OF the Principles and Duties OF NATURAL RELIGION TWO BOOKS By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN late Lord Bishop of CHESTER To which is added A SERMON Preached at his Funerals by WILLIAM LLOYD D. D. Dean of BANGOR and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell for T. Basset H. Brome R. Chiswell at the George in Fleetstreet the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls and the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1675. THE PREFACE THE ensuing Treatise is sufficiently recommended to the World by the Name of the Author and needs nothing else to make way for its entertainment I shall only therefore give a short account of these Remains of that learned and excellent Person and of the particular design and intention of them He was pleased by his Last Will to commit his Papers to my care and out of his great friendship and undeserved good opinion of me to leave it wholly to my disposal whether any or what part of them should be made publick This Treatise I knew he always designed for that purpose and if God had been pleased to have granted him but a little longer life he would have published it himself And therefore though a considerable part of it wanted his last hand yet neither could I be so injurious to deprive the world of it because it was less perfect than he intend ed it nor durst I be so bold to attempt to finish a Piece designed and carried on so far by so great a Master The first twelve Chapters were written out for the Press in his life-time The Remainder hath been gather'd and made up out of his Papers as well as the Materials left for that purpose and the skill of the Compiler would allow So that it cannot be expected that the Work should be of equal strength and beauty in all the parts of it However such as it is I hope it may prove of considerable use and benefit to the World and not altogether unworthy of its Author The Design of it is threefold First To establish the great Principles of Religion the Being of God and a Future State by shewing how firm and solid a Foundation they have in the Nature and Reason of Mankind A work never more necessary than in this degenerate Age which hath been so miserably over-run with Scepticisme and Infidelity Secondly To convince men of the natural and indispensable obligation of Moral Duties those I mean which are comprehended by our Saviour under the two general Heads of the Love of God and of our Neighbour For all the great Duties of Piety and Justice are written upon our hearts and every man feels a secret obligation to them in his own Conscience which checks and restrains him from doing contrary to them and gives him peace and satisfaction in the discharge of his duty or in case he offend against it fills him with guilt and terrour And certainly it is a thing of very considerable use rightly to understand the natural obligation of Moral duties and how necessarily they flow from the consideration of God and of our selves For it is a great mistake to think that the obligation of them doth solely depend upon the Revelation of Gods VVill made to us in the Holy Scriptures It is plain that Mankind was always under a Law even before God had made any external and extraordinary Revelation else how shall God judge the World how shall they to whom the Word of God never came be acquitted or condemned at the Great day For where there is no Law there can neither be obedience nor transgression It is indeed an unspeakable advantage which we who are Christians do enjoy both in respect of the more clear and certain knowledg of our duty in all the branches of it and likewise in regard of the powerful motives and assistance which our blessed Saviour in his Gospel offers to us to enable and encourage us to the discharge of our Duty But yet it is nevertheless very useful for us to consider the primary and natural obligation to piety and virtue which we commonly call the Law of Nature this being every whit as much the Law of God as the Revelation of his VVill in his Word and consequently nothing contained in the Word of God or in any pretended Revelation from Him can be interpreted to dissolve the obligation of moral duties plainly required by the Law of Nature And if this one thing were but well consider'd it would be an effectual antidote against the pernicious Doctrines of the Antinomians and of all other Libertine-Enthusiasts whatsoever Nothing being more incredible than that Divine Revelation should contradict the clear unquestionable Dictates of Natural Light nor any thing more vain than to fancy that the Grace of God does release men from the Laws of Nature This the Author of the following Discourses was very sensible of and wisely saw of what consequence it was to establish the Principles and Duties of Religion upon their true and natural foundation which is so far from being a prejudice to Divine Revelation that it prepares the way for it and gives it greater advantage and authority over the minds of men Thirdly To perswade men to the practice of Religion and the vertues of a good life by shewing how natural and direct an influence they have not only upon our future blessedness in another VVorld but even upon the happiness and prosperity of this present Life And surely nothing is more likely to prevail with wise and considerate men to become Religious than to be throughly convinced that Religion and Happiness our Duty and our Interest are really but one and the same thing considered under several notions J. TILLOTSON THE Contents FIRST BOOK Of the Reasonableness of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion Chap. I. COncerning the several kinds of Evidence and Assent Pag. 1. Chap. II. Two Schemes of Principles relating to Practical things whether Natural or Moral proposed in the method used by Mathematicians of Postulata Definitions and Axioms p. 12. Chap. III. Some Propositions necessary to be premised for the removing of several prejudices in debates about Religion p. 22. Chap. IV. Concerning the Existence of a Deity and the Arguments for it 1. Arg. From the Universal Consent and agreement of Mankind And the Objections against it answered p. 36. Chap. V. 2. Arg. From the Original of the World p. 62. Chap. VI. 3. Arg. From the admirable Contrivance of Natural things p. 78. Chap. VII 4. Arg. From Providence and the Government of the World p. 85. Chap. VIII Concerning the Excellencies and Perfections of the Divine Nature And first of those which are commonly called Incommunicable namely Simplicity Unity Immutability Infiniteness Immensity  Eternity p. 100. Chap. IX Of the Communicable perfections of God And first of those which relate to the Divine Understanding viz. Knowledg Wisdom particular Providence p. 124. Chap. X. Of the Perfections relating to the Divine Will
be of it The House of God where there are many mansions But streight is the gate and narrow is the way to it An hid Treasure a pretious Pearl Not to be obtained without putting such a value upon it as will make a man ready to part with all that he hath for the purchase of it A penny The wages of our daily service not to be given but to such as labour in the vineyard and hold out to the end A Feast or rich supper which they are altogether unworthy of and unfit for who do wholly devote themselves to the affairs of this world The Joy of our Lord and Master which they only are admitted to who are careful to improve the Talents they are intrusted withal The solemnity of a royal wedding from which all lazy slothful people who have not oyl in their lamps and do not watch for the coming of the Bridegroom shall be shut out and excluded into outter darkness 'T is a Prize which they only obtain who accomplish their race and run to the goal 'T is a Crown which is due only to such as fight valiantly and overcome 'T is an Inheritance and therefore belongs only to sons 'T is an Inheritance of the saints and therefore unsanctified persons can have nothing to do with it 'T is an inheritance of the saints in light and therefore cannot belong to such as still remain under the powers of darkness Heaven may be considered under a twofold notion either as a State Place 1. In the first sense 't is the same with Holiness consisting in such Godlike dispositions as may make us partakers of the Divine nature 2. In the second sense It denotes that other world where we hope to enjoy the beatifical vision in the blessed society of Saints and Angels Which Religion only and Holiness can qualify us for by working in our natures such a suitableness and congruity as must make such things to be felicities In brief That Salvation and Glory which the Christian Religion doth so clearly propose to us is as to the nature and essence of it but the very same thing with Religion consisting in such a conformity of our minds to the nature of God whereby we are made capable of the fruition of him in Heaven So that in this respect also Religion is the Whole of Man that is the whole Happiness and well-being of man doth depend upon it I have now dispatcht what I intended in this Discourse namely to prove the Reasonableness and Credibility of the Principles of Natural Religion which I have made appear to be in themselves of so great evidence that every one who will not do violence to his own faculties must believe and assent unto them I have likewise made it plain that 't is every mans greatest Interest to provide for his present and future happiness by applying himself to the Duties of Religion which upon all accounts will advance the perfection of his nature and promote his true wellfare both in this world and the other Insomuch that if we were to chuse the Laws we would submit unto it were not possible for us to contrive any rules more advantageous to our own interest than those which Religion doth propose and require us to observe upon pain of everlasting damnation and in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised to all those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality CHAP. IX The Conclusion of the whole shewing the excellency of the Christian Religion and the advantages of it both as to the knowledg and practice of our duty above the meer light of Nature I Have now at large considered the Credibility of the Principles of Natural Religion and our obligation to the several Duties resulting from those Principles The purpose of all which is to shew how firm and deep a foundation Religion hath in the Nature and Reason of Mankind But not in the least to derogate from the necessity and usefulness of Divine Revelation or to extenuate the great blessing and benefit of the Christian Religion but rather to prepare and make way for the entertainment of that Doctrine which is so agreeable to the clearest dictates of Natural light For notwithstanding all that hath been said of Natural Religion it cannot be denyed but that in this dark and degenerate state into which Mankind is sunk there is great want of a clearer light to discover our duty to us with greater certainty and to put it beyond all doubt and dispute what is the good and acceptable Will of God and of a more powerful encouragement to the practice of our duty by the promise of a supernatural assistance and by the assurance of a great and eternal reward And all these defects are fully supplied by that clear and perfect Revelation which God hath made to the World by our blessed Saviour And although before God was pleased to make this Revelation of his Will to mankind men were obliged to the practice of moral duties by the Law of Nature and as the Apostle speaks having not the Law were a Law to themselves shewing the effect of the Law written upon their hearts yet now that God hath in so much mercy revealed his Will so plainly to mankind it is not enough for us who enjoy this Revelation to perform those moral duties which are of natural obligation unless we also do them in obedience to Christ as our Lord and Law-giver As we are Christians whatever we do in word or deed we must do all in the name of the Lord Jesus and by him alone expect to find acceptance with God How far the Moral virtues of meer Heathens who walk answerable to the light they have may be approved of God I shall not now dispute Only thus much seems clear in the general That the Law of Nature being implanted in the hearts of men by God himself must therefore be esteemed to be as much his Law as any positive Institution whatsoever And consequently conformity to it must in its kind in genere morum be acceptable to him God loves the societies of mankind and because of the necessity of justice and virtue and probity to the preservation of humane society therefore he doth generally give a blessing and success to honest and good enterprizes and blasts the contrary with signal judgments and marks of his displeasure But we cannot from these outward dispensations infer any thing certainly concerning such mens eternal conditions Some of the Fathers indeed as Justin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus and Chrysostom have delivered their judgments for the salvation of such Heathens as live according to the light of Nature But the general stream of the rest is for the contrary opinion I shall not now enquire into the particular grounds and reasons of this difference It may suffice to say in general that the goodness and mercy of God as well as his
that in one of these ways he shall meet with much trouble difficulty danger which the other is altogether free from In this case though a man be not bound to believe that one of them is a truer way than the other yet is he obliged in prudence to take the safest Nay I add further If the probabilities on the one hand should somewhat preponderate the other yet if there be no considerable hazard on that side which hath the least probability and a very great apparent danger in a mistake about the other In this case prudence will oblige a man to do that which may make most for his own safety These are those preparatory Principles which I thought fit to premise as a necessary foundation for any debate with captious men about these first grounds of Religion And they are each of them I think of such perspicuity as to need little more than the bare Proposal of them and the Explication of their Terms to evince the truth of them CHAP. IV. Concerning the Existence of a Deity and the Arguments for it The I. Argument From the universal consent and agreement of Mankind and the Objections answered THese things being premised I betake my self to that which was at first proposed as the chief design of this Book namely to prove the Reasonableness and the Credibility of the Principles of Natural Religion By Religion I mean that general habit of Reverence towards the Divine nature whereby we are inabled and inclined to worship and serve God after such a manner as we conceive most agreeable to his will so as to procure his favour and blessing I call that Natural Religion which men might know and should be obliged unto by the meer principles of Reason improved by Consideration and Experience without the help of Revelation This doth comprehend under it these three principal things 1. A belief and an acknowledgment of the Divine Nature and Existence 2. Due apprehensions of his Excellencies and Perfections 3. Suitable Affections and Demeanour towards him Concerning each of which I shall treat in order I. There must be a firm belief of the Divine Nature and Existence Primus est Deorum culius Deos credere saith Seneca Answerable to that of the Apostle He that comes to God must believe that he is Now that this is a point highly credible and such as every sober rational man who will not offer violence to his own faculties must submit unto I shall endeavour to evince by the plainest Reason In treating concerning this Subject which both in former and later times hath been so largely discussed by several Authors I shall not pretend to the invention of any new arguments but content my self with the management of some of those old ones which to me seem most plain and convincing Namely from 1. The Universal consent of Nations in all places and times 2. The Original of the World 3. That excellent contrivance which there is in all natural things 4. The Works of Providence in the Government of the World 1. From the Universal Consent of Nations in all places and times which must needs render any thing highly credible to all such as will but allow the human nature to be Rational and to be naturally endowed with a Capacity of distinguishing betwixt Truth and Falshood It is laid down by the Philosopher as the proper way of Reasoning from Authority That what seems true to some wise men may upon that account be esteemed somewhat probable what is believed by most wise men hath a further degree of probability what most men both wise and unwise do assent unto is yet more probable But what all men have generally consented to hath for it the highest degree of evidence of this kind that any thing is capable of And it must be monstrous arrogance and folly for any single persons to prefer their own judgments before the general suffrage of Mankind It is observed by AElian That the notions concerning the Existence and Nature of God and of a future state were more firmely believed and did usually make deeper impression upon the illiterate Vulgar who were guided by the more simple dictates of Nature than upon several of the philosophers who by their art and subtilty were able to invent disguises and to dispute themselves into doubts and uncertainties concerning such things as might bring disquiet to their minds That all Nations of men now do and have formerly owned this Principle may appear both from present experience and the History of other Times and Places And here I might cite abundance of the best Authors that are extant concerning the truth of this in all other Ages and Nations But for brevity's sake I shall mention only two Tully and Seneca Quae gens est aut quod genus hominum quod non habeat sine doctrinâ anticipationem quandam Deorum quam appellat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicurus What kind of men are there any where who have not of themselves this prenotion of a Deity And in another place Nulla gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem habere Denm deceat tamen habendum sciat Amongst all mankind there is no Nation so wild and barbarous who though they may mistake in their due apprehensions of the nature of God do not yet acknowledg his being And elsewhere Nulla est gens tam fera nemo omnium tam immanis cujus mentem non imbuerit Deorum timor There is no Nation so immensely barbarous and savage as not to believe the existence of a Deity and by some kind of services to express their adoration of him So Seneca Nulla gens usquam est adeo extra leges moresque projecta ut non aliquos Deos credat There is no where any Nation so utterly lost to all things of Law and Morality as not to believe the existence of God He that shall traverse over all this habitable Earth with all those remote corners of it reserved for the discovery of these later Ages may find some Nations without Cities Schools Houses Garments Coin but none without their God They may and do vastly differ in their Manners Institutions Customs But yet all of them agree in having some Deity to worship And besides this Universality as to Nations and Places it hath been so likewise as to Times Religion was observed in the beginning of the World before there were Civil Laws amongst men I mean any other than the meer wills of their Princes and Governours The Works of Moses are by general consent acknowledged to be the most ancient Writings in the world And though the design of them be to prescribe Doctrines and Rules for Religion yet there is nothing offered in them by way of proof or perswasion concerning the Existence of God but it is a thing taken for granted as being universally acknowledged and believed Nor do we read that any of the other
the Commandments themselves and likewise of our knowleldg and approbation of them namely the practice of holiness and virtue in the conduct of our lives whereby we are to be advanced unto that state of happiness wherein the perfection of our natures and our resemblance of the Deity doth consist And because the best of men do frequently fall short of that obedience which is due to the Laws of God therefore in case of transgression natural light doth direct men to repentance which is an hearty sorrow for our neglects and violations of the Divine Law accompanied with a firm and effectual purpose and resolution of amendment for the future Which though it do suppose the Commandments of God not to have been duly observed yet is it the only remedy left in such cases Some have questioned whether there be any obligation upon us for this by the light of nature partly because the Stoicks deny it and partly because reason will tell a man that it cannot afford any compensation to Divine justice To which I should say That the Stoicks indeed do deny this because it implies passion which their wise man must be without yet they will admit a man to be displeased with himself for any error or mistake which is much the same thing with sorrow though under another name And though this be not enough to satisfie infinite justice yet it is that which reason doth oblige us to We expect from those who offend us that they should profess their sorrow and shame beg pardon and promise amendment And the men of Nineveh did upon a Natural principle betake themselves to this remedy and with good success though they were doubtful of it Who can tell if God will turn and repent This conformity to the Law of God requires a twofold condition Universality Regularity 1. Universality both as to the time and the duties themselves without any such picking and chusing amongst them as may bend the Laws to make them suitable to our own interests and humours 2. Regularity in the due proportioning of our love and zeal and observance according to that difference which there is in the true nature and consequence of the things themselves preferring mercy and obedience before sacrifice and the weighty matters of the Law before tything of mint and cummin righteousness and peace before meat and drink 'T is true the least commandment is not to be neglected as having stamped upon it the autority of the great God But then we are to consider that the same autority by which that is injoined doth oblige us to prefer other things before it So that a man doth disobey in doing a good thing when upon that account he neglects what is far better And the mistake of men about this is the true cause of that which we call Superstition which is one of the opposites to Religion and so destructive to the true nature of it Men being apt to think themselves priviledged for their neglects and failings in some greater matters by their zeal about lesser things Now nothing will contribute more to banish this Superstition out of the world than a sober enquiry into the nature and causes of things whereby we may be able to take a just estimate of their evidence and importance and consequently to proportion our zeal about them I mention this the rather because it hath been by some objected that humane Learning and Philosophy doth much indispose men for this humble submission to Divine Laws by framing their minds to other notions and inclinations than what are agreeable to Religion But that this is a false and groundless prejudice may be made very evident The true knowledg of the nature of things being amongst natural helps one of the most effectual to keep men off from those two extremes of Religion Superstition and Prophaneness 1. For Superstition this doth properly consist in a misapprehension of things placing Religion in such things as they ought not for the matter or in such a degree as they ought not for the measure which proceeds from ignorance 2. For Prophaneness this doth consist in a neglect or irreverence towards sacred things and duties when such matters as ought to have our highest esteem are rendered vile and common And this likewise doth proceed from ignorance of the true nature of things Now one of the best remedies against this is the study of Philosophy and a skill in nature which will be apt to beget in men a veneration for the God of nature And therefore to those Nations who have been destitute of Revelation the same persons have been both their Philosophers and their Priests those who had most skill in one kind of knowledg being thought most fit to instruct and direct men in the other And if we consult the stories of other places and times we shall constantly find those Nations most solemn and devout in their worship who have been most civilized and most philosophical And on the contrary those other Nations in America and Africa whom Navigators report to be most destitute of Religion are withall most brutish and barbarous as to other Arts and knowledg It cannot be denyed indeed but that a slight superficial knowledg of things will render a man obnoxious either to Superstition or to Atheistical thoughts especially if joined with a proud mind and vicious inclinations He that hath made some little progress in natural enquiries and gotten some smattering in the phrases of any Theory whereby as he conceives he can solve some of the common Phaenomena may be apt to think that all the rest will prove as easie as his first beginning seems to be and that he shall be able to give an account of all things But they that penetrate more deeply into the nature of things and do not look upon second causes as being single and scattered but upon the whole chain of them as linked together will in the plainest things such as are counted most obvious acknowledg their own ignorance and a Divine power and so become more modest and humblé in their thoughts and carriage Such inquisitive persons will easily discern as a noble Author hath well expressed it that the highest link of Natures Chain is fastened to Jupiter's Chair This notwithstanding it be a digression I thought fit to say by way of vindication and answer to those prejudices which some men have raised against humane Learning and the study of Philosophy as if this were apt to dispose men unto Atheistical principles and practices Whereas a sober enquiry into the nature of things a diligent perusal of this volume of the world doth of it self naturally tend to make men regular in their minds and conversations and to keep them off from those two opposites of Religion Superstition and Prophaneness CHAP. XVII Of Passive Obedience or Patience and Submission to the Will of God THus much may suffice concerning the nature and duty of Active Obedience I proceed to that of Passive Obedience or patient
