casteth it self upon the tryal of our Reason exacting of us no further Assent than what the evidence claimeth upon which it is founded and is so far from exacting of us a blind-fold Assent to it without Examination that it readily exposeth it self to the severest Enquiry and asketh no other favour but to stand or fall by the impartial Sentence of our Reason It telleth us both what we are to believe and why and not only alloweth but requireth us to examine the grounds and reasons of it in all which there is not the least Shadow of imposing on Men's minds or usurping on their Rights of judging for themselves But alas 'T is not only the Church of Rome that is guilty of this unnatural Tyranny for how many are there of all Parties among our selves that cannot endure the least Contradiction but expect all Judgments should bow to theirs and receive their imperious Dictates for Oracles and are ready to censure all that dissent from them as Men of Reprobate Minds and to hate and persecute them because they cannot believe as fast as they As if no Man had a Right to carry his Eyes in his own Head but They and their Understandings were to be a Rule and Standard to the whole World If another Man differeth from me do not I differ as much from him And hath not He as much Right to judge for himself as I But He is mistaken you will say and I am not and possibly He is as confident that I am mistaken and not he and if I think I cannot be mistaken I am more mistaken than He but certainly it is neither Presumption for him to know more than I nor Sin to know less What then is to be done but to leave one another in the quiet Possession of each others Right and not to hector and swagger upon every difference in Opinion because he that differeth from me hath as much Right to judge for himself as I though he refuseth to prostrate his Understanding to mine which for any Man to expect is a most unjust Invasion of the common Rights of Humane Nature III. EVERY Man hath a Right not to be forced or impelled to act contrary to the Judgment of right Reason For right Reason is the natural Guide of all reasonable Creatures 't is the Light of their feet and the Lanthorn of their paths and the Star by which they ought to direct their courses And what can be more unjust than to force any Man to act against that which is the Law of his Nature For if He who gave me my Nature gave me right Reason for the Law and Guide of it I must necessarily have an undoubted Right to a full and free permission to follow it otherwise he hath given me a Law in vain And if I have Right to a full permission to follow the Law of right Reason then for any man to impel me to act counter to it either by hope or fear or any other motive is a high Injustice to my Nature For he who induceth me to do any wicked or unreasonable Action which I should not have done had not he induced me to it doth in so doing so far as in him lyeth not permit me to follow the eternal Laws of right Reason As for instance the Law of right Reason requireth me when I pretend to give Evidence to any matter of Fact to testifie nothing but the Truth to the best of my Knowledge he therefore who endeavoureth either by promises or threats to suborn me to testifie falsely doth thereby hinder me so far as in him lyeth from hearkning to the call of right Reason Again right Reason requireth me to make good my Promises whether they be to my Superiors Inferiours or Equals and much more when I confirm them with an Oath he therefore who by any means endeavoureth to persuade me to falsifie my Word or Oath doth in so doing so far as in him lyeth not permit me to follow what right Reason prescribeth Once more right Reason commandeth me to bridle my Appetite with Temperance and Sobriety he therefore that by force or persuasion endeavoureth to make me drunk doth to the utmost of his power with-hold and restrain me from following that which is the Law of my Nature In a word he who by command or threat promise or persuasion putteth me upon any sinful Action is not only guilty in the fight of God of the Sin which I commit by his inducement but also of doing a high Injustice to my Nature of putting it out of its true biass and not permitting it to move and act according to the Laws of Reason which is a piece of the most outragious Violence that can be offered to a rational Creature Besides that by inducing another Man to sin I do as far as in me lyeth betray him to eternal Punishment which is as barbarous an Injustice to his Soul as the Devil himself can be guilty of For should I not call that Man a treacherous Villain who while he pretendeth to embrace his Friend should secretly stab him to the heart And is it not a much more bloody Villany under a specious pretence of kindness and good fellowship to stab my Brother to the Soul and wound him to eternal Death But whilst like a heedless Wrastler I thus eagerly endeavour to give my Brother a fall it is a thousand to one but I fall with him and bear him company to eternal Torment IV. Fourthly and Lastly EVERY Man hath a Right as he is a reasonable Creature to be respected by every Man according to the dignity of his Nature For as in particular Kingdoms the King is the fountain of honour and every Man under him ought to be respected according to that Rank and Degree of dignity which the royal Stamp hath imprinted on him so in the universal Kingdom of the World God is the fountain of honour and every Being under him ought to be treated and respected according to the dignity of its Rank and suitably to that Character of Perfection which God hath imprinted on its Nature Since therefore Man is so highly advanced by God in the Scale of Beings as being not only a sensitive but a rational and immortal Creature he hath a Right to be treated as such by all that are of his Class and Order And for a Man to treat a Man otherwise is wrongfully to depose and degrade him from that noble Rank of Being wherein the God of Nature hath placed him For whatsoever his outward Condition may be I ought to consider him as a Man as One that is placed in the same rank of Being with my self though he be my Slave or Vassal I ought to respect him as an Individual of my own Kind and not use him rudely harshly or contemptuously like a Dog though he be poor and mean in his outward Circumstances yet I ought to regard him as a Branch that is sprung out of my own Stock and not to
which God hath allowed him and so under a Vizard of Right and Possession we are no better than Robbers in the Account of God when by refusing to relieve our Brothers necessities we spoil him of his Goods his Goods I say by the very same Title that any thing is ours even by the free Donation of God 'T is the hungry Man's Bread which we hoard up in our Barns his Meat that we glut and his Drink that we guzzle 't is the naked Man's Apparel that we shut up in our Presses and do so exorbitantly ruffle and flaunt in and what we deny out of our Abundance to an Object of real Pity and Charity is in the account of God an unjust Usurpation of his Right For by the Institution of God I owe every man this Right not to see him pine and perish for want whilst I surfeit and swim in Plenty And thus you see what Rights appertain to a Man in his first Capacity viz. as inhabiting a Mortal Body CHAP. II. Of Justice in preserving the Rights of Men consider'd as Rational Creatures II. I Proceed in the second place to observe That there are other Rights accruing to Men as they are Rational Creatures for it is this indeed that giveth a Right to common Justice to be governed by Laws and by Rewards and Punishments that we are free and Rational Agents who can chuse or refuse and determine our selves which way soever we think fit or reasonable For without Reason and Free Will we could no more be capable of Laws nor subject to Rewards and Punishments than Stones or Trees are For no Law can oblige a Being that hath no Power over his own Actions nor can he deserve to be rewarded when he doth well nor punished when he doth evil if it be not in his Power to do otherwise and therefore Beasts cannot be said to do either justly or unjustly towards one