A25467:455
A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved
A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers in October, 1682.A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved by sundry ministers in October, 1682.
London: printed by J.A. for John Dunton, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 5: Quest. How ought we to bewail the Sins of the Places where we live? SERMON V.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
A Factor, an Apprentice, by whose sin thou gainest, should more grieve thee, than if by his weakness thou hadst been never so great a loser.
3. I shall consider how we should mourn for the Sins of others, §. 11 in respect of our selves.
1. They whom God hath set in any Place or Station of Superiority over others, either more public, or in Families, should be the most eminent Mourners for the Sins of those committed to their charge. Persons who have public Relations, must have public Affections. They have greater opportunities, and authority to advance Gods Glory, and benefit Souls, than their Inferiors have: To them much is given, and of them much shall be required. They are more responsible to God for public abuses, than the Common People. The Heads of Places and People are more concerned to reform than private members. If they lay not the Sins of Inferiors to their Hearts, they shall be laid to their charge. One great if not the greatest reason why England is so full of Ungodliness, is because it is so full of Gallio's,1 who regard none of those things. Now they who resent no Sin, will reform no Sinners. All must give account for their idle words, and Governors, especially Magistrates and Ministers, for their idle Silence. Superiors will not reform those Sinners publicly, for whom they do not mourn privately. How abominable is it for base Bribery or Face-fearing to debtor Governors from reforming. 'Tis as cruel to spare all as to pare none. Solomons Throne was not held up by Apes, but by Lyons. Tenuisse silentia Clerum; 'tis the basest tenure in the World, for a Minister to hold his Living by holding of his Peace. Luther once said, That sinful silence in a Minister was Peccatum irremissibile, an unpardonable