2. The Action as farther specified by the terminating Object 1. In the first respect the Gradus Actus is Accidens accident 〈◊〉 And an Act may become Good or Evil by such Intenseness or Remissness as is ordinate or inordinate And the Timing it may do the like As to be thinking when I should sleep 2. In the second respect an Accident supervening or added to the Object is said to make that Action Good or Evil by Accident that is by an alteration of the specifying Object by some Accident And this is the commonest Case and the Sense in which this Controversie in hand is most concerned which therefore we desire to be most observed Prop. 15. Any Man therefore that knoweth what true Knowledge is may easily perceive that he that will Dispute about Bonum vel Malum per se per accidens if he would not lose his labour or deceive must use more diligence in explaining these Terms than they do that toss them about unexplained as if they were sufficiently intelligible of themselves to such as some use to make the Receivers of their cholerick and splenetick evacuations Even Bonum Malum per se is not such Ver se qua substantiam nor per se qua Actum nor per se qua Intellectionem Volitionem aut Praxin execu ivam but per se ut Accidens substantiae scilicet Actum circa Objectum quod est accidens plerumque sine altero accidente superaddito So that the same which now is Bonum vel Malum per accidens is called Bonum vel malum per se in respect to a supervenient Accident And excluding all Accidents or all Good or Evil by Accident so nothing in the World is Bonum or Malum morale per se except what is anon excepted E. G. To Love is an Act that Act as is the Habit also is an Accident To love a Man as godly or wise or as my King or Teacher is to love him for Accidents that is Godliness Wisdom Authority c. This is Bonum per accidens and yet Bonum per se stating the Object thus without farther Accidents To love him as an Enemy and Persecutor and Silencer of Godly Ministers of Christ is Malum per Accidens and yet Malum per se in respect to farther Accidents To love the Man is not Evil but to love him for his Evil. The Exception here is when we are bound to love the simple Essence as such abstracting from all Accidents The principal Instance is of our love to God of which more anon because God hath no Accidents and therefore is loved meerly as in his Essence And no doubt but God is to be loved as in his Essential perfection But yet we are nono of those that against Pet. Hurtado Mendez and other Nominals will undertake to prove that Relations to the Creatures which are Accidents do not truly belong to God such as that of Creator Owner Ruler Benefactor c. we leave that Task to the Thomists and to other Mens judgements how well they perform it The next Instance is our love to Man as Man and so to other Created Essences which we deny not but add 1. That Man's Relation to God as he sheweth his Maker's perfections is a Relation and that 's it that is to be loved morally in Man at least principally and never left out The same we say of other Essences 2. And the Wisdom Goodness and so the moral amiableness of Man at least the principal is it self an Accident The Word of God and the Worship of God are Accidents But yet we say that the properest Notion of Bonum per se is when we love a thing but specially God himself as in the simple Essence 〈◊〉 a supervening obliging Accident And of malum per 〈◊〉 when God's very Essence is hated or not loved But that any morally hate the very substantial Essence of a Creature we leave others to prove Prop. 16. This holdeth about the very Negative Laws of the Decalogue e. g. To kill a Man is in it self no moral Evil else it were sin to Execute Malefactors and Kings Judges and Souldiers were the most criminal sinners To kill a Man Authoritatively that is a Traytor or Murderer is good that is an Act with its due Mode and Object which are Accidents that make it good And to kill the Innocent or without Authority is sin by this Accident of an undue Mode and Object To take another Mans Goods or Money is not Malum per se for it may be done as a Mulct or by Law on just Cause or for the Publick defence by Authority or by his Consent But to take it without Consent Right or Authority is sin by this Accident So also of the seventh Commandment The Law forbids the Act as Clothed with its undue Accidents The Names of Injustice Coveting Murder Adultery Theft False-witness c. all signifie the Acts with the undue prohibited Accidents One of our Casuists excepteth only Lying as simply per se Evil But he that Lyeth sinneth not because he speaketh those same words but because he speaketh words that in relation to his own mind and to the matter and to the hearers understanding are false and deceitful And that Relative Incongruity of the words is the accident that maketh them sinful Prop. 17. Man passeth his life among such a multitude of accidents and circumstances that it is not one but very many that every one of our actions is Clothed with or concerned in which tend to make it Good or Evil. Prop. 18. A chief distinction here to be observed