he who seeks not into the true causes should transfer the fault upon the Superior nature and either say there is no Providence or that our affairs are not well administred by it But such opinions as these do not only aggravate the crimes of our life past but excite the mind to all wickedness and deprive it of liberty of will in that they make it ignorant of the causes of the present evils But that you may know how we ought to think of these things hear the Verses MOREOVER WHATSOEVER EVILS MEN UNDERGO BY DIVINE FORTUNE BEAR YOUR PART MILDLY NEITHER FRET AT IT BUT YOU SHOULD CURE IT WHAT YOU CAN YET CONSIDER THIS THAT FATE DOES NOT DISTRIBUTE MUCH OF THIS TO GOOD MEN. Bear patiently what ill by Heaven is sent And add not to your Griefs by discontent Yet rid them if you can But know withall Few of these Thunder-storms on good men fall Before we begin our Explication we must premise that by EVILS here is meant whatsoever makes the way of life laborious and troublesom as Sickness Poverty loss of Friends Reproach and the like For these are grievances not easie to be born in life but not really EVIL or pernicious to the Soul unless from them we take occasion to sin which we may doe also in good things if we don't use them rightly as Health Riches and Power For we may doe ill with these and obtain Vertue with the contrary But real EVILS are voluntary offences such as are inconsistent with Vertue and these are Injustice Intemperance and whatever else is contrary to that which is excellent For none of all these can be said to be done well as thus such a man does Injustice well or Riots well as we may say of external Evils that a man labours under Sickness or Poverty well as often as he bears such things according to right reason But the word well is not used in the diseases of the Soul because they are deviations from and detriments to right reason whose dictates the soul of Man disregards though engraven and implanted naturally on it when blinded with passion That right reason is implanted in Men this is a sure sign that an unjust man gives a right judgment in those things wherein his interest is not concern'd and so an intemperate man reads lectures of Temperance to others In a word every wicked man uses right counsels in those things wherein he is not byass'd aside by his passions So that a wicked man may turn vertuous by a retracting his former wickedness Neither to this end is it necessary that wrong reason should be in us that this might be the principle of Vice as the other is of Vertue For right reason alone like the Law of the land is a sufficient standard whereby to define what is done according to it and what against it and to approve of the one and restrain the other Neither is there any need of any principle of Evil whether internal or external But there is great need of a principle of Good and of that only and that again is either separate from the rational nature which is God or lodg'd and enthron'd within us which is right reason And after this manner are EVILS distinguish'd Among which he does not say that those which are voluntary are distributed to men by the DIVINE FORTUNE but only those which are necessary and are not now in our power but which follow our heretofore voluntary and avoidable offences which are grievous as we said but capable of receiving ornament from Vertue For Poverty is adorn'd by a moderate diet and meanness of extract is raised by prudence So the loss of Children commends the good man's patience and meekness who is able to say My Son is dead is he not then render'd back again and I knew I begat a Mortal And in like manner all other things varnish'd over with the beauty of Vertue become more gracefull Now we come to enquire what are those DIVINE FORTUNES whereby men undergo outward calamities If by the divine sentence Riches were allotted to one and Poverty to another antecedently and absolutely this should be call'd the divine Will and not the DIVINE FORTUNE If again nothing presiding be signifi'd by this Phrase but it happen by chance that one man is happy and another unhappy then it should be call'd only FORTUNE without the Epithet DIVINE But if God the supreme Arbiter distribute to every one according to his deserts and is not the cause of our being such or such but for this end only is arm'd with Justice that he might make equal retributions according to its laws then the manifestations of his judgments are deservedly call'd DIVINE FORTUNES thereby intimating to us that God has no absolute antecedent purpose to punish one and honour another but only as he behaves himself so or so and that the cause of this is not to be sought for out of our selves So that the connexion of our Election and his judgment makes a DIVINE FORTUNE All therefore that is meant by DIVINE FORTUNE is nothing else but the judgment of God against Sin And so the artificial contrivance of this Phrase salves God's providence and the Soul's liberty and immortality So that the matters of