younger; and requires her to do something in the family, which she conceives may tend to the prejudice of the common profit, and cross the mother's intention: the younger, finding herself grieved with this carriage, and disliking the task enjoined, both forbears to do it, and seriously expostulates with her sister; laying before her the inconveniences, which will follow upon such an act: the elder, impatient of a contradiction, not only gives sharp language, but thrusts her sister out of doors; neither will admit her to come in again, except she submit herself to her authority, and perform that chare which she formerly refused: the younger holds off, as thinking she may not yield without wrong to herself, and to her mother's trust. The sisters are now thus parted: but, where is the blame? The younger is gone away from the elder; but she doth it upon the elder's violence: on the one side, she had not gone, if she had not been thrust out; on the other side, she had not been thrust out, if she had not refused to do the thing required: on the one side, the elder might not be so imperious, nor enjoin a thing unfit; on the other side, the younger might not upon such a command voluntarily forsake the elder: but, if the elder shall unjustly challenge such authority, and shall thereupon impose unmeet services, and shall put the younger out of doors for not performing them, it is clear where the fault rests.

I appeal to God, and the consciences of all just men, if this be not the state of the present differences, of the Romans and Reformed Churches. The remedy whereof must therefore begin from those parties, which have given cause of the breach. If they shall remit of their undue height and rigour; and be content with those moderate bounds, which God hath set them, both for doctrine and government; and yield themselves but capable of error; there may be possibility of reunion and peace: but, while they persist to challenge an infallibility of judgment and uncontrolableness of practice, they do wilfully block up the way to all reconciliation and concord; and stand guilty of all that grievous schism, under which the Church of God, thus long and miserably suffers.

And this, upon full deliberation, is my settled and final Resolution, concerning the main difference in religion: wherein my soul doth so confidently rest, that I dare therewith boldly appear before the face of that great Judge of the Quick and Dead, as knowing it infallibly warranted by his own UNDOUBTED

WORD.

JOS. EXON.

THE

REMEDY OF PROFANENESS:

OR

THE TRUE SIGHT AND FEAR

OF

THE ALMIGHTY.

A NEEDFUL TRACTATE.

BY JOSEPH EXON.

IMPRIMATUR. SA. BAKER. OCT. 11. 1637.

Reader,—I had meant to take leave of the press, as one that repented to be guilty of this common surfeit. Yet, once again, my zeal urges me to break silence. I find so little Fear of God in this world, which I am shortly leaving, that I could not forbear, after my tears, to bestow some ink upon it. Every man can bewail it: I have studied to redress it. We may endeavour that, which GOD only can effect. I humbly leave this to the work of no less than an Omnipotent Grace: in the mean time, it is both holy and laudable, to project the remedies; and it shall be the no small comfort of my deathbed, that I have left behind me this seasonable advice of better thoughts; which, when I am gone, may survive to the benefit of many.

Know, withal, that this Treatise entered the press under the honoured name of my dear lord, the Earl of Norwich; whose death, preventing the publication, hath sent it forth patronless. Methought I should not endure, that what was once his, in my destination, should ever be any other's. Let this blank be as my last memorial of the honour, that I justly bear to that incomparable friend, both alive and dead; and serve to profess unto the world, that these papers yield themselves not unwilling orphans, upon his loss.

But why do I so mis-name his glory? That blessed soul, not staying the leisure of my present directions, hasted up to the free view of the face of his God, which I could only shew dimly and aloof. There will be more use of the imitation of his practice, than of the honour of his protection. Let us go cheerfully on, in the steps of true piety and conscionable obedience, until our faith, likewise, shall shut up in a happy fruition.

ON THE

SIGHT AND FEAR OF THE ALMIGHTY.

THE PROEM.

