Men and Angels and they continuing to do well shall be Partakers of everlasting Life and Happiness This is the Condition these are the Privileges of every true Christian of every Man who is not grossly wanting to himself and careless of his own manifestly greatest and best Interests The Inferences I would make are these two I. Let us then set an high value upon the Christian Religion in general and in particular on our being Members of that Body of which Christ is the Head Since so many and such inestimable Advantages accrue to us by being parts of this Society let us take the greatest care to preserve our selves in Union with it Let us not as too many in our Days are be indifferent whether we be of this Body or no Let us not needlesly separate our selves from it Do not make slight Account of those Censures which cut us off from the Church for if they be exercised non errante Clave that is upon good ground a just Cause and by a just Authority God confirms in Heaven what his Commissioners do upon Earth Whose Sins they remit or retain are remitted or retained by him also And if there be a Male Administration yet the excommunicated Person is deprived of some Benefits which otherwise he might have Have a great regard for that Body of which whosoever is a Member hath so great Privileges Be careful not to make any unnecessary and unnatural Divisions and Schisms in it or to do any thing that may tend to the dissolution of that most excellent Scociety II. Let us behave our selves as becomes the Members of this excellent Society and let our Lives and Tempers our Devotion towards God our Justice and Charity towards Men our good Government of our selves according to the Rules of Temperance and Moderation let these make it manifest what excellent Advantages we have by being Members of the Christian Church We have Advantages above others let us shew this by living better Lives than others If we be not much better than other Men we must needs be far worse Let us not be so foolish as to neglect the Advantages we have Forsake not the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is c. Neglect not the Sacraments as too too many do I conclude all by reminding you in short of the Advantages of which I have spoken And desire you 1. To consider Men singly And 2. In Societies And under the First That their Knowledg and Wisdom their Vertue and Goodness their Quiet and Peace their Joy and Pleasure their future and everlasting Happiness are further'd and secured by their being Members of this Society Under the second That this sacred Society is a great Security to and Establishment of that Order which is necessary to all Civil Societies and doth greatly conduce to that Peace and Prosperity i. e. Wealth and Credit which is their End This Society is so far from interfering with the Civil that it is very beneficial to them for it preserves and confirms them All this Good is procured by Mens being incorporated into the Body of Christ as appears First By the first Admission and Entrance into the Church which is done by a publick Profession of the Religion of Christ a being baptized into the Name of Father Son and Holy-Ghost All which must lay a great Engagement on us to live holy and excellent Lives that so we may live answerably to the Profession we have made and the Engagement we have taken upon us Secondly This will also appear hugely beneficial to that excellent Order and Government which is setled and is to be observed in the Church but especially those incomparably good Laws which are given to this Society those especially which are peculiar to it Those of Love and doing good to all in especial manner of Love to one another of forgiving even Enemies of Meekness c. And also that most humane and proper Discipline which is prescribed to be used toward Offenders For this is a Government whose design is the Increase of every Man's Vertue and Happiness And this Government is so excellently contrived that the particular and private Interests of any do never clash or interfere with the publick Interest of the Society in general And tho many Corruptions and Abuses have crept into the Government of the Christian Church yet even in a very Male-Administration of it there are still great Helps to Vertue And those very Formalities and Shadows and Names of some Offices and Things which remain may serve to put us in mind what ought to be and what we should take care to do or to avoid It is in this as in other Governments better to be under bad ones than none at all and more eligible to bear the Corruptions of Men who are at present in place of Power than to attempt a Change of the Constitution or to go about to alter the Government it self Thirdly The Archives and Records of this Society which are contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament which indeed it is possible a Man may have that is not of this Society but by his being of it he is entitled to this Privilege he now hath free access to them And how much these Divine Records tend to enlighten Mens Minds and to purify their Hearts only they know who have used them There we have upon Record the first Original of this excellent Society the gradual Dispensations of God to his Church of all Ages the Examples and Lives of many of the Members of it but especially the Holy Jesus the Acts of Government and Discipline which have been in the first Age after Christ Fourthly The Publick Assemblies for the Exercise of Religion to which they are admitted Where 1. They pray to God publickly for and with each other 2. The Scriptures are read 3. They receive the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper and Infants are baptized Fifthly The Conversation the Counsels and Exhortations and Reproofs and Examples of their Fellow-Members All these tend to make Men vertuous and that brings with it present Peace and future Happiness for God loves and will reward Vertue c. OF LOVING OUR ENEMIES MATTH 5. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you c. THese Words are enforced by a very great Authority and it was necessary in the Opinion of some that they should be born up by the Credit of the Law-giver that the repute of his Wisdom and Goodness might take off the Scandal of Folly and Evil in the Command For with many this Text and divers others are contradictory to Reason and opposite to the Nature of Man than which Opinion I know nothing more prejudicial to Christian Religion For if this be granted it is then confess'd that our Religion is false and evil that whosoever believes it believes in Opposition to his Mind and he that obeys
considerable and of such importance so profitable so necessary as it is to live vvell As also because this cannot be done vvithout great care and diligence There is first great care to be taken and paâ—ns to be used that vve may come to an exact knovvledg of vvhat thaâ— Good is which we are to do all the days of our Life It is not so very easy to be out of all doubt vvhether this or that particular Action be good singly but much harder to knovv this if it be compared vvith others and vvith relations to them And yet more difficult to have a certain knowledg and setled judgment of all the good which ought to be done through the vvhole course of Life To retain and remember it requires farther care and it vvill cost us still more pains to bring our Wills into subjection to it And to keep them thus subject vvill be farther vvork He that vvill do all this must be very vvatchful over himself observe all his Motions curb and restrain his Appetites and call all those Motions to account vvhich vvill not stay for the direction of his Reason He must guard himself from all Temptations from abroad In sum He must be on continual Exercise and in the constant use of Understanding and very intent who preserves himself in that due composure of Mind and temper of Body which makes him capable to do good universally If he be either ignorant or mistaken or doubtful or unresolved if he be forgetful or inconsiderate if he be but inadvertent and incogitant for a Time or be averse and uninclined which may happen through a natural Temper an inveterate Custom a present Diversion or many such Causes he will omit the doing good And how hard is it to prevent all these things How diligent then must he be who at all times in all cases knows what is good and fit for him to do and who wills what he knows and does what he wills He must not only consider himself but others nor only Men but God also if he will fully understand and wisely judg what is good and that not only in general but in every Instance Nor must he only barely suffer himself to do what he knows to be good but also actively determine himself from an inward approbation of what is good And the Will must be so effectual as to set the inferior Powers to work And will all this be done without great Care without great Attention and Intention of Mind And as this Care and Diligence is necessary so it is also effectual As Men cannot live well without it notwithstanding all the other helps they have so if they be indeed watchful and careful how they live they will not fail to come to great exactness in Well-doing Which I thus make out All Men in the World are endowed with the knowledg of some Good some Virtue or other And if a Man well and carefully attend to that it will by that Cognation which is between all Virtues by good Consequence by Parity of Reason some way or other lead him to the knowledg of more and by degrees of all the great and more illustrious Goods And the practice of any one Vertue will afford him such Delight and Satisfaction that it will naturally dispose him to repeat the same and to seek after other Instances wherein he may have the same Pleasure and he will be greatly inclined to keep his Mind in the same State and Exercise whereby he will be excellently disposed and enabled for the search after all other things that are good both to judg truly of them and to will and do all that he thinks Good I need not say how great the advantage of the Christian is in this matter above what all other Men can pretend to For he has those sure Oracles which instruct him where Nature and unassisted Reason would have left him ignorant or mistaken or doubtful He that lives in the Christian Church and joyns himself to the Assemblies of Christians and will but open his Ears to hear he can't but understand in some sort that it 's good for him to do justly to love Mercy c. He can't but think it reasonable he should do so alway And that good Spirit of Truth and Holiness which moves upon our Minds and inspires with Wisdom and always strikes in with good and hearty Endeavours is ever ready to give his assistance to lead us into Truth To work in us both to will and to do what is good This he does certainly and constantly to them who set themselves seriously on the search after Knowledg and who are in good earnest careful to work out their Salvation Insomuch that no Man who has used care and diligence in this has ever been left destitute of the divine Assistance He who is no where wanting to hearty Desires and careful Endeavours after Goodness will not absent himself from his own Institutions but will make them effectual for the Ends to which they are ordained When we see the great Attainments of Socrates and other Heathens and what Heights of Goodness they rose to by the assistance of the divine Spirit when yet they had not our inspired Writings and Records of exemplary Lives and brave Deaths particularly of that holy and wonderful one of the Son of God Can we imagine that this good Spirit will not convey strength into our Souls when we have those helps and are in the use of his own Methods I conclude this with that which seems a most convincing Argument both of the wonderful Efficacy as well as Necessity of great Care and Caution Watchfulness and Diligence to be used by those that would live very well 't is this That this without the great advantages which we Christians have has raised Men to an higher pitch of Holiness and Goodness than our most perfect Institution without that can ever bring us to There is no Man who considers but will allow the Christian way leads to far greater Perfection than any method which the Heathens ever had and that we have abundance of Advantages under our Dispensation which they never enjoyed And yet we can't but with shame confess that several of them have out-stript most of us in the Race of Vertue Of which if we examine the Reason we shall be able to discover none but what may be resolved into this viz. That they were careful how they lived and we are not Socrates and others of them made living well their great Study their own Business whereas we account it our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Diversion We bestow little care and pains on that and this is the true reason why they were better without the Christian Religion than we are with it We may be somewhat more assured of the truth of this Observation if we will but take notice of our selves or others For we shall always find that according as we are more or less intent on and diligent in the business of
and excellent things which are contained in these words and to which they lead us naturally and easily in this plain method First We will consider what Time Season or Opportunity is in general and what in particular was that Season which St. Paul here means And also what is the import of Redeeming the Season Secondly I will offer some Reasons why we should redeem the Season and particularly consider that which is here expressed the Days are Evil. Thirdly I will mention some of those things which rob us of our Time and deprive us of the Season which St. Paul here exhorts us to make our own Fourthly I will exhibit some of those Advices and Directions whereby we may be assisted in Redeeming this Time or or Season Of the First Season or Opportunity which is the English of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Time of Action i. e. such a concurrence of all the Causes as makes the doing of any Work easy and gives hope of Success When there is such a confluence of Causes without that if we will do what is in us and cooperate with them we shall probably not fail to bring what we design to effect Thus a good Vessel and Pilot Wind and Tide make an Opportunity for us to be conveyed to such a place And if we be but willing to use them to this purpose they are likely to bring us thither Whereas if we would go when we are not favoured and help'd by such Causes we shall either not at all or very hardly and with much more pains and difficulty come to our Journeys end To this it will not be amiss to add that Opportunity does not only signify the presence of those things without us which contribute towards the producing an Effect but also the disposition and fitness of our own Faculties to cooperate with them For if they be in an incapacity all External Causes will not make an Opportunity As if a Man be sick that he cannot safely go by Water all the Tide and Wind c. do not make it a Season for him to go And if we take in all this into our Notion of Opportunity in common Speech we do not say that a Man has an opportunity of doing an ill thing Tho 't is true that external Things may so far concur with an ill Mind that they may make it easy to perper 〈◊〉 some bad Work as we say Occasion makes a Thief That if we understand as generally we do by Opportunity a concurrence of the Causes without us with our own Faculties ther we never say that a Man has opportunity of doing that which is Evil. It either is or is thought good either by us or by him that does it Which shews that even the Community of Men who make words signify as they please do suppose that our Faculties were not design'd or framed to do evil Things nor are ever properly and truly fit to do any thing but good and therefore we can do nothing which we do not think so This Observation I think to be true If any be of another mind and that Opportunity or Season is applicable indifferently to good or bad Purposes and Practices yet I suppose it will be granted that the Apostle in this place intends the Time or Season of doing good Actions such as are fit and becoming profitable and beneficial such as will be honourable to God and give a reputation to Christian Religion helping forward our own and others Happiness So that St. Paul exhorts us here to redeem the Time of doing all that good which the Gospel requires of living that excellent Life and practising all those Vertues which are agreeable to the Dispensation of Christianity of doing all those good Works here on Earth which by our perfect Institution we 〈◊〉 assisted and obliged to do And if this be the Action that St. Paul means it will not be 〈…〉 ouâ— the 〈◊〉 which when they 〈◊〉 make it a good Season for doing thus when ii will be more easy to live well and we may probâ—bly be more successfully good and attain all the Ends of our Excellent 〈◊〉 Now a constant firm Health a competent provision of the Necessaries and Conveniences of Life freedom from Slavery and long Restraints for the most part to live in Society a state of Peace and Quiet of good Will and Amity with Men and an abode here on Earth till Age has made us useless these are the things which we commonly and truly think do all conduce to this purpose But yet I dare not say that such a Condition would be best for all Men. Experience proves to us undeniably that a mixture of Good and Evil is best for the generality of Men in this State to have a dash of Adversity nay to be in a more depressed Condition may I believe be generally better for us Some Men are good in Sickness or in Want who if they enjoy'd their Health or lived in Abundance would not be so Nay I doubt not but this is true of the Community of Mankind And that the wise and good Providence that rules all things has so ordered it that the far greatest part are poor or sick or under restraint or have Enemies or do not live long because he sees it necessary to keep them under this sharp Discipline and for this Reason that hereby they may be trained up to be and to do Good and kept out of those Temptations which would be irresistible to them and so preserved from doing those Wickednesses which would make them liable to the unalterable Justice and beget such a disposition in them as might endanger their being irrecoverably bad and miserable I cannot but think that these Evils are Medicinal and good Antidotes which the wise and good Physician makes use of for curing the worst of Diseases in some and preventing them in others Nay that even very good Men have found it good for them to be thus afflicted so David tells us So Job and other the best of Men in former Ages Yea the Son of God himself and his first and best Followers were persecuted by Men and afflicted by God in the worst of these Instances By all this I am convinced That even Poverty and Disgrace and such other Calamities do not only contribute to bad Mens becoming good but to good Mens being better by giving them an opportunity for the exercise of some Vertues which would have had no place in a prosperous State and are necessary to our Perfection But tho I grant all this yet considering the imperfection of the best of Men and the necessity of Health and Liberty and Plenty and Peace to enable them for those Works which are proper and useful in this State and to compleat their Vertue which can never be unless they pass through varieties of Conditions I can't but look on these things as conducing to the good Life of Christians However these things may not facilitate the practice of Vertue to all Men yet
