capacity of our Souls to survive our Bodies and enjoy future Rewards and suffer future Punishments it also follows that there is a future state of Reward and Punishment For we find in our Souls a certain innate force and power whereby they determine themselves which way they please in their motions and operations whereby they are exempt from the necessitating influence of any thing that is forein to 'em and this innate liberty or power of self-determination is necessarily supposed in the management of all humane Affairs in Commerce and Treaties in Government and Laws and Administrations of Justice in Councils Admonitions reproofs and persuasions in all which applications are made to our Souls as to free and self-determining Agents that have the absolute disposal of their own motions and can direct 'em which way they please and indeed were not our Souls left to their own free disposal but concluded by the Laws of a fatal necessity as we see all material Agents are such applications to 'em as these would be very absurd and ridiculous and we may as reasonably hope to tame Wolves and Tygers by reading Ethicks to 'em or to still the North-wind by sending Ambassadours to him to propose Articles of Peace as to prevail upon Mens minds by moral addresses and persuasions because if they are not masters of their own choices whatsoever the rigid Laws of necessity determine 'em to they must necessarily choose in despight of all persuasions to the contrary NOW by this self-determining Power our Souls do evidently manifest themselves to be immaterial substances and consequently not liable to Death and Corruption For if they were matter they would be moved like matter i. e. by the pressure or thrusting of other matter upon 'em and it would be no more in their power to move any other way than that which some other matter presses and impels 'em than it is for a stone not to move upwards when 't is impel'd by the force which your Arm impresses on it and not to move down again when that force is spent and 't is prest back by its own weight and gravity Whereas we feel in our Soul an innate power to determine it self which way it pleases and even to move quite contrary to all forein impressions For when 't is prest on by outward Object to such and such thoughts and purposes with all imaginable vigour it often stems the impetuous Tide and thinks and purposes the quite contrary How then can that be matter which is not determined in its motions by matter but when it pleases can either move counter to all material impressions or of two material impressions can move counter to the strongest THAT our Souls therefore are immaterial is just as evident as that they have liberty of will and that they have liberty of will needs no other proof than the common sense and feeling of mankind and whatsoever essence feels this freedom within it self whereby it is absolved from the rigid Laws of matter may with all the reason in the World conclude it self immaterial and if our Souls are immaterial substances to be sure they can naturally subsist and live without these Bodies and must necessarily do so unless God destroys 'em as having no contrary qualities or divisible parts no principles of death or corruption in 'em and since God hath made our Soul of an immaterial and immortal nature we have all the reason in the World to conclude that he will not unravel his own workmanship but permit it to survive its Body and enjoy or indure that happy ot miserable Fate which it self hath chosen and made IV. FROM the natural expectance we have of future Rewards and dread of future Punishments it is also evident that there is a state of future Rewards and Punishments Thus after the commission of any flagitious wickedness there naturally arise ill-abodings in Mens minds of a dire after-reckoning and though the Commission be secret and conceal'd from all humane cognizance so that there is no reason to dread the corrections of publique Justice for it yet when ever the Man reflects on it it fills his mind with horrible presages of a woful Futurity as on the contrary when ever a Man doth any great good or conquers any violent temptation to evil it lifts up his Soul into a blessed expectation and swells his hope with the promise of a future Reward and though the good he hath done or the evil he hath avoided gives him no kind of prospect of any present advantage yet his mind is soothed and ravished with the contemplation of it which naturally suggests to him the joyous hopes of a recompence to come For whence should this hope and dread spring up in Mens minds upon the Commission of good and bad actions but from some common impression upon humane nature intimating to us a future state of Reward and Punishment If you say 't is from those religious Principles which we imbibe in our Education I would fain know how came this Principle concerning the future state to be so universally imbibed if there were not something in it that is very agreeable with the reason of all mankind For whatever is the matter wee see 't is very easily embraced but very difficultly parted with Mens Minds do catch at it with a strange kind of greediness but when once they have swallowed it it never comes up again without straining and violence and what should be the reason of this if there were not something in it that is very agreeable with the natural tast and rellish of our understandings We know there have been great Wits and Philosophers that have taken as much pains to rase the belief of a future state out of Mens minds as ever any others did to imprint it there and yet though their Doctrine hath been always highly befriended by Mens wicked lusts and affections to which the belief of a future state is the most terrible and vexatious thing in the World yet with all their Wit and Sophistry they have never been able to root it out of Mens minds If then our hopes and fears of another World be merely owing to our Teaching and Education why should not teaching erase as well as imprint 'em especially when it is so powerfully seconded with all the Bosom Rhetorick of Mens vitious inclinations Whereas on the contrary those who have most industriously attempted to extinguish their sense of another World have generally been very unsuccessful and though in the Riot of their sinful delights they many times charm and stupifie it for the present yet no sooner do they retire into themselves and coolly reflect upon their own minds but it presently awakes again and haunts and pursues 'em and though they use all imaginable ways to divert their minds from the thoughts of another world and to avoid these Bosom Accusers and Tormentors run for Sanctuary to all things without 'em to Sports and Recreations to Wine and Women to Care and Business
did alter or cease For had Sacrifices been good in their own Natures their goodness had been as unalterable as their Nature whereas on the contrary we find that whereas their Nature neither is nor can be altered yet their Goodness or Necessity is For as before God adopted them into the Rubrick of Religion by his own positive Institution they were indifferent things so after this Institution was repealed by a contrary Command they became unlawful So that it is now as necessary that we should not Offer them in the Worship of God as it was before that we should And the same may be said of all the other Rites of the Mosaick Law which being in their own Nature Indifferent could no otherewise be converted either into Necessary or Sinful but by God's express Command or Prohibition Whereas Justice and Mercy c. are good in themselves abstractly considered from all Will and Command and are not good meerly because they are Commanded but are commanded because they are good because they carry with them such unalterable Reasons as do in themselves render the practice of them eternally necessary For tho there be very good reason why men should not offer material Sacrifices notwithstanding they were once injoyned yet it can never be reasonable for them to be unjust or cruel or proud because the contrary vertues carry such fixed and immutable Reasons with them as will bind and oblige us to eternity insomuch that tho we had a Dispensation to be proud under the Broad-Seal of Heaven yet 't would still be very absurd and unreasonable to be so And as things that are only positively necessary or sinful derive all their necessity and sinfulness from God's direct or express Command and Prohibition so they cannot be commanded or forbidden by Consequence For if the Matter of them be antecedently Lawful or Indifferent it must necessarily remain so till it is directly commanded or forbidden there being no other Reason to bound and limit it but only the Will of the Law-giver in whose disposal it is and therefore till he directly signifies his Will either for or against it it must remain as it is i. e. Free and Indifferent But you will say Suppose God hath commanded such an indifferent thing for such a Reason doth it not thence follow that he thereby commands every other indifferent thing that hath the same reason for it I answer No for if the Reason why he commands it be necessary and eternal it is not a thing indifferent but morally necessary and so is every thing else that hath the same Reason for it and consequently the reason of the Law tho it be applyed but to one thing extends to every thing of the same Nature because in all moral Cases the Reason of the Law is the Law But if the thing commanded be in it self indifferent the Reason why it is commanded cannot be necessary and therefore tho there be the same Reason why another thing of the same Nature should be commanded yet it doth not necessarily oblige unless it be commanded actually because in such Cases it is not the Reason but the Authority of the Law that obliges and therefore where there is only the Reason and not the Law it lays no obligation on the Conscience From the whole therefore it is evident what is the difference between things that are positively and morally Necessary and Sinful which I thought very necessary to explain at large for the giving a fuller light to the ensuing Discourse in which I shall endeavor to shew First THAT there is such an intrinsick Goodness in some Humane Actions as renders them for ever necessary and obliging to us Secondly THAT God hath sufficiently discovered to us what those Humane Actions are which carry with them this perpetual obligation Thirdly THAT these Actions which carry with them this perpetual obligation are the main and principal parts of Religion SECT I. That there is such an Intrinsick Good in some Humane Actions as render them for ever Necessary and obliging to us GOOD is twofold Absolute or Respective or the Good of the End and the Good of the Means The good of the End is that which is the Perfection and Happiness of any Being the good of the Means is that which tends and conduces thereunto As for Instance the absolute Good of a Brute Animal consists in the Perfection and Satisfaction of its Sense or in having perfect Feeling and Sensation of such things as are most grateful to its Appetite and Senses It s respective Good is the Means by which its Senses are perfected or rendred lively and vigorous and by which it 's provided for with such things as are grateful and pleasing to them For there being in every animate nature a Principle whereby it 's necessarily inclined to promote its own Preservation and Well-being that which hath in it a fitness to promote this End is called Good as on the contrary that which is apt to hinder it Evil. Now Man being not only a sensitive but a rational Creature hath a twofold Good belonging to his Nature the first Sensitive which is the same with that of brute Animals consisting in the Perfection and Satisfaction of his bodily Senses and Appetites and in those means which conduce thereunto and this for distinction sake is called his Natural Good the second Rational which consists in the Perfection and Satisfaction of his Rational Faculties and in those means which tend thereunto and this is stiled his Moral Good though in reality 't is as much Natural as the former For Man being naturally as well Rational as Sensitive that which promotes his Rational Perfection and Happiness is no less naturally good for him than that which promotes his Sensitive Nay his Rational Nature being the much more noble and excellent part of him that which naturally promotes the Perfection and Happiness of it is in it self a much greater good to his Nature and ought to be preferred by him before any of those Natural goods which conduce only to the happiness of his sensitive Nature and he who indulges his sensitive Part in any Pleasure which his Rational disallows doth thereby create a torment to himself and raise a Devil in his own mind For tho Reason and Religion doth allow that the Sensitive nature should be gratified in all its natural Appetites and Desires yet neither allow that it should be pampered and indulged in any such Excsses as are prejudicial either to it self or to that Rational Nature whereunto it is joyned and he who indulges his Sense in any such Excesses renders himself obnoxious to his own Reason and to gratifie the Brute in him displeases the Man and sets his two Natures at variance So that there is nothing can be naturally good for us that is any way inconsistent with what is morally so i. e. with what conduces to the Perfection and Happiness of our rational Nature and tho this Natural and Moral Good are no way