is between Immutable Duties supposing our own continued Faculties and mutable ones and those things are principally or eminently called Good or Evil per se which are so immutably and no supervenient accident can ever make them otherwise And in the most notable Sense those things are called Good or Evil per accidens which by supervening accidents may be changed from what they were before Pr. 19. That which is thus immutably Good per se is Mans Duty to God himself immediately as he is our Owner Ruler Benefactor and End Considering this Duty not in this or that time but in kind in its season and supposing our Faculties and Con-causes For if a Man should be exercising even Love to God when he is bound to sleep for the support of Nature or if a Man should love God with so passionate an affection as would distract him this as so used is not good but we never knew any in much danger of so over-doing Nor is it a Duty for a Man in Infancy or an Apoplexy or deep sleep c. actually to love fear or trust God and in other such Cases of Impossibility But when possible or in its season it is immutably a Duty Not so rarely as the Jansenist chargeth the Jesuite Casuists to hold once in many Weeks or Months or Years but Love constraining us to its holy Fruits must be the very New
28. and 13. 9. Col. 3. 16. and 4. 6. Eph. 4. 7. 29. and 3. 8. Gal. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 6 7. and 9. 8. Joh. 1. 16. c. II. The words MORALITY and MORAL have also divers significations I. In the first most comprehensive and most famous sense MORALITY as distinguished from meer Naturality or Physicks doth signifie the Relation of the Manners or Acts of an Intelligent free Agent to the Governing Will and Law of God And so Actus morales and Actus humani are used in the same sense and all Morality is distinguished into Moral Good and Moral Evil Virtue and Vice II. Some have used MORALITY in a narrower sense unfitly for so much of Man's duty as is revealed by the meer Law of Nature and as is of common obligation to lapsed Mankind And so it comprehendeth the relicts of the Law of Innocent Nature to love God and obey him c. and the additional Law of Lapsed Nature to Repent and use all possible means for our recovery and thankfully improve the Mercies which we receive And thus it is distinguished from Duty known by supernatural Revelation and especially the Mysteries of Redemption by Jesus Christ III. Some use the word improperly also for all that Duty which is of perpetual Obligation whether by natural or supernatural Revelation And so it is distinguished from Temporary Duties And thus the Lords-Day Baptism the Lords-Supper a Gospel Ministry Scripture to be used discipline are said to be Moral-Positives distinct from meer Natural Duties and from Temporaries IV. Lastly Some yet more unaptly confine the sense to the Duties of our common Conversation towards man as distinct from Holiness or our Duty to God And so they distinguish a meer moral honest man from a godly or religious man Though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common Fuel of vain Contendings yet we being not the Masters of Language must take words as we find them used and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them before they lay any stress on them in disputing In reference to these various senses of these words we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth I As to MORALITY in the first and most famous signification we are agreed 1. That all proper Humane Acts are moral that is morally Good or Evil And all Duty and Sin Virtue and Vice in Habit and Act Positive and Privative Vice are parts of Morality moral Good directly and moral Evil reductively and consequently 2. Holiness to the Lord or the Love of God as God is the chief part of Morality and what Duty soever is Evangelical and spiritual is also moral 3. Nothing is morally laudable or rewardable but Moral Good and nothing is punishable but Moral Evil. 4. All Morality is seated primarily in the Will but is secondarily as flowing thence in the imperate Acts of the Intellect and inferior Faculties 5. All truly moral Good in lapsed man is 1. From God's Efficient Grace 2. And exercised on some Objective Grace And 3. Is it self Subjective Grace either special or common 6. The Good called Moral in Infidels and all other ungodly unsanctified men is such but secundum quid and not simpliciter nor in the full or properest sense Because bonum est ex omnibus Causis essentialibus And a good Principle Rule End and right Object especially the formal Object are all essential to a truly good moral Act But every ungodly man in every Action doth want at least some one of these And an Act is denominated in Morality from that which is prevalent in it and not from every conquered deprest ingredient We say not that he that killeth his Father or Prince with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations doth therein do a good work though that reluctancy was good So he that hath some Love to God and Goodness but more Hatred and more love to sinful pleasure doth not a work properly