fresh Gale blows we neglect not to sail with it that we dexterously strike in with Opportunity when it invites And not only so but that we use our best skill to procure one to make things serve our honest purpose because if we do not thus we shall be able to do very little good in our Lives since we are like to meet with so many Difficulties and Hindrances in it Having thus argued in General for our Redeeming the Time I shall now consider those three Particulars distinctly in which I summ'd up the meaning of that Phrase And shall give Reasons for every of them severally 1. Reasons why we should take every Opportunity that offers it self and be careful wisely to employ it neglecting none 1. If we do not thus we do not comply with the Divine Providence we do not suit our selves to things nor are uniform with the World God offers me help and I refuse it He works before and would work with me when he gives an Opportunity but I regard not the Works of the Lord I reject his assistance And what a thing is this to be said by God to Man I would have helped thee and thou wouldst not be helped I would have reliev'd thee but thou regardedst not the Succours which I sent And yet thus it may be truly said to every one that neglects Opportunity And as there is a prophane neglect of God's providential Dispensations in letting Seasons of Actions slip by so there is an unnatural jarring with things about us a difformity and discord with the World For they invite us to Action but we will not act they have prepared our way but we will not walk All things else are in a readiness to assist us in some good enterprize only we our selves are backward What a thing is this that the World the things about us should be more forward than Man to bring forth a good Work that things below us should so readily give their attendance offer their Service and invite us to it while we the best of God's Creation here shall be behind-hand When they meet together and as it were cry out to us Lend us your hand do you our Master join with us and this Good or that great Work will be done What strange perverseness is it in us to refuse When things say Come let us go to the House of God or to the House of the Poor or to visit the Sick or our Friends or to our Closet Study or Shop and yet we will not go what a schismatical contumacious Humour is this when we thus divide and cut our selves off from the World as every one does that neglects those Opportunities which things conspire to make him That 's the First 2. The using of Opportunities proceeds from a good Principle the losing them from an ill one and this argues the one to be good the other bad For such as the Causes are the Effects will be the sweet and the bitter Fountains will send forth Streams of the same Nature with their Sources Now if we trace them upto their Springs we shall discover that all non-use of good Occasions arises from such Causes as these Either Men are ignorant what makes a fit Season or inobservant or careless whether they do well or not or slothful that tho they be jogg'd will not waken or over intent and busy on other Matters As Martha was Luke 10. 42. when our Saviour told her she was troubled and careful about many things which took her off from the Opportunity she then had of hearing his Doctrine which her Sister gave heed to Or they are froward and will not comply when things invite and call them On the other Hand he that makes use of the Seasons that are offered him must needs be a prudent and careful Observer of things without him diligent and intent upon doing good sensible of his own insufficiency and of the need he has of help from abroad He must be a Man of great Vertue and good Government of himself a Man of an excellent Spirit whose Heart is alway thus fixed so as to give no stop no check to things but suffers them to have their free Course stays not behind but follows them to all that Good to which they lead him 3. Consider the Effects which are or may be consequent on our using or not using the Seasons that are before us Great Good comes of the one and as great Evils of the other Indeed no Man knows how great either may be Exempli Gratiâ The Bells call thee to Church and no more necessary business keeps thee from it thou goest whither not only the Thing it self but the Season invites thou joinest with the Congregation in Prayer how knowest thou but God is prevailed with by the hearty Prayers with which thou art joined and will bestow upon thee the greatest of Blessings the pardon of thy Sin the healing thy Distempers or may supply thee in what thou wantest at present Nay and these Prayers shall be a stock laid up for thee in Heaven and be remembred a great while hence and on this score thou shalt find opportune help in the day of trouble Again thou hearest the good Word of God read or explained and thou attendest to it and art enlightned in some Truth that will direct thee in thy way to Heaven Thou hast had some good Seed sown in thy Heart which will grow up to Eternal Life Thou hast been persuaded of some good proposition which afterward becomes a principle of Wisdom and Vertue and is indeed the Foundation of thy Happiness On the other hand Thou regardest not the Summons to Church but either sleepest or drinkest or talkest on or followest thy Game or that which thou callest thy Business as if thou hadst no other and thereby not only neglectest to honour God in the Assembly but deprivest thy self of the great thou knowest not how great Good thou mightest have received Besides who can tell how many Temptations and Snares and Mischiefs he has brought himself into by refusing to comply with so fair an Offer Thou wouldst not worship God in Publick and it may be thou art serving the Devil in Private Thou wouldst not associate with them that call upon God and perhaps in the mean time thou art got into a rout of prophane debauch'd Revellers and art fallen into Temptations from which thou canst never get free but wilt grow worse and worse till thou beest irrecoverably bad Thus the loss of one Season may be the loss of Happiness and thy ruine for ever Take another Instance Thou hast a sit Season of Reproof administred to thee i. e. Thou by thy Office or by the Rank in which thou art the Authority thou hast over or the Interest thou hast in some Man art fit to advise rebuke exhort him and at this time thou art fit to speak and he to hear All things conspire to make thy Reproof acceptable and to give probability of Success at least
of God shall give us new Opportunities let us not again foolishly and carelesly squander or idlely sleep them away or frowardly waste them lest we justly provoke God to deny us any more Which would be a most terrible Judgment and yet very righteous We have lost much time never to be recovered do therefore what may be done to redeem what is past by double diligence in improving the future Let me add that the time is coming that we shall wish for one of those many good Opportunities which we trifled away when we come to our Death-Beds we shall in vain call back those Seasons Let this Consideration make us very careful not to neglect the least occasion of doing any good because we shall wish we had not These Reasons may be sufficient to persuade us not to neglect any but to use every Season of Action that offers it self to us I now proceed to 2. Reasons Why we should not only take Opportunity when 't is offered but endeavour to make it and to change the things that are contrary to us to be on our side and serviceable to our good Purposes Now that I may evince the reasonableness of this First I will declare what is here supposed Here are two things supposed which if they be not true then neither is this good Counsel which is built on and implys them but if they be both true then is it necessary They are these 1. That Opportunities are few 2. We do very much in our acting depend on them 1. The first of these I have already said something of and I believe there is none who is not fully persuaded of it For what Man is he who sees not how short his Life is And of that little time how much is taken for the maintenance of it And when we are sit for Action vacant for doing Good how are our Hands held by things falling cross to us We fall into Company by accident or are constrained by some occasions to be with such Persons where we spend much time but can do little to promote either their welfare or our own Whosoever watches for and is observant of Opportunities and Seasons he knows they fall out but seldom he often finds things to be wind-bound and tho he fain would yet he canriot stir I do not mean by this to justify the lazy and careless in their Complaints who lay their own Neglects on want of Opportunities for tho we have not so many yet we are not quite destitute we have some tho not so many as the diligent Man could wish for yet we have more than the idle will own or care to use and sufficient for the doing that Good which we are capable of doing if we do but observe and make use of them However if the Sum total of them be computed they may well pass for few If all our Life were a continued succession of Opportunities yet that being so short and so interrupted they are but few at most This is the first thing supposed 2. We do very much in our Actions depend on Opportunity this will appear if we consider these three things 1. Some Actions are not good if they be not done in Season and unless they comply with and be suited to external Causes and Circumstances There must not only be an agreement betwixt the Action and him that does it but it must also be suited to its Object and accommodated to things without Exempli Gratiâ Reproof to an Equal or Inferiour that is not by Passion or Prejudice so possessed as that what I shall say can make no Impression is good But when it is of a Superiour or an Equal indisposed to receive it 't is not good 't is unfit and foolish 't is importune and unseasonable And it is the same in most of the Actions of our Lives if they are not opportune they are not good And this I may say of all that the more seasonable the better they are This is one thing which shews our dependance on a fit Season In this case tho we could do Actions without it yet we should not 2. Other Actions tho we may and would do them we cannot We must be helped from abroad or of and by our selves we can do nothing There is no Man such a Stranger to himself and so ignorant of his own Insufficiency but knows he has need of the concurrence of many Causes with him to bring forth a good Action besides the assistance of God's Grace and all those many things that fore-pare a Man for Action and make him big with it there are more still that must help to elicit and bring it forth Exempli Gratiâ Tho a Man be never so wise and full of knowledg and tho he have never so great a list to communicate it yet unless he meet with others and those that are capable of it he cannot do what he desires and is so well qualified to do We cannot do the Good we would without the Help the Midwifery of External Causes and Things i. e. if we want Opportunity 3. Tho we could and should act without Opportunity yet our Action would be very often without effect For in most cases Success depends on the concurrence of those things that make Opportunity A Man would not have good Designs and Performances prove Abortive yet if they do not he must be beholden to this 'T is this must bring what he does to good Issue As soon may a Man make a Voyage without a Ship or Boat or when he has one against Wind and Tide arrive at his intended Port as in most undertakings have desired Success without the concurrence of external Causes Exempli Gratiâ Tho a Preacher use his utmost Skill and Care to compose his Discourse for the benefit of those whom he expects to be his Hearers yet if it so fall out that they either cannot or will not come to hear or if they do come yet fall asleep or talk or their Thoughts are taken up with other matters that they do not attend or if they presently forget what they heard or never once consider it that is unless things conspire so as not to hinder from hearing or attending to what they hear from remembring and considering at least the drift and scope of the Sermon He labours without Success that made and preached it Thus it appears that we act in dependance on such a happy confluence of things as make a Season or Opportunity And if this be true and that also that the Opportunities are few which offer themselves to us then it will follow that unless we will do nothing at all or labour in vain we must endeavour by our skill and diligence to make Opportunities to make things as pliant to our Purposes as serviceable to our Designs as is possible If the Mariner would never put out of the Harbour nor weigh Anchor but when the Wind blows full in the Poop he must lye still for the most part And
if we will never act but when Opportunity favours us with a fair and full Gale I doubt we shall be most commonly idle No but we must when the Wind is not with us make it serve us by gathering it into our yielding Sails and when it is full against us yet we must then take the advantage of a Tide The sum of this is That we must have help from things without us both to act and to bring our Action to some Issue And things without us will not favour our Enterprises unless we use our best skill and Endeavours to make them serve our honest Designs But when times are ill and things go cross to us then especially are we to labour to serve our selves of them and make them helpful to us Secondly This is Wisdom to accommodate things to make them comply with those good Purposes which of themselves they thwart and oppose It is Wisdom to take the Occasions that offer themselves but it 's far greater to make Occasion and to work things out of an opposition or unprofitableness into a subserviency and usefulness to our Undertakings It 's great skill in the Mariner to sail with a Wind that 's within one Point full against him I am apt to think there is nothing we meet with but may be serviceable to a good purpose and if we prudently and dexterously make application it will be so if not to one yet to another Nay possibly to that which it may seem to oppose Exempli Gratiâ A Man is very impatient of any check or censure in himself but yet forward enough to blame and controul other Men which often go together In this case to deal with this Man as Nathan did with David to lay the Scene in another place and to cast the Fault on another Person For he will not fail to aggravate that Crime in another which he would spare in himself But when he has condemned another Natural Justice will not suffer him to be so partial as to acquit himself And thus by a side-Wind he comes to the Place whither he was bound and makes use of that which was in it self Evil and a Hindrance to help him to attain his End He makes an evil Thing promote a good Design I have said enough for my present purpose to shew that it is Wisdom to bring things that are cross to us to serve us to make Enemies Friends and of our Party to make that which was a Neuter and of no use to be profitable This is great Wisdom It is both the Effect and Cause of great Wisdom It is the Exercise and will be the Improvement of it It is one of the greatest and surest instances of Wisdom that can be given No Man can give a better proof that he is a prudent wise Man than by making ill things serve good Purposes Therefore if we would be and shew our selves to be wise Men let us when things are not to our Minds nor will fall in with our Designs by our dexterous application make them pliant and serviceable That others may see and admire this our management and that both we and they may receive the benefits of such excellent Wisdom 3. To this I add that to do thus is Divine and God-like This is the Glory of God that he can bring Light out of Darkness Order out of Confusion Good out of Evil nay the greatest Good out of the worst of Evils So that nothing how bad soever has fallen out which the over-ruling Providence will not make to promote some most excellent Design He ordinarily brings about not only the greatest Ends by the least and unlikeliest but by the most opposite contrary means that are And sometimes delights to walk in difficult ways Of all which I need but name that one instance of the Salvation of Man Now then if this be the Glory of God shall we not esteem it ours Is it our perfection to be like God Let us esteem it so and endeavour to be like him in this create Opportunities to our selves make them to be where there was none before Let your contrivance bring them out of nothing or that which is worse than nothing That is when all things conspire to oppose and to hinder you from doing the good you desire and intend to do out of this very opposition make your selves a Season and try to turn it into an Occasion and Advantage Which if we do we shall imitate that most adorable Providence that accomplishes the Ends of infinite Goodness by the services of things that are adverse and contrary to them 3. If we meet with things that are unalterably evil and by no prudence or care of ours can be made for our purpose or to minister to any good Action we must then decline and shun them Remove our selves from them if we can't remove them from us The Particulars when this may and how it should be done will fall under the Advices I am only now to shew Reason why it ought to be done And it will be sufficient here to mention the Principal and indeed the Reason of all that can be assigned and that is this viz. That we may be in the best Capacity to do most good For this cause we ought to walk accurately For this we are to redeem the Season in those two foregoing Particulars as well as in this And it is a very sufficient and satisfactory Reason why I should by all prudent Care and honest Diligence avoid those unhappy Circumstances which will not only help but hinder me in doing the good which I might in another Condition do For this cause I must not foolishly throw my self into no nor stay in such a Condition as that if I can by fair means keep or get out If I should do otherwise I should do a vain fruitless thing I should not put my self to those good Uses for which I may serve I should violate the Precept and do directly contrary to the Reason of the Apostle's Exhortation of redeeming the time because the days are evil Which certainly signifies this in part that we are to decline Dangers and Evils not universally all Dangers in any ways but only those that cannot be improved into an Opportunity either by our acting with or suffering under them If one way or other they may be so managed as to give us an occasion of doing good I do not think they are to be declined unless it may be done honestly to rescue our selves into better Circumstances that will assist us to do more and greater good This then is the reason why we should shun those Evils which we can't make pliant to our Christian Purposes because we are to imploy our selves to the best Purposes I might add also That to do thus is but a compliance with a natural Inclination which makes us averse from suppose Poverty Disgrace Sickness Death c. Now the Design◠and Reason of this natural Inclination is that we should keep our selves in