the Righteous Lot from that dire Conflagration alarmed the World with a new Declaration of the wide Distinction he makes between Vertue and Vice And lastly when the Vertue of these great Examples was almost spent God raised up the People of Israel and by the miraculous Blessings he bestowed on them when they did well and the stupendous Judgments he inflicted when they did wickedly exposed them to all the Nations round about for a standing Demonstration of the vast Difference he makes between Good and Evil. For so the Psalmist tells us Psalm 98. verse 2. compared with Psalm 102. verse 15. The Lord hath made known his Salvation his Righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen that the Heathen might fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory Thus by frequent Examples of supernatural Rewards and Punishments God hath been always instructing the degenerate World in the essential Differences between Good and Evil. VI. AND lastly To inforce all this God hath made sundry supernatural Revelations wherein he hath plainly instructed us what Actions are good and what evil That he hath made sundry Revelations to the World is evident in Fact because there are sundry Revelations extant which by those many miraculous Effects of the Divine Power that attended the Ministration of them have been sufficiently demonstrated to be of a divine Original And such are those contained in the five Books of Moses and the Prophets which have been all most amply confirmed both by the Miracles which were wrought by their inspired Authors and the exact Accomplishment of the several Predictions contained in them And such is also the last and best Revelation contained in the New Testament which both by the Types and Predictions of the Law and Prophets and the infinite Miracles wrought by Jesus and his Followers together with its own inherent Wisdom and Goodness hath been so effectually proved a divine Revelation that nothing but Ignorance or inveterate Prejudice can cause any man to disbelieve or suspect it NOW if you consult these several Revelations you will find that the main Drift and Design of them is to detect and expose what is morally evil and explain and recommend to us what is morally good For thus the several Revelations made to Abraham and his Children were only so many Repetitions of that Covenant of Righteousness which God had struck with them to encourage them to persevere in Well-doing Thus the Law of Moses consisted partly of Ceremonial Rites which were either intended for Divine Hieroglyphics to instruct that dull and stupid People in the Principles of inward Purity and Goodness or else for Types and Figures of the holy Mysteries of the Gospel and partly of Precepts of Morality together with some few of Policy suited to the Genius of that People and partly of such Promises and Threats as were judged most apt to oblige them to the Practice of Piety And as for the Prophets the substance of their Revelations was either Reprehensions of Sin together with severe Denunciations against it or Invitations to Vertue and Piety together with gracious Promises to encourage them to practise it or Predictions of the Messias and of that everlasting Righteousness which was to be introduced by him And then as for the Gospel all the Duty of it consists either in Instances or Means and Instruments of Moral Goodness and all the Doctrins of it are nothing but powerful Arguments to oblige us to the Practice of those Duties Thus the great Intendment of all Gods Revelations is to explain and enforce the Duties of Morality to discover the Nature and lead us on to the Practice of them by the most powerful Obligations And in this most perfect Map of the Road to Happiness all the Tracts of Piety and Vertue are so plainly described and delineated to us that no man can possibly miss his Way that sincerely inquires after it For tho in matters of Opinion men may be innocently mislead and deceived yet there is no Article either of Doctine or Duty upon which our Happiness necessarily depends wherein it is possible for an honest and diligent Mind to be mistaken And thus you see by how many excellent Ways God hath discovered to us which of our Actions are good and which evil So that if after all this we proceed in any sinful and immoral Courses we are utterly inexcusable For if after God hath thus plainly made known his Will to us we still persist to contradict it in our Practice we do thereby in effect declare that we regard not the Almighty and that we will do what we list let him will what he pleases And what an unpardonable Insolence is it for us who depend upon his Breath and hang upon his Providence every moment to treat him as if he had nothing to do with us and were the merest Cypher and most insignificant Being in the World For though 't is true he hath not made so full a Discovery of his Will to some as to others yet he hath so sufficiently discovered it to all that none can pretend to the Excuse either of invincible or unaffected Ignorance For as for the Heathen though they have no Revelation of Gods Will without them yet they have the Bible of Conscience within them and the large and legible Bible of Nature that lies continually open before them in which they may easily read the principal Differences between Good and Evil and all the great Principles of Morality And if notwithstanding this they will be so regardless of God as not to attend to and comply with those natural Discoveries of his Will what Pretence can be made for them why they should not perish for ever in their Obstinacy For as the Apostle tells us though they had not the Law that is the revealed Law yet they did or at least might have done by nature the things contained in the Law and therefore as many of them saith he as sinned without this revealed Law shall perish without the Law that is by the Sentence of the Law of Nature Rom. 2.12 14. And then as for the Jews besides those natural Indications of Gods Will which they had in common with the Heathen they had sundry supernatural ones they had sundry great and notorious Examples of Gods rewarding good men and punishing bad and besides they had the Law of Moses the Moral part of which was but a new Edition of the Law of Nature as for the Ceremonial Part of it it was though an obscure yet an intelligible Representation of all those sublime Motives to Piety and Vertue which the Gospel more plainly proposes So that would the Jews but have heedfully attended either to the spiritual Sense of their Law or to the Sermons of their Prophets which very much cleared and explained it they could not have been ignorant either of any material Part of their Duty or of any considerable Motive by which it is pressed and
Nature we do in obeying them take Impression from him and stamp his blessed Nature on our own For all those virtuous Dispositions of mind which we acquire by the Practice of Virtue are so many genuine Signatures of God taken from the Seal of his Law and Participations of his Nature For so Holiness which consists in a Conformity of Soul with the eternal Laws of Goodness is in Scripture called the Signature or impression of the Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 and such as do righteousness are said to be born of God 1 John 2.29 which implies their deriving from him who is their divine Parent a divine and Godlike Nature even as Children do their humane Nature from their humane Parents So that by the Practice of moral Goodness we receive from God the best thing he can bestow viz. a divine and Godlike Nature and consequently by so doing we render him the highest Honour and Glory For since we can no otherwise honour him but by receiving from him we doubtless do him the greatest honour when we receive Himself by partaking of the Perfections of his Nature which are the greatest Gift he can communicate to us Herein saith our Saviour is my Father Glorified that ye bear much fruit John 15.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the aforenamed Philosopher i. e. he only knows how to honour God who presenrs himself a Sacrifice to him carves his own Soul into a divine Image and composes his Mind into a Temple for the Entertainment of God and the Reception of the divine Light and Glory 'T is then therefore that we best honour God when by the Practice of true Godliness we conform our Wills and Affections to him and derive into our selves his Nature and Perfections and should you erect to him a Temple more magnificent than Solomons and load its Altars with Hecatombs of Sacrifices and make it perpetually ring with Psalms and resounding Choirs of Halelujahs it would not be comparably so great an Honour to him as to convert your own Souls into living Temples and make them the Habitations of his Glory and Perfections For he values no Sacrifice like that of an obedient Will delights in no Choir like that of pure and heavenly Affections nor hath he in all his Creation an Ensign of Honour so truly worthy of him as that of a divine and God-like Soul a Soul that reflects his Image and shines back his own Glory upon him Wherefore since 't is by the Practice of moral Goodness that we receive God and copie his Nature into our own it is no wonder he should make it the principal Part of our Duty For how can it be otherwise expected but that he should exact that chiefly of us which most conduces to his own glory Since then nothing we can do can conduce to his Glory but only our receiving Benefits from him and since no Benefit we receive from him can so much conduce to it as our receiving Himself and since we can no otherwise receive himself but by practising that Goodness which is the Perfection of his Nature we must hereby doubtless render him the greatest Honour and Glory II. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Duty because 't is by this that we do most truely imitate him For so you find in Scripture that wherever God is proposed to us for a Pattern of Action it is by some Act or other of Morality that we are required to transcribe and imitate him So 1 Pet. 1.16 be ye holy for I am holy and Luke 6.36 be ye merciful as your Father is merciful and Mat. 5.48 be you perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect And indeed 't is only in Moral Goodness that God can be the Pattern of our Imitation as for those Perfections of his which for Distinction-sake we call natural viz. his Omniscience and Omnipresence Omnipotence and Eternity they are all beyond the Sphere of our Imitation and therefore were never proposed to us as the Copies of our Action But as for his moral Perfections viz. his Goodness and Righteousness and Purity and Mercy they are the Fundamental Rules and Standards of all moral Action For the Nature of God as it is infinitely good and righteous is the eternal Fountain whence all the Laws of Morality are derived and all those moral Precepts by which he governs his rational Creation are only so many Exemplifications of the moral Perfections of his own Nature For the Holiness of God which comprehends all his moral Perfections consists in that essential Rectitude of Nature whereby he always chooses and acts conformably to the Dictates of his own infallible Reason and 't is to this Rectitude of choosing and acting that all his moral Laws do oblige us For moral Laws are only the Dictates of right Reason prescribing us what to do and what to avoid so that in our Complyance with them we follow the Rule of Gods own Will and Actions and thereby imitate the eternal Rectitude of his Nature For tho in those different States and Relations of God and Creature right Reason cannot be supposed to oblige him and us to all the same particular Choices and Actions yet it obliges us both to act reasonably in our respective States and Relations it obliges God to act reasonably and as it becomes the State and Relation of a God and Creator and it obliges us to act reasonably and as it becomes the State and Relation of men and Creatures And as for God He is invariably inclined to do all that right Reason obliges him to by the essential Rectitude of his own Nature and herein consists all his moral Perfection which is nothing else but the immutable Inclination of his Nature to do whatever is just and good and reasonable So that while we live according to the Dictates of Reason or which is the same thing the eternal Laws of Morality we trace and imitate the moral Perfections of God and in our Place and Station live at the same Rate and by the same Rule that He doth in his We do what God himself would do if he were in our Place and what the Son of God did do when he was in our Nature and there is no other Difference between his Life and ours but what necessarily arises out of our different States and Relations Since therefore Moral Goodness is an Imitation of God 't is no wonder that he so much prefers it before all other matter of Duty For he must needs be supposed to love that above all things which is the true Copie and Image of those Perfections of his Nature for the sake of which he loves Himself above all For he loves himself not merely because he is Himself but because he is in all respects morally Good and his Will and Power are perfectly compliant with the infallible Dictates of his own Reason and hence arises his infinite Complacency in himself that there is
