Direct. VIII. Be sure to do most where you have most authority and obligation. He that will neglect and slight his family, relations, children, and servants, who are under him, and always with him, and yet be zealous for the conversion of strangers, doth discover much hypocrisy, and showeth, that it is something else than the love of souls, or sense of duty, which carrieth him on.

Direct. IX. Never speak of holy things, but with the greatest reverence and seriousness you can. The manner as well as the matter is needful to the effect. To talk of sin and conversion, of God and eternity, in a common, running, careless manner, as you speak of the men, and the matters of the world, is much worse than silence, and tendeth but to debauch the hearers, and bring them to a contempt of God and holiness. I remember myself, that when I was young, I had sometime the company of one ancient godly minister, who was of weaker parts than many others, but yet did profit me more than most; because he would never in prayer or conference speak of God, or the life to come, but with such marvellous seriousness and reverence, as if he had seen the majesty and glory which he talked of.

Direct. X. Take heed of inconsiderate, imprudent passages, which may mar all the rest, and give malignant auditors advantage of contempt and scorn. Many honest christians, through their ignorance, thus greatly wrong the cause they manage (I would I might not say, many ministers). Too few words is not so bad, as one such imprudent, foolish word too much.

Direct. XI. Condescend to the weak, and bear with their infirmity. If they give you foolish answers, be not angry and impatient with them; yea, or if they perversely cavil and contradict. "For the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing opposers, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth," 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. He is a foolish physician that cannot bear the words of a phrenetic or delirant patient.

Direct. XII. When you are among those that can teach you, be not so forward to teach as to learn. Be not eager to vent what you have to say, but desirous to hear what your betters have to say. Questions in such a case should be most of your part: it requireth great skill and diligence to draw that out of others, which may profit you; and be not impatient if they cross your opinions, or open your ignorance. Yea, those that you can teach in other things, yet in some things may be able to add much to your knowledge.

Tit. 3. Special Directions for Reproof and Exhortation for the good of others.

This duty is so great, that Satan hindereth it with all his power, and so hard, that most men quite omit it (unless an angry reproach may go for christian exhortation): and some spoil it in the management; and some proud, censorious persons mistake the exercise of their pride and passion, for the exercise of a charitable christian duty; and seem to be more sensible of their neighbour's sin and misery, than of their own. Therefore that you miscarry not in so needful a work, I shall add these following directions.

Direct. I. Be sure first that your reproof have a right end; and then let the manner be suited to that end. If it be to convince and convert a soul, it must be done in a manner likely to prevail; if it be only to bear down the argument of a deceiver, to preserve the standers-by, to vindicate the honour of God and godliness, and to dishonour sin, and to disgrace an obstinate factor for the devil, then another course is fit. Therefore resolve first, by the quality of the cause and person, what must be your end.

Direct. II. Be sure that you reprove not that as a sin, which is no sin; either by mistaking the law or the fact. To make duties and sins of our own opinions and inventions, and then to lay out our zeal on these, and censure or reprove all that think not as hardly of such things as we; this is to make ourselves the objects of the hearers' pity; and not to exercise just pity towards others! Such reproofs deserve reproof; for they discover great ignorance, and pride, and self-conceitedness, and very much harden sinners in their way; and make them think that all reproof is but the vanity of fantastical hypocrites. In some cases with a child, or servant, or private friend, or for prevention, we may speak of faults upon hearsay or suspicion; but it must be as of things uncertain, and as a warning rather than a reproof. In ordinary reproof, you must understand the case before you speak; it is a shame to say after, I thought it had been otherwise. Such an erroneous reproof is worse than none.

Direct. III. Choose not the smallest sins to reprove, nor the smallest duties to exhort them to. For that will make them think that all your zeal is taken up with little matters, and that there is no great necessity of regarding you; and conscience will be but little moved by your speech: when greater things will greatly and more easily affect men.

Direct. IV. Stop not (with unregenerate men) in the mention of particular sins or duties; but make use of particulars to convince them of a state of sin and misery. It is easy to convince a man that he is a sinner; and when that is done, he is never the more humbled or converted: for he will tell you, that all are sinners; and therefore he hopeth to speed as well as you. But you must make him discern his sinful state, and show him the difference between a penitent sinner, and an impenitent; a converted sinner, and an unconverted; a justified, pardoned sinner, and an unjustified, unpardoned one; or else you will do him but little good.

Direct. V. Suit the manner of your reproof to the quality of the person. It is seldom that a parent, master, or superior, must be reproved by a private inferior; and when it is done, it must be done with great submission and respect. An angry, peevish person must be dealt with tenderly, as you handle thorns; but a duller, sottish person, must be more earnestly and warmly dealt with. So also a greater sin must be roughly handled, or with greater detestation, than a less.

Direct. VI. Take a fit season. Not when a man is in drink, or passion, or among others where the disgrace will vex and harden him; but in secret between him and you (if his conversion be your end).

Direct. VII. Do all in love and tender pity. If you convince not the hearer that you do it in unfeigned love, you must (usually) expect to lose your labour; because you make not advantage of his self-love, to promote your exhortations: therefore the exhorting way should be more frequent than the reproving way; for reproof disgraceth and exasperateth, when the same thing contrived into an exhortation may prevail.[147]

Direct. VIII. Therefore be as much or more in showing the good which you would draw them to, as the evil which you would turn them from. For they are never savingly converted, till they are won to the love of God and holiness; therefore the opening of the riches of the gospel, and the love of God, and the joys of heaven, must be the greatest part of your treaty with a sinner.

Direct. IX. And labour so to help him to a true understanding of the nature of religion, that he may perceive that it is not only a necessary but a pleasant thing. All love delights: it is the slander and misrepresentation of godliness by the devil, the world, and the flesh, which maketh mistaken sinners shun it. The way to convert them, and win their hearts to it, is to make them know how good and pleasant it is, and to confute those calumnies.

Direct X. Yet always insert the remembrance of death, and judgment, and hell. For the drowsy mind hath need to be awakened; and love worketh best when fear subserveth it. It is hard to procure a serious audience and consideration of things from hardened hearts, if the sight of death and hell do not help to make them serious. Danger which must be escaped, must be known and thought on. These things put weight and power into your speech.

Direct. XI. Do all as with divine authority; and therefore have ready some plain texts of Scripture for the duty and against the sin you speak of.[148] Show them where God himself hath said it.

Direct. XII. Seasonable expostulations, putting themselves to judge themselves in their answer, hath a convincing and engaging force. As when you show them Scripture, ask them, Is not this the word of God? Do you not believe that it is true? Do you think he that wrote this, knoweth not better than you or I? &c.

