which it was directed which accordingly as they proved either Helpfull or Hurtfull Innocent or Offensive so the Lye was reputed either Lawfull or Unlawfull And therefore since a Man was helped by an Officious Lye and not Hurt by a Iocose both of thefe came to be esteemed Lawfull and in some Cases Laudable But the Schoolmen and Casuists having too much Philosophy to go about to clear a Lye from that intrinsick Inordination and Deviation from right Reason inherent in the Nature of it and yet withall unwilling to rob the World and themselves especially of so sweet a Morsel of Liberty held that a Lye was indeed absolutely and universally Sinfull but then they held also that only the Pernicious Lye was a Mortal Sin and the other Two were only Venial It can be no part of my Business here to overthrow this Distinction and to shew the Nullity of it Which has been solidly and sufficiently done by most of our Polemick Writers of the Protestant Church But at present I shall only take this their Concession That every Lye is sinfull and consequently unlawfull and if it be a Sin I shall suppose it already prov'd to my hands to be what all Sin essentially is and must be Mortal So that thus far have we gone and this Point have we gained That it is absolutely and universally unlawfull to lye or to falsify Let us now in the next Place enquire from whence this Unlawfulness springs and upon what it is grounded To which I answer That upon the Principles of Natural Reason the Unlawfulness of Lying is grounded upon this That a Lye is properly a Sort or Species of Injustice and a Violation of the Right of that Person to whom the false Speech is directed For all speaking or signification of Ones Mind implies in the Nature of it an Act or Address of one Man to another It being evident that no Man though he does speak false can be said to lye to himself Now to shew what this Right is We must know that in the beginnings and first Establishments of Speech there was an implicit Compact amongst Men founded upon common Use and Consent that such and such Words or Voices Actions or Gestures should be Means or Signs whereby they would Express or Convey their Thoughts one to another and That Men should be obliged to use them for that Purpose for as much as without such an Obligation those Signs could not be Effectual for such an End From which Compact there arising an Obligation upon every One so to conveigh his Meaning there accrews also a Right to every One by the same Signs to judge of the Sence or Meaning of the Person so obliged to express himself And consequently if these Signs are applied and used by him so as not to signifie his Meaning the Right of the Person to whom he was obliged so to have done is hereby violated and the Man by being deceived and kept ignorant of his Neighbour's Meaning where he ought to have known it is so far deprived of the Benefit of any Intercourse or Converse with him From hence therefore we see that the Original Reason of the Unlawfulness of Lying or Deceiving is That it carries with it an Act of Injustice and a Violation of the Right of him to whom we were obliged to signifie or impart our Minds But then we must observe also which I noted at first That as it is in Man's Power to institute not only Words but also Things Actions or Gestures to be the Means whereby he would signifie and express his Mind so on the otherside those Voices Actions or Gestures which Men have not by any Compact agreed to make the Instruments of conveying their Thoughts one to another are not the proper Instruments of Deceiving so as to denominate the Person using them a Lyar or Deceiver though the Person to whom they are addressed takes occasion from thence to form in his Mind a false Apprehension or Belief of the Thoughts of those who use such Voices Actions or Gestures towards him I say in this Case the Person using these Things cannot be said to Deceive since all Deception is a Misapplying of those Signs which by Compact or Institution were made the Means of Men's signifying or conveying their Thoughts But here a Man only does those Things from which another takes occasion to deceive himself Which one Consideration will solve most of those Difficulties that are usually started on this Subject But yet this I do and must grant that though it be not against strict Iustice or Truth for a man to do those things which he might otherwise Lawfully do albeit his Neighbour does take Occasion from thence to conceive in his mind a false Belief and so to deceive himself yet Christian Charity will in many Cases restrain a Man here too and prohibit him to use his own Right and Liberty where it may turn considerably to his Neighbour's Prejudice For herein is the Excellency of Charity seen that the Charitable man not onely does no Evil himself but that to the utmost of his Power he also hinders any Evil from being done even by Another And as we have shewn and proved that Lying and Deceiving stand condemned upon the Principles of Natural Justice and the Eternal Law of Right Reason so are the same much more condemned and that with the Sanction of the highest Penalties by the Law of Christianity which is eminently and transcendently called the Truth and the Word of Truth and in nothing more surpasses all the Doctrines and Religions in the World than in this That it enjoyns the Clearest the Openest and the Sincerest Dealing both in Words and Actions and is the rigidest Exacter of Truth in all our Behaviour of any other Doctrine or Institution whatsoever And thus much for the First general Thing proposed which was to enquire into the Nature of a Lye and the proper essential Malignity of all Falshood I proceed now to the Second Which is to shew the Pernicious Effects of it Some of the Chief and the most remarkable of which are these that follow As First of all It was this that introduced Sin into the World For how came our first Parents to sin and to lose their Primitive Innocence Why they were deceived and by the Subtilty of the Devil brought to believe a Lye And indeed Deceit is of the very Essence and Nature of Sin there being no sinfull Action but there is a Lye wrapt up in the Bowels of it For Sin prevails upon the Soul by representing that as sutable and desirable that really is not so And no man is ever induced to Sin but by a Perswasion that he shall find some Good and Happiness in it which he had not before The wages that Sin bargains with the Sinner to serve it for are Life Pleasure and Profit but the Wages it pays him with are Death Torment and Destruction He that would understand the Falshood and Deceit of Sin throughly must compare
