but not from the Omniscient Author of them both And lastly if ev'n in purely Physical things where one would not think it likely that rational Beings should seek Truth with any other designs than of finding and enjoying it our Understandings are so universally byass'd and impos'd upon by our Wills and Affections how can we admire especially if we admit the fall of our first Parents that our Passions and Interests and oftentimes our Vices should pervert our Intellects about those reveal'd Truths divers of which we discern to be above our comprehensions and more of which we find to be directly contrary to our Inclinations SECT V. And now 't will be seasonable for me to tell you That I think there may be a great difference betwixt a things being contrary to right Reason or so much as to any true Philosophy and its being contrary to the receiv'd Opinions of Philosophers or to the Principles or Conclusions of this or that Sect of them For here I may justly apply to my present purpose what Clemens Alexandrinus judiciously said on another Occasion that Philosophy was neither Peripatetical nor Stoical nor Epicurean but whatsoever among all those several parties was fit to be approv'd And indeed if we survey the Hypotheses and Opinions of the several Sects of Philosophers especially in those points wherein they hold things repugnant to Theological Truths we shall find many of them so slightly grounded and so disagreeing among themselves that a severe and inquisitive Examiner would see little cause to admit them upon the bare Account of his being a Philosopher though he did not see any to reject them upon the Account of his being a Christian. And in particular as to the Peripateticks who by invading all the Schools of Europe and some in Asia and Africk have made their Sect almost Catholick and have produc'd divers of the famous Questioners of Christianity in the last Age and the first part of this the World begins to be apace undeceiv'd as to many of their Doctrines which were as confidently taught and believ'd for many Ages as those that are repugnant to our Religion and there is now scarce any of the modern Philosophers that allow themselves the free use of their Reason who believes any longer that there is an Element of Fire lodg'd under the suppos'd Sphere of the Moon that Heaven consists of solid Orbs that all Celestial Bodies are ingenerable and incorruptible that the Heart rather than the Brain is the Origine of Nerves that the torrid Zone is uninhabitable and I know not how many other Doctrines of the Aristotelians which our Corpuscularian Philosophers think so little worth being believ'd that they would censure him that should now think them worthy to be sollicitously confuted upon which score I presume you will allow me to leave those and divers others as weak Peripatetick conceits to fall by their own groundlesness But you will tell me that the Epicureans and the Somatici that will allow nothing but Body in the World nor no Author of it but Chance are more formidable Enemies to Religion than the Aristotelians And indeed I am apt to think they are so but they may well be so without deserving to have any of their Sects look'd upon as Philosophy it self there being none of them that I know of that maintain any Opinion inconsistent with Christianity that I think may not be made appear to be also repugnant to Reason or at least not demonstrable by it You will not expect I should descend to particulars especially having expresly discours'd against the Epicurean Hypothesis of the Origine of the World in another Paper and therefore I shall observe to you in general that the Cartesian Philosophers who lay aside all Supernatural Revelation in their Inquiries into Natural things do yet both think and as to the two first of them very plausibly prove the three grand Principles of Epicurus That the little Bodies he calls Atoms are indivisible That they all have their motion from themselves and That there is a vacuum in rerum naturá to be as repugnant to meer Reason as the Epicureans think the Notion of an Incorporeal Substance or the Creation of the World or the Immortality of the Soul And as for the new Somatici such as Mr. Hobbs and some few others by what I have yet seen of his I am not much tempted to forsake any thing that I look'd upon as a Truth before ev'n in Natural Philosophy it self upon the score of what he though never so confidently delivers by which hitherto I see not that he hath made any great discovery either of new Truths or old Errors An Honourable Member of the Royal Society hath elsewhere purposely shewn how ill he has prov'd his own Opinions about the Air and some other Physical Subjects and how ill he has understood and oppos'd those of his Adversary But to give you in this place a Specimen how little their repugnancy to his Principles or Natural Philosophy ought to affright us from those Theological Doctrines they contradict I shall here but not in the Body of this Discourse for fear of too much interrupting it examine the fundamental Maxim of his whole Physicks That nothing is removed but by a Body contiguous and moved it having been already shewn by the Gentleman newly mention'd that as to the next to it which is that there is no vacuum whether it be true or no he has not prov'd it If no Body can possibly be moved but by a Body contiguous and moved as Mr. Hobbs teaches I demand How there comes to be Local motion in the World For either all the portions of matter that compos'd the Universe have motion belonging to their Nature which the Epicureans affirm'd for their Atoms or some parts of Matter have this motive power and some have not or else none of them have it but all of them are naturally devoid of Motion If it be granted that Motion does naturally belong to all parts of Matter the dispute is at an end the concession quite overthrowing the Hypothesis If it be said that naturally some portions of Matter have Motion and others not then the Assertion will not be Universally true For though it may hold in the parts that are naturally moveless or quiescent yet it will not do so in the others there being nothing that may shew a necessity why a Body to which Motion is natural should not be capable of moving without being put into motion by another contiguous and moved And if there be no Body to which Motion is natural but every Body needs an outward movent it may well be demanded How there comes to be any thing Locally mov'd in the World which yet constant and obvious experience demonstrates and Mr. Hobbs himself cannot deny For if no part of Matter have any Motion but what it must owe to another that is contiguous to it and being it self in Motion impels it and if there be nothing but Matter
Romans having obtained he said of them that they were full of goodness Our Saviour is said to have grown in stature of body in spirit and in favour with God and Man i. e. to have increased in such Vertues and abounded in such Actions as did exceedingly please God and Man St. Iohn calls this prospering in soul by merciful Additions of grace which he prayed for his Friend Gaius That which a good man should endeavour in this matter St. Paul hath expressed to the life in his own practise i. e. I have not yet attained I am not made perfect but I follow on that I may get to the further end Christ leading me by the hand and helping me forward which makes me to forget what is behind and to add to what I have done well creeping forward and pressing towards the Mark that I may not come short of the prize I will end this Discourse with a short Gloss upon what is said by David in a pathetick Psalm who makes mention of the great desire which the Israelites had under the Mosaick Dispensation to go to Ierusalem that there they might enjoy the presence of God in his Temple and this passion did so transport them that they envied the Happiness of Sparrows and Swallows Birds which had leave to make their nests there but more admired the felicity of God's Servants who dwelt in that House enjoying the manifestations of the Divine Presence and praising God continually for the many and great Mercies which they had received from him and then pronouncing them happy in whose hearts were the ways thither i. e. who set and prepared their minds resolving to be there and passing from Valley to Valley for the Rode lay from Hill to Hill with unwearied steps travelled till they came to that most desirable place This doth every sincere Christian his aim is at the heavenly Ierusalem i. e. the Vision of Peace which is in the presence of God and he makes all his life one constant Journey thither and is therefore truly called one of that Generation of Travellers who march towards Sion and each day of his life is a step in his way and though by the common accidents of this life he may be so hindred that he shall slack his pace awhile and by the slumbers of the Night necessary to refresh his wearied Body his more active thoughts are laid asleep yet the very Night passing on with silent Minutes carries him as a ship under sail doth the Passenger sleeping in his Cabbin nearer to his Port and when he is awake perceiving that he is still in his way he goes on rejoycing and makes what haste he can to come to his Journeys end the fruition of God in Heaven Having shown the Nature of Repentance I come now to urge the Practise of it with three Motives which are these 1. The first is taken from the reasonableness of Repentance in its own Nature 2. The second is that Encouragement which we have to it from the goodness of God who is willing to forgive the Penitent 3. The third is taken from the great and inevitable Mischief which awaites Impenitence 1. It is fit that sinners should repent because sin is the most unnatural thing in the World The state of sin is a contra-natural Temper and the actions in which it expresseth it self are most unreasonable When Iohn the Baptist was sent before our Saviour to prepare his way that is to dispose men for the receiving of his Gospel which is called Luke 1. 17. to make a people ready prepared for the Lord when he begun his work by turning the disobedient to the wisdom of the just he was said Mat. 17. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to restore all things the word signifies Reponere in naturae congruentem statum to reduce men into a state agreeable to Nature which by sin was discomposed What can be more unnatural than for the hearts of Fathers to be set against their Children and for Children to hate their Parents Out of that unreasonable course of sin he brought them by Repentance into their natural Station For the reason asoresaid sin in Scripture is called distraction of mind for when the Prodigal Son made sensible of his Error returned to his Duty he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come to himself Sin had made him mad The Prophet Isaiah gives notice of the same thing when he said Shew your selves men return to your mind ye Transgressors He that sins runs away from God and his own Reason both at once Resipiscentia the Latin word for Repentance says the same for he that Repents doth as Lactantius says Mentem quasi ab insaniâ recipere St. Paul in the second Epistle to Timothy calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awake one out of a drunken sleep Those who slight the great Reasons of their Duties to God and leave themselves to be hurried on in the course of their lives by brutish Appetites act but like men who are mad or drunk and they will confess it if ever they do return to a right use of their mind and settled thoughts which he hath lost who thinks he may be and do what he will Nothing but want of Reason will make any man prefer the loose Wit of a mad man and the wild motions of a Lunatick before the wise thoughts and regular actions of sober men He which sins tears all the Obligations by which God hath engaged him to Obedience breaks all the Bonds which his Almighty Creator hath laid upon his Soul as the Frantick in the Gospel did those which were upon his Body but he hath another sense of things and will not do so when he is restored to a right mind It 's true it did not please God at first to make us immutable yet that we might not fall into Error by sudden Actions he made us able to deliberate and since we do nothing so well usually but it may be bettered and do many things so ill that they ought to be mended he gave us the power of Animadversion that by reflecting upon our selves and actions we might correct by after endeavours that which was not so well done at first and it is most reasonable that we should make use of this power and fit for the Penitent to say It was best indeed not to have sinned but it is next best to repent and since I cannot recall what is past yet I will mend it as well as I can as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will endeavour to undo what was ill done in my former life I will as St. Iohn said of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do what I can to destroy my sins Another Penicent said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. having committed a base sin I will endeavour to mend it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among other things signifies to resume a work to do it better to make up a
