and a forgivness of seventy seven Injuries in a day upon Acknowledgment Mat. 18. 22. Luke 17. 4. and Repentance been taken care for that Love may be continued The forgivness of God and Christ is set us as an Example and that it may the more affect us the odds between our Offences against God and all Trespasses against our selves is stated as disproportionate as ten thousand Talents to a hundred Pence But however Men think they may justly not love where there is a difference in Divine matters in matters of Religion This is the cause of God and Truth and yet this is generally but the greater Scandal for when the things that Christians differ in are small and that they agree in great and momentous things it is evident the Integrity Honour and Interest of Religion should much more unite and indear than little Interests divide In things that are evidently contrary to Divine Truth and the Law of God there is a just denial of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with respect to that Evil he travels with as the Apostle John the great Minister of Love teaches us and a Method for Reformation or Rejection as our Saviour agreeable to that Law in Leviticus prescribes us not to smother our Mat. 18. 15 c. Lev. 19. 17. hatred or disgusts in silence and reserve by concealing the fault a constant cause and store for our Anger or Ill-will but to bring it to an open procedure that either our misapprehension may be rectified or the person reformed and so our love either way restored or a just reason appear not for our hatred but for our limitting the extent of our Love In such a case it ought not to be as is due to a Christian but to a Publicane or Heathen who is still the Object of our Love but not of that kind that degree of Love adjust to Christians but this must be in a case clear and evident not every Dispute The Truth of Christian Religion and the great Design of it is the Salvation and Happiness of all the Servants of Christ and with an Universal Favour to Mankind and this is preserved only in Love Every thing then that cools and destroys Love under a shew of Just and Right is a Scandal because it overthrows Christianity which is indeed a Religion of Love and makes a man of great Name Pretence Authority in the Church a nothing It is a Scandal for it rises from Scandal it hath the ill effect of Scandal both ensnaring and destroying and it tends to further Scandal It rises from Scandal he that does not Love hath some Lust some interest of Profit Dominion or Pleasure that he serves under a name of Religion They that cause Divisions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divisions in affection taking advantage Rom. 16. 17. of Dissents in Opinion these serve their own Bellies That Lust which they cloak with Religion that baser Interest they cloath and cover with a better name that Lust so disguised deceives them and enslaves them under it self This moves to further Scandal every one that does not comply with the humour of this Lust and serve it he appears as the Irreligious or the Factious disorderly Person hereupon he must not be received or continued in the Love due to a Brother a Christian though the case be nothing at all to true Christianity Our Saviour as aware of this in his so severe caution of not Scandalising little ones immediatly subjoins those dreadful Precepts of cutting off the Right Hand c. that Scandalise our selves as implying they are the great causes of our Scandalising others This still moves on to further Scandal Scandal to Strangers who thereupon look upon Religion as Austere Morose and Cruel and so are discouraged from coming in to it Scandal to those whom our Saviour calls the little ones in Christianity whom it may be he so calls not that they Marc. 9. 4◠are always so in themselves when yet despised but because they may be only so in the Eyes of those that despise them and think not the honour and regard owing to Christians due to them or because take the meanest in Christianity or those we think or are indeed in most danger to be lost our Saviour in a Scheme in a Figure of little ones would represent they ought to be the most cautiously and tenderly treated Lastly They themselves become Scandalised too often to much higher degrees of Scandal hereby even against those things that carry the truest and most genuine Spirit of Christianity because they would go as far off as they can and be most unlike those from whom they dissent in some things that neither their Praying their Preaching their Phrase and manner of speaking must be accepted by them till they even desert the Examples of the very Scripture it self in those things and come too near Burlesquing the Sacred guise of them or at least what is so nearly united that the reproach that falls upon the one falls upon the other also and all that they may be sure to stand far enough off from the adverse purity of what they have espoused whose Opinions while they seem to strike the things most agreeable to Scripture are the Sufferers too often But he that loves his Brother has no occasion of this 1 John 2. 