is the sum of the Law and the Prophets The universal Rule of Moral Justice and Goodness which is to do that which is for the natural good of Mankind whatever our sense and experience tells us is naturally good and beneficial to ourselves which would be a very imperfect Rule if there were not an inseparable connexion between Moral and Natural Good The not observing this is the true reason why some Men can form no Notion at all of Moral Good or Evil but think Vertue and Vice to be meer arbitrary Notions which have no foundation in the Nature of Things as indeed they can have none but only this that Vertue is to love and choose and do that which has a natural good in it which is good to ourselves or others that Vice is to love and choose and do that which has some natural evil in it or which is hurtful to ourselves or others as for instance Charity which is one of the most excellent Vertues of the Christian Life consists in doing every thing which is for the good of Men in feeding the Hungry clothing the Naked relieving the Injured and Oppressed the Fatherless and the Widdow in directing advising assisting comforting Men in difficulties and distress in forgiving Injuries concealing Faults judging charitably and in all such other acts of Goodness as are greatly for the benefit of Mankind whereas the contrary Vice does all the contrary Evils and Mischiefs to the great hurt and injury of Men and whoever considers this must confess that Moral Good and Evil is as real a thing as Natural Good and Evil is and I suppose no Man who has his senses about him will deny that there is such a thing as Natural Good and Evil as for instance Pain and Pleasure and then his same senses will in abundance of instances tell him the essential difference between Moral Good and Evil On the other hand the true and onely reason why Men so vastly differ in their Notions of Moral Good and Evil is because in many instances they are not agreed what Natural Good and Evil is some Men call nothing good or evil but what is good or evil to their Bodies such as Pain and Pleasure and the Causes and Instruments of them Health and Sickness Riches and Poverty and the like others think and with much greater reason that we should take our Souls into the account too that whatever is for the ease and pleasure of our Minds whatever adorns and perfects a reasonable Nature is a Natural Good to Men as Wisdom and Knowledge and regular and well-govern'd Appetites and Passions do and therefore these are the foundation of Moral Vertues too but whatever debases our Natures and is a reproach to the reason and understanding of a Man whatever thrusts him down into the rank of brute Creatures and either disturbs his ease or changes the pleasures of a Man for those of a Beast are great Natural Evils too if the perfection and happiness of Humane Nature be a Natural Good and therefore to choose and to act such things is morally evil This is enough to shew what Moral Good and Evil is that it has a necessary relation to Natural Good and Evil and it were easie here to prove were it not too long a Digression that all the Laws of the Gospel do either command what is for the good and happiness of Mankind of every private Man and of publick Communities or forbid such things as are hurtful and prejudicial to them but my present Design will not suffer me to straggle so far out of the way II. The second branch of this Argument is That according to the â—eneral sence of Mankind what is good ouâ—ht to be rewarded and what is wicked ought to be punished For the proof of this I shall appeal in the first place to all Civilized Nations who live under Laws and Government for there is no such Nation but thinks fit to restrain Wickedness by a publick Vengeance on those who commit it indeed their Laws and Punishments are not always the same nor do they all punish the same Crimes nor with the same Punishments but all of them punish such Crimes as they think injurious to the Publick which is the principal concernment of Civil Government and inflict such Penalties on them as they judge proportioned to such Crimes or sufficient to restrain the commission of them some Capital some Pecuniary Mulcts Confiscation of Goods loss of Honour Corporal Punishments Imprisonment Banishment or some publick Marks of perpetual Infamy which is a certain argument that the Wisdom of all Nations thinks it fit that Wickedness should be punished that those who do Evil should suffer evil and indeed all Mankind is so sensible of this that there is not a greater Reproach to any Government then the Impunity of Vice nor a greater Glory to it than the strict and equal Administration of Justice Where publick Justice fails as it does in a great many instances we must next appeal to private Revenge to understand what the sence of Mankind is about the desert of Sin for there is not a more natural nor more eager Passion in Humane Nature all Men naturally desire to return the Injury they suffer upon the heads of those who do it and account it no Injury but a great act of Justice to do so In many Nations some private Injuries have been left to private Revenge and the Jewish Law itself permitted a Retaliation of Injuries an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth though it did not permit the injured Person to take this Revenge himself but made the publick Magistrate the Judge of it It may be you will wonder I should appeal to the impatient thirst and appetite of Revenge to prove the sence of Mankind that Sin ought to be punished when private Revenge itself is a great Evil and forbid by the Gospel of our Saviour but for all that Revenge is a natural Passion and speaks the furious rage and language of Nature that Sin ought to be punished It is that Passion in us which ministers to punitive Justice as a natural tenderness and compassion does to Charity and therefore the passion itself is not sinful though the irregular exercise of it is it is implanted in all Mankind as the love of Justice is but all Men must not execute Revenge no more than every Man can administer Justice where every Man is a Minister of Justice he may execute his Revenge too that is where there are no publick Laws and Government but when we are incorporated into Civil Societies private Revenge is superseded by publick Justice and to revenge ourselves is an Offence against the State but this publick Justice is executing Revenge still tho' without that partiality and passion which Men betray in their own cause and tho' our Saviour forbids private Revenge it is not because Sin does not deserve to be punished but to teach us those great Christian Vertues of Patience
and this Proof consists of several Branches and though each particular considered apart by itself may not be thought sufficient yet if we unite them into one and take them in their natural order they add such light and strength to each other that I perswade myself they will convince any Man of a Future Judgment who is not obstinately resolved against this belief SECT I. That Man is by nature an accountable Creature FIrst then I observe That the very make and frame and condition of Humane Nature proves that Man is an accountable Creature who can give an account of his Actions and therfore may be called to an account for them and that is a strong Presumption that he will be called to an account that is that he will be judged There are four things necessary to make any Being accountable 1. That he have a Principle of Reason to know what he does and to judge for himself 2. That he have a Rule to live by to direct him what to do and what to avoid 3. That he have liberty of Choice and the free government of his own Actions 4. That he be an inferior and subordinate Creature who has some above him to call him to an account I. As for the first we know a Beast which is governed by Instincâ— not by Reason can't be judged because such brute Creatures know not what they do and therefore can give no account what they do which is the case also of Infants of Fools and mad Men who must be governed that they may do no hurt but can't be judg'd but a reasonable Creature as Man is who knows what he does and can judge of his own actions may be judged for them too II. Where there is no Rule to live by there is nothing to be judged for when nothing is commanded and nothing forbid all actions are alike indifferent and in this case there is no other Rule but for every Man to please himself and to do what he likes best and he who does so gives a good account of himself and cannot be blamed for it if there were no Rule of Good and Evil there could be no place for Rewards and Punishments and consequently no place for Judgment but when we have a Rule to live by as all Mankind have either the Laws of Nature or the revealed Will of God we may do either good or evil and may deserve either rewards or punishments and then we may be judged too III. Whatever Being acts by Necessity or Fate not by Choice is no more capable of being judged then the Winds and Seas are or any other natural and necessary Causes for where there is no choice there is neither moral good nor evil but Man is a free Agent who not only knows the difference between good and evil but can choose the good and refuse the evil and therefore he is capable of praise or blame of rewards or punishments for the good or evil which he does that is he may be called to an account and be judged for what he does Especially IV. if he be an inferior and subordinate Creature who has a Superior to judge him to judge indeed is an act of Superior authority and power and therefore those who have none above them cannot be judged but an Inferior is by the condition of his nature or circumstances of life obnoxious to the judgment of his Superiors for the very Notion of a Superior and Inferior signifies to govern and to be governed to judge and to be judged An Inferior is obnoxious to the judgment of his Superior who may judge him if he pleases and this is the condition of all Mankind if we believe that there is a God above us who is our Natural Lord. So that Man by his very nature and condition was made to be judged which is a very good argument that he shall be judged if we will but allow that God will govern all Creatures according to their natures which is essential to the wisdom and justice of his Goverment As to take a particular Review of this matter 1. If it be naturally decent and fitting that a reasonable Creature