as being placed in and put in possession of it by the God of Nature and till by its own free Act it hath alienated or forfeited its Right there is none but God who hath reserved to himself the Soveraign and absolute disposal of it can justly either dispossess a Soul of its Body or of any Part or Member of it or offer any violence to the Body or put it any farther out of its Souls Disposal than God himself hath done by placing it under the outward Restraints of Government So that for any one either to kill or dismember a Body whose Soul hath not forfeited its Right to it to ravish inslave or imprison a Body whose Soul hath neither alienated nor forfeited its Right to dispose of it is a piece of high and crying Injustice In short God hath placed the immortal Soul of man in the Tenement of a mortal Body in which it hath thereupon the Right of a Tenant at will that holdeth at the pleasure of his Landlord by whom it is impowred to injoy it for its own Habitation to defend it against outward Violence and dispose of it for its own needs and conveniences So that unless he be impowred by God there is no Man can rightfully destroy or dismember or without his Consent inslave or imprison another Man's Body unless it be in defence of his own Life or Livelyhood or Liberty which every man hath a natural Right to defend But then since for the common Good and Defence of all God hath placed his reserved Authority over our Bodies in the hands of humane Government it is no violation of the Right of our Souls for the Government under which we are placed to destroy or dismember inslave or imprison our Bodies whenever by offending others we render it necessary for the Defence and Good of All. And since the Government hath so far as the Common-Weal requireth God's own Authority over our Bodies in its hands it is no more injurious to our Souls for That to dispose of our Lives and Members Livelyhoods and Liberties for the common Security and Good than if God himself should do it immediately since the Government doth it by his Right and Authority which is Paramount to all the natural Rights of our Souls But for any others either to take away the Life or Members of anothers Body except it be necessary for their own defence or to endeavour the carnal Injoyment of anothers Body except it be by the party's consent or to inslave or imprison anothers Body except it be upon free Consent or just Forfeiture is an outragious Invasion of the natural Rights of humane Souls II. As Men dwell in mortal Bodies they have also a Right to their bodily Subsistence For for God to give them a Tenant's right in their mortal Bodies would be very insignificant unless we suppose he hath therewith given them some Right to those outward Goods that are necessary to their Maintenance and Subsistence For God being the Supreme Proprietor of this lower Word as well as of those Tenements of Flesh we live in it must needs be supposed that as by placing our Soul in this Body he hath given her a Right to it so by placing our Body in this World he hath given it a Right to such a portion of this World's Goods as are necessary to its Repair and Maintenance And though in the unequal Division of the World that now is he hath given to some a larger share of it than to others yet it is not to be supposed he hath so appropriated All to some as to leave nothing for all the Rest. For as all Men are equal in their natural Faculties and Indowments so according to original Constitution they were also equal in their outward Properties and Possessions and all things being promiscuously exposed to the Use and Injoyment of All every one from the common Stock assumed as his own Right what he neâ—ded And as for the Inequality and private Interests that are now among us they were By-blows of our Fall for it was Sin that introduced our Degrees and Distances that devised the Names of Rich and Poor begot Ingrossings and Inclosures of Things and forged those two pestilent words Meum and Tuum which have since ingendred so much Strife and Mischief in the World And though God hath made these Inclosures Rights by his long and continued permission of them yet he hath not thereby parted with his own Right to them He by an immuteable Right is still Paramount of all his Creation and every thing in it unalienably belongeth to him And as for those inclosed Properties with which he hath vested us in such unequal Proportions he hath committed them to us as Stewards and not transferred them upon us as Masters and so without any Injury to us may appropriate what Part of them he pleaseth to what Use he pleaseth which when he hath done we cannot without manifest Injustice otherwise dispose of that appropriate Part than to the use and service for which he hath appointed it Now out of every mans Estate and Property he hath actually reserved some Appropriate portion to be disposed of to the Poor and Needy who have nothing else to subsist by and in this part of our Estates the Poor have the same Right from God that we have in all the other Parts of it So that this World being now cantoned out so very unequally among men yet according to God's Allotment every Man hath Right to such a Share of it as is at least sufficient to keep him from being starved or pinched with Extremity of Need and in this Method God hath assigned to every man a Child's Portion which in some fair way or other ought to be obtained viz. either by legal Right or by humble Request which latter in Conscience ought to take effect as well as the former For now according to this later Constitution he hath appointed the Rich to be his Stewards and Treasurers for the Poor with a strict charge that they dispense to every one his meat in due season The Honour of distributing is conferred on the former as a tryal of their Fidelity and Bounty the Right of receiving is conferred on the latter as a tryal of their Patience and Gratitude and thus God hath wifely projected that all his Children should be both effectually and quietly provided for that one man's Abundance should supply another's Wants that so there might be an Equality as St. Paul expresseth it 2 Cor. viii 14. For since no Man can enjoy more than he needeth and every Man ought to have so much as he needeth there could be no great Inequality among men if things were administred according to the Institution of God But if out of our Abundance we refuse to relieve the poor Man's Necessities we are unjust both to God and him to God because we misapply his Goods and cross his Orders to him because we wrongfully usurp and detain from him the portion
we fall short of this we must necessarily fall short of the end of our Society which is to aid and assist one another which we shall never do unless we are constantly inclined to it by a mutual Benevolence But while we hate and malign one another our being united together in Society will only furnish us with surer means and fairer opportunities to wreak our spite upon each other So that not to love one another while we are thus associated is not only uncharitable but unjust since we thereby rob one another of one of the most necessary means to obtain the End of our Society For when Mens hearts are divided 't is impossible their hands should be long united in a mutual Defence and Assistance so that by withdrawing our love from each other we do so far as in us lyeth excommunicate one another from the common Benefits of Society which since we have all a Natural Right to is highly dishonest and injurious II. BY vertue of our being united in Society we have a Right to Peace that is to live peaceably and quietly our selves so long as we do not causelesly vex and disturb others For Society being nothing but an united Multitude it is indispensably necessary to the preservation of its Union that every individual Member should quietly comport himself towards every one in that degree and order wherein he is placed because as the Health of natural Bodies dependeth upon the Harmony of their Parts so doth the Common Good of Societies or Political Bodies It is Peace and mutual Accord which is the Soul that doth both animate and unite Society and keep its parts from dispersing and flying abroad into Atoms which nothing but Force and Violence can hinder them from when once they are broken and divided For he that cannot enjoy his Peace in Society is in a worse condition than if he were out of it and lived in some solitary Desart alone by himself for there is no Solitude so dismal as a vexatious and quarrelsom Society Whilst therefore men are of an unpeaceable Temper and do affect to live like Salamanders in the Fire of Strife and Contention they are the common Pests and Nuisances of Society for wherever they dwell they lay an Imbargo on all sociable Communion stop all the Inter-changes of good Offices between Men turn all Conversations into Tragedies and convert all Societies into Maps and Images of Hell that black and dismal Region of dark Hatred fiery Wrath and horrible Tumult And whereas by the Fundamental Laws of Society every Man hath an undoubted Right not to be disturbed in the Enjoyment of his innocent Pleasures not to be hindered in the advancing his lawful Profits not to be interrupted in the prosecution of his reasonable Designs not to be detained in his Afflictions or vexed and grieved with causeless Aggravations of them it is the proper business of Litigious Spirits to invade and overthrow these Rights and so far as they are able to turn every Man out of the Possession and enjoyment of them So that they are a publick offence and injury to Mankind and ought to be looked upon as so many Common Barretors in the World In short every Man by vertue of his being in Society hath a Right to Peace so long as he demeaneth himself justly and peaceably towards others he therefore that disturbeth another Man's Peace unless it be in the defence of his own or other Mens Right or Peace is an Infringer of the natural Rights of humane Society III. BY Vertue of our being united in Society we have a Right to Truth that is we have a Right to know the true sense of each others Minds and Intentions whensoever we pretend to report and discover it by our Speech for it is only our Speech that capacitateth us for a rational Society Our Words are the Credentiaries and Intelligencers of the society and Intercourse of our minds and it is only by these that Souls do correspond and communicate their Thoughts to one another it is by these that they mutually divert their sorrows and mingle their Mirth impart their Secrets communicate their counsels and make mutual compacts and agreements to supply and assist each other And indeed Words are the Rudders that steer all Humane Affairs the Springs that set the Wheels of Action a going and the Hands work the Feet walk and all the Members and all the Senses act by their direction and impulse and there is scarce any Communication or Intercourse among men but what is transacted by their Speech So that if Men were under no Obligation to express their Thoughts truly to one another there could be no such thing as humane Society in the World for it is impossible their Minds should converse while their words do falsly Eccho and report their Thoughts In a word Society and Conversation being the great Bank and Exchange of Souls Truth and Integrity herein is the one publick Faith of Mankind which every Man vertually engageth himself to keep by being and continuing a Member of humane Society For humane Society being a Society of Minds implyeth in the very Nature of it an universal Contract and Agreement to signifie our Minds truly to one another and therefore since Words are the natural Instruments by which this signification is made every Man by vertue of that Contract hath a Right to have the true meaning of every Man's Mind in his Words to have every Man turn himself inside outward to him whensoever he speaketh and to measure his words by his meaning and his meaning so far as he is able by the Truth and Reality of things And therefore whosoever lieth or equivocateth to another by laying Ambushes in his words or lurking behind them in reserved meanings doth thereby injuriously deprive him of the natural Right of Society And therefore by the way whatsoever the Romish Casuists may pretend Equivocation is as great an Injustice as Lying as being both directed to the same end and purpose viz. to rob those whom we speak to of their Right to our meaning and intentions which he who equivocateth doth as effectually as he that lyeth So that in reality an Equivocating Iesuit is as great an Out-law to Society as a common Lyar nor can his ambiguous words be any more depended on than false ones for the signification of his meaning but if what he falsly or equivocally affirms to be his Mind and Meaning he attesteth with his Oath he doth not only thereby wrong Man but horribly affront God For an Oath is a solemn Invocation of God to bear Witness to what we assert or promise and therefore if what we assert be false we call God to witness to a Lye which is to suppose either that there is no God at all or which is a thousand times worse that God is as great a Lyar as our selves For he that calleth God to witness what he saith must be presumed to believe that God will witness for him and