of the sad Condition in which Adam was after he had eaten the forbidden Fruit and upon the sense of his Fault had hidden himself from God hoping at least wishing he had done so when God enquiring after him though knowing well enough where he was asked him this Question Adam where art thou He makes this Answer for him proper enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am where they are who are not able to look upon God where they are who obey not God I am where they are who hide themselves from their Maker where they are who are fled from vertue and are destitute of wisdom I am where they are who tremble by reason of guilt and cowardise This being the melancholick condition of wretched sinners after they come to consider how things are with them in the cool of the day when the heats of their Wine and Lust are over their ranting mirth ended their Passions becalm'd and they begin to bethink themselves and to reflect upon their Extravagancies and are made to hear that still voice which call'd to Adam after his prevarication Wise men having compared the sprightly erect chearful temper of good men with this Law justly pronounced that vertuous persons do not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not only exceed a vitious man in that which is honest but also overcome him in pleasure for which only the sinner seems to betake himself to wickedness And this pleasure is so considerable that Aristotle could say that it did exceed that of the wicked those Fugitives from Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that it is more pure and more solid and so is as another calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a pleasure as one shall never have cause to repent of But those pains which I forementioned are more considerable because they are both more pungent and more lasting than those of the Body which made Simplicius say of them That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that they are more grievous stay longer and are harder to be cured A bodily Distemper is more easily relieved than an evil Conscience take away the present pain and the Body returns to its health but the soul is pain'd with the remembrance of what is past and the sear of what is to come which is so great an affliction that many times it makes the present state intolerable Therefore Holy Scripture and Ancient Philosophers called the state of Sin the Death of the Soul So our Saviour said of the vitious Prodigal that he was dead and the Apostle of the wicked world that they were dead in sins and trespasses and the Heathen Philosopher the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The death of the soul is the deprivation of God and Reason which are accompanied with a turbulent conflict of inordinate passions And that none might think that he dully supposed that an Immortal Being can dy he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not that they cease to be but that they fall from the happiness of life And in another place he says that wickedness is the corruption of an Immortal Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it corrupts it as much as is possible For this reason when any of Pythagoras's Sholars abandoned the practise of Vertue and lest his Society they hung up a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an empty Coffin for him looking upon him as one dead And they might very well do so for is it not the destruction of a reasonable Being to be corrupted in those Principles which are essential to it to be spoiled in its best Faculties to be hindred from the free exercise of its Natural Powers to be bereav'd of that joy which a man hath when he acts according to that which is best in him to be deadned to a vital sense of his chief good and to be deprived of the love of God which is the very life of good men Whatsoever intercepts the favourable Influences of God's Benignity doth as much contribute to the death of the soul as he would promote the bodie 's life who by some fatal obstruction of the inward passages should hinder the communication of vital Spirits to all the parts of the body What joy can a man have when the indwelling God is grieved and the Fool lives in contradiction to the connate Principles of his soul 2. This brings me to the second Demonstration of the Reasonableness of Repentance because sin is an insolent contempt of that excellent order which God hath planted in Humane Nature which is his Law upon it and is the ornament and preservation of it There are few who have so little use of their soul bestoweds upon them but that they know they are better than their Bodies and that the Faculties of it do transcend those of the sensual Part and that the mind doth not only understand what is best but hath Authority bestowed upon it to govern the bodily Appetites which being inferiour in Nature and needing a Guide ought to receive Law from it The soul doth discover being it self taught of God by its natural light and super-added Revelation what is the happiness to which it was made the best good of which it is capable and shows the means by which it may be attained directs assists in the use of them propounds rational Arguments to persuade to use and persist in the use of them can baffle such Objections as are raised either by the homebred Enemy or Forreign Tentations to hinder the soul in its chearful progress towards its Felicity The soul tells us what satisfaction is allowable to the bodily appetites disting uisheth between lawful and unlawful utterly forbids the latter and commands that there be no excess in the former shows what Moderation is and the benefit of it and represents the mischief as well as the sin of excess threatens death upon the eating of all forbidden Fruit. Order is then observed as it ought to be when all the Faculties do obey this Superior upon whom God hath bestow'd power to discern Freedom of choice and authority to command For which reason ancient Philosophers have call'd it by very agreable Names as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is the part to which is committed the guidance of all the rest It was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which rides and governs the lower Faculties as the Charioteer doth his Horses with Rains because it was placed in man to guide the Affections and conduct the Faculties of soul and body in what way they should go and what pace and to teach them when to rest and when they went astray to curb their Extravagancies and to reduce them into the right Path. It is worthy of all reasonable Beings to maintain this Dignity and it is their Duty to see that it be not trampled upon This made a great Philosopher say that when a man is assaulted by any
baseness of sin that the Prophet Isaiah astonished at it cries out in Gods behalf Hear O Heavens give ear O Earth why what 's the matter I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Why is that such a matter that God should resent it on that fashion Yes For as it follows it is a vileness so low that Beasts are not capable of it The Ox knows his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib and as they come for meat to their Masters so they serve in grateful return for what they receive But Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They neither have a sense of me their God nor of the Favours they have received from me nor consider the Obligation which is upon them to obey me nor how ungrateful they are in not obeying nor the baseness of their Ingratitude whilst they disobey So Ieremiah Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of darkness that they say we are Lords we will come no more at thee I thought I had been to them that Fountain of goodness at which they drank all their days I thought that by the constant Irrigations of Mercy I had made their souls like a watered garden But it was true of them which was said of Hezekiah He returned not as he received neither for his recovery from a deadly Sickness nor deliverance from the potent Army of the Assyrians Therefore the Penitent hath good reason to say I am ashamed O Lord I blush to think how many mercies I slight how many obligations I trample upon how basely unthankful I have been Doth Iesurun kick and forget it was undeserved mercy which made him fat Because thou art full dost thou sin and not remember that thou rebellest against him who fed thee O foolish people and unwise do you thus requite the Lord Or as the Prophet Dost thou not know that I gave thee thy Corn and Wine saith God and that I multiplyed thy silver and thy gold I will return and take away my corn wine and wooll and make thee know with what ingratitude thou hast forgot thy Benefactor and chief Patron The Penitent may do well to increase this shame in his soul by the consideration of some of the chief mercies by which God hath laid Obligations of Obedience upon him and that will make him say with Ezra Have I sinned having received such deliverance as this Was I delivered to do abominations O my God I am ashamed to look up to Heaven I blush and hide my face And to all considerations of Ingratitude add always this never to be forgotten the Love of thy Saviour in dying for thy sins and then thou wilt say Do I please my self with committing sin when my Saviour in pure love suffered so much pain with infinite amazements upon the Cross for it What am I so base as to trample under my feet the Blood of the Son of God and to scorn the prayers and tears of my Saviour Those whom this consideration doth not make ashamed now will be confounded with it for ever hereafter and beg Rocks to fall upon them that they may not come into the presence of that Friend whom they have so vilely abused not only because they see him now so great that he can take vengeance upon them but because they perceive themselves so base by Ingratitude that they highly deserve it 5. Lastly The Penitent hath great reason to be ashamed of sin as for the aforementioned Considerations so for this that he hath made them out of measure sinful by a horrid Perfidiousness He which sins at first breaks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Oath which is interwoven with our being of which the Philosopher spoke God making no Creature but of which he takes an Oath by the Law of its Nature that it shall be obedient to him But he is perfidious also because he breaks those voluntary Promises which the sense of Obligations laid upon him engaged him to make to God Sure this will make the Penitent blush when he finds reason to say to his soul O my soul Art not thou only so vile as to consent to sin against God but also to do it when thou hast vowed not to do so and when those Vows were made upon most serious deliberation and for those Reasons which thou dost still acknowledge to be most weighty This is enough to have said to shew not only how necessary Confession of sin is to Repentance but also how fit it is that sorrow and shame for sin committed should be joyned to the Confession of it Yet this must not be understood so as if they were only applicable to some penitential solemn acts of Confession for they are to be continued through our whole life For a good man will always be sorry and ever ashamed that he had once sinned Though God forgive a true Penitent will hardly forgive himself A Heathen could say That if we believe there is a Providence he which hath sinned shall not be despised if he grow good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he shall carry some marks of old displeasure For as another said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there remains in the souls of Penitents the marks of old sins as skars do in the flesh though the wounds be healed 2. To Confession the Penitent must add earnest Prayer for pardon This we learn from our blessed Saviour who hath taught us to put this into our Prayers as a chief petition Forgive us our Trespasses Shall God forgive such as do not entreat him to do so It is fit the sinner should fall upon his knees before the Eternal Father and beg pardon When Daniel understood by reading the Prophecy of Ieremiah that the time was at hand in which God had promised so to pardon the sins of the Jews as to return their captivity then he set himself to seek it of God by supplication and prayer Why so Because the promise was made upon condition that they should repent of their sins which carried them captive and pray for pardon and return For so we read I will plant that which was desolate and build the ruinous places I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them i. e. I will grant it to them when they pray for it Hereupon this holy man began in prayer to do his part and directed them to do theirs But as Prayer for Pardon is a Duty unquestionable so Fervency is a qualification so requisite that without it Prayer will not be accepted as it appears by what our Saviour hath taught us in his Sermons the Apostles in their Epistles sincere Penitents in their praetise and of which we are assured because it hath ever been made a condition of the Forgiveness promised It is usually expressed thus They shall find me if they seek me with their whole heart Accordingly they are said to have sought God with their