10 11. sort of stumbling which is not far from the Apostles meaning because as his Soul is rightly compos'd and not Clouded with dark and black passion so he hath no Temptation to dislike any thing in true Christianity out of Hatred to his Brother who professes it but an additional Obligation to keep the Truth entire out of Love to his Brother who is united in it with himself and therefore it is said hereby we know we love the Children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments when our love to them ingages us the more close in a Religious Union with them He that hates his Brother is ready to fall out with every thing that he is for and knows not at what he stumbles whether it be truly of God and Christ or not and so is no just occasion of stumbling though he stumble at it 1 John 5. v. 2. 6. The Government and Authority God hath vested in Conscience to understand with God for it self and the Soul and to guide it self according to his Command who is its only Father and it ought to have none upon Earth beside him even as Christ is its one Master is a Grand Principle of True Religion And this is of so great concernment that though the thing be good a Man does yet if he does it not upon a Judgement a Sense a Dictate of Conscience or if that he refuses be truly Evil yet if it be not rejected in the same manner upon the same Motives neither the one nor the other arises to a Religious action or is accepted with God as done in his Fear but is a vain honour of him
Now to the discharge of Conscience in this it s so high Office and Trust it owes to it self and the Soul that it be richly and abundantly furnished with the knowledge of the Divine Will and the Word of God dwelling in it that seeing it is both the Scribe and Doctor or if I may so speak the Bishop of the Soul within it self it be as the good Householder that brings forth out of his Treasury things new and old that it attend to all Means of Instruction for the Kingdom of Heaven entertain all Wisdom lift up its voice for it seek it as Silver and search for it as for hid Treasure And that its influence may be powerful and effective upon the Soul to all Holy and Heavenly Obedience there must be a just preservation of its Authority and good Conduct that so it may promote the Soul into all goodness having gained a high Reputation and Honour by the success it hath had already and the comfort and good expectation it raises within the Soul upon its happy Government For the upright man from this vigor of Conscience holds on his way and grows stronger and stronger and Job 17. 9. Prov. 4. 18. the way of the Just becomes as the shining Light that shines more and more to the perfect day And therefore one of the principal Scandals Scripture remarques upon is this When Conscience upon any Sollicitation upon any Insinuation or Usurpation upon it betrays this Trust and surrenders it self to any other Dictate or Authority but that which is Divine and that shining within it self and so assuring it by its Rationality Goodness Purity Majesty that it is from God To take any thing upon trust from Men that it does not try and examine or to let go any thing it hath so tryed and examined and found good upon any pretence whatever is indeed to be Scandalised that pretence that does so assume over it and prevail with it against it self Scandalises it For the charge of representing to the Soul the Authority of the Divine Laws is committed to the Conscience the supream Moderation is in God and the Divine Law yet it is transmitted into the Soul it enters thither through the Dictates of Conscience whatever then so imposes on Conscience as that it recedes from its Government Scandalises it for the Government of God is lost also thereby And though Conscience cannot justifie a man in any error nor ought to possess a Man with unnecessary scruples yet still the main Government of Conscience deriving it self from God and the true understanding of his Will is by no means to be shaken For Man as a Rational Creature as a Creature of Religion cannot obey God but by the Mediation of Conscience He must know and judge within himself what is the Divine Law and obey it If he does in Conformity to that Will and does not know it it is not true Obedience because it is not Religious it is not reasonable or rationally Religious Obedience The Obedience of God is seated in the Judgment in the Conscience if these Reins are slack and loose if this Golden Bridle be neglected Men know not whither they may run upon what they may be driven and never discover the danger A man cannot distinguish what is from God from what is not if this gust of the Soul be not quick vigorously exercised and left free Conscience may be instructed advised perswaded yea even menaced and terrified by the Applications of the Word of God to it nay it may be over-ruled by Lawful Authority wherein it turns Apostate or Renegade to Natural Religion yet it can never be Lawfully depos'd or put out of Authority The Mystery of Faith the Rule of Obedience the Consolation and Vigor of the Soul are all preserved in a pure Conscience and Shipwracked together with it Now because Conscience is placed by God in this great Trust and Dignity it becomes and it must needs become so great a matter of Scandal as the Apostle discourses when Conscience not duly regarding its own light and inward Sense surrenders it self to a forreign Rule steers it self by a compass out of it self says another shall be wise and see and Dictate for it and so gives up it self in an implicite Faith and blind Obedience Here is Scandal in its Delusive Deceptive Power