commandements is a matter of so great consequence to Humane Nature that 1. The Essence or Being of man may be said to consist in it 2. The great Business or duty of man is to be conversant about it and to labour after it 3. The Happiness or well-being of man doth depend upon it These particulars I shall endeavour to make out by such clear Principles of Reason attested to by several of the wisest Heathen Writers as may be enough to satisfy any serious man who is able to understand the reason and consequence of things and will but attend and consider First Religion is of so great importance that the Essence of man may be said to consist in it Man may be considered under a twofold notion 1. In his single capacity according to that principle whereby he is constituted in such a rank of creatures 2. In Society for which man seems to be naturally designed and without which he could not well subsist Now Religion will appear to be Essential to him in both these respects 1. As considered in his single capacity according to those principles by which he is framed That which doth constitute any thing in its Being and distinguish it from all other things this is that which we call the Form or Essence of a thing Now the things which distinguish Humane Nature from all other things are the chief principles and foundations of Religion namely the Apprehension of a Deity and an expectation of a future state after this life Which no other creature below man doth partake of and which are common to all mankind notwithstanding the utmost endeavours that can be used for the suppressing of them As for what is commonly alledged in the behalf of Reason it may be observed that in the actions of many brate creatures there are discernable some footsteps some imperfect strictures and degrees of Ratiocination such a natural sagacity as at least bears a near resemblance to reason From whence it may follow that it is not Reason in the general which is the Form of Humane nature But Reason as it is determined to actions of Religion of which we do not find the least signs or degrees in Brutes Man being the only creature in this visible world that is formed with a capacity of worshipping and enjoying his Maker Nor is this any new opinion but what several of the antient Writers Philosophers Orators Poets have attested to who make the notion of a Deity and adoration of him to be the true difference betwixt Man and Beast So Tully Ex tot generibus nullum est animal praeter hominem quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei ipsisque in hominibus nulla gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem habere Deum deceat tamen habendum sciat Amongst all the living creatures that are in the world there is none but Man that hath any notion of a Deity and amongst mankind there is no Nation so wild and barbarous but pretends to some Religion whence it should seem that this is the most proper difference betwixt man and beasts And in another place he makes this to be the Character of that Reason which is the Form of man that it is vinculum Dei hominis which imports both name and thing Of the same sense is that of the Satyrist who speaking of Religion and a sense of Divine things saith this of it separat hoc nos A grege mutorum atque ideo venerabile soli Sortiti ingenium divinorumque capaces 'T is this saith he which doth distinguish us from brute creatures That we have souls capable of Divine impressions There are abundance of expressions to this purpose in several other of the Heathen Writers That in Plutarch where he styles irreligion a kind of stupor whereby men are as it were deprived of their senses And in another place he asserts it to be an exceeding improper thing to ascribe true reason to those who do not acknowledg and adore the Deity So again Tully esse Deos qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem I can hardly think that man to be in his right mind who is destitute of Religion And in another place of the same Book Quis hunc hominem dixerit c. Why should any one style such an one a man who by what he sees in the world is is not convinced of a Deity and a providence and of that adoration he owes to the Deity Non modo non philosophos sed nec homines quidem fuisse dixerim saith another Men that are destitute of Religion are so far from being learned philosophers that they ought not to be esteemed so much as reasonable men 'T is true nothing is more ordinary than for such persons as are sceptical in these first principles to entertain great thoughts of themselves as if they had considered things more deeply and were arrived unto a higher pitch of reason and wit than others But yet the plain truth is they who have not attained to this conviction of placing their chief interest in being religious they are so far from exceeding others in degrees that they come short of the very nature and essence of men as being destitute of those first Notions concerning truth and falshood good and evil wherein the essence of a rational Being doth consist Besides their palpable deficiency in such plain consequences and deductions of Reason as would become those who in any measure pretend to that principle So that by what hath been said it may appear that the Definition of Man may be rendered as well by the Difference of Religiosum as Rationale As for that inconvenience which some may object That Atheistical and prophane persons will hereby be excluded Why so they are by the other Difference likewise such persons having no just pretence to Reason who renounce Religion And it were well if they might not only be reckoned among Beasts as they are by the Psalmist where he styles them brutish but driven out amongst them likewise and banished from all humane society as being publick pests and mischiefs of mankind such as would debase the nobility of our natures to the condition of brute creatures and therefore are fit only to live amongst them Which brings me to the 2d Consideration of Man as a sociable creature Religion is essential to him in this respect also as being the surest bond to tye men up to those respective duties towards one another without which Government and Society could not subsist There is a remarkable passage in Plutarch to this purpose where he styles Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cement of all Community and the chief Basis of all Legislative power And in another place he says That 't is much more easie to build a City in the open Air without any ground to found it upon than to establish Government without Religion A City saith he may make
belonging to good men such persons can challenge no greater share of this than according as their real merit and virtue shall require The Royal stamp upon any kind of Metal may be sufficient to give it an extrinsick value and to determine the rate at which it is to pass amongst Coyns but it cannot give an intrinsick value or make that which is but Brass to be Gold 'T is true indeed there are some Callings and particular Relations of men to which an inward veneration is due though the persons themselves should not be virtuous namely Magistrates and Ministers and Parents and Benefactors who having somewhat of a Divine stamp and impress may therefore challenge from us that we should demean our selves towards them both with such an outward respect as becomes their places and with such an inward respect too as may be suitable to that image which they bear to our dependance upon them and obligations to them But then we cannot be obliged to think such persons good men unless we have some evidence to believe them to be so or at least not to be otherwise so that they are beholding to something extrinsecal to their persons namely to their Callings and Relations for that honour which is paid to them 2. Outward Honouring is when men do by their words or actions testify that esteem and respect which they have for the worth of others And this indeed may be truely said to be in the power of others because men have a greater command over their words and actions than they have over their belief Now all men that are truely virtuous and religious will be ready to give unto every one his due honour and such are the best judges of it Upon which account Tully defines true honour to be consentiens laus bonorum the concurrent approbation of good men such only being fit to give true praise who are themselves praise-worthy As for vitious and irreligious persons 't is not to be expected that they should be forward to commend that which is opposite to them But then 't is to be considered that these are no competent judges of such matters And for a man to resent deeply the contempt of unworthy persons were overmuch to honour them as if their esteem could add any thing to his reputation And yet even these persons cannot avoid having an inward veneration for goodness and religion which is the reason why they are so forward to dissemble it to disguise themselves under the shew of it Men do not use to counterfeit common stones and metals but such as are precious Jewels and Gold Nor would any one take the pains to counterfeit being Religious if he did not think it a matter of some value and a means to procure esteem from others And when such men do revile and persecute any one for being religious yet is there such a natural veneration belonging to the thing it self as makes them to disguise it under the name of Hypocrisy Heresy Superstition c. whereby they may justify themselves in their opposing of it II. But this is only general discourse and in the notion The best argument to this purpose would be from Experience by which I mean that practical knowledg which every man may attain by his own observation of the usual course of things in the world And by this it will appear that no kind of persons have been more highly reverenced in the hearts and consciences of others than those that have been most eminent for their virtue and religion which hath been always true both with respect to publick communities and private persons 1. For Nations If we consult the Histories of former times we shall find that saying of Solomon constantly verifyed That Righteousness doth exalt a nation but sin doth prove a reproach to it And more especially the sin of Irreligiousness and Prophaneness As this doth increase in any nation so must the honour and Reputation of that nation decrease The Roman Empire was then at the highest as to its name and greatness when it was so as to its virtue when they were most punctual in observing the Rites of their Religion though that were a false way of worship most Heroical in their Justice courage fidelity gratitude then it was that they deserved to govern the world and to be had in greatest honour above all other nations And not only Cicero and Polybius two Heathen Writers who upon that account might be thought more partial But St. Austin also and Lactantius two of the Fathers do ascribe the flourishing of that Empire when it was at its height to the Religion and Piety and virtue of those times and as they did afterwards degenerate from this so did they decline likewise in their greatness and honour 2. Thus also hath it been with particular persons Amongst the Heathen what Elogies do we find in the honour of Socrates Aristides Cato Epictetus The last of whom though but a poor slave had yet such a veneration paid to his memory that his earthen lamp by which he was wont to study was after his death sold for Three thousand Drachms Nor was it otherwise amongst the Christians The Apostles were but poor Fishermen illiterate Mechanicks many of the Martyrs were but of mean condition much opposed and persecuted in the world and yet these men during the time of their lives were highly reverenced amongst those that knew them and since their deaths what can be more glorious than that renown which they have amongst men when the greatest Kings and Princes will not mention their names without reverence when whole Nations are willing to set apart and to observe solemn days and Festivals in honour of their memories And as it hath always been thus formerly so I appeal to every man's breast whether it be not so now Let them but examine what their inclinations are towards such persons whom they believe to be truly virtuous not only to such among them as are their particular acquaintance and friends but likewise to strangers nay to very enemies whether they do not esteem and love them and will-well to them It cannot be denyed but that there are too many in the world who propose to themselves such ways and courses for the promoting of their honour and reputation as are quite opposite to that which I have now been discoursing of namely prophaneness and contempt of Religion despising that which other men stand in awe of by which they think to get the reputation of Wit and Courage of Wit by pretending to penetrate more deeply into the nature of things and to understand them better than others do not to be so easily imposed upon as other credulous people are Of Courage by not being so easily scared at the apprehension of danger at a distance But the plain truth is such persons do hereby prove themselves to be both Fools and Cowards Fools In mistaking their great interest in making choice of such means as can never promote the
Goodness Justice Faithfulness p. 135. Chap. XI Of the Perfections belonging to the Powers and faculties of Acting viz. Power Dominion Distribution of future Rewards and Punishments p. 143. Chap. XII Concerning the Duties of Religion naturally flowing from the consideration of the Divine Nature and Perfections And first of Adoration and Worship p. 176. Chap. XIII Of Faith or Affiance p. 189. Chap. XIV Of Love p. 200. Chap. XV. Of Reverence and Fear p. 216. Chap. XVI Of Active Obedience to the Laws of God p. 227. Chap. XVII Of Passive Obedience or Patience and submission to the Will of God p. 239. SECOND BOOK Of the Wisdom of Practising the Duties of Natural Religion Chap. I. SHewing in general how Religion conduces to our happiness p. 285. Chap. II. How it conduces to our present Happiness in this world And first to the happiness of the Outward-man 1. In respect of Health p. 314. Chap. III. In respect of Liberty Safety and Quiet p. 324. Chap. IV. In respect of our Estates and Possessions Riches p. 330. Chap. V. In respect of Pleasure or the chearful enjoyment of outward blessings p. 344. Chap. VI. In respect of Honour and Reputation p. 353. Chap. VII How Religion conduces to the Happiness of the Inward-man As it tends to the perfecting and regulating of our Faculties and to the Peace and tranquility of our minds p. 372. Chap. VIII How Religion conduces to our Happiness in the next World p. 388. Chap. IX The conclusion of the whole shewing the excellency of the Christian Religion and the advantages of it both as to the knowledg and practice of our Duty above the mere Light of Nature p. 394. THE FIRST BOOK Shewing The Reasonableness of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion CHAP. I. Concerning the several kinds of Evidence and Assent I Intend by Gods assistance in this First Book to treat concerning the Reasonableness and the Credibility of the Principles of Natural Religion in opposition to that Humour of Scepticism and Infidelity which hath of late so much abounded in the world not only amongst sensual men of the vulgar sort but even amongst those who pretend to a more than ordinary measure of wit and learning In my entrance upon this work I am sensible of what ill consequence it may be to lay the stress of a weighty cause upon weak or obscure Arguments which instead of convincing men will rather harden and confirm them in their Errors And therefore I cannot but think my self obliged in the management of this Argument to use my utmost caution and endeavour that it be done with so much strength and perspicuity as may be sufficient to convince any man who hath but an ordinary capacity and an honest mind which are no other qualifications than what are required to the institution of men in all kinds of Arts and Sciences whatsoever In order to this I judg it expedient to premise something concerning the several kinds and degrees of Evidence and Assent and to lay down some common principles which may serve as a foundation to the following Discourse The several ways whereby men come to the knowledg or belief of any thing without immediate Revelation are either by such Evidence of things as is more Simple relating to the Senses Outward Inward Understanding arising either from the Nature of the things in themselves Testimony of others concerning them Mixed relating both to the Senses and Understanding I. By Senses I mean those faculties whereby we are enabled to discern and know such particular objects as are present These are either 1. Outward by which we can apprehend external objects as when we see or hear or touch any thing presented to us 2. Inward by which we can discern internal objects and are conscious to our selves or sensible both of the impressions that are made upon our outward senses and of the inward motions of our minds namely our apprehensions inclinations and the power of determining our selves as to our own Actions and by which we can at any time be assured of what we think or what we desire or purpose II. By Understanding I mean that faculty whereby we are enabled to apprehend the objects of Knowledg Generals as well as Particulars Absent things as well as Present and to judg of their Truth or Falshood Good or Evil. That kind of Evidence may be said to arise from the nature of things when there is such a Congruity or Incongruity betwixt the Terms of a Proposition or the Deductions of one Proposition from another as doth either satisfie the mind or else leave it in doubt and hesitation about them That kind of Evidence is said to arise from Testimony when we depend upon the credit and relation of others for the truth or falshood of any thing There being several things which we cannot otherwise know but as others do inform us of them As namely matters of fact together with the account of Persons and Places at a distance Which kind of Evidence will be more or less clear according to the authority and credit of the Witness Besides these there is a mixed kind of Evidence relating both to the Senses and Understanding depending upon our own observation and repeated trials of the issues and events of Actions or Things called Experience These are the several kinds of Evidence whereby we attain to the knowledg or belief of things The kinds of Assent proceeding from them are reducible to these two Heads I. Knowledg or Certainty which may be distinguished into three kinds which I crave leave to call by the names of Physical Mathematical Moral II. Opinion or Probability I. That kind of Assent which doth arise from such plain and clear Evidence as doth not admit of any reasonable cause of doubting is called Knowledg or Certainty 1. I call that Physical Certainty which doth depend upon the Evidence of sense which is the first and highest kind of Evidence of which humane nature is capable Nothing can be more manifest and plain to me than that I now see somewhat which hath the appearance of such a colour or figure than that I have in my mind such a thought desire or purpose and do feel within my self a certain power of determining my own actions which is called Liberty To say that we cannot tell whether we have Liberty because we do not understand the manner of Volition is all one as to say That we cannot tell whether we see or hear because we do not understand the manner of sensation He that would go about to confute me in any of these Apprehensions ought to bring a Medium that is better known and to derive his Argument from somewhat that is more evident and certain than these things are unless he can think to overthrow and confute that which is more plain and certain by that which is less plain and certain which is all one as to go about to out-weigh a heavy body by somewhat that is lighter or to attempt the
which is evil is to be avoided The greater congruity or incongruity there is in any thing to the reason of Mankind and the greater tendency it hath to promote or hinder the perfection of mans nature so much greater degrees hath it of moral Good or Evil. To which we ought to proportion our Inclination or Aversion There is in some things such a natural decency and fitness as doth render them most agreeable to our reason and will be sufficient to recommend them to our practice abstracting from all considerations of Reward As in loving those who are kind to us and from whom we receive benefit In compensating Good with Good and not with Evil. It is most suitable both to the Reason and Interest of mankind that every one should submit themselves to him upon whom they depend for their Well-being by doing such things as may render them Acceptable to him It is a desireable thing for a man to have the assistance of others in his need and distress And 't is not reasonable for him to expect this from others unless he himself be willing to shew it to others The rational nature and the Perfection belonging to it being more noble than the Sensitive Therefore Moral Good is to be preferred before Natural and that which is Morally Evil is more to be hated and avoided than that which is Natural A present Natural Good may be parted with upon a probable expectation of a future Moral good A present Natural Evil is to be endured for the probable avoiding of a future Moral Evil. CHAP. III. Some Propositions necessary to be premised for the removing of several prejudices in Debates about Religion BEsides what hath been already suggested concerning the first foundations to be laid in order to a discourse about Natural Religion I shall in the next place offer to consideration these seven following Propositions as being very proper to prevent or obviate the Cavils of Sceptical captious men 1. Such things as in themselves are equally true and certain may not yet be capable of the same kind or degree of Evidence as to us As for instance That there was such a man as King Henry the Eighth that there are such places as America or China I say these things may in themselves be equally true and certain with those other matters That we now see and are awake That the three Angles in a Triangle are equal to two right ones Though for the first of these we have only the testimony of others and humane tradition whereas for the other we have sensitive proof and Mathematical demonstration And the reason is because all Truths are in themselves equal according to that ordinary Maxim Veritas non recipit magis minus And therefore nothing can be more irrational than for a man to doubt of or deny the truth of any thing because it cannot be made out by such kind of proofs of which the nature of such a thing is not capable A man may as well deny there is any such thing as Light or Colour because he cannot hear it or sound because he cannot see it as to deny the truth of other things because they cannot be made out by sensitive or demonstrative proofs The kinds of Probation for several things being as much disproportioned as the objects of the several senses are to one another 2. Things of several kinds may admit and require several sorts of proofs all which may be good in their kind The Philosopher hath long ago told us that according to the divers nature of things so must the Evidences for them be and that 't is an argument of an undisciplined wit not to acknowledge this He that is rational and judicious will expect no other kind of Arguments in any case than the subject-matter will bear Hâ—w incongruous would it be for a Mâ—â—â—â—â—atician to perswade with eloquence to 〈◊〉 all imaginable insinuations and 〈◊〉 that he might prevail with his hearers to believe that three and three make six It would be altogether as vain and improper in matters belonging to an Orator to pretend to strict Demonstration All things are not capable of the same kind of Evidence Though the Conclusions in Mathematicks by reason of the abstracted nature of those Sciences may be demonstrated by the clearest and most unquestionable way of Probation to our reason yet it is not rational to expect the like proof in such other matters as are not of the like nature This he himself applys to Moral things which being not of such simple abstracted naturès but depending upon mixed circumstances are not therefore capable of such kind of Demonstrative proofs 'T is a saying of Jamblicus That demonstrations are not to be expected in matters concerning God and divine things Nor is this any greater prejudice to the certainty of such things than it is that God is invisible And thus likewise it is for the same reason with many particular conclusions in Natural Philosophy And as for matters of Fact concerning Times Places Persons Actions which depend upon story and the relation of others these things are not capable of being proved by such scientifical Principles as the others are Now no sober man can deny but that several things in Moral and in Natural Philosophy are in themselves as absolutely and as certainly true and as firmly believ'd by us as any Mathematical principle or conclusion can be From whence I infer this That it is not ought not to be any prejudice to the Truth or Certainty of any thing that it is not to be made out by such kind of proofs of which the nature of that thing is not capable provided it be capable of satisfactory proofs of another kind 3. When a thing is capable of good proof in any kind men ought to rest satisfy'd in the best evidence for it which that kind of things will bear and beyond which better could not be expected supposing it were true They ought not to expect either sensible proof or demonstration for such matters as are not capable of such proofs supposing them to be true Because otherwise nothing must be assented to and believed but that which hath the highest Evidence All other things being to be looked upon as uncertain and doubtful and wholly excluded from all possibility of being known And at this rate men must believe nothing at all in story because such things cannot be demonstrated and 't is possible that the rest of Mankind might have combined together to impose upon them by these relations And how abhorrent such Sceptical Principles must needs be to common reason I need not say Those who will pretend such kind of grounds for their disbelief of any thing will never be able to perswade others that the true cause why they do not give their Assent is because they have no reason for it but because they have no mind to it Nolle in causa est non posse praetenditur And on the