another because whatsoever good or evil they do one another they do it necessarily and it was not in their power to do otherwise But because Men are free Agents and have power to determine themselves either to do good or evil to one another therefore of right they claim of each other the mutual Performance of such Goods and Forbearance of such Evils as agree or disagree with the State and Condition of their Natures And hence every Rational Creature hath a Right to be used and treated by those of his own Kind agreeably to the state of his Rational Nature and for one Man to treat another otherwise is not only hurtful but also injurious Now the Rights which one Rational Creature may by the condition of his Nature claim of another may be reduced to these four particulars First Every Man has a Right to an equitable Treatment from every man Secondly Every Man hath a Right to judge for himself so far as he is capable Thirdly Every Man hath a Right not to be forced or impelled to act contrary to the Judgment of right Reason Fourthly Every Man hath a Right to be respected by every man according to the dignity of his Nature I. EVERY Man hath a Right to an equitable Treatment from every man that is to be treated according to the measures of that Golden Rule of Equity prescribed by our Saviour Matth. vii 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets i. e. in all your Intercourses with men suppose you had exchanged conditions with them and that you were in theirs and they in yours and be sure you do them all that good which upon a due consideration of the case you could reasonably expect or desire of them if you were in their persons and circumstances And this Right of being treated by others as they would expect to be treated by us supposing they were in our Circumstances ariseth from that equality of Nature that is between us which giveth every one a right to be equally treated by every one and to claim all those good Offices from others which they might reasonably claim of him if they were in his state and circumstances For we being all propagated from the same Loins and partakers of the same Nature every Man in the world is by cognation of blood and agreement of nature every man's Brother and Kinsman We are all but so many several Streams issuing from one common Source but so many several Twigs sprouting from the same Stock we are all of us but one Blood derived through several Channels but one Substance multiplyed and dilated into several Times and Places by the miraculous Efficacy of the divine Benediction We are all fashioned according to the same Original Idea resembling God our common Father we are all endowed with the same Faculties Inclinations and Affections and do all conspire in the same essential Ingredients of our Nature and there is nothing doth distinguish or diversifie us but what is accidental to our Being such as Age and Place Figure and Stature Colour and Garb so that every man is not only our most lively Image but in a manner our very Substance or another Our Self under a small Variation of present Circumstances which Circumstances are to be considered in every application of the above-named Rule of Equality to our Actions If I am superior to another either in my place or Relation or in the Goods of my Mind or Fortune I am only obliged by this Rule to do that by him which I might reasonably desire he should do by me were he as much my Superior as I am his But when all Men naturally as such are equal and do stand upon even terms and level ground there ought to be no other Inequality in their mutual Treatment of one another but what is owing to the Inequality of their Circumstances and he who doth that to another man which upon good Reason he would not have another do to him in the same Circumstances doth unjustly usurp a Superiority over him which neither Nature nor Providence alloweth of For there is no Proposition in the Mathematicks more self-evident than this Paria paribus conveniunt equal Things agree to equal Persons and therefore since we are all equal by Nature whatsoever things are due to me must by the same reason be due to another in the same Circumstances and therefore he that denieth to another Man that which he conceiveth he might justly claim of him in the same condition unjustly with-holds from him a Right that is due to him as he is his Equal in Nature II. EVERY Man hath a Right to judge for himself so far as he is capable for we must either suppose that every Being hath a Right to use its own Faculties or else that it hath its Faculties in vain for to what purpose serve its Faculties if it hath no Right to make use of them And to what purpose serveth our Faculty of Reason but only to judge for
beyond the Guilt and Demerit of our Fault and whatsoever else is just from a God to a Creature he is unchangeably determined to choose and act by the Law of Righteousness in his own Nature Since therefore the Nature of God is the great Exemplar and Pattern of all Reasonable Natures as being it self the most perfectly reasonable whatsoever is imitable in it we are eternally obliged to copy and transcribe into our own and consequently since he is eternally just that is an eternal Reason why we should be so By dealing justly with one another we act like God whose Nature is the Standard of ours and 't is certainly fit that all Reasonable Beings should deal by one another as God who is the most reasonable dealeth by them that they should choose and act in conformity to him who is the Pattern of Goodness and the Rule of Perfection And herein consisteth our Conformity to him that we live by the Law of his Nature and therefore so long as that Law determineth him to deal justly by us it ought to determine us to deal justly by one another So that the Obligations of Iustice are as eternal as the Nature of God for so long as he is righteous we are bound to be righteous in conformity to him and therefore since he cannot cease to be righteous without ceasing to be happy and good or which is all one to be God We can never cease being obliged to be righteous so long as God is III. ANOTHER eternal Reason by which we are obliged to do justly is the Agreement and Correspondency of it with the Divine Providence and Disposals For God being the supreme Lord and Proprietor of Beings all those Rights and Properties which we claim of one another must be originally derived from him even as the claims of the under-Tenants are from the Head-Landlord All those Natural Rights we are invested with we derive from him who is the Author of our Nature who by creating us what we are and uniting us by Natural Ligaments to one another hath endowed us with all those Rights which we claim as Rational Creatures dwelling in Mortal Bodies and joyned together by Natural Relations and Society So that to deal justly by one another or with respect to our Natural Rights is only to allow one another what God hath entailed upon our Natures and mutually to render those Dues to each other which he hath intitled us to by the very Frame and Condition of our Beings and for us to with-hold from one another those Rights which God hath consigned to us by the State and Formation of our Natures is to quarrel with his Workmanship and declare our selves disatisfied with the State of his Creation For whatsoever I have a Right to as I am a Man I have a Right to by the state and condition of my Nature and therefore he who alloweth me not that alloweth me not to be what God hath made me permitteth me not to enjoy that State and Condition of Nature wherein God hath created and placed me For whatsoever I have Right to as I am a Man I have a Right to from God who made me a Man and therefore he who denyeth me the Right of my Nature thrusteth me down from the Form wherein God hath placed me and useth me as if I were not what God hath made me whereby he doth in effect fly in the Face of my Creatour and quarrel with God for making me what I am In a word it is eternally reasonable that I who am the Creature of God should pay so much Reverence to his all-creating Wisdom and Power as to treat every Creature suitably to the State and Condition