that which we know by the Light of God's Creation which is weakned by Man's Sin and * his Apostacy from God but it doth also do its own proper work and teach a Man to return to his own place to acknowledge God depend upon him and be subservient to him * It teaches him to empty his Mind of all Presumption Pride Arrogance and Self-assuming So that a Man is fit to receive the Grace of Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin together with all Divine Influence Concurrence and Assistance But since I have laid so mighty a weight and so great a stress upon this Acknowledgment in the Text I must needs here prevent an Objection which may be raised and it is this Some may object and say you have no Divine Authority for these words for tho' they are in the Bible they are but here related I confess I have no more Authority from these words being spoken by these Persons of whom they are related than if they were clean the contrary to what they are For I do find concerning our Lord and Saviour that some Persons of like Disposition say that he did do his Miracles by Belzebub the Prince of Devils and if we lay the stress upon the Sayers we must as well credit them as these Therefore I will grant you that I have no Authority for ought I have said from these words materially consider'd or as related and put down here Neither do I lay any weight or stress on the Sense of these Reporters for I will grant that it might be hap-hazard what these Men said for as much as they did not speak out of any purpose or intention or out of any settled Principle and such Men have upon the like occasion given a clean contrary Report Now I will give you a profitable Observation from hence Take care how you quote Scripture for that is Scripture for which you have Divine Authority not that which is barely related in the Text. For you have the Speeches of the Devil and the Advice of the worst or Men related in Scripture Scripture is only consider'd in the truth of Matter of Fact and that these things were done but it doth not follow from hence that they are materially Good No Man must pretend to do as Ehud did because his Action is recorded in Scripture No Man must pretend to borrowing without Intention of paying as the Israelites did for if they had not extraordinary warrant they were * to be condemn'd in their Practice So for us to curse our Enemies as we read in the Psalms the Prophet did not knowing in what Spirit it was done * it is not warrantable for us to do the like from thence Neither must we hate any because the Jews were to hate and to destroy the Seven Nations which they interpreted a Commission to hate all Mankind but themselves Therefore in like case we cannot certainly prove that any thing in the Book of Job is certainly Divine that was spoken by Job's Friends because God himself declares that they had not spoken that which was right concerning him as his Servant Job had done Therefore if you will have Divine Authority see what is said and think it not enough that it is barely related in the Book Neither is it enough to pretend to a single Text nor the Practice or Perswasion of any Man whatsoever nor to any thing accidentally spoken that can amount either to Matter of Faith or Divine Institution it must be express Scripture it must be Scripture in conjunction with Scripture For Scripture as a Rule of Faith is not one Scripture but all And therefore tho' I have taken advantage from these words yet all along I have laid such certain and such infallible Grounds tending to give Satisfaction in the Matters of Reason and Faith as the several Points are capable of And now I proceed to a fourth Argument which is this The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in the State of his Creation And the Suitableness of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed and fallen Condition in order to his Restitution and Recovery And first for the Suitableness of that which we call Natural Religion Natural Religion was the very Temper and Complexion of Man's Soul in the Moment of his Creation It was his natural Temper and the very Disposition of his Mind It was as con-natural to his Soul as Health to any Man's Body So that Man forc'd himself offered Violence to himself and his Principles went against his very make and Constitution when he departed from God And consented to Iniquity It is the same thing in Moral Agents to observe and comply with the Dictates of Reason as it is with inferior Creatures to act according to the Sense and Impetus of their Natures It is the same thing with the World of intelligent and voluntary Agents to do that which right Reason doth demand and require as it is in Sensitives to follow the Guidance of their Sences or in Vegetatives to act according to their Natures It is as natural for a Man in respect of the Principles of God's Creation in him to live in Regard Reverence and Observance of Deity to govern himself according to the Rule of Sobriety and Temperance to live in Love and to carry himself well in God's Family this I say is as natural for him as for a Beast to be guided by his Sences or for the Sun to give light How far therefore are we degenerated and fallen below the State in which God created us since it is so rare a thing for us to comply with the Reason of Things Nothing is more certainly true than that all Vice is unnatural and contrary to the Nature of Man All that we call Sin that which is nought and contrary to the Reason of Things is destructive of Human Nature And a Man forceth himself when he doth it So that to comply with those Principles of natural Light and Knowledge which God did implant in us in the Moment of our Creation and exactly to be obedient to the Ducture of Reason is con-natural to Man in respect of the State of God's Creation And it may be as well expected from an intelligent Agent to observe God and to live righteously and soberly as from any sensitive Agent to follow its Appetite Humility Patience Meekness and such like Vertues they do favour Nature whereas Passion Pride and Envy do waste and destroy Nature Nature's Desires are all moderate and limited But Lust is violent and exorbitant Nature is content with a very few things But if a Man give way to inordinate Desires then there is no Satisfaction to be obtain'd Lust is not a thing that will be satisfied by adding and adding But he that would be satisfied must abate and moderate his Desires and undue Affections It is certain that all Natural Truth all that is founded in Reason and that derives from the Principles of God's Creation that all of these do agree with Man's
