true they are sensible objects which furnish us either the matter or the occasion of all our speculations But there is no man but knows that from those sensible things of which our Fancie receives the forms and representations our minds elevate themselves to considerations infinitely more purifi'd and which retaining nothing of the Nature and condition of Bodies sufficiently confirm that there are faculties in us which though they make use of corporeal organs for some few of their operations are nevertheless immaterial themselves To proceed yet further There is no person in the World but is desirous of Immortality and every one is convinced in his conscience of such an inclination Whence therefore comes that desire to be so Universal amongst us if there be nothing that is able to satisfie it For the same Aristotle hath written that the natural appetites are not given us to no purpose but that there are certain things naturally designed for their satisfaction and that Philosopher is provided with irrefragable reasons to justifie his opinion Therefore where is that Immortality which we all seek after Not in our bodies Since all men yield to the stroke of fate Nor yet in Statues or Books nor in the Memory of men nor in triumphal Arches nor the Inscriptions of Monuments For the number of those is very inconsiderable who have provided themselves Memorials that they have been and of those which have been erected to this day there are not above two or three in a manner whose durable materials have secur'd them from the silent depredation of consuming Time At the utmost although the ancient Monuments should have still survived as the Arches of triumph Pyramids and Mausolaeum's yet they could not give the Immortality we seek they are no more but testimonies that we are not to expect the same in this world as they which want issue take pleasure to keep little Dogs and to behold their Breed It remains then that we have a complaint to make against nature who hath given us a desire without hope of being able to content it which is unworthy and disagreeable to the care which she hath had of us in so many other things For as for what some may possibly alledge that Brutes have almost alike inclinations and that even insensible things are lead by a natural instinct to their own conservation 't is a frivolous objection Shall we say that because a Stone naturally tends downwards it desires to be there perpetually being ignorant of the impulsive cause that moves it or the place whence it comes and whether it goes and even of its own being it cannot to speak properly desire its own conversation The cause is for that every thing which is heavy falls naturally downward if a Stone should not do so it would have no gravity were not a Stone In a word heavy things have as little desire to descend down and light to mount upwards either from the regions of Heaven or the centure of the Earth as the number of Two being doubled ha's to make Four 'T is the nature and order of things which knows not it self who would have it to be so As for Animals destitute of Reason all the care they have of their Preservation lyes in that which we term the estimation of things present which accordingly as they are hurtful or profitable are desired or avoided by them without all knowledge of the future or any thought that reaches so far much less are they able to do as men who anticipate not onely intire Ages but thousands and millions of Years to come And who so compares that blind instinct of Pismires which seem to provide in Summer against the necessities of Winter with the thought of immortality must either be an Idiot or a mad man For can any man of common sense imagine that those little Animals have an apprehension that the Sun being returned to the Tropic of Capricorn will have no more power to make the Earth produce what is necessary to their subsistence Surely no But that small insect being naturally theevish as long as she finds food in the fields steals it from thence and carries it to her little Cell without dreaming that there will be a Morrow and far from foreseeing the Rain and Frosts of Winter being notwithstanding all Elogies of her Ignara atque incauta Futuri But that Providence which governs all things and takes care of their conservation because it created them gives these creatures those blind instincts and inclinations to theft to cause them to lay up a store of necessary sustenance as a Falconer makes use of the swiftness and rapaciousness of Hawkes to cover the table of their Masters with excellent fowl without their understanding of the design But for us our desires are ardent and our thoughts extend themselves wonderfully forward to the Future and forasmuch as the inquietude of ardent desires when we see no hopes of contenting them is extremely importunate in case we have no part in Immortality Nature will not onely have put the desire of it in us to no purpose which she hath done in nothing besides but also to deject and torment us which were a cruelty beyond the spleen of Stepdames Moreover experience it self teaches us that there is such a difference between the Body and Mind that they seem oftentimes to have no communion one with another so different are their functions and so little mutation doth a great and universal change in the one work in the other You may see a man blasted or lamed in all his Members by some accident who yet hath the motions of his mind as strong plyant and nimble as when he was in perfect health You may see another upon the borders of the grave emaciated like a skeleton without vigor and pulse whose understanding nevertheless is more sublime then before and his thoughts more refined who will judiciously discourse of every thing that is propounded to him and that which is the greatest wonder will do it with so little astonishment at death as if to devest himself of his body were of no more value to him then to stripoff his cloathes although he apprehend full well on the one side what death is and do not contemn it out of stupidity and is on the other absolutely perswaded of the immortality of the Soul But it 's true this is not universal and great mutations of the body sometimes produce remarkable changes in the Mind Nor do I deny but that the Body is so constituted in its particular temper and so neerly ligued with the Mind that the disposition of the one contributes very much to the functions and operations of the other As when a Lute is untuned how skillful soever the Musician be he can never make any tolerable harmony so in the total dyscrasie of the Body and its principal instruments the Soul sometimes remains stupified and astonish'd But seeing this happens not equally in all men and that there are as many
how shall the goodness of God which we have abundantly shewn is the liberal rewarder of Virtue render to the body the free recompense of the service it hath done the Soul in the practise thereof and of the obedience which its natural appetites have yielded to reason unless it be raised again from the dust Certainly as we said above man is not onely the Soul he is the body also both which contribute respectively to Virtue of which man is capable Wherefore they ought both to be interested in the reward And that justice which is the avenger of sin and without which the Providence of God would be too narrow and defective how will that acquit its charge unless it equally punish the body with the soul Seing they are usually the affections of the body that debauch the mind and 't is the pleasure of the senses that prevents and misguids our reason But the punishment would not be equally proportioned and distributed to the Soul and Body if the soul were miserable to eternity and the body wholly exempted from it to exist no more And the condition of the body would be happy in comparison of that of the mind although the defect of both were equal Moreover the penalty encreasing proportionably to the dignity of him against whom the offense is committed for an outrage done to an inferior person is punisht otherwise then that which is committed against a Soverain Magistrate the justice of God being an infinite power an immense and unlimited dignity and authority how could the punishment of the body by being no more be proportional to the justice of God Or if the justice of God can be satisfied for the offense committed against it with the extinguishment of the body without revival to perpetuity why is not the soul also extinguisht with the body without remaining exposed to a continual and perpetual punishment Certainly it must either be that the body suffers with the soul eternally for satisfaction of the justice of God sutably to his infinite dignity or the soul must be extinguish'd together with the body But neither the justice of the God nor the nature of the soul suffers the same to perish or be abolish'd and therefore the body must be raised from death to partake of the same compensation with it Moreover of how great importance is it for consolation of our minds against the fear of death For death being naturally terrible to all men and the separation of the soul from the body full of bitterness and anguish what more effectual comfort can be received then to expect after a peaceable repose in the grave to be raised by the hand of God from it not to restore us the injoyment of this life that so we might dye over again but to live an eternal life in unexpressible contentment Besides what sweeter consolation in the loss of our friends which is oftentimes more grievous to us then death it self then the hope that they and we shall one day arise from the earth to dwell together in celestial glory Certainly he that represents to himself what joy friends receive here upon an unexpected meeting after divers years absence may in a manner conjecture with what gladness we shall resent the day of that happy resurrection Whence I conceive that excepting the assurance of pardon of sins which delivers the soul it self from the apprehensions of death eternal there is nothing so capable of inflaming the mind of man with love towards God as the hope of resurrection For next to deliverance from the death of the soul which consists in the sense of a remorse and eternal distress what can be more sweet then the deliverance from the death of the body which is to have no more sense nor motion nor life nor being And from the doctrine of the Resurrection however profane men gainsay it results an admiration of the Wisdom of God in reuniting things which nature had so straitly conjoin'd together For since death as we have shewn is not a natural thing but an accident superven'd contrary to the purpose of nature and the design of the first formation of man who in regard of the excellence of his soul ought to be an immortal creature though in reference to his body he was composed of the matter of the Elements what is there more sutable to Divine Wisdom then to reunite without injury either to his justice or his goodness what death had separated by a kind of violence For to repeat those words of of Phocylides it is not meet to dissolve the fair harmony of man And lastly though the power of God may be well understood other ways yet herein is one of the greatest and most admirable testimonies of it to wit that from the earth and the Sea and the entrals of birds and beasts shall be required the bodies of men and that their ashes which are dispers'd and confus'd amongst the Elements shall be recover'd and recollected with so much art that every one shall resume his own body without confusion or mixture Whence is it therefore that this doctrine gives offense and scandal to some Is it repugnant to the Wisdom of God We have prov'd it agreeable thereunto And it would argue defect of wisdom in God if he knew not to distinguish in this confusion of the Elements the places from whence to retake one day the reliques of our members Is it impossible to his power Surely no if we account the same infinite and it is verily infinite if it be divine To conclude doth it encounter reason There is none of us but would naturally desire the resurrection of his body if he esteemed it a thing possible Wherefore seeing God reveals to us both that he will and can do it what is to be doubted more but that reason consents in this desire with nature CHAP. VIII What understanding can be had of true Virtue without a particular Revelation HItherto we have shewn that in the things which relate directly to God and his service and the motives of true and sincere piety men have either been without a particular revelation or absolutely blind or so unresolv'd and wavering in what they knew thereof that they could not from thence render any true devotion to God nor receive any solid consolation to themselves Our next task should be to shew that they likewise needed a particular revelation for the knowledge of true Virtue which ought to be followed amongst men but my design will not permit me to deduce that point at length onely I am to desire the Reader to take notice of two things Indeed I will not question but that they have had far more knowledge of true vertue by the light of nature alone then they had of the requisites and concernments of true piety The excellent instructions of Philosophers commendable Laws of Republicks virtuous deeds of great personages and the universal consent of all Nations any thing civilis'd shew by the account they made of Virtue
