very cold and languid For they will not allow any acknowledgments to God for giving them a body or for that he hath gratified them with sense and corporeal appetites in the satiating of which they place their Supreme Good since according to their doctrine they are not the work of his Hands either in their Matter or Form of which the one owes its being to the eternal seed of Atomes the other to the contingency of the coalition that so fabricated them Nor will they more extol the same Goodness for that soul that animates them being they look not upon it as a present of his Liberality they receiv'd it they conceive from their Fathers as Colts do theirs from the Stallions that ingender them Then for the particular of Conservation of Life which consists in the supply of Aliment and Deliverance from such an innumerable variety of Accidents which the tender Providence of God averts from our heads they arrogate it partly to their own Circumspection and partly impute it to Chance deriding those that either return thanks or make complaints to Heaven about it In so much that if we subscribe to them we owe all the obligation of our Being and of our Happiness to our selves and to Fortune and in the Miseries wherewith this Life is plentifully encumbred all the consolation left us is to vent our reproaches and exclamations against Her Questionless we shall be amply revenged when we have reviled her with the appellations of Turbulent and Furious Blind and Inconsiderate unreasonable extravagant in al her actions For as for that invincible Magnanimity which causes the Epicureans to triumph gloriously in the most deplorable calamities and exquisite pains 't is a commendation to which they alone can attain who are not onely initiated in the mysteries of the Wisdom of Epicurus but have been admitted to contemplate the most venerable of his Secrets and have there beheld Pleasure in so high a degree of grandeur and generosity that Virtue her self do's homage to her and reputes it honour to be received in the quality of her servant Concerning Justice to whom it pertains to inflict punishment for offences perpetrated against the laws of Nature and Reason the Doctrine we meet with in this School is so far from ascribing due Veneration to God in respect of the same that their main design hath been to eradicate and extinguish out of the minds of Men such scruples as they are possess'd with concerning it and to implant in their room most impious impressions reflecting to his dishonor I am not so severe as to account them of so horrid prophaneness as to deny that God detests Vice and Loves Virtue and that being an excellent Intelligence and a perfect Nature he cannot be destitute of the knowledge of the former's demerit and the latter's worth by reason and proportion whereof the love and aversion which he beareth to the one and the other of these objects is enhanced Now if God be powerful which they dare not deny and if he hath an abhorrence and hatred of Vice as is necessarily requisite to the sanctity of his Nature what is it should hinder him from exercising Vengeance against it Is it because mankind is not under his Jurisdiction and so he hath nothing to do to superintend over their Lives That very same eminent worthiness of his Nature which obliges men to adore it gives him a right over them if he please to use it at least as much as they take one over another And indeed the eminence of the Nature of a Thing and it's perfection above the condition of other Beings is one of the grounds of the authority that it challengeth over them For this cause the Philosophers teach that according to the Laws of Nature such persons as are indued in a degree extraordinarily eminent both with Intellectual and Moral Virtues and particularly with Prudence and Fortitude which are the Qualities necessary for Government ought to be the Princes of the World Now Authority is a Right to rule as Superior by administring the rewards of Virtue and penalties of Vice So that if God be of a Nature so transcendently accomplish'd that in regard thereunto men ow him honor and veneration Obligation to honor and veneration being an indubitable testimony of the eminence of that which is honored it is also a firm argument of his Right and of his Authority And truly if men be exempted from subjection to the Deity it will be no impiety to affirm that they are Gods themselves For it is one of the Conditions peculiar to the Deity alone to be independent of any other thing and to be soveraign to it self that is to acknowledge none Wherefore if God do's not punish the crimes of Men it must be because he will not But not to will that a fact be punish'd which deserves it especially in a person that is in authority and power to do it is in some sort to consent unto it or surely at least to connive at it which is unworthy incongruous to a nature perfectly eminent in Virtues and almost it self deserving correction and vengeance Moreover what justice can there be in this that all men serve God some more others less and the Epicureans themselves confess that all universally ought to do it and nevertheless he takes no consideration or cognisance of it but loves those that blaspheme him as much as those that magnifie and praise him and ordinarily suffers the Good to be oppressed by the Wicked and equally shuts his ear to the sutes and cries of the one and the blasphemies of the other and this for the only respect of not troubling the serenity of his quiet and that profound peace in which he continues after so many Ages I am not ignorant that it is one of the ancient complaints of men and one of the objections of Epicurus against Divine Providence that the Good are here below insulted over by the Wicked and that it is not at all seen how Heaven provides against such Inconvenience But the other Philosophers have indeavored to refute it and some of them have even gone so far as to assâ—rt that if God do's not punish the Wicked in this World he will assuredly do it in the other Nor could any thing of fairer reason be expressed by the mouth of a Pagan or that more nearly approacheth to the sound judgments of Christians concerning this truth then that which Plutarch Lib. de Sora Numinis vindicta hath delivered upon this subject But the True Religion is that which alone discovers these Mysteries to the bottom and represents them to our contemplation wholly naked with unspeakable satisfaction to those which consider them Onely Epicurus cannot exempt God from this blame which is unworthy of his Goodness and Justice if he hath any of suffering that which he hath power to redress the Wicked here to devour and tyrannize over the Good and the virtuous and religious to become in recompense of their piety
of men upon the account of being Divine and Religious Wherefore whosoever takes upon him the Authority of enjoyning such things for Religious and requisite to the service of God which are in their own nature free and lest by God in their indifference he commits several high crimes in one single attempt For he offers to make a thing not at all ordained by God a means to obtain his favour and to be well-pleasing to him Now God is not delighted with things according to the fancy of man but according to his own will In the next place he arrogates a dominion over the Conscience and encroaches upon the Authority of God for he places himself between him and that though between God and the Conscience of man there is no intermedium no more then there is between husband and wife and God communicates to men the power of disposing that which concerns this life onely whereby some are bound to yield obedience to others But as for what relates to the Conscience he hath reserv'd the Empire over it wholly to himself In fine he usurps what is proper to none but the Deity by claiming the right of giving the Nature and Essence to things and making them of free and indifferent as they were to become good or bad For it may be truly affirmed that it is as much in the power of men to create things of nothing as it is to render such good or evil which were not so before In the one there is requisite an infinite power in the other an infinite authority and consequently as it is not permitted to any to usurp this right so it is not lawful for any to obey him that usurps it that is to account those things for good by vertue of his Prescription which were before indifferent Because this