Direct. XIII. Put them on speedy practice, and prudently engage them to it by their promise. As if you speak to a drunkard, draw him to promise you to come no more (at least, of so long a time) into an alehouse; or not drink ale or wine but by the consent of his wife, or some sober, household friend, who may watch over him. Engage the voluptuous, the unchaste, and gamester, to forsake the company which insnareth them. Engage the ungodly to read the Scripture, to frequent good company, to pray morning and night (with a book or without, as they are best able). Their promise may bring them to such a present change of practice, as may prepare for more.

Direct. XIV. If you know any near you, who are much fitter than yourselves, and liker to prevail, procure them to attempt that which you cannot do successfully.[149] At least when sinners perceive that it is not only one man's opinion, it may somewhat move them to reverence the reproof.

Direct. XV. Put some good book into their hands, which is fitted to the work which you would have done. And get them to promise you seriously to read it over, and consider it; as if it be for the conversion of a careless sinner, Mr. Whateley's, or Mr. Swinnock's "Treatise of Regeneration;" or some other treatise of repentance and conversion. If it be for one that is prejudiced against a strict religious life, Mr. Allen's "Vindication of Godliness." If it be an idle, voluptuous person, who wasteth precious time in plays or needless recreations, in gaming or an idle life, Mr. Whateley's sermon, called "The Redemption of Time." If it be a prayerless person, Dr. Preston's "Saint's Daily Exercise:" if it be a drunkard, Mr. Harris's "Drunkard's Cup:" and for many reigning, particular sins, a book called "Solomon's Prescription against the Plague:" for directions in the daily practice of godliness, "The Practice of Piety," or Mr. Thomas Gouge's "Directions," &c. Such books may speak more pertinently than you can; and be as constant food to their sober thoughts, and so may further what you have begun.

Direct. XVI. When you cannot speak, or where your speaking prevaileth not, mourn for them; and earnestly pray for their recovery.[150] A sad countenance of Nehemiah remembered Artaxerxes of his duty. A sigh or a tear for a miserable sinner, may move his heart, when exhortation will not. He hath a heart of stone, who will have no sense of his condition, when he seeth another weeping for him.

Quest. But is it always a duty to reprove or exhort a sinner? How shall I know when it is my duty, and when it is not?

Answ. It is no duty in any of these cases following. 1. In general, When you have sufficient reason to judge, that it will do more harm than good, and will not attain its proper end; for God hath not appointed us to do hurt under pretence of duty; it is no means which doth cross the end which it should attain. As prayer and preaching may be a sin, when they are like to cross their proper end; so also may reproof be.

2. Therefore it must not be used when it apparently hindereth a greater good. As we may not pray or preach when we should be quenching a fire in the town, or saving a man's life: so when reproof doth exclude some greater duty or benefit, it is unseasonable, and no duty at that time. Christ alloweth us to forbear the casting of pearls before swine, or giving that which is holy to dogs, because of these two reasons forementioned, It is no means to the contemptuous, and they will turn again and all to rend us.[151] Much more, if he be some potent enemy of the church, who will not only rend us, but the church itself, if he be so provoked: reproving him then is not our duty.

3. Particularly, When a man is in a passion or drunk usually it is no season to reprove him.

4. Nor when you are among others, who should not be witnesses of the fault, or the reproof; or whose presence will shame him, and offend him (except it be only the shaming of an incorrigible or malicious sinner which you intend).

5. Nor when you are uncertain of the fact which you would reprove, or uncertain whether it be a sin.

6. Or when you have no witness of it, (though you are privately certain,) with some that will take advantage against you as slanderers, a reproof may be omitted.

7. And when the offenders are so much your superiors, that you are like to have no better success than to be accounted arrogant; a groan or tears is then the best reproof.

8. When you are so utterly unable to manage a reproof, that imprudence or want of convincing reason, is like to make it a means of greater hurt than good.

9. When you foresee a more advantageous season, if you delay.

10. When another may be procured to do it with much more advantage, which your doing it may rather hinder.

In all these cases, that may be a sin, which at another time may be a duty.

But still remember, first, That pride, and passion, and slothfulness, is wont to pretend such reasons falsely, upon some slight conjectures, to put by a duty. Secondly, That no man must account another a dog or swine, to excuse him from this duty, without cogent evidence. And it is not every wrangling opposition, nor reproach and scorn, which will warrant us to give a man up as remediless, and speak to him no more; but only such, 1. As showeth a heart utterly obdurate, after long means. 2. Or will procure more suffering to the reprover, than good to the offender. 3. That when the thing is ordinarily a duty, the reasons of our omission must be clear and sure, before they will excuse us.[152]

Quest. Must we reprove infidels or heathens? What have we to do to judge them that are without?

Answ. Not to the ends of excommunication, because they are not capable of it,[153] which is meant 1 Cor. v. But we must reprove them, first, In common compassion to their souls. What were the apostles and other preachers sent for, but to call all men from their sins to God? Secondly, And for the defence of truth and godliness, against their words, or ill examples.

CHAPTER XVII.

DIRECTIONS FOR KEEPING PEACE WITH ALL MEN.

Peace is so amiable to nature itself, that the greatest destroyers of it do commend it; and those persons in all times and places, who are the cause that the world cannot enjoy it, will yet speak well of it, and exclaim against others as the enemies of peace; as if there were no other name but their own sufficient to make their adversaries odious. As they desire salvation, so do the ungodly desire peace; which is with a double error; one about the nature of it, and another about the conditions and other means. By peace they mean, the quiet, undisturbed enjoyment of their honours, wealth, and pleasures; that they may have their lusts and will without any contradiction; and the conditions on which they would have it are, the compliance of all others with their opinions and wills, and humble submission to their domination, passions, or desires. But peace is another thing, and otherwise to be desired and sought. Peace in the mind is the delightful effect of its internal harmony, as peace in the body is nothing but its pleasant health, in the natural position, state, action, and concord of all the parts, the humours, and spirits: and peace in families, neighbourhoods, churches, kingdoms, or other societies, is the quietness and pleasure of their order and harmony; and must be attained and preserved by these following means.

