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
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
engage us also to do or suffer any thing for them We cannot but draw this easy Conclusion If he so loved us we ought also to love one another I mention only some and those but a few of the Advantages which we may and do receive by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper for the increase of our Holiness and our Peace And this may suffice at present to the Sixth Particular I now proceed to the Seventh and last Seventhly The wise and good Counsels together with the holy and virtuous Examples of the Members of this Society both those that are on Earth and those that are in Heaven There is no Member of the Christian Church who wants Counsel or deserves Reproof or to whom Exhortation is necessary but lives among those who both can and will as Occasion serves advise and rebuke and persuade him for the Christian is fully instructed in what is good and fit and it is his duty not to suffer Sin upon his Brother but we are to exhort one another daily to the practice of Holiness And if we look into the Remains of the good Men who in former Ages were Members of the Church on Earth we shall find a rich Treasure of most wise and excellent Counsels that will direct our Behaviour in every Condition we can fall into These are extant in the Books of the Scripture and in other Writings of a Christian Spirit and Temper And as for the Examples how many are those that have gone before us in the ways of Holiness and Vertue whose Practice is our sure Guide in the ways that lead to Happiness I need not mention those known and celebrated Names of Abraham Isaac and Jacob of Job and David and the Prophets of the Lord who were all Members of the same Church of which the Eternal Word the only Begotten of the Father is the Head Besides these ancient Worthies we have the Lives of those good Men who were with and since our Saviour who have set us the fairest Copies of Meekness and Humility of an undaunted Courage a firm Patience an Obedience to Superiors a Justice and Honesty in all Dealings an universal Charity and Good-will an exact Temperance a true and an excellent Religion In short they have gone before us in all the ways of Holiness and Goodness But over and above and which is more than all these we have upon sure Record the most admirable Patern of Goodness that ever the World saw in the most excellent Life of our most blessed Lord. There is Holiness in perfection and Vertue in its most exalted state there we see the utmost possibilities of Goodness to which Human Nature can be raised on this Earth This and the rest of those great Examples serve to instruct our Ignorance to quicken our Dulness and to encourage our Faintings and Despondencies Besides these we have Examples of Men now alive which teach us Religion and Vertue and engage us to practise it As bad as the World is there are those who shine as Lights in the midst of the darkness of this Earth There are many whom the Grace of God hath taught to live soberly and righteously and godly who keep their Appetites and Passions under due restraint and good government so that they are harmless in their Conversation and not only so but they live to the good purposes of promoting their own and other Mens good Estate and Welfare I have now briefly touched upon the Privileges Men do or may receive by being Members of the Christian Church but I have not in my Discourse observed the Method which I intended because I would be shorter I shall therefore only mention how it is with them in respect of God and of the Devil And briefly the Case is thus in respect of God That it is a matter of far less difficulty for us who have the Gospel and live tho but in the outward Communion with the Church to repent of our Sins and become good Men and to live holy Lives than it was or is to any others This is now made so practicable so feasible a matter that no Man falls short of it who is not foolishly obstinate unaccountably sottish and unnaturally neglectful of himself and careless of his own Happiness so that whoever fails it must be resolved into his own gross stupidity sottishness and self-neglect for he is now put into a condition and capacity of receiving the greatest Mercies from the Divine Bounty and is in the way in which God usually does communicate them But as many as are recovered out of a state of Sin to a Life of Vertue their past Sins are all pardoned their frequent Infirmities and Shortnesses are also remitted so as they shall not rise up in Judgment to condemn them and they have eternal Life ascertain'd to them by the immutable Promise of that God who cannot lie They are under his Protection and special Providence who orders all things that befall them so as that they turn to their Advantage and are made serviceable to their Vertue and will increase their Happiness Lastly As to the Devil the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience They are redeem'd from under his Vassalage he hath now no more Power over them he cannot domineer over their Souls or Bodies as he did before the coming of our Saviour His Oracles are silenced his Power lessened the Light of the glorious Gospel hath scatter'd the Powers of