Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A69536
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The judgment of non-conformists about the difference between grace and morality
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing B1292_VARIANT; ESTC R16284
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66,799
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124
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Nature as it were of our Souls and the Business of our Lives Prop. 20. That which makes this to be Bonum per se immutabile which no accident can alter is 1. Because the Foundations of our Obligations are Immutable while our Faculties and Powers endure else they would cease for the de 〈◊〉 itum is a Relation resulting from the meer Being or Position of the Humane Nature as related to God And God will never change Therefore unless Man cease to be man or to be able to act as man the obligation can by no accident be changed 2. Because it is a duty to the supreme Ruler and absolute infinite Good and therefore the very performance of it is exclusive of all changing accidents For he that loveth God as a means to his fleshly pleasure and prosperity only and as less good to him than the world loveth him not as God And he that loveth him as God loveth him as the absolute Power Wisdom and Goodness and therefore exclusively as to all Competitors unless as this love is sinfully defective but that accident of defectiveness maketh not our love to God to be a sin but the defe 〈◊〉 t of it as to degree or frequency of exercise is the sin 3. And also because that God is the Final Object and Love the Final Act which together make up the ultimate end of man including the Vision that kindleth love and the praise joy and obedience which express it But though mean 〈◊〉 may be oft changed and may be too much loved yet the ultimate end is unchangeable and cannot be too much loved by true mental love distinct from distracting passions therefore our Obligations to it are according So that Love to God is the most immutable Moral Good And the same in their place and time must be said of holy Fear Trust and Obedience to God from which no Accident can disoblige us no Command or Prohibition of man no suffering of body or danger of life it self much less the allurements of sensual delights Pr. 21. Accordingly to hate God to distrust his known Promise to disobey his known Law to oppose or persecute his known Interest in the world in his Word and Worship Church and Servants are immutably evil per se which no Accident can make good or lawful For the Reasons before given Pr. 22. But where the object is mutable and the circumstances of things which the Obligation presupposeth there the duty or sinfulness is by supervening Accidents mutable Even Incest which is a hainous sin was a duty to Adams Children because of accidental difference of the case The killing of an innocent Son was well consented to by Abraham when the Lord of Life and of all the world had commanded it and that consent was an act of eminent goodness and accordingly rewarded The borrowing of the Egyptians Goods without intent to restore them and the robbing of them by taking them away was well done when the absolute Owner of the World had by his Precept altered the Propriety Thus the altering of the Case may alter Obligations Pr. 23. But besides the immutable Obligations to God himself there are many instances of our actions towards men and worldy Things which are ordinarily unchanged and only some rare or supernatural declaration of the will of God doth change them For as God the Author and Orderer of Nature sheweth us by experience that he delighteth much in the ordinary Constancy of his operations and rarely changeth the course of Nature so there is an answerable constancy in the ordinary state and order of Things and consequently of obligations or duty And these are the matter of Gods common universal Laws which ordinarily oblige all mankind These are the matter of the second Table of the Decalogue and are seconds in point of immutable Obligation to the first mentioned sort our natural duty to God For though man be mutable and God immutable yet God preserveth so much constancy in Humane Affairs as is just matter of constant universal Laws though they are lyable rarely to dispensations or exceptions And as not murdering not committing Adultery not stealing not lying or false witness bearing are such so also are the meer Positives of the first Table such as are the acts of Instituted Worship and the holy observation of the Lords day Prop. 24. The Cases of Mans Life which are more mutable are the matter of mutable Duty and Sin which are most usually called Good or Evil per accidens because that mutable accidents added to the more constant accidents make them such by change And so it is greatly to be noted that the Act which is a Duty to one Man in one Place at one Time c. may be a sin to another Man or at another Time Place c. And that new accidents may again come in and make that Action that was a sin to become again a Duty And more new accidents may make it a sin again and so over and over Even as when you are weighing in the Ballance one Grain may turn the Scales the other way and two more in the other end may turn them back again and three more in the other end may yet return them and so on many times over and over For Instance Suppose an honest Man cannot pray without some unseemly faults in utterance in secret it is his Duty to pray vocally if that most profit and affect his heart if an exceptious Person be known to over-hear him it may be a sin to do it audibly If his Family be capable of bearing it it is his Duty to do it as he can If strangers come in that would by scorn make it do more hurt than good he may be bound to forbear till they are gone When they are gone it is his Duty again A Fire breaketh out or one falleth into a swound and it is his Duty to forbear When that is over it may be his Duty again c. Pr. 25. Two sorts therefore sin against God that would tye Men to do the very same things of such a mutable Nature without excepting the mutation of accidents 1. Those that will tye them to it by peremptory Laws 2. Those that will censoriously reproach or condemn them as sinners that do not do just as they do when the Circumstances alter the Case Many are so guilty who complain of other Mens Impositions Pr. 26. Hence it is evident that Prudence discerning how the alteration of accidents alter our Obligations is a very needful thing to Christians for the same guidance of their hearts and lives And as Men picture Justice as holding the Ballance so should Christian Prudence be thought on even as judging of Good and Evil with the Ballance in our hand and putting every Grain of considerable accidents into each end And much errour censoriousness disorder and other sin is in the World by ignorant Mens judging of things by some mistaken word of Scripture without prudent weighing of Circumstances and
