and Perseverance All the Free and Bold Determinations by which Virtue hath expressed her self the Noble and Admired Sentences uttered by Celebrated Persons when reduced to extremity of Danger and Distress Such as shine in Story give lasting Characters to their Authors and transport the Reader with Wonder and Delight a very few of which because they now occur to my Mind I take the Liberty to insert here Helvidius Priscus having received a Message from the Emperor Vespasian not to appear in the Senate or if he came strictly prohibiting him to interpose his Opinion in a Debate which was to be moved there sent back word That his Character of a Senator required his Attendance and he should not refuse his Summons neither should he when There balk any thing that became him but if called upon to give his Judgment would discharge his Conscience and deliver his Sense of the Case freely and without Fear or Reserve The Emperor provoked with what he thought Insolence in this Reply sent a Second Message threatning to put him to Death if he opened his Mouth To which he returned thus Sir said he Did I ever tell the Emperor that I was Immortal His Majesty I suppose will do his Pleasure and I will take care to do my Duty It is in His Power to put me to Death Unjustly but it is in my Own to Dye Virtuously and Gallantly The Lacedemonians when Philip of Macedon Father of Alexander the Great had entred their Country with his Army received a terrible Message from him Threatning what Severity he would use them with if they did not court his Friendship and send to make Terms with him To which one Brisk Fellow Answered in behalf of the whole Republick What Harm can those Men suffer who are not afraid of Death And upon another Dispatch from Philip telling them That he would break all their Measures and prevent the Designs they had formed in their own Defence The Answer was How Sir what break all our Measures No Sure you will not pretend to hinder us from Dying This is a Project which you cannot Defeat Another when his Opinion was asked What course a Man could take to live Free and Easy resolved the Doubt thus That all other Methods were ineffectual except that One of Despising Death We read of a Young Boy who was taken Captive and Sold for a Slave and in Discourse with his Patron who had Bought him Sir says he You shall now see what a purchase you have I should certainly be much to blame and guilty of great Folly should I submit to Live in Slavery when my Liberty is in my own Disposal and I can retrieve it when I please And with that he threw Himself down from the House top and was dashed to pieces While a Person was deliberating with himself in deep perplexity of Thought whether he should quit this Life or not accept that Deliverance but be content to tug on still under the weight of a very heavy Calamity which then oppressed him A Wise Man told him That in His Judgment the Matter under Debate was very small and inconsiderable For What is it says he to Live Thy Slaves nay thy Beasts and Cattel Live but to Dye like a Man of Honour and Integrity and Wisdom to leave the World with remarkable Constancy and Courage This indeed is a thing of moment and worth Studying for To conclude this Argument and to crown it with the most complete and substantial Consideration that can possibly belong to it Our most Holy Religion owes more of its Success in the World and more of its Effect upon Men's Hearts and Lives to this single Principle of getting above the Fear of Death than to any other Human Foundation whatsoever No Man can be an excellently Good Christian who is not Resolute and Brave and upon this Account we find that our Great Master who best understood the Temper of his own Gospel does insist upon taking up the Cross Hating and Despising Life for his sake not Fearing Men who can only destroy the Body and the like which are but other Expressions for the Contempt of Death These he insists upon I say as frequently as earnestly as upon any other Duty or Article of Religion whatsoever Now we must understand That there are many Counterfeits and False Pretences to Bravery upon this Occasion a great many People who look big upon the matter and would fain persuade the World nay perhaps are persuaded Themselves That they Despise Death and yet are in truth afraid of it Thus several People will tell you They do not value Life They would be content nay glad to leave the World but the Ceremony and Process of Dying is what They cannot away with Others again while in perfect soundness of Health and Judgment can think of Death without any Impressions of Horror nay have as They imagine settled their Minds so as to bear the Shock of it Firm and Unmoved and Some have gone farther yet and resolved to make it their Choice their own Act and Deed. This is a Farce very often played insomuch that the Soft the Luxurious Heliogabalus himself had a Part in it and made Sumptuous Preparations that his Death might be as Pompous and Expensive as his Life had been But when These Mighty Men of Valour have come to the Push their Hearts have failed and either Courage was wanting to give the Blow or they have repented of such Hardiness for Rash Heat and Folly as Lucius Domitius particularly who after he had Poysoned himself was sorry for what he had done and would fain have Lived when it was too late Others turn away their Heads draw their Cap over their Eyes and dare not look Death in the Face They think of it as little as they can steal upon it and plunge in all on the sudden They swallow it down like unpalatable Physick and hasten to get to the End of that bitter Potion which goes against their Stomach To this purpose is that saying of Caesar That the Shortest Death is the Best and that of Pliny That a Sudden and Speedy Dispatch is the greatest good Fortune that can happen to Man in this Stateof Mortality Now no Man can truly be said to have Resolution and Courage such as is above the Fear of Death who is afraid of facing and coming up to it who dares not meet and undergo it with his Eyes open and his Thoughts and Senses about him Thus we know several have done and therefore this is no Romantick Excellence above the Power or Capacity of Human Nature Thus did Socrates particularly who had Thirty days time to chew the Cud and digest the Sentence pronounced against him and yet after all this Foresight and Consideration Dyed without the least Disorder or Passion without any Change in Countenance or Temper without any struggle or sign of Reluctancy in the most Calm Composed Chearful manner that you at any other time can suppose a Man in Thus
Good especially that God likes us the better merely because we use our selves the worse is a very Fantastical and Erroneous Imagination And such as any Communion or Party of Men by Encouraging do great Injury to the Honour of God deceive the Souls of Penitents and hinder the Essentials of Religion which are Faith and Newness of Life In short They expos Religion in general to the scorn of all those who see the Foppery and unreasonableness of those mistaken Methods and call the very foundations of it into Question by tempting such to think that it is all Invention and Trick and Empty Sensless Formality Advertisement the Second Book II. Chap. 5. Sect. 8. Monsieut Charron hath in this Section put together Two Objections against the Divine Origine of Religion and such as no doubt do it prejudice in the Minds of Men who do not attend to the Reasons of things and judge impartially The First concerns the Manner of Propagating Religion and Man's first entrance into it The Second That want of Efficacy which one would expect an Institution coming immediately from God must needs have upon the Lives and Actions of Those who have Embraced and profess to be Governed by it I. Page 125. The Former of These is urged to be only a matter of Custom and Necessity the Fate of a Man rather than his Choice who if Adult is brought over by Custom and Multitudes and if an Infant is presently initiated into the prevailing Persuasion of his Country or his Family and so continues all his Life long Now for Custom and Multitudes and Example it is very evident This was much otherwise in the first Plantation of Religion that of the Christian in particular A Persuasion which it is manifest came into the World with all possible disadvantages and the Establishment whereof was one of the most amazing Miracles that ever was wrought since the Beginning of the World For People had common Sense then as well as now and all the Corruptions of Human Nature were equally powerful There was the same Arrogance and Vain Opinion of their own Wisdom to render the Mysteries which are acknowledged above the Comprehension of a Human Mind offensive to the Men of some Learning and more Vanity The same sensual Appetites and Vicious Practices to hold out and stand at defiance against the Precepts of Chastity and Sobriety Self-denial and Mortification The same Pride and Opinion of Worldly Grandeur to raise their Indignation and Disdain of a Crucified Saviour The same Love of the World and Tenderness for their Persons to prevent any rash Sacrificing of their Lives and Estates for a Persecuted Faith when nothing was promised in Reward but a very distant Happiness after Death And yet notwithstanding prevail that Faith did in despight of Human Opposition and Interest and prevail it could not have done by any other means than the Almighty Power of its Author and Protector and the Astonishing Effects which the Conviction of its Truth produced upon men's Consciences This certainly was Argument sufficient even to Demonstration that those Words were not in any degree misapplied when put into the Mouth of Christianity and its Preachers Not of Man neither by Man nor of any other Creature but of God And shall it be esteemed any Prejudice to this Religion that Men do not still lie under the same Difficulties in the Choice of it When it hath made its own way triumphantly and weatied out or won over its Persecutors shall the Multitude of its Professors and the Peaceable and Easy Exercise of it be thought to derogate from its Authority Sure it is very unreasonable that Faith should be thought of Divine Extract no longer than while it bids Men embrace it at their Peril The being handed down in Families is a plain and natural Effect of an Established Principle Parents could not have the Affection which becomes their Character did they not take all lawful and Commendable Methods of putting their Children into the same way to Heaven which they trust they are in themselves Especially if the Case lie between any other Persuasion and Christianity which we have reason to believe is the only possible Ordinary way thither The entring Children early into Covenant with God is a very Profitable and Charitable Custom what He himself not only admitted but enjomed formerly and since He is much more eminently the Father of the Christians than of the Jews we have no reason to suspect they shall be less favourably received when as early dedicated to him This gives Security that they shall be taught when their Years enable them to learn how they ought to believe and act so that if their Religion afterwards be merely the effect of Custom and Example This is utterly beside the Design of Those early Initiations where the Express Contrary is positively indented for If Men happen to be bred up in a wrong Persuasion there is little Question to be made but great and gracious Allowances will be made for that fast hold which the Prepossessions of Education have taken But be they in the right or in the wrong it is every One's duty so far as his Opportunities and Capacity will give him leave to examine and see that he may have comfort and be better established in the Truth or else retract his Error Where This is not done it is a neglect and far from the intent of Truth for Truth will bear Enquiry and the more nicely she is look'd into the better she is lik'd the more admired and triumphs and reigns more absolute St. Peter positively commands that we should be ready to give a Reason of the Hope that is in us 1 Pet. III. 15. and though Men are more disposed to consider when their Opinions are like to cost them dear yet the Reason of the Command is Universal and by no means restrained to Times of Persecution only Every Man should do his best to obey it and every Persuasion ought to encourage it and if any do not but hide the Key of Knowledge either by detaining the Scriptures or not leaving Men to the Free Use of Modest and Impartial Reason These are the Men who are most contrary to St. Peter and best deserve the Censure of Monsieur Charron in this Passage II. The Second Insinuation against the Divine Authority of Religion is taken from the Visible Inefficacy of it upon Men's Lives as if all that came from God must needs be effectual for reforming the World Now This how popular and plausible soever at first appearance yet is an Argument of no Foundation or Strength at all For the Short of the Matter lies here Religion never was intended to destroy Men's Nature but only to mend it to change Men indeed in their Affections and Inclinations but so as that this Change should be wrought by themselves Hence it is that though the Grace of God be Almighty yet Man is not a proper Object for its Omnipotence to exert it self upon For
Nature and Simplicity to have always a strict regard to Modesty Her Countenance is Healthful and Masculine Smiling and Cheerful Strong and Authoritative Her Body Streight with her Feet fixed close together upon a Cube that denotes Justice and Firmness Her Arms a-cross as if she were embracing her self intimating that she is happy in and satisfy'd with her self Upon her Head she wears a Crown of Laurel and Olive which imports Victory and Peace The void Space round about her signifies Liberty She looks in a Glass held by a Hand coming out of a Cloud at some distance from her which presents her with the Reflection of her own Face for Wisdom is employ'd in the Knowledge and Contemplation of her self Upon her Right side are these Words I know not not thereby to give Countenance to perpetual Doubt and Scepticism but arguing that she is mature and cautious in Deliberating slow in Determining not positive or peremptory but reserving an Ear open for fresh Reasons and not ashamed to confess that the best Human Knowledge is still dark and imperfect On the Left side are those other Words Peace and a little See Book II. Chap. vi Fig. 6. which are the Author 's own Device represented by a Root impaled wound about with an Olive-Branch and incircled with two Branches of Laurel in an Oval Form implying that a Competency is sufficient and that Men have it in their own Power to be easie and contented Below on each side the Title are Four little deformed wretched wrinkled Old Women bound in Chains the End of which is fasten'd to the Pedestal of Wisdom who despises condemns and tramples them under her Feet The Two on the Right side of the Title are Passion and Opinion Passion hath a meagre and discomposed Countenance intimating Disorder and Fury Opinion hath wild staring Eyes an unsettled and sturdy Face She is supported by several Persons denoting the Extravagance and general Infection of vulgar Errors and how fond of and how stiff the common People are in them The other Two on the Left side of the Inscription are Superstition with an amazed Look her Hands clasped together like a Slave trembling for Fear shewing the Terrors and Astonishments of People possess'd with this Phrensie of the Mind And Lastly there is Learning which is a counterfeit artificial acquir'd and Pedantic Virtue a Slave to Laws and Customs and Forms with a swell'd Face a haughty arrogant Look bold staring Eyes and she reads in a Book wherein is written Yea Nay importing the Vanity and Confidence of Learned Men their Eternal Disputes and the wide Disagreement of their Notions and yet the Presumption and Positiveness they betray in the midst of all this Difference and Uncertainty And Lastly The Chains which terminate in the Footstool of Wisdom shew that Captivity of the Mind which all these Qualities bring Men under which they who study Wisdom labour to get above and they who attain to it break those Fetters and are wholly free from that miserable Bondage A Brief Account OF THE AUTHOR From the French PETER CHARRON was born at Paris in the Year 1541. and Baptized in St. Hilary's Church in the Clos Brunean His Father was one Theobald Charron a Bookseller and his Mother's Name was Nicole de la Barre By Her Theobald had One and Twenty Children and Four more by a former Wife So that our Author had no less than Four and Twenty Brothers and Sisters and yet which is very remarkable among all this numerous Family there is not any Male-Issue now remaining The Condition of his Parents was not very plentiful and their Expence 't is plain was great but however in regard they saw something in their Son Peter which was very forward and promising and argu'd a more than common Capacity they took the Hint from Nature's Kindness and put him out to a very good School After he had made sufficient progress in Greek and Latin he took care to qualifie himself with other Sciences and Parts of Human Learning and study'd Logick Metaphysicks Moral and Natural Philosophy From thence he proceeded to the Civil and Canon Law in the Universities of Orleans and Bourges where he commenced Doctor in that Faculty At his return to Paris he betook himself to the Profession of the Law and was admitted Advocate in the Court of Parliament Where Business often call'd him to the Barr which he always declar'd to be the best and most imporving School in the World And accordingly he took care to lose none of the Publick Hearings From whence his Mind took so strong a Tincture that a Man may plainly discern the Effects of it in his Discourses by the proper Application of Maxims and Terms of Law This Course he continu'd some Five or Six Years but foreseeing that Preferment this way if ever attained at all was like to come hard and slow he neither having Relations among the Sollicitors and Proctors of the Court nor particular Interest nor Spirit little enough to cringe and flatter and wriggle himself into Business he gave over that Employment and apply'd himself close to the study of Divinity To this purpose he read the Fathers and eminent Doctors of the Church and having a Tongue well hung and a Style free and easie but yet refined and lofty too above the rate of common Preachers he made use of this Talent by the Permission of the Parochial Clergy and that with so good Success that he quickly came into Reputation and Esteem with the Greatest and most Learned Men of his Time Insomuch that the Bishops and greatest Prelates about the Town seem'd to be in some sort of Strife which of them should get him into his Diocess Particularly my Lord Arnaud de Pontac Bishop of Bazas a Prelate of excellent Learning having heard him preach at St. Paul's Church in the Year 1571. was so in love with him that he took him away from the place of his Birth and carry'd him to Xaintes and Bourdeaux and into his Bishoprick of Bazas and several other places in Gascony and Languedoc where his admirable Eloquence acquired so just Renown that he had Proffers made by several Bishops of being the Theological Canon or Divinity-Lecturer in their Churches and of several other Dignities and Benefices besides several noble Presents made him In short he was Theologal at Bazas Ars Lethoure Agen Chaors and Condom successively Canon and Schoolmaster in the Church of Bourdeaux and Chanter in the Church of Condom Queen Margarel Dutchess of Valois was pleased to entertain him for her Preacher in Ordinary and the then King tho' at that time of the Reform'd Religion was extremely pleas'd with his Sermons and frequently did him the Honour to hear them He was also a Retainer to the late Cardinal d' Armagnac Legat to his Holiness at Avignon who had a great value for him He did great good by his persuasive way of Preaching and by the Excellencies both of his Life and Doctrine for Two and Thirty
