Spirits as ungoverned by the Understanding as any other. It is one of the first Masters of Misrule that appears in the human corrupted Nature. Children before they can speak, can fight, and shew sad Tokens of what they would do, did not their Impotency rather than their Innocency restrain them. The World is in a continual Flame by the Heat of this unbridled Passion. If we are but displeased, our Minds crossed, right or wrong, the cause just or unjust, all is one; the measure of Revenge is as little consulted as the Cause. What mad work did Simeon and Levi make upon the Shechemites, left not a Man of them alive, after they had made so brotherly a Covenant, and brought them to profess their own Religion, and all for one Man's inordinate Affection to their Sister. Cain would be revenged on Abel, for being a better Man than himself, and more accepted of God. Haman would revenge Mordecai's Contempt, with the utter Destruction of the Jews. Yea, David would leave neither Nabal nor any of his alive that could piss against the Wall, because he had a cross Answer from a Churl by name and by Nature. All these Evidences (and many more that might be added) speak plainly the Ʋnruliness of Mens Spirits, what a poor ineffectual thing the Understanding and Conscience is among Men. As it was before the Floud, the Earth is now filled with Violence, which Men begin, by first violating their own Understandings and Consciences, by neglecting and rejecting the Government of their own Spirits.