would be to allow and favour a tyrannie in prejudice of the glory of God to inthral his Conscience which God would have free in this regard to pretend such things are acceptable to him which he hath not commanded and to measure him according to our own will In a word to own for Divine and Religious by humane command such things as the wisdom of God would have be esteemed purely humane and indifferent What then will some say is it not lawful for the Religious Society to establish certain Laws and Ceremonies which private persons are bound to observe when they are constituted by publique suffrage of the Society or if God hath appointed certain persons to be Governours of this Society as he hath placed the conduct of Justice in the hands of the Magistate hath he not given them Authority to make Constitutions concerning things in their own nature indifferent which oblige those that are subject to their rule Yes certainly and we have touch'd above upon the manner how but it will be here convenient to explain the same somewhat further Magistrates in a Civil Society make two sorts of Laws in some they expound the very Laws of Nature onely and do not constitute as when they forbid Theft Adultery Murder and Blasphemy for they are not the Authors of these Laws they are onely the Proclaimers and Interpreters So that when we obey them in this case we do not so much obey them as Nature it self Others are such as they judge profitable for consetvation of that Society over which they superintend although they be not expresly grounded upon the Dictates of Nature such are the Edicts concerning Commerce Tributes Taxes and Gabels which when they ordain they onely advance and have respect to the publique good and do not pretend the same to be the Law of God or Nature Whence when we obey them in this case we have regard to them and not to the nature it self of the things we do the same out of consideration of their Authority and the benefit arising thereby namely the conservation of Society and not as if these things were of themselves sufficient to be authentick and inviolable grounds of Laws In like manner they that are intrusted with the Government of the other Society have the care of two sorts of Constitutions committed to them In the first of which they onely expound the Laws of God whereof they are not Legislators but meer Guardians and Depositaries and when they promulgate the same they do not pretend that they are their own Decrees but the Ordinances of God himself So that when we yield obedience thereunto it is not properly in respect to them but because of the express command of God and the very essence of the thing The second sort is of those which they esteem profitable onely in reference to order and seemliness or the conservation of the Society which they govern and do not recommend the same but under that title and not as founded on the command of God So that in submitting to them we have regard to the Authority which God hath given them concerning the ordering these affairs and to the benefit arising thereby as peace and concord by which the Society is preserved And so far ought they to be obeyed when they attribute nothing more to themselves But when in either of these Societies their Superintendents go about either to command and forbid that which God and Nature have forbidden and commanded or to change the very nature of things or to impose their own Laws as Divine and Natural we are not onely not bound to submit unto but commanded to resist them inasmuch as they set themselves in the place of God and instead of preserving the Society ruine and overthrow it And from all this it evidently follows that it is not lawful in these kinde of things to have Communion in a Religion which thus tramples on the bounds wherewith God and Nature have circumscrib'd it Moreover there are some things which considered in themselves are free and of a middle nature which yet are not so as they are referred to a certain end but are determined by the very nature of the thing to which they are design'd For example the knowledge of those truths in which consists the Wisdom of Religion is without doubt a thing good in it self and which God commands by the same Revelation whereby he hath declared them To attain thereunto certain means must be employ'd and there is no other then to expound them in common in the most fitting and convenient manner that may be as to be present in some places to hear such as discourse of them to communicate thereof with them in order to be resolved of any difficulties that arise Whence though to resort to a certain place at a time prefixed be a thing purely free and indifferent if considered precisely and separately in it self yet in case God had not expresly commanded the same the commandment of that which is ordained as the scope and end encludes also tacitely and necessarily that of the means which conduce thereunto By the same reason therefore things which though free in themselves yet naturally
this proportion between them and us that we are equally creatures whereas between God and us there is no commensurability in any thing whatsoever Even Kings and Monarks claim such a right over their subjects and very many generous Nations concede the same to them without reservation But besides all this there are two most excellent virtues taught by divine revelation which the Pagans were so far from ever reckoning such that they accounted the vices contrary to them for laudable virtues The first is Humility of whose recommendation there is no footstep nor shadow to be found in their writings For it ha's been as an epidemical disease of their minds to consider themselves in their own plumes to esteem not less gloriously of them and of our nature then if we were as little Gods upon earth in which respect they sometimes dar'd as we have seen to compare yea to prefer themselves before the Gods themselves Whereunto the ignorance of the true God ha's contributed more then can be imagin'd and likewise the fictions of the Poets concerning all those Romantick Divinities which were adored by the vulgar And in truth I see not why any honest woman ought not prefer her self before Venus according as she is describ'd to us since Immortality by which alone she surpass'd humane condition gave her no other advantage saving to practise her infamous dulteries to eternity as Aristides and Phocion had grounds to prise themselves much above a theevish Mercury or a cruel and bloody Mars whose Deity had no other excellence but to be a shelter of impunity from their crimes It was fit therefore to make men know in the first place that though they should have continued in the state of perfection in which they were placed at their first creation yet in comparison of God they are but inconsiderable worms upon the earth Next that they are fallen so far below themselves that there is no proportion between them and their first being and so to teach them to despise themselves in comparison of God yea to think low of themselves in comparison of themselves and which is an infallible sequel of the little esteem we make of our selves not to contemn any person whatsoever but to prevent and go beyond all the world in respect and to reverence all such in whom God hath put any mark of his eminence whether in rare qualities of the mind or in authority and power The other Virtue consists in the obedience which we render to Kings and Magistrates and all superior Powers For because the Pagans did not perceive any particular Providence of God in the establishment of politique or civil order in the world but thought that it was an institution either purely humane every people having transfer'd into the hands of one or more of their fellow-Citizens the administration of their common laws and the avengement of their violation or at most but natural in as much as those to whom nature had been more bountiful in respect of understanding or prudence to conduct others undertook the management of Republicks as the best experienced pilots take upon them the steering of the ship whence they made no scruple where they conceiv'd the persons entrusted with power abused the same or that the case were irregular and preposterous in nature the less worthy possessing themselves of the government to rebel against their authority and even to lay violent hands upon those whom they called tyrants and unjust invaders of the liberty of the