DIRECTIONS AGAINST SOUL MURDER, AND PARTAKING OF OTHER MEN'S SINS.
The special directions given part iii. chap. xxii. to parents and
masters, will in this case be of great use to all others; but because
it is here seasonable to speak of it further, under the sixth
commandment, and the matter is of the greatest consequence, I shall,
1. Tell you how men are guilty of soul murder. 2. And then give you
some general directions for the furthering of men's salvation. 3. And
next give you some special directions for christian exhortation and
reproofs.
First, Men are guilty of soul murder by all these ways. 1. By
preaching false soul-murdering doctrine. Such as denieth any necessary
point of faith, or holy living; such as is opposite to a holy life, or
to any particular necessary duty; such as maketh sin to be no sin;
which calls good evil, and evil good; which putteth darkness for
light, and light for darkness.
2. By false application of true doctrine, indirectly reflecting upon
and disgracing that holiness of life, which in terms they preach for;
by prevarication undermining that cause which their office is
appointed to promote; as they do, who purposely so describe any vice,
that the hearers may be drawn to think that strict and godly practices
are either that sin itself, or but a cloak to hide it.
3. By bringing the persons of the most religious into hatred, by such
false applications, reflections, or secret insinuations, or open
calumnies; making men believe that they are all but hypocrites, or
schismatics, or seditious, or fanatical, self-conceited persons! Which
is usually done either by impudent slanders raised against some
particular men, and so reflected on the rest; or by the advantage of
factions, controversies, or civil wars; or by the falls of any
professors, or the crimes of hypocrites; whereupon they would make the
world believe that they are all alike; as if Christ's family were to
be judged of by Peter's fall or Judas's falsehood. And the odious
representation of godly men doth greatly prevail to keep others from
godliness, and is one of the devil's most successful means, for the
damnation of multitudes of souls.
4. The disgrace of the persons of the preachers of the gospel, doth
greatly further men's damnation. For when the people think their
teachers to be hypocrites, covetous, proud, and secretly as bad as
others, they are very like to think accordingly of their doctrine, and
that all strict religion is but hypocrisy, or at least to refuse their
help and counsels. Even Plutarch noted, that "It so comes to pass that
we entertain not virtue, nor are rapt into a desire of imitating it,
unless we highly honour and love the person in whom it is discerned."
And if they see or think the preacher himself to be of a loose, and
careless, and licentious life, they will think that the like is very
excusable in themselves; and that his doctrine is but a form of
speech, which his office bindeth him to say; but is no more to be
regarded by them than by himself.
Two ways is men's damnation thus promoted. 1. By the ill lives of
hypocritical, ungodly preachers, who actually bring their own persons
into disgrace, and thereby also the persons of others, and
consequently their sacred work and function. 2. By wicked preachers
and people, who through a malignant hatred of those that are abler and
better than themselves, and an envy of their reputation, do labour to
make the most zealous and faithful preachers of the gospel, to be
thought the most hypocritical, or erroneous, or factious and
schismatical.
5. The neglect of ministerial duties is a common cause of sin, and of
men's damnation. When they that take the charge of souls, are either
unable or unwilling to do their office; when they teach them too
seldom, or too unskilfully, in an unsuitable manner; not choosing that
doctrine which they most need, or not opening it plainly and
methodically in a fitness to their capacities, or not applying it with
necessary seriousness and urgency to the hearers' state. When men
preach to the ungodly who are near to damnation, in a formal pace,
like a schoolboy saying his lesson, or in a drowsy, reading tone, as
if they came to preach them all asleep, or were afraid of wakening
them. When they speak of sin, and misery, and Christ, of heaven and
hell, as if by the manner they came to contradict the matter, and to
persuade men that there are no such things.