a Man thinks it modest cautious a point of Honour and Subjection to those that are above him to be carried by an Authority out of himself Conscience hereupon deserts its own Principles and its own place in directing according to them Upon this it falls into all the miserable consequences the mischief of Scandal Conscience is wounded grieved weakned and lies prostrate and without Repentance the work of God in the Natural or new Creation is destroyed and even the Man for whom Christ dyed perishes God hath concredited the Keys of Knowledge and Jurisdiction within the Soul to Conscience alone and I cannot find that it can be at all excused in resigning them into any Hand but his that gave them no not to an Angel from Heaven The Ministers of Religion and Magistrates in their place have these Keys as they are Administred without a Man to offer and press upon him all considerations of his Duty But every Man must see with his own Eyes and not anothers for him he must be enlightned by Beams and Rayes that shine within his own Soul He hath a private double Look upon himself and none may open and shut but Conscience in and with God whoever else does becomes a Father and a Master upon Earth to him in the place of God and Christ Upon this account the Apostle lays down these three Rom. 14. 22 23 great Positions 1. That whatever is not of Faith of a free and full perswasion of Conscience is Sin For though the Natures of things cannot be changed in themselves yet as we are conversant in them it is an undoubted Rule Bonum oritur ex integris causis Every thing conspires to and concerts Good but Evil being a declension and fall from Good every degree of fall or aberration from Good is Evil and this Plenipotence of Conscience committed to it by God is a prime necessary in every good thing and the want of it greatly evil though it hath not an Omnipotence of changing Nature it self 2. From hence it follows he that does and doubts in what he does is condemned in his doing whatever the thing be in it self because to him it is so far Evil that he does it against that Domestick Authority of Conscience 3. He is a happy Man that especially having fallen into doubt in doubtful things is come to so good a Resolution as not to condemn himself in that wherein he allows himself He that hath a good assurance rising neither from Ignorance nor Carelesness is a happy Man by way of Eminency It is a rare and extraordinary happiness and he that hath not but is perplexed with Doubt ought not
Man's Heart Answ Whatever is indeed written in Man's Heart must certainly be from God seeing no Created Hand could write there The Hand that Made can alone Ingrave it Quest How then shall we make a Judgment what is written upon the Heart Answ That which is universally acknowledged and amidst all the Differences in Religion falls under no Variation assures us it was placed there by that Supreme Hand that alike fashioned all Mens Hearts and especially seeing to this universal Acknowledgment there is no Temptation from the sensual and worst Part of Man it being against its Interest but it springs from the wisest and best Parts most unconcerned in this World or any of the brutish Pleasures of it Quest What Principles do you account thus to be of Natural Religion Answ I account these following That there is a God the Greatest and Best of Beings that governs the World That God vouchsafes to be acknowledged ador'd and worshipped by Man and that he takes notice when he is so worshipped or neglected and that with Favour or Displeasure That there is a Distinction betwixt Good and Evil setled by the Unchangeable Laws of God That God being himself so Good is pleas'd in Men doing well and rewards it and displeas'd when Men do ill and punishes it That Men have a Conscience viz. a Knowledg of and Government of their own Actions with Approbation of them if Good and Dislike if Bad. That there are Rewards and Punishments beyond this Life That therefore the Notions of Virtue Righteousness Temperance Soberness Beneficence and the contrary Vices are of unchangeable Truth and the Actions flowing from them of the same Notion That God is both the Judge and Observer of them now and will be so in the Future State That in the time of God's Patience and Bounty to sinful Man there is Forgiveness with him that he may be feared and that he thereby leads Men to Repentance That upon all accounts Solemn Worship of him by Prayer Praises Honourable Discourses of him of all Obedience to him and Returns to him after our Falls are most due from Humane Nature and according to the sociable Nature of Man in Publick Associations Quest Do you believe these so close to and inseparable from the Reason of Man Answ I am fully assured so and that these and all the immediate genuine and natural Deductions from them are so nearly allied with Humane Nature and Reason that they are in no Parts of it wanting however overcome but where extreme Barbarity and Brutishness in all things else make it plain such People cannot weigh against the wiser Societies of Mankind in whom the more vigorous Efforts of Reason shew themselves Quest But would you have Men rest in Natural Principles without Revelation Answ No by no means For if Adam in Paradise had Revelation to make his State towards God Consummate how much more Man Fallen in whom all Natural Light is