people And there is scarce any thing found more ordinary among their writings then Elogiums of Assassins that had slain Tyrants nothing more honored in the publick places of their Cities then their Statues nothing that they proclaim so loud as the defense of their liberty nor any thing that ha's been more advantageously mentioned then the killing of the Tyrants of Thebes and the murder of Julius Caesar for the deliverance of the Commonwealth of Rome But divine Revelation ha's carried our knowledges much higher and corrected the deficiency of their sentiments who were not guided by its light It hath taught us first that there ought to be two kinds of societies in the world The one Religious which respects the service of God The other onely Civil in reference to the affairs of this life and that God hath so dispensed things that he ha's impower'd each with its authority and establish'd over each its governors and rulers So that as the Civil Power hath nothing to do to superintend in the Religious Society to give laws to the consciences of men but ought to submit it self to those which God hath establish'd therein So the Spiritual Power hath no right to partake with the Secular which is ordained for the conduct of the world but ought likewise to be subject thereunto without pretending to any prerogative over Kings and Magistrates Moreover it hath taught us that although it be not forbidden to people truely free that is which have no soverain power above them but have themselves the authority of their affairs in their hands to defend their liberty against such as would oppress it yet when once they have been subjected and themselves own'd those that subdued them for their soverains they are obliged to render faithful obedience to them And in reference to the other Society which concerns Religion when once it hath gain'd some reasonable form in a place and order is establish'd therein it is the duty of particular persons to obey willingly the constitutions which are made therein by those who have the power so to do So that neither the one of these Societies may attempt any thing against the other because their rights are separate and their administration distinct nor any one whatsoever in either of them disturb the publick order by rebellion because every man in his station is oblig'd to own it for superior to which he owes obedience And this obligation ought to be esteemed inviolable not onely in reference to conservation of order thereby in either of these two Societies of which every good man should be desirous but moreover because they have God for their Author and therefore they ought to be honoured with reverence by reason of the authority of him from whom they derive their Original So that as piety towards God is as it were the Pillar of the Religious Society and Justice of the Civil so there are onely these two cases in which it is lawful for particular persons to disobey these two Powers First when in the Religious Society something is commanded contrary to piety for at such times as the superior abuses his authority directly against God and imposes upon the conscience impious idolatrous and superstitious laws the inviolable commandments of God ought without contradiction to overweigh the decrees of men Secondly when Magistrates ordain something contrary to Justice and Virtue for in such cases using their authority directly contrary to the end for which it was given them to wit to induce
profession the doctrines which we condemn in our minds and on the contrary to condemn by outward behaviour that which we tacitly and inwardly approve If it be so sincerity and candor the qualifications so worthy all honest persons are perisht from the earth For if this be lawful in that which belongs to the truth of God and things that concern him why is it not as lawful in the conduct of humane life It must be lawful to wear the liver of an enemy to one's King to lye at every turn to betray and deceive and instead of the countenances of men free and fair in their conversation we shall see nothing but visards and disguises Moreover since the ceremonies of Religion ought to be of a nature apt to excite piety and virtue in the minds of men to which the doctrines and precepts of Religion tend how can it be lawful to abstain from partaking in those which God ha's appointed for that end to communicate with such as are remote and averse from it Is it not to disclaim the exercise of virtue and piety it self and to be addicted to vice and Idolatry or irreligion whereunto the contrary lead For the ceremonies of a false Religion as well as of the true correspond with that which is taught for truth and conspire to the same end Those which are conjoyn'd with the truth revealed by God aim at sincere piety and the perfection of the mind of man On the contrary those which accompany falsehood lead to the corruption and perversion of the soul And 't is like as if a man should purpose to sail from the South with a Northen Wind or ridde much ground forward by drawing his feet backward Furthermore the communion in ceremonies is a part of service performed to God in a Religion for man as composed of body and soul owes homage to God with both But he can render no religious homage with the body but by participating in some sacred ceremonies Wherefore if God ha's not approved by his command nor any other manner whatsoever the ceremonies to which we conform who ha's secur'd us that they will be acceptable devotions unto him And if we abstain from such as he hath commanded who gave us this authority of dispensing with his commandments and to order the rules of his service at our pleasure both without him and against him And lastly since Religion is a society which ought to be the more strict sacred and inviolable in as much as it confederates men with God and between themselves whereas civil governments are contriv'd onely for the society of men together and being the tyes that ligue us to God do equally concern the soul and the body the soul by the belief of truths and communion of pious and moral precepts the body by external ceremonies whereas civil polities binde men onely in relation to the body and bodily concernments what reason can there be thus to separate the things which God ha's conjoyn'd and to dissipate that society which he would have be permanent But behold their main reason with which they think themselves impregnable namely That all external things are neither good nor evil of their own nature and therefore being indetermined in themselves as to those respects it depends of our intention and the end to which we design them to give them in a manner their specifical being So that they which make them subservient to Superstition and Idolatry corrupt them but such as destinate them to another end use them well and render them good Now it is the part of the minde to destinate them to certain ends and therefore they ought to be judged of by the thoughts of the heart As when a thing is equally counterpoised on both sides it depends on him that manages it to incline it either this way or the other and to determine the dubious propendency he observes in it But this is easie to be refell'd by any that considers well the nature of indifferent things for there are some things in which whether considered in themselves or as they have respect to a certain end there is nothing that can warrant them the title of good or evil according to that kinde of goodness or badness from whence men are denominated vicious or vertuous I demand therefore Whether in the revelation which God hath made concerning his service he hath commanded or prohibited any things of this nature or whether he hath mentioned none such If he hath commanded any then the usage thereof is not free for the future his Law ought to be obeyed not disputed or dispensed with nor is the exception allowable that the thing of its own nature obliges neither to performance nor abstinence for the Commandment of God hath changed its nature and though it obliges not considered in it self yet it does so upon account of his Authority that commanded it If there be any forbidden the case is the same the doing thereof is no longer indifferent Indeed the nature of the thing setting aside the prohibition allows us liberty to use it but that liberty is annull'd by the prohibition And it is an equal sin not to do the indifferent things which God hath commanded and