other side when we have for the proof of any thing some of the highest kinds of Evidence in this case it is not the suggestion of a meer possibility that the thing may be otherwise that ought to be any sufficient cause of doubting To which I shall only add that we may be unquestionably sure of many things as to their existence and yet we may not be able to explain the nature of them No man in his wits can make any doubt whether there be such things as Motion and Sensation and Continuity of Bodies And yet these things are commonly esteemed inexplicable So that our not being able to see to the bottom of things and to give a distinct account of the nature and manner of them can be no sufficient cause to doubt of their being 4. The mind of man may and must give a firm assent to some things without any kind of hesitation or doubt of the contrary where yet the Evidences for such things are not so infallible but that there is a possibility that the things may be otherwise i. e. There may be an indubitable certainty where there is not an infallible certainty And that kind of certainty which doth not admit of any doubt may serve us as well to all intents and purposes as that which is infallible A man may make no doubt whether he himself were baptized whether such persons were his parents of which yet he can have no other Evidence than Tradition and the Testimony of others Who is there so wildly Sceptical as to question whether the Sun shall rise in the East and not in the North or West or whether it shall rise at all Because the contrary is not impossible and doth not imply any Contradiction Suppose that in digging of the Earth amongst some ancient ruins a man should find a round flat piece of Metal in the exact shape of an old Medal with the Image and Inscription of one of the Roman Emperours Or suppose he should dig up a large stone of the shape of an ancient Tomb-stone with a distinct Inscription upon it of the name and quality of some person said to be buried under it Can any rational man doubt whether one of these were not a piece of Coyn and the other a Grave-stone or should a man be bound to suspend his assent and belief of this barely upon this ground because 't is possible that these might have been the natural shapes of that particular Metal and Stone and that those which seem to be letters or figures engraven or embossed upon it may be nothing else but some casual dents or cavities which by the various motions and temper of the matter did happen to them amongst those many millions of other figures which they were capable of Who would not think such a man to be strangely wild and irrational who could frame to himself any real scruples from such Considerations as these Why 't is the same kind of absurd dotage that Scepticks in Religion are guilty of in suspending their assent meerly upon this ground because some Arguments for it do not so infallibly conclude but that there is a possibility things may be otherwise He that will raise to himself and cherish in his mind any real doubts according to the meer possibility of things shall not be able to determine himself to the belief or practice of any thing He must not stay within doors for fear the house should fall upon him for that is possible nor must he go out lest the next man that meets him should kill him for that also is possible And so must it be for his doing or forbearing any other action Nay I add further that man is sure to be deceived in very many things who will doubt of every thing where 't is possible he may be deceived I appeal to the common judgment of Mankind whether the humane nature be not so framed as to acquiesce in such a Moral certainty as the nature of things is capable of and if it were otherwise whether that Reason which belongs to us would not prove a burden and a torment to us rather than a priviledg by keeping us in a continual suspense and thereby rendring our conditions perpetually restless and unquiet Would not such men be generally accounted out of their wits who could please themselves by entertaining actual hopes of any thing meerly upon account of the possibility of it or torment themselves with actual fears of all such evils as are possible Is there any thing imaginable more wild and extravagant amongst those in Bedlam than this would be Why Doubt is a kind of fear and is commonly styled formido oppositi and 't is the same kind of madness for a man to doubt of any thing as to hope for or fear it upon a meer possibility 5. 'T is sufficient that matters of Faith and Religion be propounded in such a way as to render them highly credible so as an honest and teachable man may willingly and safely assent to them and according to the rules of Prudence be justified in so doing Nor is it either Necessary or Convenient that they should be established by such cogent Evidence as to necessitate assent Because this would not leave any place for the vertue of Believing or the freedom of our obedience nor any ground for Reward and Punishment It would not be thank-worthy for a man to believe that which of necessity he must believe and cannot otherwise chuse Rewards and Punishments do properly belong to free Actions such as are under a mans power either to do or forbear not to such as are necessary There is no more reason to reward a man for believing that four is more than three than for being hungry or sleepy Because these things do not proceed from choice but from natural necessity A man must do so nor can he do otherwise I do not say That the Principles of Religion are meerly probable I have before asserted them to be Morally certain And that to a man who is careful to preserve his mind free from prejudice and to consider they will appear unquestionable and the deductions from them demonstrable But now because that which is necessary to beget this certainty in the mind namely impartial Consideration is in a mans power therefore the belief or disbelief of these things is a proper subject for Rewards and Punishments There would be little reason for the Scripture so much to magnifie the Grace of Faith as being so great a vertue and so acceptable to God if every one were necessitated to it whether he would or no. And therefore God is pleased to propose these matters of belief to us in such a way as that we might give some Testimony of our teachable dispositions and of our obedience by our assent to them Ut sermo Evangelii tanquam lapis esset Lydius ad quem ingenia sanabilia explorarentur as the Learned Grotius speaks concerning the Doctrine of the Gospel
whereby God was pleased as with a Touch-stone to prove and try what kind of tempers men are of whether they are so ingenuous as to accept of sufficient Evidence in the confirmation of a holy Doctrine And the Scripture doth in several places make use of the word Faith according to this notion of it as it consists in a readiness of mind to close with and give assent unto things upon such evidence as is in it self sufficient To which purpose is that expression of our Saviour to Thomas Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed Joh. 20. 29. Signifying it to be a more excellent commendable and blessed thing for a man to yield his assent upon such evidence as is in it self sufficient without insisting upon more It denotes good inclinations in men towards Religion and that they have worthy thoughts of the Divine power and goodness when they are willing to submit unto such arguments in the confirmation of a holy doctrine as to unprejudiced persons are in themselves sufficient to induce belief It was this disposition that was commended in the Bereans for which they are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more ingenuous teachable and candid more noble than others Because they received the word with all readiness of mind i. e. Were ready and willing to assent to the Gospel upon such evidence as was in it self sufficient to convince reasonable and unprejudiced men And on the other side it was the want of this disposition which is condemned Mat. 13. 58. where 't is said that our Saviour did not many mighty works in his own Country because of their unbelief i. e. That prejudice which there was upon them by their knowledg of his mean parentage and birth and their ignorance of his Divine commission and high calling did indispose them for an equal judgment of things and render them unteachable And having tried this by doing some mighty works amongst them he would not do many because of their incapacity of receiving benefit by them Wicked men are in the Scripture phrase styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filii insuasibilitatis unperswadable men such as no reason can convince And else-where they are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate unreasonable men But the word may signifie absurd contumacious persons who are not to be fixed by any Principles whom no Topics can work upon being directly opposite to this vertue of Faith as appears by the next clause For all men have not Faith Supposing Mankind to be endowed as all other things are with a natural principle whereby they are strongly inclined to seek their own preservation and happiness and supposing them to be rational and free Creatures able to judg of and to chuse the means conducing to this end Nothing can be more reasonable in this case than that such Creatures should be under the obligation of accepting such evidence as in it self is sufficient for their conviction 6. When there is no such evident certainty as to take away all kind of doubting in such cases a judgment that is equal and impartial must incline to the greater probabilities That is no just ballance wherein the heaviest side will not preponderate In all the ordinary affairs of life men use to guide their Actions by this Rule namely to incline to that which is most probable and likely when they cannot attain to any clear unquestionable certainty And that man would be generally counted a fool who should do otherwise Now let it be supposed that some of the great Principles in Religion should not seem to some men altogether so evident as to be wholly unquestionable yet ought their assent still to incline to the greater probability When it is said to be a duty for men to believe any thing or to acquiesce in such kind of Evidence as is sufficient for the proof of it The meaning is not as if there were any moral obligation upon the Understanding which is proper only unto the Will but the meaning is That men should be careful to preserve their minds free from any wilful prejudice and partiality that they should seriously attend to and consider the Evidence proposed to them so as to take a just estimate of it For though it be true that the judgments of men must by a natural necessity preponderate on that side where the greatest Evidence lies supposing the mind to be equally disposed and the ballance to be just yet must it withal be granted to be a particular virtue and felicity to keep the mind in such an equal frame of judging There are some men who have sufficient abilities to discern betwixt the true difference of things but what through their vicious affections and voluntary prejudices making them unwilling that some things should be true what through their inadvertency or neglect to consider and compare things together they are not to be convinced by plain Arguments not through any insufficiency in the evidence but by reason of some defect or corruption in the faculty that should judg of it Now the neglect of keeping our minds in such an equal frame the not applying of our thoughts to consider of such matters of moment as do highly concern a man to be rightly informed in must needs be a vice And though none of the Philosophets that I know of do reckon this kind of Faith as it may be styled this teachableness and equality of mind in considering and judging of matters of importance amongst other intellectual virtues yet to me it seems that it may justly challenge a place amongst them and that for this reason because the two extremes of it by way of Excess and Defect I mean the assenting unto such things upon insufficient Evidence which is called Credulity and the not assenting unto them upon sufficient Evidence which is called Incredulity or unbelief are both of them Vices Now where the Excess and Defect do make Vices or such things as ought not to be there the Mediocrity must denote something that ought to be and consequently must be a Virtue and have in it the obligation of Duty 7. If in any matter offered to Consideration the probabilities on both sides be supposed to be equal In this case though an impartial judgment cannot be obliged to incline to one side rather than to the other because our Assent to things must by a Necessity of Nature be proportioned to our Evidence for them And where neither side doth preponderate the ballance should hang even Yet even in this case men may be obliged to order their Actions in favour of that side which appears to be most safe and advantageous for their own interest Suppose a man travelling upon the Road to meet with two doubtful ways concerning neither of which he can have any the least probability to induce him to believe that one is more like to be the true way to his journey's end than the other only he is upon good grounds assured
Ancient Law-givers or founders of Commonwealths who thought fit to prescribe Rules for the Worship of God have endeavoured to perswade the people concerning his Being which yet had been most necessary if any doubt or question had then been made of it as being the very foundation of Religion and a disposition so requisite to qualifie men for Society and Government And as it hath been thus in former times so is it now amongst the Nations more lately discovered and not known to former Ages 'T is excellently said by Tully Opinionum commenta delet dies Naturae judicia confirmat That time wears out the fictions of Opinion and doth by degrees discover and unmask the fallacy of ungrounded perswasions but confirms the dictates and sentiments of Nature and 't is a good sign that those Notions are well established which can endure the Test of all Ages There are two things may be objected against this Argument 1. That there is no such Universal Consent as is pretended 2. If there were This would signifie but little because it may as well be urged for Polytheism and Idolatry 1. That there is no such Universal Consent as is pretended Because there are some Nations in the world so wild and savage as not to acknowledg any Deity which by several Historians is reported of the Cannibals in America and the Inhabitants of Soldania in Africk who are so sottish and grosly ignorant that they differ very little from Brutes having scarce any thing amongst them of Civil Policy and nothing at all of Religion or any publick Assemblies for Worship Besides such particular persons pretending to Learning and Philosophy as in several Ages have openly asserted and professedly maintained Atheistical Principles as Diagoras Theodorus Pherecides and others are said to have done To this it may be said that supposing these reports to be true There may almost in all kinds be some few instances besides and against the general course of things which yet can no more be urged as prejudices against the common and most usual order belonging to them than Prodigies may to prove that there is no Regularity in the Laws of Nature Is there any Equity or the least colour of Reason in this For a man to take an Essay of the nature of any species of things from such particular instances as in their kinds are monstrous Because beasts may sometimes be brought forth with five legs and it may be two heads is it reason therefore to conclude that no other shape is natural to their kind Specimen naturae cujuslibet a naturâ optimâ sumendum est saith Tully The Essay of any kind is rather to be taken from the best and most usual than from the worst and most depraved part of it Will it therefore follow that Honey is not naturally sweet to our taste because a sick palate doth not judg it to be so Such dissolute persons as are altogether immersed in sensuality whereby they have besotted their judgments cannot be looked upon as the most competent instances of what belongs to Humane nature Where there is either a defect of reason or a gross neglect in exciting a mans natural faculties or improving his reason by a due consideration of such consequences as do most naturally result from it In such cases it cannot otherwise be expected but that he must come short of that knowledg which he is naturally capable of and should have were it not for these defects Some men are born blind or have lost their sight will it hence follow that there is no such thing in nature as Light or Colour Others are Lunaticks or Ideots should any man from hence infer that there is no such thing as Reason No man may raise any doubt from such instances as these but he that will make it a serious Question Who are the mad men whether those in Bedlam or those out of it Whether Ideots are not the wisest of men and all others the veryest fools according as they are at the widest distance from them Can that man be thought to need any further confutation or pursuit who is forced to fly to such a retreat As for those instances of particular persons whom stories deliver down to us as being professed Atheists it may be said 1. 'T is plain that some of these were counted Atheists and Despisers of Religion because they did endeavour to confute the fopperies of the Heathen worship and deny the Sun and Moon and the several Idols that were adored in their Countries to be true Gods The loose and vitious Poets having so far debaucht the understandings of the Vulgar in those darker ages as to make them believe vile and filthy things of their Gods unsuitable to all Principles of sobriety and common reason Upon this several men who were more judicious and virtuous than others thought themselves obliged to reclaim the people from such mischievous fopperies In order to which besides the more serious arguments which they made use of they did likewise by jeers and scoffs endeavour to render these vitious Deities contemptible and to deride them out of the world And for this were they by the foolish superstitious multitude counted Atheists which was the case of Anaxagoras Socrates and others 2. Let it be supposed that some men have declared a disbelief of the Divine nature in general yet as there have been always some monsters amongst men in respect of their Bodies so may there be likewise in respect of their minds And this no prejudice to the standing laws of Nature And besides it ought to be considered that the same stories which mention such persons as profest Atheists do likewise give an account of divers signal judgments whereby they were witnessed against from Heaven 3. But I add further There never yet was any such person who had any full and abiding conviction upon his mind against the Existence of God Mentiuntur qui dicunt se non sentire esse Deum nam etsi tibi affirment interdin noctu tamen sibi dubitant They lye who say that they believe there is no God saith Seneca though they may profess this somewhat confidently in the day-time when they are in company yet in the night and alone they have doubtful thoughts about it 'T is their wish but not their opinion The interest of their guilt doth make them desire it But they are never able with all their endeavours wholly to extinguish their natural notions about it Witness those continual fears and terrors whereunto such kind of men are above all others most obnoxious The second Objection was That if the consent of Nations be a sufficient evidence to prove the Existence of God it may as well prove Polytheism and Idolatry for which the like consent may be pleaded To this two things may be answered 1. Though the Unity of the Godhead and the unfitness of worshipping him by Idols be discoverable by the light of nature yet these things are not so immediate and so
100000. And thus is it in some proportion with all the other parts the Skin Ligaments Vessels Glandules Humors But more especially with the several members of the Body which do in regard of the great variety and multitude of those several intentions required to them very much exceed the Homogeneous parts And the failing in any one of these would cause an irregularity in the Body and in many of them such as would be very notorious And thus likewise is it in proportion with all other kinds of Beings Minerals Vegetables but especially with such as are Sensitive Infects Fishes Birds Beasts And in these yet more especially for those Organs and Faculties that concern sensation But most of all for that kind of frame which relates to our understanding power whereby we are able to correct the errors of our Senses and Imaginations to call before us things past and future and to behold things that are invisible to Sense Now to imagine that all these things according to their several kinds could be brought into this regular frame and order to which such an infinite number of Intentions are required without the contrivance of some wise Agent must needs be irrational in the highest degree And then as for the frame of Humane nature it self If a man doth but consider how he is endowed with such a Natural Principle whereby he is necessarily inclined to seek his own well-being and happiness And likewise with one Faculty whereby he is enabled to judg of the nature of things as to their fitness or unfitness for this end And another Faculty whereby he is enabled to chuse and prosecute such things as may promote this end and to reject and avoid such things as may hinder it And that nothing properly is his duty but what is really his interest This may be another argument to convince him that the Author of his Being must be infinitely Wise and Powerful The wisest man is not able to imagine how things should be better than now they are supposing them to be contrived by the Wisest Agent And where we meet with all the Indications and Evidences of such a thing as the thing is capable of supposing it to be true It must needs be very irrational to make any doubt of it Now I appeal unto any considering man unto what cause all this exactness and regularity can be reasonably ascribed Whether to Blind Chance or to Blind Necessity or to the conduct of some Wise Intelligent Being Though we should suppose both Matter and Motion to be Eternal yet is it not in the least credible that insensible Matter could be the Author of all those excellent Contrivances which we behold in these natural things If any one shall surmize that these Effects may proceed from the Anima Mundi I would ask such a one Is this Anima Mundi an Intelligent Being or is it void of all perception and reason If it have no kind of sense or knowledg Then 't is altogether needless to assert any such principle because Matter and Motion may serve for this purpose as well If it be an Intelligent Wise Eternal Being This is GOD under another Name As for Fate or Necessity this must needs be as blind and as unfit to produce wise effects as Chance it self From whence it will follow That it must be a Wise Being that is the Cause of these Wise Effects By what hath been said upon this subject it may appear That these visible things of the world are sufficient to leave a man without excuse As being the Witnesses of a Deity and such as do plainly declare his great Power and Glory CHAP. VII 4. Arg. From Providence and the Government of the World 4. FROM the Works of Providence in the Government of the world And that continual experience which we have of some Wise and Powerful Being who doth preside over and govern all things Not only by his general concourse in preserving all kinds of things in their Beings and regulating them in their Operations But chiefly in his wise and just government over mankind and humane affairs which may appear by such effects as are Ordinary  Extraordinary 1. For the more common effects of it namely that general success which in the ordinary course of things doth accompany honest and virtuous actions And the punishment and vengeance that doth one time or other in this world usually befall such as are wicked Both Virtue and Vice being generally and for the most part sufficiently distinguished by Rewards and Punishments in this life There are indeed some instances to the contrary concerning the Miseries of Good men and the Prosperity of the Wicked But these have been by several of the wisest Heathen Plato Plutarch Tully Seneca c. sufficiently vindicated by the clearest Principles of Reason from being any prejudice to the wise Government of Providence It is not either Necessary or Convenient that Happiness and Prosperity in this Life which is the usual reward of Virtue should have either such a Physical or Mathematical Certainty as could not possibly fail Because 1. It would not be consistent with our dependent conditions that worldly prosperity should be so infallibly under the power of our own endeavours as that God himself might not sometimes interpose for our disappointment If I may have leave to suppose what I am now proving namely a Wise and Omnipotent Providence It must needs appear highly reasonable that it should be left to his Infinite Wisdom and Power to make what reserved cases he pleases from the ordinary course of things From whence it will follow that these unequal dispensations can be no sufficient ground for the disbelief of Providence 2. It would very much prejudice another great Principle of Religion which is of mighty influence for the regulating of mens lives and actions in this world namely the Belief and Expectation of a future state of Rewards and Punishments 3. If temporal prosperity did infallibly attend all good actions This would be a diminution to Virtue it self Men would do good by a kind of natural necessity which would abate just so much from the Virtue of their Actions as it does from the Liberty of them It is sufficient that Moral Actions should have Moral Motives And that Virtue doth generally and for the most part make men prosperous and happy in this world We know by experience that all Mankind do in their most weighty affairs think it sufficient to depend upon such causes as do commonly and for the most part prove effectual to the ends for which they are designed So that this very thing which is usually looked upon as the greatest objection against Providence is really and truly an argument for it 2. For extraordinary effects of it If we give any credit to the universal History of all Ages and Nations It will by that appear 1. That there have many times happened such special signal Providences for the punishing of obstinate sinners and for the
