Ears are tender and can hardly endure them that are wont mordaci radere vero therefore my Lord Bacon says It asketh a strong Wit and a strong Heart to know when to tell Truth and to do it So that they are the weaker sort of Politicians who are the great Dissemblers But if a Man hath that piercing Judgment which the Virtue we now treat of will produce He will discern what things are to be laid open what are to be kept secret and what are to be shewed at half-lights to whom and when These are the Arts of State as Tacitus calls them and these are the Arts of Life But Nakedness is uncomly as well in the Mind as in the Body and it addeth no small reverence to men's Manners and Actions if they be not altogether open especially the discovery of a man's self by the tracts and lines of his Countenance is a great betraying because his Face is frequently more taken notice of and believed than his Words In short the magnanimous Man will never act the Hypocrite because it is a Vice that rises either from natural falseness or fearfulness whereby a man is deprived of one of the most principal Instruments for Action which is Trust and Belief Thirdly HE is not apt to wonder at every thing For what can such a one admire at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom nothing appears great Neither is He apt to remember Injuries nor is he inclined to Revenge but thinks to give and to forgive donare condonare are the best and the worthiest things in the World Therefore Solomon saith It is the glory of a Man to pass by an Offence For He is but even with his Enemy when he takes his Revenge on him but in passing the injury over or in pardoning it He is Superiour to him And those Men are base and crafty Cowards who are like the Arrow that flies in the Dark But the brave-spirited Man who deals above-board with mankind delights not so much in punishing the Party that hath wronged him as in making him repent Fourthly HE abhors that secret Spight which we see to be in most men whereby they make the good Names of others the subject of their Table-talk misreport their Actions and aggravate their mistakes or if they speak well they will be sure to spoil it with some reservation He is not querulous Neither is He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 querulous or apt to complain but makes that of Otho the Emperour his especial Character de nemine queri For all humorous and peevish Persons go astray out of the plain way of the Reason of mankind But our virtuous Man is ever well satisfied with the government of Providence therefore his thoughts are at rest and whilst others are very free in their Jeers and ill Censures He takes a wiser course to suppress rather a piece of Wit or a foolish Passion than do the least hurt by venting it Nay there is so exact an order in his Life that the very motions of his Body are decent and regular not too swift nor too slow his Speech not too loud nor too soft For the smallest things in this kind of Person are well worth our Observation ONE of the Extremes of Magnanimity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which we have no Name either in Latin or English unless we list to call it Pride which is a foolish humour some men have who being of mean worth have neither sense nor power yet will boast after the Spanish fashion as if they could do the greatest things like that Gentleman in Rome by name Senecio whose fancy it was to have all things Great great Servants to wait on him great Plate to be served in a great Woman for his Concubine Affectation of Grandeur is ridiculous great outlandish Figs for his Diet and would always speak great Words for which Whimsey he got the Name of Senecio Grandio This Man is a lively Emblem of the Vice we now treat of a fantastical Affectation of Grandeur which is a swelling of the Mind that holds nothing but corrupt and putrid matter which if it be not let out will infect the most hale Constitution and the soundest temper of mind AS for that other Extreme Pusillanimity I shall not say much of it nor run it down as the Philosophers do for fear I should put any the least slur upon the most Excellent Virtue among Christians Humility HONOURS in Aristotle's Opinion are the proper Object of Magnanimity Now Honours are of two sorts greater Honours which belong to the Magnanimous and lesser the managing whereof belongs to a Virtue for which he could find no Name but some petty Virtue or other must be sought for whose duty it is to moderate our desires after smaller Honours Had Aristotle throughly considered the nature of this Virtue Men of Virtue bring Credit to the Offices they are in he would have found as much Power in it for the managing of petty honours as of greater For when the Thebans to put an Affront upon Epaminondas that renowned Captain had chosen him into a mean and base Office It behoves me saith he that I so execute the duty of this Place that I may leave it one of the most honourable Posts in the Commonwealth and He was as good as his Word It is not in the power of any Man to put himself into what Sphere of Authority he pleases but wheresoever He is employed it is in his power so to behave himself therein as to add Credit to it and so by the Virtue of the Mind to make the managing of smaller Honours a part of Magnanimity For Men of large Capacities and wise Thoughts bring a Reputation to whatsoever Place they bear And when a Person of mean account had presented Artaxerxes with an Apple of extraordinary bigness the King gave him this Commendation