is necessary to forsake all sin It vvas the Prayer of the Psalmist That he might be found in Gods Statutes and so not be ashamed Hovv did he hope to attain this He tells us Then shall I not be ashamed then I shall be sound vvhen I have respect to all thy Commandments Then I shall have confidence that I am a sincere Servant of God when I indulge no sin vvhen I devote my soul to entire Obedience and knovvingly disregard no Law of his This cannot be more clearly represented than by that vvhich St. Iames hath said concerning this matter Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all If any say Hovv can vve keep the vvhole and fail in part vvhen the vvhole includes all the parts They may easily perceive that the Apostle means Whosoever keeps the greater part and fails in some particular disobeys some Lavv of Christ is guilty of all by sinning vvilfully against one he is guilty of all i. e. he vvhich sincerely respects the Authority of the Lavv-giver vvill shovv it in obedience to his vvhole Lavv for he vvhich slights it in one is guilty of the breach of the rest inasmuch as he contemns the Authority vvhich gave them all That this is his meaning vve are taught by verse 11. vvhich says thus For he which said Do not commit Adultery said also do not kill Now if thou commit no Adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a Transgressor of the Law and so art guilty of the breach of all i. e. shall be as liable to Condemnation as if thou hadst sinned against all Neither shall Obedience performed to some Lavvs save thee from the punishment vvhich is due to the breach of others He vvhich serves a Prince in many things and yet offends against some Capital Lavv vvill not find his partial obedience save him from the sentence of punishment which shall be passed upon him for that To this I may add that excellent saying of our Saviour to the Pharisees when they pretended to be worthy of acceptation because they had been very observant of some things though they neglected others How saith our Saviour These indeed you ought to have done no doubt of it but also you ought not to have left the other undone And since they pretended to obedience for all this Fools that you are saith our Saviour did not he which made that which is without make that which is within You pretend to please God with obedidience you should do so for he is the supream Law-giver What then will you do it with partial obedience Doth he expect that all his Laws should be obey'd or doth he give you leave to pick and chuse Did not God the great Former of all things who made the inside and outside expect that you should be pure in soul and body Do you think that external washings purifie the soul You are as foolish in these thoughts as he should be who thinks a Cup is clean when only the outside is washed Will any man drink in such a Cup You please God indeed with your Obedience when by sinning in some thing or other you plainly affront him He which thinks to be accepted of God for that partial regard show'd to some of his Precepts when he slights others can no more obtain it than a Lutonist can give content to such as have Musical ears when some Strings of the Instrument upon which he plays are out of Tune 4. Sincerity must continue to approve it self such by perseverance This I shall explain as I find it expressed in two or three places of Sripture I will hear what God will speak to his servants begging mercy of him and what doth he say He will speak peace to his people he will receive their prayers and pardon their sins if they repent sincerely of them but let them not return to folly This he requires as a Condition of their Forgiveness that they do not return to folly which I have sufficiently demonstrated sin to be they must not relapse into their former courses which if they should they will add to their former sottishness and instead of approving themselves sincere Penitents show that they are most stupid Fools and vile Hypocrites When our Saviour healed the Paralytick he bad him sin no more and knowing by his Divine Wisdom what he had done 38 years before which occasioned his weakness bad him take heed of doing any such thing again assuring him if he did that he should be worse punished as a Contemned of the pardon now bestowed So when the same merciful Jesus forgave a very bad woman a sin great enough he dismissed her not carelesly but with this severe Injunction added That she should make her Repentance sincere by sinning no more He did not say Go go thy Accusers are as bad as thy self live as thou wilt I accept thy Repentance I will save thee from punishment now and hereafter No but charged her to be sincere in her Repentance and as a Testimony of it to sin no more By these Instances we may see what our Saviour takes for a proof of sincerity and it seems that he expects it of all for he prescribed the same method without alteration to both A sincere Penitent is one that knows sin to be so base a thing that nothing but Infinite Goodness can forgive it and is so sensible of the vile stain which it leaves upon his soul that he would if he could wash it off with Tears of Blood and can he easily go and commit it again He is convinced that the same wickedness and danger is in it though set off with an agreeable Tentation as was before in it when his Conscience was gall'd with reflexion upon the commission of it and knows that he hath as much need to sin no more after he hath repented of it as he had to vow he would not when he did repent Can Damnation be made plausible in any dress Will any man drink Poison because he sees it sweetned with a great quantity of Sugar The ancient Fathers in their pious Discourses concerning Repentance did usually inveigh against those which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rejected those Penitents who sinning and repenting but repenting and sinning still checked their life all along with one and the other and affirm'd that such Converts differ'd nothing from lame Unbelievers except in this that those false Penitents knew they sinn'd and so were worse and pronounced peremptorily that those who sinned pretended to be sorry but sinned still had only a vain show of Repentance and that the true Penitent had such a sense of the nature of sin that he abhor'd to commit it any more The Author to the Hebrews calls it Repentance from dead works of which words what St. Chrysostom said is a very good Exposition He which repents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lactantius lib. 6. said That to
cost a great deal must be laid out and the Enemy which we have to oppose will bring much Force against us therefore we must prepare before hand by considering what we will do when it comes to the push and bear the Crosses which we may meet and follow Christ notwithstanding any inconvenience which may happen to us for so doing He which frames his Resolution so will not be surprised i. e. have his heart infeebled with sudden Assaults he foresaw what would come neither will he be weakned by the Conflict he prepared himself for the Incounter before hand The wise Son of Syrach understood this well when he said My son if thon comest to serve the Lord prepare thy soul for tentation which must be done by planting a firm Resolution of Obedience in the bottom of our hearts Our Saviour hath given the reason of this in the Parable of the Sower where he tells us of many that may receive the Seed that is the Doctrine of his Gospel into their hearts with joy and it may seem to grow and flourish in their life and yet it shall wither in the time of Tentation because it wanted root had not depth of earth and moisture as the Evangelists phrase it differently but meaning the same thing i. e. a well fixed Resolution will maintain future Obedience as Corn is nourished and supported by sufficiency of moysture which it receives from a sound root fixed deep in a moist ground and by that inabled to bring its fruit to perfection The Hypocrite and sincere Christian considered together in this matter seem to me to be well represented by Orphanah and Ruth when they began a Journey with Naomi their Mother in Law pretending that they would accompany her from the Land of Moab to her own Country They both set out with great forwardness but when Naomi told them what small expectation of worldly advantage they could have in her Orphanah's love began to vanish and extended only a farewell kiss but Ruth having heard the worst of it would not be so shaken off I perceive how it is but my Resolution continues firm for all that wheresoever thou goest I will go and nothing but death shall part thee and me So the true Christian to our Saviour I will follow thee O Lamb of God wherever thou goest I do not bargain with thee for small way and fair weather nothing but death no nor death it self shall part thee and me As thy love to me O Jesus was stronger than death so shall mine be to thee Neither things present nor things to come nor life nor death could separate St. Paul from the Love of Christ. Thus a Christian doth become stedfastly minded or as in the Hebrew strengthens himself in his Resolution exhorting himself as the Apostle did the Antiochians to cleave to God with purpose of heart He did not make them believe that they should not suffer much inconvenience if they did so No for he told them as others that they must through many Tribulations enter into the Kingdom of God but that they should resolve to suffer hardship as good Souldiers of Iesus Christ as he told Timothy and gave him for a pattern his own purpose with which he was well acquainted which was to serve Christ his Master though he knew how many and how great Afflictions awaited him continually in all places for so doing If any say It is necessary to form a strong Resolution but will such thoughts as those do it will the fore-consideration of mischiefs prepare us against them Men by foreseeing evils that may happen do excite themselves to take care to avoid them by steering a Course contrary to that which may lead upon them To this I answer That considering before hand what Inconveniencies may happen to us in a matter undertaken upon weighty Reasons will make them hurt us less when we meet them but that is not all which I meant as to this Method of forming our Resolution for that we must add the strengthening of Faith in our souls that we may have a firm belief of these things which the Gospel hath propounded to encourage us to undertake the Obedience of it notwithstanding all discouragements and that is the great Reward which shall be given to obedient Souls When our Saviour told such as came to him that possibly they