under the Mosaical dispensation The waters of Jealousie The extraordinary plenty of the sixt year The Urim and Thummim The special Protection of the Coasts of Israel every third year when all the Males were to go up to Jerusalem to worship which custom of theirs must needs be known to their enemies who lived round about them None of all these did prove effectual for the conviction of obstinate men Those occasional Miracles wrought by our Saviour though they were so many and so great as were never before wrought by any one yet did they not prevail with many of the Jews If it be said That none of these proofs do so infallibly conclude but that there doth still remain a Possibility that the thing may be otherwise To this I have shewed before That there may be an indubitable Certainty where there is not an infallible Certainty And that a meer possibility to the contrary is not a sufficient cause of doubting To which I now add That if it should be supposed that a man could not be sure of the Being of God Yet 't is most evident that he could not be sure of the contrary For this plain reason Because no man can be sure of a Pure Negative namely That such a thing is not unless he will either pretend to have a certain knowledg of all things that are or may be than which nothing can be more monstrously and ridiculously arrogant or else unless he be sure that the being of what he denies doth imply a contradiction for which there is not the least colour in this case The true notion of God consisting in this That he is a Being of all possible perfection If it be supposed that notwithstanding all that hath been said there may yet be some probabilities to the contrary To this it may be answered That unless these probabilities were greater and stronger than those on the other side no man who acts rationally will incline to them And if there be any such why are they not produced where are they to be found If men shall yet pretend That though they cannot answer these Arguments yet they do really find some doubt in their own minds I would ask such Have you seriously and impartially considered what is alledged in this case It should be no prejudice to any Proposition in Philosophy or Mathematicks that an ignorant man who never applied his thoughts to such things doth pretend to doubt of it If you do in some measure understand and have considered these arguments I would then ask Have you not as much reason for this as you your selves would think sufficient for the proof of any thing you were not unwilling to believe Do you not knowingly and wilfully entertain prejudices against such things Have you been true to so much light as you have received Or have you not rather with-held it in unrighteousness If so 't is plain that you have dishonest minds that you measure by an unjust balance and therefore cannot be competent judges of truth or falshood If it be supposed yet further that the Probabilities on each side should be equal or that those on the other side should somewhat preponderate yet if there be no considerable hazard on that side which hath the least probability and a very great and most apparent danger in a mistake about the other In this case every rational and prudent man is bound to order his actions in favour of that way which appears to be most safe and advantageous for his own interest as I have shewed before So that in such cases as may seem unto us not altogether free from some kind of doubt and which we could not so far clear up to our selves as to make them appear wholly unquestionable I say in such cases men that would act prudently should enquire Where lies the danger of mistaking Why on the one side All the inconvenience of Believing this if it be not so will be that we are hereby occasioned to tye our selves up to some needless restraints during this short time of our lives wherein notwithstanding there is as to the present much peace quiet and safety And as for the future our error shall dye with us there being none to call us to an account for our mistake But now on the other side what if there should be a Deity so holy and just and powerful as is supposed If this should prove to be a real truth and no man can be sure of the contrary what vengeance and indignation may such vile Miscreants and Traitors expect who have made it their business to banish Him out of the world who is the great Creator and Governour of it to undermine his Being to eradicate all notions of Him out of the minds of men To provoke his Creatures and Vassals to a contempt of Him a slighting of his fear and worship as being but such imaginary Chimaera's as are fit only to keep fools in awe Certainly as this is the highest provocation that any man can be guilty of so shall it be punished with the sorest vengeance There are two things that Atheistical men propose to themselves by their prophane loose principles namely to avoid the imputation of Credulity and the fears and perplexities of mind to which Religion makes men obnoxious But their principles are not more irrational than their design is foolish for of all mankind these prophane persons are 1. The most Credulous who can believe themselves to be wiser than all the world who can believe the Eternity of the world or its production by a casual concourse of Atoms without any kind of argument for it against the many reasons that are urged to the contrary Who if they should demean themselves about matters of the world as they do about Religion would be counted ridiculous senseless persons and altogether unfit for humane conversation 2. The most Timorous Tully hath observed that no kind of men are more afraid of God than such as pretend not to believe his Being These are the men who above all others are most liable to be affected with dread and trembling at thunder and lightning at solitude and darkness and more especially then when it doth most concern them to be freed from such disquiets namely in the time of sickness and the approaches of death From whence it will follow that upon all accounts Atheism may justly be accounted Folly both as it is directly contrary to the principles of reason and the rules of wisdom I have now done with the first thing required to a state of Religion namely A belief and an acknowledgment of the Divine Nature and Existence CHAP. VIII Concerning the Excellencies and Perfections of the Divine Nature And First of those which are commonly called Incommunicable namely Simplicity Unity Immutability Infiniteness Immensity  Eternity I Proceed to the second thing proposed as a principal part of Natural Religion namely Due apprehensions of the Divine Excellency and Perfections Without which
God the King and Father of all under whom there are subordinate Deities his offspring who are admitted to some share of government with him In this the Grecian consents with the Barbarian the Inhabitants of the Continent with the Islanders the Wise with the Unwise 2. But besides the Testimonies to this purpose it may likewise be made evident by Reason That a Plurality of Gods is not only unnecessary and therefore improbable but that it is such a supposition as doth imply in it many inconsistencies and therefore is impossible 1. 'T is unnecessary and therefore highly improbable Those have been always esteemed good Rules Frustra fit per plura c. Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate It is most suitable to that common analogy to be observed amongst natural things even in lesser matters that there is nothing amongst them superfluous or redundant And therefore much more ought it to be so in the greatest and highest matters of all Now nothing can be more evident than that one infinite Being may be sufficient to all purposes whatsoever for if it had any limits it were not infinite and nothing can be more absurd than to suppose more Gods than are necessary 2. 'T is not possible that there should be two such infinite Beings Because either they must have several Perfections or the same Neither of which is consistent with the most obvious notion of God That he is a Being of all possible Perfections To suppose two Gods with several Perfections some belonging to one and some to another will plainly prove that neither of them can be God because neither of them have all possible Perfections To suppose two Gods of the same and equal Perfections would likewise prove that neither of them can be God i. e. not absolutely perfect because it is not so great a priviledg to have the same equal perfections with another and in a kind of partnership as to be alone and superior above all others And to suppose one of them whether of several or the same kinds of Perfections with the other but only in an inferior degree may sufficiently evince that one of them is not properly God because not supreme 3. The third Attribute to be discussed is the Divine Immutability By which I mean a freedom from all kind of change or inconstancy both as to his Nature and his Purposes And that this Attribute is likewise very suitable to those natural notions which men have of God may appear 1. By Testimony Plato having proposed the Question whether God be mutable and inconstant answers expressly 'T is most necessary that he should be always the same and alike His words are most emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he is never in any wise capable of any kind of change whatsoever And in another place he mentions these two things as being the grand principles of Religion 1. That God is the cause of all good and in no wise of any evil 2. That he is constant and immutable and cannot deceive by making various representations of himself So Seneca speaking of the necessity of ascribing this Attribute to the Divine Nature as to his Purposes or Counsels hath this passage Statuerunt quae non mutarunt nec unquam primi consilii Deos paenitet God is always constant to his own Decrees and doth never repent of his Purposes And in another place Necesse est ei eadem placere eui nisi optima placere non possunt nec ob hoc minus liber ac potens est ipse enim est Necessitas sua 'T is necessary that he should be always pleased with the same things who can be pleased with nothing but what is best Nor can this be any prejudice to his Liberty or his Power since he is his own Necessity i. e. nothing from without but his own natutural perfection lays this necessity upon him 2. By reason There is an excellent argument to this purpose in that place before-cited out of Plato which according to his manner he delivers in a more copious way of expression But the substance of it is this All change must be either involuntary and upon necessity or voluntary and upon choice Now God being the most powerful Being cannot by any thing be necessitated to an involuntary change And for any voluntary change whereas it must be either for the better or the worse it is not imaginable that any wise Being should be willing to change for the worse Nor is it possible that any perfect Being should change for the better And therefore 't is necessary that the divine nature should be immutable We esteem changeableness in men either an imperfection or a fault Their natural changes as to their persons are from weakness and vanity their moral changes as to their inclinations and purposes are from ignorance or inconstancy And therefore there is very good reason why we should remove this from God as being that which would darken all his other perfections The greater the Divine Perfections are the greater Imperfection would Mutability be Besides that it would take away the foundation of all Religion Love and Fear and Affiance and Worship In which men would be very much discouraged if they could not certainly rely upon God but were in doubt that his nature might alter and that hereafter he might be quite otherwise from what we now apprehend him to be 4. Infiniteness is another Attribute most natural to the Notion of God By which is meant his not being bounded by place or space or by duration but being Immense and Eternal 1. This Attribute of Gods immensity doth signifie his not being so confined by any bounds of space but that he doth spread himself to all places that we can see or can imagine and infinitely beyond So as we cannot say he is here and not there thus far he reaches and not farther Some have thought that it is not absolutely necessary to believe such a kind of Omnipresence of the Divine substance as to be actually present in every place But this is most necessary to be believed That God is every-where in respect of his Power and Providence whereby he doth influence and govern all things which is hardly possible to conceive without his actual presence in all places And in respect of his Knowledg whereby he doth see and take notice of every thing though never so secret and that he can pierce through all these created things with greater facility than the Light doth through the Air. And that this doth belong to the natural notion of God may appear 1. By the general consent of the Heathen testified by their praying to him at any place or time which shews that they were perswaded that he was always and every-where present at least by his Knowledg and his Power Tully cites Pythagoras affirming Deum esse animum per naturam rerum omnium intentum commeantem That God is a Spirit or Mind which doth pass
more And yet though it be their interest to believe this though they make it their study and business to perswade themselves and others of it it may reasonably be doubted whether ever yet there hath been so much as one person that hath hereby become absolutely free from these fears But for the most part those who would have them esteemed vain and imaginary without any foundation in nature these are the persons who are most assaulted with them Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgura pallent So powerful and unconquerable are these impressions and therefore Natural 2. The second Reason I proposed to speak to was from the necessity of this Principle to the right government of mens lives and actions in this world and the preserving of society amongst them Nothing can be more evident than that humane Nature is so framed as not to be regulated and kept within due bounds without Laws and Laws must be insignificant without the sanction of Rewards and Punishments whereby men may be induced to the observance of them Now the temporal Rewards and Punishments of this life cannot be sufficient to this end and therefore there is a necessity that there should be another future state of happiness and misery All the Rewards and Punishments of this life are to be expected either from the Civil Magistrate who by virtue of his Place and Calling is obliged to the duty of distributive Justice Or else from Divine Providence according to that most usual course which we find by experience to be observed by him in his dispensation of these temporal things Now neither of these can afford sufficient motives for the government of mens lives and actions 1. Not all that may be expected from the Civil Magistrates because there may be many good and evil actions which they cannot take notice of and they can reward and punish only such things as come under their cognizance And if this were the only restraint upon men it could be no hinderance from any such mischiefs or villanies which men had the opportunity of committing secretly Nor would it extend to those who had power and strength enough to defend themselves from the Law and escape the penalty of it but that such might without any kind of check or fear follow the inclinations of their own appetites Nor would it afford any remedy in the case of such wicked Magistrates as should invert the order of their institution proving terrors to well-doers and encouragers to those that do ill 2. Not all that may be expected from common Providence For though it should be granted that according to the most usual and general course of things both virtuous and vicious actions are rewarded and punished in this life yet there may be many particular cases which this motive would not reach unto namely all such cases where a mans Reason shall inform him that there is far greater probability of safety and advantage by committing a sin than can be reasonably expected according to his experience of the usual course of things in the world by doing his duty Suppose the case of the three Children or of any other called to Martyrdom who may be threatned with torments and death unless they will blaspheme God and renounce their Religion if it appear to them very probable suppose a hundred to one that upon their refusal their persecutors will really execute what they threaten And if on the other side it prove very improbable suppose ten thousand to one that they shall be delivered by a Miracle In such cases it is not to be expected that the consideration of the ordinary course of Providence in the dispensation of Rewards and Punishments should be sufficient to restrain a man from any kind of Blasphemy or Villany whatsoever But the thing I am speaking to will more fully appear by consideration of those horrid mischiefs of all kinds that would most naturally follow from the denial of this Doctrine If there be no such thing to be expected as happiness or misery hereafter why then the only business that men are to take care of is their present well-being in this World There being nothing to be counted either good or bad but in order to these Those things which we conceive to be conducible to it being the only duties and all other things that are cross to it being the only sins And therefore whatever a man's appetite shall incline him to he ought not to deny himself in it be the thing what it will so he can have it or do it without probable danger Suppose it be matter of gain or prosit he is disposed to if he can cheat or steal securely this will be so far from being a fault that it is plainly his duty that is reasonable for him to do Because it is a proper means to promote his chief end And so for other cases of anger hatred revenge c. According to this principle a man must take the first opportunity of satisfying these passions by doing any kind of mischief to the person he is offended with whether by false accusation and perjury or if need be by poysoning or stabbing of him provided he can do these things so as to escape the suspition of others and humane penalties Now let any man judg what Bears and Wolves and Devils men would prove to one another if every thing should be not only lawful but a duty whereby they might gratifie their impetuous lusts if they might either perjure themselves or steal or murder as often as they could do it safely and get any advantage by it But these things are so very obvious and undeniable that the most prophane Atheistical persons do own the truth of them And upon this they are willing to acknowledg That Religion and the belief of another life is a very politick invention and needful for the well-governing of the world and for the keeping of men in awe from the doing any secret mischiefs Which by the way is a concession of no small advantage to the honour of Religion considering that it proceeds from the greatest professed enemies to it Whereby they grant that it is fit these things should be true if they are not or at least that it is fit that the generality of men should believe them to be true And though themselves pretend to believe otherwise yet are they not so far out of their wits as to be willing that those with whom they converse their Wives and Children and Servants should be of the same opinion with them because then they could have no reason to expect any safety amongst them What security could any man have of his Estate or Honour or Life if such with whom he is most familiar and intimate might think themselves at liberty to do all the secret mischiefs to them which they had the opportunity to commit But there is one thing more which those who profess to disbelieve this principle should do well to consider and that
And as for such whom we have obliged by all imaginable kindness they may deal deceitfully with us and prove like winter brooks which in wet seasons when there is no need of them will run with a torrent but are quite vanished in a time of drought Whilst we are in a prosperous condition they will be forward to apply themselves to us with great professions of kindness and zeal but if our condition prove any way declining they presently fall off and become strangers forgetting and renouncing all obligations of friendship and gratitude rather than run the least hazard or trouble to do us a kindness That man hath had but little experience in the world to whom this is not very evident But now the mercy and goodness of God is over all his works and more especially extended to such as are in a state of misery the fatherless and widows the prisoners the poor and the stranger He is the helper of the friendless That which amongst men is usually the chief occasion to take off their affection and kindness namely misery and affliction is a principal argument to entitle us to the favour of God and therefore is frequently made use of by good men in H. Scripture to that purpose O go not far from me for trouble is nigh at hand and there is none to help me I am in misery O hear me speedily 3. He is of infinite Power for our relief and supply in every condition being able to do whatsoever he pleaseth both in heaven and in earth and in the sea and in all deep places He is the first cause of every thing both as to its being and operation We depend wholly upon his power not only for the issues and events of things but likewise for the means And therefore 't is in Scripture made an argument why we should not trust in riches or in any worldly thing because power belongs to God And 't is elsewhere urged for a reason why we should trust in the Lord for ever because in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength And upon this consideration Abraham is said to have hoped against hope being fully perswaded that what God had promis'd he was able to perform 4. He is everlasting whereas all other helps and comforts which we can propose to our selves are transient and fading As for our fathers where are they And do the Prophets or Princes live for ever Their days upon earth are a shadow that fleeteth away their breath goeth forth and they return to the earth and then all their thoughts perish Whereas he is from everlasting to everlasting God blessed for ever and his righteousness extendeth to childrens children even to all generations We see by daily experience persons of great hopes and expectations when their Patrons dye upon whom they had their dependance to what a forlorn and helpless condition they are reduced But now this can never befall the man who trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is And 't is one of the greatest priviledges of Religion that it doth furnish a man with such a sure refuge and support against all kind of exigences whereby he may bear up his spirit under those difficulties wherewith others are overwhelmed 'T is true indeed it cannot be denied but that God doth expect and the nature of things doth require that men should be suitably affected with joy or sorrow according as their conditions are but yet with this difference that those who believe the Providence of God should not be so deeply affected with these things as other men they should weep as not weeping and rejoice as not rejoicing They should not upon any occasion fear or sorrow as men without hope but should demean themselves as persons that have an higher principle to be acted by and to live upon than any of these sensible things I cannot omit to suggest one Observation concerning this duty of Affiance which I have now been insisting upon That though this particular virtue and others of the like affinity be evidently moral duties our obligation to them being clearly deducible from the light of nature and the principles of reason and consequently must be owned by the Heathen Philosophers yet they do in their Writings speak but sparingly concerning those kind of virtues which are of a more spiritual nature and tend most to the elevating and refining of the mind And on the other side the Scripture doth most of all insist upon the excellency and necessity of these kind of graces Which is one of the main differences betwixt the Scripture and other moral Writings And for this reason it is that in speaking of these graces and virtues I do more frequently allude to Scripture expressions CHAP. XIV Of the Love of God SEcondly As for those perfections belonging to the Divine Will namely his Goodness his Justice his Truth and Faithfulness The due apprehension of these should excite in us the virtue of Love with all the genuine fruits of it By Love I mean an esteeming of him and a seeking after him as our only happiness So that there are two ingredients of this virtue of Love Estimation and Choice 1. An Estimation of the judgment a due valuation of those excellencies which are in the Divine nature whereby we look upon God as the supreme Being in genere boni From whom all created goodness is derived and by conformity to whom it is to be measured And this notion is the proper importance of the word Charity whereby we account a thing dear or pretious And in this sense doth our Saviour oppose despising to loving Either he must hate the one and love the other or he must hold to the one and despise the other Now these perfections of the Divine nature may be considered either absolutely or relatively 1. Absolutely as they are in themselves abstracting from any benefit that we our selves may have by them And in this sense they can only produce in us an esteem of our judgments without any desire or zeal in our will or affections The Devil doth understand these absolute perfections of the Divine nature that God is in himself most wise most just and powerful And he knows withal that these things are good deserving esteem and veneration and yet he doth not love God for these perfections because he himself is evil and is not like to receive any benefit by them 2. Relatively with reference to that advantage which may arrive to us from the Divine goodness When men are convinced of their infinite need of him and their misery without him and that their utmost felicity doth consist in the enjoyment of him This is that which properly provokes affection and desire namely his relative goodness as to us There is scarce any one under such transports of love as to believe the person whom he loves to be in all respects the most virtuous wise beautiful wealthy that is in the world He