Direct. I. Get your own hearts into a humble frame; and abhor all the motions of pride and self-exalting. A humble man hath no high expectations from another; and therefore is easily pleased or quieted. He can bow and yield to the pride and violence of others, as the willow to the impetuous winds. His language will be submissive; his patience great; he is content that others go before him; he is not offended that another is preferred. A low mind is pleased in a low condition. But pride is the gunpowder of the mind, the family, the church, and state; it maketh men ambitious, and setteth them on striving who shall be the greatest. A proud man's opinion must always go for truth, and his will must be a law to others, and to be slighted or crossed seemeth to him an unsufferable wrong. And he must be a man of wonderful compliance, or an excellent artificer in man-pleasing and flattery, that shall not be taken as an injurious undervaluer of him: he that overvalueth himself, will take it ill of all that do not also overvalue him. If you (forgetfully) go before him, or overlook him, or neglect a compliment, or deny him something which he expected, or speak not honourably of him, much more if you reprove him, and tell him of his faults, you have put fire to the gunpowder, you have broke his peace, and he will break yours if he can. Pride broke the peace between God and the apostate angels; but nothing unpeaceable must be in heaven; and therefore by self-exalting they descended into darkness; and Christ by self-humbling ascended unto glory. It is a matter of very great difficulty to live peaceably in any family, church, or society with any one that is very proud. They expect so much of you, that you can never answer all their expectations, but will displease them by your omissions, though you neither speak or do any thing to displease them. What is it but the lust of pride which causeth most of the wars and bloodshed throughout the world? The pride of two or three men, must cost many thousands of their subjects the loss of their peace, estates, and lives. Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. What were the conquests of those emperors, Alexander, Cæsar, Tamerlane, Mahomet, &c. but the pernicious effects of their infamous pride; which like gunpowder taking fire in their breasts, did blow up so many cities and kingdoms, and call their villanies by the name of valour, and their murders and robberies by the name of war? If one man's pride do swell so big, that his own kingdom cannot contain it, the peace of as much of the world as he can conquer is taken to be but a reasonable sacrifice to this infernal vice. The lives of thousands, both subjects and neighbours, (called enemies by this malignant spirit,) must be cast away, merely to make this one man the ruler of the rest, and subdue the persons of others to his will. Who perhaps when he hath done, will say that he is no tyrant, but maketh the bonum publicum his end; and is kind to men against their wills; and killeth, and burneth, and depopulateth countries, for men's corporal welfare; as the papists poison, and burn, and butcher men for the saving of souls. Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet, desævit in omnes. They are the turbines, the hurricanes or whirlwinds of the world, whose work is to overturn and ruin. Tantum ut noceat cupit esse potens. Whether they burn and kill by right or wrong is little of their inquiry; but how many are killed? and how many have submitted to their pride and wills? As when Q. Flavius complained that he suffered innocently, Valerius answered him, Non sua re interesse, dummodo periret: That was nothing to his business or concernment so he did but perish: which was plainer dealing than these glorious conquerors used, but no whit worse. He that cannot command the putrid humours out of his veins, nor the worms out of his bowels, nor will be able shortly to forbid them to crawl or feed upon his face, will now damn his soul and shed men's blood, to obtain the predomination of his will. And when he hath conquered many, he hath but made him many enemies, and may find, that in tot populis vix una fides. A quiet man can scarce with all his wit tell how to find a place where he may live in peace, where pride and cruelty will not pursue him, or the flames of war will not follow him and find him out; and perhaps he may be put to say as Cicero of Pompey and Cæsar, Quem fugiam scio; quem sequar nescio. And if they succeed by conquest, they become to their subjects almost as terrible as to their enemies. So that he that would approach them with a petition for justice, must do it as Augustus spake to a fearful petitioner, as if he did assem dare elephanto; or as if they dwelt in the inaccessible light, and must be served as God with fear and trembling. And those that flatter them as glorious conquerors, do but stir up the fire of their pride, to make more ruins and calamities in the earth, and do the work of a raging pestilence. As an Athenian orator said to the men of Athens, when they would have numbered Alexander with the gods, Cavete ne dum cœlum liberaliter donetis, terram et domicilia propria amittatis: Take heed while you so liberally give him heaven, lest he take away your part of earth. And when their pride hath consumed and banished peace, what have they got by it? That which a Themistocles, after trial, would prefer a grave to, Si una via ad solium duceret, altera ad sepulchrum.—That which Demosthenes preferred banishment before. That which the wisest philosophers refused at Athens, The great trouble of government. Inexpertus ambit; expertus odit. Cyneas asked Pyrrhus when he was preparing to invade the Romans, "What shall we do when we have conquered the Romans?" He answered, "We will go next to Sicily." "And what shall we do when Sicily is conquered?" said he: Pyrrhus said, "We will go next to Africa." "And what shall we do next?" said the other: "Why then," said he, "we will be quiet, and merry, and take our ease." "And," said Cyneas, "if that be last and best, why may we not do so now?" It is for quietness and peace that such pretend to fight and break peace; but they usually die before they obtain it (as Pyrrhus did); and might better have permitted peace to stand, than pull it down to build it better. As one asked an old man at Athens, "Why they called themselves philosophers?" who answered, "Because we seek after wisdom." Saith he, "If you are but seeking it at this age, when do you think to find it?" So I may say to the proud warriors of the world, If so many men must be killed, and so many conquered in seeking peace, when will it that way be found? But perhaps they think that their wisdom and goodness are so great, that the world cannot be happy unless they govern it: but what could have persuaded them to think so, but their pride? Nihil magis ægris prodest, quam ab eo curari a quo voluerint: saith Seneca. Patients must choose their own physicians. Men use to give them but little thanks, who drench them with such benefits, and bring them to the potion of peace so hot, that the touch of the cup must burn their lips, and who in goodness cut the throats of one part, that their government may be a blessing to the survivors. In a word, it is pride that is the great incendiary of the world, whether it be found in high or low. It will permit no kingdom, family, or church to enjoy the pleasant fruits of peace.

Direct. II. If you would be peaceable, be not covetous lovers of the world, but be contented with your daily bread. Hungry dogs have seldom so great plenty of meat, as to content them all, and keep them from falling out about it. If you over-love the world, you will never want occasions of discord: either your neighbour selleth too dear, or buyeth too cheap of you, or over-reacheth you, or gets before you, or some way or other doth you wrong; as long as he hath any thing which you desire, or doth not satisfy all your expectations. Ambitious and covetous men must have so much room, that the world is not wide enough for many of them: and yet, alas! too many of them there are: and therefore they are still together by the ears, like boys in the winter nights, when the bedclothes are too narrow to cover them; one pulleth, and another pulleth, and all complain. You must be sure that you trespass not in the smallest measure, nor encroach on the least of his commodities, that you demand not your own, nor deny him any thing that he desireth, nor get any thing which he would have himself, no nor ever give over feeding his greedy expectations, and enduring his injustice and abuse, if you will live peaceably with a worldly-minded man.