should give a reason of his actions why should we doubt whether the wise Governor of the World will require a reason of him and call him to an account Reason makes us capable of giving an account of our actions and which is more than that it makes us sensible that we ought to give an account our own minds exact an account of us and when we cannot give a good account to ourselves we blush alone when nobody sees us nay Reason makes us so liable to give an account that it requires no Authority to ask it it is what we owe to all Mankind and the meanest Man may expect it from us as well as our Judge and when we cannot give a reasonable account of our actions a Child or Beggar shall shame and confound us whatever our Quality or Character be And it would seem strange if Reason should make us accountable to all the World but only to God who is the Soveraign Lord of all that God should make us accountable to ourselves and to all other reasonable Beings but noâ— to himself 2. If GOD have given Man a Rule of Life and a natural Measure of Good and Evil can it be thought that he will require no account of him whether he keeps or breaks these Laws for to what purpose then did he give ' em how contemptible are Laws without a Sanction or a Sanction without a Judge to dispense Rewards and Punishments to give Laâ—s without taking notice how they are observed or punishing the breach of them is so very absurd that no Humane Government was ever wholly guilty of such Folly and why should we charge God with such Absurdities in Government as would be ridiculous in Men If we will but allow God as much wisdom and discretion as an earthly Prince we may certainly conclude that if he have given Laws to Men he will judge them by those Laws 3. There is no way of governing a free Agent as Man is but by Hopes and Fears by Rewards and Punishments for Force and Violence is not the Government of a free Agent because it destroys its Liberty so that if God govern Mankind at all he must judge them that is he must reward or punish them according to the good or evil they do and though this does not directly and immediately prove a Future Judgment yet it is a fair step towards it as will appear more heareafter All that I desire to conclude from hence at present is only this That if God govern Men like reasonable Creatures he must judge them and if we have as great assurance that God will judge the World as we have that he governs it there is an end of this Dispute to Men who believe a God and a Providence Nay indeed we need onely suppose that Man was made by a wise Being to
Secular Affairs will furnish us with frequent opportunities of exercising great and excellent Vertues yet the World is apt to gain too much upon us by our constant Conversation with it and as Flesh and Sense prevails so the Spirit loses and if this does not defile the Soul with worldly Lusts yet it takes us off very much from the frequent and vigorous acts of a Divine Life which is the true Happiness of a reasonable Soul But then these mortal Bodies are exposed to great Wants and Sufferings bad Men are injurious and Meekness and Patience and such tame and gentle Vertues incourage their Injuries nay true Piety and Religion itself may be the cause and reason of our Sufferings and when the Body suffers the Soul suffers with it and this stifles the present pleasures and satisfactions of Vertue and nothing can support the Spirits of good Men under such Sufferings but the future expectations of great Rewards So that in this State Vertue alone is not a sufficient reward to itself for either its pleasures are but faint and languid or its sufferings over-ballance its pleasures But yet if we will but suppose a good Man removed into such a State where Vertue and Piety will have its free unrestrained undisturbed Exercise and can produce its natural Effects without any hindrance and interruption then it is demonstrable that Piety and Vertue must make Men happy and this secures the Happiness of good Men when ever they remove out of these Bodies and out of this World When these Bodies and this World can no longer tempt or disturb us with its Pains or Pleasures when the Care and Business of this World can no longer divert and employ our Thoughts when Bad Men can no longer injure us when our Souls are set at liberty to exercise all their Rational Powers when we remove into a World of Spirits and converse only with Spiritual Objects which will as strongly affect our Minds as the things of this World do our Senses then Vertue will and must be a Reward unto itself then the Pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and Divine Passions will be ravishing and transporting Thus on the other hand the Nature of Vice is such as to make a reasonable Creature miserable but yet a great Prosperity in this World and a confluence of all sensual Enjoyments may at present palliate and dissemble or suspend these malignant Influences of a vicious Nature may make Men unsensible of the want of true Rational and Divine Pleasures or of the pain and disturbance of sinful Passions may bind up our Reason and Conscience and give such an empire and predominancy to Sense that we can neither understand nor relish any other Pleasures but