of its Creation and consequently to treat Men as Men that is as Beings endowed by God with the common Rights of Humane Nature which if I do not I alienate from my own Kind what God hath endowed it with and so in effect do disallow of his Endowments and impiously call in question the Rights of his Creation For either I must own that God ought not to have constituted Humane Nature with such Rights which would be to impeach his Creation or that I ought to render it those Rights which result from its Frame and Constitution and therefore when by my Actions I disown that I ought to render them I do in effect quarrel with God's Creation for entailing such Rights upon Humane Nature and declare that I am resolved not to be concluded by it but that I will for ever defie the Laws of the Creation and will not abide by that Rule and Order which it hath established in the Nature of Things If therefore it be reasonable eternally reasonable for Creatures to act agreeably to the Order of their Creation this is an eternal Reason why we should render to one another those Rights which God hath bequeathed to us by the Constitution of our Natures AND as our natural Rights are derived to us from God by his Creation so are our acquired also derived from him by his Providence who having reserved to himself the Sovereign Disposal of all our Affairs is our Founder and Benefactor upon whom we all depend for every Right and Property we acquire by our Conversation and Intercourse with one another and that this is mine and that yours is owing to the Providence of God which carves out to every one his Portion of Right and divides as he sees fit his World among his Creatures So that Justice as it refers to acquired Rights consists in allowing every Man to enjoy what God hath given him by his all-disposing Providence and if God hath an eternal Right to share his own Goods among his own Creatures as he pleases then that is an eternal Reason why we should allow one another to enjoy those Portions which he hath shared and divided to us For by depriving another Man of what God's Providence hath given him I do not only rob him of his Right to enjoy it but I also rob God of his Right to dispose it Fore while I with-hold or take away what God hath given to another I take his Goods against his leave and impiously invade his Province of bestowing his own where he pleaseth and whilst I thus carve for my self out of those Allowances which he hath carved to others I live in open Rebellion against his Providence and am an Out-law to his Government For this in effect is the Sense and Meaning of my wrongful Incroachments upon other Mens Rights that I will not be concluded by that Division and Allotment of Things which God hath made but that I will divide and carve for my self and live at my own Allowance that I will not suffer him to share his own World nor endure him to reign Lord and Master in his own Family of Beings but e'en live as I list and take what I can catch without asking God's leave who is the supreme Proprietor and Disposer So that to deal unjustly by Men
Being stands inclined to beget and propagate its own Likeness and consequently every Being that is happy cannot but be inclined to make others so so far as it consists with its own Interest Since therefore God is not only happy in himself but so securely happy as that he can contribute what he pleases to the Happiness of others without any Prejudice to his own his own Self-Love must nesarily incline him to beget his own Likeness on his Creatures and so propagate his Happiness through the World And being thus inclined by his own Self-Love to transform all other Beings into his Likeness that is to make them happy as he is happy he must needs be tenderly affected with the Miseries of his Creatures and immutably inclined so far as it is just and wise to succour and relieve and render them happy Thus Mercy you see which is a Good Will to the Miserable doth most necessarily result from God's own Self-Love and consequently is an inseparable Principle of his Nature And accordingly God proclaims himself to Moses Exod. xxxiv 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering abuddant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions And hence his Mercy is said to be everlasting Psal. c. 5. and to be from everlasting Psal ciii 17. and to endure for ever Psal. cvi 1. and he is said to be rich in mercy Ephes. ii 4. and is stiled the God of all grace 1 Pet. v. 10. and the Father of mercies 2 Cor. i. 3. Now the Nature of God is the supream Example and Pattern of all Rational Natures and so far forth as ours do swerve and deflect from his they are maimed and imperfect For his Will is our Law not meerly because 't is his Will but because it is over-ruled by the infinite Perfections of his Nature by his Wisdom and Justice his Mercy and Goodness which if upon an impossible Supposition he should will contrary to that Will would be no Law i. e. it would have no force upon our Consciences to oblige us to obey it So that the supream Law is the Nature of God by which his Will is and all other Wills ought to be concluded and determined and whatsoever we discover in his Nature either by Reason or Revelation that is communicable to ours we ought to follow and imitate it as our Soveraign Pattern and Exemplar Since therefore both Reason and Revelation do so plainly discover a most merciful Inclination in the Nature of God this is an everlasting Reason why we should be merciful And this is the Reason our Saviour urges Luk. vi 36. be ye merciful as your Father also is merciful that is Let it be seen that you are the Children of God by your participation of his Nature which is infinitely benevolent to the Miserable for there is nothing sinks you farther from God or renders you more unlike him than a cruel and unmerciful Temper 'T is this that blackens and deforms your Souls that wreaths and distorts them into a contrary Figure to the most amiable Nature of the Father of Spirits For as the highest Perfection is the Nature of God and that is a most merciful one so the lowest Imperfection is the Nature of Devils and that is a most cruel one And therefore as by Mercy we incline towards the Nature of God which is the Land-mark we ought to follow so by Cruelty we decline towards the Nature of Devils which is the Sea-mark we ought to avoid II. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Convenience of it with the Frame and Constitution of Humane Nature in which the wise Author of Nature hath implanted a natural Sympathy between those that partake of it in each others Pains and Pleasures So that though the Humane Nature be largely diffused and spread through infinite Numbers of Individuals which by vast distances of Time and Place are separated from one another yet as if it were but all one common Soul operating in several Bodies in several Times and Places it feels almost in every one Body what it enjoys or suffers in every other and whether it be pleased or offended in one Individual is pleased or offended in them all And though the Sense be quickest in that Individual Part or Member of Humane Nature upon which the Pain or Pleasure strikes immediately yet all the rest how distant soever in Time or Place as soon as they have notice of it are sensibly touched and affected with it For thus when we read or hear of the Calamities of other Men our Bowels yern by a natural Sympathy though they are never so distant from us and are no otherwise related to us than as they partake of our Natures and though they are long since dead and out of the reach of any Assistance yet their Miseries without any Motives of Reason or Discourse strike us into a soft Compassion yea though we know the Calamities which we read or hear of to be nothing but Romantick Fictions yet the very Imagination of them is ready to melt us into Tears in despight of our Will and our Reason Nor is this visible only in Persons that are adult but even in little Children who as soon as they are capable of taking notice of things do without any Reason express themselves pained and afflicted with the dissembled Griefs and Sufferings