Direct. III. If you will be peaceable, love your neighbours as yourselves. Love neither imagineth, nor speaketh, nor worketh any hurt to others: it covereth infirmities; it hopeth all things; it endureth all things, 1 Cor. xiii. 7. Selfishness and want of love to others, causeth all the contentions in the world. You can bear with great faults in yourselves, and never fall out with yourselves for them; but with your neighbours you are quarrelling for those that are less! Do you fall out with another because he hath spoken dishonourably or slightly of you, or slandered you, or some way done you wrong? You have done a thousand times worse than all that against yourselves, and yet can bear too patiently with yourselves! If another speak evil of you, he doth not make you evil: it is worse to make you bad than to call you so: and this you do against yourselves. Doth your neighbour wrong you in your honour or estate? But he endangereth not your soul! he doth not forfeit your salvation! he doth not deserve damnation for you, nor make your soul displeasing to God! But all this you do against yourselves, (even more than all the devils in hell do,) and yet you are too little offended with yourselves. See here the power of blind self-love! If you loved your neighbours as yourselves, you would agree as peaceably with your neighbours almost as with yourselves. Love them more, and you will bear more with them, and provoke them less.

Direct. IV. Compose your minds to christian gentleness and meekness, and suffer not passion to make you either turbulent and unquiet to others, or impatient and troublesome to yourselves. A gentle and quiet mind hath a gentle, quiet tongue. It can bear as much wrong as another can do (according to its measure); it is not in the power of Satan; he cannot at his pleasure send his emissary, and by injuries or foul words, procure it to sin; but a passionate person is frequently provoking or provoked. A little thing maketh him injurious to others; and a little injury from others disquieteth himself. He is daily troubling others or himself, or both. Coals of fire go from his lips: it is his very desire to provoke and vex those that he is angry with: his neighbour's peace and his own are the fuel of his anger, which he consumeth in a moment. To converse with him and not provoke him, is a task for such as are eminently meek and self-denying: he is as the leaves of the asp tree, that never rest, unless the day be very calm. The smallest breath of an angry tongue, can shake him out of his tranquillity, and turn him into an ague of disquietness. The sails of the wind-mill are scarce more at the wind's command, than his heart and tongue are at the command of Satan; he can move him almost when he please. Bid but a neighbour speak some hard speeches of him, or one of his family neglect or cross him, and he is presently like the raging sea, whose waves cast up the mire and dirt. An impatient man hath no security of his own peace for an hour: any enemy or angry person can take it from him when they please. And being troubled, he is troublesome to all about him. If you do not in patience possess your souls, they will be at the mercy of every one that hath a mind to vex you. Remember then that no peace can be expected without patience; nor patience without a meek and gentle mind. Remember "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, is of great price in the sight of God," 1 Pet. iii. 4. And that "the wisdom from above is first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated," James iii. 17. And that the Eternal "Wisdom from above, hath bid you learn of him to be meek and lowly in spirit as ever you would find rest to your souls," Matt. xi. 28, 29. And he that loseth his own peace is likest to break the peace of others.

Direct. V. Be careful to maintain that order of government and obedience, which is appointed of God for the preservation of peace, in families, churches, and commonwealths. If you will break this vessel, peace will flow out and be quickly spilt. What peace in schools, but by the authority of the schoolmaster? or in armies, but by the authority of the general? If an unwise and ungodly governor do himself violate the foundations and boundaries of peace, and either weakly or wilfully make dividing laws, no wonder if such wounds do spend the vital blood and spirits of that society: it being more in the power of the governors than of the subject, to destroy peace or to preserve it. And if the subjects make not conscience of their duty to their superiors, the banks of peace will soon be broken down, and all will be overwhelmed in tumult and confusion. Take heed therefore of any thing that tendeth to subvert government: disobedience or rebellion seldom wanteth a fair pretence; but it more seldom answereth the agent's expectation. It usually pretendeth the weaknesses, miscarriages, or injurious dealings of superiors; but it as usually mendeth an inconvenience with a mischief. It setteth fire on the house to burn up the rats and mice that troubled it. It must be indeed a grievous malady that shall need such a mischief for its remedy. Certainly it is no means of God's appointment. Take heed therefore of any thing which would dissolve these bonds. Entertain not dishonourable thoughts of your governors, and receive not, nor utter any dishonourable words against them, if they be faulty open not their shame: their honour is their interest, and the people's too; without it they will be disabled for effectual government. When subjects, or servants, or children are saucily censorious of superiors, and make themselves judges of all their actions, even those which they do not understand, and when they presume to defame them, and with petulant tongues to cast contempt upon them, the fire is begun, and the sacred bonds of peace are loosed. When superiors rule with piety, justice, and true love to their subjects, and inferiors keep their place and rank, and all conspire the public good, then peace will nourish, and not till then.

Direct. VI. Avoid all revengeful and provoking words. When the poison of asps is under men's lips, (Rom. iii. 13,) no wonder if the hearers' minds that are not sufficiently antidoted against it, fester. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, Prov. xviii. 21. When the tongue is as a sword, yea, a sharp sword, (Psal. lvii. 4,) and when it is purposely whetted, (Psal. lxiv. 3,) no marvel if it pierce and wound them that are unarmed. But "by long forbearing a prince is persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone," Prov. xxv. 15. A railer is numbered with those that a christian must not eat with, 1 Cor. v. For christianity is so much for peace, that it abhorreth all that is against it. Our Lord when he was reviled, reviled not again, and in this was our example, 1 Pet. ii. 21, 23. A scorning, railing, reproachful tongue, "is set (as James saith, iii. 6.) on fire of hell, and it setteth on fire the course of nature;" even persons, families, churches, and commonwealths. Many a ruined society may say by experience, "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth," James iii. 5.

Direct. VII. Engage not yourselves too forwardly or eagerly in disputes, nor at any time without necessity: and when necessity calleth you, set an extraordinary watch upon your passions. Though disputing is lawful, and sometimes necessary to defend the truth, yet it is seldom the way of doing good to those whom you dispute with: it engageth men in partiality, and passionate, provoking words, before they are aware; and while they think they are only pleading for the truth, they are militating for the honour of their own understandings. They that will not stoop to hear you as learners, while you orderly open the truth in its coherent parts, will hardly ever profit by your contendings, when you engage a proud person to bend all his wit and words against you. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, &c. 2 Tim. ii. 24.[154]

Direct. VIII. Have as little to do with men, in matters which their commodity is concerned in, as you can. As in chaffering, or in any other thing where mine and thine is much concerned: for few men are so just as not to expect that which others account unjust; and the nearest friends have been alienated hereby.