Certainly this Man were He well employed of a little City would make a great one ONE of the Vices opposite to this Virtue is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambition which is an Humour that maketh men active and stirring but very troublesom and uneasie to all about them 't is true to forbid a Soldier the use of it is to pull off his Spurs but if it gets into the ruling Seat it can never keep things steady having not that Ballast of temperate and sober Wisdom without which the Ship of the State will roul too much and be in danger often of oversetting because the Counsel that is to direct it is too hasty and precipitate BUT our virtuous Man hath no other Ambition but to prevail in great and good Things He seeks to be Eminent only amongst worthy Men whereby He doth good to the Publick But He who plots to be the only Figure amongst Ciphers is the decay of an whole Age Whereas Honour hath three things in it 1. The Advantage-ground to do good 2. The Approach to Kings 3. The Raising of a Man 's own Fortunes He
than the open Cruelty of Decius or Dioclesian Hospitals another work of Magnificence Secondly HE will erect Hospitals for the Poor and Maimed Now this sort of Magnificence doth very much serve the Publick Interest for those who do these things for the sake of their own private Fancies and not for the common Good are Magnificent as some of the Church of Rome are Charitable when they erect Sanctuaries for wilful and Capital Malefactors to fly to when they found such Monasteries as are the Nurseries of a blind Devotion But to be vertuously Magnificent is with daily Provisions to feed the Hungry not the superstitious to entertain those that are unfit for Labour not loitering Wanderers or Pilgrims Thirdly THE Man who deserves praise for his Magnificence takes care to provide those Houses in which the most notorious Offenders may either be corrected or secured that those who are not so far gone in Wickedness as to be past Remedy may be called back again and amended by just and necessary Chastisement that those who have broken through all the Fences of Law may be taken out of Human Society which they would otherwise destroy and bring into Confusion HAPPY the miserable The go … of Mankind promoted by this Virtue who partake of these Works of Magnificence more happy they who lay out their Money and Revenues for the publick benefit of Mankind to instruct the ignorant in Schools to heal the diseased in Hospitals to lash the back of the Sinner in Bridewells and to cure the unsound mind in Bethlem's NOW the Works of Magnificence whether they be publick or whether they be private they are to be performed with all Pomp and State They are especially seen in Feasts and Entertainments either of our Friends or of Men of the highest Quality or else in building stately Houses Castles Churches and Theatres That Man who knows how in the most seemly fashion to manage these Undertakings is truly Magnificent The Errours of such as are Magnificent BUT here the Magnificent Person is very prone to run into a very ill Extreme Having great things much in his thoughts his mind is apt to fly too high out of the reach of Prudence then He falls to the building of Oblelikes Colossus's and Pyramids This Distemper swell'd the Heads of many in old time who spent great Sums upon magnificent Piles vast and sumptuous Statues great and mighty Vanities For Solomon the best Judg of these things hath passed this Sentence upon them that they are all so The Judgment of Solomon upon these … ngs For Eccl. 2. After He had made great Works planted Vineyards and had built stately Houses made Pools of Water for the Trees that bring forth Fruit got large and numerous herds of great and small Cattle had gathered mighty heaps of Silver and Gold and filled his Treasury therewith upon a review of all the works his Hands had wrought and upon all the pains He had taken He concludes with the truest judgment that ever was pronounced upon the World that all was Vanity Whereupon it may be supposed my Lord Bacon made this wise Observation that Truth is a a naked and open Day-light which doth not shew the Masks and Triumphs of the World half so stately as Candle-lights do and no man doubts that if there were taken out of men's minds vain Opinions flattering Hopes false valuations of Things and the imaginations of Grandeur but it would leave the minds of many who make a great Figure poor shrivel'd things full of melancholy and indisposition and unpleasing to themselves BUT there is a way to lay up our Treasure in Heaven The deeds of Charity entitle us to Heaven to be magnificent on Earth and great in Heaven then this Blessedness must be gotten by doing such remarkable deeds of Charity as I have mentioned and if we do so our Names shall endure for ever when Mausoleum's are buried and Pyramids are mouldred into dust It is Aristotle's Notion in his Epistle to Philip that the acts of Beneficence have something in them equal to God and the whole life of mankind was comprised in conferring and returning Benefits 'T is true there have been some morose Spirits such as Chrysippus and Seneca who have made plausible Harangues against Glory but in the very doing this they have appeared to aim at it Whereas it is the spur to good Works if it be made use of by one who hath passed through the Temple of Virtue to that of Honour And a man may with as much reason argue against Eating and Drinking as endeavour to banish the love of Glory that arises from the Works of Magnificence