but glimmering and obscure Heavenly Objects at so great a remove by his being sunk down so low from them and the Mists and Fogs of this Earth so prevalent upon him in the great Deordination of Spirit into Body that whatever true Principles of Reason might effect if duely pursued he is without Revelation upon all Experiment no better than in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Quest But does there appear any Expectation of Revelation in the Motions of Natural Reason Answ Very great so that no Religion in the World hath been without the Pretence of it And it is both most hopeful according to the Laws of Natural Light that God will reveal himself and most just that his Revelations should be accepted with all Reverence when vouchsafed our very Reason being a Revelation from him and if any Revelation from him could be false even That might be so also But in all things Natural Light must needs bow to Divine Veracity Quest How happy might the World be if all the Religions of the World were but reformed to this Natural True Religion Answ Undoubtedly so for the State of it could not then be far from the Kingdom of God all True Religion whether Natural or Revealed being so closely allied to it self For though Revealed rises much higher yet in an inseparable connexion with and in a continuation undivided from Natural Quest But as the State of the World is and hath always been there seems to have been no Effect of True Natural Religion Answ Very great in many respects 1. To justifie God in his Dealings with Mankind that there have been such Possibilities of Return to True Religion laid up in them 2. To be as Sense in a Mans Soul upon which all Divine Applications might take either to Conviction or Conversion 3. To be at all times ready to be re-enlivened by Revealed Truth and to unite with it 4. To be an Universal Code of True Religion in which it is always reasonable for Mankind to agree or in any Parts of it on any Occasion as Jonah and the Mariners did in their Calamity or as St. Paul and the Seamen with him in giving Thanks to God 5. That it might be a Standard to punish Prophaneness and Irreligion by without entrenchment on Conscience which Revelation cannot be but in some peculiar Circumstances 6. That Men may on all Occasions treat with one another by it on Terms of Reason and Justice as the Apostle Paul with the Men of Athens with Felix and generally Men one with another in all their Commerce All Society good Laws and Government Restraint of excessive Evil depending upon it CAP. IV. Of Revelation and the Reasons of so great Miscarriages against both the Light of Nature and Revelation with the Means of Cure Quest SEeing there is by all that hath been spoken so great a weight resting upon Revelation let the Accounts of Gods Revealing himself to Mankind be more fully stated Answ Besides Gods Revealing himself to Adam even in Innocency in a Doctrine suitable to those two Sacramental Trees the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life and besides that Original Revelation of Christ after the Fall The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head he hath been pleased to guide that Holy Seed which is his Church by Revelation as by a Pillar of Fire throughout succeeding Ages till he compleated the whole he intended in a Kingdom of Truth that cannot be shaken which is to continue to the end of the World Quest How then did God deal with the rest of the World Answ Even they were for some considerable Spaces in the first Ages of the World within the Advantages of Revelation by mixture with or Neighbourhood to the Church by Tradition from the Holy Patriarchs which if they had faithfully observed together with the Improvement of Natures Light it would have secured them in True Religion Besides that they who were faithful in these were on all proper occasions provided for by the Faithful Creator though they were
could not contradict it self No dream wonder or praediction however fulfilled was Authentick enough to draw the Jews from the true God that Deut. 13. 1. had so supremely demonstrated himself to them nor might any Angel or Spirit that is Immediate Inspiration or Doctrine given by it seduce them from Christ so evidently seal'd to them in the New by God the Father and therefore Gal. 6. 27. all pretensions to the contrary how high soever are to be rejected with detestation They knew All that endeavoured it must know themselves deceivers the greatest crime against Natural Religion and indeed none so subject to Humane Inquiry to their detection or severity when detected as Impostors pretending Divine Revelation Nor to their most Authoritative restraints and repressions as the wild Enthusiast though with more mercy because he is himself so greatly deceiv'd and deluded And next to these an Apostate from Christianity can hardly if at all give such an account of himself to Christian Powers as should clear him from being a most hainous offender against Natural Religion The sum then is this He to whom Christianity is propos'd as faithful and worthy of all acceptation with such assurances of it from Natural Religion and its own evidences as are sufficient to draw any man intelligent and conscientious to it and yet rejects and refuses him that speaks from Heaven to him is to be delivered over to the Judgment of God who will judg the secrets of all hearts by that very Gospel of Truth Rom. 2. 