NOTHING is more easy to observe, than that the mind of man, being ever prone to extremities, is no sooner The Occasion, fetched off from Superstition, than it is apt to Need, and Use fall upon Profaneness; finding no mean, betwixt of the ensuing excess of devotion, and an irreligious neglect. Treatise. No wise Christian, who hath so much as sojourned in the world, can choose but feel, and, with grief of heart, confess this truth. We are ready to think of God's matters, as no better than our own: and a saucy kind of familiarity, this way, hath bred a palpable contempt; so as we walk with the great God of Heaven, as with our fellow; and think of his sacred ordinances, as either some common employment or fashionable superfluity. Out of an earnest desire therefore to settle, in myself and others, right thoughts, and meet dispositions of heart, towards the Glorious and Infinite Majesty of our God and his holy services, wherein we are all apt to be too defective; I have put my pen upon this seasonable task: beseeching that Almighty God, whose work it is, to bless it, both in my hand, and in the perusal of all readers: whom I beseech to know, that I have written this, not for their eyes, but for their hearts; and therefore charge them, as they tender the good of their own souls, not to rest in the bare speculation, but to work themselves to a serious and sensible practice of these holy prescriptions, as without which, they shall never have either true hold of God, or sound peace and comfort in their own souls. Come then, ye children, hearken unto me, and I shall teach you the fear of the Lord; Ps. xxxiv. 11. There cannot be a fitter lesson for me, in the improvement of my age, to read; nor, for your spiritual advantage, to take out: one glance of a thought, of this kind, is worth a volume of quarrelsome litigation.

As, above, we shall need no words; when we shall be all spirit, and our language shall be all thoughts: so, No one word below, we cannot but want words, wherein to can express that

Grace which we clothe the true notions of our hearts. I never yet treat of. could find a tongue, that yielded any one term, to notify the awful disposition of the heart towards God. We are want to call it Fear; but this appellation comes far too short for this signifies an affection; whereas this, which we treat of, is no other than an excellent virtue; yea, a grace rather; yea rather, a precious composition of many divine graces and virtues.

What it in

It is no marvel therefore, if the Spirit of God have wont, under this one word, to comprehend all that becludes and in- longs, either to the apprehension or adoration timates. of a God; Gen. xlii. 18. Deut. vi. 13. Ps. xxv. 12. Eccl. xii. 13. Ps. cxxviii. 1. For this alone includes all the humble constitution of a holy soul, and all the answerable demeanour of a mortified creature: neither is there any thing, so well becoming a heart sensible of infiniteness, as this, which we are fain to mis-name FEAR.

term for it.

To speak properly, there is no fear, but of evil; and that, which we justly call servile: which is a doubtful Fear is no fit expectation of something, that may be hurtful to us and this, when it prevails, is horror and dreadful confusion; an affection, or perturbation rather, fit for the gallies, or hell itself. Love casts it out; as that, which is ever accompanied with a kind of hate: and so will we. We are meditating of such a temper of the heart; as, in the continuance of it, is attended with blessedness; as, in the exercise of it, is fixed upon infinite greatness and infinite goodness; and, in the mean time, is accompanied with unspeakable peace and contentment in the soul; Ps. ciii. 17. cxxviii. 4. cxlvii. 11. Eccl. viii. 11.

And yet, whoso had a desire to retain the word, if our Ethie Affections, well Doctors would give him leave, might say, that employed, turn affections, well employed upon excellent objects, Virtues. turn virtues. So Love, though commonly marshalled in those lower ranks of the soul; yet, when it is elevated to the all-glorious God, is justly styled the highest of theological virtues: yea, when it rises but to the level of our brethren, it is Christian charity. So, Grief for sin, is holy penitence. And what more heavenly grace can be incident into the soul, than Joy in the Holy Ghost? Neither is it otherwise with Fear: when it is taken up with worldly occurrences of pain, loss, shame, it is no better than a troublesome passion; but, when we speak of the fear of God, the case and style is so altered, that the breast of a Christian is not capable of a more divine grace.

But, not to dwell in syllables, nor to examine curious points Wherein Holy of morality, that, which we speak of, is no other, than a reverential awe of the Holy and Infinite

Fear consists.