liberty of being suspended All things must work according to their natural principles nor can they do otherwise as heavy bodies must tend downwards The beauty of the world and the wisdom of the Creation is generally acknowledged to consist in this that God was pleased to endue the kinds of things with such natures and principles as might accommodate them for those works to which they were appointed And he governs all things by such laws as are suited to those several natures which he had at first implanted in them The most universal principle belonging to all kind of things is self-preservation which in man being a rational Agent is somewhat farther advanced to strong propensions and desires of the soul after a state of happiness which hath the predominancy over all other inclinations as being the supreme and ultimate end to which all their designs and actions must be subservient by a natural necessity 2. Whereas on the other hand those rules or means which are most proper for the attaining of this end about which we have a liberty of acting to which men are to be induced in a moral way by such kind of motives or arguments as are in themselves sufficient to convince the reason These I call moral duties duties as deriving their obligation from their conducibility to the promoting of our chief end and moral as depending upon moral motives So that self-love and the proposing of happiness as our chief end though it be the foundation of duty that basis or substratum upon which the Law is founded yet it is not properly a moral duty about which men have a liberty of acting They must do so nor can they do otherwise The most vile and profligate wretches that are who are most opposite to that which is their true happiness they are not against happiness it self but they mistake about it and erroneously substitute something else in the room of it So that if men were upon all accounts firmly convinced that God was their chief happiness they would almost as necessarily love him as hungry men do eat and thirsty men do drink I have enlarged somewhat the more upon this particular the better to manifest the true cause or ground of this love to consist in this perswasion that our chief happiness is in the favour of God and the enjoyment of him CHAP. XV. Of Reverence and the Fear of God THirdly As for those kind of affections which should be wrought in us more especially from the apprehension of the Divine Power these are reverence fear humility a submissive and filial awe which is so suitable to the notion of Omnipotence and so necessary a consequence from it as not to be separated By this reverence I mean such an humble aweful and ingenuous regard towards the Divine nature proceeding from a due esteem and love of him whereby we are rendred unwilling to do any thing which may argue contempt of him or which may provoke and offend him 'T is a duty which we owe to such as are in a superior relation and is in the fifth Commandment enjoined under the name of Honour which in the notion of it doth imply a mixture of Love and Fear and in the object of it doth suppose Goodness and Power That power which is hurtful to men and devoid of goodness may raise in their minds a dread and terror but not a reverence and an honour And therefore all such doctrines as ascribe unto God what is harsh and rigorous and unworthy of his infinite goodness instead of this filial do beget a servile fear in men This is the meaning of that citation in St. Austin where he mentions it as Varro's judgment Deum a religioso vereri a superstitioso timeri The passion of fear and dread belongs to superstitious persons but the virtue of reverence to those that are religious And that of Seneca Deos nemo sanus timet furor enim est metuere salutaria nec quisquam amat quos timet No man in his right mind will fear God in this sense 't is no less than madness to have frightful apprehensions of that which is most benign and beneficial nor can true love consist with this kind of fear But as for this reverence or filial fear it is so essential to a state of Religion that not only the Scripture but the heathen Moralists likewise do describe Religion it self by this very name of fearing God And men who are pious and devout are by the Gentiles styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of reverence and fear Now though every one of the Divine perfections may justly challenge this affection as due to it particularly his infinite wisdom and goodness yet doth it more particularly belong to his power I shall speak briefly of each of these 1. For his infinite knowledg and wisdom which are things that have been always counted venerable He knows all our infirmities and most secret faults and therefore ought to be feared upon that account 'T is a notable saying in Cicero to this purpose Quis non timeat omnia providentem cogitantem animadvertentem omnia ad se pertinere putantem curiosum plenum negotii Deum Who would not fear that God who sees and takes notice of all things so curious and full of business as to have a particular concern for every action and person in the world And in another place he makes this notion of the Deity and the fear consequent thereupon to be the chief basis of Government the first foundation of that civil policy whereby men are gathered together and preserved in regular societies Sit persuasum civibus Deos qualis quisque sit quid in se admittat quâ mente quâ pietate religiones colat intueri piorumque impiorum habere rationem This is one of the first principles which men who would associate under government ought to be convinced of that God takes particular notice what kind of person every one is with what mind and devotion he applies himself to the duties of Religion and will deal with men according as they are pious or impious From whence will follow such a fear of offending him by any dishonest action as must make men capable of living under government 2. His goodness holiness kindness and mercy do afford another reason why he ought to be feared though these are the most immediate objects of our love and joy yet will they likewise afford ground for our reverence We read in one Text of fearing the Lord and his goodness which is when men have such a sense of his goodness as thereby to be affected with an holy awe and fear of offending him And elsewhere 't is said There is forgiveness with him that he ought to be feared The meaning of which place may be this We stand in continual need of pardon and remission being utterly undone without it and God only doth give this and therefore
upon this account we ought to reverence and fear him 3. This duty doth more especially refer to that Attribute of his power together with the effects of it in the judgments which he executes in the world Now nothing is more natural to men than to fear such as have power over them and are able to help or to hurt them The Civil Magistrate is to be feared and reverenced upon this account because he bears the sword and is a revenger Much more the supreme Governour of the world Men can but kill the body and after that must dye themselves but God lives for ever and can punish for ever he can cast both body and soul into hell And therefore we have very great reason to fear him 'T is mentioned in Scripture as one of those Attributes and Titles whereby the Divine nature is described The fear of Israel He that ought to be feared And that by those who need not to fear others the Princes and Potentates of the world Those very persons whom others are most afraid of ought themselves to stand in fear of him for he cuts off the spirits of Princes and is terrible to the Kings of the earth as it follows in that place The great prejudice which ignorant men have against this affection of fear is that it is a check and restraint to a man in his liberty and consequently brings disquiet to his mind which is so far from truth that on the contrary it may be manifested that one of the greatest priviledges belonging to a state of Religion doth arise from this true fear of God as being that which must set us at liberty from all other tormentful fears That which hath the greatest influence upon the troubles and discontents of men in the world whereby their conditions are rendred uncomfortable is their inordinate fear those misgiving thoughts and surmises whereby they are apt to multiply their own dangers and create needless troubles to themselves And whatever a mans outward condition may be as to the security and flourishing of it yet whilst such fears are in his mind His soul doth not dwell at ease as the phrase is whereas he that fears the Lord his soul shall dwell at ease i. e. such an one need not be afraid of any thing else Discat timere qui non vult timere discat ad tempus esse solicitus qui vult esse semper securus saith St. Austin He that would not fear other things let him learn to fear God let him be cautious and solicitous for a time that would be everlastingly secure And in another place Homo time Deum minantem mundum ridebis O man learn to fear God and thou wilt despise the threatnings of the world And again Exhorresce quod minatur Omnipotens ama quod promittit Omnipotens vilescet mundus sive promittens sive terrens He that hath a true fear of what the Omnipotent God doth threaten and a love to what he promises to such an one the world whether smiling or frowning will seem contemptible The heaven and earth and men are all but his instruments and cannot do any thing otherwise than as they are permitted or acted by him Though they should seem to be angry with us yet he can restrain their wrath and when he pleaseth can reconcile them to us But if he himself be offended none of these things will be able to afford us any comfort or relief 'T is above all other things the most fearful to fall into the hands of the living God That 's a notable speech to this purpose which I find cited out of Plutarch They that look upon God as the chief rewarder of Good and Evil and fear him accordingly are thereby freed from other perplexing fears Such persons minùs animo conturbantur quam qui indulgent vitiis audentque scelera have more inward peace than others who indulge themselves in their vices and dare commit any wickedness And as on the one side the more men have of this fear towards God the less they have of other fears So the less they have of this the more subject are they to other fears Amongst the many judgments denounced against the want of this fear of God the Scripture particularly mentions a fearful mind If thou wilt not fear that glorious and fearful name the Lord thy God the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful c. And this is reckoned as one of them The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart And if we consult experience there are none more obnoxious in this kind than prophane Atheistical persons who by their vile doctrines and practices endeavour to harden themselves and others against this fear of God None so cowardly and timorous as these none so easily frightened with the least appearance of danger The Satyrist of old observed it of them Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgura pallent None are so fearful as those that pretend not to fear God at all And 't is but justice that those who will not reverence him as sons should be overwhelmed with dread and astonishment towards him as slaves And this consideration ought to be no small inducement to men to labour after this disposition As Abimelech said to the men of Sichem Judg I pray you whether it be better for you that threescore and ten persons reign over you or that one reign over you So in this case consider whether it be better for you to be distracted by the great variety of worldly cares and fears which as so many Tyrants will domineer over you and keep you in perpetual slavery or to submit your selves to this one fear the fear of God which is perfect peace and liberty To all which may be added That it is by this fear that we are to give unto God the glory of his Power and Justice 'T is this that must make us pliable to his will and effectually remove all such obstacles as may hinder us from submitting to him subdue our reluctancies and make us bow down before him Upon which account this expression of fearing God is frequently used in Scripture for the whole business of Worship and Religion because where this fear is well fixed in the heart all other parts of holiness and righteousness will naturally follow It hath a more peculiar influence to stir up in us watchfulness and caution and like a wary friend is apt to suggest to us the safest counsel and advice 'T is the vigilant keeper of all virtues that which must fortifie us in our temptations and restore us in our lapses He that will but seriously ponder upon what the meer light of nature dictates concerning the Omnipotence of him who is the great Creator and Governour of the world his infinite holiness and justice and that wise Providence which extends to every particular person and action whereby he takes notice of them and will be sure to reward or punish them
versatione si non quicquid fieri potest pro futuro habes das in te vires rebus adversis quas infregit quisquis prior vidit In that various change and revolution of events which we behold in the world if we do not look upon possible dangers and troubles as future we do thereby strengthen our adversaries and disarm our selves When we see at any time the losses and imprisonments or poverty or funerals of others we ought presently to reflect this may be our case Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest One loses husband wife children estate We ought from all such spectacles to infer that though this be not at present yet it may shortly be our condition and accordingly by expectation to fortifie our selves against it Hic nos error decipit hic effoeminat dum patimur quae nunquam pati nos posse praevidimus Aufert vim praesentibus malis qui futura prospexit This is the error which doth deceive and effeminate men whilst they suffer such things as they did not expect and are not prepared for It breaks the force of evils when they come to foresee they will come 5. Often reflect upon your former experience That will be a means to prevent all despondencies to work in us hope and confidence There is no man so mean and inconsiderable if he will but take an impartial view of what he hath formerly seen and observed concerning Gods dealing with himself and others but may upon this account find reason enough to allay all murmuring discontented thoughts We have frequent examples to this purpose in Scripture Jacob David Jehosaphat the Apostle St. Paul in several places who all have had recourse to this remedy when they would strengthen themselves against discontent and despondency And I suppose there is scarce any serious man of so little experience but hath taken notice of and can remember how some crosses and disappointments have in the issue proved mercies and benefits to him And if it have been so formerly why may it not be so again 6. And lastly Labour after those particular vertues which are of near affinity to this of patience whereby it will be very much strengthened and promoted There is a certain chain of them mentioned Gal. 5. 22 and styled by the Apostle the fruits of the spirit as belonging more particularly to the spirit of Christianity The first is Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which beareth all things and endureth all things The next is Joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a chearful temper of mind in opposition to moroseness and frowardness Then Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a composedness and sedateness of spirit free from all inordinate perturbations and without any kind of itch of quarrelling with others And next Long-suffering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby the mind is not easily provoked or tyred but is easily appeased Then Gentleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generosity benignity which signifies ' a mind most ready to part with any thing towards the help and relief of others in their necessities Then Goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. such an equal and ingenuous simplicity of manners whereby men are rendred easily tractable and placable and most amiable in the whole course of their conversations Then Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dependance upon God for our support and deliverance Then Meekness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby we put a restraint upon our anger so as not to be provoked for any lesser cause or in a greater measure or for a longer time than may be fitting for the occasion always preserving our minds free from any sudden gusts of passion And lastly Temperance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continence whereby we contain all our passions with their just bounds either of joy in the affluence of things or of grief in the loss or of desire in the want of them A mind that is modelled and prepared with these kind of virtues will thereby be rendered generous and couragious fit for the undergoing of any kind of trouble or suffering which the providence of God shall think fit to call a man unto I have now done with the First thing I proposed to treat of namely The Reasonableness and Credibility of the Principles of Natural Religion in which I have endeavoured to establish the belief of Gods being to clear the natural notions of his Excellencies and Perfections and to deduce the obligation of Moral Duties from the belief and acknowledgment of the Divine Nature and Perfections THE SECOND BOOK OF THE Wisdom of Practising the Duties of Natural Religion CHAP. I. Shewing in general how Religion conduces to our Happiness I proceed now to the second Part of my design which was to shew The Wisdom of Practising the Duties of Natural Religion In which I shall endeavour to convince men how much it is upon all accounts their chief happiness and interest to lead a religious and virtuous course of life Solomon who is so much celebrated in Scripture for his wisdom and knowledg hath purposely written a Book the main argument whereof is to enquire wherein the chief happiness of man doth consist And having in the former part of it shewed the insufficiency of all other things that pretend to it he comes in the conclusion to fix it upon its true basis asserting every mans greatest interest and happiness to consist in being religious Let us hear the cnclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his commandements for this is the whole of man That is the serious practice of Religion is that which every considerate man after all his other disquisitions will find to be his chief interest and that which doth deserve his utmost care and diligence And because these words of Solomon do so fully express that which is to be the main argument of my following discourse I shall by way of preface or introduction to it more particularly consider the commendation which he here gives to the practice of Religion in that full and significant expression this is the whole of man Which words are by the Septuagint and Vulgar thus rendered this is All or Every man The word duty which is supplied by our English being not in the original or in other Translations This ought to be the way and course of all mankind so the Targum This is the course to which every man is designed so the Syriack This will be most profitable and advantageous to men so the Arabick Hoc est totum hominis This is the whole of man so some of our later Interpreters mosg properly to the scope of the place it being an usual Enallage in the Hebrew totius universalis pro toto integrante All for Whole So that according to these various interpretations of the words they may contain in them a threefold reference To the Essence the Happiness the Business of man According to which the sense of them must be that Religion or the fearing of God and keeping his
some shift to subsist without Walls Schools Theatres Houses nay without Money but not without Religion If it were not for this notion of a Deity and those natural impressions which we have concerning Justice and Probity so necessary for the conservation of humane society instead of those well-ordered Governments and Cities which are now in the world Mankind must have lived either wild and solitary in Caves and Dens like savage beasts or else in troops of Robbers subsisting upon the spoil and rapine of such as were weaker than themselves Pietate sublatâ sides etiam societas humani generis una excellentissima virtus justitia tollitur saith Tully Take but away the awe of Religion and all that Fidelity and Justice so necessary for the keeping up of humane society must perish with it 'T is this fear of a Deity and the sense of our obligation to Him that is the onely effectual means to restrain men within the bounds of duty And were this wholly extinguished there would follow such wild disorders and extravagancies amongst men as would not leave so much as the face or least shadow of virtue or honesty in the world There being no kind of vice which men would not abandon themselves unto considering the impetuousness of their own natural appetites and the power of external temptations were this restraint from Religion once removed or abolished The two chief Opposites to Religion are Prophaneness and Superstition Both which are prejudicial to civil Government the one by destroying conscience the strongest obligation to political duties the other by perverting and abusing it introducing in the stead of it a new primum mobile which ravisheth the spheres of Government and puts them into a praeternatural course as a Noble Author expresseth it The two grand Relations that concern society are Government and Subjection And Irreligion doth indispose men for both these 1. For Government Without Religion Magistrates will lose that courage and confidence belonging to their stations which they cannot so well exert in punishing the offences of others when they are guilty of the same or the like themselves Those that sit on the throne of judgment should be able to scatter away evil with their eyes as Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 8. By their very presence and looks to strike an awe upon offenders Which will not be so easily done if they lye under the same guilt themselves Sine bonitate nulla majestas saith Seneca the very nature of majesty doth denote Goodness as well as Power And without this Governours may easily lose that Reverence which is due to them from others and consequently that Authority which they ought to have over them When they cease to be Gods in respect of their Goodness they will soon diminish in their Power And though they should be able to keep men under as to their bodies and estates yet will they decline as to that awful love and reverence whereby they should sway over the hearts and affections of men The Philosopher in the fifth Book of his Politicks doth lay it down as a rule for Magistrates That they must be careful to give publick testimonies of their being religious and devout for which he gives this double reason Because the people will be less subject to entertain any jealousie or suspition of suffering injury from such whom they believe to be religious And withal they will be less subject to attempt the doing of injury against such as knowing that good Magistrates are after a more especial manner under the divine favour and protection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having God to fight with them and for them 2. The want of this will indispose men for the condition of Subjects and render them loose and unstable in those duties of obedience and submission required to that state How can it be expected from that man who dares affront and despise God himself that he should have any hearty reverence for His Deputies and Vicegerents He that is subject only upon the account of wrath and the power of the sword which is over him will be no longer so when he hath an opportunity of escaping or resisting that power Nor is there any possible way to secure men in their quiet subjection and obedience but by their being obliged for conscience-sake And therefore such kind of persons as by their open prophaneness and contempt of Religion do endeavour to destroy conscience from amongst men may justly be esteemed as the worst kind of seditious persons and most pernicious to Civil Government That temper of Prophaneness whereby a man is disposed to contemn and despise all Religion how slightly soever men may think of it is much worse than Infidelity than Fanaticalness than Idolatry and of the two 't is much more eligible for a man to be an honest Heathen and a devont Idolater than a prophane Christian. Whatever disputes have been raised concerning the lawfulness of punishing men for their dissenting consciences in matters of Religion yet never any man questioned the lawfulness of punishing men for their prophaneness and contempt of all Religion Such men as renounce conscience cannot pretend that they suffer for it And certainly this Vice doth upon many accounts deserve the greatest severity of Laws as being in its own nature destructive of the very principles of Government and the peace of all humane Societies Besides the mischiefs consequent upon it from Divine vengeance 'T is an observation of Seneca That several Countries do appoint several punishments for the violation of Religion but every Country appoints some and it doth not any where escape unpunished Plato in his Book de Legibus would have it punished capitally as being a thing of most pernicious consequence to Government 'T is a rule in the Civil Law that Religio contaminata ad omnium pertinet injuriam The abuse of Religion is to be looked upon as being a common injury and every man is concerned to endeavour a vindication of it And there are some instances in story of Wars that have been undertaken upon this very account to bring a Nation to punishment for that prophaneness they have expressed towards the Religion they professed and pretended to as being injurious to mankind quod orbis viribus expiari debuit as Justin the Historian speaks which the whole world ought to vindicate and expiate by their common forces There can be no assurance from loose irreligious persons that they will be faithful in the ordinary duties belonging to their several ranks and stations And as for any extraordinary Heroical action by which the publick welfare is to be promoted men that are without conscience of Religion and a sense of Virtue can never apply themselves to any thing of that kind as having their minds destitute of all such principles as are sublime and generous without any the least seed of honour and piety and virtue and therefore they can have no sparks of magnanimity nor any the
