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
by any Man no nor by all Men nor can a Man enjoy what he is capable of enjoying altogether and at once So that where ever God forbids what we could desire it is but where a smaller Enjoyment will hinder our having a greater one frustrate our having many a small Present and short one disappoint us of a future great and lasting one And what Folly is it to be displeased because God some way forbids a Bodily or Sensual Pleasure that we may have a better a Rational or Mental one or a Joy in a Creature where it would hinder our Rejoycing in the Creator himself I believe if we had time to trace in particular the Disorders of Men we should find that all and every of them even their most beloved ones do but abate their Felicity Where is any that does not tend to destroy our Health or Peace or Wealth or Ease c. and so bring upon us some Mischief or other by which the little Pleasures in them are very much out-ballanced Is it not highly reasonable as well as for our Interest that God who is most wise and good should be our Chooser if he condescends to choose for us Is it not the greatest Presumption and Affront to our Maker who is the Cause of all our Good that we should act as if we knew better than he what is best for us Is it not the greatest Injustice not to love him and study his Will to obey it who has no profit by us but does all for our Benefit If we may receive all the Profit shall we deny to give him all the Honour For God indeed cannot be profited by his Creatures he sees his own Excellencies in them as Shadows but in himself as in the Substance but there can be no increase of his Perfections who is Self-sufficient necessarily Nor can Man's Disobedience take away any thing from his Happiness or affect him with the least Infelicity Sin does indeed obscure his Glory but not from himself but only from the Sinners who thereby loose that most pleasant and happy Vision And a cause of that great dislike of Sin in God which hath been sometimes express'd by the Symbols of Anger and Wrath is that he loves his Creature so well that he cannot approve any Action that in the least hides his Glory and Goodness from his beloved Works And as God neither looses nor gets any thing by the Creatures Sin or Obedience so in particular his Justice or Righteousness cannot be impaired He is not unrighteous or unjust tho' he suffers Man to be unrighteous and unjust The Creature cannot possibly bring any change upon God or lay him under any necessity or obligation God alone can oblige himself by his Promise and that is not properly an Obligation in God for 't is but the Declaration of his constant and free-will To say God cannot in Justice break his Promise is no more than to say he will not If he leave the Creature to reap the fruits of Sin he does him no wrong if he perswade the Creature to leave his Sin and be happy he wrongs not himself He can neither loose nor get any thing by the Creatures Sin and Unhappiness or Repentance and Happiness God is essentially righteous or just before Creatures had a Being and his Essential Righteousness or Justice as I have else-where said is to love and approve himself and to do his own Will His Justice in relation to the Creatures is his Approbation of them so far as they are his Work and according to his Will what he has made he shews his Approbation of by upholding and continuing the Being of He approves not the Creatures denial of him in disobeying his Will but shews the greatest Testimonies of his Dislike of its Disobedience So that if the Creature goes on in willing or acting contrary to God's Will God will not or which is all one he cannot make it happy and joyous in its continuing so to do unless he could make it to be God and cease to be God himself For the Creature cannot be satisfied with willing Good while it wills Evil nor can it be pleased in having its Will while it wills that which is impossible and while it leaves God's Will or willing that which is good and possible it must be miserable more or less according to the strength of its Evil Will and if it for ever goes on seeking Pleasure in vain or to satisfie its Will so as it cannot be satisfied it must for ever be unhappy and reap the Natural Fruit and Work of its own Doings unless and until it acknowledge God's Will Sovereign just and good and its own Will as disagreeing with its Maker unjust and evil and that it ought to be subject and be perswaded to change its foolish Will and desire to know and do the Will of God for the future that is unless or until the Sinner repent 28. But the Creature having once chose its own Will against the Will of God having committed one Act of Rebellion against its Maker is or seems much more inclinable and propense to go on and persist in its Sin than to repent and will well again For having once affected to be its own Lord and Arbiter or to be independant which is the greatest Perfection and best Manner of Being tho' impossible to a Creature it goes on with a strong Desire whose perpetual Acts perfuing so great a Thing hinder its Understanding to judge and reflect on the Impossibility Absurdity Injustice and Consequents of such an Attempt And every fresh act of Sin does but strengthen its Disobedience in which perhaps it would go on for ever if God did not upon its mistake give it abundant Arguments by one means or other to bring it to a stand cause it to consider convict it of its Folly