our life come not to pass altogether by fate nor yet at random and fortuitously nor is our whole life to be resolv'd one way But whenever we offend in things within our power 't is to be referr'd to our own choice but whatsoever follows our sins according to the laws of Justice that is our FATE and whatever good proceeds primarily from God is to be referr'd to Providence But we should ascribe nothing of the things that are to a fortuitous and temerarious cause no nor any thing that is done unless from the event and connexion of those things which Providence Fate and humane Will work antecedently something follow the first efficient causes which may be call'd fortuitous For example 'T is the will of the Judge to punish a Murtherer and not this particular man as such and yet he punishes this man whom he would not because he has assumed to himself the place and condition of a Murtherer Now the antecedent and absolute will of the Judge is to punish a Murtherer but 't is through accident that he wills the punishment of this man because he voluntarily assumed the person of a Murtherer Again 't was the will of a wicked man to commit Murther but not to suffer punishment on that account This antecedent purpose of committing Murther was dependent upon the liberty of his will but then torments and punishment follow by accident Now of these the Law is the cause which suggests to the Judge a will of punishing evil men in general and this Murtherer in particular The same I consider in the divine Nature when the will of Man determines to doe evil and when the will of the Judge who is the defender of the Law is wholly bent to
animadvert upon the violations of it from this concourse arises a DIVINE FORTUNE through which he that does such things is accounted worthy of such punishments The first refers the cause of judgment to the liberty of the will which prefer'd evil the last to the reason of legal discipline which follows the quality of the offence Now the Law reconciles both these which takes care that all may be well as far as it can and nothing amiss For that pre-existing in the divine goodness will not suffer the evil to go unpunish'd lest a continued and Chronical wickedness induce an oblivion of all good whose necessary remembrance is kept alive by the justice of those who have the charge of the Laws The Law therefore joyns together as 't was said those whose part is to judge and those who are to be punish'd that it may work out a peculiar good from both For if it be more advantageous to suffer punishment than not and if Justice inflicts some hurt to correct and retrench the luxuriancy of evil it is plain that the Law that it may both help and be help'd does set the Judge over the Offender to preserve it self and deliver the Offender to the Judge to animadvert upon him according to his desert that by his sufferings he may be brought to the remembrance and consideration of the Law For that very law which men deny in doing ill they desire when they suffer ill For example he that does an injury wishes there were no God that he might not suffer the punishment which hangs over his head but when the same man is injur'd himself he wishes there were one to redress his injury 'T is fit therefore that they who doe injury should feel the evil of it themselves so that what they did not see in the commission being besotted and blinded with Covetousness they may learn by the discipline of Suffering provided they suffer well But if they stubbornly persist still in their wickedness perhaps they themselves reap less advantage yet without doubt their example will be a lesson of Instruction to the wise who consider the cause of their sufferings Now the most proper principles of judgment we take to be these the goodness of God the Law proceeding from it and the inherent law of right-reason which is transgress'd and though a domestick God impiously affronted But the event of this judgment are those grievances which render our life unpleasant through bodily pains These we are commanded by the Verse to BEAR MEEKLY by looking into their causes to prevent them what we can and to turn to our advantage what seems hurtfull And above all by the most exalted vertue to render our selves worthy to partake of the divine good But if any one be not yet ripe for that yet let him at least attain to civil good by the help of middle vertue For this is that whereby he exhorted us to BEAR AFFLICTIONS MILDLY and generously and to CURE our selves of them What other remedy can there be besides what has been said by which the grief of Sufferings may appear consonant to Reason and a method of Cure be found out The sum of all is this God the Law-giver and Judge countenances what is good and takes away what is evil so that he is wholly free from the imputation of Sin But those who are voluntarily wicked and forget right reason which is implanted in them he punishes as evil according to the purport of the Law which forbids all evil and as men by