Good which proceedeth from such a mixed Cause But the evil Principle and End is predominant in all ungodly men 7. But materially and secundum quid bad men may do Works that are morally good and physically very good to others as Governing and Protecting Common-wealths and Churches building Cities and Temples and Hospitals relieving the Poor preaching the Gospel expounding Scripture defending Truth promoting Learning and in good Nature Patience Meekness Temperance Chastity Wit and Industry they may be commendable and exemplary and their Precepts and Practice may conduce much to the good of others 8. Whatever good is found in Heathens or Infidels or ungodly Men is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth it being all from God who must not be robbed of his praise 9. A Man that hath but Common Grace is better than he would be if he had none and it is the usual preparatory for special saving Grace Though many civil temperate persons by overvaluing Common Good are hindred from seeking Special Grace that is not caused by the Good but by their abuse of it objectively And though God take occasion from some mens great sins to affright their Consciences to Repentance and Reformation that is not caused by the sin but by Gods Mercy Sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring nor sin as repented of in repenting but before in the committing God may Convert Paul in the act of Persecuting But Persecuting is not the way or means of Conversion Special Grace must be sought in the use of Common Grace and not in a way of negligence contempt or wilful sin II. Of MORALITY in the second sense as taken for Natural Duties which all Mankind is obliged to by Natural Revelation of God's Will we are agreed as followeth 1. The sum of this Natural Morality or Duty is to love God as God for himself and all things else for him even as being of Him and through Him and to Him to obey God and make it our chief care to please him and therein to place and seek our Happiness even in everlasting mutual love To love others as our selves and do all the good we can to all for Soul and Body especially to the most publick Societies to do justly and as we would be done by to use our Bodies as the Servants of our Souls and Soul and Body as the Servants of God And to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these This Natural Evidence will prove to be the Common Duty of Mankind 2. This Love to God and Man before described is true Holiness that is The Soul's separation and devotedness to God 3. All the Evidence which Nature affordeth us herein is not seen by all men that are of natural Wit or Industry no more than all that is revealed by the Scripture is known to all that read the Scripture or that believe it 4. Holiness is the End of Medicinal Grace as used
of the same mind when Christ would have a right hand or a right eye rather lost than the Soul should be hazarded by the scandal or temptation of it And when he would pay Caesar Tribute when he was free rather than oâ—â—end men And when he so dreadfully speaketh of them that offend or scandalize one of the little ones even weak Believers as that it were better for them that a Milstone were hanged on their necks and they were cast into the Sea Mat. 5. and 18. 8. Mar. 9. 42 43. Mat. 17. 27. and 18. 6. Rom. 14. 13 14 c. This was S. Paul ' s judgment Let us not judge one another any more but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean But if thy Brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed Let not your good be evil spoken of For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another For meat destroy not the work of God All things indeed are pure but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence It is good neither to eat Flesh nor drink Wine nor that whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or made weak Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth And he that doubteth is damned if he eat because it s not of faith For whatsoever is not of faith is sin This was Paul ' s Doctrine then even to all the Church of Rome So on Rom. 15. 1 c. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus So 1 Cor. 8. 9. But take 〈◊〉 eed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a Stumbling-block to them that are weak 13. Wherefore if Meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no Flesh while the world standeth lest I make my Brother to oâ—â—end Remember that he that spake this had as great Church-authority as any Bishop and spake this as an Apostlers and not as a meer private Man Pr. 52. The same Author saith Eccl. Polit. p. 230. that this School-distinction of scandalum datum acceptum is apparently false and impertinent and the main thing that hath perplexed all discourses of this Article But we see no Reason to think that the generality of both Protestants Papists are herein mistaken this Writer is in the right or that the School Doctors need go to School to him to reform such Errors It is a Moral Subject Given and Taken are morally meant that is There is scandal culpably given and there is scandal