Darkness so that now they creep into the Corners of the Earth Now that Mens Souls are freed from the Ignorance and those Errors under which they were held their Bodies are also free from the Hellish Cruelties of Tyrannical Fiends They are no longer under the Power of Satan now that they are become Subjects of the Kingdom of Christ who hath conquered and triumphed over the Head of the Apostate Spirits and hath the Keys of Hell and Death Thus I have briefly represented the great Benefits which accrue to Men by being Members of the Church of Christ whether we consider them as single Persons or as in Societies with reference to God or the Devil For whether we consider the Greatness and Largeness the vast Extent and long Continuance of the Church or the excellent Wisdom and Goodness of many of its Members whether we look on the Engagement laid upon them in their first Admission into the Church or the admirable Order and Government of it or the incomparably good Laws which are given to all its Members or the proper and wholesom Discipline which is used in it or the Religious Exercises which are used in the Publick Assemblies we must necessarily confess that all these will have a mighty Influence on Men to make them good in themselves and good in all their Relations And if they become good they are then from under the Dominion of the Devil and within the Kingdom and so under the Protection and Care of the Soveraign Lord of
consider that the most â—seâ—â—â— and necessary Truths are alway most plain and certain and that they who despise what is clear and evident and value what is more mystical and obscure should by the same Reason prefer the Twilight or Nighâ— before the Day Nor is this Mistake absurd only but dangerous For from hence it is that Men take off their Minds from the most necessary and fundamental Articles of Faith which are always most plain and evident and earnestly contend for doubtful Opinions and questionable Doctrines To this also it is to be imputed that too many from a Principle of Religion practise Folly and â—â—dness For when they once despise those low and plain Methods wherein God â—â—â—ws Man what is good when they will not observe their own Natures nor value those Precepts of Scripture which are within the reach of every Capacity They fall into abundance of useless Observances and too often into most destructive Practices When they will not keep that â—ath which God by Nature and Scripture has made plain they wander into impassible and dangerous ways As for those who will not allow this Text to belong to Religion They look upon it as Advice given them how to manage their secular and domestick Affairs and that it has no relation to their Spiritual State Or at best that it is only a piece of Morality which they allow to come no farther than the Court of the Gentiles that it might be a proper Argument for the Discourse of a Heathen but not of a Minister of Christ To these I say that this is indeed excellent Counsel and very advantagious to Mens secular Interests but it is also of great moment to our Spiritual State the Welfare of our Souls We must not oppose Soul and Body the present and the future Life Godliness or the Christian Religion has Precepts as well as Promises whereby it is profitable to the Life that now is as well as to that which is to come But I beseech you take care how you separate Morality from Religion this will prove the most 〈◊〉 Division the most dangerous Schism that ever was it will be as the Separation of Soul and Body it will be the Dissolution the Death of Religion There is no such Gulf betwixt these two as they imagine who confine Religion to those Actions which immediately respect God no it extends it self to the whole course of our Lives Nay let us not undervalue Morality as if it did not if rightly understood make the far greatest part of our Religion or as if it were not necessary to make us good and happy for nothing can be more necessary than that is nothing can be so necessary as that This I premise that no Prejudice whatsoever may make the Apostle's Exhortation less effectual The particular occasion of which seems to have been this There were those among the Thessalonians who were thrusting themselves into other Mens Business and Concerns but neglected their own by which they occasion'd Trouble to themselves and Disturbance to their Neighbours The Apostle therefore willing to reform this great Abuse and Disorder and to remove and prevent all that Disquiet and Disturbance which rose from it He requires them in general To study to be quiet i. e. to keep themselves and others out of Trouble to do nothing that may cause or but occasion disquiets to omit nothing that may keep them off And in particular he advises them to do their own Business which implies that they should not meddle with other Men's this having been the Inlet to and Cause of those Disturbances which had been amongst them This appears to have been the occasion of these Words In discoursing of which I shall I. Explain and declare what is the Duty here enjoyned II. Shall offer some Reasons of it III. Shall lay down Directions and give some Advices whereby we may be assisted in doing it And having shewn what it is we are to do and why and how it is