they lived have had much of their will and fancy and corrupt Affections but little 1 Sam 18. 20. ch of their Reason and so when the Evil Spirit is upon Saul it is no wonder if he cast a javelin at David and afterwards at Jonathan his best Friends but when his Reason returns to him he acknowledges his errour and says that David was more righteous then he In like manner 1 Sam. 24. many Men hate those Vertues which are according to Gods own heart as David was but this is during the prevalency of the Evil Spirit when they come to die as the Soul is loosning from the Body so by degrees they are wrought off from the deceits of sense and the temptations of the World when they are at Deaths door and see it opened for them then they have another representation of themselves Sculls and dead Mens Bones and the Worms that are to feed upon them and besides a dismal pre-occupation of their thoughts concerning the dreadful day of Judgement these things alter the case Then the Men who would sometimes fill themselves with costly Wine and Ointments and crown themselves with Rose-buds Wisd 20. to be partakers of their wantonness c. yet shall be afraid and remember their sins and Wisd 4. their own wickedness shall come before them to convince them Yea they shall change their minds and sigh for grief of mind and say within themselves This is he whom we sometimes had in Wisd 5. derision and in a Parable of reproach We fools counted his life madness and his end without Honour How is he counted among the Children of God and his portion is among the Saints If this be Apocryphal yet it is good sense and the more likely to be true because Canonical Scripture gives us a like instance wicked Balaam did even before his death desire to dye the death of the Righteous and that his last end Numb 23. should be like his Herein are many wicked men like Balaam of whom we read this passage Balaam the Son of Beor hath said and Numb 24. the man whose eyes are open hath said Dixit vir occlusus oculo says Montanus according to the letter of the Hebrew The Margin of our Translation hath this Exposition of it The Man who had his eyes shut but now open There is a beauty and lustre in Vertue against which Vitious Men shut their eyes and will not see but Isa 26. they shall see and be ashamed When death is closing their bodily eyes till the Resurrection then the understanding opens and discerns the folly of the fore-past life when it is growing too late to amend then Men begin to Repent and proceed thus far at least to acknowledge they have done ill and to owne a goodness in Vertue and an agreeableness to their natures and right reason Sect. 2 This observation is common and of easie notice taking that many prophane Men are thus affected when they dye But it is true withal that this General Rule among others hath its Exceptions The Consciences of some Men are past feeling while they live and are not awakened when they dye As Pope Boniface the 8th lived like a Lyon and dyed like a Dog So is many a wicked Man in this sense Primus ad extremum similis sibi From first to last one and the same He lives in sin dyes without shame They live like Beasts and so they dye they sin like Lions boldly and undauntedly and fiercely they dye like Dogs wretchedly and churlishly and basely without the understanding of a Man to consider whither they are going without Faith in God or love to Heaven or Fear of Hell Yet notwithstanding all this as we say of Brute Beasts that they have some semblances of Reason in many of their Actions of which Plutarch give many instances in his Book De solertiâ Ammalium so these Brutish Men while they live have some Candle-light of their understandings The Spirit Prov. 10. of a man is the Candle of the Lord not extinct though it be shut up in a dark Lanthorn and do not discover it self to others unless it be at unawares Sect. 3 For 2. There are some certain times and seasons wherein the most vitious persons that are acknowledge the Vertues contrary to their practice to be agreeable to right Reason for which there are these Evidences Many Men who will not leave sin yet will dissemble it It is not much more common for a Malefactor at the Bar to plead not Guilty then for a Drunkard when he is sober to deny that he was drunk And so they that will swear will lye and deny that they did swear and he that would revenge himself upon his Neighbour will not owne it to be Revenge he that would cheat his Neighbour would be thought an honest Man c. wherefore now is all this were not these vices contrary to right Reason and the Vertues they oppose agreeable thereto Why should any Man be ashamed of that which he doth not believe to be unlawful If it be a Vertue to be Drunk or Knâ—vish why do not Men avow and profess it and make as much conscience of being Drunk as others do to be Sober Herein did Gehazi Ananias and Sapphira and others betray themselves when a Man denies a fact which he knows himself to have committed he is therein a self-condemned Man He denies it because he is loth to owne it and therefore Men do not owne their sins because they know them to be sins and the Vertues that are contrary to them to be good and reasonable Actions Sect. 4 If it happen that wicked Men do for some time forbear their excess of wickedness and do some good action If a riotous debauched person continues sober whether for want of opportunity or ability to sin or if because others are he be charitable to the Poor or forgive an Injury or the like how quickly doth he proclaim his Righteousness and take occasion to commend himself As Jehu would 2 Kings 10. have his zeal for the Lord taken notice of when yet he was but a Hypocrite And the Pharisees likewise Hypocrites would sound a Mat. 6. Trumpet when they gave their Alms Such Hypocrites still there are who in a sense but little commendable would make a Vertue of necessity because they could not sin they would be thought Vertuous because they did not A Knave that is made to be Vertuous against his will how ready is he to alledge that as an Argument for himself and to boast that he did no wrong This supposeth Vertue to be praise-worthy else why should they praise themselves for it when yet they are not Vertuous out of love to it but only because they cannot safely commit vice Sect. 5 Yea once more It is evident that wicked Men believe Vertue to be reasonable and good by the apprehensions they have of it in others especially when it makes for their