and Disorder and so change its Will Till which change is effectually begun it is always and only endeavouring the Impossibility of separating the unpleasant or bitter effects it finds either in or following or fears may find the fruits of its disorderly Actions So that it would not be saved from its evil Will the Cause but from the Displeasure it finds attending it the Effect 29. But when it is once throughly convinced that its own Will disagreeing with the Will of God is an impossible way or means of Happiness or lasting Pleasure and sees the Unreasonableness and Badness of such an Attempt the Soul is very unapt to believe that God will forgive And considering it Self and its Sin more than God and his Goodness the sight of its most irrational Acts which it hath committed with the Tendency thereof often makes such a horrid Impression on the Soul and takes up its Thoughts so much that tho' God has given Arguments enough to perswade that he wills all Men to repent with various and clear Notices that he is ready to forgive and yet make happy those that by persisting in Rebellion do not render
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
loath to repent and try him except she were sure She can't find in her heart to forgive her poor Debters Some-body or other has wrong'd her and she 's resolved to have Satisfaction it is but just So she thinks God must have Satisfaction for her Sins or he can't be just and tho' she has heard a Sin-sweetning-Story that Christ hath made Satisfaction for Sinners she can't believe she is of that number she is not sure she 's one of the small number predestinated Shall I tell her yet more plainly what 's her Disease She loves Sin too much Duty too little her Heart is not inflam'd with Love to God so as to influence all her Actions She has not had him represented to her so Good Merciful Loving Ready to Forgive all freely as indeed he is Besides that Witness for God the Conscience that testifies when Man hath done well or ill is not clear perhaps and according to the measure of Obedience or Disobedience in known Duty will the Comfort or Discomfort generally be to a convicted Soul and faith that there is Forgiveness with God is one Duty without which Comfort is seldom securely enjoy'd Now let us consider has God left or afflicted such Persons No they have left God and hid themselves from him let them but be perswaded to turn to God and believe his Infinite Love and Goodness and love him with all their Hearts and they will quickly find that Perfect Love casts out Fear their Troubles will cease with the restifying their Judgments and changing their Wills Now of all the Miserie 's sinful Creatures are lyable to the Eternal Torments as they are call'd of the Damned in Hell can I think with least reason be thought to come from the hand of the Best Being as the Inflicter or Executioner when these Miseries may well be thought chiefly to consist in the Exasperation and height of those uneasie Thoughts which are the very Acts of Sin as Wrath Envy Hate Despair Desire impossible to be satisfied c. Add unto these their Effects with whatsoever Devils and Immortal wicked Men may be able to inflict upon one another and the most uncharitable Soul can hardly desire a greater Hell for his greatest Enemy But what I have said already of Displeasure merely Mental and that which comes by the means of the Body may be easily applied here if well considered But yet farther methinks it is a very hard Thought to think that God who as the beloved Disciple tells us is Love should hate and take Pleasure or Delight in tormenting his poor foolish frail Creatures or that he should afflict willingly or from his Heart or affect with Grief the Children of Men and that for ever But he must be supposed either to do it willingly and take pleasure in so doing or he cannot properly be said to do it for God cannot with any reason be said to do any thing against his own Will or in which he has not pleasure that cannot be suppos'd of a Perfect or Self sufficient Being nor can any action of the Creature be thought to bring God under a necessity of doing any thing he delights not in and he swears he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33.11 chap. 18.32 It is the Sinner that will die or chooseth Death he seeks pleasure indeed but he hath it not because he seeks it where it is not to be had viz. in his own foolish disorderly Will distinct from God's Will when God cannot give it him that way it being impossible The Damned doubtless are exceeding uneasie why they have turned from God the Fountain of Pleasure They have lived and died in a course contrary to God's Will contrary to the only possible way of Happiness and God is just in suffering them to have their own choise in leaving them after innumerable Arguments to perswade them to real good to make the Experiment how happy they can be without being beholden to him and it is enough to shew that God approves not of their Sin if he continue their Being his Work under the greatest Misery they can bring themselves into and as they are no more sinful than they themselves and their fellow Sinners can make them so if they have no more Misery than what they can work in themselves and one another it will be proportionable to their Sins and both may be exceeding great God can't be thought to work or cause Despair Wrath Malice Hate and Envy at the greatest Good Extream Discontent at his Will and the Happiness