might lose Father Mother Lands Life for his sake it had been a very poor Motive to make them embrace his Doctrine if he had said no more but he added that such as did so should have an hundred fold more that is more true satisfaction in what they did than they could have had in any other way in this life and in the world to come life everlasting or eternal happiness Now that he who purposes to obey Christ's Gospel sincerely must fortifie his Resolution with the strength of Faith is well expressed by an Apostle who had Experience in this matter The Devil was in the world like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he might devour and would if he could by Persecution destroy Christianity whom resist being stedfast in the Faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your Brethren who are in the world But the God of all Grace the most merciful God who hath called us to eternal Glory by Christ Iesus after you have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you By what another Apostle tells us by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as v. 7. stablished in or by Faith by which you are fixed to your Saviour as a Tree is to a strong Root or a House to a deep Foundation for he useth both Metaphors Our Saviour hath made no new Methods since and therefore every sincere Christian must make use of this in the forming of his Resolution and in so doing he may say thus to himself O my Soul thou art now setting upon a course of holy Life according to the Precepts of thy Saviour be real and make thy purpose strong saying with that holy man I have fully purposed to offend no more I will serve thee with my whole soul from the bottom of my heart I make a Resignation of my self to thy will and bind my self by a firm Vow the strongest Bond I can find that I will keep thy Commandments and when the Enemy of my soul shall tell me that thus I shall miss the pleasure of sin I will tell him I know it and that they are but for a season and to be despised in comparison of the favour of God and joy of doing what we should and when he adds that probably I shall suffer in this way many things not very pleasing to the flesh I will tell him that whatsoever they are I reckon them unworthy to be compared to the reward of Obedience and when he frights me with the austerity of a strict life I will tell him that excellent things have difficulty and ask him if he have not
defect A sinner among other words in Scripture is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to miss the mark and therefore he should repent and learn to aim better Sin among other names is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a going astray He must needs be out of his way who by sin is departed from the God of his life and therefore he should take up as the Apostles advice is Repentance towards God i. e. he ought to repent and return to God We have been told and that truly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the beginning and end of all happy life and perfection is the lifting up of our souls to God And by another that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man doth naturally return to God and therefore if we have by sin gone astray from him and our own Nature it is most reasonable as his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repair the mischief of our flight from above from God and Vertue by returning to him To show the reasonableness of Repentance a little further I shall only add two things to be considered viz. 1. That sin is the sickness deformity and pain of the soul. 2. That it is a bold contempt of that excellent Order which the Divine Wisdom hath planted in Humane Nature 1. Sin is the sickness deformity and pain of the soul and is as destructive of its health beauty and safety as distempered humours defect in any Member solution of parts or dislocation of a Joynt can be to the Body and if it be not timely cured will be the death of the Soul Therefore the recovery of a sinner is expressed in Scripture by words which signifie Restoring of health to a sick Man the cure of a wound the Reparation of a decayed or lost Sense the setting of a dislocated Bone in the right place again and giving ease to one that is in pain And there is good Reason for it For is not an ignorant mind as bad as a blind eye A will disabled to all virtuous choice worse than a lame hand And vile affections more ugly than distorted Members An evil Conscience as afflictive as a Cancer in the Breast Pining Envy as vexatious as the gnawing of the Stomach Are not the Furies of Lust and the Rage of Drunkenness or Hellish Malice as unnatural Distempers in the Soul as Feverish heats in the Body Is not the Soul as much tormented with thinking of the folly of Surfeits as the Body is afflicted with the bad consequences of them Is not insatiable desire of worldly Greatness Riches and Pleasure as bad as the Hydropick Thirst A man would think himself in a bad Condition if he should find himself deprived of Sense deformed in any principal Member weakned in the powers of his Body troubled with a deaf Ear a lame Hand and gouty Feet his Blood inflamed and feel himself racked with the pain of the Stone he would have so little pleasure in himself that he would hate life But he who is corrupted with sin is in a worse condition for he hath neither beauty health or vigour in his Soul He is maimed in his excellent Faculties disabled to the use of his best powers and hath defaced the beauty of his Soul which is Vertue A good man is pleased with himself because he feels that his soul is in health and that all his powers are in due symmetry and finds that in his soul which should make a man in love with himself He perceives as Plato said that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as his Scholar Plotin expressed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Psalmists words beautiful within that his soul is adorn'd with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo called it with compleat vertue which is the highest participation of the Divine Nature by which we are capable to imitate God which we then do when our souls are inriched with the sincere Love of God true Wisdom venerable Prudence exact Justice Godlike Benignity generous Courage lovely Temperance pure Chastity discreet Moderation composed Passions and in short when we have as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honest Endeavours good Designs prudent Conversation temperate Manners and indeed all the Actions and Dispositions of Vertue These are the fair Delineations of the Divine Image and finding those in his soul a good man is pleased with himself and desires to be as he is But these beautiful Characters of Immortal Spirits are all defac'd by wickedness and after they are blurr'd whensoever the sinner is forc'd to hold a Looking-glass before his soul he throws it away because he cannot endure to see himself Aristotle said well concerning this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bad man hath no love love for himself because he finds nothing in himself that is worthy to be loved Much to the same purpose Philo Iud. A wicked man hath no joy in himself after he hath debauched his Nature and vitiated whatsoever was good in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having now nothing to rejoyce in And writing upon that Verse in Genesis that after man had perverted his Nature by sin as a punishment the Earth brought forth for his sake Briers and Thorns I saith he and so did his heart too it could not do otherwise adding these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for what else can grow or spring upon the soul of a Fool but such passions as do prick and wound it Besides that which I have said upon this matter I must add one particular mischief and that no small one which will always disturb a sinner till he return to God by Repentance and that is an evil Conscience a Serpent in the Bosome which hath been well represented in our Saviour's Discourses by a Worm gnawing the Bowels or as a Rust fretting the heart a Fire in the Veins It is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euripides calls it a Divine Goad sticking in the soul which the Heathens acknowledged under the name of the Thespesian Vipers and the merciless Furies This Cotta the Atheist if we may believe Tully confessed to be a very great vexation without reference to God his words are these Sine ullà Divina ratione grave ipsius conscientiae pondus est It is as vexatious as the company of an unpleasant Ghost to such as are haunted by it day and night who can never be quiet till it be laid But when respect is had to God which it must and will have for it is his Deputy the case is much worse for it will torment the sinner both with the sense of his Disfavour under which it puts him at present and with the fear of that punishment which it makes him expect in time to come It is a huge misery to be in such a state as makes a man afraid of God which the guilt of sin always doth This I cannot better say than in the words of a forementioned Author who speaking
sensual Tentation he ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to stir up his rational power to defend its proper Dignity and to secure the exercise of its Faculties according to their proper nature and so to keep the Reason of his mind from being enslav'd Who knows not that the Irascible Faculty which is in us will tempt us when occasion is offered to answer Reviling with Reproach and Wrong with Revenge but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is able as Simplicius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to suffer the Dog which is in us to bark much less to bite and to return Good for Evil both in Words and Actions Entreating for Rudeness and for Cursing Prayers And for the Concupiscible part it can deny what it craves it can reduce the sensual Appetite to that order which Nature requires and bring it into a less compass than the just measure of Nature if it please and to show its full Authority over all sensual Inclinations and Impressions it can appoint what is contrary to their Tendence and having resolved against it can put what it hath decreed in Execution and so though the Inferior part rebel it shows its power being enabled by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to restrain it and maintain its own Superiority I'ts true bodily Objects presented by the Senses will enter into the imagination and by sudden Phantasms make some impression upon the soul but the mind can cast them out again can withdraw it self from the consideration of them can presently think upon other things and as it pleaseth deliberate whether that which the flesh desires be fit to be granted or no and if it be not can reject it and not only refuse to do that which would gratifie the sensual part but the quite contrary St. Iames says that Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Tentations to sin are presented if the Will embrace them Lust conceives and if it goes on to action it brings forth death but if a man reject the Allurement and deny the consent of his Will and refuse to act according to the incitations of fleshly Appetites the Cockatrice is killed in the shell and so cannot live to bite and hurt Thus we are secure in the Observation of God's Order which if we neglect the mischief of our disregard will soon appear in the ill Consequences which attend it For God hath so framed the Nature of our Souls and so ordered our most important Concerns that we can never break his Order but we shall suffer for it What we neglect at present will meet us in bad effects afterward When a man hath slighted the Government of himself and laid the Rains upon the neck of the Beast he shall soon find himself serv'd by his unruly Passions as Hippolytus was by his Horses thrown and torn Philosophers called inordinate Appetite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Beast with many Heads It is bad enough to contest with one Beast but it is much more hazardous when a man must scuffle with many To this dangerous Combat a sinner condemns himself When he hath parted with his Reason he hath subjected his mind to the command of every insulting Appetite and must comply with every foolish Phansie Being made the slave of sin he must as the Apostle says serve divers Lusts and so must