in present ready money and so have no other way to improve them so that it may be suspected that the change of their Salary would be the strongest argument to change their opinion The truth is Interest is the grand wheel and spring that moves the whole Universe Let Christ and Truth say what they will if Interest will have it Gain must be Godliness if Enthusiasm is in request learning must be inconsistent with Grace If pay grows short the University Maintenance must be too great Rather than Pilate will be counted Caesar's enemy he will pronounce Christ innocent one hour and condemn him the next How Christ is made to truckle under the world and how his truths are denied and shuffled with for profit and pelf the clearest proof would be by Induction and Example But as it is the most clear so here it would be the most unpleasing Wherefore I shall pass this over since the world is now so peccant upon this account that I am afraid Instances would be mistaken for Invectives 3. The third Cause inducing Men to deny Christ in his truths is their apparent danger To confess Christ is the ready way to be cast out of the Synagogue The Church is a place of Graves as well as of Worship and Profession To be resolute in a good cause is to bring upon our selves the punishments due to a Bad. Truth indeed is a Possession of the highest value and therefore it must needs expose the owner to much danger Christ is sometimes pleased to make the profession of himself costly and a man cannot buy the truth but he must pay down his life and his dearest blood for it Christianity marks a man out for destruction and Christ sometimes chalks out such a way to Salvation as shall verify his own saying He that will save his life shall lose it The first Ages of the Church had a more abundant experience of this What Paul and the rest planted by their Preaching they watered with their Blood We know their usage was such as Christ foretold he sent them to Wolves and the common course then was Christianos ad Leones For a man to give his name to Christianity in those days was to list himself a Martyr and to bid farewell not only to the pleasures but also to the hopes of this life Neither was it a single death only that then attended this profession but the terrour and sharpness of it was redoubled in the manner and circumstance They had Persecutors whose Invention was as great as their cruelty Wit and Malice conspired to find out such tortures such deaths and those of such incredible anguish that only the manner of dying was the punishment Death it self the deliverance To be a Martyr signifies only to witness the truth of Christ but the witnessing of the truth was then so generally attended with this Event that Martyrdom now signifies not only to witness but to witness by death The word besides its own signification importing their practice And since Christians have been freed from Heathens Christians themselves have turned persecutors Since Rome from Heathen was turned Christian it has improved its persecution into an Inquisition Now when Christ and truth are upon these terms that men cannot confess him but upon pain of death the reason of their Apostacy and Denial is clear men will be wise and leave Truth and Misery to such as love it they are resolved to be Cunning let others run the hazard of being Sincere If they must be good at so high a rate they know they may be safe at a cheaper Si negare sufficiat quis erit Nocens If to deny Christ will save them the truth shall never make them guilty Let Christ and his flock lie open and exposed to all weather of persecution Foxes will be sure to have holes And if it comes to this that they must either renounce their Religion deny and Blaspheme Christ or forfeit their lives to the fire or the sword it is but inverting Iob's wife's advice Curse God and live 3. We proceed now to the Third thing which is to shew how farr a man may consult his safety c. This he may do two ways 1. By withdrawing his Person Martyrdom is an Heroick act of Faith An Atchievement beyond an Ordinary pitch of it to you says the Spirit it is given to suffer Phil. 1.29 It is a peculiar additional gift it is a distinguishing excellency of degree not an essential consequent of its Nature Be ye harmless as Doves says Christ and it is as Natural to them to take flight upon danger as to be Innocent Let every man throughly consult the temper of his faith and weigh his courage with his fears his weakness and his Resolutions together and take the measure of both and see which preponderates and if his spirit faints if his heart misgives and melts at the very thoughts of the fire let him flie and secure his own soul and Christ's honour Non negat Christum fugiendo qui ideò fugit né neget He does not deny Christ by flying who therefore flies that he may not deny him Nay he does not so much decline as rather change his Martyrdom He flies from the flame but repairs to a Desert to poverty and hunger in a wilderness Whereas