in this opinion And nevertheless I can scarce be perswaded that our Times could bring forth men so unnatural against themselves unless perhaps some wild dissolute young persons whose minds are wholly taken up with Wine and Women But being now to dispute against those that acknowledge a Providence in God by which he governs the Universe I must presuppose that they esteem their Souls survive their bodies and that death hath no power over them So we find that all such as believed a Providence have likewise taught the Immortality of our Souls as things inseparably conjoyn'd excepting the Saduces who having the Books of Moses to instruct them ought to be judg'd the blindest people of the World that could not discern this truth therein For all Religion being founded on this Hypothesis that our Souls are incorruptible seeing they acknowledge God to have been the Author of the Religion taught and commanded in those Books why should they not likewise acknowledge that God did by the same means establish and confirm this Common Hypothesis Truely all Religion aims at a double End The illustrating the glory of God's Providence and Perfections and The comforting good men in their afflictions Now whereas good men fall into so many calamities in the World but Wicked oftentimes prosper and that even the Good are oppressed by the wicked what glory would redound to that Providence from a Religion which should constitute no time at all after this Life in which the Good might receive comfort for their sufferings the Bad vengeance for their crimes What great commendation were it to preside over the mixture of Elements in the composition of Things and to cause every one to follow its nature regularly and in the mean time to take no care of those which reverence the Deity but connive at the lewdnesses of such as contemn him Not to conduct the course of Nature in a due manner might speak some defect of Wisdom But not to compensate the Virtue of the Good nor punish the crimes of the Vitious besides the defect of Wisdom in not adjusting things aright sutably to their qualifications and crossely coupling prosperity with Vice and Misery with Virtue there would be a too notorious defect of goodness and justice And perhaps it would not be less expedient to follow the doctrine of Epicurus which notwithstanding we have convinced of infinite absurdities and impieties then to ascribe a Providence to the Deity and not to believe the immortality of the Soul it being less unworthy the Divine Nature to neglect the Universe altogether then to administer humane affairs with so much negligence injustice and irregularity But if there redounds little glory to the wise good and just Providence of God from such a Religion there accrues no more consolation to men there being so small grounds to expect the remuneration of Virtue in this Life that the greatest admirers of it perceiving themselves fall short of their attempt at the end of their account term her a meer vain shadow and most deserving persons complain that all things fall out preposterously to their hopes while they observe unjust men flourishing in the midst of Pompe and Pleasure and themselves insulted over and oppress'd by arrogant and haughty Wickedness For as for what is alledged that all the Blessings which God promises in the Books of Moses to those whom he prescribes a Religion to upon his Covenant are of Temporal things which have no further relation then onely to the durance of this Life and therefore there can be no certain proof of the Souls immortality drawn from thence if it were so the Covenant would be frustraneous and to no purpose For I dare boldly affirm that of all those which are therein recorded with praise for religiously observing it not one did attain I do not say a perfect felicity of the present life so long as it lasted for recompense of his Piety but not so much as might countervale the afflictions which he suffered In so much that God himself in attesting their constant observance of his Covenant should accuse and condemn himself of being deficient towards them since they liv'd miserably for the greatest part of their Days And those words of Jacob My days have been few and evil would be an eternal reproach to his promises and his Providence Wherefore it must either be denyed that there was any Religion constituted by the command of God in the Books of Moses or the Saducees must confess that the immortality of the Soul is presupposed therein and confirmed by the testimony of God himself since the belief of the corruptibility of our minds subverts the foundation of all Religion in the World Nevertheless although the Doctrines of Providence and the Souls immortality are inseparably allied and the latter is also demonstrated by invincible reasons which we deduc'd briefly a little above yet it ha's hapned to it as to divers other fundamental verities in Religion namely that men remaind in suspence concerning the same till they were acertain'd of it by a divine revelation So that the most knowing Grecians from whom Learning descended to the Romanes spake so doubtfully of it that it is not plainly known what they conceived about it and they which most inclined to believe their Minds immortal never declar'd themselves very positively that they thought so Some have related that Thales was the first among the Philosophers that believ'd the Immortality of our Souls and indeed he is the first of whom Greece boasted for Philosophy Before he and the rest which were termed Wisemen in his time set themselves to refine and regulate it all that had attempted any thing left it but in a rude dress and unseemly equipage And it is a great evidence of the truth of this Doctrine and a fair instance of the Providence of God in favour of it that that Schole of Wisdom among the Pagans began to be polish'd and perfected by it and was as it were built upon this foundation But into how many sects did Philosophy soon after degenerate of which there were some that expresly denied it and others which made a doubt of it as of all other things With what ambiguity and incertainty have even they spoke of it who seem'd desirous to teach it Aristotle is extremely intricate about it and seems sometimes to affirm one thing and sometimes another Nor can it be conjectur'd why he so dubiously explicated himself in this point being otherwise wonderfully eloquent and happy in his expressions unless either because he knew not well what to hold as he declares freely in one place That it is not yet evident what the Vnderstanding of men may be or because he believed that the Soul is extinguisht with the Body and yet would not pronounce it openly for fear of giving scandal as there are found many brave spirits who living amongst men of condition are content to dissemble their opinions in matters of this nature So likewise he seems to have
dissembled what he thought of the best Form of Government for fear of offending Aristotle I am willing to ascribe my self into the number of them who believe that there is greater apparance that Aristotle was of the Opinion that affirms the Souls immortality and I know many excellent passages may be produc'd out of his Writings which favor it But yet so it is that in other places he seems to lay down principles which are incompatible with the same and some of his most famous disciples have believ'd that he held the contrary Socrates as we find in Plato knows not how to be confident of it and perswades himself by reasons which for the most part are but of slender moment and always speaks of it as of other things with doubting and not determining any thing although through the desire he had that his Soul were immortal he inclined more willingly to this opinion and accounted it of most probability which is Cicero's judgement in his Tusculan Questions And truly I conceive that in all things of this Nature the vulgar had better apprehensions then the Philosophers yea that the Philosophers corrupted the sentiments of Nature which remain'd more lively and genuine in the breasts of the people For they had wit and knowledge enough to frame objections against the common conceptions of men but yet they had not sufficient to resolve them whence their minds became unsetled and wavering Whereas the people who understood not so much subtilty held themselves more firmely to that which was taught them by nature it self and they had received from her though doubtingly in regard of the weakness and ignorance of humane reason As it often falls out that a man that knows nothing in Civil Law and yet hath some natural faculty of understanding better discerns the right of a certain Case then knowing Professors who have their heads full of Statutes and Paragraphs great skill rather perplexing and confounding then resolving them in the knowledge of things But Philosophical disputes being spread from the Scholes into Towns among the people have obscured and disorder'd such natural notions much more then the people by their own ignorance and negligence could have depraved and embroiled the same of themselves However were they much better assured then they are that their Souls do not perish with their bodies yet they must necessarily be extremely ignorant of the estate of them after their separation For how blind so ever the reason of man be in that which concerns the Deity his Nature Perfections and Providence yet the arguments which satisfie us of them are so clear and resplendent in the World that in spight of all the darkness of the humane Intellect there is always some beam that breaks through affording that dubious and confused knowledge we mentioned was found amongst the Nations of the World And how intangled soever the disputes of Philosophers were the rational soul of Man gives always so many proofs of its incorruptibility that the knowledge thereof cannot be totally extinguish'd But as to its estate after this Life it is not onely impossible for men to divine of themselves what it will be by reason of the corruption and irregularity which is befallen their faculties but though the eye of their reason were as clear and luminous as could be desir'd yet they were hardly able to make the least probable conjecture concerning it because God hath written nothing of it in the book of Nature from which we draw all our knowledge But they which are instructed by Religion in the History of the Worlds Original can very easily give account thereof For God having produc'd Man in the Nature of things in such an estate that if he had persisted in it he should not have feared death the revelation of that estate which must follow this Life would have been unprofitable to him who was made in case that the design of his creation had been pursued to live perpetually in the World and never to undergo the separation of his Soul from his Body For that Truth teaches us and likewise reason being informed in this particular either consents to or is convinced of it that it was the Offence which the First Man committed which introduced death into the World To what purpose therefore should God have imprinted in Nature any evidence or token of the estate of man after death since in that first integrity of nature there was no suspition nor shadow of Death it self It is true indeed that God denounced to man that if he degenerated from his integrity he should dye which might have occasion'd some thought in him of the pains which follow death being he knew that his Soul was immortal But the apprehension of punishment after sin and also of that which follows death do's not infer any other of remuneration unless God reveal mercy and hope of pardon after the transgression Which God had not as yet done in the integrity of Nature So that man having from God neither hope of pardon in case he should sin nor any cause to think of death in case he should not sin he had no occasion to raise his mind higher towards a better life But if any one conceives some scruple touching the perpetuity of the life of man upon the Earth if he had not fallen into sin and imagines rather that God after he had lest him for some Ages in the World to practice obedience and virtue would have at last taken him to himself and given a greater recompense then that which he could have injoy'd in a terrestrial felicity he must also confess that to instate man in the injoyment of such remuneration there would have been no need of Death and so that it was not necessarily for him to know what the estate of his Soul after separation from his body should be Moreover whatsoever that compensation would have been which man should have received for his Obedience and Virtue insomuch as it would have been a condition and a glory supernatural some revelation of it must necessarily have been made by another way then nature namely then by the evidences which may be had from consideration of the Works of God and the Government of the World And in truth to hear the Poets and Philosophers speak of it sufficiently evinces that such as have had no other light to guid them in search of these things but that of Nature and Reason have onely groped in the dark For how ridiculous is the description which they make of the Infernal Regions and Elysian Fields Is it not pleasant to behold the Landskip which Virgil hath drawn of them in the sixth Book of his Aeneids where he speaks of Rhadamanthus and the severity of his sentences and forgets not to paint out Tysiphone with her scourges and serpents together with the Furies He also places there hideous Hydra's and I know not what kind of other vile beasts at the gates of Hell and in that horrible prison which he represents twice