of others fierce furious unsatisfied Desire c. in his Creatures he must not be thought to be the Cause or Agent of those sinful Passions they are all against his Will as he hath clearly manifested And we cannot suppose that God's Justice requires that Sinners for a short life of Rebellion against their Maker in this World should be bound to rebel against him for ever or believe that they can satisfie for some Sins here with a Continuance of all Sins they are capable of in a State of Immortality hereafter No there is no necessity of Unhappiness but what the Sinners own perverse Will brings upon him his disorderly Passions are let loose and to what extremity Passions may be carried out who knows These will be Tormenters if there were no Devils able to vex And where these evil Passions are in their extream how can it be thought that the Bodies such Anxious Souls would delight in can be other than the Occasions of far greater Misery than they were capable of being in this Life wherein some of the Passions disorder'd have brought the Bodies to be very uneasie Concomitants with this Aggravation that they have then no more Death to expect to rid them of that uncomfortable Companion unless we could suppose that Hell it self hath at least this Happiness to be a Remedy for the Diseases of the Body and a Safeguard from all those Evils Sinners could lay upon one another in this life or that their Folly could bring God under a necessity to disown his well-wrought Work their Being and to let them fall into nothing As for the Examples of external Judgments as they are call'd which we have especially in Scripture wherein some may think the immediate Act of God as inflicting is always required when they were more than Preventions of greater Evils the Persons would have run into they may easily be accounted for by supposing Men sometimes left to the power of the Devil the Prince of the power of the Air who seems eagerly covetous to enlarge the Dominion of Hell or to do any kind of Mischief Of this we have an Example in Job Or that God sometimes withdraws his Providential hand from protecting a People or a Person that leaves him and suffers them to fall into the hands of others that are wicked their Enemies As were the Judgments on Israel or others by Inimical Nations in which Instances we can't suppose God does
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
most fully satisfied and perfectly pleas'd I mean as a Creature can be in acting towards God with a certain noble Neglect of it self as delighting if it had any thing to bring to God rather in giving than in receiving The Creature being but an Image of God it is highly reasonable the Creature should value and esteem it self but as such but should value and esteem God in Truth and Justice as he is that Self-sufficient Being the Creature is but a shadow or Representation of least the Good or Pleasure of the Creature be set in the place of its Cause In Love is found the height of the Creature 's Happiness and the Act of giving in the created Desire always contends with the Passion of receiving the Creature affects and is pleased in the Act of affecting and is again pleas'd with the thoughts that its Affection is welcome or agreeable to the Will of the Affected but that it's God's Will and Pleasure we should love him is a greater reason that we should so do than that we are pleas'd in doing it for God's Will or Pleasure is better and more requisite than ours When we love God best who we know would be loved and so we ought to love and who loves us again or rather first then will be found whatever can be in love possible to the Creature God we rationally believe cannot be profited or have any encrease of pleasure by us or our loving him or loose any by the contrary he being sufficient in himself but as his own Thoughts are in most perfect order as he thinks aright of himself as he is knows himself and his own Will to be most high best c. so he loves and likes that the Thoughts of his Creatures should be orderly or that they should think of him as he is and of themselves as they are and hence as Creatures are many and whoever loves God and is happy thereby cannot but suppose others capable to be and actually are such Agents and Recipients as himself we in loving God for his Benefits must never forget to love him because he is good to others as well as because he is good to us 14. Now as God having all absolute Perfections in himself cannot be suppos'd to have any thing disagreeing in his Will he must needs be suppos'd if he work or make any thing to make it such as becomes him to make that is good and consequently he must be suppos'd to love and approve his Works he cannot be thought to disapprove any thing he himself does and what he makes as his Work cannot be thought unworthy of his Approbation and Good-will tho' he himself is the greatest and only necessary Object to himself And if God who is most wise love and approve his own Works it is highly reasonable we his Works should be determin'd by him to do so too and of God's Works it is reasonable first that we should love our selves as well as we can with such a Love as God loves us and esteem our selves with such an Esteem as God has for us we should be well pleas'd and rejoyce in being what God has made us and be ready to do what ever God wills us to benefit our selves and make us happy and think of our selves just as we are that is as nothing in our selves but