all the Duties of it must be morally that is eternally good and reasonable because those Doctrines are the eternal Reasons upon which they are founded and by which they oblige So that whatsoever is a Duty of natural Religion must oblige for ever because it obliges by an eternal Reason and so can never be dispensed with or abrogated 'till the Natures of things are cancell'd and reversed and eternal Truths are converted into Lies IN short therefore natural Religion hath only natural Reason for its rule and measure which from the Nature of God and things deduces all those eternal Reasons by which it distinguishes our Actions into honest and dishonest decorous and filthy good and evil necessary and sinful For it doth not make them good or evil by judging them so but if it judgeth truly it judges of them as it finds them and unless it finds them good or evil in themselves upon some eternal Reason for or against them its judgment is false and erroneous So that the objective goodness or evil that is in the actions themselves is the measure of our Natural Reason but our natural Reason judging truly concerning them is the measure of our choice or refusal of them for be our action never so good or evil in it self unless we have some eternal reason for or against it we cannot judge it so and unless we judge it so we cannot reasonable choose or refuse it but as soon as ever we have judged and pronounced it good or evil upon an eternal reason we stand obliged by that Judgment to do or forbear it So that right Reason pronouncing such actions good and such evil is the Law of Nature and those eternal Reasons upon which it so pronounces them are the Creed of Nature both which together make natural Religion And by this Religion was the World Governed at least the greatest part of it for some thousands of Years till by long and sad Experience it was found too weak to correct the errors of mens Minds and restrain the wild extravagancies of their Wills and Affections and then God out of his great pity to lost and degenerate Mankind vouchsafed to us the glorious Light of revealed Religion which in the largest acceptation of it includes all natural Religion as well the credenda as agenda the Doctrines as the Duties of it both which are contained in that Revelation of his Will which God hath made to the World to which it hath superadded sundry Doctrines and Duties of supernatural Religion BUT strictly speaking revealed Religion as it is distinguished from natural consists of such Doctrines and Duties as are knowable and discoverable only by Revelation as are not to be deduced and inferred by reasoning and Discourse from any necessary or natural Principles but wholly depend upon the counsel and good Will of God And where things depend intirely upon Gods Will and their Being or not Being lies wholly in his free disposal it is impossible that our natural Reason should ever arrive at the knowledge of them without some Revelation of his Will concerning them For in such matters as these where the Will of God is absolutely free Reason without Revelation hath neither necessary nor probable Causes and Principles to argue from and therefore can make neither certain Conclusions nor so much as probable guesses concerning them but must necessarily remain altogether in the dark till such time as God hath revealed to it which way his Will is determined and of such matters as these consists all revealed Religion strictly so called For tho God hath made sundry Revelations of his Will yet the subject matter of them was for the Main always the same viz. the Doctrine of the Mediation of Jesus Christ and the Duties that are subsequent thereunto which from that Promise which God made to Adam upon his Fall the seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head to the last promulgation of the Gospel hath been the great Theme of all divine Revelation For what else was that Revelation which God made to Abraham in thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed but only the dawning of the Gospel which is nothing but glad tidings of the Mediator What was the Law of Moses but only the same Gospel shining through a Cloud of Types and symbolical Representations and what are all the succeeding Prophesies of the Old Testament but only the same Gospel still shining clearer and clearer till at last it broke forth in its Meridian brightness And were this a proper place I think I could easily demonstrate that from Adam to Moses from Moses to the Prophets from the Prophets to Jesus Christ the main Scope and Design of all Divine Revelation hath been the gradual Discovery of this great Mystery of the Mediation So that revealed Religion was for the matter of it always the same tho it was not always revealed with the same Perspicuity but clear'd up by degrees from an obscure Twilight to a perfect Day Wherefore Christianity which in strictness is nothing but the Doctrine of the Mediation together with its appendant Duties ought not to be lookt on as a new Religion of 1600. years Date for in reality 't is as ancient as the Fall and was then Preached to Adam in that dark and Mysterious Promise after which it was a little more clearly repeated tho very obscurely still in God's Covenant with Abraham and again after that it was much more amply revealed in the Types and Figures of the Law of Moses which yet like painted Glass in a Window did under their Pompous Shew still darken and obscure the holy Mysteries within them which were nothing but the Doctrines and Laws of the Christian Religion So that Judaism was only Christianity vail'd and Christianity is only Judaism revealed THUS The Religion of the Mediator you see was the principal Subject of all divine Revelation and this without Revelation natural Reason could never have discovered because the whole of it depended upon the free will of God For whether he would admit of any Mediator or no whether he would admit his own Son to be our Mediator or no whether he would deposit such inestimable Blessings for us or no in the hands of our Mediator was intirely left to his free Determination and there was no necessary cause either within or without him no nor any probable one neither that humane Reason could ever have discovered that could incline or determine him one way or t'other So that till such time as he revealed his Will to us we were left utterly in the dark as to this matter and had no manner of Principles to argue from or so much as to guess by This therefore is strictly the revealed Religion as it stands in opposition to the natural But since together with revealed Religion God hath put forth a second Edition of natural which was almost lost and grown out of Print through the wretched Negligence and Stupidity of Mankind and since
that framed it And indeed this notion of a future state is such as hath been generally imbraced by those Persons who are least capable of deducing it by a Logical dependence of one thing upon another and therefore since it hath no dependency in their minds on any other antecedent notion how could it have been so generally entertain'd did not the common dictate of Nature or Reason acting alike in all Men move 'em to conspire in it though they knew not one anothers minds For it hath been believed with a kind of repugnancy to sense which discovers all things round about it to be mortal and which upon that account would have been too apt to have seduced ruder minds into a disbelief of any other state had not some more powerful impression on their Souls forcibly urg'd 'em to believe it BUT because this Argument drawn from universal consent is liable to some little exception I shall not insist upon it but indeavour to prove the reality of this future state of Rewards and Punishments from these Topicks First From the Wisdom of God's Government Secondly From the Justice of his Providence Thirdly From the natural capacity of our Souls to survive our Bodies and to enjoy future Rewards and suffer future Punishments Fourthly From the natural expectance we have of future Rewards and dread of future Punishments Fifthly From the excellent frame and structure of humane Nature Sixthly From the Testimony of the Christian Religion I. FROM the Wisdom of God's Government That Mankind is under the Government of God is evident from that Law which he hath imprinted on our nature by which our actions are distinguish'd into Good and Evil Virtuous and Vitious of which sufficient proof hath been given Ch. 1. and since God hath given a Law to our natures there is no doubt to be made but he hath taken sufficient care to inforce the observance of it by Rewards and Punishments otherwise his Government over us would be very insecure and precarious For that Law giver doth only Petition his Subjects to obey who doth not promise such rewards and denounce such penalties as are sufficient to oblige 'em thereunto BUT now there is no Reward can be sufcient to oblige us to obey which doth not abundantly compensate any loss or evil we may sustain by our obedience no punishment sufficient to deter us from disobeying that doth not far surmount all the Benefits and Pleasures which we can hope to reap from our Disobedience but unless there be a future state the Law of Nature can propose no such Rewards and Punishments to us For if we have nothing to dread or hope for beyond the Grave our present interest is all our concern and in reason we ought to judg things to be Good or Evil according as they promote or obstruct our temporal happiness Now though it is certain that in the general there is a natural good accrewing to us from all vertuous actions as on the contrary a natural evil from all vitious ones and it is ordinarily more conducive to our temporal Interest to obey than to disobey the Law of our natures yet there are a world of instances wherein Vice may be more advantageous to us than Vertue abstracting from the Rewards and Punishments of another life It is ordinarily better for me to be an honest Man than a Knave it is more for my Reputation and usually for my Profit too and it is more for the publick good in which my own is involved but yet in several circumstances it may be better for me with respect only to this World to be a Knave than an honest Man For whensoever I can cheat so secretly and securely as not to fall under the publique lash nor impair my reputation and I can gain more by the Cheat than I shall lose in the damage of the Publique it will be doubtless more advantageous for me as to my worldly interest to cheat than to be honest and how often such fair opportunities of cozenage do occur no Man can be insensible that hath but the least insight into the affairs of this World So that if there were no future Rewards and Punishments this great Law of Righteousness would not have force enough universally to oblige us because there are a world of instances wherein we might gain more good and eschew more evil by doing unrighteously than all its present Rewards and Punishments do amount to And the same may be said of all other laws of Nature which without the great motives of future happiness and misery can no longer induce Men to obey 'em than it is for their temporal interest to do so For suppose I can secretly stab or poison a Man whom I hate or dread or from whose death I may reap any considerable advantage what should restrain me from it If you say the Law of Nature pray what Reward doth the Law of Nature propose that is sufficient to compensate for the disatisfaction of my Revenge or for the danger I run in suffering my Enemy to live or what punishment doth the Law of Nature denounce that can ballance the advantage of a thousand or perhaps ten thousand pounds a year that may accrew to me by his death IF you say the Law of Nature proposes to me the reward of a quiet and satisfied Mind and denounces the punishment of a guilty and amazed Conscience I easily answer that this peace and horror which is consequent to the forbearance or commission of sin arises from the hope and dread of future Rewards and Punishments which being taken away to sin or not sin will be indifferent as to any peace or horror that can follow upon it and when this restraint is taken off what consideration will there be left that is sufficient to withhold me from the bloody fact when ever I have an opportunity to act it securely and am furiously spurred on to it by my own Revenge and Covetousness So that if there be no Rewards and Punishments in another life to inforce the commands of the Law of Nature it 's certain that there are no such annex'd to it in this as are universally sufficient to oblige us to observe ' em For as for the Goods and Evils of this life they are ordinarily distributed among Men with so little respect and discrimination as not only to occasion but to justifie that famous observation of the Wise Man that all things happen alike to all Either therefore there are other Goods to be hoped for and other Evils to be feared or there are a world of cases wherein God hath not sufficiently provided to secure our obedience to the Law of our Nature and to imagine that God should give a Law to his Creatures and take no care to secure the Authority of it is a most sensless Blasphemy of the Wisdom of his Government for this would be to expose his own Authority to contempt and to cast his Laws at the feet of his Creatures to be spurned