of those Faculties he hath given us to distinguish things by Again If we observe the manner how these Operations are perform'd that it is by External Impressions by which the Object strikes upon the proper Organ and that Impression is continu'd till it be carry'd on to that which is called the Common Sensory or the inward Seat of Sense All this must depend upon the same necessary Laws of Matter and Motion by which Bodies in general act upon one another And therefore supposing the same Object the same force of Impression the same Situation the same Disposition of the Organ the same Medium and the like the Report of the Sense cannot but be the same But where there is a Variation in any of these the Perception is under a necessity of Varying too Thus to use the Instance mention'd by Charron When part of the Eye-Lid is press'd down by the Finger the Rays are differently admitted into the Pupil and fall upon two several places of the Tunica Retina which consequently creates a twofold Impression of the Object And This Duplicity is as natural and necessary in such a Disposition of the Eye as truly agreeable to all the Rules of Matter and Motion as a single Representation wou'd be in the usual Posture so far from a Reflexion upon the Truth of Sense that our Senses could not be true if the thing were otherwise represented A proportionable Difference must needs follow in the different Modifications of Light and Shades which is the Reason of that Appearance taken notice of here of Pieces in Relief the dextrous Management whereof makes the great Secret of the Art of Painting So it is again if there be any thing uncommon in the Medium through which the Rays pass from the Object to the Organ of Sense which is the Case of Prismes or of Eyes either distorted in their Situation or discolour'd in any of the Humours And as These make a Change in the represented Colour of the Object so does the Contraction or Dilatation of the Pupil in the Magnitude or Figure of it And the Eye and other Organs of Sense varying by Age Sickness Nature or Accidents unavoidably require different Sensations in Persons of different Years and Conditions The Matter coming much to one whether the Object be variously represented through Distance or its own Posture and Form or through some Change and Defect of the Organ which receives the Impression All Which sufficiently accounts for the differing Sensations of Children Grown-Men and Aged Persons the different Tastes of the Sick and the Healthful and indeed the vast Diversity of Palats among Mankind in general For here is a mighty Diversity in the Organ of Sense and the making one and the same Report is therefore impossible For our Senses are like Messengers and all their Business is To be Faithful and True in delivering their Errand as they have receiv'd it If it were not given as it ought to be at first that is if there be any accidental Defects to change the Appearance This they are not responsible for but they are to tell what they feel and hear and see and in This they are faithful and may be depended upon For That they may be trusted even in Matters of the greatest Consequence is beyond all reasonable Contradiction not only from the most necessary and important Matters of Humane Life being carry'd on upon the Confidence of this Testimony but which to a Christian is much more considerable from all the External Evidences of Religion being put upon this Issue The Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Saviour the Doctrines he taught and the Miracles he did in Confirmation of them being so many Appeals to the Senses of those with whom he convers'd and the great Motive to Persuasion which the Apostle urges is that he deliver'd That to his Proselytes concerning the Word of Life of which they had had all possible Demonstrations since it was what He and his Fellow-Preachers had heard what they had seen with their Eyes what they had looked upon 1 John I. 1. and their Hands had handled All which was certainly a very weak and impertinent Allegation if the Senses are so liable to Mistakes and so uncertain a Foundation of Knowledge that we cannot with safety fix any Conclusions from the Reports they make to us And yet it cannot be deny'd but Men do very frequently err by too easie a Credulity in this respect which ministers sufficient ground for our Second Enquiry II. Whence those Errours do really proceed which we find sometimes charged upon the Deceiveableness of our Senses In This as well as some Other Particulars Epicurus seems to have been very unfairly dealt withal by the Stoicks and some other Philosophers of a contrary Party who because he asserted the Truth of the Senses and vindicated their Fidelity in Reporting have charg'd him with affirming that a Man cou'd not possibly mistake in forming Judgments according to those Appearances Whereas in Truth Epicurus only places the Senses in the Quality of Evidence whose business it is to relate bare Matter of Fact but does by no means deny the Jurisdiction of the Court to which those Accounts are given to pass Sentence as shall seem just and equal To this purpose is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Diogenes Laertius in his Tenth Book mentions and Gassendus in his Comment upon it so rationally enlarges upon By which is meant that Men ought to avoid Precipitation and not rashly pronounce that things are in reality as they are represented but calmly and slowly examine Circumstances and observe the Causes of such Representations Thus likewise Lucretius in his Fourth Book after having instanc'd in several Appearances which when strictly enquir'd into are found to differ from the Nature of the things themselves closes his Account with these very significant Verses Caetera de genere hoc mirando multa videmus Quae violare fidem quasi sensibus omnia quaerunt Nequicquam Quoniam pars horum maxima fallit Propter Opinatus animi quos addimus ipsi c. Which the English Reader may take from Mr. Creech thus Ten Thousand such appear Ten Thousand Fees To Certainty of Sense and All oppose In vain 'T is Judgment not the Sense mistakes Which fancy'd Things for real Objects takes If then One Light appear to be Two when the Eye-Lid is press'd if a Square Building at a Distance seem Round if a Piece in Perspective seem a Cloyster or a Portico a Man is not presently to conclude that these are really such nor can he be excus'd if he do so For Reason and Considederation wou'd convince him that these Idea's must be so and cou'd not be otherwise That the unnatural Disposition of the Eye must needs double the Image in the first Instance That the Distance of the Object will naturally cut off the Angles and render the Perception less distinct in the second and that Shades artificially cast and
Trees and what they do in our Fields we do upon our Planes They are Nature's Measure of the Sun's Motion and the Gnomon is Ours Sculpture and Engraving of Seals and Characters and Cyphers seems to be derived from the particular Marks and Figures and Embossings found in Precious Stones And if This be allowed the result of all our Boasts is very poor for it all terminates here That Man in truth and strictly speaking hath invented nothing but God and Nature give the Hints and first Draughts of all and We improve and by degrees refine upon them If all that went before be true The Dangers it exposes us to we easily perceive to what Rashness and Errour the Mind of Man is subject and how great the Dangers are which it exposes every one of us to but those Men above all the rest in whom it is more sprightly and vigorous than ordinary For since the Nature of it is perpetual Agitation since its Motions are so free and unconstrain'd and since all kind of Objects sall within its Contemplation since it refuses to be bound up or directed by any certain Forms and Measures and upon all Occasions is so bold in the Use of its Native Liberty without submitting to be captivated and controuled by any thing The common and natural Essect of this is to shake and dissettle Opinions generally receiv'd and already establish'd and to complain of all those Rules by which Men endeavour to regulate and restrain it and check those Extravagancies which some Men call Free-Thinking as an unjust Tyranny and Usurpation upon Nature and a Yoke which every Man hath a right to break Hence it pretends a Privilege of taking nothing for granted but assumes a Power of examining every thing and pronounces the greatest part of these Notions which are entertain'd and approv'd by the generality of the World to be no better than Vulgar Errors ridiculous and absurd Prepossessions It sinds some appearance of Reason on every side and because nothing above a bare Probability is to be found it believes nothing certain Some Notions may have more and some less but all have some Allegations in their Favour And by indulging these sort of Ambiguities it is to be fear'd that at last Men are lost in a Labyrinth give All up and sit down in Doubt and Scepticism That thus it often hath happen'd is too manifest and as evident that this is commonly the Disease of warm and witty Men who trust to their own Sufficiency and have brisker Parts than their Neighbours such as Par. II. according to our former Scheme may deserve a place toward the upper part of the middle Class of Souls For such as these we commonly find by experience are more loose in their Principles more particular in their Opinions more extravagant and disorderly in their Manners than any other sort of Men whatsoever There are but very few of this Constitution sit to be left to their own Conduct or who know how to manage their Abilities to their own Safety and Advantage and how to let their Judgments run beyond the common establish'd Opinions without plunging out of their Depth and paying dear for their Rashness A great and sprightly Wit well temper'd with Solidity and Discretion is now so hard to be found that it is almost a Miracle among Men. For This is an Edged-Tool and apt to do great Mischief if it be not in a very Wise Man's Hand 'T is like a nimble Sayler without Balast whose Swiftness does but hasten its Ruine and drive it so much the sooner upon Rocks and Shelves And if History be enquired into all the Disorders in the State Heresies in the Church Revolts in Armies Parties and Factions of every kind will be generally found to have taken their Rise from such Authors as These * Magni errores non nisi ex magnis ingeniis nihil Sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio Great Errors says one have never sprung from any but great Wits Nothing is more prejudicial more detestable to true Wisdom than too much Smartness of Parts No doubt That Man hath a better time on 't lives longer enjoys more Ease and Happiness and is better qualify'd for Government says Thucydides who is but moderately or not so much as moderately provided in point of Natural Parts than He who hath a very Noble and Transcendent Elevation of Soul For This Temper commonly is good for nothing but to create Trouble and Torment and never let one's self nor others live in quiet It is observable that the dearest Friends when they fall out make the Bitterest and most Irreconcileable Enemies And that the soundest Health and most vigorous Constitutions are subject to the acutest and most mortal Diseases and our Minds do so far sympathize with our Bodies that Those of them whose Operations are more quick and subtle than ordinary are of all others most exquisite in their Follies and have the strongest propension to Madness and Extravagance Wisdom and Folly may be said to dwell pretty near one another There is but a short Turn between them The Behaviour of distracted People plainly shews it Philosophy tells us the same predominance of Humours disposes to both for each abounds in Melancholy And sure there is no Folly comparable to That which we find is the effect of Nice and Subtle Wisdom This mov'd Aristotle to affirm That Nature never made a great Soul without an Alloy of Folly and Plato upon the same Account declar'd That it was a vain Attempt for a Man of good Judgment and sound Sense to knock at the Door of Poetry That was not a Place for such as him to be admitted into The Solidity of his Judgment wou'd hinder the Soaring of his Fancy And upon this Consideration it is that the most skilful and celebrated Poets have not always thought it necessary to submit to Rules but approve of extravagant Flights and the giving one's self a Loose now and then Thus we may understand those known Sayings * Insanire jucundum est Dulce est desipere in loco Non potest grande sublime quicquam nisi mota mens quamdiu apud se est It is pleasant to fly out Creech Hor. Ode XII Lib. IV. 'T is decent sometimes to be vain While the Mind continues it self its Performances are mean Great and Noble Thoughts require a vehement Agitation to give them Birth Upon this account The necessity of restraining it They were certainly in the right who have set strong Barriers and Boundaries about the Soul The necessity of curbing and fettering it with all manner of Restraints with the Articles and Precepts of Religion with the Authority of Laws and Customs the Rules and Sciences of Learning the Promises of Reward and Threatnings both in This and a Future State This Necessity I say hath been well consider'd both by God and Man And great indeed it is for notwithstanding all these Checks the Soul hath its Frolicks and Flyings-out
Women when they had them at their Mercy And all this from no other Principle than a Point of Honour Conquers all other and a Soul enflamed with Ambition to which the Fires of Love were so far from being equal that they were made subservient to it and the Conquest of these Desires became a Triumph and a Sacrifice to their Glory Thus it happen'd very remarkably in Caesar For no Man alive was ever more siercely addicted to Amours of all sorts than He as the many Extravagances he had been guilty of both at Rome and abroad in Foreign Parts abundantly testifie no Man was ever more choice of his Person more nice in Dress more careful to preserve and render it agreeable to the Ladies and yet Ambition was evermore his reigning Passion The Pleasures of Love tho' they had him in perfect Subjection when This came not into Competition with them were then so feeble and so over-match'd that they never cou'd prevail for the throwing away upon them so much as one Hour which was capable of being employ'd or made in any degree serviceable to the promoting his Honour So that notwithstanding the Mixture of any other Passions which had their Seasons too yet Ambition sat Supreme in his Soul and was to all Intents and Purposes as if It had had the sole and ontire Possession of him 'T is true we meet with an Example the very Reverse of this in Mark Anthony and some Others who have been so enslaved by Love as to give up All banish their most necessary and weighty Cares and lose themselves and their Crowns through mere Esseminacy and Neglect But then these have been Persons of quite different Tempers For where both meet together and are fairly weigh'd one against the other Ambition will cast the Scale Some indeed who argue for the force of Love above it tell you that in Reason it must needs be so because This extends to the Body as well as the Mind keeps the whole Man in Captivity and is not only agreeable but necessary and convenient too But I shou'd think the Reason holds on the contrary side and that Ambition is therefore the stronger because the more Spiritual Passion What they pretend of the Body being also concern'd in Love proves the Passion to be so much the Feebler for from hence it must by necessary consequence be capable of being satiated and cloy'd Again What is Corporeal it self admits of Corporeal Remedies and Cures some which Nature provides and others which Art invents and accordingly Experience hath approved these and shewed Instances of many who have beaten down the hottest Flames of Love and of some who have overcome and quenched these quite by artificial Means and good Management But now Ambition is so far from being glutted that its Appetite is never satisfy'd Enjoyment does but whet it more and being seated wholly in the Soul and the Reason renders the Disease obstinate and incurable incapable of outward Application and too deep and subtle for Medicines to reach and fasten upon It does not only conquer the Regard for one's own Health and Ease The Gare of Life for indeed Honour and Ease can never dwell together and make Men content to sacrifice all their Quiet and Comforts and Enjoyment of the World but even the natural Care and Tenderness for our very Lives is not able to stand before it Agrippina the Mother of Nero was an eminent Example of this Nature who being extremely desirous that her Son should be Emperour and inform'd that he should be Emperour indeed but it shou'd be at the Expence of Her Life made an Answer sit for the Mouth of Ambition her self cou'd that be personated Provided he may have the Power says she I am content it should be upon the Condition of using it to my destruction * Occidat mâ—do imperer Let my Son kill me so my Son may but reign Thirdly The Laâ—â— Ambition makes its way through all Laws and tramples Conscience it self under Foot The great Professors of Morality who tell you that a Man must make it his Business to be entirely Virtuous and pay an universal Obedience to Laws yet when they speak of Ambition begin to mince the matter and are content to make an excepted Case of it A Crown it seems is so sweet so delicious a Morsel that the Temptation is invincible and deserves a Dispensation The most abstemious Man may strain a Point and break his Fast upon this Feast †Si violandum est Jus regnandi cauâ— violandum est in caeteris pietatem colas If ever Breach of Law and Equity be allowable says one it is in the Case of gaining a Kingdom but in every thing else be sure to be strictly Virtuous Not that even in this or any Case such Liberties are to be indulg'd but They who thus express themselves signifie the strong Propensity of Humane Nature to this Passion how strong it is in all and how difficult to be subdu'd by any who are tempted with very great Advantages With the same Insolence does it treat the Holiest things Râ—â—g â— eraces all Reverence of God and treads Religion under Foot For what greater Contempt of these can be shewn than the World have seen in Jeroboam who establish'd an Idolatrous Worship for the securing his Throne and Aâ—â—â—â—net who gave general Encouragement to all Persuasions and valu'd not which was uppermost so he might reign And the old Broachers of Heresies who rather chose to forsake the right Way and so become Heads of Parties and Ringleaders in Falshood and Lyes tho' a Thousand Disorders and Impieties were the visible and unavoidable Consequences of that wicked Choice than to continue in a lower and less conspicuous Station by being Disciples and Followers of the Truth With regard to such as these it is that the Apostle hath admirably foretold the Doom of Ambitious Men That they who suffer themselves to be intangled in these Snares make Shipwrack of a good Conscience 1 Tim. i 6. err from the Faith and pierce themselves through with many Sorrows In short It changes Men's Natures Natural Affection hardens their Hearts and makes them brutish defaces all those tender Impressions and Resentments which are most customary and most due to our nearest Relations The infamous Accounts which Sacred or Prophane History hath recorded the Barbarities and Murders committed upon the Persons of Parents or Children or Brethren are most of them insligated by this Passion Witness Absalom and Abimelech and Athaliah Romulus Sei King of Persia who slew his Father and his Brother Soliman the Turk that dispatch'd his two Brothers So unable is any thing to stand against the Force of this impetuous Passion which is for removing every thing out of its way and where-ever it takes its Course overturns and lays all level with the Ground * Est autem in hoc genere molestum quod in maximis Animis splendidissimisque ingeniis
upon us It is a very dangerous Enemy destructive to our Quiet and Comfort and if good Care be not taken of it in time wastes and weakens the Soul deprives us of the Use of our Reason disables us from discharging our Duties and looking after her Business and in time spreads a Rust upon the Soul adulterates and deposes the whole Man binds up his Senses and lays his Virtues to sleep when there is most occasion for rowzing and arming them against the Calamity that subdues and oppresses him In order to beget in us a becoming Aversion to this Passion and employing our utmost Strength and Abilities to resist and repel it we shall do well to consider seriously the pernicious Effects of it and discover how foolish how unbecoming and deformed it is how extremely inconsistent with the Character of Wise Men as the Philosophy of the Stoicks most truly represents it But This as Matters are commonly order'd is no such easie Undertaking for it hath learnt to excuse and vindicate and set it self off under the specious Colours of Nature and Affection and Tenderness and Goodness nay the Generality of the World are so far mis-led that they keep it in Countenance pay it Honour and Respect and think it a Duty and a Virtue as if Wisdom and Conscience never appear'd more beautiful than in a Mourning-Dress Now in answer to these vain Pretences in its Favour T is Unnatural we may observe first of all that This is so far from being agreeable to Nature as it wou'd fain be thought that on the Contrary it is rather a Matter of Formality and directly contrary to Nature Which it is very easie to demonstrate if Men will lay aside the Prejudices of Custom and consider it impartially As for those publick and solemn Mournings I mean not this to the prejudice of a real decent and affectionate Concern but for the Mournings which are practis'd with so much Ceremony and Affectation and were so by the Ancients heretofore as well as by the Generality of Mankind at this Day Where I say can we find a greater Cheat a grosser Sham and Banter upon the World How many industrious Impostures and Hypocrisies What artificial Constraints in our Behaviour are sought and counterfeited both by the Persons themselves who are interested in the Occasion of them and of all the rest that are taken in and bear a Part in this melancholy Pomp And as if all this were not enough we refine and improve the Deceit we even Hire Men on purpose to put on this Folly to stand as Mutes or to make dreadful Lamentations to move and heighten a Passion which ought to be supprest to give Groans and Sighs for a Price such as we all know are feign'd and extorted to shed Tears for the Entertainment of the Spectatours such as fall only when they are seen to do so and are immediately dry'd up as soon as the Company retires And pray Where does Nature teach us any thing like This What can there be indeed more absurd and vain what does Nature condemn what does it detest more than such Insincerity This is nothing but Opinion and Fashion the Cause and Cherisher of almost all our Passions the Tyranny of Custom and Vulgar Errour that instructs Men to indulge their Grief in such a formal manner From hence it is that if a Man be not deeply enough affected in his own Person and cannot furnish a sufficient proportion of Tears and hanging Looks out of his own Stock he is thought oblig'd to hire and purchase a Supply from others who make a Trade of it So that for the satisfying what the World calls Decency we put our selves to vast Expence which Nature if we wou'd take Her Judgment is so far from prescribing that She most freely acquits us of nay condemns us for it Is not this in truth a publick and study'd Assront upon Reason and Common Sense a Constraint and a Corrupting of Nature a Prostituting and Debauching of the Manhood in us a Mocking the World and making a Jest of our selves and that for no other purpose but merely to comply with the Notions of the absurd Vulgar which abound in nothing so much as Falshood and Mistake and admire nothing so much as Counterfeit and Disguise Nor are our Private Sorrows much better Private For These whatever they may seem are no more Natural than the former Did Nature inspire or dictate them they wou'd be common to all Mankind they wou'd affect all Mankind almost equally since All partake of the same Nature and differ only in some few some small Circumstances But here we find very different Resentments The same Objects which afflict and grieve some are Matter of Joy and Satisfaction to others and what draws Tears and bitter Cries from one Person and one Country is receiv'd with great Cheerfulness by another What One does Another disapproves and the Friends of Mourners think it their Duty to exhort to comfort to chide them to beg that they wou'd recollect themselves call in Reason and Religion to their Assistance be Men again and dry up their Tears Observe the greatest part of Them who take pains to afflict themselves hear what they say when you have given them this good Counsel They will make no difficulty to acknowledge that it is a Folly and a Weakness to be guilty of excessive Passions they will commend and call those happy who can stand the Shock of Adversity and have so much Goverment of Temper and such Presence of Mind as to meet an Affliction bravely and bear it steadily and set a gallant and Masculine Spirit in array against it Thus they excuse but they dare not justifie their own Concern They say they cannot help it and by that Apology lament if not condemn themselves for this implies they Wish and think it were better if they cou'd overcome their Grief And in truth the thing is very plain in these private Mournings too that Men do not so much sute their Sorrows to their Sufferings as to the receiv'd Notions of those among whom they dwell and converse And if we take a close and nicer View this will discover to us that Opinion is at the bottom of all our immoderate Melancholy That our Torment and Vexation proceeds from the false Representations of Things and that we grieve either sooner than we ought by Anticipation and Fear and sollicitous Apprehensions of what will come hereafter Which like so many false Perspectives set the Object nearer our Sight or else magnifie the Bulk of it to our Eye and so make us grieve more than we ought upon a Supposal of the Calamity being much greater than really it is But still all This is contrary to Nature Unnatural For Grief defarms and defoces all those Excellencies which are most Beautiful and Lovely in us These all are blunted and melted down by this corroding Passion like the Lustre of a Pearl dissolv'd in Vineger And really we are