to do the indifferent which he hath forbidden namely the violation of his Command Otherwise there would be left no preheminence to God above man not so much as men claim over one another But if God hath made no mencion of such things in this Declaration of his will the exercise thereof is partly free and partly not It is free if the same be not referr'd to Religion but ranked amongst things purely humane For then every mans prudence is a Law to him to use them or not if he does not trust his own judgement the prudence of those whose advice he may consult ought to serve him for a rule in such a case For it is the will of God and Nature that they which are not able to conduct their lives in a due manner should suffer themselves to be directed by others And hence arose the Institution of Magistrates to whom the Government of humane life is committed so that where the Magistrate interposes his injunction concerning such things his Law ought to be obeyed as the counsel of a publique superiour Prudence whom God and Nature have entrusted with the dispensation of such things with suitable Authority But the practice of them is no longer indifferent when they are referr'd to Religion and made a part of the service of God because it belongs to God alone to make Laws in reference to his service and therefore to place his service in things which he hath left as indifferent would be to usurp his place and to invade his Authority But this requires a more particular consideration Things wherein the service of God consists have a double respect one as they are acceptable to God to whom they are performed and obtain his favour the other as they oblige the Consciences
was to be lowly riding upon an Ass a Colt the fole of an Ass And indeed the frail dusty ornaments of the Earth would have been too vile and wretched for him that is the Sun of righteousness of souls Wherefore forasmuch as the Christian Religion refers all the promises of the Messias to the good of the Minde making him to be the Redeemer of souls and attributing to him a spiritual Empire and glory it directs them to their right end from which the carnal imaginations of the Jews had perverted them and hath consequently as great pre-eminence above the Jewish in this point as the soul hath above the body and the Heavens above the Earth CHAP. VII That according to Right Reason and the Old Testament the means of obtaining Salvation ought to be such as the Christian Religion holds forth I Affirmed in the precedent Chapter that the Law of God and the nature of his justice require that either all men perish universally or that some person in their stead endure the punishment which they have merited But because this is the Foundation of the Christian Religion and the most usual stumbling-stone on which the Jews and divers other people fall foul it is requisite for us to discover it something more clearly in this Chapter Certainly if they will confess the truth the natural terrors of their Consciences when they consider the justice of God seriously will make them acknowledge that nature it self directs them in order to the obtaining of solid comfort to seek out a satisfaction of merit proportionate to the Majesty of him to whom it is due and to the demerit of their offenses For not onely the Jews to whom God revealed his vindictive justice more manifestly but others who never heard speak of the Law have been invaded by them Which how could it be did not punishment accompany sin as the shadow a body and that for a man to be quit from the penalty it must either be suffer'd by another or he must be exempt from sin himself And the Natural Instinct which lead them to offer sacrifices in the beginning and which was approv'd and authoris'd by the Law of God under the Old Testament is an evident argument of it For whence was it that soon after sin committed Abel offers the first-lings of his stock in sacrifice and that this example became so powerful to all the posterity of Adam that there ha's been no Nation by whom the death of beasts immolated in sacrifice was not practis'd but onely that nature it self taught him to acknowledge what he had deserved and all others have in like manner follow'd his sentiments So that though they could easily judge that the satisfaction was not proportionate to the dignity of him with whom they thus transacted yet being unable otherwise to satisfie they offer'd that which they could and withal referr'd it to the Wisdom of God to supply the rest Moreover it is apparent by several Nations mention'd above and whose names and customes are recorded both in Holy Profane Histories as the Cananaeans Tyrians Carthaginians Egyptians Cyprians Arabians Persians Scythians Cretans the ancient Grecians ancient Romans Gauls and others who sacrifis'd living men that the opinion which Caesar attributes to the Druydes That it is not possible for the Wrath of the Gods to be appeas'd but by offering the blood of men to them was naturally imprinted in their souls Otherwise man being sufficiently prone to elevate the opinion of his faults and flatter himself partly through an immoderate self-love partly by reason of the little knowledge he hath of the nature of God would never be so inhumanely animated against his own species and even against his own children which some of those Nations were wont to make victimes of And for testimony to this I appeal to mens peculiar thoughts in the administration of humane justice How do they detest murderers and robbers and those that give themselves up to perpetrate heinous crimes And when they observe a Magistrate suffering such persons to go on in impunity do not they judge that he is either like them one of their complices and partakers in their prey or that he connives at their facinorous actions through want of power Certainly when any enormous misdeed is committed there ought no dammage to arrive to the Commonwealth either by the Fact or the example But there is a kind of detestableness in the deed that of it self cryes out for vengeance the impunity of which blots the reputation of him who hath the authority and power of punishing in his hand and brings him into an evil suspition and esteem And he that shall more attentively consider the emanations of his own minde will finde that Nature ha's not onely indued us with the Passion of Anger to be inservient towards defending us from particular injuries which are offered to us but also ha's imprinted in our Minds a Hatred against Wickednesses which do not particularly reach us which causes us not to be satisfied till we have seen vengeance inflicted upon the same But assoon as we have beheld them expiated by sutable punishment our minds acquiesce in the justice done with a kind of satisfaction and our indignation ceases For corrupt qualities and horrid vices in the soul when they come to be discover'd by actions they are like Ulcers and Cancers which hideously deform the visage we divert our thoughts from the former with indignation and our eyes from the latter with nauseousness Now the Virtues which are but little in us are in God in a degree transcendently eminent he possesses as we may speak the body of them whereas we have no more then the shadow As therefore a good Magistrate do's not onely detest Crimes because they are detrimental to the Commonwealth but also by reason of the natural turpitude which renders Vice odious were it not pernitious so that he thinks he do's not satisfie the natural equity of things nor his own Conscience unless he punish it and the more upright a person the Judge is the more hatred do's he bear against Vice for its own sake So God do's not onely punish Sin being the Universal Judge and Magistrate of the World because it produces prejudice to Humane Society and is an enemy to its preservation but also by reason of that internal and essential deformity in it which is so repugnant to the Divine Nature and the natural order of things so that he cannot possibly prevail with himself not to revenge it And the more perfect his Nature is the greater is this natural detestation he hath against sin But to proceed further The Jews consent that men are naturally corrupted by sin and that they have in them from their conception an evil seminary of Vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they say is like a mountain to the Good and a straw to the Wicked That is they which are immerged in it are not sensible of it no more then a dead man