unrighteousness of men unrighteous immoral wicked men shall suffer for their faults and how then can it be safe for them to dye Sect. 5 The thing it self is its own evidence that they who thus live and dye in enmity to God without being reconciled to him it cannot be but they must needs be miserable after death Indeed these two things must be supposed that there is a God and that our souls are immortal which Atheists will expect should be proved before they will yield I think I should too far digress if I should undertake to prove these which I shall the less need to do because they are so frequently and successfully undertaken by others there may be the same reason for this as for the former head about the possibility of these things they are the same persons who deny both I took that in because it might be dispatched in few words But the existence of a Deity and the souls Immortality cannot be proved convincingly to Reason without a large discourse upon them wherefore in hopes that this Treatise will find all those it meets with ready to yield both these then supposing them it cannot be but wicked men who are enemies to God while they live and dye in the same state must needs be deserted of God separated from him after death If God be not infinitely holy and pure he cannot be God his nature being absolutely perfect it must needs follow that God must infinitely abhor sin and sinners for sin where it is not purged away as it is not in these men Now how can it stand to reason that those men who have dishonoured God all their life long have lived in contradiction to his Nature and Will and Laws He is holy they are unholy he is light and they are darkness I say it cannot stand to reason that these men should be received into the favour of God What communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6. what concord hath Christ with Belial what love can God bear to his desperate enemies They Job 21. Luk. 13. that say to God depart from us why is it strange that God should command them to depart from him Indeed if God were such a God as the Heathens made their Jupiter and Venus and Bacchus to be then might God entertain such wicked persons into his Court for it would be but like to like And it may be feared it was one reason why the Heathens did so allow themselves in all manner of wickedness and vice because they had gods to be their Patrons whom their Fables report to have practised the same things But the Lord is our God the Lord whose name is Holy and Reverend and Psal 111 holiness is his nature And it may be it would not be a greater sin to say there is no God at all then to say there is such a God as the Poets speak of yea and the more sober Heathens were of this mind Plutarch for himself affirms as much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De superstitione p. 169. Xyland c. What say you he that believes there is no God is he not wicked but he that believes there is such a God as superstitious men fancy him to be is he not much more wicked for my own part I had rather men should say there was never such a man as Plutarch then that they should say Plutarch was an inconstant passionate revengeful man c. It is very dishonourable to God to think him any thing less then infinitely and perfectly Holy and then what must become of those men who are as unlike to God as the Devil is or their natures are capable of they must look to be separated from God as the Devils are they must keep company with their own kindred and allies sin marries the soul to the Devil and his company and his torments are the portion of a sinner Wherefore wo be to the wicked it shall be ill with Isa 3. him for the reward of his hands shall be given him and men of loose prophane debauch'd vitious lives are wicked men whose misery that waits for them in the world to come will express and enforce this Argument with greater horrour then they are now aware of Then will it be proved that it was necessary to live honestly and vertuously because they that live otherwise are miserable when they dye Which was the second instance of the necessity of Moral Vertue as that our lives may be good so that our deaths may be safe CHAP. VI. Sect. 1 End 3 THere is a necessity of Moral Vertue that both life and death may be comfortable what the world would be without light that are our lives without comfort light is gladness and therefore it would be a melancholy world if we were all benighted and left to grope in the dark and gladness is light The Jews had light and gladness and joy We 〈◊〉 8. should soon be weary of our lives if we were debarr'd of all the comforts and pleasures of life But the question is where is the Palace of Pleasure and which are the paths that lead to it where doth Hearts-ease and Comfort grow how may we come to live in Pleasure and to dye with Joy surely there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are Prov. 14. the ways of death So are the ways of wickedness and vice in point of comfort as well as safety and if ever we hope for comfort and joy whether living or dying we must apply those words to this case Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men Prov. ◠avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away And the reason added afterwards is not impertinent The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto a perfect day The way of the wicked is as darkness they know not at what they stumble And for the proof of this I offer two things There is no considerable Comfort to be had in or from a wicked Immoral life But in the exercise of Vertue there is Pleasure and Comfort and Peace and that in abundant measures Sect. 2 So long as a man continues wicked he can expect no considerable comfort in that state I say no considerable comfort because it cannot be denyed but these men presume and boast that they live the most merry and jovial Job 21. lives They take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ They spend their days in wealth or properly in good they good themselves in the pleasures of sense Had not Belshazzar a merry bout as the phrase sometimes Dan. 5. is and have not the generation of Drunkards still the same that count it pleasure to riot in the day time yea their pleasures are 2 Pet. 2. too great to be confined to a day Instead of Psa 119. rising at midnight