One Body incorporated by the Charter of Nature whereby every Member is obliged to stand by and assist his Fellow so long as he acteth as a Member and keepeth within the Rules of Humane Society Whilst therefore I do not by offending others offend against the Charter of Nature I have a Right to be defended by every Man so far as he hath Power and Opportunity and whosoever offendeth me ought to be looked on and proceeded with as a publick Offender against the Corporation of Mankind For the Whole is concerned in every Part and as he that bruiseth the Toe offendeth the Body and engageth every Member against him so he who wrongfully hurteth any Member of the Humane Society is thereby injurious to the Whole and ought to be repelled and opposed by every Member of it and he who refuseth to aid his Fellow-member when injuriously struck at and it is in his power to defend him is a Traytor to the Common Cause a false-hearted Turn-coat and base Deserter of the Society of Mankind He that can patiently sit still and hear his Brother's Name torn in pieces by a slanderous Tongue when it is in his power to purge and Vindicate him robbeth him of the common Rights of a Man he that can see his Brother's Life injuriously exposed either by open Violence or secret Practice when it is in his power to rescue him treateth him like an utter Alien and Foreiner to Mankind he that can suffer his Brother to be robbed of his Estate or defrauded in his Property when it is in his power to defend and right him unjustly with-holdeth from him what he oweth him by the Charter of humane Society and in so doing doth not only offend against his Brother in particular but also against the whole Society of which he is a Part and Member So that in short as we are all united by the God of Nature into the same Corporation we are obliged in Iustice manfully to defend each others Lives Estates and Reputations and if we wilfully permit any Fellow-member to be murdered slandered robbed or cozened when it is in our power to prevent it we do not only wrongfully with-hold from him his natural Right to be defended by us but foully betray the Common Interest of Mankind for both which we shall one day give a dear Account to the supreme Head and Soveraign of all Societies VI. Sixthly and Lastly BY vertue of our being united in Society we have also a Right to share with one another in the profits of our Commerce and Intercourse For as of all other Creatures we are the best fitted for Society by reason of that peculiar Faculty we have of communicating our Thoughts and Minds to one another so of all other Creatures we stand in the greatest need of it by reason of our Insufficiency to supply and relieve our selves For as for other Creatures after they come into the world they are much sooner able to help themselves than we and after we are most able to help our selves there are a world of Necessaries and Conveniencies without which we cannot be happy and with which we cannot be supply'd without each others Aid and Assistance And therefore God created us in Society and imprinted sociable Inclinations on our Natures that being by them combined and united together we might be mutually helpful to one another and ready to assist and supply each other according to our several Talents and Abilities with such necessaries and conveniencies of Life as the condition of our nature requireth This therefore being one main End of our Society viz. to be dutiful Ministers of God's Providence towards one another in supplying those wants and necessities which he hath made and which he hath made to be supplyed by our mutual good Offices and Ministries every Man hath thereupon a Right to be aided and assisted by every one with whom he hath any dealing or intercourse and to have some share of the benefit of all that Exchange Traffick or Commerce which passeth between him and others For every Man hath a Right to his own Labour and Industry and therefore if another be benefited by mine it is but just and equal that I should be benefited by his that he should so exchange Labour or Commodities with me as that my Necessities should be served as well as his own and that while he reapeth what I sow and enjoyeth the harvest of my Labour he should repay me such a share of his as my Convenience and Necessity calleth for But if he ingross all the profit of our Exchange and Commerce to himself he is rather a Wen of the Body Politick that draweth all the nourishment to himself and starveth the neighbouring Parts than a regular Member that contenteth it self with such a share as is proportionate to its own bulk and magnitude and gladly permitteth his Fellow-members to live and thrive as well as he So that for any Man in his Dealings with others to take advantage from their Necessity or Ignorance to oppress or over-reach them to use them cruelly so as wilfully to damnifie them or hardly so as either to take all the advantage to himself or not to allow them such a competent share of it as is necessary to support and maintain them according to their rank and station is an injurious Invasion of that natural Right which the very end and design of humane Society giveth them AND thus you see what are the natural Rights of men considered as Rational Creatures inhabiting mortal Bodies and united to one another by natural Relations and Society all which Rights are inherent in them antecedently to all Humane Laws and Constitutions and though there had never been any other Law but that of Nature yet they might have justly claimed them of one another as Eternal Dues which no Laws can cancel no Custom dissolve no Circumstances make void or abrogate So that to do justly with respect to Mens natural Rights is to render them what we owe them by the Obligations of Nature as they are Rational Creatures to treat them equitably to do them all the good we can justly desire they should do to us if we were in their Circumstances quietly to permit them to judge for themselves without endeavouring to tyrannize over their Minds by persecuting censuring and reviling them because they are not of our Opinion to suffer them freely to comply with the Dictates of right Reason and not to put them either by force command or presumption upon any wicked and unreasonable Act in a word to pay them all those fair respects that are due to the dignity of Humane Nature to treat them Courteously and Humanly and not to bespeak or use them as if they were so many Dogs or brute Animals these are Eternal Dues which every rational Creature oweth to his own Kind and which we cannot withhold from one another without high Injustice to humane Nature But then as we are Rational Creatures inhabiting these mortal Bodies
Being stands inclined to beget and propagate its own Likeness and consequently every Being that is happy cannot but be inclined to make others so so far as it consists with its own Interest Since therefore God is not only happy in himself but so securely happy as that he can contribute what he pleases to the Happiness of others without any Prejudice to his own his own Self-Love must nesarily incline him to beget his own Likeness on his Creatures and so propagate his Happiness through the World And being thus inclined by his own Self-Love to transform all other Beings into his Likeness that is to make them happy as he is happy he must needs be tenderly affected with the Miseries of his Creatures and immutably inclined so far as it is just and wise to succour and relieve and render them happy Thus Mercy you see which is a Good Will to the Miserable doth most necessarily result from God's own Self-Love and consequently is an inseparable Principle of his Nature And accordingly God proclaims himself to Moses Exod. xxxiv 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering abuddant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions And hence his Mercy is said to be everlasting Psal. c. 5. and to be from everlasting Psal ciii 17. and to endure for ever Psal. cvi 1. and he is said to be rich in mercy Ephes. ii 4. and is stiled the God of all grace 1 Pet. v. 10. and the Father of mercies 2 Cor. i. 3. Now the Nature of God is the supream Example and Pattern of all Rational Natures and so far forth as ours do swerve and deflect from his they are maimed and imperfect For his Will is our Law not meerly because 't is his Will but because it is over-ruled by the infinite Perfections of his Nature by his Wisdom and Justice his Mercy and Goodness which if upon an impossible Supposition he should will contrary to that Will would be no Law i. e. it would have no force upon our Consciences to oblige us to obey it So that the supream Law is the Nature of God by which his Will is and all other Wills ought to be concluded and determined and whatsoever we discover in his Nature either by Reason or Revelation that is communicable to ours we ought to follow and imitate it as our Soveraign Pattern and Exemplar Since therefore both Reason and Revelation do so plainly discover a most merciful Inclination in the Nature of God this is an everlasting Reason why we should be merciful And this is the Reason our Saviour urges Luk. vi 36. be ye merciful as your Father also is merciful that is Let it be seen that you are the Children of God by your participation of his Nature which is infinitely benevolent to the Miserable for there is nothing sinks you farther from God or renders you more unlike him than a cruel and unmerciful Temper 'T is this that blackens and deforms your Souls that wreaths and distorts them into a contrary Figure to the most amiable Nature of the Father of Spirits For as the highest Perfection is the Nature of God and that is a most merciful one so the lowest Imperfection is the Nature of Devils and that is a most cruel one And therefore as by Mercy we incline towards the Nature of God which is the Land-mark we ought to follow so by Cruelty we decline towards the Nature of Devils which is the Sea-mark we ought to avoid II. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Convenience of it with the Frame and Constitution of Humane Nature in which the wise Author of Nature hath implanted a natural Sympathy between those that partake of it in each others Pains and Pleasures So that though the Humane Nature be largely diffused and spread through infinite Numbers of Individuals which by vast distances of Time and Place are separated from one another yet as if it were but all one common Soul operating in several Bodies in several Times and Places it feels almost in every one Body what it enjoys or suffers in every other and whether it be pleased or offended in one Individual is pleased or offended in them all And though the Sense be quickest in that Individual Part or Member of Humane Nature upon which the Pain or Pleasure strikes immediately yet all the rest how distant soever in Time or Place as soon as they have notice of it are sensibly touched and affected with it For thus when we read or hear of the Calamities of other Men our Bowels yern by a natural Sympathy though they are never so distant from us and are no otherwise related to us than as they partake of our Natures and though they are long since dead and out of the reach of any Assistance yet their Miseries without any Motives of Reason or Discourse strike us into a soft Compassion yea though we know the Calamities which we read or hear of to be nothing but Romantick Fictions yet the very Imagination of them is ready to melt us into Tears in despight of our Will and our Reason Nor is this visible only in Persons that are adult but even in little Children who as soon as they are capable of taking notice of things do without any Reason express themselves pained and afflicted with the dissembled Griefs and Sufferings of those that attend them All which are most evident Instances of that general Sympathy which naturally intercedes between all Men since we can neither see nor hear of nor imagine anothers Miseries without being touched with a sensible Pain and Affliction AGAINST which I know no other Objection can be urged but this that there are sundry Instances of Men who seem to have arrived to that degree of Cruelty as to take Pleasure in afflicting others and are so far from Sympathizing with their Pains that they rather seem to be recreated with them To which I shall only answer these two things First That that Delight which some Men take in plaguing and afflicting others proceeds not from their natural Temper but is rather to be attributed to some violent Effervency and Transport of their Natures such as are outragious Anger or deep and inveterate Revenge under both which Nature is discomposed and disordered and chafed into a preternatural Ferment And accordingly when it is cooled again and reduced to a composed Temper instead of rejoycing in the Mischiefs it hath done it usually bewails and laments them and reflects upon them with a great deal of Horror and Remorse Which is a plain Argument that Humane Nature in it self is very tender and compassionate how much soever it may be accidentally transported by unnatural Passion superinduced upon it Secondly Suppose what is objected be true that there are some Natures so cankered and Diaboliz'd as to be really pleased with the Pains and Miseries of others the Instances of this kind are so few