colour that all is within the care of divine Providence Not the Christians onely but likewise the Philosophers themselves have constantly believ'd that the Providence of God and Prudence of man do very well consist together But the Epicureans manifest that they are not at all indebted to themselves in point of good opinion in that being no more then the dream of a shadow as Pindar expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they nevertheless esteem themselves sufficiently foresighted and intelligent to pourvey and take order for all their necessities without the assistance of a soveraign power Is it in them to prevent the Hail from frustrating the hopes of Harvest in the destruction of their Corn or to hinder the Inundations of Rivers from ravaging their fields Can they forecast against Pestilences and Mortalities or secure themselves from the Gout and Stone So far short is their ability in these particulars that they know not how to warrant themselves from being strangled by the seed of a grape or a â—ly if such a contingency should betide them But this is not the onely Vertue they vaunt of for another part of their glory is in the invincible firmeness of their courage What strength soever Vertue may have attain'd to amongst them by serving as a handmaid to the pleasure of the Body and pourveying all ways and means to foster the same which it seems is the main imployment they assign it yet it can be hardly imagined that an Epicurean should fall into the calamities of Priamus or feel the pains of poor Philoctetes without a sigh or exclamation And that magnificent boast that the Sage of Epicurus would cry out even in the Bull of Phalaris that he was at ease was never accounted in the censure of the truely judicious but for a vain and extravagant Rodomontade Religion on the contrary is purposed to shew men their vanity of which experience convinces them it teaches them to depend absolutely on Heaven and thereby frames them to humility the Virtue best becoming mortality affording them in the mean time a support in God incomparably more firm and a refuge of greater assurance then all they are ever able to fancy or invent of themselves Of grateful acknowledgement for the benefits which we injoy as Tenants from the divine Liberality there is no mention at all among those who esteem themselves not obliged to it for the least hair of their heads For whereas they affirm that the Universe was modell'd in the excellent order we behold it by the accidentary coagmentation of infinite little bodies it must needs be consequent to their opinion that the first men were framed by the tumultuous and turbulent concourse of those small particles and that the Architecture of all our members and the admirable vivacity of our Understandings do also ow their Original unto the same Verily these men are much to be wondred at whose gross belief determines the world and man in the fabrick of whom appears so great Art and Wisdom to have been made by chance notwithstanding they are convinced that of a million of letters huddled together and scattered upon the ground they can never with a thousand experiments by the same chance compose the two first verses of the Aeneis What reason therefore can they pretend to justifie their perversity in choosing rather to ow the wonderful Machine of their Eyes and the Understanding which is the Eye of the Soul to Fortune which ha's none at all then to God whom themselves make profession to acknowledge for a wise and intelligent Nature It remains then to inquire whether from the exercise of Virtue which is practiced amongst men there may according to the opinion of this Sect any honor accrue to the Divine nature We dispute not at present whether they can be virtuous or not although it be difficult to conceive they should hold Virtue in any esteem who have none at all of Piety and what charity they can have towards men who are void of gratitude for the benefits they receive from God and lastly what discrimination they can make between Vice and Virtue who believe not God ever distinguisht them one from another by Laws or that Justice and equity have any thing more to recommend them besides the authority of Legislators and advantages of State Our search onely is whether from the Virtue of the Epicureans admitting them not destitute of all there redounds any glory to the Divine Nature If there do it consists either in this that they devote themselves to render obedience to him for it is glorious to great persons to have their inferiors obey them or in regard it is he that produces whatsoever is good in them as the commendation of the effect reflects upward to the cause or because in imitating him they represent the image of his Virtue in their own being we cannot praise a pourtraict for the excellency of its air and Beauty without intimating as great applause of the fair countenance it represents Now in the first place whereas God hath not manifested his will to men in this point how can they obey it For where there is neither law nor commandement it is an easie truth there is no place either for transgression or obedience And here it is fruitless to fly to the umbrage of those Proleptical Opinions which are naturally imprinted in our spirits For if Nature hath ingraved in the soul at their first conception that God commands them to be Virtuous how is this consistent with their denying that the Supream Being is interessed in that which concerns us seeing he hath taken order in the most important particular of our life which is to give us rules for the conduct of the same agreeably to reason And how could Nature of her self destitute of all knowledge of Vice and Virtue endue us with these Idea's and common Notices without the instinct of the Deity Moreover how is it come to pass that Nature hath principled them to discriminate between Honest and Nesarious actions without instructing them at the same time that to these latter belongeth Vengeance and to the other Recompense and Praise and that there can be no other then God from whose hands both the one and the other is to be expected For true it is the Difference between Vice and Virtue is not more naturally known then it is naturally known that Virtue challengeth some Commendation and that Vice ought to be attended with Blame for its retribution Commendation and Blame I say which are but sleight matters and of small consideration if they be hoped or feared onely from the mouths of Men. Are the Censure or Estimate we make one of another of equivalency to what Nero and Sardanapalus have merited by their Villanies and Abominable turpitudes How are they hurt now in that their Memories are infamous and execrable And the Applause which we give in these days to the Virtue of Regulus is it a recompense proportionate to the miseries which he
made mention of the Deity in the beginning of his Laws as having received them in some sort by his inspiration and so conciliated reverence to them from that suprem authority And we find that all of them were generally believed by their subjects therein although Political Laws are drawn from principles of Honesty and Equity derived from those wherwith nature hath imbued the minds of men So universal and deep ha's the perswasion been that such things as are commendable onely for speculation or are beneficially practis'd or difficultly found out and digested in beseeming order are deriv'd from Heaven as their primary source And concerning Religion it is likely never any Nation would have reverenced each their own respective ceremonies of Religion unless they had esteem'd them to have proceeded from Divine Revelation For not to mention the Jewish people at present who boasted thereof heretofore nor the Christians who glory therein now with a just title and prove it by irrefutable demonstrations can it be imagin'd Mahomet would ever have found so many Followers unless he had pretended to a Prophetical Commission from God and that the Deity had given him instructions of such things as he ought to do by the information of a Pigeon Are not we told that to that purpose he publish'd his Alcoran which he perswaded his Disciples was deliver'd to him from Heaven It is not credible that so ridiculous a Law should be harbor'd in the minds of men so obstinately against all the attempts to suppress it by the Truth were it not fixed by these kind of roots As for the Pagans