vigilant care for the good and conservation of men is rebated so much without question is defaulked from their piety towards him And whereas as we shall see in its due place man is by nature alienated from God and extremely averse and reluctant to be reduc'd to him how clear knowledge soever he ha's by his word of this wise Providence how could those doubts and darkeness ever introduce him to an ingenious and free devotion I conclude therefore that all the Religion of the Ancients who liv'd without a particular Revelation had there been no other particulars to make it so but this was either languid or forc'd and that consequently to beget in the hearts of men a true and since respect towards God it is needful that himself instruct us in the knowledge of his Providence But that which follows shall shew the same more evidently CHAP. V. Of what great moment it is to know whether Death be a Natural Accident or Not And that such knowledge cannot be attain'd without special Revelation DEath is the most ordinary thing in the World For all that are born must necessarily dye Yet there is nothing of whose Cause and End Philosophers have been more ignorant All of them look't upon it as a thing purely Natural which befalls us as inevitably as naturally because our bodies being composed of the Elements which include discordant qualities hot and cold dry and moist so long as these continue in good harmony and are mixed in a perfect temperature they are maintained in vigor but when one comes to prevail against another or one of them fails through absumption of the moisture in which it consists or any other way there necessarily follows a dissipation of the compages Which happens in like manner to all other bodies which have the same principles of their generation the union after a certain time being dissolved and the bodies corrupted Indeed if the Soul of Man were mortal as his body is they would have reason for this opinion and Death would be natural to us as it is to other creatures but it befits onely Epicurus who believes the humane Soul corruptible to hold Death for a thing simply natural if every one will speak agreeably to his principles and not run into absurdities and extravagances For Man is not the Soul onely he is the body to that is to say the body is not only the case of his Soul wherein she is included for a time but a part of man which enters into his composition and without which he cannot be called man Now what a disorder is it in the Nature of man that half of his essence should be extinguish'd at the end of fourty or fifty years and the other half his Soul remain for ever after despoiled of it Unless the wild Metempsychosis of Pythagoras be admitted and that our Souls do not cease to go out of some bodies and re-enter into others sometimes into a horse and sometimes a bird and sometimes a man or if it be confin'd onely to humane bodies that he who was a great Philosopher two thousand years ago is now a Cow-heard and that great Prince who discomfited Darius neer the City of Arbela at this present a Porter in the Market An Opinion I conceive they against whom I dispute will not own Shall the Soul then remain eternally a Widow She that cherishes the body so much that she forgets her own interest to be complacent to it She that is not separated from it but with so great regret that the best marriage in the world is not dissolved with so much reluctancy and tears In which respect since these people acknowledge a Providence how come they not to observe that if death be a thing purely natural a good part of that Providence is lost death taking the body from its jurisdiction so that it cannot repay it the rewards of Virtue nor make it feel any penalty for its Vices Or if it be a punishment to the Body to exist no more why do those dy who in consideration of their Virtue and Piety ought to obtain some recompense for their bodies For the course of the World is such as we noted above that in this life neither the greatest part of crimes are sutably punisht nor the least part of compensations distributed and the Colicks Megrims Catarrhs Palsies Goutes and Stone hinder us from boasting of having found our corporeal beatitude here Yea if death be a thing natural as they conceive it cannot be a punishment to the body for the Vices to which it is addicted For that which is natural may indeed be an infirmity or misery but not a punishment which ha's no place but in retribution for sin and because things which are purely natural arrive to us whether we sin or not And besides the Vicious would be no otherwise treated then he which is not so and he that is not Vitious would have no better a condition then he that is culpable Which perverts all order of Justice and all Wisdom of Providence But there daily falls out a certain accident in Life of which in case death be natural noman can give a pertinent reason nor acquit the Providence which governs the world of blame Namely that Infants dye at their birth and even some are extinguish'd in the Womb. To what purpose were it to have lodg'd a Soul so little a time in a body that it had not so much leasure as to know its habitation And since as they teach 't is the Soul it self that fashions and disposes and contrives its mansion why is it ruin'd before she can enjoy it without hope of ever seeing it re-edified And as to the poor wretched body which is not yet sensible of its condition what is it the better for having been so little a while or what hath it committed that it must be no longer I know well that it is taught that it is better to Be then Not to be and I do not gainsay it but yet a Being of so little duration is of no great comfort and he would seem not to satisfie right reason who being ask'd why he breaks an excellent piece of workmanship incontinently after he had made it without having reap'd any use of it either to himself or any other should answer that it was sufficient that he had given it a being of half an hour For it was not to experiment his art that God framed little Infants there are Proofs enough of that in so many millions of men he knows it without tryal and is so expert therein that every work of his being perfect he ha's no cause to repent of or be displeased with it If it be answered that 't is for the exercise of Parents to train them to patience were there no more in it but this the action indeed would have for its end to frame men to Virtue in which their resemblance with the Deity consists but the means that God used to bring them to it
would seem to carry something of inhumanity of which it is incongruous that he should propose himself an example God who is so good hath so many other means in his hand to lead men to Virtue would never willingly employ any thereunto for which he might be accus'd of barbarousness and cruelty especially seeing it is an accident so frequent that in a Town of a thousand families there do's not pass one day in the year in which it do's not happen 'T is true for certain great and important considerations Kings are excused if they sometimes commit some act of injustice or violence But this must be very rarely done and onely when the safety of the State is concern'd Yet Lucretia could not contain from crying out upon the death of Iphigenia who was sacrific'd for the safety of all Greece Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum But that there should dye five or six times as many Children in the Cradle as attain to mans estate seems an irregularity which not onely an Epicurean but the most devout and pious amongst the Philosophers cannot but judge unsupportable Above all other considerations the Fear which the thought of death begets naturally in all men deserves our animadversion For how couragious so ever any may endevour to appear 't is as Aristotle calls it the most terrible of all terrors And as one hath observed if Julius Câ—sar who was magnanimity it self said that the most unexpected death was the sweetest and most desirable which testifies that he resented some dread when he thought of it what may we think of the horrors which other men have of it And this Fear does not arise onely from the apprehension that a man shall exist no more but it hath something of I know not what other violence and bitterness For otherwise nature and reason being two things which accord very well together if death were purely natural reason would finde something in that consideration wherewith to be comforted and gently drink off that Cup. But experience shews that the consolations taken from the necessity of Nature and the example of so many other deaths are too weak and of too little efficacy when the business is to strengthen a soul that trembles at the presence of death Which if there have been some that were generously resolv'd to undergo they have been very few in number and almost none in comparison of so many men yea Nations to whom the alarms of death have been terrible and hideous For I do not put in the rank of such as resolve generously against it those Caitifs that tye the rope to their own necks and drink to their companions upon the Ladder For this is so far from true generosity conjoyn'd with the discourse of reason that it is meer stupidness and more then bestial brutality And it is diligently to be observed that they who believe not that their Soul is immortal comfort themselves more easily then others do with the consideration of the necessity of death and say that as the Generations which preceeded their Birth belonged nothing at all to them because they were not yet in being so they ought not to care for those which follow after their death in regard they shall be no longer and that Agamemnon is dead and Romulus and Patroclus and the Scipio's Qui multis quam tu meliores improbe rebus And I believe the greatest part of those that have shewn so high a courage in contemning death among the Pagans had not much consideration of their future condition As it is clear by Socrates who says in Plato that he knew not which was best to live or to dye and that it were a folly to redoubt a thing of which there is no certain knowledge whether it be desirable or to be feared Whereas they that think seriously of immortality find nothing in nature that encourages or comforts them A sure evidance that death hath something of terror in it which does not proceed from nature but from something else for they would at least have more ground of consolation then the others in the subsistence of the better part of their essence Now whence can that horror be but onely that death is the forerunner of divine vengeance and makes up a part of it already If hereupon they agree that it is a punishment for sin certainly since all other Philosophers have held it to be simply natural they cannot know it to be so by any other way then that divine revelation that hath inform'd us by what gate it entred into the World For none of the Ancients ever found out or could so much as divine in a dream what was the cause of it And so far were they from having it come into their minds that on the contrary some have believed that Death was rather a gift and gratification to us from the Deity then a punishment inflicted by his Justice Which opinion the innumerable miseries of humane life greatly concurr'd to render authentick the undergoing whereof being look'd upon as so dolorous that sometime the deliverance from them ha's been accounted the greatest good that could arrive Or if some few have not dared to affirm absolutely that death was a Good yet they maintain'd at least that it was no Evil since it rescues men from all calamities which they suffer To fear death said Socrates to his Judges is nothing else but to seem to be wise and not to be so For it is to pretend to know that which we do not know because none knows what death is nor whether it be not the greatest good that can befall a man To which Plutark refers that exhortation of an ancient Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metuenda non est mors arumnarum exitus So also the greatest part of the reflections of Cicero upon this matter in the first of the Tusculane Questions fall into the Dilemma of Socrates To wit that if the soul be extinguish'd with the body and so the sense of all things be absolutely abolish'd death cannot really be an Evil because a man being thereby wholly depriv'd of existence and exempted from among the nature of things that which is not is equally incapable both of Evil and Good But if the soul survive the Body death is so far from being an evil that it ought rather to be accounted in the number of the greatest goods seeing it delivers from the evils of this present life and puts a man in possession of the contentments of a better upon which he does not omit to mention the converse with the Heroes wherein Socrates placed the greatest part of the hopes of his joy But the business is of higher importancy For though the Light of Nature should have taught men that death is an effect of the justice of God yet is it impossible as we shall see in due place for the same to discover to them the remedy thereof And I conceive that though the reason of man should have been able
certainly to conjecture what the cause of death is God himself would have purposely hid it from them least not being able to discover the remedy of it despair should sink and ruine all the World All other ignorances have been prejudicial and very often pernicious to men to this alone we owe the conservation of humane Society So that we may pertinently apply to this in particular that which Horace speaks generally of the ignorance in which it hath pleased God we should live touching events to come Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit Deus The sole Word of God which is the special revelation we are in quest of is that which accords all these differences and clears up all the difficulties and confusions We shall not dispute at present whether in his first creation the body of man was naturally so well constituted that through prudence whereby he was able to avoid all hurtful things and the use of aliments which the blessing of God rendred as efficacious for the conservation of life by the good and pure qualities which he at first indued them with as now they are often full of noxious juices since the curse of God blasted them for our offence he might without other assistance from the Deity avoid all alteration and corruption either by disease or Age. God hath in the composure of Gold and Diamonds and other like things given sufficient proof of his power and hath so exactly temper'd the contrary qualities of the Elements in the constitution of certain bodies that they seem not subject to any corruption whatsoever And the long life which the first Men liv'd even after sin and the examples of the like we meet with in several profane Histories and some also though few which may be found in the Histories of these latter times give us enough to judge how firm and durable the life of man would be were he as exactly and perfectly fram'd and the aliments that support him as good as the estate of Nature in its integrity could have promised We onely affirm that though as the Philosophers thought the body of man being composed of the Elements and consequently including contrary and repugnant qualities would have carried in its self the seeds of death yet this revelation teaches us that the Wisdom of God would have so provided