adjuvans promote all such things as may most effectually conduce to the improving of our health by obliging us upon the account of duty and conscience to a careful observance of the most proper means to this end Keeping us within due bounds in our eating drinking exercise preserving our minds in an equal frame of serenity and calmness supporting our spirits with contentation and chearfulness under every state of life so that nothing can be more true than that of Solomon That A cheerful mind doth good like a medicine and makes a healthy countenance whereas heaviness and cares will break a mans spirit and make it stoop I know there are other means to be made use of in order to the procuring of health various kinds of Medicaments to be applyed by the art of Physick according as the nature of several diseases shall require which Religion doth oblige a man not to neglect But yet this I think may be truely said That those who are most expert in the profession of Physick are not able to prescribe any Catholicon which shall more effectually operate both by way of prevention and cure than the observance of those duties which Religion and virtue do oblige us unto Nor is this true only in Theory and Speculation but it may appear to be so upon common experience to which I shall appeal for the further confirmation of it What kind of persons are those who enjoy the best state of health and the longest lives Are they not such generally who are most sober and regular in their conversations most temperate as to their bodies most free from all kind of inordinate passions fierceness anxiety cares as to their minds 'T is said of Moses that though he were exceeding old yet his eye was not dim nor was his natural force abated Which amongst other causes may be ascribed to those eminent virtues he was endowed with the temperance of his body and meekness of his spirit That beloved Disciple whose thoughts and writings seem to be wholly taken up with the Divine virtue of Love is upon account of this temper of his mind thought to have enjoyed a more vigorous old age than any of the rest Such a power is there in Religion though not wholly to prevent the infirmities of old age yet in a great measure to alleviate and abate them And on the other side if we consult experience Who are the men most obnoxious to diseases are they not such generally as are most vicious in their lives most given to surfeits debaucheries and lewdness whereby they do so far inflame their blood and wast their spirits as not to live out half their days Insomuch that no man of ordinary prudence who is to take a Lease for lives will be content if he can well avoid it to chuse such a one whom he knows to be vicious and intemperate But these things are so obvious to common experience that I need not enlarge upon them Only I would not be mistaken I do not say that none of those are Religious who are liable to diseases and are taken away in their younger years or that all such are religious who are free from diseases and live to old age Some may be naturally of so tender and brittle a make that every little blow will break them others of so tough and strong a constitution as to hold out against many batteries and assaults and yet neither of these to be ascribed either to the vices of the one or the virtues of the other but do rather belong to their condition and temper which being natural and not falling under the choice of our wills is not therefore capable of any moral good or evil Besides there ought allowance to be made as I said before for such exempt cases as shall seem good to the providence of God in the government of humane affairs Some good men may be taken away from the evil to come others may be exercised with diseases in their bodies for the cure of their minds or to make their patience and courage exemplary to others And some that are good men for the main may yet by their own carelesness in using the fittest means for the preservation of their health expose themselves to sickness none of which can be any prejudice to the thing I have been proving This being that which I affirm that so far as the infirmities of our natural tempers are capable of remedy by any thing in our power It is the observance of the duties of Religion that doth for the most part and generally prove the most effectual means to this purpose Which is all I shall say to the first thing I proposed to speak to concerning the health of our bodies CHAP. III. How Religion conduces to the happiness of the outward man in respect of Liberty Safety and Quiet SEcondly Religion is the most proper means to procure our external safety liberty quiet By safety I mean a freedom from those common dangers and mischiefs which others are exposed to By liberty the being at our own disposal and not under bondage restraint imprisonment By quiet an exemption from those many molestations and troubles by reason of disappointments enmity contentions whereby the conditions of some men are rendered very burdensome and uncomfortable I put these things together because of their near affinity to one another Now Religion is both the moral and the natural cause of these things 1. 'T is the moral cause of them upon account of that divine protection and assistance which the light of nature will assure us we are intituled unto in the doing of our duties besides the many assertions and promises in Scripture to this purpose of being protected in our ways and secured in times of danger If you will keep my statutes ye shall dwell in the land in safety Whoso hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from the fear of evil There shall no evil happen to the just but the wicked shall be filled with mischief The Lord delivers the righteous out of all their troubles When a mans ways please the Lord he will make his enemies to be at peace with him 2. 'T is the natural cause of these blessings by preventing or removing all such things whereby the contrary evils are occasioned The most usual and general cause of mens sufferings is from the neglect of their duty and the violations of law they are obnoxious to the punishments of banishment imprisonment loss of goods or of life upon the account of some illegal irreligious acts murder theft sedition injuring of others needless contentions medling in other mens affairs where they are not concerned 'T is observable that in the legal form of inditing men for crimes our Law doth ascribe their guilt to their want of Religion their not having the fear of God before their eyes which doth dispose them to commit such acts as makes them obnoxious to legal punishment Now nothing can so
effectually prevent such things as Religion This will teach men to obey laws and submit to government This will keep them within the bounds of their duty both towards God and man This will remove all those dividing principles of selfishness and pride and covetousness It will teach them charity and meekness and forbearance to study publick peace and common good to be generous and large in their well-wishing and their well-doing Which are the most proper means to provide for our own quiet and safety And the truth of this may be evident likewise from common experience by which it will appear that for the general no kind of men do enjoy so much external peace and freedom and safety as those that are truly religious The Apostle seems to appeal to that common notion in the minds of all men concerning the safety belonging to innocence when he puts it by way of question who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good Implying that 't is a thing generally known and taken notice of that there is a kind of natural reverence and awe amongst the worst of men towards such as are innocent and virtuous And on the other side no men do incur so many hazards molestations contentions as those that are vicious what from their violations of law their needless provocations of those they converse with being scarce ever free from danger and trouble which the Wise-man seems to appeal to as a thing evident from experience in those short questions which he proposes Who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath bablings who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes 'T is particularly spoken of the drunkard but 't is proportionably true of other vices likewise There is one objection that lyes very obvious against what I have been proving and that is from those Scriptures where 't is said that whoever will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution and that the world should hate them besides what may be alledged from common experience to this purpose concerning the sufferings of some that are good men To this two things may be said by way of answer 1. Every thing is not persecution for Religion which men may be apt to style so Some persons who for the main may be truly religious may yet by their own follies and imprudence expose themselves to needless sufferings And in such cases Religion is not to be charged as being the cause of their suffering but their defect in it and mistakes about it 2. There may be as was said before some exempt cases from the general rule and such must those be granted to be which concern times of persecution when Religion will be so far from protecting a man that it will rather expose him to danger and sufferings And such were those primitive times to which these Scriptures do refer when it seemed good to divine providence to make use of this as one means for the propagating of Christianity in the world namely by the suffering of those that professed it And in such cases when men are persecuted properly upon the account of Religion God doth usually compensate their outward sufferings with some inward advantage supplying them with such patience and courage as will support them with joy and comfort in their suffering for that which is good But then it must withall be granted that these Scriptures are not equally applicable to such other times and places when and where the true Religion is publickly professed and encouraged when Kings are nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to the Church because in such times and places the profession of Religion will be so far from hindering that it will rather promote a mans secular advantage CHAP. IV. How Religion conduces to the happiness of the outward man in respect of Riches THirdly as to our Estates and Possessions I shall shew that Religion is the cause of Riches In order to the proof of this the first thing to be enquired into is what is the true nature of wealth or riches and wherein it may properly be said to consist And here it is to be noted that the word Riches is capable of a twofold sense Absolute Relative 1. In the more absolute sense it may be defin'd to consist in such a measure of estate as may be sufficient for a mans occasions and conveniencies when his possessions are so proportioned as may fully answer all the necessities of his condition and afford him a comfortable subsistence according to his quality the station wherein he is placed In which sense men of all ranks and degrees are capable of being rich A Husbandman or an ordinary Tradesman may be as truly styled a rich man as he that is a Gentleman or a Lord or a King Though perhaps what these can very well afford to fling away upon their diversions be more than all the estate and possessions which the other can pretend to And upon this ground it is that all men will grant one person to be as truly liberal in giving but a penny or a poor mite as another in giving a hundred pounds because these things are to be measured by the different conditions of the givers And a man may as well be rich with a little as liberal with a little 2. In the more relative sense Riches may be described to consist in the having of large Possessions when a mans Estate and Revenue is of such a proportion as is commonly esteemed Great whether with relation to the generality of other men and so only those at the upper end of the world are capable of being counted rich or else with respect to others of the same rank and order and so all such are counted rich who do in their possessions exceed the common sort of those that are of the same rank with them this kind of wealth consisting properly in comparison There being not any one determinate sum or proportion of revenue to which the name of riches may be appropriated but that it may be as much below the occasions of some persons as it is above the condition of others who yet live plentifully Now the first of these is the only proper notion of Riches because this alone is agreeable to the chief end of wealth which is to free us from want and necessity And the other may be rather styled the being proprietour of great possessions the meer having of which cannot denominate one a truly rich man for this plain reason because though such possessions be in themselves great yet they may not be sufficient to free the owner of them from want and poverty whether in respect to his real or imaginary occasions for more And that is not Riches which cannot free a man from being poor And want of necessaries is as truly poverty in him that hath much as in him that hath but a little He that in any one condition of life hath enough to answer all his
conveniences such a man is more truly rich than he whose revenue is a thousand times greater if it be not equal either to his occasions or to his mind Now when it is said that Religion is the cause of Riches the meaning of this cannot reasonably be understood of Riches in the second sense as if he that were religious should be thereby advanced to the greatest possessions that any man else doth enjoy from the condition of a Peasant or a Tradesman to that of a Prince Because this would no more consist with those several degrees and subordinations required to the order of the Universe than it would for every common Souldier to be a General or every private man to be a King But the meaning of this proposition must be that Religion will be a means to supply a man with such a sufficiency as may denominate him rich and to free him from such necessities whether real or imaginary as others of his rank and station are liable unto So that by what hath been said it may appear that the true notion of Riches doth comprehend under it these two things 1. A sufficiency for a mans occasions and conveniencies 2. An acquiescence of mind in so much as is in it self really sufficient and which will appear to be so supposing a man to judg according to right reason And that this is not a meer fancy or notion but the most proper sense of the word Riches wherein all mankind have agreed may be made very evident Concerning the first of these there can be no colour of doubt All the scruple will be concerning the second Whether that be necessary to make a man rich And to this the Philosophers do generally attest Aristotle in particular doth affirm that the true nature of Riches doth consist in the contented use and enjoyment of the things we have rather than in the possession of them Those that out of penuriousness can scarce afford themselves the ordinary conveniences of life out of their large possessions have been always accounted poor nay he that cannot use and enjoy the things he doth possess may upon this account be said to be of all others the most indigent because such a one doth truly want the things he hath as well as those he hath not That man who is not content with what is in it self sufficient for his condition neither is rich nor ever will be so because there can be no other real limits to his desires but that of sufficiency whatever is beyond this being boundless and infinite And though men may please themselves with an imagination that if they had but such an addition to their Estates they should then think they had enough yet that is but a meer imagination there being no real cause why they should be more satisfied then than they are now He that is in such a condition as doth place him above contempt and below envy cannot by any enlargement of his fortune be made really more rich or more happy than he is And he is not a wise man if he do not think so nor is he in this either wise or worthy if he be so far solicitous as to part with his liberty though it be but in some little servilities for the encreasing of his Estate These things being premised it may be made very evident that the design of being truly rich that is of having enough and being contented will be most effectually promoted by Religion and that both Morally and Naturally 1. Morally upon which account this is by the Philosophers owned to be one of the rewards belonging to virtue good men only having a Moral title to wealth upon account of fitness and desert There are many assertions and promises in Scripture to this purpose of being prospered in our stores and labours and all that we set our hands unto of lacking nothing that is good for us 'T is this that must intitle us to the blessing of God and 't is the blessing of God that maketh rich Solomon speaking of Religion under the name of Wisdom saith that in her left hand are riches durable riches that she causes those that love her to inherit substance and doth fill their treasures And the Apostle tells us that Godliness hath the promises of this life 2. Religion is a natural cause of riches with reference to those two chief ingredients required to such a state namely the supplying of us with a plentiful sufficiency as to our possessions and a satisfaction as to our minds 1. A sufficiency as to our estates and possessions There are but these two ways that can contribute to the improving of mens possessions namely the Art of getting and of keeping Now Religion is an advantage to men in both these respects Nothing can be more evident than that there are many virtues which upon these accounts have a natural tendency to the increasing of mens estates as diligence in our callings The diligent hand maketh rich heedfulness to improve all sitting opportunities of providing for our selves and families being provident in our expences keeping within the bounds of our income not running out into needless debts In brief all the lawful arts of gain and good husbandry as to the exercise of them are founded in the virtues which Religion teaches On the contrary it is plain that there are many kind of sins which have a direct natural efficacy for the impoverishing of men As all kind of sensuality and voluptuousness idleness prodigality pride envy revenge c. of all which may be said what Solomon says of one of them that they bring a man to a morsel of bread and clothe him with raggs 2. And as for the second requisite to riches satisfaction of mind with our conditions and a free use of the things we enjoy This is the property of Religion that it can inable a man to be content with his estate and to live comfortably without such things as others know not how to want And the ability of being content with a little may be much more truely called riches than the having of much without being satisfied therewith 'T is better to be in health with a moderate appetite than to be continually eating and drinking under the disease of a voracious appetite or a Dropsy And in this sense A little that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly But this may appear likewise from experience Let any man impartially consider what kind of persons those are amongst the generality of men who in their several degrees and orders are counted most able and most wealthy and it will appear that they are such as are most serious in the matter of Religion most diligent in their callings most just and honest in their dealings most regular and sober in their conversations most liberal towards any good work upon which account it is that such places where men have the opportunity of being instructed in and excited to the Duties
of Religion do thereupon thrive and flourish most it being one property of Religion to civilize men and make them more inquisitive in learning and more diligent in practising their several professions And as for contentment of mind this being in it self a virtue as well as a priviledg it is not to be attained but upon the account of Religion nor are there any that enjoy it but such as are truely virtuous There are several objections that may be made against what I have been proving but all of them capable of a plain and satisfactory solution 1. There are some kind of virtues that seem to have a contrary tendency as charity to those that want bounty and liberality to any good work which in Aristotles judgment is scarce consistent with growing rich By that saying of Aristotle may be meant riches in the second sense as it denotes large possessions which this virtue of liberality doth not naturally promote but it may very well consist with riches in the first and most proper notion of it as it denotes sufficiency for our occasions and the ability of contributing in some proportion towards any worthy and charitable work is in the esteem of every good man one of those occasions and conveniencies required to such a sufficiency and cannot any more be a prejudice to it than it would be for a man to lay up some part of his wealth in the safest place to lend it out upon the best interest to part with it for the purchase of the same favour and assistance from others in the like exigencies to lay it out upon his pleasure with respect to that inward comfort and satisfaction which doth accompany the conscience of doing worthy things And besides all this experience will assure us that there is a secret blessing which doth for the most part accompany such actions so that men grow the richer and not the poorer for them And they that in this kind sow bountifully do very often even in this world reap bountifully 2. There are some kind of vices that seem to have a tendency to the enriching of men as fraud extortion sordidness all kind of unlawful ways of getting and keeping an estate But to this it may be said 1. These vices may tend to the encreasing of mens possessions but not to the making of them truely rich And 't is a plain argument that such persons do not think themselves to have a sufficiency who can apply themselves to such wretched courses for the getting of more 2. 'T is commonly seen upon experience that there is a secret curse attends such practises a canker that eats into such gain a hole in the bottom of the bag by which it insensibly dreins out and wasts away As the Partridg sitteth upon eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days and at the end shall be a fool As that silly bird doth sometimes take much needless care and pains in sitting upon and cherishing subventaneous eggs such as can never be fruitful which as Naturalists observe that creature is very subject unto or as the fecund eggs of that bird being laid upon the ground are many times trod upon by passengers or wild beasts after it hath bestowed much pains for the hatching of them So are the wicked designs of gain often disappointed in the Embryo and the contrivers of them instead of approving themselves to be more wise and subtile men than others do appear at last to be fools He that will carefully observe the usual course of things in the world may from his own experience find instances enough to confirm those sayings of the wise man There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches shall surely come to want He that by unjust gain increaseth his substance shall gather it for him that will pity the poor 3. There are some good men that are poor And 't is said that God hath chosen the poor of this world to receive the Gospel and to be rich in faith To this it may be said 1. The providence of God may so order it sometimes as to reduce good men to great exigencies to wander up and down in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented But then these are such particular exempt cases as are not suitable to the most usual and general course of things And besides such as are good men may sometimes be defective in several of those duties which Religion doth oblige them to diligence caution c. And the poverty of such may justly be ascribed to their defect in Religion 2. As for that scripture that God hath chosen the poor in this world It is not to be understood in the more absolute sense for such as want necessaries because 't is plain from other Texts that though some of the primitive believers were by reason of the persecution of those times reduced to great exigencies yet the generality of the rest were very liberal in their contributions towards them But it must be understood in the relative sence concerning such as might be styled comparatively poor i. e. such as are of a lower rank and meaner condition than others and consequently had less temptation to corrupt and seduce them than those that did more abound in these earthly things CHAP. V. How Religion conduces to the happiness of the outward man in respect of Pleasure or the chearful enjoyment of outward blessings FOurthly Religion is the most proper means to promote the interest of Pleasure In the handling of this I shall first endeavour to state the true nature of Pleasure and to shew what is the most proper notion of it Now Pleasure doth consist in that satisfaction which we receive in the use and enjoyment of the things we possess It is founded in a suitableness and congruity betwixt the faculty and the object Those are called pleasant tastes and smells which are apt to excite such a gentle motion as is agreeable to the nerves appointed for those functions Now it cannot be denyed but that beasts and insects may be said to be capable of pleasure proper to their kind as well as men Only this must withall be granted that the more noble and the more capacious the faculties and the objects are the greater will the delights be that flow from the union of them Upon which account all intellectual delights do far exceed those that are sensual and amongst persons that are capable of intellectual pleasures their enjoyments must be greatest whose faculties are most enlarged and most vigorous 'T is true indeed men of vitiated and depraved faculties though they are thereby disabled for passing a true judgment upon the nature of things being