unless this did rouze the Souls of men perhaps a barbarous Sloth or a brutish stupidity would soon overspread the World no care would be taken to promote or sustain the Seats of ingenuous Arts or the Tribunals of State This carries Men upon the noblest and most Heroick Attempts and Human Nature without it would be a sluggish and unactive thing IT was the Thirst after Glory together with some private Ambition that incited the Egyptian Kings to be at so vast charge in the building the Pyramids and the Egyptians of lower Quality spared for no cost to cut out Caves or Dormitories in the Lybian Deserts which by the Christians are now adays called the Mummies and all this was undertaken for the sake of an Opinion amongst them that so long as the Body endured so long the Soul continued with it not as animating it but as unwilling to leave her former Habitation Why should not the same Thirst for the Glory of the Christian Religion move us to do such Works as may shine before Men and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven IT is not empty Fame that we must seek for it is not with Wind that we must fill our selves We want a more solid Substance to repair us A man pinched with Hunger would be very unwise to seek rather to provide himself of a gay Dress than a good Meal We are to look after that whereof we have most need and that is Virtue When this is acquired then the outward Ornaments of Magnificence may be made use of Epicurus his opinion of Magnificence Which were so despised by Epicurus that He made this one of the Precepts of his Sect Conceal thy Life He would not have his Disciples in any sort to govern their Actions by the common Reputation or vulgar Applause But Horace was of another Opinion who says Paulùm Sepultae distat inertiae Calata virtus Concealed Virtue differs not much from dead Sloth which if it were absolutely true then a man would be no further concerned to keep his Mind in order which is the true Seat of Virtue than as the actions of it are to be seen by others whereas Glory is but the shadow of true Virtue For Repulsae nescia sordidae Intaminatis fulget honoribus Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis
every Errour though sometimes it would require a very curious Artist in the midst of all the deformities of Errour to descry the defaced Lineaments of that Truth which it did at first resemble as Plutarch spake of those Egyptian Fables on Isis and Osiris that they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain weak appearances and glimmerings of Truth but so as they needed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some notable Diviner to discover them Whence the difficulty arises to find out Truth AND this I think is the case of all that search after Truth they must go along and dangerous Journey sometimes they must meet with no path at all sometimes with so many and those so contrary in appearance to one another that the variety confounds them Nay she is so involved and interwoven with mistake that Mankind seem to have done that to Truth which the Egyptian Typhon did to the good Osiris when he hewed her lovely Form into a thousand pieces and scattered them to the Four Winds Ever since her sad Friends such as dare appear in her behalf imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled Body of Osiris have wandred up and down gathering up Limb by Limb still as they could find them All the parts are not yet found nor ever shall be until her Master's Second coming He shall bring together every Joint and Member and mould them into an immortal Feature of Loveliness and Perfection IN the mean time we must not be wanting in all necessary Care for so doubtful a passage through all the Falshoods as well as Vanities of this Life For these are the Evils that produce most of those Heats that are amongst men And if ignorant or malicious Physicians in this violent Feaver did not apply new Heats instead of Julips they might by writing and speaking Truth reduce the World in a short time to its antient healthful and natural Temper For if Truth as Democritus fansied Truth must be sought for not without but within us lies at the bottom of a deep Well we must seek for it in the Center and heart of our selves And we shall find her seated in that Dominion which the Understanding and Judgment hath over the Passions which are the Glasses that discover to us all the secret workings of the Mind and they are the Instruments too whereby She acts either Good or Evil For according to the evenness and moderation of men's tempers so much the more impartial their judgments are and consequently so much the clearer Prospect they have of all manner of Truth This will encourage us to walk in the practice of Uprightness and Veracity until we come to that other World where are the Eternal Laws of Right and Justice the immediate and most steady Principles of Truth and Goodness where are infallible Rules for all cases and Actions however circumstantiated from which the Will of God though never so absolute shall never depart one tittle For his Truth hath place in every declaration of his Mind and signifies an exact correspondency or agreement between his Mind and his Words between his Words and the truth of things the correspondency of his Words with his Mind depends on the rectitude of his Will the Conformity of Words with his Mind and with the truth and reality of things depends not not only on the rectitude of his Will but the perfection of his knowledg and the Infallibility of his