culpably taken only and not so given The distinction is of the Parties culpable All which is culpably taken is not culpably given A man that either purposely or negligently speaketh injurious provoking words doth give the temptation of wrath to the hearer But he that speaketh words which in themselves have no tendency to provoke nor was obliged to foresee that they would provoke doth give no scandal no nor he that justly and aptly reproveth But a peevish or impatient sinner may yet take scandal from them He that leaveth Arsenick where he should know that another is like to take it to his death whether he do it purposely or negligently that is by the Wills commission or omission is the reputed Giver or Moral Cause of that Man's death But he that leaveth it where he could not know and was not obliged to fear that another would so take and use it may say It was taken by him and not given by me An alluring Habit Actions and Gestures which have a Natural tendency to provoke others to sinful lusts have ever been condemned by all sober Divines as Scandal Given which yet chaste Persons may re 〈◊〉 use to Take But if the soberest and modestest Habit prove a Snare it is a Scandal Taken and not culpably given As a Thief if he steal my Knife and cut his own Throat with it cannot say that I gave it him He that speaketh words which are apt to tempt the hearer to Treason or Rebellion doth give the Scandal But if by the reading of any Chapter in the Bible any will be incited to Rebellion or Disloyalty or if by the innocent necessary and sober defence of a just Cause any will be tempted to think unworthily of his Governours or Judges he Taketh Scandal that is not culpably Given him Pr. 53. If a Man were bound to forbear all that others will turn into an occasion of sin he should not only lose all his liberty but omit all his Duty And to think that we are bound to deny no liberty or nothing indifferent to prevent or cure the sin of others is to deny the common Principles of Humanity and on pretense of Justice to renounce common Charity and to become an Adversary to the great Precepts of Christ and his Apostles Therefore the difficulty is to resolve how far and in what cases our liberty must be denyed to save other Men from sin and consequently from damnation which must be determined by the great General Canons Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Whatsoever you would that Men should do to you so do to them Let all be done to Edification Prefer a greater Good before a less and most avoid the greatest Evil Caeteris paribus the most Publick good of many is the greatest Sin is a greater Evil than bodily wants and sufferings No Ruler may Command any thing which is contrary though but by accident to the Law of God in Nature and Scripture expressed Charity and Justice are Commanded by the Law of Nature and Scripture When accidentally the Man that fell among Thieves was wounded and naked Charity obliged the Priest and Levite to have relieved him If by accident Fire consume Mens Habitations Charity requireth others to relieve them Especially where the Obligation is great and special As for Parents to feed their Children If Rulers forbid them and so would have them murder them by Famine the Command is sinful and the Obligation null because they cannot dissolve the Obligation of God's Natural Laws And the exercise of Charity to Believers that are the Members of Christ is a Duty that none may Countermand
is such by Nature or Accident they cannot make Evil and forbid what God commandeth on pretense of judging They have Power to judge that all the Articles of our Faith are true but not that any of them are false They are Judges that the Commands of God must be all kept but have no power to judge the contrary In what Cases we may be bound to obey them when they erre we have opened in another Paper and may partly be discerned from what is here said Pr. 61. The Bishops or Pastors of the Church are above others obliged to exercise paternal tender love to all the Peoples Souls If they are peevish and humorous and quarrelsome and proud and have other vitious Principles it is their Office and Work under Christ to cure them and to use all that gentleness and forbearance which is needful to their cure and to become all things lawful to all men to win and edifie them not doing greater hurt by injuring others or the Publick Good for the sake of those that are few or less considerable If therefore they should either scandalize them and hinder their salvation by things unnecessary or whose good will not countervail the hurt or if they should say we are not bound to forsake our own Liberty no not in a trifle for the sake of such as are inclined to offence by their vitious Principles they seem to us much to forget or renounce their proper Callings as well as Humane Charity to Souls as if a Physician should say I am not bound to medicate any that are sick but only those that are in health And if all that have vitious Principles be so far from under the Ministers 〈◊〉 are we see no Reason why the Kingdom should maintain so needless a Ministry