as the Shadows Images and Creatures of God and not as God's our selves or not as such whose pleasure is the chief thing Now if we are bound in compliance to the Will of God as well as by interest to our selves to love or wish our selves well and to his Truth and Justice to think of our selves as we are to esteem our selves such as God has made us and be pleas'd in so doing certainly the same Will of God obliges us in conformity thereto to love our Fellow Creatures and be pleas'd with what ever of God's Will or of Goodness or Truth or Loveliness we see in them God loves them as well as he loves us as equally good and excellent with us as they are as much his Creatures who are as much his Images and as near to him as we are and we ought to imitate God as he is imitable He is pleas'd with his own Works as to what he hath made them so we should be pleas'd with and in them as they are his Works we should like his Works and admire him in them delight in beholding his Wisdom in making them and endowing them as well as in what he hath made us And as God is good to his Creatures and loves them that are capable of Happiness with a Love of Beneficence so we should desire also to be good and beneficial to them to endeavour to confer to their Happiness because God wills their Happiness This Love of Benevolence or Act of Good-will to our Fellow Creatures this desire of being good to them because God is so and wills us to be so hath not only the Argument of Duty in Conformableness to God's Will to perswade it but hath also that of pleasure in the very action greater than any is ready to believe that doth not practice it and as it lies not idle in the Mind but is unsatisfied tell it effects some Good if possible to the Object and confers to its Happiness it tends to bring back advantage as it naturally inclines the benefited Person to the like Re-action But this Love of Beneficence when it most nerely imitates God proposing no advantage to self is most excellent and perhaps hath a greater delight attending it than can be found in that Love which is forced by the sight of Good in the Creatures There is also a Love of Gratitude when we love them because their Love and Beneficence to us deserves it this Love is just and so a Duty but it is a less God-like Love being grounded in Creature imperfect self which without the higher Love to keep it right would become evil As to love God himself merely for his Benefits if there can be such a Love would be to make our own Will our own Pleasure the beginning and end of all to make our Will as ours the chief thing and God who is infinitely better than we and other Creatures who are if not better as good but subservient to us which is unreasonable yea the root and foundation of Evil. Now to love God First because he is best and wills that we should love and esteem him as such it being just and good so to do Secondly Because he is good to us is the Author and Giver of all we are and have of good to love him for these Reasons with all our Heart all our Soul and all our Strength that is truely or unfeignedly according to our Knowledge of him and intensly or strongly as we can And to love our Neighbour or Fellow Creature as our Self viz. as truly and for the same Reasons viz. because God loves him as well as us and would have us love him
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
if the Desire to continue be good God is the Cause and Implanter of such a Desire and consequently wills we should have such a Desire I think none can but desire to continue if it were the Will of God we should cease to be the desire to continue would be a Sin but God can't be suppos'd to will we should desire that which he don't will should be that would be to will us to will contrary to his Will Now whatever God wills to continue cannot be supposed to cease If God wills to manifest himself in and to his Creatures to be loved and feared by them he must continue them for by their Cessation all these things will cease and be impossible Every Good Man that loves God would continue to love him it 's God's Will he should love him Can God be suppos'd to make him cease to love his Maker To what purpose Let it but be granted that it is not God's Will I should cease to love him and the Immortality of my Soul is secured for while I love I live viz. mentally Nor can the Evil Man that don't love God nor fear to act contrary to his Will be suppos'd to be for ever or for a long time exempted from the Evils of his Rebellion against his Maker or rendered by God himself uncapable of all Conviction Or can it be thought probable that God should make Creatures to deny him a little while and then cease under so great a Mistake as never to believe and confess God to be their Sovereign Lord and Sufficient Benefactor But if God approve himself and his own Works he will rather continue them and suffer them to make themselves miserable and find they are not God's than not assert himself God one way or other to all his Intelligent Creatures Besides the Soul either of Good or Bad cannot with any reason be suppos'd to cease for a time and then be again for if it cease to be it is not and nothing can be properly affirm'd or deny'd but of that which is Where there is no Being neither Life nor Death can be asserted So that if a Soul cease to be and a Soul be afterwards it cannot be the same but a new one to whom can be charged no account of the ceased Souls past Actions There