if we want something which we see we may possibly have and cannot at our pleasure have it we could much less have Being of our selves if we cannot know or do without being beholden to some other even things we may so come to know or do Want some other cause than our own Wills for a small addition to our Perfection we could much less have Being itself unbeholden to any other Again he that wants something he that knows but some things and can do but some things but may know and do more has but so much Knowledge and so much Power and may have more might have had less and less and consequently the least yea none at all and so no Being and where Being might have been wanting there cannot be Self-existence Moreover whoever is not the cause of all other Beings is not necessary to the Being of other things we are certain that there are other Beings besides our selves and we may be as sure that we are not the cause of their Being For we do not know our selves to be so nor experience our Production of them but whatever is the Cause of the other Beings cannot be suppos'd to be ignorant of its being so or to have produced them at unawares an act of Will being necessary to the effecting of a thing of which none can be ignorant Now if we are not necessary in order to the Being of other things but that they may be and are and that unbeholdâ—â—â— to us we are not absolutely necessary and if not necessary we might have wanted Being but we have Being we know by Experience or Conscience tho' we are such imperfect Beings such unnecessary Beings Now if we are and are not of our selves we must have Being from another and that other Being must be perfect necessary self-sufficient or it would be in-sufficient to give Being to me or any other and this perfect necessary self-sufficient Being is God 5. Again Besides the Consideration of our selves as in-sufficient Beings that of necessity must have a sufficient Cause which by Reason proves the Being of God There is another way whereby we may be certain of the same Truth which for some reason I omitted as Order requir'd to speak of first and that is a certain Sense or Experience of God which we may find in our selves if we will attend unto our own Thoughts Thus we find several things done in us which we do not nor can do we have Thoughts wherein we are merely passive as in Sensible Perceptions or Thoughts we have by the Occasion or Means of Body if we are not the cause of them as we may well conclude when we find we cannot alter them if we cannot but see and hear c. while the Organs are rightly dispos'd and that so and so and the Bodies that we have the Perceptions or Thoughts of cannot be the cause of those Thoughts being more imperfect and impotent than our own Minds having not so much as Wills or any power to effect Reality or cause Being but are caus'd themselves and cannot create Perceptions as we find our selves affected or sensible of those Thoughts we shall if we consider find our selves forced to acknowledge our Sensibility of the Cause of them If I see or hear and so suffer a Thought and am not the Cause of this Sensation nor can the Objects of these Sensations cause them in me there must be some Agent or Gause of this Passion and that can be none but God And as we believe God and he only is able to create or cause Thoughts or Perception in us by the means of other our fellow-Creatures and Thoughts or Perceptions of them so it is not less reasonable to think that he can cause Thoughts in us and apply an Object to our Understanding without the use of those means even by an immediate Act of his Will and present himself as the Object of our Understanding We may farther suppose God could have created one only Mind then that Mind must have had an Object besides it-self it being not self-sufficient and there being nothing else but God it must have thought on God and without any means God's immediate Will being sufficient which would have been a a Sense of God And that there are other Minds and other things besides Minds does not hinder but that God may cause a Sensation in the Mind immediately And some Persons perhaps of considerate Judgments will not think me far out of the way if I say I have known such immediate Sensations and think others have or may have the like Experience if they attend to their own Thoughts especially in divers Passions tending to the rectifying the disorderly Will where perhaps they cannot be said to be more sensible of any thing than of God's acting strongly upon them and that not barely in making Impressions on their Understandings and no more where they merely suffer the Objects but by those Impressions giving the clearest and mightiest Arguments to perswade and change their Volitions and better determine the Acts of their Wills their own proper Actions Again Every Man if he considers will find he has a Will as it were disproportionable to any thing in himself or in other Creatures a mighty Desire feeling as it were after something that can satisfie and fill it with a kind of Perfection of Satisfaction This boundless and unwearied Desire that cannot fill it-self with any imperfect thing must have another manner of Object and must have a Cause and none but that Cause can be the Object sufficient to satisfie it Whence could there be such a Desire if there were no Object suitable and if the Cause of this Desire had not made it to be satisfied or capable to be satisfied he had made it in vain but he is suppos'd perfect and so can do nothing in vain or to no purpose for so to do is an Imperfection Now if this Desire be to be satisfied when ever it is so it cannot be insensible or want Experience of its Satisfaction for so to suppose would be to suppose it not satisfied and none can satisfie it but its sufficient Cause that is God therefore there is possible yea sometimes actually in those who have been convinced of the Insufficiency of imperfect Beings a Perception or Thought and that a sensible one of God if Sensibility be not unduely confin'd to the Reception of those Thoughts we have by Occasion and Means of Body That all Bodily Nature is insufficient and must have a Cause or Beginning I need not urge when we our selves what-ever we are find our selves imperfect and so that we cannot be without one 6. We are come so far as by considering our selves as Imperfect or Insufficient Beings to find that we cannot be of our selves Uncaused but must of necessity have a Sufficient Cause which is all one as to say that there is a God our Author and in doing this we have also found in some measure what we are and
Opinion of his Omnipresence that supposes him locally present or essentially present in Bodily Nature is untrue For whatsoever is suppos'd to be in place is Body or Quantity has Dimension or is nothing Thinking has no Dimensions Quantities or Bulks and can be said to be present with Bodies only as having Ideas of them or willing about them as they may be Objects of the Understanding or Will So God is present with Bodies only as he knows them all and wills about them He is said to be eminently present here or there as the Effects of his Will are seen more eminently in one place then in another He is more intimately present with Minds because he does not only think of all that is in them and continually wills about them but that they also are often very sensible of the Acts of his Will about them which Bodies are not But he is especially present with himself because he always is the chief and necessary Object of his own Understanding and Will But an Essential local Omnipresence is absurd for if God be a Body as he must if locally omnipresent it would follow that there is no Body besides God for if you suppose Bodies that are not God they must have some place among one another which cannot be if God sill all with himself two things each of which fill a place cannot be suppos'd in the same place And to suppose God every where among Bodies will not make local Omnipresence but Interspersion whereby he would be suppos'd as a porous Body filling the void spaces between other Bodies which would be a very foolish Thought if we think it of God Besides whatever fills any thing fills it with its whole or with but part of it if God fills any or all Bodily Creatures with his whole in this local way he himself is contained and so according to this foolish fancy is wholly finite they being finite If he fill them with a part of himself he is present but in part not wholly and so is partly finite which is absurd Nor can Bodily Nature be said to be infinite even in Extension because it consists of Parts and where there are Parts there is a whole and that of which it can be said here is all may be suppos'd capable of Addition and so is not infinite But nothing can with good Sense be said to be in all places but all Bodies and Place is nothing but the relation of Bodies to one another as containing and contain'd on this side or that God's more excellent and real Omnipresence is virtual as we have said and his Infinity is nothing of the nature of Out-stretchedness whatever is extended being finite but is the boundless or absolute Perfection of all his Attributes incomprehensible to our created and limitted Conception And he was the same infinite or compleat when he had not made Body and consequently there was no space or place or any other Creature to be in or present with and he cannot be beholding to Creatures for any necessary Perfection He fills Heaven and Earth it is true but not with himself but with the Bodies they contain Bodies I say because no Minds are capable of Place or Being contained by Body or here or there among Bodies otherwise than as thinking of Bodies that are here and there Now whatever God is in himself is that without which he can't be conceived and that which is necessary and essential to him and implies him a necessary Being 10. But as to what he is in relation to Creatures or unnecessary Beings that might have had no Being he is Indifferent or Arbitrary which is the second way of considering him we now come to What he is in relation to Creatures he is not necessarily or essentially because he was indifferent to cause them or not no necessity compell'd him to produce them They are not necessary Beings they may be suppos'd not to be and if they had not been he had had no relation to them Neither the Existence no nor the very Ideas or Thoughts of Creatures or unnecessary Beings can be suppos'd necessary to the Divine Mind while we suppose him Self sufficient So that to be a Creator or Father a Lord or Governour is not necessary or essential to God but he freely chooseth or pleaseth so to be God must be suppos'd Self-sufficient or he cannot be suppos'd to be and Creatures must be acknowledged not Self-sufficient or they cannot be suppos'd Creatures if so there can be no necessary relation between God and Creatures There can be nothing but God and Creatures and so God can be related to nothing but Creatures relations are of divers things The Notion of Relation is what one individual thing is if compar'd to another Creatures may be related as Individuals of the same kind but God and Creatures cannot be so related they are infinitely different Relations must have their Correlates indeed but where the Relations were not necessary the Correlate depends on the Relation suppos'd one Individual cannot be relate