apt to mistake sowre for sweet yet will it not thence follow that they are incapable of pleasure They may have such peculiar kinds of gusts as will be able to find a satisfaction and sweetness in such things as appear nauseous and loathsome to others And 't is the congruity of things that is the foundation of pleasure But then such persons are beholding to their ignorance and their delusion to the distemper of their faculties for their relish of these things None but those that are foolish and deceived and under the servitude of divers lusts devoting themselves to such kind of things for pleasures Supposing a man to have sound healthy faculties such an one will not be able to find any true satisfaction and complacence but only in those things which have in them a natural goodness and rectitude They must be regular objects that have in them a suitableness to regular faculties This being premised by way of explication I shall proceed to prove That Religion is the most proper means for the promoting of this interest and this it doth Morally Naturally 1. Morally as it is one of the rewards belonging to virtue which alone upon its own account doth deserve all such advantages as may render its condition pleasant and comfortable in this world Besides the several assertions and promises in Scripture to this purpose Prov. 3. 17. speaking of Religion under the name of Wisdom it is said that her ways are ways of pleasantness The yoke of it is easie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gracious and sweet and the burden light The commandments of it not grievous The fruits of it are love and joy and peace The duties of Religion are in several places of Scripture compared to musick and to feasting and are said to be sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb I delight to do thy will O my God Psal. 40. 8. 2. Religion is the Natural cause of Pleasure Which I shall endeavour to make out by Reason and Experience 1. By Reason Religion hath a natural efficacy in promoting the interest of pleasure teaching a man a chearful liberal use of the things he enjoys how to make his soul enjoy good in his labour how to sweeten and allay all the difficulties and troubles of this life Nor doth it restrain men from any such sensible pleasures as are agreeable to reason or our true interests It only prohibits mistakes and excesses about them teaches us so to regulate our selves in the use of them that they may truly deserve the name of Pleasure how to provide against that natural emptiness and vanity which there is in all such things whereby they are apt quickly to satiate and weary us and upon this account it may be said to promote rather than hinder the interest of Pleasure As for the Pleasures of the Appetite these abide no longer than till the necessities and conveniencies of nature are satisfied and so far Religion doth allow of them When our hunger and thirst is well appeased all that follows after is but a faint kind of pleasure if it be not rather to be styled satiety and a burden As for those kind of things which we call by the name of sports and diversions Religion doth likewise admit of a moderate use of these and what is beyond such a moderate use doth rather tire men than recreate them It being as much the property of such things to weary a man when he is once sufficiently refreshed by them as it is to refresh him when he is wearied by other things We read indeed of the pleasures of sin but besides that they are of a baser and grosser kind 't is said also that they are but for a season but for a moment and the end of them is heaviness The ways of sin may seem broad and pleasant but they lead down to death and take hold of hell There are some vices that seem sweet to the palate but do after fill the mouth with gravel There are several sins which have very specious and tempting appearances which yet upon trial do bite like a serpent and sting like an adder By what hath been said it appears that Religion is a natural cause of promoting these sensible pleasures besides that it affords delights incomparably beyond all these corporeal things such as those who are strangers to Religion cannot understand and do not intermeddle with 2. But besides the Reasons to this purpose it may appear likewise from Experience that the great pleasure of mens lives is from the goodness of them such only being capable of a free and liberal enjoyment of what they possess who know how to regulate themselves in the fruition of them to avoid extremities on either hand to prevent those mixtures of guilt and fear which will imbitter all their enjoyments Such persons only who have good consciences being capable of having a continual feast The great objection against this will be from the difficulty of the duties of mortification repentance self-denial taking up the cross c. All which do imply in them a repugnancy to our natures and consequently an inconsistency with pleasure For answer to this it must be observed That difficulty doth properly arise from a disproportion betwixt the power and the work as when a person of little strength is put to carry a great burden when one of a mean capacity is put to answer an hard question in learning Now supposing men to retain their vitious habits it must be granted to be as difficult for such to perform the duties of Religion or to forbear the acts of sin as for a lame and impotent man to run or for a man under a violent Feaver to be restrained from drinking But suppose these men cured of these maladies and their faculties to be rectified then all this disproportion and unsuitableness will vanish and those things will become easie and delightful which were before very difficult and unpleasant Now it is the property of Religion that it changes the natures of men making them new creatures It puts off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts and puts on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness It removes our vitious habits and endows the mind with other kind of inclinations and abilities And though there should be some difficulties in the very passage from one state to another yet this ought not to be objected as a prejudice against Religion because there are far greater difficulties and pains to be undergone in the service and drudgery of impetuous lusts The trouble of being cured is not so great as that of being sick nor is the trouble of being sober comparable to that of being debauched and intemperate That godly sorrow which is required as one of the first acts in the change of our condition is always accompanied with secret pleasure And as it is said of wicked men that in the midst of laughter their heart
is sorrowful so may it be said of good men that in the midst of their sorrow their heart is joyful And when the conditions of men are once changed when they are passed over to another state it will then prove as easie to them to observe the duties of Religion as it was before to follow their own sinful inclinations An evil tree doth not more naturally bring forth evil fruit than a good tree doth bring forth good fruit As for that moroseness and sowreness of carriage which some men who pretend to Religion are noted for This is not justly to be ascribed to their Religion but to their want of it Joy and chearsulness being not only a priviledg but a duty which Religion doth oblige men to whereby they are to adorn their profession and win over others to a love of it CHAP. VI. How Religion conduces to our Honour and Reputation FIfthly for the interest of Honour and Reputation This is one of the greatest blessings which this world can afford much to be preferred before Riches or Pleasures or Life it self A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favour rather than silver and gold One that is a generous virtuous man will chuse to dye rather than do any thing that may expose him to infamy St. Paul was of this mind It were better for me to dye than that any should make my glorying void And because it is a thing of so great excellency therefore we do pay it as the best service we can do to God and to his Deputies Magistrates and Parents 'T is by this that we are rendered useful and acceptable to others And besides the advantage we have by it while we live 't is one of those things that will abide after us when we are gone out of the world and for that reason a special regard is to be had to it And the more wise and virtuous any man is the more care will he take to transmit a grateful memory of himself to future times and since he must be spoken of after his departure to take care that he be well-spoken of that his name may be as a precious oyntment leaving a perfume behind it that men may rise up at the mention of it and call him blessed Nor can any man despise honour but he that doth either despair of it or resolve against doing any thing that may deserve it Now honour is properly the esteem and good opinion which men have concerning the person or the actions of another together with such external expressions of respect as are suitable thereunto And I shall make it appear that this kind of happiness doth depend upon Religion both Morally Naturally 1. Morally Nothing being more generally agreed upon amongst all the Philosophers than that honour is the peculiar reward of virtue and doth not properly belong to any thing else And that shame is the proper reward of vice nor can it belong to any thing else The Scripture is very copious in expressions to this purpose Such as are religious are styled the excellent of the earth Psal. 16. 3. and said to be more excellent than their neighbours Prov. 17. 27. They are Gods peculiar treasure the dearly beloved of his soul. He sets apart the man that is godly for himself Though such persons may be but low in their outward condition being put to wander up and down in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented seeking for refuge in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth yet are they upon the account of Religion of such an excellent value that in the judgment of the Holy Ghost the world is not worthy of them Heb. 11. 37 38. The Wise-man speaking of Rellgion saith that it shall be an ornament of grace to thy head and as a chain about thy neck Exalt her and she shall promote thee and bring thee to honour She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace and a Crown of glory God hath engaged himself by promise to those people that are religious that he will set them above other nations they shall be made the head and not the tail He will honour those that honour him And certainly he who is the King of Kings must needs be the fountain of honour and be able to dispose of it as he pleases And on the other side Shame is in Scripture said to be the proper reward and consequent of sin especially in the Writings of David and Solomon Religion is styled by the name of wisdom and Sin by the name of folly And the Wise-man having said Prov. 3. 35 that the wise shall inherit glory 't is added but shame shall be the promotion of fools It shall be their promotion the utmost that such persons shall ever attain to will be but disgrace when they are exalted and lifted up it shall prove to their disparagement to make their shame more conspicuous And Prov. 13. 5. 't is said A wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame The word translated loathsome properly denotes such kind of persons to be as nauseous and offensive to the judgments of others as the most loathsome unsavoury things are to their tasts or smells They are styled by the name of Wolves and Bears Swine Dogs and Vipers things both hurtful and hateful Men that are truly virtuous have a reverence paid them by all that know them And on the other side vicious men are despised Not but that wicked persons may be inwardly honoured by such as do not know them to be wicked and on the other side those that are good may by others be esteemed and used as being the rubbish and off-scouring of all things But this is to be ascribed chiefly to their mistake and ignorance of them whilst they look upon such persons as being the most dangerous pernicious persons But the generality of mankind have heretofore and still do pay a reverence to any person whom they believe to be innocent and virtuous 2. Religion is the natural cause of Honour and Reputation so far as such things are capable of any physical efficacy This I shall endeavour to prove both from Reason and Experience I. By Reason For the better understanding of this we are to take notice that Honour may be considered under a twofold notion 1. According to the desert and foundation of it in the person honoured 2. According to the acknowledgment or attribution of it in the person honouring Now Religion doth by a natural causality influence both these 1. According to the foundation of it in the person honoured which is true virtue and merit I have shewed before that the Essence of man may be said to consist in being religious and consequently this must be the rule and measure of a mans real worth it must be our excelling in that which makes us men that must make us better men than others All other things have some kind of standard by which
good conscience and honest actions I appeal to the experience of all considering men whether this doth not appear to them that the generality of those who live most pleasantly in the world are the most religious and virtuous part of mankind such as know how to regulate themselves in the fruition of what they have how to avoid the extremities on either hand to prevent those mixtures of guilt and fear which are apt to sowre and imbitter all our enjoyments Whether lawful pleasures which a man may reflect upon without any sense of guilt be not much to be preferred before others Whether those intellectual delights that flow from the conscience of well-doing be not much better than any sinful sensual pleasure Whether the doing of any worthy action such as all good men must think well of and commend do not afford a more solid lasting pleasure than can be had from any sensible enjoyments Whether any thing can be more suitable and consequently delightful to a generous mind than an opportunity of being grateful to those by whom a man hath been obliged the making of an ample return for the favours he hath received Whether that noble way of conquest overcoming evil with good surprizing an enemy by kindness when we have it in our power to be severe towards him be not a far greater pleasure than that which is by some counted the sweetest of all other things Revenge Religion doth likewise advance the soul to an holy confidence concerning the Divine favour and good-will towards us If our hearts condemn us not we have confidence towards God A good conscience will set us above all those fears and doubts and cares whereby the lives of men are rendered uncomfortable When in decrepit age a man cannot find comfort in other things when the grinders shall be few and appetite cease then will this be a continual feast The most rational solid sublime complete durable delights of all others do flow from the conscience of well-doing 'T is a chief part this of that heaven which we enjoy upon earth and 't is likewise a principal part of that happiness which we hope to enjoy in heaven Next to the beatifical vision and fruition of God is the happiness of a good conscience and next to that the society of Saints and Angels Whereas on the other side he that lives under the sense of guilt and a consciousness of his obligation to punishment must needs be destitute of all inward peace and comfort Such an one can have nothing to support him with patience under a state of affliction in this world nor can he have any rational grounds to expect a better condition hereafter and therefore must needs have very dreadful apprehensions of dying and be all his life time subject to bondage through the fear of death And that man must needs be very miserable who can neither have true joy in life nor any hope in death This the Heathen Philosophers have acknowledged That there is always a secret dread which doth accompany guilt So Seneca in particular speaking of wicked men he saith tantùm metuunt quantùm nocent that such men must have fears proportionable to their guilt And a little after dat paenas quisquis expect at quisquis autem meruit expect at those men do really suffer punishment who live under the expectation of it and whoever doth any thing to deserve it must needs expect it 'T is not easie to express the torment which those men undergo quos diri conscia facti Mens habet attonitos surdo verbere caedit Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum Mens sibi conscia facti Praemetuens adhibet stimulos terretque flagellis 'T is the unsupportableness of this that many times doth cause men in the bitterness of their souls to chuse strangling and death rather than life The Heathens do set forth such a mans condition by the fiction of Furies continually haunting and scourging him But Zophar doth better describe it where he saith Terrors are upon him all darkness is hid in his secret places a fire not blown shall consume him Though some men are so hardened against the sense of guilt as to go on in their sinful courses without feeling any of this remorse for them yet is their peace so far from being a priviledg that it doth render their condition more desperate because it supposes them to have a reprobate mind and such a stupidity upon their consciences as makes them past feeling being seared as it were with an hot iron Which though it may preserve them from those present lashes which others are tormented with yet doth it argue their conditions to be more remediless and desperate All the difference is the one is sick of a Calenture or burning Feaver the other of a Lethargy or Apoplexy the former more painful for the present but both of them very dangerous only the latter less capable of remedy than the former CHAP. VIII How Religion conduces to our Happiness in the next world AS Religion is the true cause of our present happiness in this world whether External Internal So likewise is it the cause of that happiness which we expect in our future states Which must depend upon such courses as can give us the most rational assurance of blessedness and glory hereafter I shall speak but briefly to this subject because 't is scarce possible for any man to be so strangely infatuated so wholly lost to common Reason as to believe that vicious courses despising of Religion walking contrary to God can be the means to entitle him to this future happiness any more than contempt and hatred of any one is a proper means to procure his favour What kind of Happiness this is which belongs to our future state and wherein the Glory of it doth consist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing unspeakable altogether above the expressions of humane Orators and passeth all knowledg the heart of man being not able to conceive it Nor can it be expected that we should be able in this state of flesh and mortality to comprehend what kind of irradiations glorified souls are capable of Only in the general 't is said we shall be like God and see him as he is This state of future happiness as it is above all other things of greatest moment so ought it to be proportionably laboured after with the greatest care and diligence There are several varieties of metaphorical names or expressions whereby this state is described in Scripture but all of them do imply something of more than ordinary care and industry to the qualifying of men for it as Bellarmine hath observed in his Tract de AEternâ felicitate sanctorum 'T is styled The City of God The heavenly Jerusalem And it requires some care and diligence for one that is a Citizen of this world to be a fellow-citizen with the saints it being no easie thing for one that lives in this world not to
with much simplicity and infirmity in the first publishers of it without arms or faction or favour of great men or the perswasions of Philosophers or Orators only by a naked proposal of plain evident Truth with a firm resolution of suffering and dying for it by which it hath subdued all kind of persecutions and oppositions and surmounted whatever discouragement or resistance could be laid in its way or made against it 2. From the Excellency of the things contained in it both in respect of the End proposed Means for the attaining of it 1. From the End it proposes the chief reward which it sets before us namely the eternal vision and fruition of God Which is so excellent in it self and so suitable to a rational Being as no other Religion or Profession whatsoever hath thought of or so expresly insisted upon Some of the learned Heathen have placed the happiness of Man in the external sensual delights of this world I mean the Epicureans who though in other respects they were persons of many excellent and sublime speculations yet because of their gross error in this kind they have been in all ages looked upon with a kind of execration and abhorrency not only amongst the vulgar but likewise amongst the learneder sort of Philosophers 'T is an opinion this so very gross and ignoble as cannot be sufficiently dispised It doth debase the understanding of man and all the principles in him that are sublime and generous extinguishing the very seeds of honour and piety and virtue affording no room for actions or endeavours that are truely great and noble being altogether unworthy of the nature of Man and doth reduce us to the condition of Beasts Others of the wiser Heathen have spoken sometimes doubtfully concerning a future estate and therefore have placed the reward of virtue in the doing of virtuous things Virtus est sibi praemium Wherein though there be much of truth yet it doth not afford encouragement enough for the vast desires of a rational soul. Others who have owned a state after this life have placed the Happiness of it in gross and sensual pleasures Feasts and Gardens and Company and other such low and gross enjoyments Whereas the Doctrine of Christianity doth fix it upon things that are much more spiritual and sublime the Beatifical Vision a clear unerring understanding a perfect tranquillity of mind a conformity to God a perpetual admiring and praising of him Than which the mind of man cannot fancy any thing that is more excellent or desireable 2. As to the Means it directs to for the attaining of this end they are suitable both to the goodness and greatness of the end it self 1. For the Duties that are enjoyned in reference to Divine worship They are so full of sanctity and spiritual devotion as may shame all the pompous solemnities of other Religions in their costly sacrifices their dark wild mysteries and external observances Whereas this refers chiefly to the holiness of the mind resignation to God love of him dependance upon him submission to his Will endeavouring to be like him 2. And as for the Duties of the second-Table which concern our mutual conversation towards one another It allows nothing that is hurtful or noxious either to our selves or others Forbids all kind of injury or revenge commands to overcome evil with good to pray for enemies and persecutors doth not admit of any mental much less any corporal uncleanness doth not tolerate any immodest or uncomely word or gesture forbids us to wrong others in their goods and possessions or to mispend our own requires us to be very tender both of our own and other mens reputations In brief it injoyns nothing but what is helpful and useful and good for mankind Whatever any Philosophers have prescribed concerning their moral virtues of Temperance and Prudence and Patience and the duties of several relations is here injoyned in a far more eminent sublime and comprehensive manner Besides such Examples and incitations to piety as are not to be parallel'd elsewhere The whole Systeme of its Doctrine being transcendently excellent and so exactly conformable to the highest purest reason that in those very things wherein it goes beyond the rules of Moral Philosophy we cannot in our best judgment but consent and submit to it In brief it doth in every respect so fully answer the chief scope and design of Religion in giving all imaginable honour and submission to the Deity promoting the good of mankind satisfying and supporting the mind of man with the highest kind of enjoyments that a rational soul can wish or hope for as no other Religion or Profession whatsoever can pretend unto What hath briefly been said upon this argument may suffice to shew the exceeding folly and unreasonableness of those men who are sceptical and indifferent as to any kind of Religion 'T is a vice this that if it may not be styled direct Atheism yet certainly it is the very next degree to it And there is too much reason to suspect that it doth in this generation very much abound not only amongst the Vulgar but such also as would be thought the greatest Wits and most knowing men It hath been occasioned by that heat and zeal of men in those various contrary opinions which have of late abounded together with those great scandals that have been given by the Professors of Religion on several hands From whence men of corrupt minds have taken occasion to doubt of all kind of Religion and to look upon it only as a Political invention which doth no farther oblige than as the Laws of several Countries do provide for it These common scandals have been the occasion but the true ground at the bottom of such mens prejudice and dissatisfaction is the strictness and purity of this Religion which they find puts too great a restraint and check upon their exorbitant lusts and passions I know they will pretend for their hesitation and indifferency in this kind the want of clear and infallible evidence for the truth of Christianity than which nothing can be more absurd and unworthy of a rational man For let it be but impartially considered what is it that such men would have Do they expect Mathematical proof and certainty in Moral things Why they may as well expect to see with their ears and hear with their eyes Such kind of things as I shewed at large in the beginning of this Treatise being altogether as disproportioned to such kind of proofs as the objects of the several senses are to one another The arguments or proof to be used in several matters are of various and different kinds according to the nature of the things to be proved And it will become every rational man to yeild to such proofs as the nature of the thing which he enquires about is capable of And that man is to be looked upon as froward and contentious who will not rest satisfied in such kind of Evidence as is counted sufficient