End 't is not Good that he designs 4. Much more does he lose the Season who imploys it in evil Works Nay 5. That Time is in part lost and not husbanded as every one thinks it should be in which less good is done than might have been done in it Tho a Man has been doing well yet if he might have done much better he is commonly thought and said not to have employed and improved his time as he might and is supposed should have done According to this discourse doing well is not only the End and Reason why but also the Way and Means how we should redeem the Time And it is a plain Corollary deducible from hence that the more and greater Good any Man does in Time the more he redeems it And he that does all that Good in it which by Man can be done in such a Time he performs what the Apostle here requires most perfectly He does his Duty fully On the other hand he who does less than the Times will suffer or it may be help him to do either doing some lesser Good where he neglects a greater or doing but a part of a much greater Sum which he might do he does fail in his Obedience to this Exhortation of redeeming the Time in Proportion to his falling short of doing the good he might The Sum of all this is That he who so complies with Things and Times and as far as they are in his Power so accommodates them to himself as to do the most Good which they enable or assist or but suffer him to do He does redeem the Time in the Apostle's Sense And thus far the Explication of it shews the reasons of those Directions for the doing it which I have already given and will make the entertainment of the few I shall add more easy Supposing then that we understand what is good for us to do and that we are alway willing and ready to do this Good we know and ever moderately and orderly busy that we are sensible of our dependance on Time and Things without us and that we have got a good knowledg what influences they have on our doing good to oppose and hinder or to farther and promote it which is all that I have directed hitherto I proceed now to another general Advice which is this 8. Take a view of all the Good which Men in General or your self in Particular have a capacity of doing in respect of human Nature and Faculties Set before you all in any kind which one endowed with the Faculties of human Nature can possibly do which is fit and becoming one in such Relations and Conditions as every Man is to do in respect of God of Himself and of all other Men and Things all that is honourable to the great Creator and Lord of all that is perfective of human Nature in a Man's self and in other Men and conduces also to the welfare and best state of all other Beings and Things Take a survey of Man and of all of this sort that he is capable of doing survey your selves also what Good it is in particular that you can do whether it be more or less than others in your Condition Now this is all summ'd up in those general Heads of doing justly loving Mercy and walking humbly with God as the Prophet has exprest them Or as the Apostle more fully living soberly righteously and godly But this is not all I mean that we should know all the Good that can be done by us but that we also set before us all the Actions we can do which are capable of being and doing thus much good And they are our Thoughts and all those which are transacted by and in the Mind it self our Words which convey our Thoughts to others And all our other mechanical Actions vvhich directly or indirectly fall under Liberty and to vvhich vve may be determined by our Wills Consider vvell hovv fit and good all these may be What is the Goodness of each of them singly and of all of them together And that you may know this consider what respects they bear and in what order they are to one another how one does prepare and make Way for another and consequently vvhen they do cross and oppose each other Consider also more distinctly what Actions are the best which are of less Goodness which are of most and which of least Consequence This will very much direct us in what order to do them and in case of Competition which to prefer This will hugely conduce to our gaining and improvement of Time that is to our doing the most Good as I have shewn The Sum of this Direction is that we consider and that not slightly and seldom but often and seriously of all the Good we can do and of all the Actions whereby we may do it Let us hang a kind of Table before us wherein the good Actions of our Lives the Heads of them I mean may be fully enumerated and delineated in an orderly Series And let this be in our Eye very often every day look on it Think of it so long and so often till you be perfect in it and have no need of recourse to it when your Memory shall presently and easily suggest it to you on every occasion And when we consider what we can do we must not only think what we can do by our selves immediately but by other Men and Things For tho we can't by our selves suppose persuade another yet we may by some other that is abler and has greater Authority with him There is none but may see the usefulness of this Advice in order to our doing Good in which Men so frequently and grosly miscarry for no other cause but want of this Consideration Tho they know all the Good they can do and are willing and ready to do it yet they do it not they often do the contray Evil because they consider it not they act preposterously and so hinder themselves They do a less Good when they might do a greater they set upon the End before the Means They do not the Good they might if they would but take a full and distinct view of all they are capable of doing Seneca I remember gives this Reason among others why Men do so grievously miscarry Quamvis sepissimè de partibus vitae consulitur nunguam de toto They seldom or never take all their Actions they can do into Consideration They do not take a full view of their whole Course and Way as they must if they consult about it If this be so necessary in order to our living vertuously 't is on the same account necessary for our redeeming Time which cannot be done but by well-doing This being not only the only End why but the only Means also whereby we can get and keep Time or Season 9. Take also a general view of the whole Time you have for all Good as well as of those parts of Time which will most
not thy Actions by halves nor so as thou shalt need to do them again Strive to do every thing as well as exactly as thou canst And tho it may happen so as that thou must do it again however thou mayst be better able to do it than now thou art yet this is all can be done to prevent it If we have considered the Reasons why we should thus take every Opportunity and be perswaded by them we shall not only do thus our selves but also endeavour that others that all with whom we have to do especially Children and Servants may do so And for that end I can't give a better Advice than that we should bring up our Children in some honest Imployment or other not suffer them to live at large to do this or that any thing or nothing what and when themselves have a Mind to it And for our Servants who are at our dispose that we should take care that they be neither idle nor ill imployed Let me also add concerning Friends when we are with them that as we ought to be careful that they do not steal Time from us so should we charge our selves that we do not rob them of it and by their Civility and Kindness to us engage them to neglect their more necessary and important Affairs Thus far I have gone in general Directions how we may not neglect any but employ every Opportunity of well-doing that offers it self The Sum is Let us redeem as much Time from the less necessary Works as is sufficient for our doing all those that are of greater Importance I now proceed to offer some Advice by what means and ways we should make Times that are adverse and opposite to become favourable and serviceable to us as we are Christians that is to the Christian Life and to all that Happiness which we naturally and innocently desire And also where we cannot make them thus pliant to our Desires and Purposes how we should avoid those Evils with which they threaten us That we may proceed more clearly we we will consider what Days may be said to be evil and what makes them so And by this our way will be more plain which we are to take either to alter or to decline the Evils 1. Those Days are said to be evil which hinder us from doing or enjoying that Good which otherwise we might The Evil of them is in such things as these Poverty Reproach and a bad Name Slavery Conâ—inement want and loss of Friends Sickness and Death the Ignorance and Mistakes of many but above all Sin of which there is greatest Danger For all the rest take Men off from doing Good but Sin makes them also do Evil. If we be made poor we shall not be able to feed the Hungry or cloath the Naked or relieve those that are ready to perish which the Rich Man can And if we die we are cut off from doing or enjoying any more the Good of this Life but if we commit Sin and practise Wickedness we not only do no Good but we do that which is contrary to it Evil. We not only deprive our selves of the Enjoyments that are innocent and natural but we by this bring our selves under great Sufferings and Misery These and such like are the Evils of any Days And the Divine Providence brings about all the rest except Sin either by natural and unseen Causes which we do not know or cannot resist Or by other Men who either master us by their Power or out-reach us by their Wit or prevail with us by their Authority Or lastly by our selves i. e. our own Folly and Negligence and Wickedness Indeed the greatest Evils of any Times come from our selves And tho Men generally complain of the Times the Times yet in many Cases if they would speak truly and properly they must blame themselves For they can't but observe that other Men are and they might be very good in those very bad Times which they so much accuse Our greatest Danger is from our Selves more than from Times and Things without us For without our own Consents nothing can make us sin And if we escape Sin and Wickedness nothing can do us much harm If we keep our selves from doing Evil we shall not fall into the worst of all those Mischiefs of which we are in Danger from the Times 1. Let this then be our first Care that we do not make the Days evil that by our own Ignorance and Folly our Carelessness and Viciosity we do not bring those Evils upon our selves for which we complain of the Times Perhaps by your bad Example you have infected others or by your ill or for want of your good Counsel some publick Persons are vicious and their Vices have had Influence on the Generality and the Age has been corrupted by this And now you complain against the Times when as your self are a great cause why they are so bad How many are there who should turn their Accusation of the Times against themselves They have and do help to make good Times bad and bad Times worse They neglect their own Duty and do not do the good of their Place they are foolish and idle and careless and vicious and whilst they are so no Times will be good to them They will never find a Season convenient enough wherein to do well Such a Temper as this will turn the best into very bad Times Let us therefore in the first place take Care that by our Wickedness and Folly we do not change good Days into bad nor increase the Evil of any Time Under this general Advice we shall find most of or all those particular Directions which I shall presently give But supposing that the Times are bad and we have no hand in it Suppose them worse than God be thanked they are as bad as in any Age they have been as we can well conceive them to be Let the generality be given up to all Wickedness not only debauch'd and sottish in themselves but profane and irreligious towards God and both uncharitable and and unjust dishonest and inhuman towards Men But let us imagine the Wise and the Learned the Rich and the Honourable to be hearty Opposers of and Enemies to the Christian Life and Spirit and that they use their Wit and employ their Knowledg and their Interest in obstructing the progress of Goodness and Vertue as much as is possible Nay not only so but they who hold the Scepter by whose Counsel publick Affairs are managed are violent Persecutors of the Cause and People of God and of all Goodness and their Rage is bent against every one that is like to and a Follower of the Son of God Suppose you be in a Family where not only thy Fellow-Servants or thy Brothers and Sisters but thy Father and Mother or thy Master and Mistris be not only wicked themselves but Abetters of Wickedness in others Let thy Case also be such that thou by being good wilt not
Statute-Book 'T is both the Common and Civil and Canon-Law whereby God governs his Subjects If any should imagine that because a great part of or all the Bible was directed to particular Persons of such Times and Places that therefore they were intended for no more Or because they were writ in an exotick and strange Tongue with which most of the World are unacquainted therefore they must not be looked on as a Revelation of the Divine Will to all Men I would desire such to consider 1. That in whatever Language they were writ the same Objection would lie against them 2. Here is work for Industry and that which may engage Men in Study and encourage Learning and may occasion Men of one Nation 's acquainting themselves with others and with the Wisdom and Customs of all Places and Times 3. That what is contained in our Bible was directed to some particular Persons this was no more than was fit to procure its Entertainment amongst them If it had been spoke to all perhaps none might have minded it at least not so much as they probably would to whom it was particularly addressed 4. That however some few might be immediately concerned in it and it might have especial respect to the Men of one Age and Place yet this hinders not but that it might have a farther reference to all that were them or should be afterwards in all Nations to whom it should come And tho there might be and were some of the Laws founded on particular Reasons which afterwards might cease yet this takes not off the Obligations of those Laws which are founded on universal and immutable Reasons such as belong to all Mankind in all Ages Where the very same reason does not continue yet there is often a Parity which is sufficient to lay an Obligation on us Exempli Gratiâ Tho we may not look on our selves as obliged to offer Sacrifices on an Altar to God by the Hands of a Priest yet we may and should offer up to God of our Substance by the Hands of the Poor And so the Law of Sacrifices may still direct and in some sort bind us And thus we may make use of the abrogated Laws which were temporary to direct our selves in the Knowledg of what the Will of God is to us by considering Parity of Reason which is the way we take in all Humane Laws This Exception being thus removed we need not question but the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a Revelation of God's Will to us and all Men. V. God teaches Men what his Will is by secret Suggestions of his Spirit 'T is this which often shews us the way in which we should go which directs us saying This is the way walk in it I believe there is no Man but one time or other feels himself most powerfully instigated to do such or such an Action which at that time he clearly apprehends to be good And at other times he is as forcibly with-held from what by a clear light he sees to be evil And this he cannot reasonably impute to any other cause besides the Spirit of God He is not conscious of any Power within himself that can do thus and there is no other visible Cause of this powerful Influence So that it may well be ascribed to the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation This brings to mind some of the Divine Precepts which we had forgot or did not then think of This discovers to us in some particular Instances what God would have us do which in other ways we could not have known Now this being so distinguishable from the other ways as to the manner and yet so consistent with and agreeable to them in the matter of the Revelation we may well conclude that it 's another way in which God discovers his Will unto Mankind Thus I have briefly considered the five ways in which God makes his Will known unto us Concerning which ways I will further say 1. That there is no Law of God which is not in one or more of them publish'd unto us 2. That some of them and indeed many are in all these ways to be known by us 3. Those that are thus many ways declared are hereby signified to be of great Importance to be known and done by us Therefore was it that the Divine Providence took such care that they should not be conceal'd from us 4. Those which are notisied to us in some one way only e. g. the Scriptures are not contradictory to nor contradicted by any other that are revealed to us in the other ways There is no Repugnancy no Inconsistency betwixt them but they all exactly harmonize and agree with each other Whosoever thinks otherwise he takes that to be a Command of God which is not There may be and is something more revealed in one way than in another but there is nothing in one that is repugnant to that is inconsistent with indeed that is not agreeable to what is in another Therefore if we at any time should interpret the Scripture-Revelation in contradiction to the unquestionable Principles of the Reason and Mind of Man we misunderstand it These are both God's Revelation of his Will to us and he cannot contradict himself Whosoever will do that which is every Man 's necessary Duty and greatest Interest to do that is seek after a perfect understanding of the Will of God concerning Man he may by a diligent Exercise of himself in these ways attain unto it And whatever Pains he takes in it I can assure him he will find himself well appaid in the Effect of his Labour For that must be great Holiness of Life and abundant Satisfaction and Quiet of Mind If I were to give a Compendium of that which all these ways appears to be the Will of God and more than a Compendium I must not offer at it should be this viz. the Perfection and good State of all Men. Whosoever either considers the Goodness and Wisdom of God or the Inclinations and Faculties which he has given to all Men or the Sense of the wisest and best nay of all Men who are in a restless Pursuit of somewhat they often mistake for their Happiness or the holy Scriptures or the secret Motions of the Divine Spirit He will say that all these do centre in and aim at this And consequently shew that this is certainly the Will of God And if we be once assured in our Minds that the Goodness and Perfection or best State of Man is the Divine Will we have got a Clue that will direct us through all the Labyrinths of Particulars And if we have but once form'd true and distinct Notion of what our Perfection is we shall then see clearly what are the Particulars of which it consists what are the means that are in order to it and what are the things that oppose and hinder it And in effect we shall be directed to a right understanding of all the