Temper consists for doubtless with the same Temper of Mind that we are of in this World we shall go into the other for meerly by going into the other World Men cannot be altered as to their main State though they may be perfected as to those good Dispositions that were here begun so that he that is wicked here will be wicked there too and that same Disposition of Mind that we carry with us to our Graves we shall retain with us in Eternity If therefore we would know what the Temper of a wicked Soul will be in the future State our best way will be to enquire what it is that we call a wicked Temper here because it will be the same here and hereafter Now a wicked Temper consists of two things First of Sensuality and Secondly of Devilishness By Sensuality I mean an immoderate Propension of the Soul to the Pleasures of the Body such an head-strong Propension as wholly diverts the Soul from all her nobler Delights to the brutish Pleasures of Intemperance and Wantonness and Gluttony together with those other Lusts that are subservient to them such as Fraud and Covetousness and Ambition and the like By Devilishness I mean those spiritual Wickednesses which do not so much depend upon the Body as the former but are more immediately centered in the Soul such as Pride and Malice and Wrath and Envy and Hatred and Revenge c. which are the Sins of the Devil by which those once glorious and blessed Spirits were transformed into Friends and Furies These are the Venomous Ingredients of which a wicked Temper is composed If you enquire therefore what the Temper of a wicked Soul will be in the future State I answer it will be the same there that it is here that is it will be sensual and devilish As for the latter there can be no doubt of it for Devilishness being immediately subjected in the Soul cannot be supposed to be separated from her by her Separation from the Body and may as well abide in naked and separated Spirits as it doth in the Apostate Angels And as for Sensuality though it cannot be supposed that a Soul should retain the Appetites of the Body after it is separated from it yet having wholly abandon'd it self to corporeal Pleasures while it was in the Body it may and doubtless will retain a vehement Hankering after a Re-union with it which is the only Sensuality that a separated Soul is capable of For when She comes into the World of Spirits her former accustoming her self unto the Pleasures of the Body will have so debauched and vitiated her Appetite that She will be incapable of relishing any other Pleasures but what are carnal and sensual which because She cannot enjoy but in the Body She must needs retain an earnest and vehement Longing to be re-united to it For having never had any former Experience of the Pleasures of Spirits when she comes into the other World she will find her self miserably destitute of all that can be pleasant and delightful to her and because she knows that the only pleasures she can relish are such as are not to be enjoyed but in conjunction with the Body therefore all her Appetites and Longings must needs unite into one outragious Desire of being embody'd again that so she may repeat these sensual Pleasures and act over the brutish Scene anew Which possibly may be the Reason why such sensual Souls have appeared so often in Church-yards and Charnel-houses Union with the Body being that which these wandring Ghosts have the most eager Affections to and that they are most loth to be separated from which makes them perpetually hover about and linger after their dear Consort the Body the Impossibility of their Re-union with it not being able to cure them of their impotent Desires but still they would fain be alive again Virgil. Iterumque ad tarda reverti Corpora quae lucis miferis tam dira cupido And this I doubt not was one great Reason of those extraordinary Abstinencies and bodily Severities that were imposed by the Primitive Church that by this means they might gently wean the Soul from the Pleasures of the Body and teach it before-hand to live upon the Delights of separated Spirits that so it might drop into Eternity with Ease and Willingness like ripe Fruit from the Tree and that when it was arrived into the other World it might not have its Appetite so vitiated with these sensual Delights as to be incapable of relishing those spiritual Ones and so be endlesly tormented with a fruitless Desire of returning to the Body again This therefore from the whole is plain and apparent that the Temper of wicked Souls in the other World will be much the same as it is in this that is sensual and devilish made up of Rage and Spight and Malice together with a vehement Longing after the deserted Body in which they enjoyed the only Pleasures they were capable of AND having thus shewed you what are the Felicities of the future State and what the Temper of wicked Souls will be in the future State I now proceed III. To shew you how contrary such a Temper and Disposition must be unto such Felicities And indeed Sensuality and Devilishness are the only Indispositions for Heaven but such Indispositions they are that if upon an impossible Supposition a Soul could be admitted with them into the Habitations of the Blessed She would not be able to relish one Pleasure there among all the Delights with which the beatifick State abounds there would none be found that would please her distemper'd Palate which like a fevourish Tongue must disrelish and nauseate the sweetest Liquor by reason of its overflowing Gall. And hence the Apostle exhorting his Christian Colossians to be thankful unto God for making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light telleth them that this was effected by God's translating them out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of his own dear Son that is by enabling them to mortifie their Lusts and inspiring them with the Graces of the Gospel 1 Colos. xii 13. And this will evidently appear if we consider the particular Felicities of which the heavenly State consists which as I have shewed above consist First In the Vision of God Secondly In our Likeness or Resemblance to Him Thirdly In the Love of Him and fourthly In the Society of pure and blessed Spirits to all which there is an utter Antipathy and Disagreement in every sensual and devilish Temper and Disposition I. IN every sensual and devilish Mind there is an Antipathy and Contrariety to the Vision of God for the Sight of God can be pleasant unto none but those who are in some measure contemper'd to his Perfections and transform'd into his Likeness While we are unlike him and contrary to him as we must needs be while we are sensual and devilish the Sight of Him would be more apt to amaze and
Johannes Scott S. T. P. THE Christian Life PART III. Wherein the GREAT DUTIES OF JUSTICE MERCY and MORTIFICATION are fully Explained and Inforced VOL. IV. BY IOHN SCOTT D. D. late Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1696. To the Right Honourable Sir GEORGE TREBY LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE Common PLEAS MY LORD THose excellent Treatises of Christian Life which were published some years since by the learned Author have I doubt not in a great measure answered his Design in writing them which was to do as much good as he could to the World and had he lived to finish the other Parts of it we might have had such a compleat Body of Christian Institutions in our own Language as would have highly contributed towards a Revival of true Piety among us For besides those Pieces which have already seen the Light 't was the Author's design to proceed to a particular Explication of the several respective Duties which Men are obliged to render to God their Neighbours and Themselves and for a Conclusion of all he proposed a distinct Treatise of Ecclesiastical Duties The two Discourses of Iustice and Mercy which I now present to your Lordship were intended as a Part of that Duty which we owe to one another and which with other Enlargements had the Author liv'd would have made a Volume of themselves And the Discourse of Mortification is likewise a Part of what He designed for the Explication of that Duty which Man owes himself which was also intended for another distinct Volume Besides these he proposed a particular Examination of those great Duties which God requires which together with the other Volumes would have compleated the whole Design In Justice therefore to the Memory of this incomparable Person I thought my self obliged to communicate to your Lordship this short Account of him The Design which he proposed was Great and Noble and I 'm sure those Pieces which he hath already published do loudly speak the Excellent Qualifications with which God had endowed him to compleat it had not a laborious Station and what was worse a very sickly Constitution at last interrupted him from the Prosecution of it As for these Remains they are faithfully transcribed from the Author's Manuscript and your Lordship may easily discern that they are his true and genuine Off-spring by your Perusal of them I know your Lordship hath a very high Value and just Esteem for the Memory of that great and good Man and that is a prevailing Inducement to take into your Protection those Works which he has left behind him To You they address themselves and I doubt not but under that Character which your Lordship bears they will be sufficiently recommended to the World and that they may effectually promote the Good of it is the hearty Prayer of Your Lordship's most Obedient Humble Servant J. G. THE CONTENTS OF JUSTICE CHAP. I. OF Justice as it respects the Rights of Men whether natural or acquired The natural Rights of Men shewn in four particulars First As dwelling in mortal Bodies Secondly As rational Creatures Thirdly As joyned to one another by natural Relations Fourthly As naturally united in Society Page 3. As Men dwell in mortal Bodies they have a Right to their Bodies p. 4 5 6. And to their bodily Subsistence p. 7 8 9 10. CHAP. II. OF Justice in preserving the Rights of Men considered as rational Creatures p. 11. Which Rights are reduced to four particulars p. 12. First That every Man hath a Right to an equitable Treatment from every Man p. 13 14 15. Secondly That every Man hath a Right to judge for himself so far as he is capable p. 16 17 18 19 20 21. Thirdly That every Man hath a Right not to be forced to act contrary to the Iudgment of right Reason p. 23 24 25. Fourthly That every Man hath a Right to be respected by every Man p. 26 27 28 29. CHAP. III. OF Justice in preserving the Rights of Men as united together by Natural Relations p. 30 31. And as joyned together in Society p. 32. Wherein is shewn first That they have a Right to Love p. 33. Secondly To Peace p 34 35. Thirdly To Truth p. 36 37 38 39 40. Fourthly To Credit p. 41 42 43. Fifthly To Protection p. 44 45 46. Sixthly To Communication in the Profits of Commerce and Intercourse p. 47 48. CHAP. IV. OF Justice as it preserves the Acquired Rights of Men and particularly those which arise from Sacred and Civil Relations As first Of Sovereign and Subject p. 54 55 56 57 58 59. Secondly Of Subordinate Magistrates to the Sovereign and People p. 60 61. Thirdly Of Pastors and People p. 62 63. Fourthly Of Husband and Wife p. 64 65 66 67 68. Fifthly Of Friend and Friend p 69 70. Sixthly Of Masters and Servants p. 71 72 73. Seventhly Of Truster and Trustee p. 74 75. Eighthly Of the Benefactor and Receiver p. 76 77. Ninthly Of Creditor and Debtor p. 78 79 80 81. 