its Will Affections and Actions with those everlasting Laws of righteousness which right reason prescribes how many are there that look upon this as a very mean and carnal accomplishment and place all their perfection in things of a quite different nature viz. in the Ebbs and Flows of their sensitive passion and the extraordinary Fermentations of their bloud and spirits that is to say in unaccountable dejections and exaltations of mind in vehement impressions of fancy and Mechanical movements of affection in Raptures and Ecstacies and Hypocondriacal incomes and manifestations that have nothing of substantial Vertue or Piety in them nor commonly any other effect but to cause men to renounce that Righteousness which they never had and rely upon that which they have no Title to and to sooth and tickle their fancies and blow them up into glorious opinions of themselves and Triumphant assurances of their being the Darlings and Favourites of God whilst poor Moral men that make conscience of regulating their affections and actions by the eternal Laws of Righteousness are look'd upon by them with a scornful compassion and placed in the lowermost form of sinners at the greatest distance from the Kingdom of God Now when men take such false measures of their own perfection how is it possible they should conceive aright of the perfections of God which they have no other way to conceive of but only by arguing from their own Wherefore in order to the forming our Ideas of Gods perfections it is necessary we should first fix the true Notion of our own which is no hard matter for us to do For our Nature being reasonable to be sure its perfection must consist in willing affecting and acting reasonably or which is the same thing in Governing it self in all its relations and circumstances by those immutable Laws of goodness which right reason prescribes and which are exemplified to us in the holy Scripture and when we have fixt in our minds this Notion of our own perfection it will naturally conduct our thoughts to God's and let us see that his perfection consists not in a lawless and boundless Will that decrees without foresight resolves without reason and Wills because it will and then executes its own blind and unaccountable purposes by dint of irresistible power without any regard to right or wrong For if we rightly understand our own perfection we cannot but discern that such a Will as this is one of the most monstrous deformities in nature because it is the most Diametrically opposite to the true Idea of our own Perfection which while we attentively fix our eyes on we cannot but infer from it that the true perfection of God consists in the unvariable determination of his Will by the all-comprehending reason of his Mind or in chusing and refusing decreeing and executing upon such reasons as best becomes a God to will and act on i. e. upon such as are infinitely wise and good and just and merciful For if to Will and Act upon such reasons as these be the perfection of our nature we cannot but conclude that it is the perfection of Gods too but if we are ignorant of our own perfection we must necessarily think of God at Rovers without any certain aim or rule to square and direct our apprehensions II. ANOTHER cause of our misapprehension of God is our framing our Notions of him according to the Model of our own particular humour and temper For self-love being the most vehement affection of Humane Nature and that upon which all it s other affections are founded there is no one Vice to which we are more universally obnoxious than that of excessive fondness and partiality to our selves which makes us too often dote upon the deformities and even Idolize the Vices of our own temper So that whether our nature be stern sour and imperious or fond easie and indulgent we are apt to admire it as a great perfection merely because it is Ours without measuring it by those eternal reasons which are the Rules of Good and Evil Perfection and Imperfection and then whatever we look upon as a perfection in our selves we naturally attribute to God who is the cause and fountain of all perfection And hence it comes to pass that mens minds have been always tinctured with such false and repugnant opinions of God because they frame their judgments of him not so much by their reason as by their temper and humour and so their different humours being not only unreasonable in themselves but repugnant and contrary to one another produce in them not only false and unreasonable but contrary and repugnant opinions of God Thus for instance the Epicureans who were a soft and voluptuous Sect intirely addicted to ease and pleasure fancied God to be such a one as themselves a Being that was wholly sequestred from action and confined to an Extra-mundane Paradise where he lived in perfect ease and was entertained with infinite Luxuries without ever concerning his thoughts with any thing abroad for this they thought was the top of all perfection and therefore thus they would have chosen to live had they been Gods themselves Thus the Stoicks who were a sort of very morose and inflexible people copied their Notions of God from their own complexion supposing him to be an inflexible Being that was utterly incapable of being moved and affected by the reasons of things but was wholly governed by a stern and inexorable Fate And accordingly the Scythians and Thracians the Gaules and Carthaginians who were a people of a bloudy and Barbarous nature Pictured their Gods from their own temper imagining them to be of a bloud-thirsty nature that delighted to feed their hungry Nostrils with the Nidorous reeks and steams of humane gore Whereas on the contrary the Platonists who were generally of a very soft and amorous nature took their measure of God thereby and so framed an Idea of him that was as soft and amorous as their own complexion composed altogether of loves and smiles and indearments without the least intermixture of vengeance and severity how just soever in it self or necessary to the well-government of the World Thus as the Ethiopians pictured their Gods black because they were black themselves so generally men have been always prone to represent God in the colour of their own complexions which is the cause that they many times represent him so utterly unlike to himself because out of an unreasonable partiality to themselves they first mistake the deformities of their own natures for perfections and then Deifie them them into Divine Attributes Thou thoughtest saith God that I was altogether such a one as thy self Psal. 50.21 that is thou didst frame thy conceptions of me according to the Pattern of thy own ill-nature and so thoughtest basely and unworthily of me And hence I doubt not spring most of those misapprehensions of God which have been received among Christians For how is it possible for any man that is not of
Principles of all Religious Obligations are deduced p. 202. Which are reduced to five Heads p. 102 103. CHAP. III. OF the necessity of believing the existence of God in order to our being truly Religious p. 104 105. Atheism resolved into the corruption of mens Wills and Imaginations Sect. 1. p. 106 107 108 109. The particular causes of it reduced to nine Heads and of the folly and unreasonableness of them p. 109 to p. 157. Of the great folly and madness of Atheism in its self p. 157 158. This shewn at large in six particulars p. 158 to p. 196. CHAP. IV. THat to the founding the Obligations of Religion it is necessary we should acknowledge the divine Providence p. 196 197 198 199. What are the particular Acts of Providence which we are to acknowledg shewn in five Particulars p. 200 to 244. The Divine Providence proved first à Priori by Arguments drawn from the nature of God which are reduced to four Heads p. 245 to 256. secondly à Posteriori by Arguments drawn from sensible effects of God in the World of which six instances are given p. 256 to p. 310. The most considerable Objections against a Divine Providence reduced to five Heads and particularly answered p. 310 to p. 354. CHAP. V. THe necessity of acknowledging divine Rewards and Punishments to oblige us to be truly Religious p. 355 356 357 358. How far it is necessary we should believe them shewn in four particulars p. 358 to 369. Of the Universal acknowledgment of future Rewards and Punishments p. 370 371 372 373. The reality of these future Rewards and Punishments proved by six Arguments p. 373 to 399. By what means our belief of future Rewards and Punishments is to be acquired and confirmed shewn in four particulars p. 399 to 410. Of the force and power of this belief to oblige us to be truly Religious p. 410 to 417. CHAP. VI. THe necessity of Right Notions of God to oblige us to be truly Religious p. 417 418. In what respects they are necessary to oblige us to be truly Religious shewn in four particulars p. 419 to p. 444. Of the way of forming right Notions of God in general p. 445 to 449. Si◠general Rules laid down for the framing right Notions of God p. 449 to 484. Of the common causes of mens misapprehensions of God in si◠particular instances p. 485 to 513. OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PART II. CHAP. I. Concerning the Being and Nature of Moral Goodness ALL Humane Actions are either Necessary or Sinfull or Indifferent The Necessary are such as are commanded the Sinful such as are forbidden by God the Indifferent such as are neither commanded nor forbidden but left entirely free to our Choice and Discretion Again the necessary and the sinful actions are either such as are necessary and sinfull in themselves and are commanded and forbidden upon the account of some Good and Evil that is inseparable to their Natures or such as are indifferent in their own Natures as to any good or evil inherent in them but are made necessary or sinful by some positive Command or Prohibition superinduced upon them Of the first sort are those which we call Moral Actions as being the subject matter of the Moral Law which commands and forbids nothing but what is essentially and immutably good and evil and whilst there was no other Law but this every Action which did not oblige by some eternal Reason or which is the same by some inseparable good or evil was left free and indifferent But in process of time God superadded to this Moral Law a great many Positive ones whereby he obliged men to do and forbear sundry of those indifferent things which were left to their liberty by the Law of Nature For such we call the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law all which were indifferent before they were imposed and as soon as ever the Imposition was taken off from them did immediately return to their Primitive Indifferency so that by the abolition of their Ceremonial Law the Jews were restored to all the Liberties of the Moral excepting only the matter of the two Sacraments and of maintaining a visible Communion with the Church which are determined by positive Laws of Christianity And of this later sort of necessary and sinful Actions are not only all those indifferent ones which God himself has commanded and forbidden immediately but also all those which he commands and forbids by his Vice-roys and Representatives in this World For whatsoever he hath not commanded or forbidden by his own immediate Dictate and Authority he hath Authorized his Vicegerents to command or forbid as they shall judge it most expedient for the Publick So that when they command what God hath not forbidden or forbid what he hath not commanded their will is God's who commands us by their Mouths and stamps their Injunctions with his own Authority And of this distinction between actions that are morally and positively Necessary the Scripture frequently takes notice and particularly Mich. vi 6.7 8. Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings with Calves of a year old c. No these are not the things that will render me acceptable in his eyes and procure me a welcome Admission into his Presence and yet it is certain that these things were then required and commanded and therefore were positively necessary but that they were not necessary in themselves upon the account of any intrinsick Goodness that was in them is evident from what follows He hath shewed thee O man what is good as much as if he should have said the things above named are in their own nature indifferent having neither good nor evil in themselves and are made necessary meerly by positive Command upon which account they are insufficient to recommend you to God but there are other things that carry an intrinsick Beauty and Goodness in their Nature by which they strictly oblige you to imbrace and practise them and do thereupon recommend you by their own native Charms to the Love and Favour of God and what these good things are he hath sufficiently shewn or discovered to you viz. To do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God which are the main and principal Duties that he requires of you Which plainly implies that there are some Actions which are morally that is in their own Natures eternally good and therefore eternally necessary and some that are necessary only because for some present Reason God Wills and Commands them For no account can be given why he should be more pleased with Justice and Mercy and Humility than with Sacrifice unless we suppose the former to be good and therefore necessary upon immutable Reasons and upon that account to be immutably pleasing to him and the latter to be necessary only upon mutable reasons which therefore were to lose their Necessity as soon as those reasons