Cyrus would not permit the Persians to quit their own Country which was rough and rocky for another that was champaign and smooth and the Reason he gave was That soft and pleasant Soils produce Effeminate People and Fruitfulness in the Ground causes Barrenness in the Minds of the Inhabitants According to this Ground-work we may erect general Schemes of the World by parcelling out the Countries of it into Three large Divisions and the Natives into as many Dispositions The Three general Divisions to be made on this Occasion shall comprehend the Two Extremities of North and South and the Middle Region between them both Each Part or Division shall consist of Sixty Degrees The First shall be plac'd under the Line and take in Thirty Degrees on each side of it that is All that part of the Globe contain'd within the Two Tropicks and some small matter more In which part lie Those that are commonly call'd the Hot and Southern Countries and That which Astronomers and Geographers distinguish by the Title of the Torrid Zâ—â— Africa and Aethiopia in the middle between East and West Arabia Calieut the Moluques and Java Eastward Peru and the great Seas Westward The Second or Middle Division goes Thirty Degrees beyond the former on each side reckoning from the Tropicks towards the Poles and These are the Moderate Climates or Temperate Zones This includes all Europe and the Mediterranean Sea between East and West the greater and lesser Asia Eastward and China Japan and America to the Westward The Third extends it self Thirty Degrees farther yet which lie nearest to each Pole These are the Frigid Zones the Frozen Regions and they that are call'd the Northern Nations as Tartary Moscovy Estotilan Magellan and all that Tract which because not hitherto fully discover'd goes by the name of Terra Incognita According to this general Partition of the World the Qualities and Dispositions of the People are proportionably different And that whether we regard the Body the Mind Religion or Manners as this little Table here subjoyn'd will more distinctly represent the Matter I. As to their Bodies The Northerly People are Tall and Big Phlegmatick Sanguine White or light Tawny their Voices strong their Skin soft and Hairy great Eaters and Drinkers strong and robust The Temperate and middle Regions are in a Mean and of a Nature between these two Extremes Moderate and in a State of Neutrality as it were in all these respects Partaking in some measure of both Qualities but most inclining to the Dispositions of that Division upon which they border nearest Southern People are Low of Stature Small built inclining to Melancholy of cold and dry Constitutions Black and Tawny disposed to Solitude their Voices small and weak their Skin hard little Hair frizled and shaggy abstemious and weak II. Their Minds Heavy Dull Stupid Foolish Credulous easie to be imposed upon inconstant in their Humors and Opinions Ingenious Apt Wife Prudent Subtle Positive in their Opinions Obstinate Unpersuadable III. Their Religion Not much addicted to Religion cold and negligent in Devotion Given to Superstition Studious and Contemplative IV. Their Manners Warlike Valiant Hardy Laborious Chaste not apt to be Jealous Cruel Inhumane Averse to War Cowardly Lascivious Jealous Cruel and Inhumane It is no difficult Matter to evince the Truth of these Characters and assign very probable Reasons These Differences proved why the Persons here mentioned should thus differ from each other As to those Differences which relate to the Body we have Evidence of Sense for them and our Eyes supply the Place of a Thousand Arguments If there be some excepted Cases from the general Rules they may very easily be accounted for though indeed these Exceptions are but very few The mingling and promiscuous Marriages of several Nations the Winds the Waters and particular Situation of the Places where they dwell may each of them contribute to it and all together may make a considerable Alteration Thus a very high and mountainous Country may vary remarkably from a flat under the same Latitude nay this different Site may cause some Variation in the very same Countrey or City Plutarch observes that the Humours of Those who were born and dwelt in the upper Town at Athens were very distant from Those of the lower Town and by the Sea-Side about the Piraeean Port. A high Mountain on the North-Side of a Valley will render the Plain to the Southward of it to all Intents and Purposes a Southern Climate and by the same Reason a Mountain to the Southward which intercepts the Sun will give the Valley beyond it the Effects of a Northern Climate As for those Differences which relate to the Mind Their Mind We know very well that Mechanical Improvements and most Laborious and Handicraft Arts come out of the North where the People are remarkable for indefatigable Industry and Toil. But Learning and Speculative Sciences move with the Sun and come from the South to Us. Caesar and the Antients give the Aegyptians the Character of a most Ingenious and exceeding Subtle People and the Scripture takes Notice as one Commendation and great Accomplishment of Moses that he had been instructed Acts vii 26. and was well skilled in all the Wisdom of the Aegyptians From thence first Philosophy set forward into Europe for the Greeks were beholding to Aegypt for the Fundamentals and Elements of Wisdom Greatness and State seems to have begun There by reason of the Vigour and Subtilty of their Parts The Guards of Princes even of Them whose Dwellings and Dominions are in the South are usually composed of Northerly Men as being look d upon to have more Strength of Body and less of Mind fit for Fight and Defence but not qualify'd for subtle Plots and secret Designs nor disposed to Treachery and Malice What was said of Hanibal is true of these Southern Nations They are of a Disposition that will serve for Great Vices and Great Virtues and may be eminent in Either That which is Chiefly Commendable in the Northern is Good-Nature and Plainness and Undesigning Honesty The intermediate Sciences such as are mix'd partly Speculative and partly Practical Politicks for Instance and Laws and Eloquence and the like are owing to the Middle Regions between those Extremes and most conspicuous and improved there For it is observable that the Greatest and most Flourishing Empires and States have been seated in this Part of the World As to our Third particular Most part of the Religions Practised in the World Religion came from the South and what Mankind generally observe at this Day is either what begun there or Additions and Improvements upon it Agypt and Arabia and Chaldaea have been their Teachers and Patterns and Africa is observ'd to have more Superstition in it than all the World besides Witness the Frequency of their Vows and the Incredible Magnisicence of their Temples As for the Northern Nations Caesar takes Notice That they have but very little Regard
The Power of the Husband In some Places where the Paternal Authority hath been so This hath likewise Extended to Capital Punishment and made the Husband Judge and Disposer of Life and Death Dionys Halic l. 2. Thus it was with the Romans particularly For the Laws of Romulus gave a Man Power to kill his Wife in Four Cases viz. Adultery Putting False Children upon him False Keys and Drinking of Wine Thus Polybius tells us that the Greeks and Caesar says that the old Gauls gave Husbands a Power of Life and Death In Other Parts and in these already mention'd since those Times their Power hath been brought into a narrower Compass But almost every where it is taken for granted that the Authority of the Husband and the Subjection of the Wife implies thus much A Right to direct and controul the Actions to confirm or disannul the Resolutions and Vows of the Wife to Correct her when she does amiss by Reproofs and Confinement for Blows are below a Man of Honour to give and not sit for a Woman to receive and the Wife is obliged to conform to the Condition to follow the Quality the Countrey the Family the Dwelling and the Degree of her Husband to bear him Company wheresoever he goes in Journeys and Voyages in Banishment and in Prison in Flight and Necessity and if he be reduc'd to that hard Fortune to wander about and to Beg with him Some celebrated Examples of this kind in Story are Sulpitia who attended her Husband Lontulus when he was proscribed and an Exile in Sicily Erithrea who went along with her Husband Fhalaris into Banishment Ipsicrate The Wife of Mithridates King of Pentus who kept her Husband Company when he turn'd Vagabond Tacit. after his Defeat by Pompey Some add that they are bound to follow them into the Wars and Foreign Countries when they are sent abroad upon Expeditions or go under any Publick Character The Wise cannot sue or be sued in Matters of Right and Property all Actions lie against the Husband and are to be commenced in His Name and if any thing of this Kind be any where done it must be with the Leave and Authority of her Husband or by particular Appointment of the Judge if the Husband shall decline or refuse it neither can she without express Permission from the Magistrate Appeal from or be a Party in any Cause against her Husband Marriage is not every where alike nor under the same Limitations Different 〈◊〉 aâ—â—â—â— it the Laws and Rules concerning it are very different In Some Countries there is a greater Latitude and more Liberties Indulged in Others less The Christian Religion which is by much the strictest of any hath made it very close and strait It leaves Nothing at large and in our own Choice but the first Entrance into this Engagement When once That is over a Man's Will is made over too and conveyed away for the Covenant is subject to no Dissolution and we must abide by it whether we are contented with our Terms or not Other Nations and Religions have contrived to make it more Easie and Free and Fruitful Of Polygamy and Divorce by allowing and practising Polygamy and Divorce a Liberty of taking Wives and dismissing them again and they speak hardly of Christianity for abridging Men in these Two particulars as if it did great Prejudice to Affection and Multiplication by these Restraints which are the Two great Ends of Marriage For Friendship they pretend is an Enemy to all manner of Compulsion and Necessity and cannot consist with it but is much more improved and better maintain'd by leaving Men free and at large to dispose of Themselves And Multiplication is promoted by the Female Sex as Nature shews us abundantly in that one Instance of Wolves who are so extremely Fruitful in the Production of their Whelps even to the Number of Twelve or Thirteen at a Time and in this exceed other Animals of Service and common Use very much so many of which are kill'd every Day and so few Wolves And yet there are notwithstanding fewer of the Breed Breeders because fewer She-Wolves than of any other Species For as I said the true Reason is because in all those Numerous Litters there is commonly but one Bitch-Wolf which for the most Part signifies little and bears very rarely the Generation being hindred by the vast Numbers and promiscuous Mixtures of the Males and so the much greater part of them die without ever propagating their Kind at all for want of a sufficient Proportion of Females to do it by successfully It is also manifest what Advantages of this Nature Polygamy produces by the vast Increase of those Countries where it is allowed The Jews Mahometans and other Barbarous Nations as all their Histories inform us very usually bringing Armies into the Field of Three or Four Hundred Thousand fighting Men. Now the Christian Religion on the contrary allows but One to One and obliges the Parties to continue thus together though Either nay sometimes Both of them be Barren which yet perhaps if allowed to change might leave a numerous Posterity behind them But supposing the very best of the Case all their Increase must depend upon the Production of One single Woman And lastly they reflect upon Christianity as the occasion of insinite Excesses Debaucheries and Adulteries by this too severe Constraint But the true and sufficient Answer to all these Objections is That the Christian Religion does not consider Marriage upon such Respects as are purely Humane and tend to the Gratification of Natural Appetites or promote the Temporal Good of Men It takes quite another Prospect of the Thing and hath Reasons peculiar to it self sublime and noble and insinitely greater as hath been hinted already Besides common Experience demonstrates that in much the greatest part of Marry'd Persons what they complain of as Confinement and Constraint does by no means cool and destroy but promote and heighten the Affection and render it more dear and strong by keeping it more entire and unbroken Especially in Men of honest Principles and good Dispositions which easily accommodate their Humours and make it their Care and Study to comply with the Tempers of the Person to whom they are thus inseparably united And as for the Debaucheries and Flyings out alledg'd against us the only Cause of Them is the Dissoluteness of Men's Manners which a greater Liberty though never so great will never be able to correct or put a Stop to And accordingly we find that Adulteries were every whit as rife in the midst of Polygamy and Divorce Witness the whole Nation of the Jews in general and the Example of David in particular who became guilty of this Crime notwithstanding the Multitude he had of Wives and Concubines of his own On the contrary These Vices were not known for a long while together in other Countries where neither Polygamy nor Divorce were ever permitted as in Sparta for Instance and at
Rome for a considerable time after the Founding of that City It is therefore most foolish and unjust to asperse Religion and charge That with the Vices of Men which allows and teaches nothing but exquisite Purity and strict Continence This Liberty taken in Polygamy Polygamy differently practised which hath so great an Appearance of Nature to alledge in its behalf hath yet been very differently managed according to the several Nations and the Laws of those Communities where it was allow'd and practis'd In Some Places All that are Wives to the same Man live alike and in common Their Degree and Quality the Respect and Authority is equal and so is the Condition and Title of their Children too In Other Places there is one particular Wife who is the Principal and a sort of Mistress above the rest the Right of Inheritance is limited to the Children by Her They engross all the Honours and Possessions and Pre-eminences of the Husband after his Death As for the Others they are lodg'd and maintain'd apart treated very differently from the former In some Places they are reputed Lawful Wives in some they are only stiled Concubines and their Children have no Pretension to Titles or Estates but are provided for by such annual Pensions or other precarious ways of Subsisting as the Master of the Family thinks fit to allow them As various have the Practice and the Customs of Men been with regard to Divorce Divorce differently practised For with some as particularly the Hebrews and Greeks and Armenians they never oblige Themselves to alledge the particular Cause of Separation nor are they allow'd to take a Wife to them a Second time which they have once divorc'd So far from it that they are permitted to Marry again to others But now in the Mahometan Law Separation must be appointed by a Judge and after Legal Process except it be done by the free Consent of both Parties and the Crimes alledg'd against the Woman must be some of so high a Nature as strike directly at the Root of this Institution and are destructive and inconsistent with the State of Marriage or some of the principal Ends of it such as Adultery Barrenness Incongruity of Humours Attempts upon the Life of the other Party and after such Separation made it is lawful for them to be reconcil'd and cohabit again as oft as they think sit The Former of these Methods seems much more prudent and convenient that so there may be a closer Restraint both upon the Pride and Insolence of Wives when they lie at Mercy and may be cast off at Pleasure and also upon the Humoursome and Peevish Husbands who will be more apt to check and moderate their Resentments when there is no Return nothing to be got by repenting after once Matters have flown so high as to provoke and effect a Separation The Second which proceeds in a Method of Justice brings the Parties upon the Publick Stage exposes their Faults and Follies to the World cuts them out from Second Marriages and discovers a great many things which were much better kept conceal'd And in case the Allegation be not fully prov'd and so they continue oblig'd to cohabit still after all this mutual Complaining and Disgrace What a Temptation is here to Poysoning or Murder to get rid that way of a Partner of the Bed which in Course of Law cannot be remov'd And many of these Villanies no doubt have been committed of which the World never had the least Knowledge or Suspicion As at Rome particularly before Divorce came in use a Woman who was apprehended for Poysoning her Husband impeached other Wives whom she knew to have been guilty of the same Fact and They again others till at last Threescore and Ten were all Attainted and Executed for the same Fault of whom People had not the least Jealousie till this Discovery was made But that which seems the worst of all in the Laws relating to a Married Life is that Adultery is scarce any where punish'd with Death and all that can be done in that Case is only Divorce and ceasing to cohabit Which was an Ordinance introduc'd by Justinian One whom his Wife had in perfect Subjection And no wonder if She made use of that Dominion as she really did to get such Laws enacted as made most for the Advantage of her own Sex Now this leaves Men in perpetual danger of Adultery tempts them to malicious Desires of one another's Death the Offender that does the Injury is not made a sufficient Example and the Innocent Person that receives the Wrong hath no Reparation made for it Of the Duty of Married Persons See Book III. Chap. 12. CHAP. XLVII Of Parents and Children THere are several Sorts and several Degrees of Authority and Power among Men Paternal Authority Some Publick and others Private but not any of them more agreeable to Nature not Any more absolute and extensive than that of a Father over his Children I choose to instance in the Father rather than the Mother because she being herself in a State of Subjection to her Husband cannot so properly be said to have her Children under her Jurisdiction But even this Paternal Authority hath not been at all Times and in all Parts of the World equal and alike In some Ages and Places and indeed of Old almost every where it was universal Dion Halicar lib. 2. Antiq. and without restraint The Life and Death Estates and Goods the Liberty and Honour the Actions and Behaviour of Children was entirely at Their Will They sued and were sued for them They disposed of them in Marriage the Labours of the Children redounded to the Parents Profit nay They themselves were a kind of Commodity for among the Romans we sind this Article Rom. 1. in Suis ff de lib. posth in that which was call'd Romulus his Law * Parentum in Liberos omne Jus esto relegandi vendendi occidendi The Right of Parents over Children shall be entire and unlimited they shall have Power to abdicate and banish to sell and to put them to death Only it is to be observ'd That all Children under Three Years old were excepted out of this Condition because they could not be capable of offending in Word or Deed Aul. Gel. lib. 20. Aristot Ethic. lib. 8. Caesar lib. 6. de Bell. Gall. Prosper Aquit in Epist Sigism nor to give any just Provocation for such hard Usage This Law was afterwards confirm'd and renew'd by the Law of the Twelve Tables which allow'd Parents to sell their Children Three times And the Persians as Aristotle tells us the Antient Gauls as Caesar and Prosper agree the Muscovites and Tartars might do it Four times There want not some probable Reasons to persuade us that this Power had some Foundation or Countenance at least in the Law of Nature and that Instance of Abraham undertaking to slay his Son hath been made use of as an Argument to this