if he would dispense with his conscience and deny his Lord or swallow down two or three Contradictory oaths he should neither fear the one nor be forced to the other 2. By concealing his judgment A man sometimes is no more bound to speak than to destroy himself and as Nature abhorrs this so Religion does not command that In the times of the Primitive Church when the Christians dwelt amongst Heathens it is reported of a certain Maid how she came from her Fathers house to one of the Tribunals of the Gentiles and declared herself a Christian spit in the Judges face and so provoked him to cause her to be executed But will any say that this was to confess Christ or die a Martyr He that uncalled for uncompelled comes and proclaims a Persecuted Truth for which he is sure to die only dies a Confessour of his own folly and a Sacrifice to his own rashness Martyrdom is stampt such only by God's command and he that ventures upon it without a call must endure it without a Reward Christ will say who required this at your hands His Gospel does not dictate imprudence No Evangelical Precept justles out that of a lawful self-preservation He therefore that thus throws himself upon the Sword runs to Heaven before he is sent for where though perhaps Christ may in mercy receive the man yet he will be sure to disown the Martyr And thus much concerning those lawful ways of securing our selves in time of Persecution not as if these were always lawfull For sometimes a man is bound to confess Christ openly though he dies for it and to conceal a Truth is to deny it But now to shew when it
it so 2. The reason of the assertion why and whence it is so 1. For the truth of it It is abundantly evinced from all Records both of Divine and Prophane History in which he that runs may read the ruine of the State in the destruction of the Church and that not only portended by it as its Sign but also inferred from it as its Cause 2. For the Reason of the point it may be drawn 1. From the Judicial proceeding of God the great King of Kings and supreme Ruler of the Universe who for his commands is indeed carefull but for his Worship Jealous And therefore in States notoriously irreligious by a secret and irresistible power countermands their deepest projects splits their Counsels and smites their most refined Policies with frustration and a curse being resolved that the Kingdoms of the world shall fall down before him either in his Adoration or their own confusion 2. The reason of the doctrine may be drawn from the necessary dependence of the very Principles of government upon Religion And this I shall pursue more fully The great business of government is to procure obedience and keep off disobedience the great springs upon which those two move are Rewards and Punishments answering the two ruling affections of man's mind Hope and Fear For since there is a natural opposition between the Judgment and the Appetite the former respecting what is honest the latter what is pleasing which two qualifications seldom concurr in the same thing and withall man's design in every Action is delight therefore to render things honest also practicable they must be first represented desirable which cannot be but by Proposing honesty cloathed with pleasure and since it presents no pleasure to the sense it must be fetcht from the apprehension of a future Reward For questionless duty moves not so much upon command as promise Now therefore that which proposes the greatest and most sutable rewards to obedience and the greatest terrors and punishments to disobedience doubtless is the most likely to enforce one and prevent the other But it is Religion that does this which to happiness and misery joyns Eternity And these supposing the Immortality of the soul which Philosophy indeed conjectures but only Religion proves or which is as good perswades I say these two things eternal happiness and eternal misery meeting with a perswasion that the Soul is immortal are without controversie of all others the first the most desirable and the latter the most horrible to humane apprehension Were it not for these Civil government were not able to stand before the prevailing swing of corrupt nature which would know no Honesty but Advantage no duty but in Pleasure nor any Law but its own Will Were not these frequently thundred into the understandings of men the Magistrate might enact order and proclaim Proclamations might be hung upon Walls and Posts and there they might hang seen and despised more like Malefactors than Laws But when Religion binds them upon the Conscience Conscience will either perswade or terrifie men into their practice For put the case a man knew and that upon sure grounds that he might do an advantageous murder or Robbery and not be discovered what humane laws could hinder him which he knows cannot inflict any penalty where they can make no discovery But Religion assures him that no sin though concealed from humane eyes can either escape God's sight in this world or his vengeance in the other Put the case also that men looked upon Death without fear in which sence it is nothing or at most very little ceasing while it is endured and pobably without Pain for it seizes upon the Vitals and benumbs the senses and where there is no sense there can be no pain I say if while a man is acting his will towards sin he should also thus act his reason to despise death where would be the terror of the magistrate who can neither threaten or inflict any more Hence an old Malefactor in his Execution at the Gallows made no other confession but this That he had very jocundly passed over his life in such courses and he that would not for fifty years pleasure endure half an hours pain deserved to die a worse death than himself questionless this man was not ignorant before that