reason of the connexion of their wills and the laws which we call FORTUNE For the Law does not punish Man simply as Man but as Evil. Now the primary cause of his being Evil was his own will But since his being Evil the cause of which was in himself and not in God he suffers punishment which is in the divine will and not in his own The only scope of the Law is that which is worthy of God and profitable to Men to extirpate and purge away wickedness by the various discipline of Justice and to pluck back the Soul just rushing into debauchery to the remembrance of right reason Since therefore this is the settled constitution of the Law the same retribution cannot be made to all For that wou'd neither be equitable in it self nor profitable to us The difference of the matter under judgment should give a difference in sentence For how can he be thought worthy of the same with another who is not like him The DIVINE FORTUNE is therefore to be BORN MEEKLY neither ought he to take it hainously who suffers punishment and is purg'd as much as God thinks fit from those things which seem to clog the pleasure of life Such reasoning as this would cure us of our former offences and convert us to our right reason for the future For how can it be but that he who knows misery to be the fruit of Vice avoid the path which leads thither Besides if it be at all convenient to be angry under afflictions he will think it more reasonable to be angry with himself that with God who puts a stop to his wickedness by the instruments of Justice whereby he may be brought to the knowledge and remembrance of the divine Laws so that 't will be his own fault if he fall into calamity For afflictions are not distributed to men by chance if there be a God over us and bounds of Justice proportioning every man's lot to his merit Wherefore 't is a true saying that CALAMITIES FALL NOT MUCH UPON GOOD MEN. For first will bear them patiently as the good pleasure of Heaven and then through the help of their vertues which alleviate the most poignant calamities Besides there is good hopes that the residue of our life shall not be troubled with such accidents since divine good is laid up for those who rise up to the highest degree of Vertue and humane good for those of the middle order Besides our afflictions will be healed if by patience we learn the method of Cure For how can they supplicate God in a manner becoming his Majesty who deny his Providence and Justice to be exercised about humane affairs and that our immortal Soul has a share in those outward things as by her own voluntary motions she renders her self worthy For whence he will find occasion to bear this present fortune patiently that does not refer it to these things is not be imagin'd much less how he should cure it For he cannot rest contented in afflictions as things indifferent or better than the contrary for in themselves consider'd they are to be avoided as full of grief and trouble Our nature does not affect such things as desirable for themselves unless some good be expected to accrue to us from the suffering of evil There is a necessity therefore of Impatience and Uneasiness and that our misery be augmented from the ignorance of our selves and yet that we suffer punishment nevertheless but our
their admirable distinction For they were not produced fortuitously and then ranged into Order afterwards but receiv'd their Order and Being together as if Heaven were an Animal and these the several members which so retain their Connexion in their specifical distinction and conjunction that 't is impossible to imagine they should alter their Situation without the dissolution of the Universe Which can never happen since the first cause of them is altogether immutable both as to his Essence and as to his Power and since his goodness is not adventitious but essential to him whereby he promotes the welfare of all things For there can be no other reasonable cause alledg'd of the worlds Production besides the essential goodness of God For God is naturally good and consequently cannot possibly conceive any envy or hatred against the condition of any Creature Besides whatever other causes are assign'd for the production of things besides the divine goodness would rather become the necessities of men than the majesty of God Now God being thus naturally good first produced those beings which most resemble himself next those of a middle likeness and last of all those which are at the greatest remove from the divine likeness of all them that bear his image Such equall pace did the order of things keep with their Essences that what was more excellent took place of what was less and that not only in the whole kinds but in the Individuals of each species For the ORDER of things was not owing to Chance nor to an after-resolution but 't was the LAW of the Creation which variously order'd things according to the dignity of their natures Hence 't is that the Precept of honouring according to the LAW