Slaves of this Enemy of God and all Goodness This grand Opposer of Man's Happiness To be led Captive by him at his Will To be dragg'd at the Chariot-Wheels of this insulting Conqueror What can be worse than first to execute his malicious Will and then be punished for so doing To be most cruelly tormented for obeying those Laws of Sin and Death which he gave them And this was the State of the Pagan World they worshipp'd Devils they received Oracles from them they obey'd them they were subject to their Dominion This is also plainly attested by their own Writers And when the Scripture speaks of their Conversion to Christianity it expresseth it thus that they were turned from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Acts. 26. 18. I have said enough one would think to set forth the miserable State of us Gentiles before-our Conversion but yet there is one Consideration more which exceedingly aggravates their Wo and that is that they are liable to be condemned to the greater and more lasting Miseries of the future State those Torments which admit of no Ease and will have no end which they cannot escape except they be recovered out of this Snare of the Devil and become the Servants of God That is unless they cease to do evil and learn to do well which how hard it was for them to do we may conclude from the Difficulty that we who have the many greater Helps which the Gospel-Dispensation affords us find in it And besides how full of Anxiety and disquieting Thoughts must their Sin and Ignorance and their Presensions and Boadings of Evil to come of a deserved Punishment for their Faults fill them with Nay tho they should repent and amend how uncertain must they be of the Pardon and Favour of God And therefore how must they through Fear of Death be all their Life-time subject to Bondage Thus I have very curiously given an account of the first Particular viz. The Condition of the Gentiles before Christianity II. I now proceed to sew some of the Advantages which the Gentiles have by becoming Christians And this will appear both in respect of Themselves and in respect of Others First If we consider them in themselves singly their Advantage appears in this that their Minds are greatly enlightned their Hearts are throughly purified their Lives are reformed and amended 1. Their Minds are enlightned Their Knowledg is both larger and clearer and surer than it was and consequently far more efficacious and powerful They know the Nature and Condition of Man far better they are now assured of a Spiritual and Immortal Soul which inhabits this Body which is the far more excellent Part of Man They have now assurance that they and all Men shall live after Death and that they shall be for ever happy or miserable according as they have lived here If they have lived a Holy and Vertuous Life they shall be brought into a State of endless Bliss If they have done Evil if they have not done Good that they shall fall under unsufferable and perpetual Torments They now understand that the Cause of all the Miseries and Imperfections of Mankind is their Sin That all the Calamities in the World owe their Original to the Wickedness of Men. They now understand the Dangerousness of their Condition and they are fully convinced of their own Impotency and Insufficiency which Acquaintance with themselves what a Preparation it is to Vertue and Holiness we shall see presently Again They know now that God is a Spirit of an Incorporeal Nature and such as their own Souls are and that He is but one The Father the Word and the Holy Spirit being all one That it was He that made the Heavens and the Earth by the Eternal Word and that by his powerful Decree all things are continued and that his Providence doth so particularly superintend all things that not a Sparrow falls to the Ground without his Knowledg and Permission And that this God knows all things that he searches the Hearts and sees the secret Works and the inward Thoughts of all Men and that he is infinitely good and kind That he is immutably Holy and Just and Pure That he will call Men to Account for the Deeds they have done in this Body and will reward the Good with Everlasting Life and will adjudg the Wicked to Everlasting Woe They also more perfectly understand their Duty and the way of Life in which they should walk They now know that Spiritual Worship is that which God principally looks at and that this is not only to be confined to certain Times and Places and Actions but that at all Times and every where God may be worshipp'd and that in the whole Course of our Lives and in all our Actions his glorious Perfections may be and are to be acknowledged And to him is to be ascribed his Excellency above all by Loving and Fearing and Believing and Obeying Him more than all They know they ought in all their Wants to make their Supplications to God and that they should praise and be thankful to him for all the Good they receive They know also that they are to apply themselves to God by Jesus Christ that it is by and through him the Merits of his Life and Death the Prevailing of his Intercession with the Father that they are accepted They are likewise fully instructed that they are to purify themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that they are to bring into subjection the Body and to keep it under that is that all the inferior Appetites and Inclinations be kept in a due subordination to the Reason and Law of their Minds They are now told plainly That they must not only be Just and True and Honest and Fair in their Dealings with Men so as not to circumvent and cozen not to deceive and disappoint but must stand to their Word keep to their Promises make good their Contracts but that they must also be compassionate and merciful courteous and kind gentle and meek loving and good to all Men to Neighbours and Acquaintance and also to Strangers and Forreigners to Enemies as well as Friends Nor only to the Good tho to them principally but also to the Bad. Thus are they instructed in their Duty and they see not only what they are to do but why they should do it They understand clearly the goodness the fitness the beneficialness the necessity of such a Life They see how natural how reasonable it is how just it is to live thus if they respect God who requires it who made and preserves them and from whom they receive all Good who is their undoubted Lord and perfectly Wise and Good and who will be their Judg. They know their dependence on Him and therefore must conclude that they ought to be at His dispose and be directed and governed by Him They see the manifold Advantages which accrue to them as well as to others by
beneficial this Temper is to Humane Nature is very apparent The Body it self shares in the Advantages that come by it In the Opinion of the French Philosopher as well as the Observation of many it is literally Health to the Navel and Marrow to all the Bones It gives Warmth and Motion to the Blood and new fresh Spirits to the whole Body and on this account he thinks it more adviseable to live in a mistaken Love than in Hatred that is true and hath a Foundation But if this admit of Dispute yet that is unquestionable that it is far better to love with Reason than to hate without it and that is all I plead for But these are the least of the Advantages we have by Love the greater are those which more immediately concern the Soul and they are summ'd up in this the knocking off the Shackles and Fetters which Hatred and Sorrow and Fear had bound up our Powers by Love that comes and mightily rescues us from that Bondage and Thraldom It sets us at liberty unties the Tongue of the Dumb and unlooses our Hands that were bound It brings us back from the Solitude whither Hatred or Fear had driven us to a Converse amongst Men and makes us active and disposes us to the Employment of all our Powers which is necessary to their Perfection and hath a great tendency to it That is the first from the consideration of Love in General Secondly Now consider it with its Object Enemies 1. They may do us much Good and we are often the better for them 1. That whereby they intend to ruin us is often our Advancement the Blow by which they would kill cures us so that the Sword becomes a Lancet and the Enemy who designs to make Wounds proves a Chirurgion and heals them Indeed this being besides their Intention we perhaps shall not think they merit our Love or Thanks the more but however they are Instruments of Good to us and we should love that which is any cause of Good to us Joseph on this account was not himself nor would have his Brethren angry with themselves because tho they intended him Evil yet God did him good by it and used them as Instruments thereof We love things that cannot intend us any Good if yet we receive any from them such are all without Reason Thus the Sword with which a Man hath defended himself is of great value with him and why should not we as well love them that do us Good against their Will as those that do it without any Will at all But 2. We owe much to their evil Designs and mischievous Devices against us This makes us cautious and circumspect and this Caution makes us wise He considered this rightly who when he would repay every one what he had received from them gave his Prudence to his Enemies This Apprehension makes us more exact in what we do than otherwise we should be We shall go upright if we know there be those that watch for our halting We shall be more accurat in our Actions where we are to receive our Doom from Enemies than where Friends are to judg us Friends are often so blinded with Passion that they can see nothing that is amiss and Enemies are so envious that they acknowledg nothing Good but what is eminently so This is therefore a Spur to make us do our best Many Men if they had had fewer Friends and more Enemies had been much better than now they are Therefore we must love them as we love Poisons that are mixt by the Physician so as they are made soveraign Medicines and cure our Disease This is the first 2. Tho our Enemies do Evil to us yet there is Good in them and for the sake of that we must love them Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked said Abraham to God Far be it from thee It is the same Injustice for any to hate and destroy the Good which is in any Man with the Evil where a Separation can be made God sent his Angel to bring Lot out of Sodom and in the Deluge Noah was warned and saved in the Ark We should follow this Example prosecute and destroy the Wickedness the Evil of a Man hate that with a perfect Hatred but spare the Man be kind to our own Kindred have regard to God's Creature and Image lovâ— the Christian Physicians do never cut off any part of the Body which is not so corrupted that there is no hopes of a Cure and where the rest of the Body is not in danger by it and the Part it self not vital not necessary to Life And in the Body Politick the Relatives of an Offender are not involved in his Sufferings where the Offence is not very great nor there unless it can be supposed they were Partners with him or it be necessary for the publick and greater Good both to demonstrate a great Severity against such Crimes and thereby to terrify Men and also the more to engage all Relations to concern themselves in one anothers well-doing Somewhat like this should our Carriage be in the Case before us Is there any hopes that the Evil may be removed from the Life and Mind of the Man without his Ruine Try if it may And it is hard to say that a Man is or can be so much our Enemy that he will never be our Friend We cannot affirm that the Case is desperate that he is unreconcileable Surely no Man is so much a Devil as to be implacable this can never be Besides there may sometimes be a deal of Wisdom and Goodness which must be loved and the Man valued for it Lastly We are never to do any Evil which will make it impossible for our Enemies to be happy this would be to cut off a vital Part. Such was his hellish Malice who perswaded his Enemy to blaspheme in hopes of Life and then presently stabb'd him and then triumph'd in the greatness of the Mischief I never yet met with an Instance of one more a Devil This Man had perfectly cast off Humanity and he hath done so too in great measure who doth not so much desire every other Man's Happiness as that he can do nothing that is not in order to at least very consistent with it As to the other Comparison let us not do that which the Soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth so much disowns punish the Fathers for the Transgression of the Children Let every one die for his own iniquity Find out the Criminal let him suffer Here 's a disorderly Passion founded on some easy and ordinary Mistakes remove these but let the Man live Let not him suffer unless this be the best Method for the removal of this and prevention of a worse Evil that may befal him What I have now said signifies that a special Care and due Regard should be had to all that is good and when our Anger and Displeasure would instigate us to devise and do Mischief
as they account unnatural Precept of our Saviour to disparage his whole Gospel I hope my Discourse has shewn both how reasonable and how natural it is and that it has taken away all the Pretences which weak and inconsiderate or ill-natured Men have for their neglect of it So that I have prevented my self of what I propounded to do next viz. III. To shew the Falseness of those Objections which are offered against it The most considerable I think are these Object 1. It is unnatural to love one that does and intends us Mischief Object 2. It is necessary to hate for our own Defence and Preservation Object 3. Example doth encline us to it Object 4. If we hate our Enemies they will expect and be afraid of this and so will be deterred from being our Enemies In Answer to the First Objection 1. I have shewn in my Explication that we are not required to love any thing that is in it self evil 2. I have in my following Discourse shown that this Evil may be a Cause of much Good unto us here but especially hereafter Or if of no Good to us yet there is so much Good to others as may make our Love prevail above Hatred For the 2d Objection I have made out that Hatred is not the likeliest Method to be rid of this Evil or to prevent it for the future For the 3d Objection I have shew'd that we must not follow Example to do Evil. It may become Apes and Children to be wholly determined by Example and to imitate every thing they see but it is very unworthy of them who have the use of their Reason As for the fourth Objection I answer 1. This is no Method to remove or lessen but to continue and encrease their Hatred It is commonly said Men hate what they fear These two differ very little We hate all Evil and fear that which is absent but Love on the other hand removes this Evil from the Mind and therefore 2. Tends to reform and mend the Offender himself It is a means to free him from his Malice which is not extinguished but rather inflamed by that which increaseth his Fear For notwithstanding that his Intention and Mind is as evil as before Fear not at all abating his desire of doing harm but only cutting short his Opportunity And therefore 3. It will if it increase his Hatred and lessen his Opportunity make him watch every little occasion of doing the Mischief he designs And it is hard for us to keep such a constant and strict Watch as to give no Advantage to one who seeks it If all these Reasons which I have proposed prevail not with us to put in practice this Precept of Loving our Enemies yet let the Authority of our Lord and Saviour persuade us I say unto you I who practised thus my self I whose you are who have Right to you and all Men I who know what is good for you better than you do your selves I say unto you Love your Enemies All the Inference I shall make is That then we must love those who are not our Enemies and still much more our Friends and those that love us If we must love those that intend and practise Evil against us much more those that desire and do us Good If he that loves not his Enemy be short of a Christian he who loves not his Friend is worse than an Infidel and if he be so then the Name of Christ will not save him He that is a Pagan tho he seem a Christian shall fall under the Condemnation of Unbelievers I conclude all with reminding you of my Intention in this Discourse which was to serve the Designs of Love by removing one of the greatest Obstacles of it out of the way Let us all therefore be persuaded to love universally to be pleased with Good where-ever we see it even in our Enemies to procure it where-ever it is wanting and there is any capacity of it Let us be so wise as to serve our selves and Religion of all the Conditions of Life which we are in by making them serviceable to Love and Good-will which assuredly is the best Life we can live that which will make us most acceptable to God most easy and delightful to our selves and most useful and pleasant to others it is the best that Earth or Heaven is capable of God of his infinite Mercy grant unto us the true Spirit of Christ that Spirit whose Fruits are Love and Joy and Peace Meekness Long-suffering Gentleness Patience Goodness Faith and Temperance that no Law may be against us that we may begin to live that Life here which we hope to live hereafter and which glorified Saints and Angels now live in the highest Heavens you the Life which God himself lives who is Love it self to whom he Honour and Glory and Praise for ever and ever Amen OF Calling no Man MASTER MATTH 23. 8 9 10. But be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren And call no Man your Father upon Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ IT appears from his Discourse in this Chapter that our Blessed Saviour had conceived a great and just Indignation against the Scribes and Pharisees It was surely a great Anger that moyed the meekest Man upon Earth so freely and sharply to rebuke them The Lamb of God here became a Lion and he who was ordinarily a Man of Consolations is now turned into a Son of Thunder denouncing Woes against them which we cannot construe as the Issue of a hot and hasty Temper for our Saviour's whole Carriage both to his own Disciples who were such as would have sufficiently exercised a great Patience as well as to his deadly Enemies argues his admirable Mildness and that he it was in whom that Prophecy was fulfilled that he should not cry nor lift up nor cause his Voice to be heard in the Streets A bruised Reed he should not break c. We may therefore conclude that there must be some just and reasonable and great Cause of this great Indignation and this we find was an Accumulation of great Wickedness in these Men which received Aggravations 1. From their Pretences to greater Sanctity than others 2. From their having greater Opportunities of being better than others 3. Because they being many of them in in publick place their Practice must have a bad Influence on their Followers For they who pretend Holiness and are wicked they who are wicked tho they have great helps to be good and by being wicked cause others to be so too their Sin is exceeding sinful The Particulars for which our Saviour taxes them were principally these 1. Their great Pride They loved the uppermost Rooms at Feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogues and Greetings in the Markets and to be called of Men Rabbi Rabbi c. And under that