there were such things as Laws Assizes and Gallows but had he considered and believed the Terrors of another world he might probably have found a fairer passage out of this If there was not a Minister in every Parish you would quickly find cause to encrease the number of Constables And if the Churches were not imployed to be places to hear God's law there would be need of them to be prisons for the breakers of the laws of men Hence 't is observable that the Tribe of Levi had not one place or portion together like the rest of the Tribes but because it was their office to dispence Religion they were diffused over all the Tribes that they might be continually preaching to the rest their duty to God which is the most effectual way to dispose them to Obedience to man for he that truly fears God cannot despise the Magistrate Yea so near is the connexion between the Civil state and Religious that heretofore if you look upon well regulated civilized heathen Nations you will find the Government and the Priesthood united in the same person Anius Rex idem hominum Phaebique Sacerdos Virg. 3. AEn If under the true worship of God Melchisedech king of Salem and Priest of the most high God Heb. 7.1 And afterwards Moses whom as we acknowledge a pious so Atheists themselves will confess to have been a Wise Prince he when he took the Kingly government upon himself by his own choice seconded by Divine institution vested the Priesthood in his brother Aaron both whose concernments were so coupled that if Nature had not yet their Religious nay their civil Interests would have made them brothers And it was once the design of the Emperour of Germany Maximilian the first to have joyned the Popedom and the Empire together and to have got himself chosen Pope and by that means derived the Papacy to his succeeding Emperors Had he effected it doubtless there would not have been such scuffles between them and the Bishop of Rome the civil interest of the State would not have been undermined by an Adverse Interest mannaged by the specious and potent pretences of Religion And to see even amongst us how these two are united how the former is upheld by the latter The Magistrate sometimes cannot do his own office dexterously but by acting the Minister hence it is that Judges of Assizes find it necessary in their Charges to use pathetical discourses of Conscience and if it were not for the sway of this they would often lose the best Evidence in the world against Malefactors which is Confession for no man would confess and be Hanged here but to avoid being Damned hereafter Thus
low and sordid So that the use of the word Minister is brought down to the literal signification of it a Servant for now to serve and to minister servile and ministerial are terms equivalent But in the Old Testament the same word signifies a Priest and a Prince or chief Ruler hence though we translate it Priest of On Gen. 41.45 and Priest of Midian Exod. 3.1 and as it is with the people so with the Priest Esa. 24.2 Iunius and Tremellius render all these places not by Sacerdos Priest but by Praeses that is a Prince or at least a Chief Councellour or Minister of State And it is strange that the Name should be the same when the Nature of the thing is so exceeding different The like also may be observed in other Languages that the most Illustrious Titles are derived from things Sacred and belonging to the Worship of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the Title of the Christian Caesars correspondent to the Latine Augustus and it is derived from the same word that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cultus res sacra or sacrificium And it is usual in our Language to make Sacred an Epithete to Majesty there was a certain Royalty in things Sacred Hence the Apostle who I think was no Enemy to the simplicity of the Gospel speaks of a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 which shews at least that there is no contradiction or impiety in those terms In Old time before the placing this Office only in the Line of Aaron the Head of the Family and the First-born offered Sacrifice for the rest that is was their Priest And we know that such Rule and Dignity belonged at first to the Masters of Families that they had jus vitae necis jurisdiction and power of Life and Death in their own Family and from hence was derived the beginning of Kingly Government a King being only a Civil Head or Master of a Politick Family the whole People so that we see the same was the foundation of the Royal and Sacerdotal Dignity As for the Dignity of this Office among the Jews it is so pregnantly set forth in Holy Writ that it is Unquestionable Kings and Priests are still mentioned together Lamen 2.6 The Lord hath despised in the indignation of his Anger the King and the Priest Hosea 5.2 Hear O Priests and give ear O house of the King Deut. 17.12 And the man that doth presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth there to minister before the Lord thy God or unto the Iudge even that man shall die Hence Paul together with a blow received this Reprehension Act. 5.4 Revilest thou God's High-Priest And Paul in the next verse does not defend himself by pleading an extraordinary Motion of the Spirit or that he was sent to Reform the Church and might therefore lawfully vilifie the Priesthood and all Sacred Orders but in the 5th v. he makes an excuse and that from Ignorance the only thing that could take away the fault namely that he knew not that he was the High-Priest and subjoins a reason which further advances the Truth here defended For it is written thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people To Holy Writ we might add the Testimony of Iosephus of next Authority to it in things concerning the Jews who in sundry places