The same mischief followeth the neglect of private, personal
inspection. When ministers think that they have done all, when they
have said a sermon, and never make conscience of labouring personally
to convince the ungodly, and reclaim offenders, and draw sinners to
God, and confirm the weak. And the omission (much more the perversion
and abuse) of sacred discipline, hath the like effects. When the keys
of the church are used to shut out the good, or not used when they
ought, to rebuke or shut out the impenitent wicked ones; nor to
difference between the precious and the vile; it hardeneth multitudes
in their ungodliness, and persuadeth them that they are really of the
same family of Christ as the godly are, and have their sins forgiven,
because they are partakers of the same holy sacraments. (Not knowing
the difference between the church mystical and visible, nor between
the judgment of ministers and of Christ himself.)
6. Parents' neglect of instructing children, and other parts of holy
education, is one of the greatest causes of the perdition of mankind,
in all the world: but of this elsewhere.
7. Magistrates' persecution or opposition to religion, or
discountenancing those that preach it, or most seriously practise it,
tendeth to deceive some, who over-reverence the judgment of superiors,
and to affright others from the obedience of God.
8. Yea, the negligence of magistrates, masters, and other superiors,
omitting the due rebuke of sinners, and due correction of the
offenders, and the due encouragement of the good, is a great cause of
the wickedness and damnation of the world.
9. But above all, when they make laws for sin, or for the contempt, or
dishonour, or suppression of religion, or the serious practice of it;
this buildeth up Satan's kingdom most effectually, and turneth God's
ordinance against himself: thousands under infidel and ungodly
princes, are conducted by obedience to damnation; and their rulers
damn them as honourably as the physician killed his patients, who
boasted that he did it _secundum artem_, according to the rules
of art.
10. The vulgar example of the multitude of the ungodly, is a great
cause of men's impiety and damnation. They must be well resolved for
God and holiness, who will not yield to the major vote, nor be carried
down the common stream, nor run with the rabble to excess of riot.
When christianity is a sect which is every where spoken against, it
proveth so narrow a way, that few have a mind to walk in it. Men think
that they are at least excusable, for not being wiser and better than
the multitude. Singularity in honour, or riches, or strength, or
health, is accounted no crime; but singularity in godliness, is, at
least, thought unnecessary. What! will you be wiser than all the town,
or, than such and such superiors? is thought a good reprehension of
godliness, where it is rare; even by them who hereby conclude their
superiors, or all the town, to be wiser than God.
11. Also the vulgar's scorning and deriding godliness, is a common
cause of murdering souls: because the devil knoweth, that there cannot
one word of solid reason be brought against the reason of God, and so
against a holy life; he therefore teacheth men to use such weapons as
they have. A dog hath teeth, and an adder hath a sting, though they
have not the weapons of a man. A fool can laugh, and jeer, and rail;
and there is no great wit or learning necessary, to smile, or grin, or
call a man a puritan, or precisian, or heretic, or schismatic, or any
name which the malice of the age shall newly coin. Mr. Robert Bolton
largely showeth how much the malignity of his age did vent itself
against godliness, by the reproachful use of the word, puritan. When
reason can be bribed to take the devil's part, (either natural or
literate reason,) he will hire it at any rate; but when it cannot, he
will make use of such as he can get. Barking or hissing may serve
turn, where talking and disputing cannot be procured. Drum and
trumpets in an army, serve the turn instead of oratory, to animate
cowards, and drown the noise of dying men's complaints and groans.
Thousands have been mocked out of their religion and salvation at
once, and jeered into hell, who now know whether a scorn, or the fire
of hell, be the greater suffering. As tyrants think that the greatest,
and ablest, and wisest men, must either be drawn over to their party
or destroyed; so the tyrant of hell, who ruleth in the children of
disobedience, doth think that if reason, learning, and wit, cannot be
hired to dispute for him against God, they are to be suppressed,
silenced, and disgraced; which the noise of rude clamours and foolish
jeers is fit enough to perform.
12. Also idle, senseless prating against religion as a needless thing,
doth serve turn to deceive the simple; ignorant people, who converse
with no wiser men, are ordinarily taken with the silly cavils of a
drunken sot, who hath but a little more volubility or looseness of
tongue than his companions. It would make one's head and heart ache,
to hear with what reverend nonsense one of them will talk against the
doctrines or practices of godliness, and how submissively the
tractable herd receiveth and consenteth to his documents!