the Doctrine of Indulgences for Sins to come of Masses for the Dead and the like which whosoever considers in their tendencies I doubt not but they 'll be satisfied it 's the Interest of Money not of Goodness that is carried on by the Asserters of those Opinions that they serve Mammon and their Religion is Covetousness This Inordinacy of Desire turns Apostles into Judas's Pastors into Robbers the House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves and it doth as easily transform the Flocks of Sheep into Herds of Wolves For notwithstanding the Sheep's Coat and Shape if there be a ravening Appetite an unsatisfied Desire 't is a Wolf tho it seem a Sheep a Wolf in Sheeps cloathing Nor can it be expected it should be otherwise but if the Sea hath overflown its high Banks the lower Marshes must needs be drowned and if the Physician be seized with this Disease the unskilful Patient must be so much more If the Spiritual Men whose Converse is in Heaven yet be so much within the Influences of this Earth the Laity they whose Employment is in it must be more under the power of them If the Light of the Heavenly Bodies be obscured by terrestrial Vapors then the Candle which is in the Earth must be put out by its Damps And if the Disciples of Jesus be under the Power of Desire it 's not to be imagin'd that Moses's Scholars or the Followers of Mahomes or the Worshippers of many Gods should be free from its Dominion We 'll therefore take it for granted that if Christendom be not exempt from this Tyranny of Desire the rest of the World is not If the Gospel hath not rectified Mens Affections neither the Pentateuch nor the Alcoran nor the Traditions of the Gentiles have or can do it Thus we see that Desire hath an Empire further extended than ever they had who would be call'd Lords of the World We 'll next consider how this Catholick King this universal Bishop this proud Sultan this great Cham manages his Affairs And we may observe that this Vsurper who hath dethroned Reason the lawful Sovereign of the World and hath assumed his Scepter does use the same evil Arts which all others do Where he hopes to gain the Affections of his Subjects he practises Flattery gratifies them tho to then Ruine and pleases tho in that he undoes them Where they will not love they shall fear and if he cannot court them by Flatteries he will rule them as a Tyrant and in both ways his Government is arbitrary and irregular Either Laws are never made or never kept in his Dominions That which is commanded is for the most part evil or impossible no Reason to be given of it besides Will And tho it were not yet sooner might the free Air be hedged in or the Winds chained up than the Subjects of this Prince who are Sons of Appetite be restrained Nor can they be turned from their Purpose unless by a Passion accompanied with more Power than they have As the Stream of a great River cannot be turned from its Course except it be met by the fiercer Tide The calm and quiet Decisions of Controversies that used to be in Courts of Judicature where Reason ruled are either wholly laid aside or strangely degenerate and so either to bad purpose or to none at all Here the Clients do not consider Justice but Interest neither do they regard Right or Title if they can make the least Pretence and therefore will desire in their Advocates not Law but Oratory and Sophistry They will also suborn Witnesses that shall swear for Hire not for Truth and will corrupt their Judges to pervert the Sense of the Law and under colour of Justice to be unjust In these Courts the richest Client hath most Right and the best Purse carries the Cause Or if this will not do they try another If they either want Craft or Money they will fly to Power if they cannot out-wit their Neighbours they will try to out-master them if the Court and the Law will not give it for them they 'll see what the Camp and Army will And now the Armour is put on the Sword girded on the Thigh and the Trumpet sounds to Battel the Guns begin to thunder and lighten thousands are murdered Cities burnt whole Countries laid waste Or if this fail too and be found insufficient to execute the Commands of inordinate Desire the Souldier then will turn a Religionist and he that wore a Vizard of Justice will put on a Form of Godliness will persuade People to gaze into Heaven whilst he picks their Pockets and will tell them they cannot make sure of an Inheritance there unless they part with their Possessions here falsifying the Gospel now as he did the Law before and wresting our Saviour's plain Words to the enriching himself and impoverishing his Brother Thus I have given a brief Representation of the State where Desire rules by which Fiction we may a little guess at the Truth of Things and how they are and have been and are likely to be in the World because of Covetousness Assuredly this was it that made the Grecian and Romans in former days and the Turks in these later to make so great a part of Mankind their Tributaries This hath made Men seek after new Worlds as if the old were too little to bound their Desires This took away the Land and Liberties and Lives too of many thousand Americans This made the Goths and Vandals invade Italy the Moors Spain and the Danes and Saxons to mention no other England But need we go to Histories and past Times for proof of the evil Effects of Desire No surely our own Observation and the Days we live in will give us too many Nor will I rake into the Ashes where lie hid the Sparks of Contention that kindled our late Wars no let them lie buried in eternal Oblivion Nor do I care to uncover the Graves of the Dead let their Dust rest in Peace for me Nor will I discourse of the Actions of our Governors where we are for the most part unable to understand and therefore incompetent to judg whether they proceed from Desire or Understanding for so I should speak rashly and perhaps falsely too of my Rulers Let us therefore consider the Mischief Desire doth amongst our selves and so we shall keep within the compass of our Knowledg What Havock doth it make whilst the poor envy their rich Neighbours and they again grind the Faces of the Poor Whilst they that have much grasp at all and would leave their Brethren Possessors of nothing and in this Sence seem to construe our Saviour's Words To him that hath shall be given and from him that hath 〈◊〉 that hath little that makes no Increase shall be taken what he hath But I need not insist on the Oppression Force Extortion Over-reaching that is amongst us which is the Issue of unlawful Desire They whose Employment lies in Courts of Judicature have
Title especially since our Law is so agreeable to and founded on both the Law of Nations and Nature Thus much concerning the Municipal Laws As for the Jus Gentium Civilians tell us that ex hoc Jure distincta sunt Dominia Commercia Obligationes institutae From hence it is that Pacts are observed which it's generally supposed were made at the first Division and that amongst others is thought to have been universally consented to that the first Possessor should be accounted the rightful Owner Censeri debet inter omnes convenisse ut quod quisque occupasset id proprium haberet That Right which is obtained by Victory supposes a just War and that the Party who had the Title has forfeited it and that he who contends with him has Right to take that Forfeiture Thus far Writers ordinarily go in their Account of this matter and here for the most part they stay And it is sufficient to put a stop to the Enquiries of the greatest part that the Covenants and Consent of the Ancient of their fore-Fathers as also the Laws and Customs of the Places where they live have determin'd that there shall be Property and what shall be so accounted Few Men are capable of higher Reasons than Law and long Custom but some are and some that are not yet think they are and both these will be enquiring into the rise of such Customs the Reasons of such Laws the Cause of so universal a Consent And this may also make it necessary for us to search into the very first Foundations of these Municipal Laws and those Jura Gentium which both have given Man a Right to Propriety because there is a Generation of Levellers who pretend that all this is without Reason and that they have the Law of Nature on their side for a Community This we shall briefly consider But as for that which they alledg from Scripture I do not think it worth mentioning it is so palpable a mistake to think that one particular Example of the Primitive Christians can be obligatory to all Persons in all Places and Times whatsoever And the Arguments from the great Love that Christians owe to each other are of no force unless they first prove it best that there should be no Propriety And as the Law of Christ doth not favour that Opinion so nor the Law of Nature which will appear if we can discover that the first Foundations of these Laws Customs and Pacts that settle Properties are laid in Man's Nature and in the Nature of the things which he uses and converses with And this will be very evident to him who considers that all Men have use and read of several things in Life that they are of different Tempers and some more inclined to make use of one sort of things others of another that one Man cannot be in all places nor all Men in one that all places will not bring forth all things that several things which are useful to Man may receive Increase and consequently Man's Condition be better'd by his Diligence and good Husbandry and again through his Unskilfulness and Neglect and ill Management their number may be lessened Thus the wise Governour of the World hath ordered it for the Punishment of Man's Sloth and the Reward of his Industry Add to this That Men are not of very unequal Powers but ordinarily one useth himself and manageth his Affairs as well as another and that it 's very needful that all things should be put to their best use and that Peace and Quiet should be preserved in humane Society We have enumerated sufficient Causes of Division and Propriety so that we need not either tax God as if he had too much stinted Man and not made a plentiful Provision for him and so necessitated Men to scramble and to catch that catch can Nor yet should we have recourse to Mens Vice and Fault in this case nor attribute the Original of Property to their covetous or ambitious Desires which might proceed from Reason and just Appetites Let none blame that which was reasonable nor ascribe that to a vain cause which was necessary If Men were from their differing Tempers variously inclined they will hereby be ingaged in differing Employments and various Pleasures And if every place will not afford them all sorts of Materials for their Exercise or Objects for their Delight if no one place will contain them all then they must part If they do so every one will be best acquainted with the things he most converses with he that knows them best will use them best and on that score hath most right to them because it 's fit that all things should be put to the best use that they are capable of And hence is it that Possession gives so good a Title as also because it 's presumed that Men will seize on that only which by their natural Constitutions they are more disposed to use or enjoy And besides this it 's supposed that they are for the most part not very unequal or if they be yet that is not so easily known and then all this considered no Pretence can be made why one should be thrust out of his Possession to make way for another since it cannot be known that this latter will make better but probably worse use of what he shall have than the former had done And if this were not admitted that in Vacuities first Possession gives Right the World must be perpetually filled with Disorder and Tumult and Injustice and he that hath thrust another out of his Possession shall be dealt so with himself by others And in after-Ages when their Title shall be examined where will the Records be found by which it shall be cleared Or what other evidence can be hoped for but a long Possession No People on the Earth can at this day make a better Claim than this And if we suppose Men idle and inordinate in their Desires there is a further necessity of Property and Division for else some would live on other Mens Labours would do nothing yet enjoy as much as any and this would tend to impoverish the World since Increase depends on Mens Labours And indeed this is one of the excellent Fruits of Propriety that it is an Engagement to Industry and a Spur to the Lazy for that is the regular and innocent way for Men to acquire Right and to become Owners It 's true it cannot be avoided but there will be some ill Consequents of Propriety For Owners knowing that the things they possess are part of their Power and it being natural to Man to have an Affection for that which he usually converses with and so loth to part with it hence they will not many times neither by way of Gift nor upon reasonable Terms and where they may have a valuable Exchange for go their Title And hence it will come to pass that some will have all and others nothing that they whose lot it is to be
be disturbed unless it be in order to something that is better and will be attended with a greater Quiet than that was of which by this Trouble we were dispossessed If we do otherwise we make a very foolish Bargain for we shall part with a present and certain Good as Quiet is for something that is worse or that we are not sure of obtaining We must do in this case as Merchants do when they are in danger of Shipwracâ— then and not till they be out of hopes to save themselves any other way will they throw their Goods over-board We must never part with our Quiet but to gain something better by it part with it as the Husbandman does with his Seed which he throws into the Groâ—nd forego some present Quiet that it may be reâ—â—ored unto us with great Encrease Thus then we are obliged to be quiet in all cases where it is good so to be and it is good as all things else are as far as it hath a Tendency to the Perfection and best State of our selves and others and where-ever it will contribute more to this than the contrary Trouble there it is not only positively but comparatively good and 〈◊〉 to be preferr'd This I think is as much as is necessary 〈◊〉 be said for the Satisfaction of this Enquity how far we are obliged to be Quiet viz. 〈◊〉 all Instances where we do not know that 〈◊〉 is better to be disquieted that is why that is absolutely necessary to procure soâ—â— greater Good and so to make way for greater and more durable Quiet This may suffice to shew how far we 〈◊〉 obliged to keep our selves quiet 〈◊〉 something more should be added concerning the Obligation that lies on us as to others Two things I shall advertise 1. That we cannot judg so well for that as vve may for our selves when it will be best for them to be disturbed and consequently it will be seldomer that we must deprive them of their Quiet than we may forgo our own For we must never do this but when we know it is best and that we can very hardly know of other Men. But this is not 〈◊〉 neither For 2. We must also know that we are fitted with Skill and Power and qualified with Authority to give them this Disquiet For how profitable soever it might be to them yet if we be not thus instructed and authorized for the doing it we must not do it E. g. I a private Man must not take upon me to punish another Man's Child or Servant tho his Father or Master or the Magistrate may By what hath been said may appear how far this Precept of Studying to be Quiet is obligatory and it does appear to be of a large extent For there are few Instances wherein we can say concerning our selves that it is better and more conducing to our happiness that we be in Trouble than in Quiet And there are fewer in which we can pronounce thus concerning other Men who are less known to us than our selves And where we can come to any certainty concerning them yet for the most part we want Wisdom to manage their Disturbance to such an advantage or Warrant from the Laws to undertake it Our Saviour would not give Sentence betwixt two Brothers when one of them deâ—â—ed it and it was on this account because he was not authorized Luke 12. 14. Man â—â—â—th he who has made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who has constituted me a Judge or Arbitrator amongst you II. I proceed now to give Reasons why we must use our utmost endeavour to be quiet our selves and do nothing to trouble and disturb other Men but all we can to make and keep them quiet too They are all contain'd in this one viz. Quiet is so excellently and so unâ—â—â—erably Good and Trouble has always so much Evil in it and is almost always so â—â—rtful or at least unprofitable that if we be duly affected to things we must strive to be Quiet with all our Might We shall be convinc'd of this if we consider the following Particulars 1st That to be Quiet is the Desire of all Men that have ever been The very Soldier himself who of all Men seems Ieash to regard it yet makes this his Motto Pax Bâ—llâ—â—â—â—renda By all the Noise and Shouting the clattering of Armour and roaring of Cannons he hopes to attain a firmer Peace at the last And how sweet how welcome is it to him when it comes The Common People as many of them as have the Wisdom to understand the goodness of their Condition how far are they from envying the High and the Great How do they applaud their own State And it is meerly from this consideration that they can be Quiet when the other live in Noise and Hurly-burly and their Souls are in a Hurry and Tumult On the contrary those great and rich Men envy the others Quiet All their Wealth and Honour doth not satisfie them without this and this with a very little Portion of those other things makes the mean Man contented Thus both of them confirm Solomon's Observation Prov. 17. 1. Better is a dry Morsâ—l with Quietness than a House full of Sacrificeâ— with â—â—rife Now if that be good which all dâ—sirâ— then we must conclude it very good to be Quiet because if any thing be this is the Universal Desire of all Sorts and Conditions of all Ages and Sexes In whatsoever the Old and the Young the Learned and the Ignorant Man differ yet they agree in this they all intend as much Quiet to themselves as they can have and to avoid trouble 2. This is one great end of the two great Ordinances of Heaven the Magistracy and the Ministry to keep Peace amongst Men for this cause especially Laws are made and for this cause they are executed That which is principally design'd by all wise Governours is as is commonly exprest the peace and Prosperity of their Subjects And if we of the Ministry understand our own Function and prosecute the true end of it I am sure we shall be the Peace-makers of the World For there is nothing more evident than that this is a great part of the design of that Gospel which we preach and any Man may discern this to be the necessary result of the Christian Institution to make Men Peacâ—able So that if we preach the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and pursue the true ends of our Office we shall promote 〈◊〉 on Earth and Good-will amongst Men. And if any of us be found Dividers and Troublers Breakers of the Peace Sowers of Discord Contentious and not Healers of Breaches Enders of strife and Peace-makers we may call our selves Ministers of Christ but he will not own us as such at that great Day 3. I conclude the great goodness of Quiâ—â— and the evil of Trouble when I observe that it has been the Way of God with Man in almost all his Dispensations toward him to keep us from great