Cowardice and base Degeneracy of Spirit for Lords made Men Slaves because when they had them in their Power and Possession there was more Profit to be got by keeping than there could be by killing them And it is observable that heretofore one of the most valuable sorts of Wealth and that which the Owners took greatest Pride in consisted in the Multitude and the Quality of Slaves In this respect it was that Crassus grew rich above all other Romans for besides Those that continually waited upon him he had Five Hundred Slaves kept constantly at hard Work and all the Gain of their several Arts and Labours was daily brought and converted to his Advantage And this tho' very great was not all the Profit neither for after that they had made a vast Account of their Drudgery and kept them a great while thus in Work and Service their very Persons were a Marketable Commodity and some farther Gain was made in the Sale of Them to other Masters It would really amaze one to read and consider well the Cruelties that have been exercis'd upon Slaves The Cruel Usage of Slaves and Those not only such as the Tyranny of an inhumane Lord might put him upon but such as even the Publick Laws have permitted and approv'd They us'd to Chain and Yoke them together and so make them Till the Ground like Oxen and they do so to this Day in Barbary lodge them in Ditches or Bogs or Pits and deep Caves and when they were worn and wasted with Age and Toil and so could bring in no more Gain by their Service the poor impotent Wretches were either sold at a low Price or drown'd and thrown into Ponds to feed their Lord's Fish They killed them not only for the slightest and most insignificant Offence as the Breaking of a Glass or the like but upon the least Suspicions and most unaccountable Jealousies Nay sometimes merely to give Themselves Diversion as Flaminius did who yet was a Person of more than ordinary Character and reputed a very Good Man in his Time It is notorious that they were forc'd to enter the Lists and combat and kill one another upon the Publick Theatres for the Entertainment of the People If the Master of the House were Murdered under his own Roof let who would be the Doer of it yet all the Slaves tho' perfectly innocent of the Thing were sure to go to Pot. And accordingly we find that when Pedanius a Roman was killed notwithstanding they had certain Intelligence of the Murderer yet by express Decree of the Senate Four Hundred poor Wretches that were his Slaves were put to Death for no other reason but their being so Nor is it much less surprizing on the other hand to take notice of the Rebellions Insurrections and Barbarities of Slaves when they have made Head against their Lords and gotten them into their Power And That not only in Cases of Treachery and Surprize as we read of one Tragical Night in the City of Tyre but sometimes in open Field in regular Forces and form'd Battles by Sea and Land all which gave Occasion for the use of that Proverb That a Man hath as many Enemies as he hath Slaves Now in proportion as the Christian Religion first How they came to lesson and afterwards the Mahometan got ground and increas'd the Number of Slaves decreas'd and the Terms of Servitude grew more easie and gentle For the Christians first and afterwards the Mahometans who affected to follow the Christians Examples made it a constant Practice and Rule to give all those Persons their Freedom who became Proselytes to their Religion And this prov'd a very great Invitation and powerful Inducement to convert and win Men over Insomuch that about the Year Twelve Hundred there was scarce any such thing as a Slave left in the World except in such places only where neither of these Two Persuasions had gain'd any Footing or Credit But then it is very remarkable withal that in the same Proportions And the Poor to increase as the Number of Slaves fell away and abated that of Poor People and Beggars and Vagabonds multiply'd upon us And the Reason is very obvious for Those Persons who during the State of Slavery wrought for their Patrons and were maintain'd at Their Expence when they were dismist Their Families lost their Table at the same time they receiv'd their Liberty and when they were thus turn'd loose into the World to shift for Themselves it was not easie for them to find Means of supporting their Families which by reason of the great Fruitfulness of People in low Condition generally were very numerous in Children and thus they grew overstockt themselves and filled the World with Poor Want and extreme Necessity presently began to pinch these kind of People Return to Servitude and compelled them to return back again to Servitude in their own Defence Thus they were content to enslave Themselves to truck and barter away their Liberty to set their Labours to Sale and let out their Persons for Hire meerly that they might secure to Themselves convenient Sustenance and a quiet Retreat and lighten the Burden which the Increase of Children brought upon them Besides this pressing Occasion and the Servitude chosen upon it the World hath pretty much relapsed into the Using of Slaves again by means of those continual Wars which both Christians and Mahometans are eternally engag'd in both against each other and against the Pagans in the East and Western Countries particularly And though the Example of the Jews be so far allow'd as a good Precedent that they have no Slaves of their own Brethren and Countrymen yet of Strangers and Foreigners they have and These are still kept in Slavery and under Constraint notwithstanding they do come over to the Profession of their Master's Religion The Power and Authority of common Masters over their Servants is not at all domineering or extravagant nor such as can in any degree be prejudicial to the Natural Liberty of Them who live under it The utmost they can pretend to is the chastizing and correcting them when they do amiss and in This they are oblig'd to proceed with Discretion and not suffer their Severities to be unreasonable and out of all Measure But over those who are hired in as Workmen and Days-men this Authority is still less There is only a Covenant for Labour and Wages in Exchange but no Power nor any Right of Correction or Corporal Punishment lies against These from their Masters The Duty of Masters and Servants is treated of Book III. Chap. 15. CHAP. XLIX Of Publick Government Sovereign Power and Princes AFter the Account already given of Private Power The Nature and Necessity of Pub-blick Government the next thing that falls under our Consideration is the Publick or that of the State Now the State that is to say Government or a Determinate Order and Establishment for Commanding and Obeying is the very Pillar
good Use but then it must not be over-strain'd nor applyed to all Occasions indifferently * Quoties parum fiduciae est in his in quibus imperas amplius exigendum est quam satis est ut praestetur quantum satis est In hoc omnis Hyperbole excedit ut ad Verum Mendacio veniat When ever says he you have Reason to distrust the due performance of the Precepts or Laws you establish it is necessary to require something more than will just serve the Turn to the intent That which is sufficient may be sure not to be neglected For all Hyperboles and Excesses of this kind are useful to this purpose that Men by having something expressed which is not true may be brought to just Ideas of that which is true With this Quotation our Author ends his Chapter in the older Edition which I thought convenient to add here and not only so but in regard I am sensible what perverse Use Licentious Men may make of the former Objection to the Prejudice of Religion and in particular Vindication of their own Neglects and Vicious Lives and also what Occasions of Scruple and Disquiet it may minister to some well meaning Persons when they compare their own Defects with the Perfection of the Divine Laws I beg the Reader 's Leave to insert at large what a Learned and Excellent Writer of our own hath delivered to this purpose And this I hope if well consider'd may both confute the Licentious and quiet the Doubting and Dissatisfied in the Point before us Laws says he must not be depressed to our Imperfection Dr. Barrow Vol. I. Serm. xxvi nor Rules bent to our Obliquity but we must ascend towards the Perfection of Them and strive to conform our Practice to Their Exactness If what is prescribed be according to the Reason of Things Just and Fit it is enough although our Practice will not reach it For what remaineth may be supply'd by Repentance and Humility in him that should obey by Mercy and Pardon in him that doth command In the Prescription of Duty it is just that what may be required even in Rigour should be precisely determined though in Execution of Justice or Dispensation of Recompence Consideration may be had of our Weakness Whereby both the Authority of our Governour may be maintain'd and his Clemency glorify'd It is of great Use that by comparing the Law with our Practice and in the Perfection of the One discerning the Defect of the Other we may be humbled may be sensible of our Impotency may thence be forced to seek the Helps of Grace and the Benefit of Mercy Were the Rule never so low our Practice would come below it it is therefore expedient that it should be high that at least we may rise higher in Performance than otherwise we should do For the higher we aim the nearer we shall go to the due Pitch as He that aimeth at Heaven although he cannot reach it will yet shoot higher than He that aimeth only at the House Top. The Height of Duty doth prevent Sloth and Decay in Virtue keeping us in wholesom Exercise and in continual Improvement while we are always climbing towards the Top and straining unto farther Attaintment The sincere Prosecution of which Course as it will be more Profitable to Us so it will be no less Acceptable to God than if we could thoroughly fulfill the Law For in Judgment God will only reckon upon the Sincerity and Earnestness of our Endeavour so that if we have done our Best it will be taken as if we had done All. Our Labour will not be lost in the Lord for the Degrees of performance will be considered and he that hath done his Duty in part shall be proportionably recompensed according to that of St. Paul Every Man shall receive his own reward according to his own Work Hence sometimes we are enjoyned to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect and to be Holy as God is Holy otherwhile to go on to Perfection and to press toward the Mark which Precepts in Effect do import the same Thing but the latter implieth the former although in Attainment impossible yet in Attempt very profitable And surely he is likely to write best who proposeth to himself the fairest Copy for his Imitation In fine if we do act what is possible or as we can do conform to the Rule of Duty we may be sure that no Impossibility of any Sublime Law can prejudice us I say of any Law for many perhaps every one Evangelical Law are alike repugnant to corrupt Nature and seem to surmount our Ability Thus far that Reverend Person whose Argument I know not whether I ought to ask pardon for representing so largely but I was willing to give it entire for the greater Satisfaction of Them who think themselves concern'd to consider it And likewise that it might be of more Use when apply'd as very appliable it is to other Laws and Precepts wherein Religion is not immediately concerned In short a Law-Giver and a Judge are two very different Characters and such as require very different Methods and Principles for it is one Thing to Establish and Another to Execute the Law And the want of observing this Distinction occasions all the Complaints and Declamatory Strains we hear against Moral and Revealed Religion as if they imposed Things merely Romantick and Imaginary To all which I add too that though we none of us can attain to Perfection yet most of us might go much greater Lengths towards it than we do And that This is often made an unnecessary Pretence a Cloak to our Folly or Sloth or indulged Vices which when they have all of them been wilful and affected we palliate and excuse by taking Sanctuary very improperly in the Infirmities of Humane Nature the Imperfections and Failings of the best Men and the Impossibility and Impracticableness of the Duties imposed upon us CHAP. LII Of the Common People BY the Common People here we are not to understand all that have no Part in the Government and whose only Business is to Obey but I mean the Rout and vulgar Croud the Dregs and Rubbish of the Common-Wealth Men of a Mean Slavish and Mechanical Spirit and Condition let them cover or call or set Themselves off how they will Now This is a many-headed Monster such as cannot be described in a little Compass Inconstant and Changeable Restless and Rolling like the Waves of the Sea They are ruffled and calmed They approve and disapprove the self-same Thing in a Moment of Time Nothing in the World can be more casie than to manage and turn this Bawble which Way and into what Form you please they Laugh or Cry are Angry or Pleas'd or in any other Passion just as one would have them They love not War for the Sake of its End nor Peace for the Sake of the Quiet it brings but they are fond both of the One and the Other because each is New
happen that a Man be obliged to struggle with his own Inclination and must conquer and commit a violence upon his Nature to make it serviceable to his purpose and capable of discharging the Employment he hath taken upon him Or on the other hand if in obedience to Nature and to gratify our Inclination we are either with our own consent or insensibly and against our Wills trapann'd into a Course that falls short of our Duty or runs counter to it what miserable Confusion and Disorder must here needs be How can we ever expect Evenness under so much Force Constancy from so much Constraint or Decorum where every thing is against the Grain For as is well oberved * Si quicquam decoium nihil profecto magis quam aequabilitas Vitae universae singularum actionum quam conservare non possis si aliorum imitans Naturam omittas tuam If there be such a thing as Decency in the world it is seen in nothing more than in an easiness and consistency both of one's whole life in general and of each particular Action in it And this Decorum can never be maintain'd if you live in conformity to other people's dispositions and have no regard to the following your own There cannot be a vainer Imagination than to suppose any thing can last long or be well done and eminently good in its kind or that it can become a Man or sit easy upon him if there be not somewhat of Nature and Inclination in it †Tu nihil invitâ dices faciesve Minervâ Hor. Art Poet. Discern which way your Talent lies Nor vainly struggle with your Genius Lord Roscom * Id quemque decet quod est suum maximè Sic est faciendum ut contra naturam universam nil contendamus eâ servarâ propriam sequamur That which is most a Man 's own is always most graceful And we must always take care so to order matters as first to offer no Violence against Nature in general and then to follow our own Genius in particular But now if it should so fall out that a Man either through Misfortune Imprudence or any other Accident should perceive himself entred into a Profession and course of Life full of Trouble inconvenient and improper and that he is so deeply engaged too that there is no possibility of changing or getting quit of it in this case all that Wisdom and good Conduct hath to do is to resolve upon supporting and sweetning it keeping one's self easy and making the most of it Like skilful Gamesters who when they have an ill Throw mend it in the playing For Plato's Counsel is best upon these occasions the bearing our Chance patiently and managing it to all the Advantage an ill Bargain is capable of You see what a Knack of this kind Nature hath given to some sort of Creatures when the Bees out of an Herb so rough and harsh and dry as Thyme is can extract so sweet a Substance as Honey And this is such an Excellence as all those wise and good Men Imitate who manage Difficulties dextrously and as the Proverb expresses it make a Vartue of Necessity CHAP. V. The First Act or Office of Wisdom The Study of and serious Endeavour after True Piety THE necessary Preparations to Wisdom being thus explained in the former Chapters which are in the manner of laying our Foundation it may now be seasonable to proceed to the Building it self and erect upon this Ground-work the Rules and Precepts of Wisdom And here the First both in Order and Dignity which offers it self to our Consideration concerns true Religion and the Service of Almighty God For certainly Piety ought to have the precedence of all Virtues and is the highest and most honourable in the Scale of Duties But the greater and more important it is the more we are concerned to have a right notion of it especially when to the insinite consequence of the thing we add the danger of being mistaken and withal how very common and easy it is to deceive our selves in this point Great need therefore we have of Caution and good Adâ—ice that we may be truly informed how the Man who makes Wisdom his Aim and Business ought to manage himself upon this weighty occasion And the giving Directions of this nature is the design of my present Discourse after I have first made a short Digression concerning the State and Success of several sorts of Religion in the World Of which I shall chuse to speak but briefly here and refer my Reader for farther Satisfaction to what I have said more at large to this purpose in another Treatise of mine called the Three Truths And first of all Difference of Religions I cannot but take notice how dismal and deplorable a thing the great Variety of Relgions is which either now do or formerly have obtained in the World And which is yet a greater misfortune and reproach the Oddness of some of them Opinions and Rites so fantastical so exorbitant that it is just matter of wonder and astonishment which way the Mind of Man could so far degenerate into Brutality and be so miserably besotted with Frauds and Folly For upon examination it will appear that there is scarce any one thing so high or so low but it hath been Deified and even the vilest and most contemptible parts of the Creation have in some quarter of the World or other found People blind enough to pay them Divine Honours and Adoration Now notwithstanding this Difference be really as vast and as horrid as I have intimated or my Reader can imagine yet there seem to be some General Points in common which like Principles or Fundamentals are such as Most if not All of them have agreed in For however they may wander from one another and take different Paths afterwards yet they set out alike and walk hand in hand for some Considerable Time At least they appear and affect to do so the Devil transforming himself into an Angel of Light and undermining the Truth by Mimicking it as knowing that the most effectual Art to seduce Men is by contriving fair and plausible Lies and dressing up Wickedness in its most engaging Attire To this purpose it is observable that the most prevailing Persuasions have sprung from the same Climate and first drew breath in almost the same Air. Palestine I mean and Arabia which are Countries contiguous to one another Some of their First and main Principles are very near alike such as the Belief of one God the Maker and Governor of all things All own the Providence of God and his Particular Love and Favour for Mankind the Immortality of the Soul a Reward in Reserve for the Good and terrible Punishments which await the Wicked even after this Life some particular Profession and set Form of Solemn and External Worship by which they put up their prayers invoke the Name of God and think that a decent Honour and acceptable
Dij placentur quemadmodum ne homines quidem sâ—ewunâ— At this rate the Gods are fond of expiations which even Men abominate and the Mercy of Heaven is purchased with such Barbarities as all Nature starts at Whence could so wild a fancy as this a fancy so distant from all the Just Ideas and Perfections of God spring up that he takes a pleasure in the misery of human nature and the ruin or at least the torment and damage of his own Workmanship What can be more impious or extravagant and how monstrous a Being does such a Belief as This make of God And how justly does the Doctrine of Christ command our Reverence and Esteem which hath abolished all such Worship and rectified Mens Notions in this matter Now as All And others wherein they differ or Most Religions have been shewed to have some Principles in common wherein they are agreed so have they likewise Others peculiar to themselves Certain Articles which are the Characters and as it were the Boundaries of their Respective Communions and serve to separate and distinguish the many Sects and Professions from one another With regard to These it is that the Men of every Religion prefer themselves above all the World besides that they afirm with great assurance their own Persuasion to be the best the purest the most Orthodox of any and as another means of magnifying themselves are eternally reproaching those that differ from them with Errors and Corruptions and by this means they are eternally employed too in creating Breaches or in widening and keeping open such as are already made by the mutual Disallowance and Condemnation which every Party is perpetually declaring against the Notions of every other Party and representing all Systems but their own to be false and dangerous and by no means to be admitted But Blessed be God We Christians need be in no pain in the midst of this Variety and Contest Our Religion having the Advantages of all others both in point of Authentick and unquestionable Testimony and in other Excellencies peculiar to it self This I have demonstrated at large in the Second of my Three Truths and shewed the manifest Preeminence due to it Now One thing is very worthy our Observation in this general Strife The later are built upon the former and more antient and That is the Advantage which Time and Succession have given in this matter For we shall find that in proportion as One Religion hath been of a later date than another so it hath gained somewhat from that which came into the World before it and the Younger hath always built and raised it self upon the Elder more particularly upon that which was next of all before it in Order and Time And the method of effecting this hath been not by disproving or exploding all that went before in the gross and at once for upon these terms it could never have found entertainment or got any manner of Footing with people so prepossessed but the Course hath been to accuse what was formerly received of some defect or Insufficiency alledging that the Institution was imperfect in it self or that it was only Temporary and the Term for which it was calculated then expired and therefore this New Additional one was necessary to succeed in the place of an abolished and to compleat an unfinished Religion And thus by degrees the new one rises upon the Ruins of the Old and is enriched by the Spoils of its vanquish'd Predecessor As we know the case hath plainly stood with the Jewish Religion when it prevailed over the Pagan and Egyptian way of Worship the Jewish people not being to be brought off from the Customs of that Country all at once And afterwards the Christian Faith and Promises when they triumphed over the Jewish Privileges and Mosaical Dispensation and since that the same Pretence hath been made use of to advance Mahumetism upon the Jewish and Christian Religion taken together Each of these hath retained something of the Religion it pretended to dispossess and built upon Old Foundations But none so much as the Mahometan which professes to persist and be fully persuaded in All the Doctrines of Jesus Christ save only that Great and most important one which asserts his Divinity So that he who would pass from Judaism to Mahometanism must take Christianity in his way And we are told there have been some Mahometans who have exposed themselves to Sufferings and Torture in defence of the Christian Truths as a Christian likewise upon his own Principles would be bound to do in vindication of the Authority and Doctrines of the Old Testament But now if we cast our Eyes upon the more Ancient sort of Institutions we shall find them dealing after a very different manner with the New which as I said in part allow and only profess to improve and refine upon Them For They reject and condemn Them intirely give them no quarter but cry out upon them for Innovations and look upon every thing of later date than themselves as a mortal and irreconcilable Enemy to the Truth as if after the Period of their own Establishment Time could from thenceforth produce none but monstrous Births and all who did not sit down and stick there must be inevitably abandoned to Falshood and Corruption This I think may be farther affirmed to be a Qualification common to all Religions whatsoever All of them uncouth to Nature that they are every one in Some Points uncouth and foreign from the Common Sense and apprehensions of Mankind And the Reason seems to be that They all of them propound to our Consideration and Belief and are Systems consisting of and built upon Points of a very distant kind from Common Sense For Some of them when weighed in the Balance of human Judgment appear to be exceeding mean and low and contemptible such as a Man of Wit and Vigorous Thought finds himself rather tempted to ridicule and expose than to pay any Reverence to them And Others again are so exceeding sublime the Lustre of them so strong the Nature of them so full of Miracle and Mystery that as Finite Causes could never effect so finite Understandings can never comprehend them fully and at These the Men of Discourse and Demonstration take offence and will allow nothing to be credible which is not intelligible Whereas in Truth the Sphere in which the human Intellect moves and acts is placed between these two Extremes For we are capable but of such things as lye in a middle State and are of a moderate proportion These only are of a size with our Souls They fit us and therefore They Only please and are easy to us those of a lower Rank we look down upon with Indignation and Scorn and those of a higher Condition are too weighty and bulky for us they create Wonder and Amazement only and therefore the wonder ought not to be great if the Mind of Man recoil again and shew a disrelish against all