of those that attend them All which are most evident Instances of that general Sympathy which naturally intercedes between all Men since we can neither see nor hear of nor imagine anothers Miseries without being touched with a sensible Pain and Affliction AGAINST which I know no other Objection can be urged but this that there are sundry Instances of Men who seem to have arrived to that degree of Cruelty as to take Pleasure in afflicting others and are so far from Sympathizing with their Pains that they rather seem to be recreated with them To which I shall only answer these two things First That that Delight which some Men take in plaguing and afflicting others proceeds not from their natural Temper but is rather to be attributed to some violent Effervency and Transport of their Natures such as are outragious Anger or deep and inveterate Revenge under both which Nature is discomposed and disordered and chafed into a preternatural Ferment And accordingly when it is cooled again and reduced to a composed Temper instead of rejoycing in the Mischiefs it hath done it usually bewails and laments them and reflects upon them with a great deal of Horror and Remorse Which is a plain Argument that Humane Nature in it self is very tender and compassionate how much soever it may be accidentally transported by unnatural Passion superinduced upon it Secondly Suppose what is objected be true that there are some Natures so cankered and Diaboliz'd as to be really pleased with the Pains and Miseries of others the Instances of this kind are so few
our Minds and render them unfit especially for the most perfect Exercise of our Reason Thus Drunkenness dilutes the Brain which is the Mint of the Understanding and drowns those Images which are stamp'd upon it in a Deluge of unwholsome Moistures Thus Gluttony cloggs the Animal Spirits which are as it were the Wings of the Mind and renders them incapable of performing the noblest and sublimest Flights of Reason Thus Anger and Wantonness force up the boiling Blood into the Brain and by that disorders the Motions of the Spirits there confounds the Fantasms and disturbs the Conceptions and shuffles the Ideas of the Imagination into an heap of inarticulate and disorderly Fancies And how is it possible our Minds should strike true Harmony when its Instrument is thus disorder'd and all the Strings of it are so out of Tune How should we understand well while our Brains are overcast with the thick Fumes of sensual Lusts and those Spirits which should wing our minds are grown so listless and unactive that they rather hamper and entangle them For what Clearness is to the Eye that Purity is to the Mind As Clearness doth dispose the Eye to a quick and distinct Perception of Material Objects so Purity from Lust and Passion disposes the Mind to a more clear Apprehension of Intellectual ones and the more any Man's Soul is cleansed from the Filth and Dregs of Sensuality the brighter it will be in its Conceptions and the more nimble and expedite in its Operations For Purity doth naturally fit the Body to the Mind it puts its Organs all in Tune and renders its spirits fine and agil and fit for the noblest Exercises of Reason which they can never be whilst they are subject to disorderly Passions and drenched in the unwholsome Reeks of Sensuality and Voluptuousness But besides this Mischief which Sin doth to our Understandings by rendering our Bodies unapt to all Intellectual Purposes it also dyes the mind with false Colours and fills it with Prejudice and undue Apprehensions of Things For while our Souls are under the sway of any disorderly Passion or Appetite they will naturally warp our Iudgments into a Compliance with their own Interest and bribe us to judge of things not according to what they are but according to what we would have them And when our Iudgments are thus bribed by our Interest and swayed by our Passions it is impossible we should judge truly of Things For our Passions will discolour the Objects of our Understandings and disguise them into such Shapes as are most agreeable to our Humor and Interest and so our Opinions of Things will alter upon every Variation of our Humours and our Thoughts like Weather-cocks will be wheeling about upon every Change of Wind. So that while we are encompassed with the Mists of sinful Prejudice they will necessarily hinder the Prospect of our Reason and obscure the Brightness of our Understandings and the Clearness of our discerning Faculties And thus you see how natural it is to Vice to spoil and wast our Understandings and to choke up those Fountains of Light within us with Clouds and Darkness And that it doth so is very apparent in Fact for how much wicked Men have lost their Reason is apparent by the ridiculous Principles upon which they generally act which generally are so very weak and absurd that it would be impossible for Men to assent to them were not their Understandings perished and the Reason of their minds wofully impaired and wasted As for instance the desperate Atheist wishes that there were no God upon this Principle that it is better for Men to be without a God than to be without their Lusts then which there can be nothing more wild or extravagant For it is plain that without our Lusts we can be happier than with them whereas it is the common Interest of Mankind that the World should be governed by infinite Goodness conducted by infinite Power and Wisdom and no Man or Society of Men can be happy without it For take God out of the World and you take away all Hope from the miserable all Comfort from the sorrowful and all Support from the dejected and calamitous and at one blow cut in sunder all the Bands of Society rase the Foundations of Virtue and confound all Distinction between Good and Evil. And yet the besotted Wretch for the sake of a paltry Lust that betrays him with a Kiss and stings him in the Enjoyment would fain banish God out of the World though it is apparent that in so doing he would do Mankind more Mischief than if he should blow out all the Lights of Heaven or pull down the Sun from the Firmament And in the general what more ridiculous Principles can there be thought than such as these That Sense is to be preferred before Reason Earth before Heaven Moments before Eternity that the short-liv'd pleasures of sin which expire in the fruition are sufficient to ballance the loss of an immortal Heaven and the sense of an eternal Hell that 't is time enough to repent when we can sin no more and that God is so fond a Being as that rather than ruin those that wilfully spurn at his Authority and trample upon his Laws he will accept a few Tears and Promises to live well when we can live no longer in exchange for all the Duty we owe him and that we may sit all the day in the lap of our Lusts and enjoy them without controul and then at night when we can enjoy them no longer fly up to Heaven upon the Wings of a Lord have mercy upon us And yet a wicked Life is either built upon no Principles at all or upon such as these which are ridiculous beyond all the extravagant Conceits of Fools or Madmen 'T is no wonder therefore that the Scripture so frequently brands the Sinner with the infamous Character of a Fool for if you measure him by the Principles he acts upon there is not a greater Fool in Nature which is a plain Evidence how much Vice doth besot the Understandings of Men and like those Barbarous Philistines puts out their Eyes only to sport it self with their Follies and Extravagances So that methinks had we any Reverence for our own Reason by which we are constituted Men and distinguish'd from the Beasts that perish we should never endure those Lusts within our Bosoms that do so much impair and wast it II. SIN subverts the natural Subordination of our Faculties For the natural Order and Politie of our Natures consists in the Dominion of our Rational Faculties over our sensitive Passions and Appetites so that then only we live according to the Law of our Nature when we eat and drink and love and hate and fear and hope and desire and delight according as right Reason prescribes For the noblest Principle of Humane Nature is Reason by which it is that we are constituted Men and advanced into a Form of Beings above all sublunary