therein that if no disorder had hapened in the World through sin the propensity which our bodies have to their own dissipation would have been restrain'd and hindred by his Providence For he would have repell'd all sorts of eternal accidents he would have hindred the intemperature of the humors both by preserving them in right harmony and supplying man with aliments indued with excellent faculties and void of all noxiousness and by infusing new vigor of life in time of necessity to hinder the approach of Old-age would have maintained man in a vigorous and flourishing consistence and so given him the immortality of which we have now nothing left but the desire Whence likewise the union of the Soul and Body would have continued to eternity not subject to any important change or evil accident So that admitting death to be an accident that sutes with the natural principles of the composition of their bodies yet the cause that they do dye is because it having been covenanted that the consequences of a mortal condition should be hindred upon condition that man continued in obedience sin supervening hath changed the dispensation of all that and effected that death is become in quality of a punishment and vengeance And this ought nor to be deemed strange For there are things which considered in themselves have nothing so shameful in them but that they may well endure either the presence of another or the publike day-light which yet through the disorder befallen in nature are become ignominious Nakedness which of it self is not dishonest is become unseemly through sin which hath caused rebellion in the corporeal appetites against reason So that they who affirm it indifferent to go naked or clothed shew that extreme profaness hath worn out of their foreheads that shame which causes others to express their consciousness of sin and the unseemliness of the irregularity of our sensual faculties so as to be asham'd of their impudence who are not so themselves Wherefore though death were a natural accident which yet it is not the horror of it is too great to acknowledge no more in it but pure nature and its motions For why then do Infants dye We learn from the same revelation that that so sudden separation of the soul from the Body is not for ever but that the being which is given them though at first it seem's to have been allotted for a moment onely and by consequence little better then not-being shall endure eternally when the considerations shall cease for which it suffer'd the Eclipse of the time that it was to appear in this Life For the being of man when it hath once had a beginning is of perpetual duration and the time of Death is but as an Eclipse of his course But this is not the place for this discourse and therefore we shall add but a word more and pass forward Whether we consider the justice or the goodness of God this revelation amply furnishes us what to answer in defence of both He takes away little children at their birth and notwithstanding does not incur thereby any blame of cruelty because before they were born they deserved that punishment by reason of the natural infection of sin which they drew from those that begat them And indeed as we crush the Eggs of Scorpions before they are hatcht not because they have as yet deserved to be destroy'd for any wound which we have received by them but because in growing up the seeds of venome which that brood hath by nature will infallibly be exerted to our mischief so is it sometimes expedient for God to stifle from the wombe such children as have so many seeds of vice in them that coming to years would do much more mischief then any Scorpion in the World This the Philosophers never understood and therefore could not return in answer But if there opinion were admitted it would be requisite to defer judging of the merit of Infants till they come to the age that ennables them to manifest and display their Vice Moreover God resumes some of them back to himself whom he pleases to render happy by his goodness Nor is it necessary that he should permit them a longer abode in this life that so they might be capable of happiness for their practises of Virtue because he do's not give it as a Salary deserved from his justice by our Virtues but as a beneficence purely out of his liberality which likewise the Philosophers never thought of for according to them if there remains any beatitude to be hoped after this Life it cannot be aspir'd unto but by Virtue How then can Infants obtain
face of the World then if they all kept the same equal and uniform tract So without doubt there appears a greater Providence in the conduct of so many Nations so diversified by various sorts of Laws and Governments Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical and mixt each according to its peculiar genius all which nevertheless conspire to the glory of one and the same God and aspire to the atchievment of one and the same hope then if they were all modell'd and policyed according to the same constitutions Besides that God being willing that Christians should be people of free courage and erected to that honest liberty which is worthy of generous and noble souls it ha's pleased him that men should exercise the actions of Justice and virtue no otherwise then by following the suggestions of a nature almost restored by so excellent a Religion to its primitive integrity so that every one should be a Law unto himself It is true that a good part of the Nations which in these dayes make profession of the Christian Name do not shew that a doctrine so heavenly ha's been efficacious to cleanse the vitiosity of nature and repress the disorder of their passions so that there may seem need of more Laws to prevent frauds and injuries But this is the corruption of these dregs of Ages And he that would know what Christian charity and the uprightness of those that have embrac'd this Law is must not consider it such as it is at the present time but in the first Ages of the Church As for the Ceremonial Law 't is the Christian Religion alone that teaches us to understand the use of it by manifesting the enâ— to which it aimed For by that we are instructed that the whole structure of the Tabernacle and all the Oeconomy of the service which was performed therein by external and sensible things did refer to spiritual verities and virtues So that as much as the knowledge of divine mysteries and admirable doctrines transcends things obvious to sense by so much is the Christian Doctrine and the fruits produced by it more excellent then the Mosaical Worship It would be too long to allegorise all that pertains to it the matter will be evident by two or three examples There were two eminent Sacraments Circumcision and the Paschal Lambe To take them according to the construction of the Jews what other signification had they but onely to separate the people of the Jews and to discriminate them from other Nations and be a commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and the death of the First-born The one was a token imprinted in the flesh of a Covenant that seem'd to regard onely the body and the other a memorial of a deliverance meerly temporal Now we have learnt from the Christian Religion that the First was instituted to represent the need we stood in that this corrupt nature of ours which we derive from our fathers by ordinary generation should be retrenched if we would have part in the spiritual Covenant with God and the Second to be a type of him of whom it was said He was lead like a Lamb to the slaughter and whose blood and death secured our souls from the dreadful and universal destruction to which otherwise they were obnoxious And in this we do no more but follow the traces which themselves have hereof in the Prophets but could not discern To this purpose is their speaking of and exhorting to the circumcision of the heart as in contempt of that which was made in the flesh and also that of Moses's diligent injunction to sprinkle the blood of the Paschal Lambe upon the posts and tressell of the house and that it should be a perpetual institution in their generations For what virtue had the blood of a Lamb to divert the sword of an Angel and to warrant the houses of the Israelites from the calamity of others There was moreover prescrib'd by it several washings and purifications for the vessels and utensils of the Tabernacle houses and garments infected with any pollution for men and women seised on by some natural infirmity things which were accounted unclean if all these mysteries were not solicitously observed The Gospel hath taught us that all this represents true sanctification which cleanses the corrupt appetites of man and purifies his conscience And truly otherwise to what end or benefit served all these washings if they did not design something else Or why should corporeal and naturally inevitable infirmities such as the Lunar flux of women debarre them from communion with God and his Tabernacle but onely as figuring those voluntary ones of the conscience In this also we have the authority of their Prophets It is said in Ezekiel chap. 36.25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you But how A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes c. Now by how much piety and the internal virtue of the soul is better then the cleanness of the body so much is the recommendation and doctrine of the one more excellent then the observation of the other But this appears remarkably in the principal part of the Ceremonial Law namely in the Sacrifices For the death of beasts being as we intimated formerly incapable to make propitiation for sins and yet it being a thousand times expressed in the Law that those victimes were appointed for propitiation what remains but that they were destinated as types for the representation of a Sacrifice which in truth made real and sufficient propitiation for offenses And indeed what else could the Prophet Isaiah have referr'd to when he said chap. 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was brought as a Lambe to the slaughter and as a sheep before the Shearers is dumbe so he opened not his mouth Especially since the blood of Bulls and Goats had no virtue for the purification of souls and yet the High Priest entred every year into the Holy of Holies with blood in the presence of the Arke of the Lord as if he had gone to offer satisfaction for the sins committed by the People what had this been but a vain and empty ceremony in case it did not typifie One who in the quality of great and Soverain Priest entred into the presence of God in the Heavens with real satisfaction for the sins of men Truly the resemblance is admirable Onely once a year a period of time in which the world seems to exist a new grow up wax old and terminate its duration by the revolution and succession of the four seasons
in arms Now what is the cause of this misery but their Sins both such as are common to all men in general and particular to their own Nation For certainly God who lov'd them so tenderly and chose them out from all others to communicate his Covenants to them would not treat them so rigorously were there not some lawful cause in their extraordinary offenses And what a strange blindness and stupidity of mind is it to have so quick a resentment of evils relating to the body and not to acknowledge the cause of them What a depravity and perversity of understanding to groan under the strokes of the hand of God never to groan under the load of their own iniquity To pant incessantly after a Deliverer of the Body and never to think of the redemption of the soul They are driven out of Judaea and Heaven and Earth resound with their lamentations They are by their sins debar'd the hope of Heaven and make no matter of it They are inthralled to their corporeal enemies and murmure against God for it They themselves are sold to Satan and to Sin and do not understand the horror of this servitude They are impatient in a waiting the coming of some Person that may reassemble them from their dispersion and deliver them in reference to the body The Redeemer and Deliverer of their fouls is offer'd and preach'd to them and they reject him They flatter themselves with hope of a profound and plenteous tranquillity in all sorts of pleasures and delights of the Flesh and cheer up themselves with it They are invited to taste how good the Lord is in his compassions and they refute it Their thoughts are day and night upon gold silver silk scarlet fine linnen and jewels and their hearts leap with the fancy The Gospel tells them of riches and ornaments relating to the minde and they blaspheme it Is this the Posterity of that onely wife and intelligent people with whom God establisht his Covenants But above all the rest they do injury to the glory of that Messias who was promised to them to fancy him an earthly Prince For since themselves call his Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven what other ought they to hope for but one spiritual and heavenly which beginning to be exercis'd here below in the souls of men which are of a spiritual nature is accomplish'd above in glory unspeakable And truly 't is to this that all the Prophets lead us from the first to the last What does that promise refer to The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head but to the consolation of man by the hope of being deliver'd from the Curse of eternal Death into which he is fallen by the deceit of the Evil One For as he sin'd principally with his soul which is the source and principle of the actions of the body and alone capable of understanding the laws of piety and obedience so it was consentaneous that the condemnation of death should be directed to the soul in case of rebellion And that other promise In thy seed shall all the families of the Earth be blessed and I will give this Land to thee and to thy Posterity after thee wherein did it profit Abraham if it aim'd no further then that Canaan which himself never possess'd and was not given to his Posterity till above 400. years after Was it either a sufficicent consolation to him in all the Crosses that he underwent or a Promise worthy of God who establisht his Covenant with him For which of us cares what will be done a hundred years after his death As for those words of Jacob untill Shiloh come they promise a Prince of peace about whom neither fire nor sword shall glitter but he shall be the author of peace between God and men It shall come to pass saith Isaiah that the Mountain of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it But what to do Come shall they say and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths Therefore 't is to be enrich'd in the knowledge of the Name of the Lord and not in Jewels or Pearls to learn to moderate and subdue their Passions and not to conquer Kingdomes Also in the 25. chap. 6. vers In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of Wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined Can they take this according to the Letter It is certain there are some so stupifi'd with the wine of ignorance that they take it so and expect to be satiated with that horrible Leviathan which is powder'd up I know not where against the manifestation of the Messias Poor people who think the Prince of the Kingdom of Heaven will come to fill their bellies But behold what follows vers 7. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all Nations What is the meaning of this but that all Nations being involv'd in ignorance as in the black veil of night he will dispell all that darkness to the end they may behold the light of his knowledge that they may rejoyce I say in the light of that Sun of Righteousness who carries healing in his wings And thus through out all the Prophets which would be too long to recite there needs no more but to read them For it will be found that he is a Prince of peace upon whom the Spirit of the Lord shall rest the Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding the Spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. That under his reign The Wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lye down with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lyon and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them c. That is He will unite the most hostile Nations together in the same society of Religion and cicurate and mollifie the fiercest people by the knowledge of the true God and render the most untractable natures gentle and sweet Which the Prophet himself expounds immediately after They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall be not break and the smoaking flaw shall he not quench So far is it that he shall batter all to pieces with Canon-shot or hew all down with the sword And as for his Glory it must needs be other then terrestrial and corporeal Since he was to be despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Since I say he
wicked in thought and will Now what acceptable service can that person render to God whose mind is possess'd with evil desires Or how can any thought of the Deity find admittance in that soul in which reason is dethroned to yield the rule to heady and precipitous passions Wherefore it appears that whereas we are in search of a doctrine capable to subordinate the appetites of men to Reason and Reason it self to true Piety which is the onely source of Virtue that of these people perverts the right use of Reason in stifling and effacing Piety and by that means gives up the reins to the insolence of our lusts and affections It may perhaps be demanded by some how it follows that because the ancient doctrine of Epicurus is incapable of exciting men to piety and repressing those violent inclinations which naturally hurry us to vice that therefore in the present times in which men have sublimer apprehensions of the Deity then he had not to mention that they are more fully assured of this Truth That there is a God the doctrine of the modern Epicureans should be no more effectual thereunto Is it reasonable to bound the effects of the knowledge men have now adays according to the measure of what they had in the Ages of old Should any advocate of that sect make us this objection we are not unprovided of many things to return him in answer And first in reference to that truth which is the foundation of all others That there is a God supposing the Epicureans of our time to retain the discipline of their predecessors That the world was not created by him that he do's not govern the same nor ever revealed himself particularly to us by any oracle how is it come to pass that we have a more certain knowledge of his Being seeing we have no other reasons nor testimonies thereof then those which men had heretofore And for that Common notion to which they recur how comes it to be more lively and deeply impress'd in our minds at this day then it was in the minds of those that liv'd a thousand years ago Are not they always the same race of men and is it not always the same Nature that brings them into the World But concerning the knowledge of the nature it self of the Deity I shall readily admit that a man whose brain is better made then that of Epicurus was would not be guilty of so many absurdities as he is Aristotle or Plato would never have described God after that fashion which he hath imagin'd him But so it is that this knowledge hath never been so well display'd by those who have had no other guide besides the light of reason as to yield a possibility of founding a more distinct belief thereof upon their imaginations at this day For I am of opinion they have gone as far as the mind of man in the condition it is since the first Lapse is capable to attain without being extraordinarily assisted by God himself And notwithstanding how great variety ha's there been among them in this particular What absurdities and impertinences have they not asserted The beginning of Cicero's Books De natura Deorum supply us with abundant evidence hereof where the opinions of the Philosophers concerning this matter are recited Good God! What dotages and extravagances do we meet with Anaximander makes the Gods equally lyable to being born to death with us and determine to them their intervals for the duration of their being Pythagoras affirms that God is a spirit diffused through the Universe from which our souls are clipt off like pieces sever'd from the whole and so divides him into a thousand millions of fragments Parmenides fancies him to be a crown of luminous fire wherewith the Heavens are inviron'd Empedocles distinguishes not the nature of the Gods from that of the Elements which he conceives to be divine and immortal although they undergo an infinite variety of Forms Antisthenes will have an infinite number of popular Deities and one natural Xenocrates is contented to assign us eight of which he saith the Sun Moon and other Planets make seven and the eighth is distributed amongst the fixed Stars Chrysippus holds that there is an innumerable multitude of Gods though he seems to establish one Principal consisting in a certain power of Reason expanded through all the parts of Nature Perseus acknowledges no other Deities then those which men have consecrated accordingly as they conceiv'd some considerable benefit bestowed on them by any one Cleanthes esteems the whole world to be God which also was afterwards the opinion of Pliny Diogenes Apolloniates imagined that God was made of Air. Protagoras knew not what he is nor whether there were any at all Democritus jumbles him and hurries him like his indivisible bodies framing an infinite variety of images of him In a word 't is deplorable to consider how ignorant forlorne and extravagant the mind of men is in its imaginations and although Aristotle and Plato have had something more rational conceptions in this particular yet there is discernible in them always abundance of weakness and inconstance Nevertheless those Philosophers whose Fancies are rehearsed in that Treatise with so much derision were men of as good entendments and sufficiencies as the Epicureans of our days and the greatest part of them had moreover to assist them in this Meditation the belief of a Providence which was a light to conduct them to a clearer knowledge of what they were in search after Therefore what are they able to do at this day who besides being not more intelligent then those of old do renounce the assistance of that aide For in so difficult a chase the former have undoubtedly more advantages in traversing the thickets by being acquainted with the footsteps of that they are in pursuit of although but obscure lightly impress'd and pass'd over by bad searchers then they who take no notice of any at all and who if any presents themselves to their sight shut their eyes that they might not see them or on set purpose expunge and confound them The knowledge of arts is indeed growing by degrees to greater politeness accordingly as men improve them by other inventions and experiences As it is probable Physick is more skillfully practis'd at this day then it ha's been heretofore by reason of new observations made in Anatomy and new tryals of the Virtues of Drugs Plants and Minerals But in case no dissections had been made of humane bodies for this two thousand years or no new proofs experienc'd of medicaments it would be necessary to remain contented with the measure of knowledg which the Ancients had attain'd to in that art Now being in the opinion of these people God is not in any thing more particularly revealed to us then to our Predecessors If the Epicureans will keep themselves to the Maximes of their Sect they must either content themselves with what they have received from them or if they
But there is something more in the matter which is that although some have more apprehensions of them and others less yet all are desirous to be delivered from them and to finde out some remedy against them For there is nothing that so harrasses the mind or gives it such anguish as Fear does and there is no man finds any pleasure in being tormented in that manner How therefore is it come about that men have been so susceptible of these vain terrors seeing we naturally repell those things that are enemies unto us And is it not so much the more considerable that there have been always found some people although they have been very rare among others that have endeavored as Epicurus to deliver men from such affrightments by openly preaching Impiety either by words or example For David complaines that there were some even amongst the Jews that were so devoid of sense as to deny that there is a God or if there be that he takes any consideration of humane actions by his Providence A strange thing that they which would imprint such vain Fears in the mind of Men should have succeeded so happily and so universally therein notwithstanding all the natural repugnances in us against them and they which would deliver us from them could never effect their purpose although they had the assistance of natural profaneness to favour them thereunto Do's not this surpass all astonishment that the Fear of Divine Justice naturally disquiets the souls of men and causes such painful agitations therein and yet notwithstanding if Epicurus should have mounted upon the Theater at Athens and the Poet Lucretius gone into the Pulpit for Orations and there preached to the people the contempt of God and his Thunders that instead of recompensing them for attempting to free men from such a tyrannical opinion the greatest wretches would have been ready to beat out their brains with stones And that those Nations being so inflamed with love of their Liberty and an ardent hatred against Tyrants which affected the Domination over their Goods and Persons that they erected statues in their streets in honor of them that kill'd them should have so great an abhorrence against those which went about to disabuse them from a fancy which oppress'd and tyranniz'd over their souls Surely it must rather be acknowledged that Nature prevail'd and the wrath of God which is in a high degree revealed to men from Heaven and Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat And it helps not to alledge that it hath not been possible for us to be delivered from these Terrors because we have not been instructed in the Doctrine of Epicurus For whosoever looks narrowly thereinto will not without admiration remark two things First that there are very few men but have a propensity to Prophaneness and consequently every one is an Instructer to himself in the Epicurean discipline Yet nevertheless the number is so small that ha's delivered themselves from the inquietudes of conscience that perhaps there never was so much as one person that became absolutely freed from them not even Lucretius or Epicurus himself In some men the more resistance they employ against those assaults the greater is their importunateness and they are re-enforced by the endeavors that are us'd to repell them so that from Impiety to which they would resign up themselves to sin more at ease without being molested by such alarms in the midst of their pleasures they fall into Superstition like a fugitive slave that is drawn back by the throat into his Masters house where he is inforced to obey whether he will or no for fear of the Scourge and the Torture Others indeed go so far that the pleasures wherein they swim and wherewith they almost totally subvert their reason remove in a manner such sentiments out of their minds so as sometimes to make a mockery thereof But 't is as when Criminals give themselves to debaucheries in the Prison For when the fumes of wine are a little exhal'd and they begin to think of their crimes with a setled consideration they fret and are excruciated with the horror of Gibbets and Wheels which are preparing for them But if it happen to them to be always drunk which yet is rarely so yet they are in their sleep tormented with horrible visions and affrighting dreams The second thing observable is that the honester part of mankind are they which feel those Terrors least by reason that a good conscience which hath knowledge of the Goodness of God and his inclination to Mercy assures and reposes it self in the same and notwithstanding such good men abhor that doctrine from the