inconsistent with one another yet it is the Moral that is the Supreme Good of a Man because it is the good of his most excellent Nature Having thus premised what I mean by Good in general and particularly by Moral Good I proceed to shew that in some Humane actions there is such an intrinsick moral Good as renders 'em for ever obliging to us And this I shall endeavour in these following Propositions First THAT the Happiness of Humane Nature is founded in its Perfection Secondly THAT the Perfection of Humane Nature consists in acting suitably to the most perfect Reason Thirdly THAT the most perfect Reason is that wherein all reasonable Beings do consent and agree Fourthly THAT there are certain Rules of Moral Good wherein all Reasonable Beings are agreed Fifthly THAT to act suitably to those Rules hath been always found by universal experience conducible to the Happiness of Humane Nature and the contrary mischievous thereunto I. THAT the Happiness of Humane Nature is founded in its Perfection For the Perfection of Beings consists in their being compleatly disposed and adapted for the End whereunto they are designed Now the End of all Beings that have Life and Sense is that sort of Happiness that is sutable to their Natures for 't is thither that they all of them naturally tend and therein that their Faculties do all concenter When therefore their Faculties or Powers of Action are compleatly disposed to enjoy the proper Happiness of their Natures then are they perfect in their Kind Thus for instance the End of Brutes which have only Bodily Sense is Sensitive and corporeal Happiness and thererefore then is the Brute Creature perfect in its kind when it hath not only all the Parts and Senses that are necessary to procure and enjoy its Happiness but hath them also perfectly sitted tempered and qualified to pursue and relish it And supposing that all the pleasure or happiness of a Beast consisted in the Taste and Smell of its Pasture it could never be compleatly happy so long as the Organs of its Smell or Taste were imperfect So that the perfection of every Sensible Nature consists in being perfely disposed to enjoy its Natural Happiness And accordingly herein consists the Perfection of Humane Nature in being perfectly fitted and disposed to enjoy and relish Humane Happiness For this being its proper End it is impossible it should ever be perfect in its Kind till 't is compleatly contempered and adapted thereunto So that our Happiness must necessarily be founded in our Perfection which is nothing else but the perfect Disposition of our Natures to relish and enjoy those Goods wherein the Happiness of our Nature consists and till our Nature is perfectly disposed to enjoy them all the good things of Heaven and Earth will be insufficient to render us perfectly happy II. THAT the Perfection of Humane Nature consists in acting sutably to the most Perfect Reason For Reason being the top and Crown of Humane Nature hath a natural Right to Command and Dispose of its Motions to be the Eye of its Will and the Guide of its Affections and the Law of all its Powers of Action And indeed for what other use serves the Reason of a Man but to prescribe Rules to his unreasonable Affections to light and direct them to their proper Objects and as they are moving towards them to moderate their Excesses and to quicken their Defects and to lead them on to true Happiness in an even Course through all the wild Mazes of popular Mistakes And unless it be thus imployed the man is Reasonable in vain and his light like a Candle inclosed in a Dark-Lanthorn burns out in wast and spends it self in an useless and unprofitable blaze And whilst to please our Appetites and Passions we run counter to the advice of our Reason we forsake the rule of our Natures and act like Beasts and not like Men in which course of Action if we persist we must necessarily degenerate from our selves and sink by degrees into the most sordid Brutality For when once our Appetites have gotten the Command of our Reason and not only dethroned but inslaved it the very Order of our Nature is transposed and we are become our own Reverse and Antipodes If therefore we would arrive at our own Perfection it must be by following our Reason and submitting all our Affections and Appetites to its Government For what else can be the Perfection of a Rational Nature but to be perfectly Rational and what is it to be perfectly Rational but to have our Minds throughly instructed with the Principles of Right Reason and our Will and Affections intirely regulated by them For herein consists the Supream Perfection not only of Men but of Angels yea and of God Himself the Crown and Glory of whose Nature it is that he always knows and chuses and acts what is fittest and best and most reasonable And when once our Understanding is so far inlightned as that it always dictates right Reason to us and our Will and Affections are so far subdued as that they always freely and chearfully comply with it we have arrived to the very top of our Nature and are Commenced perfect Men in Christ Jesus III. THAT the most perfect Reason is that wherein all Reasonable Beings do consent and agree For if there be any such matter as True and False Reasonable and Vnreasonable in the Nature of things and if there be any such thing as Vnderstanding among Beings whereby they are capable of distinguishing between the one and the other either that must be True and Reasonable which all Understandings do consent and agree in or all the Understandings that are in the World must be under a fatal Cheat and Delusion Which later being supposed inevitably destroys all Knowledge and Certainty and lays a foundation for the wildest Scepticism For supposing all Understandings to be deceived and imposed on it is impossible for us to be certain of any thing and for all we know a Part may be bigger than the Whole two and two may make twenty and both parts of a Contradiction may be true Nay we can never be certain whether we are not Dreaming when we think we are Awake and whether we are not Awake when we think we are Dreaming Either therefore we must renounce all Certainty whatsoever and fluctuate in eternal Scepticism or allow that to be True and Reasonable which all Understandings do unanimously vote so IV. THAT there are certain Rules of Moral Goodness concerning the immutable Reason whereof all Understandings are agreed For such are all those which prescribe the Dueness of Worship and Veneration to God of Obedience and Loyalty to our Parents and Superiours of Temperance and Fortitude to our selves and of Justice and Charity to one another to the Goodness and Reasonableness of which Rules all Understandings do as unanimously consent as to the truth of any Proposition in the Mathematicks Now of all the orders of Reasonable Beings
Direction to Vertue antecedent to all our Reasoning and Discourse Which Theages the Pythagorean stiles a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain natural Impetus or Enthusiasme by which without any previous Discourse or Deliberation we are forcibly carried on towards vertuous Actions For some Affections there are in our Nature which do in the general plainly signifie to us that there is such a thing as Moral Good and Evil in Humane Actions and others that do as plainly point out what those Actions are wherein this moral good and evil is subjected Of the first sort are the Affections of Love and Hatred Complacency and Horror Glory and Shame Repentance and Self-satisfaction which plainly declare that there are answerable Objects in the Nature of Things and Actions that there is a Good to be beloved and an Evil to be hated a Deformity to be abhorred and a Beauty to be delighted in an Excellency to be gloried in and a Filthiness to be ashamed of a Well-doing to be satisfied 〈…〉 an Ill doing to be repented of For 〈◊〉 theâ—e were no such real Distinctions in the Nature of Things and Actions all these Affections in us would be utterly vain and impertinent And as these Affections of our Nature do signifie in the general that there is a moral Good and Evil in our Actions so there are others which do particularly point out what Actions are morally Good and what Evil. Thus for Instance the Passions of Veneration and Disdain do plainly direct us to Honour God and our Superiors and to be constant in good Courses out of a generous Scorn of all Temptations to the contrary Thus Commiseration and Envy direct us to Charity and Justice to lament and assist those who are undeservedly unfortunate and to be displeased with the Advancement of base and undeserving People and consequently to be just and equal in our Distributions and to proportion them to mens Merit and Desert For by this Passion of Envy Nature teaches us that there is such a thing as just and unjust equal and unequal and that the former is to be embraced and the latter to be shunned And to name no more thus Sorrow and Joy doth by a silent Language disswade us from injuring and perswade us to benefit one another For so by the mournful Voice the dejected Eyes and Countenance the Sighs and Groans and Tears of the sorrowful and opprest all which are the powerful Rhetorick of Nature we are importuned not only to forbear heaping any further Injuries upon them but also to commiserate their Griefs and by our timely Aids to succour and relieve them As on the contrary the florid and chearful Looks the pleasant and grateful Air which we behold in those that rejoyce are so many Charms and Attractives by which Nature allures us to mutual Vrbanity and Sweetness of Behaviour and a continual Study to please and gratifie one another By these and many other Instances I might give it is evident that tho by our own ill Government we too often deprave our Affections and corrupt them into Vices yet their natural Drift and tendency lies towards Vertue Thus by their own natural Light which they carry before us they direct our steps to the Way we are to walk in and point out all those Tracts of eternal Goodness that lead to our Happiness For since these Affections are in us antecedently to all our Deliberations and Choices it is evident they were placed there by the Author of our Natures and therefore since 't is He who hath inclined them to all that they naturally incline to He doth in Effect direct and guide us by their Inclinations So that their natural Tendencies and Directions are the Voice of God in our Natures which murmurs and whispers to us that natural Law which our Reason indeed doth more plainly and articulately promulge And from this natural Tendency of our Affections to Good proceeds that pleasant and painful Sense of good and bad Actions which we experience in our selves before ever we can discourse For thus before we are capable of reasoning our selves into any Pleasure or Displeasure our Nature is rejoyced in a kind or just Action either in our selves or others and we are sensibly pleased when we have pleasured those that oblige us and as sensibly grieved when we are conscious of having grieved and offended them We love to see those fare well who we imagine have deserved well and when any unjust Violence is offered them our Nature shrinks at and abhors it We pity and compassionate the miserable when we know not why and are ready to offer at their Relief when we can give no Reason for it which shews that these things proceed not either from our Education or deliberate Choice but from the Nature of our Affections which have a Sympathy with Vertue and an Antipathy to Vice implanted in their very Constitution And hence it is that in the Beginnings of Sin our Nature is commonly so shy of an evil Action that it approaches it with such a modest Coyness and goes blushing to it like a bashful Virgin to an Adulterers Bed that it passes into it with such Regret and Reluctancy and looks back upon it with such Shame and Confusion which in our tender years when as yet we are not arrived to the Exercise of our Understandings cannot be supposed to proceed from Reason and Conscience and therefore must be from the natural Sense of our Affections which by these and such like Indications do signifie that they are violated and offended Now this natural Sense of Good and Evil which springs from the Frame and Nature of our Affections was doubtless intended by God to be the 〈◊〉 guide of Humane Nature that so when as yet 't is not capable of following Reason and Conscience it might be directed to what is Good and be preserved from wicked Habits and Prejudices by its own Sense and Feeling till such time as it 's capable of the Conduct of Reason that so when this leading Faculty undertakes the Charge of it it may find it 〈…〉 to its 〈◊〉 and be able to manage it with more Ease and Facility And thus by the natural Drift and Tendency of our Affections God hath plainly revealed to us what is good and what not IV. GOD hath also entailed upon our Actions natural Rewards and Punishments and thereby plainly declared which are good and which evil For it is easily demonstrable by an Induction of Particulars that every Vertue hath some natural Efficacy in it to advance both our publick Good and our private Interest That Temperance and Charity Righteousness and Fidelity Gratitude and Humility are not only convenient but absolutely necessary to our Joy and Comfort our Peace and Quietness our Safety and Contentment to the Health of our Body and the Satisfaction of our Mind and the Security and Happiness of our Society with one another Whereas on the contrary Vice naturally teems with mischievous Effects and is ever productive