to roll of the Wind to blow of the Thunder to make a noise so is sin in its own nature formally and properly disturbing and troublesome There are Crocodiles in the River Nilus for fear of whom the Dogs who would otherwise be glad to drink largely to quench their thirst can onely lambere fugere lick and be gone to secure themselves But wicked men are not so happy if they will intoxicate themselves with the pleasures of the world they must take them as they are one with another and there is a pain accompanies the pleasure There is that in sin which embitters it It is the property of vice to be disquieting and vexatious and while it is so there is little comfort to be expected in a vitious course of life Sect. 3 As Trouble and Sorrow is a property so it is an effect of sin Men who are immoral in their lives because of the pleasure they hope to reap from the liberty they give themselves do administer to their sorrow faster then their joy If they be bodily pleasures they adventure their souls upon then is nothing more evident and notorious then the sad effects of Riot and Intemperance Who hath wo who hath sorrow Pâ—ov 23. who hath contentions who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes they that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixt wine Dearly do men pay for their frothy pleasures when sometimes they drink themselves to death for which purpose Bearâ—s Theatre of Gods judgmâ—nt there are many stories extant or if not so yet the aches and pains and surfeits and fevers or at the best the unaptnesses of such mens bodies to any good employments are testimâ—nies that these are troublesome sins And if the same cannot be said of all yet somewhat else can and that is the inward trouble thâ—t follows upon a sense of guilt after the sin is committed It is a fearful thing for a man to fall under the lash of his own conscience how can that man avoid his misery that carries it about with him whereever he goes we may as soon command our souls out of our bodies as our consciences out of our souls There is a principle in man that cannot be always brib'd nor over-aw'd A man may loosen his reins and gallop furiously to his intended stage but before he comes there he may break his neck Men are pursuing their pleasures in great earnestness and because they can find no better mirth they will try what they can find in sin but it is a Tragical story in the end I have heard of those who in acting Tragedies when their parts have led them to make a shew of killing themselves have by a venturous mistake kill'd themselves indeed So do many men to their great grief find they have been out of the way of true pleasure they have undone themselves and laid a foundation for their misery and trouble as long as they live There is little comfort to be had in sin for it is in its own nature the cause and original of many sorrows and disquietments Sect. 4 But this is not yet all Men of vicious lives have no considerable comfort in those courses because not only in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful but the end of that mirth is Prov. 14. heaviness When men come to dye then they themselves understand and acknowledge the folly and vanity of these toyish pleasures the comfort that wickedness affords during life â—â— but little but at death it is none at all â—hey who live sinfully dye sadly that is unâ—ess they have some other comfort then what â—hey gain from their sinful courses for how â—hould this be otherwise If thou do ill the joy fades not the pains Herbert Poems The pleasure that is taken in the commission of a sin passes away together with the act but the stinging remorses of conscience abide and then return with greatest vehemence when the pleasure of sin is gone and past Concerning the agonies and throbs of conscience that sin procures it hath been just now observ'd an Argument in the case It is enough now to suppose that and to adde this consideration to it that when men are dying their wickedness affords them no comfort because their transitory pleasures are gone together with their sins The pleasures of intemperance of rioting and drunkenness of chambering Rom. 13. and wantonness of strife and envying of revenge and malice of injustice and oppression and wrong or any such like sin what is become of all these when the miserable man is approaching to his death when all that a man hath is going out of his possession where is the appendage of pleasure that belongs to him Assuredly when death comes as it changes mens minds concerning the goodness of Vertue a thing before observ'd and doth not belong to this place so doth it give men to understand the unsuccessfulness of immorality that it cannot prolong those pleasures which during life it did pretend to As the Greeks use to call the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is a fit season for consideration and meditation when in our retirements we may more wisely consider of our concerns so may the evening of the night of death be very fitly called When men are retiring from the hurries of the world where they were not at leisure to distinguish between truth and appearance then is the evil day come when men will speak as they find they will say they have Eccles 12. no pleasure in it And in the fore-knowledge of this it was that the Aegyptians had a custome at their feasts to bring in an old dry Skeleton to the table with such a kind of Rhodiginus Apothegme Ede bibe talis post mortem futurus Eat Drink and welcome for you see What after death you are like to be Which in the fairest interpretation of it may be thought as a restraint upon their excess of mirth but it seems their meaning was quite contrary they would be merry while they lived because death would put a period to all their jollity So are these Verses quoted out of Petronius upon this occasion Sic erimus cuncti postquam nos auferet orcus Causin Hieroglyph Ergo vivamus dum licet esse bene Such after death is every man Let 's then be merry while we can So it may be do many in the world drink their full draughts of pleasures while they live because they know there is no such thing in the Grave whither they are going But is not this as much as to say what I would now urge the pleasures of sin are inconsiderable for this Reason because they dye if not before yet certainly when we dye and therefore is it that mens hearts dye within them before their body dyes as Nabals did 1 Sam. 2 Sect. 5 And for this purpose I appeal to the consciences of those men