82. CHAP. V. OF Justice as it preserves the Rights of Men acquired by Legal Possession p. 83 84 85 86 87 88 89. CHAP. VI. OF Justice in reference to the Rights of Men acquired by personal Endowments p. 90 91 92 93. And of outward Rank and Quality p. 94. 95. CHAP. VII OF Justice in reference to the Rights of Men acquired by Compact p. 96 97. Wherein are prescribed some general Rules of Righteousness to Conduct our Bargains and Contracts First That we should use Plainness and Simplicity in our Dealings Secondly That we should impose upon no Man's Ignorance or Unskilfulness Thirdly That we should take no Advantage of another's Necessities Fourthly That we should not substract from the Commodity or Price for which we have contracted Fifthly That we should not go to the utmost Verge of what we conceive to be lawful Sixthly That in doubtful Cases we should chuse the safest side p. 98 99 100 101 102. CHAP. VIII OF the Eternal Reasons whereon Justice is founded and which render it morally good which are these four p. 103. First The eternal Proportion and Congruity of Iustice to the Nature of Things p. 104 105 106 107. Secondly The eternal Conformity of it to the Nature of God p. 108 109 110 111. Thirdly The Agreement and Correspondency of it with the Divine Providence and Disposals p. 112 113 114 115. Fourthly The everlasting Necessity of it to the Happiness of Men p. 117 118 119 120 c. CHAP. IX SOme Motives and Considerations against the Sinfulness and Unreasonableness of Injustice viz. First The great Repugnancy of it to the Terms and Conditions of the Christian Religion p. 125 126 127. Secondly The great Vanity or Desperateness of it p. 128 129 130 131 132. Thirdly The manifest Inexcusableness of it in it self p. 133 134 135 136 137. Fourthly The Fruitlesness and Mischievousness of it to our selves p. 140 141 142 143. Fifthly The
Spirit to enable us to mortify our Sins p. 349 350 351. Secondly The Necessity of our Concurrence with the Spirit p. 352 353 354 355. Thirdly The Certainty of Success p. 356 357. Fourthly The great Reason there is for our continual Prayers to God p. 358 359. Fifthly The indispensable Necessity of our faithful and sincere Endeavours in order to the mortifying our Lusts p. 360 361. Sixthly The Possibility of keeping the Commands of God in that God by his Spirit doth so powerfully Aid and Assist us p. 362 363. Seventhly The Inexcusableness of Sinners if they go on in their Wickedness p. 364 365 366. CHAP. V. OF the Eternal Reward of Mortification That there is a State of everlasting Life and Happiness prepared for good Men proved by plain and easie Arguments First Because the Law of our Natures hath not a sufficient Sanction without it 367 368 369 370 371 372. Secondly From those Desires and Expectations of it which do so generally and naturally arise in pure and vertuous Minds p. 373 374 375 376. Thirdly From the Justice and Equity of the Divine Providence p. 377 378 379. Fourthly From the Revelation of his Will which God hath made to us by Jesus Christ p. 380 381 382 383. From the Consideration of which the following Inferences are raised First What an unreasonable thing it is for us Christians immoderately to doat upon the World p. 384 385 386. Secondly How vigorous and industrious we ought to be in discharging the Duties of our Religion p. 387 388 389. Thirdly How upright and sincere we ought to be in all our Professions and Actions p. 390 391. Fourthly What great reason we have to be chearful under the Afflictions and Miseries of this World p. 392 393 394 395. CHAP. VI. OF the Necessity of Mortification to the obtaining Eternal Life proved First From God's Ordination and Appointment p. 396 397 398. Secondly From the Nature of the thing which implies a Disagreement in wicked Souls to the future Happiness p. 399. To evidence this Disagreement three things are proposed First Wherein the Felicities of the future State do consist p. 401 402 403. Secondly What the Temper and Disposition of wicked Souls will be in the future Sate p. 404 405 406 407. Thirdly How contrary such a Temper and Disposition must be unto such Felicities p. 408 409. For First There is in it an Antipathy and Contrariety to the Vision of God p. 410 411. Secondly To the Love of God p. 412 413. Thirdly To the Resemblance of God p. 414 415 416. Fourthly To the Society of the Spirits of just men made perfect p. 417 418. From all which these following Inferences are deduced First How unreasonable it is for any Man to presume upon going to Heaven upon any account whatsoever without mortifying his Lusts p. 419 420 421 422 423 424 425. 426. Secondly The indispensable Necessity of Mortification since it is plain we can't be happy without it p. 426 427 428 429 430 431. Thirdly What is the only true and solid Foundation of our Assurance of Heaven p. 431 432 433 434 435 436 437. Fourthly What is the great design of the Christian Religion p. 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445. OF THE Christian Life PART III. CHAP. I. Of Justice as it preserves the Natural Rights of Men and particularly in reference to their Bodies HAVING in a former Discourse asserted and explain'd the Nature of Moral Good and Evil in Humane Actions I shall now distinctly consider the Sum of all that Moral Duty which we owe to God and to our Neighbour as the Prophet hath compris'd it in these words He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and walk humbly with thy God Mic. vi 8. I begin with that Duty which God requires of us towards our Neighbour and 't is all imply'd in the two distinct Vertues of Iustice and Mercy IN discoursing of Iustice I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew what that Justice is which is requir'd of us towards our Neighbour 2. To prove that it is grounded upon such immutable Reasons as do render it a Moral Good I. I shall endeavour to shew what that Justice is which is owing to our Neighbour In general therefore Iustice consisteth in giving to every one his due in which latitude it comprehendeth all matter of duty for every Duty is a due to God or our Neighbour or our selves and accordingly every performance of every duty is a payment of some due and as such is an act of Righteousness And therefore in Scripture Good Men are frequently stiled Righteous and the Whole of Vertue and Goodness is called Righteousness because it is a payment of some due either to God our selves or our Neighbours But Iustice being here consider'd as a distinct and particular Vertue must be understood in a more limited sense viz. for Honesty in all our dealings with men or giving to every man his due with whom we have any Intercourse And wherein this consisteth will best appear by considering what those things are which are due from one Man to another or what those Dues and Rights are which men may claim by the eternal Laws of Righteousness And these are twofold 1. Natural and 2. Acquired I begin with the First viz. the Natural Rights of Men which are such as appertain to Men as they are Reasonable Creatures and dwelling in Mortal Bodies and joyned to one another by their natural Relations and by Society For in all these capacities there accrue to men certain Natural Rights which we are obliged in Justice not to violate but so far as we can to secure and make good to one another First Therefore we will consider men as dwelling in mortal Bodies Secondly As Rational Creatures Thirdly As joyned to one another by natural Relations Fourthly As naturally united in Society and I will shew what Rights there are redounding to them from all these Respects and Considerations I. WE will consider Men as dwelling in mortal Bodies in which there is a twofold Right accruing to them 1. a Right to their Bodies 2. a Right to their bodily Subsistence I. As dwelling in mortal Bodies they have a natural Right to their Bodies and to all the Parts of them for their Bodies being the Tenements which the great Landlord of the world hath allotted to their Souls during their abode in this terrestrial State are upon that account their undoubted Right which unless they forfeit they cannot be deprived of without manifest Injury and Injustice For if God gave this Body to my Soul it is certain that immediately under him my Soul hath a Right to it and holding in Capite as it doth from the Supreme Proprietor is Tenant at will to none but him for this its earthly Habitation so that antecedently to all Humane Laws and Constitutions every Soul is vested with a natural Right to its own Body
we are obliged in Justice not to maim or destroy or captivate one another's bodies unless it be in the necessary defence of our own Lives Estates or Liberties not to deprive one another of our necessary Livelyhood and Subsistence but out of our Abundance to supply the pinching Necessities of the Poor and Needy These things we owe one another as we are all the Tenants of God sent down into this lower World and quartered in these Houses of Clay and if we rob one another of what we are thus intitled to by the present State and Condition of our Being we are extremely unjust to God and to each other Again as we are rational Creatures united to each other by natural Relations we are obliged to render to each other all those Respects and Duties which the Nature of our Relation calleth for as we are Parents to love and instruct and make suitable provisions for our Children as we are Children to love and reverence succour and obey our Parents as we are Brethren or natural Kindred to love and honour succour and relieve one another and if we with-hold from each other any of these Rights or dues which the nature of our Relation calleth for we make an injurious Inroad upon the most sacred Rights and Inclosures of Nature Lastly as we are Rational Creatures united to one another by natural Society we owe Love and Peace Truth and Credit Protection and Participation of Profit to one another Whilst therefore we hate and malign and vex and disturb each other whilst we lye and equivocate and violate our Promises and Oaths whilst we refuse to defend each other's Lives Estates or Reputation and usurp all the profits of our Exchange and Intercourse not allowing those whom we deal with a sufficient share to subsist and live by we trample upon all the Natural Rights of humane Society and demean our selves as open Enemies and Out-Laws to Mankind WHEREFORE in the name of God if in this degenerate Age whereinto we are fallen Christianity hath quite lost its just Power and Dominion over us let us be honest Heathens at least though we resolve to be no longer Christians if we will needs be deaf to the voice of our revealed Religion yet for shame let us attend to the voice of our Nature and not leap down at once from the Perfection of Christians into the wretched Condition of Beasts and Devils O for the Love of God and the Honour of those noble Natures he hath given us stop at Men at least though you are fallen from Christian and do not by your Cruelty and Inhumanity Frauds and Calumnies Oppressions Lyes and shameless Perjuries at the least approach towards that at which Humanity starteth with horror and amazement do not defame and scandalize your Natures and render your selves a shame and reproach to the name of Men by these your outragious Invasions of the common Rights of Humane Nature CHAP. IV. Of Justice as it preserves the Acquired Rights of Men and particularly those which arise from Sacred and Civil Relations I PROCEED now to the second sort of Humane Rights which Justice between Man and Man relateth to viz. such as are not Natural to them either as Rational Creatures or as dwelling in Mortal Bodies or as joyned to one another by natural Relations or as naturally united in Society but are acquired subsequently to the Rights of Nature by that mutual Intercourse which passeth between Men in their Society with one another Which Rights though they are not Natural but Accidental are yet