Counsel if it were well minded would prevent the most and greatest Troubles that we have from one another If we would keep within our own Compass move in our own Spheres reach not at things too high for us engage not to do what we cannot do not judg where we do not understand observe our Order and keep our Rank it would contribute very much both to the quiet of our own Minds and to the Peace of the World The neglect of this one thing seems to have been the great cause of all the Sin and Misery and consequently the Trouble that is in the World The proud Angels left their own Habitation their Province and this was their Fall To be short Carry about no idle Tales Do not make nor widen Differences Allow not thy self in any Angry Contention indeed never contend with others but who shall do most Good And now in a word to reflect upon what has been discoursed If Quiet be so good and desirable if we have so much reason to seek it let us take Shame to our selves that we have so much neglected that we have so much opposed so great a Good that we have been Enemies to our own and other Mens Peace I doubt we have all too much reason to tax our selves of being notoriously faulty in this Particular How little have we studied our own Quiet how have we disturbed other Mens And what a cause of Lamentation is it when we see Mankind such Troublers every Man of himself and every Man of his Brother that whereas we should be taking all good ways to please and quiet our selves and others we are running fast in the ways that lead to Sorrow but the way of Peace we will not know Let us no longer be so foolishly so unnaturally wicked as to be Troublers of our selves and others but in all wise and good ways possible let us do our utmost that both we and all other Men may be as quiet here on Earth as is compatible to this State that this may be to us the first-Fruits of that Eternal Sabbatism that perpetual Rest which remains for the Peaceable the Children and People of God OF EDUCATION PROV 22. 6. Train up a Child in the way he should go THere is a general and I doubt a very just Complaint of a most gross and almost universal Neglect in the Education of Children And indeed I fear if a Visitation were made of every Family and School in the Land few in comparison would be found who take care of or have Skill in this great Business Those who seem not to be negligent I would ask them What Time they bestow what Thoughts they lay out on their Children I would enquire after the Designs and Methods they have all the Contrivances and ways they use vvith them And I am afraid those that are thought by others and think themselves most careful would not be able upon such an Enquiry to clear themselves of great Negligence they would appear both very unskilful and very careless And yet this thing which is so little regarded and less understood is of as great Moment and Consequence as any one thing and that both on a publick and private account And among the other perhaps there is not a greater and more general Cause of all Wickedness and of the Mischiefs consequent upon it than the no or ill Education of Children We do and we have too much cause to complain of Inâ—â—delity and Atheism of the Profaneness and Debauchery of the Unsetledness the Superstition and Fanaticism the perverse Schismaticalness the dull Formality and great Corruption of the Age in which we live One main cause of which if we look back we shall find to have been the want of Care and Skill in the educating of Children I shall consider I. The Action that is here required Train II. The Object a Child III. The Specification in his Way And then I shall propound some Reasons and Arguments to perswade us to this Duty I. As to the Action Train This Word does fully express the Original which also is translated Catechise And it signifies two Things 1. Instructing or teaching which is done by Precepts and by Examples 2. Initiating inuring exercising Thus Souldiers are train'd when they are exercised in handling of their Arms in their keeping Rank and File and in the doing of those things which they must do when they come to encounter an Enemy This is that which the wise Man advises to be done by the Child let him be trained And 't is excellent Counsel much better than if he had said only instruct or teach For as the disciplin'd and exercis'd Souldier is much more dextrous at the Management of his Arms than he only who has been told what he must do but has never us'd to do it so undoubtedly he who has been initiated in his Work will be far more ready at it and more disposed to it than he who has only been directed what and perswaded why he should do it but has never begun to do it We observe a very great distance betwixt our knowing what and why we should act and our acting How frequent is it for Men very well to understand what is to be done and yet not to do it In many Cases also Actions are never understood but by acting The doing of many Works informs and incites and enables us more than any other way Nay the very Attempt and Essay at that which we cannot yet do we all know carries so much Power along with it that we are in 〈◊〉 and by frequent Trials enabled to do that well which we could not do at all when we first attempted it I have the rather taken notice of the force that is in the word train because as I have said we may in some Cases understand and not act and in some acting is the best way to understand I am sure it is always the best Method to secure and keep that Knowledg and those Inclinations which we have to such Actions In Practicals the best Knowledg and the strongest Inclinations are got by Practice Use inclines Men to repeat the same Actions And Custom has always been esteemed a second Nature II. I proceed to consider the Object who it is that is to be thus trained It is a Child i. e. Man whilst he is young and when he is first capable of this Instruction and Exercise Man is ever to be learning Cato thought himself never too old to learn And every other Man should think the same but there is very great Advantage of this being begun betimes They that make no entrance on a thing in their first Years seldom are brought to it afterwards or if they be 't is always with great Difficulty and it must be with Damage for they are hindred from making progress in some other matters more considerable whilst they are exercising â—â—â—â—selves in those which they ought to 〈◊〉 learn'd whilst they were young Beâ—â—des Men seldom bring
one part of of Job's Righteousness which God took so much notice of and for which he had that Testimony from the Judg that there was nona in all the Earth like to him perfect and upright We see how this good Man look'd on himself as concern'd and interested in his Children and how he prays and sacrifices that their secret Sins may be done away and calls upon them to joyn with him He sanctified them Let us look on our selves as concern'd in the Sins of our Families We that are Governours of them let it be our Care not only to keep our selves but our Servants and Children from Sin Let us not only repent of our own but of their Transgressions to which perhaps by our Neglects we have been accessory Let us not stay till Sins break forth in outward Act but watch the very first possible rise of them and take them at the beginning and prâ—â—â—â—â— their ever being brought forth so shall we in this resemble holy Job St. Paul tells us 2 Tim. 3. 15. that from 〈◊〉 Child he had known the Scriptures his Grandmother Lois and Mother Eunice of whom he speaks 2 Tim. 1. 5. that Faith 〈◊〉 in them had it seems instructed 〈◊〉 very early in the Sacred Oracles These things were writ for our Example Let us also instruct our Children in the Doctrine of Salvation that Way of Life which is declared to us in the Gospel You 〈◊〉 this was one of the Means that condu red to the making of Timothy a very good Man and one whom God thought fit to use in the Government of his Church This leads to another Argument which is 4. The vast Benefits which probably will 〈◊〉 by the Practice It is a great Advantage to the Child it self it will be in all likehood very advantagious to many others his or her Family the Neighbourhood in which they live the Society the Church or Kingdom of which they are Members or Subjects Much Good also may thereby redound to the Parent or Instructor who took the eare of educating the Child The Child it self by the Blessing of God upon this Method and his Grace accompanying it is made a good and vertuons Man or Woman and by being thus early Instructed and exercised in his Duty conâ—â—nues in the practice of it all the days of his Life and after Death enters into the Happiness and Joy of all good Men. Thus the first Instructions are the Seeds of Holiness and immortal Bliss they are the first Beginnings of everlasting Happiness and of which when they come to be possess'd they will look back on all the Series of Causes that brought them thither and will discover that the Care of their Parents and Instructors to teach them the good Way and to engage them to walk in it was one of the first and chief Every one that will consider may understand now how much he owes of all the Happiness he has and hopes for to the early Instructions he had from his Parents But then we shall see more clearly how all contributed to our Happiness we shall then evidently discover that our Education had a mighty Influence on it What-ever Benefits Wife or Husband Children or Servants Neighbours or Strangers Relations or Friends receive from any one's being good and vertuous wise and holy they are beholden for it in a great measure to the Care of Parents and Instructers who saw to their first Education for in their first Years was laid the Foundation of all that Vertue and Goodness which is afterwards built upon it Then were sown the Seeds which in after-Years grow up to Maturity and bring forth those excellent Fruits The Honesty the Truth the Justice the Charity the Humility and Meekness the Sobriety and Temperance the Zeal the Courage the Fidelity the Religion and whatever 't is that makes Men good and useful received if not its very first Beginning for that I suppose to be in the very Nature of Man which he had from God yet very necessary Supplies for its Increase this Education was if not the Womb that bare yet the Breasts that gave it suck And are not the Clemency the wise and good Government of Princes and the Loyalty and Peaceableness of Subjects much owing to the Care that was taken of them in their first Time Thou that hast the Education of a young Prince one who shall rule over many committed to thy Charge be faithful to thy Trust for show knowest thou but thou mayest do that now in the discharge of thy Office for which Thousands will rejoice Nay let me say thou knowest not how poor and low soever now he is whom thou instructest how great a Man he may be and if thou doest thy Duty wisely and diligently thou puttest him in a fair way to gently so And if this by the Divine Providence come to pass what a Joy will this be to thee to reap such an unexpected Fruit of thy Care That the little Seed which thou sowedst is grown up to be a great Tree and then thy self mayest rest thy self under the shadow of it for so many times it has been Thou who rejoicest to see thy Corn thy Plants grow and come to perfection and reapest the Fruits of them with gladness how great must that Joy be which thou wilt have in seeing the Child grow up to Wisdom and Vertue to be a good and a great Man And for this I desire you to consider 1. How many who have been thus carefully and wisely educated have come to a most excellent State and how naturally this early Instruction and Exercise tends to bring them to it vvhat a powerful Efficacy it has on them to make them good 2. How few that have wanted it have ever come to any thing or at least how short have they fallen of vvhat others have been and themselves might have been Let History and our own Observation assure us of the Truth of these two Particulars and our Understandings vvill easily discover the Reason why it must be so 1. Consult your own Observation and let your Experience shew you the Truth of this Have you not known in your Time many who have been carefully educated vvho have risen from a mean low Condition to a most excellent Estate They have come from poor and ignoble Parents but they have brought both Riches and Honour into their Families they have been adâ—anced into very high Places in the State or have been entrusted with the most sacred Offices in the Church And if you enquire into their first Years you 'll discern for the most part if not always that Care vvas taken in their Education and something was then instilled into them by Counsel or Example some little Grain of Mustard-Seed was then sown which has grown up to be a Tree and which not only themselves and Family but the whole Church or Kingdom sit under its shadow with great delight and reap the Fruit of it View all the Steps by which
will be done with least pains and difficulty And 3dly with most certainty wen our Endeavours will be most effectual A Time when any Action is the best or as good as any that can be done is the season of that Action that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Opportunity simply so called And when that action is not only the best that can be done but can also be best done at that time this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Opportunity The former we find Heb. 11. 15. the latter in St. Mat. 26. 16. All our Actions depend 1st on our own Power the inward Principle from whence they proceed 2dly on the Concurrence of Divers External Causes which make us act with more ease and in less time and more surely to effect what we endeavour According to this we may be said to have an Opportunity of doing good to Men whenever we can do it and when we have so much assistance from External Causes as that we can best i. e. with most ease and quickness and certainly do what we intend As i. e. When and whilst as soon and as oft as we have Opportunity Do not over-run do not stay behind but accompany the Season take the Tide set up your Sails when the Wind is with you lose no time slip no opportunity and whilst that lasts let us continue up and be doing with the first Light and hold on till the Night come when no Man can Work Let us do Let us not only think of doing good and talk but do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be our Work our Business our Trade that in which we employ our selves the word implies Care and Diligence and perhaps Pains in acting The thing to be done Good requires more Power to effect it than Evil does Very impotent things can do great Mischiefs but they must be Powerful that do any great Good Besides We had need thus to work in this Business of doing Good because we shall find Difficulty and meet with Opposition in it Our corrupted Natures are very backward to it it is contrary to the Practice of this degenerate World Let us use our Endeavour to do what we can And let none reflect on the Wisdom of that Divine Spirit by which St. Paul writ nor so deny their own Sense as to say they can do nothing this is but a Plea for Idleness and Unwillingness to do good by the same reason they may also say they cannot walk nor speak For all our Power both for the one and the other is from God originally But what is that which we are to do Let us do Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that which is profitable behooveful beneficial and advantagious By this Word we are here and every where when it is used of Creatures to understand that which conduces to the Preservation and Perfection of their Beings and Powers When we call any thing good we refer it always to something or other Here it is applied to Men and we understand by it particularly Wisdom and Vertue inward Quiet and Pleasure Life and Health and all those Circumstances which contribute towards the getting and securing of these Perfections Briefly that which has a tendency to Man's attaining his End his Perfection and Happiness that we call Good To do Good to Men is to do those Actions which tend to make them as perfect as is possible for them and to bring them into the happiest Circumstances they can be in Vnto all Men i. e. not to our selves only but to them that partake of our Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Aâ—â— This doubtless means Men. But yet our Kindness to them is not exclusive of other inferior Animals The good Mom is merciful to his Beast And as the Ointment poured on Aaron ' s Head ran down to the lowest â—â—m of his Garinent so the Beneficence of a good Man is so diffusive that it reaches the lowest parts of the Creations of God of which according to Philo the High-Priest's Vestment was an Emblem Indeed our Goodness as the Psalmist speaks extends not unto God and very little to Angels farther than it excites and occasions their greater Joy But it may to the Saints that are on Earth and to all our Brethren the Sons of Adam and to the Croâ—tures of a lower kind which God has made to serve us But our Apostle here means Men all that have rational Souls and Bodies of the same Make with our selves and capable of as great Happiness or Misery He requires us to do Good to all these to exclude none whether they be Acquaintance or Strangers our Countrey-men or Foreigners Friends or Enemies all tho of contrary Persuasions or of bad Practices all and every one We are to aim at the Happiness of every Man to endeavour the Perfection and good State of All. An unlimited Love an unconsined Charity is here required and a selfish or a contracted Affection are here excluded where-ever Man is Love is to be But is there no difference to be made Yes in case of a Competition of opposite Interests some are to be preferred above and before others So the Apostle directs in the following Words Especially to them who are of the Houshold of Faith i. e. who are of the Houshold or Family of God by Faith as Grotius expounds it i. e. the Children and Servants of God which they are in an especial manner who believe and obey the Gospel the Disciples and Followers of Christ Jesus whose Life was in nothing more remarkable in nothing so imitable by us as in Benignity and Kindness and universal Charity They who by Faith obey him are of the Family of God God takes especial care and provides for them he takes them as it were under his Roof and Harbour They profess and practise the best Religion in the World And altho they may be ignorant of or mistaken in some Matters yet they believe and understand so much as makes them deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World to love other Men so as they do to them as themselves would be dont â—o by them and to love and trust in their God who made and redeem'd and sanctifies and will eternally save them Let them be of the Eastern or Western Church let them dwell in the North or South let their Differences be what they will if they be as I have described they are the chief Objects of our Care and Benevollence We are to do good to them chiefly tho not only Having thus briefly gloss'd on all the Words I shall treat chiefly of that Clause Let us do Good into All i. e. to the Community of Mankind and to all Particulars A Man may be deceived whilst he is contemplating Generals only unless he descend to Particulars An Idea of Human Nature is a lovely thing no Man thinks of it but is pleased with it