works were done woe unto thee Corazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes From whence I argue that that Grace which would have converted Tyre and Sidon was not irresistible for if it had it would have converted Corazin and Bethsaida too For how could they have resisted irresistible Grace And why should it not have had the same Effect on the one which it would have had on the other had there not been something in the one which was not in the other which did actually resist and vanquish it And so likewise in the Parable of the Seed sown in the High-way the stony thorny and good Ground Matth. xiii the Reason why the Seed prospered in some and not in others is plainly resolved into the different Condition of the Soil for as for those that either considered not at all or not enough the Seed of the Divine Grace proved altogether ineffectual to them but as for those who had so throughly consider'd its Proposals as to form in their Minds a firm and settled Judgment of them it produced in them a most fruitful Spring of Virtues and good Works Which is a plain Argument that the Successes of God's Grace depend upon the Concurrence of our Endeavours with it for had it wrought irresistibly upon these different Soils it must have had the same Success in all And indeed it is infinitely unreasonable to expect that God should make us good irresistibly without the free Concurrence of our own Will and Endeavours since by so doing he must offer Violence to the Frame of our Beings and alter the established Course of our Natures which consists in a free Determination of our selves according to the Dictates of our own Reason For that which is irresistible must necessitate the Subject upon which it acts and therefore if we are impell'd to be good by a Power which we cannot resist it is not in our Power to choose whether we will be good or no. Wherefore though God be infinitely desirous of our Happiness and ready to contribute whatsoever is necessary to promote it yet he will not effect it by necessary Means and Causes but in such a way only as is fairly consistent with the Liberty of our Wills that is he will not save us without our selves whether we will or no but take our free Consent and Endeavour along with him And having done all that is necessary to persuade us he expects that we should consider what he saith and upon that consent to his gracious Proposals and express this Consent in a constant Course of holy and vertuous Endeavours and if we will not do this we cannot be sav'd unless God work a Miracle for us and alters the Course of Nature which is the great Law by which his Providence doth govern all the Beings in the World And this we have no Reason to expect either from the Goodness of God's Nature or from any Revelation he hath made to us not from the Goodness of his Nature for why is it not as consistent with that to govern us as free Agents as to make us such Not from any Revelation of his Will for that indispensably exacts our free Concurrence with his Grace and Assistance and requires us to make our selves a new Heart to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling 'T is true God is also said to work in us to will and to do to create in us a new heart and to create us in Iesus Christ unto good works Which seemingly repugnant expressions can be no otherwise reconciled but by supposing God and Man to be Ioint-Causes contributing to the same Effect so that where God speaks as if He did all we must suppose the Concurrence of our Endeavours and where he speaks as if We were to do all we must suppose the Concurrence of his own Grace III. WE may be assur'd from hence of the Certainty of Success upon such a Concurrence of our Endeavours with the Spirit of God which plainly implies the Assistances of the Spirit to Be within our Power as being in an inseparable Conjunction with our sincere and faithful Endeavours And that they are so is apparent for as for the outward Assistances of the Spirit which are the powerful Arguments and Motives of the Gospel we have them always at hand and may make use of them when we please we have a free Access to this divine Armoury and may at any time furnish our selves with sufficient Weapons to assoil the most formidable Temptations And as for the inward Aids of the blessed Spirit God by his own free Promise hath inseparably entailed them upon our honest and pious Endeavours Thus he hath promised to give his grace to those who humble themselves and to draw nigh unto them who submit themselves to him Iam. iv 6 7 8. and unto every one that hath that is improveth what he hath he hath promised it shall be given and that he shall have abundance xxv Matth. 29. and to every one that asketh sincerely and honestly he hath promised to give his Holy Spirit Luk. xi 13. And thus by his own free Promise he hath tied his Spirit to our Endeavours so that we may have his Assistance when we please he being confined by his own Promise to be ready at our Call and to come in to the Aid of our Endeavours whensoever we shall need and ask his Assistance And having such a powerful Second engaged in our Quarrel what Reason have we to doubt of Success and Victory For what Lust is there so strong that we may not subdue What Habit so inveterate that we may not conquer What Temptation so powerful that we may not repulse whose endeavours are thus seconded with Almighty Aids from above For now whatsoever the Divine Spirit can do in us we can do because we can do that which being done will infallibly oblige him to concur with us And though we cannot conquer our Lusts in our own single Strength yet we can by our Endeavours engage him on our side who is both able and willing to enable us to conquer them So that if we will we may be invincible and there is no Temptation can be too strong for us if we do not by our own Sloth and Cowardice disingage the Almighty Spirit from assisting us IV. FROM hence we may perceive how much Reason there is for our continual Prayers and Supplications to God since it is so apparent that our Victory over Sin and consequently our eternal Welfare doth so much depend upon the Aids and Assistances of the Spirit of God and since God is so ready to give his holy Spirit to us whensoever we sincerely ask and desire it Now the great Reason of Prayer is Want and the greatest Encouragement to it is Assurance of
unavoidable Weakness of our own Natures since it is so plain that our Sin is resolveable into no other Principle but our own wretched Wilfulness and Obstinacy But let us betake our selves to a serious and hearty Endeavour of doing our Master's Will and if when we have done all that we can we should then fall short of our Duty and miss the Reward of it we may then with good Reason call him an austere Man for imposing tyrannical and impossible Commands and expecting to reap where he hath not sown Seventhly and Lastly WE may perceive from hence the Inexcusableness of Sinners if they go on in their Wickedness For God you see doth vouchsafe to us such plentiful Measures of his Grace and Assistance that in the Strength of it we may mortify our Lusts if we will and work out our own eternal Salvation but if we will be negligent and rather choose to perish in our Sin than take the pains to subdue it by the Grace of God our Folly is inexcusable and no one can be charged with our Ruin but our selves For what could God have done more for us than he hath already done He hath solicited us to forsake our Sin with the most important Arguments and Motives tempted our Hopes with a Heaven of immortal Ioys and alarmed our Fears with the Horrors of an endless and intolerable Damnation so that we cannot go on in our Sin without leaping over Heaven into Hell and wading through an infinite Ocean of Happiness into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone He hath plainly told us what the Event and Issue of our Folly will be and warn'd us before-hand that if we will be wicked we must be miserable So that if after this we do go on in our Sin we run our selves