Englands Unthankfulness Striving with Gods Goodness, Division 2 · Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI.
1. §. JF a Magistrate, Art thou not parciall in any cause: wilt thou neither … steeme Father, nor Mother, nor Wife, nor Childe, so; as to disobey … in the least for their sakes? Wilt thou not either for feare, or favour; d… any thing against the truth: or give sentence against thy conscience? … use thy power in favour of the wicked? but be severe to the evill; … …shing, and protecting the good. If a master, dost thou use thy serva… so; as considering that thy selfe is a servant, to a greater Master? Hast th… learnt from Gods dealing with thee, to be mercifull? Art thou faithfull to my friend? does thy love extend to his soule? wilt thou speake of his … to his face; of his vertues behind his backe? Yea, dost thou not …ffer discretion, to thrust our, and eat up thy zeal and devotion? Hadst thou rather hazard the censure of some, then hinder the good of others? Is thy …le a sweer compound, of love and anger? Canst thou hate the vices of … wicked man, and yet love his person? Canst thou chide him sharpely, and at the same time pray for him hartily? Canst thou refuse to revenge thy selfe upon an enemy: though thou ha… power, and opportunity to loe it? Yea, upon the least change, forgive hi… as heartily, as thou de…rest God should forgive thee? Canst thou wish well to, and desire thy …eatest enemies conversion; together with his prosperity?
2. §. Dost thou unfainedly desire, to forsake all sinne: even those sins …at are most pleasing and profitable in thy esteeme? Art thou fully per…ded that God seeth all things, and is ever beholding thee: and does …is make thee upright, and sincere hearted to God, and man; as conscien…ous alone, and in private; as if thy greatest enemie, or all the world …d behold thee? and to have a spirit without guile? Art thou more de…us to be good? then so accounted. Dost thou more seeke the power … godlinesse, then the shew of it? Dost thou resolve to lose thy liberty, …ut with the right hand of profit, and the right eye of pleasure, rather then …rt with a good conscience? or sinne against God. As what thou dost is …ood for the matter, so art thou as carefull to doe it well for the manner …so: and in all, yea, above all, observe whether thy ends be good or evill; …d whether the evill, or the good doe most sway thee: for this doe I hold …th halfe my Divinity, though it is now above thirty years since I learn'd … Art, at a plaine Sermon touching Hypocrisie. Dost thou whatsoever …ou dost, out of duty, and thankefulnesse to God, and thy Red…emer? and … of love to thy fellow Members? Is Gods glory thy principall end, and …ow to be saved, thy greatest c…e.
3 §. Art thou bettered by affliction? and as it is sent for thy good, so …th it do thee good? Doe crosses in thy estate, diseases in thy body, …dies in thy minde; prove medicins to thy soule? Is the impairing of … one, the repairing of the other? Does thy sinne dye with thy same? … with thy health? or with thy peace? or with thy outward estate? yea, …th it both lessen thy sinnes, and increase thy gr…ces? Dost thou grow … grace, and finde a blessed thriving, and gracious progresse in true heli…sse? Does thy sufferings make thee pittiful, and compassionate to others▪ … participating, and being touched with compassion; and having a fellow …ling of their misery, and selicity? as one Member hath of another, espe…lly of the Church… as a Member hath of the whole body.
4. §. Art thou hared of the world for goodnesse? Dost thou suffer some …y for Christ? at least art thou evill spoken of, for well doing? Art thou made a by word and song of the …? for else Christ hath not chosen thee out of the World: N… is thine the true Religion, except it be commonly spoken against. Dost … G…d in all thou …, and acknowledge him in all thou …her …, …? And dost thou observe the several pa…a … ▪ … all things …o …e ordered thereby? and that … … … thou comfortable exp…ience of hi… … all … worke for the … thee? admi…ing the same, and his …; and being accordingly thankfull for it, and keeping a …, … …all …cies, and deliverances; a…d o thy … great provoca…s. Dost th… abhor to thinke thy selfe … th…n o…s? because God blesseth thee more with outward … o… … m…re inward gifts and graces upon thee, th… … o…s? Doth thy knowledge make thee … humble? And … wa… of g…e, then confide in what thou hast? D… … thy sal…tion with s…e and trembling? not t…g in … to …, … being e… jealous, and su… … …hy … thee, … pre…g a… hu… …, … co…e. Dost thou forget thy good deed, …hat G…d … remember thy evill …, that God … the… ▪ A… thou e…er and …, bew…iling thy wan… and weaknesses? the … of thy he…, want o… saith. &c.
5. §. And …, hav… … and p…med thy …most: not to … rit by it, but to … to him, th… hath done, performed, and …: D… … …sse thy selfe an … profitable servant? and … in … co… … t… du…? Yea, dost … that …t were just for God (when th… hast done thy …) … ▪ Dost thou who…y … lie upon the assi…nce of … ▪ … all good co… from him… and … all glory … to him? and endeavour acc… ▪ din…ly to ho…ur, a…d … hi… … thy ric…, wisdome, power, … what other g…s …? Wh…n th… … done any … amiss, D… … accus… thy …? … …y th…g well, D… thou give all … praise to God? of whom … th… … thou holdest.
6. §. These things th… …, and a… commanded to doe: th… should be thy though…, …, and actions. But are they alas no, no… them ever troubled thee, o… once …d into thy though…. Thou … be a good civill, morall, honest, Hypocrite, o… …dell: but none of th… graces grow in th… ground of thy heart. Yea, thou cou…est the … these, but as the the …hing of M… and Cu…. But thou shalt once … (and dea…ly pay for it, either with teares, or …) that Christians Christians bou…d to shi… ou… as lights, by a holy conversation: to glorifie God, and … others. And that onelyonly to refraine evill; except thou hatest i… also, … dost the contrary good, is to be evill still: because honesty witho… pi… is but as a body without an head: Yea, without a Soule. And that when the …uth of obedience, and power of … is wanting: there is no difference be…een an … ▪ and an …; a circum …sed Hebrew, and … … ised Philistine▪ … baptized english man, and an unwashen Turke: except that such a Christian is in … …ar … condition, then the worst of …: because … against me…y, the abundance of meanes, and many wa…ings which … … ▪ …or ordinary disobedience, in the time of … and … of Christs call, in the abundance of means, is a great deale …, … the commission of greater sinnes in the dayes and places of …: when, and where the like me… are wanting▪ … …. 15 2…. and 9. 41. Jerusalem is said by our …, to … …: … the Sodomites in Hell. Now if we ju…ie …, (as … they were never convinced that Christ was the …, … from God to re…me the world) … wee shall be love▪ … H…ll, th… either the Sol…s or the Jews. For we are so much the worse; by how much we might, and should have been better.