of his History sets forth the Dignity of the Priests and in his second Book against Appion the Grammarian has these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priests were constituted Judges of all doubtfull causes Hence Iustin also in his 36th Book has this Semper apud Iudaeos mos fuit ut Eosdem Reges Sacerdotes haberent though this is false that they were always so yet it argues that they were so frequently and that the distance between them was not great To the Jews we may joyn the Egyptians the first Masters of Learning and Philosophy Synesius in his 57. Epist. having shewn the general practice of Antiquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives an instance in the Jews and Egyptians who for many Ages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had no other Kings but Priests Next we may take a view of the Practice of the Romans Numa Pompilius that civilized the fierce Romans is reported in the first Book of Livy sometimes to have performed the Priests office himself Tum Sacerdotibus creandis animum adjecit quanquà m ipse plurima sacra obibat but when he made Priests he gave them a dignity almost the same with himself And this honour continued together with the Valour and Prudence of that Nation For the Success of the Romans did not extirpate their Religion The College of the Priests being in many things exempted even from the Jurisdiction of the Senate afterwards the Supreme Power Hence Iuvenal in his 2. Sat. mentions the Priesthood of Mars as one of the most honourable places in Rome And Iul. Caesar who was chosen Priest in his private Condition thought it not below him to continue the same Office when he was Created absolute Governour of Rome under the name of Perpetual Dictator Add to these the practice of the Gauls mentioned by Caesar in his 6. Book de Bello Gallico where he says of the Druides who where their Priests that they did judge de omnibus ferè controversiis publicis privatisque See also Homer in the 1. Book of his Iliads representing Chryses Priest of Apollo with his Golden Scepter as well as his Golden Censer But why have I produced all these examples of the Heathens Is it to make these a ground of our imitation No but to shew that the giving honour to the Priesthood was a custom Universal amongst all civilized Nations And whatsoever is Universal is also Natural as not being founded upon compact or the particular humours of men but flowing from the Native Results of Reason And that which is Natural neither does nor can oppose Religion But you will say this concerns not us who have an express Rule and Word revealed Christ was himself poor and despised and withall has instituted such a Ministery To the first part of this plea I answer That Christ came to suffer yet the sufferings and miseries of Christ doe not oblige all Christians to undertake the like For the second That the Ministery of Christ was low and despised by his institution I utterly deny It was so indeed by the malice and persecution of the Heathen Princes but what does this argue or inferr for a low dejected Ministery in a flourishing State which professes to encourage Christianity But to dash this cavil read but the practice of Christian Emperours and Kings all along down from the time of Constantine in what respect what honour and splendour they treated the Ministers and then let our Adversaries produce their puny pitifull Arguments for the contrary against the general clear undoubted vogue and current of all Antiquity As for two or three little Countries about us the Learned and Impartial will not
was a means to bring him up in The AEgyptian Court then the School of all Arts and Policy and so to fit him for that great and arduous Imployment that God designed him to For see upon what little Hinges that great Affair turned For had either the Child been cast out or Pharaoh's Daughter come down to the River but an hour sooner or later or had that little Vessel not been cast by the Parents or carryed by the Water into that very place where it was in all likelyhood the Child must have undergone the common Lot of the other Hebrew Children and been either starved or drowned or however not advanced to such a peculiar height and happiness of Condition That Octavius Caesar should shift his Tent which he had never used to doe before just that very night that it hapned to be took by the Enemy was a mere Casualty yet such an one as preserved a Person who lived to establish a total Alteration of Government in the Imperial City of the World But we need not go far for a Prince preserved by as Strange a Series of little Contingencies as ever were managed by the Art of Providence to so great a purpose There was but an hair's breadth between him and certain Destruction for the space of many days For had the Rebel Forces gone one way rather than another or come but a little sooner to his hiding place or but mistrusted something which they passed over all which things might very easily have happened we had not seen this face of things at this day but Rebellion had been still Enthroned Perjury and Cruelty had Reigned Majesty had been proscribed Religion extinguish'd and both Church and State throughly Reformed and Ruined with Confusions Massacres and a Total Desolation On the contrary when Providence designs Judgment or Destruction to a Prince no body knows by what little unusual unregarded means the fatal blow shall reach him If Ahab be designed for Death though a Souldier in the Enemies Army draws a Bow at a venture yet the sure unerring directions of Providence shall carry it in a direct course to his heart and there lodge the Revenge of Heaven An old Woman shall cast down a Stone from a Wall and God shall send it to the Head of Abimelech and so Sacrifice a King in the very head of his Army How