Direct. IX. Buy peace at the price of any thing which is not better than it. Not with the loss of the favour of God, or of our innocency, or true peace of conscience, or with the loss of the gospel, or ruin of men's souls; but you must often part with your right for peace, and put up wrongs in word or deed. Money must not be thought too dear to buy it, when the loss of it will be worse than the loss of money, to yourselves or those that you contend with. If a soul be endangered by it, or societies ruined by it, it will be dear-bought money which is got or saved by such means. He is no true friend of peace, that will not have it except when it is cheap.

Direct. X. Avoid censoriousness; which is the judging of men or matters that you have no call to meddle with, and the making of matters worse than sufficient proof will warrant you. Be neither busy-bodies, meddling with other men's matters, nor peevish aggravaters of all men's faults. "Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again," Matt. vii. 1, 2. You shall be censured, if you will censure: and if Christ be a true discerner of minds, it is they that have beams in their own eyes, who are the quickest perceivers of the motes in others. Censorious persons are the great dividers of the church, and every where adversaries to peace; while they open their mouths wide against their neighbours, to make the worst of all that they say and do, and thus sow the seeds of discord amongst all.

Direct. XI. Neither talk against men behind their backs, nor patiently hearken to them that use it. Though the detecting of a dangerous enemy, or the prevention of another's hurt, may sometimes make it a duty to blame them that are absent; yet this case, which is rare, is no excuse to the backbiter's sin. If you have any thing to say against your neighbour, tell it him in a friendly manner to his face, that he may be the better for it: if you tell it only to another, to make him odious, or hearken to backbiters that defame men secretly, you show that your business is not to do good, but to diminish love and peace.

Direct. XII. Speak more of the good than of the evil which is in others. There are none so bad, as to have no good in them: why mention you not that? which is more useful to the hearer, than to hear of men's faults. But of this more afterwards.

Direct. XIII. Be not strange, but lovingly familiar with your neighbours. Backbiters and slanders, and unjust suspicions, do make men seem that to one another, which when they are acquainted, they find is nothing so: among any honest, well-meaning persons, familiarity greatly reconcileth. Though indeed there are some few so proud and fiery, and bitter enemies to honest peace, that the way to be at peace with them is to be far from them, where we may not be remembered by them: but it is not so with ordinary neighbours or friends that are fallen out, nor differing christians: it is nearness that must make them friends.

Direct. XIV. Affect not a distance and sour singularity in lawful things. Come as near them as you can, as they are men and neighbours; and take it not for your duty to run as from them, lest you run into the contrary extreme.

Direct. XV. Be not over-stiff in your own opinions, as those that can yield in nothing to another. Nor yet so facile and yielding as to betray or lose the truth. It greatly pleaseth a proud man's mind, when you seem to be convinced by him, and to change your mind upon his arguments, or to be much informed and edified by him; but when you deny this honour to his understanding, and contradict him, and stiffly maintain your opinion against him, you displease and lose him; and indeed a wise man should gladly learn of any that can teach him more; and should most easily of any man let go an error, and be most thankful to any that will increase his knowledge: and not only in errors to change our minds, but in small and indifferent things to submit by silence, beseemeth a modest, peaceable man.

Direct. XVI. Yet build not peace on the foundation of impiety, injustice, cruelty, or faction; for that will prove but the way to destroy it in the end. Traitors, and rebels, and tyrants, and persecutors, and ambitious, covetous clergymen, do all pretend peace for their iniquity: but what peace with Jezebel's whoredoms! Satan's kingdom is supported by a peace in sin; which Christ came to break that he might destroy it: while this strong man armed keepeth his house, his goods are in peace, till a stronger doth bind him, overcome him, and cast him out. Deceitful, sinful means of peace, have been the grand engine of Satan and the papal clergy, by which they have banished and kept out peace so many ages from most of the christian world. Impiis me diis ecclesiæ paci consulere, was one of the three means which Luther foretold would cast out the gospel. Where perjury, or false doctrine, or any sin, or any unjust or inconsistent terms, are made the condition of peace, men build upon stubble and briers, which God will set fire to, and soon consume, and all that peace will come to nought.

Directions for church peace I have laid down before; to which I must refer you.

CHAPTER XVIII.

DIRECTIONS AGAINST ALL THEFT AND FRAUD, OR INJURIOUS GETTING AND KEEPING THAT WHICH IS ANOTHER'S, OR DESIRING IT.

He that would know what theft is, must know what propriety is; and it is that plenary title to a thing, by which it is called our own; it is that right to any thing as mine, by which I may justly have it, possess it, use it, and dispose of it. This dominion or propriety is either absolute (and that belongeth to none but God) or subordinate, respective, and limited (which is the only propriety that any creature can have). Which is such a right which will hold good against the claim of any fellow-creature, though not against God's. And among men there are proprietors or owners which are principal, and some who are but dependent, subordinate, and limited. The simple propriety may remain in a landlord or father, who may convey to his tenant or his child a limited, dependent propriety under him. Injuriously to deprive a man of this propriety, or of the thing in which he hath propriety, is the sin which I speak of in this chapter; which hath no one name, and therefore I express it here by many. Whether it be theft, robbery, cozenage, extortion, or any other way of depriving another injuriously of his own; these general directions are needful to avoid it.

Direct. I. "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world," 1 John ii. 15. Cure covetousness, and you will kill the root of fraud and theft. As a drunkard would easily be cured of his drunkenness, if you could cure him of his thirst and love to drink; so an extortioner, thief, or deceiver, would easily be cured of their outward sin, if their hearts were cured of the disease of worldliness. The love of money is the root of all this evil. Value these things no more than they deserve.

Direct. II. To this end, acquaint your hearts with the greater riches of the life to come; and then you will meet with true satisfaction. The true hopes of heaven will cure your greedy desires of earth. You durst not then forfeit your part in that perpetual blessedness, for the temporal supply of some bodily want: you durst not with Adam part with Paradise for a forbidden bit; nor as Esau profanely sell your birthright for a morsel. It is the unbelief and contempt of heaven, which maketh men venture it for the poor commodities of this world.

Direct. III. Be contented to stand to God's disposal; and suffer not any carking, discontented thoughts to feed upon your hearts. When you suffer your minds to run all day long upon your necessities and straits, the devil next tempteth you to think of unlawful courses to supply them. He will show you your neighbour's money, or goods, or estates, and tell you how well it would be with you if this were yours; he showed Achan the golden wedge; he told Gehazi how unreasonable it was that Naaman's money and raiment should be refused: he told Balaam of the hopes of preferment which he might have with Balak; he told Judas how to get his thirty pieces; he persuaded Ananias and Sapphira, that it was but reasonable to retain part of that which was their own. Nay, commonly it is discontents and cares which prepare poor wretches for those appearances of the devil, which draweth them to witchcraft for the supplying of their wants. If you took God for your God, you would take him for the sufficient disposer of the world, and one that is fitter to measure out your part of earthly things than you yourselves: and then you would rest in his wisdom, will, and fatherly providence; and not shift for yourselves by sinful means. Discontentedness of mind, and distrust of God, are the cause of all such frauds and injuries. Trust God, and you will have no need of these.