bottom of their hearts that removes all fear of the Deity out of the Mind of Man In so much that they which are least disquieted with these Troubles are the men that esteem them to have their foundations in Nature and to be grounded upon Truth On the contrary they which believe them vain and groundless are the most severely assaulted with them without being able to be released from them In which on the one side shines the Goodness of God towards them that love him sincerely and fear him awfully and on the other side his Justice upon them that disesteem him What man was ever more outragious against God then Caligula or who ever so audaciously contemned his Vengeance And for all that when so ever it thundred as if the Deity had spoke to him from Heaven he hid himself under his Bed as if he intended to make a Buckler of it against the Tempest Whereas in the midst of the Darkness in which the Pagans liv'd Socrates maintained his mind in that same tranquillity at his Death wherein he had pass'd the whole course of his days But there is one thing highly worthy consideration which is that the stings of Conscience are never so sensible and so quick as when men approach near Death or behold themselves in some eminent danger that menaces them And whence should it be so but onely that by the instinct of Nature they presage and anticipate with their fear the misery that attends the Wicked after this Life Misery I say which is so much the more horrible in the apprehensions they have of it by reason that they know not what it is and because all men have a perswasion that their souls are immortal For if Death did extinguish the Soul with the Body and so rescued both the one and the other from the Divine Vengeance and the jurisdiction of Fortune at the same time there would be nothing at all to justifie those fears in reason In case I say those terrors were not natural in us there would be no person but would free himself from them with this consideration There was a time when we were not in Being and one day we shall exist no more which was the consolation of Epicurus But on the contrary then is the time that those Alarms are redoubled and the tempests increase
they would fall did not he infuse Light into them they would become darkness as well as we There remains therefore but one Expedient which is for God who alone is infinite to satisfie himself And here it is that humane Reason is confounded Let us nevertheless experience how far we are able to comprehend this abysse By the words above recited out of the Prophet Isaiah it appears that he that underwent the chastisement of our peace was to be man A man of sorrows saith he and acquainted with grief who must lay down his soul an offering for sin and this cannot be meant of any other Creature But had he had not express'd the same so manifestly the nature of the punishment which it behov'd him to suffer necessarily requires it For this is the wages of sin In the day thou eatest of the fruit of this Tree thou shalt dye the death that is thou shalt be under the subjection and condemnation of death both as to body and soul For as the Reward of Piety ha's respect to the whole complete man compos'd of body and soul so also ha's the retribution of sin which ha's corrupted both the one and the other And indeed he that was to break the Serpents head according to the word of God was to be the seed of the Woman If therefore the satisfaction which he was to render to God ought to be of an infinite value what person is able to render it though a man unless himself be of an infinite dignity And if such man be of an infinite dignity what remains but that he is also God since infiniteness of dignity cannot reside but in the divine Essence and Nature Certainly infiniteness of Dignity is as much incommunicable as infiniteness of Essence for it ha's its root and foundation in infiniteness of Essence and the one is as the natural reflexion or irradiation of the other So that as it is impossible to separate the light and strength of the Sun from the Sun it self or to imagine that something should possess that admirable splendor and vivificant virtue which is in the Sun and not fancy it to be the Sun it self So yea much more impossible is it to attribute a dignity beyond all limits to any whatsoever and not withall attribute to him an uncircumscrib'd and infinite essence And to this how seemingly repugnant soever to their reason do the Divine Scriptures manifestly astipulate out of which I shall for brevity's sake produce but some few irrefragable passages Thus speaks the Prophet Malachi in the 3. chap. of his Prophecy Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the may before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Words which we have shewn above and the Jews grant are intended of the Messias alone the Messias who alone was promis'd to be a Redeemer to his Church Now I beseech you to whom was the Temple of Jerusalem dedicated but to the true God and can it then be meant of any simply a Creature that it was his Temple Certainly neither the Jealousie of the Lord could endure it nor the ancient piety of the Jews have permitted it the erection of Temples and dedication of Altars being not due but to the Deity alone as testimonies of the soverain honor we owe to his supreme nature and Majesty But David apertly terms him God in the 45. Psalm and will not have us put to the necessity of gathering it by consequence Thy throne O GOD is for ever and ever The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore O God thy God hath annointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows For I challenge any man to make out to whom else these words can sute but to the Messias Whose throne is this that must abide for ever and to eternity For that the words he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie a duration without end they know who understand any thing in this language Now there is no appearance that the Holy Spirit would give the name of God to a simple creature on this manner together with a Kingdom of everlasting duration So likewise in the 110. Psalm where David calls the Messias his Lord ther 's no question but he would have him understood to be something more besides a meer man For David was a King and depended of no other but God so that between the Divine Power and that which is truely Regal such as that of David was there can be no other intermediate And yet he stiles him with the same appellation subjects use to their soverain Prince In the 110. Psalm The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool But least any further cavill at this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sometimes in Scripture is given both to men and to Angels by reason of the greatness of their strength and eminence of power though it cannot be found attributed to one alone in particular either of Angels or men that are in power in the world Isaiah makes the commentary of it For unto us a child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor The mighty God The Father of Eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prince of Peace Are these titles competent to a creature I know well that they assay to turn this passage to Hezekiah and refer all these titles to God except that of the Prince of Peace which they say is given by him to Hezekiah but it behoveth to have lost both shame and the use of common sense to believe them For in what other place of the Scripture where the Prophets mean to speak of God and some action purposed by him to be done do they accumulate so many titles Besides that to them that understand it the genius of the language contradicts them very evidently and their best Paraphrasts being overcome with the clearness of the truth refer it to the Messias But the Prophet Jeremy speaks with the greatest clearness possible in the 23. chap. of his Prophecy Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch and he shall raign as King and shall execute judgement and justice in the Earth In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his Name whereby he shall be called THE LORD OVR RIGHTEOVSNESSE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For here the Ineffable name of God is us'd which is as much incommunicable according to the opinion of the Jews themselves as his very essence And indeed the greatest part of his other Names seem to hold forth his Properties but this denotes his eternally permanent essence This is it by which he delights to call himself and glorifies himself in it 'T is true
between these two figures and yet after so many thousand years to the present time it is not found out nor determin'd what it may be Where is the person amongst us that is able to make our handsomely what is meant by the Agent and Patient Intellect as they speak and wherein their difference consists And 1. evertheless they bicker in the Scholes to maintain that they are really distinct Certainly nothing ought to be so well known to us as our selves nothing so evident to our minds as their own motions Now we understand and will different things a thousand times in one day and yet 't is disputed whether the Will necessarily follows the dictates of the Understanding or have some liberty of resistance for all dominion it ha's over it 'T is scarce known whether they be two distinct Faculties and there are some which confound them Books are compil'd of the Miracles of Nature so term'd because the effects indeed are visible but the causes undiscern'd The Occult Sympathies and Antipathies of things fill complete Volumes and after the most exact and curious Enquiries Obscurity and Incomprehension is pleaded in Favor of Ignorance Physitians examine our Pulses every day and the most learned amongst them if ingenuous confess they understand not what that wonderful facultie is which sets the Heart in motion whether it began to move first by contracting or dilating it self and whether the Arteries are contracted at the same instant of the Hearts extension What ground of scandal therefore is in this assertion that there is something in the Nature of God which we are not able to comprehend But which is more should it be granted that there is but one single person in the Divine Essence yet none can boast of being able to solve the difficulties which may arrive from thence For what humane mind is capable of distinctly understanding how all the Perfections of God are his very Essence and not Accidents or Qualities like those faculties of ours really distinct from the subject in which they reside Since there are some of them not onely extremely different as Wisdom and Power but directly opposite as Justice and Mercy And yet reason induces yea compells to believe it otherwise Accidents must be imagin'd in God and consequently a composition unworthy the simplicity of his being Who is he of us that is able to imagine an infinite essence as the Divine is diffus'd infinitely in the mane space beyond the world expanded throughout the whole Universe so as to be totally present in all things not divided or separated by the occurse and interposition of bodies not mingled and confounded with the spiritual and immaterial substance of our Souls Where is the man that is able to conceive after what manner our souls are extended through all the members of our bodies For if it be all in every part of the Body as is commonly taught what difference is there between it's manner of being in the whole body and in each of its members and if it be not totally present in each part why is it not compos'd of parts after the manner of bodies and by consequence divisible and corruptible I am not ignorant that many subtle distinctions are us'd in this matter more proper to cast a mist before the eyes then to afford a clear and certain knowledge of it but I am confident they are most times not understood even by those which alledge them Now let us bestow our inquiries in such things as yield solid satisfaction to the mind and not in such in which those that propose them have only design'd to shew the vivacity of their Understandings and their abilities Otherwise if we betake our selves to subtleties forsaking manifest deductions and conclude that for true which we are not able to make out the Speculations of our Scholasticks in this kind will over-cloud our Religion and supply matter enough for contradiction But there are certain verities resembling too radiant lights which dazle if beheld in themselves and in their fountain by reason of the weakness of our eyes but content and delight if look'd upon in the correspondence they have with others more preceptible by our minds And this in question is of this Nature Now there are two ways of being assured of the verity of this Doctrine The first is that which we have touch'd upon formerly That every man have so high an estimation of the justice of God as to believe it absolutely implacable towards us without a preceeding satisfaction for our offences and know so well to weigh the horror of Sin that he never dare think of approaching God without confessing ingenuously that he ha's deserv'd both the temporal death of the body and the eternal of the Soul and that it is impossible for him ever to obtain pardon unless some other satisfie for him and that with a price equivalent to the greatness of his crimes and the Dignity of Divine Justice For he that is thus dispos'd in his soul and we have shewn above that the right consideration of the nature of God requires man to be so assoon as the means of so idoneous a satisfaction is propounded to him he will eagerly embrace it unless he ascribe too much to Reason and presume too much on his own capacity to comprehend things which are above his reach But the good opinion we have of our selves in being able to dive into abstruse matters causes us oftentimes to commit most pernicious errors The Second is for a man to consider attentively what the Book is and the Doctrine in general and in the body of which this makes but a part For there will appear in the First so many evidences of its Divinity and in the Second such an indissoluble connection of this point with many other verities of an indubitable certitude and evidence that it will be impossible for the mind of man if it be not totally obstinate and hardned not to acquiesce therein And in truth let him begin with the books of Moses Their Antiquity in the first place renders them venerable above all other writings of the world For there are lest no monuments in all Antiquiquity that come near them by many Ages The War of Thebes and the Sacking of Troy to which Lucretius limits the knowledge men have of ancient matters in these verses Praeterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo Terrai coeli semperque aeterna fuere Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinere Poetae And the times of Theseus and Hercules beyond which Plutarch is able to discover no certainty in Histories followed a long while after the birth of this great Prophet The language in which it was written is the mother of all others of which the several words which they have retain'd from it and which are as slips of that ancient stock and the names of their very letters bear sufficient testimony The style of it is plain indeed