16. He that apostatizes from it when he hath once received it may be justly call'd to the most strict account by Christian Magistrates and as they find reason further censur'd or punish'd it being ordinarily impossible there should be such an Apostate from so excellent a Religion once tasted but with greatest violation of Natural Religion and Conscience he that pretends Divine Revelation against that which hath so ample a pattent from Heaven may most righteously be first discover'd expos'd and after dealt with as the most flagitious self-guilty Deceiver by Christian Rulers who are the Ministers of divine vengâ—â—â—â—e in such cases and Rom. 13. 4. by private Christians for his natural evil works cast out of their whole Society Religious or Civil except he appear an Enthusiastick Phrenetick who in pity to him is to be shut up in a Bethlehem from doing so great injury to himself and others And thus I have finish'd the first Argument concerning the acceptableness of Natural Religion to God our Saviour guiding my self in it by this Rule Viz. The most comprehensive Religion in charity to others while we keep to main foundations in our charity and to the purest strictest Rules in our selves we can attain to is certainly the best and most like that one God and one Mediator the common bosom of love peace hope rest The 2. Arg. Proving Natural Religion is fit to be the center Arg. 2 of common peace and agreement in Religion is this There is an Vniversal Code of Natural Religion of which every man hath a part for himself so that we may all appeal one to another as it were to page and line whether it be not so written in that book of the Law within us Whether such a thing be not our duty and whether we have not sin'd in doing contrary And indeed thus to do is the universal usage of men in all their debates one with another As face answers to face in water so the heart of man to man in this Natural Religion as the parts of Humane body agree in all men so do these proportions and lineaments of souls We may with greater certainty solicite men upon these Principles than evil men tempt one another upon common depravation For corruption though all one in the fountain yet lyes in more several veins than these laws of natural Conscience so that men may be miss'd by those that tempt them out of their proper inclinations to evils as hitt in the wrong vein But there are none of these lines of natural Conscience wanting in any man nor an aptness to be mov'd in them if searcht to the quick they will feel it to conviction though too often not to conversion The Apostle in preaching to Faelix struck him in the Sentiments of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come as in master-veins and knew he must take place as it prov'd in his trembling So in his Discourse Act. 17. he fell upon that universal sense of a Divine Being and his excellent Nature of which he was sure there was a counter-part within them He did not first preach Christ to them a point without them but getting within them in natural Principles he assayed by the continuity and similarness of the one with the other to intwine as with admirable artifice he does those Natural Principles with Christianity Our Saviour indeed dealt with the Jews in more absolute and positive terms because natural conscience lay higher and nearer to supernatural instructions by their acquaintance and familiarity with the Oracles of God committed to them But in dealing with those that had not those Revelations the Prophets and Apostles center their Applications to them in this Vniversal Religion and with great reason and expectation of success As Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar I counsel thee to break off thy sins by righteousness and by shewing mercy to the Dan. 4. 27 poor if it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity This was Natural Doctrine and fit to be addressed to a Prince never so much a stranger to Divine Revelation For this is a Religion known to all the world and therefore that in which all may most reasonably unite This is that a Magistrate may with greatest Authority demand conformity to of his subjects and they oblig'd to obey as the King of Niniveh most justly enjoin'd publick Joâ— 3. 7. Humiliation and repentance in the case of so great and iminent Judgment For every Magistrate is suppos'd as a Magistrate to have good knowledg of this Law of which he as a man hath a copy as the Kings of Israel had of the revealed Law and in which as they in that he ought to be conversant that he may be just that ruleth over men ruling in the fear of 2 Sam. 23. 3. God Of this also every subject hath a copy that he may know his duty and observe it Hence therefore Vniversal conformity is an unquestionable obligation when he that commands and they who are to obey have both the same just weights and measures committed to them one in order to Rule and Government the other in order to Obedience and Subjection such as cannot disagree no more than sealed weights and measures in general Traffick and which each have a standard of and may except inexcusable ignorance negligence or injustice be in the fault have an immediate recourse to But beyond this what of Compulsion there can be I do not understand Every Revelation is received