objected against Scripture Morality that which we object against the Institutions of the Heathen for we do not now only tax them for their unanswerable lives which yet might be done but there is a defect in their very Philosophy it self it doth not sufficiently instruct a man how he should be a good man which because it cannot be said against the Scripture doth give this force to our present Argument that therefore we must fetch our instructions for a Moral life from the Scriptures not from Heathen moralists The thing then to be proved is That none of the Philosophers have perfectly instructed us in moral Vertue for which there will be a double proof if we consider the matter of their precepts and the manner of them 1 They have recommended some things for good and Vertuous which are not so 2ly those things which we acknowledge to be Vertuous yet they have failed in the manner of their recommendation It will be most methodical to bring all the first instances into this Chapter which will make it so much the larger for there are many things to be said under this head Sect. 2 They have erred concerning Vertue they have thought some things to be so which we who are taught by Scripture dare not allow for such and some things they charge for vitious which we own for good and warrantable concerning which latter Lactantius hath De vero cultu Cap. 17. a Chapter on purpose to prove Quod ea qua Philosophi putant vitia virtutes funt si tamen ad finem debitum referantur i. e. ad Deum wherefore referring to him in that case the whole of this proof shall be taken up in the former they have set off some evil things with good names there are some things which because of their gay appearances and specious pretences they have taken for flowers but when we come to consider them closely they are stinking weeds and that which first offers itself to consideration is Their Suicidium or their Self-Murder They have thought it lawful if a man be weary of his life or be urged with some difficulties or troubles which he knows not how to bear to dispatch himself out of the World and this is a great piece of Fortitude for a man to dare to kill himself whereas we Christians who profess that we ought to have vitam in patientiâ as well as mortem in desiderio we ought to be willing to live as well as glad to dye we who believe we are not at our own but at Gods dispose and withal who think it greater glory to suffer and live patiently then dye peevishly we believe it to be nothing less than valour for a man in discontent to kill himself it is as sneaking and cowardly as for a Souldier to run away out of the Field because he is afraid to fight Men pretend to be gallant and noble spirited men and dare kill themselves in a bravado that they may not be thought to be afraid of Death why is this but because they are afraid to live they chuse a short pain of Death not considering what follows after before the tedious and uncertain troubles of life Now this is neither Valour nor Vertue we come into the world to be serviceable to our Creator and if it be his will we should serve him by suffering it is not for us to be Judges in our own Case we ought to be willing to dye when ever God calls but we may not run before we be sent Yet now this hath been look't upon as a great attainment as an Heroick degree of Courage and greatness of mind for a man to be able to destroy himself So did the Romans admire Cato's valour who killed himself at Vlica because he did not like to come into Caesar's hands It is somewhat that Florus says of him Acceptâ partium clade nihil cunctatus ut sapiente dignum erat mortem laetus accivit It was wisely done of him to kill himself But Seneca much more in one of his Books Non video quid habeat in terris Jupiter Cur bonis mala fiant Cap. 2. pulchrius si convertere animum velit quam ut spectet Catonem and afterwards he describes his death gladium sacro pectori infigit illam V. locum sanctissimam animam manu educit and more to the same purpose in the same place It was such a glorious fight to see Cato kill himself that if God should look down from Heaven he could not have a more pleasing sight Indeed all the Philosophers were not of this mind but the Stoicks generally are and it is a Phrase often used by Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The door is open for any man to go out of the Disser lat Cap. 9. alibi Lib. 5. 8. 29. alibi world when he hath a mind to it And Antoninus to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the valour of the Heathens which we may not imitate because it is cowardlinesse nicknamed Sect. 3 If we proceed to another sort of men we shall find an unnatural sin among the Platonists at least as some understand it tolerated and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allowed which the Apostle severely reproves The men leaving the natural use of the woman Rom 1. 27. burned in lust one towards another men with men or males with males A sin which Socrates himself is supposed to have been guilty of towards Alcibiades So Diogenes Laertius reports Diog. in vitâ Socratis it from another Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which probably is the reason of that verse in Juvenal Inter Sat. 2. Socraticos notissima fossa Cinedos I should be immodest to give a plain translation of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words Sure Plato speaks very broadly in one of his Dialogues and brings in a story between Socrates and Alcibiades to confirm what was before said of Socrates concerning which discourse although Fioinus make a mystical interpretation in his Commentaries and quotes a passage in Plato in another place which seems to detest this wickednesse in the sum he gives of the Dialogue yet in that same place he confesses quod autem tam crebram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injiciat mentionem abominanda est in ipso audaci◠nisi eo consilio id fecisset ut eam detestandam esse hominibus suis voluisset demonstrare But there needs abundance of Charity to make a man believe he had this end Now were this onely Plato's opinion it might be the less charged upon other men but it seems it did so generally obtain among the Platonists that so grave and sober a man as Plutarch who lived at the least four hundred V. Helvicum years after Plato was in a great doubt whether to affirm or deny the lawfulnesse of this Fact I do not remember such a doubtful passage Plut. De Liberis educand p 11. Xyl. in all his