to be done I shall conclude with a short Reflexion upon the whole I. For Explication of the Words That which we here render to study signifies such an earnest Contention as Men use vvhen they are in pursuit of Honour therefore it denotes the shewing our greatest Care and exerting our utmost Endeavours That about which we are required to be so earnest is to be quiet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Word when it is applied to natural Agents signifies Rest the Absence of and the Opposite to Motion When it is transferred to moral we understand by it a Privation or Cessation from some voluntary Action or Passion which may be either good or bad but is for the most part bad either physically or morally or both So this Word is rendred to keep silence in the Acts and in St. Luke to rest from Work in other Authors it is commonly put for Truce and Peace and is opposed to War and likewise to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to being unduly and over-busy and indeed to all Trouble whatsoever a quiet and a troubled Mind are Expressions of two very contrary States as all understand them I suppose the Apostle might use the Word in this large Sense and so give a general Precept on a particular occasion of the Troubles that arose from some Mens Negligence in their own Affairs and Pragmatlcalness in other Mens to which he chiefly referr'd And I shall have regard to this also in my Discourse tho I shall not confine my self to it but shall consider Quiet more largely as it denotes freedom from other Troubles besides those that have their Rise from the meddling with matters that belong not to us Some perhaps may here enquire whether this Precept be universal and how far it obliges whether in all Cases or in some only I answer 1. This reaches Christians of all Times and Places as well as those that lived in Thessalonica 1600 Years ago For it was not founded on any particular but on general and eternal Reasons and is a Law to us all 2. I cannot say it obliges us either to be our selves or to keep others always quiet for in many Cases this is neither possible nor fit nor beneficial yet it does lay this Obligation on us alway to intend and aim at to pursue and endeavour after it even in those very Instances where it would be evil and mischievous to us if we were not under some present Disquiet we are in and by those particular Troubles to seek after Quiet And when we are and it is good we should be under some Discomposure yet ought we to take care that we be not prodigal of this Treasure and that we forego no more than Necessity extorts i. e. we ought not where we can help it to suffer our selves to be more or longer under Trouble than will serve for the attaining some greater good some greater and more lalbing Tranquillity As much as is possible we should take care never to suffer our selves to
tender which is so absolutely necessary to fâ—â—th a Life and State Do you not desire that they should be a Shelter and Stay for your old Age and that you may at your 〈…〉 receive Comfort and Joy from 〈◊〉 If you do not you do not make that provision for your own Content which iâ— Wise Forecast would put you upon you 〈◊〉 wanting to your selves And if you 〈◊〉 and hope to receive Benefit from 〈◊〉 when they are Men you should take 〈◊〉 care to instruct them in and inure 〈…〉 their Duty while they are Children Would you see them rich and great and 〈◊〉 it said of them that they were great 〈…〉 to the Town and Country 〈…〉 they lived Would you see some of 〈…〉 Posâ—â—rity in Estâ—â—rn for giving wise 〈…〉 to the King or for being advanced 〈…〉 best and most sacred Offices and 〈◊〉 changing them prudently and faithfully 〈…〉 this is desirable to every Man and if 〈◊〉 â—â—desire it why do ye not do what you 〈◊〉 for attaining it Why do ye not sow 〈…〉 of Wisdom and Goodness in this 〈…〉 when it is first broke You know 〈◊〉 about it may make such an increase as 〈…〉 and bring forth a Thousand fold To conclude this We that are Parents and Instructors have such a fair prospect of so much Good that may accrue to our Children to our selves to the Society of which they are Members by their being wise and good that if we be not by this moved to do all we can to make them such we are neither so good to them nor wise for our selves nor do we study and seek the Publick Benefit as we ought If this Argument will not prevail let me offer another 5. The very great Danger your Children are in of being foolish and vicious mischievous or useless in this Life and unhappy in the future As I argued before That all Men that are born into this World are in capacity of doing great Good and of being useful and excellent Persons of glorifying God by attaining to that Perfection which he designed them and by contributing towards the Welfare of their Fellow-Creatures and of enjoying that ineffable and unconceivable Bliss which remains for the Obedient in the other World And the Consideration of this should move any one that has the Faith of a Christian or but the Understanding and Heart of a Man to give all the help and assistance he can to his Children that they may be as good and happy as they are capable of being that they may not fall short of that most excellent Condition which our great and good Creator