and correlate so that there can be no relation essential in God God is but one Self or Mind and there can be nothing in God different from himself he is but one Individual not Individuals or else the Divine Nature could not be called He one essential Property or Attribute in God cannot be related to another essential Property or Attribute as a Causer Creator or Begetter God's Understanding cannot have the relation of a Cause Father or Lord to his Will or his Will to his Understanding The Cause or Begetter or Lord must be suppos'd before or greater than the Effect Begotten and Subject but nothing in God's essential Properties can be said to be before the Cause of or greater than another nor can one of them properly say thou to another they all being one selfsame or Mind God's Fatherhood might rather be said to have the relation of an Effect to his Will the Cause for he was not a Father as he would not but because he will'd to be so so that Fatherhood more properly is a Notion resulting from the Existence of things he hath willed into being Again God could not be a necessary or eternal Creator Producer or Father because things created produced or begotten would on that Supposition be eternal and necessary But Creating Produceing and Begetting imply Cause and Effect and nothing essential to God can be an Effect or thing caused an Effect or thing caused was not before it was caused and it would be the greatest Absurdity to suppose something in the Divine Essence which was not This would contradict the Notion of Eternity or the manner of Being that hath no fore and after in it or any alteration God alone is such The Creatures all of them have something past and to come what ever has any thing past and to come in its nature is a Creature had a beginning might have had none and may have an end Whatever has a former and a later
by any Man no nor by all Men nor can a Man enjoy what he is capable of enjoying altogether and at once So that where ever God forbids what we could desire it is but where a smaller Enjoyment will hinder our having a greater one frustrate our having many a small Present and short one disappoint us of a future great and lasting one And what Folly is it to be displeased because God some way forbids a Bodily or Sensual Pleasure that we may have a better a Rational or Mental one or a Joy in a Creature where it would hinder our Rejoycing in the Creator himself I believe if we had time to trace in particular the Disorders of Men we should find that all and every of them even their most beloved ones do but abate their Felicity Where is any that does not tend to destroy our Health or Peace or Wealth or Ease c. and so bring upon us some Mischief or other by which the little Pleasures in them are very much out-ballanced Is it not highly reasonable as well as for our Interest that God who is most wise and good should be our Chooser if he condescends to choose for us Is it not the greatest Presumption and Affront to our Maker who is the Cause of all our Good that we should act as if we knew better than he what is best for us Is it not the greatest Injustice not to love him and study his Will to obey it who has no profit by us but does all for our Benefit If we may receive all the Profit shall we deny to give him all the Honour For God indeed cannot be profited by his Creatures he sees his own Excellencies in them as Shadows but in himself as in the Substance but there can be no increase of his Perfections who is Self-sufficient necessarily Nor can Man's Disobedience take away any thing from his Happiness or affect him with the least Infelicity Sin does indeed obscure his Glory but not from himself but only from the Sinners who thereby loose that most pleasant and happy Vision And a cause of that great dislike of Sin in God which hath been sometimes express'd by the Symbols of Anger and Wrath is that he loves his Creature so well that he cannot approve any Action that in the least hides his Glory and Goodness from his beloved Works And as God neither looses nor gets any thing by the Creatures Sin or Obedience so in particular his Justice or Righteousness cannot be impaired He is not unrighteous or unjust tho' he suffers Man to be unrighteous and unjust The Creature cannot possibly bring any change upon God or lay him under any necessity or obligation God alone can oblige himself by his Promise and that is not properly an Obligation in God for 't is but the Declaration of his constant and free-will To say God cannot in Justice break his Promise is no more than to say he will not If he leave the Creature to reap the fruits of Sin he does him no wrong if he perswade the Creature to leave his Sin and be happy he wrongs not himself He can neither loose nor get any thing by the Creatures Sin and Unhappiness or Repentance and Happiness God is essentially righteous or just before Creatures had a Being and his Essential Righteousness or Justice as I have else-where said is to love and approve himself and to do his own Will His Justice in relation to the Creatures is his Approbation of them so far as they are his Work and according to his Will what he has made he shews his Approbation of by upholding and continuing the Being of He approves not the Creatures denial of him in disobeying his Will but shews the greatest Testimonies of his Dislike of its Disobedience So that if the Creature goes on in willing or acting contrary to God's Will God will not or which is all one he cannot make it happy and joyous in its continuing so to do unless he could make it to be God and cease to be God himself For the Creature cannot be satisfied with willing Good while it wills Evil nor can it be pleased in having its Will while it wills that which is impossible and while it leaves God's Will or willing that which is good and possible it must be miserable more or less according to the strength of its Evil Will and if it for ever goes on seeking Pleasure in vain or to satisfie its Will so as it cannot be satisfied it must for ever be unhappy and reap the Natural Fruit and Work of its own Doings unless and until it acknowledge God's Will Sovereign just and good and its own Will as disagreeing with its Maker unjust and evil and that it ought to be subject and be perswaded to change its foolish Will and desire to know and do the Will of God for the future that is unless or until the Sinner repent 28. But the Creature having once chose its own Will against the Will of God having committed one Act of Rebellion against its Maker is or seems much more inclinable and propense to go on and persist in its Sin than to repent and will well again For having once affected to be its own Lord and Arbiter or to be independant which is the greatest Perfection and best Manner of Being tho' impossible to a Creature it goes on with a strong Desire whose perpetual Acts perfuing so great a Thing hinder its Understanding to judge and reflect on the Impossibility Absurdity Injustice and Consequents of such an Attempt And every fresh act of Sin does but strengthen its Disobedience in which perhaps it would go on for ever if God did not upon its mistake give it abundant Arguments by one means or other to bring it to a stand cause it to consider convict it of its Folly and Disorder and so change its Will Till which change is effectually begun it is always and only endeavouring the Impossibility of separating the unpleasant or bitter effects it finds either in or following or fears may find the fruits of its disorderly Actions So that it would not be saved from its evil Will the Cause but from the Displeasure it finds attending it the Effect 29. But when it is once throughly convinced that its own Will disagreeing with the Will of God is an impossible way or means of Happiness or lasting Pleasure and sees the Unreasonableness and Badness of such an Attempt the Soul is very unapt to believe that God will forgive And considering it Self and its Sin more than God and his Goodness the sight of its most irrational Acts which it hath committed with the Tendency thereof often makes such a horrid Impression on the Soul and takes up its Thoughts so much that tho' God has given Arguments enough to perswade that he wills all Men to repent with various and clear Notices that he is ready to forgive and yet make happy those that by persisting in Rebellion do not render
be and shall be hereafter But of this I shall speak more when the Order of my Discourse brings me to it again By the Knowledge of God and our selves which we may have these three ways we are rationally led or perswaded to will well by conforming our Wills to the Will of God The Knowledge of God howsoever attained may be divided into Two Heads First That he is or that there is a God Secondly What he is The Knowledge of our selves likewise will bear the same division The Knowledge of what God is may also be divided in two parts First What he is in himself Secondly What he is in relation to his Creatures 3. Now that we may find out and prove to our selves the Existence of a Divine Being or God let us descend into our selves the nearest step we can make and plainest way we can go and that which I here shall choose to take leaving those other more commonly traced paths and see what Arguments we can find within us for the being of a God yea by what necessity we are compell'd to acknowledge that he is First Every Man hath a Sense or Experience of the Reality of his own Being certain beyond all demonstration so that none can doubt of his own Existence or needs to have it proved and if any could here doubt that very doubting would certifi◠him that he hath a Being or is For if there be a Doubting an Enquiring a Supposing a Will to know c. there is something Actions and Passions cannot be without Being or where there is no Being of nothing nothing can be suppos'd affirm'd or denied So that it would be but time lost to go about to convince a Man of his own Being of which he cannot but be certain and what he cannot deny but he will at the same time affirm himself a wilful Lyer 4. We shall therefore consider in the next place so far as our present business in finding a Divine Being requires what we are And because I have but now made mention of Doubting and Considering and find Men so apt to doubt question and consider what we are as to our Essence or Being as well as of other things I say we are Doubters Questioners Considerers and Supposers But what is Doubting Questioning Supposing and Considering It is Thinking and that an imperfect Thinking Thinking that wants something in which we find an incompleat defective Understanding and a Will or Desire of something we have not Now where-ever is found any thing of Ignorance in the Understanding or any want of Power in the Will it appears that that Being cannot in any wise be thought to be of it self or self-sufficient but must consequentially be acknowledg'd to be dependent having some other Being its cause For he that finds himself insufficient to himself can in no wise be thought to be sufficient of himself He that not only wants something he may have but moreover cannot give himself what he wants is dependent on something else for some addition when a Being that is independant and self-sufficient in its Essence cannot be supposed to need another than its own Understanding and Will on any account We all find in our selves