THE PREFACE

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THE RIGHT REVEREND AND RELIGIOUS FATHERS,

BRIAN, LORD BISHOP OF SARUM;

AND

JOHN, LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER;

AND TO THE MOST REVEREND AND RELIGIOUS CLERGY OF ENGLAND, MY DEAR BRETHREN.

MEN, BRETHREN, AND FATHERS,

THE wiser part of mankind hath seen so much trifling in the conduct of disputations, so much partiality, such earnest desires of reputation, such resolution to prevail by all means, so great mixture of interest in the contention, so much mis. taking of the main question, so frequent excursions into differing matter, so many personal quarrels and petty animosities, so many wranglings about those things that shall never be helped, that is, the errors and infirmities of men; and, after all this (which also must needs be consequent to it), so little fruit and effect of questions, no man being the wiser, or changed from error to truth, but from error to error most frequently: and there are in the very vindication of truth so many incompetent, uncertain, and untrue things offered, that if by chance some truth be gotten, we are not very great. gainers, because, when the whole account is cast up, we shall find, or else they that are disinterested will observe, that there is more error than truth in the whole purchase; and still no man is satisfied, and every side keeps its own, unless where folly or interest makes some few persons to change; and still more weakness and more impertinences crowd into the whole affair upon every reply, and more yet upon the rejoinder; and when men have wrangled tediously and vainly, they are but where they were; save only, that they may remember

VOL. VIII.

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they suffered infirmity, and, it may be, the transport of passions, and uncharitable expressions; and all this for an unrewarding interest, for that which is sometimes uncertain itself, unrevealed, unuseful, and unsatisfying; that in the event of things, and after being wearied for little or nothing, men have now in a very great proportion left it quite off, as unsatisfying waters, and have been desirous of more material nourishment, and of such notices of things and just assistances, as may promote their eternal interest.

And, indeed, it was great reason and high time that they should do so: for, when they were employed in rowing up and down in uncertain seas, to find something that was not necessary, it was certain they would less attend to that, which was more worthy their inquiry: and the enemy of mankind knew that to be a time of his advantage, and accordingly sowed tares while we so slept; and we felt a real mischief while we contended for an imaginary and fantastic good. For things were come to that pass, that it was the character of a good man to be zealous for a sect, and all of every party respectively, if they were earnest and impatient of contradiction, were sure to be saved by their own preachers; and holiness of life was not so severely demanded, but that men believe their country articles; and heaven-gates at no hand might be permitted to stand open to any one else. Thence came hatred, variance, emulation, and strifes; and the wars of Christendom which have been kindled by disputers, and the evil lives which were occasioned and encouraged by those proceedings, are the best confutation in the world of all such disputations.

But now when we come to search into that part of theology, which is most necessary, in which the life of Christianity, and the interest of souls, the peace of Christendom, and the union of minds, the sweetness of society, and the support of government, the usefulness and comfort of our lives, the advancement of virtue, and the just measures of honour; we find many things disordered, the tables of the commandments broken in pieces, and some parts are lost and some disordered, and into the very practice of Christians there are crept so many material errors, that although God made nothing plainer, yet now nothing is more difficult and involved, uncertain and discomposed, than many of the great lines

and propositions in moral theology; nothing is more neglected, more necessary, or more mistaken. For although very many run into holy orders without just abilities, and think their province is well discharged if they can preach upon Sundays; and men observing the ordinary preaching to be little better than ordinary talk, have been made bold to venture into the holy sept, and invade the secrets of the temple, as thinking they can talk, at the same rate which they observe to be the manner of vulgar sermons: yet they who know to give a just value to the best things, know that the sacred office of a priest, a minister of religion, does not only require great holiness, that they may acceptably offer the Christian sacrifices and oblations of prayer and eucharist for the people, and become their fairest examples; but also great abilities, and wise notices of things and persons, strict observation, deep remembrances, prudent applications, courage and caution, severity and mercy, diligence and wisdom, that they may dispense the excellent things of Christianity, to the same effect whither they were designed in the councils of eternity, that is, to the glory of God and the benefit of souls.