founded on the Rights of Nature and therefore ought to be preserved as sacredly and as inviolably as these for whatsoever Rights Men do acquire in the performance of the common Rights of Nature are equivalent with them as being founded on the same Reasons Now all those Rights which are not Natural are acquired one of these ways either First by Sacred and Civil Relations or Secondly by Legal Possession or Thirdly by Personal Accomplishments or Fourthly by outward Rank and Quality or Fifthly by Bargaining and Compact I. THERE are some Rights acquired by Sacred and Civil Relations and of these there are several sorts First There is the Relation of Sovereign and Subject Secondly Of subordinate Magistrates to the Sovereign and People Thirdly Of Pastors and People Fourthly Of Husband and Wife Fifthly Of Friend and Friend Sixthly Of Masters and Servants Seventhly Of Truster and Trustee Eightly Of Benefactor and Receiver Ninthly There is the Relation of Debtor and Creditor of the proper Rights of each of which Relations I shall give as brief an Account as I can I. THERE is the Relation of Sovereign and Subject which is the highest and most Sacred of all those Relations that are not natural For God being the Supreme Lord and Sovereign of the World all lawful Power and Authority must be derived from him for as in particular Kingdoms the King is the Fountain of Authority from whence executive Power descendeth upon subordinate Magistrates so in the universal Monarchy of the World God is the Fountain of all Power and Dominion from whom all Authority and Right of Government descendeth upon Princes and Governours and whosoever exerciseth Dominion in the World without Divine Authority is an Usurper in the Kingdom of God But then the Derivation of this Authority from Him is either immediate or mediate those who are supreme under Him derive their Authority immediately from Him and are the Channels by whose Mediation he deriveth Authority to their subordinate Magistrates so that the subordinate Magistrates of particular Kingdoms derive their Authority from God by the hands of their Kings but the Kings themselves derive theirs from God's own hands immediately and whatever the particular form of any Government be whether it be Monarchy or Polyarchy that which is supreme in it under God must be immediately from him So far from true is that modern Maxim of some Jesuited Politicians viz. That Civil Government is the Peoples Creature which by necessary Consequence excludeth God from being the supreme Governor of the World for if He be absolutely Supreme there is none can be Supreme immediately under Him but by an Authority derived immediately from him So that the Relation of Sovereign hath this Right unalienably appendant to it to be accountable to none but God from whom alone it holdeth its Authority and to whom alone it is subjected And therefore for Subjects to call their Sovereign to account is both to arraign God's Authority and to invade his Peculiar to set our selves down in his Throne and summon his Authority before us and require it to submit its awful Head to our Doom and Sentence which is as high and impious an Injustice as can be offered either to God or Man and till Popery that fardle of religious Impostures set Treason and Rebellion abroach as abhorrent to all Christian Principles and Practices as Hell is to Heaven or Darkness to Light But then since Sovereigns are God's Vicegerents
beyond the Guilt and Demerit of our Fault and whatsoever else is just from a God to a Creature he is unchangeably determined to choose and act by the Law of Righteousness in his own Nature Since therefore the Nature of God is the great Exemplar and Pattern of all Reasonable Natures as being it self the most perfectly reasonable whatsoever is imitable in it we are eternally obliged to copy and transcribe into our own and consequently since he is eternally just that is an eternal Reason why we should be so By dealing justly with one another we act like God whose Nature is the Standard of ours and 't is certainly fit that all Reasonable Beings should deal by one another as God who is the most reasonable dealeth by them that they should choose and act in conformity to him who is the Pattern of Goodness and the Rule of Perfection And herein consisteth our Conformity to him that we live by the Law of his Nature and therefore so long as that Law determineth him to deal justly by us it ought to determine us to deal justly by one another So that the Obligations of Iustice are as eternal as the Nature of God for so long as he is righteous we are bound to be righteous in conformity to him and therefore since he cannot cease to be righteous without ceasing to be happy and good or which is all one to be God We can never cease being obliged to be righteous so long as God is III. ANOTHER eternal Reason by which we are obliged to do justly is the Agreement and Correspondency of it with the Divine Providence and Disposals For God being the supreme Lord and Proprietor of Beings all those Rights and Properties which we claim of one another must be originally derived from him even as the claims of the under-Tenants are from the Head-Landlord All those Natural Rights we are invested with we derive from him who is the Author of our Nature who by creating us what we are and uniting us by Natural Ligaments to one another hath endowed us with all those Rights which we claim as Rational Creatures dwelling in Mortal Bodies and joyned together by Natural Relations and Society So that to deal justly by one another or with respect to our Natural Rights is only to allow one another what God hath entailed upon our Natures and mutually to render those Dues to each other which he hath intitled us to by the very Frame and Condition of our Beings and for us to with-hold from one another those Rights which God hath consigned to us by the State and Formation of our Natures is to quarrel with his Workmanship and declare our selves disatisfied with the State of his Creation For whatsoever I have a Right to as I am a Man I have a Right to by the state and condition of my Nature and therefore he who alloweth me not that alloweth me not to be what God hath made me permitteth me not to enjoy that State and Condition of Nature wherein God hath created and placed me For whatsoever I have Right to as I am a Man I have a Right to from God who made me a Man and therefore he who denyeth me the Right of my Nature thrusteth me down from the Form wherein God hath placed me and useth me as if I were not what God hath made me whereby he doth in effect fly in the Face of my Creatour and quarrel with God for making me what I am In a word it is eternally reasonable that I who am the Creature of God should pay so much Reverence to his all-creating Wisdom and Power as to treat every Creature suitably to the State and Condition of its Creation and consequently to treat Men as Men that is as Beings endowed by God with the common Rights of Humane Nature which if I do not I alienate from my own Kind what God hath endowed it with and so in effect do disallow of his Endowments and impiously call in question the Rights of his Creation For either I must own that God ought not to have constituted Humane Nature with such Rights which would be to impeach his Creation or that I ought to render it those Rights which result from its Frame and Constitution and therefore when by my Actions I disown that I ought to render them I do in effect quarrel with God's Creation for entailing such Rights upon Humane Nature and declare that I am resolved not to be concluded by it but that I will for ever defie the Laws of the Creation and will not abide by that Rule and Order which it hath established in the Nature of Things If therefore it be reasonable eternally reasonable for Creatures to act agreeably to the Order of their Creation this is an eternal Reason why we should render to one another those Rights which God hath bequeathed to us by the Constitution of our Natures AND as our natural Rights are derived to us from God by his Creation so are our acquired also derived from him by his Providence who having reserved to himself the Sovereign Disposal of all our Affairs is our Founder and Benefactor upon whom we all depend for every Right and Property we acquire by our Conversation and Intercourse with one another and that this is mine and that yours is owing to the Providence of God which carves out to every one his Portion of Right and divides as he sees fit his World among his Creatures So that Justice as it refers to acquired Rights consists in allowing every Man to enjoy what God hath given him by his all-disposing Providence and if God hath an eternal Right to share his own Goods among his own Creatures as he pleases then that is an eternal Reason why we should allow one another to enjoy those Portions which he hath shared and divided to us For by depriving another Man of what God's Providence hath given him I do not only rob him of his Right to enjoy it but I also rob God of his Right to dispose it Fore while I with-hold or take away what God hath given to another I take his Goods against his leave and impiously invade his Province of bestowing his own where he pleaseth and whilst I thus carve for my self out of those Allowances which he hath carved to others I live in open Rebellion against his Providence and am an Out-law to his Government For this in effect is the Sense and Meaning of my wrongful Incroachments upon other Mens Rights that I will not be concluded by that Division and Allotment of Things which God hath made but that I will divide and carve for my self and live at my own Allowance that I will not suffer him to share his own World nor endure him to reign Lord and Master in his own Family of Beings but e'en live as I list and take what I can catch without asking God's leave who is the supreme Proprietor and Disposer So that to deal unjustly by Men
his Faults II ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Bodies is Sicknesses and Diseases by which the strength of our Natures is gradually exhausted the Vigour of our Spirits wasted the Activity of our Parts cramp'd and abated and our Bodies are rendered through incessant Pains and Weakness not only useless but burthensom to our Souls In this case therefore the Law of Mercy requires of us to render to our sick Friends Neighbours and Acquaintants all such good Offices as do any way conduce to their Support Refreshment or Recovery As first if their Sickness be such as will safely admit of Discourse and Conversation we are obliged in Mercy to visit them provided that our Company will be acceptable and to endeavour by our Discourse to chear their drooping Spirits to intermix their sorrowful Hours with the Pleasures of good Conversation and to administer to their wearied Thoughts the Supports and Comforts of Religion For chearful and good Discourse is many times better than the richest Cordial it makes the Patient to forget his pain or at least allays and mitigates his Sense of it it diverts his thoughts from their sorrowful Themes and entertains them with brisk and sprightful Idea's it raises the languishing Heart and like David's Musick charms the rage of those evil Spirits which infest it with their unnatural Heats So that by visiting our sick Friends when they are willing to admit of our Conversation and able to bear it we many times prove their best Physicians and administer to them the greatest Relief and Ease and therefore if when we might do them so much good by our Company we needlesly withdraw or absent our selves from them we are very much wanting in our Charity and Mercy towards them But then as we are obliged in Mercy to visit them when their case will safely and conveniently admits of it so we are also obliged by the same Mercy to render them all those necessary Assistances which either their Souls or Bodies do require and need to endeavour to awaken their Minds into serious Thoughts and Purposes to advise them of their Duty and to resolve their Doubts to comfort and support them with the blessed Hopes of Religion and to take all fair Opportunities to prepare their Souls for a happy Death and a glorious Eternity that so whether they recover or no this temporary Sickness of their Bodies may contribute to the eternal Health of their Souls And then in order to their Recovery we stand bound by the Laws of Mercy to contribute what we are able to their bodily Ease and Refreshment to be ready to serve them in all their Necessities and to help them when they cannot help themselves to compassionate their Griefs and bear with their Pevishnesses and to the best of our knowledge to direct them to the ablest Physicians or the most suitable Means and if they are poor and indigent to supply them with all such Remedies as are necessary to their Health and Recovery and lastly to be their earnest Advocates at the Throne of Grace that the God of all Power and Goodness in whose hands are the issues of Life and Death would commiserate their Sorrows and refresh their Weariness and either remove their Sickness or Sanctifie it to their Eternal Health III. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Bodies is outward Force and violence from those in whose power they are such as Captivity and Imprisonment Persecutions or cruel Torments all which do importunately sollicite the timely Succors of our Mercy and Compassion For so for the first of them viz. Bondage and and Captivity it is a sore and comprehensive Misery that commonly draws a long and heavy Chain of Calamities after it for 't is not only a Deprivation of our Liberty which is one of the dearest of all our temporal Blessings but also a Confiscation of it into the Hands and disposal of our Enemies and when our Persons are exposed to the will and tyranny of our Enemies what can be expected from them in this degenerate state of Humane Nature but a cruel and barbarous usage to be worn out with Stripes and Hunger and intolerable Labour and be forced to pine away our wretched Lives in unpitied Anguish and Vexation of Soul especially if those whom we are enslaved to happen to be Enemies to our Religion as well as Country which is the case of those miserable Captives with whom our Mercy is most concerned who being under the power of those that are sworn Enemies to the name of Christ must upon that account expect to be treated with much more Rigour and Severity there being no Enmity so fierce and cruel as that which is backed and set on by Conscience and enraged with zeal for Religion And when Men are ill treated not only as they are Slaves but as they are Christians what a hazardous Temptation are they under to renounce their Christianity and to exchange their hopes of Heaven for their Liberty and to enslave their Souls to Ransom their Bodies And when both their Souls and Bodies are thus exposed to Wretchedness and Misery what woful Circumstances can render them more proper Objects of our Mercy Wherefore in this case we are obliged in Mercy when any fair Opportunity is proposed to us to contribute to their Ransom proportionably to our Ability and so far as it is consistent with the publick Benefit to sollicit their Cause both with God and Men to beseech him to support and preserve them and to persuade all those with whom we have any Power or Interest to a liberal Concurrence towards their Relief and Redemption AND then as for Imprifonment which is a sort of Captivity too what a calamitous Condition is it for a Man to be shut up in a close and unwholsom Durance to dwell with Hunger and Cold and be confined to a hard Lodging a dark Solitude or a wretched Company to be sequestred from the Conversation of his Friends from the Comforts of Diversion and from his Business and Employment and all opportunities of making Provision for his poor Family All which unhappy Circumstances do commonly meet in the State and Condition of Prisoners and render it exceedingly wretched and miserable In which case the Mercy which is required of us is first to visit them in this their uncomfortable Solitude and Confinement supposing that they are our Friends and Acquaintants and to endeavour by our Conversation to divert their Sorrows to raise and strengthen their Hopes and to chear them with fresh Assurances of our Friendship and then to use all just endeavours to mollifie their Adversaries to vindicate their Innocence or to Compound their Debts if they are not able to discharge them But whether they are our Friends or Acquaintants or no the Law of Mercy obliges us as we have Opportunity and Ability to relieve their Necessities to redress their Injuries and if it be just and feasible to contribute to their Enlargement that so they may enjoy themselves with Comfort
that they are only so many Exceptions to a General Rule and therefore ought rather to be looked upon as so many Monsters of Men than as the Standards of Humane Nature For as we do not look upon it as natural to Men to be born without Hands or Feet though there have been Instances of such monstrous and unnatural Births so neither ought we to think it natural to Men to be cruel and unmerciful because of a few Devils in Humane Shape that have pulled out their own Bowels of Compassion If we would understand what is humane and natural we must take our Measures from those who in all other cases do live most conformably to the Laws of Nature and to be sure the more regular Mens Natures are the more you will find them abounding with Pity and Compassion For hence it is that Mercy and Compassion are called Good Nature and Humanity and their contraries Ill Nature and Inhumanity because as the former are inseparable Properties of well-formed and regulated Natures so the latter are such hideous Deformities of Nature as do in effect devest us of our Manhood and render us a kind of Monsters among Men. By all which it is evident that the great Creator hath framed and composed our Nature to Mercy and implanted in it a tender Sympathy and fellow-feelling of each others Miseries by which as by a Voice from Heaven he doth eternally call upon us to let out these our natural Compassions into Acts of Mercy towards one another For the Voice of Nature is a genuine Eccho and Repetition of the Voice of God who by creating in us such a tender Sympathy with one another doth most expresly signifie that it is his Will that we should mutually succour and relieve each other For to what other end should he create in me such a Feeling of my Brother's miseries but only to provoke me by it to ease and succour him why should he cause me to partake as I do of other Mens Pains and Pleasures but to excite me thereby to use my best endeavour to asswage their Pains and advance their Pleasures Since therefore the God of Nature hath made my Neighbour's Misery my Pain and his Content my Pleasure and by the indissoluble Bands of mutual Sympathy hath linked our Fortunes and Affections together so that 't is for my own Ease to ease him and for my own Pleasure to please him this is an eternal and immutable Reason why I should be merciful to him III. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and by which it is constituted morally Good is the near and intimate Relation of those Persons to us upon whom our Mercy is to be exercised For there is between Men and Men a most intimate Kindred and Relation as being all derived from one common Root whose prolifick Sap hath sprouted into infinite Branches which like the Boughs of Nebuchadnezzar's Tree have spread themselves to all the ends of the Earth And as we are all Children of the same Parents and consequently Brethren by Nature so we do all Communicate of the same Nature as being compounded of the same Materials and animated with the same Forms having all the same Faculties Inclinations Appetites and Affections and being only so many several Copies transcribed from the same Original and there is no other Difference between us but what is made by things that are extrinsick and accidental to our Natures So that in short we are all but one and the same Substance attired in a diverse Garb of Circumstances divided into several Times and Places and diversify'd by the little Accidents of Colour and Stature Figure and Proportions in all which perhaps within a little while we shall differ as much from our selves as we do now from other Men. For do but compare your selves in your Youth or in your Health or in your Prosperity with your selves in your Age or in your Sickness or in your Adversity and you will find as much Difference between your selves and your selves as you do now between your selves and others so that in reality other Men are as much you now as you are your selves in other Circumstances we being all the same in every stable essential Ingredient of our Natures and being only diversified by such Accidents from one another as will in a little time diversifie us from our selves Thus the Apostle saith Acts xvii 26. He hath made of one blood that is of one Nature all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth There being therefore such a close Conjunction such a strict Union of Natures between Men and Men so that every other Man is every other Man's self a few trifling Circumstances excepted this is an everlasting Reason why we should treat them as we do our selves with all Compassion and Humanity For to commiserate one who is my other self is that which I am obliged to by own Self-Love which God hath made an eternal Law to my Nature 't is to feed a Member of my own Body and nourish a Branch of my own Root yea 't is to feed and succour my own Nature that is only individuate from mine by I know not what Metaphysical Principle and cloathed in different Accidents and Circumstances So that now the very same Self-Love which doth so importunately instigate us upon all occasions to redress our own miseries ought in all reason to provoke us to relieve and succour other Men since all the Miseries they endure are the Miseries of our own Nature insomuch that we run their Fortunes and by a natural Communion are Partakers of their Pains and Pleasures For the Humane Nature which is common to us and them endures the smart of their afflictions and bleeds through every wound that is given them so that by pouring into those Wounds the Balsam of our Mercy we do an Act of kindness to our selves and wisely consult our own Preservation As on the contrary by dealing cruelly and unmercifully by other Men we do affront and violate our own Natures and most unnaturally thwart that Principle of self-love which God hath implanted in us for our own Preservation For he whom thou treatest with so much Contempt and Cruelty is thy own self individuated into another Person and wears thy Nature under other Circumstances he is Man of thy Manhood Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone and no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Eph. v. 29. Wherefore thou canst not deal cruelly by him without wounding thy self through his sides and committing an unnatural Outrage upon the Humane Nature whereof he is equally Partaker with thee IV. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Equitableness of it to our own State and Circumstances for no Man ever was or ever can be so happy as not to have need of Mercy for himself The best of Men are Sinners before God and for that are liable