many warnings had Iulius Caesar of the fatal Ides of March whereupon sometimes he resolved not to go to the Senate and sometimes again he would go and when at length he did go in his very passage thither one put into his hand a Note of the whole Conspiracy against him together with all the Names of the Conspirators desiring him to read it forthwith and to remember the Giver of it as long as he lived But continual Salutes and Addresses entertaining him all the way kept him from saving so great a Life but with one glance of his Eye upon the Paper till he came to the fatal place where he was stabb'd and dyed with the very Means of preventing Death in his hand Henry the Second of France by a Splinter unhappily thrust into his Eye at a solemn Justing was dispatch'd and sent out of the world by a sad but very Accidental Death In a word God has many ways to reap down the Grandees of the Earth an Arrow a Bullet a Tile or Stone from an House is enough to do it And besides all these ways sometimes when he intends to bereave the world of a Prince or an Illustrious Person he may cast him upon a bold self-opinion'd Physician worse than his Distemper who shall Dose and Bleed and Kill him secundum artem and make a shift to cure him into his Grave In the last place we will consider this Directing influence of God with reference to private Persons and that as touching things of nearest concernment to them As 1. Their Lives 2. Their Health 3. Their Reputation 4. Their Friendships And 5. And lastly their Employments or Preferments And first for mens Lives Though these are things for which Nature knows no Price or Ransom yet I appeal to universal Experience whether they have not in many men hung oftentimes upon a very slender Thread and the distance between them and Death been very nice and the escape wonderfull There have been some who upon a slight and perhaps groundless occasion have gone out of a Ship or House and the Ship has sunk and the House has fell immediately after their departure He that in a great Wind suspecting the strength of his House betook himself to his Orchard and walking there was knockt on the Head by a Tree falling through the fury of a suddain gust wanted but the advance of one or two steps to have put him out of the way of that mortal Blow He that being subject to an Apoplex used still to carry his remedy about him but upon a time shifting his Cloaths and not taking that with him chanced upon that very day to be surprized with a Fit and to die in it certainly owed his Death to a mere Accident to a little inadvertency and failure of Memory But not to recount too many particulars May not every Souldier that comes alive out of the Battle pass for a living Monument of a benign Chance and an happy Providence For was he not in the nearest Neighbourhood to Death And might not the Bullet that perhaps rased his Cheek have as easily gone into his Head And the Sword that glanced upon his Arm with a little diversion have found the way to his Heart But the workings of Providence are marvellous and the methods secret and untraceable by which it disposes of the Lives of Men. In like manner for Mens Health it is no less wonderfull to consider to what strange Casualties many Sick Persons often-times owe their Recovery Perhaps an unusual Draught or Morsel or some Accidental violence of Motion has removed that Malady that for many years has baffled the Skill of all Physicians So that in effect he is the best Physician that has the best luck he prescribes but it is chance that Cures That Person that being provoked by excessive Pain thrust his Dagger into his Body and thereby instead of reaching his Vitals opened an Imposthume the unknown cause of all his pain and so Stabbed himself into perfect Health and Ease surely had great reason to acknowledge Chance for his Chirurgeon and Providence for the Guider of his Hand And then also for mens Reputation and that either in point of Wisdom or of Wit There is hardly any thing which for the most part falls under a greater Chance If a man succeeds in any attempt though undertook with never so much folly and rashness his success shall vouch him a Politician and good Luck shall pass for deep contrivance For give any one Fortune and he shall be thought a wise man in spite of his Heart nay and of his Head too On the contrary be a design never
the Just the Wise and Good God neither does nor can require of Man any thing that is Impossible or Naturally beyond his Power to Doe And therefore in the Second place the Measure of this Rule by which the just extent and bounds of it are to be determined must be that Power or Ability that Man Naturally has to doe or perform the Things Willed by him So that wheresoever such a Power is found there this Rule of God's Accepting the Will has no place and wheresoever such a Power is not found there this Rule presently becomes in force And accordingly in the Third and Last place The Abuse or Misapplication of this Rule will consist in these Two Things 1. That Men do very often take that to be an Act of the Will that really and truly is not so 2. That they reckon many things impossible that indeed are not impossible And first to begin with Men's mistakes about the Will and the Acts of it I shall Note these Three by which Men are extremely apt to impose upon themselves 1. As first the bare Approbation of the Worth and Goodness of a Thing is not properly the Willing of that Thing and yet Men do very commonly account it so But this is properly an Act of the Understanding or Judgment a faculty wholly distinct from the Will and which makes a Principal part of that which in Divinity we call Natural Conscience and in the Strength of which a Man may approve of things good and excellent without ever willing or intending the Practice of them And