a want of Knowledge we know but a few things and we know but a little of those few things we know and moreover of those things we do know we come to the Knowledge of one after another so that we are sometime ignorant of what we afterwards know yea in all our Thoughts we find a constant succession of one Thought after another we cannot think of all we think together but we forget one thing while we consider another and we do not see it possible that it should ever be otherwise with us which Imperfection of the succession of Thoughts one after another in spiritual Natures or Minds is the notion of Time and that for which they are said to be in Time or Timous Beings and would be so if there were no motion of Bodies or Body at'll and while there is any Mind having this succession of Thoughts afore and after Time is and will be and that Mind in Time or Timous Notwithstanding the Fancy of those who talk of Souls going into Eternity or being eternal à parte post on the after half half eternal which is a whole Contradiction Now where there is a succession of Thoughts one after another there was a precedure of them one before another till we come to a first or beginning Thought which with us is past and what is past was present and future and what was future was not then in actual being the same must be said of Men or other things that are before one another as well as of Thoughts there must be a first and where a thing was not but only might be if it be or begin it must be begun and what is begun must have a Cause or be begun by another it cannot be its own efficient for so it would be suppos'd to be before it is which is a Contradiction Now if there be something that began to be as we must conclude of our selves there must be a Cause of our beginning which Cause did not begin to be for if it had it had been alike insufficient and it-self wanted a Cause and so must be caused and so we must run on tell we come to a first Cause which is sufficient and necessary of it-self always the same and this first Cause is God And as we find our selves from our imperfect Understandings and successive Thoughts necessitated to grant our selves caused and that the Cause of our Being must be sufficient of it-self or perfect if we come to the particular Consideration of our Wills we shall find two things there denoteing Imperfection and Insufficiency First Variableness Secondly Impotence As to the Variableness of Will we all find our Wills changeable sometimes willing one thing then another yea sometimes one thing then the contrary in which Variableness of Will is also seen a farther Imperfection of our Understanding For we will the thing which at the present appears best to us but what at one time seems good or best at another is not so in our Judgment but bad Now at one of these times the Judgment fails and errs Secondly We find the Impotence of our Wills in that we will things we cannot effect This every one is sensible of he that affects to be an Atheist himself We see a Defect in our Knowledge often we would know somethings we don't know and what we cannot cause our selves to know when we would likewise we would sometimes do the things we find we cannot do so we still find our selves insufficient so that there may be something added to our Knowledge nay we find there daily is which we at our pleasure cannot add and that there may be some increase of our power which we of our selves cannot cause How will this prove a God may the Atheist say I answer most evidently For
are of and by the means of external things let in by the Organs of the Senses which are as Conditions in this life at least of our receiving such Cogitations the Indisposition of the Senses or want of those Conditions leaves us without those Thoughts if wholly indispos'd but if only in part the Thoughts are weak and pass unremembred and not reflected on and so are by some inconsiderately suppos'd not to have been But tho' our Eyes are shut in sleep and we then see nothing we have visible Ideas sometimes from the Remembrance of things seen tho' confused for no one born blind and so continuing ever dreams he sees yet the other Senses are not quite laid by we feel hear and smell c. tho' but remisly and our Thoughts or Perceptions are but faint and so it is no wonder if we forget them as fast as they pass and so suppose we had none And which to me makes the matter past doubt I have discours'd with a Person fast asleep who hath answer'd me distinctly to many Questions without so much as dreaming of any thing that was said But moreover if we do not think when asleep we do neither understand nor will or which is the same have no Understanding or Will but every Morning or perhaps twice or thrice every Night a new Mind for Understanding that understands not or Will that wills not is no Understanding or Will but an Absurdity And it is the same as to say I am Thinking and yet do not think But we remember we think sometimes in sleep and that strongly and though most commonly it is but weakly yet it is Thinking And such weak Thinking we may suppose a Child in the Womb may have none perhaps but what comes by Feeling or Tasting I speak according to the common Meaning for all Senses are but different ways of Feeling and yet the very Ideas that come by the grossest of the Senses are Thoughts still it being the Mind that perceives not the Body From these Considerations to name no more we may be perswaded that we always think tho' we don't always reflect and remember our Thoughts and so that Thinking is real and constant But to the second Objection That Thinking is but an Act of something else the Agent or an Attribute of something else the Subject I answer First by demanding what this more real and noble Agent is What Notion have we of it I have long try'd and can find nothing an Object of my Understanding but either Thinking or Body what others may chance to do who never try'd and are resolved they never will I know not Let them tell us what thought they have of it different from Body and Thinking if they can But if neither they nor we have any notion of such a third Being we cannot with any reason affirm any thing of it or that such a thing is If they have any thought of it they have some knowledge of it and so need not acknowledge themselves at such a loss as they commonly do when this Question is put them What is the Soul or expose themselves as they commonly do by talking of that whose Essence they acknowledge themselves wholly ignorant of But if any suppose Thinking an Action or Attribute of Body or that it is Body some way or other posited or moved how they cannot tell that is Thinking or that as they rather would say thinks they must suppose Body more noble as the Cause or Agent which I believe they will hardly do But we can suppose Body not to be we may be ignorant of it and yet think which could not be if it were Body that thinks besides if Body thinks it knows it self to think and so the Dispute is at an end but Body does not know it self to think because it is doubted whether it thinks or no Whatever thinks cannot be ignorant of its Thinking nor can any thing be well thought to be an Agent that is ignorant of its being so or does not will to be so If Body could be suppos'd to think and know it self to think it would be Thinking consequently not Body for of Body and Thinking there are wholly different Notions But Body we affirm to be no Agent of any thing or Creator of Ideas or Thoughts God alone must be supposs'd with good reason to be the Cause and Contriver of our Thinking As we find our Thoughts do not cause our Body much less can we suppose Body to cause our Thoughts or act any thing in us our Body is moved according to our Will and our Will and Understanding is often affected by means of our Body but Body is not the Cause or Agent of either Besides one half of our Thoughts are Passions nothing but our Desires or the Application of our Will about Objects seems properly our Action And tho' Thinking be look'd on as an Attribute requiring a Subject different we may as well suppose an essential Attribute or Attribute that is Identical the same with the thing it self in the created Mind as to say what-ever is in God is God or that there is not another thing which is not Wisdom Goodness Power c. which is God in which Wisdom Goodness Power c. reside as things accidental Nor is it so strange an Expression as that it may not be admitted to say Cogitatio est cogitans or Thinking thinks for in truth I take it to be the same as to say Thinking is Thinking which is no worse than an Identical Proposition But to leave this Question with these few touches to give others occasion to consider as besides my main purpose I shall pass to that Knowledge of our selves which most concerns us and even that Knowledge is the Knowledge of our selves as Thinking and that as Thinking well or ill If our Thoughts are well in order that something else that some fancy is the Agent of the Action Thinking in us that unknown Soul that Chimera or that Body whose Particles are very far from one another or friggle about very nimblely such is the common Notion of a Spirit is of little value If my Thoughts are duely apply'd to their due Objects I care not for that unknowable Soul for it is in the right order of our Thoughts that Happiness consists and whereby we come to attain the End of our Being 8. Having thus found our selves to be imperfect Minds variable limited caus'd or created Cogitations let us consider our Cause or Creator and that First as he must needs be thought to be in himself and then we shall the more fully discover the Second thing which hath been partly discours'd already What he is to us And the first notion that occurs to my Mind of God or the Cause of caused insufficient things as consider'd in himself is That he is Self-sufficient or Self existent Having found my self insufficient and consequently that I must have a Cause sufficient to be so which he could not be were he himself caused