upon a foreseen Damnation and leap into Hell with our Eyes open He hath promised that if we will seriously attempt our own Recovery his Grace shall be sufficient for us to back our Endeavours and crown them with Success So that if after this we do persist in our Folly we choose Destruction and rush headlong into a Ruin which we might easily avoid In a word he hath again and again suggested good Thoughts to our Minds and by an importunate Iteration of them hath frequently courted us to repent and live So that if still we persevere in our Impenitence we stop our Ears to the Addresses of Heaven and do in effect tell God that we will not hearken to him though our Souls are at stake and 't is no less than an everlasting Ruin that he dissuades us from And what Remedy or Excuse is there for such intolerable Obstinacy So that it is a plain Case God hath done so much for us that there is not any thing wanting to our everlasting Salvation but only our own Wills and if we will not comply with his Grace and Assistance he will not save us whether we will or no. So that when Inquisition shall be made for the Blood of our Souls the utmost we can charge God with is this that he did not tie up our hands to keep us from murdering our selves with the Cords of an irresistible Fate and by his invincible Power drag us to Heaven whether we would or no. But if we have so little Regard of our selves as to spurn at our own Happiness it is not fit that God should force it upon us and it would be a mean and unreasonable Condescension in him to prostitute the Rewards of Virtue to those that wilfully refuse them Wherefore if we perish in our Sin after God hath done so much for us he may fairly wash his Hands in Innocency over us and charge our Blood upon our own heads And how deplorable soever our Condition proves in the future State God's Iustice will triumph for ever in our Ruin and our own Consciences in Consort with all the Rational World will pronounce him to be most just and righteous in all his ways CHAP. V. Of the Eternal Reward of Mortification and Holiness THE Apostle having declar'd for our Encouragement Rom. viii 13. that if we mortify the deeds of the body we shall live I shall now insist upon these two Propositions First THAT there is a State of Everlasting Life and Happiness prepared for good men Secondly THAT this their Everlasting Happiness depends upon their mortifying their Lusts. I. THAT there is a State of Everlasting Life and Happiness prepared for good Men The Truth of which I shall Endeavour to prove by some plain and easy Arguments I. BECAUSE the Law of our Natures hath not a sufficient Sanction without it That there is in us such a Law of Nature by which Things and Actions are distinguished into good and evil is every whit as evident as that we have within us a Principle of Reason For no Man using his Reason can ever think it indifferent in it self whether we obey our Parents or contemn them whether we lye or speak Truth whether we be grateful or disingenuous to our Benefactors For between these Things there is such an essential Difference that they can never be equal Competitors to a Rational Approbation And accordingly among all Mankind we may observe that there are some Vices which have as much the universal Judgment of Reason against them as any false Conclusion in the Mathematicks and some Virtues whose Goodness has been as universally acknowledged as the Truth of any Principle in Philosophy Wherefore since God hath created us with such a Faculty as doth necessarily make such a Iudgment of Good and Evil this Iudgment must be God's as well as the Faculties which made it And that which is God's Iudgment in us must necessarily be a Law to us God therefore having put such a Law into our Natures we cannot but suppose that he hath taken Care to enforce the Observation of it by rewarding and punishing us according as we obey or violate it For without the Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments to induce Men to observe them Laws are insignificant and that Lawgiver doth but petition his Subjects to obey that doth not promise such Rewards nor denounce such Penalties as are sufficient to oblige them to it And no Reward can be sufficient to oblige us to obey that 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 that Benefit or Pleasure we can hope to reap from our Disobedience Since therefore God hath implanted a Law in our Natures we must either suppose that he hath not sufficiently secured it by Rewards and Punishments which is to blaspheme his Wisdom and Conduct Or else we must acknowledge that he hath established it with such Rewards and Punishments as do make it far more adviseable to obey than to transgress it which that he hath done in all Instances can never be proved without granting the Rewards and Punishments of another World For if there be
no such thing as future Rewards and Punishments it is a Folly for any Man to concern himself about any thing but his present Interest and in reason we ought to judge things to be good or evil only as they promote or obstruct our temporal Happiness and Welfare Now though it is certain that in the general there is a natural Good accruing to us from all vertuous Actions as on the contrary a natural Evil from all vicious ones and it is ordinarily more conducive for our temporal Interests to obey than to disobey the great Law of our Natures Yet there are a world of Instances wherein Vice may be more advantageous to us than Virtue abstracting from the Rewards and Punishments of another World It is ordinarily better for me to be an honest Man than a Knave it is more for my Reputation yea and usually for my Profit too and it is more for the publick Good in which my own is involved But yet pro hic nunc it may be better for me with respect only to this World to be a Knave than an honest man For whensoever I can but cheat so secretly and securely as not to fall under the publick Lash nor to impair my Reputation and I can but gain more by the Cheat than I shall lose in the Damage of the Publick 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 Couzenage do occur no Man can be insensible that hath but the least Insight into the Affairs of the World So that if God had not reserved Rewards and Punishments for us in another World we should not have sufficient Motives universally to observe that great Law of Righteousness which he hath given us For whensoever we could cheat or steal securely it would be highly reasonable for us to do it because thereby we might promote our own temporal Happiness which would be the only End we should have to pursue And the same may be said of all other Laws of Nature which without the great Motives of a future Happiness and Misery could no longer induce any reasonable Man to obey them than it is for his 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 such a barbarous Fact If you say the Law of Nature pray what Reward doth the Law of Nature propose sufficient to compensate the Dissatisfaction of my Revenge or the Danger I run in suffering my Enemy to live Or what Punishment doth the Law of Nature denounce that is sufficient to balance the Advantage of a thousand or ten thousand Pounds a year that may accrue to me by his Death If you say the Law of Nature proposeth to me the Reward of a quiet and satisfied Mind if I forbear and denounces the Punishment of a guilty and amazed Conscience if I commit the Murder I easily answer that this Peace or Horror which is consequent to the Forbearance or Commission of Murder arises from the Hope and Dread of future Rewards and Punishments which being taken away to murder or not murder will be indifferent as to any Peace or Horror that will follow upon it And this being removed what Consideration will there be left sufficient to restrain me from the bloody Fact when 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 enforce the Commands of the Law of Nature it is apparent that no such Rewards or Punishments are annexed to it in this Life as are universally sufficient to oblige Men to observe it And is it likely that the All-wise Governour of the World would ever impose