28. and 13. 9. Col. 3. 16. and 4. 6. Eph. 4. 7. 29. and 3. 8. Gal. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 6 7. and 9. 8. Joh. 1. 16. c. II. The words MORALITY and MORAL have also divers significations I. In the first most comprehensive and most famous sense MORALITY as distinguished from meer Naturality or Physicks doth signifie the Relation of the Manners or Acts of an Intelligent free Agent to the Governing Will and Law of God And so Actus morales and Actus humani are used in the same sense and all Morality is distinguished into Moral Good and Moral Evil Virtue and Vice II. Some have used MORALITY in a narrower sense unfitly for so much of Man's duty as is revealed by the meer Law of Nature and as is of common obligation to lapsed Mankind And so it comprehendeth the relicts of the Law of Innocent Nature to love God and obey him c. and the additional Law of Lapsed Nature to Repent and use all possible means for our recovery and thankfully improve the Mercies which we receive And thus it is distinguished from Duty known by supernatural Revelation and especially the Mysteries of Redemption by Jesus Christ III. Some use the word improperly also for all that Duty which is of perpetual Obligation whether by natural or supernatural Revelation And so it is distinguished from Temporary Duties And thus the Lords-Day Baptism the Lords-Supper a Gospel Ministry Scripture to be used discipline are said to be Moral-Positives distinct from meer Natural Duties and from Temporaries IV. Lastly Some yet more unaptly confine the sense to the Duties of our common Conversation towards man as distinct from Holiness or our Duty to God And so they distinguish a meer moral honest man from a godly or religious man Though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common Fuel of vain Contendings yet we being not the Masters of Language must take words as we find them used and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them before they lay any stress on them in disputing In reference to these various senses of these words we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth I As to MORALITY in the first and most famous signification we are agreed 1. That all proper Humane Acts are moral that is morally Good or Evil And all Duty and Sin Virtue and Vice in Habit and Act Positive and Privative Vice are parts of Morality moral Good directly and moral Evil reductively and consequently 2. Holiness to the Lord or the Love of God as God is the chief part of Morality and what Duty soever is Evangelical and spiritual is also moral 3. Nothing is morally laudable or rewardable but Moral Good and nothing is punishable but Moral Evil. 4. All Morality is seated primarily in the Will but is secondarily as flowing thence in the imperate Acts of the Intellect and inferior Faculties 5. All truly moral Good in lapsed man is 1. From God's Efficient Grace 2. And exercised on some Objective Grace And 3. Is it self Subjective Grace either special or common 6. The Good called Moral in Infidels and all other ungodly unsanctified men is such but secundum quid and not simpliciter nor in the full or properest sense Because bonum est ex omnibus Causis essentialibus And a good Principle Rule End and right Object especially the formal Object are all essential to a truly good moral Act But every ungodly man in every Action doth want at least some one of these And an Act is denominated in Morality from that which is prevalent in it and not from every conquered deprest ingredient We say not that he that killeth his Father or Prince with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations doth therein do a good work though that reluctancy was good So he that hath some Love to God and Goodness but more Hatred and more love to sinful pleasure doth not a work properly Good which proceedeth from such a mixed Cause But the evil Principle and End is predominant in all ungodly men 7. But materially and secundum quid bad men may do Works that are morally good and physically very good to others as Governing and Protecting Common-wealths and Churches building Cities and Temples and Hospitals relieving the Poor preaching the Gospel expounding Scripture defending Truth promoting Learning and in good Nature Patience Meekness Temperance Chastity Wit and Industry they may be commendable and exemplary and their Precepts and Practice may conduce much to the good of others 8. Whatever good is found in Heathens or Infidels or ungodly Men is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth it being all from God who must not be robbed of his praise 9. A Man that hath but Common Grace is better than he would be if he had none and it is the usual preparatory for special saving Grace Though many civil temperate persons by overvaluing Common Good are hindred from seeking Special Grace that is not caused by the Good but by their abuse of it objectively And though God take occasion from some mens great sins to affright their Consciences to Repentance and Reformation that is not caused by the sin but by Gods Mercy Sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring nor sin as repented of in repenting but before in the committing God may Convert Paul in the act of Persecuting But Persecuting is not the way or means of Conversion Special Grace must be sought in the use of Common Grace and not in a way of negligence contempt or wilful sin II. Of MORALITY in the second sense as taken for Natural Duties which all Mankind is obliged to by Natural Revelation of God's Will we are agreed as followeth 1. The sum of this Natural Morality or Duty is to love God as God for himself and all things else for him even as being of Him and through Him and to Him to obey God and make it our chief care to please him and therein to place and seek our Happiness even in everlasting mutual love To love others as our selves and do all the good we can to all for Soul and Body especially to the most publick Societies to do justly and as we would be done by to use our Bodies as the Servants of our Souls and Soul and Body as the Servants of God And to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these This Natural Evidence will prove to be the Common Duty of Mankind 2. This Love to God and Man before described is true Holiness that is The Soul's separation and devotedness to God 3. All the Evidence which Nature affordeth us herein is not seen by all men that are of natural Wit or Industry no more than all that is revealed by the Scripture is known to all that read the Scripture or that believe it 4. Holiness is the End of Medicinal Grace as used