either by all others or by most or by the wisest men If we suppose God to have made any Revelation of his Will to mankind can any man propose or fancy any better way for conveying down to Posterity the Certainty of it than that clear and universal Tradition which we have for the History of the Gospel And must not that man be very unreasonable who will not be content with as much evidence for an ancient Book or matter of Fact as any thing of that nature is capable of If it be only infallible and mathematical Certainty that can settle his mind why should he believe that he was born of such Parents and belongs to such a Family 'T is possible men might have combined together to delude him with such a Tradition Why may he not as well think that he was born a Prince and not a Subject and consequently deny all duties of subjection and obedience to those above him There is nothing so wild and extravagant to which men may not expose themselves by such a kind of nice and scrupulous incredulity Whereas if to the enquiries about Religion a man would but bring with him the same candour and ingenuity the same readiness to be instructed which he doth to the study of humane Arts and Sciences that is a mind free from violent prejudices and a desire of contention It can hardly be imagined but that he must be convinced and subdued by those clear evidences which offer themselves to every inquisitive mind concerning the truth of the Principles of Religion in general and concerning the Divine Authority of the H. Scriptures and of the Christian Religion FINIS A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Bishop of Chester At the Guildhall Chappel LONDON On Thursday the 12. of December 1672. By William Lloyd D. D. Dean of Bangor and one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed for Henry Brome 1675. HEB. 13. 7. Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation IN handling this Text of holy Scripture that we may mingle nothing of Humane Affections that our Passions may give no Interruption to you in hearing or to me in speaking I should desire to suppress them quite if it were possible And possible it is where they are slightly raised as upon common and ordinary occasions But where they are grounded and strong where they dare argue and seem to have Reason on their side as there is too much in sight for ours there I think it is in vain to endeavour it The only way in this case is to give them some kind of Vent to discharge them in part and to govern what remains of the Affections You will I hope the rather bear with my Infirmity that I cannot contain from deploring the Loss the irreparable Loss that we suffer I think all suffer in the death of this Eminent Person He was the man in whom his Friends had experience of much good and had hopes of much more not so much for his greatness or power as abstracting from these for what they found in himself which was a great and manifold Blessing to all that lived within his conversation He was a Father a Counsellor a Comforter a Helper a sure Friend He was all they could wish in every Relation and by the course of Nature might have been for many years But for our sins though for his unspeakable advantage the great and wise God was not pleased to continue that Blessing He took him out of this World when for ought we could judge there was most need of such men to live in it and when we had much reason to expect more good than ever by his living in it Oh the Unsearchable ways and Counsels of God! Oh the Blindness of Humane hopes and expectations While we please our selves with the good we have in hand while we reach out for more as if there would never be an end within a few days all withers all vanisheth to This We have Nothing left but what it grieves us to see We have nothing remains but what we are willing to be rid of a poor shell of earth that we make haste to bury out of our sight Yes of wise and good men which is their Priviledg above others there remains after Death a Memory an Example which they leave behind them as a sacred Depositum for us to keep and use until we see them again Are these things Nothing in our sight They are above all price in the sight of God who that they may be so to us both telleth us the worth and recommends them to our esteem and requires the fruit of them in many places of Scripture But in none with more Application to our present Occasion than in my Text. I shall sufficiently Justifie my choice of it if I can but make it be understood I shall shew the full Import of it in those duties which it contains I shall endeavour to stir you up to practise them with respect to this present occasion First For the understanding of my Text we are to look for no help from what goes next before it or after it For the whole business of it is contained within it self It lies in the heap among other directions which without any certain connexion between them were given by the Writer of this Epistle to the Hebrews that is to those Jews who were converted to be Christians For the time when it was written we are certain of this that it was while Timothy lived for he is mentioned as living in the 24 Verse of this Chapter And he being there said to have suffered Imprisonment for the Gospel this brings us a little nearer to the knowledg of the time For then it must be after both S. Pauls Epistles to Timothy In the last of those Epistles which was some years after the other S. Paul speaks much of his own Imprisonment for the Gospel He warns Timothy oft that he must suffer for the Gospel He instructs him what to do when God shall call him to suffer Not a word of any thing that he had suffered already Nay he counsels him as a young man that had never been tried He invites him to Rome which was the great place of tryal in which place as it appears in the close of this Chapter Timothy did suffer that Imprisonment for the Gospel from which he was deliver'd when this Epistle was written It appears that after the Epistle to Timothy how long after we know not he did go to Rome as Paul will'd him How long he staid there we know not ere he did suffer imprisonment How long he was in Prison we know not ere he was set at liberty Only we know it was a considerable time we have reason to think it might be some years it might be many years that this Epistle was written after
the meer belief of his Being will contribute but little to a true state of Religion A man may have such unworthy notions of a Deity that it would in some respects be as good nay much better to be without a God than to have such a one as he may frame It would be better saith a great Author to have no opinion of God than such a one as is unworthy of him the one is but meer unbelief the other is contumely 'T is a common saying cited out of Plutarch's book of Superstition where he professeth it much more desirable to him that posterity should say that there never was any such man as Plutarch rather than that he was a fierce unconstant revengeful man one who upon the least omission of any small circumstance towards him by men otherways virtuous and worthy would tear out their hearts destroy their families and children blast their fields spoil their cattel with lightning and thunder This would be such a representation as would make the notion and remembrance of him hateful And it were better to be forgotten than to be remembred with infamy Now there are some opinions which do thus reproach the Deity and render him under such a notion that if the Gyants had prevailed in their attempt against heaven that place had not been worse supplied This therefore ought to be most carefully avoided Whereas the Divine nature is supposed to be the first and supreme Good therefore the Idea of all absolute perfection must be essential to the notion of him And though it be very difficult for us to raise our minds to any due apprehensions of this yet we must endeavour in our thoughts of him so far as our finite understandings are capable to remove and separate from him whatever is in any kind evil or unworthy and to ascribe unto him the utmost degree of all Goodness and Perfection The most general Notion that men have of God is that He is the first cause and a Being of all possible Perfection Some of his principal Excellencies discoverable by the light of Nature may be reduced to these Heads namely such as are Incommunicable Absolute Simplicity Essential Unity Immutability Infiniteness both in respect of Place and Time Immensity Eternity Communicable belonging either to the Divine Understanding Knowledg Wisdom Particular Providence Will namely his Goodness Justice Faithfulness Faculties of Acting his Power Dominion over us in this life Distributing of future Rewards and Punishments Each of these Attributes are upon this account of very great consequence to be believed and considered because they are the foundations of those duties of Religion which we owe to him According as a man apprehends God to be so must his esteem be of him and his demeanour towards him And whereas these great and necessary points of so much influence to Religion have been usually treated of by others either too largely by the inserting of several things less pertinent or too obscurely by offering such proofs concerning them as are less intelligible or intermixing the discourses about them with such niceties as are neither very easie to be solved nor material for men to know I shall therefore in this place endeavour to avoid both these inconveniences by treating concerning each of them with all imaginable brevity and plainness Observing this method First I shall endeavour to explain and describe what is meant by each Attribute And then prove that these Attributes so explained must belong to the natural notion of God Which I shall make out both by the consent of the wisest Heathen expressed by their declared opinions and by their general practice suitable thereunto And from the nature of the things themselves their congruity to the principles of Reason and the absurdities that will follow upon the denial of them Those are called Incommunicable Attributes which are proper to God alone and not communicated to any Creature The first of these I have proposed to treat of is his Absolute Simplicity By which I mean his freedom from all kind of composition or mixture either of Principles or of Parts And that this doth belong to the natural notion of the Deity may be evident 1. From Testimony of the Heathen Philosophers who do generally acknowledg him to be the First Cause and the most Simple Being and do frequently style him mens pura sincera segregata ab omni concretione mortali c. And not only Scripture but the very Heathen likewise do express this Attribute by the similitude of Light amongst all visible things the most pure and simple 2. From Natural Reason by which it will appear that God cannot be compounded of any Principles because the principles and ingredients which concur to the making of any thing must be antecedent to that thing And if the divine nature were compounded it would follow that there must be something in nature before him Which is inconsistent with his being the first Cause And here I shall take occasion to speak somewhat concerning the Spirituality of the Divine nature as having some affinity with this though it be none of the incommunicable Attributes I know it hath been said with confidence enough that the notion of a Spirit or immaterial substance doth imply a contradiction and that there is an utter impossibility of any other Being besides Matter But though this hath been said yet was it never proved nor can it be till either a man be able to evince that the notion of the word Substance according to the most general use of it which gives signification to words doth necessarily imply Corporeity than which nothing can be more false or unless a man shall pretend to the certain knowledg and comprehension of all things that are or may be than which nothing can be more vain What the Positive notion of a Spirit is is not so necessary to enquire after or determine 'T is sufficient that we conceive of it by way of Negation namely that it is a Powerful Intelligent Being that is not matter without figure or parts not capable of rarefaction or condensation not visible to our bodily eyes and therefore not to be represented by any kind of sensible Image Not subject to those necessary Laws of Matter which cannot move unless it be moved and cannot but move when impelled by another I say it may be sufficient in our apprehending the Spirituality of God to remove all Corporeity and Figure in our conceptions of him Now that this Attribute doth belong to the Divine nature may be made evident both by Testimony and by Reason 1. It hath been generally owned by the wisest and most learned Heathen Pythagoras is often cited for this by whom saith Lactantius God was wont to be styled incorporalis mens an incorporeal Mind and by Plato frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a body by other Graecian Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind that made the world Plutarch styles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a separated form
least inclination to actions that are truly great and noble So that upon all these accounts it is very evident That Religion is totum heminis in this first sense as it refers to the Essence of Man considered either in his single capacity or as a member of Society 2. 'T is so likewise as it refers to the Business and Duty of Man that which he ought to be most intent upon and conversant about as to his employment in this world that General calling in which every man of what rank or quality soever is to be ingaged Men are distributed under other particular callings according as their education abilities friends and several opportunities do dispose of them But the obligation of Religion being of universal concernment doth extend to all and every particular there being none exempted from it Hoc est omnis homo Every man is concerned in it And it is totum hominis likewise 'T is his calling the chief business about which he is to be employed I do not say that a mans thoughts are always to be taken up about the immediate acts of Religion any more than a Traveller is always to have his mind actually fixed upon the thought of his journies end This would be inconsistent with the infirmity of our natures and the necessity of our conditions in this world But yet as he that is upon a journey doth so order all his particular motions as may be most conducible to his general end so should men habitually though they cannot actually in every affair have respect to their chief end so as to observe all the duties of Religion and never to allow themselves in any thing against the rules of it And he that hath this care continually upon his mind though he be but a secular person may properly be said to make Religion his Business The Wise man in the beginning of his Book had proposed it as his great Question to be discussed to find out what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under the Heavens all the days of their lives i. e. What was the chief employment or business which they should apply themselves to in this world And in the conclusion of his discourse after an induction and refutation of all other particulars which may seem to have any claim or pretence to this He asserts it to be the business of Religion Fearing God and keeping his commandments Suitably to that Precept of Moses Deut. 10. 12. And now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to serve the Lord thy God and keep his commandments And the Practise of St. Paul who made this his daily exercise to keep his conscience void of offence both towards God and towards Man To the Reasonableness of this several of the wisest Heathens have attested That 's a remarkable passage in Aristotle to this purpose where he states that to be the most desirable proportion of all worldly felicities and enjoyments which is most consistent with men's devoting themselves to the business of Religion And that to be either too much or too little of wealth or honour or power c. whereby men are hindred in their meditating upon God or their worshipping of him So Epictetus discoursing concerning the work and business he was designed to hath this excellent passage If I had been made a Nightingale or a Swan I should have employed the time of my life in such a way as is suitable to the condition of those Creatures But being made a Man capable of serving and worshipping that God from whom I had my Being 't is but reason that I should apply my self to this as being my proper work and business 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore hereunto will I devote my self as being the chief employment to which I am designed I am now as to the condition of my body lame and old saith he in the same place to which he might have added that he was sickly and deformed and as for his outward quality he was poor and under servitude being a slave to Epaphroditus one of the Roman Courtiers which are conditions that usually expose men to repining and discontent and yet he concludes it to be his duty wholly to devote himself to the praises and worship of that God who was the Author of his Being Which upbraids so many professors of Christianity who have both more advantages of knowing their duty and greater engagements upon them to exercise themselves in the duties of Religion There is another apposite Testimony to this purpose in Antoninus Every thing saith he is designed for some kind of work Beasts and plants the sun and stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what do you conceive your business to be sensual pleasures Bethink your self a little better whether this be suitable to your natural sentiments to the nobility of your mind and those excellent faculties with which you are endowed Now 't is the usual course of men to apply themselves to that as their chief business by which their interest is most promoted and which may most conduce to that main end which they propose to themselves And can any thing be more reasonable than for that to be the chief business of a man's life which is the chief end of his Being 3. Religion is totum hominis with respect to the Happiness and well-being of Man That is properly said to be the chief end or Happiness of a thing which doth raise its nature to the utmost perfection of which it is capable according to its rank and kind This is the chief end which he ought to propose that alone wherein his true felicity doth consist that which doth advance his nature to the utmost perfection it is capable of The chief good belonging to a Vegetable or Plant is to grow up to a state of Maturity to continue to its natural period and to propagate its kind which is the utmost perfection that kind of Being is capable of And whereas sensitive creatures besides those things which are common to them with Plants have likewise such faculties whereby they are able to apprehend external objects and to receive pain or pleasure from them Therefore the Happiness proper to them must consist in the perfection of these faculties namely in sensible pleasures in the enjoyment of such things as may be grateful to their senses But now Mankind if we allow it to be a distinct rank of Creatures superior to Brutes being endowed with such faculties whereby 't is made capable of apprehending a Deity and of expecting a future state after this life It will hence follow That the proper happiness of Man must consist in the perfecting of these faculties namely in such a state as may reconcile him to the Divine favour and afford him the best assurance of a blessed immortality hereafter Which nothing else but Religion can so much
as pretend to 'T is true indeed the nature of Man by reason of those other capacities common to him with Plants and Brutes may stand in need of several other things to render his condition pleasant and comfortable in this world as Health Riches Reputation Safety c. Now herein is the great advantage of Religion that besides the principal work which it doth for us in securing our future estates in the other world it is likewise the most effectual means to promote our happiness in this world In my discourse of this I shall first suggest something more generally concerning the nature of our chief end And then descend to those particulars which are esteemed to be the chief ingredients to a state of Happiness Under the first of these I shall speak briefly to these Three things 1. There is a necessity that every Man who will act rationally should propose to himself some chief scope and end 2. The chief end of every thing must be of such a nature as may be most fit to promote the perfection of that thing in its rank and kind 3. This in rational Beings which are capable of it must consist in a communion with and a conformity unto the chief Good and consequently in being religious 1. There is a necessity that every man who will act rationally should propose to himself some chief scope or end The having of an end is not so much a moral duty which supposeth a liberty of acting as a natural principle like that of the descent of heavy bodies men must do so nor can they do otherwise Such is the principle of self-preservation in all things and this of acting for an end in all rational agents The most loose and profligate wretches that are do and must act for an end even in those very courses wherein they put the thought of their future state and their last account far from them The very suppressing and hardening themselves against the thought of their true end is in order to their present peace and quiet which they do erroneously substitute in the room of their chief end That wherein men are commonly defective is in not exciting the thought of their chief end and not sufficiently considering and stating in their own minds the most proper means for the attaining of it There are too many in the world that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live ex tempore without any particular reference to their chief end being immersed only in present matters animalia sine praeterito futuro without any regard to what is past or future like Ships upon the vast Ocean without any Compass or Pilot that do rather wander than travel being carried up and down according as every wind or tide doth drive them And this the Philosopher doth worthily brand with the name of folly Vita sine proposito stultitiae argumentum est No greater argument of foolishness than for a man not to be fixed upon some particular design Proponamus oportet finem summi boni ad quem omne factum nostrum dictúmve respiciat veluti navigantibus ad sidus aliquod dirigendus est cursus saith the same Author There ought always to be some particular scope and mark proposed as the main end and drift of all our actions as the star by which we are to be guided in our voyage Non disponet singula nisi cui jam vitae suae summa proposita est 'T will be a hard matter to proportion out particulars till we know what is the main sum This is the true ground of the common mistakes amongst men whilst they deliberate concerning the several parts of their lives but neglect the stating of what should be the main design of the whole He that intends to shoot at any thing must so manage the whole action in levelling his arrow and regulating his hands and exerting his strength so as may be most advantageous for hitting the mark As the efficient is in natural so is the end amongst moral causes of principal efficacy 'T is this which is the chief rule of all our actions And therefore there is a necessity that some end be proposed and fix'd upon 2. The chief end of every thing must be of such a nature as may be most fit to promote the perfection of that thing in its rank and kind Any thing that is short of this may be a means or a subordinate end but cannot be the chief and ultimate end if there be any thing desireable beyond it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle That is truly the chief end which is desired for it self which being once obtained we want no more That which doth satiate and fill up the desires Haec nihil vacare patitur loci totum animum tenet desiderium omnium tollit sola satis est saith Seneca In brief 't is that state wherein a thing enjoys all that good that 't is capable of and which is most suitable to its nature 3. This in rational Creatures must consist in a communion with and a conformity to the supreme good and consequently in being religious Which is the meaning of those Scripture-expressions of walking with God and as becomes the sons of the Most High being followers of him holy as he is holy being made partakers of a divine nature And to this the Philosophers do likewise consent This is the meaning of that speech in Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans chief end should be a resemblance to God a being made like to the Deity So Plato and Epictetus will have it to consist in following of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And another imitari quem colis in imitating him whom we worship So Seneca Summum bonum est quod honestum est quod magis admirêre solum bonum est quod honestum est Not only the chief but the only good doth consist in what is honest and virtuous Now the fruition of God cannot consist in any external union or contact of our souls with the Deity which Spirits are not capable of nor in any meer speculation or intellectual gazing upon his excellencies But in such an influence whereby he doth communicate to us such divine qualities as will exalt our faculties beyond their natural state and bring them into an assimilation and conformity to the most perfect Idea of Goodness together with an inward sensation of the effects of this in our selves Having thus dispatched what I had to suggest concerning the nature of Happiness in general I proceed to speak to such particulars as are esteemed to be the most usual ingredients into such a state and which do conduce to the compleating of it whether they concern Our present condition in this world either our External well-fare consisting in 1. Health 2. Liberty Safety Quiet 3. Possessions with respect either to the sufficiency of them for answering our necessities which is called Riches or Profit Or to 4. The Delight or Satisfaction