the mans Reason good for how can he be said to be Reasonable in his Actions or to have Reason for what he doth They who are thus enchanted by the pleasures of sense as Homer fains Ulysses Odyss 10. followers to have been by Circe it is time for them to renounce their Humanity to go and keep Company with their Relations Let them joyn themselves to their kinred and wallow in the same mire with Swine Let them go to graze with the beasts of the field till their understandings return to them as was Dan. 4. said of Nebuchadnezzar for they are not fit to converse with men We who profess to have Reason must make it our Rule or we can have no Rule worthy of our Faculties Sect. 3 Nor is every Reason a sufficient Rule but right Reason if every mans apprehensions were his sole Rule how soon would the world return to its first Chaos into what a confusion would mankind fall for mens apprehensions are many time either molded by their interests or byassed by their passions Stat pro ratione voluntas their will usurps the place of their Reason and gives a Law to it Now mens interests and passions so often opposing and thwarting each other this cannot be a standing Rule for all mankind because of the manifest inconveniencies and disturbances and disorders that would follow hereupon The former Rule of sense is too short and therefore not adaequate nor proportioned to the vast dimensions of a reasonable Soul The latter is crooked a Lesbian Rule that will bend whither a man would have it wherefore neither of these is fit to measure our actions by if we would know when we do well or ill We must therefore distinguish between the Reason of the man and the Reason of the thing The Reason of the man corrupt sometimes and depraved and makes men put good for evil and evil for good But the Reason of the thing is constant and certain and uniform that is the Law of Nature and the directions of right Reason which every man may attain to if he do not blind himself by prejudice or passion for it is that we are born with viz. a Conscience of good and evil And this Law and Conscience especially as it is supported and confirmed by the Law of God his Commands in his Word is a Rule whereby we are to guide our conversations So then if the Vertues we speak of will abide this Test if they be found right according to this Rule they must needs be good Actions for there cannot be any goodness in any Action if it be not in conformity to its Rule which makes room for the 3. Proposition Sect. 4 Honesty and Justice and Moral Vertues as they have been before proved to be according to Scripture Rule so are they agreeable to the Law of Nature and therefore have a goodness in them because they are so agreeable which to save a more operose manner of proof is sufficiently manifest by this one Argument which if it be true must needs be convincing to all sorts of persons The Argument is this It is universally acknowledged by all men whether good or bad whether they practise Vertue or despise it yet is Vertue acknowledged to be a fitting and becoming thing and agreeable to our Natures Concerning vertuous and sober men it is no doubt they would never take the pains to climb the Hill of Vertue did they not believe that when they had conquered the first difficulties they should find afterwards a more suitableness to their Natures and a pleasure in the attainment For no man that studies to be Vertuous but will find the Philosophers were not much mistaken in it when they thought as Lactantius represents them Viam quae sit assignata virtutibus primo aditu De vere â—ultu cap. 3. esse arduam voluerunt confragosam in quâ si quis difficultate superatâ in summum ejus evaserit habere eum de caetero planum iter lucidum amoenumque campum omnes laborum suorum capere fructus uberes atque jucundos The first attempts of Vertue are difficult The bridling of our passions is like the backing of a Colt it cannot be done but warily and by degrees and that not without Labour Now were not these things Pulchra as well as Difficilia were it not an excellent thing thus to do at least did not those men that thus behave themselves believe so there can no good Reason be given why they should take so much pains to no purpose Vertuous men believe Vertue and Goodness to be the same thing or else it would never draw them so powerfully to an admiration of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evocat ad Sibbs ad Clerum sui amorem vi quâdam Magneticâ Men would never follow Vertue for Vertues sake if they did not believe it carried its reward along with it Now if the Rule be good that Credendum est Artifici in suâ arte Men are to be believed there where they have most experience though men of corrupt affections and vitious practices should deny that there is any goodness in Vertue yet would it he no great Argument on the other side for whom should we sooner believe than those who have tasted and seen and tryed for thus much is certain that all men who practise Vertue believe it to be agreeable to their Natures CHAP. III. Sect. 1 BUt what if it be found that those who trample Vertue under their feet and will not profess to owne any obligation to it yet their Consciences recoil within them and they themselves believe what they outwardly and in works deny namely that it is best to be Vertuous this will be a great evidence in the case and this witness is true Wicked men bear witness to Vertue commonly when they dye or if not so yet certainly sometimes while they live Death brings Men to a sober sadness The frolicks of life expire like a flaring Candle in a stink and leave filthy and troublesome remembrances of themselves behind them It is a common conceit of many people that when the Devil assumes a humane shape he alwaies betrayes himself by a Cloven Foot surely so is it in the lives of Men who are of their Father the Devil whatever shapes and disguises they have put on yet the lower end of their life is cloven-footed they discover a breach that they have made upon their Consciences they acknowledge at the last that they have been Sinners they have not done well to be Drunkards or Swearers to cheat their Neighbours c. for which they now say Lord have Mercy upon us that supposes they are in danger of being Miserable else they would not need Mercy If they may be Miserable then sure they have sinned else how should they discern it Now I argue are these Mens First or Second thoughts like to be Wisest and neerer to the truth of the case Their eager pursuits of sin while
