generous obediential Disposition of Soul towards the true God ready and prepared cheerfully to receive and execute all his Commands though never so difficult at all times And as he was then justified by that pious Temper of Heart manifesting it self in actual Obedience to the Commands of God then laid upon him So shall we Christians saith St. Paul if we be of the same pious Temper of Soul with Abraham exerting it self in an actual Obedience to the Laws of God now declared and enjoyned by Jesus Christ Nay we may add That the Jews themselves though they little understood it were all along justified upon the same Condition too Not so much by the Observance of the particular Laws of Moses as sent from God by Moses as they stiffly contend most of which were but temporary and fitted for the particular Circumstances of that People as by that devout Temper of Love Reverence and Obedience to God declaring his Will for that time by Moses And where-ever that Temper was among the Jews it had the same effect of actual Obedience to God by Jesus Christ when he was sufficiently preached and made known to them True sincere Piety the Love of Truth and Goodness prevailing against all worldly Interest and Prejudices brought the Jews themselves most certainly over to Christianity If we would know more of this Temper by Example we may see the 119 Psalm the History of Cornelius those of the New Covenant into whose Hearts and Minds God will put and write his Laws Heb. 10. 16. those whom our Saviour calls his Sheep who know hear his Voice and follow him And what is said of the Son of God himself Heb. 10. 7. Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me to do thy Will O God These are the Persons this the Qualification Condition and Capacity for God's Favour Approbation Commendation and Reward or in one word for his Justification A submissive obediential Temper of Heart to God I say a Qualification or Condition of God's Favour in general and particularly expressed in remission of sins which by no means excludes the Consideration of Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice which ever was another Cause of Justification from the beginning and ever will be This sense of Faith viz. Piety will not be thought strange by those who have observed the Hebrew way of speaking Thus we read Exod. 14. ult that the Israelites believed in the Lord and his Servant Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. they submitted themselves to God's Laws and Government by Moses Their belief or faith in God and Moses was a disposition of mind in them to observe the Commands of God by Moses For it is of the same general Importance with the Phrase immediately before The people feared the Lord. The Israelites were as they professed ready to hear and do the Will of the Lord by Moses So they express themselves Exod. 19. 8. All that the Lord hath spoken we will do to obey the Voice of the Lord and to keep his Covenant Nor is it to be doubted but that the Israelites if they were really in their hearts what they professed with their mouths were then also justifiâ—d and in the Favour of God before they had heard any one particular Command of the Law from God by Moses either Ceremonial as Circumcision Festivals Sacrifice c. or Moral and if any of them then died as no doubt some did they were also saved Nor is the reason of this signification of faith when it is joined with Justification and Salvation less easie 'T is because Faith in its strict and primary Sense of assent to some Truths necessarily preceeds this Religiousness of Heart this habitual Piety A Man must firmly believe that there is right and wrong moral good and evil that the Will and Laws of God are the most infallible Rules of it that he will reward and punish the Observers or Transgressors of them before he is effectually resolved or habitually disposed universally to be obedient to God and to please him as the Authour to the Hebrews hath it Chap. 11. In like manner the love and fear of God are every where used in the Scriptures Synecdochically for all Religion and Vertue because those Affections in their strict and proper Sense produce in us a disposition of Soul to universal Obedience to him and consequently all Instances of Righteousness Such may be the first Notion of justifying or saving Faith Secondly A second is more particular and limited and that is an obedient Temper of Heart to God making known his Will and Laws to us by Jesus of Nazareth the true Christ or by being a Christian It was one of the principal Errours of the Jews against whom St. Paul in various places disputes about the Point of Justification that they would admit no other Condition of it than the Observance of the Mosaical Law which he calls the Law and the Works of the Law St. Paul maintains against them that it was not but a vertuous and holy Temper of Soul which loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity and consequently most desirous to know and do the Will of God when and in whatsoever Instances he should please to declare and reveal it But more especially and particularly now by Jesus of Nazareth the true Messias described foretold and promised to their own Nation He was now appointed by God to be his Vicegerent and Legislator under himself to all Mankind to the End of the World as Moses was for a certain time only to the Jews Now God expects and requires Submission and Obedience to his Laws by this Jesus from all Men every where All I say to whom this Declaration of his Will shall come and particularly from the Jews to whom he was preached by himself and other Disciples Which if they did and persever'd