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
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
the other hand if one Woman should have more Husbands and if one Woman does not happen to be enough in the Conceit of her Husband or the Man for his Wife the seldom Enjoyment will render the Satisfaction the greater and better answer all the Ends of Marriage Besides if one Man should have many Wives some others who have as much reason to be allow'd such a Help and Satisfaction must have none whereby Propagation would also be much hindered Again Whoever loves a Woman peculiarly would also have her love him peculiarly so on the other side Which Rule of doing as one would be done by cannot be kept without loving singly No Whoremonger can possibly do as he would be done by he would not have his Wife or Daughters prostituted or common Nor would any Man of reason be willingly expos'd to the many Miserie 's not only of Diseases but of other natural Consequences following that high Injustice of breaking that most solemn Contract Bargain or Oath Men make at their Marriage which need never be made but freely and to one they themselves have chose out of the rest of Men or Women Nor is the Benefit Convenience or Pleasure of single Love and Marriage Constancy small if the choice be well made that is of such as are naturally suitable to or for one another Neither is this State to be equall'd much less exceeded by the extravagant and roving Affections of those that take most liberty in their Actions relating to Propagation But I need say no more these Disorders being seen by all Men to have so great a stroke in the Miseries of Mankind and appear so base to all who behold them in others Only one thing remains which I shall here touch upon and that is the reason of the Disorder or Inconvenience of Marrying our Kindred and that is founded upon the Honour due to a Father and Mother that they in themselves or in their parts should not be profaned made common or inferiour by their Children which nothing but Necessity could ever excuse and which also would unavoidably be by the promiscuous use of Men and Women Eighthly No less evident is the Reason founded in the Order of things and discoverable by the natural Light that we should not either privately or by force take away or pervert the Property of any Good that is our Neighbour's every Man acknowledgeth this unjust in that he himself would not part with that which is his Propriety otherwise than by his Consent Ninthly Not so much as the Good Name of another ought to be taken away or hurt if we will do as we would be done by nor our Fellow Creature represented worse or otherwise than he is to his damage we must not accuse him falsly at all much less in the name of the God of Truth whom to invoke in testifying a Lye is the highest Affront and daring'st Folly Nor can we pretend that we our selves or our Neighbour can have any advantage by a Falshood which by observation we shall find sooner or later tending even to the external damage of one or both but if for a time there seem to be some profit in what hath been inconsiderately call'd an Officious Lye it is but external and at the same time brings an Evil to the Mind greater than that outward seeming advantage can countervaâ—â— Tenthly And that we may be exactly conformable to all these Laws of Order and Equity we are to observe them in our very Desires It is most reasonable our Desires should be conformable to the Will of God as manifested in the order of his Works tending to our Good If we ought not to be unjust untrue or evil to another either God or Man we must not so much as desire so to be for Will to do Evil is the Action of doing Evil and wants only and that but in some cases to be signified externally or to affect another to make it as much Evil as it can be But Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law that which prevents or as much as possible amends these Disorders he that loves God will study to comply with his Will to be just and true to him he that loves his Neighbour as he ought will do him no harm in Body or Mind but labour to do him good in both The absence of all the Good and the presence of all the Evil relateing to our selves and our Neighbour comes from the want of true and regulated Love 17. Now as the Free-will of God is the sole Cause of the Being and Suchness of Being of the Creatures so whatever God hath made cannot be thought to be otherwise than Good from Goodness it self can nothing but Good proceed And tho' it may be said in respect of the Power of God he might have made things otherwise yet in consideration of his Wisdom and Goodness it cannot possibly be said he might have made any thing better without the greatest Presumption and Folly So that whatever God makes any thing such is its Bestness Let us but once know what a thing was as it came from the hands of God and what it is the Will of its Maker it shall be such is its Goodness and the bounds of its Creature Perfection what it shall be I say because it doth not appear that God made things unchangeable but rather in a condition tending to alteration so that tho' it be good yea perhaps best for the Creature to be so and so at one time