had a first and may have a last Nor can Fatherhood or Creatorship be thought an essential Attribute in God because whatever is in God's Nature is a necessary Perfection and he cannot be suppos'd to receive any such Perfection from the Effects he hath produced which he had not before which would be in effect to deny him to be a Self-sufficient Being Nor can we with any consideration say God might have made things sooner or later for when he did make then began the first moment there being no fore and after in God from which time could be named Now tho' the Attributes of Creator Cause or Father began with Time resulting from things related to God as Products and Effects there cannot be said to be any alteration in God or increase of his Perfections the things that are made are but the Images Pictures or Characters of his Perfections and he is not any thing more since he has painted out some of his Excellencies than he was before Nor can God be suppos'd ignorant for not knowing what is not mere not being is no Object of Knowledge God knowing himself only knew all when there was nothing else to know and knowing all that now is he can't be said to be ignorant for not knowing more than all yet we dare not say he cannot produce more Creatures when he alone was he knew himself the Original and Fountain of all Perfection and knew himself able to paint out or make Pictures of his Perfections and when he will'd them they were but before he will'd them to be they can't well be thought Objects of his Understanding Now tho' God may be suppos'd solitary or singlely in himself without any real relation without so much as the Thoughts of Creatures in himself the Creatures cannot possibly be suppos'd to be without supposing their relation to God as their Creator or Father As it is our experience that we are and that we find by consideration that God must be or we could not be it presently appears what he is to us viz. our Cause our Maker Producer or Father and consequently that he is our Owner Sovereign Lord and Ruler He that knows us perfectly both as to what he hath made us and what his Ends are in making us He cannot be suppos'd to make any thing of which he is ignorant in either of these respects he must also be suppos'd to have Will and Power yet Will and Power in God are properly but two words for the same thing and his Power or Will to make must be agreeable to his Wisdom or Knowledge how or what would best become him He could make nothing but what would be an agreeable Representation of himself fit for such a Being to make such as would represent him as he is and that must needs be good He could make nothing ill there could be no disorder in his Works It cannot be said that any thing might have been done better than he did it either as to the manner or end of being 11. The final Cause or End for which God made things if it be not Presumption to enquire seems to be no other than the Manifestation of his Wisdom and Power and the Communication of his Goodness to his Creatures for in respect to God there can be no final Cause God being all perfect and happy in himself that is Self sufficient there can no good or end come to him from any thing but we would rather say he acted as became him when he pleas'd to make Creatures and some of them such as were capable by considering themselves and other things they find to be made by the same power to acknowledge and admire him and to move one another to acknowledge and admire his Wisdom Goodness and Power so conspicuous in the curious and mighty System of the Creation and in so doing to be pleas'd or happy God being in himself absolute Goodness and so perfectly happy or pleas'd with himself was pleas'd to make Creatures capable of Happiness or Pleasure by the Communication of his Goodness who is not only good or perfect enough in himself to be altogether happy or pleas'd but his Goodness is also enough to make a world of Creatures happy or pleas'd also by having Him the Object of their Understanding and Will The Creature experiencing God's Wisdom Power and Goodness being duly affected with it and endeavouring to affect its Fellows is said to glorifie God not to make him glorious that is shewing forth Perfections but to see him such and be an Instrument to cause him to be seen such God being essentially Wise Good and Powerful that is Knowing and Loving himself and able to make Representations of his Excellencies if he please to make any things cannot but make them such as become him viz. good and for good that is such as are capable of being pleas'd with being what and how he hath made them and wills them to be that is Knowers and Lovers of him So that there appears in God as considered in relation to us chiefly Power in producing us Wisdom and Goodness as to the what and to what end he hath made us What God is and will be found to be to us considered as otherwise than he wills us may come to be considered better hereafter in another place nor shall we here enlarge these Considerations having laid them but as Foundations or Principles 12. We shall now come to consider what we ought to be or how we should behave our selves to God and for God's sake to one another And this Obligation is that which is properly call'd Religion Man having by considering himself found God or his own Cause having found what God is and does in himself and in relation to us what he has caus'd us to be who are nothing of our selves the great Question that concerns us is What we ought or what it becomes us to do And that is in short to exercise our Wills aright that is suitable to or becoming the Relation we stand in to God and one another so as becomes such Creatures of such a Creator We are sure he cannot be or act towards us but as becomes him that is best And that we may do this our Duty aright we ought first to seek God that is study to know him more and more that the regular Acts of our Wills may be stronger and stronger for the more truely and clearly we behold him the Object the more orderly and the more strongly will the Acts of our Wills be about him Now God being an absolutely perfect Being and consequently one who can have no Acts of Will but such as become himself or are pefectly good in relation to himself and his Works our willing suitably or orderly is determin'd and made such by the Conformity of our Wills to the Will of God willing as he wills we should Now to will what God wills us to will is the Essence Sum and Substance of all Religion I do not say
because it becomes us to imitate God as much as we can and it is good for us so to do This I say is the whole Law naturally written in our Hearts and legible by the Consideration of God what he is in himself and what he is to his Creatures viz. The most perfect or Self-sufficient Being and our most wise good and powerful Author and of our relation to him and our Fellow Creatures 15. Now from this fountain of Love proceed all the orderly streams of our Thoughts and external Actions If we love God as we should or desire as he desires we shall hate to do otherwise fear to do otherwise our aversation and avoiding that which is not right is determin'd by our loving that which is right and when we once truely love God we shall be willing to study his Will that we may not ignorantly act contrary thereto Having found God our Cause Self-sufficient and All-perfect in himself we cannot but acknowledge it fit and proper to be true and acknowledge him such as he is there can be no reason that we should deny what we know to be true it is apparent that he is the Most High the Greatest Being and we are things infinitely less nay nothing of our selves we are but the Effects of the Will of the most wise good powerful Cause on which consideration it is most evidently fit for us to submit to his Guidance and Direction as confiding in his Wisdom Goodness and Power that he knows and wills and can do that which is best for us and to confess the Shortness of our Understandings as we are but Creatures and know infinitely less than he and consequently our Wills cannot be so good as his Hence also it naturally follows that if God has made us good or as becomes the Best Being to make and capable of Good or Pleasure we should be thankful for our Being and rejoyce or take pleasure in considering God's Wisdom Goodness and Power so should we be ready to comply with his Will as Instruments in manifesting and communicating his Power Wisdom and Goodness to our selves and our Fellow Creatures and hate fear and avoid being a Hinderance in any of these Again We are rationally obliged from the Consideration of God and his Will to us in relation to those parts of the Creation he seems to have made for our sakes and use to use them so as we may see most of God's Perfections through them and as we may receive most Good or Pleasure by them and how this is to be done he has made us capable by a little reasoning and attention to find out as his Will which we have all reason to submit to trusting his Wisdom as the absolute Rule wherein he directs us he knowing best how these Ends may be attained and his Goodness that he is willing they should God has made all things to shew his own Perfections to those Creatures he has made capable of seeing them and to make them happy or pleas'd whom he has made capable of Happiness or Pleasure in the use of them We are ready to believe these Creatures have nothing in themselves that can affect us with pleasure but it is the Will of God we should have pleasure in the use of them that thereby we might be brought to him the fountain of all Satisfaction 16. If this Account of the Will of God be not particular enough yet a little farther First It is apparent that having found our Author or Cause that only Self-sufficient and All-sufficient Being we call God the Father of all things we should not only take him for such but that we should have no other in the like esteem or let him have any Corrival in our Thoughts That One single Supream Being must have no Fellow in our Hearts The most exact or perfect Image of him that which he hath made most like unto himself must not be by us exalted into his Throne He is not an Image and whatever is a Representation of him he himself hath made such We must not think therefore of any Second as we think of him the First nor desire Another equally with him He must have the highest place or be the only God both in our Judgments and Affections who is Highest First and Best or we shall be unjust untrue and ungrateful Secondly Nor must we if we are obliged to think aright of him and duly esteem him presume to make of our own fancy any thing as an Image or Resemblance of him we must have no other Representations of God than what he himself hath made He must not by us be misrepresented nor must we reverence bow to or honour any of our Fictions that we may fancy to resemble him no nor whatever does indeed most resemble him with any such honour as is due to him We cannot rationally think any Image exactly like him nor in our Acts of Worship have the same Thoughts of him as we have of any thing his Representation because there can be no Image of him but what he hath made a Creature infinitely distant from him and so far unlike him Nor must we be so foolish as to think that we can offer our Homage more acceptably or to better purpose through any of our devised Mediums than if we come to the Fountain himself of all Goodness and Beneficence Thirdly Neither if we are obliged to prosecute the Ends and Designs of God in the Manifestations of himself must we mention any of his Attributes or Properties whereby he is known to no purpose or idlely For God is no vain or trivial Being nor is there any thing small or of little weight belonging to him who is the Supream or Self-sufficient Being or a Matter lightly or boldly to be play'd with by his Creatures who are even the highest of them unnecessary Beings or nothing in themselves and compar'd with God infinitely beneath him Much less may we dare to take his name into our Mouths who is Goodness and Truth in wishing Evil or asserting Falshood Fourthly And as God always ought to be had in most honourable esteem in our Thoughts and be by us acknowledged to be what he is so consequently we ought to set apart some time for the Profession of our Acknowledgment of our Maker to others that thereby they may be taught stir'd up to and strengthen'd in the same Acknowledgment and due Homage to their Author And that at the same time we all may enjoy the necessary Benefits of a Cessation from the Fatigues of Bodily Works which commonly take up six times as much time in proportion as our mental and more noble Exercises Besides that our whole time is rather numbered by Sevens than by Eights or any other numbers may be seen by the Natural Scale of numbers in Harmony wherein God hath created all things which perpetually runneth to a Seventh and no farther the Eighth being a new First or the First but doubled and which of the seven is