Laws of Generation he hath ordered all Men to come into the World weak and helpless and unable to provide for themselves he was bound in Goodness to oblige their Parents by a natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Affection to nourish and take Care of them till they grow able to take Care for themselves that so they might not be utterly abandoned so since he hath thought good to expose us here to so many Miseries and Calamities he stood obliged by the eternal Benignity of his Nature to oblige us by all the Bowels of Mercy to succour and relieve one another till we are grown up to that Perfection of Happiness wherein we shall have no more need of Succour that so at present we may not be left destitute and forlorn but may find all that Relief in one another's Mercy which is wanting to us in his immediate Providence For 't is for wise and merciful Ends that he permits us to be miserable here to correct our Follies and polish and cultivate our Nature and train us up under a severe Discipline into a State of Everlasting Happiness and therefore for the Redress of these Miseries which for our Good he is fain to inflict upon us it was necessary he should Consign us to the Protection of one anothers Mercy that so this for the present might be a Cordial to our Griefs a Supply to our Wants an Ease to our Oppressions and a Sanctuary to our Calamities till Misery hath effected the gracious End she designed it for and then he will release our Mercy from its Work and permit it to enjoy an Everlasting Sabbath But so long as he thinks fit to continue us in this state of Misery his own Benignity will oblige him to oblige us to assist and comfort one another by the mutual Exercise of our Mercy that so being instead of Gods to one another we may not be utterly abandoned to Wretchedness but by mutually succouring each other might all of us be tolerably happy which we should all of us most certainly be were we but so benign and merciful to one another as he expects and requires CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Mortification GOD having made us free Agents and planted in our Natures an uncontroulable Liberty of Choice in Wisdom he hath so ordered and disposed things that as we cannot be Miserable unless we will so neither shall we be happy whether we will or no. For as his Goodness would not suffer him to make us necessarily miserable so neither would his Wisdom permit him to entail our Happiness on our Natures and make it inseparable to our Beings for should he have done so he must have altered the Laws of his own wise Creation and made those Beings to act necessarily which he made to act freely For Happiness is the End of all our Actions and therefore should God have made that necessary to us he must have made us to act towards it with the same Necessity as inanimate Bodies do towards their proper Center and consequently there would have been no such thing as a free Agent in the lower World That we may always act therefore according to the Condition and Frame of a free Nature the Foundations of all our Happiness and Misery are laid in the right Use or Abuse of our Liberty and do immediately spring out of the Wisdom or Folly of our own Choices so that if we chuse wisely according to the Laws of Virtue and right Reason we do thereby advance towards that happy and heavenly State we were created for as on the contrary if we chuse foolishly according to the rash Counsels of our own vicious Appetites and sensual Inclinations we thereby sink our selves deeper and deeper towards the Abyss of endless and inconceivable Misery For such is the Frame and Constitution of our Natures that we cannot be good and miserable nor vicious and happy and accordingly the Apostle sets before us the inevitable Fate of our own Actions Rom. viii 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live What these Deeds of the Flesh or Body are the Apostle telleth us Gal. v. 19 20 21. The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like and they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God This is the Muster-roll of that formidable Army of Wickednesses with which we are to engage and which we must vanquish or perish for ever If ye mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live i. e. if ye kill and destroy them if ye wholly cease from them both as to the outward Act of them and the inward Appetite and Inclination towards them For Mortification doth not only consist in a formal Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin or a superficial Skinning over the Orifice of its Wounds but searches to the very bottom of that putrid Core within and eats out the inward Corruption from whence those outward Blisters arise It purges the Heart as well as the Hands and drains those impure Inclinations which are the Springs of all Impiety and Wickedness BUT to handle this Subject more particularly I shall do these three things First SHEW wherein Mortification consists Secondly WHAT are the Proper Instruments of it Thirdly WHAT are the most prevailing Motives to it I. WHEREIN doth Mortification consist I answer in these three Things 1. In Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin 2. In not consenting unto any Sin 3. In a constant Endeavour to extinguish our involuntary Sins I. MORTIFICATION requires Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin For it is impossible that any Man should mortify his Lusts while he indulges himself in the free Practice of them because Practice is the Fuel that foments and feeds the inward vicious Inclinations and both pampers and enrages the lustful Appetites of the Soul For that Delight which we reap from acting our own Concupiscences doth but increase and provoke them it being natural to Men when they have been pleased with any Action to be more vehemently inclined to repeat it the Delight which they found in the former Enjoyment provoking their Desires to enjoy it again So that we may as well hope to put out a Fire by a continual feeding it with Fuel and blowing it into Flame as to mortify a Lust whilst by our continued practising it we nurse and cherish it and do at once both feed and irritate its Flames If therefore we would ever mortify the Lusts of the Flesh we must strictly restrain our selves from all outward Acts of them For whilst we indulge our selves in these we feed our Disease and pamper our bad Inclinations into vicious Habits and our vicious Habits into sinful Necessities II. MORTIFICATION consists in the Dissent of our Wills from all sinful Proposals
of its benign Influences and altogether indisposed to be wrought upon by it For as the Sun enlightens not the inward parts of an impervious Dunghil and hath no other effect upon it but only to draw out its filthy Reeks and Steams though as soon as he lifts his head above the Hemisphere he immediately transforms into his own Likeness all that vast Space whether he can diffuse his Beams and turns it into a Region of Light even so the divine Glory and Beauty which is the Object of the beatifical Vision will never illustrate lewd and filthy Souls their Temper being impervious unto his heavenly Irradiations and wholly indisposed to be enlightned by it but instead of that it will irritate their devilish Rage against it and provoke them to bark at that Light which they cannot endure whereas it no sooner arises upon well-disposed Minds but it will immediately chase away all those Reliques of Darkness remaining in them and transform them into its own Likeness But doubtless the Sight of the divine Purity and Goodness will be so far from exciting sensual and devilish Spirits to transcribe and imitate it that it will rather inspire them with Indignation against it and provoke them to curse and blaspheme the Author of it Fourthly and Lastly IN every sensual and devilish Soul there is an utter Incongruity and Disagreement to the Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect For even in this Life we see how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked it spoils them of their fulsome Mirth and checks them in those Riots and Scurrilities which are the Life and Piquancy of their Conversation So that when the good Man takes his leave they reckon themselves deliver'd his Presence being a Confinement to their Folly and Wickedness And as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World for how is it possible there should be any Agreement between such distant and contrary Tempers between such sensual and malicious and such pure and benigne Spirits What a Torment would it be to a spightful and devilish Spirit to be confined to a Society that is governed by the Laws of Love and Friendship What an Infelicity to a carnalized Soul that nauseates all Pleasures but what are fleshly and sensual to be shut up among those pure and abstracted Spirits that live wholly upon the Pleasures of Wisdom and Holiness and Love Doubtless it would be as agreeable to a Wolf to be governed by the Ten Commandments and fed with Lectures of Philosophy as for such a Soul to live under the Laws and be entertained with the Delights of the heavenly Society So that could these wicked Spirits be admitted into the Company of the Blessed they would soon be weary of it and perhaps it would be so tedious and irksom to them that they would rather chuse to associate themselves with Devils and damned Ghosts than to undergoe the Torment of a Conversation so infinitely repugnant to their Natures accounting it more eligible to live in the dismal Clamour of hellish Threnes and Blasphemies than to have a tedious Din of heavenly Praises and Hallelujahs perpetually ringing in their Ears And indeed considering the hellish Nature of a wicked Soul how contrary it is to the Goodness and Purity of Heaven I have sometimes been apt to think that it will be less miserable in those dismal Shades where the wretched Furies like so many Snakes and Adders do nothing but hiss at and sting one another for ever than it would be were it admitted into the glorious Society of heavenly Lovers whose whole Conversation consists in loving and reloving and is nothing else but a perpetual Intercourse of mutual Indearments For this would be an Employment so infinitely repugnant to its black and devilish Disposition that rather than endure so much Outrage and Violence it would of its own accord forsake the blessed Abodes to flee to Hell for Sanctuary from the Torment of being in Heaven But this however we may rationally conclude that so long as the prevailing Temper of our Souls is sensual and devilish we are incapable of the Society of blessed Spirits and that if it were possible for us to be admitted into it our Condition would be very unhappy till our Temper was chang'd so that it is a plain Case both from God's Ordination and from the Nature of the Thing that our eternal Happiness and Welfare depends upon our mortifying the deeds of the Body To offer some Practical Inferences from hence I. WE may perceive how unreasonable it is for any Man to presume upon going to Heaven upon any account whatsoever without mortifying his Lusts. For he that thinks to go to Heaven without Mortification and Amendment presumes both against the Decrees of God and the Nature of Things he believes all the Threatnings of the Gospel to be nothing else but so many Bugs and Scare-crows and though God hath told him again and again that unless he forsake his sins he shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet he fondly imagines that when it comes to the Trial God will never be so severe as he pretends but will rather revoke the Decree that is gone out of his mouth than exclude out of the Paradise of endless Delights a Soul that is infinitely offensive to him As if God were so invincibly fond and indulgent as that rather than excommunicate an obstinate Rebel from Happiness he would chuse to prostitute the Honour of his Laws and Government and commit an Outrage upon the Rectitude and Purity of his own Nature For so long as he is a pure God he cannot but be displeased with impure Souls and so long as he is a wise Governour he cannot but be offended with those that trample upon his Laws so that before he can admit a wicked Soul into Heaven he must have extinguish'd all his natural Antipathy to Sin and stifled his just Resentment of our wilful Affronts to his Authority When therefore we can find any reason to imagine that God is no Enemy to sin and that he hath no regard of his own Authority then and not till then we may have some Pretence to presume upon going to Heaven without Mortification and Amendment But supposing this Hinderance were removed and that God were so easie as to be induced to prefer the Happiness of a wicked Soul before the Honour of his Government and the Purity of his Nature yet still there is an invincible Obstacle behind that renders her future Felicity impossible and that is that it cannot be without a plain Contradiction to the Nature of Things For as I have shewed you already the Genius and Temper of a wicked Soul is wholly repugnant to all the Felicities of the other World so that if they were set before her She would not be able to enjoy them but must be forced to pine and famish amidst all that Plenty of Delights there being not one Viand in all