yet it is good or best at another time to be in some respects otherwise The Intelligent Creature at least Man as he comes from the hands of God appears capable of an increase of Knowledge and of Satisfaction and tho' at first it is very good yet it is capable of better being in that respect and the Good Will of God in making things is not to be consider'd merely in their first Make but as a continual Act reaching to the Creatures whole Duration Now the way of the Creatures well Being better Being yea best possible Being viz. it s most clear beholding the Perfections of God intensest Loving and compleatest Satisfaction in him dependeth on the most Wise good Will and Pleasure of God which must be known as a Rule and Guide unto that end viz. that the Creature will as God wills to its utmost Capacity and be pleas'd with whatever God does who can do nothing but Good This Conformity to the Will of God is the only possible way for the Creature to be as much as it can be pleas'd or happy and so long and so much as it wills no otherwise than God would have it will so long and so much will it be joyous and satisfied as God made it to be in him 18. But if ever the Creature wills otherwise than God wills it must of necessity find the Disorder and Inconvenience of that Will and be uneasie and displeas'd it will certainly be some time or other discontented and uneasie either
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
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
been effected by his hand that we believe God will not let him loose his Body or cut the bond of Corporal and Spiritual Nature for ever but rather give it him again and that so alter'd as where-with he may be more capable of all those things he ought to do and be in Bodily Nature The Creatures inferiour to Man and subject to his Knowledge and use are but very little known or duly used in this Life therefore it is probable they will in another and without a Body we cannot see that the material World can signifie any thing to the Mind of Man Man at his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dissolution probably ceases to be to the BodilyWorld and the Bodily World to him but in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resurrection standing up or using a Body again he is again united to Bodily Nature to do and be something again therein And that he may be more capable of what he should be and do than he was in his first State or of finding the great Unreasonableness and Unhappiness of persisting in the contrary to his Duty it is requisite that the Body he receives should be altered or not exactly the same but otherwise modified so as to be capable of the state the Soul is then determined to And if we have reason to believe the Body shall be changed we cannot well think it shall be exactly the same numerical and like figured Parts of Matter it had before such a Supposition is needless as well as groundless if not contradictory The Body a Man of Forty or Fifty has is not the same numerical Matter he had at his Birth but has received the greatest part of its bulk from the various matters of his Food so that he was truly eating from his Trencher what is his Body But every Soul hath its own Body tho' the Body now be in continual change The Matter of the Bodies of Men and Brutes in the long tract of the Ages of this World hath been confounded and the same Matter or part of it that was the Body of one at one time has become the Body or part of the Body of another at another time but that needs not trouble us when the Sameness of a Person does not consist in the Sameness of the Matter of his Body but in the Continuation of his Thinking and Conscience of his Thoughts Nor perhaps have we any ground to suppose the raised Body will be altogether unchangeable it will be enough if to the happy it be such as will never any way hinder their Happiness to the wicked such as will continue tho' in the want of all the disorderly beloved Gratifications of Sense To believe the Possibility of a Soul 's having a Raised or Refitted Body either from the common Matter of the Earth or partly from those very Particles it formerly had is no difficulty when the Will of God is supposed the Cause Nor need we perswade the Possibility of a Recollection of dispersed Matter or tell you that even the Art of Man can gather together that which seems to be separated as much as a rotten Corps There is no manner of Difficulty or Contradiction in believing the Resurrection to those that believe a God The Difficulties that some have pretended in the notion of the Numerical Sameness of every Particle of Matter are nothing when we are no way obliged to believe it such a Resurrection 33. Moreover as all things in this sinful Life are very much out of order and Men do not sufficiently see their Disorders but think well of that which is ill and ill of that which is well It is very requisite and becoming the Perfections of God beseeming his Justice and Truth or his Approbation of his Will to Man and of his Constancy with the Manifestation of the true Causes of all Good and Evil that there should be some time or other after this Life for a time of Discovering Determination Judgment or