they should be justified by God and in his Favour particularly receive from him remission of sins the Holy Ghost and Eternal Salvation Thirdly and lastly Some have named a third Sense of faith and that is Faith objectively taken or the Doctrine of Christianity or if you please the Christian Religion For Religion objectively taken I would call a Doctrine revealed from God or a System of revealed Doctrines and that which is by Jesus Christ the Christian Doctrine or Religion so that Justification by Faith is the same with Justification according to the Doctrine of the Gospel or according to the Christian Religion and Justification by the Law or Works of the Law is Justification according to the Doctrine of the Mosaical Law Not that which Moses himself really taught or delivered but that which the Jewish Doctors the Interpreters of that Law and the generality of the Jews taught and believed in St. Paul's Time Such may be the sense of Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness of God by faith i. e. taught by the Gospel and then fitly follows the particulars of that Doctrine in the four next Verses and v. 28. We
End and not to leave our selves to a tumultuous boonness of spirit and to the fortuitous tides or rushes of our appetites and passions So it hath been said of the Ancient Epicureans that their Exclusion of their Deities from humane Affairs was recommended by them as a comfortable dogm freeing Men from all fear and solicitude to please or displease them 6ly Sometimes in some men infidelity hath proceeded from a sowerness of mind great displeasure conceived and fermented into an impatience against God and his Providence Perhaps their impetuous desires have been crossed their darling designs broken and their jolly hopes frustrated or their sweet enjoyments suddenly swept away from them whence first they have entertained very hard thoughts of God and his Providence and broken out into rude and unmannerly expressions against them Then in revenge proceeded to wish them out of the World and at last have thought it more easie and safe to deny them 7ly In others again an affectation of singularity and despising what is common an humour of contradicting of what is ordinarily believed disposeth to infidelity Because the generality of men do believe those great truths so often mentioned therefore they will not They would seem more searching or fortunate or bold in their discoveries and opinions than all the World besides They would appear to know or at least dare to say that which the generality of Men have been ignorant of or that which if some few of the more curious and inquisitive and penetrating have thought as well as themselves yet they had not the courage to publish it Now these men are under a far more dangerous prejudice from affectation of singularity and novelty than the generality of men whom they usually despise are from Antiquity Custom and Example If we consider both these abstractedly it is far safer to follow common received opinions of many Countries and Ages especially if believed of great importance than the new inventions of one or some few Though both may be false yet if no other reasons be considered the old is much more likely to be true than the new And I believe it is the experience of those who impartially examine things that generally the common and well near universally received opinion of all places and ages especially if thought of great consequence whether true or false are at last found in the main part of them to be true And it is one of the best Employments of men of great Wit and more than ordinary sagacity and capacity to conceive and deliver them more clearly and distinctly and to pare off and separate some absurdities and falshoods which may in some tract of time by passing through many unskilfull hands have been fastned to them But of this more will be said when we come to the remedies of infidelity 8. To add no more at present Envy against the Professors but of Ingenuity Philosophy and Sobriety much more of Religion and Piety especially if attended with any thing of Dignity Reputation and Revenue hath been the Cause I doubt in many ill-tempered and ill-living Men of this Infidelity Some of these at first out of this ill-humour and quality feign to themselves and then industriously bring themselves to believe it that the things are frivolous or false for which Men of Learning and Religion have been thought worthy of their Rewards of Esteem Honour and Revenue And what 's the Cause or Reason No other but that their Eye is evil and they would not have them to enjoy them They do not well abide it to see them in possession of that which either they would have themselves whether deservedly or not or at least no body else Others again speak meanly or disgracefully of their Doctrine Opinion and Profession because they spoil the Reputation of their manner of life and are inconsistent with that licentiousness and liberty which they profess practise and delight in Hence it is they give them the bad and contemptible names of Pedantries uncertainties or falshoods Here we may take in another sort of men which are but servants and attendants to the former those viz. who get their livelihood and sometimes more by the excesses contentions quarrels perjuries and other wickednesses of the Age. These two as far as their Wit and Interest will go help on and promote the disbelief of all sober vertuous and religious Principles These and others which may be still added are the inward Causes and inherent in our selves of unbelief and disbelief and which are most in our own Power to prevent or remove There are also some