consequently that God will witness falsly if what he saith be false which is such a Blasphemy against the God of Truth as no Vengance can sufficiently expiate And as in the matter of Assertion every Man hath a Right to Truth so he hath also in the matter of Promise provided he be promised nothing but what is lawful and possible and therefore for any Man to promise what he intendeth not to perform or go back from his promise when he lawfully may or can perform it is an Act of unjust Rapine and I may every whit as honestly rob another of what is his without my Promise as of what I have made his by it he having an equal Right to both by the fundamental Laws of Society But if he promiseth with an Oath as in matters of publick Trust and Administration we usually do he doth not only owe a just and punctual Performance unto Man but to God himself whom he calleth to witness that what he sweareth he intendeth to perform according to the true and natural Meaning of his Words and he solemnly invocateth God to avenge his Non-performance So that if he fail of what he hath promised by his Oath or doth not execute it according to its true meaning he is guilty not only of a high Injustice to Man but of a horrid Prophanation of the name of God whom he hath solemnly called to witness to a lye whose Wrath he hath imprecated on his own head and whose Justice he hath obliged by a dreadful Contract severely to avenge his Perjury He therefore who lyeth equivocateth or forsweareth himself whether it be in asserting or promising violateth that universal Contract truly to signifie our meaning to another which humane Society implyeth and upon which it is founded and whilst he doth so there is no Intercourse can be had with him but he is a Creature by himself an Enemy to the World that liveth in a state of war with all Mankind and out of all Laws and Obligations of humane Society and so whilst he continueth in it and pretendeth to observe its natural Rights he doth by his Equivocations and Lyes wrong and injure all he converseth with IV. BY Vertue of our being united in Society we have a Right to Credit and to a fair Estimation among one another For the great end of humane Society is that by their mutual Intercourses Men might aid and assist one another and it is for this purpose that Men combine themselves into Societies that thereby they may enjoy a delightful Conversation void of Fear Suspicion and Danger and by exchanging their Labours Counsels and Commodities may be mutually helpful and beneficial to one another And this End no man can ever attain without having a fair Credit and Estimation among those with whom he dealeth and converseth for who will trust to a Man of a lost Reputation Or who would willingly have any Intercourse with one whom he cannot trust and confide in Credit is the main Sinew that holdeth Society together and there is scarce any Conversation or Dealing between Man and Man but what requireth a mutual Trust and Confidence in one another Since therefore all Trust and Credit is founded upon good Repute every Member of our Society who hath not forfeited his good Name hath a natural Right to be well-reputed and spoken of and whosoever either by false Witness publick Slanders or private Whisperings endeavoureth to attaint an innocent Man's Reputation doth thereby injuriously attempt to exclude him from the Conversation of Men and shut the door of humane Society against him And this how lightly soever it may be thought of is one of the highest Acts of Injustice that one Man can offer to another for a good name saith Solomon is rather to be chosen than great Riches and loving favour rather than Silver and Gold Prov. xxii 1. And indeed in its consequences it is much more so to every Man because upon his good name his ability to do good to himself or friends or Neighbours the Success of his Affairs his best Comforts chiefest Interests and dearest Conveniencies of Life yea and sometimes his Life it self dependeth so that in defaming of others we commonly rob sometimes murder and always injure them and there are no damages so irreparable no wounds so incurable no Scars so indelible as those of a slanderous Tongue For wheresoever its venomous Arrows fall no eminency of Rank dignity of Place sacredness of Office no innocence of Life circumspection of Behaviour benignity of Nature and Deportment can protect Men against them no Force can resist no Act can decline them no Vindication assoil their mischievous impressions but still aliquid adhaerebit let the Innocence they wound be never so well cured some mark of dishonour will remain Whosoever therefore either forgeth or spreadeth or rashly entertaineth a Slander against any Man doth in so doing injuriously offend against the natural Rights of Society and is at once a Thief a Ravisher and a Murderer a Robber of the good name a Deflowrer of the Reputation and a Murderer of the Honour of his Neighbour And yet Good God how strangely doth this unjust and villanous Practice prevail in all Societies and Conversations of Men Among whom it is grown so common to asperse causelesly that no Man wondereth at it few deslike it and scarce any detest it but whilst the black-mouthed Calumniator is blustering against all that stand in his way and exhaling his poisonous Breath from his venomous Heart he is heard not only with Patience but with Pleasure and looked upon as a Man of a notable Talent and judged very serviceable to the Party he is engaged in So that now this odious Vice is grown a fashionable Humour a pleasing Entertainment a knack of carrying on some curious feat of Policy and so Epidemical is the mischief grown that it is dangerous for a Man who hath any sense of Honesty or Iustice to come into any Conversation without being tempted to wish himself sequestered from Society and to cry out with the Prophet Jer. ix 2 3. Oh that I had in the Wilderness a lodging place of way-faring Men that I might leave my people and go from them for they are an Assembly of treacherous men and they bend their tongues like a bow for lyes V. BY vertue of our being united in Society we have a Right to Protection from one another for it was for this Reason that God brought us forth in a state of Society and linked us to one another by the Inclinations of our Nature that so we who are singly a sort of the most defenceless Creatures whom nature hath not furnished either with the defensive or offensive Armour which is natural to other Creatures might by a Union of Forces be able to secure our selves against Forein Outrage and Violence and being associated for this end by the Law of our Nature we are thereby obliged so far as we are able to defend one another All Mankind are
merciful Endeavours may through the Concurrence of Divine Grace prove blessed means of their final Recovery and Happiness And if so What better Office can we do in the World or what higer Dignity can we aspire to than to be the Saviours and Redeemers of Souls And if by our Instructions and Admonitions we might do so much good in our common Conversation among Men How much more might we do in our own Families For our Children and Servants being under our Power and Government will upon that account receive our Admonitions with greater Awe and Reverence and consequently comply with them with greater Ease and Readiness And then we having the Conduct of their young and tender Years in which their Minds and Manners may be easily shaped in any Form it is in our Power to stamp upon them what Impressions we please So that would we but now take Care to instruct their Minds and regulate their Wills with wise and good Principles and Admonitions we might easily impregnate their Natures with strong dispositions to Vertue and Religion and so by degrees cultivate those Dispositions into a State of Grace and habitual Goodness And when this blessed Effect is so much in our Power what a cruel Neglect is it not to contribute towards it so far as we are able Should you see a Mother deny a morsel of Bread to her famished Child when she hath enough and to spare or strip it stark naked in a deep Winter's Frost and expose it to the Mountains to be starved with Cold Would you not brand her for a Monster of her Sex and exclaim against her with the greatest Detestation and Abhorrence And yet alas that unnatural Cruelty which we should so much abhor in another we our selves are too often guilty of in a much higher Degree For by neglecting to instruct and educate our Families in Religion we deny them the most necessary thing in the World even that which is the Food and Raiment of their Souls without which they cannot live but must necessarily starve and famish for ever And therefore by how much more precious their Souls are than their Bodies and by how much more deplorable eternal Death is than temporal by so much more barbarous and inhumane are those Parents who do not institute their Children in Religion than those who suffer them to perish with Hunger or Cold. For are you such Infidels as to imagine that they are born only for this Life and that there is nothing beyond the Grave in which they are concerned If not What account can you give of this your unnatural Neglect of them If you think they must live for ever when they are gone out of this World Why then do not you take care that they may live in the other World as well as in this O Improvident that we are Can we be so much concerned that they may be happy for a Moment and yet so indifferent whether they are happy or miserable for ever Are their Souls such Trifles or their everlasting Fate such an Indifferent Matter as that when it is so much in your Power you think it not worth your while to concern your selves so much about them Wherefore in the Name of God consider with your selves what an infinite deal of Good you are capable of doing them by your Pious Instructions and Admonitions and what an unnatural Barbarity it would be to omit and neglect it CHAP. II. Of Mercy as it relieveth the Miseries of the Body I SHALL now proceed to the second sort of Miseries viz. such as do affect Mens Bodies under which I shall shew you what Acts of Mercy this kind of Miseries requireth of us Now these as the former may be reduced to Five Heads First NATURAL Blemishes and Defects Secondly SICKNESSES and Diseases Thirdly OUTWARD Force and Violence injuriously offered to them by those in whose Power they are Fourthly CIVIL or arbitrary Punishments inflicted on them for Injuries received Fifthly WANT of outward Necessaries I. ONE of the Miseries which affects Mens Bodies is their natural Blemishes and Defects such as Lameness or Crookedness the Want of our Senses or the disproportion of our Parts or Features all which are real Infelicities for as much as they render our Bodies either less useful to our selves or less graceful and amiable to others And indeed our Body being an Object of Sense is usually much more remarked and taken notice of than our Soul which is an invisible Being and consequently the Defects and Blemishes of our Bodies lying more in view are much more liable to be reflected on both by our selves and those we converse with than the Stains and Deformities of our Minds and Wills which being placed out of sight are less exposed to Observation Which is the reason that our Corporeal Defects are so grievous to us because being so apparent as they are both to our own and others Senses they do not only upbraid us to our selves who being led by Sense are apt to value our selves by sensible Graces and Perfections but are also prone to create a mean and contemptible Opinion of us in the Minds of others the very suspition of which if we are not raised above such mean Considerations will be exceeding apt to grieve and afflict us In this case therefore the Law of Mercy requires us not to contemn or undervalue Men not to upbraid or reproach them upon the account of any bodily Blemish or Defect but to over-look these as inconsiderable Flaws of their Case and Outside and render them all those Honours and Respects which the Graces and Vertues of their Minds deserve Considering that the Body is not the Man but the immortal Mind that inhabits it and that many times the richest Diamonds wear the roughest Coats and Outsides that those natural Blemishes are Infelicities which Men could not prevent and which they cannot rectify that it was not in their Power to order Nature in their own Composure but that what they had there was such as they could neither give themselves nor yet refuse when it was bequeathed to them and that therefore to deride and expose them for any Mishape or Blemish in their Composition is to fling Salt into their Wounds to fret and inflame their Misery And yet alas How common a Practice is this to sport with the Deformities of Men as if God and Nature had designed them for so many Finger-buts of Scorn and Derision to make them the Themes of our Jests and Laughter which is a lamentable instance of the foul Degeneracy of Humane Nature that can thus play upon Misery and turn that which is an Object of Pity and Compassion into a Triumph of Mirth and Drollery for certainly how light and trifling soever it may appear through the common Practice of it it is a sign of barbarous ill-Ill-nature for Men to deride those Defects and Blemishes in another which he is too prone to grieve at but yet cannot help as being his Infelicities and not