must be a Continuation of Being or there can be no Identity or Sameness and the Essentials of the thing must remain or there is not the thing but another If there be not a Continuation of Thinking and Conscience of former Thoughts it cannot be conceived how the Sameness of a Mind can be ascertained and if a Soul in this present State be wicked and cease at the Dissolution of the Body it can neither be just nor good that a new one should be miserable because the ceased Soul was unrighteous nor be determined what new one should be so Nor that a Soul penitent in this World should not it self be happy hereafter but have its hopes of future Happiness utterly frustrated and be put off with the Mock-happiness of being happy in another Soul What Encouragement can I have to my Duty if I suppose I must not continue to the Perfection and Happiness of my Obedience but must perish and only now be contented to think that God will create a Soul hereafter and perhaps give it my Dust to be happy because I only began to be holy Or how shall I be deterr'd from Sin if I am perswaded I my self must be discontinued and that it is not I but another Mind that is in danger of everlasting Vexation it may be with my old Body if I now die impenitent When we say a Man is dead if we talk like Rational Creatures we must have some determinate Sense of those words He is dead Who is dead He. The He or Person must remain What is dead Such a thing A Man The thing or Man is tho'dead A Man is a Compound of Soul and Body Or a Mind doing and suffering with or by occasion of an Organical Body A Man's being dead is the Cessation of this manner of Life not of either of the Components Beings or Essential Properties The Body unacted by the Mind is useless among Men and tends to Corruption or Dissolution of parts so the Living put it out of their sight the Soul or Mind is invisible of its self and can neither converse with Men nor Men with it without the use of Body so when separate it is not to Men yet it no way follows but that it may well be to God and to it self which is Being enough But the Soul consider'd apart can have no Dissolution of parts having none to be separated nor can it die otherwise than in a figurative or Metaphorical Sense As it may be said to be morally dead or dead in Sin when it is impenitent and not conformable to its Duty To be Spiritually dead when it thinks not of or is not busied about Spiritual things To be dead to Sin or dead to this World when its disorderly Thoughts or undue Manners of Thinking on earthly vile sordid things cease It may be said to be dead to Joy or Comfort when it has lost all pleasant Thoughts and has only grievous horrid anxious ones without all hope or rest continually and if such a State always continue whether the Soul be separate from or joyned to a Body it is that which is properly call'd everlasting Death Thus I think it is apparent that the Soul is immortal and that which is its proper or natural Life viz. Thinking does not cease Tho' to suppose the Soul immortal of its own Nature or that it is or has any thing in it self which necessarily infers its Continuance would be as great or a greater Error than to fancy it mortal for that would be to suppose it immortal as its Author is But it cannot be suppos'd thus to be immortal for whatsoever had a Beginning or had not Being always may be supposed to have an End and cease to be Such are all Creatures who would fall into nothing if God should not will their Continuance But that he does will them to continue I think we may be perswaded by the foregoing Considerations 32. Moreover we have not only reason to believe that Souls do continue tho' separate from that is disusing their Bodies and such a Life they lived with them but that they shall have their Bodies again after some time because the end of the Souls having a Body cannot easily be thought to be fully attained in this Life This material World seems to be made chiefly for Man to be concern'd with and the things therein to be Objects of his Knowledge and Subjects of his Actions It is by means of his Body that he is now capable of knowing and acting in Bodily Nature but what he knows and does therein is so imperfect notwithstanding all the Wonders that have come within the reach of his Understanding and great things have
and is kind unto the unthankful and the Evil he counsels us to imitate God Who tho' Men be Enemies to him does nothing to them but what may be an Argument to make them his Friends Is Hatred an uneasie Passion Let us love all Men and be at ease Would we have Friends Is it better to have many than few Operative Love reconciles Enemies and heaps Coals of Fire upon their Heads not to burn them but to melt them down into streams of Love We cannot well love our Enemies as such with a Love of Complacency but the working Love of Benevolence if we are good does as much as may be to make our Enemies such as God and we would have them when Hatred does but increase and continue Hatred The Goodness of God leads us inimical Sinners to Repentance and this God-like Behaviour in us is the greatest means we can possibly use and is often found effectual to turn the Arrows of Enmity against us into Beams of Love This reconciling Message of Heaven sent by Jesus Christ to rebellious Mortals the Enemies of God and one another is not without good reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Good Speech or Gospel teaching Love and Friendship