needs be in a brave condition being under the Arbitrary Command not of one Tyrannical Patron but many having indeed as many Lords as Lusts and how basely they use their vitious slaves commanding by turns the poor wretches feel to their grief by the perpetual disturbance which they receive from them being sometimes more then half drowned with Wine sometimes set on fire with Wrath at other times swelled till they are ready to break with Pride and often thrown into all dirty pleasures I am not ignorant that some hardned sinners say That they feel not the pains of sin which are so talked of neither are they much concerned though they break that precise order which is forementioned They are well pleased with the life of Sense and are willing to go as their Appetites lead them they esteem that order good enough which some call Hurry though they be censured yet they think themselves well paid for what they do with sleshly Divertisements and whatever Divines or Philosophers say to the contrary they see no cause to repent of their course To these men I shall only say two things 1. That it is no sign of health in a man to want feeling 2. That there are Monsters in the World but no Argument can be made from them against Nature 1. It is no sign of health in a man to want feeling Is a man to be acounted well because he is in an Apoplexie and so not sensible of what you say or do to him Doth any man reckon it a perfection in his body to want feeling or any other sense The soul hath its Apoplexie too A man may so debauch his Nature with vitious practises that at last he shall be past feeling and commit all filthiness with greediness as the Apostle saith He sins and pleaseth himself that he feels no remorse Is glad that he is listed in the number of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He become a whining Penitent No he is one of the Fortes Esprites He makes a mock of sin Tell him of Repentance tell them that are weary of their lives he is well enough Let the sick send for the Physician out of his Bed He may sleep long enough for him he needs him not It s ridiculous talk to speak to him of a spiritual Guide he can govern himself This seems to be well but the Friends of a sick person are much troubled when they perceive that he is not sensible of pain or danger and they take it for a sign of approaching death neither do they entertain any hope of life till they have brought him to a sense of his sickness weakness The Scripture tells us of a seared Conscience of such whose minds are darkned and of a reprobate mind an undiscerning soul and of a hardned heart as callous as a Labourer's hand and of a heart waxen gross that is a soul which hath no more sense of God than the fat heart of an Ox which in other places is called the spirit of slumber nothing can awake such a person to mind his most important concerns A wicked life benums a sinner and we are no more to regard his judgment of things than what a blind man says of colours A reprobate mind is that sad punishment which God doth often inflict upon wilful sinners Since we know this we need not wonder that they do not repent though their Condition be most dangerous for they understand it not 2. There are Monsters in the World but no Argument can be taken from them against Nature Will any body say
it enter into thy mind to think that God hath declared one thing to men in his Word and hath decreed another concerning them in himself He is the God of Truth and therefore repent and trust in his mercy 2. To the other Who says he would but hath no power to Repent and so looks upon the goodness of God in forgiving the Penitent as not available to him I answer That it is true since our fall we cannot return to God by our own weak power but that is no Excuse for Impenitence because God is ready to supply that Defect with the Assiistance of his Grace God was pleased to make his dear Son a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins not only to pardon sinners upon their repentance but to give them grace to enable them to repent and so obtain pardon This grace may be had for asking He will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him It is the good pleasure of him who hath commanded us to will and do what we ought to enable us to will and do what we ought This assistance of the Divine grace I shall express in St. Augustine's words Non in eo divinitus adjuvamur ad operandam justitiam quod Legem Deus dedit plenam bonis praeceptis sed quod ipsa voluntas nostra sine qua operari bonum non possumus adjuvatur erigitur impartito Spiritu Gratiae i. e. we are not divinely assisted to the working of Righteousness in this that God hath given us a Law full of good Precepts but because our Will without which we cannot do good is helpt and erected by the Spirit of grace bestowed upon us It is a great favour that God hath been pleased to give us his Gospel which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving grace It shows the way of Salvation to us by it we are made to understand the most important concerns of our souls that shows us the gracious conditions of our pardon and lays before us strong Reasons to convince us of the necessity of our complyance with what God hath propounded if we will be happy and demonstrates the reasonableness of Obedience But God is pleased also to invigorate his Gospel Methods with the gracious Operation of his benign Spirit which makes a Divine Light shine into the Mind clears up the mist of Ignorance which lay upon it before and makes us know the things which belong to our peace awakens our Consciences and makes us apprehensive of the danger of sin and affrights us with the truth of Divine Threatnings makes us consider heavenly Motives opens our hearts as it did Lydia's to attend to the things which are spoken to us and inclines us to comply with the reason of them it raiseth our wills out of sloth and languor by a secret ardor of life conveyed into our Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ways which God knows as St. Basil saith and so puts into our minds good Desires and makes us begin to feel in our Souls a hunger after Righteousness it melts us with the Love of God and his dear Son makes us ashamed to sin any more and comforts us with the hope of Pardon and Restoration to the Divine Favour and so conjures us by potent Arguments to enter into the Bands of the Covenant and perswades us to submit thankfully to the terms of the Gospel Thus our blessed Saviour stands at the Door and knocks thus the heavenly Father draws us to his Son and the sinner should say I find the gracious Spirit of God leading me towards the Land of the Living I will resign my self to his Conduct I will be led by him I will follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Doth my Saviour vouchsafe to knock at my Door I am infinitely beholden to him I will open to him I will let him in and give him the possession of my Soul This is the Divine grace and it is our Duty to make a careful use of it and then we shall have more to help us to perfect what is well begun A ready complyance with such merciful Assistance is highly requisite for if we resist God's kind Motions and slight the help bestowed we may frustrate the design of his Mercy against our selves and make that grace ineffectual which would have saved us if we had improved it with our concurrent endeavours We must not expect that God should pull us out of a state of sin and drag us into a state of vertue by an irresistible force God is pleased in Conversion to draw us towards himself by the Cords of a Man by such Arguments as we understand to be most reasonable and by such Motives as are apt to perswade such as will consider and by the gentle Swasions of his good Spirit with the Cords of Love and the Bands of Kindness We must not think that God should act upon us to the extent of his Omnipotence but according to his Wisdom He knows what help is sufficient for us and how fit it is that we should thankfully use what is enough without asking what is too much He takes what method he pleaseth in the dispensing of his grace which we are not to appoint but obeserve Our Duty is to accept of sufficient grace and use it that we may be converted and not teach God how to convert us God was always displeased with men when neglecting the kindness which he showed them they would prescribe him methods for the communication of his goodness When the Israelites were led through the Wilderness they were well enough provided for by God's care and should have been not only content but thankful they were neither but lothing the Bread of Heaven which God had appointed for them they would have Quails They had them but they had better have been without them for God was angry at their rude unthankfulness For the limited the Holy One of Israel They would not only be provided for but in such a way as they themselves should describe We have a very good account of this matter in that excellent Parable of Isaiah where God speaking of the Jewish people whom he calls his Vineyard saith That he planted it in a fat Soyl hedged it that is guarded it with his Providence set a Vine which was generous gave them excellent Laws the teachings of inspired men and the assistances of his grace and all sufficient means to promote their bringing forth Fruit answerable to his Care But after all instead of good Grapes they brought forth wild Grapes God was displeased and for the Justice of his Anger he appealed to the Judgment and Conscience of those who had slighted his Favours and said What could I have done more to my Vineyard than I have done I have done what I thought fit for me to do and bestowed what I thought enough for them to receive and because they have made me no answerable Returns I
of this Curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousie shall smoke against that man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven He that despiseth the methods of God's grace and continues his Disobedience and yet perswades himself that all shall be well with him doth highly provoke God The Hope of the Disobedient is a great part of their Disobedience for it is a presumptuous believing against the express Declarations of God's Will and they shall be punished for it as an aggravation of their other sins Such people slight the Divine Threatnings disbelieve the Truth and Power of God concerning their performance but they shall pay dear for it especially in the great day of Wrath when Christ will come in flaming Fire to render Vengeance to those who acknowledge God no better and do wilfully disobey his Gospel This misery is dreadful because the Sufferings to which the Impenitent will be condemned are so great that now they would be intolerable but which then they shall be made to endure Of this I shall give account 1. By a brief Rehearsal of the Descriptions of them which we find in Holy Scripture 2. By the deep Impressions which they will make upon the spirits of damned Impenitents of which we are told in Holy Writ 3. By setting down four particular Notices which we have received concerning the dreadfulness of that state 1. By a brief Rehearsal of the Descriptions of the misery of Impenitents which we find recorded in Holy Scripture It hath pleased God to express the future Torments of Impenitent Souls by taking resemblances from the bodily pains with which they are now acquainted and hath chosen the most sharp of those which men suffer on Earth to be Emblems of those far greater which they shall suffer in Hell I shall name a few of them Sometimes that miserable Condition is described by the Torment of Fire than which nothing is more sharp which is called Matth. 5. 22. Hell Fire which Chap. 13. 49 50. is called a Furnace of Fire into which the wicked shall be cast in the end of the World and Rev. 21. 8. a Lake of Fire and Brimstone into which several sorts of sinners there named shall be thrown Heb. 10. 