a Law under an insufficient Sanction That he would ever give out his Commands to his Creatures and then leave it indifferent to them whether they will obey him or no As he must needs have done if in all circumstances it be not far better for us to obey him than to disobey him And if our Nature is so framed as not to be effectually persuaded to Obedience without the Motives of everlasting Rewards and Punishments it is at least highly credible that there are such Because it would be unworthy of God so to frame the Nature of one of his noblest Creatures as to render it incapable of being governed by him without Falshood and Deceit II. THAT there is a future Happiness reserved for Good Men in the other World is highly probable from those Desires and Expectations of it which do so generally and naturally arise in pure and vertuous Minds We rarely if ever read of any vertuous Man of whatsoever Nation or Religion or Sect of Philosophers whose Mind hath not been wing'd with earnest Hopes and Desires of future Happiness and I know none that have ever denied or despaired of it but only such as have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and vitiated the Principles of their own Nature Such were the Sadducees and Epicureans Sects that had drowned all that was humane in them in Sensuality and Voluptuousness and are branded upon Record for their shameful Indulgence to their own brutish Genius And such are no Standards of Humane Nature but ought rather to be looked upon as Monsters of Men and therefore as we do not think it natural to Men to be born with six Fingers upon one Hand though there have been many such monstrous and unnatural Births so neither ought we to judge either of what is natural or unnatural to Men by those humane Brutes who by their perpetual wallowing in the Pleasures of the Body have monstrously disfigured their own Natures and dissolved all that Reason by which they are constituted Men into a mere sensual Sagacity of catering for the Appetites of the Flesh. If we would know therefore what is humane and natural to us we must take our Measures from those who are least depraved and are most conformable to the Laws of a Rational Nature who have preserved the natural Subordination of their Faculties and reduced their Passions and Appetites under the Empire of their Reason And these are the Men whom we call vertuous and who because they live in the Exercise of those noble Virtues which are proper to us Men are to be looked upon as the Standards of Humane Nature by whom alone we can judge of what is natural and unnatural to us Now Virtue and the Desires and Hopes of Immortality are so near allyed that like Hippocrates's Twins they live and die together For though while Men live a brutish and sensual Life their future Hopes are usually drowned in their present Enjoyments yet when once they recover out of this unnatural State and begin to live vertuously like reasonable Beings immediately they feel great Desires and Expectations of a future Happiness
Laws of Generation he hath ordered all Men to come into the World weak and helpless and unable to provide for themselves he was bound in Goodness to oblige their Parents by a natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Affection to nourish and take Care of them till they grow able to take Care for themselves that so they might not be utterly abandoned so since he hath thought good to expose us here to so many Miseries and Calamities he stood obliged by the eternal Benignity of his Nature to oblige us by all the Bowels of Mercy to succour and relieve one another till we are grown up to that Perfection of Happiness wherein we shall have no more need of Succour that so at present we may not be left destitute and forlorn but may find all that Relief in one another's Mercy which is wanting to us in his immediate Providence For 't is for wise and merciful Ends that he permits us to be miserable here to correct our Follies and polish and cultivate our Nature and train us up under a severe Discipline into a State of Everlasting Happiness and therefore for the Redress of these Miseries which for our Good he is fain to inflict upon us it was necessary he should Consign us to the Protection of one anothers Mercy that so this for the present might be a Cordial to our Griefs a Supply to our Wants an Ease to our Oppressions and a Sanctuary to our Calamities till Misery hath effected the gracious End she designed it for and then he will release our Mercy from its Work and permit it to enjoy an Everlasting Sabbath But so long as he thinks fit to continue us in this state of Misery his own Benignity will oblige him to oblige us to assist and comfort one another by the mutual Exercise of our Mercy that so being instead of Gods to one another we may not be utterly abandoned to Wretchedness but by mutually succouring each other might all of us be tolerably happy which we should all of us most certainly be were we but so benign and merciful to one another as he expects and requires CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Mortification GOD having made us free Agents and planted in our Natures an uncontroulable Liberty of Choice in Wisdom he hath so ordered and disposed things that as we cannot be Miserable unless we will so neither shall we be happy whether we will or no. For as his Goodness would not suffer him to make us necessarily miserable so neither would his Wisdom permit him to entail our Happiness on our Natures and make it inseparable to our Beings for should he have done so he must have altered the Laws of his own wise Creation and made those Beings to act necessarily which he made to act freely For Happiness is the End of all our Actions and therefore should God have made that necessary to us he must have made us to act towards it with the same Necessity as inanimate Bodies do towards their proper Center and consequently there would have been no such thing as a free Agent in the lower World That we may always act therefore according to the Condition and Frame of a free Nature the Foundations of all our Happiness and Misery are laid in the right Use or Abuse of our Liberty and do immediately spring out of the Wisdom or Folly of our own Choices so that if we chuse wisely according to the Laws of Virtue and right Reason we do thereby advance towards that happy and heavenly State we were created for as on the contrary if we chuse foolishly according to the rash Counsels of our own vicious Appetites and sensual Inclinations we thereby sink our selves deeper and deeper towards the Abyss of endless and inconceivable Misery For such is the Frame and Constitution of our Natures that we cannot be good and miserable nor vicious and happy and accordingly the Apostle sets before us the inevitable Fate of our own Actions Rom. viii 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live What these Deeds of the Flesh or Body are the Apostle telleth us Gal. v. 19 20 21. The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like and they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God This is the Muster-roll of that formidable Army of Wickednesses with which we are to engage and which we must vanquish or perish for ever If ye mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live i. e. if ye kill and destroy them if ye wholly cease from them both as to the outward Act of them and the inward Appetite and Inclination towards them For Mortification doth not only consist in a formal Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin or a superficial Skinning over the Orifice of its Wounds but searches to the very bottom of that putrid Core within and eats out the inward Corruption from whence those outward Blisters arise It purges the Heart as well as the Hands and drains those impure Inclinations which are the Springs of all Impiety and Wickedness BUT to handle this Subject more particularly I shall do these three things First SHEW wherein Mortification consists Secondly WHAT are the Proper Instruments of it Thirdly WHAT are the most prevailing Motives to it I. WHEREIN doth Mortification consist I answer in these