Religion since in All there is so very little of such Doctrine as is agreeable to the common Temper and Capacity of Mankind but the principal Points of Faith and Worship are in one of the forementioned Extremes and those of Practice distant either from common Use or from general Inclination Hence it comes to pass that the Men of strong Parts have so often despised Religion and exposed it to the Derision of the World and those of Weak and Superstitious Minds are confounded and scandalized at it This was St. Paul's Complaint in the first planting of the Christian Faith 1 Cor. 1.23 We preach Jesus Christ crucified to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness And this indeed is the very Reason why we find so much Prophaneness and Irreligion so much Error and Heresy in the World Some believe not at all and others believe amiss because they consult their own Judgment only and hearken to no other Guide but the Dictates of human Reason They bring matters of Religion to the same Trial with other common matters and will needs undertake to examine and measure and judge of them by the Standard of their own Capacity They treat this Divine like other Common and merely Human Sciences and Professions expecting to master and penetrate to the bottom of it by the strength of Natural Parts But This is not the way of dealing with Divine Truths A Man's Affections must be qualified and disposed for these Doctrines They require Simplicity and Honesty meekness of Temper an humble and obedient Mind These only can fit a Man for receiving Religion For he that does so in good earnest must believe its Declarations submit to its Laws and govern himself by them with Reverence and Resignation of Soul In short he must be content that his own Judgment should be over-ruled by the Word of God and to live and be led by universal Consent and Authority which seems to be the Subjection intended by the Apostle when he speaks of * Captivantes intellectum ad obsequium Fidei Casting down Imaginations or Reasonings 2 Cor x. 5. and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every Thought to the obedience of Faith And Reason good they should be so however the Conceited or Unthinking part of the World may quarrel at this method yet it was certainly a great Instance of the Divine Wisdom to order the matter thus For such a proceeding seems highly necessary in order to preserve that Admiration and Respect which is due to Religion and which upon any other Terms would very hardly have been paid to it For religion ought to be entertained and embraced with Holy Reverence and great Authority and therefore with some degree of Difficulty too For Reason and Experience may soon convince us that if it were in every Circumstance suited to the Palat and of a size with the natural Apprehensions of Mankind if it carried nothing at all of Miracle or Mystery in it as it would be more easily so likewise it would be less respectfully received And so much as you bring it nearer to the Level of common Matters so much you certainly abate of that Regard it ought to have above all other matters whatsoever Now Why they are not to be received by human means since all Religions and Schemes of Belief are or pretend to be what I have here described foreign from and far above the Common Sense and Capacity of Mankind they must not they cannot be received or take possession of us by any human and natural means For had the Case been thus the most exalted Minds would have been in proportion eminent for Religion and so many Men of Wit and Judgment in Other things could never have been defective here but these Notions must needs have been conveyed into Mens Minds by supernatural and extraordinary Methods by Revelation from Heaven and The persons that receive and imbibe them must needs have them by the secret Teachings and Inspiration of God And thus you find that All who believe and profess Religion say for all of them do in effect assume to themselves that Declaration of the Apostle Gal. I. 1 12. Not of Men neither by Man nor of any other Creature but of God But if we lay aside all Flattery and Disguise and speak freely to the Point But yet so they are there will be found very little or nothing at the bottom of all these mighty Boastings For whatever Men may say or think to the contrary it is manifest that all sorts of Religion are handed down and received by human Methods This Observation is true in its very utmost Sense and Extent of all False and Counterfeit Persuasions for These when search'd to the bottom are no better than Diabolical Delusions or Human Inventions But True Religion as it is derived down to us from a Higher Original so it moves us by other Springs and is received after a very different manner And here to get a right understanding of this matter we must distinguish between the First Publication of the Truth that Reception which made it general and gave it a Settlement in the World and that Particular One by which private Persons embrace and come into it when already established The Former of These which first fix'd this Heavenly Plant was altogether Miraculous and Divine and agrees punctually with the Evangelist's account The Lord working with the Apostles and Preachers and confirming the Word with Signs following But the Latter must be acknowledged in great measure Human and private Mens Faith and Piety to be wrought by common and Ordinary Means This seems to be sufficiently plain first from the Manner of Religion's getting ground in the World and that whether we regard the first general planting of any Persuasion or the method of its gaining now upon private persons For whence is the daily Increase of any Sect Does not the Nation to which we belong the Country where we dwell nay the Town or the Family in which we were born commonly give us our Religion We take that which is the growth of the Soil and whatever we were born in the midst of and bred up to that Profession we still keep We are Circumcised or baptized Jews or Christians or Mahometans before we can be sensible that we are Men So that Religion is not the Generality of People's Choice but their Fate not so much their own Act and Deed as the Act of Others for and upon them See the Notes The Man is made a Member of the Jewish or Christian Communion without his Knowledge because he is descended of Jewish or Christian Parents and in a Country where this or that Persuasion obtains most And would not this do you think have been his Case if born in any other part of the World Would not the same person have been a Pagan or Mahometan if born where Heathen Idolatry or Mahumetism
prevailed But now as to the Observance and living up to the Precepts of Religion Those who are True and Pious Professors besides the external Profession of the Truth they have the Advantage of the Gifts and Graces of God the Assistance and Testimony of the Holy Ghost common to all and from which even the mistaken are not utterly excluded This indeed is a Privilege which blessed be God is capable of being very usual and frequent and many great Pretensions and pompous Boasts are made of it But yet I vehemently suspect notwithstanding all the fair shew and plausible pretences Men make of this kind This Grace and Spirit is not so largely and so commonly enjoyed nor so strong in its Influences and Effects as Some would have us believe For surely were This so powerful in us and were Religion our own free Choice and the Result of our own Judgment the Life and Manners of Men could not be at so vast a distance and manifest disagreement from their Principles nor could they upon every slight and common occasion act so directly contrary to the whole Tenor and Design of their Religion And this Inconsistence of Faith and Manners is also a Proof that our Faith is not from God for were this planted and fasten'd in our Minds by so powerful a hand as His it could not be in the power of any Accident or Temptation to shake or unsettle us so firm and strong a Band could not so easily be broken or burst through Were there the least Touch the smallest Ray of Divine Illumination This Light would shine in every action of our lives and dart it self into every corner of our Souls The Effects of it would appear in all our behaviour and not only be sensible but wonderful and amazing too according to what Truth himself said upon occasion to his Disciples Matth. xvii 20. If ye had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed ye shall say to this mountain Remove hence and it shall remove and nothing shall be unpossible to you But alas if we look abroad and consider the behaviour of the World what proportion what correspondence can we find between the Belief of the Soul's Immortality and a future Judgment and the Practices of Mankind Would Men Could Men indeed lead the lives they do and at the same time be persuaded in good earnest that a Recompence awaits them hereafter so glorious and happy on the one hand or so full of misery and shame on the other One single thought and the bare Idea of those things which Men profess so firmly to believe would perfectly confound and scare wicked Men out of their Wits There have been instances of very strange effects wrought upon Persons only by the apprehension of publick Justice the Fear of dying by the hands of a Common Executioner or some other Accident full of misfortune and reproach and yet What are all these Calamities in comparison of those Horrors which Religion tells us will be the Sinner's portion hereafter And is it possible that these things should be entertained and believed indeed and Men continue what they are Can a Man seriously hope for a Blessed Immortality make This the Object of his Expectations and Desires and yet at the same time live in a slavish dread of Death which he knows is the Necessary the Only passage that can lead him to it Can a Christian fear and live under the apprehensions of Eternal Death and Punishment and yet indulge himself in those very Vices which that very Hell he believes is ordained to avenge These are most unaccountable Stories and things as incompatible as Fire and Water Men tell the World that they believe these Doctrines nay they persuade themselves that they do really believe them and then they endeavour to proselyte others and make Them believe so too but alas there is nothing in all this nor do They who talk and act thus inconsistently know what it is to Believe Such Professors as these are what an Ancient Writer called them Liars and Cheats or as another express'd himself very well upon the like occasion who reproached the Christians with being the gallantest Men in the World in some respects but the pitifullest and most contemptible wretches in others For says he if you consider the Articles of their Belief you will think them more than Men but if you examine their Lives and Conversations you will find them worse than Brutes more filthy than the very Swine Now certainly if we were wrought upon by such becoming Impressions of God and Religion as are the Effects of Grace and an Engagement so forcible as Those of a Divine Power nay were we but persuaded of these matters by a bare simple and common Assent such an historical Faith as we credit every Vulgar relation of matters of Fact with did we but allow the same Deference to what we call the Word of God which we pay to the advice and exhortations and common discourse of our Friends and Acquaintance the Doctrines of the Gospel could not but be preferred by us infinitely above any other advantages whatsoever for the sake of that incomparable Goodness and Excellence so illustriously visible in every part of them But sure the least we can be imagined capable of in this case would be to admit them into an equal share of our Affection and Esteem with Honours or Riches or Friends or any kind of Allurements this World can pretend to seduce us by And yet all this notwithstanding there are but very few who are not more afraid to offend a Parent or a Master or a Friend than they are of incurring the displeasure of an Almighty God And who would not rather chuse to act in contradiction to an Article of Religion and so forfeit Heaven hereafter than to break the measures of worldly Interest and Prudence at the expence of what they stand possess'd of in present This is indeed a Great Wickedness and Misfortune but for Persons who consider things impartially Christianity will not suffer in Their Esteem The Honour and Excellence the Purity and Sublime Powers of Religion are no more Impaired or Polluted by it than the Rays of the Sun contract Defilement from the Dunghils they shine upon For Principles are not to be tried by their Professors but the Professors by their Principles But we can never exclaim sufficiently against those vile Men who profane the Truth by their Vicious Lives and against whom that very Truth it self hath denounced so many Woes and such dreadful Vengeance Now the first step towards informing our selves What the nature of True Piety is The Difference between true and false Religion will be to distinguish it from That which is False and Counterfeit and only the Mask and Disguise of Religion Till this be done we shall but confound our selves with equivocal and ambiguous Terms and prevaricate both in Expression and in Practice as indeed the greatest part of Mankind it is to be feared do upon this
occasion Now there is nothing that pretends more to a graceful Air nor takes more true pains to appear like true Piety and Religion than Superstition does and yet at the same time nothing is more distant from or a greater Enemy to it Just as the Wolf which carries some tolerable Resemblance to a Dog but is of a quite different Disposition and comes to devour that Flock which it is the other's business to defend as Counterfeit Money is more nicely wrought than true Coin or as a Flatterer who makes shew of extraordinary Zeal and Affection but is in reality nothing less than that true Friend he desires to be thought It is no injudicious Character given by Tacitus when he describes a sort of Men * Gens Superstitioni obnoxia Religionibus adversa extremely liable to Superstition and at the same time violently averse to Religion Superstition is likewise envious and jealous to the last degree affectedly officious and troublesome like a fond Courtezan who by her amorous jilting tricks puts on more Tenderness and pretends to infinitely more concern and love for the Husband than his true Wife whom she endeavours to lessen in his esteem Now some of the most remarkable Circumstances wherein these two differ are That Religion sincerely loves and honours God settles the Mind in perfect ease and tranquillity and dwells in a noble and generous a free and gallant Spirit whereas Superstition fears and dreads God gives Men unworthy and injurious apprehensions of his Majesty perplexes and scares the Man and is indeed the Disease of a weak and mean a timorous and narrow Soul * Superstitio Error insanus Amandos timet quos colit violat Morbus pusilli animi Qui Superstitione imbutus est quietus esse nusquam potest Varro ait Deum à Religioso vereri à Superstitioso timeri It is according to St. Augustin's account of it all over Error and Phrensy it lives in terror of those whom it ought to love dishonours and affronts those whom it pretends to respect and adore it is the Sickness of a little and feeble Mind He that is once tainted with Superstition can never more enjoy peace and rest Varro 's observation is That Religious Men serve God out of Reverence but the Superstitious out of Horror and perpetual Dread of him But we will be a little more particular upon each of these Qualities The Superstitious Person is one who neither lets himself Superstition described nor any thing else be quiet but is eternally teazing and troublesome both to God and Man The Ideas he entertains of God represent him as an Ill-natur'd and Morose an Envious and a Spiteful Being Unreasonable Rigorous and hard to be pleased quickly provoked but long before he is reconciled again One that takes notice of our Actions after the same manner that we commonly observe those of one another with a sort of malicious Curiosity watchful to find faults and glad to take the advantage of any Failings All this it is true he does not own nor speak it out but the manner of his serving God sufficiently declares and speaks it for him for That is agreeable and exactly of a piece with these Notions He trembles and quakes for fear hath no enjoyment of himself nor any degree of Comfort or inward Security full of Fears and Melancholy Distrusts always fancying that he hath done too little and left somewhat undone for want of which all the Rest will signify nothing He very much questions whether God be satisfied with his best Endeavours and in this disquiet he applies himself to methods of Courtship and Flattery Tries to Appease and gain upon him by the length and importunity of his Prayers to Bribe him with Vows and Offerings Fancies Miracles to himself easily believes and takes upon trust the Counterfeit Pretensions of this kind from others Applies every Event to his own Case and interprets those that are most ordinary and natural as expresly meant and directed to Him by the particular and immediate hand of God he catches greedily at every Novelty and runs after every new Pretender to Light and Revelation * Duo Superstitiosis propria nimius Timor nimius Cultus Two inseparable Qualities of Superstitious People says one are Excess of Fear and Excess of Devotion Now what in truth is all this but to Torment one's self most immoderately and at the expence of infinite trouble and disquiet to injure and affront God to deal with him after a most base sordid and unworthy manner to use him as if he were a mercenary Being and to treat the Majesty of Heaven and Earth as we durst not presume to use a Man of Quality or Honour And indeed generally speaking not only Superstition but most other Errors and Defects in Religion are owing chiefly to want of right and becoming apprehensions of God We debase and bring him down to Us compare and judge of him by our Selves cloth him with our own Infirmities and unaccountable Humours and then proportion and suit our Worship and Services accordingly What horrid Prophanation and Blasphemy is This And yet as detestable a Vice as dangerous a Disease as This is It is natural it is in some measure Natural and all Mankind have more or less Inclination to it Plutarch laments the Weakness of Human Nature in that it never keeps a due Medium nor stands firm upon its feet but is eternally leaning and tottering to one or other Extreme For in truth either it declines and degenerates into Superstition and Vanity and mistaken Religion or else it hardens it self in a Neglect of God and a Contempt of all Religion We are all of us like a Silly Jilted Husband that is Put upon by some gross Cheat of an Infamous Woman and takes more delight in her little studied Arts to cajole and bubble him than he finds satisfaction with his own Virtuous Wife who serves and honours him with all the genuine Modesty and unaffected Tenderness becoming her Character Just thus are we abused by the large Pretences of Superstition and prefer it before the less showy and pompous Charms of true Religion It is also exceeding frequent and common we cannot wonder the Vulgar should be infected with it Common after what hath been said of its proceeding from Weakness of Mind from Ignorance or very mistaken Notions of the Divine Nature Upon all which accounts we may well suppose it is that Women and Children Old Men and Sick Persons or People stunn'd with any violent Misfortune or under the Surprize and Oppression of some uncommon Accident are observed to labour most under this Evil. The same hath been likewise observed by Plutarch of rude and unciviliz'd Countries * Inclinant naturâ ad Superstitionem Barbari Plutarch in Sertorio The Barbarians says he are naturally disposed to be Superstitious Of Superstition then it is and not of Religion and true Piety that what we commonly repeat after Plato must be understood where