27. it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Fiery Indignation because of the fierceness of Divine Vengeance This is terrible and therefore such as are obnoxious to it are there said to be under a fearful expectation of Iudgment It was a pain unspeakably dreadful which those old sinners endured who were inclosed in Sodom and made to perish in the noysom smoke of Brimstone and the unsupportable Torment of Fire But that is nothing to that which will be kindled in Hell where the Fire will never go out nor the Persons who are burnt in it ever be consumed Sometimes this Punishment is called the Gnawing of the never dying Worm sometimes it is represented by utter Darkness which signifies the utmost disconsolateness of a dismal Condition Happiness in Holy Writ is called Light and Heaven the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Those who are cast into utter Darkness are removed to the farthest Distance from God who is the Fountain of Life and in whose Light the Blessed see Light It is called The Blackness of Darkness i. e. the most Horrid into which no glimpse of Light shines This state is worse than that of a Malefactor who is condemned to be made up between two Walls there to perish in Darkness Hunger and Solitude Sometime this dreadful misery is signified by a Pit which hath no bottom into which the ungodly are to be cast and sometime by the Torment of a perpetual Rack sometime by a Cup of Wrath called the Wine of the Wrath of God mixt with bitter Ingredients and in this World God doth make sinners to drink some drops but in the great day he will make them drink up the Dregs of it the bitter Wrath which lies in the bottom in which is no Alloy of Mercy Lastly by the pains of the second Death which the ungodly must endure which is a thousand times worse than the first for that is but a Temporal separation of the Soul from the Body this an Eternal separation of Body and Soul from God 2. The greatness of this Misery is plainly declared by the deep impressions which we are told it will make upon the spirits of damned Impenitents as we perceive the acuteness of pain which men suffer by the grievousness of their Cries Our Saviour says that in the place to which the Impenitent shall be condemned there will be weeping and gnashing of Teeth These are Expressions of extreme grief and show the extremity of Misery A small matter will not make one cry out nor a little cold make the Teeth chatter No it is because the great day of wrath is come and who shall be able to abide it The Impenitent would then be glad of Annihilation it would be good for them that they were nothing or as our Saviour says That they had never been born In great Anguish they will say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Rocks cover us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb But the Rocks will be as deaf to the Impenitent then as they are to God now 3. Thirdly The Impenitents misery is made known to them by four particular Notices which are given them of their dreadful Condition in the other World 1. They are told beforehand what Company they shall have in Hell and that is no better than the Devil and his Angels Haters and hated of God So the Sentence runs Go ye cursed into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels You hold of his side and it is fit you should share in his Lot I called you to the hopes of my Mercy and offered you a part in the happiness of Obedient Souls but you rather chose to comply with your own and my Enemy and to perish with Satan rather than to hearken to me Get you gone from me and all the blessed into that Fire which was not designed for you but was appointed as the punishment of Devils but since you would have your portion in it I confirm your choice This is sad For the Devils were always and are still Enemies to Mankind They were Murderers from the beginning and are Malicious to the end To be shut up with such Companions is a greater Torment than to be nailed up in a Vessel among Serpents Will impenitent sinners be able to endure this Can they dwell with everlasting Burnings Can they make an
never been and therefore they crown'd their Heads with Rose-buds and filled themselves with wine being careful lest they should go away without their part of Iollity As to the Righteous man he declares their carriage verse 10 12 13 14 15. Therefore they abused him with Rudeness and treated him with all Cruelty in this World but when they come into the other and see him stand in great boldness before God they are seized with a terrible fear and vexed with Indignation at his Happiness amazed at the strangeness of his salvation whom before they scorn'd All Impenitent sinners will be in such pain at our Saviour's coming when they see obedient Souls taken up to meet him in the Air and find themselves left upon the burning Earth till they be called before his Throne and be there adjudged to a worse Fire The Author to the Hebrews set a sharp Edge upon his Exhortation when he put it into these words Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his Rest any of you should come short of it It is not easie to imagin what grief seized the Unbelieving Jews when they saw Canaan and beheld those before them who were to go into that good Land but themselves bar'd from it After the pronuntiation of that sad Doom with what pain did they wear away the hated remnant of their Lives wandring in the Wilderness Much more grievous will it be to see the Saviour of the World come with his glorious Attendants and take up all good men and women and carry them to the Heavenly Canaan and leave the Impenitent not to perish in the Wilderness but to be carried to that Company and Torment which I have mentioned before Who would not repent that knows this 4. The misery of the Impenitent will be unsupportable because they will despair of ever mending their Condition It must needs put Vinegar into their Wounds when they are assured that they cannot be healed This Assurance depends upon two things 1. Upon this That they are told before hand that the Sentence which will be pronounced is irreversible 2. Upon this That they know that he who pronounceth it is Omnipotent and so can secure the Execution of it 1. The Sentence is recorded in Scripture and there we find it Irreversible It is Go into ever lasting Fire into Fire which shall never be quenched the Worm which torments you shall never die The Punishment is everlasting Those who are cast into the Lake are ordered to be tormented there for ever and ever This is the Sentence and he who pronounceth it is Omnipotent and so can secure the Execution of it He who could hinder the Fire of Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace from burning tormenting or consuming his Servants must needs be able to make a Fire which will burn and torment and yet not consume his Enemies Shall bold sinners be annihilated because they desire it knowing they shall have no part of Felicity if there be any in the other World No God hath appointed them worse than so and it is but just Why should not God punish such as long as he pleaseth who sinned as long as they could Why should their punishment have an end who would never leave sinning Life was propounded upon good terms which if it were refused it was declared that Death would be the Consequent they were perswaded to chuse Life they would not and having refused it will they be angry that they suffer what they would have A Law was given by the Soveraign Rector of the World Death was threatned upon the breach of it they would break it they were condemned by that Law yet Pardon was offered they would not accept it so that they perisht not because they sinned nor yet because they were condemned but because they would be Executed Their Misery is their Choice But as I said this makes it unspeakably great it will have no end There is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXXII translate the twentieth Verse of Psalm 55. no Ransom for such hereafter as would not return from sin by Repentance here Dives was not only vexed with Envy when he looked up and saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom but mad with Rage when he saw the unpassable Gulf between himself and them That Parable is a Map of the future state of Impenitents they have no hope to ascend out of the Infernal Pit they are sent Prisoners to that Goal whose Bars are made too strong for all created Power to break The Conclusion Now I am come to the Close of this Discourse which I shall shut up with this short Exhortation Let us all in the fear of God endeavour by timely and true Repentance to escape the Wrath to come Knowing the Terrors of the Lord let us perswade our selves to this Duty Let us not baffle all the Methods of his Grace and amongst others this of his Threatnings Have we no Passion upon which God can work Are not the Threatnings which I have mentioned dreadful Have we no Fear in us or are we afraid of any thing but God Have we lost the use of the Natural Principle of Self-preservation when it is applied to our greatest Danger Are Eternal Happiness and Misery words only Do they not signifie things of greatest Importance And yet do they make no Impression upon our hard hearts Sure then they are grown perfect Stone and not to be softned except in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone No rather O merciful God take them out of our Breasts and into their room put hearts of Flesh. Must we needs sin on though we be damned for it What is it that makes sin so dear to us We have been told by one whom we ought to believe That it were much better for us to go into Heave with an Eye plucked out with the loss of a right Hand or a Foot cut off than to carry a whole Body into Hell Yes but we sin for fear How Do we fear them who can kill the Body if they be permitted from above but after that can do no more and not dread him who can cast both Body and Soul into Hell It is a dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God Impenitent to what purpose dost thou sin on and put the Evil Day from thee whose approach thou canst no more delay than hinder the Morning Sun from rising at the appointed Minute Dost thou not know that thy Iudgment doth not linger and that thy Damnation slumbereth not Pardon upon Repentance is given at an easie rate and upon that it may be had Sure thou darest not ask of God leave to sin what then makes thee so bold as not to repent He that sins Rebels He that Repents not continues his Rebellion And can that man think that God will not be even with him How can such a one escape the Damnation of Hell Shall God ever hearken to thee crying from Hell who dost despise him who
manifest consequences deduc'd thence And by this one Declaration so many unnecessary and perhaps hurtful Retainers to Christianity will be at once thrown off that I doubt not but if you consider the Matter aright you will easily discern that by this first Distinction I have much lessen'd the work that is to be done by those that are to follow it SECT II. In the next place among the things that seem not rational in Religion I make a great difference between those in which unenlightned Reason is manifestly a competent Iudge and those which Natural Reason it self may discern to be out of its Sphere You will allow me That Natural Theology is sufficient to evince the Existence of the Deity and we know that many of the old Philosophers that were unassisted by Revelation were by the force of Reason led to discover and confess a God that is a Being supremely perfect under which Notion divers of them expresly represent him Now if there be such a Being 't is but reasonable to conceive that there may be many things relating to his Nature his Will and his management of things that are without the Sphere of meer or unassisted Reason For if his Attributes and Perfections be not fully comprehensible to our Reason we can have but inadequate Conceptions of them and since God is a Being toto Coelo as they speak differing from all other Beings there may be some things in his Nature and in the manner of his Existence which is without all Example or perfect Analogy in inferior Beings For we see that ev'n in Man himself the Coexistence and intimate Union of the Soul and Body that is an Immaterial and a Corporeal substance is without all President or Parallel in Nature And though the truth of this Union may be prov'd yet the manner of it was never yet nor perhaps ever will be in this Life clearly understood to which purpose I shall elsewhere say more Moreover if we suppose God to be Omnipotent that is to be able to do whatever involves no Contradiction that it should be done we must allow him to be able to do many things that no other Agent can afford us any Examples of and some of them perhaps such as we who are but finite and are wont to