accordingly the Apostle Rom. 2.18 gives us an account of some who Approved of things excellent and yet Practised and consequently Willed things clean contrary Since no Man can commit a Sin but he must Will it first Whosoever observes and looks into the workings of his own heart will find that noted Sentence Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor too frequently and fatally verify'd upon himself The 7th of the Romans which has been made the Unhappy Scene of so much Controversie about these Matters has several passages to this purpose In a word to Judge what ought to be done is one Thing and to Will the doing of it is quite another No doubt Vertue is a beautifull and a glorious thing in the Eyes of the most Vicious person breathing and all that he does or can hate in it is the Difficulty of its Practice For it is Practice alone that Divides the World into Vertuous and Vitious but otherwise as to the Theory and Speculation of Vertue and Vice Honest and Dishonest the Generality of Mankind are much the same For Men do not approve of Vertue by Choice and free Election but it is an Homage which Nature commands all Understandings to pay to it by necessary Determination and yet after all it is but a faint unactive thing for in Defiance of the Judgment the Will may still remain as perverse and as much a stranger to Vertue as it was before In fine there is as much Difference between the Approbation of the Iudgment and the Actual Volitions of the Will with relation to the same Object as there is between a Man's viewing a Desirable thing with his Eye and his reaching after it with his Hand 2 dly The Wishing of a Thing is not properly the Willing of it though too often mistaken by Men for such But it is that which is called by the Schools an Imperfect Velleity and imports no more than an idle Un-operative complacency in and desire of the End without any Consideration of nay for the most part with a Direct Abhorrence of the Means of which Nature I account that Wish of Balaam in Numb 23.10 Let me die the Death of the Righteous and let my last End be like his The thing it self appeared Desirable to him and accordingly he could not but like and desire it but then it was after a very irrational absurd way and contrary to all the Methods and Principles of a Rational Agent which never Wills a Thing really and properly but it applies to the Means by which it is to be acquired But at that very time that Balaam desired to Die the Death of the Righteous he was actually following the Wages of Unrighteousness and so thereby engaged in a Course quite contrary to what he desired and consequently such as could not possible bring him to such an End Much like the Sot that cried Utinam hoc esset Laborare while he lay Lazing and Lolling upon his Couch But every true Act of Volition imports a respect to the End by and through the Means and Wills a Thing only in that way in which it is to be compassed or effected which is the foundation of that most true Aphorism That He who Wills the End Wills also the Means The truth of which is founded in such a Necessary Connexion of the terms that I look upon the Proposition not only as True but as Convertible and that as a Man cannot truly and properly Will the End but he must also Will the Means so neither can he Will the Means but he must Vertually and by Interpretation at least Will the End Which is so true that in the account of the Divine Law a man is reckoned to Will even those things that Naturally are not the Object of Desire such as Death it self Ezek. 18.31 only because he Wills those Ways and Courses that naturally tend to and end in it And even our own Common Law looks upon a Man's raising Arms against or Imprisoning his Prince as an Imagining or Compassing of his Death Forasmuch as these Actions are the Means directly leading to it and for the most part actually concluding in it and consequently that the Willing of the One is the Willing of the Other also To Will a thing therefore is certainly much another thing from what the Generality of Men especially in their Spiritual concerns take it to be I say in their Spiritual concerns for in their Temporal it is manifest that they Think and Judge much otherwise and in the Things of this World no man is allowed or believed to Will any thing heartily which he does not endeavour after proportionably A Wish is properly a man of Desire sitting or lying still but an Act of the Will is a Man of Business vigorously going about his Work And certainly there is a great deal of Difference between a Man's stretching out his Arms to work and his stretching them out only to yawn 3 dly and Lastly A mere Inclination to a thing is not properly a Willing of that thing and yet in matters of Duty no doubt men frequently reckon it for such For otherwise why should they so often plead and rest in the goodness of their Hearts and the honest and well-inclin'd disposition of their Minds when they are justly charged with an Actual non-performance of what the Law requires of them But that an Inclination to a thing is not a Willing of that thing