another committed before I had so much as any act of Will or Being it self 20. So far we have considered Creatures as coming from the hands of God and Good or possible to be changed and become evil in their Actions We now come to consider them as actually evil And it is or may be apparent to any Man that will descend into himself and consider that Man has not always and exactly done as he should but has sometime will'd or does will otherwise than God wills Of this I say we may be soon convinced by our own Experience or Conscience the surest of all Convictions If it be true that as God is all perfect or sufficient in himself so that he hath created things to manifest his Wisdom Goodness and Power c. to the Intelligent Creatures that they may be as happy as they are capable of Being it is most certain First that if I have not considered my self being once capable of Reasoning and so found my Cause and enquired and found what he is admir'd and lov'd him and had thankful Thoughts of him it is not because I was incapable of doing so but because I would not and I have not will'd as becomes me as God wills I should but have sinned Secondly If I have will'd any thing that does not tend to make me as happy as I can be or as much pleas'd with God in himself and in his Works as I should I have will'd otherwise than God wills and so have sinned But I find even after I have found God and somewhat consider'd him I have very much forborn or neglected to consider him and considered other things unworthy such consideration more than him nor have I loved him as the Self-sufficient Being and my Cause ought to be loved but have loved my self or other things unworthy such Love more than him while I am convinced he is better than me or any thing and the Cause things are and are any way condusive to my Good or Pleasure and in so doing as well as in other Instances I find I have sometimes will'd those things which at other times I have found not tending to make me as much as may be happy I have will'd things before I have consider'd or inform'd my self of the Nature and Tendency of them slighting those Directions God has made me capable of receiving from him and so acted or will'd disorderly or otherwise than becomes me I have not always been pleas'd or glad in contemplating God in himself and in his Works and therefore I find I have not always will'd as God wills I know or may soon do that God's Will is best in relation to himself and his Creatures I have been convinced such and such a thing is according to God's Will yet I have done otherwise and chose that which my Judgment informs me is not God's Will thereby asserting my own Will therein better than God's or my Judgment truer than his Again I am convinced when I seriously consider that God's Will is that wherein I can best be pleas'd but I find I have been displeas'd and uneasie in mind many a time either because I have found I chose something not best for me or because for want of Consideration I have thought something good for me and will'd it which I could not possibly have Thus I find infallibly I have will'd otherwise than God wills and so have sinned Here we have from the Light of Nature or our own Reason an evident Conviction of Sin or of Man's Fall and Degeneracy every one may see it in himself and the same we may observe tho' not some ways so apparently in others And all Mankind in general how dark soever their Light and how little soever their Reason is having once attain'd to the use of Reason have been sometimes ready to confess themselves indeed guilty of doing amiss and forced to accuse others as guilty of Evil. What Man is there but that if I do any thing to make him less happy is sensible I do not as I would be done by and so do not my Duty but am a Sinner Now God cannot be suppos'd to make Man thus evil and out of order because he can do nothing but what is good tho' he made Man capable of sinning or going out of order And as Man must needs be suppos'd to come out of God's hands good and orderly but is become evil acting a miss Man must be suppos'd to be fallen and degenerated from his Primitive state 21. The Greatness of Man's Sin in willing otherwise than God wills the Grievousness of his Fault in falling from what God made him is apparent or may be so if we but consider That Man is nothing of himself but is beholden to God for his Being and All. It is therefore most highly unreasonable that Man should deny to acknowledge such a one his Author or dare to contradict or disbelieve his Wisdom and Goodness in acting as if God did not know or would not do what is best for his Creature How unreasonable is it that Man should foolishly and with an ungrateful Stubbornness refuse the Good yea any Good God offers him Had God made him less capable of Good he had been bound to be thankful for any capacity had God denied him some Good he had made him capable of he had been endebted to Love and thank his Maker for any Good he had given him It is a high Slight of the boundless ever-overflowing Fountain of Goodness for Man to refuse any or the greatest Happiness God offers him and whoever does not study God's Will as a Director to Happiness will certainly miss some Good It might be Love to refuse what the Giver would loose or want by giving it or could not well spare but a Slight not to take where the Giver has abundance and will have never the less by giving For Man to refuse any Happiness God offers him is so far to desire not to be beholden to God But he that is most beholden to God is most happy and he that is most happy must consequently be most beholden to him This will remain an everlasting Truth while God and Creatures have a Being Is it not the height of Folly yea Madness as well as Injustice to choose Misery rather than acknowledge one's Maker as the Author of Happiness To desire not to be beholden to God our Cause our Lord and Soveraign is the highest Affront to the highest Majesty and no less than an absurd Endeavour to dethrone him and be of our selves that is be God To substract our selves from our Dependence on his Will and to prosecute our own in Distinction from and Contradiction to his is so unreasonable bold and mad a Presumption as to endeavour to overcome and destroy him so great a Folly and Absurdity as to endeavour the Impossibility of adnihilating the Being of all Beings and consequently our Selves and All. So great a Treason Boldness Perverseness Madness and Injustice is contain'd in Sin
that he hath deceiv'd himself but also the Unreasonableness of his Disbelief slighting disbelieving and affronting his Maker in not studying but rejecting his most wise Order and Direction So that if a Man wills that which is good but impossible to him or what belongs not to him that which is but little good and takes away more good hinders good to another is but an appearance of good his Will is evil He that desires his Neighbour's Wife wills Evil tho' she be the best Woman in the World for tho' she be good she is not his he invades another's Property and so wills an Injustice nor can he have his desire without abating the Happiness of his Neighbour and the Woman 's too in her becoming Evil and finding its Consequences And here I cannot but take notice of the a foolish Abuse common among Mankind that is they confidently call the Desire One Man has to Another's Wife or a Woman to Another's Husband with all such disorderly Desires by the name of Love meaning Love to the Person desired when it is nothing less being always that which so far as it is satisfied divers ways effects the Unhappiness of the Person said to be beloved which such a Lover can hardly be so blind as not to see Yea farther that it is but a Self-love if it can be call'd Love at all and a grosly mistaken one too rendering the Lover himself more unhappy than he would have been had he never so affected tho' he enjoy the Object of his Love I would say his Lust for that is the proper name on 't But to draw towards a Conclusion of this matter I say whatever a Man desires the Act of desire is free to suppose otherwise would be all one as to suppose Volition not to be Volition or a Will not a Will A Will cannot be said to be compell'd for tho' it cannot but Act or Be it is freely or willing Compulsion and Volition are contrary and incompatible But the Will is led by Arguments and at least Appearances of Good If there could be suppos'd but one Object of the Will it could not but apply to that yet it would be freely but where there are many Objects it chooses by appearance But Man having the Faculty of Reasoning as well as Desiring ought to suspend the Acts of his Will by a kind of Indifferency at least as to their Effects till he is sure his choice will be good The Will is led by Arguments I say whether the Act of Will be according to God's Will or no and Volition is Volition or to be willing is to be willing And a Man is in short more properly said to will or desire Evilly than to desire an Evil I mean to himself for that a Man may be so wicked as often to will and consequently freely yea and knowingly an Evil to another Man and sometimes effects it and would also affect God with an Evil or a real Displeasure if it were possible that Man's foolish Will could be so done is daily apparent and true beyond all dispute And that Sinners may be said to will Evil continually is not to be understood as if they never desired any thing that is good but that every act of their desire tho' they desire Good hath some Evil Circumstance or other as an Evil Manner Evil Means or Evil Ends c. Now God as abovesaid cannot will either an Evil or Evilly his Will being the Rule of Good and to suppose God to will Evil would be all one as to suppose him to will what he don't will Nor is it for want of Power or Freedom that God can't will or do Evil but it is rather a Note of Power that he cannot be deceived but can know all things as they are and cannot be suppos'd ignorant of any Truth because he is the Exemplar and Cause of all Truths He cannot be suppos'd to do amiss because he is All-perfect He cannot will one thing now another anon because he is unchangeable always knowing what is best And as God in whose Being is no now and then cannot will contrary to his own Will so he cannot be suppos'd without the height of Contradiction to will that the Creature should will contrary to his Maker's Will this would be to suppose God to will contrary to his own Will or will a thing and yet not will it Besides if God please to make known his Will which he must be suppos'd to do one way or other or the Creature cannot well obey it or be determined to its Duty when the Creature knows it or has reason to believe God wills so and so he can have no reason to suppose God can have a Secret Will or Determination that the Creature should do the contrary This would be to suppose God a Lyer and to deceive his Creature yea to deny God to be either true or good I have the greatest reason to believe God would have me do what he commands me that is any way causes me to take for his Will and that he commands me what is best for me to do I cannot err here if I am sure he commands If God could be suppos'd to will one thing and command the contrary he would contradict himself for the Commands of God can be nothing but his Will made known to the Creature and he cannot be supposed to frustrate his own Will Such an Absurdity foolish Man would hardly be capable of as to will his Child to do what he commands him not to do or to command him to do that which he wills he should not do Yet I have known some so bold or inconsiderate or displeas'd with the good Will of God as to affirm in plain words so unreasonable a thing of God as that he will'd Man should do what he commanded him not to do But God has done very great things both within us and without us and will do to vindicate his Wisdom Truth and Goodness against all those that are so hardy or foolish as to deny them either plainly or in consequence 26. And tho' God may oblige his Creature to a thing for a time especially in that which seems an Arbitrary Command which he may not will him to do always but afterwards something else it is no Contradiction or Change in God's Will who wills that which is first and last in respect to the Creature altogether but the Creature being changeable what is best for him or his Duty under one Circumstance is not so under another Which Will of God the Creature comes to know part now part anon As for instance God wills me to do that when I am a Child or a Servant which is not my Duty when a Father or a Master and that when I am a Father or Master which is not or ceaseth to be my Duty when I am in no such relation An Arbitrary Command of God I call that which Man sees not or not clearly the reason of to himself nor