others external and occasional such as the Example of witty and acceptable Company Hypocrisie in Religion both revealed and natural so taken and seeming at least especially in the Teachers of them when men profess they believe their grand Truths but do not live in any sort as if they did Which accusation is partly false for the generality of men though they do not indeed live near up to their Faith yet they would be much worse without it Partly it is to be put to another Cause viz. heedlesness and want of application of their belief to their practice But perhaps few things have been more an occasion of the Infidelity of some men than the over-zealous and blind Credulity of others Some men's believing too much and otherwise than they ought and yet fiercely imposing it hath been the Cause of others believing too little and sometimes they who have most complained of Scepticism and Infidelity Unbelief and Disbelief which are different things have contributed much to it themselves The introducing of many Opinions of neither light or use or very little either way uncertain or trivial nay sometimes not only justly suspicious but manifestly false and then the imposing them under what Penalties men have in their own Power the least of which is commonly the Censures and Reproaches of Enemies or Indifferents in Religion Hereticks Atheists Infidels I say these have begotten and extremely nourished Scepticism and Infidelity especially in this knowing and inquisitive Age bold when they dare lurking and doing more mischief oft-times when they dare not shew themselves because they cannot be examined and receive their Answers This is the infirmity of those well-meaning Men who will have every thing believed and imposed too which seems to them to make for the honour and reputation of their Religion not minding what should be in the first place known whether it be true or false But it is the wickedness of those who do it for their own secular interest and care not how much Mankind be abused so that their Domination be advanced and secured at least they connive at it and let it pass This Cause hath its effect principally among the ingenious and witty the great and haughty but not wise and just who want either leisure or patience or capacity or probity to examine and distinguish things They easily throw away the Wheat with the Chaff what is true and solid
with what is false and light 'T is also probity of mind they want who being licentiously given and no great friends to any Religion or Truth either which may lay any restraint upon them in their opinions or practices gladly take any advantages against them That men look upon all professing Religion and Conscience to be Ignorant Superstitious or Cunning so that their Example or Reason are of no Authority with them Neither doth this humour stop among this sort of men but it is soon conveyed into the vulgar too who soon learn to contemn Religion and the Priest especially in times of liberty Wherefore it is to be advised and sincerely Religious men wise and honest who heartily desire the Advancement of true Religion will so do that we be first assured of the truth of our belief and opinions in Religion and be now carefull and just to appear for nothing but what is so and for that reason And when we cannot fairly maintain any thing to be such tho' it appear never so much for the honour and interest of Religion as many very false and forged things have let it rest and go as it is till time may further discover And as for the vulgar it is surely their safest way to rely upon the Conduct of such wise and honest Men though they may be even exhorted to see with their own Eyes too if they can For it is much more easie for them to know who are such than to judge themselves of the truth and falshood Universal conveniencies and inconveniencâ—es of things to know who are the best Guides than to guide themselves This plain dealing without fraud or force will surely much advance the just Esteem of Religion and its Ministers and consequently its influence and efficacy We have but too much proof of this Cause of Infidelity from experience We have seen some Men and that of the first rank who have taught us such a God and that out of his own Books which others judge to be an absolute impossibility And yet after all they will be the only Orthodox and reprobate all those who will not be of their opinion Many also are those who have made the Holy Scriptures the most excellent Collection of Writings which were ever extant to speak such things which hath caused others not brooking their Interpretations nor being sufficient to find out better themselves to have mean and injurious thoughts of them And yet if any pious Man with the sincerest intentions and endeavours to preserve and vindicate their due honour by salving difficulties which seem to check Reason do advance any thing inconsistent with their settled Opinions and Systems he is presently irreligious and a severe Atheist too severe Censures whatever their mistakes may be But they are much more numerous still who have made up such an Hotch-potch in Religion by their Additions to the Holy Scriptures from pretended or enthusiastical Revelations forged or false Miracles Traditions Ecclesiastical Authority and Infallibility as first to turn men's Stomachs against it and at last to cause a great many quite to discharge themselves of it altogether But of these and such like I shall say no more at present But go on to the next general Head 2ly To propose some remedies proper to prevent or repress the influences of these Causes of Infidelity whereof some are more general some more