those of the Body and think ourselves compleatly happy while we have these but if we will suppose such Men stript of Flesh and Sense thrust out of these Bodies and out of this World and there is an end of their sensual Happiness and a sensualized Soul is capable of no other and when all other Objects are removed and such sinful and distempered Minds are brought acquainted with themselves when the Vertue of these Opiates is spent and the Soul recovers its sense again then every vicious Passion proves a Fury then Guilt and Shame and Fear and Despair and raging Remorse act their several Tragedies in such a miserable Soul This is the true Nature of sinful and disordered Passions and thus they must do when they act like themselves and thus they will do when they are let loose upon us in the other World So that the natural Rewards and Punishments of Vertue and Vice that Vertue in its own nature is the Life the Happiness Vice the Death and Misery of a reasonable Soul do necessarily prove that if good and bad Men remove out of this World of Sense into a World of Spirits Piety and Vertue must make Men happy and Vice miserable and we may take it for granted that God will reward a happy and punish a miserable Nature 7. These natural Rewards and Punishments of Vertue and Vice are a great Instrument of Providence as they are a most effectual Antidote and Remedy against Superstition which corrupts the Manners of Men and debauches the World By Superstition I mean all those hypocritical Arts of appeasing God and procuring his Favour without obeying his Laws or reforming our Sins infinite such Superstitions have been invented by Heathens by Iews by Christians themselves especially by the Church of Rome which abounds with them Now these Superstitions do not only spoil all Religion but corrupt Mens Lives and give them great security and impudence in sinning which overturns the good Government of the World For while Men perswade themselves that they may live as they list and commit what Villanies they please and yet escape the Wrath and Vengeance nay obtain the Favour of God both in this World and in the next it sets them free from all Laws and Government and leaves no restraint on them but what the Laws of Men and the Rods and Axes of Princes lay on them But when Men consider that God has so contrived the nature of things that Vertue must make Men happy and Vice miserable they cannot imagine that God can be reconciled to wicked Men unless they think that he will alter the nature of Vertue and Vice for them the Rewards and Punishments the Happiness and Misery of good and bad Men are not now arbitrary things at the disposal of God's arbitrary will and pleasure but God must new make Man again to make good Men miserable and bad Men happy they may as well expect ease in a Fit of the Gout or Stone or Health in the Paroxysms of a Feavor as that a wicked and corrupt Nature should receive the Rewards of Religion and Vertue This is the first Evidence we have of a Divine Providence which governs the World that Divine Justice which is interwoven in the nature of things which has annexed such natural Rewards and Punishments to Vertue and Vice and thereby marked them out for the proper Objects of God's Favour or Vengeance II. Another Evidence of God's Providence and Government is the Institution of Humane Governments for the Punishment of Wickedness and the Rewards of Vertue it is very plain in Scripture that Humane Power and Authority is ordained by God I need only direct you to 13 Rom. for the proof of it though indeed the nature of the thing proves itself if we allow that God made the World for he has made Man such a creature that Humane Government is absolutely necessary and to make Humane Government necessary is a natural Institution of it Man is a sociable Creature who cannot live alone but must unite into Societies and the experience of Mankind proves that Societies cannot be preserved without Civil Government to maintain the Rights and to restrain the Violences and Injuries of Men that if God had not by any direct and immediate Institution set up any
to hope they shall be saved in their Wickedness only because the Church will not damn them but reserves them to the Judgment of God and sends her charitable Wishes after them at least this can be no Encouragement when they are forewarned before hand of it which is the chief reason why I take notice of it at this time Upon the same Principle I am not ashamed to own I have always been averse to that Dispute about the Salvation of Heathens for this is to set in Judgement on three parts of the World and I am not the Judge of the World nor of any part of it and yet I know not what Character and Censures this plain Confession may bring upon me for some Men do as peremptorily Damn all the Heathen World as if it were an Article of their Creed and think all those Enemies to the Grace of Christ who do not but for my part I dare neither damn nor save them for I know nothing of the matter By what Rule God will Judge the Heathen World I cannot tell St. Paul tells us As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law 2 Rom. 12. And there is the same reason as to the Gospel too that those who never heard of the