the Same Power that caused the Creature to be and continueth its Being can be suppos'd a reason of its Cessation We can prove no such Death as an Adnihillation of any thing nor does it appear to any that consider the matter that even any Bodily Creature ceaseth to be But the contrary might be shewn by many Arguments if it were doubted of Even those things which seem to the ignorant and inconsiderate to be most likely to be destroyed such as things that are burnt I can at any time demonstrate even to the eye that none of their parts cease but are only separated or altered The Death of the Body is but some kind of alteration or change of its Modes or Circumstances as a Separation of the parts of its Organical Structure or an Alteration of such and such Motions requisite to continue its Particular Mechanism or Animal Oeconomy The Body remains I mean all the Matter of it after the Division of its parts and it cannot rationally be suppos'd that the Mind the more Substantial and as all are ready to acknowledge the more Noble Part of Man should suffer more alteration by the Dissolution of the Body than the Body it self does The Change the Body undergoes is apparent but what Change you will say may the Mind be reasonnably suppos'd to suffer at its Separation from the Body or whether not enough to be call'd Death Many Treatises have been written and Discourses made to prove the Immortality of the Soul and some for its suppos'd Mortality but the Authors have not been so happy as to agree in the Notion of Life and Death with one another nor all so considerate as to fix any determinate Notion for themselves or to tell their Readers what they mean by its Living or Dying so that it may be true or false for them But I shall here state the question more plainly and tell you first that by the Life of the Soul I mean a Continuation of Thinking or of Understanding and Willing Where there are these Actions and Passions there is enough to be call'd Life and that which better deserves to be named Living than any whatsoever Organization and Motion in Bodies And the plain Question is this Whether upon the Death or Dissolution of the Body Thinking wholly ceaseth A Cessation of some of the Modes of Thinking cannot be enough to be properly call'd the Death of the Soul for so it would not only be always dying but dead as it alters so continually at least every night and day An Alteration of some of the Modes of Thinking may in a figurative and improper Sense be called Death but the Question is not of any such Death It is probable that many if not all those Thoughts and Ideas we have by occasion or on condition of our Body as so and so disposed may cease tho' it cannot easily be thought absolutely necessary for we cannot conceive the Body to be a natural Occasion of any Thoughts but so by the Will of God who if he please we may well think can cause the same Ideas and Thoughts without it tho' it seems not to any purpose or probable that he will For on the other hand it is more likely that God permitted Death for the Cessation of those Thoughts or at least many of them the Body is the occasion of since Man's fall into Sin in Good and Bad For as much as we are tempted to most of our Disorders by occasion of the Body and to gratifie some Sense or other disorderly or besides the Direction and Will of God seems to be the first and most constant Temptation every Man is drawn aside with Now the Good Man or Repenting Sinner through the Goodness of God on this Supposition of such Thoughts ceasing gets this by Death tho' in it self an Evil that he is freed from all the Allurements of this Life occasioned by his use of this Body The undue Gratifications of Sense can now no more perswade him the unprofitable care of avoiding little Bodily Displeasures now takes not up his Thoughts the Difficulties from the Injustice and Cruelty of Sinners press him now no more to act against his Maker's Will but he seems perfectly freed from Temptation having perhaps now no Object of desire present but God and nothing to interpose for his Love as a Rival with his Maker Nothing now seems necessary for him to know but God and himself Nor needs he or values he could he have them any little pleasures in Creatures when he is at God the Fountain and Cause of all On the other side the Evil Man also looses all those Gratifications of Sense he so much affected and erringly counted his chiefest Good and must needs find that he foolishly set his Heart on that which would not make him happy but so soon left him And as his Will is not reconcil'd and subjected to God's but he desires still that which cannot be God cannot so communicate himself to him to make him joyous but he must be subject to all that Anguish that the Reflection on the loss of the Creatures he so much delighted in and that he hath miss'd the Fountain of all Good can cause in him with all the Vexation and Trouble that all the disorderly Thoughts of such a Soul can raise to it self But to come to the point in hand again It cannot well be thought that the Soul or Mind of either Good or Bad should die or Thinking wholly and for ever cease or yet for a time upon the Body's Death because the Continuation of Thinking or Life of the Soul can't rationally be suppos'd to depend on the Body a thing more ignoble than it self being very unlikely to be its cause but upon the Will of God its Author And God cannot well be suppos'd thus to let any of his Creatures cease or disown his Works that are good as the Beings of all things are much less can Minds the Intelligent and Active Beings be thought to be adnihilated or cease Thinking so soon and to no purpose Change they may and do as all Creatures are mutable but what of God would be seen in the Cessation of any especially of Minds who are the only kind of Beings capable of beholding God If the Soul ceaseth to think and so dies more than a figurative Death it ceaseth to be for Thinking and Mind are the same Being which if you will not be perswaded to believe you must at least acknowledge them inseparable For a Mind that does not think or a Thinker that cannot think is a Contradiction and to call that a Power or Agent that can do nothing is absurd for that which can do nothing is no Power or Agent and a Power or Agent that will do nothing is as great a Contradiction for Willing is Doing even Thinking Again Nothing is more strongly implanted I may say concreated in the Mind of Man than a desire to continue and if Being is good the Continuation of Being is good
if the Desire to continue be good God is the Cause and Implanter of such a Desire and consequently wills we should have such a Desire I think none can but desire to continue if it were the Will of God we should cease to be the desire to continue would be a Sin but God can't be suppos'd to will we should desire that which he don't will should be that would be to will us to will contrary to his Will Now whatever God wills to continue cannot be supposed to cease If God wills to manifest himself in and to his Creatures to be loved and feared by them he must continue them for by their Cessation all these things will cease and be impossible Every Good Man that loves God would continue to love him it 's God's Will he should love him Can God be suppos'd to make him cease to love his Maker To what purpose Let it but be granted that it is not God's Will I should cease to love him and the Immortality of my Soul is secured for while I love I live viz. mentally Nor can the Evil Man that don't love God nor fear to act contrary to his Will be suppos'd to be for ever or for a long time exempted from the Evils of his Rebellion against his Maker or rendered by God himself uncapable of all Conviction Or can it be thought probable that God should make Creatures to deny him a little while and then cease under so great a Mistake as never to believe and confess God to be their Sovereign Lord and Sufficient Benefactor But if God approve himself and his own Works he will rather continue them and suffer them to make themselves miserable and find they are not God's than not assert himself God one way or other to all his Intelligent Creatures Besides the Soul either of Good or Bad cannot with any reason be suppos'd to cease for a time and then be again for if it cease to be it is not and nothing can be properly affirm'd or deny'd but of that which is Where there is no Being neither Life nor Death can be asserted So that if a Soul cease to be and a Soul be afterwards it cannot be the same but a new one to whom can be charged no account of the ceased Souls past Actions There must be a Continuation of Being or there can be no Identity or Sameness and the Essentials of the thing must remain or there is not the thing but another If there be not a Continuation of Thinking and Conscience of former Thoughts it cannot be conceived how the Sameness of a Mind can be ascertained and if a Soul in this present State be wicked and cease at the Dissolution of the Body it can neither be just nor good that a new one should be miserable because the ceased Soul was unrighteous nor be determined what new one should be so Nor that a Soul penitent in this World should not it self be happy hereafter but have its hopes of future Happiness utterly frustrated and be put off with the Mock-happiness of being happy in another Soul What Encouragement can I have to my Duty if I suppose I must not continue to the Perfection and Happiness of my Obedience but must perish and only now be contented to think that God will create a Soul hereafter and perhaps give it my Dust to be happy because I only began to be holy Or how shall I be deterr'd from Sin if I am perswaded I my self must be discontinued and that it