Declaration of the Truth of things That the Work of Repentance and Obedience may be approved and appear to be good and most profitable for the Creature and Disobedience and Impenitence may be no more mistaken by Sinners for the way of Goodness and Happiness That Justice and Injustice may no more be taken one for the other that the Good may appear to be delivered from the power of the Wicked and the Wicked appear to be the Fools that were deceived And that the Truth of things may be most manifest and the Determination of them clear even to wicked Men it is not only highly probable but necessary that Men shall appear again in such Bodies as whereby they may be known to one another and these things be effected by such a means and in such a manner as may most aptly tend to the undoubted Determination of all things to their due and lasting Condition 34. Now as it is evident that Man's Business is to be conformable to the Will of his Maker according to that order the Most Wise thinks fit wherein his Perfections may be most seen and whereby the Creature may be most happy or pleas'd and since it is as evident that Man has failed and gone out of this order and vainly sought out himself an impossible way of Happiness wherein his Maker cannot be duly seen It follows that Man ought to repent and change his Mind To the doing of which it is necessary that Man should be capable of so doing It cannot be an immediate Obligation on a Creature to do what he cannot do Tho' the Creature has disobey'd yet the Obligation to future Obedience still remains so consequently a Capacity of obeying It would be very hard to be required to give what one has not and cannot have The Difficulty that may seem in several Instances wherein a Man may in some sort render himself uncapable of what he ought to do may be solved by this Consideration That Man cannot be thought to be disabled of a Will or Faculty of Desire While he has a Being he always wills or desires something and his Will is changeable by the strength of Argument or new appearance of Good from one thing to another There are the greatest Arguments on the side of Duty which may possibly appear to the Man whereby his Will may be changed and the willing according to God's Will is the act of Obedience which God accepts where the Soul cannot effect the outward things which are to Men the Testimonies Signs and Effects of it And such hearty Desires continued God often assists to be shewn forth and have their Effects to others or by his Providence some way or other rectifies the matter As for instance If a Man borrows Money spends it and then can't pay it he repents that he has done amiss desires and endeavours to get Money to pay but can't God forgives his Sin wherein he willed amiss accepts of his Will to pay for the deed supplies his Creditor another way or
Immediate Work of God as the first Man was Whatever comes immediately out of the hands of the Creator cannot be thought to be other than pure but out of an unclean thing cometh that which is unclean That Christ might be a Second Man in Innocence he must not be begotten by the sinful Will of Man as other Men are Conceptions of Self Will and Erring Understanding so determin'd to Evil rather than to Good that their at first weak Understanding or Reason is not sufficient to counter-ballance the manifold Temptations by occasions of Evil within and without Instructions and Examples to sin they meet with very early from Parents and others whom they little suspect such Enemies to them who use them to those Actions which tho' Ignorance makes innocent Reason when they come to know what they do makes culpable and use determines to But Christ besides his pure Original doubtless had the special Grace of God keeping him from Temptation so long as God saw fit that he might have at least the same advantage of strength of Reason the First Man had who was to undergo far greater Temptations But tho' he might not be a Soul derived from Man's corrupt Soul yet his Body might well be taken from the Matter of Mankind without his being thereby sinful or the more inclinable to sin For the Body is not the Subject of Sin or that which infects the Soul it may be an occasion of Temptation to Sin but Sin entirely resides in the Mind being but a disorderly Act of the Will That a Soul coming pure out of the hands of God should become a Sinner by using a Body taken from a Person that was a Sinner is unreasonable to be thought while Matter has nothing in it but Quantity Figure and Motion which howsoever disposed or modified has nothing of the Notion of Sin in it We might as well suppose a Man must needs become a Thief or a Murderer if he dwell in a House given him by one that was such Christ we all acknowledge received the Body God prepar'd him from the Virgin Mary whom all suppose a Sinner except some of the Roman Church yet we suppose him not made a Sinner thereby It was convenient Christ should receive a Body from Mankind that he might be a Real Man and a near Kinsman or Brother A Rational Soul using an Organical Body such as a Man's is really a Man tho' the Soul do not begin mediately by Generation as much as if it did otherwise the first Rational Creature using an Organical