of Man when he was Apostatized from the Truth of first Inscription The former of these is of things necessary in themselves in their Nature and Quality so immutable and indispensible The latter is the voluntary Results and Determinations of the Divine Will Things that are of an immutable and indispensible Nature we have Knowledge of them by the Light of first Impression The voluntary Results of the Divine Will we have by Revelation from God Man's Observance of God in all Instances of Morality these are Truths of first Inscription and these have a deeper Foundation greater Ground for them than that God gave the Law on Mount Sinai or that he did after ingrave it on Tables of Stone or that we find the Ten Commandments in the Bible For God made Man to them and did write them upon the Heart of Man before he did declare them upon Mount Sinai before he ingraved them upon the Tables of Stone or before they were writ in our Bibles God made Man to them and wrought his Law upon Mens Hearts and as it were interwove it into the Principles of our Reason and the things thereof are the very Sence of Man's Soul and the Image of his Mind So that a Man doth undo his own Being departs from himself and unmakes himself confounds his own Principles when he is disobedient and unconformable to them and must necessarily be self-condemn'd The Law externally given was to revive awaken Man after his Apostacy and Sin and to call him to Remembrance Advertency and Consideration And indeed had there not been a Law written in the Heart of Man a Law without him could be to no Purpose For had we not Principles that are Concreated did we not know something no Man could prove any thing * For he that knows nothing grants nothing Whosoever finds not within himself Principles sutable to the Moral Law whence with Choice he doth comply with it he hath departed from himself and lost the natural Perfection of his Being And to be conformable to this is the Restitution to his State Things of Natural Knowledge or of first Inscription in the Heart of Man by God these are known to be true as soon as ever they are proposed And he hath abused himself and forc'd himself from his Nature and deformed the Creation of God in him whosoever doth not take Acquaintance with subscribe to make acknowledgement of these great Things The great Principles of Reverence of Deity Of Sobriety in the Government of a Man 's own Person Moderate use of the Pleasures and Contentments of this Life The great Instances of Righteousness and Justice in Mens Transactions one with another For they are Connatural to Man Then for Truth of Gospel-Revelation that speaks for it self recommends it self and shews it self to be of God In this Case we may say as the Samaritans to the Woman They were brought to take Cognizance of our Saviour by the credible Report of the Woman But after they had had converse with him Now say they we believe in him not for thy Words but we credited thee so far forth as to come and see him but because we have seen and heard Such are the Declarations of Faith in God by Jesus Christ of Remission of Sins of God's accepting of Sinners upon Repentance that any Man that is awake to any true Apprehensions of God he will readily believe them and embrace them when they are declared to him by any Instrument The great Things of Reveal'd Truth tho' they be not of Reason's Invention yet they are of the prepar'd Mind readily entertain'd and receiv'd As for Instance Remission of Sins to them that repent and deprecate God's Displeasure it is the most credible Thing in the World For God made us Creatures fallible at the best Now here is finite and fallible failing and miscarrying repenting and reforming upon a Declaration from God So false is it that the Matter of our Faith is unaccountable or that there is any thing unreasonable in Religion that there is no such Matter of Credit in the World as the Matters of Faith nothing more intelligible It was a Mystery before God in Christ reconciling the World Now all the World is taken into a Possibility of receiving Benefits hereby Tho' there be nothing of Merit on the Creature 's side nothing that we can do that can deserve yet it is a Matter of very fair Belief that the Original of all Beings the Father of all our Spirits the Fountain of all Good will one way or other pardon Sin and do what behoves him for the Recovery of his laps'd Creation And any probable Narration made in the Name of God of the Way and Means and the particular Circumstances whereby God will do it will fairly induce Belief with sober serious and considerate Minds And what have we to do with others upon the Account of Religion If they be not serious and considerate they are not in a Disposition towards Religion That Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head God hath been speaking this out further and further by his various Revelations in the several Successions of Time He has represented it in divers Shapes But now we have it expounded For the Seed of the Woman is God manifested in the Flesh