intended us all and consequently that they should take great care of instructing and disciplining them in their first Years So I now engage you to use the same Care from a Consideration of the great Dangers in which every one is that comes into the World Man is in such a Condition that as he may be raised up to Heaven by Wisdom and Goodness and be exalted to such a State that he shall be but very little lower than the Angels of Glory so by Folly and Vice and Neglect of himself he may sink so much below his kind that he may in nothing excell the Brutes nay he may degenerate into a Devil may hate God and live in perâ—â—tâ—al opposition to Reason and all the principles of Goodness He may do no Good but much Evil here on Earth being an Enemy to God and his Creation and when he goes from the Earth he shall go into the Torments of Hell This may be the sad Condition of thy Child and is there not very great danger it should be his Condition and that because of that Body of Death which he here carries about with him that fleshly Part which is so heavy a Weight that it depresses the Soul when it would be on the Wing in pursâ—it of Truth and Goodness How are we 〈◊〉 to be deceived and think this part of 〈◊〉 our whole or at least our best selves Again What powerful Sollicitations do we meet with from the Enticements of Men How do they by specious false Reasonings and many great Examples seduce 〈◊〉 out of the Way of Holiness And how busy is the subtil Serpent to inâ—inuate his Tentations where-ever he observes the least disposition taking all Advantages from our Temper and Condition to make us chuse to be wicked and so to make us inâ—vitably miserable And if this be the Case of all our Children as certainly it is that they are in so very great danger of such dreadful Evils we shall be most inhumane and mercilesâ— to them if we do not what in us lies to prevent their Ruin We shall shew our selves stupid if we do not as soon as they are capable of Instruction principle them against all Vice and Wickedness by shewing them what is good engage their Wills to like and chuse it and put them on the doing it and by all means to preserve them from Sin and secure them from the Snare of the Devil It may be some may not be much concerned whether their Children be good or great they may have no desire they should be eminent But can any of you be content they should become Beasts You do not aspire at their doing much Good but are you satisfied they should do none nay that they should do Evil You care not they should be famous for good and brave Actions but are you willing they should be infamous Villains and live and die as Evil-doers And tho you never once think that your Children should be raised up to the pitch of Angels yet surely none of us but should be very fearful they should become Devils None of us would be Parents of a Beast or of a Devil And yet our Children are in danger of being such and if we take no other care of them but to bring them into the World and to maintain the Animal Life we put them into that Condition that they must without a very extraordinary Assistance of God's Grace be such We have but by this brought them into Danger This World is a vash and howling Wilderness And how merciless would that Father or Mother be that should bring a little Child a young unexperienced Youth amongst the both wanton and salvage Beasts and leave him to shift for himself Thus does every Father and Mother that takes no care to institute their Children in the Way of Life If therefore you be so low-spirited as not to desire your Children should be in the best yet sure none can be willing they should be in the worst state of which they are capable If you would not have them holy and happy as Saints and Angels yet neither would you have them without Understaning as the Horse and the Mule nor without Goodness as the Devil You would neither have them wicked nor miserable and if you would not you must take care to instruct and exercise them betimes in the Way they should go Our
which Charity hath set that is to do nothing inconsistent with the Goodness of any Man at present nor consequently with his everlasting Happiness We must not punish Body and Soul too that belongs only to him that is the Judg of Souls We must not do any thing but what may be and what we intend to be serviceable to their Happiness And not to mention lower and lesser Penalties even the Punishment of Death it self has many times had this good Effect on them who have suffered it Many Criminals by being sentenc'd to Death have been brought to a true Remorse for their Sins who probably had they escaped the Condemnation of the Judg had fallen under the Condemnation of God So that this Doctrine only tends to moderate our Anger to direct and restrain our Hatred and to set Bounds to our worser Passions not to extirpate but to prune and rectify them to bring them under the Government of Charity Secondly The other Objection proceeds on a great Mistake that he that doth Good to All whose Temper and Principles engage him to such a large Beneficence will neglect himself Whereas 1. It no way interferes with that natural Principle but on the contrary strengthens it as will appear if we consider 1. That he that doth Good to all