Nums Pompilius who establish'd the ceremonies of the Romanes pretended to have been taught them by the Goddess Aegeria and in general all Nations have respectively attributed the origine of their Mysteries to their Gods They were in truth all of them mistaken but yet their belief was founded on this reason that none can either speak or think aright of God much less serve him as is meet unless he be taught by God himself as it is impossible for creatures destitute of Reason to pay him what is due to him and contrive the ways of honoring him like men But as although Horses are incapable of inventing the rules of their management and yet are reduc'd to a regular observance of them by exercise so Men not being able to attain so high as to find out the means of forming their souls to Piety nevertheless they can comprehend the same when they are revealed to them But here I meet with an objection laid in our way Does it not appear say they against whom we dispute that Religions have been invented by subtle and politick persons to obtain a more absolute empire over the minds of others For who can believe that Mahomet was really inspir'd by God unless he be as great an Ignorant as that Impostor was or that Numa had communication with a Goddess And truely I do not gainsay but there have been many Rulers that have made advantage of this pretext to abuse the credulity of their people Nor will I say that all those which boasted of revelation have had correspondence with God instructions from him in reference to the ordaining and establishing matters pertaining to his service Only I avouch men have been lead to believe it by the natural instinct of judging that Religion could not be given saving by the hand of God himself And it is not difficult to render the reason on which it is grounded Every Religion whether good or bad consists of two parts In one of which are contained the laws of the Honor which is due to God In the other the means whereby the needs of mens souls are provided for and how to infuse consolation and hope into them But if one ceremony include both these particulars together so that both the Deity is honored and consolation procured to the soul of man such ceremony although it be but one yet it ceaseth not to comprehend both those respects and appears as I may so speak with both those two countenances Now in reference to that which concerns the Deity it hath been already declared that we live beset with too thick darkness to be able to know him of our selves and we shall make it more amply manifest hereafter Touching the Wants of man being every one's heart dictates to him that he hath deserved punishment for his offences his consolation can consist onely in the assurance of remission but we are as much or more ignorant of the true means to obtain it then we are in the knowledge of God himself Whence it hath proceeded that all Nations have been so obnoxious to the frauds of Deceivers who could never have found any credit amongst them had they not been favor'd by those inclinations and sentiments which naturally possess us For there is in all souls not absolutely degenerated unto brutishness an extreme avidity of knowing the Deity and especially a natural consciousness of their sins with a lively apprehension of punishment and vengeance and a despair of ever being able of themselves either to find out the means of comforting the conscience or of sounding the bottom of that infinite abysse Whence the first of those that declared any thing concerning the Deity and the means of making propitiation for sins if men had never so little an opinion that those teachers were excited thereunto by God and they were able to stamp the least impression thereof in their minds they soon gather'd a great stock of credit in the world As they who are sick of some desperate disease and which is inexpugnable by ordinary remedies easily yield themselves up to the cozenage of Empiricks who make boast of great secrets unknown to all men besides Or as they who are possess'd with a violent passion for the Philosophers Stone although otherwise perhaps intelligent enough leave themselves open to the first impostor that promises them kingdomes and worlds Hereunto our Adversaries usually object two things First they say if men cannot of themselves found a good Religion without particular revelation from Heaven it is impossible for them to serve God aright if he have not made such a declaration of his will which if he hath done 't is a wonder how there come to be so few people that inquire after it or receive it Secondly wheras nature hath provided a supply of all things that are necessary to other creatures it is not probable that she hath neglected man and left him in utter privation of the principal thing he ha's need of and without the knowledge and use of which he cannot but be miserable in which regard she would have been a mother onely to other Animals and to man the most excellent of all a cruel malevolent Stepdame But it is no great business to satisfie these complaints and we shall begin with the last Did we in the other things of Nature behold such order as is competent to their perfection there would be a
men to things honest and commendable and to contain them in the observation of the same none are bound to yield obedience to them Thus in the One the will of God is the rule and in the Other that honesty and equity which nature it self teacheth In other things wherein piety do's not suffer nor honesty and the natural right of things is violated there is nothing so well-pleasing to God as a ready and willing subjection though it were even painful and laborious So far is God from permitting attempts against the one or the other of those whom he ha's constituted in the government either to diminish their authority or deprive them of Life In effect though Brutus and his companions thought they had done an heroick action in the assassinate of Câ—esar and Cicero extoll'd it as highly as if it had been commanded by some Oracle of God himself yet it is certain that it was an evil and culpable attempt with which their memories will for ever be stained I shall not here speak of the ingratitude of which they that executed it may be justly impeached there being none of them but had received some remarkable benefit from Caesar or had their lives preserved by him Nor shall I insist upon the success that came of it that instead of freeing the people of Rome they were the cause that they fell under the hands of three or four masters more rigorous then Caesar was and who raign'd after a more absolute and bloody manner I shall also omit to press what was so carefully observed by the ancients that there was not one of the Murderers of that Prince but perish'd by a violent death and some by their own hands and with the same sword wherewith they had slain him although the vengeance of God be manifest enough therein I shall onely say that when Caesar was after his victory created perpetual Dictator the people themselves all together had no power in them to take his authority from him much less had fourteen or fifteen particular persons any just cause to conspire against his life For the perpetual Dictatorship being a Soverain Dignity and independant on any other but God the people of Rome had indeed a power to confer the same by voluntarily surrendring up their liberty to him but after they had conferr'd it it was not in their power to revoke or annull it so long as the person they had invested with it was living Wherefore it ought not to be doubted but that the death of Caesar was a horrible parricide Hereunto ought to be conjoyned the precept we have not to exercise our own revenge our selves For since Revenge if good and lawful is an administration of justice and not a satiating of our passions there being none but God that administers justice in the World as being the sole governor of it either immediately and by himself or by the intervention of Magistrates whom he hath appointed guardians of Laws and conservators of humane Society he that receives an injury ought not to do himself reason for it in as much as thereby he would indulge and content his own passion and not execute a just and lawful vengeance but it is fit that reparation be done him for it by their means to whom the care of right and preservation of laws is committed And if these fail him he must attend that God himself do it for him