And breaking the Serpent's Head is destroying the Work of the Devil The Anti-type doth exactly answer the Variety of the Types All foretold of our Saviour was fulfill'd in him We have many things in prophane Stories in several Ages that give Testimony and Light to Parts of Reveal'd Truth Many of their Stories are in Imitation of Scripture History As Nisus's Hair in Imitation of Sampson's Deucalion's Floud in Imitation of Noah's Hercules in Imitation of Joshua c. Many of the Heathens that were not corrupted by Education or Interest or the Strain of the Time do relate many things that are consistent with those that are in the Bible St. Austin tells us he found the Beginning of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel among the Platonists Eusebius read in the Commentaries of the Heathens those Circumstances and Matters of Fact that the Evangelists do mention and also the Signs at our Saviour's Crucifying as the Eclipse of the Sun and an Earthquake and other Accidents Tertullian speaks of sundry things which Pilate writ to Tiberius sutable to what the Evangelists relate concerning our Saviour Yea Mahomet himself who is the last great Impostor doth mention the Souldiers apprehending our Saviour with an Intention to put him to Death Acknowledging him to be a great Prophet but he tells us when those Souldiers were stricken down God took him away and they lighted upon another something like him and crucify'd him Plutarch an Eminent Author gives us an Account of Pan the great Daemon of the Heathens who was heard greatly to complain that a Hebrew Child was born and they never heard him after all the Oracles then ceasing Porphiry tho' of no great Credit
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
Heart's Ease Quiet Content and Satisfaction The Grace of the Gospel whereby we hope to be saved doth not only give Continuance Help real Furtherance and Assistance to Natural Truth which lost much by Man's Apostacy from God and so needed a hand to help it up but it also doth its own proper work by emptying the Mind of Man of Wilfulness Presumption and Self-conceit which is incident to his Nature and so making room for the help of Grace and Divine Assistance and Forgiveness But to pursue this Argument a little further A Gospel-Spirit doth excel in Meekness Gentleness Modesty Humility Patience Forbearance and these are eminent Endowments and mightily qualify Men to live in the World This is that which makes Men bear universal Love and Good-will and over-comes Evil with Good This I dare say had we a Man among us that we could produce that did live an exact Gospel-Life were the Gospel a Life a Soul and a Spirit to him as Principles upon Moral Considerations are this Man for every thing that is excellent and worthy and useful would be miraculous and extraordinary in the Eyes of all Men in the World Christianity would be recommended to the World by his Spirit Were a Man sincere honest and true in the way of his Religion he would not be grievous intollerable or unsufferable to any Body but he would command due Honour and draw unto himself Love and Esteem For the true Gospel-Spirit is transcendently and eminently remarkable every way for those things that are Lovely in the Eyes of Men for Ingenuity Modesty Humility Gravity Patience Meekness Charity Kindness c. And for all this that I have said I will refer you but to that of the Apostle where he doth set out the fruits of the Spirit and the works of the Flesh He tells you that the works of the Flesh are Hatred Malice Emulation Strife Sedition and such like All of a kind and all of them do speak Hell broke-loose and come in upon us in the World For these are from Hell and tend to Hell and represent to us in this World the Hellish State that we dread to meet with hereafter But on the other side the fruits of the Divine-Spirit in Men they are Love Joy Patience Long-suffering Meekness Gentleness and such like And all of these are such lovely things that they make Heaven in a degree where they are found * Whereas the former turn the World into a kind of Hell Such is the Nature of Religion that it keeps the Mind in a good Frame and Temper it establishes a healthful Complexion of Soul and makes it fit to discharge it self duly in all its Offices towards God with its self and with Men. Whereas the Mind of a wicked and profane Man is a very Wilderness where Lust and exorbitant Passions bear down all before them and are more fierce and cruel than Wolves and Tygers So the Prophet Isaiah 57. 20. The Wicked is like the Raging Sea always casting forth Mire and Dirt and Prov. 17. ver 12. One had better meet a Bear robbed of her Whelps than a Fool in his Folly and you all know who is Solomon's Fool even every wicked Man The Heavenly State consists in the Mind's Freedom from these kind of things It doth clear the Mind from all impotent and unsatiable Desires which do abuse a Man's Soul and make it restless and unquiet It sets a Man free from eager impetuous Loves from vain and disappointing Hopes from lawless and exorbitant Appetites from frothy and empty Joys from dismal presaging Fears and anxious Cares from inward Heart-burnings from Self-eating Envy from swelling Pride and Ambition from dull and black Melancholly from boyling Anger and rageing Fury from a gnawing aking Conscience from Arbitrary Presumption from rigid Sowerness and Severity of Spirit for these make the Man that is not byass'd and principled with Religion inwardly to boyl to be Hot with the Fervours of Hell and like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up Mire and Dirt. But on the other side Things that are con-natural in the way of Religion the Illapses and Breakin gs in of God upon us these require a Mind that is not subject to Passion but in a serene and quiet Posture where there is no tumult