Understanding Therefore Porphyry tells us That this is one of the Properties of God to have regard to the Truth and this is that which doth set men near unto God and afterwards he adds That Truth is so great a Perfection that if God would reveal himself to Men he would have Truth for his Body and Light for his Soul Of URBANITY IN the Opinion of some austere Men this Vrbanity which we call a Virtue may be thought to have a more fit place in Erasmus his Moriae Encomium because it contains the Doctrine how we should behave our selves in our Pastimes Indeed the Life of a Man truly Virtuous doth properly consist in all Seriousness and Gravity little or no room is left for Jesting or any kind of Facetiousness But because Man is a Creature of a weak and frail Constitution easily subjected to Sadness and Melancholy Facetious Speeches a pleasant and jocular Humour A facetious or pleasant Humour allowed of by our Religion have been commended by Philosophers as virtuous not disallowed by Reason commonly affected by Men often used by Wise and good Persons These things ought to have some place in our Conversation otherwise we should think our Religion chargeable with too much sourness And Aristotle believed them so necessary to sweeten the practice of the grave and serious Virtues that He brings in Vrbanity like a Fool in a Play to make Sport or like the Battel of the Cowards in the Arcadia after the sad Story of Argalus and Parthenia HE doubts very much Whether He should set it down for a Virtue or no For in reckoning up the Vices of common Language He makes them to be Three First Stultiloquium Speaking foolishly Secondly Turpiloquium Talking lewdly Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in English we call Jesting or Faceâ—iâ—â—â—â—â—ss BUT since for the refreshing man's Life and the smoother carrying on the more difficult Exercises of Virtue there seems to be great need of some Mirth and Relaxation We must find out a due temper for them that we may keep the middle Way even in our Recreations NOW if such a Medium can be discovered there will likewise be seen the two Extremes betwixt which it passes as Buffooâ—â—ry on one side by Aristotle called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is nothing but Impudent shameless and injurious Scoffing without any respect to Time or Place or Persons On the other Rusticity by Aristotle called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is nothing but a stupid Sullenness that makes men appear Ill-bred and unfit for Company WHEREFORE if I can make it out when Facetious Humours are allowable and when they are Wicked and not to be endured I shall be able to shew a Man how to get the Reputation of a Wit and of one that is both Good and Wise too 'T is true there is nothing Men differ much in their Opinions about Wit that men differ more in than in determining what Wit is sometimes they place it in Words and Phrases sometimes in Apposite Tales sometimes it puts on the dress of Similitudes or is wrap'd up in humorous Expressions sometimes it is lodged in a sly Question or a sharp Repartee sometimes a tart Irony goes for Wit or a big Hyperbole In short No Man can give a reasonable account of its Ways because it doth answer to all the numberless Rovings of men's Fancies and to all the turns of their Language IT will be therefore very hard to settle a clear and certain Notion hereof so as to make a Virtue of That which appears
and moderated NOW the Wise Man we now speak of is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Contemplative Person who hath passed through all the Discipline of Virtue For He cannot be good at true Theory who hath not first been so at Practice and to the true and sober Man peculiarly belongs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Wisdom which vigorously displays it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonists phrase it in an intellectual Life For the good Man only lives in him who is Life it self and is enlightned by him who is Truth it self Besides Purity of Heart and Life as also an ingenuous freedom of Judgment What are the best preparations for Truth are the best preparations for the entertainment of Truth For every Art and Science hath some certain Principles upon which the whole Frame and Body of it must depend and therefore the Scripture is wont to set forth a good Life as the fundamental Principle of Wisdom For it asserts the Fear of the Lord to be the beginning of Wisdom And in Divine Things especially He that is most practical is the wisest Man and not He that is most a Dogmatist For as in the natural Body it is the Heart which sends up good Blood and warm Spirits to the Brain whereby it receives power to execute its several Functions so that which gives us power to understand the best things aright must be a living Principle of Piety within us because if the Tree of Knowledg should not be planted by this Tree of Life Why Truth prevails no more in the World then it may bring forth bitter as well as sweet Fruit evil as well as good Deeds This is the reason why Truth prevails no more in the World because men are busied more in acute Reasonings and subtle Disputes than in real goodness which Goodness and Truth grow both from the same Root and live in one another ON the contrary Vice casts a cold Poison into the Understandings of Men benums the Faculties creeps into the Bed of Reason and defiles it Yet vicious Men are more apt than others to boast of their Wisdom but if we come nearer these Landskips of