particularly relating to some Causes and Circumstances The first of these is 1st To advise and assist Men to improve and advance their Knowledge to the highest Degree they are capable of For it seems just to deal so uprightly and plainly with the World as not to make use of mere Authority instead of understanding and reason where men are truly capable and honest though where they are ignorant but yet conceited self-willed or dishonest in things of importance and consequence Authority must be allowed to interpose for their own and the publick good which otherwise would greatly suffer Let therefore Men know as much as they can and examine these great verities with the greatest severity Assuredly the more they know the more reason they will see to believe them seriously and resolutely to live according to them Search the Scriptures saith our Saviour to the unbelieving Jews John 5. 39. to convince them that he was the promised Messias and the Person to whom all his Characters there did agree So say we Search the Scriptures Nature it self and Reason too for they bear witness of all these great Truths But then search them throughly examine them to the bottom see clearly reason carefully and justly weigh all things with indifferency and impartiality which will be presently a direction by it self Otherwise as the Jews did erroneously interpret the Holy Scriptures and conclude from them So may Men here through want of patience and attention and apprehension err and mistake in their Conclusion concerning the great Truths of Morality and all Religions We heartily desire that men's Faith and Belief may be the effect of a plain serious and deliberate Conviction more than of Custom where it may be And truly then as well as when it is wrought in the heart by the grace of God which is another Cause mentioned in the Scripture great is its Power and forcible its Operation and life it self is at its devotion and service Such was the effect of it in all the Apostles and particularly such is the Faith in Jesus Christ mentioned of Saint Thomas and Saint Peter when one cries out my Lord and my God and the other Lord whither should we go thou hast the word of Eternal Life Let that then be the first remedy against Infidelity viz. the utmost improvement and best exercise of our knowledge and reason 2ly Possess we our minds with a sincere and zealous Honesty and Probity By which I mean a strong habitual propension and inclination to that which is right and just This will have three Effects very proper to beget or confirm a right belief of the Truth and to preserve us in it The First A fervent love of the Truth The Second A free and ingenuous acknowledgment of it where-ever we discover it be it for us or be it against us Thirdly A desire to act suitable and live according to it I say a sincere and resolute Probity hath these effects For surely never any honest man doubted whether it was material more fit and just of better effect for a good man who will make good use of his knowledge to be knowing rather than ignorant or to believe the truth rather than a lye in order to direct him in all his inward Motions and outward Actions Without the first we shall not trouble our selves to search or find the truth Without the second when we know it we shall either not believe or deny it if possible or if by the clearness and evidence we cannot do that yet we shall turn our minds away from it Finally without the third we shall little esteem or
words read and see what instruction they will afford us to discourse upon By the term Fool it is well known that in the Scripture generally is not meant only an ignorant or erroneous Person but also one who is wicked and of ill-manners because he knows not or mistakes his own interest as well as departs from his Duty The Hebrew word is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies him that doth foul as well as foolish Actions So Nabal is said to have done according to his Name when he was so ungratefull and churlish to David as well as so foolish and imprudent that had it not been for Abigail by sparing a little he had lost all 1 Sam. 25. 25. And the Syriack Version here renders the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an unjust wicked and perverse Man 2. It follows hath said in his heart i. e. he hath thought so though perhaps he never dared to say so for that was Blasphemy and therefore death by the Jewish Law 3. There is no God i. e. there is no such thing really existent 't is but a name or an imagination Or if he be any where yet he is not present upon this Earth he meddles not with humane Affairs Some foolish wicked Men in their thoughts deny either the Being or the Providence of God extending it self to this lower World Like the Ancient Sect of the Epicureans among the Greeks long after these Fools of the Psalmist and consequently the true and necessary Perfections and Attributes of his Nature his Omnipresence Omniscience Omnipotence his Universal Goodness whereby he governs and directs the whole Universe at once to the best Ends his Sanctity Justice and the like And further consequent to this they deny all distinction between Moral good and evil right and wrong vertue and vice other than the present gratification and fulfilling their own lusts of haughtiness pride violence covetousness voluptuousness c. which sort of Men the Psalmist here more particularly means by the Fool. Nay finally hence it must necessarily follow that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews speak i. e. they denied their Religion despised even the Authority and Laws of Moses and were Judaical Infidels as ours now-a-days