judge of things by Analogy cannot conceive how they can be perform'd Of the last sort of things may be the recollecting a sufficient quantity of the scatter'd matter of a Dead humane Body and the contriving of it so that whether alone or with some addition of other Particles upon a reconjunction with the Soul it may again constitute a living Man and so effect that Wonder we call the Resurrection Of the latter sort is the Creation of Matter out of nothing and much more the like Production of those Rational and Intelligent Beings Humane Souls For as for Angels good or bad I doubt whether meer Philosophy can evince their Existence though I think it may the possibility thereof And since we allow the Deity a Wisdom equal to this boundless Power 't is but reasonable to conceive that these unlimited Attributes conspiring may produce Contrivances and frame Designs which we Men must be unable at least of our selves sufficiently to understand and to reach to the bottom of And by this way of arguing it may be made to appear That there may be many things relating to the Deity above the reach of unenlightned humane Reason Not that I affirm all these things to be in their own Nature incomprehensible to us though some of them may be so when they are once propos'd but that Reason by its own light could not discover them particularly and therefore it must owe its knowledge of them to Divine Revelation And if God vouchsafes to disclose those things to us since not only he must needs know about his own Nature Attributes c. what we cannot possibly know unless he tells us and since we know that whatever he tells us is infallibly true we have abundant Reason to believe rather what he declares to us concerning Himself and Divine things than what we should conclude or guess about them by Analogy to things of a nature infinitely distant from his or by Maxims fram'd according to the nature of inferior Beings If therefore he clearly reveal to us That there is in the Godhead Three distinct Persons and yet that God is One we that think our selves bound to believe God's Testimony in all other Cases ought sure not to disbelieve it concerning himself but to acknowledge that in an unparallel'd and incomprehensible Being there may be a manner of Existence not to be parallel'd in any other Being though it should never be understood by us Men who cannot clearly comprehend how in our selves two such distant Natures as that of a gross Body and an immaterial Spirit should be united so as to make up one Man In such cases therefore as we are now speaking of there must indeed be something that looks like captivating ones Reason but 't is a submission that Reason it self obliges us to make and he that in such points as these believes rather what the Divine Writings teach him than what he would think if they had never inform'd him does not renounce or inslave his Reason but suffers it to be Pupil to an Omniscient and Infallible Instructer who can teach him such things as neither his own meer Reason nor any others could ever have discovered to him I thought to have here dismiss'd this Proposition but I must not omit to give it a confirmation afforded me by chance or rather Providence For since I writ the last Paragraph resuming a Philosophical Enquiry I met in prosecuting it with a couple of Testimonies of the truth of what I was lately telling you which are given not by Divines or Schoolmen but by a couple of famous Mathematicians that have both led the way to many of the Modern Philosophers to shake off the reverence wont to be born to the Authority of great Names and have advanc'd Reason in a few years more than such as Vaninus and Pomponatius would do in many Ages and have always boldly and sometimes successfully attempted to explain intelligibly those things which others scrupled not either openly or tacitly to confess inexplicable The first of these Testimonies I met with in a little French Treatise put out by some Mathematician who though he conceals his Name appears by his way of writing to be a great Virtuoso and takes upon him to give his Readers in French the new thoughts of Galilaeo by making that the Title of his Book This Writer then speaking of a Paradox which I but recite of Galilaeo's that makes a point equal to a Circle adds Et per consequent l'on peut dire i. e. and consequently one may say that all Circles are equal between themselves since each of them is equal to a point For though the imagination be overpower'd by this Idea or Notion yet
till I see some clearer Proof of it than I have yet met with I have had occasion in the foregoing Discourse to say something that may be apply'd to the Point under debate and in the following part of this Letter I shall have Occasion to touch upon it again And therefore I shall now say but this in short That 't is not likely that God being the Author of Reason as well as Revelation should make it mens Duty to believe as true that which there is just Reason to reject as false There is indeed a Sense wherein the Phrases I disapprove may be tolerated For if by saying that such a thing is true in Divinity but false in Philosophy it were meant that if the Doctrine were propos'd to a meer Philosopher to be judg'd of according to the Principles of his Sect or at most according to what he being suppos'd not to have heard of the Christian Religion or had it duly propos'd to him would reject it the Phrase might be allow'd or at least indulg'd But then we must consider that the Reason why such a Philosopher would reject the Articles of Christian Faith would not be because they could by no Mediums be possibly prov'd but because these Doctrines being founded upon a Revelation which he is presum'd either not to have heard of or not to have had sufficiently propos'd to him he must as a Rational man refuse to believe them upon the score of their Prooflesness And the same Philosopher supposing him to be a true one though he will be very wary how he admits any thing as true that is not prov'd if it fall properly under the cognizance of Philosophy yet he will be as wary how he pronounces things to be false or impossible in matters which he discerns to be beyond the reach of meer natural Reason especially if Sober and Learned men do very confidently pretend to know something of those matters by Divine Revelation which though he will not easily believe to be a true one yet he will admit in case it should be prov'd true to be a fit Medium to evince Truths which upon the Account of meer natural Light he could not discover or embrace To be short such a Philosopher would indeed reject some of the Articles of our Faith hypothetically i. e. upon supposition that he need employ no other Touchstone to examine them by than the Principles and Dictates of Natural Philosophy that he is acquainted with upon which score I shall hereafter shew that divers strange Chymical Experiments and other Discoveries would also be rejected but yet he would not pronounce them false but upon supposition that the Arguments by which they lay claim to Divine Revelation are incompetent in their kind For as he will not easily believe any thing within the Sphere of Nature that agrees not with the Establish'd Laws of it so he will not easily adventure to pronounce one way or other in matters that are beyond the Sphere of Nature He will indeed as he justly may expect as full a Proof of the Divine Testimony that is pretended as the Nature of the thing requires and allows but he will not be backward to acknowledge that God to whom that Testimony is ascrib'd is able to know and to do many more things than we can explicate How He can discover or imagine How any Physical Agent can perform Since I propos'd to you this fifth Consideration I happen'd to light on a passage in Des Cartes's Principles which affords of what I have been discovering the Suffrage of a Philosopher that is wont to be accus'd of excluding Theology too scrupulously out of his Philosophy His words are so full to my present Purpose that I need not to accommodate them to it alter one of them and therefore shall transcribe them just as they lie Si fortè nobis Deus de seipso vel aliis aliquid revelet quod naturales Ingenii nostri vires excedat qualia sunt mysteria Incarnationis Trinitatis non recusabimus illa credere quamvis non clarè intelligamus nec ullo modo mirabimur multa esse tum in immensa ejus natura tum etiam in rebus ab eo creatis quae captum nostrum excedant And let me add on this occasion that whereas the main Scruples that are said to be suggested by Philosophy against some mysterious Articles of Religion are grounded upon this that the Modus as they speak of those things is not clearly conceivable or at least is very hardly explicable these objections are not always so weighty as perhaps by the confidence wherewith they are urg'd you may think them For whereas I observ'd to you already that there are divers things maintain'd by School Divines which are not contained in the Scripture that observation is chiefly applicable to the things we are considering since in several of these nice Points the Scripture affirms only the thing and the Schoolmen are pleas'd to add the Modus And as by their unwarrantable boldness the School Divines determine many things without Book so the scruples and objections that are made against what the Scripture really delivers are usually grounded upon the Erroneous or Precarious Assertions of the School Philosophers who often give the Title of Metaphysical Truths to Conceits that do very little deserve that name and to which a rigid Philosopher would perhaps think that of Sublime Nonsense more proper But of this I elsewhere say enough and therefore shall now proceed to the consideration I chiefly intended viz. That from hence That the Modus of a revealed Truth is either very hard or not at all explicable it will not necessarily follow that the thing it self is irrational provided the positive Proofs of its Truth be sufficient in their kind For ev'n in Natural things Philosophers themselves do and must admit several things whereof they cannot clearly explicate or perhaps conceive the Modus I will not here mention the Origine of Substantial Forms as an instance in this kind because though it may be a fit one as to the Peripatetick Philosophy yet not admitting that there are any such Beings I will take no further notice of them especially because for a clear Instance to our present purpose we need go no further than our selves and consider the Union of the Soul and Body in man For who can Physically explain both how an immaterial Substance should be able to guide or determine and excite the motions of a Body and yet not be able to produce motion in it as by dead Palsies great Faintnesses c. it appears the Soul cannot and which is far more difficult how an incorporeal Substance should receive such Impressions from the motions of a Body as to be thereby affected with real pain and pleasure to which I elsewhere add some other properties of this Union which though not taken notice of are perhaps no less difficult to be conceiv'd and accounted for For how can we comprehend that there should