at so dear a rate nor why they should be had in so much honour and why we should not all be silenced at once Pr. 62. The sin of tyrannical abuse of Power is so contrary to the Nature of all Good Rulers and so contrary to their own true interest peace and comfort and final justification before God and so contrary to the welfare of all Mankind and doth at this day so much mischief in the world by serving Satan maintaining Idolatry Mahometanism Popery and Prophaneness and keeping out the Gospel from the most of the whole world that the Flatterers that would for their own ends and carnal interests promote it and make all odious to Rulers that dislike it will one day be known to be the great Enemies of Princes and People of Church and State of Jesus Christ and God the Soveraign Lord of all Pr. 63. And Confusion Anarchy Popular Rage Faction and Sedition dishonouring our Rulers and all Rebellions and Schisms must be odious to all men of Interest Wisdom and true Religion as being ultimately against the God of Order and the Glory of his Wisdom and Soveraignty in Government who is to be honoured and obeyed in Kings in Pastors and Parents and all that are under him authorized to Govern us Pr. 64. Perjury justifying thousands in perjury deliberate lying covenanting against great and known Duty corrupting Gods Worship and Church Government cruel denying christendom and salvation to the Infants of thousands of godly Christians and casting out godly Christians from the Churches Communion causelesly for a gesture pronouncing all Atheists Infidels Adulterers and other wicked Persons saved so be it they be not unbaptized excommunicate or make away themselves none of these nor any such other in our judgment will ever be made lawful by any Command or Accident nor will ever be lawfully commanded nor shall we ever number them with Things Indifferent nor revile or persecute any as humorous obstinate disobedient Schismaticks or seditious for refusing them FINIS What Meer Non-Conformity is not THE PROFESSION OF SEVERAL WHOM THESE TIMES Have made and called NON-CONFORMISTS Printed in the Year 1676. What Meer Non-conformity is not THat we may not after near fourteen Years suffering and silence yet tell the World what our Non-conformity is without offending our Superiours and incurring all the censures and farther sufferings which we have reason to expect is more grievous to some of us than all the corporal pressures by Ejections Deprivation of Maintenance Prosecutions Fines and Imprisonment which we have undergone when we consider not only that the little remnant of our opportunities for Ministerial Work the preservation whereof hath done much to restrain us is by the Odium cast upon us made less profitable to Mens Souls but especially how many Thousands do defile their hearts with false uncharitable Conceptions of their Brethren and their tongues with false Reproaches if not their hands with cruel Prosecutions because they are falsly informed of our Cause When we think how Satan is served by this how odious sins are multiplied through the Land how Christian Love is killed and divisions made among all Ranks of Men and in all places When we think how God is hereby provoked the Land dishonoured and endangered and how fast the guilty post one after another into another World where such work will cost them dear with many a heart-tearing groan some of us have long said Must we be silent and see all this In a Christian state must we be condemned imprisoned driven about as Rogues and seditious Persons and our Ministry vilified and that by Clergy-men who think that it is their right to be believed and not have leave once to speak for our selves so far as to tell men what it is that we take for sin and why must we see so many Thousands going in such guilt into another World and distracting a Kingdom that hath been too long distracted and weakening both the Protestant and the Christian Interest and by building and keeping up a Wall of separation serving the great Enemy of both and must we not in compassion speak for peace but only say as Christ Father forgive them for they know not what they do If God forgive Men he turneth their hearts and giveth them Repentance And we are commanded to pray Forgive our enemies persecutors and slanderers and turn their hearts And must we pray and not endeavour At least now at last we shall endeavor to stop them by this short Profession from believing those Tongues or Pens which tell them that we make a Schisme for things which our selves confess Indifferent and that our Non-conformity consisteth in what it doth not If we must not tell them what it is that we think men command and God forbids we may tell them what it is not For this may be some service to themselves But we must premise that if any that are called by other names denoting other Opinions besides Meer Non-conformity or any Persons else whosoever do hold any thing unlawful which we here allow it is none of our meaning to declare their judgements which they are fittest to declare themselves We profess but our own and such as by familiarity we have