of Imagination It is observed among the Rabins that if a Prophet fall into a Rage and Passion the Spirit of Prophesie leaves him They say that Moses did not prophesie after the Spirit of Passion moved him But sure it is there is no genuine and proper effect of Religion where the Mind of Man is not composed Sedate and calm I find among the Philosophers that they never had expectation of any Noble Truth from any Man that was under the Power of Lust or under the Command of Fancy and Imagination or that lived in the Common Spirit of the World They thought that God did not communicate himself to such But this is certain that no Man that is immers'd in a sensual Brutish Life can have any true Notion of Heaven or of Glory These things must signifie no more to him than a Local Happiness and sensual Enjoyment than the highest and greatest Gratification of the Animal Principle all that he can think of Heaven is that it is a Place of great Enjoyment some Local Glory something that is suitable to the sensual Mind For we cannot ascend higher in our Actings than we are in our Beings and Understandings And these Men that think our Happiness lyes in the sensual Objects of Delight are not capable of understanding either the Reason or Necessity of Mortification inward Renewal and Regeneration in order to admittance into Heaven For they do not look upon Heaven as a State and Temper of Mind which is requisite to be reconciled to the Nature of God and to be according to his Mind and Will But Religion is the Introduction of the Divine Life into the Soul of Man and Men cannot possibly be really happy in the separate State but by these things by having a Divine Love ruling in their Hearts by Self-resignation and Submission to the Divine Will and by being like unto God Things are very well known what they are in being by what they are in working what the Principle of them is by the effect that flows from them Now I may say of Divine Truth whether Natural or Reveal'd that these do satisfie the Mind of Man and keep him from being barbarous cruel and inhumane Raligion doth give such Evidence and Assurance of it self that if you put it in competition with any thing that any Natural Man whether Atheist or Infidel doth ever rest upon it will appear to have a greater Foundation in Nature and * on the Grounds and Principles of common Reason Equity and Justice than any thing which can be set up against it to counterballance it And Reveal'd Truth super-added to Natural doth not only give assurance to it and helps to recover
and Man All our Expressions must answer our Intentions when we treat one with another We are not in the Truth unless we speak what we mean It is necessary to the Truth of a Treaty that the Materials which make the Case be fully declared For it is no Agreement if any part of the Matter be unknown For a Case is made up of all Circumstances Do but diversify one Circumstance and it is another thing They that treat together are to take care that they understand and mean the same Things and not * make it a Practice for one who is more comprehensive than another to make use of his Wit to over-reach And if they find they did not mean the same things they are to release one another For no Man is obliged further than he did mean What is meant in the Treaty is after to be stood to No After-shifts Men must not after use Wit or practise upon the Doubtfulness and Uncertainty of Words and Phrases thereby to make an escape What we have engaged we must perform unless we can obtain a release from the Party with whom we engage though it prove inconvenient and worse to us than is imagined This is Truth between Man and Man And whosoever faileth in these forfeiteth his Truth And thus I have shewed you wherein a Man may put a Lye upon God upon Himself upon his Neighbour and by this you may understand this Charge of the Apostle Whatsoever Things are True Upon the whole Matter now let us take up a Lamentation For if that which I have said be true how miserable and deform'd is the World That that is the principal Thing Wit Reason and Understanding is made ill use of to serve particular Interests Ends and Purposes How much counterfeit Ware every-where is to be found How much over-reaching in Bargains and Treaties So that now a Man had need to be universally skill'd to have Right in the World Things are generally done for the Vender's Gain only and not for the Buyer's Service Whereas every Profession doth imply a Trust for the Service of the Publick And every Man in the Way of his Profession ought to do things Truly For a Man to be false in his own Trade is a double Iniquity For the Artist's Skill ought to be the Buyer's Security Every Man ought to be ready to render a Reason to any Man as in Christianity so every-where else He that is ignorant may demand the Help of another's Skill And if he makes use of his Skill to his Prejudice he deals falsly It is not competent to any Person to be universally knowing Wherefore are sundry Trades and several Professions but for the Good of Mankind because no Man is more than particularly skill'd This Departure from Simplicity and Sincerity in Profession is a thing unaccountable But this is nothing in Comparison with the Cheats Frauds and Cozenage in Religion What think ye now of Divinity methodized to sink the People down and gain Pomp to the Clergy Religion accommodate to Ends and Purposes The infinite Gain that comes from one Doctrine The Pope's Power to pardon Sin the Priest's Power to absolve Sinners Now these Cheats these Cozenages are of greater Importance because the Consequences are greater * To conclude Truth hath always God to maintain it Truth hath Defence in it self For Great is Truth and it will prevail It may be overborn for a while but it will recover Truth hath Goodness to accompany it Therefore none