be naturally such an intimate Union betwixt two such distant Substances as an Incorporeal Spirit and a Body as that the former may not when it pleases quit the latter which cannot possibly have any strings or chains that can tye or fasten to it that which has no Body on which they may take bold And I there shew that 't is full as difficult Physically to explicate how these so differing Beings come to be united as how they are kept from parting at pleasure both the one and the other being to be resolv'd into the meer appointment of God And if to avoid the abstruseness of the Modus of this Conjunction betwixt the Rational Soul and the Humane Body it be said as 't is by the Epicureans that the former is but a certain Contexture of the finer and most subtle parts of the latter the formerly propos'd abstruseness of the Union betwixt the Soul and the Body will indeed be shifted off but 't will be by a Doctrine that will not much relieve us For those that will allow no Soul in Man but what is Corporeal have a Modus to explain that I doubt they will alwayes leave a Riddle For of such I desire that they would explain to me who know no effects that Matter can produce but by Local Motion and Rest and the consequences of it how meer matter let them suppose it as fine as they please and contrive it as well as they can can make Syllogisms and have Conceptions of Universals and invent speculative Sciences and Demonstrations and in a word do all those things which are done by Man and by no other Animal and he that shall intelligibly explicate to me the Modus of matters framing Theories and Ratiocinations will I confess not only instruct me but surprize me too And now give me leave to make this short Reflection on what has been said in this Section compar'd with what formerly I said in the first Section That if on the one hand we lay aside all the Irrational Opinions that the Schoolmen and other bold Writers have unwarrantably father'd on Christian Religion and on the other hand all the Erroneous Conceits repugnant to Christianity which the Schoolmen and others have prooflesly father'd upon Philosophy the seeming Contradictions betwixt solid Divinity and true Philosophy will appear to be but few as I think the Real ones will be found to be none at all SECT VI. The next Consideration I shall propose is That a thing may if singly or precisely consider'd appear Unreasonable which yet may be very Credible if consider'd as a Part of or a manifest Consequence from a Doctrine that is highly so Of this I could give you more Instances in several Arts and Sciences than I think fit to be here specifi'd and therefore I shall content my self to mention three or four When Astronomers tell us that the Sun which seems not to us a foot broad nor considerably bigger than the Moon is above a hundred and threescore times bigger than the whole Globe of the Earth which yet is forty times greater than the Moon the thing thus nakedly propos'd seems very Incredible But yet because Astronomers very skilful in their Art have by finding the Semidiameter of the Earth and observing the Parallaxes of the Planets concluded the proportion of these three Bodies to be such as has been mention'd or thereabout ev'n Learn'd and Judicious Men of all sorts Philosophers Divines and others think it not Credulity to admit what they affirm So the relations of Earthquakes that have reach'd divers hundreds of miles of Eruptions of fire that have at once overflown and burn'd vast Scopes of Land of the blowing up of Mountains by their own fires of the Casting up of new Islands in the Sea it self and other Prodigies of too unquestionable Truth for I know what work Ignorance and Superstition have made about other Prodigies If they were attested but by slight and ordinary Witness they would be judg'd Incredible but we scruple not to believe them when the Relations are attested with such Circumstances as make the Testimony as strong as the things attested are strange If ever you have consider'd what Clavius and divers other Geometricians teach upon the sixteenth Proposition of the third Book of Euclide which contains a Theorem about the Tangent and the Circumference of a Circle you cannot but have taken notice that there are scarce greater Paradoxes deliver'd by Philosophers or Divines than you will find asserted by Geometricians themselves And though of late the Learned Jesuit Tacquet and some rigid Mathematicians have question'd divers of those things yet ev'n what some of these severe Examiners confess to be Geometrically demonstrable from that Proposition contains things so strange that Philosophers themselves that are not well acquainted with that Proposition and its Corollaries can scarce look upon them as other than Incomprehensible or at least Incredible things which yet as improbable as they are consider'd in themselves ev'n rigid Demonstrators refuse not to admit because they are legitimately deducible from an Acknowledg'd truth And so also among the Magnetical Phaenomena there are divers things which being nakedly propos'd must seem altogether unfit to be believ'd as indeed having nothing like them in all nature whereas those that are vers'd in Magnetick Philosophy ev'n before they have made particular Trials of them will look upon them as credible because how great Paradoxes soever they may seem to others they are consonant and consequent to the Doctrine of Magnetism whose grand Axioms from what cause soever Magnetisms are to be deriv'd are sufficiently manifest and therefore a Magnetical Philosopher would not though an ordinary Philosopher would think it unreasonable to believe that one part of the same Loadstone should draw a Needle to it and the other part drive the same Needle from it and that the Needle in a Seamans Compass after having been carry'd perhaps many hunder'd Leagues through differing Climates and in stormy weather without varying its Declination may upon a sudden without any manifest cause point at some part of the Horizons several whole degrees distant from that which it pointed to before To which might here be added divers other scarce credible things which either others or I have try'd about Magnetical Bodies but I shall hereafter have occasion to take notice of some of them in a fitter place Wherefore when something deliver'd in or clearly deduc'd from Scripture is objected against as a thing which it is not reasonable to believe we must not only consider whether if it were not deliver'd in that Book we should upon its own single Account think it fit or unworthy to be believ'd but whether or no it is so improbable that 't is more fit to be believ'd that all the proofs that can be brought for the Authority of the Scripture are to be Rejected than that this thing which comes manifestly recommended to our belief by that Authority is worthy to be Admitted I say
this Section were duly consider'd this alone would very much contribute to prevent or answer most of the Objections that make such of the Questioners of Religion as are not resolutely vitious entertain such hard thoughts of some Articles of the Christian Faith as if they were directly repugnant to Reason For as we were observing that is not to be look'd on as the judgment of Reason that is pronounc'd ev'n by a rational Man according to a Set of Notions though the Inferences from these would be rational in case there were nothing else fit to be taken into consideration by him that judges but that is rather to be look'd upon as the judgment of Reason which takes in the most Information procurable that is pertinent to the things under consideration And therefore Men though otherwise learn'd and witty shew themselves not equal Estimators of the case of those that believe the Articles we speak of when they pronounce them to assent Irrationally because the things they assent to cannot be demonstrated or maintain'd by meer natural Reason and would probably be rejected by Democritus Epicurus Aristotle or any other of the ancient Philosophers to whom they should be nakedly propos'd and whose judgment should be desir'd about them For although this Allegation would signifie much if we pretended to prove what we believe only by Arguments drawn from the nature of the thing assented to yet it will not signifie much in our case wherein we pretend to prove what we believe chiefly by Divine Testimony and therefore ought not to be concluded guilty of an Irrational Assent unless it can be shewn either that Divine Testimony is not duly challeng'd by us for the main of our Religion or that in the particular Articles we father something on that Testimony which is not contain'd in it or rightly deducible from it And to put us upon the proving our particular Articles of Faith sufficiently deliver'd in the Scriptures and not knowable without Revelation by Arguments meerly natural without taking notice of those we can bring for the proof of that Revelation on whose account we embrace those Articles is to challenge a Man to a Duel upon condition he shall make no use of his best weapons and is as unreasonable as if a Schoolman should challenge your Friend to prove that the Torrid Zone is inhabited against the Reasons that the Aristotelians are wont to give to prove it uninhabitable without allowing him to make use of the testimony of Navigators who assure us of the constant Brises that daily ventilate the Air and qualifie that heat which otherwise would not be supported and who furnish us with those other circumstances whereon to build our proofs which we that were never there can have but by Relation And indeed the limitations that Christian Religion puts to some of the dictates of Philosophy which were wont to be admitted in a more general and unrestrained Sense and the Doctrines about God and the Soul c. that it superadds to those which the light of Nature might lead Men to about the same Subjects though to some they may seem injurious to Philosophy and Reason are as little unkind to either as is the Gardener to a Crab-stock or some such other wild Plant when by cutting off some of the Branches and by making a slit in the Bark that he may graft on it a Pare-main or some other choice Apples by this seemingly hard usage he brings it to bear much nobler fruit than if left to its own natural condition it ever would have done I know not whether to all that hath been said in this Section I may not add thus much further that it sometimes happens that those very things which at first were propos'd to the understanding and believ'd upon the score of Revelation are afterward assented to by it upon the account of meer Reason To which purpose I consider that not any of the ancient Philosophers nay as far as I have read ev'n of those that believ'd God to be the Author of the World dream'd that He created Matter of nothing but only form'd the World out of praeexistent Matter whereas Christian Divines usually teach as an Article of Faith That besides what they call a mediate Creation as when Fishes were made out of the water or Adam's body was made out of the earth there was an immediate Production of Matter it self out of nothing SECT VIII After what has been hitherto discours'd it may be seasonable to consider what kind of Probation or what degree of Evidence may reasonably be thought sufficient to make the Christian Religion thought fit to be embrac'd Perhaps I shall not need to tell you that besides the Demonstrations wont to be treated of in vulgar Logick there are among Philosophers three distinct whether kinds or degrees of Demonstration For there is a Metaphysical Demonstration as we may call that where the Conclusion is manifestly built on those general Metaphysical Axioms that can never be other than true such as Nihil potest simul esse non esse Non Entis nullae sunt Proprietates Reales c. There are also Physical Demonstrations where the Conclusion is evidently deduc'd from Physical Principles such as are Ex nihilo nihil fit Nulla substantia in nihilum redigitur c. which are not so absolutely certain as the former because if there be a God He may at least for ought we know be able to create and annihilate Substances and yet are held unquestionable by the ancient Naturalists who still suppose them in their Theories And lastly there are Moral Demonstrations such as those where the Conclusion is built either upon some one such proof cogent in its kind or some concurrence of probabilities that it cannot be but allowed supposing the truth of the most receiv'd Rules of Prudence and Principles of Practical Philosophy And this third kind of Probation though it come behind the two others in certainty yet it is the surest guide which the Actions of Men though not their Contemplations have regularly allow'd them to follow And the Conclusions of a Moral Demonstration are the surest that Men aspire to not only in the conduct of private Mens affairs but in the Government of States and ev'n of the greatest Monarchies and Empires And this is considerable in Moral Demonstrations that such may consist and be as it were made up of particulars that are each of them but probable of which the Laws establisht by God himself among his own People as well as the practice of our Courts of Justice here in England afford us a manifest instance in the case of Murder and some other Criminal Causes For though the Testimony of a single Witness shall not suffice to prove the accus'd party guilty of Murder yet the Testimony of two Witnesses though but of equal Credit that is a second Testimony added to the first though of it self never a whit more credible than the former shall ordinarily suffice to prove