Reason and Wit that which seemed afar off to be Hills and Mountains in them will be found to be nothing but artificial Shadows besides the Vanity whereby Sin is puff'd up nothing is more unreasonable and foolish For what can argue a greater madness than to forfeit the endless welfare of the Soul for the satisfaction of a Moment THEREFORE I will only ask this of Mankind that they would act according to the directions of Wisdon that is agreeably to the fixed and unavoidable Fate of things and remember that they are a sort of Beings who must hereafter live always either in unconceivable Happiness or Misery if this Meditation will not bring 'em to Wisdom there is no remedy but they must be left to the dismal and pitiless deserts of their want of Sense and Consideration NOW there are two things that make up Religion Knowledg and Practice Knowledg and Practice make up Religion the first is wholly in order to the second and both together constitute Spiritual Wisdom For God hath not revealed his Will and made known our Duty to us to make us more learned but to make us more good not to enlarge our Understandings or entertain our Minds with the Fine Notions of Virtue but to Form and govern our Lives therefore God hath so ordered things that no Man shall be Happy for any Speculations unless they are drawn down into practice For there is no kind of Knowledg that a man may sooner come at than the knowledg of Religion because the greatest part of it hath a Foundation in the common Reason of Mankind and as for that which is revealed it is only new Arguments to be good and virtuous Now this Gospel makes the knowledg and practice of Religion the only way to true Wisdom and consequently to Happiness therefore they are the Practisers that our Saviour hath bless'd in his Sermon on the Mount the poor in spirit the meek and merciful So He who acts according to his knowledg is likened to a wise Man who built his house on a Rock but He who heareth our Saviour's Sayings and doth them not is likened to a foolish Man who built his house upon the Sand the rain descended and the floods came the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell The practice of Religion is a necessary condition for Happiness As God hath made the practice of Religion a necessary Condition of our Happiness so the nature of the thing doth make it a necessary condition for it For our utmost Happiness being to consist in the enjoyment of God and it being impossible that Persons should have communion one with another that are not of a temper we must be like to God if we would be Happy Now nothing can make us like unto God but Holiness and Virtue Therefore Men are not wise who think they can be partakers of Happiness upon any other account Knowledg indeed it self is a Divine Perfection but yet that alone doth not render a man like to God neither doth that alone qualifie him for his Presence For if a Man had the understanding of an Angel he might for all this be of a devillish Temper and whosoever is so hath no disposition in him for the place of pure Happiness LET every Man therefore that hopes to be happy in the next World lead an Holy Life in this because an unholy Life is in the nature of the thing utterly inconsistent with Being in Heaven THE proper Inference from all that hath been said is that in all the exercises of our Understanding Science or Wisdom we should make the practice of Religion our main design because for this purpose God gave us our Reason For to inspire Man with a Faculty of reasoning by which he can form true Notions from single Experiments and infer one Truth from another and to inspire his Reason with Divine Notions are only two different Modes of Revelation For He did as well reveal himself to us when he gave us Reason to understand his Will as he does when he sends a Messenger from Heaven to declare his Mind SINCE then God light up in us this Candle of our Reason why may he not give new Light to it especially when it begins to burn with a dying and languishing Flame How agreeable is this to the Divine Goodness and to that infinite Care it takes of the welfare and happiness of reasonable Beings to conduct and enlighten them with Divine Revelation chiefly when the groping World had so bewildred it self in an endless Maze of Errour and was so lost in its own wandrings when no Human Understanding or Wisdom could shew the Way then to spring a Light from Heaven whereby Mankind may be directed to the Coast of Truth is the highest Instance of the care
the Government of his Mind and is never disturbed by Passion to be tender Hearted and Pityful because cruelty and oppression are an offence to God and a provocation to Men to resign our selves up to the direction of God's Providence that Governs the World leaving all issues and future Successes to the Wise Determination of the Divine Will To hold to the Practice of Truth because a Man's Heart will never misgive him in her ways not to dissemble but to deal openly with Mankind because this behaviour will make our passage easie through the World we shall have none to oppose none to do us harm to be humble and sober in the judgment we make of our selves because Self-confidence and Self-Conceit render Men Fools to be Peace makers and compose Differences to endure Wrongs patiently to forbear Revenge and to love our Enemies because God does so in Nature while he causes the Sun to rise upon Good and Bad to pass charitable Judgments upon others because this is the way to make an Enemy a Friend to give real