is not I but another Mind that is in danger of everlasting Vexation it may be with my old Body if I now die impenitent When we say a Man is dead if we talk like Rational Creatures we must have some determinate Sense of those words He is dead Who is dead He. The He or Person must remain What is dead Such a thing A Man The thing or Man is tho'dead A Man is a Compound of Soul and Body Or a Mind doing and suffering with or by occasion of an Organical Body A Man's being dead is the Cessation of this manner of Life not of either of the Components Beings or Essential Properties The Body unacted by the Mind is useless among Men and tends to Corruption or Dissolution of parts so the Living put it out of their sight the Soul or Mind is invisible of its self and can neither converse with Men nor Men with it without the use of Body so when separate it is not to Men yet it no way follows but that it may well be to God and to it self which is Being enough But the Soul consider'd apart can have no Dissolution of parts having none to be separated nor can it die otherwise than in a figurative or Metaphorical Sense As it may be said to be morally dead or dead in Sin when it is impenitent and not conformable to its Duty To be Spiritually dead when it thinks not of or is not busied about Spiritual things To be dead to Sin or dead to this World when its disorderly Thoughts or undue Manners of Thinking on earthly vile sordid things cease It may be said to be dead to Joy or Comfort when it has lost all pleasant Thoughts and has only grievous horrid anxious ones without all hope or rest continually and if such a State always continue whether the Soul be separate from or joyned to a Body it is that which is properly call'd everlasting Death Thus I think it is apparent that the Soul is immortal and that which is its proper or natural Life viz. Thinking does not cease Tho' to suppose the Soul immortal of its own Nature or that it is or has any thing in it self which necessarily infers its Continuance would be as great or a greater Error than to fancy it mortal for that would be to suppose it immortal as its Author is But it cannot be suppos'd thus to be immortal for whatsoever had a Beginning or had not Being always may be supposed to have an End and cease to be Such are all Creatures who would fall into nothing if God should not will their Continuance But that he does will them to continue I think we may be perswaded by the foregoing Considerations 32. Moreover we have not only reason to believe that Souls do continue tho' separate from that is disusing their Bodies and such a Life they lived with them but that they shall have their Bodies again after some time because the end of the Souls having a Body cannot easily be thought to be fully attained in this Life This material World seems to be made chiefly for Man to be concern'd with and the things therein to be Objects of his Knowledge and Subjects of his Actions It is by means of his Body that he is now capable of knowing and acting in Bodily Nature but what he knows and does therein is so imperfect notwithstanding all the Wonders that have come within the reach of his Understanding and great things have
Torments But I do not believe that those Torments or Pains and Diseases in this life are inflicted or caused by God's Immediate Hand but are the Work and Procurement of Sinners according to that Jer. 2.19 Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee c. God can I think be no more the Cause of the Creatures Misery than of its Sin otherwise than as he is the Cause of the Creatures being capable thereof so that the Creature could neither sin nor sorrow if God had not made it a Creature Let us endeavour to clear this matter if possible that I may not be thought by all Men grosly mistaken to hold so great a Paradox as that God does not punish for Sin There are two sorts of Evils the Creature is capable of Sin and Misery or rather Sin and Displeasure which though we call two are in many Respects the same That God should be the Cause of Sin few will in words tho' many do in consequence affirm and I think I have said enough before to convince them both But Displeasure or Misery most Men I meet with esteem God the Cause of to the Creature In the Consideration of Misery we have First The Want of Good or Pleasure Secondly The Presence of Evil or Displeasure First As to the Want of Pleasure It is certain God made Intelligent Creatures capable of Intense and perpetual Pleasure and Satisfaction but if the Creature has it not it is not God's fault It was impossible the Creature should have continual Happiness or Pleasure as God has it viz. independently in it self or by its own Will as its own oppos'd to the Will of God God could make it no more than a Creature and so the Creature must needs be satisfied by its Creator But if the Creature turns from God and sets up a Will against him he must needs want Satisfaction when through Creature-Impotence he can't have his Will God's Will not concurring with his and when through Creature-Folly he has willed what was not best for him and finds it so So that if the Creature wants any Pleasure or Good it is because he has turned from it or left it or at least has some other Sinners hindering it or taking it from him by their Sin for even the Innocent as Christ was being Creatures may suffer by the Sins of others But the presence of this Evil of Displeasure may farther be considered under two Heads 1st Displeasure merely mental 2dly Displeasure or Pain by the occasion of the Body both of them in their center are nothing but discontented or uneasie Thoughts a Consideration or Apprehension of something against ones Will. Now as to the first If I desire that which is contrary to the Order of the Creation unfit to be and cannot have it and therefore am foolishly discontent angry fret rage c. it is not God that makes me do so No the disorderly Desire is a Sin something against God's Will therefore God don't will it To will something against God's Will is a Sin and to be angry and fret and rage because we can't have our disorderly Will is a farther Aggravation of the Sin a stronger Will against God's Will therefore God can't cause or will it that were to cause Sin so that God cannot be suppos'd the Cause of the Mental Unhappiness or Displeasure God has given Man a very large desire but for what that it should be crossed because he is but a Creature and can't be God No but that it may be satisfied in the way it possibly can viz. by its Maker in the compliance with his Will in the excellent Order of the Creation that Man willing what God wills viz. that which is good and so to be doneby God's Power may be very happy But as to those uneasie Thoughts we have or may have by occasion of the Body which go under the name of Pain and Disease there seems more difficulty to excuse God's hand from being the Giver But I think if we consider it may soon appear that God is no more the Cause of all the Conditions or the Actual Existence of this Misery than of that Discontent Sinners have when they have not their foolish Wills in other things The Connection of the Body with the Mind without which such Sensations are not probably thought to be in the Mind is to be ascribed to God as the cause The manner of this Union of Soul and Body is Use the Mind desires to use the Body acts upon it by and with it and receives divers Ideas or Thoughts of Body by occasion of it God's Will is indeed the Bond of this Union he wills that the Mind should desire to use its Body gives the Mind power to move it and to do divers things in Bodily Nature by it and causes that when such and such Conditions are in the Body the Mind should have such and such Ideas or Thoughts pleasing or displeasing But as I said before of Sin God made Man capable of Sin not that he might sin so God made Man capable of displeasing Thoughts by means of the Body not that he might have them as the end of the Capacity but that he might as much as possible avoid the least thing that tends to the spoiling or disordering of the Body with which he is to act a Part for a time When there are the Conditions of Pain or Disease God in his general Law in Nature wills Pain or discontented Thoughts should follow and so this Discontent in it self is not sinful but God is not the Cause of the Application of the Conditions but the Sinner himself or some other Sinner for him When there is such and such a Body abus'd and unduly apply'd to Man's Body the Mind presently is uneasie as at the approach of some Enemy but this Uneasiness was not the end God caused in Man such a Sensibility but that Man might be the more affected with the pleasing Sensations he has made him capable of by avoiding at the first touch all things that tend to remove the Conditions of Pleasure that he might sooner be warned so than he could by Consideration God made Man exquisitely sensible that he might be capable of Pleasure even by having a Body and not be as it were imprison'd against his Will and whenever the Conditions of Pleasure are present God fails not to cause that Sensation tho' under Circumstances where the Creature acts against his Will So on the contrary But Man has a power given him to use or abuse things and it is one part of his business in this World to do all those things that tend to keep his Body most in health and ease that he may be the more capable of the chief part of his work which does not relate only to this Life but that which is to come viz. the rectifing his Thoughts in order to his greatest and lasting Happiness But to bring the matter near the eye if possible take this instance Fire tends to
loath to repent and try him except she were sure She can't find in her heart to forgive her poor Debters Some-body or other has wrong'd her and she 's resolved to have Satisfaction it is but just So she thinks God must have Satisfaction for her Sins or he can't be just and tho' she has heard a Sin-sweetning-Story that Christ hath made Satisfaction for Sinners she can't believe she is of that number she is not sure she 's one of the small number predestinated Shall I tell her yet more plainly what 's her Disease She loves Sin too much Duty too little her Heart is not inflam'd with Love to God so as to influence all her Actions She has not had him represented to her so Good Merciful Loving Ready to Forgive all freely as indeed he is Besides that Witness for God the Conscience that testifies when Man hath done well or ill is not clear perhaps and according to the measure of Obedience or Disobedience in known Duty will the Comfort or Discomfort generally be to a convicted Soul and faith that there is Forgiveness with God is one Duty without which Comfort is seldom securely enjoy'd Now let us consider has God left or afflicted such Persons No they have left God and hid themselves from him let them but be perswaded to turn to God and believe his Infinite Love and Goodness and love him with all their Hearts and they will quickly find that Perfect Love casts out Fear their Troubles will cease with the restifying their Judgments and changing their Wills Now of all the Miserie 's sinful Creatures are lyable to the Eternal Torments as they are call'd of the Damned in Hell can I think with least reason be thought to come from the hand of the Best Being as the Inflicter or Executioner when these Miseries