need fear Shame or Cause to repent Truth hath Liberty consequent to it The Truth shall make you free He that is in the Truth is not thoughtful But a Lyar had need carry about him a good Memory Truth is Con-natural to our Principles For a Man forceth himself when he departs from it Truth is the Foundation of all Order All things will be in Confusion if not order'd united and govern'd by Truth For Falshood puts every thing out of its place Truth is the Ground of Human Converse No Man is sure of another neither knows where to have him if he abide not in the Truth It is the Bond of Union Where Men agree in the Truth they are Friendly meet and harmonize one with another and great Sympathy is between them But out of the Ways of Truth Men run counter cross and contradict one another every-where This we are to know that God's Super-intendency over Human Affairs aims at this that Truth and Righteousness may obtain an universal Empire in the World And this is an Explication of that great Phrase God's doing all for his own Glory For it is an unexplicable Form of Words to say That God doth all for himself particularly as if God were a particular Agent and sought his own particular Interest But * the Sense is that God super-intends the World for this That Truth Righteousness and Goodness might take place every-where in the World And for the Advancement of this every Man in his Sphere of Activity and within his Compass ought to endeavour And this is for us to do to the Glory of God Whatsoever Things are Honest. So the Translation But I rather keep to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever things are VENERABLE Which Word is put in the Margin Neither do I forsake the Word in the Text without very good Reason because the Word Honest doth not import the Emphasis of the Greek And the very Notion of Honest you have afterwards therefore you are not take it here Now the Greek imports whatsoever things are Honourable Grave Venerable Seemly Comely Things that may raise the Esteem of the Person and gain Reverence and Value to a Man * In this Sense there are Two Things requisite Grave Behaviour and Composure of Spirit Light Carriage and an ungovern'd Spirit render any Man mean vile and contemptible A Man lays himself low in the Esteem of others by Misbehaviour And a Man lays himself open by falling into Passion or running out into immoderate Desires Gallantly doth the Poet tell us Remember to reverence thy self There is much of God in every Man If a Man do justly value himself he will not do that that is base though it be in the Dark though no Body sees him A Man ought not to abuse himself or make himself mean or low since he bears the Image of God But if a Man will neither regard God within nor the Workmanship of God without neither have Reverence for himself he will have Cause to find that he hath been wanting to himself when he falls under other Mens and his own Contempt Sin and Wickedness doth equalize those that are therein engaged There is no Man in the Sense of his Mind or in his Judgment hath a Value or Esteem for any one that is naught No Man reverenceth a wicked Man no not a wicked Man himself He is low and base in Esteem And there is no Remedy But some * there are of so comely and grave Behaviour that they awe
Josephus gives account The Jesuits denominated from Jesus are the Incendiaries of the World The more of our Fancy there is in that we take up for our Religion the more warm we are in defence of it We love our own Creatures and doat on our own Notions Who hath Reason on his side satisfies himself that the best is done that can be done when Reason is shewn he trusts to it sits down expecting that Reason shou'd prevail Fifthly We are all whether we dissent or agree one with another in some Matters agreed about this that we all ought to be guided by Scripture Now Scripture is clear full and perspicuous in all Matters of Life and absolutely determining * in all Matters of necessary Belief But in other Things we being removed above Sixteen hundred Years from the Apostles and since in the intermediate Ages many Things have been agitated by the several Parties and disputed Pro and Con and yet not agreed about and since it doth hardly appear what was the Apostle's Judgment in those controverted Matters since they are * what we cannot certainly determine by their Writings and no Application to be made to any Person inspired since * that time in the Succession of Ages if we do err in these Matters it is much less than if we had lived in their Times They that are settled in the great Matters of Life and Faith will out-wear Mistakes in lesser Matters Or if they do not I dare undertake from the Warrant of Scripture that if they hold the Head Christ Jesus such Mistakes shall not hurt them For this see Phil. 3. 15. Therefore I do resolve that by that time we have made due Allowance for the different Tempers of Men for the different Make of Mens Parts for Mistakes occasion'd from Company and Converse as also for those that have been occasion'd from our Education and for Conceits rooted in Men and become natural to them because they have so long thought after this or that Manner we shall * in the End find little Reason for Anger and Displeasure towards one another upon this account The different Make of Mens Parts is such that ab origine without any Affectation Contrivance or Design which are the Things that make Men culpable Foundation is laid of disagreeing Apprehensions * For some Mens Apprehensions cannot possibly hit in any Thing They are as it were cast in different Moulds * And they can no more help this than they can make their Faces to be alike We may look at this as an Effect of the various Wisdom of the Creator 'T is no more faulty than that one Star differeth from another in Glory Since the Wisdom of God