some may very worthily deserve to be hated and of all men living who may or doe the Deceiver certainly deserves it most To which I shall add this one Remark further That though Men's Persons ought not to be hated yet without all Peradventure their Practices justly may and particularly that detestable One which we are now speaking of For whosoever deceives a Man does not only do all that he can to ruine him but which is yet worse to make him ruine himself and by causing an Errour in the great Guide of all his Actions his Iudgment to cause an Errour in his Choice too the Misguidance of which must naturally engage him in those Courses that directly tend to his Destruction Loss of Sight is the Misery of Life and usually the Fore-runner of Death when the Malefactour comes once to be muffled and the fatal Cloth drawn over his Eyes we know that he is not far from his Execution And this is so true That whosoever sees a Man who would have beguiled and imposed upon him by making him believe a Lye he may truly say of that Person That 's the Man who would have ruined me who would have stripped me of the Dignity of my Nature and put out the Eyes of my Reason to make himself sport with my Calamity my Folly and my Dishonour For so the Philistines used Sampson and every Man in this sad Case has enough of Sampson to be his own Executioner Accordingly if ever it comes to this That a man can say of his Confident He would have deceived me he has said enough to annihilate and abolish all Pretences of Friendship And it is really an intolerable Impudence for any one to offer at the Name of Friend after such an Attempt For can there be any thing of Friendship in Snares Hooks and Trapans And therefore whosoever breaks with his Friend upon such Terms has enough to warrant him in so doing both before God and Man and that without incurring either the Guilt of Unfaithfulness before the One or the Blemish of Inconstancy before the Other For this is not properly to break with a Friend but to discover an Enemy and timely to shake the Viper off from ones Hand What says the most wise Authour of that Excellent Book of Ecclesiasticus Ecclus 22.21 22 Though thou drewest a Sword at thy Friend yet despair not for there may be a Returning to Favour If thou hast opened thy Mouth against thy Friend fear not for there may be a Reconciliation That is an hasty Word or an indiscreet Action does not presently dissolve the Bond or root out a well-setled Habit but that Friendship may be still sound at Heart and so outgrow and wear off these little Distempers But what follows Except for Upbraiding or Disclosing of Secrets or a Treacherous Wound mark that For for these things says he every Friend will depart and surely it is high Time for him to go when such a Devil drives him away Passion Anger and Unkindness may give a Wound that shall bleed and smart but it is Treachery only that makes it fester And the Reason of the Difference is manifest for hasty Words or Blows may be only the Effects of a suddain Passion during which a Man is not perfectly himself But no man goes about to deceive or ensnare or circumvent another in a Passion to lay Trains and set Traps and give secret Blows in a present Huff No this is always done with Forecast and Design with a steady Aiming and a long projecting Malice assisted with all the Skill and Art of an expert and well managed Hypocrisie and perhaps not without the Pharisaical feigned Guise of something like Self-denial and Mortification which are Things in which the whole Man and the whole Devil too are employed and all the Powers and Faculties of the Mind are exerted and made use of But for all these Masks and Vizards nothing certainly can be thought of or imagined more base unhumane or diabolical than for one to abuse the generous Confidence and hearty Freedom of his Friend and to undermine and ruine him in those very Concerns which nothing but too great a Respect to and too good an Opinion of the Traitour made the poor man deposite in his hollow and fallacious Breast Such an one perhaps thinks to find some support and shelter in my Friendship and I take that Opportunity to betray him to his mortal Enemies He comes to me for Counsel and I shew him a Trick He opens his Bosom to me and I stab him to the Heart These are the Practices of the World we live in especially since the Year sixty the grand Epoch of Falshood as well as Debauchery But God who is the great Guaranty for the Peace Order and good Behaviour of Mankind where Laws cannot secure it may some time or other think it the Concern of his Justice and Providence too to revenge the Affronts put upon them by such impudent Defyers of Both as neither believe a God nor ought to be believ'd by Man In the mean Time let such perfidious Wretches know that though they believe a Devil no more than they do a God yet in all this Scene of refined Treachery they are really doing the Devil's Journey-work who was a Lyar and a Murderer from the beginning and therefore a Lyar that he might be a Murderer And the Truth is such an one does all towards his Brothers Ruine that the Devil himself could do For the Devil can but Tempt and Deceive and if he cannot destroy a Man that way his Power is at an End But I cannot dismiss this Head without one further Note as very material in the Case now before us Namely That since this false wily doubling Disposition of mind is so intolerably mischievous to Society God is sometimes pleased in mere Pity and Compassion to Men to give them warning of it by setting some odd Mark upon such Cains So that if a Man will be but so true to himself as to observe such Persons exactly he shall generally spy such false Lines and such a Sly Treacherous Fleer upon their Face that he shall be sure to have a Cast of their Eye to warn him before they give him a Cast of their Nature to betray him And in such Cases a Man may see more and better by anothers Eye than he can by his own Let this therefore be the second Reward of the Lying and Deceitfull Person That he is the Object of a just Hatred and Abhorrence For as the Devil is both a Lyar himself and the Father of Lyars so I think that the same Cause that has drawn the Hatred of God and Man upon the Father may justly entail it upon his Off-spring too and it is pity that such an Entail should ever be cut off But Thirdly and Lastly The last and utmost Reward that shall infallibly reach the Fraudulent and Deceitfull as it will all other obstinate and impenitent Sinners is a Final and Eternal Separation