But it is a sad thing to observe how weakly the souls of men and women are guided; with what false measures they are instructed, how their guides oftentimes strive to please men rather than to save them, and accordingly have fitted their discourses and sermons with easy theorems, such which the schools of learning have fallen upon by chance, or interest, or flattery, or vicious necessities, or superinduced arts, or weak compliances. But from whatsoever cause it does proceed, we feel the thing: there are so many false principles in the institutions and systems of moral or casuistical divinity, and they taught so generally, and believed so unquestionably, and so fitted to the dispositions of men, so complying with their evil inclinations, so apt to produce error and confidence, security and a careless conversation, that neither can there be any way better to promote the interest of souls, nor to vindicate truth, nor to adorn the science itself, or to make religion reasonable and intelligible, or to promote holy life, than by rescuing our schools, and pulpits, and private persuasions, from the believing such positions which have prevailed very much and very long, but

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yet which are not only false, but have immediate influence upon the lives of men, so as to become to them a state of universal temptation, from the severities and wisdom of holi

ness.

When therefore I had observed concerning the church of England [which is the most excellently instructed with a body of true articles, and doctrines of holiness, with a discipline material and prudent, with a government apostolical, with dignities neither splendid nor sordid, too great for contempt, and too little for envy (unless she had met with little people and greatly malicious), and indeed with every thing that could instruct 'or adorn a Christian church, so that she wanted nothing but the continuance of peace, and what she already was]; that amongst all her heaps of excellent things, and books by which her sons have ministered to piety and learning both at home and abroad, there was the greatest scarcity of books of cases of conscience; and that while I stood watching that some or other should undertake it according to the ability which God gave them; and yet every one found himself hindered or diverted, persecuted or disabled, and still the work was left undone, I suffered myself to be invited to put my weak hand to this work, rather than that it should not be done at all. But by that time I made some progression in the first preparatory discourses to the work, I found that a great part of that learning was supported by principles very weak and very false: and that it was in vain to dispute concerning a single case whether it were lawful or no, when, by the general discoursings of men, it might be permitted to live in states of sin without danger or reproof, as to the final event of souls. I thought it therefore necessary, by way of address and preparation to the publication of the particulars, that it should appear to be necessary for a man to live a holy life; and that it could be of concern to him to inquire into the very minutes of his conscience for if it be no matter how men live, and if the hopes of heaven can well stand with a wicked life, there is nothing in the world more unnecessary, than to inquire after cases of conscience. And if it be sufficient for a man at the last to cry for pardon for having all his life-time neither regarded laws nor conscience, certainly they have found out a better compendium of religion, and need not be troubled

with variety of rules and cautions of carefulness and a lastng holiness; nor think concerning any action or state of life, whether it be lawful or not lawful; for it is all one whether it be or no, since neither one nor the other will easily change the event of things.

For let it be imagined, what need there can be that any man should write cases of conscience, or read them, if it be lawful for a man thus to believe and speak.

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I have indeed often in my younger years been affrighted with the fearful noises of damnation; and the ministers of religion, for what reason they best know, did call upon me to deny my appetite, to cross my desires, to destroy my pleasures, to live against my nature; and I was afraid as long as I could not consider the secrets of things; but now I find that in their own books there are for me so many confidencies and securities, that those fears were most unreasonable; and that as long as I live by the rules and measures of nature, I do not offend God, or if I do I shall soon find a pardon. For I consider, that the commandments are impossible, and what is not possible to be done we are not to take care of and he that fails in one instance, cannot be saved without a pardon, not by his obedience; and he that fails in all, may be saved by pardon and grace. For the case is so, that we are sinners naturally, made so before we were born; and nature can never be changed until she be destroyed: and since all our irregularities spring from that root, it is certain they ought not to be imputed to us, and a man can no more fear God's anger for being inclined to all sin, than for being hungry, or miserable: and therefore I expect from the wisdom and goodness of God some provisions, which will so extinguish this solemn and artificial guilt, that it shall be as if it were not. But in the meantime the certainty of sinning will proceed. For besides that I am told that a man hath no liberty, but a liberty to sin, and this definite liberty is in plain English a very necessity, we see it by a daily experience that those who call themselves good men, are such who do what they would not, and cannot do what they would; and if it be so, it is better to do what I have a mind to quietly, than to vex myself, and yet do it nevertheless and that it is so, I am taught in almost all the discourses I have read or heard upon 'he seventh chapter to the Romans: and therefore if I may