as the Soul of all Duty and Essence of Happiness This Gospel is not improperly also call'd the Better Testament in comparison with the Old Dispensation of Carnal and Troublesome Ordinances which God suffered the Hebrews as well as other Nations for a long time to labour under This Gospel Dispensation if Men would live to the Purity of it being most easie reasonable and alike suitable to all Men being but compleat or very little more than Exact Morality is that which would rectifie all the Disorders of Mankind that can be amended in this Mortal State Secondly As Christ taught the most plain and reasonable Doctrine so he gave the height of Argument to perswade it such as could be most prevalent on Rational Creatures to gain their Compliance with the Mind and Will of their Maker He has not only convinceingly asserted and proved himself sent of God a mighty Argument to procure the reception of his Message by very many Miracles done by his Means but manifested the things themselves delivered to be God's Message by their Excellency as most becoming God to dictate and most fit for Man to receive If the highest reason be enough to perswade the Will of Man he hath given it I challenge all the most Zealous Jew or Reasoning Deist to shew me one thing that Christ hath indeed taught or his Disciples at his Command which cannot be most rationally accounted for or where he hath imposed upon the Understanding of Man or obliged him to believe or profess any thing that is contradictory or unintelligible or commanded him to do any unreasonable thing or what is against his real Interest Let them shew me that Judaism or Deism is more reasonable and he that can may have great hopes of making me a Proselyte till that is done which I am confident will never be I am resolved to remain a Christian or a Disciple of him who hath given the most fair Copy of Truth relating to God and his Will to Man and relating to Mens present and future Condition wherein I can see no difficulty to any that fairly reasons and looks upon Christianity as it is in it self and not as corrupted and misrepresented by the Fancies and Traditions of Men in the Antichristian Defection Moreover What Christ hath most clearly declared in way of Precept he hath back'd and confirm'd by his Influencing Example his Life being most exactly conformable to his Doctrine in entire Submission and Conformity to the Will of God and constant perseverance therein against the greatest Temptations Earth and Hell could offer thereby asserting by a Home Argument that the doing the Will of God is eligible yea best tho' we should thereby loose all the good things of this life we can loose with Life it self in the grounded hopes of a future State free from all the Evils of Temptation Sin and Unhappiness Which Future State he hath so plainly taught and manifested that by him it may be well said Life and Immortality was brought to light the Immortality of the Soul and a Future Life of Body and Soul together after a Resurrection being Truths left unto him clearly to teach 38. That Christ might thus become a most fit Means or Mediator between God and sinful Men to bring them from Rebellion against God's Will to Obedience to the Will of their Maker it is to be considered what manner of Person Christ must be And first it was necessary that he should be a Man that his Conversation with Men might be most near familiar and unquestionably real A Man like unto us in all things Sin only excepted than which there cannot be conceived a more proper Medium between God and Sinners Nothing can possibly be supposed between God and the Creature There can be no Third or Middle Being that is neither God nor Creature to be a Mediator and God cannot be a Mediator himself because he is one of the Extreams Tho' God is the First Cause or Mover of Man to Repentance he cannot be said to be a Means or Instrumental Cause nor can there be any to use him or send him no nor can he be said to send himself or any one of his Attributes or Properties Nothing of God can in any proper sense be said to be absent from God and between God and Sinners A King may declare his own Will but he cannot be said to send himself on an Embassy A Sinner could not be a compleat Mediator for Sinners are the other extream Repenting Sinners may indeed be a sort of Mediators between God and the Impenitent and have been so as Moses was and others but they are incompleat ones they were but the Servants sent If God would give a compleat Mediator or Embassadour to the World of Sinners he must give such a one as his Son Christ was who tho' he might yea must be a Man like us in all things else Sin must be excepted If he were not a Man truly truly innocent a Second Adam he could not be an exact and perfect Example nor a most unquestionable Witness nor have shew'd that Man might have done his Duty But he must be capable of being tempted to disobey or he could not have been an Example of resisting and obeying None but he that might possibly disobey could yield free Obedience such as is worthy of God's Acceptance God himself who is incapable of being tempted to Sin or of Disobedience cannot be said to obey nor is there any above him to whom he can be obliged If Christ must be innocent and persisting in Obedience he must not be of the common race of Mankind that is take both his Body and Soul mediately from sinful Parents as others do but must as to his Soul the Subject of Sin or Obedience be an