are Christian ones which is the more usual signification of the word and restrained to revealed Truths This last sense wants not Equal probability with the former For it is likely that from the beginning of Mankind there have been many more who have question'd the Providence and true Attributes than the Existence of a God for want of the true notion of his Nature and therefore the Chaldee Paraphrase seems not to have done amiss when it paraphraseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fool hath said in his heart that God hath no Dominion or Government in the Earth 4. The words they are corrupt they have done abominable works c. may be looked upon with the coherence either of a cause or an effect of the preceding Proposition The fool hath said in his heart c. As if they should be thus uttered Because they are corrupt c. therefore they have proceeded to that extremity of folly and impudence as to think there is no God at all and that he doth not see and know what they do or if he doth yet he cannot or will not concern himself to punish them Or we may read then to this sense Foolish and lewd Men have first perswaded themselves that there is no God or no Providence which reacheth humane Affairs and then have let loose the Reigns to their lusts which have carried them to the most wicked Works and abominable Practices From whence we may learn these Two things 1. That they who deny the Being or Providence of God over Mankind and the consequent Truths mentioned are both ignorant and wicked or infidelity is the quality of vicious Fools The fool c. 2. That the denying of those great Truths and such like is the cause of corrupt manners or infidelity is followed with still greater corruption of manners and wickedness of practice To take the first of these Among many heads of Discourse which have and may be handled in this great and most important Argument I shall choose but these Two 1st To observe some of the most frequent causes of this Disease And 2ly To propose some remedies to prevent or suppress their Efficacy And because those of both parts are many to be named I shall be as brief as I can in each of them and do little more than enumerate them 1st The first cause then of this infidelity is ignorance A charge which perhaps they may wonder or smile at who have so often been by themselves and others taken for more than ordinary Wits and so indeed they are but 't is in levity shallowness temerity self-conceit and boldness and some other as worthy qualities to be mentioned And we affirm still that one of the leading and first Causes of infidelity is great ignorance of the Nature of all Beings short of infinite Perfection and particularly of the material or corporeal World to believe it possible for any thing to exist without a God or a Being whose Essence is to be infinitely perfect and consequently necessarily to exist himself and to be the productive and conservative Cause of all other things whatsoever existent And then when there is such a Being it is to have lost the faculty of reasoning seriously to deny those Attributes of his Nature before mentioned and his Universal Providence For it would be to ungod him again It must be from a gross ignorance more particularly for any man to doubt his Universal Goodness whereby he disposeth and ordereth all things for the best State of the Universe of Beings in all its duration taken together and consequently his Justice so that it shall be better with the Good and Righteous than with the Evil and Wicked all Conditions or their whole Duration considered and comprehended It is from no better Cause that any man questions the Immortality of humane Souls in their own Nature and the unsuitableness of the Divine Attributes to annihilate them And it is far more incredible and further from all belief that God should make our Souls only for this point of time we live upon this Earth than that he should make all humane Race to come into this World only to cry and die 'T is I say it again from a contemptible ignorance of the Nature of Body and Spirit the Nature of God the true Ends of all Being Life and Action that these grand and fundamental Verities are seriously and ex animo disputed or denied by any It would be at present too tedious and impertinent to deduce at large the particular proofs of these most important Truths It hath been especially in this last Age excellently well performed to which in some things a further Addition may be made Let Infidels or Scepticks sufficiently
answer that first I think we may without vanity challenge all the power and force of their Wit and Learning to do its utmost Let us see if they be in earnest whether they be not extremely ignorant and if we may have the leave or pardon of this Royal Audience to provoke them with a great but just reproach whether they be not both bold and blockish Of which the second Cause of infidelity will give some Account 2ly And that is the difficulty of apprehending and conceiving those intellectual Objects which are absolute Such as are the Properties and Actions of God Angels humane Souls whence some have concluded them to be mere Words and Talk or mistaken for some corporeal Nature Such are those who first beginning at the substantiality and immortality of the Soul proceed to deny the Providence the Attributes and at last the very Being of God impudently affirming nothing can be conceived by us but Body and that which belongs to it This miserable Infirmity of humane Nature confines the noble Soul of Man to the most ignoble and dead part of the Universe deprives it of its greatest pleasure and perfection and debaseth it both in