Gospel shall be judged without the Gospel and who can tell what this signifies what mighty Allowances God may make for their invincible Ignorances and the unhappy Circumstances of their Education who can tell how little God will accept from those to whom he has given little I am sure our Saviour tells us To whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more 12 Luke 48. Which by a parity of Reason supposes that where God has given little he requires little St. Paul seems to intimate a very favourable Judgment which such Men shall have and a vast difference that God makes between the times of Pagan Ignorance and the Light of the Gospel The times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every-where to repent because he hath appointed a day c. 17 Acts 30 31. where God's winking at the Times of Ignorance must signifie that he is not so severe and curious an Observer of their Actions not so strict to mark what is amiss nor so rigorous in exacting punishment as he will be now They are in the hands of God and there we ought to leave them with this general perswasion That God will be very just and very merciful in judging them and this eases my mind of a great many troublesome thoughts I know not what pleasure other Men take in it but it is terrible to me when I consider what eternal Damnation is to think that so much the greatest part of the World who never had the Means and Opportunities of Salvation as we have shall be eternally damned I dare judge nothing but that great love I have for Mankind inclines me to hope better for them as far as the circumstances of their Condition will admit of a favourable Judgment and that strong perswasion I have of the Justice and Goodness of God inclines me to believe better of him for so I am apt to think that the merciful side of the question is most agreeable to the Divine Justice and Goodness Such another curious Question is that about the Salvation of Infants who diâ— before they know good or evil especially the Children of Heathen Parents now it is certain they have no Legal and Covenant Title to Salvation nor have they any thing of their own to answer for but that Original Guilt they contracted by their Birth now God has not told us how he will judge these Infants nor are we concerned to know The Infants of Christian Parents indeed have a Covenant-Title to Salvation for the promise is made to us and our children and to say That such Children dying after Baptism before they have committed any actual Sin shall certainly be saved is not an Act of Judgment but only a declaring the Vertue and Efficacy of Baptismal Grace and Regeneration that the Grace of Baptism will save those who do not afterwards forfeit this Grace by wilful Sins and therefore if the Children of Christian Parents have a Right to Baptism they have a Right to the Salvation of Baptism and if they die before they have forfeited this Right by their own Act they must be saved And to deny this is to deny the Vertue and Efficacy of Baptism to Salvation and that I am sure is to deny or to lessen the Gospel-Grace The sum is God is the Judge of the World and we must leave Men to the Judgment of God and judge nothing before the time nor disturb our thoughts with some curious Questions how God will judge the World we certainly know how we shall be judged even by the Gospel of our Saviour and therefore ought to take care to prepare our Accounts but how those shall be judged who never heard of the Gospel we know not and are not concerned to know but if we will be judging we ought to judge very charitably because as I observed before With what judgment we judge we shall be judged and with what measure we mete it shall be measured unto us again But before I dismiss this Argument I cannot but take notice of some great and visible Mischiefs of this judging Mens final State whether we damn or save them 1. As first for Damning especially when we damn them by whole-sale as the Church of Rome damns all Hereticks and as others with as much Charity damn all Papists and Malignants or whoever they are pleased to vote for Hereticks Now what the effect of this is is visible to all the World It destroys not only Christian Love and Charity but even common Humanity when Men have voted one another damned and believe God will damn those whom they have adjudged to Damnation then they are the Enemies of God and they think they do God good service to destroy them God hates them and therefore they think it a sin in them to love those whom God hates or to have any pitty or compassion for those whom God will damn And thus they burn Hereticks or cut their Throats or Confiscate their Estates and drive them out from among them and treat them with all the Barbarity and Indignities which a damning Zeal and Fury can invent All other Villanies may meet with some Pitty and Charity but Charity is Lukewarmness and want of Zeal in God's Cause there is no Fire burns so furiously nor so outragiously consumes as that which is kindled at God's Alter And thus the Christian Church is turned into a great Shambles and stained with the Blood of Humane nay of Christian Sacrifices though were they in the right that God would damn these Men whom they have damned why should