Direct. IV. Remember what promises God hath made for the competent supply of all your wants. Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that to come: all other things shall be added to you, if you seek first God's kingdom and the righteousness thereof, Matt. vi. 33. They that fear the Lord shall want nothing that is good, Psal. xxxvii. "All things shall work together for good to them that love God," Rom. viii. 28. "Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," Heb. xiii. 5. Live by faith on these sufficient promises, and you need not steal.

Direct. V. Overvalue not the accommodation and pleasure of the flesh, and live not in the sins of gluttony, drunkenness, pride, gaming, or riotous courses, which may bring you into want, and so to seek unlawful maintenance. He that is a servant to his flesh cannot endure to displease it, nor can bear the want of any thing which it needeth. But he that hath mastered and mortified his flesh, can endure its labour and hunger, yea, and death too if God will have it so. Large revenues will be too little for a fleshly-minded person; but a little will serve him that hath brought it under the power of reason. Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter, saith Seneca: a well-nurtured, fair-conditioned belly is a great part of a man's liberty, because an ill-taught and ill-conditioned belly is one of the basest slaveries in the world. As a philosopher said to Diogenes, If thou couldst flatter Dionysius, thou needest not eat herbs; but saith Diogenes, If thou couldst eat herbs, thou needest not flatter Dionysius: he took this for the harder task: so the thief and deceiver will say to the poor, If you could do as we do, you need not fare so hardly; but a contented poor man may better answer him and say, If you could fare hardly as I do, you need not deceive or steal as you do. A proud person, that cannot endure to dwell in a cottage, or to be seen in poor or patched apparel, will be easily tempted to any unlawful way of getting, to keep him from disgrace, and serve his pride. A glutton whose heaven is in his throat, must needs fare well, however he come by it: a tippler must needs have provision for his guggle, by right or by wrong. But a humble man and a temperate man can spare all this, and when he looketh on all the proud man's furniture, he can bless himself as Socrates did in a fair, with, Quam multa sunt quibus ipse non egeo! How many things be there which I have no need of! And he can pity the sensual desires which others must needs fulfil; even as a sound man pitieth another that hath the itch, or the thirst of a sick man in a fever, that crieth out for drink. As Seneca saith, "It is vice and not nature which needeth much:" nature, and necessity, and duty are contented with a little. But he that must have the pleasure of his sin, must have provision to maintain that pleasure. Quench the fire of pride, sensuality, and lust, and you may spare the cost of fuel, Rom. xiii. 13, 14; viii. 13.

Direct. VI. Live not in idleness or sloth; but be laborious in your callings, that you may escape that need or poverty which is the temptation to this sin of theft. Idleness is a crime which is not to be tolerated in christian societies. 2 Thess. ii. 6, 8, 10, 12, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us: for ye know how ye ought to follow us; for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but worked with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you; not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample to you to follow us; for when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat: for we hear that there are some among you that walk disorderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies; now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." Eph. iv. 28, "Let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." He that stealeth to maintain his idleness, sinneth that he may sin; and by one sin getteth provision for another: you see here that you are bound not only to work to maintain yourselves, but to have to give to others in their need.

Direct. VII. Keep a tender conscience, which will do its office, and not suffer you to sin without remorse. A seared, senseless conscience will permit you to lie, and steal, and deceive, and will make no great matter of it, till God awaken it by his grace or vengeance. Hence it is that servants can deceive their masters, or take that which is not allowed them, and buyers and sellers over-reach one another, because they have not tender consciences to reprove them.

Direct. VIII. Remember always that God is present, and none of your secrets can be hid from him. What the better are you to deceive your neighbour or your master, and to hide it from their knowledge, as long as your Maker and Judge seeth all? when it is he that you most wrong, and with him that you have most to do, and he that will be the most terrible avenger! What blinded atheists are you, who dare do that in the presence of the most righteous God, which you durst not do if men beheld you!

Direct. IX. Forget not how dear all that must cost you, which you gain unlawfully. The reckoning time is yet to come. Either you will truly repent or not; if you do, it must cost you remorse and sorrow, and shameful confession, and restitution of all that you have got amiss; and is it not better to forbear to swallow that morsel, which must come up again with heartbreaking grief and shame? But if you repent not unfeignedly, it will be your damnation; it will be opened in judgment to your perpetual confusion, and you must pay dear for all your gain in hell. Never look upon the gain therefore, without the shame and damnation which must follow. If Achan had foreseen the stones, and Gehazi the leprosy, and Ahab the mortal arrow, and Jezebel the licking of her blood by dogs, and Judas the hanging or precipitation, and Ananias and Sapphira the sudden death, or any of them the after misery, it might have kept them from their pernicious gain. Usually even in this life, a curse attendeth that which is ill gotten, and bringeth fire among all the rest.

Direct. X. If you are poor, consider well of the mercy which that condition may bring you, and let it be your study how to get it sanctified to your good. If men understood and believed that God doth dispose of all for the best, and make them poor to do them good, and considered what that good is which poverty may do them, and made it their chief care to turn it thus to their gain, they would not find it so intolerable a thing, as to seek to cure it by fraud or thievery. Think what a mercy it is, that you are saved from those temptations to over-love the world, which the rich are undone by. And that you are not under those temptations to intemperance, and excess, and pride as they are: and that you have such powerful helps for the mortification of the flesh, and victory over the deceiving world. Improve your poverty, and you will escape these sins.

Direct. XI. If you are but willing to escape this sin, you may easily do it by a free confession to those whom you have wronged or are tempted to wrong. He that is not willing to forbear his sin, is guilty before God, though he do forbear it. But if you are truly willing, it is easy to abstain. Do not say, that you are willing till necessity pincheth you or you see the bait; for if you are so, you may easily prevent it at that time when you are willing. If ever you are willing indeed, take that opportunity, and if you have wronged any man, go and confess it to him (in the manner I shall afterwards direct). And this will easily prevent it; for shame will engage you, and self-preservation will engage him to take more heed of you. Or, if you have not yet wronged any, but are strongly tempted to it, if you have no other sufficient remedy, go tell him, or some other fit person, that you are tempted to steal and to deceive in such or such a manner, and desire them not to trust you. If you think the shame of such a confession too dear a price to save you from the sin, pretend no more that you are truly willing to forbear it, or that ever you did unfeignedly repent of it.