appears in the several Dissimilitudes and Diversities that are in the World different Makes Shapes Constitutions as to the Body different Senses Imaginations Choices Satisfactions as to the Mind Varieties and Diversities above us and beneath us I say it again that by that time we have made a just Allowance for our different Tempers and Constitutions which are not subject to our Choice for our different Makes where upon such Variety of Apprehensions depend since there are Men of such different Makes that in nothing they think alike or at least they do not express themselves alike where they mean the same Thing by that time we have made Allowance for the Error and Mistake of our own Age and the Ages that have been before us when we shall have made Allowance for the general Suppositions which oft take place for pre-conceiv'd Opinions from Education Company and Converse for Conceits rooted in Men and become natural to them because they have long thought so by that time we have made a just Allowance for all these Considerations and Abatement proportionable we shall find little Reason for Anger and Displeasure with one another upon occasion of these Differences I add further that since Religion is a Bond of Union and lays an Obligation upon us to God and to one another it ought not to be a Ground of any Difference or Displeasure And Religion is in an unnatural Use if it doth disunite Neither are we qualified to pursue Truth or to find it out unless our Minds be discharged of all Ill-will Anger and Displeasure For Envy Ill-will Strife and Contention are as prejudicial as any other inordinate Affection whatsoever Sublime Knowledge cannot dwell in an unquiet Spirit 'T is wholly an Unchristian Temper that is given to Strife and Contention As might be shewn by several Scriptures 1 Cor. 1. 10. I beseech you by the Lord Jesus Christ See what an Obligation is here And for what is it Namely this That you all speak the same Thing and that there be no Divisions among you c. So 1 Cor. 3. 3. the Apostle tells them that they were Carnal because there was among them Envyings Strife and Divisions Nothing doth more unqualifie a Man for Divine and Heavenly Knowledge than this Temper So Jam. 3. Ver. 13 14 c. If Men value themselves by their Opinions and different Apprehensions from others and so far arrogate to themselves as to reprobate other Men for not entertaining their Opinions there must of Necessity be high Provocations great Exasperations Whereas if Men do calmly propose with a Submission of their Sense to an impartial Examination then the Things that are offer'd will be taken into Consideration And Men may be either better inform'd or else they will be further confirm'd in what they thought before if they find that other Persons Grounds are inferior to theirs Upon which account it is true Kindness to impart what one finds Cause to believe and what the Grounds are of such Perswasion Leaving the Party to judge as he finds Cause Yea I account it the greatest Kindness that one Man can do to another better to inform his Judgment and then leave him to consider For he that is Wise when he is apart will call into Examination what he hath heard And if what hath been offer'd be that which he had not consider'd before or taken notice of so that he finds that what was declared was Weighty he will hereupon find Cause to alter his Judgment But Lastly PASSION is so exorbitant a Thing that it is not to be confined to any Measure of Reason For it is in our Minds as Fire in our Houses which devours and destroys all that stands before it And the more it goes on the more Harm it doth So it is with Passion if not presently allay'd It will break forth as Wild-fire Reason and Vertue are Things that have Bonnds and Limits But Vice and Passion are boundless The Work of Order and Government in every Degree is the maintaining of Peace preserving every Body in his Right and the continuing Friendship general Love and Good-will amongst Men. He who hath the Advantage in any Association or Convention of Men is chiefly bound to maintain general Good-will Friendship Love 'T is the Life of Society Conversation of Men
who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity cannot be pleas'd with any thing that may pretend by way of recompence for any impure filthy immoral Acts. So Isaiah 1. 11 12 13 c. these things were instituted by God and required under great Penalties What work doth this Prophet make to cry down all Religion among them If he lived in our days he would cry down a great deal of Formality yea things really Good if in Conjunction with Immorality If Men be immoral in any way whatsoever if they consent to any Iniquity if they allow themselves in any evil Practice if they admit any such thing it doth spoil all their Religion We may conclude concerning all our Devotions and all those things that are but the Ministries and Instruments of Piety which are good in their right use if they are performed to be glorified in to be boasted of it is but as magnifying the Name of God and not departing from Iniquity If there be any Act of Unrighteousness it doth not only blemish but marr and spoil all And is it not plainly said the Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord as also Mich. 6. 