Spirit of God have more then once been acknowledged necessary Yet is it easie to apprehend that Vertue may be necessary for these purposes though not sufficient Concerning life it hath been already said It remains to say that if we desire to die in safety we must be vertuous while we live and that for two reasons Because it is possible that these men of wicked and profligate lives may be miserable after death More then so it is certain they shall if so they live and dye in the same state Wicked Immoral men such as are Drunkards and Lyars and Unjust persons c. cannot dye in safety because it is possible they may be miserable after death which possibility hath the force of an Argument to perswade men to provide better for their safety when they come to dye The Husbandman makes his best advantage of a fair day it is not safe to let his Corn lye abroad if it be fit to take in because the next day may prove rainy The Merchant makes use of the wind when it is lyes right it is not safe to defer because it is possible afterward the wind may not serve him as now it doth In all cases about our worldly affairs a possibility of danger is an effectual Argument for present care And why should it not awaken our Souls as well It is at least possible that after death they who dye in these wickednesses may perish everlastingly for them Sect. 2 Now it may be wondred at in regard the next part of the Argument pretends to certainty why any time should be spent in this which is not so clear and convincing and therefore it may not be so much worth the while to stand upon it Ans To which I answer there are some persons may be more convinc'd and wrought upon by this kind of proof then any other way If the times be not made a great deal worse then they are there are many persons so desperately Atheistical so devoid of all fear of God or conscience of sin or belief of a future state that they profess to doubt of all these they cannot tell what will become of them they acknowledg no reason to make them believe that there is another life after this and therefore they disowning the Scriptures and mocking at the threatnings therein contain'd it signifies nothing to them to scaâ—e them by threatning the wrath of God and Hell and Damnation for their sins they will not profess to believe any of these things Wherefore though it be not like such persons will think what I have written worth reading much less will they consider of it yet to make my discourse as compleat as I can I have brought in this among other things and it is pertinent enough for what Atheist in the world can deny it possible but that these things may be who can tell any thing to the contrary they who will not believe there is a Hell yet it is not possible they should demonstrate that there is none The Jewish Doctors do supply that part of Scripture where it is said Cain talked with Abel his Brother thus â—en 4. Ainsw in Loc. D. Helvic de Chald. Bib. paraphras cum Teâ—a edit Cain said there was no judgement nor judge nor world to come nor good reward for justice nor vengeance for wickedness c. But how could Cain then or any of his followers now be assured of it upon what account is it impossible that our Souls should out-live our Bodies or our Bodies afterwards be rejoyn'd to our Souls who can demonstratively answer St. Acts 26. Pauls question why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead and what contradiction is it to say that they who do so live in another world shall be either rewarded or punished according as they have lived in this Sect. 3 Plato seems to make Socrates doubt in this case when almost twice together he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apologia Socratis vers sinâ—m and the last words of that Dialogue answers the question whether it be better to dye or to live thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is known only to God himself Yet the Dialogue next but one Phaedo makes it evident that however he would not exasperate his Judges by proving of it yet he did firmly believe the souls immortality and rewards and punishments in the world to come Now put the case every one doth not yield to his Arguments then which we have better elsewhere yet who is there that can deny but it may be so and then what if it should be so what if possibly the lascivious person should roll and stretch himself in a bed of everlasting burnings what if possibly the drunkard whose reason is sunk and drown'd in his cups should sink into a lake that burns with fire and brimstone what if lyars and cheaters and knaves should be found to have put the greatest cheat upon themselves at the last when they have irrecoverably destroyed their own souls were there nothing else to be said then this It is possible all this may happen it should be a powerful and dreadful amazement to careless and secure sinners They are in a road that they do not consider whether it may lead for ought they know it is not possible they should know the contrary all their mirth may end in everlasting bitterness It is possible they that live vitiously and so dye may be miserable for ever therefore it cannot be safe for such men to dye and if so it is then necessary men should live vertuously that they may dye safely Sect. 4 But that which follows is much more convincing it is certain that men of prophane wicked lives who do likewise persevere in them till they dye shall after death be infinitely more miserable then ever they were or thought themselves happy while they lived Certain from the testimony of the Word of God as might be largely shown but that it hath â—een said already when the threatnings of Book 2. â—he Word were added to the Commands to â—rove a preceptive necessity of Moral Vertue â—t shall suffice therefore summarily now to â—peak However there be no sin so great or â—oul which the blood of Christ is not of vertue enough to cleanse us from and therefore this is not to be understood as a prejudice to the free and over-flowing grace of God yet in regard those men are suppos'd never to have truly and throughly repented and believed whose repentance doth not proceed to a reformation of life and their faith shew it self by good works therefore they who thus live and dye are under the curse of the Gospel as well as of the Law and the threatnings of the Gospel have been already produced I only now say the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven and shall one day be revealed and executed in Hell not only against all ungodliness Rom. 1 but also against all