he says that the Weakness and Cowardice of Mankind first brought Religion into Practice and Esteem and that upon this account Children and Women and Old People were most apt to receive Religious Impressions more Nice and Scrupulous and more addicted to Devotion than others This I say is true of Superstition and mistaken Devotion but we must not entertain any such dishonourable Thoughts of true and perfect Religion This is of a nobler Descent its Original is truly Divine it is the Glory and Excellence not the Imperfection of Reason and Nature and we cannot be guilty of greater Injustice to it than by assigning such wretched Causes for its beginning and increase and drawing so scandalous a Pedigree for its Extract Now besides those first Seeds and general Tendencies to Superstition which are derived from Nature Cherished by Reason and Policy and Common to Mankind there are large Improvements and Additions of this Vice owing to Industry and Cunning. For many people support and cherish it in themselves they give it countenance and nurse it up in others for the sake of some Convenience and Advantage to be reaped from it It is thus that Great Persons and Governors though they know very well the Folly and baseness of it yet never concern themselves with putting a stop or giving any disturbance to it because they are satisfied This is a proper State-Tool to subdue Mens Minds and lead them tamely by the Nose For this reason it is that they do not only take good care to nourish and blow up that Spark which Nature hath already kindled but when they find occasion and upon some pressing Emergencies they set their Brains on work to forge and invent new and unheard of Follies of this kind This we are told was a Stratagem made use of by Scipio Sertorius Sylla and some other eminent Politicians * Qui faciunt animos humiles formidine Divûm Depressosque premunt ad terram Who by false Terrors Freeborn Souls debase And paint Religion with so grim a Face That it becomes the Scourge and Plague of human race †Nulla res multidudinem efficaciùs regit quam Superstitio Nothing keeps the Multitude under so effectually as Superstition But enough of this wretched People and that base Superstition An Introduction to the description of true Religion which like a common Nusance ought to be detested by that Scholar of mine whom I am now instructing and attempting to accomplish in the Study of Wisdom Let us leave them grovelling in their filth and betake our selves now to the Search of true Religion and Piety of which I will here endeavour to give some strokes and rude lines which like so many little Rays of Light may be of some use at least and help to guide us in the pursuit of it Now from the former Considerations it does I hope sufficiently appear that of the great Variety of Persuasions at present or any possible to be Instituted Those seem to Challenge the Pre-eminence and best deserve the Character of Truth and Religion indeed which without imposing any very laborious or much external Service upon the Body make it their business to contract and call the Soul home that employ and exalt it by pure and heavenly Contemplations in admiring and adoring the Excellent Greatness and Majesty incomprehensible of Him who is the First Cause of All Things the Necessary the Best the Original Being And All this without any nice or presumptuous declaration what this Being is or undertaking positively to determine and define any thing concerning that Nature which we cannot understand or prescribing too peremptorily how he ought to be Worshipped But contenting our selves with such large and indefinite acknowledgments as These That God is Goodness and Perfection it self infinite in all Respects and altogether incomprehensible too vast for human knowledge to understand or conceive distinctly And thus much the Pythagoreans and other most celebrated Sects of Philosophers taught long ago This is the Religion of Angels and that best sort of Worshippers in Spirit and Truth whom God seeks and loves But among all those less spiritualized Pagans who could not satisfy themselves with so refined a Principle as Inward Belief and the Exercise of the Soul only but would needs gratify their Senses and Imagination with a visible Object of Worship which was an Error all the World almost was tinctured with The Israelites chose a Calf but None seem to have made so good a Choice as those who pitched upon the Sun for their God This indeed excelling all other Creatures so vastly with regard to its Magnitude and Motion its Beauty and Lustre its wonderful Use and Activity and the many unknown Virtues and Efficacies of its Influences that it does certainly deserve nay command the admiration of all the World we cannot think too highly of it while we remember it is still but a Creature for look round this whole Fabrick and Man excepted your Eye shall discover nothing so glorious nothing equal nay nothing near or comparable to it The Christian Religion preserves a due Temper between these Extremes and by devoting both Body and Soul to God and accommodating it self to all Conditions and Capacities of Men hath mixed the Insensible and Internal Worship with that which is Sensible and External Yet so that the most perfect and Spiritual Persons employ themselves chiefly in the former and the weak and less exalted are taken up with that which is invisible and popular Religion consists in the Knowledge of God and of our Selves Some descriptione of Religion For This is a Relative Duty and these are the two Terms of that Relation It s business is to magnify God and set Him as high and to humble Man and lay Him as low as possibly we can To subdue and beat him down as a lost worthless Wretch and when this is once done then to furnish him with helps and means of raising himself up again to make him duly sensible of his own Impotence and Misery how Little how mere a Nothing he is that so he may cast away all Confidence in himself and place and seek his Hope his Comfort his Happiness his All in God alone That which Religion is chiefly concerned in is the binding us fast to the Author and Source of all Good the grafting us afresh and consolidating Man to his first Cause like Branches or Suckers into their proper Root For so long as Man continues firm and fixt in this Union so long he preserves the Perfection of his Nature but on the contrary when once he falls off and is separated from it all his Vigor and Powers are dried up and gone and he immediately withers and dies away The End and Effect of Religion is faithfully and truly to render their Dues both to God and Man that is to say All the Honour and Glory to God and all the Gain and Advantage to Man For these two comprehend under them all manner
And this they are obliged in Duty and Conscience to do upon the account of the Reasons laid down by me at large in the first and last Chapters of my Third Truth which places alone are sufficient to satisfy those Readers who either have not the opportunity or will not give themselves the trouble of perusing the whole Book One necessary Caution there is yet behind Piety and Probity must go together and he who makes any pretensions to Wisdom must by all means attend to it which is That he do not separate the Piety spoken of in this Chapter from that Probity and Integrity treated of before and so imagining that One of these is sufficient for his purpose be at no pains to qualify himself with the Other and as careful must he be too not to confound and jumble these two together as if they were but two names for one and the same thing For in truth Piety and Probity Devotion and Conscience are distinct in their very nature are derived from different Causes and proceed upon different Motives and Respects I desire indeed that they may go hand in hand and be both united in the Person whom at present I am forming into Wisdom and most certain it is that Either of them without the Other is not cannot be perfect But still they must both meet and both continue distinct and though we would join yet we must take care not to confound them And These are two Precipices which must be diligently avoided and few indeed keep clear of them for either they separate Religion and common Honesty so as to satisfy themselves with one of them alone or else they jumble Godliness and Morality together so as to make them all one or at least to represent them as exactly of the same Species and effects of the same Common Principle The Persons under the former Error Piety without Probity which separate these Two and content themselves with One of them singly are of two sorts For some devote themselves entirely to the Worship and Service of God spend all their time and pains in Praying and Hearing and other holy Ordinances and place all Religion in These but as for Virtue and strict Honesty in their Dealings Sincerity and Charity and the like and in a word living in agreement to their Prayers and practising what they hear and read they have no relish or regard for These things nor make any account of them at all This is a Vice taken notice of as Epidemical and in a manner Natural to the People of the Jews who were above all Mankind addicted to Superstition and upon that account scandalous and detestable to all the World besides and among them the Scribes and Pharisees in a yet more infamous degree The Prophets exclaim against it loudly and afterwards their own Messiah reproaches them with it perpetually He exposes that villanous Hypocrisy Matt. xxi which made their Temple a Den of Thieves which exalted their Ceremonies and outward Observances to the prejudice of inward and substantial Holiness which made a Conscience of Traditions that they might xv under that pretence get a convenient Cloak and Excuse for the most unnatural Barbarities which Tithed Mint and Anise and Cummin xxiii but overlook'd Judgment and Righteousness and Fidelity In one word They were so overrun so extravagantly conceited in the matter of external Devotion and ceremonious Observances that provided they were punctual in These they fancied themselves discharged of all Other Duties nay they took occasion from thence to harden their hearts and thought This would atone for other Faults and give them a Privilege of being wicked This is a sort of Female and Vulgar Piety and vast numbers are tainted with it every where at this very day they lay out all their Diligence and Care upon those little Exercises of outward Devotion for Little sure they are as They use them who never carry the Effects of them home to their Lives and Consciences but Pray and Read and frequent the Church and Ordinances and are not one whit the better Men for doing so This gave occasion to that Proverb A Saint at Church and a Devil at Home They lend their hand and their outside to God pay Him all the demonstrations of Reverence and Respect And a fair outside it is but all This as our Lord told the Pharisees is but a whited Wall and a whited Sepulchre This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me Nay they do not only neglect the Practice of other Duties and take no pains to be all of a piece but their very Holiness it self is from a wicked Design they make this Piety a Cover for greater Impieties alledge and depend upon their Devotions first to give them Credit in the World and greater Opportunities to deceive under the Mask of so much Sanctity and then for the extenuating or making a compensation for their Vices and sinful Liberties Others there are who run into a distant and quite contrary Extreme They lay so great Stress upon Virtue and Moral Honesty as to value nothing else and make Religion and Piety strictly so called no part of their Concern This is a Fault observable in some of the Philosophers and may be observed very commonly in people of Atheistical Principles And surely it is the proper Fruit of such a Corrupt Tree for that Men should believe God and his Revelations that they should call Themselves Christians and yet be of opinion that we are excused from all the Acknowledgments and Marks of Homage due and paid to God in our Faith and Worship and That Branch of our Duty which is properly distinguished by the Title of Godliness is very inconsistent and unaccountable These are the two Vicious Extremes whether of the Two is the more or less so I shall not at present take upon me to determine nor will I dispute whether Religion or Morality will stand a Man in greater stead Thus much only give me leave to add by way of Comparison as to Three Considerations which is that the Former as described in the last Paragraph and practised by the Jews is without dispute by much the easier the more pompous and more incident to weak and vulgar Souls The Latter must be allowed infinitely more difficult and laborious it makes less Noise and Ostentation in the World and is more proper to Brave Resolute and Generous Minds for the former reasons as being more substantial and of a larger compass meeting with great opposition and having less to feed Mens Vanity with My business is next with a Second Sort of Men Against them that confound these two who confound and spoil all for want of a just Distinction but perplex these Two and the Grace of God and jumble all together These in truth are defective in all Three When you come to examine the matter strictly they will be found to have neither true Religion nor true Moral Honesty nor true
Grace at the bottom but by the Figure and all the outward appearances they make they very much resemble the Persons mentioned before who are so immoderately zealous for Religion that they have little or no concern for any thing besides marvellously satisfied with Themselves and merciless Censurers of all the World besides And these are the Men that make all manner of Probity and Good Actions to be a consequent and attendant upon Religion wholly to depend upon and entirely to be devoted to it and so they acknowledge no such thing as Principles of Natural Justice or Probity of Mind and otherwise than they are derived from and moved by the Springs of Considerations purely Religious Now the Matter is far otherwise for Religion is not only after it in Time but more limited and particular in its Extent This is a distinct Virtue and not the Comprehension and Sum of all Virtues and as the Instances of Pharisees and Hypecrites here prove may subsist without Them or that general good Disposition of Mind which we call Probity And so again may They be independent of Religion as the Examples of Philosophers and good Moral Heathens who we cannot say had ever any Religion properly so called shew on the other hand This is also according to the common Schemes of Theology a Moral Virtue a Branch of Justice which we know is one of the Four Cardinal Virtues and teaches us to give to All their Due according to their Quality and respective Claims Now God being Supreme the Maker and Master of the Universe we are bound to pay him the most profound Honour the most humble Obedience the most punctual and diligent Service This now is properly Religion and consequently it is a division under the General Topick of Justice Again These Persons as they mistake the Nature so do they likewise invert the Order of things for they make Religion antecedent to Probity But how can this be since as the Apostle says Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God how I say can That which is the Effect of Revelation and Instruction be the Cause of a Thing originally rooted in Nature born with us and inseparable from us For such is that Law and Light of God kindled in every Man's Breast and interwoven with the Constitution of the whole Species This therefore is plainly disturbing the true Order of these matters and turning them out of all method They would have a Man Virtuous and entirely Good merely for the Prospect of Heaven to allure or the Terrors of Hell to affright and awe him into his Duty But methinks those Expressions carry a very ill sound and speak a mean and vulgar Virtue ' If the Fear of the Divine Vengeance and Everlasting Damnation did not restrain me I would do thus or thus O pitiful cowardly Wretch what Sense what Notion hast thou of thy Duty what Inclinations dost thou cherish all this while what Motives dost thou act upon what Thanks dost thou deserve for all that is done upon such constraint and against thy own Will Thou art not wicked because thou darest not be so for fear of the Rod. Now I would have thee so perfect as not to want the Courage but the Inclination to do amiss I would have thee so resolutely good as not to commit the least Evil though thou wer 't sure never to be chidden never to be called to an account for it Thou playest the part of a Good Man that thou may'st be thanked and rewarded for thy pains I would have thee be really so without any prospect of hire or gain nay though none but thy self should ever be conscious of thy Virtue I would have thee so because the Laws and Dictates of Nature and Reason direct and Command thee to be so For Nature and Reason in this case are but another word for God and These Principles and That Light and the Original Distinctions of Good and Evil are his Will and his Laws issued in a different manner Because the Order and Good Government of the World whereof thou art a part require this at thy hands because thou canst not consent to be otherwise without acting against thy self in contradiction to thy Being to thy Interest to the End of thy Creation And when thou hast thus satisfied thy duty and acted upon these motives never be solicitous for the Event but persevere in Virtue in despight of any Sufferings or Dangers that may threaten thee When I urge This as the best Principle of doing well I do not wholly disallow all others nor utterly condemn that Probity required and cherished by the external motives of Recompence and Punishment as if These were unlawful to be proceeded upon Doubtless they have their Use and Efficacy are very proper for the reducing of Ill Men who must be treated in a more slavish and mercenary way and the Foundations thus laid at first come frequently to noble Improvements But still I call this a poorer and meaner Principle and would have my Wise Man aspire to something sublimer and more worthy his Character For This requires a brighter stronger and more generous Probity than the Common sort of Mankind may be allowed to take up with And even Divines have generally represented such a Piety as Servile Imperfect accommodated to the weaker and more ignorant and fitter for Babes and Beginners than for Strong and Masterly Christians This farther is very certain that the Probity wholly depending upon a Spirit of Zeal and Religion and having no regard to the Principles of Natural Light besides that it must needs be accidental and unequal in its Operations and want that Evenness and Constancy which was there largely shewn to be one of its Properties I add that This is a very dangerous Principle and does frequently pruduce horrid and scandalous effects for it makes all the Rules of Common Honesty subservient to Zeal for Religion and opens a Door for all those execrable Villanies which the dear-bought experience of all Ages hath too sensibly convinced us are capable of being committed under the fair Shew and Colour of Piety And These are really so dreadful and detestable that we have reason to question whether any other occasion or pretence in the World have done more mischief than those false but specious professions of Religion The Cause and Honour of God is indeed the Greatest the Noblest and most worthy our Zeal and if it were not all this in its own nature the abuse of it could never be so fatal as it is For Brave and Valuable things only are subjects for Hypocrisy and what is little and despicable as the right use of it does no great good so the perverting it to wrong purposes can do no mighty harm It is not therefore any Disparagement to Religion but the confess'd Excellency of it above any other Subject whatsoever that the Corruption and false Pretences of it are so pernicious Were it less good the abuse of it must have been
less evil * Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum mdash Illud in his rebus vereor ne forte rearis Impia te Rationis inire elementa viamque Endogredi sceleris Quod contrà saepius olim Religio perperit seclerosa atque impia facta Lucret. Lib. 1. Such Devilish Acts Religion could persuade If you shall start at these bold Truths and fly Such Lines as Maxims of Impiety Consider that Religion did and will Contrive promote and act the greatest Ill. Creech To lay aside all manner of Affection and Common Humanity for all Sects and Parties but our own To look with Scorn and Indignation upon them as if every Man of a different Persuasion from our selves were perfect Brutes and Monsters To suppose our selves disparaged and defiled with their Company and Conversation These are some of the mildest and most moderate principles and actions of such furious Zealots He that professes himself a good and an honest Man merely for the Check and Restraints which Religious Fears have upon him and hath no other motives of Virtue no scruples of doing ill but such as depend upon Revealed Promises and Threatnings is a Man of less noble Principles more hardly to be trusted and less to be esteemed or admired I will not call such a Man wickeder but sure there is more danger in him than if he had no Virtue nor Religion neither Such People would tempt one to think that Religion whets their Passions and enflames them with Pretences of Zeal John XVI 2. as it did the Jews of old Whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God service Not that I mean by all This to cast the least Aspersion upon Religion as if It Taught or warranted or countenanced any kind of Evil as some who from hence take occasion to argue and rail at Religion in general would pretend For this is not to shew their reason but to betray their extreme Folly or their extreme Malice The falsest and most absurd of all Persuasions that ever were will not own any such Intention But the bottom of all this Mischief seems to lie here That such Men have no taste or sense no Idea or distinct Notion of Sincerity and Honesty but merely as it retains to Religion and is entirely in its service and devotion and withal they know no other Definition of a Good Man but One who is extremely diligent and warm in the propagating and promoting the Religion himself professes From which two Imaginations joined together they easily and naturally slide into a Third and presently persuade themselves that any the blackest and most barbarous Enormities Treachery and Treason Seditions and Murthers are not only lawful and allowable when sheltered under the Colour of Sanctity and the protection of a Zeal for the advancement of one's Religion but they are even Sanctified by this pretence so far from deserving Punishment or Reproach that they commence Commendable and Meritorious and think nothing less than a Canonization their due if their own Party and Persuasion reap any advantage or their Adversaries suffer any damage or defeat from them Thus the Jews we read were most unnatural and barbarous to their Parents unjust to their Neighbours they neither Lent nor Gave to those in want and were so far from contributing towards supplying the Necessities of the Poor that they refused to pay their own just debts and all this because they contributed to the Temple Matth. XV. St. Hier. Corban was thought an answer sufficient to stop the mouths of all the World and He that could make this reply look'd upon himself discharged from all Duties and Demands whatsoever Let Parents starve or Creditors be cheated yet all was well so long as the Money that should have paid the one and fed the other was devoted to pious Uses And now to conclude what I have to say upon this Subject I will shew you very briefly Conclusion how I would have my wise Man qualified with regard to Piety and Probity which is in one word by a strict union and inseparable alliance of them both and that in such a manner that like Persons in a conjugal State each should subsist and be able to act upon its own natural and proper Strength but yet neither of them should ever part or be destitute of the other And then to make the Union compleat and the Virtue as Christian and Noble as it is capable of being I desire that both the Former Qualifications may be crowned with the Grace of God which as I have observed before he is not sparing in to Them who do their utmost but will be sure to give his Holy Spirit sufficiently and liberally to all Them that sincerely and devoutly ask Him THE Advertisements thought necessary to be inserted here being not so much in the nature of Remarks upon little occasional Passages as Dissertations upon Distinct Arguments both here and in the Eleventh Chapter the Reader will find them at the End of this Second Book It appearing more Convenient to allow them a separate place by themselves than to make such very large Interruptions in the Body of this Treatise CHAP. VI. Of a due Regulation of a Man's Pleasures and Desires ONE very considerable effect of Wisdom is the Teaching and Qualifying a Man to be moderate in all his Pleasures and attain a perfect Mastery over his Desires For as for renouncing all our Pleasures and utterly extinguishing all Inclination I am so far from expecting any such thing in that Pattern of Wisdom I am now endeavouring to form that I look upon This not only as a fantastical and extravagant but which is a great deal worse I verily believe it to be a Vicious and an Unnatural Notion The first thing therefore requisite to be done at present is to confute that Opinion which absolutely condemns and would fain exterminate all Pleasures and then after the vindication of the thing in general to lay down some directions how Men ought to govern Themselves in the Use and Enjoyment of them There is scarce any Opinion more specious and plausible more admired by the generality of Mankind Of the Contempt of the World and more affected by those who pretend to be and would fain pass for the best and most knowing part of them than the Contempt of the World No Man sets up for extraordinary Wisdom and Sanctity but One of his solemn and most pompous Professions is the Neglecting and absolutely Despising all sorts of Pleasure a perfect Disregard of the Body an Abstraction of the Mind and retiring within himself so as to cut off all correspendence with the World and the Body raising and refining his Mind by the Contemplation of noble and sublime Subjects and thus contriving that his life shall pass away in a State of Insensibility without so much as ever descending to taste or take notice of its Enjoyments And indeed the common expression of Men's passing away their Time is in a peculiar manner