6 7 8. Wherefore Thankfulness and Obedience that is the true Sacrifice that is what is worthy of the Creature to the Creator and that which God will certainly accept But it is most certain that the Zeal of any Institution tho' it be Divine Institution is to God unacceptable if in Conjunction with Immorality THANKSGIVING is an eminent piece of that Worship we call Invocation of God Three things are proper Prayer-Matter * and if Men confine themselves to these keep to proper Prayer-Matter and avoid unnecessary Repetitions none can be too long but if Men take liberty in Prayer to declare and to tell God Stories then I do not know when or where it will end 1 st Confession of Sin with desire of Pardon And as for that if Men live Christian Lives they will not have the same Sins to confess the second time For Christian Religion is not to Sin and Pray and Pray and Sin You may indeed acknowledge you have done it before but to confess it as practised again and again this doth declare that you are not Religious but Prophane 2 dly Acknowledgment of the Perfections of the Divine Being of his Superiority and of our Dependance upon God with a sence of our Insufficiency and Weakness and Desire of Divine Grace Influence and Assistance This is always to be in Prayer and this is a great Matter of Prayer Because tho' we are in a growing Condition yet we may say in this State that we have not attained Therefore to come to God in sence of our Insufficiency and of the Necessity of God's Influencing and Co-operating Grace this is work for us every day 3 dly Resentments of God's Goodness and Faithfulness to us and thankful Apprehensions and Expressions * of this And whatsoever is not comprehended in or referred to in these is Heterogenial to Prayer is Exorbitant and is not Prayer By the two former we daily fetch from God we obtain Pardon of Sin through Christ we obtain Guidance Aid and Assistance By the last we bring to him and this is our only Return Grateful Resentments and Apprehensions of the various Effects of the Divine Providence over us for averting of Evils from us and conferring of Good as they express our Ingenuity of Spirit towards God so they are the best things in our hands for God * the best Returns to God Galen the famous Physician having occasion to observe the Curiosity that is in the Make of Man's Body doth make a Hymn to God This * says he is the truest Worship of God the Creator and this is far more acceptable and better in it self than if I were able to bring a thousand Sacrifices or should offer the choicest Incense and Perfumes if I my self be sensible acknowledge and upon occasion exhibit and represent the Power of the Creator the Wisdom of the Creator and his Goodness His Power * and Wisdom for that he hath contrived in Mode and Figure so many Fitnesses and his Goodness in that he hath so fully communicated himself For what are Creatures but Divine Communications and this do I understand to be the best Worship of God and transcendent of that Sacrifice which may consist of Hecatombs of Beasts and of the purest Incense One thing we have and but one thing which we may call our own I mean the Consent of our Minds and that must be ours or else it is not our Consent it is not what it is unless it be our own And yet we must acknowledge the Grace of God that it is our own by Divine Concurrence Now let us by our own voluntary Act addict and determine our selves to God Let us afford him the Consent of our Minds i. e. make him our Delight and our Choice take Pleasure Content and Satisfaction in him This is the fullest way of Thankfulness to God out of sence of his Excellency and Goodness to reckon all our Happiness to consist in our Enjoyment of him our being and living in Communion and Acquaintance with him So that we have where-withal to sacrifice to God We have the Consent of our Minds We have this from God to be our own Act. We may make him our Choice breath after Interest in him and Communion with * him This is the best Expression of Thankfulness and this is the Christian 's Free-will Offering * Thus I * have made Explication of Unthankfulness We owe Thankfulness to God because we live by his Influence It is most natural to make Acknowledgment and to make thankful Returns to God Their Accusation is that they did not glorifie him as God and were unthankful The Argument of Conviction and the Aggravation of the Fault is because God made them capable of knowing that God is and that willingly and knowingly they were thus wanting and so did transgress That Person is altogether unexcusable * and self-condemned who knowing that he hath a Creator that is of infinite Power Goodness and Wisdom and having Sense and Knowledge that there is a God as God hath made Man to have doth not adore him fulfil his Will is not observant of him not affected toward him doth not rejoyce and delight in him * So that Irreligion is the most unnatural thing in the World Truth is a seminal Principle with which the Mind of Man being impregnated ought to bring forth and in this case * there should be neither Barrenness nor Abortions For Rational Nature is as sufficient and proportionable to its Effects as any vital Principle besides in the World If hurting a Woman with Child so as Mischief followeth be so punishable Exod. 21. 23. what is this case of Destroying the Seed of God in Man's Minds For so it is called 1 John 3. 9. Seed is accounted lost when * being sown in the Ground it never comes up So are
Notions of things in Minds in respect of their Acts and Vertues Truth received into the Mind by Knowledge is to the Soul as Leaven put into the Meal It is as natural that Will should follow as that Understanding should go first We first receive from God by mental Illumination there Judgment passes into Victory God enlightens the World by the Sun in reference to Actions of several Creatures He doth not illuminate the intellectual World of Spirits viz. Angels and Souls by the Influence and Communication of himself to less purpose Wheresoever God who is the Father of Light and God of Truth sends his Rays and Beams into the Souls of Men there he expects the Mind to be purified as well as enlightned And in case of failure he will severely challenge the Impediment The imprisoning and controuling of Truth is an Action of the highest Injury and Offence to God that a Man can commit beyond what we can easily imagine