Body would not have been a Man the same in kind as others The First Adam's Soul could come no way but by Inspiration and his Body was a more Immediate or Special Work of God than the Bodies of others his Off-spring therefore he is called the Son of God in a nearer respect than they And that Christ's Soul was produced by the Immediate Power of God and his Body by a Special Work of the Most High he is the more properly said to be the Second Man or Adam God forming a Seed in a Woman a Virgin that we might be sure he was not a common Man when a Woman is naturally or commonly a Creature whose Seed is not in her self originally but in the Man or perhaps to speak more properly that hath no Seed This Seed of the Woman inform'd with this Holy Soul this One Exception from the common Order of the Production of Men is therefore with good reason call'd the Son of God eminently as distinct from others who on any lesser or more common Accounts are said to be his Children And the same reason for Subsistance we have given us in the Gospel Luke 1.31 The Angel said unto Mary thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Ver. 32. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God shall give him the Throne of David 〈◊〉 his Father Christ is said to be the Son of Abraham the Son of David only according to the Flesh because Mary from whom he received his Body materially was of the Off-spring of Abraham and David Ver. 34. And Mary said unto the Angel how shall this be seeing I know not a Man V. 35. And the Angel answering said unto her a Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee therefore also that holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And to strengthen the Virgin 's Faith he tells her ver 36. Her Cousin Elizabeth who was old and accounted barren had conceived For v. 37. with God nothing shall be unpossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every word shall not be unpossible viz. whatever can be said in reason to be a thing to be done shall not be unpossible with God He brings her from the less to the greater he that has caused the Old and Barren to be with Child a thing above the power of Nature can do more even cause thee a Virgin to conceive without the means of a Man Thus Christ that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Soul Spirit or Mind that received his Body from Mary and so became the Compositum call'd a Man was truely call'd the Son of the Most High as God the Father of all was in a special manner his Efficient Cause and the Son of Mary and her Progenitors as she was the Material Cause of what was material in him And least any should think the Holy Ghost the Efficient Cause of Christ's Conception and so rather to be called his Father from whence would arise a great difficulty from those Expressions ver 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Math. 1.18 and 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be considered that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit is put without the Article and is rather to be rendered a Holy Spirit and of a Holy Spirit then the Holy Spirit A Holy Spirit shall come upon thee or into thee Signifying thereby either that she should have a Holy Disposition in order to the over-shadowing Power of the Highest viz. of the Father coming to effect such a Conception or that she should receive a Holy Conception in her or both So she was found with Child of a Holy Spirit That which is conceived in her is of a Holy Spirit that is she hath a Holy Conception in her was found with Child of a Holy Conception neither a Spurious as Joseph thought nor a Common Conception The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not denote the Efficient Cause any more here than it does when spoken of Mary Luk. 1.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of thee in thee or by thee and Matth. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Mary or in Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was born or conceived Jesus not that she was the Cause
the Destruction of the Body if too nearly apply'd but if keept at a due distance it occasions a sort of Pleasure tending to the Conservation of the Bodily frame God is the Cause I am pleas'd or displeas'd as it 's due or undue application but he does not unduely apply it nor has he created it of such a nature for my Hurt or Displeasure that would be a Disorder in his Works but for my Good the Conservation of my Body and Pleasure But when that or any other Body is apply'd to my Hurt it is I my self or some other Sinner that either ignorantly carelesly foolishly or wickedly abuses it Now my bare being uneasie or displeas'd at the undue application of things is not sinful my unduely applying them may be very culpable Christ we believe was innocent tho' he had an uneasie Aversation at the application of things hurtful to his Body but he did not apply them nor did God apply them or will them apply'd for if he had so done Christ's being uneasie or displea'd would not easily be excus'd from Sin So if I drink or eat to excess and get a Feavor Headach or Vertigo God is not properly said to be the Cause of my being so disordered but my self in abusing my Meat and