13. Also it tendeth much to the helping of Satan, and murdering of
souls, to keep up the reputation of the most ungodly, and to keep down
the reputation of the good. The devil knoweth that sin itself is such
a thing, as few men can love barefaced, or commend; and that goodness
or holiness is such a thing, as few men can hate, or at least condemn,
in its proper name and colours. Therefore he seeketh to make the
reputation of the persons serve to promote or hinder the cause which
he is for or against. He that is ashamed to say of drunkenness or
whoredom, that they are good and honest practices, dare yet say of
drunkards and whoremongers, They are very honest men; and by their
reputation take off some of the odiousness of the sin, and reconcile
the hearers to it. And he that cannot for shame say of the forbearing
of sin, and living a holy life, in heavenly contemplation, prayer,
and obedience, that these are hypocrisy, schism, or sedition,
covetousness, deceit, and pride; yet dare say of the person who
practiseth them, that he is as covetous, deceitful, proud,
hypocritical, schismatical, or seditious, as any others who make no
profession of religion. And the devil knoweth, that though good
doctrine hath no mixture of evil, nor Christ himself any blemish or
spot, yet the best persons are so faulty or defectible, that an ill
report of them is less incredible, there being too much matter to
raise a suspicion on. And through their sides, it is easiest to wound
the doctrine or holiness which they profess.
14. Also persuading sinners to do evil, and dissuading them from a
godly life, is another way of murdering souls. The devil's temptations
are most by instruments; he hath his preachers as well as Christ; and
it were well if they did not overgo us in earnestness, frequency, and
constancy. Where is there a poor soul that is moved by God to turn and
live, but the devil hath some at hand to drive them from it? by
persuading them that it is needless, and that all is well with them,
and telling them some dismal stories of a holy life.
15. Another way of soul murder, is by laying baits of deceit and sin
before the sinner: as men destroy rats and mice by baits, and
sweetened poison; or catch fishes or birds by covering their death
with something which they most love; so doth the devil and his
instruments destroy souls: the baits of a pleasant cup, or pleasant
company, or pleasant meats, or pleasant sports, or plays, or games; a
feast, a tavern, an alehouse, a whore, a stage-play, a romance, a pair
of cards or dice, can do the deed. If he can possibly, he will prove
it a thing lawful; if he cannot, he will prove it a venial sin; if
that cannot be, he will drown consideration, and stop the mouth of
reason and conscience, and cry, Drive on. Some have yet higher baits
than these, lordships and lands, dominion and honour, to choke their
souls.
16. Also an honest name for sin, and a dishonest name for duty to God,
doth serve the turn for many men's perdition. To call drunkenness,
good fellowship, or, to take a cup; and gluttony, good housekeeping;
and voluptuousness, recreation or pastime; and pride, the maintaining
of their honour; and worldliness, good husbandry; and prodigality,
liberality; and lust and whoredom, love, and having a mistress; and
oppression, the seeking of their due; and perfidious dissimulation,
courtship; and jeering, wittiness. These, and more such, are traps for
souls. And of the same use is the calling of duties by names of vice,
which tend to make them odious or contemptible.
17. Also the flattering of sinners, and praising them in their sin, is
a soul-murdering encouragement to them in ill-doing; and great sinners
seldom want such enemies.
18. An obedient readiness to all that wicked superiors command, is an
encouragement to them to proceed in mischief. If parents or masters
command their inferiors to spend the Lord's day in dancing, or other
unlawful exercises; or bid them steal, or lie, or forbid them to
worship God; those that obey them, do harden them in their sin. As
Daniel and the three witnesses had done the king, if they had obeyed
him.[144]
19. Also when those that have power to hinder sin, and further
godliness, do not do it. When they either give men leave to sin, or
forbear their duty when they should restrain it. He that stands by,
and seeth his neighbour robbed or murdered, and doth not what he can
to save him, is guilty of the sin, and the sufferer's hurt.