For whosoever hath received any thing from God by Mental Illumination if he doth not pursue it to the Refinement of his Spirit he doth counter-work God He who stifles or goes against his Knowledge doth in effect give a Check to God's working in him For us thus to do would be to reject God where we most find and feel him to strike at the Image of God in our selves What would not this naughty Disposition of Heart against Heart carry Man out to if he had Power and Opportunity against God For doth it not declare a Displacency and Antipathy against God for Man to run from that in himself which immediately comes from God beares his Image hath his Stamp upon it Where the Truth of God is inwardly disgusted disrelished so as not to be concocted and turned into Spiritual Nourishment is not there an exasperated and implacable Spirit against God Truth is connatural to a Man's Soul and in Conjunction with it becomes the Mind's Temper Complexion Constitution therefore must be kindly used What Health and Strength are to the Body that Truth is to the Mind and Understanding The former makes Men strong vigorous Bodily active the latter clears the Sight cures all Infirmities of the Mind What Obstructions are in the Body which are mischievous to Operations of Nature that violent Detensions of Notices and Principles of Action or Contradictions to the Reason of the Mind are in intelectual Life What we eat and drink if it be not first subdued by the power of Nature and then convey'd to the several parts of the Body for their Sustenance and Nutriment becomes matter of Disease and Sickness Knowledge is the Mind 's * Sustenance and Nutriment therefore is not ultimately to rest in Understanding but in Will and Affections should become Goodness and in Conversation and Actions of Life produce Obedience and is the same thing under several Denominations and in respect to different Habitudes and distinct Functions and Purposes as the Sea which is one and the same is one-where called the Mediterranean in another place the German Ocean and the like The Understanding is not enlightned finally for it self but * is as the Eye * which receives Light for the Use and Service Guidance and Direction of the Body In intelectual Nature first the Understanding satisfies it self in the Reason of things then the Will gives consent and the Notion forthwith becomes matter of Action Life and Practice The Understanding in the Perfection of Knowledge and the Will not in a Disposition of Goodness makes no Harmony but are vastly disproportionable As it is the most unsafe so it is the most uneasie Condition to any Person to KNOW and not to BE to know and not to do to have Judgment of Right and Conscience of Iniquity And were I to tell Men what is Hell on this side Hell I should * after that manner describe it A refractory Will exorbitant Lusts and strong Passions and Affections are unruly things under the single command of Judgment Men were as good to be exposed to the Fury of wild Horses Elihu speaks of the Notions of the Mind as things which do elevate and transport The hollow Earth inclosing Wind or Air without Vent is as easily kept from the Motion of Trepidation or Earth-quake as the guilty Conscience from Anxiety and Confusion It is as easie for a Man to carry Fire in his Breast as to offer Violence to Truth within one's self and not to be in a State of Self-condemnation I now come to make Inquiry since such a thing is so deformed and ugly so horrid and monstrous so unnatural and violent how comes it to pass that such a thing is found in the Common-wealth of Mankind who is made and constituted by God the Governour of this World whereas there is nothing of this in inferiour Nature But all inferior Nature keeps its Order * To give Account of this in Four Particulars 1 st The least that is be said in the Case is a great part of Men live in a Hurry and are seldom at leisure to consider or attend There are Avocations Distractions and other Employments that make Men * of no Ability as to the Judgment or discerning of Truth For its a true Maxim A Man's Parts and Wit is where 't is used and employ'd A neglected Faculty may shrivel up to nothing But to be nobly and generously employ'd and to use the Faculties of God's Creation in us according to the Intention for which they were given this is both conservative to our Nature and agreeable to Truth We give too little Attendance to Truth entertain it too slightly to have it at command We live in a fleshly and worldly Spirit and at the World's Call hurried on by every Lust being distemper'd and disaffected within disturbed and interrupted from without We are not at leisure to attend upon Truth to receive it to obey it Men drudge in the World debase their Faculties make their intelectual Faculties very Gibeonites employ them about base mean and worldly Employments They are not in a Disposition to receive and entertain Truth Men have abused themselves brought themselves by unnatural Practice into an unnatural State so * they disgust and disrelish Truth Men give themselves up to worldly Drudgery the mean Avocations and Distractions of the World So they are never at leisure to mind these things And no Man is valuable sufficient or competent to give a Judgment to make a Report wherein he is not exercised wherein he is not greatly considerative Man unless he sometimes take himself out of the World by Self-reflection and Retirement he will be little himself in the World and in danger of losing himself He will have very poor Enjoyment of himself and little Use of his Powers and Faculties especially as to Spiritual Acts wherein he is most concerned and most perfected This is out Temptation and hereby we come to be deceived because things severally consider'd are within the Compass of lawful Imployment therefore we little doubt