And nevertheless what remaines of the Empire of Alexander that may give us assurance of its quondam existence are there any traces of it either in Asia or Europe Certainly no statues which were erected to him no medals no pillars erected for his monument no memorial engraven in a rock or mountain no person of his lineage nor shadow of his Empire can give us any certainty of him There 's nothing but the Books of the Ancients for it of which it may be in like manner demanded whether they be not supposititious and whether the Authors whose names they bear were ever in the world Onely it ha's continued constantly in the memory of men that there was sometimes an Alexander surnamed the Great by reason of his virtues and grandeur And what have we of Caesar His Commentaries which may with as much reason be call'd in doubt as the Epistles of Saint Paul For what more lively character do those bear of that great Emperor then these do of this great Apostle More then this what evidence can be produc'd but I know not what vain pretended inscriptions some mutilous monuments and the foundation of some old castle without any other title of its author then the ancient tradition that the Romanes waged great wars with our Gaules under his conduct The most eminent token remaining of him is a vain shadow of his Empire transfer'd from Rome to Germany and his name which is perpetuated from one to another by those Princes Now is there any thing in all this to be compar'd with the immarcessible evidences which the Apostles have left of themselves in the whole earth And if the name of Caesar retain'd by the German Emperors and that carkass of his Empire are sufficient proof that there was a great Prince of that name is not the name of Saint Peter preserved by the Bishops of that place and their authority to which those Caesars have subjected themselves an authentick testimony that there was a Saint Peter The Romane Name is indeed perisht and the Nations have shook off the yoak of its obedience and out of the shivers of that great body are risen up divers Kingdoms who own it no longer how ever renown'd Emperors and formidable armies it had heretofore But the Christian Name is Living and the memory of those who founded it though we be now far remov'd from their Generation so fresh and deep in the minds of men that a self-oblivion will sooner arrive to all mankind then they will forget them They are continually spoken of in life they are sought to for consolation in death the knowledge of them is instil'd into the souls of little children with their milk who do not so soon understand that they are men as they do that they are Christians and disciples of the Apostles If therefore a much less certain tradition be not question'd why shall that which is so constant be call'd into doubt If belief is given to some fragments of statues and some old triumphant arches defac'd by time shall we not give credit to so many Temples and infinite other authentick monuments Wherefore it remains that there are certain things which though no otherwise known then by tradition and common report nevertheless cannot be contradicted but by contentious spirits and such as are insupportable in their impudence For when a thing containes nothing incredible in it self and is moreover universally receiv'd when all memorials that can be requir'd of it are found both in books monuments when the multitude of those which affirm it is innumerable in comparison of those which deny it when it is embraced by all sorts of spirits and of all conditions high and low learned and ignorant rich and poor when it ha's got footing in several Nations pass'd over seas and mountains and penetrated into the most remote regions when it ha's taken such root in the minds of men that millions might be found all absolutely dispos'd to suffer death in defence of it it behoveth to have lost common sense or to be immensely brainsick to be capable still to distrust it The Question whether the Books attributed to them be theirs or not perhaps may seem of somewhat more difficulty to be resolv'd And yet if we be minded to use the same argument the Christians have had so constant an opinion from all time that they are so and all Nations and Languages so unanimously acknowledg'd it and render'd them so uniform a testimony that if we doubt not but the Books bearing the names of Aristotle and Cicero are truely theirs much more ought we to be assured of these to which such a cloud of witnesses of all qualities and in all times have given most peremptory and convincing evidence But let us close with them a little nearer The first thing which ought to be consider'd in a writing is the matter whether it be both excellent of it self and consentaneous to the condition of the person who propounds it For I am perswaded the Marshal de Strossy who was an assiduous reader of Caesar's Commentaries was not so much assured by the title of the Book that they had that incomparable Captain for Author as by the traces of an extraordinary military sufficiency he discern'd in them which could not have been made or written but onely by a man that was a perfect master in the art of war Now who did the Apostles pretend themselves to be Ministers sent to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and dispensers of his heavenly mysteries Let it examin'd what consonance there is between their writings and this profession and a most perfect correspondence will be found between them For in that which they have written of his history they paint him out to us so much to the life and with so natural a pencil that he that reads them attentively cannot but seem to himself to see understand and converse with him amongst his disciples in Judea Moreover all their doctrines and narrations have that aim without ever intermixing any thing of humane sciences or affairs and extraneous matters little conducing to their purpose and yet even in that which they teach they discover such a profound wisdom so unknown to all those that ever profess'd learning and nevertheless so conformable to the humane Understanding when once it ha's comprehended the same that it is abundantly manifest that they in truth deriv'd from the fountain of those mysteries what they dispenc'd to us and that they pourtray'd Jesus so lively by having a perfect Idea of him deeply imprinted in their souls Since therefore the matter of those writings is such that they could not have been made but by those who were either Apostles or alike qualifi'd what is more rational then to attribute the same to them seeing they bear their names inscrib'd in the front and the aire as I may so speak and genius of them in their aspect In the next place the style is to be consider'd which ought to be agreeable both
conscience summons him before the Tribunal of God and he reflects seriously on the immortal state of his soul the memory of all this vanishes and ther 's nothing to animate and comfort us but only the knowledge of the things which are reveal'd to us in these divine writings which moreover both the multitude and the constancy of such as have maintained with their blood to be of Divine original do justly challenge admiration For since it ha's not been through ferocity of courage that they underwent death with such alacrity being simple men for the most part and humble and quiet-minded in their whole lives nor through ambition of vain glory from affecting which they were very remote in all their conversation nor through a blind and obstinate headiness and opiniastry having always shewn themselves submissive to all good reasons and respectful towards all persons and especially towards superior Powers nor through brutish stupidity since in all other matters they appear'd men of sober judgements capable of reason and prudence nor through ignorance of the nature of Death seeing they preach't to others that 't is an effect of the vengeance of God upon the Sin of men and were fully perswaded of the immortality of their souls but the onely hope of glory promised in those books raised them beyond all fear they must needs have had a high perswasion of their verity since it was capable to ingenerate so powerful and impregnable a confidence in their minds And whereas there were many things which might have reclaim'd and deterr'd them from embracing these Books as the continual afflictions which they promise in this life for such is the gratification they hold forth here to those which receive them the love of their estates honors and children which naturally possesses the mindes of men the reproach of an ignomious death which is so intolerable to minds that own any thing of generosity the severity and reiteration of torments sufficient to shake the most firm resolution it follows that there must have been some more then humane inducements which fix'd their minds so unmoveably on an object expos'd to so numerous incomfortable perplexities and violences Then consider especially the almost infinite multitude of Martyrs and their long perseverance through so many Ages For had there been but two or three it might have been deem'd Nature had intended some extraordinary exploit in them or that they were transported by some foolish fancy and every Religion might produce some like example But what charm could have been potent enough to induce so many millions of men women and children of all ages conditions sexes and in so many most bloody persecutions renewed from time to time and age to age to despise death so magnanimously in maintaining a doctrine which had no other trouble attended it may seem ought to have been disgustfull to them both because it oppos'd their passions which we follow so willingly and depriv'd them of all the sweetnesses and delights of life Nevertheless those Violences have been the means to propagate it throughout the whole Earth and resolution and patience the arms wherwith it ha's destroy'd the empire of the false Gods and expelled the Demons from government of the World Other kind of Armies it never depended on to extend its conquests even to the ends of the World and subdue the greatest and most flourishing Empires All other Religions are confounded or if any are still upheld 't is only by the favor of Princes force of arms This though all the powers of the world were enemys to it at it's birth though it never attempted any thing but by the Voice onely never us'd other rampart for defence but an invincible patience ha's born up through 1600 years and overcome the hearts of Princes themselves But of this subject there are express Treatises to which we refer the Reader and proceed to examine in the next Chapter a certain Opinion excogitated of old by some giddy spirits and reviv'd in our dayes against the Divinity of Christ which though destitute of all apparence of reason do's not cease to take root and grow amongst many persons and therefore requires our consideration Place these two leaves which you find with Stars between 510 and 511. CHAP. X. That those who affirme Christ took upon him the appellation of God though he was not so onely that he might thereby render his Dâ—ctrine more authentique are apparently destitute of all reason THere are some people in these dayes who conceive they render the Christian Religion very acceptable when they give this account of matters pertaining to it That true Religion consists in the internal piety of the soul towards God and in the sincere and constant exercise of true virtue towards men That of all Religions the Christian is that which holds forth most knowledge of the nature of God and true virtue reducing the humane mind to the principles of nature it self and rectifying it from all the perverse opinions which the corruption of depraved Ages had induc'd into it But because the naked and plain proposing of these matters would have been very little effectual with men their own affections inclining them more powerfully to vice then virtue and for that the exhortations of a man merely man would not have been very prevalent Christ who was the chief and most excellent promoter of it that he might render his preaching more authentick assum'd the glorious appellation of the Son of God and pretended to be God too to the end that it being natural to us to receive with reverence what proceeds from the Deity his Doctrine might be more readily and firmely embrac'd his pretended divine dignity and the danger of rejecting what God is author of conciliating a sacred and venerable authority unto him Whence it was that like as when some great structure is to be built scaffolds are erected round about it which of themselves make no part of the Work but are serviceable for conveying materials upwards and for the standing of workmen so in the structure of Christian Religion some positions were employ'd which of themselves are but mere fictions but yet conduce to the establishing of profitable and excellent truths Such are the doctrine of the Trinity that of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of Justification by means of Christ's death and others which depend on these which are in their judgement Pious Frauds as they speak useful to very advantageous effects and might be imploy'd with a safe conscience because 't is a good thing to deceive when the delusion renders men better more happy and more wise Now this Opinion is so strange and swarmes with so many absurd impieties that not the scarcity but the abundance of Arguments which arise all at once in the mind of whosoever considers it renders me anxious where I should begin For in the first place it is requisite that they take away all correspondence between the Old Testament and the New and deny that our