having a perswasion that he is the preserver of the rights of all and that when men sail in their duty he does not forget to correct their faults For a man to attempt satisfaction of his wrong himself would be to invade the government of God and to slight or implead the Magistrates would be an express overturning of things establish'd by God himself To him it belongs to revenge the injuries of private and the injustices committed by publick persons Nevertheless it is evident that if they have little understood the moderation which ought to be held in point of revenge and the means of pursuing satisfaction of an injury they have been yet more ignorant of that precept which Wisdom it self gives us and right reason too if we would hearken to it Of loving our very enemies and procuring good to those that offend us And yet if the excellence of Mans nature consists in resemblance with God since God is so good and so patient towards the Wicked and notwithstanding their offenses their crimes and blasphemies awaits their amendment with so great indulgence and invites them thereunto with perpetual clemency and goodness how can man ever attain his perfection if he do not imitate God in this example Moreover since the publick good is without scruple to be preferr'd before that of any single person and that if there be any good in the hatred which we bear to our enemies it lies only in some particular contentment which we receive by following the motions of our nature if the pleasure of letting loose the bridle to one's passions may be called good which ought rather to be restrained by right reason and since on the contrary the good of the Commonwealth and humane society receives advancement by the virtue and prosperity of our enemies how much more prevalent reason is there to love then to hate them that is to desire that they may become good and happy for themselves and ornaments of the Commonwealth in general rather then to wish their shame and calamity for the gratifying a particular passion Lastly since Hatred is a desire of seeing evil befal the person we hate and no man ought to undergo evil but he that deserves the same by his wickedness how can we be virtuous our selves if we desire that others should become vicious seeing a good man should wish that if possible all the world might become like himself and virtue is a good that naturally desires to be communicated and expanded Or how can we desire that they were virtuous and yet calamitous together Nevertheless the Philosophers have scarce seen so much as a shadow of this doctrine Wherefore we conclude in brief that even in the knowledge of true virtue as well as in what concerns the nature of God and his legitimate service humane reason is so defective that without the aid of a supernatural light it can neither constitute nor practise any thing consideable and of worth CHAP. IX What the principal tokens and evidences are by which this particular Revelation may be known and distinguish'd BUt admitting will some say That the reasons above alledged induce to confess that a particular and celestial revelation is either highly important or absolutely necessary yet where shall we find it For all sorts of Nations have boasted of the same and the mind of man is so incertain in its judgments that in this variety and confusion of voices wherewith every one pretends to it it is difficult if not impossible to be resolved We are sufficiently sensible of our need but we are at a loss in
obscurities And indeed what a furious love of the Alcoran is it that causes a man to observe such things in it of which its author would not have us believe he ever thought and such as his interpreters reject and his followers detest and abominate For why are they so affected to the Law of Mahomet unless because it promises them all sorts of corporeal contentments And should any expound those things to them in a mystical way who doubts but that they would think his endeavor was to cause all the hope of their beatitude to vanish into smoke Moreover though for the Words and the Rime that book was written in an Arabick style good enough yet it is composed of parts so loose and incoherent amongst themselves that 't is a wonder how they that read it with so much admiration do not advert its impertinence For it is a hotchpot of several confused matters huddled together without any other connection then they have by chance and it is sufficiently apparent that it was built at several times and by divers hands and not followed according to one uniform and continued designe For he mingles therein the Histories before the Law with those after it those of the New Testament with the Wars of his own time and sometimes divides one into two or three pieces and contrarily sometimes ineptly molds two or three into one Prayers promises exhortations admonitions commandments and laws priviledges and histories descriptions of Paradise and Hell Philosophy and Divinity after his manner fables of times past and future the number of the Celestial Orbs and the death of a Cow are to be found jumbled together in one and the same Chapter And you would say sometimes that they are verily the ravings of a man in a fever or the enthusiasmes of a drunkard Vt nec pes nec caput uni Reddatur formae And if the order thereof be so perverted the matter is little better He saies that the Mind of man is a portion of the soul of God which he breath'd into him at his first creation and that under the shadow which the trees make they adore the Deity He swears by the Alcoran in one place and in another by his pen that that book was sent to him from Heaven That the Heavens would fall were it not for the Angels that pray for us That Jesus Christ had the soul of God That many deserted Christ because he was too eloquent And disputing against the Christians he proves that Jesus is not the Son of God and that God can have no Son in as much as he hath no need of any thing whatsoever He saies Men were created of shadow and Divels of flames of fire And as for the creation of the rest of the Universe he relates it in this manner God created the Earth in two days and fastned it to the mountains as it were by anchors and cables In the two next dayes he caused all sorts of herbs to spring up for the nutriment of animals After which the earth being thus framed began to emit exhalations and steams of which he formed the Heavens in two other days in which he placed the Stars and gave them principally in charge to chase away the Devils by the splendor of their light when they go to spy what is doing in Heaven Did he reason or rage when he writ all these excellent pieces of Divinity But then he interweaves the same here and there with I know not what putid fables He repeates a hundred and a hundred times so distrustful is he it will not be believ'd that God is the author of that rare book professes that all mankind together could not have made the least syllable of it He sprinkles the doctrine of the resurrection with shamefull and unprofitable fables Sometimes he goes about to discourse of matters treated on by the Writers of the New Testament and presently discovers that he understands nothing at all of them as where he makes a comparison of Christ with Adam Then in another place he trifles incongruously about the Table of the Lord and the Sacraments of the Gospel He boasts of having cemented the Moon together again which himself had cut in sunder He speaks of Predestination and the Providence of God as a Fatal Destiny and some say 't is by this means that he rendred his followers so adventurous in war because being perswaded that the decrees of that Destiny are inevitable they cast themselves without heed into the mouth of danger presuming they shall not dye in case it be not predestinated though their hearts were pierced with a hundred Javelins Lastly he contradicts himself at every turn But the thing for which he most frequently defends himself is his not doing of miracles and he will not allow anyone to require them from him though indeed he did all thing◠which no man ought to undertake unless he can prove his vocation by authentick miracles For he abolisht the constitutions which himself acknowledged were authoris'd by God as those of the Law and the Gospel He introduc'd a new form of Religion and invaded the dignity of soveraign Magistrates levying armes against Princes though he was but a private person giving