Drink It is certain that 't is the abuse of Bodily things and extravagant Passions of the Mind that procures Sickness and Pains and Sinners are the Authors of these Abuses and yet alas I hear them often the Authors of a greater viz. to say that it is the Hand of God that does all the mischief in the City With the greatest Confidence will some Men affirm the greatest Contradictions and Absurdities if they can but bring some mistaken place of Scripture seeming to countenance their opinion so they will not fail to prove as they think whatsoever they fancy or please And there is no Fancy so extravagant but Men may find some pretence of Scripture for it even to contradict Sense and Reason yea to prove that God is the Author of Sin and all the Disorders in the World they think they have God's own Word for it But Men would do well before they affirm God to say a thing to consider what the thing said is and on what occasion and whose immediate words and how it can be understood It is I think impossible to prove God saith a thing till we hear it or that he saith that which appears to a considerate Man unreasonable or contradictory God's Word cannot be double for and against I believe I cannot have a greater notion of Goodness than there is really in God the Scriptures abound with nothing more than Declarations of the Goodness of God But I had rather acknowledge my self a Fool or mistaken in Scripture or be confuted in any thing than have a less notion of the Divine Goodness If I should endeavour to prove a greater notion of the Goodness of God than is commonly believed from Texts of Scripture I should be pelted with others which is the common way of dispute knock down Text with Text knock down Reason with Scripture but what I have now said may help any one to judge how far God may be said to cause Evil. God is indeed said in Scripture to send yea to create Evil but if the matter be nearly scand it is no more but he permits it leaving Men to themselves and other evil Agents or he does Men a Spiritual Good which indirectly is the occasion of a Bodily Evil as Repentance and Righteousness is the occasion of Persecution But the Fountain of Good Goodness it self cannot properly give any thing but Good Yet often have I been grieved to hear the Goodness of God blemish'd and wrong'd as it is commonly even in Pulpits when Bills are put up for Prayers for the Sick and Troubled in Mind how confidently will the Preacher hold up his bold Face to God and tell him he hath afflicted this Man hid his Face from that Woman his Hand is heavy on One and he is withdrawn from Another Nay to say God hath visited a Person in the usual can is as much as to say some Mischief or other hath been with them Then the Preacher as a great Man with God is to perswade him to change his Mind and forbear such his troublesom Visits And as he is in their opinion the Immediate Cause of such Evils they would sometimes have him without any condition that is miraculously remove them or if the Parson being a Friend to the Doctor or Apothecary advises them to use means then God is to be intreated to bless whatever is used I might say abus'd as an Antidote to frustrate or take away the Effects of his Will tho' it be that which was never created to be a Medicine for the Disease they give it for And this is also to desire a Miracle to work an Effect by that God never made for a means as to cause Fire to cool one and Snow to warm one But what is the matter good People with the Man thus pray'd for Why he hath got the Gout or the Pox or a Feaver c. Alas I 'll tell you whence he had it He hath took too much of the harsh Liquor of a foreign Country and been too idle and so vitiated the Crasis of the Liquors of his Body Or he has strayed and been too busie within the Confines of a strange Woman that proved too hot a Climate for him he has been in some great Passion or vigorous Persute of some Worldly thing and inflamed his Blood indulged his Appetite and debauched his Stomach with more Victuals or Drink than it could digest and so supply'd his Blood with a vitiated Juice or he hath been guilty of some other Intemperance Poor Man dost thou think these are God's Visits No they are rather the Devils or yet rather thou hast visited the Devil Is this the hand of God No it is the hand of thy own Concupiscence Thine own Wickedness hath corrected thee God is good and doth good he is good to all and his Tender Mercies are over all his Works and no good thing will he so much as withhold from them that walk uprightly The Councel I will give thee is to repent and do so no more pray to God to forgive thee and to direct thee to a Physician to whom he hath given the Knowledge of those things that are as Natural Means to reduce the Effects of thy Disorders as the things thou abusedst were to procure them But what 's the matter with the poor Woman that complains so of God's leaving or hiding his Face from her whereby she is so much grieved Sure she loves him mightily and wants a Visit Shall I be as plain with her as the Parson ought to be Poor Soul she 's a Sinner she knows full well and tho' God has promised to forgive her if she will repent yet she can't believe he will be so good as his Word she 's