probably will be no Deceit in the Weight it will not give advantage to one scale wherein his own or Friends concerns are but that wherein the Publick is will certainly out-weigh with him That Man who is bent on doing Good to the World will be Just for all Corruption of Justice is founded on preference of private Respects before the publick Good Let Men be Publick-spirited and aim at the good State of the Community and they are antidoted against Injustice Those that regard other Mens Concerns as well as their own will not advance themselves upon their Ruins nor grasp at all and leave nothing for their Neighbour but weigh his Conveniences as well as their own and they that consider the Publick and design the welfare of Mankind will not violate those Rules that are so necessary to Society and the order of the World This Man that carries Mankind in his thoughts and hath Good-will for every one cannot be unjust to any cannot defraud or circumvent or do any thing that 's mischievous to them or the Publick He is not biass'd by self-Interest nor will he heap his favours upon his Kindred whilst Men of greater Merit starve I do not say that he hath no regard for his Relations or that he is more kind to Strangers than to his Acquaintance and Friends for that is a foolish Niceness and a piece of unnatural Policy which the Man of universal Good-will cannot be obnoxious to But the best and most useful Man whether a-Kin to him or not shall be preferred by him He that can be kind to all cannot but be just to all I cannot better represent this Man than by those Motions which the late Astronomers attribute to the Earth it moves ever both about its own Axis and in the Ecliptick Circle and from hence come the vicissitudes of Day and Night Summer and Winter to the several Inhabitants thereof Thus the Good-man moves on his own Axis and yet round the Ecliptick aims at the good of the World as well as his own and he that doth so cannot be Unjust 〈◊〉 tells us that the first principle of Justice is Ne cui quis noceat nisi lacessitus injurâ—â— Not to hurt any Man except we be before provoked But a Beneficent Temper will amplify and enlarge this Rule or give us a clearer understanding of it and add That not in that caâ—e neither except that will tend to a greater Good either to him or me or the Publick And therefore Seneca saith Neino prudens punit quia peccatum est sed 〈◊〉 peccetur No prudent Man inflicts punishment because Evil is Committed but that it may not be committed for the future I understand here by Justice also that Equity which is sometimes opposed to it in common Speech but is really the same thing 3. Where this Principle is entertain'd and observed it must necessarily inspire that Man with Courage and great Valour There are two things which ordinarily make the Pusillanimous Valiant First when they are engaged in a good Cause 2dly when they are joyn'd with great Aids Both these concur here 1. This Man that is ever on design of doing Good to the Universe hath a good Cause and he knows it He is assured he is doing well and that which will justifie it self to every Impartial Considerer He himself cannot have the least scruple about what he doth nor can any other Man justly or with any colour of Reason tax him who is on such publick Service He that can say he is doing Good to the Community and that this is the business of this Life he hath prevented all Calumny and is as blamless as harmless And when he considers how clear his own Designs are how accountable his Actions this will make him encounter dangers and difficulties and assault all opposition that would hinder him from effecting what he aims at He thinks with himself that if it were his own private concerns only that ingag'd him or some particular Interest that he serv'd then others might have some Plea to oppose but when he intends the Good of Mankind and in the good Offices he doth to particular Men is swayed by a respect to the Publick he knows none can have a better a more allowable and commendable Employment Besides this 2. He hath good assurance of Assistance and he shall be enabled to overcome the opposition he meets with He hath God and all the good Beings in the World to take his Part it 's the design of infinite Goodness to do Good to Mankind it is the Employment of Blessed Angels to serve the great Interests of Man's Happiness The Blessed Jesus to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth is given was whilst he was here on Earth and is now in the State of his Exaltation carrying on the grand design of Man's Happiness Nay there is that in every Man that is not degenerated into a Devil that will take part and joyn in with him who is bent to be an universal Benefactor For who can set themselves without reluctance against him who hath none other Design but to do Good to All Nay rather how is he the Object of every Man's Care how safe is his Condition It is true there are too many in the World who are acted by a Spirit of Envy and Malice who are selfish and contracted who regard not others but themselves only But what can these do against God and Nature and all those innumerable Ministers of his that are ready to do the Pleasure of his Goodness The Man of general Good-will if his Eyes be opened must say that more are they that are with him than those that are against him Besides as I have said this Principle of universal Beneficence gives such a Greatness of Mind to him that is acted by it that he slights and scorns and makes nothing of all the little Difficulties and Dangers that he can conflict with His Soul is so taken up with the greatness of his own Design and is carried out with so much earnestness in pursuit after it that all the Things that might daunt or discourage him make no Impression of Fear on him at all 4. This Principle where it rules must certainly restrain all Intemperance For 1. It will so much employ and busy a Man that he cannot be vacant enough for those Extravagancies No Man is intemperate but he is first idle Now he that hath entertain'd so universally an active Principle as this of Good-will to All he cannot spare Hours to throw away in intemperate Practices which he sees no way conduce to his End Nay 2. He will perceive them quite opposite and contrary to his End For both Observation and Reason will tell him that whosoever indulges himself in excess of bodily Pleasures he indisposes he disables himself from doing Good He that hath gorged himself with Meat that hath inflamed his Blood with Drinking or hath wallow'd in any other bodily Pleasures how careless is he of other Mens Concerns
others will make us desire their Honour as well as our own And where we love all and have an Affection for the Publick we shall desire no more than we deserve we shall be unwilling that other Men should be so far imposed on as to think us better than indeed we are We cannot be so unjust as to expect Reward without Merit and Praise where it is not due Charity is not puffed up 1 Cor. 13. 4. and therefore frees a Man's Mind from all the Tortures that ambitious Spirits lie under This makes a Man not displeas'd that other Men are prais'd and himself not nay tho they have more and he less than deserved yet he is very well satisfied because his own and the Approbation of a few competent Judges is sufficient to support him whereas Men of less Worth have need of greater Applause to bear up their Minds and to bring them into Request and enable them to do Good And how perfectly doth this Principle subdue and regulate all the Appetites of corporeal Pleasure He that is acted by universal Love cannot go to a forbidden Bed for he will not draw one whom he loves into Sin he will not deprive them of the lasting Pleasures of Innocence and Chastity He will not violate the Orders of all the Civilized World which have been from the beginning of Time which for the sake of the Publick for Posterity as well as the present Generation ought to be inviolably observed He will not eat nor drink more than is good for him as for other Reasons so lest others should want that which is good for them Again This universal Love by engaging us to do all the Good we can takes away all inordinate Love of Money We shall not now desire more than we can and will use for the advantage of others as well as our selves And when it is thus with us we shall not grasp at all we could get and we shall use what we do get And where we are thus minded we have freed our selves from that infinite Carking and Anxiety which an inordinate Desire of Riches causes Lastly This will in many cases prevent the bitterest Remorse for Sins by preventing the Sins themselves as I have shewed For the good Man will not be unjust or unfaithful he cannot oppress or cozen falsly or needlessly accuse will not violate the Chastity prejudice the Health much less take away the Life of any and thus secures himself from those Terrors of Conscience which follow such Wickednesses And where we are surprized and do unwillingly mis-behave our selves towards God if we be indeed charitable and loving towards Men we can then pray that God would and hope that he will forgive us as we do them Thus I have shewn how this universal Beneficence frees us from Trouble and Unquietness And now I will briefly shew how it brings us Pleasure as well as Quiet By Pleasure I here understand that Joy which is caus'd in the Soul by an Apprehension or Sense of Good Now where this Principle is become natural to us and we act from it and according to it it must necessarily be a Spring of Delight to us How pleasant and joyful must the Mind of that Man be which is govern'd by an universal Love As much Good as there is in the World so much cause of Pleasure is there to them For 1. He is set at Liberty from contracted Selfishness every Man is now to him as he is to himself and other Mens Concerns are as his own so that he now rejoyces in their Welfare and is heartily glad at the Good which befals them So much is his Joy greater now than it was when he liv'd to himself for then he was pleas'd with his own private Advantages but perhaps repin'd or at least was unconcern'd at other Mens whereas now he is delighted to see it go well with any Man in the World Thus he honestly and innocently enjoys the Good of others without depriving them of any gathers of the Honey-dew without robbing the Flower of its own Sweetness As much Good then as there is and as he can see in the World and there is very much for the Mercy of God is over all his Works and he that will consider things may discover it so much cause of Gladness hath this good Man And then 2. The infinite Love and Goodness of God is an inexhaustible Fountain of Joy to the good Man For tho he sees many things much amiss and a great deal of Evil in the World tho he sees poor Man at a great distance from his Happiness and the whole World lying in Wickedness yet he also sees infinite Goodness at work and that it has done very much in order to Man's Happiness and doubts not but in some ways which he is ignorant of all the ends of Divine Goodness will be accomplish'd at last I have shewed before that this Goodness of Temper helps us to an assured Knowledg of the Goodness of God We may also refer the two fore-going Particulars to the Object of Benevolence If there be so great Pleasure in loving one or two or a few how great is that which arises from an universal Good-will a Love to all Men Thirdly The good Man hath Pleasure as concerning himself from his Beneficence to others and it is such a Pleasure as hath many Advantages above most others For 1. As to its degree it is both intense and exquisite 2. As to its kinds it is both of Memory Sense and Hope as it refers to Good past present and to come 3. It s Original is from Man himself in concurrence with God and Nature and therefore it is both certain and near 4. As to its Duration it is both continued and lasting 5. As to its Quality and Effects it is absolutely Good 6. In respect of its Objects it is largely extended and manifold 1. The Pleasure that arises from a Sense of our Beneficence is without any allay or mixture of Pain and that which is so is pure and in the highest degree This cannot be said of most other Pleasures the Price of them is much abated by the Pains that accompany them The more corporeal and gross they are the more they have of this Dress This is a Commendation that almost only belongs to the Pleasure that arises from vertuous Practices and yet not any not all of the other Vertues can afford so great a Delight as this which is both a Complex of most of them and the End and Consummation of all The rest are but mediate and subordinate Vertues this is ultimate and final When a Man is in the exercise of universal Love of Charity and Good-will he is as good and as great and happy as he can be then is all finished The greatest Pleasure is in Love Now when Love is universal and in exercise Pleasure keeps proportion with it and is as great as it can be for it is as large as its Object and therefore
the Pleasure that arises from it must needs be very great The best Faculty is now exercised about its proper Object and 't is generally said that all Pleasure consists in the Congruity of the Object and Faculty 2. Distinguish this Pleasure according to the three Differences of Time which its Cause hath and we shall find it in all these to be extraordinary 1. For the past Memory tho it be but a languishing Sense and the Ideas are not near so lively as when they were first imprest yet the Remembrance of having done good Offices gives a very sensible and lively Pleasure and it is a great Content to the Soul when it calls to mind any Acts of Beneficence and that it did such Actions for which others were the better To remember that I have relieved a Man in his Necessities or added to his Conveniencies eas'd his Pain or cured his Disease vindicated his Reputation preserved his Life instructed his Ignorance removed his Mistakes satisfied his Doubts confirmed his Resolutions moderated his Affections the Remembrance of this that I have been instrumental in such good Offices will be very pleasant Indeed a Man is more pleased with a Remembrance of the Good he hath done to others than of that which he hath done himself And I am well assured that when we come to die it will be a very great satisfaction if we can think that none can accuse us for doing them Injury and if others will testify that we have been kind and good to them 2. As to the Present A Man that is in the Exercise of Goodness hath the pleasant Sensation of the Health and good Plight of his Soul He feels himself his Mind as well as Body in an excellent State Some think that Sense of Health is the greatest Pleasure of Man and this is the Pleasure of a double Health 3. Future He that feels he hath attained to so much cannot but hope that what is yet behind shall be added and that he shall continue in those ways to the end which are so infinitely pleasant to him that he shall ascend to that Heaven which is come down to him and is in him that is that he shall continue the Exercise of that Love in Eternity which he hath begun in Time And this he hopes for because it is very natural and because this Sense of the Excellency of his own Goodness and Benignity assures him that God is good and will do good to them that are so 3. When Man complies with the grand Design of Heaven i. e. to promote the Happiness of Mankind and co-operates with natural Causes which have a manifest subserviency to the Good of the Generality he is then doing Acts of Kindness and Benignity and when he doth these he not only refreshes other Men but le ts in Streams of Pleasure to his own Soul And these Pleasures which derive from such a Spring must be 1. Sure for they depend on very certain Causes and such as act naturally and almost necessarily All the Uncertainty arises from his own Mutability and yet he is under an Engagement that is as powerful to determine him as the Nature of Man is capable of that is he perceives a great and sensible Pleasure in the Exercise of Goodness and either this will determine him to such Acts or nothing can Whilst Man perseveres in doing Good his Pleasure must remain and he will persevere whilst he considers God and the World i. e. whilst he uses his Reason 2. Near. They are in and from himself and do not so much depend on Things without us but on the Use of our selves Principally They are always with us if we do but reflect on our own Acts which we cannot chuse but do we shall not fail of Pleasure 4. By reason of its Duration It is 1. Continued 2. Lasting 1. A Pleasure that arises from such certain Causes and that are so near to us must needs be continual and without interruption That which is near and within a Man must certainly be more taken notice of than things at a distance such are his own Actions and the Principles of them he cannot chuse but he must observe them And as often as he is conscious of this beneficent Temper and Acts of Goodness and Kindness he feels an overflowing Joy in his Mind And if that be his Nature to incline him alway to do Good he must alway be sensible of it that is his Pleasure must be as interrupted as any thing can be in the Mind of Man 2. It is also lasting As long as the Sun is the Rays will flow from it and as long as the Soul continues benign and good and acts from this Principle so long will it continue in this pleasant Sense for this is an inseparable Emanation or Property of a benign Soul Other Pleasures that depend on contingent mutable external Things must be transient and fleeting and as full of Vicissitude as the Causes on which they depend but these which flow from that which is incorporeal and incorruptible will themselves last for ever As long as the Fountain springs these Streams will not fail and that will not be dried up for it is fed by the secret Aids sent from the inexhaustible Ocean of Goodness in God And will certainly be one of the great Pleasures of the other State for the Soul must lose it self must cease to be what now it is before this Pleasure can cease It is one of the greatest and fairest of those Rivers of Pleasure which encompass Paradise whose Waters fail not How unconceivable is the Delight of Souls when they are bathing themselves in these Streams when they are carried on with the greatest Gales of Good-will to all their Fellow-Creatures How will they be ravish'd with their own Countenance when they behold in it this excellent Grace with which Love hath beautified it How must they be delighted to feel themselves in so good a State in so healthful a Plight 5. This Pleasure is absolutely good There are some Pleasures that are hurtful The Soul may too much be taken with low and sensual Delights so as to neglect those that are higher and better There are Pleasures of Sin that are Baits to catch unwary Souls and will ensnare them in those Practices which will make them miserable But behold the Pleasures which arise from Beneficence are absolutely good have no mixture of evil are perfectly innocent and greatly useful do no harm and much good for they engage us to repeat those good Works which bring us in so great an Income of Bliss Thus they continue themselves and that is the greatest thing I can say of them for this is that which hath not the Goodness of Means only but of the End also Thus I have shewn how certain a Cause of greatest and most exquisite Pleasure doing Good must needs be so as I might hope to engage the greatest Epicureans to take this Course to be happy And now after all