nay sometimes against Reason It brings Notions in Philosophy in Religion in Politicks Opinions and Ceremonies Fashions and Modes of Living into credit though they be never so fantastical and extravagant never so uncouth and distant from what Reason and Judgment would teach and approve Nor is its Tyranny less formidable in the contrary Extreme for it as frequently does great wrong to things in themselves noble and worthy of universal Advantage by disparaging and lessening them and even bringing them into Neglect and universal Contempt So unreasonably does Custom and common Fame raise or lower the Market so precarious and uncertain is the greatest intrinsick Worth if it happen to be lodged in an Obsolete Opinion an Antiquated and Unfashionable Virtue For all these things have their Seasons of Improvement and Declension and the Sentiments of the World upon them will vary though the Reason and Nature of the thing be constantly the same * Nil adeo magnum nec tam mirabile quiequam Principio quod non desinant mirarier omnes Paulatim Lucret. L. 11. What we now with greatest ease receive Seem'd strange at first and we could scarce believe And what we wonder at as Years increase Familiar grows and all our Wondrings cease Creech Thus you plainly see the vast Influence and excessive Power of Custom Plato was once reproving a Youth for playing often at Cob-nut who replied in his own excuse Methinks Sir under favour you chide me for a very small matter No said Plato you are mightily mistaken for be assured Young Man that Custom is never a small matter A Sentence this which well deserves the Serious Attention of All who have the care of educating Youth Once more Custom is so very tyrannical in the Exercise of its Power and expects so unreserved a Compliance that it will not give us leave to struggle with it or retreat from it nay does not allow us so much as the Liberty to consider and reason with our selves whether what it imposes be fit for us to comply with or not It so perfectly charms our Senses and Judgment as to persuade us that every thing which is new and strange must needs be contrary to Reason and that there can be no Justice or Goodness in any thing which Custom hath not confirmed and made current by its Approbation We do not govern our selves by Reason but are carried away by 〈◊〉 whatever is most in use that we esteem most virtuous most becoming even Error it self when it is become Epidemical hath the Authority of Truth with us These Complaints of Seneca are but too true in every Age and Place and were only the Plain and Mean and Ignorant People concerned in them the Calamity were somewhat tolerable Because these Men are not really qualified to enter into the true Reasons and Differences of things they have not Sagacity enough to see nor Solidity enough to search an Argument to the bottom and Therefore 't is the best thing They can do since they are not able to distinguish and judge for themselves to pin their Opinions upon the Sleeves of Those that are able and let Them speak for them This is a safe and a peaceable way and the Publick sinds great Ease and Convenience from it But for Wife Men who are under a very different Character and have another part to Act to see Them led thus about by the Nose and enslaved to every Folly that puts on the Venerable Face of Custom is very much below their Judgment and Quality and may justly be allowed to move our Indignation that They should so far forget themselves and what they are qualisied for I do not mean by this that a Man who would approve himself Wife Advice with regard to Laws and Customs should be Singular and Precise and denounce War upon all Mankind and their Manners for my Desire and Advice is that he should be very observant of the Laws and Customs which are established and in present force in the Countrey where he dwells Yet that not with a Servile Superstitious Spirit but from a Manly and Generous Principle That he should speak of them with Deference and great Respect and conform his Actions and whole Behaviour to the Rules and Measures they prescribe And all this I would have him do not merely from a Conviction of their Agreement with the Principles of Justice and Equity and Reason but without regarding so much what they are in themselves and upon this Consideration only that they are Laws and Customs Then I desire he should be very cautious and considerate in his Judgment of Foreign Customs and Constitutions and not rashly condemn or take offence at them upon slight and superficial Pretences And Lastly I would have him with all possible Seriousness Freedom and Impartiality examine into both the Domestick and the Foreign and engage his Judgment and Opinion in the behalf of either no farther than Reason will bear him out These are the Four Instructions which I shall a little enlarge upon and they contain the Whole of what seems to me necessary under this Head In the First place All Wife Men agree that the observing the Laws They ought to be complied with and being governed by the Customs of the Countrey where we dwell is the Great and Fundamental Principle the Law of Laws because indeed it is This which gives Life and Vigor to all the rest All affected ways of living that are particular and out of the common Road give just Cause of Indignation and Jealousy betray a great deal of Folly or Conceitedness or Ambition confound the Order and disturb the Government of the World I add in the Second Place that This be done out of Reverence to Publick Authority Not merely for the Justice and Equity of them For strictly speaking these Laws and Custom support their Credit and ought to preserve an Authority not merely with regard to any inherent Equity or Reasonableness to be discovered in them but they are sacred upon this single Consideration That they are Laws and Customs though there be nothing else to recommend them to our Observance This is the Mystical Foundation upon which they stand and the great Secret of Government and properly speaking they have no other Motive but their Sanction to enforce them My meaning is not from hence That any Establishment though never so strong can derive a Right to our Obedience upon Laws and Usages manifestly Unreasonable and Unjust but that He who obeys a Law merely for the sake of its Subject-matter being just though he do the thing commanded by it yet he does it upon a wrong Principle For at this rate every Law must submit it self to the Judgment of every private Man and each Subject shall call it to account arraign and try it at the Bar of his own Breast bring all Obedience to be a Matter of Controversy and Doubt and by consequence all the Right of Administration and the whole Civil Polity must
will be sure to stand its ground Distress and Pain are so far from making it flinch that they feed and cherish and exalt it it lives it grows it triumphs by them There is certainly greater Firmness of Mind express'd in bearing and making an Advantage of one's Chain than in breaking it to pieces because it keeps us confined and ties us fast to some Uneasinesses And all considerate Men must allow that Regulus shew'd infinitely more Gallantry than Cato * Rebus in Adversis facile est contemnere Vitam Fortiter Ille facit qui Miser esse potest Martial Lib. xi Ep. 57. The Base when wretched dare to Dye but He Is Brave indeed who dares to Live in Misery †Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae Horat. Od. 3. L. 3. If the Crack'd Orbs should split and fall Crush him they might but not Appall Sir R. Fanshaw Nay these Men ought to be accounted Infamous and treated as Deserters For no Man can answer quitting the Post he is order'd to without the express Leave and fresh Orders of the Superior Officer who placed hi there We are by no means put into the World upon our own account alone and therefore Personal Calamities must not put us upon an Act of so great Injustice as the squandring away That in which Others have a Right as well as We nor yet are we Masters of our selves but under the Disposal and Direction of a Lord who hath a Right Paramount Thus you see what Arguments are generally brought on either side but if we set the Considerations of Duty and Religion aside and take the Liberty to speak the Sense of mere Nature in the Case the Resolution she would come to seems to be This That Men ought not to enter upon this Last and Boldest Exploit without some very extraordinary and most pressing Reason to induce them that so it may be what They call making a Decent and Honourable Exit Every slight Occasion every little Pett or cross Accident will not justify Men's falling out with the World and therefore They are certainly in a great Error who pretend that a small Excuse will serve to quit Life since there are no very Weighty Arguments to persuade our keeping it This is highly ungrateful to God and Nature when so Rich a Present is so much slighted and undervalued It is an Argument of great Levity and betrays a great deal of Moroseness and Ill Humour when we quarrel and break Company upon every slender Provocation But indeed there is something to be said though that something is not enough for a very Urgent and Weighty Occasion such as renders Life a perpetual Torment and the Thoughts of continuing in it insupportable such for Instance as I mentioned formerly Long Acute Excessive Pain or the certain Prospect of a very Cruel and Ignominious Death And upon this account the several Persons that I am going to name how favourably soever Story hath represented their Behaviour do by no means seem to have a Plea sufficient to Justify no not so much as to Excuse a Voluntary Death Such are Pomponius Attiâ—us Marcellinus and Cleanthes who after they had begun the Process resolved to finish it merely because they would avoid the trouble of having the whole Course to begin and go through again For what Apology soever might be made for the delivering themselves from a Painful Distemper yet when that Pain and the Cause of it were removed they lay under no farther Temptation to be out of love with Life and a bare Possibility of the Disease returning was a Consideration much too remote The Wives of Paetus and Scaurus and Labeo and Fulvius the intimate Friend of Augustus of Seneca and a great many more were as fantastically fool-hardy when they killed Themselves either to bear their Husbands Company out of the World or to invite Them to go with them So likewise Cato and others who were discontented with the Event of their Undertakings and the Chance of War and chose rather to dye by their own hands than to fall into their Enemy's notwithstanding these Enemies were such as gave them no just ground to fear any barbarous or dishonourable Treatment from them neither The same Censure will fall upon Them who murder'd themselves rather than they would be beholding to one they hated for their Lives or lye at the Mercy of an Ill Man as Gravius Silvanus and Statius Proximus did after Nero had given them his Pardon Nor are They less to blame who run into the Shades of Death to hide themselves from Shame and cover the Reproach of some past Dishonour or Misfortune such as Lucretia after the Injury she had suffered from Tarquin and Spargopises Son to Tomyris the Seythian Queen and Boges Commander under Xerxes the former because he could not bear being Prisoner of War to Cyrus the other for the Loss of a Town taken by Cimon the Athenian General Nor They who could not endure to survive a Publick Calamity though nothing extraordinary had befallen Them in particular such as Nerva the Great Lawyer Vibius Virius at the Taking of Capua and Jubelliâ—s at the Death of the greatest part of their Senators inflicted by a Roman Officer And least of all can those Nice and Delicate People excuse themselves who chuse to dye because they are cloyed with Life and weary of repeating the Same Things over again Nay I must go farther yet For it is by no means sufficient that the Occasion be very Important and full of Difficulty unless it be Desperate and past all Remedy too for nothing less than Necessity ought to be pleaded here and This should be the last Reserve the Only Escape from Extremity of Misfortune Upon this Account Rashness and Despondency and anticipating one's Fate and Giving all for Lost is always exceeding blameable an Instance whereof we have in Brutus and Cassius who before there was any occasion for it put an End to their own Lives and with Them to all the languishing Remains of the Liberty of Rome which was committed to and depended entirely upon Their Protection For as Cleomenes truly said Men are under an Obligation to use Life frugally and to make it go as far as possibly they can nay not only to contrive that it may last as long as is possible but that it may be useful to the very last For a Man may discharge himself of this Trust at any time and when Things are at the very worst tht they can be This Remedy is what no Man can be at a loss for But we should wait for better Days and try whether the hand of our Fortune will not mend upon us * Aliquis Carnisici suo superstes fuit Many a Man as Seneca observes hath outliv'd his Executioner Josephus and a great many besides have followed this Advice to excellent good purpose and Matters when in all human probability desperate and lost have wheel'd about and taken a quite different Course
Conclusion is this That whatsoever Sacrifices were offered before that time they must necessarily be of Man 's own Devising since we have the Testimony of God declaring in very solemn manner that they were not of His Appointment The Texts insisted upon to this purpose are those two Isaiah I. 11 12. To what purpose is the Multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the Burnt-Offerings of Rams and the Fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats when ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts The Other Jerem VII 21 22. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Put your Burnt-offerings unto your Sacrifices and eat Flesh For I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning Burnt offerings or Sacrifices Now any One who considers the Occasion of these Passages will find that both of them are intended for a Reproof to the Hypocrisy of the Jews and a Check to that Confidence they reposed in those Ritual Performances though void of that real Devotion and inward Purity which alone was acceptable to God The Context in each place manifestly proves this to have been their design and the want of Comparative degrees in the Hebrew Language wâ—â— suffer no great stress to be laid upon the Negative Form of speech That known instance quoted by our Blessed Lord I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Matth. IX 13. XII 7. from Hosea VI. 6. is Key sufficient to these before us and can warrant our concluding only thus much from them That God prefers substantial Holiness infinitely before these things that Obedience was That Thing he always required and Sacrifices being in reality but so many professions of That were not properly to be look'd upon as Essential Duties wherein the Israelites part of the Covenant consisted that These were by no means what he aimed at in admitting them to Covenant with himself and consequently when destitute of their Substance and End were empty and insignificant of no account with God and not a Worshipping him but to speak plainly and truly what he very emphatically and contemptuously calls a Treading his Courts I add too that this Text of Jeremiah cannot possibly be taken in a strict and literal Sense since it is manifest God did speak to their Fathers in the very day that he brought them out of Egypt concerning one Sacrifice the Passeover I mean Deut. XVI 1 5 6. 1 Cor. V. 8. which though a Feast yet is it frequently termed a Sacrifice too and therefore some Interpreters here have taken refuge in restraining that Text to Sin-Offerings and Peace Offerings and not extending it to Sacrifices at large 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zabach LoTizbach which yet will not answer their purpose since the very same Hebrew word which Jeremy makes use of is twice together applied to the Passover by Moses Deut XVI 5 6. II. A Second Argument is drawn from Cain and Abel Offering each the product of his own Labours respectively which makes it probable that such Oblations were the product of a grateful Mind dictating to them that God ought to have some acknowledgment and return made him for his Benefits Now that Nature might inform Men of a Duty incumbent upon them to Worship God and the Common Notions of Gratitude put them upon applying part of their Substance to the Honour and Service of Him who gave the whole Men find easy to apprehend But the difficulty is How Nature should inspire Men with a Thought that Burning this by Fire or otherwise ordering it as the Custom of Sacrificers was is a proper Method of expressing their Honour for and Gratitude to God Again Had Sacrifices been a dictate of Nature How came they ever to be Abolished since the Natural is part of that Law which our Saviour came not to destroy but to perfect and fulfill Mat. V. 17. This Inconvenience Dr. Outram was sensible of and therefore he makes a distinction between the First and Eternal Dictates and Laws of Nature and other Institutions and Ordinances in pursuance of and agreement with those Whether this be sufficient to clear the Difficulty I leave the Reader to judge and for that purpose I have presented him with the whole Passage in the * Id unum hoc in loco monere visum est hos qui suâ cujusque sponte primò Sacrificatum judicant etiamsi fortè quibusdam in locis incautius loqus videantur hunc tamen Sacrificandi ritum ad Natura Leges proprtè dictas aeternas utique immutabiles non referre sed ad ejusmodt Instituta quae Ratio Naturalis excogitaverit tanquam ad conspicuum Dei cultum apta satis idonea Prius illud si qui fecerint ex eo falsi arguuntur quòd Christus Sacrificandi ritus apud Veteres olun usitacos penitus apud Suos delevit qui idem tamen tantum abfuit ut ullas aboleret Naturae Leges ut has omnes Authoritate suâ ratas certas ac firmas fecerit Outram de Sacrif Lib. I. Cap. 1. Sect. IV. Margin One thing only I desire may be observed which is That this Argument of what force soever it may prove for Sacrifices of Thanks yet can give no Countenance at all to Those of any Other Sort and particularly not to the Expiatory which Monsieur Charron hath chiefly regard to if not to them alone in this place III. A Third Reason is taken from the great Design God seems to have had in the Legal Sacrifices That of containing the Israelites within the Worship of One God and in order to it condescending so far to their Infirmities and the Infection they had taken from the Idolatry of Egypt as to conform their Worship and Rites to those of the Heathen World Now it is not to be denied but this seem to have been the Case and probably the best account why such particular Rites were instituted but to make the Argument effectual we must enquire how those Heathen came by Their Sacrifices and Ceremonies For That may be a very good and rational Explanation of the Mosaic Institution which is not a sufficient account of the Patriarchal Religion And in the Sequel of this Discourse my Reader will find occasion to consider whether there were not another End to be served by the Sacrifices both Patriarchal and Levitical which mere Nature could not attain to and therefore a Positive Institution was necessary for the promoting it IV. It may be said Fourthly That as God left the first Ages of the World to the Dictates of Nature and right Reason in the Discovery and Practice of Moral Duties so it is most likely they were left to the same Guidance for the exercise of Religion too and if any Notions and Ceremonies grew common upon this occasion not so agreeable to
the Nature of true Religion and the Dignity of an Almighty Majesty these are capable of great Allowances and suit well enough with the Simplicity of the First Ages of the World To This I presume it may suffice to answer That the Case of Moral Duties and Religious Rites is very different The One are purely the result of a reasonable and thinking Mind The Other of a Nature which we must needs be much in the dark about For though Reason would convince me that God is to be worshipped yet He alone can tell me what Worship will be acceptable to him At least if I must beat out my own Track the Notions I entertain of God must direct me Now These might convince a Man that Purity and Sincerity Justice and Goodness and the like must needs please an Infinitely Perfect Being But which way could an Imagination so foreign enter into Mens heads as that God shold be pleased with the Blood and Fat of Beasts Admit These to have been the Chief of their Substance and devoted because as such fittest for them to express their Acknowledgments by that as devoted and entirely set apart to Holy Uses it could not without Sacrilege be partaken of by Men and that from hence the Custom of Burning the Sacrifice took its Original yet what shall we say to the Expiatory Oblations And how could Men by any Strength of Reason comprehend the Possibility of a Vicarious Punishment or hope that the Divine Justice should be appeased by Offerings of this kind and accept the Life of the Offender's Beast instead of the forfeit Life of the Offender himself These things seem to be far out of the Way and Reach of human Discourse it is scarce if at all possible to conceive what should lead the Generality of Mankind to such Consequences such Ideas of God as These And I think little needs be said to convince Men that the Difference is vastly great between such Religious Rites and those Moral Duties which have their foundation in the best Reason and are all of them so coherent so agreeable to sober and uncorrupted Nature that the more we attend and the closer we pursue them the greater Discoveries we shall be sure to make and the more consistent will be all our Actions with the first and most obvious Principles of the Mind So that no Parity of Argument can lye between these Two The Force of this Reason is sufficiently confess'd by the very Learned Asserter of that Other Opinion nor can he deny Spencer Lib. III. Cap. IV. Diss II. Sect. II. as some I think with a design to make short work of it have done that Expiatory Sacrifices were offer'd before the Law But then These are supposed to proceed not from any positive persuasion or good assurance of obtaining Pardon by that means but some Hope that God would have regard to the Pious Intention of the Person and consider and restore him upon that account Which Opinion Arnobius exposes in such a manner as plainly to shew that it generally prevailed and many Testimonies of Heathen Writers themselves confess that they looked upon God to be capable of being mollified and won over as Angry Men are by Submissions and Presents and other sweetning Methods All which Misapprehensions are conceived agreeable to the Darkness of Pagans and the Simplicity of Earlier Ages Now with all due Reverence to the Authority of those Great Men who urge it I can by no means satisfy my self with the Colour they give to these Arguments from the rude unpolished State of Men in the first Ages of the World This I know is a Notion very agreeable to the Heathen Philosophers and Poets and Their Accounts of the Original of this World the Progress of Knowledge and Improvement of Mankind And This might probably agree well enough with that Age when Abraham and his Seed were chosen out from the midst of a dark and degenerate Race But whether it agree with the Times of Abel and Noah and the Antediluvian Fathers will bear a great Dispute We fancy perhaps that before there was any Written Word all was dark but there is no Consequence in That nor will it follow because Arts and Prositable Inventions for the Affairs of this Life grew up with the World that Religion too was in its Infant Weakness and Ignorance in those early Days St. Chrysostom I am sure gives a very different account of the Matter Hom. 1. in Matth. He says the Communications of God's Will were more liberal and frequent then that Men lived in a sort of familiar Acquaintance with him and were personally instructed in Matters necessary and convenient much better enabled to worship and serve him acceptably and because they did not discharge their Duty and answer their Advantages that he withdrew from this Friendly way of conversing with Mankind and then to prevent the utter Loss of Truth by the Wickedness and Weakness of Men a Written Word was judged necessary and That put into Books which the Corruption of Manners had made unsafe and would not permit to continue clear and legible in Men's hearts In the mean while the Preference he manifestly gives both for Knowledge and Purity to the First Ages and compares the Patriarchs at the beginning of the World in this Point to the Apostles at the beginning of Christianity as Parallels in the Advantages of Revelation and Spiritual Wisdom infinitely superior to the succeeding Times of the Church And it is plain from Scripture it self that Enoch Noah and other Persons eminently pious signally rewarded for it and inspired with God's own Spirit were some of those early Sacrificers Persons to whose Character the pretended Simplicity and Ignorance of the first Ages of the World will very ill agree V. There is I must own a Great Prejudice against this Divine Institution of Sacrifices from the Book of Genesis being silent in the thing it being urged as a mighty Improbability that so considerable an Ordinance and One which grew so general should have no mention made of its first Command and Establishment especially when so many things of seemingly less moment are expresly taken notice of and by that means strengthen the Opinion which attributes a matter acknowledged on all hands to be of Consequence to some Original other than Immediately Divine Now if we consider the Design and Manner of the Book of Genesis it will by no means appear strange to us that many things should be omitted This being I conceive intended chiefly to give a short Account of the Creation and Fall of Man the Promise of a Redeemer and to draw down the Line of Descent to the Chosen Seed from whence our Saviour sprung and the People of the Jews the Figure of the Christian Church derived themselves So that Their History and Religion being the principal Subject of the Five Books of Moses we find very little Enlargement upon Particulars till after the Call of Abraham For if we consider the Three first