Tit. 2. Certain Cases of Conscience about Theft and Injury.

Quest. I. Is it a sin for a man to steal in absolute necessity, when it is merely to save his life?

Answ. The case is very hard. I shall, I. Tell you so much as is past controversy, and then speak to the controverted part. 1. If all other unquestionable means be not first used, it is undoubtedly a sin. If either labouring or begging will save our lives, it is unlawful to steal. Yea, or if any others may be used to intercede for us. Otherwise it is not stealing to save a man's life, but stealing to save his labour, or to gratify his pride and save his honour. 2. It is undoubtedly a sin if the saving of our lives by it, do bring a greater hurt to the commonwealth or other men, than our lives are worth. 3. And it is a sin if it deprive the owner of his life, he being a person more worthy and useful to the common good. These cases are no matter of controversy.

4. And it is agreed of, that no man may steal beforehand out of a distrustful fear of want. 5. Or if he take more than is of necessity to save his life. These cases also are put as out of controversy.

But whether in an innocent, absolute necessity it be lawful to steal so much as is merely sufficient to save one's life, is a thing that casuists are not agreed on. They that think it lawful, say that the preservation of life is a natural duty, and preservation of propriety is but a subservient thing which must give place to it. So Amesius de Conscient. lib. v. cap. 50, maketh it one case of lawful taking that which is another's, Si irrationabiliter censeatur dominus invitus: ut in eis quæ accipit aliquis ex alieno ad extremam et præsentem suam necessitatem sublevandam, cui alia ratione succurrere non potest. Hoc enim videtur esse ex jure naturali, divisione rerum antiquiore et superiore; quod jure humano quo facta est divisio rerum non potuit abrogari: Quo sensu non male dicitur, omnia fieri communia in extrema necessitate.

On the other side, those that deny it say, that the same God that hath bid us preserve our lives, hath appointed propriety, and forbidden us to steal, without excepting a case of necessity, and therefore hath made it simply evil, which we may not do for the procurement of any good: and the saving of a man's life will not prove so great a good, as the breaking of God's law will be an evil.

For the true determining of this case, we must distinguish of persons, places, and occasions. 1. Between those whose lives are needful to the public good and safety, and those that are not of any such concernment. 2. Between those that are in an enemy's or a strange country, and those that are in their own. 3. Between those that are in a commonwealth, and those that are either in a community, or among people not embodied or conjoined. 4. Between those that take but that which the refuser was bound to give them, and those that take that which he was not bound to give them. And so I answer,

1. Whensoever the preservation of the life of the taker is not, in open probability, like to be more serviceable to the common good, than the violation of the right of propriety will be hurtful, the taking of another man's goods is sinful, though it be only to save the taker's life. For the common good is to be preferred before the good of any individual.

2. In ordinary cases, the saving of a man's life will not do so much good as his stealing will do hurt. Because the lives of ordinary persons are of no great concernment to the common good; and the violation of the laws may encourage the poor to turn thieves, to the loss of the estates and lives of others, and the overthrow of peace and order. Therefore ordinarily it is a duty, rather to die, than take another man's goods against his will, or without his consent.

3. But in case that the common good doth apparently more require the preservation of the person's life, than the preservation of propriety and the keeping of the law in that instance, it is then no sin (as I conceive): which may fall out in many instances.

As, (1.) In case the king and his army should march through a neighbour prince's country, in a necessary war against their enemies; if food be denied them in their march, they may take it rather than perish. (2.) In case the king's army in his own dominions have no pay, and must either disband or die, if they have not provision, they may rather take free quarter, in case that their obedience to the king, and the preservation of the country, forbiddeth them to disband. (3.) When it is a person of so great honour, dignity, and desert, as that his worth and serviceableness will do more than recompense the hurt: as if Alexander or Aristotle were on ship-board with a covetous ship-master, who would let them die rather than relieve them. (4.) When a child taketh meat from a cruel parent that would famish him, or a wife from such a cruel husband! Or any man taketh his own by stealth from another who unjustly detaineth it, when it is to save his life. For here is a fundamental right ad rem, and the heinousness of his crime that would famish another, rather than give him his own, or his due, doth take off the scandal and evil consequents of the manner of taking it. (5.) But the greatest difficulty is, in case that only the common law of humanity and charity bind another to give to one that else must die, and he that needeth may take it so secretly that it shall in likelihood never be known, and so never be scandalous, nor encourage any other to steal! May not the needy then steal to save his life? This case is so hard, that I shall not venture to determine it; but only say that he that doth so in such a case, must resolve when he hath done, to repay the owner if ever he be able (though it be but a piece of bread); or to repay him by his labour and service, if he have no other way, and be thus able; or if not so, to confess it to him that he took it from, and acknowledge himself his debtor (unless it be to one whose cruelty would abuse his confession).

Quest. II. If another be bound to relieve me and do not, may I not take it, though it be not for the immediate saving of my life?

Answ. If he be bound only by God's law to relieve you, you must complain to God, and stay till he do you right, and not break his law and order, by righting yourself, in case you are not in the necessity aforesaid. If he be bound also by the law of man to relieve you, you may complain to the rulers, and seek your right by their assistance; but not by stealth.

Quest. III. If another borrow or possess my goods or money, and refuse to pay me, and I cannot have law and justice against him, or am not rich enough to sue him, may I not take them if I have an opportunity?

Answ. If he turn your enemy in a time of war, or live under another prince, with whom you are at war, or where your prince alloweth you to take it; there it seemeth undoubtedly lawful to take your own by that law of arms, which then is uppermost. But when the law that you are under forbiddeth you, the case is harder. But it is certain that propriety is in communities, and is in order of nature antecedent to human government in republics; and the preservation of it is one of the ends of government. Therefore I conceive that in case you could take your own so secretly, or in such a manner as might no way hinder the ends of government as to others, by encouraging thievery or unjust violence, it is not unlawful before God, the end of the law being the chief part of the law; but when you cannot take your own without either encouraging theft or violence in others, or weakening the power of the laws and government by your disobedience, (which is the ordinary case,) it is unlawful: because the preservation of order and of the honour of the government and laws, and the suppression of theft and violence, is much more necessary than the righting of yourself, and recovering your own.

Quest. IV. If another take by theft or force from me, may I not take my own again from him, by force or secretly, when I have no other way?

Answ. Not when you do more hurt to the commonwealth by breaking law and order, than your own benefit can recompense; for you must rather suffer than the commonwealth should suffer; but you may when no such evils follow it.

Quest. V. If I be in no necessity myself, may I not take from rich men to give to the poor who are in extreme necessity?