of and it may be reasonably supposed that in those Summaries of our Duty wherein but a few Parts are enumerated they are such as are the Chief and principal it being contrary to all Rules of Language to express the Whole of any thing by the meanest and most inconsiderable Parts of it V. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of Duty that God requires of us is that wheresoever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described their Character is always made up of Instances of Morality Thus the Description of Job is that he was a man perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1 And in the 15th Psalm the Description which David gives of the man who should abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord is this that he walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart that he backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour c. he that doth these things saith he shall never be moved And the greatest Character that is given of Moses the Darling and Favorite of God is that he was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth Numb 12.3 Thus also the Character of Cornelius by which he was so indeared to God is that he was a just and devout man one that feared God with all his house who gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God always Acts 10.2 And in a word the general Character of those whom God accepts is in every Nation he who doth righteousness is accepted of God Acts 10.35 Thus moral Goodness is the great Stamp and Impress that renders men current in the Esteem of God whereas on the contrary the common Brand by which Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion are stigmatized is their being zealous for the Positives and cold and indifferent as to the Morals of Religion For so our Saviour Characters the Pharisees woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tyth of Mint Annis and Cummin which yet was a positive Duty and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faithfulness these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind Guides ye strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Math. 23.23.24 plainly implying the Morals of Religion to be as much greater than the Positives in weight and moment as a Camel is than a Gnat in bulk Since therefore Moral Goodness is always mentioned as the great Character of Gods Favourites and the Neglect of it out of a pretended zeal to the positive Duties of Religion is always recorded as a Mark of the most odious Hypocrites this is a sufficient Argument how high a Value God sets upon the Moralities of Religion VI. and Lastly ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal Part of Religion is that at the great Account between God and us his main Inquisition will be concerning such Actions as are morally good or evil For so Rom. 2.6 we are told that God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life But to them who are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness tribulation and wrath indignation and anguish And accordingly Enoch as he is quoted by St. Jude verses 14.15 declares this to be the Occasion of the Lords coming with thousands of his Saints viz. to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him all which are matters of Fact against the eternal Rules of Morality And our Saviour himself in that Popular Scheme and Description he gives of the Proceedings of the Day of Judgment plainly declares that one of the principal Matters he will then inquire into will be our Neglect or Observance of that great moral Duty of Charity towards the poor and needy Mat. 25.32 46. Which is a plain Evidence that our obeying or disobeying the eternal Laws of Morality is that by which we do most please or displease God since 't is upon this that he will most insist in his final Arbitration of our eternal Fate For since his last Judgment is only the final Execution of his Laws we may be sure that whatsoever it is that he will principally insist on in his Judgment that is the principal matter of his Laws And now having sufficiently proved the Truth of the Proposition I proceed to the Reasons of it upon what Accounts it is that God hath made moral Goodness the main and principal Part of our Religion The chief Reasons of which are these four First BECAUSE 't is by moral Goodness that we do most honor him Secondly BECAUSE 't is by this that we do most imitate him Thirdly BECAUSE 't is by this that we advance to our own Happiness Fourthly WHEN all our positive Duty is ceast this is to be the eternal Work and Business of our Nature I. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Religion because 't is by this that we do him the greatest Honour It is an excellent saying of Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the best honour we can do to a self sufficient being is to receive the good things he holds forth unto us and therefore 't is not by giving to God that you honour him but by rendring your selves worthy to receive of him for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. whosoever gives honour to God as to one that wants doth not consider that he thereby sets himself above God For by his own self-sufficiency he is infinitely removed above all Capacity of Want and so can never need any additional Contributions of Glory and Happiness from his Creatures For Glory being nothing else but the Resplendency of Perfection which always reflects its own Beams upon it self where ever there is infinite perfection as to be sure there is in the Nature of God there must an infinite Glory proceed from it and therefore being infinitely glorious in himself it is impossible that any thing we do should add any further Glory to him So that if we would truly honour and glorify him it must not be by giving to but by receiving from him Now the best thing we can receive from God is Himself and Himself we do receive in our strict compliance with the eternal Laws of Goodness Which Laws being transcribed from the Nature of God from his own eternal Righteousness and Goodness we do by obeying them derive Gods Nature into ours So that while we write after the Copie of his Laws we write out the Perfections of his Being and his Laws being the Seal upon which he hath ingraven his
and Power did originally range it self into this beautiful World and to shew at least the possibility of all the strange Appearances in Nature without supposing a God which is such a task as their feeble Understandings durst never attempt for the utmost they can pretend to is a few Terms of the Atheistical Philosophy which they have learned by rote and do cant and smatter with as much Skill and Understanding as Parrots do the Lessons that are taught them And tho the brisk young Gentlemen will sometimes boldly affirm and if you dare take them up will lay a Wager on it too that Reason is nothing but a Train of Imaginations that Choice is nothing but the last stroke of outward Object on the Fancy and that there is nothing in Nature but Matter and Motion yet should you be so rude as to ask them what they mean by these Phrases you would uncase their Ignorance and utterly undoe them So that such as these are only the Hawkers and Retailers of Atheism that noise and cry it about but have neither Wit not Industry enough to understand it but do take it up with the same implicit Faith as the Papists do their Religion Thus as the Ambition of being accounted wiser than others causes men to affect Singularity in their Opinions so the Affectation of Singularity in Opinion doth very often transport men into Atheism NOW tho I would by no means plead for Mens enslaving their Understandings to vulgar Opinions so as to put a stop to all Advancements of Knowledge and hinder the World from ever growing wiser yet doubtless for men to quarrel at Opinions for no other reason but because they are vulgarly received is not only a rude Affront to the Reason of Mankind but also an effectual way to involve our selves in an endless Labyrinth of mistakes For while I affect to be singular in my Opinion I deprive my self of the Assistance of other mens Understandings and in my travel for Knowledge chuse rather to go alone by my self through untrodden by-ways than to keep the Road and follow the Tract of those that have gone before me So that unless I am wiser than all the World which is very unlikely it is a thousand to one but I bewilder and loose my self for how wise and sagacious soever I may be it is certain that many Heads are wiser than one and therefore when all heads concur in the same judgment it is probable at least that that judgment is true he therefore who rejects an Opinion because all or most do embrace it affects to think counter to the strongest Evidence and to believe against the greatest Probability 'T is true in many things the generality of men have been mistaken which is a sufficient reason why we should not pin our Faith upon the Sleeve of Vulgar Opinions but impartially examine before we confidently embrace them but yet there is a Reverence due to the Judgment of Mankind and the Laws of Modesty require us not to be confident against it without very great reason but to affect to run counter to it especially in such a matter of moment as the Belief or Disbelief of a Deity is not only the highest Arrogance but the most extravagant Madness For it is at least probable that there is a God because all Mankind do believe one and if there be one it is of infinite Moment that we should believe it and act accordingly and therefore for men to turn Atheists out of mere Singularity is not only to believe there is no God because it is probable there is but to play and dally with ones own Fate and run the hazard of being eternally miserbale out of a wanton Affectation of contradicting the Judgment of Mankind V. ANOTHER great Cause of Atheism is custom of drolling on and ridiculing the most serious things a humour which hath strangely prevailed in this pleasant and jocular Age wherein the wild rovings of mens Fancies into odd Similitudes startling Metaphors humorous Expressions and sportive Representations of things are grown more acceptable in almost all Conversations than the most solid Reason and Discourse and 't is generally lookt upon as a far more genteel and fashionable Quality for a man to be witty than Wise. Now though I do not deny but that Wit in it self is a very useful and valuable Indowment and serves to many excellent purposes as namely to pollish and adorn the most serious Truths and represent them to mens Minds in the most comely and affecting Dresses to expose what is apparently base and ridiculous and lash it with the Satyrs it makes against it self to quicken and give life to a solid ArguMent and render it more piercing and convictive and in a word to indear our Society and give a relish and picquancy to our Conversation and to recreate our Minds after we have been tired out or cloyed with severer Occupations though Wit I say be a very useful Quality as to all these good purposes yet unless a wise Man hath the keeping it that knows when and where and how to apply it it is like Wild-fire that flies at rovers runs hissing about and blows up every thing that comes in its way without any respect or discrimination And indeed the more grave and serious any thing is the more prone it will be to expose and ridicule it For the life of Wit consists in the surprisingness of its Conceits and Expressions in making such smart or uncouth Representations of things as are most apt to raise a pleasing Wonder and Amazement in those that hear us Now there is nothing more surprising in its own nature than to see or hear a serious thing sportfully represented and drest up in an antick and ridiculous Disguise the very exposing it in a Garb and Figure so unexpected because so very unlike and unsutable to it self is apt of its own Nature to surprise and amuse the Spectators or Hearers which surprise if he be a vain person will tickle him into Laughter but if he be serious will affect him with Detestation and Horror to see a serious thing so contemptibly treated But the greatest part of Men being of vain and trifling Spirits that are whisled up and down in little levities of Fancy there is nothing commonly doth more gratefully surprise them and provoke their Laughter than ridiculous Representations of serious Arguments and hence it comes to pass that 't is grown a great Instance of wit among the generality of men to sport and play with serious things to burlesque the sense of them and apply them to ridicuculous purposes whereas in reality this mistaken sort of Wit is nothing but dull and impudent Buffoonery and a very little Wit joyned with a great deal of Sauciness will enable a Man to make sport with the most serious Arguments For 't is but cloathing them in rude and porterly Expressions or misconstruing them to a profane or ludicrous sense or debauching the Phrases by which they are