who have at any time been upon their sick beds and to their own apprehensions have been like to dye what hath been the opinion of these men concerning the pleasures of wickedness what remains of all their joys what are the ecchoes of their songs what relish have they upon their palates of all the dainties that they have either eat or drunk what are they now the better for the wrongs they have offered others and for their revenge and such like evil dispositions wherein they have triumph'd in their life time If I may make an answer I do not doubt but it may be such an one as once Esau made Jacob Behold I am at the point to dye Gen. 25. and what profit do all these things do to me And therefore I may argue a little further in the words of the Apostle What fruit hath any man in those things whereof he is now ashamed for if the next words may be inverted Death is the end of those things Death puts an end to Rom. 6. all the merriments of life and now at death the remembrance of those things is grievous to them Then succeed those wishes and it is well if they be not as vain as their former joys I would I had better understood my self would I had had more wisdom and more grace to have forsaken that evil company that led me away to consent and partake in their wickedness would I had look'd on my pleasures not as they came with their flattering and inviting aspects but as they now go away from me with repentance and fear and shame Oh that I had taken more care to please God and less to enjoy the pleasures of sense Some such thing said Cardinal Wolsey a little before his death Had I serv'd Herberts History Henry 8. God as diligently as I have done the King he would not have given me over in my gray hairs So say men of wicked and immoral lives had I pleased God more and my company and my self less God would not have given me over in this my necessity but I have had my portion in this world I have sought for sin and hunted after pleasure and if God be not more merciful to my soul I shall have no portion in the world to come but everlasting separation from the presence of God Surely these are the apprehensions of some men that send for their Minister and though they would fain justifie themselves as much as they can yet they cannot deny but they have been Company-keepers they have been Gamesters and it may be worse they have spent a great deal of time idly and wantonly Now what becomes of these men whether peradventure God may give them grace to repent is not for us to determine our charity hopes the best But whether so or not these self-accusations and these different apprehensions they have of things when they are dying to what they had when they were lusty and strong to sin is an argument of the vanity and shortness of that pleasure that men take in sin and 't is the fourth proof that there is no considerable comfort to be found in sin either living or dying This is the first part of this Third Argument There is a necessity of Moral Vertues that our lives and deaths may be comfortable for so long as men continue wicked notwithstanding all the brags they make that they live the merriest lives yet it is found to be nothing so CHAP. VIII Sect. 1 THe ways of Vertue are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace It is said of wisdom but it is such a wisdom as dwells with Prov. 3. Prov. 8. Prov. 9. prudence and such a wisdom of which the fear of the Lord is the beginning and where it is so it follows in another place And unto man Job 28. he said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding So that Vertue being comprehended under that wisdom which teaches a man to order his conversation aright of that likewise may it be said that her ways are ways of pleasantness Pleasure is the satisfaction of an appetite and according as the appetite is whether sensible or rational so is the pleasure The joys and pleasures of sin are but the pleasures of sense for the most part and therefore inconsiderable It will be now found that the pleasure that arises upon Vertuous Actions is in the mind and soul Delight is nothing Reynolds Treatise of passions else but the Sabbath of our thoughts and that sweet Tranquillity of mind which we receive from the presence and fruition of that good to which our desires have carried us Concerning which much might be said and there is no Theme gives a man a greater temptation to try his skill in Rhetorick then this But I intend to argue not to declaim I am therefore content to pass this over only when I have added one description of joy and pleasure which I find in an Author though a Jesuite yet excellent in these kind of writings Gaudium Neiremberg de Arte voluntatis Prolep 5. est quoddam silentium appetitus quaedam Modestia Ambitionis quoddam claustrum cupiditatis quoddam sine fastidio epulum cordis quidam Thronus jam considentis Affectus quaedam Mors desiderii c. denique ut haec complectar quoddam satis And surely this Joy must needs be a glorious thing when the glory that God will beam on his servants in the other world is so express'd Enter into the joy of thy Math. 25. Lord. Those great and immeasurable measures of joy are reserv'd for the world to come yet now in this life in this vale of tears there are rivers of pleasure True it is the joy and Rom. 15. peace which God fills his people with is in and by believing And the joy we have out of Christ is unsound as we out of Christ are unsafe wherefore it hath been before said that Book 1. Moral Vertue is not to be separated from Faith but they suppose one another and then supposing the Vertue we speak of to be such it will be easie to prove that the exercise of Moral Vertues Righteousness and Temperance c. do furnish us with a great deal of joy and comfort Sect. 2 That I prove when I have but first suppos'd that whereas the pleasures of vice are all or for the most part of the sense and outward man the pleasures of Vertue are inward in the mind After what manner the mind is gratifyed will appear in the following Sections let it now be supposed and then how much hath Vertue to say for her self and to glory over wickedness and sin If we may borrow a little of Jothams parable Vice is Judg. 9. the Bramble that instead of shadowing scratches the body Vertue is the Vine that chears the heart of man Vice is a plaister that skins over an old sore Vertue is a cordial