its knowledge and manners in its perceptive and active Powers The men who are most liable to it are those of much secular Business and Employment perpetually taken up with observation and reasoning and plodding about sensible objects and affairs of this bodily Life And some there are running so far to the extreme of this side as to give little either encouragement or opportunity to any other knowledge or employment of the mind of man besides Mechanicks Trade and civil Justice as if all other things were mere Chymera's and unprofitable fruitless empty Notions and nothing deserved our regard but only how to handle a Tool well or to buy and sell or at the highest to prevent or decide a Controversie about an House Field or Fence and other little Properties Which indeed are at present necessary and of great use for Temporal plenty and peace but are not in the least to be compared to the goods of the Spirit and to the hopes acquisition and enjoyments of immortality in the Heavens Alas how little do such men understand or consider that if all the furniture of this momentany bodily Life be not designed by God and used by us for spiritual and eternal good things it is scarce worth our coming into Being at all much less undergoing the manifold uneasinesses incommodities cares and calamities of it The effects of this humour and genius in a Nation to which lapsed and degenerate Mankind are prone enough for some small time prevailing seems to be profound ignorance and oblivion of intellectual and heavenly things the increase of Atheism irreligion and prophaneness Immorality in heart and life any further than it is inconsistent with secular interest and restrained by the Laws of civil Society For which one reason it seems highly expedient or rather absolutely necessary to set a-part one order of men in considerable number with places and other proper and convenient Circumstances to preserve and improve the knowledge and esteem of spiritual and heavenly things amongst Men otherwise truly in great danger to be lost And without which we should live like the Fish and Mole as ignorant of the nature and privileges and felicity of the superiour World infinitely the vastest and noblest part of the Universe as they are of ours It is more than likely some men may be content with it But surely they will be so humane and charitable as not to hinder but to help those which are not It is certain that the two great differences between that part of the World which is called barbarous and that which is civil are intellectuality and charity and so far as we lose either we return again to Barbarism 3ly Another most frequent and lamentable Cause indeed of infidelity is licentiousness Men would live as they list and gratifie and indulge their lusts to the full without any fear restraint or allay And because their consciences are at first more or less troublesome they endeavour to bribe corrupt and bring them over to their party to tell them that they may safely and honestly too follow such courses For that which is ordinarily believ'd say they and talked of vertue and vice and difference of Actions except only from agreeableness and present pleasure of God his Sanctity and Justice of Heaven and Hell of Reckonings and Recompences hereafter are but imagination and talk or false or at least dubious things These men do the Work throughly of debauching and eternally ruining themselves they do not only hire their Consciences to be silent or stand Neuters but to give their lusts all possible assistance and encouragement like some who have fought desperately in a bad cause not without conscience but with one as bad as their cause And here these Persons who will suffer themselves to be thus abused by their lusts ought timely to be aware in what great danger they are not only to deny the Lord that bought them but also the Lord that made them with all Religion that ever Reason and Nature hath taught and consequently to be deny'd by them 4. In men of an haughty spirit that very temper of theirs is a frequent cause of infidelity they will needs be uncontroulable by any and not endure any bounds to their desires and enjoyments but what they please to set themselves It is for ordinary and low spirits and not for such great minds as they are so say their flatterers and they believe them to suffer themselves to be restrained by any Laws of Nature Reason or Religion or to depend upon any Being whatsoever so much as to hope or fear from him and therefore they will not believe there are any such things Men who speak as big as Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him Exod. 5. 2. Poor creatures who though they are not a jot wiser or better and truly comparatively very little greater than other meaner Mortals yet they 'll aspire to the Prerogative of God their Creator to whom by reason of his essential Sanctity immutable Justice all comprehending Wisdom and Almighty Power it only belongs to know no other Laws but those of his own Nature and Will and to court no Power superior to his own 5ly We may add to these a certain gayness of spirit in some men These hate all care attention reflection and foresight which contract the spirit and causeth it to gather it self together and consequently they like not to hear of or believe nay they are resolved to disbelieve every thing which may disturb the security or confine the liberty or darken the gayety of their minds It is plain if we entertain and settle in our minds the great practical Truths of revealed and natural Religion they will oblige us to make use of some prudence and attention to direct our Actions by certain Rules to a certain