Angels roving about the World watching all Opportunities to lay Snares in our Way and to tempt us into their Revolt and Ruin and since their Design in tempting us now is only to get us into their Power that so they may torment us hereafter how much doth it concern us to guard and defend our selves against their evil Motions and Suggestions left by complying with them we give them opportunity to train us on from one degree of Wickedness to another till they have made us provoke the Almighty to cut us off and abandon us for ever to their Rage and Fury and since they are all of them under his Restraint and can proceed no farther in their mischievous Designs against us than he lets loose his Chain to them how should this encourage us manfully to struggle and contend against them since if we do we may depend upon it that God in whose Power they are will either command them off or at least not permit them to over-power us with Temptation And since by Gods Permission there are great Flocks of good Angels always hovering about us to guard us against those malignant ones and to prompt us to good as they prompt us to evil and with their holy Inspirations to countermine their impure Suggestions how much doth it import us to cherish and reverence every pious Thought and Motion since for all we know it may be the Whisper of some Angel of God who by these and such like holy Injections is now strugling with the Powers of Darkness to rescue our Souls out of their hands And since these blessed and benevolent Spirits do by Gods Appointment pitch their Tents about good Men while they live and convoy them safely to the Seat of the Blessed when they die how should this encourage bad Men to be good and good Men to persevere in Well-doing since they place and continue themselves under the blessed Patronage of Angels to be conducted safely by them through this perillous Sea to the calm Regions of eternal Light Thus the Belief of Gods Government of Angels so far as he hath thought good to reveal it to us very much conduces to a hole Life BUT that which more nearly concerns us and hath a more immediate Influence on our Practice is his Government of Men the Belief of which is indispensably necessary to render us truly religious Now concerning this Government of God over Men there are seven things necessary to be believed 1. That the great End of Gods Government is the Welfare of Mankind 2. That in order to this End God hath given us Laws for the Regulation and Government of our Actions 3. That to secure our Obedience to these Laws he hath derived his Authority upon all lawful Sovereignties to Govern us according to them 4. That he is ready to contribute to us all necessary Assistance to enable us to observe these Laws 5. That the Assistance he contributes to us is such as supposes us free Agents and concurs with and maintains our natural Freedom 6. That he takes particular Cognisance of the good and ill Use which we make of our natural Freedom 7. That he will certainly reward or punish us accordingly I. To oblige us to be truly religious it is necessary we should believe that the great End of Gods Governing us is our Welfare and Happiness That being infinitely raised above all Want and Indigence he doth not assume the Government of us to advance himself or to gratifie any boundless Ambition of his own which is a Vice that springs out of Poverty and Indigence and therefore can have neither Root nor Room in a Nature so infinitely happy as his but that all his Design in reigning over us is to do us good and to consummate our Happiness to restore and rectifie our disordered Nature and to advance and raise it to the utmost Perfection and Bliss and Glory it is capable of to protect and defend us against present Evils and support us under them and convert them into Instruments of good and to rescue us from that worst of Evils Sin and from all those endless Miseries it is pregnant with This we ought to believe is the great Scope of all his Acts of Government and even of the direct Punishments he inflicts which are always intended either to reclaim the Offenders themselves or to warn others by the sad Example of their suffering not to follow the ill Example of their Sin And that this is the great End of his Government he himself hath expresly declared So Psal. 145.9 we are assured that the Lord is good to all and that his tender Mercies are over all his Works and Verse 13.14 that in the Exercise of his everlasting Kingdom he upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all that are bowed down and tho in the Administration of his Government he hath decreed to cut off all such obstinate Rebels as will not be reduced by the Methods of his Love yet he hath declared that he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 and that he would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 And unless we believe him to be a benevolent Governor that aims at the Good of his Subjects we shall look upon his Government as a cruel Tyranny erected for no other End but to squeeze and oppress us to inthrall our Liberty and rob us of the Rights of our Nature and to chain us down to an endless and easless Toil and Wretchedness and whilst we thus look upon it it is impossible we should ever submit to it with that generous Freedom and Chearfulness that true Religion requires But if we firmly believe that the great Design of it is to promote our Welfare both here and hereafter we have all the reason in the World to covet to be Governed by God and to receive his Yoke as a mighty Grace and Favour II. To oblige us to be truly religious it is also necessary we should believe that God hath given us Laws for the Regulation and Government of our Actions For without Laws to direct Men what to do and what to avoid there can be no such thing as Government the proper business of which is to regulate Mens Actions and without a Rule there can be no Regulation so that divine Rules or Laws are necessarily included in the divine Rule or Government and as God cannot be supposed to give Laws without Governing so neither can he be supposed to Govern without giving Laws so that unless we believe that God governs us by Laws we are utterly destitute both of all Reason why and of all Direction wherein to obey him and have neither Motive to inforce nor Measure to regulate our Obedience And as it is necessary we should believe that he hath given us Laws so it is also necessary we should believe that those Laws are for our good that he neither imposed
a divine Art how much more of every Animal whose Parts for infinite Variety delicate Smalness exquisite Shape Position and Temper do as far excell the other as the Offices for which they are designed For tho the plastick Soul that forms the Animal hath not the least Ray of Art or Reason of its own yet in the Formation of it it proceeds with as much curious and incomparable Art as if it were endowed with the most perfect Reason For first it Spins out the thicker Parts of the seminal Matter into little Threds or Fibres part of which it hollows into Pipes and part into Spunges some whereof are more thin and some more solid all which with wondrous Art it cuts and prunes in divers places fitting their Ends to one another and in divers Manners knitting them together into a well-proportioned Structure of Bones and Members then of the thinner Parts of the seminal Matter it forms the Intrails viz. the Liver and Heart and Brains drawing out from each certain Fibres to be framed into Veins and Arteries and Nerves for which End it bores and hollows them through extends and stretches them out at length and divides them into innumerable Branches which it spreads through all the Intrails and thereby maintains a mutual Communication between them and derives the Nourishment and animal and vital Spirits through all the Body and having thus spun the several Parts out of the seminal Matter and curiously woven them together it concocts the remainder of the Matter which is still supplied with new Nourishment into the Substance of those several Parts and this in such precise and regular Proportions as to form every one of them tho infinitely various from one another into its own proper Figure and Measure and Proportion so that within seven days after the Conception the whole Body is entirely framed and distinguished into all its proper Parts and Members which though they are so vastly great in their Number so strangely different in their Size and Figure so infinitely various in their Motions and Tendencies do all contribute one way or other to the Beauty and Benefit of the Whole some to propagate the Kind others to preserve the Individual others to distinguish what is necessary convenient and pleasant from what is dangerous offensive or destructive to its Nature some to pursue what is good others to shun what is evil others to enjoy those goods and others to defend it against those evils that threaten or invade it so that of all these infinitely numerous and diverse Parts not one can be wanting or defective without some considerable Damage to the Whole How then is it conceivable that such an infinite number of different Animals which are all so perfect in their Kind so amazingly curious in their Composition as that we with all our Reason can discern nothing in them that is either superfluous or defective nothing in their Figure that is irregular nothing in their Position that is misplaced nothing in their Motion that is exorbitant should all of them be framed by their several Plastick Souls which are utterly blind and irrational without the Conduct and Direction of an all-wise and all-powerful Providence Should you behold a confused Heap of Earth and Stone and Iron and Timber without any visible Artificer near it fall a pollishing its own Parts fitting them to one another and disposing them into Order according to the Rules of Architecture and at length frame them all together into the Form of a most beautiful Palace would you not conclude that some skilfull Mind were invisibly present there and did work upon this senseless Heap and dispose its Parts into this comely Order And yet in the Composure of any one Animal there is infinitely more Art than in the most beautiful structure in the World How then can we imagine that the blind artless Matter of which it is composed could ever have framed it self into this admirable Form and Contexture had not some great Mind been invisibly present at the Composition of it or at least imprinted on its artless Mattter some powerful Signature of its own wise Art to direct and order and contrive it I might from hence have proceeded to the formation of Man the Masterpiece of all this lower Creation in whose Frame and structure there are such Miracles of Art as do outreach both the Imitation and Wonder of the most raised and comprehensive Minds For who can sufficiently admire the skilful Contexture of his Corporeal Parts which though almost infinite in Number and Variety do not only compose a Body of a most amiable Symmetry and Proportion but are also as exactly framed and tempered and adapted to perform the Offices of Life and Motion and Sense and Reason as Art or Wit can fancy or imagine them But then how much more admirable is the Soul which inhabits and animates this Body for of whatsoever Substance this thing we call our Soul is it is evidently framed for great and noble Operations to disclose the Mysteries of Nature and to dive into its deep Philosophy to penetrate into the Causes of things and with its nimble and sagacious Thoughts to survey this ample Theatre of Beings to recollect things past and to foretel things to come to invent the most useful Arts and comprehensive Sciences to dictate good Laws and project wise Policies for the Government of Humane Societies and in a word to understand the right Reasons of things and to regulate its Will and Affections by them And is it possible we should imagine a Being thus exquisitely framed to be the Product of a blind and artless Matter to be nothing but a lucky Jumble of senseless and irrational Atoms For suppose it were nothing but elaborated Matter yet certainly it requires infinite Art and Skill to contrive and fashion it into all those curious Springs and Wheels and Mechanick Knacks that are necessary to render it not only a living and feeling but also a wise and rational Matter For how is it conceivable that a little Drop of Water without the Assistance of any Mind or Providence should form it self not only into all the Parts and Lineaments of a Humane Body but also into a Humane Mind a Mind of vast Desires and infinite Capacities of Knowledg that can form Ideas within it self of every thing that is round about it and from them can frame innumerable Propositions and deduce them into Arts and Sciences and in a word that can move it self and the Body it lives in by its own internal Springs and form it self into so many various and contrary Affections by the mysterious Force and Energy of its own Reason and Discourse If you beheld a dead Pencil move without any visible Hand and dip it self into various Colours and draw but an exact Picture of a Man you would doubtless conclude either that some invisible Limbner had infused into it the Art of Limbning or did immediately manage and direct it But should you find this