may well be thought chiefly to consist in the Exasperation and height of those uneasie Thoughts which are the very Acts of Sin as Wrath Envy Hate Despair Desire impossible to be satisfied c. Add unto these their Effects with whatsoever Devils and Immortal wicked Men may be able to inflict upon one another and the most uncharitable Soul can hardly desire a greater Hell for his greatest Enemy But what I have said already of Displeasure merely Mental and that which comes by the means of the Body may be easily applied here if well considered But yet farther methinks it is a very hard Thought to think that God who as the beloved Disciple tells us is Love should hate and take Pleasure or Delight in tormenting his poor foolish frail Creatures or that he should afflict willingly or from his Heart or affect with Grief the Children of Men and that for ever But he must be supposed either to do it willingly and take pleasure in so doing or he cannot properly be said to do it for God cannot with any reason be said to do any thing against his own Will or in which he has not pleasure that cannot be suppos'd of a Perfect or Self sufficient Being nor can any action of the Creature be thought to bring God under a necessity of doing any thing he delights not in and he swears he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33.11 chap. 18.32 It is the Sinner that will die or chooseth Death he seeks pleasure indeed but he hath it not because he seeks it where it is not to be had viz. in his own foolish disorderly Will distinct from God's Will when God cannot give it him that way it being impossible The Damned doubtless are exceeding uneasie why they have turned from God the Fountain of Pleasure They have lived and died in a course contrary to God's Will contrary to the only possible way of Happiness and God is just in suffering them to have their own choise in leaving them after innumerable Arguments to perswade them to real good to make the Experiment how happy they can be without being beholden to him and it is enough to shew that God approves not of their Sin if he continue their Being his Work under the greatest Misery they can bring themselves into and as they are no more sinful than they themselves and their fellow Sinners can make them so if they have no more Misery than what they can work in themselves and one another it will be proportionable to their Sins and both may be exceeding great God can't be thought to work or cause Despair Wrath Malice Hate and Envy at the greatest Good Extream Discontent at his Will and the Happiness of others fierce furious unsatisfied Desire c. in his Creatures he must not be thought to be the Cause or Agent of those sinful Passions they are all against his Will as he hath clearly manifested And we cannot suppose that God's Justice requires that Sinners for a short life of Rebellion against their Maker in this World should be bound to rebel against him for ever or believe that they can satisfie for some Sins here with a Continuance of all Sins they are capable of in a State of Immortality hereafter No there is no necessity of Unhappiness but what the Sinners own perverse Will brings upon him his disorderly Passions are let loose and to what extremity Passions may be carried out who knows These will be Tormenters if there were no Devils able to vex And where these evil Passions are in their extream how can it be thought that the Bodies such Anxious Souls would delight in can be other than the Occasions of far greater Misery than they were capable of being in this Life wherein some of the Passions disorder'd have brought the Bodies to be very uneasie Concomitants with this Aggravation that they have then no more Death to expect to rid them of that uncomfortable Companion unless we could suppose that Hell it self hath at least this Happiness to be a Remedy for the Diseases of the Body and a Safeguard from all those Evils Sinners could lay upon one another in this life or that their Folly could bring God under a necessity to disown his well-wrought Work their Being and to let them fall into nothing As for the Examples of external Judgments as they are call'd which we have especially in Scripture wherein some may think the immediate Act of God as inflicting is always required when they were more than Preventions of greater Evils the Persons would have run into they may easily be accounted for by supposing Men sometimes left to the power of the Devil the Prince of the power of the Air who seems eagerly covetous to enlarge the Dominion of Hell or to do any kind of Mischief Of this we have an Example in Job Or that God sometimes withdraws his Providential hand from protecting a People or a Person that leaves him and suffers them to fall into the hands of others that are wicked their Enemies As were the Judgments on Israel or others by Inimical Nations in which Instances we can't suppose God does
or of the Mother in Conception It is by Virtue of the Word of God Increase and Multiply that there is any Generation at all and why may not the same Word give a power to the Soul to beget a Soul as well as to the Body to beget a Body The Word is spoken to Man as a Compound of Body and Soul and neither part is excepted Isaac was a compleat Man consisting of Body and Soul if Abraham begat only Isaac's Body he did not truely beget Isaac But you will say perhaps the Body is divisible and part of it may be separated and become another Body but the Soul does not consist of parts and so cannot be thought capable of producing another Soul I answer This is no difficulty for the Soul to be begotten does not consist of Parts has no Quantity or Bulk and so needs not a Bulky thing to spare a part to make it of Why may not the Soul the Immaterial and more Noble Part of Man by the Will of God be as capable of begetting a Soul as the Body the Bulky and more ignoble is for the Production of a Body Why must the Soul be thought capable of less in its kind than the Body in its kind Why may not Cogitation break forth into new Heads of Cogitation as well as Body sprout out into new Organical Bodies tho' we may be ignorant of the precise Manner of both But there is a second Opinion which possibly may be true whether the Soul be propgated or no and that is That every Son and Daughter of Adam is tempted and falls as soon as they are capable of choosing Good or Evil tho' not as their first Father with a forbidden Apple yet with many other forbidden things tho' how soon or precisely when they thus fall is uncertain That Children are for some time Innocent seems to some very probable not only because the Scripture in divers places speaks of them as not having done Good or Evil not knowing the right hand from the left not knowing to choose the Good and refuse the Evil not to have sinn'd after the Similitude of Adam 's Transgression c. but because it is not reasonable that Sin should be reckon'd where there is no Law and there can be no Law where there can be no Knowledge of a Law Had God not told Adam himself he should not eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge he could not have transgress'd in so doing And that all transgress and become Sinners is no wonder if Adam a Man in his perfect use of Reason having but one thing forbidden and but one immediate Tempter was so soon tempted and fell much more liable are they to fall who have not such a Capacity of discerning have many things forbidden many Tempters within and without yea and many Examples of Transgression the strongest Temptation and are thereby inured to those Actions before they can judge of them which when they are capable of knowing what they do become Sins and tho' they come to know such Actions are sinful Custom is as it were natural and not presently changed Moreover Children are not only tempted and taught to sin by Example but even by Precept from Parents from Nurses from Servants from Play-fellows c. to be Proud to Revenge to Lye to Covet to Steal c. so wretched a World is every Mother's Child brought forth into that there are none but the Son of the Blessed Virgin who was not only begotten by the special Operation of the Most High but was strong in Spirit and filled with Wisdom by the special Grace of God from his very Infancy I say there are none but he who have not fallen by divers Temptations Yea we are often falling even after Repentance and have every day need to renew our Repentance and come to the Throne of Grace for the Pardon of our Sins Now if every Man's Sin is his own and not anothers and no Man can justly suffer for anothers Sin much less can the Sins of Fallen Men be truely imputed or reckon'd to Jesus Christ As Christ is not really guilty of the Commission of any Sin or the Cause of any Man's Sins so it is impossible God should think he is or reckon him guilty Neither the Will of God nor of Christ can be in such an Untruth and Injustice Neither God nor Christ nor any but Sinners can charge Sin upon the Innocent or punish him for it Tho' Christ be said to bear the Sins of the Sinful it is not the Guilt of them because he is not guilty and God can't reckon him so nor the Punishment of them justly or from God but it is either meant he bears them away that is saves them from them by being an Effectual Means of bringing them to Obedience or that he with Patience and Compassion suffer'd under their sinful Actions and Miseries bore their Affronts Injuries Mockings Scourgings condemning and crucifying of him and was grieved at their Unhappiness in so doing Neither is Christ's Righteousness or any ones else truely imputed or reckon'd to others God cannot reckon or think Christ's being obedient is my obeying because it is not so or reckon any Man obedient till he is so because Christ is obedient If he could he would reckon amiss I cannot but admire at many who reckon themselves special Christians how they dare affirm that God reckons us guilty of Adam's Sin or Christ guilty of ours and punishes the one for the other notwithstanding God has declared the contrary saying The Father shall not bear the Iniquity of the Children nor the Children of the Father and that he will not clear the Guilty nor condemn the Innocent I believe the blind fancy of our Sins being imputed to and punish'd in Christ and Christ's Righteousness being transferred on us has been a means of transferring Righteousness and consequently Salvation from many a Soul 46. Another Fancy common among us and near of kin to this is That we are to be saved by the Merits of Christ and that he meriteth of God Life and Salvation for us c. The notion of Merit is this The Person meriting does something or other more than his Duty whereby he obligeth the Person he merits of to something or other as due and the Meritor so deserves that he ceaseth to be beholden for what is become by his Action due to him but it is a Debt that cannot be withholden without Injustice in the Person he merits of Now that it is a groundless Fancy that God should become indebted to Christ or to us for any thing Christ hath done or suffered will appear if we consider that it is impossible for any Creature to merit any thing of God for it self and if not for it self much less for another It cannot merit for it self because all that the Creature has or is except Sin it has from God and all the Acts of Obedience it can do are naturally due to God God can receive