experiences of people who amidst aches and mutilations and losses of their limbs have preserved the whole strength of their Minds intire till death it must needs be that this Tabernacle lodgeth something else that is of a more durable temper Whence it is easie to conclude that since it is not a Body it must be an immaterial substance and consequently incorruptible For being of a spiritual nature it cannot be assailed by external things which offend us nor suffer from any accident that befalls it from without and holding nothing of the matter of the Elements or their contrary qualities which naturally encounter one another to their mutual destruction it involves not in it self any seed of corruption which seems to attend every thing that is composed of them I shall add moreover what ha's been above demonstrated that there is so great a difference between Vice and Virtue that he that do's not acknowledge the same is unworthy the name of a man Which how is it possible for us to acknowledge if the Faculties of our Minds be not different from those of Brutes since they have no understanding at all of it For it is certain that we argue from the disproportion of effects to the difference of causes and from the diversity of actions to that of the Faculties which produce them and lastly from the difference of Faculties to that of the essence it self of the things in which those faculties reside If therefore Brutes have no knowledge of Good and Evil as every one sees they have not and if we perceive an infinite distance between them as reason informs us and our conscience acquiesces therein and the consentment of Nations hath declared in all the World it follows that there is an infinite disproportion between our Faculties and theirs and consequently that the like distance is found between the essence of their Souls and that of ours And I appeal to reason whether being the perfection of a Man consists in the knowledge of the most excellent objects and in the exercise of Virtue and the perfection of a good Horse lyes in the strength of his Limbs and in the agility of his motions whether I say it be not abundantly evident that the excellence of the one lyes in his Body and the excellence of the other in some thing wherewith the body hath scarce any communication or commerce Whence it necessarily follows that their natures differ wholly and absolutely in regard of reason which alone is capable of conferring that perfection on man as weighty things differ from light by the massive solidity of their matter in which gravity is seated and as the circular Figure is discriminated from the rest by the roundness of its circumference equally distant from the centre Of which the luctation and combate of reason against the corporeal appetites which even Aristotle and other Philosophers have plainly acknowledged affords a testimony satisfactorily manifest For since there is no shadow of such reluctance in Brutes who follow their sensuality without any rule or check and that the same is sound in the most dissolute men in whom conscience cannot be absolutely extinguish'd it follows that it must have its original from something which is naturally destitute of that sensuality and consequently which is also not corporeal Because it is manifest that those appetites which are called sensitive and are common to us with Brutes have their seat and root in the Body and depend on that Soul by which we have resemblance with them in asmuch as we are Animals Wherefore whether there be in man two distinct Souls one Sensitive as it is called by which we are Animals and the other Reasonable by which we are men or whether there be but one onely which is indued with different faculties whereby we are provided to perform all the Functions appertaining to those two respects it is clear that that sensitive faculty is not displayed but in the Body being so linked to it as never to be separable from it and that on the contrary the other is not seated in the body since it is designed to check our appetites which it performs oftentimes with very great violence and power And this is so true and so universally received saving by the Epicureans who think they have won the Palme for noble inventions in Philosophy because they have degraded themselves to the rank of Brutes that the most excellent persons have been so far from believing the Soul to perish with the Body that on the contrary not being able to conjecture how after the dissipation of the Body they could ever be reunited and render the whole man immortal they have affirmed that the Soul in which the Understanding resides is really the man and that the Body is not but as the receptacle and prison But by the grace of God we shall see hereafter that man was created for immortality as well in reference to his body as to his Soul and that being fallen from this prerogative by sin he hath been restored thereunto by the Divine clemency and mercy Seeing it is so therefore that the Soul of man subsists after separation from the Body and consequently is of an incorruptible substance it follows of necessity that there is somthing to be hoped and feared from the Deity and that though his Providence were not so cleerly intelligible in the world here yet at least his justice is to be dreaded in that which is to come For what will become of the soul after Death Will she act or will she be buried in eternal sleep Certainly she is of a nature so active vigilant and averse from idleness that it is with regret that she allows the body its necessary intervals of refreshment Even as plung'd and immur'd as she is in it when that is at rest she is not surpris'd with sleep but is ever imploy'd on some kind of speculations how unprofitable and extravagant soever they be Like as a Musitian that is affected to the exercise of his Art chooses rather to play on his Lute though half untuned and at the inconvenience of making false Musick and committing dissonances then to suffer his fingers to become torpid by continued disuse And the more excellent she is that is the more exercis'd in generous contemplations the more she hates repose even to the abandoning all care of her habitation though she otherwise loves and is a good companion unto it So that she would be clean diverted from the end to which Nature ha's designed her if she were condemned to a perpetuall sleep in eternal night What then will her occupations be at that time Will she frequent in Towns or will she resort to unhabited placs Neither of which is worthy of her nor sutable to her inclinations Whilst she is here by reason of the body confined to sensible things yet she quits her self from them oftentimes to busie her vivacity in the contemplation of those which are intellectual For whatsoever beauty the World hath
to the condition of the Writer and the capacity of those for whose use the writing is intended Now the Apostles were indeed exalted to a most eminent dignity but withall teachers of humility and writ not to refined wits accomplisht by the acquist of Sciences but to the most simple vulgar What then behoved them to do but choose a plain manner of writing and phrases to which their Disciples were accustomed to the end not to obscure mysteries of themselves above the ordinary reach of men by an elaborate and sublime style And this they have done by writing in Greek indeed because that language was most generally in use among all sorts of Nations which were to be brought to the knowledge of Christ but they have so accommodated it to the mode of the Hebrew Tongue that rendring themselves understood by the Greeks they have not relinquisht the idiomes to which those were accustomed who by reading the books of the Prophets were already somewhat lightly imbu'd prepossess'd with those mysteries As likewise it would have been inconvenient for that Divine Wisdom unknown to all the Nations and which had convers'd with the Jewish alone though veiled in a sort with ceremonies and legal doctrines to have all at once quitted its simple and modest attire to put on the pompe of the Greek or Roman eloquence For besides that it would have been disguis'd thereby as in a strange garbe the love it had excited in our minds might have been attributed to that quaint attire whereas we ought to be invited to it onely by the attractiveness of its simple and natural beauty Nevertheless there shine so many beams of celestiall light and such a venerable Majesty through this humility and modest outside I mean the plainness of its language that whoso observes it attentively will judge it never to have been of humane extraction But in this it is in some measure different from the manner in which it was revealed by the Prophets because it was then something terrible for that designing to awe the minds of men rather by the respect of its Majesty then by very much knowledge and unveiling it self but seldom it was requisite it should use a high tone and full of authority And thus we see why the Prophets seem to use more lofty strains and a more magnificent procedure But now that it offers it self to perfect knowledge taking away the band from before the eyes of men and the veil from its own face it shews it self more obliging and gracious Hence it is that the Apostles do not thunder and lighten but discourse and reason and perswade the humane mind by the consequence of their arguments whereas the former amaz'd it Moreover because 't is proper to God to be constant and on the contrary to man to be variable so that the Works of God as proceeding from an infallible wisdom are correspondent to themselves in all their parts whereas those of man both through his ignorance which he cannot avoid and his natural inconstancy usually vary and interfere since the Apostles being design'd for Teachers to the whole world ought to have been taught by God it behoveth necessarily that every one be both consistent with himself and concordant with the rest Let the New Testament therefore the writings of which bear the names of eight or ten authors be diligently consider'd for discovering what harmony they make together certainly the histories will be sound so consonant the opinions so uniform the style so like and the ratiocinations prosecuted so equally that though according to the diversity of each mans genius there be some kind of air which distinguishes them so that it may be well observ'd that they are not the work of one alone yet in this consort of several voices of which each bears its measure and part there cannot be found any real discord or dissonance And because the Christian Religion ought to be built upon the foundations of the Jewish so that what was begun by the Prophets ought like an edifice to be continued by the Apostles and finish'd according to the same design let the Old Testament be compared with the New that it may be seen whether there be any part of the structure not correspondent to the foundation vitiating the proportion disordering the work or making a breach On the contrary it will be found that there is no other difference between the Old Testament and the New in reference to the doctrine of salvation propounded by both but that it was in the former as it were in its infancy and in the latter as in its perfect age there the foundations were laid of it which scarce ascend above the ground here 't is advanc'd into a complete structure as high as the clouds 'T is there like seed shouting out its verdure amidst the ceremonies of the Law as amongst strange plants here it is like a florishing and plentiful crop which ha's overtop'd them all And lastly God speaks there indeed to the Israelites as a Saviour and Redeemer but 't is from the middle of acloud whence sometimes issue forth lightnings and the noise of thunder here he dispells all obscurity and shews a calme and serene aspect with a mild and charming strain Hence also it comes to pass that they who betake themselves seriously to the reading of these books being enamor'd on the excellency of the things they teach perswaded by the evidence of truth deeply affected with the knowledge of the nature of Sin which they hold forth comforted effectually with the remedy which they exhibite against the same and raised by the gracious promises they meet with therein to a lively hope of a glorious immortality are transported with such ardor to embrace them that all other things afterwards how commendable soever seem to them in comparison jejune languide and disgustful impertinent to the right end of humane life and unprofitable towards what is alone of importance and necessity in it to wit The knowledge of God for whose glory we were created and The knowledge of the Chief good whereunto we have a natural tendency and the means to obtain the same without which we are destitute of all hope For admit you were imbued with all the Philosophy of the Greeks understood all the excellent Learning of the Romane Civil Laws possess'd all the skill in Physick which Hippocrates and Galen have left the world had turned over all the writings of the ancients and treasur'd up a magazine of all histories observ'd all the motions of the Heavens acquir'd the knowledge of all Arts and perfection in all languages and discover'd the most abstruse secrets in the Mathematicks or in Nature indeed ye might find something of contentment to your mind by noble speculations and avoid many disturbances of life and be ennabled to provide for your security and the recovery of your health for a while and perhaps gain a high repute amongst men But when a man is at the point of death and