is to be observed all this is want of those degrees of Vertue which we ought to aspire to still therefore so far as men are vertuous they have the right disposition for friends for hereby men are taught to perform all good Offices for their friend that they are able as hath been lately said Vertue sets men on work to do good and also it doth restrain men from doing those that are not good There is a kind of obstinate friendship which many times proceeds to a Brotherhood in iniquity Men are so resolved to humour and gratifie their friend that they will do evil for their sakes So was C. Blossius to Cicer. Laelius Tiberius Gracchus he was so much his friend he said that he would do any thing for him and when the question was asked what if Gracchus should bid you fire the Capitol would you do it he answers he would not bid me do such a thing but if he should I would do as he bid me So had Herod passed his word Math. 14 and his Oath to the Daughter of Herodias to do for her whatsoever she should ask and when she required the head of John Baptist he would not deny it to her Now here is an excellent use of Vertue to keep friendship within its right Channel A Vertuous man will do all the good he can to his friend but unless he fail in his Vertue he will not prophane that sacred thing by entring into a League to maintain friendship whether by lawful or unlawful means Now true friendship is a noble and gallant thing an excellent attainment of humane Nature but that Ceremonies and Complements have almost either obscured it where it is or crowded it into some few corners of the World that it is scarce any where to be found Surely civility and affability and courtesie is a fine accomplishment yet I am of opinion and though I be accounted a Clown for so thinking I am not much sollicitous that as Sarah turned Hagar out of doors for her fcornful Imperiousness so if ever friendship get any considerable dominion in the World smcerity and plain-heartedness must keep somewhat a stricter hand over dissembling Complements I fear men must grow less Complemental if they would approve themselves real friends but I am going out of the way I could not chuse but salute friendship when it came in my way I return and make this use of this short digression If friendship be such an excellent thing then is this greatly to the commendation of Vertue that it doth so help to make and keep men friends Which is the last instance I give and I cannot conclude with a better that it is much for the profit and advantage of mankind that men should live in the exercise of Moral Vertues Which was the proof of the fourth Reason I have given in this kind Vertue is necessary Necessitate Medii as a means in order to an end If we would live good lives if we desire to dye in safety if we would have our lives and deaths Comfortable to our selves and if we believe our selves bound to live profitably to the advantage of others It is necessary for us all of us Christians as well as other men and Christians more than other men because of the commands before-mentioned to abound in Moral Vertues Moral Vertues Baptized Christian OR The Necessity of Morality among Christians BOOK IV. CHAP. I. Sect. 1 THe second and third Book have contained the proof of the second general proposition as I at first summed up my discourse There are great and strong and unanswerable Arguments which prove it necessary for a Christian to be a Moral man A double necessity I have assigned each of which have been distinctly handled I am now towards my Conclusion only I remember I did promise somewhat by way of appendix to adde to this last consideration That as there is a necessity of Moral Vertue so likewise is there an excellency in it and this will require a few words but I will not multiply many Vertue is not only necessary but it is an excellent brave becoming thing a thing lovely and of good report It cannot otherwise be if that be true which is already said that which is so good and comfortable to our selves so good and advantagious to others if we do not admire it we do greatly undervalue it we do not well understand it if we do not believe it to be very excellent So much hath been said to those heads that I am loth again to refer to them Any one may easily apprehend the force of an Argument that which hath the qualifications before-mentioned is very Excellent wherefore passing that by I adde two things more There is a great excellency in Moral Vertue for it is an imitation of God and a Type of Heaven Both which must be understood with some caution Sect. 2 By being vertuous we do imitate and resemble God and Christ It is true we call God holy and not vertuous for the holiness of God is not to be described after the same manner that we define Moral Vertue Our passions are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the matter that our vertue works upon which passions are not assignable to God And there are some particular vertues which we cannot attribute to God as Temperance which supposes us in a bodily state and Humility which at best supposes us in a creature-state for though it pleases God in Scripture to say he humbles himself yet that doth no more prove that he is humble in our notion then his repenting proves that he doth repent as we do yet notwithstanding by vertue we resemble God The holiness of God is the perfection and rectitude of his Nature so our vertue though alone it be not our perfection yet it belongs to our integrity and rectitude When we are commanded to be holy in all manner of Conversation how can we fulfil that Command if we do not exercise those vertues without which our Conversation cannot be as it ought to be Now this holiness is a conformity to God for in the same place it followeth because it is 1 Pet. 1. written be ye holy for I am holy And in many particular cases that Justice and Righteousness in our dealings and that Truth and faithfulness in our word and promise which makes us honest is an imitation of God who is Righteous Psa 145. in all his ways and holy in all his works and who doth not suffer his faithfulness to fail Psa â—9 When we are kind and charitable and desirous to do good then are we the Children of our Father Math. 5. Luke 6. which is in Heaven and are merciful as our Father also is merciful Again when we are gentle and meek then we are like that God who is Merciful and Gracious and Long-suffering c. whence Exod. 34. it doth appear that this Moral Vertue is a true and a considerable part of godliness that