does not only refer to the IMMORTAL GODS but is to be understood in Common both of the ILLUSTRIOUS HEROES and the SOULS of Men. For there is a multitude of Species under every Genus rank'd according to greater or less dignity And this is the nature and ORDER of Intelligent Beings But you 'll ask what 's the LAW and the HONOUR appendant to it We answer again that by LAW is meant the unalterable and productive power of God which gave being to the divine Off-spring and set them in an eternal and unchangeable order By HONOUR agreeable to the LAW is meant the knowledge of their essences which are honour'd and an imitation of all their practicable excellencies For whom we love we endeavour what we can to resemble and the only way we have of giving HONOUR to one that 's above all want is to receive that good which he reaches out to us For you must not think you HONOUR God by giving him any thing but by qualifying your self to receive from him For as the Pythagoreans say the best way of Honouring God is by conforming your mind to him Whosoever HONOURS God as if he needed it does by consequence make himself greater than God Besides God is not at all Honour'd by the most costly oblations unless they proceed from a divinely disposed mind The gifts and sacrifices of Fools are only fewel for the flames and the Offerings which they hang up in the Temple serve only to enrich the Sacrilegious But a divine disposition of mind lays a sure foundation since it unites a Man to God For 't is necessary that every thing have a tendency to its like Hence the Priest only is counted the Wise man the Friend of God and one peculiarly qualifi'd to make addresses to Heaven For he only knows how to HONOUR who does not confound the excellencies of them to whom HONOUR is due who in the first place makes an Oblation of himself works his Soul into a sacred Statue and prepares his mind as a Temple for the reception of the divine light What such acceptable Present can you make from the things which are without such as may become an Image ingrafted as it were into the Divinity or a gift that may be made one with God All which is necessarily verified in an intelligent and purifi'd nature For as the same Pythagoreans use to say God has not on earth a place more properly his own than a pure Soul Agreeable hereto are the words of the Oracle In pious hearts I love as well As in my heaven it self to dwell Now the Pious man is he who having right conceptions of God offers his own perfections as the best HONOUR to the Author of all good and with a design to beautifie and inrich his Soul applies himself to him whose nature is to communicate So that by being qualifi'd to receive good he HONOURS the giver of it Whoever thinks to HONOUR God any other way than by himself makes honour consist in the profusion of his riches since he does not make an Oblation of his own vertue but of things without But alas what 's this A Sacrifice without a Heart such a gift as a good man would not accept of Hear the words of the Oracle again to him who with an ill disposition of mind sacrificed an whole Hecatomb and then ask'd how acceptable his oblation was But I in noble Hermion's Cakes delight So that the little frugal Offering was prefer'd before the other's magnificent one only because 't was adorn'd with Piety of mind With this all things find acceptance with God without it nothing And so much for Piety and Sanctity But whereas the LAW is preserv'd by the constant observation of the ORDER of the Universe and since the Keeper of this observation was usually call'd among the Ancients by the mystical Name OATH he deservedly subjoins the precept concerning Swearing as consequent to what went before AND HONOUR AN OATH And use an Oath with holy awe We have shewn in the preceding discourse that by LAW is understood the power of God as it always acts uniformly and produces all things in an eternal and unchangeable manner Next to this LAW we come to discourse of an OATH which is the cause that keeps all things in the same state and so establishes them that the things which are confirmed by the faith of this OATH and which preserve the order of the LAW do exist as the sure effect of the All-producing Law not in the least transgressing the ORDER of the Creation For that all things remain in the same LAW whereby they were disposed must be primarily ascribed to this divine OATH which among those natures which always contemplate God is wholly and continually observ'd But among those which sometimes retain and sometimes lose the divine knowledge the OATH in like manner is transgress'd by those which apostatize from and observ'd again by those which return to God For the observation of the divine Laws is call'd here an OATH which unites and knits all those things to God the Author of their beings which were made to know him Some of which by constant adherence to him do always honour this OATH others by Apostacy sometimes profane it transgressing the order not only of