this I dare encounter the Sensualist who seeks for Delight from brutish Gratifications or the malicious angry Man who expects to have it from Revenge or the selfish and contracted Man who pursues it in ways of Self-love and all the Pleasure he hath is in doing Good to himself To all these I can shew greater and better purer and more lasting Pleasures in the Exercise of an universal Love Here 's Pleasure that will be constantly fresh and new no satiety no clogging The Sensualist hath the pleasure of a Brute in his Enjoyments the malicious Man hath the pleasure of Divels the selfish of the Sons of Earth but the Man of Benignity and unbounded Love hath the delight of those that are Heaven-born the Joys of Angels and partakes of the greatest Pleasure of God himself for that undoubtedly is to do good I have now shewn how much the temper and practice of universal Goodness tends to make us Knowing Religious Vertuous Quiet and Joyful which are the greatest and most desirable Perfections of the Soul of Man But perhaps some may set a greater value on things less excellent and will be more sensible of what concerns their Body than their Mind and of that which is without than that which is within them Now therefore that I may engage such Men also if it be possible to a Life of Beneficence and that I may fully discover the manifold Vertues of a benign Nature and Life I will consider those also that are of less Importance which relate to our Body and Good-name and Estate but yet ought to have some place in our account And lastly how Instrumental this must be to begin and continue and confirm Friendships which in all these and the other respects before-mentioned are hugely serviceable to us 1. Universal Beneficence conduces to long Life Psal 34. 12. David asks this Question What Man is he that desires Life and loves Days that he may see Good Not that he thought there were any that did not but therefore he proposes this in form of Question the better to excite their attention and to make us all regard what he would say which is to direct us what Course to take that we may attain our desire and that is 1. Keep thy Tongue from Evil and thy Lips from speaking Guile 2. Depart from Evil and do Good seek Peace and pursue it This is the Direction the Scripture gives to preserve Life and we find this very passage cited in 1 Pet. 3. 10. And that we may be assured that by doing Good is meant Beneficence see how it is brought in there as an Argument against rendring Evil for Evil at the 9th Verse Not rendring Evil for Evil nor Railing for Railing but contrariwise Blessing c. and then follows at the tenth Verse For he that will love Life and see good Days c. Reason and Experience will say the same There are we all know two sorts of Enemies to Mans Life one is within the other without him Those within are the Diseases which as they arise from other causes so very often I know not whether I should say for the most part arise from disorderly Passions I know not any better general Prescription for the preventing or curing those Diseases that arise from ill temper of the Blood and other Humours than to keep the Mind in a benign disposition and willingness to do good Offices For there is a great Sympathy betwixt Soul and Body and experience and observation shews us that when the Soul is thus affected it gives and continues alacrity and briskness to those motions in which both Life and Health consist And for those that arise from Passions which are contrary to this universal good Affection or proceed from want of it such as Anger Malice Envy great Sorrow and excess of Self-love or a too particular and contracted Affection what ill effects these have on our Bodies and what Distempers they cause I leave it to Observation and Sense to testifie But we are sure that those sudden changes of Colour trembling of the Flesh palpitation of the Heart stopping of the Breath Sighing Inflaming our Heaviness distorting of the Face and Eyes which are so often consequent on those are very ill Symptoms And the best way to prevent them and all the dangers they threaten us with is to preserve in our Minds an Inclination to do good universally For this will extirpate Malice and destroy Envy it will moderate Anger and not suffer us to be Peevish it will set us at liberty from a too particular Affection and ease our Griefs and thus prevent very many of those Diseases which we lie under for want of due regulating our Passions Nor will this seem strange if we consider that Physicians when they advise a Method for preserving Health caution us about our Passions that they be kept in order I have before shewn that to be universally Benevolent is the best and perhaps only way to govern them and if so 't is evident that it must have a great Influence on Life and that which is the Life of Life without which Death would be more eligible Health The causes of Man's Death that are without him are Men or other things such as infectious Vapours in the Air Famines the ill Qualities of his Food or other such like As for Men Tully tells us it was the Opinion of one Dicaearchus that many more were slain by Men than died by Diseases or any other way The truth of my Discourse depends not on the certainty of his Conjecture all that I shall infer is that those great numbers that die by the hands of Men and before their time come by this means might have had their Lives lengthened For if the Law of Universal Love were observed by all then Quarrels and Contentions War and Fighting Stabbing and Poyson would have no place But there is no better Preservative against infectious Diseases than the Vertue and good Disposition of the Mind of which the Sum is Benignity Therefore Histories tell us that in that lamentable Plague at Athens which was so contagious and mortal yet Socrates escaped and this was ascribed to his Vertue and excellent Disposition in general particularly to his Temperance which I have shewn how it as well as all other Vertues derives from Universal Love One observation will very much assure us of the Truth of what I have said wherein I will appeal to the experience of every one it is this That an unwillingness to be doing Good is for the most part if not always accompanied with indisposition of Body and that when we enjoy the best Health we commonly feel our selves in the greatest disposition to Beneficence For the Soul and Body as in other matters so here mutually operate on each other Whence I infer That as Benignity and Goodness in the Mind contribute to the Health of the Body so the good plight of the Body inclines the Soul to Good-will And for the other Perfections
Poverty as an armed Man 2. When a Man doth not give but throw away neither considers to whom nor why he gives nor what he hath He slatters away his Estate he spends meerly because he hath no power to keep To avoid the Extreme of parting with Nothing this lavishing Man parts with All. 3. Solomon and Experience say the same That he who loves Pleasure shall be a poor Man He who loves Wine and Oil shall not be rich The Sons of Appetite if they be not born to Estates never get them and seldom keep what they have got to their hands Certainly this is a great Waster By means of a Whorish Woman saith the Wise Man is a Man brought to a Piece of Bread Luxury and Incontinence Gluttonny and Drunkenness are very chargeable Sins How many Men have eat and drunk up great Estates And how many have sold their Lands to make their Mistresses fine 4. And who knows not how many have been undone by Gaming have ventured and lost great Estates by trusting to their own Skill and Fortune 5. And are there not many ruin'd by Law-Suits They either are contentious and sue others or unjust and provoke others that have no mind to it to sue them Now the beneficent good Man he is out of danger of losing his Estate in any of these Ways For 1. He cannot be idle and unactive He will be labouring for this Reason that he may have to give to him that wants He will overlook his Affairs and mind his Shop or his Field or where-ever his Employment is because this will enable him to do Good 2. Tho he be liberal and charitable yet not prodigal and profuse He will part with what he hath freely on a good account but not on none at all He is so bountiful as to lay out whensoever it becomes him and yet is so frugal also as to keep what he hath when it doth not misbecome him 3. He sees how unprofitable it is to himself to the World to waste away his Time and Substance in Eating and Drinking or any other Sensuality He finds these Courses are mischievous to him and render him useless to other Men. Because he is bent to do as much Good as he can he will not rise up early to drink strong-Drink nor continue at Night till Wine inflame him 4. He loves himself too well to lose and his Neighbour too well to win an Estate at Cards or Dice This good Man cannot be so foolish as to run such a Hazard as this to disable himself from doing that Good which he otherwise might nor can he take any pleasure to undo his Neighbour 5. This good Man will neither be so quarrelsom as to contend with others where he hath not Right nor yet so unjust as by detaining their Rights to engage others to sue him And when ever he is forced by the Injustice of others he doth it more to vindicate Justice and preserve those Rights which Custom and the Wisdom of their Forefathers have setled than upon any private particular Account 4thly The secret Blessing of God goes with the good Man Providence will and doth concern it self that such an one should not want the Power to do Good who hath such a mind to it It is by the secret Curse of God upon him that the Covetous Man puts his Money into Bags with Holes He puts it in but never takes it out never sees never enjoys it He gets and loses what he has got And it is the Blessing of God that makes the liberal Mans Bread which he casts upon the Waters where it seems quite lost after many days to return to him again He that takes care of others God will take care of him and if he lay aside his own private Concerns to serve other Men the Angels of God will minister to him Thus I have briefly yet so plainly evinced that to do Good is the way to be rich that I cannot but hope Covetonsness it self will be engaged to Beneficence I now proceed to shew how much an universal Beneficence conduces to private and particular Friendships and how much if it obtain'd in the World it would tend to Publick Peace 1. A Friend is certainly the greatest of all external good Things Nothing so profitable nothing so pleasant nothing so suitable to and becoming a Man as a Friend Nothing without him so much contributes to the attaining all his Ends. My Friend is my Riches and my Reputation my Life and Health my Pleasure and Delight my Understanding and Wisdom the Guide and Conductor of my Life the Governor of my Passions he that moderates my Desires and subdues mine Anger and doubles my Joys that excites all the good and useful that restrains and quells the evil and pernicious Motions of my Mind My Friend doth me Good when my self cannot for he rectifies my Mistakes and allays my Griefs and unburdens me of all the Loads which mine own Folly and Melancholy would bind fast on Thus he is better to me than my self he is more than all the World besides when I cannot help my self and when others will not he doth In sum my Friend is to me both my self and all the World nay my 〈◊〉 visible God I do with my Friend enjoy both Solitude and Company When I converse with him I have both the Secrecy of mine own Breast and the Ease and Freedom of Discourse I speak and yet have the Security of Silence When I am with him I am retir'd into mine own Thoughts and can contemplate without disturbance and yet I feel the highest Pleasure and most ravishing Delights that the whole Frame of Nature can yield The Glories of the Sun are not so pleasant to behold as the Face of my Friend and the most melodious Musick cannot be so grateful to my Ears as the Voice of the Person who loves me and whom I love He is the Epitome of the whole World and the liveliest Image of God himself He is God and Man in one Person if I may so say for he hath the Love and Goodness of God an infinite Good-will join'd with the Weakness and Impotency of Man I can scarce forbear to go on and set forth the Excellency and Usefulness of Friendship which of all the things in the World doth most conduce to both our spiritual and bodily Welfare our present and future greatest Happiness But I have said all this only that I may the more commend this universal Goodness which is the best if not only Means to great and good Friendships To do Good to him is the Sign and Effect of my Love to another and 't is the sure Cause of his Love to me and where there is a mutual Love it will not long be conceal'd and where it is discovered that is Friendship This therefore is the Way to make all Men my Friends to do Good to All they cannot possibly hate their Benefactor This is the way to extinguish all the Fires of Hatred
Good to them that do most Good he will discharge his Office well his Laws will be no tyrannical arbitrary unaccountable Impositions but a gentle and easy Yoke his Sentence will be equitable and his Execution full of Mildness and Humanity And how little cause of Quarrels and Commotions there can be in a State whose Governors are thus qualified we all see Thus is it where the Magistrates are bent on doing Good to all especially to the Best and most Vertuous 2. This Publick-spiritedness is no less necessary for Ministers to engage them to that extraordinary Diligence they must use to carry them through all the Opposition and Difficulties they shall certainly meet with in their general Converse with all sorts with Men of the meanest Capacities of lowest Rank and greatest Vices and worst Natures Nothing but this Universal Benevolence can fit them for such Converse Only he that loves all will bear with such Conversation as a Minister meets with All the Care and Pains he is at first to find out good and wholesom and fit Truths and then to deliver them intelligibly and acceptably must have their Rise from his great Good-will to Men and therefore he doth thus because he is on a design of doing Good to them Where the Minister is destitute of this good Temper he is idle and careless and his Discourses useless and insignificant because he is without Charity he is a sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbal and his Carriage foolish and hurtful The great Work of Ministers is to teach Religion so as it may be both known and done to make it easy to be understood and easy to be practised c. Thus I have endeavoured to make plain that Universal Beneficence is both available and necessary to all the valuable Interests which Man can propose to himself whether he regard the present or the future State whether he consider himself and his own particular State or the Publick whether he be in a private or a publick Capacity he must strictly observe this Rule of doing Good to All. So that if we would be either good or happy in this World or he that to come if we would serve our selves or others if we would please and honour our God and Saviour adorn our Profession if we would have Pleasure in Life and Peace in and Glory after Death if we would do all we can to make others as good as we wish they were we must herein exercise our selves to do all the Good we can to all If any are idle and would be doing nothing I do assure them they shall have more pleasure in this active Life than in Sleep and Dulness If any love themselves only and do not regard how it goes with others I do assure them that this is the best and likeliest way to serve themselves As many as are of particular Affections confined to Kindred or a Party or so let them enlarge their Love to All and they will proportionably increase their Pleasure And if any are malicious and love to do Mischief I undertake to make it appear to them that the Pleasures of Love are far greater than those of Revenge And I entreat such to leave off to lead the Life of Devils and live that of Angels If Heaven be more desirable than Hell it 's better to love than to hate Consider what has been said and God grant that we may all in good earnest set upon the Practice of that most excellent Duty to which we are exhorted And let the good Spirit of God inspire the whole World with that Goodness and Love to one another and all Men that so we may both live well here and be happy for ever hereafter for the sake of Jesus Christ Now to this Blessed Saviour who hath loved us and washed us in his own Blood together with the Father and the Holy Spirit be eternally given all Honour Praise and Glory Amen FINIS †Dr. Henry Mâ—â—â— in his Enchirid. Ethic.