20. Silence, when we are obliged to reprove a sinner, or to instruct
the ignorant, or exhort the obstinate, or any way speak for men's
salvation, is injurious to their souls, and maketh us partakers of
their sin. Soul murder may be done by bare omissions.
21. Opposing magistrates, ministers, or any others, in the discharge
of their duty for godliness, or against sin, is an act of hostility
against God, and men's salvation.
22. An unnecessary occasioning of sin, or doing that needlessly, which
we may foresee that by accident another will destroy himself by, is to
be guilty of his sin and destruction; as he is that would sell poison
to him, that he might foresee would kill himself with it; or lend fire
to his neighbour, who he knoweth will burn his house with it. But of
this before, in the chapter of scandal.
23. They that are guilty of schisms or church divisions, are murderers
of souls; by depriving them of that means (the concord and harmony of
believers) which God hath appointed for men's conviction and
salvation;[145] and by setting up before them the greatest scandal, to
bring religion into contempt, and debilitate the godly.
24. Those also that mourn not for the sins of the times, and confess
them not to God, and pray not against them, and pray not for the
sinners when they ought, are thus guilty.[146]
25. And so are they that secretly rejoice in sin, or consent to it, or
approve it when it is done; which if they manifest, it is pernicious
to others also.
26. Lastly, A coldness or indifferency in the doing of our duty
against sin, without just zeal, and pity to the sinner, and reverence
to the truth, is a way of guilt, and hurteth others. To reprove sin,
as Eli did his sons; or to speak against it lightly as between jest
and earnest, is the way to make the sinner think that it is a small or
jesting matter. To persuade men to conversion or a godly life, without
a melting love and pity to their souls, and without the reverence of
God, and seriousness of mind, which the nature and weight of the thing
requireth, is the way to harden them in their sin and misery. All
these ways may a man be guilty, first, of the sin, and secondly, the
perdition of another.
But here (on the negative part) take notice of these things following.
[Sidenote: How we are not guilty of other men's sin or ruin.]
1. That properly no man doth partake of the same formal, numerical
sin, which is another's; _noxa caput sequitur_. The sin is
individuated and informed by the individual will of the offender. It
is not possible that another man's sin should be properly and formally
mine, unless I were individually and formally that same man, and not
another. If two men set their hands to the same evil deed, they are
distinct causes and subjects of the distinct formal guilt; though
con-causes, and partial causes of the effect: so that it is only by
multiplication that we make the sin or guilt of another to become the
matter of sin to us, the form resulting from ourselves.
2. All men that are guilty of the sin and damnation of other men, are
not equally guilty; not only as some are pardoned upon repentance, and
some remain impenitent and unpardoned; but as some contribute wilfully
to the mischief, and with delight, and in a greater measure; and some
only in a small degree, by an oversight, or small omission, or weak
performance of a duty, by mere infirmity or surprise.
3. All that do not hinder sin, or reprove it, are not guilty of it; no
more than all that do not punish it; but those only that have power
and opportunity, and so are called by God to do it.
4. If another man will sin, and destroy his soul, by the occasion of
my necessary duty, I must not cease my duty to prevent such men's sin
or hurt; else one or other will by their perverseness, excuse me from
almost all the duty which I should do. I must not cease praying,
hearing, sacraments, nor withdraw from church communion, because
another will turn it to his sin; else Satan should use the sin of
others to frustrate all God's worship. Yet I must add, that many
things cease to be a duty, when another will be so hurt by them.
5. I am not guilty of all men's sins, which are committed in my
presence; no, though I know beforehand that they will sin. For my
calling or duty may lead me into the presence of those, that I may
foreknow will sin. Wicked men sin in all that they do, and yet it
followeth not, that I must have nothing to do with them. Many a
failing which is his sin, may a minister or church be guilty of, even
in that public worship of God, which yet I am bound to be present at.
But of all these somewhat is said before, chap. xii.
[144] Dan. iii., vi.
[145] John xvii. 21, 25.
[146] Ezek. ix. 4; Zeph. iii. 17, 18.