for other external Significations of this especially any so foreign as that of Sacrificing Men were not likely nor was it fit they should venture to do any thing of their own Heads Nor was it probable they would attempt it for fear of mistakes and such indecent Expressions as might be very dishonourable to the God they Worshipped and rather provoke his Justice by rash and superstitious Affronts than incline his Mercy by their indiscreet Intentions to please him And therefore considering the Confusion Adam was in after the Fall and the Circumstances of that time it seems most agreeable to believe that he waited God's directions and was fully informed by Him in such a Service as might at once excite both the Fear and the Love of God enforce the Offerer's Sorrow and Repentance and increase his Faith and Hope While my Thoughts were upon this Subject it came into my mind that possibly the Tradition of a Redeemer to come and that God would one day reconcile himself to the World by the Sacrifice of a Man and his own Son That this Tradition I say darkned confounded and perverted by the Increase of Idolatry and the Cunning of the Devil might be abused to the putting Men upon Humane Sacrifices and particularly those of their own Children I know there are other accounts to be given of this matter and I propose this as a meer Conjecture not otherwise fit to trouble the Reader withal but that I believe if strict inquiry were made it would be found that most of the Heathen Abominations in Divine Worship were some way or other at a distance by Mistake Imperfect Report Perverse Interpretations or by some Cunning Stratagem of the Devil or other fetched originally from the Revelations and Institutions of the true Religion And I cannot but think that it would be great Service to the Truth if the Falshoods that have corrupted and were set up in Opposition to it could be well traced and set in the best Light which this distance will permit But that must needs be a very laborious Undertaking and where a great deal will depend upon Probable Conjecture will require a very Judicious hand I have thus given the Reader my rough Thoughts upon the Point of Sacrifices omitting such Proofs for the Opinion I incline to as seem to me not conclusive but not any that I am conscious of on the Other side There is no danger in either Opinion considered in it self but ill Insinuations may be raised from that of Humane Invention if Men from thence shall pretend to draw Consequences to the Prejudice of Natural Religion and argue either against the Certainty of or the Regard due to it from an Imagination that Extravagances so wicked so odd or so barbarous as the Heathen Rites of Worship and the Wild Superstitions and unbecoming Notions of God upon which they were grounded resulted from Humane Nature and were the Product of Reason Rather than the Horrible Depravations of a Supernatural Institution highly proper and significant serviceable to excellent purposes and adapted to those Ages of the World And in hope of preventing any Consequences of this kind it is that I thought these Remarks might not be unseasonable And for the Usefulness and Light which this Account of Sacrifices brings with it provided we will follow it in its Natural Consequences how wise an Institution how reasonable to be incorporated into the Jewish Law how providentially dispersed over the whole World and how preparatory of the Doctrine of the Redemption of Mankind by predisposing the Gentiles also to believe the Sacrifice of Christ my Reader may if he please be informed to his great Satisfaction by that Short but Excellent Account of this Matter given by Dr. Williams the now Reverend Bishop of Chichester in his Second Sermon at Mr. Boyle's Lecture for the Year 1695. II. After so long and particular Enlargement upon the First of those Things wherein I endeavour to prevent any Mistakes that may arise from this Passage there will need but very little Addition to clear the Other For if the Arguments for a Divine Institution of Sacrifices cast the Scale the Business is already done to our hands and if they be admitted of human Invention yet according to all the Schemes of this Matter laid down by the Asserters of it Sacrificers at first were moved by Apprehensions of God very different from that of his taking Delight in the Sufferings of his Creatures For they Represent Sacrifices as the effects of Gratitude a Mind impatient to make some sort of Return and pay back such Acknowledgments at least of His Goodness who gave All as the dedicating the Best of his Gifts to him could amount to And accordingly This Circumstance of chusing the Best for Sacrifice seems to have been as universally observed as the Duty of Sacrificing it self This is the Reason alledged by some for slaying Beasts as being the Best of all their Substance and upon the same account too those kinds which were esteemed best for Food This perhaps was one Motive abused afterwards even to the introducing that Abomination of sacrificing Men and Children Virgins and First-born And even in Expiatory Sacrifices could these possibly have been invented by Men yet 't is plain the Persuasion of a Beast being accepted as a Ransom for the Owner must include an Idea of Mercy and Condescension at least in the Deity which was content with such a Compensation It argued I confess very gross Notions of God to suppose that such things could be Presents fit for a Pure Spirit and the Majesty of Heaven and Earth which every Superior among Men would disdain and detest But This grew by degrees and the Other of his being a Sanguinary Being delighted with the Fumes of Reaking Altars and drinking the Blood of Goats was owing to the Superstition and Idolatry of later and degenerate Times and is a Thought which Those who first practised this way of Worship whether by Instruction or their own mere Motion were never supposed guilty of by any that have undertook to consider the Nature and Original of the Patriarchal Sacrifices Nay I add too upon this occasion That the Notions mentioned in this Chapter which it is to be feared are but too commonly entertained of Severities and Satisfactions as they are called owe themselves to the same Causes and are the Genuine Extract of Hypocrisy Superstition and formal Devotion That Fastings and voluntary Mortifications are of excellent Use in Religion no sober Man ever doubted They are Prositable in many Cases and in some Necessary They assist us in conquering our Appetites and Passions and subdue the Man by beating down the Outworks They express a very becoming Indignation against our selves in the Exercise of Repentance and are oftentimes instrumental in heightening and inflaming our Devotion But that they are Good and Meritorious in themselves or any farther valuable than as they serve to promote our Improvement in some Virtues or Graces that are Substantially
unbecoming their Character and if They do a thing it must needs be excellent and good And on the other hand Governours are so sensible of the Force of this Motive too that they think their Subjects indispensably obliged to those Rules which they are content to be governed by themselves and that their own doing what they would have done by others is singly a sufficient Inducement to bring it into Practice and common Vogue without the Formality of a Command to enforce it From all which it is abundantly manifest that Virtue is exceeding necessary and advantageous to a Prince both in point of Interest and in point of Honour and Reputation All Virtue is so in truth without Exception though not All equally neither for there are four Species of it Four Principal Virtues which seem to have greater and more commanding Influence than the rest and those are Piety Justice Valour and Clemency These are more properly Princely Qualities and shine brightest of all the Jewels that adorn a Crown of the Excellencies I mean that even a Prince's Mind can be possibly endued with This gave occasion to that most Illustrious of all Princes Augustus Caesar to say That Piety and Justice exalt Kings and translate them into Gods And Seneca observes that Clemency is a Virtue more suitable to the Character of a Prince than to persons of any other Quality whatsoever Now the Piety of a Prince consists and must exert it self in the Care and Application which he ought to use for the Preservation and Advancement of Religion of which every Sovereign ought to consider himself as the Guardian and Protector And thus indeed he should do for his own sake for this Zeal and pious Care will contribute very much to his own Honour and Safety For they that have any regard for God will not dare to attempt no not so much as to contrive or imagine any Mischief against that Prince who is God's Image upon Earth and who plainly approves himself to be such by his zealous and tender Concern for the Glory and the Institution of his great Original And in effect this tends no the Security of the People too and the Quiet of the Government in general For as Lactantius frequently urges Religion is the common Band that links Communities together Society could not be supported without it Take off this Restraint and the World would immediately be overrun with all manner of Wickedness Barbarity and Brutality So great an Interest hath every Government in Religion so strong so necessary a Curb is the Sense and Fear and Reverence of it to unruly Mankind Thus on the other hand even Cicero who does not appear to have been any mighty Devote makes it his Observation That the Romans owed the Rise and Growth and flourishing Condition of their Commonwealth to their Exemplary Respect for Religion more than to any other Cause whatsoever Upon this account every Sovereign is very highly concerned and strictly oblig'd to see that Religion be preserv'd entire and that no Breaches be made upon it That it be encourag'd and supported according to the establish'd Laws in all its Rights Ceremonies Usages and Local Constitutions Great Diligence should be used to prevent Quarrels Divisions and Innovations and severe Punishments inflicted upon all who go about to alter or disturb or infringe it For without all Controversie every Injury done to Religion and all rash and bold Alterations in it draw after them a very considerable damage to the Civil State weaken the Government Dion and have a general ill Influence upon Prince and People both as Moecenas very excellently argues in his Oration to Augustus Next after Piety Justice is of greatest Consequence and Necessity Justice and Fidelity without which Governments are but so many Sets of Banditi Robbers and Invaders of the Rights of their Brethren This therefore a Prince ought by all means to preserve and maintain in due Honour and Regard both in his own Person and Conversation and in the Observance of those under his Jurisdiction 1. It is necessary to be strictly observed by the Sovereign Himself For nothing but Detestation and the utmost Abhorrence is due to those Barbarous and Tyrannical Maxims which pretend to set a Prince above all Laws and to complement him with a Power of Dispensing at Pleasure with Reason and Equity and all manner of Obligation and Conscience which tell Kings that they are not bound by any Engagements and that their Will and Pleasure is the only Measure of their Duty That Laws were made for common Men and not for such as They That every thing is Good and Just which they find most practicable and convenient In short that their Equity is their Strength and whatever they can do that they may do * Principi Leges nemo scripsit Licet si libet In summâ fortunà id requius quod validius nihil injustum quod fructuosum Sanctitas â—ietas Fides privata bona sunt quà juvâ—t Reges eant No Man ever presumes to prescribe to Princes or include them within the Verge of any Laws but their own Inclinations In the highest Post Justice is always on the stronger side That which is most profitable can never be unlawful Holiness and Piety Faith and Truth and common Honesty are the Virtues of private Men Princes may take their own Course and are above these vulgar Dispensations So say Pliny and Tacitus But against this false Doctrine too apt to be liked by Persons in Power I entreat my wise Prince to oppose the really Excellent and Pious Sentences and Directions of Grave and Good Philosophers They tell you That the greater Power any Man is invested with the more regular and modest he should be in the Exercise of it That this is one of those Things which must always be used with a Reserve and the more one could do the less it will become him to do That the more absolute and unbounded any Man's Authority is the greater Check and more effectual Restraint he hath upon him That every Man's Ability should be measured by his Duty and what he may not that he cannot do †Minimum decet libere cui nimium licet Non â—as potentes posse sieri quod nefas He that can do what he will must take care to will but a very little And Great Men should never think they have a Liberty of doing what ought not to be done The Prince then ought to lead the way and be first and most eminent for Justice and Equity and particularly he must be sure to be very punctual to his Word and to keep his Faith and his Promise most inviolably because Fidelity and Truth is the Foundation of all manner of Justice whatsoever whether to all his Subjects in general or to each Person in particular How mean soever the Party or how slight soever the Occasion be still this Word must be Sacred When he hath thus provided for his own Behaviour
afterwards cancels all the Advantage that might otherwise have been taken of his former Unfaithfulness and makes it Unreasonable to revenge and retaliate it These Two Cases are generally look'd upon as Reservations from the general Rule of being punctual to one's Word and we shall do well to give even these a Careful Censideration for perhaps there are some Junctures and Occasions in which They may not be able to bear us out or at best if it be our Priviledge to regulate our selves by them it is not our Duty to do so and a Man may sometimes see good Cause rather to submit to an Inconvenience and forego the Use of his Liberty than to stretch it to the utmost Point and do All that in Point of Rigour he might well enough justifie himself in But however allowing the most that can be made of the Matter where the Promise does not fall within the Compass of these Two Cases no Consideration relating to the Parry for whose Assurance it was made can excuse us from looking upon it as Sacred and Indispensable 1. For First Ch. 16. a Man is obliged to keep his Word with his Subjects as will be proved and enforc'd more at large in the following part of this Treatise and no Authority though never so Arbitrary and Full can set him above the Obligations of Conscience in this particular 2. So is he likewise towards his Enemy witness That so much Celebrated Act of Regulus the Edict of the Roman Senate against all those to whom Pyrrhus had given leave to go to Rome upon their Promise of returning Witness again Camillus who would not so much as reap the Advantage of another's Treachery though he was to have had no part in the Fact it self but sent the Children and their villanous Schoolmaster bach to the Falisci 3. Nor have considering Persons thought themselves at Liberty to be unfaithful even to Robbers and notorious Malefactors for Pompey was punctual with the Pirates and Banditi and Augustus was so to Crocotas 4. As little Privilege to be false does any Difference in Religion give one as is sufficiently evident from the Instance of Joshua and the Gibeonites The safer and more honourable Way therefore is never to treat or enter into any manner of Terms with those whom we think unworthy of common Honesty from us to disdain any Capitulation and contracting any sort of Alliance with Wretches we pretend such Detestation to is much more agreable to the Pretensions Men make to Zeal and Religion And to Persons possest with so great an Abhorrence to Hereticks and Apostates much may be said for this Perhaps indeed no other Reason but extreme Necessity and the hopes of reducing them or the Prospect of some very great and Publick Good by amicable Accommodations should be sufficient to induce them to plight their Faith to them but if they condescend thus far no question they are bound to stand by their own Act and Deed for sure They that are good enough to be treated with are sit to have the Terms of the Treaty made good to them As to our Third Consideration Matâ— the â—nise which respects the Matter of the Promise if That be unlawful or impossible to be performed by us we are absolutely discharged from the Obligation And in all Cases of Injustice the best thing we can do is to disclaim and get quit of it for the Performance would but aggravate our Crime and make our Guilt double by the obstinate persisting in it All other Excuses such as Loss or Displeasure Difficulty Inconvenience the Trouble or the Expence of the Undertaking are too Weak to pass Muster And of this the old Romans have left us many brave Examples who very frequently * Quibus tantâ utilitate Fides antiquior fuit used to forego very considerable Advantages rather than be guilty of any thing that might bring Truth and Fidelity into Question The last Particular relates to the Manner or Formalities made use of in the Act of engaging The Manner of premising for as all the Ways of binding our Consciences are not equally Solemn so neither are all equally Obligatory and therefore several Doubts and Controversies have been started upon this Point Several Persons are of Opinion that a Promise extorted by Force and Fear or obtained Fraudulently and by Surprise does leave no Tye upon the Conscience Because in both these Cases the Will hath not it's free Course nor can the Judgment act with that impartiality and clearness which is necessary to the making a just Determination Others again tell you quite otherwise that the Will is not capable of being constrain'd and though the Choice be not absolutely voluntary and free yet there is Choice enough left to induce an Obligation Accordingly we find that Joshua was far from thinking himself at Liberty nay that he was commanded to fulfil the Covenant made with the Gibeonites though perfectly tricked into it by Surprise and a false Representation of their Case The most I think that can be said if thus much may be said in Favour of the Former Opinion is That a bare Promise may be dispensed with in such Circumstances but if that Engagement were confirm'd by the Solemnity of an Oath a Man must look upon himself to be bound by it bound though not in Respect of strict Equity and the Merits of the Cause yet in Respect to the Name of the Just and Holy God who was invoked as a Witness and a Judge upon that Occasion But that a Man in such Cases may be very well allowed to seek any Redress or Reparation which the Laws will give him and which he hath not positively ty'd up his own Hands from requiring for such Violence or Deceit And this Resolution too seems to have some Countenance given to it by the Method Jeshua took who when the Fraud was discovered did not treat those Gibeonites as common Friends and Allies but made them Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water and though he spared their Lives revenged their Falshood and crafty Dissimulation by keeping them under and employing them in servile and laborious Offices That the Formality of an Oath and interessing Almighty God in our Promises adds to the Engagement and makes it more forcible and binding no Doubt can be made for Breach of Faith is then a double Offence and Aggravates that Unfaithfulness which is bad in its self with the Addition of wilful Perjury which is much Worse But to think to tye Men up by new and fantastical Oaths as some do is altogether useless and unnecessary and so is the multiplying of common Oaths without some urgent and very important Occasion For it is certain that honest Men need not be thus dealt with and those that are not so will be bound by nothing we can devise The best and most commendable Course is to Swear by the Name of the One True Everlasting God and to do this with a becoming Reverence and serious Deliberation