Answ. The answer to the first case may suffice for this; in such cases wherein a poor man may not take it for himself, you may not take it for him. But in such cases as he may take it for himself, and no one else is fit to do it, he himself being unable, you may do it (when no accidental consequents forbid you).

Quest. VI. If he have so much as that he will not miss it, and I be in great want, though not like to die of famine, may I not take a little to supply my want?

Answ. No: because God hath appointed the means of just propriety; and what is not gotten by those means, is none of yours by his approbation. He is the giver of riches; and he intendeth not to give to all alike: if he give more to others he will require more of them. And if he give less to you, it is the measure which he seeth to be meetest for you; and the condition in which your obedience and patience must be tried; and he will not take it well, if you will alter your measure by forbidden means, and be carvers for yourselves, or level others.

Quest. VII. There are certain measures which humanity obligeth a man to grant to those in want, and therefore men take without asking: as to pluck an apple from a tree, or as Christ's disciples, to rub the ears of corn to eat; if a Nabal deny me such a thing, may I not take it?

Answ. If the laws of the land allow it you, you may; because men's propriety is subjected to the law for the common good. But if the law forbid it you, you may not; except when it is necessary to save your life, upon the terms expressed under the first question.

Quest. VIII. May not a wife, or child, or servant take more than a cruel husband, or parent, or master doth allow? suppose it be better meat or drink?

Answ. How far the wife hath a true propriety herself, and therefore may take it, dependeth on the contract and the laws of the land; which I shall not now meddle with. But for children and servants, they may take no more than the most cruel and unrighteous parents or masters do allow them; except to save their lives upon the conditions in the first case: but the servant may seek relief of the magistrate; and he may leave such an unrighteous master: and the child must bear it patiently as the cross by which it pleaseth God to try him; unless that the government of the parent be so bad, as to tend to his undoing; and then I think he may leave his parents for a better condition (except it be when their own necessity obligeth him to stay and suffer for their help and benefit). For it is true that a child oweth as much to his parents as he can perform, by way of gratitude, for their good: but it is true also, that a parent hath no full and absolute propriety in his child, as men have in their cattle, but is made by nature their guardian for their benefit; and therefore when parents would undo their children's souls or bodies, the children may forsake them, as being forsaken by them; further than as they are obliged in gratitude to help them, as is aforesaid.

Quest. IX. If a man do deserve to lose somewhat which he hath by way of punishment, may I not take it from him?

Answ. Not unless the law either make you a magistrate or officer to do it, or allow and permit it at the least; because it is not to you that the forfeiture is made: or if it be, you must execute the law according to the law, and not against it; for else you will offend in punishing offences.

Quest. X. But what if I fully resolve, when I take a thing in my necessity, to repay the owner, or make him satisfaction if ever I be able?

Answ. That is some extenuation of the sin, but no justification of the fact; which is otherwise unjustifiable, because it is still without his consent.

Quest. XI. What if I know not whether the owner would consent or not?

Answ. In a case where common custom and humanity alloweth you to take it for granted that he would not deny it you, (as to pluck an ear of corn, or gather an herb for medicine in his field,) you need not scruple it; unless you conjecture that he is a Nabal and would deny you. But otherwise if you doubt of his consent, you must ask it, and not presume of it without just cause.

Quest. XII. What if I take a thing from a friend but in a way of jest, intending to restore it?

Answ. If you have just grounds to think that your friend would consent if he knew it, you will not be blamable: but if otherwise, either you take it for your own benefit and use, or you take it only to make sport by; the former is theft, for all your jest; the latter is but an unlawful way of jesting.

Quest. XIII. What if I take it from him, but to save him from hurting his body with it: as if I steal poison from one that intended to kill himself by it; or take a sword from a drunken man that would hurt himself; or a knife from a melancholy man? Or what if it be to save another; as to take a madman's sword from him who would kill such as are in his way, or any angry man's that will kill another?

Answ. This is your duty according to the sixth commandment, which bindeth you to preserve your neighbour's life; so be it these conditions be observed: 1. That you keep not his sword for your benefit and advantage, nor claim a property in it; but give it his friends, or deliver it to the magistrate. 2. That you do nothing without the magistrate, in which you may safely stay for his authority and help: but if two be fighting, or thieves be robbing or murdering a man, or another's life be in present danger, you must help them without staying for the magistrate's authority. 3. That you make not this a pretence for the usurping of authority, or for resisting or deposing your lawful prince, or magistrate, or parent, or master, or of exercising your own will and passions against your superiors; pretending that you take away their swords to save themselves or others from their rage, when it is indeed but to hinder justice.

Quest. XIV. May I not then much more take away that by which he would destroy his own or other men's souls: as to take away cards or dice from gamesters; or heretical or seditious books, or play-books and romances; or to pull down idols which the idolators do adore, or are instruments of idolatry?

Answ. There is much difference in the cases, though the soul be more precious than the body: for, 1. Here there is supposed to be so much leisure and space as that you may have time to tell the magistrate of it, whose duty primarily it is: whereas in the other case it is supposed that so much delay would be a man's death. Therefore your duty is to acquaint the magistrate with the sin and danger, and not to anticipate him, and play the magistrate yourself. Or in the case of cards, and dice, and hurtful books, you may acquaint the persons with the sin, and persuade them to cast them away themselves. 2. Your taking away these instruments is not like to save them: for the love of the sin, and the will to do it, remain still; and the sinner will but be hardened by his indignation against your irregular course of charity. 3. Men are bound to save men's bodies whether they will or not, because it may be so done; but no man can save another's soul against his will! And it is God's will that their salvation or damnation shall be more the fruit of their own wills, than of any other's. Therefore, though it is possible to devise an instance, in which it is lawful to steal a poisonous book or idol from another, (when it is done so secretly as will encourage no disobedience or disorder; nor is like to harden the sinner, but indeed to do him good, &c.) yet ordinarily all this is unlawful for private men, that have no government of others, or extraordinary interest in them.[155]

Quest. XV. May not a magistrate take the subjects' goods, when it is necessary for their own preservation?

Answ. I answered this question once heretofore in my "Political Aphorisms:" and because I repent of meddling with such subjects, and of writing that book, I will leave such cases hereafter for fitter persons to resolve.

Quest. XVI. But may I not take from another for a holy use; as to give to the church or maintain the bishops? If David took the hallowed bread in his necessity, may not hallowed persons take common bread?

Answ. If holy persons be in present danger of death, their lives may be saved as other men's on the terms mentioned in the first case. Otherwise God hath no need of theft or violence; nor must you rob the laity to clothe the clergy; but to do such evil on pretence of piety and good, is an aggravation of the sin.