whom they afford a vast variety of all conveniencies and necessaries answerable to their desires and needs so that of all those vast numbers of sensitive Beings there is no one kind or individual no not so much as a fly or worm or insect but what is plentifully supplied out of these common store-houses of Nature And as the elements are subjected to the use of animals so both are subject to the use of Man who is as much superiour to the brute animals as they are to the sensless elements To him therefore as it is most fit and congruous all things here below pay tribute the Earth ingenders within its bowels quarrie's of stone and mines of coal and mettals to serve his necessary uses and conveniences and spreads its surface with a vast variety of herbs and flowers and fruitful trees to supply him with food and with Physick and treat him with pleasure and delight to entertain his eye with beautiful colours his smell with fragrant odours and his palate with delicious savours the Waters serve to quench his thirst to dress his food to fructifie his fields and gardens to cleanse his body and habitation and to maintain and facilitate his entercourse and traffick with all parts of the World the Air fans him with refreshing gales supplies him with breath and with vital and animal spirits the Fire warms and cherisheth him concocts his meat and drink into fit and wholesom nourishment and serves him in his most necessary Arts and manual operations And as all the four elements do one way or other conspire to our use and benefit so do all the animals too that inhabit them though as yet there are sundry of them whose use we have not discovered but as for the generality of them they are innumerable ways adapted to our use some to furnish our Table with food and delicacies others to prevent or to remove our Diseases with their medicinal Vertues some to cloath and some to adorn our Bodies others to assist us in and others to ease us of our labours and others to entertain us with chearful sports and recreations Thus all things here below have as plain a reference to the use of Man who is the noblest part of them as if some wise and powerful Mind had contriv'd them on purpose to serve and benefit him as on the contrary Man hath so plain a reference to them considering his needs and his sensitive and rational faculties as if the same wise Mind had fram'd him on purpose to use and enjoy them AND is it possible that after all this we should be so stupid as not to discern those bright beams of wisdom which shine through so many perspicuous correspondencies For it 's certain that either they must be design'd by Wisdom or happen by Chance and is it possible that a blind Chance which can do nothing regularly and is the Parent only of monstrous and deform'd births should thus exquisitely fit and adapt things to one another in such a long and orderly series that Chance which never yet compos'd a tune or wrote a line of coherent sense should ever be the Author of this great frame of things in which there is more of harmony than in all the musical composures and more of sense and Philosophy than in all the studied Volumes in the World And if it cannot be the effect of Chance it must be the product of Wisdom and Providence IV. ANOTHER sensible evidence of a divine Providence is the continuation of things in the same comely order which have no government of themselves That things are put into a most useful wise and artificial order hath been sufficiently demonstrated under the foregoing particulars now I would fain know what was it reduced them to and still continues them in this order did the blind parts of the matter whereof these things are composed once upon a time as they were wandring through the field of infinite space becken to one another and by common consent assemble themselves into a General Council and there advise together how they should rank and marshal themselves into a World and when upon grave and mature advice they had agreed upon and describ'd and chalk'd out the laws of their motion did they break-up Council and set forth in their several lines to the execution of their Canons and Decrees till by their oblique parallel and counter-motions they at last interwove themselves into all those beautiful contextures we behold He who can imagine this to be either probable or possible must himself be as dull and stupid as those sensless parts of matter are of which he dreams Well then since these things could not be effected by any Council or contrivance in the matter it self was it by mere chance that these blind parts of matter floating in an immense space did after several justlings and rancounters jumble themselves into this beautiful frame of things alas this is a conceit if possible more ridiculous than the former for how is it possible to imagine that Chance should ever make a Man in the contexture of whose parts there are such wonders of Art as do as far exceed the most curious Engines and Machines that ever humane Art invented as the most glorious and magnificent Palace doth a Castle of Cards And if Chance cannot so much as draw the picture of a Man which is but a rude imitation of his outside how much less can it shape Temper and connect all those hidden and subtil springs of life and motion sense and imagination memory and passion within him Well then since it was neither from any wisdom in the matter of them nor from any casual motion of that matter that this orderly series of things did proceed was it from a blind necessity but pray what made this necessity how came the matter of these things that might have mov'd otherwise having an infinite space about it and no principle within iâ— to encline it one way more than another to determine it self to this series of motion if you say it was by Chance I have shew'd it is impossible and if you say it was from Eternity that is all one For as an excellent Author of our own hath observ'd Whether it were now or yesterday or from Eternity infers no difference as to our purpose not the circumstance of the time but the quality of the Cause being only here considerable the same cause being alike apt or unapt yesterday as to day always as sometimes from all Eternity as from any set-time to produce such effects So that 't is as possible for matter fortuitously moved without any Art or Council to compose a World now and to frame it into Animals and Men aâ— it was from Eternity that is 't is from all Eternity and now equally impossible and if it were by the Council of some intelligent Mind that it was fram'd into this world of Beings and orderly series of things then it is doubtless by the same Mind that its
than he is in himself for that is impossible but to display and shew forth his own essential glory to all that are capable of admiring and imitating him that thereby he might invite them to transcribe that goodness of his into their natures of which his glory is the shine and lustre and thereby to glorifie them selves and what can more effectually display the glory of a Being who is infinitely wise and powerful and good than to contrive and effect the happiness of his Creatures and especially of his rational Creatures who of all others have the most ample capacity of happiness Doubtless the highest glory of an infinite power that is conducted by an infinite wisdom and goodness is to contrive and execute the most effectual methods of doing the greatest good and what greater good can such a power effect than the eternal happiness of reasonable Creatures So that Gods glory and our happiness are so inseparably conjoyned that we cannot aim right at either but we must hit both and whether we say that his end is his own glory or our happiness it is the same thing for his glory is our happiness and our happiness is his glory and when he hath perfected our Nature and advanced it to the highest happiness it is capable of it will shine back upon him even as all other glorious effects do on their causes and reflect everlasting honour on that infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness from whence it was derived Thus right apprehensions of the nature of God will naturally lead us to the great end which he proposes in all his transactions with us and thereby direct us what end we are to propose in our transactions with him For that which is Gods end ought to be ours and therefore since his end is his own Glory or which is the same thing our everlasting Happiness it ought to be ours also But now while we misapprehend the nature of God we shall be apt to set up false and indirect ends of serving him as for instance whilst we look upon him as a selfish being that centers wholly in himself and separates his interest from the interest of his Creatures doing every thing meerly for his own sake we shall think our selves obliged in all our addresses to him to set aside our own interest and happiness and to aim singly and separately at his honour and glory and yet this is the great Fundamental of the whole Scheme of some mens Divinity viz. That God aims wholly at himself and regards the good of his Creatures no farther than it serves his own interest that he made this World out of mere ostentation to boast and magnifie his own power and greatness and gives Laws to his Creatures and exacts their obedience for no other reason but because 't is for his honour to be served and worshipped that he created Hell only to shew the power of his wrath and prepare an everlasting Triumph for his vengeance and erected Heaven for a Theater to shew himself on that so having filled it with a vast Corona of Angelical and Saintly spectators he might display the glory of his Majesty before them and thereby provoke them to extol and praise and commend him for ever And while we thus conceive of God how can we hope that he will ever be pleased with us unless we aim at the same end that he doth i. e. unless laying aside all regard to our selves and our own happiness both here and hereafter we intirely direct all our worship and service to his glory and interest which being impossible for us to do whilst we have so much self-love and so much indigence together will either render our Religion wholly unpracticable or perplex us with eternal doubts of its truth and sincerity And supposing we could direct all our Religion to this end this instead of rendering it more acceptable to God would only render it more unworthy of him for then we should serve him under the notion of his Benefactors rather than of his Pensioners with a design to enrich him rather than to be enriched by him And what an unbeseeming presumption is it for such indigent Creatures as we to entertain the least thought of contributing to God or making any addition to his infinite store He is above all want being infinitely satisfied from the inexhaustible fountain of his own perfections and for us to imagine that he needs our Services and requires them to serve his own interest is to blaspheme his Alsufficiency and suppose him a poor and indigent being that for want of a perfect satisfaction within himself is forced to rome abroad and raise taxes upon his Creatures to enrich and supply himself For if we serve him for any end at all it must be either to do him good or our selves if it be to do him good we reproach and dishonour him by supposing that he hath need of us and our services which can do him no good unless he hath some need of them So that whatsoever some high-slown Enthusiasts may pretend that it is sordid and mercenary to serve God for our own good I am sure to serve him for his good is prophane and blasphemous and therefore either we must serve him for no good or serve him for our own and since he is so infinitely sufficient to himself that nothing we can do can benefit and advantage him to what better purpose can we worship and serve him than to receive benefit and advantage from him which instead of being base and mercenary is a purpose most becoming both God and our selves For to serve him with an intent not to give to but to receive from him is to acknowledg his fulness and our own want his Alsufficiency and our own Poverty whereas by serving him to the contrary purpose we do in effect set up our selves above him it being much greater to give than it is to receive and to make that the end of our worshipping God which doth in effect suppose him to be our inferiour is to make our selves Gods instead of Votaries What the true end therefore is of our serving God may be easily inferred from a right apprehension of his nature For do but consider him as a Being that is above all want that is infinitely satisfied in his own perfections and an unbounded Ocean of happiness to himself and then what other end can you propose in serving him but to derive perfection and happiness from him in the accomplishment of which he and you will be Glorified together IV. And lastly A right apprehension of God is also necessary to furnish us with proper motives and incouragements to serve him It is the nature of all reasonable Beings to be drawn forth into action by Motives and Arguments and the most powerful Arguments to move us Godward are drawn from the nature of God from his Majesty and Holiness his Truth and Justice his Mercy and Goodness none of which can have their just and full