three Things 1. In Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin 2. In not consenting unto any Sin 3. In a constant Endeavour to extinguish our involuntary Sins I. MORTIFICATION requires Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin For it is impossible that any Man should mortify his Lusts while he indulges himself in the free Practice of them because Practice is the Fuel that foments and feeds the inward vicious Inclinations and both pampers and enrages the lustful Appetites of the Soul For that Delight which we reap from acting our own Concupiscences doth but increase and provoke them it being natural to Men when they have been pleased with any Action to be more vehemently inclined to repeat it the Delight which they found in the former Enjoyment provoking their Desires to enjoy it again So that we may as well hope to put out a Fire by a continual feeding it with Fuel and blowing it into Flame as to mortify a Lust whilst by our continued practising it we nurse and cherish it and do at once both feed and irritate its Flames If therefore we would ever mortify the Lusts of the Flesh we must strictly restrain our selves from all outward Acts of them For whilst we indulge our selves in these we feed our Disease and pamper our bad Inclinations into vicious Habits and our vicious Habits into sinful Necessities II. MORTIFICATION consists in the Dissent of our Wills from all sinful Proposals
of its benign Influences and altogether indisposed to be wrought upon by it For as the Sun enlightens not the inward parts of an impervious Dunghil and hath no other effect upon it but only to draw out its filthy Reeks and Steams though as soon as he lifts his head above the Hemisphere he immediately transforms into his own Likeness all that vast Space whether he can diffuse his Beams and turns it into a Region of Light even so the divine Glory and Beauty which is the Object of the beatifical Vision will never illustrate lewd and filthy Souls their Temper being impervious unto his heavenly Irradiations and wholly indisposed to be enlightned by it but instead of that it will irritate their devilish Rage against it and provoke them to bark at that Light which they cannot endure whereas it no sooner arises upon well-disposed Minds but it will immediately chase away all those Reliques of Darkness remaining in them and transform them into its own Likeness But doubtless the Sight of the divine Purity and Goodness will be so far from exciting sensual and devilish Spirits to transcribe and imitate it that it will rather inspire them with Indignation against it and provoke them to curse and blaspheme the Author of it Fourthly and Lastly IN every sensual and devilish Soul there is an utter Incongruity and Disagreement to the Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect For even in this Life we see how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked it spoils them of their fulsome Mirth and checks them in those Riots and Scurrilities which are the Life and Piquancy of their Conversation So that when the good Man takes his leave they reckon themselves deliver'd his Presence being a Confinement to their Folly and Wickedness And as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World for how is it possible there should be any Agreement between such distant and contrary Tempers between such sensual and malicious and such pure and benigne Spirits What a Torment would it be to a spightful and devilish Spirit to be confined to a Society that is governed by the Laws of Love and Friendship What an Infelicity to a carnalized Soul that nauseates all Pleasures but what are fleshly and sensual to be shut up among those pure and abstracted Spirits that live wholly upon the Pleasures of Wisdom and Holiness and Love Doubtless it would be as agreeable to a Wolf to be governed by the Ten Commandments and fed with Lectures of Philosophy as for such a Soul to live under the Laws and be entertained with the Delights of the heavenly Society So that could these wicked Spirits be admitted into the Company of the Blessed they would soon be weary of it and perhaps it would be so tedious and irksom to them that they would rather chuse to associate themselves with Devils and damned Ghosts than to undergoe the Torment of a Conversation so infinitely repugnant to their Natures accounting it more eligible to live in the dismal Clamour of hellish Threnes and Blasphemies than to have a tedious Din of heavenly Praises and Hallelujahs perpetually ringing in their Ears And indeed considering the hellish Nature of a wicked Soul how contrary it is to the Goodness and Purity of Heaven I have sometimes been apt to think that it will be less miserable in those dismal Shades where the wretched Furies like so many Snakes and Adders do nothing but hiss at and sting one another for ever than it would be were it admitted into the glorious Society of heavenly Lovers whose whole Conversation consists in loving and reloving and is nothing else but a perpetual Intercourse of mutual Indearments For this would be an Employment so infinitely repugnant to its black and devilish Disposition that rather than endure so much Outrage and Violence it would of its own accord forsake the blessed Abodes to flee to Hell for Sanctuary from the Torment of being in Heaven But this however we may rationally conclude that so long as the prevailing Temper of our Souls is sensual and devilish we are incapable of the Society of blessed Spirits and that if it were possible for us to be admitted into it our Condition would be very unhappy till our Temper was chang'd so that it is a plain Case both from God's Ordination and from the Nature of the Thing that our eternal Happiness and Welfare depends upon our mortifying the deeds of the Body To offer some Practical Inferences from hence I. WE may perceive how unreasonable it is for any Man to presume upon going to Heaven upon any account whatsoever without mortifying his Lusts. For he that thinks to go to Heaven without Mortification and Amendment presumes both against the Decrees of God and the Nature of Things he believes all the Threatnings of the Gospel to be nothing else but so many Bugs and Scare-crows and though God hath told him again and again that unless he forsake his sins he shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet he fondly imagines that when it comes to the Trial God will never be so severe as he pretends but will rather revoke the Decree that is gone out of his mouth than exclude out of the Paradise of endless Delights a Soul that is infinitely offensive to him As if God were so invincibly fond and indulgent as that rather than excommunicate an obstinate Rebel from Happiness he would chuse to prostitute the Honour of his Laws and Government and commit an Outrage upon the Rectitude and Purity of his own Nature For so long as he is a pure God he cannot but be displeased with impure Souls and so long as he is a wise Governour he cannot but be offended with those that trample upon his Laws so that before he can admit a wicked Soul into Heaven he must have extinguish'd all his natural Antipathy to Sin and stifled his just Resentment of our wilful Affronts to his Authority When therefore we can find any reason to imagine that God is no Enemy to sin and that he hath no regard of his own Authority then and not till then we may have some Pretence to presume upon going to Heaven without Mortification and Amendment But supposing this Hinderance were removed and that God were so easie as to be induced to prefer the Happiness of a wicked Soul before the Honour of his Government and the Purity of his Nature yet still there is an invincible Obstacle behind that renders her future Felicity impossible and that is that it cannot be without a plain Contradiction to the Nature of Things For as I have shewed you already the Genius and Temper of a wicked Soul is wholly repugnant to all the Felicities of the other World so that if they were set before her She would not be able to enjoy them but must be forced to pine and famish amidst all that Plenty of Delights there being not one Viand in all