liberty to slaves in spight of their masters with an absolute authority and maikng invasions and wars the most violent and bloody that ever were seen in the world But ought not he to have authoris'd himself by miracles to shew the right he had to do all this Who ever attempted any of those things as Moses or Elias or Christ or his Apostles but at sometime or other gave testimony of their celestial calling by miracles Certainly when I consider on the one side the absurdity and grosseness of almost every thing he saies I cannot but think he had great need of miracles to perswade the same to people of understanding and I should reckon it a miracle if any honest man could believe him And on the other side when I consider the nature of his doctrine and those to whom he perswaded it I conceive it no great miracle to have allur'd and drawn carnal minds by the gaudy baits of a carnal Paradise In a word it needs not to be much versed in that work to observe that it is a medly of all impertinent and bad things amongst which there is sometimes found some little good as there is in the Drugs of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But what good there is there is overwhelmed in an abysse of falsities impieties fables and impertinences and it is not difficult to shew from what fountains he deriv'd it all The good doctrines and sentences which are sometimes met with by the way are taken from the Old and New Testament The hatred which be perpetually testifies against the doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ he receiv'd by contagion from the Arians and other hereticks that were in high repute in his time That vile pollution of Marriage by the licentious multiplicity
respect the more is he oblig'd to the exercise of Justice in which if he should fail it could not be but he must suffer diminution of his glory Again if there be such a correspondence between Virtue and Beatitude that they cannot be dissever'd without appearance of deformity and irregularity so that the Wisdom of God who does all according to weight number and measure cannot permit the dis-junction of two things so closely united together there is not less between sin and punishment Of which the motions of our minds which are as obscure shadows of the Properties which are in God may be testimonies to our selves For if we have compassion of a miserable man whom we esteem not deserving his misery we are also mov'd with indignation against one that is highly fortunate but unworthy the felicity he injoyes And if we observe an excellent harmony between these two things conjoin'd together Virtue and Felicity so likewise we esteem these two extremely well adapted where we finde them together Vice and Misery So it is incongruous to the same Wisdom of God who committs no dissonance in any of his administrations to permit a separation of these most Natural Relatives To conclude I readily concede that God loves the virtue and holiness of his creatures by reason of its own excellence for how can he but love his own image and also that it is more precious to him then the Felicity consequent to it that is to speak more clearly that it is more well-pleasing to him that his creature be holy and virtuous then that it be happy But at the same rate that goodness and piety are affected by him he detests the creature that despises them And if God be naturally inclin'd to provide for the happiness of man because he is his Creator he is likewise natural inclin'd to execute vengeance upon his Sin inasmuch as he is his Judge And truely I wonder how any can so much cry up the Mercy of God in the impunity of sins to the prejudice of his Justice whereas Historians do so highly extoll the memory of Zaleucus for an act of justice done as it may seem very much to the injury of the virtues of clemency and Mercy This man saith Valerius Maximus having constituted very wholsome Laws in the City of the Locrians one of which condemn'd adulterers to have their eyes pull'd out it hapned that his own son was found guilty of the prohibited Crime and consequently obnoxious to the severity of the punishment attending it But the whole City interceding in the favour of the young man that he might be exempted from the rigor of the Law were a long time denyed till at length Zaleucus being overcome by the Petitions of his Citizens that he might preserve the sight of his Son and the authority of his Laws caus'd one of his own eyes to be pull'd out and one of his Sons thus by an admirable temperament of equity shewing himself both a just Legislator and a merciful Father Why did not he suffer his Law to ly dormant for one day to save both the eyes of his Son for the good of the Commonwealth Or if he would not that his Law should be wholly infringed why did he punish himself when he was no partaker in the fault But his reason was that having establisht Laws he accounted them inviolable and this Act is recorded amongst the most memorable examples of Justice How then can any esteem the eternal laws of God possible to be violated with impunity Therefore either it is impossible for men to attain to the injoyment of Felicity without satisfying the Justice of God or else it is possible for them to attain to it without Repentance Which the common sense of man abhors Object But possibly some may object and ask us Whether the same absurdity will not follow from the Christian Doctrine which teaches necessity of a satisfaction precedaneous to Beatitude For it informs us that men have not made satisfaction in their own persons but in the person of another who was constituted a Pledge in their room and 't is God himself that gave them this Pledge Now the bestowing one to make satisfaction for sins is an effect of infinite mercy and inestimable bounty and yet it was not prevented by the repentance of men but on the contrary prevented their repentance For the gift of sanctification to which repentance pertains is an effect of the satisfaction and a fruit of the merit of Christ How then could God be mov'd to communicate so great a good to men without preceding repentance or without something else equivalent to a satisfaction And if he could love his creatures so much notwithstanding his justice as to give them one to make satisfaction for them to the end they might be capable of repentance and beatitude why could he not give them both repentance and beatitude too without that satisfaction Answ This deserves to be further display'd that so the harmony which is between the parts of Christian Religion may become more conspicuous Satisfaction is to be consider'd in two respects First as it is a punishment of sin and so 't is an act of justice Secondly as it is a means to obtain remission and impunity to those for whom satisfaction is made and in this respect 't is an act of Mercy As for the first seeing it was an exercising of the justice of God upon the sins of men there needed no other previous condition The case stands thus The Creature sin'd and the justice of the Creator takes Vengeance upon it For the second distinction must be made between the Mercy by which God is inclin'd to render his creatures good and happy if nothing withhold him from it and that whereby he really and de facto renders them good and happy Not that these are two Mercies for they are but one but being considered in the first respect the effect which it would produce is intercepted by some obstacle and considered in the second it is follow'd with the effect because an expedient is found out to remove the impediment which strain'd its efficacy If therefore some image of the former sort of Mercy can be found in men it resembles the natural affections which Zaleucus had for his son whose sight without question had he had no other considerations he ardently wish'd might remain safe and perfect His paternal compassions would lead him to this but the sacred authority of his Law obstructed his desires and restrain'd his natural inclinations that he should not do injury to justice Now in reference to the first sort of Mercy we grant that it may be in God towards his sinful creatures without any previous satisfaction or condition of repentance But yet withal it does no injury to justice because it brings nothing to effect The consideration of the Law transgressed by the Creature intercepts it so that man remains in his condemnation For the other which really and effectually confers repentance and