doth Good to himself for he is one of that Number and he has a greater Opportunity of doing Good to himself than any other because he is alway with himself so that a Man's self is not excluded from his Care If it be objected That himself is not the only Object of his Care and Kindness I answer Nor is this either fit or just or reasonable or natural No Man can be the sole and adequate Object of his own Love he cannot circle in himself be his own both Center and Circumference If he should force himself to such an unnatural use of himself he would be very unhappy if he take himself off from his Relations to others he must be miserable 2. Every Man must be first good to himself that he may be more good to others He that would be a Benefactor to other Men must first be kind to himself 3. He that is good to others is best to himself For First He engages them to make him Returns of Kindness and these Vicissitudes of Benefits preserve the Societies of Men as the natural Life of Man is preserved by the Circulation of the Blood to and from the Heart And 2dly If they fail to recompence yet the great God will not but whatsoever Good any Man doth he shall receive of the Lord his Prayers and all his Labour of Love shall return into his own Bosom And besides all this 3dly The very doing Good it self is a Work that is an abundant Recompence to it self To do Good is certainly the highest Pleasure of which the Soul of Man is capable as will appear further when I shew the Advantages which will accrue to us by such an universal Goodness So then notwithstanding this Exception from Self-love we may love universally and do Good to all for these are two natural Principles that agree well together which seems to be well represented in the natural World For as the Astronomers tell us the Earth at the same time moves round its own Axis and yet makes a Progression in the Ecliptick Circle in which it always keeps the same steady Position in reference to all the circumambient Bodies This doth represent the Man of a regular Self-love and an universal Charity He moves about his own Center but yet retains his Relation to the rest of Mankind and keeps his Parallelism to the Axe of the Universe as I may say Or to use a more familiar instance The Systole and Diastole of the Heart are very fit resemblances of a Man's doing good to himself and to others The Blood 's coming into the Heart is the motion of Self-love the flowing of it out from thence into all the extream parts of the Body is his Love and Beneficence to others to all Men. This is the motion that keeps Life in the Body and the doing Good to a Man's self and to the rest of the World preserves Society and tends to the Perfection of the Souls of Men. I have said enough to clear this difficulty and shewn that to do good to all is no prejudice to any Man 's particular Interests To sum up then what has been said by way of Explication Because of the great advantages that will certainly accrue to us by such a practice let us lay out our selves to procure the greatest good and happiness of every Man in the World Not of our selves only or our Kindred our particular Acquaintance and Friends or of good Men but of all and every one of those that are and those that are not of our Blood of Country-men and Foreigners of such as think as we do and of those that differ from us of Friends and Enemies of good Men and bad I intend the Perfection and Happiness and in order to that the Vertue and Goodness of all Men Do this absolutely this is to be universally indispensibly observed and do them all other Good with reference and in order to this Inform Advise Exhort Rebuke Comfort Please them in your Discourses where it will be for their advantage or where it will not hinder or obstruct it Thus do to all in general and to every one in particular And as in case of Competition ever the greatest Good is to be preferr'd so if a Competition of Persons be we are caeteris paribus to prefer the most or if you say the best that is true but that is also because the most are concern'd in them For a good and a wise Man is a publick Benefit and of more value than numbers of others that are not so Doing Good to the most is also the greatest Good Lastly In all the ways of imparting our Aid towards this let us ever observe the Seasons when any Actions will probably contribute most to this Effect and when they can best be done by us This I would have especially observ'd because Actions that are materially good and where we mean well are often spoil'd by being mis-timed As when Men are discoursing of their lawful secular Occasions or entertaining each other with pleasant Diversions then for any to make mention of things most Sacred and Venerable this is importune and impertitent and here is a good meaning lost by an in observance of Opportunity IV. I now proceed to the Arguments which perswade us thus as we have opportunity to do good unto all Men. First To do thus is very agreeable to Nature I am of their mind who think Nature a trusty Guide and make this the first and Sum of all their Precepts and Advices to follow Nature I do believe there is not one Command in the Gospel which is not a Branch from this Root a Particular under this General I need not say that we are not