demonstrations of our Integrity and Goodness by the fruits of it because Men disparage Religion who profess it and do not guide their Actions according to its Doctrines to submit our Senses and inferiour Affections to the Dictates of sober Reason and true Understanding because Mind and Understanding is appointed by God to be his subordinate Governor in human Life to be modest and chast in our Conversation because Modesty secures the Mind from Pride and Chastity preserves the Body from the worst Indispositions THUS Christ Jesus hath shewn us an Example of all Moral Vertues and an Example in some respect hath an Advantage above a Rule for it shews in what way the Roâ—e is practicable and it is a Reproach to any Man not to be able to do or suffer what others have done before him Seeing then God hath taken such care that we should know our Duty and hath made those things Instances of our Obedience which are the natural means and causes of our Happiness we are altogether without excuse if we do it not and we incur the heavy Sentence pronounced by our Savior this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love darkness rather than Light for whover does any thing that is evil acts against the Convictions of his own Mind and the Light that shines in his own Soul besides What Advantage is it that Wickedness brings to Men Name me that Vice which improves our Reason or makes us e'er a whit the wiser that tends to the Peace and Satisfaction of our Minds or to our Health and Credit amongst considerate Persons IF then it be Vertue that points out to us the most compendious and ready way to Happiness we may see where our true Interest lies let us not suffer our selves to be cheated of it by the little Arts of Vice or the Insinuations of a Temptation than which there can be nothing more to our prejudice even as to our temporal Concerns for every known and deliberate Sin that a Man commits is a flaw in his Title to his Estate not in respect of Men but of God who is the great Governor of the World the wise Disposer of the Fortunes of Mankind Moral Vertue is the foundation of all revealed Religion AND the Scripture doth every where speak of Moral Vertue as the Foundation of all revealed and instituted Religion therefore our Savior when he was asked which was the first and great Commandment of the Law answers Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and thy Neighbour as thy self A Jew would have thought that he would have pitch'd upon some of those things which were in so great esteem among them Sacrifices Circumcision or the Sabbath But he overlooks all these and instances in the two principal Duties of Morality the Love of God and of our Neighbour and these Moral Duties are those which he calls the Law and the Prophets and which he came not to destroy but to fulfil for the Judicial and Ceremonial Law of the Jews was to pass away and did so not long after but this Law of Moral Duty was to be perpetual and immutable And the keeping of this Law consisted in the Observation of such things which the Scribes and Pharisees did most of all neglect therefore he tells us that unless our Righteousness did exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now these Men were the most punctual People in the World for observing the Jewish and Ceremonial Law and whereas they were obliged to pay Tithes of their more considerable things they would do it even of Mint Anise and Cummin But then they were defective in Moral Duty they were unnatural to their Parents in denying them Relief because their Estates as they pretended were dedicated to an holy Use they were unjust and under a shew of long Prayers devoured Widows Houses in a Word as our Saviour tells 'em they neglected both Mercy and Judgment which are the weightier things of the Law which whosoever neglects he can never please God with any instituted or positive part of Religion and throughout the Old Testament nothing is declared more abominable to him than Sacrifices as long as Men allowed themselves in wicked Practices And in the New Testament the Christian Religion chiefly designs to teach Mankind Righteousness Godliness and Sobriety and for this end was the glorious Appearance of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works and to deal honestly with every Man to speak Truth to our Neighbour and to have our Conversation void of Offence is called the Image of God and the new Creature and the Apostle advanceth Charity above the greatest Excellencies of Knowledge and of Faith and in the description of the Day of Judgment Men are represented by our Saviour as call'd to an account both as to the Practice and Neglect of Moral Duties and no others are instanced in to shew what Place he intended they should have in his Religion Therefore from all that hath been said upon this Subject we may infer Positive Institutions must give way to Moral Virtue First THAT all Positive Institutions must give way to Moral Duties because God hath declared that He would rather have Mercy than Sacrifice and whosoever violates any Natural Law he undermines the very Foundation of Religion which hath very little in it that is positive besides the two Sacraments and going to God in the Name of Jesus Christ for this the greatest and most perfect Revelation that ever God made to Mankind doth afford us the best helps and advantages for the performing of Moral Duty and produces the strongest Arguments to engage us thereunto Secondly GOD hath discovered our Duty to us in such ways as may